Mint is taking root!

Finally, after 2 weeks of watching, waiting, and changing water, the mint plants are taking root! I'm going to give them another day in the canning jars, and then they'll be moved into an herb garden on the deck.

I'm extremely relieved, because sometime over the last week, the wild mint patch in the front yard just... disappeared. I'm not sure if it was accidentally mowed over, or if it was trampled or destroyed by the contractors hauling equipment this week, but either way, it's gone. The cuttings I'm nurturing on my windowsill are the last ones I'll see of this variety, likely until next summer. There's got to be a good lesson on oppurtunity in there somewhere...

(By the way, that "big dog-related update" will be thoroughly blogged shortly. Yes, blogged. The English language is so crazy.)

Of hummingbirds and bugs of the day

Seriously, this moth thing has to stop - it's getting pretty bizarre. Is this just the right time of year for moths or something!?

Today I spotted one of these gorgeous creatures sipping nectar from the purple hydrangea in my back garden. (For other photos, see here, and here.) This beautiful little moth looks exactly like a ruby-throated hummingbird, right down to the green fur on its back, white belly and fluffy little tuft that looks like a bird's tail! I definitely wouldn't have recognized it as a moth if I wouldn't have encountered that trapped hummingbird in my sunroom a few weeks ago. I got such a great closeup on a real ruby-throat that this moth was pretty much unmistakable today.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and capture it for a few photos. It showed up several times today to drink nectar, so I'm pretty certain it will be back tomorrow as well!

Jasper would like to say "hello"

That's his serious face...


...And that's his not-so-serious face.

Silly Jasper! I don't know which I like better.

Oh - speaking of the dogs - I know I haven't blogged about it yet, but I have a fantastic dog-related update to post soon! Stay tuned...

Black-eyed Susans

Bug of the day, take 2

OK, what is it with me and moths lately? They seem to be cropping up regularly around here all of a sudden - and so far, both of them large, unusual, and beautiful hawkmoths (Sphinx moths).

This one was absolutely stunning, and when it flapped its wings, they buzzed in the air like a tiny hummingbird! For a little while, it perched on my hand, and its wings were beating so fast that I could feel the air current on my palm. I think it must be some kind of hummingbird moth, apparently a subset of the hawkmoths according to Google.

Like yesterday's moth, this one was found resting in the garage near the kennel. I think that the garage light, left on in the evening while I mop up, is attracting them.

I sure don't mind. They are beautiful, gentle, and a real treat to encounter and photograph. If I'm really lucky, I'll be able to attract a luna moth this way. Now THAT would be worth blogging about.

Bug of the day

Found this beautiful, huge moth sitting on the kennel door this morning when I was finished mopping. After a little research, I believe it's a Waved Sphinx moth. I just have to say, it was lucky I got him out of the kennel before he became a puppy snack...

I know I said...

...I don't have time to plan "fancy summer parties", but... apparently I do. As long as I'm not given enough time to actually THINK about planning them!

Yesterday around 1:00 PM, I got a phone call from a friend mentioning that he would be stopping by soon, and would it be OK if we had some additional company stop by later? Sure, I said! I was expecting an additional 3 - 4 people - hardly enough to call a real "party" - but it soon became apparent that we were talking more in the realm of 8 - 9 guests. Needless to say, my friend and I had to figure dinner out - quick. The rest of the afternoon turned into a delightful whirlwind of buying groceries, chopping ingredients, baking bread, and whipping up egg and chicken salad.

We ended up having 12 people over for dinner - which consisted of a "sandwich bar" (lots of lunchmeat and cheese, vegetables, bread, and sandwich salads to choose from) and assorted fruit. As the night went on, we had a blast playing badminton and cornhole out in the yard next to a blazing fire, and when it got too dark for that, we retired inside to play card games and eat cheese fondue with homemade crusty bread. (I can't say we have the most exciting home in the neighborhood, but if you come here, you can be sure you'll eat well.)

Could a Friday night possibly get any better? I think I need to have more impromptu summer parties...

On bread

I absolutely adore making homemade bread. No, I'm not a disciple of the truly authentic, labor-intense methods - although I have immense respect (and envy) for those who are. I'm more a bread machine, set-it-and-forget-it type of baker.

Ever since my cherished bread machine landed here about a year ago (via a $10 bill at a garage sale), I haven't bought a single loaf of store-bought bread. Now that I can make a custom loaf of any size and ingredients for roughly 25 cents a loaf, paying $3.00 for the premium loaves at Trader Joe's just seems like a waste of, well, dough. (OK, everybody laugh.)

