Kristen in the Country

Around here, The Japanese Beetle Plague 2018 is still in full force, as is an apparent appearance of the Where's Waldo? of tomato plants, the disgusting horn worm (even though I'm just guessing because I haven't found him yet).  So, while we put our eight year old on Japanese beetle eradication research duties, we thought it would be a good idea to invite a new insect into our garden: Mason bees. Based on the small amount of reading I've done, I've learned mason bees are not carpenter bees.  They (males) don't sting; females do but it has been described as no more unpleasant than a mosquito bite (I'll let you know the first time one stings me). Mason bees are great pollinators, which is why we built three houses to attract them.  There are kits you can buy online but Rob built some using scrap 2x4s we had laying around.  I don't anticipate any bees living in our houses this year because we didn't hang them up until well into the summer.  Typically...

Well, hello there!  My sister told me I should blog about our garden and she's right.  I haven't updated anything here for several months and it was literally -10 degrees the last time I blogged.  Remember the thermal images of our (non-existing) insulation and walls?  That was the weather last time I posted.  Today it's the complete opposite but thank goodness for central air in this old house! (You thought I was serious, didn't you?  Window A/C will have to do!) ( But seriously, it's hot in here) ("'Bout to take off all our clothes"--c'mon 90s folks, you know that Nelly lyric went through your head) But I digress.  The garden. But first, some newly hatched baby robins  Ok, now, the garden for real this time. Peppers!  Serrano, habanero, and jalapenos are jammin'.  We made potato salad last weekend and threw in a couple jalapenos and woah .  I almost threw a serrano in until I looked up the heat level and realized they'...