Un bee-leavable

 For as much as we did last weekend, I wasn't as productive this weekend.  The weather was just too beautiful.  I thinned some daylilies, made cucumber jelly, and picked tons of slugs out of the flower beds.  I also spent a lot of time taking photos.  I think the bees feel fall is on the way, because they have put pollen collecting into overdrive.

 I don't know where this guy came from.  I'd say his clock needs reset.  My turnips are looking good.  Have have two nice little pumpkins.  My corn looks great, but needs to get moving.  I don't think there is a lot of summer left.

 This is a prennial spinach called strawberry spinach.  A friend told me about it and I am sold.   It doesn't really bolt.  In late summer it gets these little berries and they taste good.  My greenhouse is chaos, but things are growing.  The outside garden isn't doing too bad, but a mouse nibbled on all of my zucchini.  I have plenty of chamomile for tea and spa treatments.

I love this time of year.  The cool nights, harvesting from the garden, everything seems to slow down.  I hope you are enjoying your August.  What are you doing with you garden harvest?

Projects and more projects...

 I was a project fiend today.  I repotted my succulents into some pots I got in Denmark.  Then surrounded them with some little rocks I had.  Next, I took what was left of a gingerbread candle I loved, melted it down, added some beeswax, and made wax melts for the wax melter my brother made me.  That project was a HUGE success.

I have been out of lotion bars for awhile, so I used a double boiler to melt coconut oil, olive oil, beeswax, and lemon essential oil.  The lotion bars are a little softer than I would like, but maybe they need more time to harden.

Then I moved to herb projects.  I picked my rosemary, basil, lemon thyme, juniper, lavendar, marjoram, and sage. The goal was to replicate some herb salt Christina brought me from Denmark and make smudge sticks.   I pulverized a coarse salt with rosemary, lemon thyme, basil, and added juniper berries.  I made several different smudge sticks with combinations of sage, lavender, marjoam, juniper, and even some rose petals. I have to wait until they dry before I know how they turned out.  That might be awhile, since it is very humid.

Yesterday, I picked red currents, black currents, gooseberries, raspberries, sour cherries, and service berries. I washed them up and froze them for various projects.

I was on a roll, so I found a recipe for Himalayan bath salt ideas.  I found one that had peony petals.  After drying the petals, I took 1/2 pink Himalayan salt, 1/2 cup Epsom salt, 1/4 cup of peony petals, and 1 T. of lavender flowers and added 4 T. of olive oil.  Then I made my go to sugar scrub with 1 cup of sugar, 1 T. of lemon rind, 3 T. lemon juice, and 3 T. olive oil.  I also made some chamomile/lemon hair de-tangler and face spray.  That was about it for projects. 

Even though it sounds like I was super busy, I had plenty of time to sit on the porch.  As always I am amazed with what I see from my porch.  Friday night while sipping a glass of chokecherry wine, something came out from beneath the front stairs.  I couldn't see it's head and I thought that sure is a dark colored cat.  Well, it wasn't a cat.  It was a Pine Martin.  I was so excited.  It trotted up the sidewalk and wandered around the road.  I was trying to get Kelly's attention, as he was inside the cabin so I didn't get a photo.  You should have heard the squirrels cussing him.  I was happy, because pine martins eat squirrels and our squirrels are nasty little creatures.  Sure enough that wasn't the end of the story.  Saturday morning, while enjoying my coffee on the porch, I heard a commotion by the bird feeder.  A squirrel was just sitting there eating peacefully and here came the pine martin.  The race was on.  They went up the pine tree, down the pine tree, and off through the woods.  I don't know if it caught the squirrel, but I hope it did.  What excitement.  These are some photos of a pine martin I took while elk hunting several years ago.  They are very curious and remind me of a ferret.  I hope he hangs around.  I have plenty of mice, chipmunks, and squirrels for it to eat. 

That was my busy weekend.  It felt good to get some projects done.  I've been sluffing for awhile when it comes to doing anything extra.  What projects have you done?  What is the strangest animal you have seen around your home?  Have you ever seen a pine martin?  

Birds, gardening, and what does the fox say?

Poor Robin.  Winter isn't quite done yet.   It melts off and then snows again.  It sounds like it is supposed to stay cool  until June.  The birds aren't going to wait.  They are here in full force.  The chipping sparrows always make me smile.  

The yellow-rumped warbler is like a gymnast trying to get the catkins.

This warbler was also hanging precariously in its efforts to get some spring fodder.

The junco seems a tad grumpy.

This house finch is eyeing the feeders.

This turkey hen has a nest nearby.  Everyday she wanders by the feeder and then meanders down the road.  For as long as we have lived here we have had a hen nest below the cabin.  I'm sure it isn't the original, but certain she is a descendant of the first hen.

This was our big weekend project.  We have always wanted a live Christmas tree.  I saw this wonderful combination of pine, juniper, and dog wood.  We made a few modifications.  I hate pine trees, so this little Black Hills Spruce is the focal point.  I just need to get some red twigged dogwoods and it will be perfect.  While we were taking a break from shoveling, a fox trotted by us.  Now all my poor husband hears is me singing, "what does the fox say?"  

I got a bunch of basil (I love basil on pizza) and thyme for the herb pot.  I have them in the greenhouse, but I must be very aware of the weather.  It is supposed to dip below freezing a couple of times this week.  I also got a few metal planters from Runnings for my greenhouse.  They are the perfect size.  In fact, I think I will be able to add one more.  My seedlings are all up and I am so ready to garden.  Unfortunately, the weather isn't as ready as I am.  I did some serious spring cleaning this week and it feels good to have the house ready for summer company.  Now when it finally warms up, I'll be guilt free to go outside and enjoy gardening.  

