Dogs and Peepers

Plenty of room for everyone! The pack is doing so well. :) Here is a bird's eye view of the 3 big dogs snoozing from my (not so comfy) lounge chair on my little porch. I'm in the process of shopping for a better seating situation. I'm out here so much that I need a wee bit more comfort. I had a wonderful porch swing that we hung up, but after 9 summers of use, it broke last year. 

Mr. Jack likes to stay indoors on the couch under a blanket. He'll scratch at the door once in a while to check on things, but overall he's an indoor dog!

This little fella is a spring peeper. He (with his many buddies) is responsible for the lovely "peep peep peep" sound we hear every spring. It's such a wonderful sound, and I often fall asleep to it! He is a "chorus frog" and when you hear his chirp it signals (without fail!) the beginning of spring, but we hear them all the way until the crickets take over in July.

The garden is progressing, I'm seeing more and more growth and it makes me happy! The weather, frankly sucks. It's not very hot though I'm grateful for sunshine. This weekend calls for rain and highs in the mid-teens, oh well - on the bright side, it'll keep the weekenders away. I still have high hopes for July and August showing me summer weather!!

We're Crazy, But In A Good Way! :)

Well, before I get to the craziness, I wanted to show you guys some garden pride! We ate our first radishes and really liked them! They were a little peppery at the finish for our digestions so we probably won't plant them again, but we're so glad we tried them! :) We've been eating fresh lettuce and spinach salads almost daily now, I have to plant some more to keep up.

I also picked lilacs to make a lilac simple syrup so I can make the lilac lemonade. The time frame to get these nice and fresh isn't long! I'll let you know how it turned out, the syrup is in the fridge (hopefully) thickening.

I got the finishing touches done on my porch. Sheers on one side for privacy, those will stay there until winter. Also, I put up removable white curtains to shield me from the sun so I don't bake! I didn't want to cover everything up so I still had a view of the yard and the dogs.

The happy couple! :) Alex and I went for a walk while the car was at the mechanic. The alternator is replaced and the car is running like butter! :)  Our mechanic is wonderful and we trust him completely. He said he heard a little...."fart" (translating from his French!) in our muffler, so we'll have to get that looked at next oil change. He said it was nothing urgent and we trust him. There are trails everywhere around here and it was a nice walk by the river. We decided on some alone time before the craziness began!

You may note that there are FOUR dogs here...I'd LOVE to say we adopted another one, but we're just babysitting for a friend. He just moved back from overseas and asked if we could babysit his little border collie/mix Pavlov until he found an apartment. Looks like Pavlov will be with us for about a month or so. He's such a timid and affectionate sweetie pie, fits right in!

This is Alex giving out treats. Four dogs and three cats. I'm loving this! Pavlov fits perfectly into the pack and everyone is getting along swimmingly, no fights! :) We're fortunate to be able to stay home 24/7. Since Alex works from home, we can spend most of our time with the pets and they all have a pretty good life here. :)

After a long day, four sleepy pups on OUR bed. There's just enough room for us to squeeze in at the top of the bed, lol. For us, this is slightly crazy. We already have our plates full with 6 pets. Our friend actually has 2 dogs, but he found another babysitter for his other one. But we both would have loved to babysit both his dogs. We're not the types who make the pets stay down, they can be up on the beds, couches...wherever they want because they are our family...our vacuum is getting a good workout!

When our friend came over, we had dinner on the veranda. I made homemade coleslaw, burgers and chicken burgers and homemade hamburger buns, Joyce's recipe from Octoberfarm. They turned out amazing, thanks again Joyce! We toasted the buns and grilled the burgers...a little cheddar, Blue cheese, fresh picked lettuce and some tomatoes and it was a perfect summer dinner!

We really thought we'd be up all night babysitting and separating dogs from dogs and dogs from cats, but to our surprise, we've had no issues. So we were able to make some cocktails and spend some time in bed watching movies. Alex had ginger ale with limoncello and I had mango soda with some spiced rum. I caught myself thinking that another dog would be a great addition to our fur family lol...but Pavlov is taken!  We'll wait until we own our property before adopting more pets though!

