Posted on 08/01/2025 6:03:57 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Score on the Hickory! We have exactly ONE Hickory tree on all of our property. Wish we had more.
I have two 5-gallon buckets of pears to deal with so on the docket for later today:
Pear Butter in the Crock Pot
https://www.abakershouse.com/pear-butter-in-the-crock-pot/
I’ll make a double batch and freeze instead of canning. As many sliced pears as will fit in the dehydrator are going in that for snacks for Beau.
Roofer has been in touch - materials will be delivered Tuesday, roof work begins Wednesday. Next week should be great weather - high temps in the 70’s, 0% chance of rain.
I will be SO glad when the roof “situation” is over!
Yep, I mainly use oak for the wood stove because oak is 90% of what grows here but I do like to have a few pieces of hickory so I can throw one on the fire when I go outside to do something. Smells so good. Just don’t do it on an empty stomach.
“Just don’t do it on an empty stomach.”
Good advice! :)
*** Maybe we’ll have a nice warm October to balance it out and keep some of the plants going, not to mention not having to turn on the heat! ($$$$)***
This is my first year growing shishito peppers. So enjoying this! It’s the big winner in my garden so far. I’m hoping mine keep going into at least mid October so that I can bring some to share with my sisters and BILs when we see each other then. I’m hoping to have several dozen to woo them with. Blistered or sautéed to add to eggs, I hope I have something I can share.
I didn’t understand October as a favorite month UNTIL I moved to the Midwest. It’s not much different from other months in the south.
When we moved to the Midwest, people always talked about the Fall and how much they loved it. I hadn’t experienced a nice Fall or the change of colors in the leaves before. It did make a compelling argument!
Spring was always my favorite growing up, and in many ways, it still is, though it’s rainier in the Midwest than I remember it being in the South.
The one reason I LOVE the Midwest is that we have 4 real seasons here. It’s not just brown or green, as it was when I grew up. We have the winter grays and browns, but there’s white out there when it snows. That’s so beautiful! I may get tired of shoveling it, or driving in it, but I don’t get tired of watching it fall. Snow is like magic for me.
Then it’s followed by the burst of life in springtime. Rain, yes, storms, yes. But I see new life and that’s always exciting for me.
Even though it gets pretty hot sometimes, I love the summer too. Bright, vivid colors surround me. Rain is appreciated if it’s not non-stop.
And then Fall! Beautiful yellows, reds, oranges, and purples surround me! Life isn’t finished yet, but it’s ready to go to sleep soon.
I can’t get that kind of beauty where I grew up. I miss the South almost every day, but I think the Midwest won the battle in my heart for every day living.
Your roof project is like my hickory tree project. I couldn’t sleep well until I knew the danger was over.
I hope yours goes more smoothly than ours did.
Fingers crossed all goes ok.
Growing up in MA,(Yankee redneck) we had four seasons and nice foliage in the Fall. Plenty of snow and the road to my aunt and uncle’s house was lined with white birch trees. If if was a sticky snow that stuck to the trees, it became a white tunnel. After I got my license, I used to love driving the rural areas during Fall and seeing the foliage and kicking up orange leaves that had fallen and collected on the roads.
Then I lived in FL for 25 years where it was Summer most of the year. Only thing that turned color was people’s lawns turning brown in Winter.
Now I’m in MO with four seasons again. Foliage isn’t as good overall but since I’m in hill country of the Ozarks mini mountains, there are a few exceptional views during that time. We get a little snow most years but get even more ice, rain that freezes on everything including the trees. They look like they’re made of crystal sometimes. At the end of Winter into early Spring, about the time you get sick of the grey/brown, the dogwoods, serviceberries and redbuds start blooming. Huge amount of Spring wildflowers here and this year with all the rain, they kept going well into Summer.
The problem with foliage here is that post oak, our predominate tree, goes from green to yellow to brown within a week or two. Hickory goes bright yellow and red oak goes red and both stay that for a good amount of time. I try to avoid cutting anything but post oak here to improve the foliage and plan to plant shrubs and trees for more of the orange and red.
The outlook looks similar here - just a degree or 2 warmer. Low ~ 52 degrees, early Wed. morning.
