You know it's summer when...

 The fireflies are twinkling at twilight.

The monarch caterpillars are munching.

The garden is green and abundant.

I am canning and freezing like crazy.

Pickled Beets

Sweet Relish and Green Beans

And finally for some projects:

I folded an origami pig in honor of Yellow Pig Day, July 17th 
(look it up)

JP and I repaired the chickens' shade
structure with metal from the old pool - 
the ultimate in recycling!

Gardening and Such

Everything is growing and growing!  We are getting a nice rain right now to cool things down after a week of blazing hot temperatures.

The flower beds keep surprising me with flowers that I haven't seen for a long time.

The garden is getting greener (and not from weeds this year!!)

Tomatoes, Peppers, Pumpkins, Chard, Cabbage,
and the Blueberries...

...Everything else

I've been harvesting plenty of stuff:

Blueberries and Rhubarb

Blueberries and Sugar Snap Peas

Two Varieties of Cukes

The Blueberries are finished for the year.  Usually I have more than I can use and I beg friends to come and pick.  This year I only got about 4 gallons, which sounds like a lot, but I also have been using a lot:

Blueberry Basil Lemonade

Blueberry Cheesecake

Luckily we finished the new pool last week in time to cool off on those sweltering days.  It is much smaller and has significantly easier upkeep.

And finally, we acquired some new mousers for Poplar Ridge, meet Zelda and Fitz:

They have been a lot of fun!

Keep cool and Happy 250th Americans!

Feeling Like Summer

I was getting spoiled by the lovely weather in the 70's with low humidity...it was very unlike the typical June in PA.  That weather came back in vengeance last week, bringing some severe weather with it.  Apparently, there were actually 6 tornados that touched down in Southwestern PA on Saturday evening.  Our power was out for about 12 hours, but many folks in the state did not have their power restored for several days.

JP and I took a drive around the property on Sunday in the Gator, looking for downed trees.  The only thing that we found is that 2 of my hens disappeared.  I did find feather trails and the remains of one of them the following day.  I was concerned that their electric netting was getting shorted out by tall weeds and debris that they had scratched up against the fence, making it less effective at keeping out critters.  I spent about 6 hours on Monday raking and scooping up gravel and returning it to the top of the chicken yard near the barn, and weed eating around and under the fencing.  So far the remainder of my flock appears to be ok.

My flower garden is thriving without being mowed down nightly by the deer.  My rose bush is tiny, but prolific, and the rest of the garden is filling in with plants that have already or will soon flower.  It makes me so happy!

My vegetable garden is looking good as well, although things are growing more slowly than I expected.  JP mowed the fields, so I had plenty of grass clippings to mulch things with.  Unfortunately, the lawn sweeper gave up the ghost after 5 (?) years of hard use.  We have purchased another one, but I need to put it together first. :(

I got a lot of nice strawberries, but something got my last few.  I harvested the first half gallon of blueberries yesterday, and am planning to bake some muffins today.

I also harvested herbs from my little herb garden last week - parsley, oregano and mint.  The mint was made into iced tea, and I dried some of the parsley and all of the oregano.  I've been using a bunch of the parsley and some fresh thyme in cooking recently as well.  I also cut some sage and hung it to dry - I might get 2 harvests out of it.

My potted and hanging plants outdoors are filling in and looking very good!

Meanwhile, JP and I have been working on taking down the pool.  I got weary of being the only one taking care of it AND the only one ever getting in it BY.  MY.  SELF.  We are clearing it away and putting in another much smaller one.  We are also switching to a saltwater pool, hoping that the maintenance will be tenable. 

JP recently purchased a 10 lb bag of mayocoba beans - they were originally grown in Peru, and are high in protein, and cook up super creamy.  I decided to can them so that they would be quick to fix into a meal, so I started by soaking them in water in my biggest bowl overnight.  The next morning, they had increased in size so much that beans were spilling out onto the counter and the floor!  I think I canned about 16 quarts!

I need to close and get to work.  I have that lawn sweeper to assemble, muffins to bake, work from home that is scheduled for today, and grocery shopping.

Enjoy the growing season!

Mother Earth

First an update on my dueling roosters...they have plenty of battle scars now!

