Overdue Updates

The Pool garden about a week after we first planted it.

 Well, I haven't spoken much about our garden this year.  This year's garden brought with it several new trials.  The lot we live on now (remember we moved back in November!) is extremely shaded.  We finally found a spot that got decent light and planted our plants.  Well, after watching our tomatoes and a few other plants begin to die, we did research.  Our lot has several black walnut trees and those were what was killing our plants! 

Baby cucumbers and melons.  Taken July 15, 2012.

To make a long story short, we began looking for cheap container garden options.  We discovered that some people reported having good results with pool gardens (kid's wading pools that is).  Since Meijer had the pools on sale for about 5 bucks, we decided to give it a try.  We transplanted the strongest of our tomatoes from the "big garden" into the pool and planted seeds of things we'd been having problems getting to come up and develop in the other garden.  Right before these pictures were taken, some creature took a walk through the garden!  >.>  I'm not sure if it was a stray cat or one of my dogs. 

The pool garden now, two weeks later.

As you can see, we've had good results so far with our cheap little wading pool garden.  Alot of the different herb seeds we sprinkled in there haven't really come up at all, but we've had a good turn out on the tomatoes, basil, onions, cucumbers and melons.  (Well, we haven't actually gotten any produce yet, just the plants seem to be coming along.)  I have to say, the pool garden is easier to manage keeping the plants watered.  It also is much easier to collect the walnut leaves from (also can poison plants).  We haven't really had any weeds in the garden yet, but I'm sure in time they will grow too.

The cucumbers and Melons.

The indoor plants are a different story.  I feel so terrible.  I'm not sure what it is, but I keep killing them!  Our house is full of windows and it always seems very well lit, but I get a good seedling started, transplant it into a pot, and within a week it's wilted and dead.  I have an ivy vine my mother in law gave me that is doing amazing, but it really likes low light situations so my best guess is that I don't have much light to work with in the house.  I really want to figure out a way to keep plants going through the winter so that I can have fresh produce all winter long.  I've actually been working on learning how to pollinate for this very reason.

A baby tomato!

Well, that and because our neighborhood is severely lacking in pollinators.  One of the biggest reasons I planted so much basil in the pool garden was to attract what few bees we have.  (Bees love basil or so I've read.)  We're currently deciding if we wish to renew our lease or not where we are at, but if we decide to stay, we've decided we'll have to do more flowers than the one small flower patch.  This has also led us to thinking that when we own a home of our own, we may consider bee keeping.  (Well, that and Mike's love of honey mead!) 

The "big garden" with zucchini, green beans, and peas.

On to the "big garden".  Our green beans are not producing as nicely as they did last year, but then, our garden this year is nothing like our garden last year.  We started flooding our garden (and I mean seriously flooding) and we've seen a marked improvement.  The soil here is even more sandy that our last home (and I didn't think that possible) so it drains really quickly and doesn't retain the water at all.  I think if we are here again next year we will have to do some sort of container garden for our own sanity.  This year, we transferred what we absolutely had to and have been trying to make do with the rest.  Our zucchini have been producing flowers for a few weeks now, but only male flowers so far.  I'm hoping to see a change in that this week or so.  The yellow squash just started producing flowers this last week and since we began the flooding, our peas have been making a come back as well.  We had a good crop of lettuce varieties coming in until ants swarmed them and devoured them.  I am now attempting to grow some in my kitchen window.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed! 

My potato plants are in the back ground of this photo :)

One problem I made for my poor house plants (and I'm mentioning this now because my potatoes experienced this as well) was my home made plant spray.  My house plants had been showing signs of spider mites so I read online about how easy it was to make plant spray.  I was extremely excited to see that Dawn is the preferred brand of dish soap to use in the process (the only brand I use for hand washing my dishes).  I quickly mixed up a bottle and began spraying my plants.  After a day I began to see a marked decline in their health.  It would seem that it is best to use plain dish soap and not dish soap with bleach alternative.  I haven't tried making a new batch yet (I just started some new seeds inside though), but I plan on trying again.  One thing I've made recently and had success with, was home made Fabreeze!  I saw this recipe circling on facebook so I decided (once again since I currently had all the supplies) to try it.

