Homemaking Mondays: Gardens and Adventures

Hello! 

This week has been full of harvesting the garden.  

Fall is upon us and the garden is finishing up. 

We have been pulling carrots and a few potatoes

along with most of the rest of our greens aside from the kale. 

It likes the cold and it's growing amazing this year. 

Some of the root veggies are hardening off in the soil for a week or two more.  

Then they'll store better.  

I don't have a lot as my garden wasn't too big but it's 

nice to have some healthy organic food for my family. 

Below I have my mint bed.  

This is the first year that I've planted mint outside and it seems to like it. 

Not sure how it will overwinter 

so I did take a few cuttings and started them indoors.

We have lots of resident squirrels about our place and this one likes to hang out by the front door.  This day our dog chased it up on the side of the house. 

His name is Little Red and he lives in the trees by the garage we think.

There was one day that the rain stopped for a bit and I

took a couple of my kids and we went on a picnic. 

It wasn't far, just across the lake. 

We climbed out into some mud flats by the springs that feed the lake.

It was very wet with little tufts of grass that we hopped around on. 

Up further we had mounts where grew some 

Labrador tea, small evergreens, scrub birch, willows, and blueberry bushes. 

The fall colours are erupting and it's so beautiful! 

There were little pools coming down from the springs in places. 

I liked this section with which looked like little stepping stones in it. 

There were multiple  places where springs came out of the hill and made their way 

down to the water's edge.  Some were running, and other's seeping.

The clouds were beautiful over the mountain.  

That is the shore we explored. 

It may not look like much...

but it held some very interesting little finds. 

There is beauty in every place. 

This week I've been making more jam. 

Making room in the freezer for other things. 

Lessons are going well with the children and it is good 

to have new things to learn. 

We've been scouting the cranberry patches. 

They are low bush cranberries.

Soon...very soon they'll be ready to pick and then there will be a feast of them.

This year they have grown so well. Yum! 

Dehydrating the last of the herbs and flowers. 

There is a lovely stash of tea for this coming winter. 

Below are the ones that I collected myself. 

There are calendula petals, spruce tips, red raspberry leaves,

fireweed leaves, rose petals, yarrow flowers, chamomile flowers, and mint.

I am not drying most of my mint as I like it fresh better. 

I like herbal teas on their own, but sometimes mix them with some 

black (orange pekoe) tea. 

Thank you for dropping by!  

Love and Prayers,

Jennifer