July Garden Tour

 July has come and gone.  

In one way, 2020 is slowly moving along, corona virus, could please go away, you have been here long enough. 

In another way it is zipping along, harvesting cucumber, tomatoes, green beans, peppers and making flower bouquets and all the while I am starting to notice late summer is arriving here in Wisconsin.

When I am in my garden the season goes so quickly.

Here we go, let us take a July garden tour.

Hot July brings picnic joys, firecrackers for girls and boys.

Tasha Tudor

In the garden, July brings garden goodness.

A soon to be white pumpkin is growing big and round.

 

Nasturtiums.. yum.. yum.

 

 

Some of my succulents.

 

A stroll among the flowers.

 

Our gladiolus are now, starting to bloom.

 

Hops

I add hops to my bouquets, they are fun to share with people.

They are fun to touch and bring out conversation.

That is one thing I miss during this time of corona, is taking my bouquets to nursing homes and to Daybreak. The power flower bouquets have on people is incredible, especially memory.

 

Below is a photo of our tomato and pepper patch.  

I can not believe the change a few weeks can do, we have red tomatoes and peppers today.

 

 

The onion patch.

 I harvested the onions yesterday. 

I  will share more in a future blog post about our onion harvest.

 

 

I decided to do a Red, White and Blue theme on our front deck, in honor of all that our troops are doing for our nation this year regarding the virus and more.

 I am so pleased with the way the petunias filled out and did just as I wanted them to do. 

 

 

And a little stroll around the back of the garden.

 

Thank you for strolling along with me in my July garden.

♥

In August swallows southward fly, summers waning, fall is nigh.

Tasha Tudor 

Happy Halloween

 Pumpkin carving is a favorite Halloween tradition, but where did it come from?

The legend of the Jack O' Lantern stems from many stores in Irish history of a miserable,old drunk named Stingy Jack. He liked to play tricks on everyone!

 On All Hallow's Eve, the Irish hollowed out turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes and beets. They put lights in them to ward off evil spirits and keep Stingy Jack away.

After the Irish came to America in the 1800's, they discovered pumpkins and found they were bigger and easier to carve, thus the birth of the modern-day Jack O' Lantern.

Source: www.pumpkinnook.com

Trick or Treat!

Boo to You and Black Cat Cookies

Hello,

Here are a few fun ideas to help make Halloween special.

 Last night, the boys received a Halloween basket full of treats from a friend. Inside she had candy, a pencil, an apple and this fun witches hat.

 All made out of paper, with Hershey kisses inside.

 Here is a photo of the back side of the hat.

 Today, we made Black Cat Cookies.

Black Cat Cookies

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter

3 eggs

1 tablespoon of vanilla

3 cups of flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Candy corn

Red cinnamon candies

Combine sugar and butter in large bowl; beat at medium speed until well mixed. Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla; beat until well mixed.

Combine all remaining ingredients except candies in medium bowl. Reduce speed to low, add flour mixture to butter mixture. Beat until well mixed.

Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a ball flatten to 1/2 inch. Wrap each half in plastic food wrap. Refrigerate until firm (at least 2 hours).

Heat oven to 350 ° Roll out dough on lightly floured surface, one - half at a time, to a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with 3 inch round cookie cutters.

Place on to ungreased cookie sheets.

Using fingers, pinch up ears at top of each circle.

Place 2 pieces candy corn onto cookies for eyes and 1 red cinnamon candy for nose. Press tines of for on each side of cookie below eyes to form whiskers.

Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are set. Let cool 1 minute on cookie sheet, remove to cool.

 

 Mewo!

Trick or Treat!

On the Road Friday - Wisconsin Cranberries

Today we are taking a trip to watch a Cranberry Harvest.

Last weekend we had the opportunity to watch how cranberries are harvested. Amazing! We appreciate being able to show our boys the hard work that goes into having  our food on the shelf of a grocery store. Great folks working hard. And the outcome...good stuff for all of us.

So off we go!

 Some of you may not know that cranberries do not grow in water. And you are asking "Then why do we see them in water?"

 Check out my earlier posts that give you all the fun facts about Wisconsin Cranberries. You will find a wonderful recipe too.

Wisconsin Cranberries part 1

Wisconsin Cranberries part 2

Wisconsin Cranberries part 3

 Now you know all about cranberries. :-) 

I find it so cool that they float.

 Harvesting cranberries on a cool and misty day. We visited Copper River Cranberry Company, located in Merrill, Wisconsin.

 Cranberries being harvested and dumped into the truck. The truck will head to the Ocean Spray plant. The truck will be weighed. I wonder how many pounds of cranberries we see?

