Monday, July 25, 2016

Greenery Everywhere

I have had a lot of plant miners, fungus, other bugs and plant diseases to try to control. Plus a lot of produce starting out and dying off (any tips on that would be helpful!), but other than that, I would say things are going swell.

I think cabbage is pretty. These will be turned into cabbage salad and sauerkraut.

In this jungle of leaves we have cucumbers (pickling and regular), crookneck squash, acorn squash, spaghetti squash and zucchini. I have yet to get any acorn squash, and I have only two spaghetti squashes growing.

Beets!! I did not plant beets for me, I think they taste like dirt. I have a coworker who wanted some pickled beets and a husband who likes to eat borsch, which requires beets. Also on the right are peppers, hot and bell.

These mass of greenery is the tomato patch. You can see one ripe one on the bottom right! I also have two basil plants hidden in here that I need to make into pesto. The tomatoes will be canned whole or made into salsa, lots and lots of salsa.

I am trying to grow more herbs in our yard. This is a sage plant, which is doing quite well!

Oregano, which hasn't grown much from what you see in the picture.

Dead cilantro...but my coworker happily gave me another start so we will see if it makes it!

I have oodles of chives! These grow really nicely here.

In there I have two starts of flat leaf parsley, which has yet to become bushy enough for me to use it and rosemary. I think rosemary is one of my all time favorite herbs.

Summer

There is much to post about!

Over Father's Day weekend we hopped in the car and drove to Northern Idaho. We had heard how beautiful Couer d'Alene was and had to check it out. My parents came along for the ride.


My Aunt (my Dad's sister) lives in Spokane, and I had asked if we could meet up for dinner. I told her I would be bringing two friends to dinner with me, she didn't know my parents were coming. She was surprised to see my parents, and thought it was funny I had referred to them as my friends. 
My parents are always fun to have around.


Lake Couer d'Alene is gorgeous!!! It is so beautiful up there!


We drove up to Sandpoint and saw Lake Pend Oreille, also amazing to see! Which is one of the deepest lakes in the United States at 1,158 feet, that is scary deep!

Every other year we try to stay home for the 4th of July. This year was the year to be home. My parents and my sister in-law and niece came up to spend the holiday with us. 
We went to the zoo, ate a lot of Reed's Dairy ice cream, did arts and crafts, napped, ate wonderful food, watched fireworks, played games and saw hot air balloons take off in Driggs. 
Sadly the only thing I got pictures of was the hot air balloons, I have gotten bad about pulling out the camera to document things.


Dad and I arose at 4 A.M. to get to Driggs by 6 A.M. 
We got there just in time to see the first one get blown up.

There were several of them!

I loved how this picure turned out. You can barely see the Tetons over one of the balloons on the right.

They are fasinating to watch in the sky.

Too bad I am afraid of heights, or I would like to ride in one of these.

This is how Cosmo has spent his summer days.
Lucky dog.

We have also made several trips down to Utah for family activites, family reunions, bridal showers, birthday celebrations. After the family reunion, we got to spend time at the Dude's family cabin with his parents and siblings. 
We have been keeping busy this summer!