A garden study...

 

I hope you enjoyed the photos.  I sure enjoyed wandering around the garden capturing all of the amazing things.  

Wind and rain...

 It was a cold rainy weekend.  Those tend to be perfect for taking pictures.

The bumblebees are loving the bee balm.  It seems like a lot of work.

I have a ton of carrots.  All different kinds purple, orange, and white.  I like slicing them into strips, lightly coat them with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Parmesan cheese.  Broil at 400 degrees until soft.  Yummy.

The turkeys come and the turkeys go.  What they are looking for I don't know.

I had fun running around under an umbrella taking pictures in the rain.

I'm super happy with the butterfly/bee bed.  Doesn't it look gorgeous?

My Jackmanii Clematis is blooming like crazy.  

I'm pretty pleased with the gardens this year.  All the timely rain has made it an enjoyable season.  

My beans are doing great.  We love sauteing them in bacon grease with some onions and garlic cloves.  Perfect with a deer steak.

I did get quite a bit of house cleaning done with all the wind and rain.  What is your favorite garden fare?  What is your go to recipe for your fresh vegetables?

Summer starts to fade to fall...

 We had 3 inches of rain.  It has felt like fall.  We have been blessed by having quite a bit of company lately.  My brother was here in time to celebrate his birthday.

The herbs and garlic were ready to harvest.  I'm not pleased with the size of the garlic bulbs.  I will try something different next year.

There has been a tremendous amount of wildlife around.  As you can see, we have fawns.  I like how the photo above turned out.

I was lucky enough to get up close to the bighorn sheep and see their little ones.

This doe has decided my yard is her salad garden.  I can walk right up to her and it doesn't drive her away.

I can't blame her for being hungry.  She has a set of twins and someone keeps dropping off an extra fawn for her to feed and watch.

There are also a several turkey hens and poults.  They are getting big.

Bumblebees are everywhere.  It is fun watching them lazily wander from flower to flower.

We have had a lot of rain.  There is nothing more majestic than a thunderhead.

The chipmunks plant sunflowers everywhere.  This one in the greenhouse is perfectly placed.

Meet the winning giant pumpkin.  He is making great progress.  I just hope it doesn't pull the garden fence down.

The honeybees are incredible.  The hive is five boxes high.  The beekeeper said it is going to be a stellar year.

I couldn't choose between the last two photos, so I posted them both.  We are really enjoying the cool fall like weather.  

What is the weather where you are?  What wildlife are you seeing.  Do you have bees?

Aunt Bonnie's...

 If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you know that in the summer the nieces spend time with Aunt Bonnie.  It used to be a week, but as they get older they get busier and we take what we can get.

What happens at Aunt Bonnie's you may ask?

We always do a project.  Sometimes they are successful and sometimes they aren't.  The cement stepping stones exceed our expectations.

The girls have modge podge at home and were going to try to seal the colors in.  

Some sort of water activity is also tradition.  We used to wade in the water, now it is tubing.  I didn't think there was a big difference in size between my Willy's Jeep and my Rubicon, but there is.  We were able to get 5 people and 5 tubes in the Willy and can barely get 4 people and 3 tubes in the Rubicon.  Boo...

It did my heart good when the first thing the ladies said when they arrived is what should we make for the picnic? They immediately chose their recipes. 

 Kelly and Haley went for Fluffernut Cookies: https://cookiesandcups.com/fluffernutter-cookies/.  They turned out great, but we forgot the one rule of any peanut butter cookie at high altitude and that is add 1/4 cup of flour and lower the temperature by 25 degrees. They were a little flat, but tasted fantastic.

Taylor and I were team Jell-O and made some refreshing orange jello with orange slices.  There is nothing more refreshing at a picnic than jello in a jar.

Sierra took a risk with a chai cookie recipe: https://www.tastesoflizzyt.com/spiced-chai-sugar-cookies/. We were very skeptical and it took a bit to get used to them, but they were a winner.

Sierra made us a much needed trash can cabinet in her shop class. It makes me feel good to have something made by her in the cabin.

We went to the Days of '76 rodeo, played quite a few games of bean bag toss, and made s'mores buy the fire table.  The s'mores was cut short when the table started smoking.  There seems to be a design flaw.

It is hard to believe that the oldest is off to college soon.  Time certainly flies.  

I always look forward to our adventures and appreciate the little time I have with them.

It has been an amazing year filled with family and friends.  I count my blessings.  What family activities have you participated in this summer?