Black Fly Bite Count: At least 25 now, with two on my right temple, sigh...so itchy...now the mosquitoes are out...eegad they are bad this year! I tried a baking soda paste and it actually took the itch away for a bit. Aloe is helping too. Coconut oil helps with healing but it doesn't take the itch away... I'm tempted to put on the hydrocortisone cream...it might be my last resort. I don't like using it too much but desperate times call for desperate measures!!!  :)

Upstairs Veranda

I've blogged about my porch a lot because it's my sanctuary and it's a source of pride for me! :) We are lucky in this rental, the master bedroom has a balcony off one side. It's not very big, but a few years back, Alex started to make it HIS sanctuary. He screened it in and put up his hammocks...made it into a kind of nautical decor too. This is one end of it. We actually got that hammock at a thrift shop for less than a dollar, it's priceless! We both can fit on it and in the summer, it's just wonderfully romantic with the candles lit and the frogs chirping! :)

This is the other side, we have a small bar outside too so we can have a drink if we want to. I don't know that we'll be this lucky with the place we buy in a few years, but the notion of us each having a screened in area of our own (and to share!) is something we want! To differentiate, we call mine the porch and his the veranda.

I think that it's nice that we each have our own space to enjoy the outdoors, bug-free. We love spending time together, but alone-time is very healthy too and we both appreciate it. It works. Today it's so hot out and Alex is up on his hammock reading a book and I'm here on my porch with the dogs catching up on blogs and recipes!

The only drawback to his veranda is that it's in the front of the house and it's a bit less private than my porch. So yesterday we put up some sheer curtains and it gives the area so much more privacy! He'd also built a fold-able table so we could have meals together up there. The spaces here aren't very big, but we're making the best of them! Last night for dinner we ate on the veranda. :) We made Brie and ham sandwiches on ciabatta bread with fries and herbal iced tea. During the week, it's quiet after 6pm in this village so we like to take advantage. It was so relaxing having dinner, listening to the birds and watching the sun set. No technology needed! :)

Our "candle" area really is a cat shelf!!! Oscar and Leo LOVE being on the veranda. As I took this photo, they were eyeing our sandwiches. Our cats are house cats, we are just too paranoid about the dangers outside for them, so they spend most of their summers out here enjoying the "outdoors inside"!

It's a hot summer day here in the Laurentian mountains and I'm happy as a clam! We will try to do a little fishing this evening if we're not too tired. We're going to have another Cobb salad tonight with fresh lettuce. I'm also going to pick some spinach. I think that the radish is ready, so we'll try that too. I'm LOVING my garden and the beautiful summer weather! I am sending out all sorts of positive happy energy to everyone reading this!!!

PS: Black fly bite count:  16 and ITCHY!!!!

PPS: The car's alternator is shot...sigh...when it financially rains, it pours...now only if it would reverse and money would rain down ON ME for a change!!! What can you do? That's what emergency funds are for!!! But do you ever feel like you just can't catch up?

All Seeds Planted! My Very First Lettuce Harvest :)

June the 3rd was the day I finished planting all of my seeds! My garden is now done and it's all up to the weather now.

This is "Green bean, yellow bean and cucumber land"; and I planted more cilantro since we are nearly finished the one pot I started in April, it goes fast!

This area will be the Moon Garden. It's fenced really well because Morning Glories are toxic to animals and we have curious pups. I colour-coded the labels, the blue labels are for the Moon Garden; and the pink ones will eventually be up on the porch, various pretty flowers to see and smell. :) I'm very excited about the Moon Garden, I've never done something like that before and I chose flowers that would look nice during the day and Moonflower that blooms at night. I also chose Blue Fescue ornamental grass because it shines silver at night too. I would love to find time to add some fairy garden elements to this area too!

By the bird feeder, I planted my butterfly and bird pollinator flower mix; and in two other pots I planted the beneficial insect pollinator flower mix (not sure where they will live yet though). And wouldn't you know it? More chicken wire! :)

Now that everything is planted and safe from the critters, I can kind of take a bit of a break, at least from planting! :) Yesterday was mowing and weed-whacking day. Today it's supposed to pour rain again, so the neglected housework should will finally get done!

