In my never ending quest to do all the nonmeat millennial foods I did a unicorn frappe. I didn't love it. I'm not sure if I did it wrong or if its just too sour for me but meh...
On the other hand the pickled onions for sandwiches tuned out great and I love them and now want a veggie burger.
The garden is giving us delicious stuff now and finally finally tomato season is upon us.
In Hawaii news: fence is up wild boars are captured and strange brown avocados are tasty.
One of the major advantages to working in Frederick still is that I am still able (if i work a few extra bits here and there) to take long lunches to see my qiagroup for lunch.
I got to also try the Red Robin impossible burger which was fantastic and reminded me of a griller.
Significant work was done on the archery backstop project.
I did post-hole digging and more brush clearing and a bit of measuring and leveling and then got some help for the parts I couldn't do alone. It was very hot but I am proud of myself.
I told the kids they would have no screens in August.
I felt like they were getting too much brain rot for all the youtube and games.
The first week was rough.
Kiernan decided to distract himself with a cool project of his own. He was reading a book on catapults and decided to build one.
I gave him an old IKEA kids char for scrap wood and he spent a few days designing and building.
I am very impressed by this thing.
It makes me want to build a few out of pvc pipe and have epic pillow fights.
At work we got a spiffy new sign. If you saw the last blog entry you can see a video of what we are doing.
Mom and I took the kids to D.C. for some great food and museum time.
It was amazingly hot but really great.
I love the natural History museum. Megan was most interested in the gems and minerals and Kiernan was really into the human origins section.
He got hot and headachy and we went home pretty quickly figuring that it was his usual head/stomach stuff but no. He had a fever and was listless for about 2 or 3 days thereafter.
I made some Danish style porridge. It took a great deal of hunting around to find rye flakes.
Its a good porridge and I already like oatmeal and cream of wheat and grits so it was nice to get a healthy mix to add to my hot cereal selections. I have been adding trail mix to it in the mornings and feeling virtuous.
I made some wonderful gazpacho and mom made some great ratatouille and we had all the summer vibes.
David did some wood-fill on his current project guitar.
We finished up the back stop.
We measured out the distances and had a go.
I am super happy with the lack of arrow loss and damage.
Yay!
Goat cheese crostini and tomato sandwiches and more gazpacho
Megan had a week of summer camp at her new dance studio. She had a blast and it distracted her from no screens.
Look at her go!
She also got a new mermaid tail.
I got Kiernan out to shoot with me.
We were eaten up by mosquitoes.
They are dirty rats.
We went to Scearce's for Licia's birthday cake but wound up with all chainsaw and no cake.
A big limb fell from one of the tulip poplars near the house.
I'm worried about one of those trees coming down on the house. I wish they would get a tree guy in to take down all the stuff that is close enough to smash things.
I love those woods but this is not the first big limb to come down this year.
Kathryn's mom gave us great garden produce.
Necessitating fried green tomato night.
My yard had gotten into a shambly overgrown mess.
I decided to let the kids buy back some screen time by doing yard work.
When I left in the morning Kiernan was getting ready to weed and mulch the front bed.
The kids and mom did some good weeding.
I got a text from mom a few hours later.
Megan had found snake eggs in the mulch pile.
They were pretty small and so they moved the eggs and some mulch back to the back lot.
They were nonvenomous and i think they were Eastern Ratsnakes because of the geometric pattern on the back and because I have seen a largish black snake near the mulch pile previously.
The kids got a play-date on that same day with Alex and Sophia.
There are videos of both but in one Kiernan and Alex stare at the camera and in the other this happens!
Megan feel to sleep on the couch at about 7pm for that huge day.
We went for a family meal out to burger king to try out the impossible whopper.
Three of us got the burger and Megan got fries and a shake.
I decided to pretend the grill was not populated by real burgers also and got the flame broiled version. I was interested to see if I would like the char.
I liked it OK. The impossible burger is definitely better than their other veggies burger but it was not as good as the Red Robin version of the same thing.
I feel like its all in the sauce.
Kiernan has been taking private violin lessons over the summer while school and band are out.
His teacher is named Mr. Diggs and is fun. He is teaching the Suzuki method so the book and the songs are different. He has improved Kiernans bow hold a good bit and is giving him many more things to play. If we keep up the lessons through the school year there will be a recital near Christmas.
So far so good.
Kiernan has been asked to play along with YouTube videos of some of his songs and Megan got a list of math apps she is supposed to use the the no screen August is officially over.
They still have to earn the extra screen time though.
My handy dandy garden girl went out with her Nana and gout us some potatoes.
I made my tow favorite kinds of potato salad and had a head to head taste off.
The German potato salad won hands down.
David power washed the siding one weekend and then started washing and painting he deck the next.
Did I mention its super hot?
Earlier in the summer the boxwood bushes by the door got a nest of yellow-jackets in them and Megan got stung when she opened the door. So David got all Conan the barbarian on the boxwood's and when I came home they were in shreds on the mulch pile.
I have been thinking for weeks about what to replace them with.
I read an article recently called Eat Your Yard . I love food and so the idea had merit. I have been looking at my poor fig tree that never gets enough sun in my shady yard and barely gets enough heat. I remembered how great the fig at Dad and Marys place in Hyattsville was. Once dad told me that a lot of that was due to the radiateive heat of the brick wall he planted it by.
So we have gone fig.
I think I would like to start landscaping with more edibles.
The problem here is that I am lazy. I want perennials that are beautiful and low maintenance and give me foods that I actually want to eat.
If you guys think of anything with the same profile as an azalea bush for hanging Christmas lights on do let me know.
I am also thinking in my usual prepper way about rising food costs and global warming so toss ideas about those things my way as well.
More furniture moving and deck power washing took place but now the power washer is doing something weird and so a pause in the deck project.
Since the kids and mom did such a good job with the front bed I decided to have a go at the back bed.
I managed to get it completely weeded and to pull all the poison ivy.
As it turns out I am no longer immune to poison ivy.
I was wearing gloves but have a fair bit on my arm...right next to the mosquito bites. Ahhh gardening.
Still yet things look much better and the figs are in and the mulch pile is snake egg free and the potential of future fruit harvest is strong.
In wonderful news Kelsey has arrived at her new job just a few buildings over from mine and I have a wonderful lunch mate.
So much Yay!
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