The Tomato Taj Mahal...

Here is my new Tomato Taj Mahal.  I love it.  This weekend I finished the patio and most of the retaining wall on the right.  This one is much taller and the bench is along the side instead of at the back.  The bench will be great next year because I grow most of my peppers in wash tubs.  I think I will even have room to grow some tomatoes in tubs.  Here in the hills it is almost impossible to grow tomatoes and peppers without a greenhouse.  The season is too short and it never gets super hot.  Below is the bench with my tubs and little garden potting bench kit.  I was pretty worried about transplanting my tomatoes from the tubs to the ground of the greenhouse.  Turns out they did great and didn't miss a beat.  

My chamomile has been blooming like crazy.  It is contained in a water tank.  If you aren't careful it will take over the garden.  I use the flowers for tea, an amazing hair detangler, and facial toner.  Because it is so plentiful I am going to try making a wine with it.  It will be an interesting endeavor.  Who would have thought dandelions would make a good wine?  It never hurts to try.  The rest of my outdoor vegetable beds are making progress.  My first round of sweet corn is knee high by the Fourth of July.  The green beans are also doing fabulous.   

My roses are doing great.  One of my favorite quotes is by Richard Sheridan, "Won't you come into my garden?  I want my roses to see you."

                                                For the first time ever my poppies are plentiful.

The butterfly bed is beautiful.  It has been too dry to use the fire pit.  With the tomatoes in transplanted in the greenhouse, the tub was open for a different use.  Leftover flowers are on sale and it was easy to find some to make a mobile hummingbird heaven. 

If you have a smoker this is the perfect summer recipe:  Smoked S'mores Ice Cream

2 cups of milk

2 cups of cream

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 Tablespoon of vanilla

1/4 teaspoon of salt

Mix well in an oven proof bowl.  Put the bowl in the smoker.  Spread 1 jar of marshmallow cream on an aluminum pan place it in the smoker.  Place 1/2 bag of chocolate chips in an oven proof pan and in the smoker.  While everything is smoking, crush one sleeve of graham crackers.  Smoke the ice cream mix, marshmallow cream, and chocolate at 150 degrees.  After an hour remove the ice cream mix and put it in the ice cream maker.  Let it do its thing.  Leave the chocolate and marshmallow cream in the smoker at 150 degrees until the ice cream is done.  Swirl in the chocolate, marshmallow cream, and graham crackers.  Freeze over night.  Then enjoy.

Do you make homemade ice cream?  Are the fireflies out where you are?  I've been watching them every night.  I hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July.  

Bees, greenhouses, romantic drives, and tracks...

 It has been a busy week.  We worked on our new greenhouse, went on a romantic drive, and of course enjoyed the flowers.  The flowers are blooming like crazy.  This makes it hard for me to focus.  My husband will look up and I'm wandering around the yard taking photos.  Chasing down some bug, butterfly, or in this case a monstrous bumblebee.  It has been a wonderful summer.  We were getting pretty dry, but tonight we got an inch of rain. 

 We have been super busy on the weekends building a new greenhouse.  Since my sweet husband is now retired, he has also spent most of his weekdays putting together the greenhouse. The old one was a trooper, until the big hail storm two years ago did enough damage to begin it's demise.  I got a little misty eyed taking it down, but the new one is much bigger and taller.  It took two weekends to get it put together.   My husband did most of the work.  We got the roof on this afternoon.  Just in time for a big storm.  The roof didn't blow off and it didn't leak.  I was happy to transplant my tomatoes and cucumbers into the ground.  Hopefully it isn't too late.  The tomatoes were pretty good sized.   We still need to put on the door and set up the fan.

 My husband took me on a romantic drive Friday night.  We took our little Roxar and drove way up behind Deadwood.  In the photo to the left you can see the Lead Homestake mine tower at the top and Deadwood at the bottom.  The photo below looks back at the road we took to the top.  It was amazing how well sound travels.  You could actually hear people talking down on Main Street.  It was a great adventure and nice to get out.  I have lived here twenty 28 years and always wanted to go up to White Rocks.  I am so happy to mark that off my bucket list.  

We've heard a female mountain lion calling at night.  Today when I took Ella for her Sunday walk I saw it's tracks in a mud hole.  You can tell they are lion tracks because there are no claw marks.  Only cats can retract their claws.  It isn't a very large cat.  On a less serious note, because we have been working on the greenhouse in the garage we haven't been able to shut the garage door.  In the dust a few mornings ago I saw the cutest set of tracks.  Our pine martin is still around, because he took a tour of our Jeeps.  He was in and out of everything.  I'm glad he is around, because our squirrel population has been diminished.  

That was our week in as much of a nutshell as I could put it in.  It is good to keep busy, but not so busy that you don't enjoy the beauty around you.  The fireflies were out last night.  They are not out for very long here.  I hope your week has been as productive.  Did you make anything?  Did you go anywhere?  Have a great week.

Dandelions and rhubarb...

My orchard is full of dandelions.  To most people that would be a horror to hear, but for me I am pleased.  I have come to love my dandelion wine.  The more dandelions the more wine.  Also they bring in so many pollinators, which assures that my berries will come to fruition.  There is something to be said for a 'bee loud glade.'  I know the hum makes me think of the golden and delicious honey the bee keeper shares with me.  He informed me that my bees not only made it through the winter, but are flourishing.  He has divided the hives twice now.  He is not a commercial keeper, just a hobbyist.  I sure enjoy having the hives on our property, not just for the honey, but also because they keep my berries plentiful.  The bumblebees have also done well this year.

Sitting on the porch watching them landing and launching off of flowers is a most enjoyable way to pass the time.