I LOVE this photo and the fact that I'm already enjoying the garden! This is my parsley, chives and the lettuce I'd planted in my window on April 29th. This is my first ever harvest of homegrown lettuce! It took me nearly 50 years to figure out that gardening is fulfilling, fun, healthy and delicious! :) Better late than never I guess! :-o

For dinner on Saturday, I made a Cobb Salad with Worcestershire and Dijon Vinaigrette from my "Salad" cookbook that Alex got me last week. I made the salad and he made the dressing. The entire meal was delicious and we enjoyed our homegrown greens so much! I have to make sure we always have a steady supply of lettuce going because we do eat a lot of it now.

This is my plate minus the eggs which I can't handle too often anymore! The original recipe called for watercress which I didn't have; and avocado which would put us both in the hospital so they were omitted. The recipe calls for a Blue cheese and I also added some goat cheese. It was so good and satisfying!

It's still pretty cold out, but I think that spring was a month late in the Laurentians and it's finally here. Maybe in July summer will start! :)

Just A Little Food Post

Life is pretty good lately! Alex is healthy again, and we are both pretty much on the same sleeping schedule, which means that things are flowing much better! We're still trying to eat only REAL food now and we're doing a great job at it! Last night I made shrimp fajitas. Our old style of fajita was made with Old El Paso taco mix, bottled salsa, dollops of sour cream and loads of "cheddar" cheese, which we now call "cheese product" lol...Last night I made a little salsa with tomatoes, corn, our own cilantro and chives and some oil and balsamic vinegar. I started the recipe for refried beans, but we decided not to mash them. It was such a nice fresh meal! I can't wait to pick our own tomatoes and lettuce though! I have to say, I do miss all the melty cheesy stuff...but that's okay, this is yummy too!

This was the first morning in over a month that we woke up together! We walked the dogs in the woods, did some chores and had a big brunch. It's my version of an "Egg McMuffin" I guess. English muffins with bacon, poached egg, roasted tomato and a very tiny bit of Old Amsterdam cheese. I also made my fricassee potatoes (onions and potatoes cooked with some butter for about 30 minutes)...it was so good and very filling. The only non-real food in this photo is the English muffin - anyone have a good easy recipe I can try?

There is a little break in the clouds and I'm seeing sunshine!!! Out I go to finish my planting, hopefully the bugs don't get me first!!! :)

Chicken Wire Everywhere

There was a little bit of sun yesterday so I decided to do a little more planting. Next to my pumpkin patch, I planted 2 pots of ground cherries, 2 pots of strawberries, 2 pots of chamomile and a pot of orange peppers. I ran out of lattice so I had to just cover them up with loose chicken wire to keep them safe. Last night it went down to 4 degrees, sigh, so they had poly tarp over them too. I hope the cold doesn't kill them.

Look at my lettuce! It's growing really well, I have had so much going on lately, I have to see what size this one goes to so I don't pick it too early! I also planted some garlic chives and onion chives, the seed packs said they need dark, moist and warm so I put a cover over them until they germinate.

And I got my potatoes planted! :) I was going to plant them in my winter tires, since my plan was to buy new ones in the fall, but I got nervous. I came down with a big case of the "what if's"! What if there is a vet emergency and I don't have the money? What if there is another big and necessary expense and I can't buy tires? I'm not the type who has a thousand dollars lying around, so I opted to store the tires as a just in case, with my original plan to buy new studded winter tires anyway. I'll use the old tires next year! Instead I got 2 large garbage bins at Canadian Tire.

They are now protected and living next to my carrots, beets and radishes right in front of the pumpkin patch. I have to say I'm kind of sick of my puncture wounds from the chicken wire, but with my budget, it's all I can do to protect my plants! I still have green and yellow beans, cucumbers and my flowers to plant the next sunny day!

**I just spent two scary days formatting my computer. I kept getting bad error messages and nearly lost everything. I'm usually very diligent about backing up my files and photos etc...but with the last few weeks being so hectic, I neglected it. Wrong timing. I lost some things, but thankfully can recover them with a software I had from my previous laptop. My computer is so FAST now! :) Just a reminder...back up your stuff!!!**

Pumpkins and Pizza

My post title sounds familiar...I'm sure I've written about pumpkins and pizza before in the same post! We haven't had pizza in a few weeks so we thought we'd really test our digestion. It's all REAL food on these pizzas. No more grocery store "cheese" for us! The first pizza was a Margarita with fresh Mozzarella, olives and basil. I'll admit I overdid it on the cheese. Next time I'll use a lot less, it doesn't need as much as the fake cheese for flavour and texture that's for sure! The second was simply apricot jam with some Blue cheese and Parm. Deee-licious! And we digested just fine. Phewf!

