ducky house

summer summary

Hello there, it's been awhile hasn't it? I mean - July to November - now that's just way too long for an update! So what on earth could have taken me away from this space all this time?? Life. I've embraced it and I've been busy in the thick of it, much like many of you I suppose (& to those that are able to keep up blogging along the way kudos to you).

As for me, my mojo for internet ramblings have up and left me right now, as have my crafty endeavors. I'm not fretting too much as I know things are cyclical. Overall I think I am more distressed that my craftyness is on the fritz as it is usually a huge energy booster for me. And couldn't we all use an extra boost of energy in our days? 

But lets not focus on that, I'm here today and I have a wee bit o' an update for ya. Our happenings were normal fodder for a family of 6 during the summer: 

~ bike riding continued on through the whole summer as a family 

~ and sometimes friends joined us

~ had a fight with the white cabbage butterfly and made decoys...

~ and bug juice - more likely salad dressing because I lost the fight and have no garden kale to speak of :( 

~ saw the local sights

~ hung out together at the pool

~ and by the fire

~ we baked apples

~ and then we baked  in the late summer heat

~ harvested vegetables and savoured their lovely taste and wished that the garden was bigger and the growing season was longer

So there we have it, all caught up with July & August for the most part. Watch for September's highlights, I promise it won't take 4 more months, lol.

cantaloupe??

Accidental gardening has to be one of the best surprises of life. We do a fair amount of composting in our home, our kitchen waste includes fruit & veggies skins & seeds, as well a few other non-meat items - don't want rats ya know. 

Back in early September I was working in my tomato garden and noticed a crazy vine growing out of my compost bin. It looked very similar to a cucumber and since my cukes did nothing this year I thought "great!" As it continued to grow it flowered an amazing amount of blooms which then turned into a small round green ball of sorts. At this point it was losing it's similarity to the cucumber and my intrigue was greatly increasing. I sent the message out to the grass cutters of the home "beware and do not cut near the vine...", everyone got on board and we watched this plant grow.  

I kind of forgot about the crazy vine, until last week when my attention was turned back to the yard, as things are getting a bit cool here. I checked to see what had become of the little green balls when I realized woah! the little green balls were now quite big and were... 

...cantaloupes!

Now, it is really late for anything to be growing in these parts and even during the heat of summer our zone is not known for it's cantaloupes, but hey if mother nature is handing it out, I'll take it.

Now that the cool weather is upon us, I have at least one homegrown cantaloupe ripening in my kitchen. I sure hope it tastes good!  

happy be-lated fall & halloween

Ready for a little show and tell? I finally sat down at my computer for an extended camera dump & edit of photos.  My main motivation was the rumor that snow is threatening (dismal looking clouds in the sky) which makes taking exterior photos of green things & gardens difficult.  

Smarter girls would have snapped shots of the house during the beautiful warm months when the flowers & trees were in their prime. But I've been too busy fixing things to be smart. 

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I mentioned here that we were doing a little updating on the outside of the house. You know: scraping, painting, building, gardening, etc.   Yeah, there was a whole lot of all the aforementioned.  

The original exterior was in pretty bad cosmetic shape.  The paint was chipping and peeling not to mention an undesirable shade of sticky-note yellow.  There were rotting boards and pillars in need of replacing and the front garden was disastrously placed with dead foliage, heaps of decorative rocks mixed with weeds and grass overgrowth.   

Knowing all that needed to be done, we set about the task: we scraped & sanded, patched & primed, built & painted, dug up and re-built our way to a new digs, complete with new fixtures, decor & my obsessive need for a burnt orange front door! Our original plan was to tackle the outside of the house a few more years down the road but things weren't going to last that long.

Side note: One of our goals working on our 30+ yr. old home has been to provide it with some character (read: cozy) using colour & landscaping, to soften the linear lines & draw ones eyes away from the front load garage - something I'm hoping we have achieved. (And yes, I realized the roof has to go...but that will have to wait a bit longer).  

From old:

{photo retrieved from realtor's website}

to new:

yes, much cozier. Ready for your visit...come on by. 

stuck

continued...

they are suspended in time 

we are hoping for a miracle

waiting...together

hungry

Contrary to a recent post certain caterpillars are always welcome. 

