Summer is flying by. The long days packed with lots of stuff to do makes time to speed up, in my opinion. Since there is so much to do in summer with regular work, vacation rental turnovers, RV rental prep, yard and garden work, and social activities the calendar days just fly by. Therefore, I'm posting a bunch of photos of our travels and activities.
Whiskey had a work assignment in northern Vermont which was going to take several hours of on the ground inspection, so we made an overnight trip out of it. Amazingly, there was a Harvest Hosts location the next town over from the location. Orleans Country Club as the host has a restaurant. This makes for a convenient location, especially in a rural area. The only downside is that mowing starts at 4am.
We took a quick trip to Portsmouth and had lobster rolls at local gem Geno's Chowder & Sandwich Shop in the Strawberry Bank area (https://www.strawberybanke.org/). One of the "bad" reviews on the Google Maps was that the lobster roll chunks are too big. LOL!! Guess that tourist wanted the lobster roll the consistency of tuna salad. This place closes at 4pm each day and we hit it just about 2:45 so we got a lovely spot overlooking the water.
Every Thursday during the summer Tuftonboro hosts live music at their beach. We met up with our pontoon boat friends and rafted together to chat and listen to music. It was a lovely evening.
A video clip.
Sushi from Saka in the Barn Lounge paired with cocktails. Saka's take out is packaged beautifully that it is a terrific and easy way to have dinner with friends.
Because peaches and blueberries are in season the featured cocktail is a Peach Blueberry Mojito.
I don't follow an exact recipe; here's what I do:
Place sliced peaches, blueberries, and fresh mint leaves in a vessel (I like to use a mason jar). Muddle them together to release juices, squeeze fresh lime over the mixture and add in the juiced limes. Next up is rum. I use classic Bacardi. Several shots will be needed to provide a nice kick. Pour this over ice and add club soda to your liking.
Here is a link for classic mojito recipe. The Classic Mojito Cocktail Recipe (thespruceeats.com)
In between the cocktails, work trips, lobster rolls, and boat rides there is rock farming. Yes, we now have a rock farm. We have made tremendous effort to reclaim our grounds. For twenty years we ignored our back yard; there just wasn't enough free time or budget to focus on it. Every place in the yard we now work, there are more rocks uncovered. So as of right now we have lots of piles and a lot of clearing. Even though it looks like hell, it is starting to look like something.
We are very thankful that our local hardware store has a well-stocked rental department. The Toro Dingo was a nice surprise and is a workhorse. The Kubota mini excavator is just the right size for our place. We did a lot of destruction with these two machines. There is still lots to do.
And why are we doing it ourselves you ask? Well, the price we got to do just part of this was more than we were willing to spend (thousands of dollars). We are chipping away at it for a fraction of the cost and not ripping up our established lawn as the pros would be doing. It's all good, we are kind of enjoying it.
I've managed to keep this area looking good after the pros built this. So, this is my inspiration to continue the work and have grounds that look there is a planned effort instead of a jungle.
That's all for now. Up next is a wedding at farm, a memorial service, and hopefully a month of good weather to enjoy the outdoors.
Life live to the fullest no matter what.