Back to the Grind

We're not on vacation anymore, but we are enjoying the constant show of what nature has to offer around our house. (Allium)

In case you can't tell, our staycation is over, and I'm back to my old routines, including sporadic blog posting. I left you last Saturday wondering what we might do on Sunday. Well, I can answer that question now. Nothing very exciting except to putter around with some fun projects and watch a movie. So, I guess I would say that it was a relaxing, do-nothing last day of our staycation. Which seemed about right for us. After a few days of a vacation of going and doing, we usually need some downtime, and that was easy to do at home. Another advantage of a staycation.

If we hadn't made time to go to these places, I'm not sure we would have gotten around to doing the things we did. When I see something local that looks interesting, I put it into a folder to retrieve at a later time when we want to get out of the house. Well, the folder was getting pretty full, especially since COVID slowed down going everywhere. We made a dent in it but still have many other local places to explore.

I think there are more staycations in our future, but we're also talking about some change of scenery that would involve a long drive and what some might call a proper vacation. 

In the meantime, we are still enjoying having a working kitchen with more convenient storage and not much dust in the air. It's heavenly, actually.

Until next time...

Staycation, Day 3

 The original plan for the day was to relax around the house, doing things like watching a movie, working on a puzzle, playing a game (not on the computer), and going out for ice cream. But plans changed as they tend to do. Yesterday, when we were talking with the millwright at Union Mills, he mentioned that the mill there was similar to the one they have at Mt. Vernon, George Washington's Estate. So we decided it would be interesting to compare the two and maybe reinforce some of the things we learned yesterday. The added bonus was that Ward's father lives nearby, and we could visit him.

But first, we had a French toast breakfast. Another thing that we've been meaning to get around to but haven't for a year or two. No good reason except inertia. One of the motivators for this was to use maple syrup that my father made, starting with tapping the trees. It seemed too precious to use, but he made it to be enjoyed instead of taking up shelf space. So that's what we did. Enjoyed it on French toast.

Below are a few more details of the day.

In addition to the French toast, we had bacon, fresh peaches, and blueberries from Aunt Martha's patch. 

Then it was onto the grist mill at Mt. Vernon.
In the mid-1760s, George Washington changed his major cash crop from tobacco to wheat and other grains. He erected a commercial grist mill to make flour to ship to Europe. This building and the equipment inside are replicas of the original and were built on the same spot as the first one. The mill is fully operational.

The mill setup was the same as at Union Mills, except the water wheel was inside. 

Both used the very efficient Evans method.

Next to the mill, George Washington had a distillery-another good use for the grains he was growing. Like the mill, the distillery had been replicated on its original spot and was fully operational. 

Ward is examining a worm--inner, copper tubing of the still. Whiskey was the main product. BTW, a pint of whiskey made here costs $100 in the gift shop.

Next, we hopped over to my father-in-law's house for lunch and a visit.
I needed a piece of a tree trunk for a project at work, and Ward and his dad were able to help me.

Shortly after we got home, our electricity went out. Luckily, that only lasted for a couple of hours, and it gave me a chance to try out my new LED glow bracelet. It was a giveaway at a library program, and I was surprised to learn that it had a rechargeable battery.

Well, our staycation is winding down, and it's time to get back to the matters at hand. However, we still may find something fun to do on Sunday. Stay tuned...

Staycation, Day 2

Ward and I are taking a little staycation for an extended weekend. Today was our second day. 

We modified our plans slightly today because of the excessive heat we're having, meaning that we took an early morning hike in a park closer to home than originally planned. We hadn't been to this park in at least 5 years, so it was time to go back. The air was cool in the shade, and the surrounding forest was a lush green. We walked 3.5 miles and only started to feel the heat at the end. We headed back home, sweaty but content.

Then I wasn't sure I wanted to do the next thing we had planned: to visit the Union Mills Homestead because of the heat. We had stopped here a few years ago but got there just as they were closing. Another thing on our mini bucket list was to return when we could get a better look at things. However, I was worried about the heat of the afternoon, but Ward was encouraging, so off we went. As it turned out, there were two parts to the tour, both inside. The hot outdoor parts were where you looked around on your own, so we cut those parts short. 

We were lucky once again in that we were the only people there and had the tour guides all to ourselves. BTW, the attendance at museums is down all over. Seems that people would rather Google about something than visiting it. I just hope they can stay open because I like to visit them. Anyway, below are a few more details of our Friday.

