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!

 

My favorite holiday: Dan's Birthday

We celebrated Dan's birthday this past month.  His birthday falls on 7/11 and if we were near a 7Eleven, we would celebrate it by getting free slurpies...but alas, there aren't any nearby. 

 

We woke up and found some birthday presents for Dan in the chicken coop.  Our chickens started laying!  The first day we started out with only two, but one was a double yolk. 

 

 

 

Dan went and worked on the house for a little while, while I made him a cake (which turned out to be pretty rough...).  I know how much he loves oatmeal raisin cookies, so I had the grand idea to make an oatmeal raisin cheesecake.  It wasn't so bad, but then when he came home, I tried to light 31 candles (the trick kind, that keep coming back after being blown out).  Basically, the cake was covered with ashes and wax by the time Dan blew them out.  Oh, and the kitchen smelled like smoke.  You can't have everything turn out perfectly...that's the lesson I learned.  haha.  We went out to a late lunch at a place nearby called the Log Jam. 

 

Then we decided we'd try out the boat we just bought.  We got a good price on this jon boat and I bought two lifejackets for us.  We tried her out on the canal, since the water is smooth there, and nothing unexpected would happen. 

 

Dan has rowed a boat before but it was a long time ago.  After a bit, he got the hang of it. 

 

He finally convinced me to get in.  I was a little nervous because the boat leaks a tiny bit of water. 

 

It was very relaxing- for me.  Maybe not so much for Dan. 

 

On our way home, Dan took us the long way on the scenic route which is a dirt road. 

When we came to a sharp turn, I saw that there was an old cemetery there.  We stopped and looked around. 

 

Quite a few of the markers were revolutionary war soldiers.  Dan walked through this brush and section of trees and saw that there was a back part of the cemetery hidden from the road.  We found that these were the markers of prisoners who had died in the prison right down the road.  Most of them just have numbers, no names. 

 

It was a nice day, besides the cake mishap.  Forgive me, because I am behind in my posts.  I need to catch up, so I'll be making a few posts in these next few days. Bear with me! 

 

The expanding Shedd "Farm"

The week before Easter, Dan and I went to TSC to get some supplies for the house.  Well, I sat in the car while he went in to get the supplies, because I was ashamed to be seen in public with the paint-laden clothes I was wearing. 

After what seemed like a unusually long period of time, Dan came out with the things, and said "They have little chickens for sale!!! Can I get some!?"

 

We've talked about getting some chickens, but I was thinking we would get them as layer hens, not as chicks.  But Dan looked so excited at the prospect of having some new pets that I couldn't say no. 

 

Because the chicks were already growing feathers and losing their down, this particular batch of them was on sale for $1/each.  I told Dan that he may as well get 20 of them, because in my experience, usually a few die. 

 

None have so far though!

 

We got them home and Dan made little houses for them with big cardboard boxes and a quaker oats can to connect the boxes. 

 

 

 

This is the first time Dan has raised chicks, so he was very excited.  He named all twenty of them and initialed their feet to remember each one.  I just laughed and told him that the marker would wear off in no time. 

 

This is a picture of Dan holding his favorite chicken, Susie. 

 

I think it was the next day that Dan started building a chicken coop outside behind the shed.  He drew up plans for it, bought materials and started building it right away.   

 

These are a few pictures I took just yesterday of the chickens.  They are growing like weeds!

 

And Dan has nearly finished the outside coop. 

 

He even installed motion-sensor lighting.  The door on the far left is going to be the access door to their nesting area.  It will be connected to a rope so that we can close it at night to keep the chickens in. 

The window in the middle will have a screen in the summer time, for ventilation and a breeze to blow in at night. 

 

This will be the door, when it is finished. 

 

Dan just started putting up the chicken wire two days ago.  It will definitely be completed  by next week. 

 

And I just have to show you the laying boxes.  When I gather eggs, I'll be able to just open up this panel on the outside!

 

 

This big panel on the back part of the coop will be so that we can more easily clean out the nesting area.  Hopefully you can view these videos okay. 

 

 

 

Now that we have chickens, we are hoping to try a goat next.  I'm longing to go to a livestock auction in the area and find a little goat.  We visited a lady a few weeks ago on a church visit and she was showing us her goats and Dan started really wanting a little goat.  So who knows what will be next here on the Shedd "farm"!?