Sunday, October 5, 2025

Vegetable Garden Harvest and Landscaping Project Update

Well it is the first week of October so the vegetable garden is just about done.  I still have a few things growing outside, but not much.  This first photo was taken in July, the garden was so overgrown it was ridiculous, and yes, I did allow the appropriate spacing between plants.  There is a three foot wide brick path to walk between gardens, and the potatoes grew on top of the path so I could barely walk through.  Beans and broccoli are on the far right and tomatoes are growing up the fence on the left.


Now the garden looks like this.  I have a few beets from a second seeding I did, lots of parsley and basil, and I did a second crop of spinach.  We have since dug up the potatoes and pulled the bean plants.


The basil did super well once I finally eliminated the slugs.  They really got attacked by slugs early in the season due to all the rain we got.  I have dried more than enough basil I need for the year, so I just left this in the ground in case I need fresh basil for a meal;  which I did last night!  I made  eggplant lasagna! Yum! It was so good!


Here is my second planting of spinach.  Spinach is about the only vegetable that I can ever get a second crop from.  I've tried radishes and beets, but they end up just forming a root and not a ball.  I've already picked from this spinach and enjoyed some for dinner.  The slugs started to eat this spinach, so I put down some slug bait.  The tarp was put down at the end of July to suppress weeds.  Once I pulled the broccoli plants, I didn't want to leave bare soil exposed. 


In addition to bush beans, I had some climbing beans that reseeded from last year.  They grew over  nine feet tall.  I'm still picking beans from this vine.


In my other vegetable garden all I have left is Eggplant and Peppers.  My eggplant was amazing this year;  probably from all the heat.


We've enjoyed so many delicious eggplant dishes but I also had to freeze a lot as the plants were producing more eggplant than we could consume.  I STILL have eggplants growing on the plants, and it's OCTOBER;   It's just been so unseasonably here in Wisconsin this fall.


My peppers grew into amazing tall luscious plants but surprisingly didn't produce a lot of peppers.  Part of it could have been all the wind storms which constantly broke off branches of small developing peppers  even though the plants are staked.  Another reason could have been lack of sun.  I think this area got more shade this year due to growing trees than it has in past years.  I also had problems with the peppers not turning colors.  I've got a lot of large green peppers, but no matter how long I left on the plant, they would turn yellow, orange, or red, even though that was the type of pepper plant I purchased. 


My jalapeños peppers however were another story.  Oh my goodness, did these plants produce.  I think I have enough jalapeños in my freezer now to last for three years. 


Sorry for the scary photo...me without makeup 😆, but I had to show you how tall these jalapeños peppers got and I needed me as a reference:    I'm 5'7 and they are almost as tall as me!  BTY this is my usual daily attire if I'm working in the garden.  I always wear a head scarf for sun protection and keeping bugs and debris out of my hair.  I've tried hats, but they tend to be obtrusive in the garden.  


I grew kale as always, and harvested some to use in soups and smoothies through the winter.  Kale loves cooler weather, so I will probably have this plant at least another month or so.


My lemon balm went insane this year! I can't believe how big it got.  And no, I didn't harvest any yet.  I probably should do that next week.


And here are some photos of the veggies I've brought in to process.  I still have carrots left over from last year, so I only planted one row this year.


If there was an over-abundance of anything this year it was cucumbers.  Oh my gosh, I was picking about a dozen a day;   I've never had such a good cucumber harvest before.  But everyone I spoke to had the same experience;  there was something about the weather this year that the cucumbers loved. 


The look in Milo's eyes says it all:  "Really, more cucumbers?" 😆


I didn't know what to do with all these cucumbers.  You can't freeze cucumbers and I already had enough pickles, so I dehydrated most of them.  Dehydrated cucumbers taste delicious when they are fresh out of the dehydrator but once you vacuum seal them to preserve them they are no longer crunchy.  So I probably have about fifty bags of spongy cucumbers.  I have heard they can be rehydrated so I will try that.  I followed this recipe to make my dehydrated cucumbers. 


Another winner this years was peas.  Wow! I have so many peas in my freezer now I don't think I'll even need to plant any next year.  I moved my peas to a new location and they seemed to really like it and did very well.


