Adventures in housewifery: Cooking, crafting, and not a lot of cleaning
Once when the Husband and I were in the Porcupine Mountains on one of the look out towers they have a lady came up the steps, looked out over the view, and yelled down to her friends “Don’t bother coming up. It’s just more trees.” The Husband may have needed to restrain me from “accidently” bumping her back down the steps…. 😉 So here’s some different trees and tree adjacent things for you to appreciate. Don’t be that lady!
Hello friends! My garden is not doing well this year at all. After reinjuring my back, it’s been really hard to keep up with weeding it, coupled with super hot temperatures, it’s not looking great. Even watering twice a day wasn’t super great, so I’m not very hopeful for some of it. A few of the herbs are growing really well, but most are a bit crispy. I may have to buy at lot more produce than normal this year to make my salsa. The squirrels have eaten every single pepper that has started to grow and something else munched on my zucchini. It’s been a disappointing harvest so far.
Luckily, I took pictures quite soon after planting things, so they look nice! I’m looking forward to my blackberry harvest as well, because there are so many on the bush! Some of my tomatoes have fruit on them to, so hopefully those will perk up. So here’s what I planted this year and what I’ve gotten so far.
Tomatoes: Mr. Stripey, Green Zebra, Large Cherry tomato, Sungold, Bonny Best, Early Girl, San Marzano, Roma, Grape Tomato, Midnight Snack, Yellow Oxhart, and Celebrity.
So far I have gotten Sungolds, Midnight Snack, and Grape tomatoes. All my cucumbers (Gherkins and Japanese Cucumbers) died, I think. But I did stake them in the middle of the tomatoes to save space and they started to grow.
For peppers, I leaned into the hot pepper side of things, although I don’t know if I will get any. I planted Cherry Bomb, Jalpeno, poblano, Sweet banana, hot banana, and habanero.
I also planted tomatillos- which seem to be doing alright, peas, beans- squirrels ate them.
I did get two zukes before the plants got attacked and eaten, so I don’t know if I’ll get any more. I’ll have to see if the neighbor has any extras.
I planted three kinds of mint- Strawberry mint, variegated pineapple mint, peppermint, and I had spearmint, but it died. The rest of the mints are growing really well and I want to make strawberry mojitos, maybe this weekend, with the strawberry mint. It actually does smell like strawberries! I didn’t like the variegated pineapple mint, so wouldn’t buy it again.
I also had anise hyssop, cilantro, parsley, wine and roses thyme, common thyme, eucalyptus, variegated sage, dill, rosemary, and three kinds of basil- lemon, sweet, and thai. The thyme is still growing well, as is the rosemary.
I did have lettuce come back and planted bok choy, arugula, and swiss chard, but I think they needed less sun, so I may clear out the pots and try again in a shadier spot.
These are the blackberries! Excuse the weeds. I haven’t had a chance to manage them with my back.
The mulberry tree went crazy this year and I managed to pick a few handfuls to throw in some jam. Next year, I need to get a sheet and start shaking the tree instead of harvesting them one by one. This year I was foiled by an unexpected patch of poison ivy underneath the tree.
I’m not sure exactly when I’ll can this year. I think I might buy some produce ahead to freeze and can in the fall. We have plans that might disrupt my normal Labor Day Canning. It’s so satisfying to have rows of home canned things though, so I really want to keep doing it. This year I’ve just been off kilter a lot and not able to do what I would normally get done. Hopefully next year, I can plan a little better and figure out some easier ways to do things. I hope you enjoyed seeing my garden this year and that your gardening efforts are going well!
We went to the Sarett Nature Center when we went to the west side of Michigan for Memorial Day. I just haven’t found the time to post about it yet. It was small, but had some really cool trails. There was even a small low ropes course in the woods! Here’s the website and some pictures.
We were greeted by the animal tracks from the featured picture, a loud bullfrog, and two buckets of carnivorous plants. (Listen, no matter what the Husband says, I was not attempting to push him into the bucket of carnivorous plants. He just happened to be standing next to it.) These were a type of pitcher plant. I think maybe we need to plant some around our house to eat all the mosquitos.
These were different tree rings from Michigan trees. The one at the bottom showed the age of the tree when historical events happened. It was really big!
These were Indigenous artifacts used by the tribes in the area. They had a nice display about the tribes and land they occupied.
They also had some skulls and other things. These were a moose and a white tailed deer.
There was an owl suspended from the ceiling in the bird and butterfly viewing area, which startled me a little. It kept turning, so it was hard to get a good picture. I enjoyed learning about the native birds and the ecosystem.
There were also some creatures! This is a chameleon and they had some turtles, frogs, and other lizards, as well as bugs.
Look at the long legs on that turtle on the right! Who knew they were so leggy? Kinda freaks me out, if I’m honest.
This iguana was super grumpy and judgy. I think I messed up his nap or something. 🙂 He had a very distinguished name that I now can’t remember, so maybe that’s just his normal resting face.
We even got to play in the woods before walking the trails! They had a cute little ropes course along the side of the trail that we climbed on. I’m super paranoid about poison ivy after getting it last year, so I wasn’t as brave as I could have been, but I kept seeing it along the side. The parts I did go on were really fun though!
We had a really good time. You’ll see some more pictures from the Nature Center in a tree picture post shortly too, but I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing these. It’s definitely motivated me to find some more nature centers and see what they have to offer!
Here’s the first images from NASA’s James Webb telescope. Science is so cool!
Come this way, kids, don’t be shy! Many magical things await! Don’t worry…. you might come back… eventually.
Now, you’re going to have to be real mature about this one. I don’t want to hear ridiculous chortles. 😉
I said I was keeping some pictures in reserve for a wintery day and since our driveway is currently a sheet of ice in most places, I thought this might be a good refresher of what summer feels like. Enjoy!