Using my trusty old Breadman machine, I've made everything from spicy herbal breads, cheese breads, hearty rye, Amish sweet loaves, and cinnamon raisin. The best thing is that I only have to fill that little machine up with ingredients in the morning, and while I'm out doing my chores, the bread machine fills up with dough and the house fills up with the wonderful aroma of a bakery. It adds about 10 minutes to my morning, and since we don't eat a ton of bread here, I can get by with making a loaf every 3 days or so.

But, there are some jobs that the ol' Breadman just can't handle - namely, artisan loaves, with their distinctive cracked, bubbly, golden crusts and dense, chewy centers. I long thought that these breads were out of my league, until I picked up a copy of the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day". The title honestly reminds me of watching late-night infomercials, so at first I was very skeptical. But, after a couple of loaves, I am hooked. With a big tupperware, a baking stone, and a shallow pan of water - plus the required five minutes - I'm shocked at the quality of loaves that can be produced. Plus, it's fun to experiment with the free-form dough and various criss-cross patterns cut into the crust.

Since I couldn't possibly eat a whole, freshly-baked loaf at once (although I've definitely been tempted), one of the big hurdles I had to navigate was how to store my homemade bread. Unlike most storebought "breads" (Wonder Bread and equivalents), homemade bread doesn't have all the preservatives that keep those infamous, floppy thin slices from molding up or going stale quickly. At first, this was really hard to get used to - and I lost many good loaves to improper storage.

I wanted a bread box, but really couldn't justify the cost for a well-built wooden one, large enough to hold the quantity of bread I bake in a week. So, I had to explore alternative methods.

At first, I was advised to store the bread in my fridge. Sounds great in theory, but in practice, who really wants to eat their bread cold? The space required for a loaf of bread in the fridge is also a problem for those who have very little storage, or a lot of other bulky items already that must stay cold (bagged greens, fresh fruit, big tubs of yogurt and juice). I also found that despite experimenting, the bread always dried out on top and in the middle, with a soggy bottom crust. Not appetizing at all.

Next I tried storing the bread just out at room temperature, hidden inside a cabinet where the bugs (hopefully) wouldn't get to it. Of course, depending on how persistent (and numerous) the bugs are in the household, they could still get to the bread, which wasn't a problem for us, but could be a problem for other homes. Still, the bread dried out within a day, and became stale in less than a week. Once sliced it was, obviously, even worse.

So, I tried the exact opposite - a plastic Ziplock bag. This was a rapid disaster - within 24 hours the bag had condensation on the inside, and within 2 - 3 days mold was starting to appear. Bad, bad idea. Never again. Yuck.

Finally, I stumbled onto the best method for bread storage I've seen - it's one of those "so simple I should have known this already" things - the homely brown paper bag. Not only is it environmentally-friendly, but it also allows just the right amount of air to circulate and give the bread room to "breathe". It also absorbs excess oils from the bread, keeping it moist but not soggy. Choose a bag that's just a little big larger than the loaf itself, shake the loaf down completely into the bag, and roll the end closed. Store flat in a cool, dry place. If you notice some oil on the bag, just replace the bag to keep the bread fresh. As it gets eaten up, you can just roll the bag back tighter to continually keep storage space to a minimum.

Whew! It's a long post but I've been meaning to discuss bread-baking for awhile now. The most important thing is just to experiment - homemade bread is unbelievably cheap, so don't be afraid to try new recipes, baking times and storage methods. Before you know it, it might be one less thing you are shelling out for at the supermarket.

Quick trick for dirty dogs

When I brought Bandit inside for the night after roughhousing with his buddies in the kennel for a good part of the day, let's just say he was smelling less-than-zestfully-clean. I don't know what it is about dogs, but if there is a way for them to get dirty, muddy, smelly, or all of the above, you can be darned sure they are going to find it.

Of course, the best solution would have been to give Bandit a bath. He had just been bathed two days ago, though, and frankly the idea of going through all that again so soon was a little daunting. Plus, even though I use a very gentle natural shampoo, I don't like to overdo the bathing frequency and dry out his skin.

So, I hopped over to the kitchen and whipped up a fresh batch of my favorite stinky-dog remedy. If I was trying to market this stuff, I suppose I'd call it something like, "Hoof and Howl Farm's Funky Dog Cleansing Spray". I love it, because it's super easy to make, gets the bad odors completely out of the coat in less than five minutes, doesn't have to be rinsed out, and cuts out the hours of post-bath drying time that my thick-coated pooches have to endure.