What you'll need:
1/8 Cup of fabric softener (I used Snuggle's Sweet Blossom & Pomegranate)
2 tablespoons Baking Soda
Hot tap water
Spray bottle 

Preparation:
Using a funnel, pour fabric softener and baking soda into your spray bottle. Fill spray bottle with hot tap water and shake well. Don't forget to twist the nozzle over to the LOCK position if you're using a Febreze bottle, or you might fall on your hiney. Now go spray every fabric surface in your house and take a nap on your very comfortable and now un-stinky couch. :)

 One thing I learned that the recipe (or instructions if your prefer) didn't tell me was that as you are shaking to mix, you want to occasionally open the lid and let some of the air escape.  Doing this prevented a mess when I used the spray the first few times.  I have to say, I LOVE this.  My opinion may be formed partially from the fact that I've never fallen in love with a Fabreeze scent the way I have this fabric softener, but I really do prefer this over buying Fabreeze.  It's also a lot cheaper (as you can tell by the ingredient list).  This stuff has conquered stink couch from dogs and hot days with little air.  I think this is a winner folks!

Racking our mead.

Our mead has been stored in the basement (in a brewing bucket) with our beer.  The beer finished and is in the fridge (we haven't really done a taste test yet) and our mead had stopped fermenting.  According to the directions we were using, it was time to rack the mead.  So, we racked the mead.  The funny thing is that we left it sitting in the kitchen for a few hours (we had some things to do before Mike could run it back downstairs) and it started bubbling (fermenting) again!  So we think our basement may have actually been too chilly for it!  (Seems insane to suggest that with as hot as it's been.)  So, we're letting it stay upstairs for the time being in hopes that it will ferment to it's full potential!  

A preview of a current project.

We've been working on lots of stuff around here lately.  Above is a picture of one of our current projects.  Hmmm, what does it mean?  I guess you'll have to wait around and see!  There should be lots of fun posts coming up soon :)  Take care for now!

Name: Michael Anthony Di Iacovo
Handle: Palladino
Relation: Husband to Dee Dot, father to: Kyokin, Harclave, Luclin and Fanadenye.
Blog Duties: Co author and Programmer.









I'm so happy to be sharing our wonderful adventures with the world. Dee Dot and myself have some amazing, scary, fun, and enlightening adventures. Today I get share our bottling adventure with y'all.

 Here is how to enjoy 5 gallons all by yourself....not a good idea you will most likely pass out before finishing.

The lovely AB Capping like a pro.

 Drunk as a skunk, no really it was hot and I was dying of heat. you can see the attachment used for bottling it is amazing.

Careful....Careful......Crap my pants are full of beer. There is a cool tool to use when bottling. It is spring loaded so when you remove it from the bottom of the bottle it stops filling. Pretty sweet right?

 Ok so some bottles suck and will break we broke about 3 or 4. All wood chuck cider bottles Amber. However we had many many of the same bottles work fine, so IDK what happened, might be the age or leaving them out in the rain?

 48 Bottles CM and myself having fun after some work.

AM and Dee Dot after some hard work well done Girls.

5 Gallons of Beer is about 48 bottles...geez I hope I like this beer or I will have to figure out what to do with it lol. 

The Hangman's Daughter and The Dark Monk

Time for another review!  A while back I got an invitation from BzzAgent that was right up my alley!  I have always been a book worm and they wanted me to read and review books!  (If my hubby hadn't gotten me a kindle for Christmas, this never would have been possible ;) )  I didn't even need to think about joining this campaign, it was an immediate accept! (I try to only join campaigns if I feel like I could test the product well!)

