Category Archives: Country Life

What To Do With Serviceberries?

Cooking, Country Life, , ,

This afternoon was baking time. Pie and bread.

I picked serviceberries over the past few days, saving them until I had enough to make a pie. Well, the birds were faster than me. I fell short on the amount of berries I needed so had to round it out with a few blueberries. I also made it a fruit and custard pie. It was delicious nonetheless. I made a butter crust.

I also baked bread. I wanted to make tuna melts and didn’t have enough bread. And the oven was already warm. I only have one full size loaf pan, so made the rest as mini loaves. These are perfect for making garlic toast or having with butter and jelly.

Oh, and I also weeded the snow peas this morning, and drove the tractor this afternoon to help with bringing down an old mulberry tree. Hubby did all the heavy lifting and skilled work. All in a day’s work around here.

Day of the Skunk

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, ,

This morning got off to an exciting start. Way too exciting.

We have many chipmunks and squirrels around here. They live in various inappropriate places and get in our vegetable garden and flower gardens and eat our plants. So hubby set two live traps last evening. The smaller one on the front porch caught a mouse. He now lives on a nearby, remote, wooded roadside.

The larger trap turned out to be more problematic. We trapped a young skunk. I don’t think an adult skunk would fit, but this youngster did. He was probably an adolescent, judging by his size. Much discussion about what to do ensued. We opted not to relocate him because we didn’t want either of our vehicles to smell like skunk. We nixed a few other ideas and finally decided to just release him.

So how do you release a skunk from a live trap? We retreated to the house and googled it. First, put on old clothes that you won’t mind throwing away. Just in case. Turns out you very slowly approach the trap with a garbage bag or towel to cover the trap. This provides a bit of a barrier and the skunk can’t see you as well. Apparently, skunks have poor eyesight as well. But you don’t want to surprise him, so talk softly while you do this. You should be approaching so slowly that it takes you a couple minutes. Don’t spook the skunk! Once the cover is in place, give the skunk a minute to adjust. Then open the door to the trap. Hold it open with vice grips if needed. Slowly back away.

Our skunk did not come running out. We waited for a while. Nothing. Hubby and I went in the house. Mr. Skunk remained in the cage. In fact, he was laying down. Our dogs were still in their crates from when they ate breakfast. I didn’t want to let them outside in case they spooked Mr. Skunk and he ran. I was afraid our dog Baxter would jump the fence and go after him. Baxter did jump the fence one other time to chase an opossum that was in the yard. After waiting some more, we decided that maybe we should have removed the towel that covered the trap. Maybe this made it seem like a den.

So I slowly crept up to the trap, taking a few minutes as advised. Then I gingerly and slowly lifted the towel from the trap. Mr. Skunk was was curled up having a nap. Minutes went by. I spoke, hoping to wake him up so he would leave. Nothing. We walked around the trap. I could see the little skunk’s chest rising and falling. I went into the house to get my phone to take pictures of this apparently exhausted skunk as the sun shone on him. He kept the white stripe on his head tucked under himself.

This was when hubby decided to take the mouse from the other trap on a road trip to his new home. I continued watching the skunk for a while, but it got pretty boring watching a skunk sleep so I eventually went inside. Hubby came home a bit later and said the skunk was gone. I suppose he eventually got too warm lying in the sun. Or maybe without his audience, the thrill was gone and he went home.

Still Mulching

Country Life, Gardens, ,

I spent several hours today weeding and mulching my peony and iris bed. Hubby tried to weedeat it for me, but the plants are just too close together. It caused too much destruction. So I am weeding by hand.

I will finish tomorrow. I was driven inside mid-afternoon by the large amount of fly bites I was getting, along with the biting gnats and bees, it was too much for me. Even though I had to take an antihistamine to deal with the various bug bites, I must say the flowerbed is looking good.

The bed also contains false indigo, hardy amaryllis, and a young red maple. I don’t know how I ever had time to work. Retirement is exhausting!

The peonies in this bed should bloom soon and I will post pictures when they do. I want to start posting more pictures on my Sanctuary Acres Facebook page, so you may want to follow that as well. I promise there will be no political posts on that page. Maybe an occasional spay/neuter comment. Mostly it will be photos of our flowers, gardens and animals.

A Day In My Gardening Life (Mulch!)

Country Life, Gardens, ,

My plan this morning was to spend it mulching flowerbeds. I went outside and found my husband sorting wood left from past carpentry projects. I took off my gardening gloves and stopped to help him, so it would get finished before the rain came. I didn’t want to get the mulch smell on the wood. We finished some of the work in the rain. Looked for my gardening gloves but couldn’t find them.

Since it was raining I went inside until things dried out. I decided to work on some financial records for our dog rescue for the rest of the morning. Next thing I knew, it was lunch time. Looked for my gardening gloves again. I have another pair but didn’t want both pairs to smell like mulch. Couldn’t find them. Ate lunch. Looked for my gardening gloves. No luck.

Got out new gardening gloves and helped husband mulch the rest of the flowerbeds in the patio area. Still no gardening gloves, but the beds are looking great.

Then, we checked on the vegetable garden. This resulted in hubby and me weeding the row of beets, radishes, and turnips. A gardener’s work is never done, especially in the spring time.

Weed free plants with blooms do not come easy or free. It is, however, a labor of love for us.

Never did find those gloves.

A Typical Day

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Gardens, ,

This morning, I took time to enjoy a cup of coffee and some patio time with the dogs. I soaked in the beauty of the flowers and greenery. The dogs enjoyed it too. Zekie found the plastic whale from the top of the old pool thermometer and thought it made a fine toy. He followed me around and put the whale at my feet, then snatched it away, saying “see what I have!”