Nice too is the forecast for the big church picnic @ wifey’s church, Sunday: Sunny, 84 degrees, dewpoint around 56 deg., a bit of a northerly breeze. That’s GREAT for August.
We are getting really dry, though...
(It worked!)
Haha, we are about 80% hickory. Too much!!! And that’s B4 the puns about nuts.
Seriously, for grilling and smoking, I prefer about 20% hickory, 75% oak, and maybe a little plum or apple.
I guess I’m going to have to try those shishito peppers — they get a lot of comments here!
I can’t recall seeing either the plants or seeds @ Menards or Rural King or Lowes - I guess I’ll have to look around more or order them online.
Sounds beautifil!
We are LOADED with hickory trees. We have some actually on our property, but the fence line with the neighbors is a virtual hickory ‘orchard’. When we lost our power suddenly a couple of months ago (lone outage - no one else!), the crew drove up the driveway & right around back like they knew where they were going ..... they did! The older guy, as he came around the truck said “you’ve got a squirrel that tripped the transformer .... happens all the time here .... about a year ago, I was making almost weekly trips!” Wut??
It turned out not to be a squirrel but a crow who had fried itself by landing on the wrong part of the transformer - there was a black pile of feathers at the base of the pole & I saw the guys lifting off the transformer what looked like a wing & pair of legs (yuck)!
After the crew finished, I went out to talk to them & the older guy told me that the previous owner was having issues almost every week. Evidently, there were some hickory trees near the pole attracting the squirrels. Those trees were taken down and he said he “put something on the pole” and that kept the squirrels off for over a year, at least as long as we’ve owned the place.
While mowing about 10 days ago, I was coming along the fence and “BONG”, something nailed me in the forehead - it hurt! When I looked around to see what it was, it was a cluster of hickory nuts (3). They had gotten large and heavy enough to cause the branch to be lower than usual. With the brim of my hat & focusing on where I was going, I ran right into the nuts. On the return trip, I was breaking branches with nut clusters & tossing them over the fence so I didn’t have to worry about getting knocked in the head again!
So the hickory trees are loaded with nuts, but the chestnut trees (2 left, biggest one has died) have very few nuts this year. They bloomed up a storm, but didn’t set nuts. The squirrels will be disappointed - they beat me to every nut last year, but they’ll have plenty of hickory nuts. I don’t mind no chestnuts because they are super ‘prickly’ and getting a spine in your foot (I wear flip flops a lot) is quite painful.
After a week of gray days, the sun is out today & it’s a gorgeous, cool morning. Dew is shining like diamonds on the field across the road. The birds are singing up a storm. Clouds will come back later this afternoon & maybe a stray shower, highs mid-80’s and ‘slightly humid’. I have a few light tasks I’m doing this morning & then I’m watching Little League Baseball this afternoon. Mom and I have been catching the 7:00 pm games (games have been at 1, 3, 5 & 7 most of the week) and we’re ‘hooked’. The International & US Championship games are today & the winners will play for the World Championship tomorrow. The kids are mostly 12 years old & they can really play - the games have been pretty exciting. Lots of ‘life lessons’ being learned, including the “thrill of victory & the agony of defeat”. We also watched Little League Softball World Series (girls) a couple of weeks ago which I enjoy as much if not more than the baseball.
Walmart sells them under the ‘Bonnie’ brand of plants. Not all stores carry them, though.
You can buy started Shishito pepper plants directly from Bonnie but they’re not cheap!
https://bonnieplants.com/products/shishito-pepper
They are few and far between in Wisconsin, and our southern region seems to be the only place they grow. They're not crazy about our winters, but will thrive if in full sun. Which make no sense because the one I found, while in a clearing, was still pretty shaded by other hardwood trees. I had Beau remove a few scrappy trees so our little 'Lone Hickory' had a better chance of surviving.
Looking at the end of gardening this year, another month of food prep. It isn’t much this year but it has normalized life a bit. Going to start my second lettuce crop now that things have cooled. I think there will be no tomato sauce canning this year, just blueberries, got a 6lb. box of frozen at a great blueberry farm out by the lake. Weatherwise it was the worst summer ever, high heat, humidity, and all that pollution. I am grateful though.
Qiviut! That looks like YOUR view!
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