Late July

Hello, friends.  Well, we did get some peaches to enjoy this year.  All but a couple were buggy, but I just cut the bad spots out, and used the rest.  Going through my recipes, I saw one for Peachy Cobbler, which had ingredients we could eat.  Once I prepped the peach portion, and was getting ready to start on the topping, I looked to see what temp I needed to turn the oven to, and realized it was a raw recipe.  I look over ingredients when saving recipes, but don't generally look at the prep instructions, unless it looks especially long or complicated.  We both thought it was good, though different from traditional cobbler.  We had one white peach from a tree our neighbor gave us, and J managed to harvest it Saturday.  We're looking forward to trying it.  I harvested cucumbers, peppers, figs, and tomatoes.  Not many of any of them, but we're thankful for all of it.  

 

I've still been working on going through recipes.  It's not been every day, and might be 30 mins at a time, but besides removing ones with things we can no longer eat, or just no longer sounded good, I had collected recipes over the years for what to do with the bounty of things we were growing, but the plants ended up not making it.  These included rhubarb, olives, and chestnuts.  Vegetables have their own categories... sweet potatoes, summer squash, winter squash, cabbage, eggplant, broccoli & cauliflower, beans, greens, etc.  Sweets... cakes, cookies, other desserts.  Fruits.  Non-sweet baked goods.  Then there were collections for family gatherings we had, for St. Patrick's Day, and hayride ideas.  And DYI recipes, such as ketchup, vegan parmesan, etc.  Though still fairly well organized, I didn't realize how many there actually were.  Several folders and some large accordion folders of them, plus a couple of piles that needed filing.  Whew, it was a lot!  I have been through them now, but still need to do some more organizing and consolidating.  I'll be glad to finish, and move on to other things.

One thing that really helped me work on things I don't usually get to is that J had 8 weeks of PT twice a week.  While he was in town, he'd often pick up groceries, which meant I could stay home, and was very thankful for that.  It finished just before my last post, so I'm getting groceries again.  I gathered another round of elderberries, and dried them.  It's the time of year I can substitute sweet potato leaves for spinach in my smoothies.  At least above ground, the sweet potato plants look quite happy.  Early in the week, I foraged for some chanterelles.  Instead of drying them this time, I tried the Cross Legacy method of putting them in a jar with a paper towel.  They kept great, and were added to potatoes and peppers, for a dinner.  Caprese salad was made with our tomatoes and basil.  Flowers were gathered for a bouquet.

I started seeds of lettuce, collards, kale, chard, and parsley.  I'd neglected the carrot patch the past few weeks, and finally got around to checking on them.  Some looked large enough to harvest, and I pulled a small basket of them.  Most were a bit gnarly, some with two legs.  Other than one I snacked on, I steamed them for the pups dinners, and put the greens in the broth bag.  I'd recently read how wonderful carrots are for dogs, both raw and cooked.  I learned another new thing, which is that hummingbird food straight from the fridge is perfectly fine, and may even be best in hot weather.  Too hot is a problem, and I probably wouldn't give it cold once the weather cools, but that's helpful to know, as I sometimes have a hard time remembering to let it warm on the counter.

I began this post on Saturday, and early Sunday morning, McNibs took a turn for the worse.  It's not likely he'll pull through.  He had a good day on Saturday.  He ate wonderfully, had a good walk, played with his toy, and was his sweet, goofy self.  If you're so inclined, please send him light and love, and wishes for a peaceful passing.  Thank you, friends.

More Decluttering, New Recipes & a Busy Dehydrator

Hello, friends.  Last week, I began laying cardboard down in the enclosed berry patch, and covering it with shredded cardboard and paper.  J has weedeated in there, but it would be nice if it wasn't necessary, and more pleasant to work in, without tall weeds.  I took advantage of a 30% off sale, and 4% cash back, to stock up on regularly used items in the kitchen.  Cucumbers, tomatoes, an eggplant and peppers were harvested from the garden, as well as figs.  I've left the remaining blueberries for the birds.  McNibs loves to eat the dropped apples and pears.  I've grabbed a few before he got to them, and have been cutting them up in their breakfast.  Figs that were not quite ripe have been shared with the pups and chickens, and chickens got the large cucumbers.