After a lunch of homemade pizza, I put the dogs out in the fenced pasture to play and enjoy the sunshine. Then it was work time for me. I pruned the old fashioned lilac that grows beside the kitchen window. The original lilac died. The one that is there now was moved here as a young rootling. It came from grandma’s house in town. It is old enough to have some dead branches so I gave it a good trim.

I also pruned the ancient scarlett azalea outside the living room window. It has a beautiful color. I have not seen another in this shade of red-orange-peach. The base of the bush is enormous and gnarly giving it an ancient feel. The house was built in 1830 so I have no idea how old the azalea is. I didn’t trim the bush back nearly as far as I felt it should be. Parts of it are not in the best of health and I didn’t think it would survive a drastic trimming. I hope this makes it stronger next year, then I can prune it again.

Then I moved on to more mundane chores. I pulled the dried out vines from last year’s morning glories off the fence, picked up grass clumps from the weed eater, and weeded around newly sprouted plants in the vegetable garden.

All the prunings and weeds, I took to the pile at the back of our woods where we dump such things. Eventually we get some nice compost at the bottom of the pile. The walk through the woods is always interesting. Halfway back on the left is our pet cemetery. It elicits memories each time I pass. The neighbor’s yellow marsh irises are visible around her pond. There are always plants of interest to notice along the way. Jack-in-the-pulpits. Solomon’s seal. It is a pleasant walk if your load is not too heavy.

After the work was done, I took three of the dogs for a walk to the township park and back. Zekie was a good boy. He only barked at one car, even though 7 or 8 cars passed us. We crossed to the other side of the road when we passed a house with two dogs behind a slat fence. Zekie looked at them but didn’t bark! I was so proud.

This is a typical day for me as a retired person living in the country.

Lilacs and Memories

Country Life, Gardens, Thoughts On Life, ,
Old fashioned lilacs with lily of the valley
Royal lilacs
Miss Kim lilacs

We have three types of lilacs. All have that wonderful lilac scent. The benefit of having multiple types is that they bloom at different times, so lilac season lasts about a month for us. This is indeed a wonderful thing.

Certain scents can make your mind retrieve memories from long ago. When I smell lilacs, it reminds me of a perfume my mother had that she purchased from a local drug store many years ago. It smelled like lilacs, not like some perfumey replica. I remember picking it up from my mother’s vanity.

The scent of lilacs can make me feel like a carefree little girl. Some scents can unlock the magic.

Scents of Spring

Country Life, Gardens, ,

Walking around the yard yesterday evening just before it was time to come inside for the day, I encountered several flowers that smelled divine. The lily-of-the-valley is lovely. It reminds me of a perfume stick I had as a young girl, Muguet.

I also came across honeysuckle. Our bush has never had as many flowers as it does this year.

And this is our first iris to bloom for the year. It has that faint scent of grapes. The first of our three types of lilacs is in bloom as well. I just had to bring some of inside to enjoy.

Vegetable Garden Planting

Country Life, Gardens, ,
Icicle Radishes

We spent most of the day yesterday putting in our vegetable garden. We tilled one row and planted it with seeds for icicle radishes, turnips, and beets, less than a week ago. All of them are up already.

Yesterday morning hubby gave the rest of the garden it’s final tilling. I made hills and planted the cucumber, yellow crookneck squash, and zucchini seeds, while hubby planted green bean and Romano bean seeds.

We worked together planting four types of tomatoes that we purchased as plants. We chose lemon boy, Romas, pineapple, and Mr. Stripey varieties. Mr. Stripey is my all time favorite tomato. I search it out every year. It has the perfect, slightly sweet tomato flavor. Since it is a combination yellow and red tomato, it is lower in acid, but still has great flavor.

At this point, hubby had to go mow the yard before the rain set in. So, I finished up planting sugar snap pea, a mixture of lettuce, and spinach seeds. I watered all the vegetable plants after that. Hubby watered them again before dark.

I watered all again this morning, and mulched the tomatoes with grass clippings. Garden 2020 is off to a good start.

And then before coming in for the evening, the smell of the lilacs and lily-of-the-valley was so sweet, I had to bring a few sprigs inside so I could continue to enjoy them!

Lilac and Lily-of-the-Valley

Spring Planting

Cooking, Country Life, Gardens, , ,
Super bells

This was a busy day. This morning I baked bread since we were nearly out. Then I made an oatmeal cake with chocolate frosting.

The afternoon was devoted to planting many of the flowers we purchased yesterday on our trip out into public for the first time in over two months. I planted the usual six hanging baskets for our porch.

Black Cherry Petunias

From there I planted some urns and pots for the patio garden.

Mandevilla

Dahlias and mounding vinca

Dahlia and Petunia

Dianthus

I bought a new dianthus to add to one of the flowerbeds. We already have some, but they have been coming back for many years and I thought we could use some new stock. This one is a nice, bright pink.

Bleeding hearts, Dicentra

I didn’t plant these bleeding hearts. They are a perennial that was here long before I bought this property. The blooms are peaking right now, so I wanted to share them with you.

Gardening season has begun in earnest. We will plant the rest of the vegetable garden this week. Our radishes and turnips are up already in less than a week!

A Satisfying Weekend

Country Life, Gardens, ,

It was nice enough to sit on the patio this weekend. It was enjoyable to sit and appreciate all the hostas and other plants that we moved into last year’s new raised beds. In fact, after a long winter and disappointing spring, we are enjoying many plants.

New growth is everywhere at this time of year. On a walk through our little township park, we saw many May apples. They remind me of little parasols.

The last of the viburnum blossoms overlapped with the first lilacs of spring.

And the large scarlet azalea is once again a showstopper.