Muskoka Living

 I’m going to try and do some posts about our new life up here in the gorgeous Muskoka region of Ontario. I’d like to think I could do weekly posts about it but I’m not sure that is realistic. Nor do I think I’ll have all that much to share that is interesting weekly, but we’ll see where it goes. Now that our grand daughter Abbie is in school that gives me time to do a few things that I’ve been researching lately, but didn’t have the time to try. One of them is making soap. I’ve been watching youtube videos and reading up on it since before we moved, but obviously didn’t have the time or storage space to do it. I have ordered some supplies for it so as soon as I get them.... there is a supplier right here in Huntsville.... I’ll get some made and talk about how it went.

I tried doing my own yogurt in my instant pot last week. It worked and tasted good, but it was a bit runny, so that is on my to do list for today to try again, along with some organizing that is ongoing in our little space.

When we first moved up here at the end of May I took advantage of the southern facing porch and lawn area to do some planting. I kept it small and inexpensive for this year knowing that there was going to be a new roof going on at some point. All of it, except for the tomatoes were started from seed. I tried using grow bags which seem to have worked quite well. We have quite a good crop of tomatoes, five bags which all look like this. I hope there is enough time left in the growing season for them to ripen up. If not, I’ve found a recipe for green tomato salsa. There are some annuals giving us lots of colour, cosmos and zinnias and a few sunflowers. There is also a pot of calendulas. In my research about soaps I found out that calendula flowers can be used to give a mild and soothing bar of body soap, so I will be using some of these flowers for that. I did up a couple of pots of perennials from seed as well, some gallardia and some shasta daisies. I wanted to do some rudbeckia, but the instructions said it would do best if the seeds were chilled for a time first, so I will leave those for this winter/spring. There is a lovely area right here that would make a great perennial garden although it badly needs weeding and digging. However it is directly under where shingles will be falling when the roof is done so it will have to wait until after that. I might put the gallardia and the daisies into the ground in a temporary spot and move them into this area come spring.

Indoors we are quite cosy. We have a great supply of firewood to keep us warm using our very efficient wood stove. That stack of wood is three deep in front of that wall. It’s right outside our door. Yes, there is central heating, but nothing beats a wood fire for being warm during what may be very long winters. Scott has his comfy recliner beside his painting station and I have mine beside some shelves that will eventually hold all my crafting/knitting/stitching supplies.

 Both of us have a great view looking out the big sliding glass doors. There is a tree down by the road that is just beginning to turn colour. That’s all for now.