A week in a day

So a few days ago Kathy from Its About Time did some baking and I was inspired. Last fall I made 10 Quarts of Apple Pie Filling (we live on an orchard after all) and so I decided to make a pie. The recipe I used allowed me to make 1 pie (I only have 1 pie plate) and 12 mini apple pies. The 8 serving recipe gives you enough for the base (9 inch pie) and you could make a strip top for the pie but not a full top, I had doubled this recipe to get 1 pie with full top and 12 mini's.

Round 1

We sent 4 mini's home with Stacey, 2 went to our neighbour next door and the big pie went to our landlords which didn't leave much for us. The pie crust recipe I found for that was sooo flaky and delicious that I decided to make more...

Hummers are happy

At Dollarama the other day I saw these hummingbird feeders, I have had it in my head to have 5 strung across the deck but they are almost $20 each so I haven't done it yet. But at Dollarama I was able to get the extra 4 I needed for $3 and yes they are plastic but BPA free.

The birds finally found the feeder but then we were overly inundated with birds and I was concerned for our BBQ cover so I moved it to the garlic box below, we had a hook to hang it but our drill has died...

1st pie of round 2... I made a 6x batch this time... this one also went to Stacey and Jon. The recipe calls for it to sit 4 hours or overnight so I overnighted it.

I'm calling her Martha since I just shipped out Mabel

I was waiting for an email notification that the new machine had shipped but yesterday morning a woman was at the backdoor with my new machine. So today I will be doing some sewing finally. Our front curtains are more than a little saggy because they are so long and it has been driving me nuts.

2nd pie of round 2 and 37 mini pies.

The feeder is hung

Stacey came to pick up her pie and brought us her drill so we could hang the bird feeder. We can clearly see the feeder (there are birds out there as I type this) from our dining room window. I'm sure they appreciate the feeder with everything covered in snow this morning.

As you can see from the bird feeder picture, it snowed last night and continues actually... they are calling for 9 inches although again - I expect that will be in higher elevations than we are.

The broccoli microgreens I planted on Tuesday are coming along very nicely. They have a 2 week grow period before you can harvest them so it won't be long now. The other tray I did on Tuesday has a few sprouts coming through, mostly leeks and red onions.

The cat was away

Brad went off island for his weekly massage and because it was so hot outside we decided that I would stay home with Robbie. He prefers the comfort of home these days to sitting in a hot vehicle waiting on the damn ferries for hours on end.... good news on that front later in post.

While the cat was away.... I got down to work... 

A second hose

Okay this was already done but (FG will be happy to know that) the bath/shower water is barely enough to cover all of our gardening needs and so nothing is being regurgitated to the holding tank. I have however put in a second hose so we have the option to load the front barrel or the rear barrel depending on water levels.

Transplanted some dill to the side garden

Poppies new spot

Poppies were finally sprouted so they were planted in the side garden, hopefully they will take there.

My herb garden in the kitchen window: L-R Oregano, Dill, Parsley and Basil

The basil had been so plentiful that I picked some, blanched and froze it for use later.

Parsley had also been too tall for the window so I dried some and put it in a spice jar (I've been saving them just for this purpose)

Made 2 banana loaves

1 White bread

Went out in the orchard and picked a bowl of Blackberries... tried to coax Robbie off the shaded deck but he would have none of it and happily sat watching me sweat in the heat.

Blackberry crumble didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. Pie next time.

This basil had been planted in the side garden but the slugs had had their way with it and it was not doing well at all. Brad was going to pull it and throw it out but I saved it, transplanted it to this container and put it in the morning sun window. It now thrives.

Baked the banana peel and egg shells from the banana loaf, crushed in the blender. This will be used for potassium and calcium on the garden.

Planted cherry pits

There is a cherry tree down at the garden area and I couldn't resist trying a couple (okay 3) of red ones. Saved the pits, soaked them overnight and planted them in this container with a clear plastic container (from diatomaceous earth) over top to provide a greenhouse effect. Hope it works.

Our deck garden of romaine lettuce was getting large and crowded...

Moving day, romaine are off to their new home

So we hauled it in our handy wagon and transplanted it down in the main garden. I had previously planted some leftover seeds and they have cracked open and are ready to go in to the deck containers. We picked up more soil yesterday and will transplant the seedlings today.

I spent an hour or so cleaning the dog hair out of the Jeep yesterday. Man alive that dog!!! Good thing we love him.

Now about those ferries. The Transport Minister, in his/her wisdom has finally acknowledged the problem of island residents being able to get home with the overwhelming abundance of tourists clogging up the ferries and the risk to said residents of Covid from said tourists. So effective Monday, the ferry will be putting residents first and tourists can fill up whatever space is left.

As an island resident, I can tell you this will be a game changer!! Instead of having to get in line 1.5 hours ahead of expected departure, this should help alleviate those wait times. When you are just going across for a quick to do about something and spend 3x as long waiting in the ferry line, it gets old fast.

Thank you BC Ferries

Unfortunately, there is no resident proof required. It is being done on the honour system... so it has yet to be seen how effective it will be but here is hoping it makes a difference. Not sure whether it will be implemented on the island side due to space restrictions but hope they can find a way to arrange that too.

Aaaaaaarrrggghh!

Well, I did it. I started to bake.

I turned on the oven and let it warm up while I made tart crusts. Checked the temperature and learned that I have to set the temp 25F higher than I want it to be to get it to where I need it to be. Learning the easy way...

However, as this is the 2nd time I've ever turned this propane oven on -- the stench is literally running us out of the house. Brad isn't sure he can sleep in here tonight. Clearly they used OFF to clean the oven before we bought it and I've only heated it up once before so YIKES it stinks in here.

Brad has asked that I leave it until we either repair or replace this one.

Suffice to say, I'm thinking of outsourcing to Safeway.