praying mantis on elderberry

I began harvesting elderberries, and dehydrated them.  While the dehydrator was going, I threw some GF bread in, for making bread crumbs.  While gathering the elderberries, I noticed a praying mantis on one cluster.  Though the peaches are not quite ripe, and are less than perfect, I've gathered the ones that easily let go, to see if we can enjoy some this year.  I fed many plants with fish emulsion.  It appears ants may have killed the witch hazel we planted last year.  Boo.  I weedeated the enclosed asparagus patch.  I've long wanted our printer out of the bedroom, which sits right next to the window that night air comes through, whenever we're able to have windows open.  Which means on summer days, the paper is constantly getting jammed from excess moisture.  I rearranged some things, and we moved the printer into my studio.  That will hopefully stop the jamming problem.  Another benefit is when I'm working on orders or soap when J is asleep, I can go ahead and print without bothering him.

I've continued going through recipes.  There were hundreds, and I'd say with all the things we can no longer eat, I've shredded a good 3/4 of them.  Besides decluttering, another good thing that came out of going through them was the new recipes tried.  There was Broiled Zucchini and Potatoes with Parmesan Crust, Pasta With Zucchini Cream Sauce, and Green Rice with Grapes and Pecans, a good summer dish.  This last recipe is by Mollie Katzen from The Heart of the Plate.  With the first recipe, I intended to do the vegan parmesan crust, but totally forgot it, and we still thought it was good.  The second recipe is Medical Medium-friendly, by glowingthroughit.  I'm also getting rid of about 2/3 of my cookbooks.  There are yet more recipes to go through, but I'm staying with it.  I've been keeping in mind Swedish death cleaning, and truly don't want to leave this for anyone else to have to deal with.  I plan to keep going, once the recipes are done.  I needed to make space for this year's garlic, so worked on getting last year's prepped and dried.  J helped me finish the prepping.  Much of it needed to be composted at this point, but there were still several trays cut up and put in the dehydrator.  I finished filling the dehydrator up with bread for crumbs and chanterelle mushrooms.  The garlic will be put in the pantry, and ground, when garlic powder is needed. 

I noticed this lizard while exercising in my studio

Believe it or not, we finally strained and bottled our pawpaw wine, after 2.5 years.  J had been assuring me that it would be OK, and indeed it is.  He made wine for several years before we met, so I deferred to his knowledge, as I've had no experience in winemaking.  The descriptions were pretty accurate.  It definitely tastes fruity, with peach most prominent, and I also get pear.  No banana, though, as some say.  I didn't know what to expect, and though it's not what I would have thought, it's good.  It's too sweet to enjoy with dinner, but a small glass, especially during the warmer months, will be nice.  Better late than never!  Wishing you a week of simple joys.

Ups & Downs In The Garden

Hello, friends.  I hope you've been doing well.  The usual things have been happening, on the homestead.  J pulled the garlic.  I began harvesting the grow bag potatoes, and he joined me.  We had a good garlic harvest.  The potatoes, not so much.  So, the final potato tally, from the long rows that should have given us 200#, gave us a little over 20#.  From the 25 grow bags, which should have yielded 4-5# per bag, we got 9# total, so basically 2 grow bags worth.  I've since read we could have put several plants per bag, which we didn't do.  Oh well.  We'll keep trying.  

Shortly after my last post, I began finding squash bugs on the Ronde de Nice zucchini, along with the yellow squash.  As of today, all the zucchini are dead, and two yellow squash are still hanging on, but not blooming.  So, the pest resistant qualities of the Ronde de Nice didn't really pan out.  The good news is, I harvested our first tromboncino, which will hopefully take the place of the other summer squash.  Also, the lima and green beans have got tiny beans on them.  I gathered flowers for a bouquet for the house.  I was happy to see a monarch on the milkweed.  I recently saw a tip to cut the milkweed down by half, after finished blooming, to allow for fresh growth of leaves, so they'd be much more tender for the caterpillars to munch on, so I did that.

From the garden, I harvested yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, basil, oregano, and tomatoes.  Blueberries and blackberries were gathered, and frozen.  I'm still going through my recipes, which has resulted in lots of paper to shred. Some of the shreds were used, after cleaning the chicken coop.  Some went in the compost bin, and I've begun using it as mulch in our enclosed berry patch.  I'm finding hornworms most days, on the tomatoes.  Two of them had been visited by parasitic wasps.  They remained in place, but all others have been given to the chickens.  I was happy to see Food Lion again had organic black olives on sale, basically half price, so I did another stock up.  I've been intending to do another skoolie post, and hope to do that soon.  Take good care of yourself.

