Lotions and Potions Christmas

 I started planning my Christmas gifts in September. It was going to need a bit of sewing and a lot of kitchen work. This year I am giving everyone on my list handmade creams, powders, soaps and other care products. I call them "Lotions and Potions."  I have been making my own care products for over ten years now. 

I met a great herbalist a few years back named Joanne Bauman. (Kansas herbalist | Prairie Magic Herbals | Kansas herb education)  She has taught me to see the plants of my garden and even the weeds in my yard in a new light. Now you will find me harvesting dandelions for a Dandelion Hand Cream or drying rosemary for hair care as well as use in the kitchen. Out of all of that has grown my love of lotions and potions. In the photo you will see dusting powder, cold cream, hand cream, night cream, hot oil hair treatment, facial scrubs, hand soap, shaving soap, beard oil and after shave. My daughter has the nose of a perfumer. She helped me blend a cherry vanilla tobacco coffee fragrance for the men's products. It has memories of the Borkum Riff tobacco my brother used to smoke. 

It wasn't enough to plan to give the lotions and potions, though. They needed to be IN something. That is where the sewing came in. I made block bags or shaving kits, for the men and tote bags for the women. I found the block bag pattern on Pinterest. It was scaled for a child's bag, so I had to scale it up for my needs, but the instructions were clearly presented and it wasn't difficult to get the size I needed. The ladies' bags are from Charm Patterns and called the Hattie Tote. Gretchen Hirsch, known as Gertie, designed the bags to hold her chihuahua. I would not be surprised if one of my family members uses her bag that way! Five tote bags and six block bags later, all my gifts are ready. I hope everyone has fun with them Christmas Day.

                            And Merry Christmas, 2025 to all of you!

New Dog Yard

Lady and Fenris at play

 In February I decided the time had come. This was the year we created a dog yard. With three dogs, and the little one at 30 lbs., we needed more space for them than the little wooden pen could give. We also needed a better way to let them do their business than having them on cables out the front and back doors. Everyone was tired of tiptoeing through the land mines. From planning to finish, it has taken most of 2025, but it is done!  Leon and I will be visiting the chiropractor next week. :)

I found wire and gates on Facebook Marketplace. Posts and other equipment were purchased at Bluestem and Sutherlands. I walked the space and marked where the fence would run. Ugh. It went through every one of the raised beds in the existing garden. That meant before the dog yard could be built, the garden would have to be moved. We did it. (See the previous post). It took most of our energy for the summer, but we did it.

Joe with the big auger

The plan was to hang the gates off pipes, and to anchor the corners of the pen with 4x4s. In April, my son, Joe, brought his power auger over and dug six post holes for the pipes and posts. He recommended we wait for him to return to help set the post in concrete later. In some ways it is good that he got busy and we got busy, because when we got back to the project in the fall, we learned that the pipes I bought for the gate posts were too short. If we had sunk them in concrete in April we would have had a real mess on our hands.

Leon helping 
Reyes set posts

 My grandson, Reyes, showed up in the fall to help set the first of the posts. He showed Leon and I how to work the concrete around the posts. He got the two 4x4s seated and then we discovered the gate posts were wrong. Since he could not come back to do the rest of the posts, Leon and I studied YouTube videos and ventured into a new skill set. A phone call to Joe helped us understand how to use the gate to position the post holes. I researched the hardware needed to use 4x4s for the gates instead of our too short posts. YES! hardware did exist for using posts. I ordered it from Amazon. 
 

Checking the gate

Leon and I got very good at running lines to keep our posts square and spotting where the holes would be. I like to dig dirt. (It must be the gardener in me.) Leon had the upper body strength to toss those posts around. Together we got the holes Joe had dug cleaned out, reshaped and ready for the posts. Then he worked the concrete while I held everything steady.  

Fen tried to help

No two ways about it, it was now time to stretch wire. Fenris offered to help, but in the end, we used the pickup to stretch wire. Leon created a great stretching tool from 2x4s and canvas straps. A come-along hooked to the pickup did the rest of the work. We stretched the north and the west sections using the pickup. We could not get the truck into place for this east section, so we ended up doing it manually. It isn't as taunt as the oth4r sides, but it only has to hold Fenris, not a Brahma bull. 

The last section of fence

When Joe dug the holes with the power auger, he could not get as close to the house as he would have liked. That left a gap between the post and the house. I hand dug that last post hole and dropped a 4x4 into it one day when Leon was in Topeka.  Two stretcher bars helped keep everything taunt, and then I stretched that last 10 feet of wire. Leon was impressed when he got back to Waverly. 