 

As a BzzAgent, I was provided a copy of both The Hangman's Daughter and The Dark Monk by Oliver Pötzsch free of charge.  I checked my kindle every day (okay...it may have been more frequent than that..) until I saw that the books had downloaded!  I was so excited to start reading that I forgot which book came first (so I took a visit to amazon and Bzzagent to figure it out).  I'll do a little background info about the books that I've learned before I talk too much about them.  This author really loves his characters because they are based on real people in his heritage.  How awesome is that!  At the end of each book, the author connects with his readers and talks about his family and how stories were passed down.  After The Dark Monk, he even goes through the area where the story is set (it's a real location!) and gives his readers a traveler's guide (I really want to visit Bavaria now!).  I really appreciate that this author approaches his readers as if they were friends come to visit.  It's really nice to find an author who is so personable that I feel almost as if he had sat down and verbally told me his story (because of how he addresses and responds to the readers when he's writing as himself).  Now, the characters are based on true historical people, but their adventures are fictional.  The author tells us these tales that he has constructed of these people in his family so he can share his heritage with us, but also so he can entertain us!


The Hangman's Daughter is the first book in the series.  Amazon has the book description as follows:


Germany, 1660: When a dying boy is pulled from the river with a mark crudely tattooed on his shoulder, hangman Jakob Kuisl is called upon to investigate whether witchcraft is at play. So begins The Hangman's Daughter--the chillingly detailed, fast-paced historical thriller from German television screenwriter, Oliver Pötzsch--a descendent of the Kuisls, a famous Bavarian executioner clan.

 (I'm trying to be really delicate because I struggle with giving too many spoilers away if I don't pay attention because I want to discuss every detail of books >.>)  I am personally very new to murder mystery type books.  For some reason, it was a genre that I had always avoided.  On a whim, I had read Maids of Misfortune and really enjoyed it.  That's part of the reason I was excited for these books.  I adore historical fiction and the thriller/murder side of it all was still really new to me.  The Hangman's Daughter does a really good job of setting up the characters (you really begin to fall in love with them) as well as keeping a good, strong, intriguing story going.  It's one of those books where you feel torn because you love the characters so dearly that you want to see more development in them, but you are so deeply pulled into what is going on around them, that you are hanging by your toes (so to speak) in anticipation.  When the story reached that point where all the small threads were being woven together to finish the ribbon (I like to speak in analogies...sorry >.>), I couldn't stop reading.  That was one night I stayed up waaaaaaay too late reading.  It was one of those books that you wish didn't have to end.  Thankfully, I had the sequel waiting patiently for me!

The Dark Monk is the sequel to The Hangman's Daughter.  Amazon has the book description as follows:

1660: Winter has settled thick over a sleepy village in the Bavarian Alps, ensuring every farmer and servant is indoors on the night a parish priest discovers he's been poisoned. As numbness creeps up his body, he summons the last of his strength to scratch a cryptic sign in the frost.
Following a trail of riddles, hangman Jakob Kuisl; his headstrong daughter, Magdalena; and the town physician’s son team up with the priest’s aristocratic sister to investigate. What they uncover will lead them back to the Crusades, unlocking a troubled history of internal church politics and sending them on a chase for a treasure of the Knights Templar.
But they’re not the only ones after the legendary fortune. A team of dangerous and mysterious monks is always close behind, tracking their every move, speaking Latin in the shadows, giving off a strange, intoxicating scent. And to throw the hangman off their trail, they have ensured he is tasked with capturing a band of thieves roving the countryside attacking solitary travelers and spreading panic.
Delivering on the promise of his international best seller The Hangman’s Daughter, Oliver Pötzsch takes us on a whirlwind tour--once again based on prodigious historical research into his own family tree--through the occult hiding places of Bavaria’s ancient monasteries, bringing to life an unforgettable hangman and his tenacious daughter, painting a robust tableau of 17th-century Bavaria as it navigates the lasting impacts of war, and quickening our pulses with a gripping, mesmerizing mystery.