An added bonus was the trail was paved. However, we didn't need to worry about muddy paths because it hadn't rained here in a while.

The trail was part of a stream-bottom county park. The county bought up most of the land around the streams and made them into parks to prevent development (and really the land was unsuitable for building.) We crossed over the creek many times during our walk.

Next up was the Union Valley Homestead, established in 1797. Six generations of the same family continuously lived in the house until the mid-1950s. Then it was inherited by two brothers, who happened to be history professors, who decided it would make a good museum.

One of the reasons they thought it would make a good museum was the number of records the family still had from the beginning. It was one of the most extensive collections of family papers in the US, just behind John Adams. Not to mention all the family furniture, artwork, appliances, utensils, etc. - all original, no reproductions.

No photos were allowed inside, so here's a picture of the other side of the house. Notice the different pink and gray parts of the house. That happened when a brother and sister lived at different ends of the house and couldn't agree on what color it should be.

After a very informative tour of the house, we moved to the grist mill. Our tour guide had worked at Colonial Williamsburg for 30 years before returning to his roots as a grist mill operator. He runs this one and does all the repairs to keep it running. 

It was fascinating to see all of the gears and other parts made from wood when today, metal is used for these things. Of course, Ward was very interested in the mechanical and woodworking aspects of the operation. I was curious to see what buckwheat grains looked like because I have only seen buckwheat after it was made into flour. Too bad I didn't get any pictures to show you, but they are triangular black seeds.

 

On the way home, we stopped at Dairy Queen and shared a Girl Scout Thin Mint Blizzard. We had a good time, and I'm glad Ward forced encouraged me to go.😊

Tune in tomorrow to see if Ward can convince me to leave the house to venture into the heat of the day to explore more things on our mini bucket list, a.k.a, what we've been meaning to get around to.

Here's the plan

 There was some rearrangement to my work schedule this week, so I got four days off in a row. Ward and I are trying to be more purposeful about doing things other than routine chores, so we thought this would be a perfect time to take a little vacation. As we always do, we researched, discussed, and couldn't make a decision. So I decided we would do a staycation partly because many places are charging peak summer rates right now. However, we have the flexibility, so we might visit some of those places in the fall.

So anyway, Thursday was the first day of our staycation. We went a couple of hours north of us to Strasburg, Pennsylvania, to visit the Pennsylvania State Railroad Museum. We had intended to visit it when Theo lived in the area but never got around to it. But we made it happen. Afterward, we visited a local maker space I've been interested in for a while. Another thing that we made happen. You might say we're working on our mini bucket list this vacation.

The first thing we did was take a ride on the Strasburg Railroad. It was established in 1832 and is the oldest railroad operating in the US under its original charter. (BTW, this was separate from the museum.)

It was very hot, but we were in an open-air car with a decent breeze to moderate the heat.

They had different characters to entertain as we were waiting to start. This was a hobo asking for spare change.

The ride was scenic, going through forests and farmland. This area has a large Amish population and many farms.

After lunch, we visited the railroad museum.

It was a large warehouse with many full-size train cars. There were also trains outside on display, but the heat kept us inside the nicely air-conditioned, uncrowded building.

They also had an entire floor of model trains. This was part of a Lego display.

Ward and I went through the museum differently. He was very interested in the mechanics and engineering of the trains.

And I was more interested in learning about how Bisquick had its origins from a train ride by the president of General Mills.

But we both enjoyed learning about the John Stevens steam engine. John Stevens built it in 1825 for use on his New Jersey property. It was one of the first in the country and proved the practicality of steam engines for the US.

On the way home, we stopped at a library that had a new maker space. We were lucky to get a personal tour. They have different kinds of equipment, including 3-D printers, various carving and engraving tools, sewing machines, and a teaching kitchen.  And it's all free to use! Gotta love a library. This is about 1/2 hour from our house, so it's not convenient, but not that far. I think I see some Christmas presents coming from here. :)

The drive during our entire outing was on the backroads, mainly through farmland. Corn was definitely the crop of the day.

Tune in next time to see where our staycation takes us tomorrow.

And there was much rejoicing!

Today when I went to the garden, I found our first ripe tomato! Tomatoes straight from the vine are truly one of my summer joys. This one has some spots and is not that big, but beautiful all the same. I'm trying to decide how I will eat it? Will I have it with cottage cheese? Will I cut it up for an omelet? Or perhaps, the best of all, I will have a tomato sandwich. Ward and Theo will just have to wait because this one is all mine. Yum!

