Plants and Whatnot ...

Greetings Everyone!

This summer continues to be absolutely beautiful here at the cabin!  So many warm days with lots of sunshine. With all the perfect weather, we've been delving into projects that we've been meaning to get to -- or else just catching up on. 

Also, I don't know what it is -- but we just haven't gotten around to re-staining the decks.  For some reason we find something else to do.  The other day I went into the greenhouse and reorganized, cleaned it up and played around with the plants -- while Ernie organized his work shed.

Later, I went around the yard looking for rhubarb plants in the old garden site and found three that looked promising for replanting.  The soil at our cabin is not the best -- so plants that are not native to this area have a very difficult time growing -- plus moose love to eat whatever they can get into. 

For a bit of background -- our cabin is on the original homestead site that was established by Andy Anderson in the late 1920's.  He and his wife, Jessie had a large vegetable garden -- which included rhubarb.  They were able to grow various vegetables because they kept the soil fertile by using the manure from their horses and goats -- plus, Andy had built a fence around the garden to keep out the moose, horses and goats.

After Jessie died at the age of 40, in 1940, Andy moved off the island and only returned to the homestead every now and then until he sold Caribou Island to a developer in the late 50's.  So most of Jessie's plants either died off or struggled to survive.

Thus -- my search for rhubarb.  Below -- I transplanted the little plants into a bin with commercial top soil and steer manure.  So - I shall see if I can bring back Jessie Anderson's rhubarb.  Of course, it will take a couple of growing seasons before I can harvest rhubarb for pies and other baked yummy goods. In addition, I'll need to transplant them -- somewhere.

As I was saying -- we've been allowing ourselves to become distracted from re-staining the decks.  Below - is our outhouse undergoing the addition of cedar panels.  When we built our sauna a couple of years back -- Ernie had some scraps of cedar left over which he had stacked away for some other future project.  So -- we decided to put the cedar to use and get it out of the way.

No, that's not a tree growing in our outhouse -- it's a vent pipe that I covered with birch bark a few years ago. Yes, there is a roof on the outhouse -- it's clear corrugated roof paneling for lighting.

Another project Ernie found -- as he was looking up at one of our solar panels -- were some wires that had come loose - in fact -- wires that appeared to be snapped in two.  So up onto the shed roof he went -- where he discovered that he needed to make some repairs and re-secured the wiring.  Mission accomplished!

Back to plants -- after I finished with the rhubarb -- I took a stroll around to see what other plants are now growing or coming into bloom.  We have a number of 'Beautiful Jacob's Ladder' in bloom under and beside our deck.

 

Plus, the 'Prickly Rose'  bushes are beginning to bloom -- Jessie Anderson used to gather up the petals and make jelly and tea.  Some Alaskans still continue to gather up the petals.  I've not tried yet -- I just enjoy seeing the plants in bloom. 

 

Another side story -- Jessie Anderson was an experimenter with plant seeds. She planted numerous plants to see what would or could grown on their homestead and, in this climate.  She actually became a seed seller.  Selling her seeds to seed companies. Jessie became well known around this area for her seed success.  

 

There are still many of Jessie's flowering plants growing around our cabin site and most are edible or medicinal. When those come into bloom -- I'll show you.

Jessie was also a self-taught artist and she designed her own seed packets which she and Andy 'ran off' on their mini-printing press.  Andy would then take the finished seed packets up lake and mail them from Copper Landing to the seed companies or to customers. 

 

Another one of Jessie Anderson's plants growing around our cabin -- are raspberry bushes.  This year they seem to be everywhere!  I love the raspberry bushes and I've actually gathered some of the berries and made jam.  A couple of years back however, when a bear came to the island -- it found the bushes and that bothered me BIG TIME! 

Well, so much for side stories and plants.  Today, I believe we'll do the re-staining of the decks.  I think.

Take care everyone -- and a big HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all the dad's out there!