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    2026 Summer wrap up

    September 7, 2026 - By 

    Once again the summer has flown by with hardly a thing crossed off my “school me” list…the list I write during down times at school while longing for the freedom of summer. The “school me” is always more ambitious and has no limitations on herself. She also assumes that the calendar will remain blissfully empty of any sort of appointment or obligation. She is ever the optimist with lofty goals. To be 100% transparent…I can’t even remember what I did with my list. I know it’s somewhere around here.

    With all that said…now I’m trying to decide how I want to go about blogging my summer. Month by month or grouped by some arbitrary system that may only make sense to me.  I feel as if I’m taking you on a journey through my ADHD brain…verbally processing with you whether you like it or not. 🙂

    June

    The beginning of summer break honestly wasn’t the greatest. Mr. G was dealing with some foot and ankle issues so original plans of hiking and other adventures went to the back burner. Thankfully I was off work and able to take over things that typically he would do.

    One of the goals I set for myself was to list some on either ebay or etsy every day. I’m happy with my progress with that even though it wasn’t every day. I made quite a few sales and got rid of some clutter around here.

    Since I knew I’d be hosting over at Art Journal Journey for July, it kicked my creative side into high gear. I had so much fun creating! One of these days I should do a recap of that as well.

    July

    Life began to pick up a bit of speed in July. The garden was really filling out and it had me thinking about preserving, fermenting and such.

    I decided to try my hand at making cottage cheese.

    It turned out pretty well even though its not recommended to make cottage cheese from ultra-processed milk. Since I sometimes get tummy troubles from milk I tried A2 milk and have had better success with dairy.

    I also made Greek yogurt and it was so yummy.

    During this time we had a lot of wildfire smoke so limiting time outdoors was a necessity.

    So one day I grabbed my scraps and made an afternoon of making random bits.

    I ended up with a good pile of cards.

    Mid July we had had tickets to a show about an hour and a half from home. We went to a local brewery for a meal before heading to the venue. It was busy but a good meal. Originally we were going to make a weekend of it with hiking, antiquing and such but Mr. G was still on the mend so we settled on just an evening adventure up and back home.

    Our tickets were for Jim Gaffigan. We really enjoy his comedy…likely because he talks so much about his family.

    The venue is pretty new. It was built in an old granite quarry. They made some lovely views for people to enjoy before the show.

    I did a bit a art journalling unrelated to my theme month on Art Journal Journey just for fun.

    I also got to enjoy some of my sunflowers…although I learned very quickly that they drop a ton of pollen so they aren’t great to bring in the house.

    August

    Ok here is when life really started to accelerate. Things were being thrown onto the calendar faster than I could have even imagined.

    The first weekend in August, Mini-me came home so her and I could go to Wisconsin for a family “Christmas party”. We stopped ay Amnicon Falls since we were too early to our final destination.

    We also made a visit to Duluth since its been a few years since J was in college there. I never get tired of that view.

    During this time we made the decision to have our landscaping in front of the house redone. We were told that things would be 4-6 weeks out…that changed at the drop of a hat and suddenly one week turned into a marathon.

    Before

    After

    There is actually much more but I’m only highlighting my favorite transformation.

    But let me back up a bit and tell you about that week. Monday morning I had my routine physical and got my first Shingles vaccine. Tuesday morning Mr, G messages me and says the landscapers on on their way and I need to move all the pots and such from the front of the house. Any other day…maybe not so bad but I have a fever and feel very flu-like. But I get it done. Wednesday they came back to repair damage to the lawn while I was helping set up for a garage sale at my neighbor’s house…still with a slight fever. Thursday 6am dragging stuff out of the neighbor’s garage…no fever, just sore arm. 8:30am I get a calendar reminder that I’m supposed to be in a meeting (thankfully it was a voluntary one). Friday more garage sale. Saturday up early to drive 3 hours to Mini-me.

    Ah yes…forgot to mention…Mini-me was moving home. Her contract ended and she has moved home to go to do a Masters program. So Saturday we loaded everything up and drove back home and Sunday we loaded all of her furniture and things that won’t fit in our house into a storage unit.

    Since the garden is producing, I’ve been working on canning . I love my outdoor set up.

    It keeps the heat out of the kitchen.

    On this particular day I canned 3 pints of spicy beans, 6 pints of spicy pickles and a jar of pickled eggs.

    With Mini-me living back home and summer winding down it seemed to be adventure time. We went to the Mall of America and IKEA.

    We went to Sea Life while at the mall. We hadn’t been since she was a little girl.

    Our next adventure was to the MN State Fair.

    We tried some new food.

    Saw some animals…including this rabbit that looked so crabby that it was almost comical.

    This was my favorite sign at the fair.