Alex made a little side salad of spinach, tomatoes and corn with some of the Blue cheese, Balsamic and oil. I have to go shopping today, our fridge is nearly bare again! Shopping day is much different this time around. There will be no processed foods whatsoever in my cart. It'll be a financial challenge I think. And I may have to go back to bi-weekly shopping for a while since most of the food will be fresh with no preservatives. Sigh...I loved that monthly shopping trip, it made life so much easier, but health beats convenience any day.

So onto the pumpkins! Our weather is so cold this year...last summer we had hot days and mild nights. So far this year it's mostly rainy days, but if we're lucky, a few sunny days with temperatures anywhere from 14 to 20 (57-68 F); and nights from 8 to 14 (46-57 F)...so I had a dilemna about transplanting my huge pumpkin plants. I know they love hot weather and warm soil. So after debating, and some great advice and encouragement from Mama Pea (thank you again! BIG hugs!)...I went for it! I built my pumpkin patch. Half is the seedling plants and the other half has new seeds. As is my new custom, it's fenced in with chicken wire on top...

...and just to be safe, poly tarp for colder days and nights. I put the same tarp over tomato and pea land and they are doing so well. I just have one of the nineteen tomato plants that is wilting a bit, but everything has transplanted nicely! Now the only thing left for the pumpkin patch is my symbolic scare crow! :) I used up the last of the free lattice boards that the lumber yard gave away last year, I had just enough thankfully. I still need to build a few little fences, but I'll have to see what we have in our own lumber pile for that.

Question: Should the poly tarp come all the way to the ground?

I tried to plant more seeds directly into my pots yesterday, but the swarming biting black flies defeated me. I couldn't take it anymore, even though I wore a head net and proper clothes. I think I have a dozen bites on me, grrr...I finally gave in and put on some DEET spray (I know, it's highly toxic...but the only thing that works). They stopped biting, but swarmed incessantly...so grosse! Nothing like being batted endlessly by icky swarming bugs...But the rain started so it wasn't meant to be anyway. The next sunny day, I'll be planting more seeds, I have a lot of veggies left to seed plus all of my flowers too.

I think that this weather is challenging for any gardener. I'm finding that the challenge is making me more creative and do more research, so I think it's the perfect weather for my first attempt at having a full garden.

Tomatoes and Peas

Here is my stash of pots that I got at that thrift store. With my three tomato pots from last year, I had 29 pots to clean today. It was a nice mild sunny day so I didn't mind at all!

It was a VERY productive day! I transplanted my nineteen tomato plants (yeegods) and my five pea plants. I just don't have the space or money to give them each their own pot, so they are sharing, two plants per pot. I only have 3 tomato cages, so I'll have to find some more soon.  I also made a small lattice fence to go around tomato and pea land.

And I built a frame with chicken wire to keep the curious critters away. When I was at the hardware store, I bought some clear plastic tarp. I set that up too, but it's too dark to take a picture right now. We are still having 10 degree nights and I don't want my plants to freeze, so each night I'll cover them to keep them warm.

Dinner is oven-fried chicken strips. I just use chicken breasts, dipped in egg white then bread crumbs and baked for 16 minutes at 425 (flipped once). I also made a side salad of lettuce, tomato, corn and Feta. Alas I'm eating alone tonight. But that's okay because Alex got to sleep around 3pm, which means maybe tomorrow he'll be awake until 5pm...by mid-week, we should be back to the same schedule!

I decided to cozy-up my porch so I put up a few teeny shelves for tea light candles. I'm outside on the porch right now with the dogs, listening to the Spring Peepers chirping and the rain drops falling! Now I shall post this and close my laptop and enjoy Nature's show. Nothin' could be finer! :)

Sleepy Dogs and "Cheese"

It was raining this morning, but it didn't stop me from having coffee on my lovely porch! :) The dogs wanted to be with me so we all found some room. They doze off so quickly, I wish I had that gift! Marlene, bless her heart, tries so hard to stay awake...Jack found a cozy spot between the girls and Charlie fell right to sleep after that big yawn. It was so nice and relaxing!