Peaceful Days

Hello, friends.  I hope you managed well during the heat dome.  Last week, I cut some rosemary, and made rosemary lemonade..  I harvested all our onions, which was a quite pitiful harvest.  Blueberries, blackberries, and a few mulberries were gathered and frozen, except for some included in a fruit salad.  Also in the fruit salad were the first two figs of the year.  I found more kiwis, hidden among the vines, so all told, there are around a couple dozen.  The deer have been grazing on the vines, but I'm hoping the fruits are hidden enough that we'll finally get to enjoy some of our kiwis.

In the garden, I harvested yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and our first tomato.  J & I got cages around the remainder of the tomatoes.  I recently pulled out a tomato plant that appeared to have some sort of blight, and J replaced it with a volunteer.  Basil and purslane were gathered, which I made into pesto.  When I was tasting it to see if it needed any adjustment, it tasted so good, I changed dinner plans to pasta with pesto, lol.  I'd originally planned on bean burritos.  The happy news is I again tried to make GF tortillas, with J's pan, and they did well this time.  It's possible it's the pan, but I'm wondering if I just wasn't patient enough in turning them the last couple of times, so will attempt one of the other pans again at some point.  The tortillas are on the counter with tea towels separating them, and I plan to use them for tomorrow's dinner.

The pups are doing well.  They were my garden assistants, the morning I took the photo.  I did work with an animal communicator, shortly after I mentioned it a few weeks ago.  A couple of McNibs' supplements have been tweaked, and a couple new ones added, ginkgo and a homeopathic remedy.  He was adamant that he doesn't want surgery.  He has some discomfort, but no pain.  He asked for cheese, and instructed I not be skimpy with it, lol.  Guinness also had his supplements tweaked.  Those silly boys add goodness to my days.  Like others I've seen online recently, I've felt the desire to back off a bit from social media.  Though I'm not offline, it's been good to spend more time in reflection, rather than listening to so many other voices, while I work in our home.  So, please don't be concerned if I should miss posting some weeks, but know I'm in a good place, enjoying peaceful days.  In this crazy world, I expect we can all use more of them.  I hope this week brings you at least a few peaceful days.  

Wildflowers & Chanterelles

Hello, friends.  With all the recent rains, the chanterelles have been popping.  I harvested some one day, to add to the fried potatoes and peppers we were having for dinner.  The basil has begun to want to flower.  I cut it back, and what wasn't used in pasta sauce, was frozen in cubes, to use in future sauces.  The first blueberries have begun ripening, and are being gathered, along with some blackberries and mulberries.  The shade bed was cleaned up, and areas of the garden were weeded.

In the garden, I harvested yellow squash, zucchini, cabbage, cucumbers and broccoli.  A new broccoli salad was tried, and the remaining broccoli was frozen.  Some of the cabbage was used to make a new to us slaw.  J has been brainstorming some new garden ideas.  If any of it comes to pass, I'll let you know.  A young couple moved into the community a year or two ago.  They've set up a farm, which uses lots of permaculture principles.  After the fact, two weekends ago, I noticed they had set up at the local bakery, which the wife opened.  This weekend, when I saw that they were set up again, J & I went to check out their farm stand.  I bought beautiful salad greens and some beets.  We're happy to support them.  The bakery goods look amazing; not just sweets, but beautiful quiches, breakfast biscuits and other delights.  I'd be supporting the bakery too, if I wasn't gluten-free and vegan these days.  

the wildflower patch

For several weeks, we've been enjoying organic strawberries from Aldi, and cherries for $3.99# from Food Lion.  It's really nice to have them both available and reasonably priced.  Late spring and summer fruits are one of the pleasures of seasonal eating.   The pups were bathed in the outdoor shower.  They were both such good, cooperative boys.  I'm sure the treats helped.  My main concern was a wasp that was staring me down the whole time.  Thankfully, it left us alone.  I repotted a geranium, and fed it and a number of other plants with liquid seaweed.  Like a lot of the country, we're experiencing the heat dome this week.  Take good care, and stay cool out there.