Not only are there berries, dandelions, and bees in the orchard this year.  My husband began his great pumpkin project.  He dug up three hills and we planted three different types of pumpkin.  Connecticut Field, Big Max, Dills Atlantic Giant.  We put three pumpkins per hill and will later cull out the weak ones if need be.  It should be an interesting experiment.  Meanwhile, I re-planted my squash, watermelon, melons, and zucchini.  I also added okra, artichoke, basil of every kind, and cucumbers to my many greenhouse pots.  At some point we are re-doing the greenhouse, so I have been trying not to plant anything to permanently.  How much longer the little buggers can hold out is the big question.

Besides a plethora of dandelions, I have a ton of rhubarb.  I was happy to chop it up for wine, syrup, jelly, muffins, and cake.  I saw on Pinterest that someone used the leaves as a mulch.  I figured I would give it a try.  I had to put jars over my melons and such to keep the voles at bay.  In the black tub are beautiful broccoli.  I'm very excited about how wonderfully they are progressing.  The blank space is where my beans are planted.  Hopefully, now that the slug population is in check I will actually see some beans.  I just want to say Sluggo is AMAZING! The slug population went from everything had those squirmy suckers under them to I've seen one all spring.  Yahoo.  One garden pest down several more to go.

I have one more gardening project.  The voles have been eating my strawberries down to nothing this spring.  I wanted to move them anyway, because my rhubarb has taken over their bed.  Well, I asked our prairie property neighbor (who raises sheep) if he had an old sheep water tank that no longer held water.  I asked if I could buy one and he looked at me like I was crazy.  Obviously he isn't a gardener.  He gave it to me for free.  The bottom is completely rusted out, but it suits my purpose just fine.  I filled it with last year's compost on the bottom and compost from 3 years ago on the top.  Then I plopped my strawberries in.  You cannot believe how quickly they have recovered.  They love it.  Already they are growing new leaves.  Maybe I'll even get a few strawberries this year.  The voles have yet to find them.  I think they will have a difficult time getting up the sides.  I put a net over the top, because deer also find strawberry leaves lovely.  This project could be successful:  Vole proof, check; net to keep out deer, check; and no slugs, check.  I will keep you updated as to what new garden pest enjoys strawberries.

That is all for this week.  Next weekend could be quiet on the blogging front, as I plan on grabbing 3/5th of my nieces and nephew for the week.  Due to some complications, they are coming out sooner this year and because of that the older ones are not able to visit.  I remain hopeful that after rodeo season is over they will be able to slip out for a weekend.  

I hope you are all enjoying your gardening season.  What pests do you battle during the year.  Has it changed?  Are there things you managed to tame?  If so what were they and how did you do it?  I hope you all have a fabulous week.

Wood shop, pizza, and winter trees...

Our winter barn project is done.   We painted and installed the salvaged cupboards.  We used chalkboard paint for the middle one, so my husband can keep project notes. The bench below was built by his father.  The walls are lumber from various projects and we added a wood stove for heat.  Altogether, it turned out pretty cozy.   It is good to have that project done.

 I love Pinterest.  This weekend I tried Mexican Chorizo White Pizza with a beer crust.  Overall, pretty good.
Crust:
2 c. Flour
1 t. Active dry yeast
1/2 t. Baking powder
1/2 t. Salt
1 T. Olive oil
6 oz. Dark beer
Mix dry ingredients and add olive oil and warm beer.  Knead 7-10 minutes and let rise for 1 1/2 hours.

White Sauce:
2 T. Butter
2 T. Flour
1 1/2 c. Milk at room temperature
1 t. Garlic powder
1/2 t. White pepper (I used normal pepper)
Pinch of nutmeg
1/3 c. Parmesan cheese
1/2 c. Cheddar
Melt butter in a saucepan and whisk in flour.  Cook 2 minutes then whisk in milk.  Stir in garlic, pepper, and nutmeg. Cook, stirring often, until sauce becomes thick.  Then remove from heat and stir in cheeses.  Stir until the cheese melts.

When dough is ready knead for a few seconds.  Preheat oven to 475 degrees.  Drizzle a little olive oil on a baking sheet or pizza stone.  Sprinkle with cornmeal. Place doughball in the center and push to edges of the pan.  Brush with olive oil, cover with white sauce, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and oregano.  Add taco meat (The recipe calls for chorizo, but we didn't like it much.) or sausage, black olives, pepper, mozzarela, cheddar, and Parmesan cheeses.  Yumm.  I made changes to the actual recipe.  It can be found here: pinaenlacocina.com

All this talk of social distancing is intriguing to me.  My husband and I are professional social distancers.  I normally get groceries once a week and sometimes every two weeks.  The pantry is always stocked and our freezer is full of deer meat.  We don't go out to eat very often and take few shopping trips.  During this time my biggest concern is for our families and friends.  I hope everyone is being safe and taking care of themselves.  

Life is fabulous...

There is nothing we appreciate more than Sunday dinner.  We both work together to make a nice meal.  My husband does an amazing job with our smoker/grill.  I'm usually in charge of the side dishes and sometimes homemade bread.  Today I made some fried potatoes and my favorite rosemary and sea salt flat bread.  We finished everything off enjoying a white cake with raspberry filling that my

husband made. Even better with a glass of homemade raspberry wine.  Little things like this make life good.   

Overall, it was a good weekend.  I finished the feathers on my quilt.  They all turned out great, except the last one.  It fought me the whole way.  I'm still debating whether to rip part of it out and fix it.  Ella and I enjoyed the sunshine today and went snowshoeing.  I entered several recipes in the family cookbook.  Somewhere in that the house got cleaned.

We are supposed to get a blizzard tonight, so one must enjoy good weather when possible.  The photo below was last night's sunset.   Breathtaking.  I've really enjoyed reading about everyone's winter projects.  I'm so impressed with all the different talents people have.  Here is hoping you have a fabulous week.