Bees Everywhere

We have had an abundance of bees this year, even the 

news stations have commented on it.  The amazing thing

is that they are so docile around us to the point of moving

aside so we can tend to the flowers.  Sometimes they hover

just in front of your head as if they are just checking out

what you are up to.

I think they are carpenter bees. 

And they are everywhere on the flowers.

The cone flowers really draw them plus the hosta blooms 

and of course the bee balm which you can see here in the background.

I do find them asleep on the flowers on occasion, thinking they died but

later they are gone so our nectar must be pretty good stuff!

We don't see carpenter bee damage, maybe on the very edges of the 

deck but nothing major anywhere.  I have to say I truly enjoy

watching them, especially since they don't mind me getting close

and taking photos of them.

All The Fruit I'll Never Eat And One I Will

The blackberries have done well this year with all the rain.

They used to line our road, huge fines with giant berries

that you could fill your freezer with after making jelly or sorbet.

Then the developer sprayed them! 

I suppose that they were trying to clean up the lots so they 

were more attractive, not thinking that anyone moving

out in this area would probably rather have the berries than

a manicured lawn.  They just never recovered.

Some started popping up in our yards and this year was a good one.

Except. . .  I can't eat seeds anymore and all the cute and adorable

animals I love to watch plus the birds that visit me on the porch

all love blackberries.  We were not proactive enough

to pick and freeze until we had enough so I'll not eat these.

The peaches are plentiful this year as well, small but nice.

The fronts are nice and peachy color but the backs are green.

With this couple days of hot weather they are getting nicer 

but like last year I know I'll walk out one morning and find

the tree bare!  One night branches are hanging heavy with 

fruit, the next day- nothing.  Will I get to eat these?  Maybe

but not keeping my hopes up.  With my leg and foot still acting

up I am not walking up to the tree much so the deer and raccoon

will likely get these too.

Here's another little bunch of berries at the wood line.

The ones I planted are doing well too and next year should

be producing more and better. 

I also have to get a mate for my elderberry.  

I am looking for a Wyldwood for my Bob Gordon.

I did get a couple of my plums but they mostly had worms.

I don't want to spray them since the bees were all over it

this year, hundreds of large down to teeny tiny ones you could

barely see along with strange fluffy flies and the moths

that probably laid the worm eggs.

I did get to taste my fig!

It was overly ripe, sweet and gooey.

I can't really eat it due to the seeds

(I know, why do I plant seedy things when I can't eat seeds?).

Do you see the baby fig above and to the left of the ripe one?

Skunk Meets Raccoon

We have a cute little lady skunk (I think) that visits us

on a regular basis.  I can identify her as she has a pronounced limp.

She's very calm and doesn't seem to care if we walk out the door

and right by her.  It seems that skunks are non aggressive as long

as they are not startled; however, when they are threatened,

well . . .  you know the rest.

This is Mama raccoon, a lactating female that has also decided

to adopt us, cleaning up the leftover catfood- or sometimes

having a little snack compliments of me.  She is feeding a

few young ones so I make sure she has leftovers.

Again, she is non-aggressive to us, being very used to us.

If you're thinking rabies, in our area we have not had an instance

of rabies in raccoon in almost forever. We found this out

when our neighbor had to send in a specimen to the state when

their daughter was bitten by a baby (after unintentionally aggravating it).

Animals prone to rabies here are the fox and bats.

I knew something was about to happen when I saw little skunk walking

across the yard at the same time Mama popped up from under the

porch.  Mama began eating while little skunk climbed the steps.

They see each other now and both want the food.

Neither of them is starving, you would think they would share

but no, the raccoon was claiming the food.

The little skunk was going to back off and tried to find

a way off the porch.  She walked around the handrails to see 

if she could climb down but it's raised and too far to the ground.

I tried to get Mama raccoon to leave but she is too used to me

and basically sat there, continuing to eat, even when I said Please!

She finally had to use the steps but when she came near the

raccoon, it growled and lunged forward.

That's all it took.

Little skunk flipped around and let Mama have it!

Mama raccoon went down the steps

and little skunk could now leave.

It didn't take long and Mama was peeking

from under the steps.  She came right back up

the steps so she could finish the food.

Unfortunately for little skunk, the food

was quickly gone but I'm sure she will find

plenty to fill her up.  The neighbors tell me

she is a regular visitor to their places too!

Practicing for Halloween?

It was a dark and stormy night . . .

(as they all are these days)

I got all excited about a pretty web dripping with rain drop that 

was outside our back door by the light fixture.  What better place

for a spider to set up shop?