Gardening Challenges

 

Hello, friends.  J and I have been discussing how gardening might change as we grow older, and with recent garden disappointments and challenges, we're pretty sure we won't be gardening as we currently are, with two large row gardens, in future years.  We're not sure exactly how it will look, as we've tried most of the possibilities... raised beds, hoop house, containers, and many ways to improve the soil... compost, manure, ash, biochar, natural fertilizers and teas, chop and drop, with less than the hoped for results.  We are considering building a walapini, attached to our old root cellar, but would only be able to grow certain things in there.  Certainly no large, rambling plants.  But, it's a possibility.  Growing a large portion of your food organically is a lot of work, and with multiple challenges each year, we're looking for alternatives to what we're doing.  We both really enjoy gardening, and having fresh food, but the amount of work, and the many challenges we're up against, are making us rethink things.  

We pulled a few onions, all of which were small.  I harvested zucchini, cucumbers, yellow squash, a cabbage, basil, rosemary and broccoli.  Much of the broccoli looks like it's close to bolting, so I harvested the largest heads, and froze enough for quite a few meals.   I plan to keep an eye on the smaller heads, and harvest them when needed.  It turned out there was a little over 20# of potatoes harvested.  I cooked up some of the "need to be eaten" batch, and forgot to weigh those first, but the harvest was better than what we initially thought.  The smallest potatoes were canned.  I found and transplanted another kale volunteer.

Dear McNibs has been having more issues.  The most concerning one was when he just keeled over, looking just like someone who passed out.  I was right behind him, heading to the mail carrier's vehicle, when he fell back, then onto his side, like a sack of potatoes.  He seemed alert as soon as I got to his face, and not in distress.  Thankfully, where he fell was a shady spot on grass, as it was a hot day, so I just grabbed a chair and water, and sat with him.  He sat up in a few minutes, got up in 30, and hasn't had a recurrence, which I'm thankful for.  There were also good things.  On one of our walks last week, he trotted/hopped up the hill (due to his mass), trying to keep up with Guinness, when he had just been doing a slow plod for the past few weeks.  I'll take the good wherever I can get it.  

first hornworm of the year

I cleaned and decluttered the floor of my closet, after getting another shoe rack to help organize.  I've started going through my recipes, of which I've got entirely too many.  I'm shredding any with ingredients I can no longer have, like eggs or dairy, or just don't sound as good as they used to.  I hope to get them organized again, so I don't have to search through a large pile to find what I'm looking for.  Two quarts of hummingbird food were made, and golden paste for the pups.  The gardenia bushes are blooming, and smell so sweet.  The lilies too.  The coming week ushers in the summer solstice, with the longest day of the year.  Wishing you peaceful, sweet days.

Blooms & Garden Bounty

Hello, friends.  The garden has been getting busier.  Last week, I harvested yellow squash, zucchini, blackberries, mulberries, oregano, cabbage, broccoli, lambs quarter, and the first cucumbers.  Laundry was dried on the line.  A dozen kale volunteers were transplanted to their own patch in the garden. Volunteer tomatoes were transplanted to bare spots, mostly where I had planted chard, with no luck.  J put up string for the tromboncino squash, and a trellis and string for cucumbers.  New blooms in the wildflower patch include plains coreopsis, and black-eyed susan whose petals turn rust-colored towards the center.

I redeemed 2150 Swagbucks for a $25 GC, taking advantage of a GC sale and a 50 SB discount.  A double batch of hummingbird food was made, as I'm seeing more at the feeders.  As I'm typing this Sunday evening, there's none left in the fridge, and I need to make another round.  I used the Merlin ID app several times, and was surprised to see so many birds I had no idea were here.  Some new to me birds were different flycatchers, red-eyed vireos, and though I've seen indigo buntings in the area, usually along the fencerows, I've rarely if ever seen one on this land.  Now I understand the excitement people have over this app.  

I spent time in the pond garden Sunday morning, weeding around the orchard trees, and harvesting lambs quarter.  I noticed most of the potato plants were dead, and dug a couple of mounds.  After J got in, we dug the potato patch.  The potatoes hadn't thrived there.  There were fire ants in a couple of places, who love to eat them, as well as the usual roly poly's and other assorted critters.  I spread the potatoes out on the porch to dry, and believe we got something over 10#. I plan to weigh them before putting them into storage.  Our Sunday dinner was produce from the garden... broccoli, yellow and zucchini squash, cabbage and cucumbers.  We were noticing, while digging potatoes, that the onions looked like they'd soon need harvesting, so they may be next.  May you have a most bountiful week.

