Category : Outdoors

117 posts

T Tuesday: resort edition

I missed T stands for Tuesday last week while Mini-me and I were up north enjoying time with family at a resort. There were 16 of us which is a lot smaller group than it has been over the last few years.

resortIt’s been a long standing tradition for the maternal side of Mr. G’s family to gather at a resort for a week each summer. The first few years we were married the yearly gathering was at a small resort in Wisconsin. We went for a few days when we could but after the resort changed ownership the tradition faded. That is until about 4 years ago when the group gathered in Alexandria, MN.

We tried out a new resort this year and don’t regret it at all. It’s in a beautiful yet fairly remote area…as in there are no decent sized towns within an hours drive.  We were a very short distance from the southern edge of the Chippewa National Forest.

resort

The resort sat on a small bay of a much larger lake. It was very quiet with little boat traffic.

resort

Just the occasional Loon.

resort

There was a great beach volleyball court for Mini-me to practice her skills. She gave me and my BIL quiet the workout playing with her. Neither of us are sporty in the least.

Each year we have a themed potluck gathering. This years theme was kind of vague…Greece/Olympus. Honestly, I didn’t really “get it” other than the food.  I brought a Mediterranean salad.

resort

Typically everyone goes all out dressing up, menu planning and decorating according to the theme. There was Gyros, hummus, kabobs, salads, crockpots of goodies, homemade wine and cider plus so much more.

resort

So much food!!!!

resort

The kids enjoyed games.

resort

And of course S’mores around the fire.

We aren’t sure what the plan is for next year yet but I’m sure at least Mini-me and I will go if time allows.

Tuesday has an appt. and back to school shopping for sure…who knows what else we’ll end up doing. The summer is quickly fading away.

What are you doing today?

T stands for Tuesday

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T Tuesday: landscaping edition

Last week we had a beautifully cool, breezy, low humidity day. Outside projects were definitely on the docket. The biggest of these was replacing landscaping. This has needed to be done for quite some time.

Here’s a photo from 2 years ago…T Tuesday: harvest edition| Halle's Hobbies

The log border was already starting to get a little wonky. Fast forward two years and it was rotting away.

Now it looks like this! Mini-me and I did this one ourselves. The edging is recycled rubber. Nice and flexible to bend  and form to what your little heart desires. We had a couple of surface tree roots to contend with so we just made sure to line things up so that I wouldn’t have to pound a stake through the root. 

I did end up going through what I can only assume was root a couple inches underground on the back side of this flower bed.

We were so happy with how nice this one looked and how easy it was to install that I went back for more material to fix up another eyesore area in need of upgrade.

I’m not sure if you can tell but along the right side of the photo is some black edging that was basically laying down…definitely not how we installed it so many years ago. Frost heave has done a number on it.

Now it looks like this….

Complete with a couple new perennials.

I love how this looks so much!

Since at least half of the black edging pieces were still salvageable, I put them around my water barrels.

That is kind of our haphazard area. Mismatched pieces of this and that have all found their way over here. It all works though. Now if we’d only get some rain to refill my barrels.

So after a hard days work a little refreshment is always in order.

Just a couple more days of taxi driving for volleyball this week…then two weeks off before it starts up again…everyday. Mini-me and I are also getting ready for a little trip north. The boys are too busy working to come with us. I’ll be sure to share that adventure in a couple weeks.

What are you doing today?

T stands for Tuesday

Oh and just for you Chris…

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T Tuesday: gardens and more edition

This week I thought I’d give you a look at how my gardens are doing followed up with some art.

FYI-photo heavy post

The deck box garden holds my yellow pear tomato plants each year to keep them from cross pollinating with the red regular sized varieties, This year I think I got a few seeds mixed up. I have some non-pear shaped tomatoes on a couple vines. Hmmm. Time will tell. I also have my Egyptian walking onions, radishes and jalapenos in there. Resting on the edge is a new to me shepherds hook. Mr. G is going to move one hook about 10 inches down for me when he digs out the welder.

The shed garden is going gangbusters after what seemed like a very slow start. I have tons of tomatoes on the vines. Even the bedraggled plants that came home from Biology class with J are doing fantastic.

The pumpkin and this tomato included. I really had no hope for either of these plants so I didn’t work very hard making a good home for them. Obviously they don’t care a bit.

