The end of October brought dark, wet, but still very warm days. I had a plan for next year’s garden, so I brought cardboard into the garden to start new beds with. I’d already prepared most of the beds for winter, made most of the new beds. Three beds were left to start. I’ll likely never get to plant these beds. But I didn’t know that yet, so I worked diligently.

We’d gotten solar panels for the balcony recently, so I’d found myself with a bunch of cardboard. I’d already started the bed a few days earlier but run out of materials. Now, I had more.

This bed would be rather shaded and rather wet, so I’d planned to use it for lettuces and other greens.

Once the bed was covered and all the cardboard secured, I went back down to the greenhouse.

Pepper, as always, was watching the world from the corn salad bed.

The cardboard path in the greenhouse needed replacing, so I added another layer. This is the third layer of cardboard. I’ve just been adding on top, as the material degrades.

The cardboard path worked out well. I’m very happy with the little experiment.

I considered putting it underneath the bricks but decided to not bother. So, instead, it was stomp-stomp-stomped.

When the rain picked up, Pepper came in to check my work. I still wasn’t sure this was the right approach, but I was committed now. I’d give it a try. By now I can tell you that it was the right choice. It’s been molding into the edges well with each walk across.

While Pepper made sure no corn lettuce would ever grow on his favorite spot, I started the next bed. Lucky for me, the rain had slowed again, and I was able to wear my headphones. I’d just gotten a new audiobook.

I was yet again running out of cardboard, but I still wanted to get as much covered as possible.

Admittedly, I didn’t get very far. But that was okay. I was in no rush. By now, chances are I’m leaving the garden in the next weeks to months.

I finally secured the tarp I’d forgotten on the grass while Pepper sat on as many bean plants as possible.

This tarp will be picked up and put away very soon. Temperatures are supposed to pick up again. And as everything points to us leaving the garden soon, I don’t want it out in the elements without reason.

I made a quick path from the greenhouse to the new beds. At this point, the garden was close to ready for winter. I closed up the greenhouse, and called it a day, feeling rather accomplished.

A few hours later, I’d delete three weeks of footage. We’d even be back to fly the drone over the garden later. When my husband heard that I’d deleted everything, he joined me in the garden for a fly-over.

During a break in the clouds, he flew over the garden while I dumped the kitchen compost onto the pile.

Without open tasks in the garden, I gave Pepper a good rub. His fur wasn’t sure about the season either. The white fur was shedding a lot.

I cleaned up the last pots around the greenhouse, taking final steps to putting the garden into winter sleep. Little did I know that I would very likely not see it wake up again. By now, we are thinking about what to take.

After a long walk through the forest, we returned home with foraged mushrooms for dinner. In the very front left, you can even see our one and only porcini of the season.

We saw kilos of them, all just barely too far gone. Two days earlier, and we’d had a feast. Now, we were left with an ink cap, a single porcini, and some mushrooms we hadn’t eaten before.

That’s also why I kept them separate from the porcini and ink cap. Porcini is too delicious to risk with a new mushroom.

The Hallimasch needed to be boiled and simmered. The ink cap and porcini were merely roasted in some butter.

Roasted mushrooms might be one of my favorite things to eat.

I still didn’t know how to make Knoedel without making a complete mess of the kitchen. Today, I found a solution.

As I edit this, wonderful knoedel are sitting in the kitchen. I used the steam juicer to make them.

So much simpler than this mess.

As always, some fell apart after cooking. But they were just as delicious.

I’d made enough to saute some of them the next day for lunch. Thick slices, some fat, yum.

The mushrooms were soggier than we like. I’d finish them in the air fryer next time instead of the pan.

They were okay, just no comparison to the buttered ink cap and porcini from the fryer.

Days after I’d peeled them, I finally finished the carrots.

Pepper hoped for accidents–especially as the kitchen was smelling like freshly cooked dog food. Also, carrots…

I made my way through the harvest, all chopped quickly by the food processor. Marvin II is doing a great job.

I can’t even imagine how long this would take by hand. And no, I don’t get sponsored.

Marvin I, the Bosch multi-machine, was just a bad-quality machine. I’m enjoying this one a lot more.

The diced carrots went onto the drying racks for the dehydrator my dad had given us a few years back.

I didn’t want to spend more time in the kitchen than absolutely necessary.

I put the dog food into containers for the fridge, and cleaned up around myself.

The last batch of carrots… and then I was ready to get out of the kitchen.

I was avoiding the kitchen. Honestly, we were avoiding most rooms by this point. The apartment was getting worse.

Our walls are wet. There is a lot of mold.

Try to enjoy cooking when the wall looks like this. No matter how much we sprayed, cleaned, aired things out…

Nothing helped, and things would get much worse soon. By now, most of the apartment is uninhabitable.

We need to get out of here, and quickly. We hope the next steps work out the way we want.

Hopefully, things will work out.

In the meantime, we enjoy the little things, like birds taking baths on our balcony.

So long, and thanks for being here. Keep your fingers crossed for us. I’ll tell you more as soon as I can.