The First Tomato

Hello, friends.  The first chanterelles of the year have been foraged.  They were added to mushroom gravy I had planned for that day's dinner.  Last week, I harvested lettuce, peas, lambs quarter, the first yellow squash and zucchini from the garden.  We've had a few blossoms, and I was excited to find the first tomato forming.  A shirt was mended.  Early in the week, there were cool, rainy days.  These inspired me to start on some spring cleaning.  It worked out well.  Though we did have a fire in the woodstove on Monday, surely it will be our last of the season.  Heating with wood is such a messy thing, I try to wait until we're done having fires to do spring cleaning.  I'd love for things to stay clean for at least a little while.  I've continued making progress through the week on more deep cleaning.

I replanted swiss chard and kajari melon seeds, in spots where they hadn't come up.  More zinnias and hyacinth vine were planted.  The kajari melon and hyacinth vine seeds were shared by the lovely Daisy.  We've gotten plenty of rain this week.   The kitchen composter has not been drying it fully for some time, and started leaving a thick layer of material on the bottom of the bucket, which makes the paddle stop working.  I'm waiting to hear back from customer service, but in the meantime, I powder coated the bucket, as the non-stick coating had worn away in spots.  It seems to have helped slightly, but is still not working the way that it first did.  I expect my use is harder than most, with running it daily.  Hopefully, they'll help get it running optimally again.

Ronde de Nice zucchini

I've been consistently doing the mini-move stretches, and now have added a workout my sister shared with me, and have already noticed a difference.  So happy about that.  Bird suet and hummingbird food were made for the wildlife.  On a rainy day, all the house plants were moved from the porch to their summer spots.  I plan to continue deep cleaning, as often as I have time this week.  I hope your week is a good one, in the ways that matter most to you.

Wildflowers & Wildlife

Hello, friends.  It was a good week on the homestead.  One morning, I was met by this lovely sight, when opening up the chickens.  They're a pair of cecropia moths, the largest in N. America, members of the giant silk worm family.  Researching that they typically lay eggs in one to two days, in host trees, when I found them still there the next evening, I moved them out onto trees.  Being nocturnal, I hope they found safe places that night.  I harvested and dried comfrey, oregano, and lemon balm.  Batches of golden paste, ketchup, and curry blend were made.  I freeze the ketchup in 4 oz. jars, and defrost a jar as needed.  With J being allergic to several spices, including turmeric, I began making our own curry powder blend a few years ago, so we can be sure what's in it.  I dehydrated GF bread and made bread crumbs.  Lettuce, peas and mulberries were harvested.  The chickens got bolting lettuce several days on their new treat feeder.  

wildflower patch

Temperatures have cooled off, and as usual, I began looking for heat-producing chores.  One of the days, I canned all the vegetable scraps into broth, which removed 7.5 gallons from the freezer.  Besides running the dehydrator a couple of days, I baked sweet potatoes one cool morning, and left the oven door open afterwards.  Regular potatoes were baked another day, and a new GF muffin recipe was tried.  Water was boiled for hummingbird food.  We've got little summer squash, cucumbers and kiwi in the garden.  Lots of marigold and tomato volunteers came up in the garden.  Many have been transplanted, and marigolds, iris and tomato seedlings were shared with my massage therapist.  A red bellied woodpecker has been enjoying the fruits in our largest mulberry tree.  

wallflower

All the houseplants were taken out onto the porch.  They'll be moved to their summer spots in the next couple of days.  The grow station was moved out of the house, and into storage.  I brought peas to shell on our skoolie trip, and needle and thread to mend a shirt.  I did these while relaxing with the pups in their fenced area.  At home, I mended a favorite flannel shirt, while sitting on the porch, on a lovely day in the low 70's.  The wildflower bed in our garden is doing beautifully, and makes me smile whenever I see it.  Several new to me wildflowers were researched, which included wallflower, sweet William catchfly, and flowering flax.  There are several colors of bachelor buttons, including a pretty one with two blues.  I hope you have a most lovely Memorial Day.  

