A WEEKEND WITH Owen

We are being spoiled with a weekend at Sherri and Rob's place. Later today the kids will show up and we will make homemade pizza and celebrate a birthday.

No better way to celebrate than with family....

and the best grandson anyone could have. Owen got us up at 6:15 this morning. He intends to make the most of the time we have together.

He told his mom that grandpa was 14 today. I guess 14 is old to a 4 year old.

More pictures to follow. Thanks Rob for sharing your pictures.

Safe travels everyone.

ARBOR DONE

The mornings have been perfect this week for working outside; cool, breezy, and best of all, no bugs.

We are thinning the bush and using the saplings to build an arbor for Mary's garden.

I copied uncle Paul's design and this morning we will finally start building the deer fence. I will use the two arbors as anchor points which should give considerable strength to the structure without having to dig deep post holes. Deep holes are impossible with the bedrock so close to the surface.

We want the fence up a.s.a.p. to protect Owen's apple tree. The deer love to eat the new buds.

Check back tomorrow for another progress report.

Thanks for stopping by and safe travels everyone.

MORNING VISITORS

We stopped putting out bird seed last week but these guys show up every morning looking for breakfast.

This is a Junco and the top picture is a White Crowned Sparrow.

Time to get outside and get some work done ourselves.

Safe travels everyone.

MORE FRUIT

Just finished reading The China Study and learned how damaging our "western" diet is to our health.

So off to the grocery store to load up on fruit and vegetables only to be disappointed in the strawberries when I got them home. These berries don't look bad but the one in the foreground was half white when first placed on the counter. How do they do that? So lovely and red in the container, pure white on the side you can't see. Looks like it was spray painted.

A few days in the sun and the white disappeared, no idea if the nutrient level changed. Anyway I added them to my smoothie this morning and now I'm ready to build fences. Yes, we need a fence around our fruit trees.

Enjoy your day and eat to be healthy.

JOB DONE

This morning we finished the "deer cage" It was wrapped completely in deer netting and Mary is placing rocks around the perimeter. Now we will watch and see if it works.

Lots of natural light can get in and the pots will be easy to water through the netting. I know Mary will have more plants to include in a few weeks.

Too much sun on new plants isn't wise so a simple sun shade was added before we had lunch. This will be improved once we figure out an easy way to attach and remove the fabric.

Now it's time to enjoy the view and see if any squirrels penetrate the enclosure. If that happens I may need to buy a gun.

Safe travels everyone and thanks for stopping by.

Up-date

We have a solution!

Found our sun shade canopy in our trailer and decided it would be a perfect solution. Sufficient shade and if it rains the plants get watered. 

TIME FOR A CAGE

Mary wants to relocate her potted trees to the outdoors. Of course our local hungry deer are searching for edible green matter these days and a leafy green tree would be like candy to them. Time for a cage.

No need to visit the lumberyard when we have a forest right outside our door.

The structure is basic and easy to assemble with a few screws. 

Tomorrow we will cover it with "deer netting" and it will be ready for the plants. Total cost "$0", time spent 3 hours with a number of phone calls during construction.

Looking around I can see where Mary could use a few more of these in her garden; another project for another day.

Thanks for stopping by and safe travels everyone.

ALMOND COOKIES

We are trying to eat healthy these days and it is a challenge to satisfy my sweet cravings and not over-consume the sugars.

Today we baked Almond Cookies.

First we took the almonds and placed them in the blender, where we turned them into "almond butter"

This became the main ingredient in our cookies. No flour, a little brown sugar, 1 egg, chocolate chips and the almond butter.

You bake them for 9 minutes at 350*F and they taste delicious.

The first batch was rather thin so Mary added some spelt flour and we are waiting for them to come out of the oven.

They're out a little fluffier and now we have to wait until they cool down before trying one.

I'll let you know how they taste after we get back from our walk.

DELICIOUS!!