The clock is ticking on the kids leaving for college. Mini-me goes in a week and a half, J is the week after. The piles of supplies are beginning. Last minute orders and trips to the stores, doctor appts, new glasses just to name a few items on the list. But slowly, we are making progress.

To add to the busy time…the garden is also producing like crazy.

That means that I need to preserve the harvest.

I’ve canned 7 pints of spicy beans and 3 pints diced tomatoes.

Air drying herbs as well as trying to dehydrate some.

Mini-me seemed to have an allergic reaction to the herbs in the dehydrator so after we finally figured out why her nose was running like a faucet, I shut it down and got it out of the house. Poor kid.

I was attempting to dry some of this mint as well. Its really growing like crazy. Since the dehydrator seems out of the question, at least until she leaves the nest for college, I tried making some tea with fresh mint and nasturtium blossoms.

It was ok. Not bad but not very flavorful…which is not surprising. I know herb flavors concentrate after drying.

I may try to dry some but I am not holding out a lot of hope that I will enjoy the end product so therefore I am not super committed to the process.

One day last week, Mini-me and I took a quick drive over to IKEA and the Mall of America. We were able to get a few items on her list for college ay IKEA. Obviously a lot of other people had the same idea before us since several of the things on her want list were sold out. We decided to go into MOA since it is literally across the street from IKEA.

I quickly snapped this photo of a few of the truly massive Lego creations that sit atop the Legoland.

And Nickelodeon Universe. The mall was really not busy at all which was very refreshing. I don’t think we would have stayed if it had been busy.

I’m posting this on Monday evening because I have an eye appt in the morning. I know she will dilate my eyes so I won’t be able to see much of anything for several hours. I’m not a fan of it but I know its to check eye health so I will do it begrudgingly.

Last week we were dealing with air quality issues with the smoke from the Canadian wildfires. Thursday looked like this. It was really unhealthy air. We kept inside as much as possible.

Since the forecast was supposed to clear up as far as the smoke went, Mini-me and I went with my neighbor on a daytrip to Alexandria MN. aka Lake country…cabin country. I love it up there. We had a cabin there when I was a teen and my cousins still have one in lake country. It’s my happy place. Well, maybe tied with Duluth.

We went out to eat and had probably the best food I’ve have ever had at a bar/restaurant. It was so good I didn’t even remember to take a photo until it was nearly gone. We sat on the patio that overlooked the lake. It was awesome.

Next we went to a winery that had also just added a brewery. We had a flight of Minnesota wines…not a fan. But the beer was really good. I ended up buying two Growlers to bring home to share.

The flight of wine came with a complementary glass to take home. My neighbor gave me hers as well so now I have a pair.

We also stopped at a quilt shop and picked up some goodies. I bought some science themed fabric as I was planning to make some more masks for J and myself. Mini-me picked out the cat fabric. Luckily I did pick up more fabric because we just learned that the University system in MN is requiring masks for everyone.

I also grabbed the two small scrap packs I found in the clearance area. I honestly was hoping for more scraps.

Boy, I had so many drink references in this post that I could have split it into three. 🙂