And Isn't That Life?

our view out the dinette window

Hello, friends.  Well, I'll say our first trip didn't go quite as we expected.  The bus itself did well.  There were several issues, but nothing that stopped us.  The mini split leaked water when we turned corners, but did great when we were sitting still, with outside temps in the upper 80's.  It's set up as our heat and air, even while we're driving down the road.  The oil pressure gauge wasn't working properly.  Joseph's already replaced it, and it's working fine now.  The operating temperature got higher than he would prefer, and he's working on that issue.  The power steering has a leak.  The drinking water pump over-pressurizes, due to the small faucet size, which makes it start and stop, instead of continuously flowing.  He's going to create a bypass system to fix this.  This is exactly why we're doing local shakedown trips, to make us aware of issues, and fix them, before we take off on longer trips.  

ducks strolled by a few times a day

Our biggest challenge was with McNibs.   We'd been wondering if he might be getting some dementia, and this trip made it clear.  Away from his usual cues and consistencies of life on the homestead, the poor boy seemed lost.  He paced almost the entire first night, despite multiple walks through the night, and me sitting up with him.  His bathroom habits got all off, and he went inside the bus almost every time through the weekend, often shortly after coming in from long walks.  He just wasn't his usual happy self.  Thankfully, back home, he seems back to his usual self, though as the weeks go by, he's obviously slowing down.  I'm waiting to hear back from our holistic vet, and making an appointment with an animal communicator, to see if there's anything more I can do to help.  Joseph may take more shakedown trips, but for now, I'll be staying home with him, and not putting us all through that again.  I sure love that silly boy.  

There were some bright spots to the weekend.  The two campers closest to us were two sisters and their husbands.  They've been meeting up for years, and traveling together.  We enjoyed talking with them.  One of the husband's was an engineer, and noticed how robustly things were built on the outside.  They wanted a tour of the bus, which Joseph happily gave them, while I kept the pups outside, so there was room to move around.  There were lovely places to walk, around a large pond with ducks and geese, and through the woods to a large field along the river.  I noticed several native wildflowers that we don't have on this land, and enjoyed learning about them, including fire pinks and partridgeberry.  In the days before we left, I finished the needlepoint pillow.  So, despite the down side, there were good things too.  And isn't that life?

A Quick Update

Hello, friends.  I hope you've been enjoying these recent days.  Well, we finally did it, and took our first skoolie trip.  We just got back today (Sunday), so this post will be short and sweet.  I plan to put up a post on Friday about our trip.  Other than the usual homestead happenings, a neighbor we shared sweet potato slips with gifted me several petunia seedlings, of different colors.  Petunias are something I've never grown, and I'm excited to see how they do.  So far, they all seem happy, though a few are being chewed on by something.  Another neighbor gave me a chicken treat hanger.  Before we left, I put a bolting head of lettuce on it, to give them some amusement while we were gone, as I left their screened porch closed to their yard, to keep them safe.  I gave them another head of lettuce when we returned today.  I'd say the feeder is a hit.  We have some great neighbors!  

Plants & A Trip to Raleigh

Hello, friends.  I hope you've been well.  Our snake plant is blooming, this time with three spikes.  It only bloomed outside before, and only the past two years, so imagine my surprise when I noticed a quite sweet scent one night, when I sat in my chair to read, after McNibs woke me up to go out.  You may get a laugh out of the fact that I briefly entertained the thought of some sort of visitation causing the sweet scent, before realizing it was the snake plant.  I do believe our beloveds can visit us, though I've never had the experience.  It's interesting where thoughts go, in the middle of the night. :o)  With the likelihood of some price increases or difficulty in getting, I recently picked up a few extras of things at Dollar Tree.  I also saw that my favorite sneakers were a great price, at 70% off, so got a pair to put back.  All these things were made in China, so it seems wise.  The summer clothes and sheets were brought down from the attic.  The bedding was changed out, though with a few more unexpected nights in the upper 40's, the flannels might have been welcome a few more days.  

The kiwis are blooming, on both the male and female plants.  Will this be the year we actually get to harvest kiwis?  Time will tell.  All the seedlings in the grow station were fed with seaweed fertilizer.  Most are not really thriving like I hoped they might.  I guess I have plenty to learn about using the grow tent.  J planted out the cucumber seedlings, and replaced the tomatoes that didn't make it.  He's seen flea beetles chewing on the smallest ones, which I've only noticed on eggplant seedlings in the past.  Oh well, at least I grew plenty.  I canned up lentils early in the week, and gave the pups a bath in the outdoor shower.  