My husband took a look and said,

"Yep, that's a spider web,"

not nearly as interested as I was.

Oh well, it was fun for me.

And the spider wasn't one bit upset by the photo

although I'm sure some of the moths were none too thrilled.

Twice in One Week!

Twice in one week is getting out of hand!

First we get the River Hills Traveler and what do I find?

Tom's been published a second time!  

This time on how the power boats (jets) and the increasing 

canoeist and kayakers on our stretch can get along by 

understanding the very shallow rivers- which is much different than a lake-

and the capabilities or limitations of each type of boating,

reminiscent of The Farmers and the Cowman should be friends from Oklahoma.

Then today The Current arrives and "What do I see? 

I see Tommy staring at me, "

(think Brown Bear, Brown Bear)

working the Knights of Columbus

beer tent at the car show in town!

It wasn't too long ago that he was featured in The Missourian,

our local paper, for his ham radio volunteer work 

during the Boy Scout Camporee.

There have been a few others as well.

He's getting to be quite the celebrity!

Great Deal on Pork Loin

Our local grocery offered Pork Loin for $1.69 per lb prepackaged into almost 10 lb packages. He purchased this one a week or two ago, cut it into smaller portions, about 5-6, and vacuum sealed them for the freezer.  We had one already and it was fork tender, cooked in the dutch oven at 350 degrees F.  

The vacuum sealer keeps the meat safe

from freezer burn and when packed into our large deep freeze,

it is good for a very long time.  We also take advantage of the

pressure cooker which can make a lesser cut of meat fork tender.

We'll have a few more meals to come out of this!  

As meat prices skyrocket (hamburger $6/lb!!) we are keeping our

eyes out for great deals.  

Kefir- Diagnosis Update

Kefir, photo credit

After three weeks of treatment for my ulcerative proctitis, I have made only 

marginal improvements but the symptoms persist.  I have to begin a maintenance 

program with the medication now plus have another appointment in late July.

In the meantime I was communicating to my doctor through the healthcare

portal and explained how my symptoms had stopped at one time, until my family 

doctor prescribed a Zpack antibiotic when I came down with a sinus infection.

As soon as I took the first two pills it flared up again.  Since it was antibiotics

that caused the flare up I thought perhaps it killed off all that good bacteria

in my gut.  He agreed, it wouldn't hurt to try.

The easiest thing was to pick some up at the store to see which type I 

liked the best.  In my smaller store there was only cherry and plain, other stores 

will carry multiple flavors and formats.  There is regular kefir, organic, frozen, Greek style, vegie, kefir cheese and flavors within these categories.  Mine is Cherry.- 

you can link to its info here.  There are also recipes at this site that include dips and

marinades, breads and salads plus lots more.

I can tell you that it tastes like drinking a thick yogurt (but has twice the live and active cultures).   I prefer the light yogurt and dislike the new Greek style.  It's just a texture thing. I like thin milkshakes and ice cream as well.  Most people would like this a lot. It is tart, very cherry tasting, just like my thin cherry yogurt but thick.

You drink a cup a day or you can drizzle it over granola, cereals, make smoothies

or anything else you'd like make out of it.  For me, I just drink it.

Yesterday was my first day and I'm just finishing up another cup today.

In a few days I'll see how I'm doing.  I'll try some different flavors too, 

I think I'd like the blueberry.

I think I'd like it layered in yummy granola, maybe with whipped cream on

the top- but don't think I'll be adding those calories to my diet!  LOL

Potato Tower

The potato tower has been in place for a couple of years

but only a few layers deep.  We never dissembled it to

get the potatoes but rather just dug down and harvested as needed

leaving the smaller ones as seed potatoes for the next season.

This year we added more compost as the vines grew with a couple extra board

layers.  As the vines emerge you just keep covering them almost to the top

with more dirt/straw/compost or a combination.  Our neighbors used

all straw while ours was dirt and then only compost from that point.  Ours

look better but we may have different varieties; however, I think our 

compost makes the difference.  As you cover the vines new potatoes

begin to grow so you end up with layers and layers of potatoes.

Once they flower and the vines die, you

begin taking off the boards to harvest.  There is no

digging in the ground and we don't do any weeding.

We'll see how they produced in this very wet Spring and beginnings of Summer.

We've covered the top to keep raccoon from digging, they must like

potatoes too or just the bugs that burrow into the compost.

Next to the potatoes we have a small side garden where we typically grow

the early radish and salad greens and then move on to some cherry tomatoes

and beans and regular greens.  This year has not been the best but we do have 

a few tomato plants and one green pepper. I hope they start producing more

once we see the sun again.  There is horseradish in another raised bed and it

 seems to be taking off well.