We did go blueberry picking this year.  We tried a new-to-us place and it was a little cheaper.  We picked so many berries I don't know if we will even need to go again next year.


I made one batch of blueberry scones right away because they taste best with fresh blueberries, then I put the rest of the blueberries in the freezer for smoothies and other recipes.


And now for our LANDSCAPING PROJECT update.  My regular readers will know that my wood retaining walls and steps were in bad shape and needed to be replaced, so hubby began a renovation project last year.  He only gets to work on it a few hours on weekends, and obviously he's not even home every weekend, so it has been a slow process. 


So far he has finished the first retaining wall and filled it with soil.  We were able to plant in it this spring, which was great as we needed the space.  Then he made the next retaining wall platform.  This one will consist of three bins (which haven't been built yet but you can see the holes).  On all four sides of each bin is a wooden walking path to I can easily access each bin without bending over.


He made the steps leading down to the garden shed out of stone so they will last longer than the old wooden ones.








Unfortunately the weeds keep growing in the unfinished portion of the retaining wall as we work on the project.  Oh, FYI this is the back of the house, for those that might find the deer fencing unsightly.


This is the only completely finished portion of the landscaping project.  This is the first set of stairs, leading to the back screen porch.  The steps end on a wooden deck where I placed some pots.  Then the steeper, longer staircase begins about four feet later.  My husband built four beds out of brick which I filled with marigolds this year.  These photos were taken in spring, by summer the marigolds were hanging over the edge.  Next year I think I might try more variety in the beds, like petunias on the inner edge, then marigolds, and tall red salvias on the outer edge. 







Here is a midsummer photo of the gardens.  These marigolds got so much bigger than this later in the summer!



And that concludes my last vegetable garden post of the year.  Hopefully next year my husband will complete this landscaping project.  When you don't hire people and you do all the work yourself, things just take time.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!



 

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Six Days In Branson, Missouri: Silver Dollar City, Day One

This is the first post of a new travel series to Branson Missouri.

During the week of Labor Day my husband and I took a week's vacation to Branson, Missouri.  I have been to Branson twice before;   but they were just day trips, mostly to see their Sight & Sound Theatre plays.  This is the first time I ever spent an entire week in Branson and boy, did we have fun!  In fact, we had so much fun we decided to come back in a couple of years with the grandchildren.

We began our vacation by spending two full days at Silver Dollar City.  Yes, you heard me right, TWO FULL DAYS.  The theme park had a Southern Gospel Music Festival going on and we needed two full days if were ever going to be able to go on a few rides plus see the concerts.  There were so many Southern Gospel music groups, that even with two full days, we still couldn't possibly see them all.  


Silver Dollar City was voted "America's Number 1 Theme Park" three years in a row by USA Today.  I find that shocking since Disney World and Universal Studios has so many more visitors.  But after being there, I can see why.  First of all, it's extremely affordable, which Disney Parks are not.  Parking is free, and admission is $92 for an adult and you can get the second day FREE!  I've also seen ticket prices as low as $69 depending on the time of year.  Secondly, it is such a charming, unique park.  Everything is decorated in a country, hillbilly theme.  There is so much to do there even if you aren't into rides.  They have a lot more shopping than Disney does.  Disney seems to only have shops that sell Disney merchandise, whereas Silver Dollar City sells just about everything from soaps, jewelry, preserves, hand-blown glass, etc. And did I mention shows?  Yes, I know Disney has amazing shows, but it seemed there was a concert going around every corner at Silver Dollar City.



But perhaps the most amazing thing of all about this park is that it is built above a cave and they offer a FREE hour long cave tour!  That is incredible since cave tours on their own can be a bit pricey.  And this is no ordinary cave.  I have been on a lot of cave tours in my life, and I will say this was hands-down one of my favorites!  It had it all:  stalagmites and stalactites, cathedral openings, and even a waterfall!

To even get into the cave, first you had descend down 700 steps to get 500 feet below the ground.


The theme park actually evolved around the cave when in 1894 the cave was open for tours.  By 1960 an 1880's Ozark Mountain Village theme was created around the cave and the theme park has grown a lot since then.


