Camp Smiley continued...

Field trip to Williamsburg

It has been a busy few weeks in our backyard. Garden and yard projects came to a screeching halt, and they were quickly replaced by Critter Camp, art projects, cupcake baking, trips to the pool, and swims in the river. All the beds, the floors, and the sofa have have been doing double duty with our niece and nephew visiting last week and this week we have the Goods in town from Cleveland, Ohio. It has been hot and humid, but that has not stopped us from having a great time with special people. The kids are whipped and that is a good thing. There are a few quieter weeks to come.

Creating the art gallery in the "Chikin Coop"

It's been fun to be "homefront" camp director. Snacks have been crucial for the past two weeks, as have treats from the garden. I finally made pickled purple beans, in the hours between, Ellie and William leaving and the Goods arriving. The zucchini has started to taking over our kitchen counter and our dreams. The cucumbers are growing several inches a day. I picked our first pattypan squash yesterday. Unfortunately, we haven't figured out a way to prepare the squash or zucchini that the kids love, but we (the grown ups) are loving them grilled, breaded in panko, fried, roasted and sauteed! Really you can't go wrong to our grown up pallets. Raw may be the way to go with the kids. William tried a fried zucchini last week and gagged. Oh well, at least he tried! Cucumbers on the other hand are a hit! Abigail ate almost the entire platter of cucumbers, seasoned with a little sesame oil, olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper. Owen loves the crunch as well. I think that "SNACK TIME" could be the theme of the last two weeks. Ellie loved pretzels, goldfish and Cheetos more than any kid I know. In between adventures, the kids would rest and ask for a little "pretzel camp". It made everyone happy and ready for the next adventure.

Snack time, garden time, zucchini and cucumber time

One more day of "camp" with the Goods. Our next event is Abigail's birthday party on Saturday afternoon. Hope for good pool weather so that the kids can swim like dolphins and we can cut the dolphin cake under the dogwood tree in the backyard. July is flying by and so are the years with Abigail. More about Abigail and her birthdays soon.

Dragon Run paddle with the Goods

Cousin Camp in Urbanna

We were very fortunate to have our cousins William and Ellie with us for the week before July 4th. We had a great time. William went with me to Chesapeake Critter Camp and Ellie enjoyed Smiley camp with Mollie, Abigail, and Owen. William is officially waterman William; set pots, sorted oysters, swam in the river, stung by a jellyfish, captained a canoe and experienced a lot of new things! It's great to have family members out on the river enjoying our world!

Wiliam your crab pot is upside down, we'll fix that later 

The big gun show after sorting oysters

William kissing the fish before baiting his crab pot

A fossil oyster shell, with new oysters growing on it

Which way Captain?

Moments before getting stung by a jellyfsh, but he was brave!

Owen and Abigail jumping off the diving board

My little mermaid

Wild man jumping to Daddy

Owen, Avery, and Jackson preparing for swim team

Swim team was exiting this week! The kick board team stormed the pool! Here are the three boys at the staging area before they hit the pool

At the end

The Garden is Booming!!

Fig tree will provide us with tons of fruit soon

Dill is ok after caterpillars found food

Swiss Chard is still growing strong and cantaloupes are growing well

Slow growing peppers

Acorn Squash under a cover

All our tomatoes, but having trouble with aphids

cucumbers growing great

Squash and Zucchini growing great

Deans Purple Beans climbing and making a lot of food

Bush beans growing strong

Basil will give us lots of pesto through the winter

Summertime and rain has brought us exceptional growth in the garden.

Black Swallowtail

While investigating the garden I found two caterpillars in our dill. I was about to smoosh them when I looked harder at them to see their amazing markings. Therefore I decided to leave them and look them up online. It turns out that they are Black Swallowtail caterpillars. We need the dill in order to pickle for the winter, but we decided to let them hang out in order to have cool butterflies in our garden.

We can't find the caterpillars anymore so maybe they have found a place to change into a flying critter.

This is the butterfly we hope to get out of our garden

Sustainability tip of the Week 3

This week's tip comes from Pat Calvert (Upper James Riverkeeper). We all work hard on our flower beds and gardens in our yards! While trying to establish new plants we all spend a lot of time fighting weeds!!! Even though many organic farms agree that Roundup can be used, it is so hard to use those chemicals in the place where our family plays and eats. Two years ago Pat told me a solution that I doubted and failed to try, but this summer after investing so much in building a bay friendly yard I gave it a try. Replace your weed killer in your sprayer with vinegar, yes WHITE VINEGAR! It's amazing! After one day of spraying weeds in our flower gardens, you could see that the weeds were starting to die. Sustainability is built on three foundations, equity, economics, and environment. Placing vinegar in your weed sprayer is better for the people in your household by reducing chemicals, less expensive, and better for the environment!!! You have to try it, you won't believe it!! Thanks Pat!!