The dogs say " Thank You."

The Year of the Garden 2025

 

This is the Year of the Garden! I bought a mini-greenhouse and started seeds inside this spring.  It worked! My house was built in 1903. It is cold in the winter and all the porches mean there isn't a lot of winter sunshine in the windows. Growing seedlings has always been a challenge, but the mini-greenhouse was a game changer. With grow lights on each level and with it positioned near my desk, I never forgot to check the plants. Most of what I started came out healthy and strong. I had some that suffered from a fungus or just weren't viable seeds, but, hey! I'm was so much farther along than ever before. 

 

Big Greenhouse

Leon has been my right hand in all of the summer projects. He may be sorry he hangs out with me, but he is game! In April, we put up an outdoor greenhouse.  It was another new toy and just as big a factor in my 2025 gardening experience as the mini-greenhouse. When the plants got too big for inside, they moved outside. We had a thermometer on the wall, and heat sinks (various pieces of iron) to hold warmth in the early part of the season. Later I added two small fans to circulate air when it got warmer.  

I got the wild hare that I wanted to move the garden and put a dog yard north of the house. I've wanted a fenced area for the dogs for a very long time. A friend created a doggie door and small wooden pen off the north side of my house several years ago, but it was far too small for our growing dog pack. (Presently one 90 lbs., one 55 lbs. and one 30 lbs.)  This was the year I had to get a bigger dog yard. Where? Right where the old garden was, naturally. So, in late February, I realized I needed to start hustling. The garden needed to be moved in time to plant potatoes by St. Patrick's Day. Oh, oh! 

The last spike

I'm 77; Leon is 71. My son came by and moved two of the existing raised bed frames to the new area outside my back door, but most of the garden change was done by Leon and I. We built two more raised beds and then laid out a traditional garden parallel to the raised beds. We moved the red tiles that made a hopscotch game down the center path and the red tiles that supported the garden table. Leon built me a potato bin so I could see if that would be a better way to grow potatoes. (It wasn't).  We built trellises. and trellises. and more trellises... It seems everything I grow wants to climb on something. 

Leon was my engineer and partner in crime, but I had another assistant that kept me on task and helped me every step of the way. He isn't even human: Norby, my ChatGPT, advised on everything. Leon once said if Norby had been human, he'd have to get jealous of all the time I spent talking to Norby. :) How many trellises should we make? Norby had an answer. How should I orient the garden? Norby kept me from running the paths east/west the way I had in the old garden. He said sunlight and breezes would reach the plants better with a north/south orientation. How many XX should I plant? Norby found that answer. It isn't that I couldn't have dug through my gardening books for the information, but I could talk to Norby like a person and he would search the internet and give me the answers as if he were an old neighbor sharing hints. 

August 1, 2025

The resulting garden has been attractive and effective. The garden is a true kitchen garden, just outside my back door. I never stepped outside without finding myself wandering through the garden. I'd adjust a vine here, watch for ripening fruit there, pull a weed somewhere else. The old garden wasn't that far away from the present location, but it was on the north side of the house and out of my traffic pattern. I didn't see it if I wasn't deliberately going there. This placement invites me to wander. I did. So did Leon and Jen. Heck, even the dogs had to check out the plants. Lady, Jen's dog, is hell on grasshoppers. 

Sweet potato harvest

Even though Norby had a mathematical suggestion (grow X plants for this anticipated yield) I didn't listen. If I had 45 tomato plants growing in the greenhouse, it didn't matter that Norby told me 28 was all I needed. I found a home for all 45 tomatoes. This led to some interesting canning projects later in the season. I grew far too many cucumbers. I don't even like pickles, but I put up close to 150 jars of pickles for my grandkids. The Texas granddaughter sent about 30 of her share back to me. She couldn't store that many dill pickles! Fortunately, her brother in Topeka has a basement. AND he loves dill pickles. He has them now. I put up over 100 jars of tomatoes. (I love that) and froze corn (from the farmer's market), broccoli, Brussel sprouts, carrots, and peas. I canned tomatoes and green beans and froze and dried four different kinds of peppers. There were onions and garlic to dry and freeze, too. The white potatoes gave the best crop I've ever grown, but it was still too small to mess with. I'm not going to waste my time growing them anymore. The sweet potatoes, however, went crazy in the new ground. Not only did I get more than I can probably eat, but they were also huge! We will be growing these again. 

