MORNING BIKE RIDE

Early morning is a great time for a bike ride or a walk through our forest.

My shots from the saddle as I rode through the forest are too blurry to post but once out on the road the ride was smoother.

Our lake was still and the shore a perfect reflection, nothing moving but the loons far out by the island.

By the time I got home, Mary was out in her garden checking on her flowers and seeing how Owen's apple tree was doing after being sprayed yesterday.

After breakfast we plan is to work on the roof of the far chicken coop. Of course plans often change and we tend to think and reflect, discuss and debate, more than actually working these days. At my age thinking and reflecting are my favourite activities. Swinging a hammer and climbing on a roof are causes I often avoided it seems; especially on sunny days with few bugs.

I'm sure we will accomplish something, just not as much as we could but then again it will still be there tomorrow.

Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by.

FRUIT TREES

We have a small flower/vegetable garden just behind these raised hothouse beds. Mary plants a new fruit tree for each grandchild and today we gave some attention to those trees.

The apple tree has the promise of an abundant harvest and Mary didn't want to see the apples damaged by insects. She read that baking soda,, warm water and soap sprayed on the buds would help deter the bugs. This morning she was busy with the sprayer.

We used a simple two gallon weed sprayer available at most hardware stores that makes the whole job very easy.

No toxic chemicals, no harsh pesticides just baking soda and soap. We shall see how successful this solution is.

Next job will be the chicken coop; it needs a new roof and the chickens arrive June 24th.

Stay safe and healthy everyone and thanks for stopping by.

LIFE IS QUIET AGAIN

Owen and Kate went home yesterday and the house is like a tomb, quiet beyond belief.

Our house may be still but our gardens have been active.  Our cucumber beds are doing quite well in their mini-greenhouse. New leaves have sprouted and the plants look healthy.

We need to find a better way of planting carrot seeds. The seeds are tiny and we obviously drop too many too close together. Now we need to go back and thin them out for the second time.

One variety of lettuce was quite bitter so we pulled it today and Mary planted radishes.

The other bed got a new planting of dutch-sets which was my Dad's favourite vegetable. He always had 3-4 across his supper plate.

Our strategy this summer is to replant a new crop as soon as we pull the old. That way, we should get 2-3 harvests from each bed before winter closes everything down. Today Mary was able to freeze five bags of spinach for future smoothies this fall.

It's a busy time for us and will get busier in a few weeks when the chickens arrive along with the new puppy. Are we crazy?

Stay safe everyone and thanks for stopping by.

HIGHS and LOWS

Today we stayed cool by playing in the shade and eating Oma's popsicles.

Owen was busy digging the deepest hole in the hopes of catching a chipmunk.

While Owen dug, Kate bounced higher and higher. She had a great time on Oma's little trampoline.

Time to relax and have a group hug. It's wonderful going to Oma's and having so much fun and so many treats. That's what being a grandparent is all about.

Stay safe everyone and thanks for stopping by.

PUPPIES MEET OWEN and KATE

This morning Kate and Owen met "Penny" for the first time.

I called Peter to see if it was OK for us to drop by; No Problem!

At first they were a little hesitant to hold the puppies, afraid they might scratch or bite, but they soon learned that the puppies just wanted to be cuddled.

By the time we were ready to leave they wanted to take them all home. We are so excited about getting "Penny" in a few weeks and the joy she will bring to the family.

This will definitely be a different summer once "Penny" arrives.

Stay safe everyone and thanks for stopping by.

MORNING HARVEST

Morning is the usual time for Mary to go out and harvest the greens for our daily salad.

Pea shoots are a delightful addition to our salads; something we had never thought to add until this year.

Mary picks only the outer lettuce leaves which allows the plant to continue to produce and give us greens throughout the growing season.

Doesn't that look delicious?

Onions give any salad an added punch and we are now able to harvest our first "Dutch Sets" Almost time to do a second planting so we will have a continuous supply throughout the summer.

Our first picking of beet greens. We take just enough so we don't kill the plant as we look forward to the beets in August.

Time to make my smoothie then head to Toronto.

Safe travels everyone and thanks for stopping by.

0*C

June 1st and our temperature this morning is a cold 0*C/32*F.

Our cucumber plants are in the tall raised bed you see here. We've made it into an inexpensive mini greenhouse for added protection and covered the plants with fleece cloth to keep them from freezing. Once our temperature reaches 5*C we will check to see if they survived the night.

These plants are hardy and the cold temperatures are not a threat to them. We will experiment this fall  with a late planting and see if we can pick fresh spinach and lettuce right through to the end of November.

Compost is vital for a healthy garden and we are trying to expand the volume of compost we create so all our gardens will get a healthy covering during spring planting next year.

I will update this entry sometime after 10, once we've inspected the cucumbers.

Time for an UPDATE 12 Noon.

After it warmed up this morning we opened up the cucumber bed. 

Mary pulled back the fleece cover and all looked good.

Some plants even have new leaves a sure sign of a healthy plant.

Thanks for stopping by and stay safe everyone.