Usnea & nettle glycerites were strained and bottled.  I made hummer food, and golden paste for the pups.  I traveled with a dear friend to Raleigh, for a concert over the weekend.  We've been friends since I first moved to NC, in 1972.  Yikes, that's 53 years.  It's always wonderful to spend time catching up with her.  We realized a plant nursery with beautiful gardens was having one of their open house weekends, so on the way home Sunday, we enjoyed wandering there.  We both found a few plant treasures.  Mine were a salvia, brunnera and pulmonaria.  The pics below are from there.  Enjoy!

A Few More Home Details

Hello, friends.  Last week, I sewed up the dinette curtains (on the left), using a drop cloth.  It seemed years ago, it was popular to cover couches, and make other home furnishings from them, but I haven't noticed that lately.  It did have a few flaws in it, and I just used the best parts for the curtains.  It was pretty inexpensive ($9) for the amount of fabric, and there's quite a bit left for another project. 

We'd been pondering a way to affix the stair treads, which would allow easy removal for cleaning.  Joseph didn't want to glue anything onto the wood, and damage it.  So, he came up with an idea to hold them in place with rods.  He initially was going to fabricate something, then realized tension rods should work as well, and would be even easier than unscrewing the rods each time we wanted to remove the treads.  I sewed up four pieces of cotton webbing per tread, then hot glued them to the back.  Knowing the cut webbing is prone to unraveling at the edges, I decided to glue those up well, after I took this pic.  The webbing was some I had in my stash, from when I was sewing tote bags for my shop.  We're waiting for the rods to arrive.

I had my first experience blocking needlepoint, thanks to YouTube tutorials.  This is a piece I thrifted, which was extremely out of shape, more of a trapezoid than a square.  This was after the first round of blocking.  I steamed it first, then decided to wet it, then dry with a towel, before attempting it.  It came out better than I expected.  I steamed it one more time, and reblocked it, and am calling it good enough. I'll be turning it into a pillow for our couch.  Joseph purchased a water filter, similar to a Berkey, and is figuring out how he'll secure it in the skoolie.  As our build is almost complete, with only a few things remaining to do, I'll likely take some time off from skoolie posting, and be back to share our first adventure.  Be well, friends.  

We Have A Plan

Hello, friends.  Last week, to replace some that didn't come up, I replanted a few seeds of yellow squash, tromboncino and eggplant.  I transplanted two sunflowers that had volunteered near the bird feeder to a better spot, and planted the wintersown borage, near the tromboncino squash.  There was a happy surprise, when I went to plant out the hydroponic basil I'd bought.  It was actually multiple plants, which I planted one evening with a 100% chance of rain in the forecast, followed by rainy and cloudy days.  Unfortunately, none of the rain panned out, other than a handful of drops, and there was lots of sun, but it looks like four may survive, which is more than I thought I had, so I'm considering it a win.

A $25 GC I'd gotten through Swagbucks was used to get dog beds at Marshall's, one a marked down bed, which almost covered them. McNibs has begun dribbling urine, so I need to have plenty to rotate.  He'd never tolerate a diaper, and always scratches around before laying down, so the pads wouldn't work either.  This seems the best solution.  I'm also looking into natural remedies to support him.  When we moved into this house, we had the small trailer we'd been living in moved into the woods.  J turned one side of it into a small workshop, gutted the middle for an outdoor work area, and I've used the rest of it for storage.  The majority of what was in one of the two rooms was boxes, saved from the time I was actively selling my friend's antiques on ebay.  There was such a variety of shapes and sizes of items, it was an attempt to have what I needed on hand.  As it's been a while since I've worked on that, I cleaned out all the boxes, and a number of other things.  This decluttering project has been long overdue, and I hope to get back to it soon.

I was looking forward to making tortillas for bean burritos, as I liked them so much the first time.  For whatever reason, this time the same recipe did not turn out at all, only stuck terribly to the pan.  After several attempts, with two different ceramic pans, I gave up, and had all my burrito fillings as is for dinner.  I put the batter in the fridge.  I harvested leeks for potato leek soup, at J's request, and thought I'd try again, to have tortillas with the soup, this time trying a little spray oil.  Same challenge.  It's a mystery.  Ah well, the chickens and pups have enjoyed them.  I gathered  a bouquet of peonies and roses for the house, white and pale pink.  A neighbor stopped by the next day, with a gorgeous bouquet of the loveliest pink peonies.  Over the weekend, we finally came up with a plan for our first skoolie adventure, nearby this time, to check how everything works.  It's a ways off, but we have a plan now!