So how exactly do you go about making this miracle spritz? It's very simple - here's my current recipe, that uses common herbs and ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen:

1 spray bottle
4 1/4 cups water (roughly equal to one bottle of spring/bottled water, if you prefer)
1 tsp dried rosemary leaves
2 tsp dried mint leaves
1 tsp vinegar

In a small saucepan, pour roughly 2 cups of the water. Add 1/2 tsp vinegar, 1 tsp dried rosemary leaves, and 2 tsp dried mint leaves to the water, then bring to a rolling boil. Boil for 2 - 3 minutes, then remove from heat. Allow to steep for another 2 - 3 minutes.

Pour the liquid into a bowl - through a strainer to catch all the rosemary and mint leaves - then add the remaining water. Once it has cooled to a reasonable temperature, pour into the spray bottle. Add remaining 1/2 tsp of white vinegar, and shake vigorously.

It's ready to use right away - always shake before using. Just spritz it all over your dog and rub dry with a towel. It doesn't smell vinegar-y at all, and has a very mild herbal scent that doesn't "perfume" your dog (it smells stronger in the bottle than on the pooch). It's just the trick for getting out mild bad odors. Oh, and rosemary is supposed to have some anti-flea and anti-insect properties as well.

Oh, and not only does it leave them odor-free, but it also leaves their coat shiny, and feeling very soft. I just spritz them all over and rub them with a towel, out in the garage before they come back into the house. It takes less than 5 minutes per dog, and believe me when I say it is time well-spent.

Gardener's pink lemonade

OK, so it's actually limeade, but in my mind that makes this even much more of a feat!

I was hoping to use up the purple basil I harvested to make pesto, but it turns out that a medium-sized handful just isn't enough to make a worthwhile amount (oops). So, I decided to crush the basil leaves and make basil lemonade, a popular herbal drink.

Off I went to the store, to get my lemonade. Amazingly, they were fresh out - so I picked up a jug of limeade instead - not much different from lemonade except for a little extra sweetness, and a tart, slightly bitter "bite" to it. I added my entire handful of crushed basil to the jug, and let it steep for the next 24 hours.

To my complete surprise, the once-green limeade had changed to a beautiful rose pink color! After straining out the leftover basil leaves, it was ready to serve. The taste is terrific - very refreshing, and the basil really mellowed out the sharpness of the limeade... this would be a great drink to serve at a summer party, in a big punch bowl with little sprigs of basil as a garnish.

As if I have the time to plan fancy summer parties... :)

No-impact agriculture

First wild mint, now wild blackberries! I found several blackberry bushes scattered throughout the front woods when I went exploring yesterday afternoon.

I harvested what was ready to come off the bush, but I think there will be days and days of picking yet before the harvest is exhausted. Gotta love that no-impact agriculture...

Chooks on the loose

For the past week or so, I've been letting the girls out every afternoon to free-range around the barn. Things progressed beautifully the first several days - the hens were content to scratch and peck around the barn, compost pile, and nearby bushes, without straying much more than 50 feet from the coop. Between our neighbor's property and ours, there is a winding little windbreak of pine trees, small decidious trees and shrubbery. Although the chickens loved scratching around in the pine needles searching for snacks, they seemed to respect the treeline and didn't try to pass through.

Starting a few days ago, they started getting a little more bold - too bold for my liking, actually. Suddenly, chickens could be spotted convening in the side yard (driving the dogs bonkers), feasting on berry bushes in the back woods, and, with much anxious hand-wringing from me, actually taking long, carefree naps under the pine trees, just laying there and looking delicious for any hungry fox or coyote that happened to stroll by. Today, they committed the ultimate chicken faux pas - holding a party on my neighbor's lawn. They decided that the windbreak wasn't such a big scary passage after all, and scampering through the woods into the big, juicy yard on the other side wasn't such a daunting task. It's not like they wouldn't come home at night (they would), but I didn't want them to bother my neighbor in any way in the meantime.

I caught them while they were still on the very edge of their property and mine, and approached, armed with a canister of chicken feed and cracked corn. With embarrassingly loud and frantic calls of "Here, chick chick chickies", that were likely heard resounding throughout the whole Township, I was able to lure them back onto the property, where I promptly shut them up in their run. Tomorrow I'll be calling my neighbor to apologize, and ask for her feelings on the occasional stray chicken showing up in her yard. They won't be free-ranging again until I have fencing put up (I have a split-rail and hotwire combo ready to be installed soon), but I imagine that there will be the occasional escapee now and then.

Incidentally, this is the same wonderful and lovely neighbor who was kind enough to gift us that huge jar of delicious raw honey a couple months ago. Their friendship is important to me, so I'd hate to see the relationship bruised over a couple of vagabond chooks.

