Cruising on Lake George

Well, it's so hard to believe that September is here already!  I had so many things to post about in the month of August, but kept forgetting. So these next few posts will consist of our August adventures.  It works out perfectly too, since we have nothing planned for the month of September except work, work, and more work on the fixer upper. 

 

 

We went to a sporting goods store a few weeks ago to see if we could get an infant lifevest for Gwendolyn so we can take her out in our little row boat.  While we were there, we found this decapitated mannequin sitting in a kayak outside the store.  How odd...

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, we were able to go on an island cruise of Lake George.  We have been on the Minne-ha-ha multiple times, but this was our first time doing the island cruise.  One of the ladies from our church gave us the tickets. 

We cruised right on passed the Sagemore hotel.  It's a pretty beautiful place.  We enjoyed guessing how much the mansions along the lake must cost.  It's a pretty ritzy area.  

 

This new woodcarving depicts the settling of the Adirondacks. 

While we were on the Mohican, we were surrounded by strangers who kept giving us baby advice.  They must have thought I was a bad mother, because nearly the whole trip they spent telling me I should hold Gwendolyn a certain way or should have had a hat for her, or we should be inside the boat rather than on the deck in the shade....etc.   Aside from that, it really was a very nice boat ride. 

 

Right before we came back into Lake George, it started raining. 

 

 

Another thing we've done lately is to attend our town band concerts in the park.  The local, free newspaper comes out every week with a calendar of events (free or otherwise) and I've begun trying to find different things to attend in the community for free.  For such a small town, Granville really has quite a nice band!  They performed in the park three Sunday afternoons in a row.  We were able to go to 2 of them.   

 

 

Sadly, they are poorly attended and most attendees are over the age of 65.  Gwendolyn was the center of attention each time because people are so happy to see a young family attending. 

 

 

And the last bit of news...our garden! 

 

I know I've posted a bunch of times about our garden, and some of you all grow huge gardens (or you even farm for a living!) so feel free to skip this part as I'm sure it's somewhat repetitive. 

We are proud of our garden for several reasons.

1. It's our first successful garden

2. Everyone told us our garden wouldn't do well because of our location

3. I haven't had to buy (and won't have to buy all winter) any vegetables from the store. 

 

 

Our tomatoes are basically one gigantic shrub.  They were planted much too close together, so it's impossible to walk between them.  We attempted to string them up with stakes and twine, but they're so heavy that the plants are all laying in a heap anyway.  Despite all this, we've already harvested about a half bushel of tomatoes and there are still a TON of green ones. 

 

Our watermelon, again, was planted WAY too close, and its very difficult to find the watermelons.  Also, they don't get much exposure to sun because its so bushy.  But we've already eaten three watermelon and there are about 13 more still!

I honestly thought the cantaloupe wasn't even close to being ready because they were all super small and green.  But something started eating one of them, and we saw that the inside was nearly rotten.  So we went ahead and picked three of them.  

 

This scarred, cracked one tasted terrific!

 

 

And the zucchini and squash....well....

 

 

 

 

 

We went out and bought a new chest freezer, and its completely full of squash and zucchini.  We have over 75 bags of it.  We started selling it for 25 cents each in town because we already gave some to everyone we knew and still had too much. 

 

 

And our corn did well this year too.  We planted two rows of one variety and then three weeks later, decided we wanted to plant more.  The second kind of seed, Dan got at Tractor Supply.  That second variety didn't turn out great, but I froze it anyway.   

 

 

That second variety (I don't remember the name) had purple silky stuff, not brown.  It was weird. 

 

I picked everything that was decent and spent one evening husking it all and cooking it and freezing it.  We have about 40 bags of that. 

 

This was the first variety, which looked and tasted much better...

 

 In July, Dan told me he wished he could have some okra, so I planted one packet of seeds and it came up SO well.  This picture was taken about three weeks ago, so its much bigger now.  It's almost ready to start picking.  I just have no clue what we're going to do with it all.  There's no way Dan can eat it all! :D

 

 

And of course, the chickens are still laying every day.  I started posting the eggs for sale on facebook marketplace.  Now I have a few regular egg-buyers, which is good.  We also give them to people at our church and we eat eggs every day.   

 

 

So there you have it!  Some of the things we've been doing in the month of August!  I'll post again tomorrow with news of the other adventures we've been on.  I love this time of year!