Yesterday the harvest included some of the biggest beans I've ever seen in person, two tomatoes, one strawberry, one cucumber, and three eggplants.
The Gold Marie Vining beans have started to produce. The first one I picked was longer than a number two pencil. Wow! And the Prizewinner beans are starting to get big in the front garden as well. I'm not entirely certain how to go about eating such large beans. Today I bought a new steamer piece to put in the pot - steamed beans sounds good for dinner tonight!
Last week we found a home we really liked. It was within our price range, offered plenty of space, enough rooms for everyone, needed minimal repairs, and aside from being a little farther away than we liked, and not getting phone or internet services, it was a good match. When I called the real estate agent to put in an offer, she informed me that the property had already had two offers that morning, and the seller had already accepted one and entered into contract. No house for us. Maybe it's a sign that it wasn't the right home after all. Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing else that meets our criteria. Not even one. With a two month closing period, even if we found one we wanted this week, we wouldn't be moving in until November... which isn't going to work for us. We have too much stuff that needs to come with - the play set, the black raspberry bushes, the tulips, the rhubarb plants, the new rabbit barn, etc. Things that require digging or being able to set in anchors to set up. Even if by some stroke of luck we were to find a property with a barn that we could transfer the rabbits to, and I were to dig up the plants before the ground freezes, we would still have trouble getting the play set moved. Tony works in home-improvement, and he said he's seen an increase in customers buying things to fix up properties they have for sale and saying they plan to pull the properties off the market over winter. Winter is a terrible time to try to move. I hate being cooped up in our small house with five kids who want nothing more than space to run all winter long. It gets frustrating for everyone, and as frustrations rise, so do the Asperger's meltdowns. What to do... keep looking and attempt a move in the middle of winter? Or put off looking until spring? I also worry about if we will have time to do a garden if we don't buy a home until spring, have a two month wait period, and then have to work out moving and unpacking before we can till and plant. But would buying a property in winter, when we can't actually see what kind of yard is under the snow, be any better? Lots of things to consider while contemplating what to do from here.