When you plant milkweed you should fully expect a battery of these ferocious looking guys to appear.  After my war with the cabbage butterfly - they won by the way, cabbage and broccoli never did make it to our table - I wasn't sure how I'd feel about seeing any more hungry little creatures.  But planting just because is very different than planting for food and so... 

The milkweed came from our last home, planted to attract the elusive monarch butterfly, it is where she loves to lay her eggs.  The first two summers at this home the milkweed wasn't very happy and didn't do too much in the way of growth.  This year we moved the plant to a warmer side of the house and *bam* it flourished.  I am reminded yet again that gardening is very experimental.  

Since these photos were taken the caterpillars have eaten up my milkweed plant entirely and have crawled off to various locations to take a most beautiful nap.  We check on them daily to see what changes are taking place and with fingers crossed (& a little prayer) we hope to see the glorious unveiling. To be continued...

c-r-a-z-y

Miss me?  It’s been quite awhile hasn’t it?  I didn’t plan on being away quite so long, I’m actually quite shocked myself - have I really been away for the past three months?  And how do I catch you up on what I’ve been up to?  First off, I am well and the family is doing fine.  Secondly, let’s dispel all rumours, I am not quitting blogging, contrary to my actions.  Thirdly, here's skinny on what we've been up to:  (all photos are scenes from our summer)

In April I hurt myself really bad, remember? - the shoulder, the neck and then there was a non-stop buzzing in my ear (aka tinnitus)...it was bad, really bad - did I say that already?  In May things weren't feeling so hot (hence my departure from blog land) so I made a visit to the doctor who couldn't find a problem - umm yeah, this is not just in my head. Onto the chiropractor and massage therapist who provided me with some temporary muscle relief, but the ache/buzzing came back with a vengeance. Finally out of desperation I visited a chinese doctor specializing in acupuncture.  After two sessions resembling a fight with a porcupine, the pain lifted and so did the terrible buzzing. Yay for alternative medicine! Nothing like that whole experience to make you feel c-r-a-z-y.  

Then June happened and so did the rain. It rained and rained and rained and in between the drops, the hubby and I decided to tackle the outside of our house.  We patched, re-built and painted our way to a snazzy looking homestead.  What's a little spontaneous renovation when you already have a reno list as long as Santa’ beard... c-r-a-z-y right?

June also brought on garden season. When it was dry enough I seeded, things grew and then a war started with the cutest rabbit.  It’s was like Looney Tunes all over again.  I’d fence, he’d jump over, I’d cover the fence with netting and he’s chew threw the fence.  Finally I enlisted the help of the mr. duckyhouse and he rigged up the 4 foot deer/critter fence and bugs bunny moved on to greener easier pastures.  
c-r-a-z-y   - are you sensing a common theme here?

July followed and we continued working on the outside of the house during (our) holiday time - do we know how to relax or what? We also visited with the grandparents who came to visit - it was nice to see you mom & dad..miss you!  A family wedding and more visits with family/friends, including and impromptu visit from my sister (& her family) who literally stopped in town for a few days. fun, fun, c-r-a-z-y fun!

Now here we are in August and it’s raining again.  The kids are in swimming lessons every day, all month.  The hubby and I are still working on the homestead, putting the finished touches on the front gardens that we re-designed. We are also trying to shorten that reno list *sigh*  I am spending most of my days outside when it isn’t raining making sure the girls, who are water bugs, remain safe in our little pool.  I’m pretty sure this is where I will remain until the end of pool season, there and in the garden making war with the white butterflies that are laying eggs/caterpillars on my cabbage and broccoli.  
*argh* and c-r-a-z-y

September will be here pretty soon and so to I shall return.  Though I’m pretty sure I may push it off until closer to the end of September. Until then, happy end of summer. See you soon and may you too have a little bit of c-r-a-z-y in your life, xxx.

PS, It's also my birthday today and having recently watched Benjamin Button I've decided that the being in my early 40's, ahem, is a good time to start going backwards. So I am 40 again, just like I was back then.  sounds c-r-a-z-y but I like it!

the harvest

There was frost the other night, there had to be.  Nothing else could send me out the doors, even before I had my morning coffee, to check on the veggies that didn't get harvested yet.  There were a lot of wilted leaves but thankfully the few cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and green onions that we had left were fine.  But the real winner of the harvest came from a last minute planting that we did, a simple root vegetable. 

