We’re recently home from a nice vacation in Lake Tahoe. It was such a relaxing week; we picked wildflowers, swam, hiked, explored the Truckee River, went to Shakespeare’s Complete Works, Abridged at Sand Harbor, Hot August Nights at the strip, and celebrated my 29th birthday (to the 6th power, ha.)

The air was clean and cool, the days were long and sweet. And now, it’s time to get back to school. Refreshed.

If you’d like to see my other snapshots from our vacation, please feel free. Also, if we aren’t friends on flickr, why not?!

The last few days we’ve had a lot of visitors, and the kids have all loved playing in the kiddie pool we put up in our garden. It’s a quick fix, we definitely will be looking into something more permanent… but we were late to the game this season and this was the only pool we could find in all of eight stores!

From left to right: Stephanie, Lillie, Skylar, Janessa, Michael & Liana

At The Fair, originally uploaded by Phae.

In my family it has always been tradition that we visited the Stanislaus County Fair each summer on my birthday, July 30th. This year the fair dates were moved up to accommodate scheduling changes at the state fair level.. so our plans changed for one of very few instances in my life. It’s odd to think that the fair is already over!

I hear the dates are still up in the air for next season, here’s hoping I can get my birthday back!

Anyhow, we had a great time. You can check out the rest of the photos from our evening at the fair here.

Goodies From The Garden, originally uploaded by Phae.

I love the summer take! We’ve just finished up with the peaches and apricots. We’re also harvesting bell peppers and acorn squash daily now. Soon we’ll have cantaloupe and watermelon ready for harvest.. and our pumpkins are already getting really big!

The only downfall to a summer garden: the heat! I can hardly stand to go out there at dusk to dig around amongst the garden spiders to harvest in the 100+ temps. Ouch! (And yet, well worth the effort. Vegetables just can’t taste better than straight from your own garden!)

Yesterday we spent the afternoon exploring one of our family’s favorite haunts- the San Luis Wildlife Refuge, which is 7 miles north of Los Banos, California. I don’t think I’ve ever been there in the dead of summer, and we found it much changed from our usual Spring visits. Everything was overgrown so much so that the topography was almost foreign to behold! The waterways were either dry or covered in flourescent green algae. Fowl and mammals weren’t so easy to spot, as they were hiding from the heat as we should have been. (We got SO hot!) But insects and butterflies were everywhere! This sweety was kind enough to sit still long enough for me to train a lens on it.

There are lot’s more photos from the trip up on my flickr account. Including: bunnies! turtles! that algae I told you about! And lot’s of texture/layering type shots… probably my favorite thing about the California Wetlands is how it layers; green waterways lined with purple weeds, beneath gold thistles, beneath brown reeds, beneath green grasses, beneath wicked valley oak trees, beneath a bright blue sky flecked with the largest egrets and hawks you’ll ever see!

Sorry I haven’t been around for a bit again. I haven’t been feeling well. Working on that.

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Summer Squash!, originally uploaded by Phae.

Did you know that you can eat summer squash blossoms: fresh on a salad, stuffed and baked with cheese, or even deep fried? I didn’t. Now you know too! (Or maybe, I was the last one to know, ha!)

We are really enjoying the summer squash from our garden; we’ve steamed and fried and sauteed it in butter. Every time it is just fantastic. Perfectly textured and flavored- not at all mushy or tough or bitter like some of the aging summer squash we’ve picked up in the market. My husband and kids went from squash haters to fighting over the last pieces at dinner!

And summer squash have just been so easy to grow- they need little water and they don’t seem prone to pests like some of our other crops! These were grown from seed, planted directly in the garden instead of the peat pots we use for more fragile seedlings. Of all the different types of vegetable seeds we planted they were the most viable and productive this summer season.

Now that I know the blossoms are edible I’m anxious to try them. Perhaps deep fried alongside some fried green tomatoes?! Mmhmm.

But anyways!

If you are on Twitter and you are a gardener of any experience level, you should check out #gardenchat on Monday evenings at 9pm PST. I’ve been a lurker for a while and have learned a lot!

Also, check out these cool cooking/gardening blogs I’ve enjoyed recently!

The Kitchn
Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef
You Grow Girl
Sweetnicks

Happy Gardening & Cooking

Our Silkie chicks are 2 weeks old today! They have changed so much in such a short time; going from fragile yellow & gray poofballs to hardy, nearly white mini-chickens with pin feathers and toe tufts! Yesterday they took their first walk about the chicken yard and showed off their mad bug-catching skills.

The three you see here are what remains of the clutch- four went to our good friends and bird farmers to start their lives as breeders and egg-layers. The kids were relieved to know they wouldn’t be sold for meat, and they could visit them again.

It’s interesting that we take for granted the meat we so often put on our table, that we are often emotionless and detached.. and how the act of raising your own baby animals makes you look at everything differently. We are certainly considering raising our own meat chickens and rabbits now; because while it might be a little tough to treat our animals like pets and then eat them? We know our animals are safe, well-fed, healthy and happy.

Thinking about raising your own backyard chickens, or animals for meat but don’t know where to start? Ask any question and I’ll be happy to help. This experience really has been great- it’s not hard or expensive at all. I’m of the mind, now that I have some experience at it, that everyone should.

We made the first two kinds recommended:

Peanut Butter Nom Noms & Tuna Training Treats

Not only were both super easy and cheap to make- all five dogs LOVED them! The kids really enjoyed lending a hand in the process and it offered an opportunity for me to talk to them about dog nutrition… something I’ve never put much thought into before now, and no doubt will inspire them to be more conscientious dog owners one day.

I haven’t tried these other recipes, but I plan to so I hope you will bookmark them as well:

Frosty Paws Dog Ice Cream
Homemade Dog Cookies
Favorite Dog Treat Recipes
Doggie Stylish Dog Treat Recipes

Do enjoy! Also, Happy Hump Day!

Also, I’d like to announce the relaunch of my photoblog: Phaedra Photography

I’m very excited to have my photoblog back- it’s been months since I’ve been able to add content due to unresolvable database errors with my host. It’s really a shame that I had to dump 5+ years of content to start over, but nothing lasts forever, right?! And, isn’t it pretty? Maddie & her fabulous associate at Better In Pink made me the pretty theme. I usually make my own but when she drew this one up for me I was touched and excited. She really is the most talented, sweet friend anybody could have.

Please do check out the new site and let me know what you think, about the look, functionality and photography!

So yeah, I’ll be back- and with bells on! Now that the kids are out of school and I’m swimming in free time there shouldn’t be any excuse as to why I can’t write more often.

Happy Summer!
-Phaedra