The yellow summer squash and zucchini are getting large although the zucchini hasn’t produced anything yet.

The yellow ones are tasty though.

The first bit of bounty from the garden has arrived.

I am dealing with this pest though. Anyone know what it is and how to get rid of it without chemicals? I’ve been knocking them off and squishing them but the little munchers keep coming back for more.

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We changed things up a little this year and didn’t attend the local parade for the 4th of July. Instead we went to a party close to our old neighborhood. We figured out that we hadn’t been to their annual bash in 10yrs. I forgot my phone at home so no pictures from there.

We came back for the standard evening shenanigans on our block. J had 6-7 friends hanging out by the end of the evening. You wouldn’t believe how quickly 3 large pizzas can disappear.

We joined a neighbor in their front yard for the awesome view of the fireworks, What a fun night.

Of course, there was lots of overindulging of all sorts so my drink of choice the next morning was….

alka-seltzer.

I did take a bit of time for creating. I’m not sure how I feel about this page now that its dry.  The colors of the stains were so fun and vibrant before they dried. Now the page is a little dull.

I went back and added these paper beads I made years ago to try and dress things up a bit. I love that they’ll hang outside the book begging someone to open it up to take a peek.

I’m planning to work on the landscape edging around a flower bed before it gets too hot. The humidity is what is so bad right now. UGH! I get very cranky in the heat.  And don’t even talk to me about my hair.

What are you doing today?

T stands for Tuesday

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T Tuesday: highs and lows edition

This week has been filled with a roller coaster ride of emotions and events…frankly, I’m exhausted. I wasn’t even sure I was going to play along with T stands for Tuesday but I’m here and will share the highs and lows with you.

Let’s just get the low over with so we can move on to brighter things. My mom has Stage 4 Melanoma so her time left with us is limited. Exactly how limited, we don’t know. Now my absences from blogland both in posting and visiting make a bit more sense. Anyway…mom is determined to live what life she has left on her own terms which I highly praise her for.

She has a good friend in her building that has taken a big sister role in her life. She is such a sweet lady and I am so grateful for their friendship. I wanted to show some appreciation to her and put my nervous energy to a creative use.

(Note the wine glass as my beverage for T stands for Tuesday)

 I think it turned out pretty well and when I delivered it to her apartment I learned that yellow is her favorite color! I love it when things work out that way.

I also got my plants started…well some of them. I still want to start a few more.

I used old kid cups that were just going to hit the recycle bin as my planters. I literally had them in hand over the bin when I realized they could be used for my seedlings. I just drilled a couple holes in the bottom for drainage and ta-da…mini pots.

You may also notice the markers in each pot. I cut down container lids and wrote on them with sharpie marker. Since it’s April (Earth month) I thought I’d point out those little recycling tips.

Now just about a week later I have this! 

Do not adjust your screens….that is the full spectrum UV light you see in action. The different color LED’s all combine to cast a pinkish purple light and obviously the plants love it!

On Thursday last week the kids and I drove to Fargo, ND. We spent the night in a hotel before taking a tour of NDSU in the next morning. J said he thought it was a little too big for his taste but is still planning to apply since they have really good guaranteed scholarships for students with high GPA and ACT scores. Fingers crossed that he does well on the ACT this month. Mini-me said she didn’t like NDSU at all. Ok…check that one off the list for potential schools for her.  I, myself, spent a brief time at NDSU as a freshman. The campus has certainly changed since then.

I also did some work on this painting.

I am letting it sit for a few days to decide if its done or not. I’m thinking it is…what do you think?

Today has a repairman coming out for my stove. Luckily I called in just days before the warranty was to expire. Also lots of phone calls and emails to take care of since I pretty much took yesterday off. I really needed a breather day after last week.

What are you doing today?

T stands for Tuesday

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T Tuesday: chaos continues edition

Hello…thank you for continuing to visit my blog each week especially since my posts have become weekly…nowhere even close to daily as I would like. Evidently I am in a season of life that has me focused outward instead of inward. My mom is having some health issues so between her flurry of appts and my own children throwing curve balls at me…I’ve been in clinics, hospitals and ER’s more often than not lately. I’m feeling a bit run down myself today to be honest. Running on adrenaline will eventually cause you to crash. Never the less I am here. I am not even going to pretend that I am going to make it around to everyone this week…or even perhaps next. Sorry about that.

