Fall is Really Here

Last weekend we had a fabulous time meandering up the coast. We got to visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory and got all the way up to Astoria, which we'd always wanted to visit. The ostensible reason for the trip was to drop the Kansas geocoin up into Washington, which we did accomplish. We visited a total of 8 caches. It was very very fun. There was one at the Cathedral Tree near the Astoria Column that we had just given up on when I spotted it. This stuff is addictive. The photolog of our trip is here, except for the pictures Q took with his phone. Hopefully he'll post them to flickr soonish.
Since then, we've been run off our feet. Working takes way too much time. I was a good girl and put the pumpkins out in the sunny driveway to cure after I picked them. A few days later a squirrel decided to nibble one. I brought them in. Looks like I'll have to bake and freeze the meat instead of keeping them whole for a while.
The garden is in it's last throes of the summer season and my weekend list is long. At the top is breading and frying the eggplants for eggplant parmesan and freezing them. I'm hoping it will be successful - imagine eggplant parmesan as a convenience food. I will feel that I've died and gone to heaven.
Here is what is hopefully the before weekend picture of the sad yard. I'm hoping to tear out the tomatoes and plant garlic in their bed this weekend. There's lots of other tearing out/harvesting that needs to get done so I can maybe get the beds under a thick layer of winter leaves.

I still have 5 pumpkins that I hope will finish ripening on the vine, so far so good.
Snow peas, thanks to Mama for leaving some of the seeds here.
Regular peas. When I made bangers and mash last night, I had to buy local green beans because I didn't have any peas in the freezer. I'm trying to regret eating all of mine raw as lunches this summer but am so far failing. I'll just have to plant more next year. I hope that these manage to get to producing without being frosted.

Baby parsnips
Spinach

I don't know how this winter gardening thing will go but we'll see if I can eke out a second set of cool season crops for the year.