Summer shennanigans

The garden is growing (and so are the weeds).  We had a cucumber bug infestation (thank you, Google) last week which required a late night trip to the hardware store for some spray, but has since been cleared up.  Many of the plants are starting to flower, so we should have some produce soon! Will post a photo next time.

Last weekend was very hot yet again, so we took a ride down to Appleton to go to a German brewhaus for lunch, only to discover that they are only open for dinner.  This was now the second time we have missed them since they are also not open on Sundays.  In lieu of German food and brews, we visited The Melting Pot restaurant, which is apparently a chain so you may have heard of it before.  We naively thought fondue cheese meals was a Wisconsin thing.

The restaurant was a little fancier than we imagined- plus we were dressed for a hike at High Cliff State Park afterwards, so our standards were a bit lower than usual.  They bring out all the fixings for cheese fondue and prepare it at your table.  We ordered the three course lunch special (a bit more than we wanted to spend, but hey, you only live once), which consisted of a fondue course (we selected the Alpine cheese combo- raclette cheese from Switzerland!), a salad course, and a chocolate fondue dessert course (we ordered the nutty milk chocolate).  Unfortunately, I also ordered the enhancement plate of desserts, because who can pass up the opportunity to dip even more desserts and fruits in chocolate?  While it was a bit more than we bargained for- both the wallet and the ambiance, it was something fun to do and no one left hungry.

 Alpine cheese fondue at The Melting Pot

Nutty chocolate fondue dessert

After The Melting Pot, we hiked about 3-4 miles at High Cliff State Park.  Several weddings were going on while we were there (at least 2 or 3) and we toured the historic museum (which was finally open after several trips to High Cliff), which has artifacts and information about the historic town of High Cliff (formerly Clifton until they realized there already was one in WI...oops).  One of the interesting things we learned was that people used to drive cars off the ledge as a publicity stunt, and people are still finding broken car parts below the Ledge today.  Apparently one of the guys pant legs got stuck on the car and he almost went over with it so they decided that was not such a good idea.  After our loop hike on the Lime Kiln and Red Bird Trails, we did a little wading in Lake Winnebago to cool off.

Cold enough to freeze your Winnebago...actually, it felt pretty good!

On Sunday, we took a bike ride at Point Beach State Forest down in Two Rivers, in (the real) Manitowoc County (pronounced Tw'rivers- which really comes from the [East and West] Twin Rivers that run into Lake Mich)- one of our favorites that we have not yet biked this year.  It was great- cooler temperatures than the City of Green Bay, not too crowded, and a delicious ice cream to celebrate 13 miles of flatlander mountain biking.  We considered a jump in the lake but it was quite icy- water temperatures in the upper 50s convinced us to take a quick walk on the beach instead and left us with some numb feet.

Rawley Point is a fun flatlander mountain bike trail

In other news, I got to band geese again last week at work (see last year's story here)- which was a lot of fun yet again.  I tried my hand at determining sex and fitting some more bands this time, which went smoothly.  We banded 900 geese in 3 counties in 3 days, which is quite the feat!  Unfortunately not many photos because my hands are usually full with geese, nets, bands, or goose poop.  It's an enjoyable time for me anyway to spend long days in the field with fun biologists.

 Rounding up geese at East Alaska Lake, Kewaunee Co.

Ready for bands!

Hard to believe that July is almost here!  June has been generally hot this year- ironically most Saturdays have been 90 degrees, making it hard to get going outside.  Of course, today is Tuesday and its a lovely, sunny 75 degrees.  Go figure.

Community gardening

We decided to reserve a 20' x 20' plot at the community garden this year, for something fun to "work" on this summer.  We've grown a few small vegetables here and there in pots before, but have never had enough space at rental apartments/houses for a decent garden.  The community garden is less than a mile away, so it seemed like a good experiment.  There are around 16 plots in total, and there is water access at a small building.

The community garden opened on May 1, but it was still pretty cool at night then.  We did the first planting around mid-late May or so, and have been going over often to weed and water.  Some plants we tried from seeds or starters and others we bought- the peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant are heirloom varieties purchased from the UW-Green Bay greenhouse.  Our plot is about 4 plots away from the water source, but it still makes for a decent two-handed carry with a couple of 2 gallon watering cans.

We currently have potatoes, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, cauliflower, squash, cucumber, and possibly some sugar snap peas (they didn't take too well).  Our garden seems to be one of the weediest, but it's been fun so far.  We have awhile to go until we see any produce, but the occasional thunderstorm has helped along the watering effort and most of the plants are doing well. So far, so good!

The red and white sign says:  ATTENTION The produce from these gardens are the property of our garden renters.  PLEASE do not help yourself.   

 First planting, mid-May:  potatoes in the mounds in back; tomatoes, green peppers, eggplant in the middle; onions in the front.

 Early June- so many weeds!

 Onions in the front left; peppers and tomatoes; squash; potatoes in the back right

"Essential advice for the gardener: grow peas of mind, lettuce be thankful, squash selfishness, turnip to help thy neighbor, and always make thyme for loved ones."  -Author Unknown