Anyway…enough of those things that are out of my control…and on with the post.

I took a bit of time yesterday to prep a new art journal and actually work in it. It was so much fun to create. I know I’ve said that dozens of times but it is always true! 

Playing with layers and getting the pages soaking wet to watch the color bleed has been very therapeutic in some strange way.

Since Spring is officially here it’s past time to think about starting my seeds.  Over the weekend Mr. G came up with a plan to enclose the plant cart since we purchased a new full spectrum light. Evidently some of the light is UV and will damage eyes.  We honestly weren’t as concerned about our eyes as big, dumb Marvin. The plant cart is a favorite perch and in addition he has a love affair with plastic. Guess what!?! I keep my seedlings in a big plastic tote. We were afraid of Marvin going blind from the UV light as he obsessively licked the plastic tote. Not even kidding.

It’s not the prettiest thing but it will keep all the eyeballs safe and still grow plants. The side facing the outdoors is removable so I can let the plants get natural light during the day and of course be able to water and monitor their progress. I promise I’ll share more once I actually get the seeds started.

Tuesday holds a pre-op appt for mom and something fun..lunch with some girlfriends. Super excited to see those girls!

As I’m writing this I hear lots of birds outside…I look and there is a flock of robins. I quickly snapped a photo and was able to distinguish 7 but honestly I counted at least 20 out there within my sight. I guess the robins have decided that Spring is here as well!

What are you doing today?

T stands for Tuesday

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T Tuesday: cats edition

Last week for T stands for Tuesday I had wanted to share a video with you. I am 99% sure it will work but first I want to give you a little back story.

We have a stray cat that keeps coming around. It’s really friendly to a point…such as it rubs itself all over you but if you pet it “improperly to its standards” it will spit at you. I have yet to figure out if its a boy or girl or if it still has front claws. Close inspection is definitely not allowed with this one.

pumpkin

Look at it’s funny tail. It’s curly like a pug dog. So weird and cute at the same time. We’ve taken to calling it Pumpkin for the gender neutral name. We do feed and water Pumpkin when he visits usually once a week. It comes when I call to it so it makes me think that it has a home but for goodness sake…keep it inside then.

Marvin is an inside only cat so these two have only met through the window screen. I think Pumpkin wants to be friends….

[KGVID]http://www.halleshobbies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/catmeeting.mp4[/KGVID]

We’re thinking about building some sort of shelter for it as we are not sure if this cat has a safe and warm place to overwinter. Since Pumpkin is quite feral and possibly belongs to someone we hesitate to bring him in as well as the fact that we know nothing about his health.

We are in search of another kitten though. We’ve visited a few and fell in love more than once. Who can resist a fluffy, playful kitten?!?

I’m battling a sore throat currently…more tea with honey and lemon is in order.

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What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: garden art edition

For several weeks I’ve been meaning to share a little garden art piece. Last week I didn’t even make it for T stands for Tuesday.  In my defense, last Tuesday didn’t even seem like Tuesday since Monday was the Independence Day holiday. Enough with the excuses and on with the project.

I used a strand of memory wire, beads and a fishing swivel to create this whimsical edition to my flower garden. I started out with a wildly random color assortment but didn’t love it. After some thought, I decided on blue, white and silver. I felt this combo would contrast nicely with the surrounding greenery.

suncatcher

I was really hoping the fishing swivel would make it twirl in the wind. So far it hasn’t seemed to spin. Perhaps if there were something flat or paddle shaped at the end instead of a faceted bead it would have enough wind resistance to spin. Oh well….

I must also mention this was a stash busting project. Absolutely no cost. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

It’s a good thing to since I was saving my pennies to buy a set of these pretty copper mugs for our new favorite summer drink.

Moscow mule

So pretty and the customary vessel for a Moscow mule. By keeping the copper mugs in the freezer they retain the cold for much longer.  You have to be careful with this vodka and ginger beer concoction though….they go down quick but sneak up on you. Don’t even ask how I know that one.

I have errands on my list this morning but I’ll be around to check in with the rest of the T stands for Tuesday gang later.

What are you doing today?

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