We have finally had some warmer weather with sunshine and I have been reveling in getting dirty outside!  We took our annual trip to the nursery for Mother's Day.  I love visiting this place...it is remote, quiet (except for the peacocks) and nestled into the hillside surrounded by enormous trees.  We didn't see (but we heard) the peacocks this time, but L and I watched the frogs in the pond for awhile.

We came home with 2 flats of flowers, herbs, and veggies to plant around Poplar Ridge.

Fan flower in the cast iron kettle by the garage

I added sage and thyme to my herb garden - the oregano is
perennial, and I was able to over winter the parsley.

Some new additions to the big iron kettle by the front door
are curly grass and these gorgeous black velvet petunias.

The shasta daisies on the deck have over wintered in
the garage for years...this year they are looking
particularly robust!

I planted my 4 hanging planters, and also planted some flowers in a planter on my Mom's deck as my Mother's Day gift to her.  No new plants for my flower beds this year, but I did get a couple of pumpkins for the garden.

I did weed both flower beds for the second time this spring and put out all my pig statues for the first time in 2 years.  I noticed that the weeping cherry is starting to eat my fence!  It looks a little bit like Jabba the Hut, doesn't it?

I have been working down in the garden also.  The strawberries have started producing, and I have both beds weeded and covered against the birds.

I have done 3 runs with the broad fork, since we are still doing the no-till gardening method.  This is how it looks at first.

Then I go through and pick out the rocks - after almost 15 years of gardening in the same spot, I don't understand why I am still finding so many rocks!  This is just one of 6 piles that I picked out this year.  I also break up the clods before it is ready to plant.

Here it is after planting the first 7 rows of seeds:  sugar snap peas, carrots, parsnips, beets, radishes and lettuce.  I have plenty more to plant, but had to give my shoulders and hands a break for a couple of days!

Since I finally have chicken wire up around the entire garden, and it doesn't look like anymore freezing nights, I can start planting out my seedlings soon!

Happy Mother's Day and happy planting!

Experiments

I've tried a couple of things lately that I've never done before.  After all, I might as well be creative while I wait for it to be safe to plant things in my garden, right?

A couple of years ago, when we were purchasing coffee beans at a roaster in Erie that we like, J and I picked up a couple of burlap coffee bean bags from a box that said "FREE."  When we returned home from vacation, I put mine on a pile and kinda forgot about it.  While I was cleaning house this week, I discovered it and decided to put it over the back of my desk chair like a cover.  Much to my surprise, a handful of green coffee beans fell out!

I wasn't sure it there was enough to do anything with or not, but I decided to try roasting them.  I watched a couple of YouTube videos and roasted them to what should have been a Light to Medium Roast.  I ground them, and JP and I tried a small cup of coffee the next day.

Unfortunately, we were not very impressed - I picked up earthiness with a hint of wet burlap.  Oh well, it was fun trying.

I came upon a recipe last year for a homemade lotion that is supposed to be good for very dry skin.  Working in health care and washing my hands umpteen times a day definitely dries them out, especially in the wintertime.  The mystery ingredient in this lotion is dandelion oil.  Luckily we have no shortage of dandelions in our yard.

I had to start by picking a bunch of dandelion flowers and drying them in the sun.

Then I simmered them in avocado oil for 2 hours.  After straining out the oil, I combined it with equal parts shea butter and honeycomb pastilles and melted it together in a double boiler.

I mixed in several drops of sandalwood essential oil and then poured the product into containers.

I found the lotion fairly oily, but I think it will work well if I put it on at bedtime and wear cotton gloves.  Time will tell.  I have 2 extra containers...any takers?

We had a couple of really cold nights last week (in the high 20's) with frost, so I haven't yet planted out my seedlings, but they are living in the portable greenhouse/cold frame outside right now.  I have been working on trying to rabbit proof the garden for the past several days.  I have gone around the outside of the deer fence twice, pulling weeds and removing debris, and have attached over 50 feet of chicken wire by folding over 6 inches or so, and using landscaped staples to secure them to the ground, and using wire to attach the top to the existing fencing.  I have another roll of chicken wire to go, plus I found some more in the barn.  Hopefully this year I can actually grow green beans!

The strawberries and blueberries are blooming, so I got the areas bird proofed and weeded.  I also dug up strawberry runners that escaped from the beds and planted them in empty areas in the beds.  I'm hoping for a good season of berries this year.

I also put out my hummingbird feeders over a week ago, and have seen the little guys several times already.

I guess spring is here really and truly!  Enjoy it!