Category: Nature

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Holidays are behind us now

With the holidays behind us, it is time to start planning our next vacation, and also my personal favorite…getting ready for spring! I know folks, I have have quite a few months to go until spring, but I love to look through my last year catalogs to get ideas for more herbs and flowers to put in my gardens.

I should of course take down the Christmas tree first and also find a place for the gifts I have yet to put away. Yes, I know it’s kind of late to still be doing this, but it seems like company didn’t stop coming around until yesterday! The holidays were nice though, with only a few minor upsets. For this, I am thankful.

It’s been so bitter cold and there has been so much snow, it seems like spring will not come fast enough, and the almanac is forecasting some really bad weather still to come. Maybe burying my nose in catalogs looking at flowers will take my mind off the nasty cold.

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Time to pull up the flowers

Today I have to go outside and pull up all the flowers and vines that I planted and then put down some winter mulch so the soil will be easy to turn next spring. I’m not looking forward to doing this, since it makes me sort of sad. We’ve had some beautiful weather this October, but I have a feeling that the winter is going to be bitter cold.

I have leaves in the yard that have blown in from other people’s yards. Makes for not only my maple’s leaves to rake, but every one else’s in the neighborhood too!

I miss the kids being small and playing in the leaves while I rake. Even the grand kids are too old to do this they think, so it’s just me and the dogs to tumble and play! At least the with the dogs out playing with me, it makes it so I don’t look like a crazy adult playing in leaves by myself!

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Early Fall

Waking up this morning, I literally was shivering and had to turn on the furnace to get the chill out of the air. Looking out the back yard, I could see what I thought was frost on the grass. Of course, I didn’t go outside to check it out, but this 53 degree weather is a far cry from the 110 degree weather of two days ago. I’m not looking forward to the weather changing cold.

With the fall, come my favorite holiday, Halloween! The stores aren’t wasting any time getting the Halloween displays out either. They started that last month. There is even a Halloween store that opened up in town before the kids were back in school.

Time to start my projects! I should have started on costumes a long time ago, instead of figuring I had more than enough time. I’m mainly sticking to making masks and a costume or two for those who have already commissioned me. So much to do and so little time.

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One long weekend to come

Two weeks ago, we had a storm come through while I was at the other house in Ohio. The high winds and rain along with hail flattened my tall zinnias which were one of the show pieces of the gardens. The trellis that was holding my Hyacinth vines tipped over and was pulled down by the wind and also the weight of the vines. I did some hasty repair jobs in order to get the flowers to stand up again with the help of twine but this weekend, I’m going to have to pull the flowers up.

This season was too short to allow me to get as much produce as I usually harvest. It seems to have taken forever for the cherry tomatoes to grow and ripen, and the husky tomatoes on grew the size of golf balls. I wasn’t happy with the zinnias in the front of the house. I had planted what I thought were the giant flowers I usually plant and it turned out that I must have gathered the seeds last year and put them in the packs then marked the contents wrong.

This weekend I’m going to have to pull up all the things in the garden that was flattened by the storm. We had another mega storm come through last night and I’m sure I’ll have more of a mess than I originally have seen. Where the heck did our summer go?

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Kids went to Camp Chateaugay and brought home some awesome summer camp pictures

First of all I had no idea what to expect with a summer camp for my two boys. I have two sons age eight and ten and they have never been to a summer camp before. But if you have two boys around that age you know that sometimes summer can seem very long as your nerves wear thin and your patience runs out. It’s not their fault it’s just, well they’re crazy boys and they need to get that energy out. So I bring you summer camp!

 

We looked around at a few camps online, checked out pictures, read reviews, talked to neighbors and checked on what kind of activities each one offered. We decided to go with Camp Chateaugay on one of the Adirondack Lakes in upstate New York after talking to the owners Hal and the assistant director Kirsten. They were both very nice, knowledgeable and had quite a bit of experience with both kids and camps.

 

Talking to the owners put my husband and I at ease and we took the kids up to the camp this past summer. They absolutely loved it and did not want to leave. They shared some of the awesome summer camp pictures that they had taken and it looked like they had an absolute blast. It was well worth the money spent in my opinion. I only wish I had found Camp Chateaugay a few years ago because if so it would have kept my sons busy with fun and kept me sane with some free time to get things around here done.

