It’s been a while since we had a Coronavirus update from the farm. We were able to go on a few trips in Ontario and life in general feels almost normal—as long as we wear a mask, stay away from people, and stay on this side of the border, both provincial and international.
We have to start this update with news about our too-far-away-grandpuppy. She is soooo cute and finally has a name. She also sleeps through the night and has fewer accidents during the day.
Meet Penny (AKA pretty penny)
Isn’t she adorable? Here’s another picture. She has a toy hedgehog that she loves!
The hostages are jealous and also want a dog, but they’ll have to wait until they are released from captivity. As much as we would like to have grandpuppies from both our daughters, this may not be the time to grow the family. One promiscuous daughter is enough.
In the Kitchen
We continue to have amazing dinners most nights. This one, although you can’t tell by the looks of it, was divine.
It’s deconstructed sushi, people! It looks like a hot mess, but the layers of flavours are amazing.
One exception to the amazing dinners was an attempt to replicate Gordon Ramsay’s Beef Wellington. I don’t know what you were thinking, Gordon… it was more of a Beef “under-whelmington” and it had nothing to do with my cooking. Just sayin’.
The crust was delicious though!
We also indulged on home-baked pita bread and hummus. Yes, we were planning a tip as the map to the side indicates.
We also had lots of different kind of wild mushrooms that we harvested from the forest. Some of the mushrooms, like the oyster mushrooms in the photo below, were first-time tries. The hostages didn’t care for these, especially the fishy smell when we fried them. The chickens of the wood, and coral mushrooms, on the other hand, were a hit.
In the Garden
The salad table looks like a jungle of lettuce now. We’ve been harvesting it all summer long and it’s still giving!
The cucumbers and the butternut squashes are growing nicely and the basil and oregano are lush. Lots of pesto in our future!
There were some blooms in the garden,
some of which we ate.
We installed a very crude drip irrigation system and we are very happy with the results, although lately it rained so much that there is no need to water at all.
We’ve been harvesting a steady crop of tomatoes and there are many more more tomatoes on the stalks. Fingers crossed for a long warm spring.
We had a bumper crop of raspberries, which disappeared very quickly. It looks like the squirrels are snacking on them before we can get to them. We may get only one jar of jam out of this crop this year.
Trips
Since Ontario initiated Stage 3 lifting of restrictions, we were able to manage a few trips. We took the hostages canoeing (post coming next week), we had a great 5 day trip to Northern Ontario, and we just returned from another trip to Northwestern Ontario (several posts in the works).
Play
One of the highlights of our life these days is the Toronto Star Sunday Trivia. Individually, we consider ourselves fairly smart and knowledgeable, so collectively we should be brilliant, right? The weekly trivia keeps us humble as we rarely get a perfect score with our four brains put together. Mostly because of the one pepsky sports question, but there are others…we sometimes give ourselves half points to make us feel better.
Tony and the male hostage are keeping busy with a couple of small drones. We need to get a good one that will allow us to take photos and videos from a different perspective.
Like this one. Good shot.
Good thing the batteries run out quickly, or we will never see those two again.
In the Workshop
We finally got legs for all of the tables that Tony made! We have lots of tables and it looks like we need a bigger house.
In the campervan
We figured out the reason our van batteries were not charging while driving: the Balmar died and needed to be replaced. I was able to find one in Canada on eBay and didn’t have to cough up more than $500, only $200.
Ugh.
We used this opportunity to move the new Balmar from underneath the van to the engine compartment where it should be easily accessible and hopefully, last longer.
We rewired the van to the charge side and eliminated the discharge cables. The Ecotrek system seems to be functioning properly now even though we are operating with one lithium battery. We just came back from a trip of mostly boondocking with no issues.
Wildlife
We were very fortunate to have our dinners on the deck every single day since spring, and for a while, we had daily deer sightings at dinner time.
It’s been a while since we saw the deer and we hope it just moved on, or perhaps moved its schedule to a different time of the day. We still look out for it every time we go out to eat.
After moving to a different bird house that was a bit more secluded, the wrens had their babies. These babies are even louder than their parents! Next year, we’ll find a spot for them that is as far away as possible.
And that’s all folks.
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What a nice name for a pretty girl! And your garden has produced lots. Looks like you’ve been coping well.
Thanks, Linda! I hope you have been too!
First off, I like Tony’s new toy. I don’t have a drone, but I’ve flown my nephews’s drone before. He took some amazing overhead shots when we put my mother-in-law’s home up for sale.
Penny is not only cute, but I suspect she is pretty intelligent, too. (Perhaps she needs to be added to the trivia team.)
I love all of the food and garden shots. What a fun post!
Hopefully, we’ll be able to get better shots from the drone 🙂 I like the idea of adding Penny to the trivia team!
Awww Penny is absolutely adorable. I am also very envious of your garden. Doesn’t everything just taste so much better when it’s that fresh!? Seems like you’ve had a pretty productive summer and have had a nice balance between road tripping around Ontario, cooking/baking, doing chores around the house (and campervan) and other odds and ends.
I guess we did! Sometimes it’s only in retrospect that you can see this. It felt as if we haven’t done much 🙂
Penny is a perfect name for a copper colored puppy. The food looks delicious. Like the tables, the garden is great and life with the hostages goes on. Happy days to you all and stay safe.
I didn’t even think about the colour! Thanks, and stay safe too!
Love the grand puppy and your yard looks absolutely wonderful. I think our families are so lucky to live in the places we do. Couldn’t find better spots to live through a pandemic.
I know, right? We are so grateful to be so lucky during these times! It’s almost as if we planned it 🙂
Love the garden. Oh how I miss having one. Glad you were able to get a few trips this summer. And Penny is adorable!
Thanks, Ingrid! It seems as if we managed to get more just by being stranded in Ontario…
sounds like things are slowly returning to normal; good luck with your next trip!
Thanks, Jim!
Margie! Thanks for the wonderful idea you have planted in my mind. I love to cook but sometimes the visual does not match the recipe. Now I will just call it “de-constructed”!
Haha, not my invention, but feel free to use it 🙂 funny thing is that when I served it it looked very sophisticated but it didn’t come across in the photo for some reason. Either way, it tasted great!
Beautiful garden.love gardening.
Thanks! It can be very rewarding!
Yes she(Penny) is absolutely adorable. By the way nice blog post. Thanks
Thanks!
Penny is about as cute as a puppy can get. You’ve been busy during this time of corona. And I’m so delighted to meet someone else who eats their flowers. Lol. They make beautiful salads! Your place looks wonderful and full of creativity on every level. 😀