Random Busyness of Summer

At first i had written the title b u s i n e s s .  Then i looked at it and said that is not busyness it is business.  Oh so business is busyness.  Imagine that! :)

It has been a very busy summer.  I surely haven’t kept up on the blog here. I apologize to those who have stopped by looking for a cute new project like: the Portable Office or my Pinterest Inspired Projects.  Maybe you were looking one of the Yummy Recipes .  I've gotten myself somewhat organized…  It is quite the process when you have been unorganized for awhile.  ;)

Now you will have to be patient with me while I get my blog in order over the next few weeks.  I am going to be doing some rearranging on here too.  I am really excited to try some new things here and on Pinterest too.  So if you haven’t started following me on Pinterest, you might want to.  I will also be giving away several selections of e-books, covering quite a few different subjects.  I also see also see a Facebook Page in my future. ;)

But for now here is a random collection of Summer Busyness.

Wild Blueberry Picking

The wild blueberry bushes in the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan are quite low.  So if you are envisioning domestic blueberries where large jumbo blueberries grow on high bushes.  Think again, it took 2 ½ hours to pick this large bowl of blueberries.  

The picking bucket that I used was a 4 quart ice cream bucket.  I told myself that I couldn't stop until I filled it!  And I didn't stop until I did.  It involves a lot of crawling around on the ground, or a whole lot of stooping and bending.  I’m a crawler.  My grandson had so much fun on our little excursion.  His Mom packed us a nice little lunch of fruit, yogurt, and sandwiches, and drove us of on our adventure in the RZR!  He really loves that!  Off to pick blueberries with his Mom & Mimi.  Blueberries are his favorite; he ditched his bucket right away and just started grazing.  

The Chickens Started Laying Eggs!

The chicken coop has had it's share of troubles this summer.  We lost 12 hens when they were only about 8 weeks old.  We still aren't sure what was getting our young hens, but we think that it was probably a couple of Ravens.  My hubby had a 22 bullet with their name on it!  We still haven't figured out what kind of hen our tiny little hen is.  But she is such a pet.  She follows my husband around like a dog would.  And even though we have repaired the fence and covered the top of the run she still finds a way to get out into the big world every day.  My husband calls her Whodini!  The two hens that we have left are laying eggs and we are planning on adding 4 hens and a rooster to the flock for the winter.

Grandsons' Garden Harvest

Remember those cute little plant starters that we did for Mother's Day Project.  Well things finally grew here in the U.P. once the weather warmed up.  But it really wasn't a good year for gardening here.  Some is better than none though.  And we are still getting stuff too, so it definitely wasn't a total loss.  Just to see his happy little face picking peas was worth any and all efforts.  Here are a couple pictures of him with his little harvest.

Zucchini Cucumbers and Peas

He Loves Peas!!

Cucumbers Are Pretty Good Too!

 

Mimi's Tomatoes

A couple years ago we found some Black Cherry Cherry Tomatoes.  They are so sweet and delicious .  We couldn't find them anywhere last year.  But we did find some this spring at the feed mill in Pickford.  They usually have a nice little greenhouse set up and they always have great deals on bulk seeds.   Check out the size of the Black Cherry variety as opposed to the regular ones.

Black Cherry Cherry Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes

Largest of Each!

Help with the Fruit Flies...

If you ever get fruit flies while you are ripening fruit or veggies...  they love tomatoes.  I used a recycled Chobani yogurt container with a clear plastic lid.  Poke holes in the top of the lid, add a quarter cups of apple cider vinegar to the container, put the perforated top on and there you have it a Fruit Fly Trap!  Just discard the whole thing when you have caught all the little critters. 

Fruit Fly Trap