Wildflower garden

With all the vegetable gardening, you would think I had enough on my plate, but I also added to my flower gardens and moved the herb beds. I started a wildflower bed on the west side of the house. On the south side of the back porch, I planted a Jacob's Coat climbing rose and just a bit further south, I added a Julia Child rose to the bed I call Mom's Flower Garden. It contains tiger lilies that Mom planted more than 40 years ago. They have nearly taken the bed, but there is still a small corner for purple coneflowers and the new rose bush.  The herb gardens were moved to areas near the back yard. Most of them are around the white fence where I have one of the Blaze Climbing Roses. Others are in the holes of the concrete borders around the triangle bed and the north property line concrete beds. As you can see, my herbs get tucked into the flower beds so they can be decorative as well as functional.

New strawberry bed

With the advent of the new dog pen, I also had to move the strawberry bed and the asparagus bed that lived in the old garden. I built two new raised beds along the north property line. they are edged with concrete blocks. One bed holds asparagus, and the other holds the overflow from the new strawberry location. I thought that 4x12" raised bed of strawberries would transfer easily to the old triangle garden outside the back door. Fancy that. Strawberry plants seem to expand when transplanted. I filled the triangle bed and then built the concrete bed near the asparagus because there were still strawberries that needed a home. It was hard watching all those plants growing this spring and not getting any berries from them. NEXT YEAR I'm going to be bathing in strawberries. The strawberry bed was also Norby assisted. I complained that the triangle bed has been taken over by bind weed. Norby suggested planting the strawberries and then putting down cardboard between the plants to smother the bindweed. Once the cardboard was in place, I covered everything with cedar mulch. It worked well. I have had a few bindweed come up. I pulled them when I found them. Next spring I may need to refresh the cardboard and mulch to keep discouraging the bindweed. Oh, that brick bordered bed is garlic.

All and all, it has been a great garden year. I put by the harvest and also learned new skills. This was the year I started canning broths. I used a whole chicken to create chicken broth; marrow bones to make beef broth, and a wide selection of fresh vegetables to create vegetable broth. I also canned dry beans (kidney beans, pinto beans, lima beans) to add to that stash. Jen and I both love having these staples at our fingertips. Neither of us want to go back to buying such basics at the grocery. Norby's kitchen alter ego is a ChatGPT named Miss Melba. She has helped me perfect canning recipes. She checks to be sure my old recipes are using the most current canning times and processes. (Oops. My 1966 canning cookbook is a bit behind on how to process tomatoes. Definitely look for current data for canning times!)  She also helps with these new canning skills. I'm really enjoying this kind of artificial intelligence. 

South Room Pantry

Utility Room Pantry

It has been a very full summer, but I am glad we did it. I enjoy having a well stocked pantry and two freezers full. I feel Mom and my grandmothers standing behind me smiling. I come from a long line of gardeners/canners/cooks. It is good to have a full larder at the end of the growing season.

Melvern Lake Kite Fly

 

It isn't all gardening and hard work. In October we went to a Kite Fly at Melvern Lake. We didn't quite know where we were going. As we approached the lake, Leon said, "watch for a crowd.'  I looked up to see giant dragon kites overhead. "I think I know where we're going."  

Fish kite

We were in a sheltered area behind the dam. There wasn't a lot of wind at our level, but Leon pulled out his fish kite and started getting it together. 

He couldn't get it to stay up flying it the conventional way, but Leon always has a plan. He pulled a crappie pole out of the back of my KIA and hooked it to the kite. Instant Air!

He found a youngster nearby to give it a trial flight. She had more fun with the crappie pole than her own kite.

Those Pesky Maple Trees!

It's so  nice to have family near. When I started my vineyard a few years ago I expected to have two rows of grape vines. The vines had a different idea. They took off on the west row and the east row died. Totally. All I was growing on that trellis was bindweed and volunteer maple trees. Today was the day to tackle the trees. Pull them one by one or take down the trellis and mow the suckers?  I voted for mowing.

I got the support wires off fairly easily with my handy dandy bolt cutters, but how to remove the t-posts? The ground was soft, but there was no wiggling them out. I dug out 2 1/2 of 5 and ran out of steam. I called my son. Can you finish this?

  "Piece of cake, Mom. We have a t-post puller. I'll send Lisa over with it."

 A bit later, here comes my lovely daughter-in-law with this bright red gadget I'd never seen before. It works like Grandma's old waterpump from the farm. You attach the tool to the t-post and pump the handle. It just lifts that baby out of the ground! Whoo-hoo!  Lisa did one and let me do the other two. That was a fun toy!

She had also brought a crow-bar to use as a handle to unscrew the ground anchors. It was too thick for the eye hole but we found one of the 16" spikes I bought to make the raised beds. It fit nicely and Lisa had the muscle to unscrew both of them.

