First Mountain Snow & Garden Clean Out, The Case Of the Flying Chicken, Autumn/Halloween Decor, Herb Crusted Pork Loin Roast Recipe

First Mountain Snow & Garden Clean Out- 

Well it's that time of year, our first Mountain snow storm came! We had over 1/2" rain in 12 hours last Saturday. Much cooler temperatures this week. Frost forecast tomorrow night and 37 degrees predicted. No more 80 degree weather! Dave and I went out Thursday night into the veggie garden. He picked all the squash and peppers, I picked the tomatoes. I found that with heavy rain sometimes tomatoes and things will actually crack and didn't want to lose anything. The green tomatoes I'll either leave on the counter to ripen or will go in a batch of Chow Chow, the rest will be used for various projects-

The giant Italian peppers are so huge that they never had enough time to turn red, but they'll be delish anyway! Those are really great to either freeze and use for pasta sauce later or stuffed and roasted like these Stuffed Italian Frying Peppers-

BIG!

The sweet Gypsy Peppers, basically like pepperoncini peppers, will probably be used for Chow Chow and/or frozen with some tomatoes-

Will pick mini pumpkins tonight-

I harvested my last little Lavender re-bloom-

Dave said it's always depressing to tear up the summer garden, and yes it is, but less weekend work coming up. No more watering/weeding and mowing will wind down. The chickens had a great time realizing that there is a lot more open space and started chowing down on some of the squash leaves. 

The Case Of the Flying Chicken-

There's Sunny, one of our younger hens, who apparently can fly even with major flight feather trimming! I kept finding her on top of the garden fence and/or in the main part of the garden. Safety-wise we have several dogs on the other side of our neighbor's 6' fence. I decided to ask Dave to help me add an upper level of spare chicken wire. I think once she gets bigger we can take it down- 

So far it's worked! What a trouble maker! 

Autumn/ Halloween Decor- 

Autumn decor is up, and comforter on the bed! I had a cough/cold for almost 2 weeks and would have gotten it all done earlier otherwise. Luckily real rain feel this weekend! Dave and I put up some corn stalks on the front of the house to start. He got them free from a local community garden. When they harvest the corn they give away the stalks, win win! 

He also put up all our fun Halloween stuff outside-

Not sure if trick or treating will happen in Covid times. We may host a party here for our Grandchildren and their parents. 

I did the inside and much of it thrifted (of course!) -

I added a few things to my home office as well!

Herb Crusted Pork Loin Roast Recipe- 

When we went grocery shopping I found pork loin roasts on a buy one get one free! Basically $2.00 per pound, score. I bought two and froze one. I used one for this nice recipe I wanted to try Herb Crusted Pork Loin Roast  I didn't have grainy Dijon Mustard so I used 1/2 Dijon and 1/2 Spicy Deli mustard. I thought straight Dijon might be a bit too strong. I also omitted the salt as mustard is very salty as it is. I think some people over-salt, and if you do, bummer. If not, you can add some on your own portion. My roast was thicker and took almost an hour longer, so adjust time as needed. I baked some Acorn squash with a little butter and brown sugar to go with it. Perfect Autumn meal! Pork was juicy and excellent flavor. Just make the rub, spread it on, pop it in the oven, set the timer, walk away! Easy peasy.