Do you have your spring cleaning done?  Has winter let go in your area?  I hope you are all enjoying good weather, perfect bird watching, and great gardening.

P.S.  The tulips in the header are from about 15 years ago.  They came up one year and that was it.  I don't have the best luck with tulips.  That picture always reminds me of the saying by Emerson, "the world laughs with flowers."

Rotten snow...

This time of the year is frustrating.  It is finally warm enough that you want to be outside, but the snow is still deep and rotten.  Snowshoeing is impossible, because it sticks to the snowshoes.  If you don't use snowhoes then you just trudge through knee deep snow.  Poor Ella just tried to swim through it.  Do you see her peeking?

I'm still making wine.  My husband got me a wine barrel for Christmas and it is fabulous.  It really enhances the taste.  I put my Concord grape wine in the oak barrel for a month.  I then bottled it.  I also bottled some sour cherry wine.  People keep giving me berries and I finally gave in and upped my game.  I went from making 1 gallon batches to five gallon batches.  You are only supposed to use one type of wine per oak barrel, but I think the grape that soaked into the barrel will be a nice addition to the chokecherry.  I have three five gallon batches of chokecherry, so it will be used quite a bit.  My 'fun' hobby is actually quite a bit of work.  I reuse wine bottles and it takes a lot of elbow grease to clean off the labels.  The five gallons of grape made quite a few bottles.  Luckily, a nice niece has been saving bottles for me.  She saved the day today.   I had no large bottles left except the ones she gave me.   My grandmother also was a big help, because long ago she gave me a copper scrubber.  I have found the best way to get rid of labels is to let them soak and then scrape the paper off.  The glue comes off easily with a slow small stream of cold water and that copper scrubber. 

While perusing Pinterest I found a book about wine making, The Homebuilt Winery written by Steve Hughes.  He talks about taking an old wine barrel, stripping it down, and re-sanding the inside.  My husband got me a 5 gallon barrel, but before that I had little gallon barrel.  It worked perfectly for my raspberry wine.  After about the fifth batch, it stopped enhancing the flavor and did the opposite.  I found my little barrel and the metal bands came off easily.  In case things fit together like a puzzle, I took tape and numbered all of the staves.  Next weekend I will sand it down and re-burn the inside.  It should be ready about the same time as my next batch of raspberry wine.

Another future project is starting my seeds.  I dug out around the greenhouse.  Hopefully, this week the ice will melt and I can plant some lettuce and spinach.  I need to sort thorough my seeds and determine what I need.  Every winter a volunteer tomato appears somewhere in my houseplants.  This year I have one in my mother-in-laws tongue.  Hopefully, it will make it to spring.  Not the best photo.  It is going to take some work to re-pot the little bugger.

Homework is still slowing me down, but I still seem to finish a few projects here and there.  I saw a blue bird on the first day of spring, so hope springs eternal.  How is your spring going?  Are you off to a good start?  

Successes and failure...

I have no photos of my success, because it is kind of gross.  It all started last year when a friend told me her mother would always bury a fish under her fruit trees for fertilizer.  As always, I mulled this information over for awhile then tried it.  It was unsuccessful, because a fox or something came and dug the fish up.  I continued to think about it and read several articles on the internet.  This weekend I successfully made fish fertilizer.  After my fishing trip with the nieces a month ago, I cleaned the fish put them in a five gallon bucket and threw in a carp for good measure.  Most of the articles I read advised to pour some molasses in the bucket and let things stew for awhile.  I also added two gallons of water.  I put a lid on it and stored the stinky mess in a corner of the orchard.  Four weeks later I steeled myself and prepared for a smelly mess.  I was surprised it was actually a nice liquid fertilizer.  It turned out much better than I anticipated.   I was able to fertilize 10 trees, of course I will never be able to use the bucket for anything but fish fertilizer.  

 My other success is the butterfly and bee garden.  I have several grasses and added a bee and butterfly flower mix.  It isn't a lush garden, but it is a very good start.  The bees and butterflies are using it. The concrete rhubarb leaf is filled with sand and makes a wonderful lounge area for the butterflies.  

 My sweetcorn is rocking.  It has never been this tall.  Hopefully it will be ready in a few weeks.  My bees are doing great.  They should produce a lot of honey this year.  

 This is the only planter that has survived.  The deer have munched everything.  Usually the smelly spray works, but this year it rained so much that I couldn't keep up spraying it.  This planter is on the deck.  It was the one place they couldn't reach.  I love the red geraniums and the bright yellow sunflower.  Below is my soon to be giant pumpkin.  It is growing pretty fast.  

My poor peaches and cream hollyhock.  If you look closely you can see the deer stripped every leaf and only left the one blossom  It is doing it's best.  Not only have I had a problem with deer, but the chipmunk population went from 4 to too many to count.  They are everywhere.  So far, they haven't done any damage.  I have noticed the hawk and the neighbor's cat have taken a sudden interest in my yard.   I don't think they have been successful, because I am not seeing a dent in chipmunk numbers.  

 I call the little guy above Rip, because his ear is a bit tattered.

 Perhaps you are wondering about my failure.  Well, here it is.  I spent half an hour trying to get a photo of this zippy little bird.  Finally, I got a photo, but now I cannot identify him.  Any ideas?  I have ruined my bird book pouring through it trying to identify the little bugger.  If you have any ideas could you please let me know.  It is driving me nuts. (Addendum: I believe Charade is correct.  After further research it my be a female redstart.  Now if I could just see a male redstart.)

 That is it successful fish fertilizer and a beautiful bee and butterfly garden, happy bees, a beautiful crop of sweetcorn and a big pumpkin.  To finish it off an unsuccessful attempt at bird identification.  I hope your weekend was also full of successes that outnumbered failures.