 Preparing the next cranberry bed for harvest.

 Beautiful Cranberries.

Did you know, I can eat them fresh. I just pop them into my mouth. Actually, everyone in our family can. Yummy.

 Pushing the berries into the harvesting ring.

 This bed is all ready to be harvested. The truck will come and they will begin to suck the berries up. A sepearator will place the berries in the semi trailer and the leaves, stems and other junk into the dump truck. 

We enjoyed learning more about how and where our food comes from. How about you? Have you ever visited a farm or watched a crop be harvested?

I would like to visit all the farms and meet the folks who farm. My top three crops that I would like to see are pineapple, cotton and coffee.

Hope you enjoyed today. And the next time you are in the grocery store, you can say "Yay, I know just how cranberries are grown and harvested."

Thank You Farmers!!

Have a great weekend.

Happy Harvest or Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween

Studio206 has a fun collection of Autumn cards. Perfect to send Happy Harvest or Happy Halloween wishes. Here are a few fun ways to wish your loved one a Happy Halloween!

Halloween is always filled with magical delights. So enjoy all the fun, and have a spooky, good night.

 Hope your Halloween is frightful, delightful...a night full of fun.

 Scare up some fun!

Trick or Treat!

Table Decorations

Each Thanksgiving I make the table decorations. Several years ago I made name tags. My mom liked them so much she continues to use them year after year. Earlier this month I shared my plan to make bags of  Pretzel Pumpkins. I also made Indian Corn Poppers. What are Indian Corn Poppers? Well, you use a paper towel roll or toilet paper roll and fill it with treats. I used Kit Kat bars, stickers and added a question. We have a fun game called Family Dinner Table Topics. I had Sam and Atticus look for some fun questions to put into the poppers. Here is an example of some of the fun questions. Which wild animal would you like to tame and keep as a pet?  If you lived during the Gold Rush would you have journeyed West to strike it rich? If you could speak another language which would you choose?

Putting it all together. Our bag of pumpkin pretzels  and our Indian Corn Popper.

Once we sit down and say our Thanksgiving prayer we open our poppers. Each year I put something new in for a prize and we put some fun fact, question or trivia inside for each family member to read out loud. We are excited to see what our family thinks of our Thanksgiving Poppers this year.

Light the way

Glow stick Lanterns

 These glow stick lanterns were fun to make ... but I will warn you. We had one break, while shaking the glow stick. So be careful or be ready for a mess.

For this project you will need

 Canning jars with lids

Glow sticks

Sharp scissors 

What to do

 Use a pair of sharp scissors to cut off the end of a glow stick and pour the contents of the glow stick into the canning jar. It works best to have the stick down in the jar when you cut it so you won't get the liquid everywhere. We bought glow sticks in several different colors and poured two glow sticks into each jar.

If you have never seen the inside of a glow stick before, there are small pieces of glass floating around in the glowing liquid. Just dump in the jar, put the lid on and let your child roll the stuff around. The liquid will coat the  inside of  the jar.

After you are done, you can rinse out your jar and use again.

Add your jars for tonight...as you light the way for Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween

  You are  like a pumpkin, too!

Jesus picks you, washes you;

Takes away the slime of sin,

Lets his light of love shine in.

Now you smile with Jesus' light,

Helping make the world more bright!

Light the Way!    

Hunter Moon

Hunter Moon will rise tonight...grab a friend and watch it rise and do not forget to make a wish. Maybe steal a kiss?

Happy Harvest

Still time to wish a friend a Happy Halloween

Just in case you got busy. I wanted to remind you, Halloween is just around the cornor. Do not worry...order today! A fun, unique card from Studio 206!

Happy Halloween

Trick or Treat! Smell my feet,  give me something good to eat!

 

Happy Monday!

Serving others .... it makes ya feel good!

We recently had the opportunity to join in to serve one of our local nursing homes. 

We made a scarecrow family, eating thanksgiving dinner for the residents to enjoy.

We are receiving help getting our pumpkin ready to decorate. We got to make a boy. Yay!

A key for a nose...beads for a smile...straw for hair.

Putting this boy together.

Good, his head fits.

The gang is all here! Some heads are still on the table...looking for bodies!

All heads are on...now we will decorate the table. One of the young ladies made a turkey out of duct tape. It was amazing! I wish I would have gotten a photo of it. She even put season salt on it to look freshly pulled from the oven.

We enjoyed our afternoon. The best part was the wonderful comments we received from the staff at the nursing home.

Success is not built on what we accomplish for ourselves. Its foundation lies in what we do for others. 

Danny Thomas