Dear Family and Friends (especially those in far away places!!),

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything for such a long time. I've been a little busy (working on a secret project with Grandma!!??) Sherry posted the pictures of our grow boxes while we were in Mesa for Thanksgiving. Thanks to Sherry and Trudy for the ride to Mesa and back! We had a wonderful time and I got to play with the grand-kids and hold some of the cutest great-grand-kids in the world!! I am so happy to be a part of the greatest family in the world!!

We love you. (I'll get caught up on blog-hopping and posting in the next few days.)

Grandma and Grandpa Nicoll

Grandpa and Grandma and all their grow boxes (almost all).
We have 12 boxes, some of them permanently planted, such as asparagus, strawberries, grapes, blackberries,
boysenberries and herbs. That leaves 6 that we will rotate our seasonal vegetables in. They vary in size from
4 @ 12x4 to 1 @ 8x4 and 1 @ 24x1.5. They vary according to the space we had to plant in. This year was experimental: we planted way more than we could use for ourselves , but we gave a lot away. Next year we will have a better idea of how much to plant. The developer of this system says that a family of four could live all year on the produce from 4 boxes 30x4 (or equivalent). (You have to learn to can or otherwise preserve your harvest.) We found this method more productive and less labor-intense than traditional soil gardening. It is cleaner and a lot easier to weed.

Grandpa and Gus.

Gus is getting old: 14! He is blind in the left eye and nearly so in the right eye. He doesn't hear well and has no teeth. (Grandpa is not quite that bad off.) Gus still loves to run and play (slowly) and wants to be in the middle of things.

Grandma and Grandpa's zucchini. We gave a lot of zucchini away! But Grandma learned that she could grate the zucchini and freeze it fresh and it thaws and can be used in salads, soups and zucchini bread just like fresh! Now, how do we keep our electricity from failing??

Grandma's sunflower. Actually a bird planted this sunflower next to our fish pond but we let it grow. It added a little color and spice to the landscape

Grandma's flower garden. Grandma takes a lot of(justifiable) pride in her beautiful flowers.