Every cave tour I've been on is different.  Some have a lot of details such as Stalagmites and others are just large open areas, but this cave has both!  You will walk through narrow areas and see fascinating formations, but you will also experience the grandeur of a cave cathedral ceiling.



This is the narrow opening pictured in the second photo in this post.  You have to walk through the cut out  of this opening in real life, just to get into line for the cave tour.  They want to be sure you can bend over and crawl through before getting on the tour.


Looking down into a large pit of water.


Here's a short video of the waterfall inside the cave;  my favorite part!






Another fun thing about this tour is you don't have to climb 700 stairs back up!  You get to take a train!  That is a fun ride!


Silver Dollar City is known for its southern-style food so we planned on trying a lot of their dishes.  We always got one of everything and just shared it.  After we took the cave tour, we stopped at Eva & Delilah's Bakery for a Cinnamon Roll.  Oh, my gosh, it was so delicious!  We loved it so much, we went back the next day for a Caramel Pecan roll.  I loved the decor too!


This is the outside of the bakery.  I was just tickled pink with all the rustic charm of Silver Dollar City.




Molly's Mill Restaurant is decorated like an old mine.  It is a sit-down restaurant specializing in southern food.


Since we had never been to Silver Dollar City before our plan for day one was just to walk the entire park and check everything out.  We knew we were coming back the next day for sure, so we could catch whatever we missed on day two.  It was a really good decision to get the two day pass because on the day we were there it was the Sunday before Labor Day and the park was super crowded and there were long lines everywhere.  The next day was Labor Day, and there were a lot less people so we were able to get on the more popular rides easily.

A blacksmith shop which did demonstrations and also sold the items they made.







Of course we had to stop in and check out the candy shop.  Everything looked reasonably priced but we didn't buy anything.



The glass blowing shop had demonstrations and glassware for purchase.  We spent some  time watching the process and then looking at all the beautiful pieces for sale.


They had a year round Christmas shop which we went inside of but again, didn't buy anything.  It was decorated beautifully but I've never been one to be interested in Christmas out of season.


We had a fun time walking on this suspension bridge.


The bridge led to a beautiful old mill.




They must not have a lot of crime in Silver Dollar City for their jail was very small. 😀


This boys and girls clothing store was incredible! So much cuteness!


There are so many buildings which hold performances.  This one I never got inside of to see a show.  There were so many shows I couldn't possibly see them all.


Sorry for the blurriness of this photo.  This is the main stage arena.  Every night at 6:00 pm there was a concert here.  We did not stay that long on either day.  We always got to the park when they opened and left when they closed.  The concerts began when the park closed, if you paid for the day, you could attend the concert, but we also saw people arriving when we were leaving just to see the concert.



The Fire District had Silver Dollar City's newest ride:  "Fire in the Hole".  We waited a long time in line to get on that ride.  The ride tells the story of the fictional mining town of Marmaros and the Baldknobbers who burnt the town down.


On our first day at Silver Dollar City, we were only able to see two shows:  Sound Street, pictured below and Spoken 4.  I really enjoyed both groups and they really ministered to me.  What other theme park in the world can you go to and enjoy rides, plus hear the gospel?


"Flooded Mine" is an interactive dark ride where riders shoot targets from a boat.



The park has a large pond that you can walk around and also feed koi.



This park is fun for all ages.  They have the wild roller coaster rides for the thrill seekers, but they also have lots of little rides and activities for the little ones to enjoy like this climbing tree house.


A cute little bear making shop.


The Giant Barn Swing is one of the park's most popular rides;  it takes riders seven stories into the air! 


My favorite ride of all was "Tom and Huck's River Blast".  Oh my gosh, I had so much fun on this ride.  You ride on a boat and shoot water guns at targets and other people, while also engaging in water battles with riders on other boats.



Well, after this ride we were soaked to the skin and the park was about to close, so we called it a day.  I'll be back with day two at Silver Dollar City next week!

For more posts on Branson, Missouri, check out these posts:



A Return to Branson, Missouri, Part Two

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!