More on mint

Remember that wild mint I mentioned? Well, today I read that propagating mint is as simple as taking a cutting and letting it root in water. Replant in soil, and voila - you have just doubled your mint population.

So, I now have a regular army of mint cuttings marching along my kitchen windowsill. (I knew I bought all those canning jars for a reason...) Time will tell if they take root, but if they do - man, if only all things were this easy.

Yes, snake photos! Story to follow.

One of the things I love the most about living here is the variety of wildlife that I get to see every day. There is nothing to brighten my day more than a chance encounter with a representative of the Great Outdoors.

Usually, these encounters take place in very unexpected ways, precisely when you're not expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen. It was definitely this way when I walked down my staircase last week, and saw one of my cats peering into the sunroom, with an incredibly confused (and maybe, a little freaked out) look on her face. My first thought was that somehow, one of the dogs had finally found a way to break out of the kennel. What else could make my cats look so concerned? To my surprise, though, when I peeked out the sunroom window, I found a hummingbird, rapidly beating her wings against the ceiling and glass doors trying to escape. Somehow, she'd flown in and couldn't figure out how to get back outside.

I sprinted outside and grabbed my good ol' fashioned bug net, and carefully propped myself up on a chair, balancing with the net just underneath the tiny little bird. I could see that it was a female ruby-throated hummingbird, and to be honest I spent a moment marveling at seeing this creature up close before I gently closed the net around her panicked body. She beat her wings against the net in a frenzy until I carried it outside, where she immediately relaxed and perched her tiny feet on the mesh. I reached in slowly, coaxed her to perch on my finger, and as soon as my hand left the mouth of the net, she was gone - buzzed up into the sky like a speeding rocket and soared over the top of the treeline. I don't think I'll ever be so fortunate to see another hummingbird that close. It was awesome.

Last night, when Byron and I were taking an evening bat-watching tour - which consists of walking to the buggiest part of the park at twilight and staying very quiet - we found more than just bats (which are incredible animals to watch, by the way). Coiled precariously on the path was a tiny Eastern milk snake, bravely poised to strike my husband's approaching shoe. I pretty much get beside myself with glee when I see a snake in the wild. It's just one of those things. So, without further ado, I swept in and scooped up the little guy, and carried him the whole way home with a huge dorky grin on my face. I got tagged three times throughout the journey, which is, of course, just a natural part of the game. It was definitely one of those times when I'm glad that I can positively identify non-venomous snakes. When I got home, I settled him into one of my own, pet snake hatchling cages for the night, with plans to photograph and release him in the morning.

True to my word, I set him free today after a few minutes of photography. He was a fiesty little guy and bit me twice more before scurrying off into the woods at the edge of our property. Not quite as friendly a creature as the hummingbird, but to me (at least), every bit as charming.

Summer herb harvesting

I took the first cuttings of herbs from the little container garden I planted back in June. They had simply exploded since planting - with just a little supplemental watering here and there. I've been checking the soil moisture daily, and to my amazement, it seems that the self-watering planter is actually working as it should! Even in dry periods, the soil has been consistently cool and moist, even the top inch. I've only had to water the planter maybe 3 times since it was planted.

I pinched a small handful of basil and thyme for myself this evening, in the hopes of making an herb bread, and a batch of purple basil pesto. There wasn't much to harvest, but since the herbs will get bushier with every vigorous pruning, I'm hoping to get quite a bit more in a few weeks.

I still have sage and oregano left untouched in the container. I'm a little apprehensive about pruning the sage, since I've read it needs to be harvested sparingly during the first year. And the oregano hasn't really grown large enough yet for me to feel comfortable taking any sprigs for myself.

Meanwhile, in two homemade planters on the kennel, I planted a variety of mints and lemon balm (which were purchased from a friendly group of authentic hippies living about an hour south - definitely an adventure, that). They are growing amazingly well, and have such a nice variety of aromas. Being the mint grower that I now am, I'm now spotting mint everywhere - I found a very healthy patch of wild mint growing along the edge of our gravel driveway near the woods this evening. Of course, I just had to break off a snippet to compare the fragrance. Well, as wild plants often do, it made the cultivated mint pale in comparison. The fragrance was incredibly aromatic and spicy, with a sharpness that the container mint lacked. I imagine the cultivated mint is probably much sweeter and better for cooking, but the wild variety would likely be incredible in candles or steeped for tea. I'm going to snip a few cuttings off tomorrow and get them to root in some water, and replant them in one of my deck containers.

There is much more to talk about other than herbs, but that will have to wait for another day. A girl can only write so much!

Wolfish jam session