Not a lot of chit chat this post as we have company.   Yes, the photo below is of hail.  The hail netting held.

My great pumpkin.  A little battle scarred.

 

We took the 1880 train today.  It is always a nice trip.  

Hope you had a good week.   Ours was filled with family, food, and adventures. 

Midnight Tryst...

 With my new job title comes some of the same job duties as my previous job.  As I did in December, I got the opportunity to take one of my students to a leadership conference in Washington DC.  He had never really been out of South Dakota and not had the joy of flying.  It was wonderful to be able to see the wonder and excitement he got from this experience.

It was in DC that I met my new love... The Midnight Tryst Hibiscus.  What a beauty.  Although the museums are pretty much closed when the conference ended, the gardens are always open.  While my student was on a bus tour with other students.  I was drawn back to the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden that I had enjoyed when I went in December.  The garden didn't disappoint.  There is nothing more energizing to me than to sit quietly in the middle of our nation's capital and enjoy the plethora of beauty the Smithsonian's gardeners create.

Not only was there the Midnight Tryst, but also the Hidden Valley Hibiscus (below) tucked away in the middle of a scented garden.  Jasmine, magnolias, moonflowers, trumpet vines, and flowers I didn't even know existed created a perfect haven.  I will never be able to grow any of those, but I do know I can grow a hibiscus.  I drag them in when temperatures drop and try to be kind when I put them out again in the spring.  I don't know where I will tuck this beauty in amongst my 30+ houseplants, but I am determined to find one.

Do you see the delicate moonflowers?  They were everywhere.  I may have to give them a try next year.  This birdhouse is still my favorite.  

All journeys must end and ours did with a very turbulent airplane ride from Denver to Rapid City.  The joy of flying was pretty tongue-in-cheek, because my student was less than impressed.  Luckily it was on the last flight.  I don't know if I could talked him into boarding another plane if we had had such a flight at the beginning of our adventure.  

As if it knew it had competition, my hibiscus had several vibrant blooms when I came home.  Maybe it is afraid I won't still have room for it.  My vegetable garden is doing great.  I have high hopes of winning the giant pumpkin competition this year.  Here is the leading candidate.  A little scarred up, but still going strong. Also please notice, my corn is tasseling hardly a foot from the ground.  Anxious to see how that turns out.

My husband did a great job of keeping my gardens watered and the deer away.  Of course, he knows that anything that dies in his care will be replaced.  He did such a good job this eggplant came out of nowhere.  It wasn't forming when I left and then 5 days later here it is in all of its glory.  A friend gave me the most amazing eggplant parmesan recipe and I'm dying to use it with one from my garden.  

The fruit and berry portion of my garden is extremely lacking this year, but we do have a beautiful crop of apples.  This is my first harvest from my 6-year-old Zestar tree.  Yes, 6 years I've waited for an apple from it.  It was worth the wait.  They are very sweet and juicy.  We peeled them and froze 4 bags for pies, 3 bags for crisp, and made one crisp.  I used the peels and a few leftover apples to make caramel apple jam.

Speaking of food I have to share this awesome Pinterest recipe.

Chopped Italian Sandwich | In Good Flavor

Take lettuce, tomatoes, banana peppers, green peppers, lettuce, red onion, mozzarella cheese, peperoni, cooked sausage, ring sausage, and black olives.  Chop it up like nobody's business.  Then add a glob of mayonnaise, Dejon mustard, and Italian dressing.  Sprinkel with salt and pepper. Chop up and mix together and then put on a toasted or untoasted sub.  It is delicious and a extremely flavorful. 

It may not look pretty, but I promise it is tasty.  Just don't forget to add the Dejon mustard.  It gives it that extra zing.  

I am forever thankful for my life.  To be able to help a young man see what is beyond his boundaries was wonderful.  To find peace in the middle of a huge city, to have a husband who supports my travels and keeps my garden going while I'm gone, and then to come home and realize what a beautiful haven we have created brings me great joy. 