After coffee, I headed out to the thrift store and scored! I got 26 nice big containers for $15 that will house all of my plants. They look practically new, what a great find. They look like they came right from the Dollar Store actually. I was debating that...since my ban on the Dollar Store this year...but I was also wondering how I'd afford all the containers I will need in the next month so I relaxed my rule a little bit! I also scored on some garden soil/compost mix, 99 cents for a bag of 25 liters. I got an abundance of it, my car was tilted backwards it seemed when I drove home! Whatever I don't use now, I'll definitely be using in the fall for my winter garden.

So Alex and I are continuing to eat very well, no processed stuff at all. He's sticking to his herbal regime and is doing very well now. We are enjoying salads every night with dinner. But we wanted to try some of the old dishes again. I decided to make a small portion of my Papas Fritas since we had some leftover Cracker Barrel Monteray Jack in the fridge.

This was the wee portion I made, we shared it. Since neither of us has had cheese in over a week, we were curious to see how we'd handle it. Well, it digested okay, but this "cheese" didn't taste like CHEESE anymore. So sad. Everything from the grocery store is subpar. Alex and I are cheese-ADORERS...we both came to the sad realization that this stuff is just crap. I mean, the meal is healthy with potatoes, salsa, fresh cilantro and chicken...but that "cheese" didn't cut it. We made the big decision that we will only buy REAL cheese from now on...nothing pre-packaged at the grocery store. We'll just have to alter the recipes to have less of it because real cheese is mucho expensive! Until the day comes when I don the hat of Cheesemaker, we'll have to enjoy the good stuff less often!

Porch Finished! Container Garden Started! And Some R&R For Me :)

Yesterday's grueling task was to tack down the lovely fake grass carpet on my porch. What's the point of screening it in, if there are openings between the slats on the bottom??? Plus I love feeling like I'm on a golf course lol...it took nearly 150 nails and some sore knees, but I got it done. :) This frugal project is a source of pride for me, here's the breakdown:

Wood: $45

Stain: $23

Hardware: $21

Carpet: $33

Screen: $27

The total including taxes was $149 and my budget was $150. This porch is so UN-level and crooked...it was a real pain to get this done, honestly, the frustration of having a level door not fitting because the whole porch is crooked was challenging for me! But I worked with what I had and I'm so happy it's done. I mentioned in the comments last time that if this were my property, I'd have invested in better wood and likely have torn the entire porch down, extended it and done it properly! But I have to say it was a wonderful experience!! :)

Today we had a bit of warm weather and some pockets of sun, so it was transplanting day. My container garden is moving along nicely. I'm relieved to get the lettuce and spinach into bigger pots! On the left are my spring onions. They only took up half the big pot so I planted more seeds in the other half.

I have three areas that I dug up for my veggies and this is the first one. The two extra pots in the front are newly sown lettuce and spinach seeds. I decided I'm not taking a chance with the curious Blue Jays and grackles...everything will have a chicken wire cover. This is just a temporary one, when the sun goes away, those black flies swarm so I wanted to get something quick done. Next sunny day I'll make a proper fence and chicken wire top.

I also transplanted my beets and planted new seeds in half the container. I took care of the crops that could tolerate cooler nights for now.

This is what's left of my seedlings, not including the herbs. Peas, pumpkins and three varieties of tomatoes. These will come in at night for another week or so until the nights stick to 15 degrees and up. Tomorrow I have to shop for containers and get some more soil!

I also transplanted my two little pots of chives that I got last summer. They were the only plant that lasted through the winter in my window. Now they have lots of room to breathe, those old pots were way too small.

And all of my herbs are on the "herb shelf" now! :) I planted more herbs in the green pots in the front so I'll have a nice supply all summer :)

That lime green hanging pot is my strawberry plant from last summer...I saw a wee little bud, so I'm hopeful! I even moved my laundry line over so it wouldn't get in the way of the new screen door...I did a lot of work and I feel great about it! I honestly never though I'd get all this done in a week, but the container garden is well on its way, my porch is done...

Now it's RAIN TIME....Alex is sleeping, and much better I'm happy to report! :) I can finally enjoy sitting on my porch without getting eaten alive; with a glass of wine, a book and my fur kids by my side! :)  Oh happy days! :)