Back in early June on planting day, I was taking a lunch break in the kitchen and noticed our bag of organic red potatoes had sprouted.  In a moment of spontaneity I decided that I would just plant the potatoes since they were already seeding.   I know it's not protocol, I probably should have gone to the local nursery and picked up a proper box of seed potatoes and do it the way the regular folk do it.  But in my thinking, potatoes were not on my list of things to grow this year and here I had a bag of potatoes that would have otherwise ended up in the compost pile, why not use them instead of going to waste?  Determined to plant the potatoes, I set out for some information through the scholarly google.  I found this on videojug, it seemed straight forward enough: dig a trench, put the whole potatoe in the ground about 15 cm (6 inches) deep, eyes up, cover with soil and let them grow.  That was 3+ months ago. 

Yesteday while harvesting the vegetables, we noticed a few potatoes peaking out on the surface.  A quick dig revealed that there wasn't just a few but a whole harvest of large delightful red potatoes.  We filled not one but two bowls, definitely more than 20 lbs...who would have thought?   And since they originated from organic potatoes I can happily say they are organic. Not too bad for this unplanned potato planter.  You can guess what we will planting again next year, the crop that stole my heart.   

sustainable

He rocked my world back in May when he decided that he was going to put a garden in.  After the past year of renovations, I didn't even think that would be a priority on our list of things to do, in my mind eveyone should be in their respective bedrooms before you begin working on the outside. 

But he had a different idea.  He wanted to start our life in this house the right way and that meant a vegetable garden.  So he muscled up that day and built me three 4 x 12 foot gardens, which in his plan will be the first of many.  That he even wanted to build it meant he stole my heart, but then he went on and used those "love" words like: "plan" and "sustainability".  He just keeps giving me more and more reasons to love him. 

The planting was a family affair with the kids, my mum and I planting seeds and starter plants; being hopeful in the process that the seeds would do their part.  Each week the kids checked faithfully for growth and gave me the report.  A flower here and a flower there meant veggies were coming soon.    It was a slow start but to our surprise and delight we found some real growth happening.  I say surprise because truthfully it wasn't a great growing season in these parts.  Our spring & summer were extremely late and filled with unseasonably cool, wet days. That kind of weather makes vegetable gardening a real challenge. 

Finally this week it was time to harvest a few of our growing goodies and give them a try.  We started with our largest cucumber, a bright red pepper and tomato.  They were cut up for lunch and added to a plate of poached eggs - fresh from the farm, thank you mum - and organic carrots from the market (the rabbit ate our garden carrots and broccoli - note to self: put fencing around garden next year) . 

The chatter around the table was something along the lines of how much better the vegetables tasted from our own garden.  It was sustainability at it's finest.

I am just thrilled that they were excited about eating vegetables!  

not so ugly

When we first moved to this house there were two trees on the property that I really wanted to remove.  The trees were rather ugly and I was having a really difficult time imagining anything good about them.  It didn't help that they were terribly overgrown and neglected.  They weren't alone, it seems most of the trees and shrubs on the property were.

But being a third time homeowner and new to the property we like to wait a bit to see how the vegetation will transform itself during the first year or so.  Surprisingly enough our "ugly" trees have turned themselves into something completely gorgeous making the case for removal a moot point.  Umm, it sure wasn't flowering when we moved in. 

I think I'll just have to deal with the ill-placed trees in favor of gorgeous pink blossoms and bring in an arborist to help me cut this baby back.  The tree looks like a malus variety (ornamental crabapple).  Do you have any ideas?  Remember your guess has to be within garden zone 3, for hardy vegetation. 

the photo journal continues...

These are my "outdoor children".  They don't mind staying outside and they never complain about it being too dark at night.  They are always ready to give a helpful hand and hold a watering can or two.


I was finally able to put in a couple of new gardens at the front of our home.  I've only been waiting for a few years now and it was worth the wait.  Things are pretty small now, but it won't always be that way, growth happens so quickly be it plants or children.   It's a perennial paradise and my ds is hopeful that more butterflies will find comfort in our yard.   

Things are steadily growing in the backyard too.  Most days when you enter my backyard, it looks like a toy store exploded there.  But I did reserve this one little section for the grownups where you can admire the clematis vines along with other perennial favorites.




Take time to smell the roses and have a lovely weekend.  I'll be back with more photos soon.