Where have all the Orcas gone? Garden winding down.

Haven’t had time to blog in the last little while, since the September rush has taken hold of my family. Jim is in school this year, so there was the whole hullabaloo connected with buying a new wardrobe, a new knapsack, a lunch container, and a water bottle for him.

In fact, we bought water bottles for the entire family. I told Sara that I was sick and tired of buying bottled water and having the empty plastic bottles to deal with afterwards.

Then this past week the family went on our annual Whale Watch to Telegraph Cove. We were especially concerned this year, because there was the incident of a barge capsizing in the area where the whales hang out. A whole bunch of diesel oil spilled into the ocean and no one knows what the repercussions are for the whales.

Sure enough, we didn’t see any Orcas this year (as opposed to up to 40 of them in previous years). We did see a Humpback Whale with its calf, and the calf breached a couple of times, so Hedgehog was able to get a few good shots with her digital camera. We also saw a whole bunch of Dolphins and Porpoises, though, as well as a Bald Eagle.

The garden is winding down, with a number of bushes turning fall colors. Sara’s roses are blooming in a last hurrah effort, and the vegetables have either already been harvested or are almost ready to be picked.

We managed to grow a few huge Zucchinis and Hedgehog--true to tradition--came back from the local fair with a first place ribbon in the Zucchni Races! Jim was too busy popping balloons on the midway to bother about entering the race.

We’ve stopped fertilizing for the last few weeks, giving the garden nothing but pure water. Since we’re using Iguana Juice Grow and Bloom, which is a 100% organic fish-based fertilizer, we’re not using Final Phase to flush our vegetables, but we could if we wanted to.

Many of our friends that we’ve told about Advanced Nutrients go on the company’s website and report back that most of their products are classified as “hydroponic plant food.” We’re eager to inform them that most AN products are equally effective when used in soil.

AN might have to change their product descriptions and labels if they want to appeal to more soil gardeners, such as ourselves. Sara and I can testify that they make by far the best plant nutrients available anywhere, and it would be a shame if some soil gardeners were to miss out on account of incomplete information on the product labels.

I won’t blog regularly for the next few weeks, since we’re caught up in the fall energy surge. This time of year our chores seem to have multiplied exponentially and the sudden drop in temperatures has caused more than our share of sore throats and coughs.

Hedgehog has developed a sudden interest in Martial Arts and Jim is hoping to join the school's Soccer team, so Sara will be driving them around to extra-curricular activities and I have a backlog of free-lance work to complete.

See you in a few weeks!