Garden Days, Critters and Frugal Accomplishments

Hello, friends.  On Monday, I canned up vegetable broth, adding 16 pints to the pantry.  I was excited to see the turmeric I planted in a pot is sprouting.  After working in town on Tuesday, I ran errands, including picking up a few groceries.  I found one can of natural canned dogfood on the clearance rack, which was added to the pantry.  I got the pups bones at Marshall's.  One for Guinness was $1 less than amazon, @ $4.99.  I found a huge bone for McNibs at $16 less than amazon, @ $7.99.  McNibs had chewed the ones they had to tiny nubs, and both were happy boys when I got home.  A requested book was picked up at the library.  Three volunteer elderberry plants were shared with a friend.    A load of laundry was hung on the line, and sheets were changed.  I tried this new recipe.  Though it has lots of good things in it, I found the flavor too bland for my liking.  I like my vegi's to have some pizzazz.  The only thing I changed was to use a bit less black pepper.  Upping that would have given a bit more heat, but not done anything for the flavor.  On to some more recipes.

The outdoor shower was swept, and the cobwebs removed.  It's now ready for another season.  I hope to bathe the dogs in it soon.  I began working on another box of my friends antiques, to sell on ebay.  All the winter lettuce bolted.  I harvested them, and mixed it with store bought lettuce for our salads over the past couple of weeks.  There is some lettuce coming up in the garden, and some coming up in pots.  Speaking of which, I found another toad in a pot, this time in the basil.  Silly toad.  I've since moved the pots off the porch floor.  Seeds for red noodle beans, arugula, purple green beans and a few flowers were ordered online.  Cucumbers, summer squash and several different beans are coming up in the garden.  Growing the sweet potato slips in the repurposed truck tool box was a success.  J planted over 60 sweet potato plants so far.

My sweet stepdaughter sent me a bouquet of the most beautiful shade of roses.  Aren't they lovely? They've cheered me all week.  Last week, I woke at first light several days, and the chorus of birdsong was amazing.  Such a sweet pleasure right outside my windows.  I worked a couple days at one of my occasional jobs.  In between customers, I did a little mending, and made progress on catching up on my inbox.  Leftovers were brought for lunch.  The tunnel or miner bees have emerged, and are staking out new territory around the pond.  We're happy to provide them habitat.  Tiny frogs have hatched out from the pond, and are everywhere.  I noticed a branch of the oldest hazelnut dying.  J checked it out, and found a borer in the branch. He researched it, and apparently it could be one of several borers.  I fed it to one of the chickens.  Wednesday morning was chilly, with lows in the 40's.  After making yogurt and catching up on ironing, I cleaned, powder coated and began packing 4 orders.

Miner bee tunnels. Look close, & you may be able to see one going in the middle hole.

We've had three broody hens over the past few weeks.  I've taken them out of the nest boxes, and put them in the yard on several occasions, so they can get some of the wild lettuce or other goody I've brought.  After the elder rooster died, we decided to see if they would tolerate the blind rooster being in the broody area with them.  Each hen seemed to do fine with that, but quickly lost interest in sitting on the eggs.  At least that broke two of them of broodiness, but the last one is still broody, though never on any eggs.  We dealt with that the last time, until one of the Americauna hens went broody.  She was a good mama hen.  We haven't given up yet.  I've been noticing a pretty purple wildflower on my walks, and found out it is Venus' Looking Glass.  We were out of lettuce, and I wanted a salad.  I gathered sorrel and cat brier tips on my walk, and kale and chickweed from the garden.  It was excellent, mixed with some store bought things.  I made pasta using our tomatoes, eggplant and summer squash.

good camouflage 

The temps have gotten much hotter (upper 80's & 90's), so we're using A/C off and on.  So far, we're able to keep it off at night, close up in the morning, and just turn it on when it gets too hot indoors.  We use fans to help cool us as much as possible.  Wild lettuce and mock strawberries are gathered and given to the chickens on a regular basis.  Also, wild dock that has gone to seed.  They love all of it.  J mowed and weedeated some of the wilder places on Saturday, around a number of fruit trees that brambles had grown around, and in the area we planted olives.  We thought we only had one remaining olive that made it through the winter, but it appears two others have sent up small amounts of growth.  He's amended them all with oyster shell, minerals and compost.  They've never been happy where they're at, so our intention is to move them close to fall.

I had a hankering for french toast Sunday morning.  Trying to figure out a version that would work with my diet recommendations, I used hemp milk in place of milk, and used some wild blueberry all fruit jam on top, in place of maple syrup.  It was quite tasty and satisfying.  Suet and hummingbird food was made for the birds.  Two loads of laundry were done, and hung on the line.  It reached 87 on Sunday afternoon, so I thought it was a good time to give the dogs a bath, and take my first outdoor shower of the year.  It was lovely.  Wishing you a week of lovely things.