A Passel of Posy Pictures

 You all know how much I like taking pictures of what's blooming around my house. Well, a funny thing happened on my way to take pictures the last couple of months-I got distracted by construction. I finally made it out into the yard this morning for some photos and below are my passel of posy pictures. :)

Spirea

Oak-leaf hydrangea

Zinnia's that the rabbits have been enjoying.

Lantana

Vinca. In the upper left, you can see part of the fig tree.

Day Lilies.

Black-eyed Susans. You can see where the Japanese beetles are eating the petals. They eat the coneflower petals, too.

Coneflower

Four O'clocks. Later this afternoon, say around 4 o'clock, these will be in full bloom. 

Bachelor's Button. Notice the pollen sacs of the back legs of the bee.

The allium are ready to burst into full bloom.

The row of begonias along our front walk do great every year. Not only do they provide good color, they require essentially no maintenance. 

This lone azalea bloom is about two months behind the others.

Dianthus. Most of these are suffering from the heat.

Until next time...

Kitchen details

 Recently I showed you an overview of our newly remodeled kitchen. Today, I'm going to add a few more details. Because it's all in the details, right?

In the two corner cabinets on the stove wall, we have shelves that pull all the way out. No more on our knees, peering into the abyss looking for something. 

We have pullout shelves on either side of the stove, next to the above cabinets. We are not sure how we want to use them yet, but we have oils, vinegars, and sauces on this side. On the other side, we have grilling utensils because they are too big to store with the other turners, etc.

Next to the sink, we have a pullout drawer for trash and recycling. This is something I requested, and so far, it's working great.

Under the coffee spot, we have this divided drawer. When I first saw it, I thought the spaces were too small to store many items. However, it's working much better than I thought, and it's nice to not have to sort through a disorganized drawer to find what you want as we did in the past. We have a crock next to the stove with things we frequently use for cooking.

We now have stools to use at the peninsula. We shopped a lot of places for stools to no avail for various reasons. However, we found these at an unfinished furniture store and finished them like the table. BTW, they swivel, which can be fun at times. :)

Not in the kitchen, but in our newly configured hallway is the table Ward built for that spot. It is made from ash. All of the wood for the table came from the same tree. 

Until next time...

It Happened So Fast

We have two raised bed garden areas that are small enough to keep up with but big enough to give a decent harvest. When I checked the garden yesterday, I saw a dramatic change from a couple of days before. The last time I looked, the radishes were maturing nicely. We had already harvested some, and I was waiting until we were ready to pull more. Now they were going to seed and getting woody. When I last checked on the beans, they were just starting to bloom. Now I was able to pick enough for supper. And the zucchini. Well, you know zucchini, whose main goal in life is to become the size of baseball bats. Well, several reached that status in a blink of an eye.

We roasted the radishes, which tasted good but were a bit chewy. (BTW, I've tried preparing the radish greens in different ways, but no one here likes them.) The beans are cleaned and ready to cook tonight with some leftover corn. I have frozen some of the zucchini, roasted some in the oven for supper, and made a cake with one for tonight's book club. I hope to put more in the freezer tomorrow before I go to work. Or maybe I will get up in the wee hours of the morning and leave them on the neighbors' doorsteps. Because there's a whole other crop of baseball bats forming. I know I should have been harvesting them sooner, but it all happened fast. :)

Until next time...

Life is a Bowl of Cherries

Sour cherries from our tree

You are probably familiar with the saying, "Life is Like a Bowl of Cherries." It is meant to be used when life is good but is often used sarcastically as Erma Bombeck did for her book, If Life is Bowl of Cherries, What am I Doing in the Pits? But I mean it in a good way. Life is indeed a bowl of cherries here both figuratively and literally. We are still basking in the afterglow of the construction being completed, and we got cherries from our cherry tree this year! This was a welcome event because last year, birds and a fungus got to them before we did.

The tree is old, and much of the cherries
are out of reach even with a ladder and a pole,
but we picked what we could.

Cherries are one of those fruits that turn your hands black.
I was embarrassed when I had to go to work
with these dirty-looking hands, but it was what it was.

Most of the cherries are in the freezer but some
got baked into this pie for the 4th of July cookout.
I also made an apple pie. As Ward says,
 "You can never have too much pie."

Until next time...