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Family Survival Guides

For nearly 10 years I have been interested in survival techniques of all kinds. I even have some of my survival kits made up and have contemplated on even those bunker type dwellings. I haven’t really gotten that far of course, but it is on my mind and my friends know this. A good friend of mine named Lindsay told me about Family Survival Guide HQ. It is a website that is filled with all kinds of survival tips and guides on how to start gathering the essentials in case of a disaster.

I haven’t even made a dent in all the reading material and other comments from folks but I have bookmarked the site and by going to familysurvivalguidehq.com I can start to put together a list of things for the start of a decent survival kits for every member of the family. I know I really have a lot to learn and lots to read up on to become even slightly efficient in matters of survival, but I’m totally willing to gather as much information, tips and “how to” answers (as I call them) that I possibly can read and absorb.

When my friend told me about the website, http://familysurvivalguide.com I put it right into my address book and as I said, bookmarked the site also. And since I’m really interested in this and want to remember what I have read I bought a special hard bound journal/notebook to make lists and also take notes, and build plans for myself and my family. Lets face it, to me this world is in deep trouble and I know in my heart that on down the line every little bit of knowledge I can gather, learn and remember is going to come in handy one way or another. I’ve already learned a great deal already and though indeed I have a long way to go, I’m a quick learner and with sites such as the one that I have listed here I have a way of learning even more.

 

 

 

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Cherry Tomatoes and No Sun

I’m sad readers. I have planted cherry tomatoes again and they just aren’t getting the sun that they need to turn red. There are plenty of little green tomatoes on the cherry tomato vines, and the other tomatoes I planted was a type of cherry, but more like a husky one. To me…they would just be an in between cherry tomato and beef steak! LOL!

I suppose I could use what doesn’t turn red on the cherry t’s vine as mini fried green tomatoes.  I’ve not ever looked it up or heard of anyone making these bite size snacks, which I actually am in love with. But I’m going to try it. Maybe “husky” fried  green tomatoes are in order not also!

Summer seems to have hit us for about a week of real summer days. I loved it. But now…judging from my plants…not just the tomatoes, the prices of the produce will double in the cost this  year, like beef has in the last two. Just my take on it folks!

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Tree branch clean up

For the last week we’ve had super hot and humid weather with lots of storms coming in. With those storms came a very loud and rather scary thunder symphony and a light show like you wouldn’t believe. The lightning was even going side ways across the sky. It also did a lot of damage to the big maple tree I have in the back yard, bordering the field line.

After a HUGH booming roll of thunder I looked outside in time to see my tree get struck by lightning. It was fascinating yet frightening to see. One of the main branches was struck and down it came. After the storm we went outside and looked at the damage, and it wasn’t quite enough for the tree to have to be cut to the ground, but it does look a bit worse for wear and has a bald spot right in the middle.

There is a lot of clean up to do, with not only chopping up and drying out the big branch so it can be burned, but also other limbs from the various trees and shrubs, that had wind damage and fell. Looks like we’re going to have a bon fire when these storms are over with.

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And summer begins

Summer has officially begun and I want to take a minute to wish everyone a Happy Solstice and a safe, fun filled summer. This summer seems to be coming in with a whole lot of heat and humidity. It’s to be in the 90’s for most of the weekend, with only a little rain but next week we are to get storms and rain. Actually, it’s hard to predict our weather here anymore, or the weather anywhere for that matter. With all the tornadoes the US has been getting I feel for the ones affected by this weather, and find myself saying a lot of prayers that we won’t have any come through here.

To all my friends and family though, have a very safe happy summer!

 

 

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More changes and improvement

Being somewhat satisfied that the inside improvements are coming along on the house until fall, I’ve moved onto my projects for the outside. I have lots of ideas, but don’t want something that can’t be finished in a short amount of time. I’ve considered a walk way in the back yard to the pool instead of walking through the yard. It’s a pain in the you know when the grass has just been cut and even though it’s raked we still get bits of grass in the pool. Yes, despite of a foot bath bucket to dip feet in before going into the pool. (This still isn’t the best way to go).

I saw a really awesome walkway while browsing the inter net yesterday.  It was on a timeline, and I thought it was really beautiful. A lot of planning and work, but still unique and a work of art in it’s self. I also collect rocks and stones. I have even when I was young. This project I would have had to start as soon as it got warm enough outside though. And since I just found this photo, I may have to wait for this one. But I do want a walk way so perhaps after we get a plain one down, I’ll at least have a base of sorts.