It was slightly difficult to transition into this book immediately after reading the last since the very first chapter was written entirely about an individual whom was not mentioned in the first book.  (This might have been partially from the intense attachment I had formed previously with the characters that made me eager to read about them once more.)  Overall, The Dark Monk had a slower pace to it (at least for me) compared to the previous book.  I think part of what gave me this feeling was that my favorite character (Magdalena, the hangman's daughter) didn't play as pivotal a role this time.  My love for the characters was also slightly offended by some of the cliche relationship happenings.  It seemed that this book really delved into Simon's character.  I just wish that the torn between two lovers/possible lovers hadn't played such a big role in his development.  (Now, I advise you take that with a grain of salt folks.  It's completely my opinion and I am an utter romantic.  I want to see people fall in love, struggle, but stay true and triumph so these types of encounters are viewed much more harshly by me than most people I know.)  With all that said, I really did enjoy the book.  The Dark Monk was more thriller and less murder mystery (the first was a bit more the other way around).  The twists and turns in the story were amazing and kept me captivated and guessing.  I was shocked and stunned by one of the ending twists to the point where I am considering re reading the story with that knowledge just to see if it feels any different.  This book was a very good read and I would (and possibly may) read it again.

Let me sum it up this way folks, since the time I was about half way through the first book, I have been recommending these books to my close friends.  I haven't stopped.  This is a really good read that will leaving you stalking Amazon for the release of the next book.  (I already am.)  I'm going to have my husband read them (he's not a big reader so I try to be really selective with what I suggest to him so he doesn't become less of a reader) because I think they are that enthralling and addictive.  This author gets two big thumbs up in my book of books!  (For the record, if you want to check out any of the books I've mentioned, just click on their name in the post :) I've made them all links to make it easy!)

Alot in a little post!

Well, as you may very well have guessed...quite a bit is changing in my little neck of the woods!  In today's post, I have lots of details to catch everyone up on (as well as a name change and new goals for the blog) and I have a review!  So, lets get to the review first, shall we?  :)

Recently through Bzzagent, I was given the opportunity to try this new brand of wine at a discounted price!  Be. Wine is a group of four different wines that are designed to be a "girl's night in" drink.  My initial understanding was that they were going to be really fruity (sort of like an Abor Mist type of drink). 

The bottles we tried.

The two flavors we tried were the Bright and Fresh.  We started with the bright, so that's the one I'll review first.  The website describes the bright flavor as follows:
 Snagging the spotlight is simply effortless with this Pinot Grigio that breezes in with its sun-ripened fruit flavors, shines with carefree cues of the tropics, and finishes with an exquisite ending that welcomes you to your place in the sun. 
 To me this sounded like I would taste a sweeter drink with hints of mango.  I have to admit that I was taken very much by surprise.  These were more wine than wine cooler (my best way of phrasing it).  After the initial shock was over, the general conscientious was that it was enjoyable.  This is definitely a wine that you want to let air out though!  I personally didn't really taste much of the "tropical" taste I had expected, but the wine did have a very nice texture and it was smooth (if not as sweet as I would have liked....yea...I know I have a sweet tooth).  The general vote I received is that this is a wine that would most likely be bought again.

Aren't my drinking glasses fancy?  :P

The second flavor we sampled was the Fresh.  The website describes the fresh flavor as follows:
Each sip starts with a politely pleasant murmur that unfolds into an invigorating, crisp green apple splash that awakens your senses and revives your spirit.
This fortuitous flavor is perfectly complemented by hints of citrus reminding you of the delicious magic of a budding romance, new adventure or simple twist of fate.
This was a MUCH stronger wine.  Well, at least we all felt like we could taste the alcohol (several folks claimed that their sinus cavities were cleaned out :P).  After we all started drinking "the proper way" (we were experimenting for all those who would probably just pop open the bottle and try a drink) we could taste the hints of apple.  This was a good drink, but not as widely enjoyed.    We had been trying our drinks warm (we were excited and couldn't wait to open them) so we put them in the fridge and tried this one again cold only to find we didn't enjoy the flavor any more than we had warm.