We don't even have the big garden started due to

the very soggy conditions.  There are a couple of blackberry plants and one

elderberry growing but nothing else besides weeds.

Maybe we can get a fall crop in soon.

Berries

We don't have many vegetable crops in due to soggy conditions but anything producing fruit or berries is truly enjoying the season.

The blackberries are doing very well with the unusual amount of rain we have been having.  I planted a couple varieties last year which seem to be taking off.  This one has larger berries but fewer of them.  There are no thorns on this variety so I'm hoping to get berries before anything else does.  I really can't eat the seeds so my end result will be jelly or sorbet.  There is evidence of bugs but I don't see extensive damage on them.

The other variety is a more compact berry and it has spread outside of it's raised box.  My husband put cattle panels to tie up the arching branches but we may need another row to support the plants that grew from rooted vines that sprawled away from the fence.

Our lone elderberry (Bob Gordon) is blooming.  There is a field of them

about a mile or two up the road, planted by a new elderberry farmer

who has planted several varieties.  I'm hoping to see the pollination benefits from his rows.  The blooms smell magnificent.

The mimosa is as large as its ever been and stating to bloom with the most sweet smelling flowers.  My neighbor has a very large pair at the top of our drive and you can smell it as you come close.  After the storm several of the flowers were thrown onto the road, still sweet smelling so I picked up a few so Taylor could have a nice whiff.

And finally, a volunteer mulberry where I can let it grow without

running into our coop or rooting under our front porch deck.  Hopefully this one will give us mulberies in years to come.  I am hoping to get a paw paw but I don't think I can provide the amount of water they need in addition to the lighting conditions.

They like to be in the shade for a couple of years and then full sun plus get plenty of water.  It's a tree I've wanted since I was a kid.  In fact, I want an entire patch of them.  They grow here but mostly by the creek beds and I've only seen one fruit but it was not on my property so I didn't get to taste it.

Today, between rain shows, we have to put another row of boards on our

potato tower.  They are growing faster than we can bury the new stems. With luck we'll have plenty of potatoes for the season!

A Soggy Birthday

(click to enlarge)

A Soggy Birthday

On the day I turned 56 the skies poured down relentlessly, submerging our county road and creating great roaring rivers out of hillside culverts. Gravel drives stretched across pavement where temporary waterfalls spilled over the outer edge.  With one bridge already washed away from last month's storms, the detour for those on the other side is no longer accessible other than via boat.  A long journey now longer, if at all.  Surely we will hear of emergency water rescues when someone decides the water is not too deep if they simply drive faster.   

Fortunately for me, our alternate exit was comparatively dry or as dry as one would expect while in the remnants of a hurricane or tropical depression as it is now referred to.  I drove slowly while the wipers swished oceans of rain across the windshield and cautiously studied how deep the culverts were getting or would be within the next hour or so.  I was meeting my husband at Denny's for my traditional birthday breakfast, the famous Grand Slam, with over hard eggs, hash browns, crispy bacon and pancakes that I failed to finish.  

We met for a late breakfast, more brunch, during what I thought was a momentary break in the weather, until I pulled out of the garage -which must have been the signal to release even more buckets of rain.  The garage cat eyed the downpour before hiding beneath the work bench, preferring to curl up in relative dryness, away from wiggling worms evacuating their homes in the grey mud bubbling up from our limestone gravel.  They stretch out in font of the garage door, crawling in and eventually drying up in crispy, thin curls which I will eventually sweep back into the gravel drive along with the carcasses of small, black ants that march in a solitary line to the cat dish.  Regardless of what the song says, they don't seem to march down, into the ground, to get out of the rain, boom, boom, boom, boom.  Rather, they somehow climb through the back door and onto my tile, two stories up and eat my grout leaving bits of sand at the back door and a trench where the grout once rested. 

The ants must die.

My daughter and granddaughter called, wanting to know if we would meet for dinner out.  No, not tonight. I am already soggy from the rain, full from Denny's and the water is still rising.  Maybe another time.  Tonight I think I'll live it up by sitting in my recliner in my comfy V neck T-shirt (pink) and black soft pants.  I'll get a light throw, something to drink and maybe a birthday treat.  We'll watch some tv and go to bed early because when you're young you want to party all night but now a days, sleeps sure sounds good!  

I hope you enjoy the photo. I walked up to get the mail and found these two bugs in my solitary day lily. I don't know if they are friends or will battle over ownership but they never seemed to notice me.