As it happens, she is using t-posts to build a fence at her place, so she happily took my t-posts and the ground anchors. I couldn't wait to fire up the riding lawn mower and say Bye Bye! to all those trees.

Gardening in The Time of Covid-19

Tomato vines trellised

The Covid-19 pandemic hit just as gardening season began. There were shortages. People were hoarding toilet paper. Farmers were having to slaughter or sell their cattle because the packing plants could not process the meat. Grocery stores were raising prices on meat when there were farmers with an excess in their pastures. Folks were seeing shortages and feeling the need to be more self sufficient. Gardening became a survival skill, not a hobby.

I got around the meat shortage by using some of my stimulus money to go to Bolling's Meatery and Eatery in Iola, Ks. for locally butchered beef. So far I've topped off my deep freeze on three occasions. I won't be buying beef at Kroger's again. This is flavorful meat!

First planted

The kids were eager to garden, and I was feeling the need as well. Last year was odd. There were no bulk quantities of tomatoes to be had. All I could can were what Lisa and I grew ourselves. For the most part, my raised beds performed better than her traditional garden. I think that was because the raised beds could retain water or let it go better than a flat garden. I have also been building the soil in my raised beds for several years. About every third year I buy 6-9 tons of composted horse manure and fill the beds with it. I mulch with ceder mulch and do a middling fair job of keeping the weeds down.

Now I like put away 100 pints of canned tomatoes for my house before I begin on juice or sauce. Since my daughter-in-law Lisa is an over-the-road truck driver, I do her canning as well, and I want that many for her, too. Last year we got only 50 pints of tomatoes total. Ugh. :(  With that memory behind me, I got carried away with planting tomatoes this year. Instead of my usual 8 or 10 plants, I planted 50!

Bundle of 50 lath

One section of trellis being laid out

In the past we have supported the vines with wire cages built from fencing that we inherited from my parents. Those cages are at Joe and Lisa's place. I didn't want to make that sort of support this year. Pinterest saved the day. Lisa found a post about building trellis from lath. Lath can be found at Sutherlands and Lowe's in bundles of 50 that are 4' long. (I used 4 bundles).

Reyes and Merisa helped me construct more than 32' of trellis to put in the garden.  We spaced the uprights 12" apart and the horizontals about 10" apart. That left us a 6" foot at the base of each trellis to pound into the ground. I didn't sharpen those stakes when we made them, but it would be easier to place them in the garden if they were pointed.

Reyes and Merisa at work

The Pinterest post suggested using hinges to hold two sections of trellis together. I didn't want to go to that expense. We experimented with various materials for hinging, starting with a Tyvek type mailing bag and later duct tape. After we were done and Lisa was viewing the garden, she suggested we cut soda cans into metal rectangles and hammer them in place for hinges. If the duct tape doesn't hold, I may do that.

First trellis went into the cucumber bed

We put the first trellis in the cucumber bed. They have loved it! By July the vines have reached the top and are falling over the frame. The tomatoes aren't as enthusiastic, YET, but I anticipate they will have the trellises covered before the season is out.

It is much easier to spot ripe fruit and pick them using the large openings in the trellis. I find it easier to wander around and weed the bed, too. The trellises are more open than those wire cages were. Now I just have to build up my stamina for all the canning that is coming on!

A Quiet Holiday

Cookout with firepit and charcoal grill

Independence Day was low key this year. Lisa was on the road. We lost Roseanna this spring to a heart attack. July 4th was her birthday and she liked to have a good celebration. Then there was Covid-19.We have been told to wear masks; to social distance and to keep groups to 10 or less.  

Social distancing, Evans style

Should we even have a picnic?  We decided to do it, but to only include the family and friends that we have been socializing with regularly. No extra visitors for a special event.  That meant the picnic would be the people who live in my house (Reyes, Merisa and I) and Joe and Leon as well as Gage Sims and his son, Ayden. 

Merisa checked out the table

 Joe, Gage and the kids brought fire works for later. We enjoyed hot dogs, bratwurst, and hamburgers with all the fixings, as well as watermelon, pasta salad and baked beans.There were a couple of small tomatoes from the garden, but we had to make do with ones from the grocery for most of the burgers. There were some cupcakes as well.  We didn't go hungry. 

Reyes and Joe

Leon kept an eye on the firepit

Ayden is ready for the fire works

Ayden was happy to eat, but the promise of fireworks was always on his mind. He got his wish at dusk when the guys started the fire works.