The moth that stole the last little bit of my drink :(

However, we had a moth suicide as it drank to it's own death (of course it had to be my glass).  All in all, the wines were enjoyable as long as you are excpecting something more of a wine and less of a fruity wine drink.  I'm really excited to try out the Radiant (the flavor that I voted for but that ended up losing the flavor choice war).  Upon his trying some, my husband suspects that the very gentle flavors will also lend themselves well to cooking, so I'll let you all know how that goes once we try it :)  (it's been too hot to really cook in the house here lately).

So now that we've started off on a good note, I'm going to explain the name change.  This blog has gone from being called Adventures of a Michigan Housewife to Adventures in True Love.  One of the biggest things that changes with this is that my husband will be joining me in writing post (and it should be more regular!).  There's been quite a bit of conversation going on in my home this past week (the hubby had a good chunk of time off for the fourth and that really gave us some time to talk like we haven't talked in a while).  We've decided that we are ready (and really want to) begin getting things in our lives cleaned up so we can eventually pursue fertility treatments again.  We suffered a miscarriage a few years ago and just couldn't get up the nerve or the desire to try again.  Now, we're finally ready to tackle this beast.  We also have reached the point where we want to go back and fix the mistakes we made as a not thinking young couple and work on managing our finances better.  Our last goal is to get in better shape so that when we do have a kiddo, we can chase them to their hearts content ;) and so they will never have to worry about mommy or daddy dying too young for them to get to know us.  In our talks, we decided that there are probably a lot of people out there who are just as scared and confused  as to how to start tackling these things as we are.  Not only are we going to share this journey with anyone out there who needs help getting motivated or who feels like it's too much to tackle, but we're going to use sharing this as a motivation tool for ourselves (people write blogs about sillier things every day, right?).  We'll be doing a post soon with more details on the different aspects of these changes soon, but for now I'm going to leave this an over view!

Mike holding his honey mead in it's brewing pail.

Over the weekend, we finally tried our hand at brewing.  The honey mead was very easy.  You mix up your ingredients and let them all sit.  So they'll be sitting for a few more months then we'll bottle it.  We also did a batch of beer (our first beer!).  The recipe we're using is called Orange Citra Wheat and it was one recommended to us by the wonderful staff at Adventures in home brewing.  It was pretty scary to try and do our first batch.  Mike had visited with a local brewer's guild and I had no experience with this.  To start we made a tea with the grains (well after everything was sanitized of course).

Me holding the grains after we were through using them.  I turned them into bread later and it was amazing.

Then we boiled the mixture and added our hops.  After this we were suppost to add our malt extract, but we forgot and poured it into our carboy.

The "tea" before hops

The "tea" after hops

We then had to empty the carboy back into our pot and boil it again so that our malt extract would be pasteurized.  It was very frustrating at the time, but now it seems kind of a fun experience.  (not that we goofed but the solving the problem together).

Mike playing with the grain bag after we were done using it.

We then quickly cooled the beer down by placing a wet towel around it and setting it in front of the air conditioner.  (It took alot of research online to figure out what to do and we were so worried about ruining the drink!)  Once it was cool enough, we added the yeast and put the airlock on and took it downstairs to bubble.  I over simplified the process, but it was an enjoyable experience for the two of us and hopefully this first brew will turn out good enough to keep our spirits up to try another!

I'll give a quick update about the state of the garden before I finish this off for the night.  Very suddenly, quite a few of our tomato plants started wilting and dying.  After a bit of experimentation and google searching, we discovered that our villain at hand was the Black Walnut Tree in the yard.  We have since moved the plants to a wading pool container garden (as well as replanted some seeds there that died from the same thing) and they are much happier.  Learning how to keep plants alive in doors has been much more tricky and (I hate to admit this) I have killed many a seedling I started in this process :(.  I'll post pictures of the plants soon :) and I'll do a more detailed update on them soon!

Well, if that wasn't enough random topics in one post, I'm not sure what is!  I've been reading an awesome book on my kindle and once I finish I'll try my hardest to do a spoiler free review of them ;).  I'll leave you all with a picture of my adorable pups :)

The two of them tuckered out from causing trouble all day.

A "bonus" picture of Kyo being daddy's baby.  :P