What are you thankful for?  Is there a destination that you look forward to visiting?  What is something about today that brought you joy?

Despite everything...

 I really have no idea how homesteaders did it back in the day.  Here it seems like it is always something.  The does are munching their way through my flower beds, garden, and now they are jumping into the orchard and chowing down.  There is no fear.  Do these two look scared? They are just upset I'm interrupting their breakfast. 

This little fguy is following right into his mom's footsteps.  He is just looking for something to nibble on and if you look below, you can see he found it.  Argh.

My husband and I put our heads together and came up with a solution for the hail hammock.  We put sticks with tennis balls in the middle and voilà, no longer a problem.  How do I know?  Because again with the hail.  As I said in the title of this post, despite everything I garden.

These two little fuzz balls were enjoying the pollen.

Yesterday, my husband and I went to a farm supply store.  When we came out of the store this fella below was on his back.  Of course, I didn't tell him that he was giving a ride to a praying mantis, until after I had relocated it.  How it found him in the store is beyond me.  I would have taken a picture of it on his back, but I feared my husband wouldn't find that amusing.  Funny part was we went to another store and when we came out, he had a ladybug on him.  I guess he was the bug whisperer.  We figure his green shirt gave them hope for something outdoorsy and they were right, as it got them out of the stores.  

That is all I know this week.  I am going to a conference in Washington DC this week.  Between the deer and hail, I don't know what will be left of my garden.  When I go on trips, I make my husband sign a contract that he will replace any plants that die under his care.  I always hope I will end up with a trip to the garden center when I return, but the truth is he is better about watering things than I am.  

What are your garden woes? What battles do you wage during the summer months?  

Summer slowly simmers...

 Summer slowly simmers.  The fawns are braver, and we see them quite often.  This picture is about the only time they have been still.  Usually, they have the zoomies and running in circles like their tails are on fire.

I was going for a walk and wandered into these little turkey polts.  They scattered everywhere.  You should hear them peeping to their moms.  It is like little radars underneath the fern leaves.  

The sky was pretty hazy due to fires.  It does make for some pretty sunsets.  

We had a terrible hailstorm last week.  It hailed for about 20 minutes.  Nothing big just pea and marble sized, but it went on for what seemed like forever.  My flowers didn't fair very well but seem to be recovering. 

I was pleasantly surprised with the hail covers over my vegetable bed.  Everything was saved.  I might have to come up with a way for the hail to slide off instead of weighing down my cover.  That is its first real test and it passed with flying colors.  As you can see below, my crab apples and apple trees took things pretty hard.  We had to rake the apples up and throw them below the cabin, because the deer were in the yard every day eating them.  That wouldn't be so bad, but they were using my hollyhocks, black-eyed Susan's, and phlox as an appetizer.  

We had the most amazing Sunday dinner today.  I cooked up the morel mushrooms with butter and garlic powder.  My husband smoked some of last year's deer backstraps.  There were plenty of beans in the garden, thanks to the hail screen.  I fried up some bacon then used the grease to sauté the beans, okra, and red onion.  Added a few garlic cloves, salt, and pepper and volia, a meal fit for a king.  Best of all, with the exception of the bacon it was all harvested by us.  To top it off I had a glass of homemade chokecherry wine.  Life is good.

The bees aren't enjoying the hot weather.  Their hives are now 5 boxes tall.  I have a feeling there will be a plethora of honey to share.

I did have a few flowers survive the storm.  I'm shocked that a small group of sunflowers survived as they are quite tall and the wind was coming from every direction. 

I had to sneak up on this butterfly.  It took several tries before I finally was able to get some good photos.  He matched the marigolds perfectly.

What a fabulous sunset.  It is motorcycle rally time here.  Even at 9:18 there is a constant roar.  We are 5 miles from the nearest paved road, but sound carries.  Life flight has been over our cabin about 4 times already since last weekend, and it doesn't start until this weekend. 

Do you get a lot of hail?  Do you have motorcycle rally's or something as annoying in your area?  Hope your summer is moving along nicely.