It was 44 this morning, brr! Might be time to get the PVC hoops and Agribon fabric out, and build the low tunnels over the raised beds.

How was your Halloween? We had the usual horde. I buy between 400-500 pieces of candy, and when it's gone, the lights go out. This year we were dark by 7:45, a new record.

We decided to drill our pumpkins this year, mostly for time management's sake, and I was really pleased at the result. Above is a small selection of the pumpkins we drilled. You can change the bits to make different sized holes. Next year I'd like to try larger pumpkins and more elaborate patterns.

Adam, being nearly 15, decided not to dress up this year, but rather help a friend with a haunted house; and this was probably Kate's last year for dressing up. Halfway through the night, Tom and I looked out at the parents walking around with their kids, and realized we had crossed another age line. Somehow we've morphed from a couple with young kids into the next stage of life. Certainly there's a lot of good in that, but it does make one pause and experience a nostalgic pang. In that vein, I offer a retrospective, starting many moons ago.

Engineer (possibly saying 'choo choo') and Monarch Butterfly

Construction Worker and generic butterfly

Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs) and shiny generic butterfly (sensing a theme?)

Adam Savage (Mythbusters) and Snow Queen

And this year, a pierced and tattooed Punk, wearing Doc Martens I would have killed for in the 90's. She looks a little too happy, even though I encouraged her to reflect on her angst and ennui.

Thanks for that personal indulgence. Now, to bring this gardening blog back to its ecological purpose, I have two recommendations for you. The first is a documentary called "Before the Flood," airing on the National Geographic channel. If you don't get that channel, you can watch the movie here. It's really wonderful, though of course not everything can be discussed in a scant hour and a half. For another view of the climate change debate, I recommend a book called "Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman" by Miriam Horn. These are stories of regular folks, doing what they can to mitigate the problem.

Today I seeded some spinach in the carrot bed, sauteed some tomatoes for lunch, and sliced just-picked green peppers for the freezer, after spending a little time with the Diablo Woodworkers. This great group of volunteers are helping an elementary school near here to build planter boxes as part of the school's 'Maker' curriculum. The kids were excited to build the boxes, and excited to plant peas, beets, and fava beans later on this week. Great to see the next generation 'making' and growing food!