    School started a week earlier than usual around here. So Tuesday begins my second week of school. This year is very different for me…lots of new classes.

    T stands for Tuesday
    What are you doing today?
  • Around home - Blog - Outdoors

    Project complete

    July 13, 2026 - By 

    In my garden tour 2 weeks ago I mentioned I had a new project…moving the compost tumbler. Lucky for me Mini-me came for a visit so I tackled the project with a helper.

    It was so hot that morning that we only got the new spot prepped and the rock removed before we had to call it quits.

    Here it is…moved to its new spot. It’s not perfect but it’ll do. We ran into the issue of tree roots when trying to pound in the stakes that hold the edging.

    The next day I added soil to bring the space back up to grade, planted lots of wildflower seeds…all perennial. I covered the soil with Alfalfa’s Secret. (not being sponsored or anything…just a happy customer) I also used it as ground cover in my shed garden. If I happen upon any discounted plants I’ll likely add them as I’m not sure any plant will have time to establish itself enough before winter arrives. Seems silly talking about winter when we are under an extreme heat warning but it comes really fast.

    I noticed my first sunflower is beginning to open. I have both “cutting” sunflowers and Mammoth varieties.

    I can’t believe how much the garden has grown in 2 weeks…

    June 29

    July 13

    Despite the heat, I had to take Marvin for a his perimeter patrol or “walkabout” as we like to call it. He is my shadow and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

    After mowing the lawn this morning and showering…again…I’m sitting in the lower level at our game table while blogging trying to stay cool. Yes, we have air conditioning…thank goodness… but it’s always nicer on the lower levels.

    T stands for Tuesday

    What are you doing today?

  • Around home - Blog - Outdoors

    Garden tour June 2026

    June 29, 2026 - By 

    I’m really happy with my gardens this year and wanted to share them with you.

    I thought I’d start out my garden tour with the deck. It’s really not that exciting, just a few of flower pots to give a bit of color.

    Next we have our first food producing garden area. The Deck Box Garden. This space contains snap peas, carrots, radishes, various herbs, a couple tomatoes that weren’t doing well in the garden and a pot of what will hopefully be some lettuce. I threw in two kinds of flowers seeds after my beets never germinated. I know one was Hollyhocks but the other will just be a surprise. I’ve added some bunting for fun and to keep the deer from snacking. I also have a couple solar starburst lights that my friend sent me for my birthday.

    The snap peas are producing but I fear the heat wave that we are experiencing is going to shut them down.

    Around the other side of the shed we have the aptly named Shed Garden. It’s only 77 square feet so I try to use it as efficiently as I can while still mostly being able to walk around.

    We expanded it last fall to cover the space that the compost bin used to occupy. After my ground wasp fiasco which resulted in a dozen stings, the slaying of the nest and removal of the whole bin, I bought a compost tumbler which I’ve been very happy with. All that to say…the space that the compost once occupied I have only planted sunflowers. I read that sunflowers uptake toxins in the soil naturally “fixing” it for other crops. I’m hopeful that this is true but if nothing else I’ll have a bunch of lovely sunflowers this year.

    Speaking of sunflowers…one of my tomatoes seems to be having an identity crisis…

    At the top of the main stem it has formed a large cluster of blossoms. I’m not sure what’s going on there so only time will tell.

    In addition to the sunflowers I have green and wax beans that I’ve succession planted, 8 varieties of tomatoes, 4 varieties of peppers, yellow summer squash and probably way too many cucumbers.

    We save the rainwater off the shed roof. I really enjoy hand watering with my vintage can. It gives me the chance to look at my plants up close and personal.

    In the front of the house I have a small food producing container garden as well as pots of flowers that make me happy and bring in the pollinators.

    I put together a little pollinator water station the other day from stuff that was kicking around the shed. The saucer is quite shallow so it needs to be filled almost daily which probably works out well since I don’t want mosquitos laying their eggs in it.

    I’m loving these hanging baskets.

    I found one of my glass mushrooms so I added it to this little wooden planter box.

    The nasturtiums are beautiful this year as well. They are planted from seeds I saved from last years plants.

    I noticed this volunteer pansy out in front of the pots in the lawn. The funny thing is that I haven’t grown pansies in years!!

    This is my next project. I’m going to move the compost tumbler. I think the compost tumbler gets too hot and dries out in it’s current south facing space. I’ll be taking up all the landscape rock as well. I’m planning on a pollinator garden in this space. It’s close to the garden. The composter will have its new home in the nook behind the shed and beside the garden. However none of it will be getting done until this heat breaks though especially since it’s in the sun the vast majority of the day.

    That’s all for now. I’m looking forward to sharing the fruits of my labor in later posts.