Guilty Pleasures?

ooh that sounds naughty doesn't it :)
We had a hard freeze last night and will have another tonight. Bye-bye garden. I am feeling a bit guilty about this but this is one death in the family which I am happy about. It is a signal to slow things down, another item off my list. No more feeling bad about the 5lb cukes lurking under the vines or the green zuchinni canoes. I can grow the stuff but I am not so good about using it. The rest of my family does not enjoy vegetables. I am also embarrassed to say I have still not learned how to can- i dry and freeze and do refrigerator pickles but there was so much waste in the garden. Even pigs will not eat overgrown summer squash or cukes! I think next year I will plant more herbs and less unpopular veggies. I will stick to early tomatoes (no more than 5 plants!), carrots, beets, beans, greens and sweet corn. Now to deal with the 60 lbs of onions drying in the garage, the 2 shopping bags of semi-ripe tomatoes and 10lbs biggish cukes! The carrots, potatoes and beets can stay in the ground until I am ready for them

Weekend Work

We had a cold weekend, and frankly we were tired so we had a convienent excuse to NOT spend the weekend at the camper. Brrr...3+ inches of sloppy wet snow. I was happy to be in a real house! We spend Sunday at the land. The weather was perfect-very little wind, sunny and 50-60 degrees. DH installed the board walk in front of the camper along with the 10x12 'patio'. Everything is constructed with treated wood in 3'x10' sections so we can use at the house this fall. I am happy to have a spot out of the dirt and mud this summer. We put the 'patio' at the back end of the camper-we will put our deck table and chairs out there along with the umbrella for (a bit of) shade. The camper also has an exterior shower on the back so we can 'hose-off' on those really sticky days.

DH planted his open pollinated sweet corn-I forget the weight -but it was approx 1000seeds. I think it is a little cool for sweet corn, but even with a low germination rate and deer/coon/bear predation we will have alot of corn!

My day was spent in the garden! Yay me! I put in 10lbs of seed potatoes-I ended up with 3 25ft rows ( i must have cut them into smaller pieces this year) About half were the leftovers from our winter storage. I have pictures to help me remember row spacing etc for next year:

We hill the old fashioned way so I think I am still going to wish for more room between the rows...
I also put in two more rows of peas, a whole bed of beets and a row of radishes. The dandelions are taking over the rows and sides of the raised beds. I took the hoe to their tops and that felt very good! I know it will not help long term so next weekend i need to bring stuff for row mulch-I was thinking brown paper shoppping bags covered with lawn clippings. I also need to come up with bean trellis ideas. DH has too much on his plate and after all -I AM HANDY TOO!
The kids entertained themselves -playing 'tennis' on the tractor road:

(we are going to need more balls!)

Garden Plans (and snow)

The view towards the rabbit hutches: the girls have been making trails :)


My poor little car!

We have been hit with snow like the rest of the midwest, maybe 8 inches? It is hard to tell with the drifting. The wind shifted to the north last night and the poor bunnies nest box opening face north-they had a bit of snow in their little houses. We got the plastic up for them this morning! I have been pretty complacent with this long mild fall.

Tom has been reading 'The Good Life' by helen and scott nearing. I read it a while ago and got it out to re-read part again...We were both struck by their sense of order and doing things the 'right' way. Their disciplined approach appeals to both of us-something to file away for future use. Tom is interested in being more involved in the garden this year! I would love that-it is good to work TOGETHER on something.

With a couple of months of eating foods we have grown and stored, I have a better idea of what works for our family. The dehydrated carrots are WONDERFUL for casseroles and soups. We certainly want to plan for more carrots -planted in succession, next year. The frozen green beans have also been really good in casseroles and soups. I don't think you can beat dried beans for ease of growth and storage. More varieties next year! The sun dried tomatoes in oil are little treasures too. We certainly need to get the solar food drier running next year.

The 150 Lbs of potatoes are doing well. We dug them up too early and some are beginning to show some sprouting activity. The yellow onions are fine in the basement closet too. (Don't try to store red ones!)

I can hardly wait for the seed catalogs to start arriving!

Tomorrow I pull out the snow shoes and 'supervise' the surveying. It has gotten more complicated now that we are buying a 4+ acre portion and creating a 15 acre 'sublot' to put on the land contract; more fees to pay the county government.

Extreme Gardening

Extreme, as in extremely late! The combination of schedule, wet weather and long distance gardening has resulted in a very neglected garden. I haven't been back since my last collection of produce around the first hard frost. Yesterday was clear, we were available and winter will be upon us soon. Time to git er done! I was feeling pretty overwhelmed by the size of the job and the two inches of snow which had fallen overnight! But the sun eventually peeked out, we had the first snow ball fight of the year and I had some helpers as you can see! I removed cartloads of slimy tomato plants, swiss chard (note to self- still looking good after repeated freezes), corn stalks, a couple of forgotten mouse chewed turnips and other large vegetation. The girls loved swinging the machete and jumping on the few squishy pumpkins, they also had a short game of batting practice with some immature squash! It was muddy, cold work. (Second note to self- pull this stuff out before it gets slimy--gross) I was unsure about how to go about putting the garden 'to bed' for the winter. Although this is a temporary garden for me-hopefully I will use it only one more year before having my own (!!!)- I wanted to try a no till method. I have 6 beds of 3x15 feet in addition to a 2 foot bed all along the outside fence, then three larger areas where I planted potatoes, winter squash and tomatoes this year. I did not plan to till the 6 beds- I wanted to treat them like permanent beds. What I did this fall was to pull out the large woody plant material, spread a 6-10 inch layer of mowed leaves/grass over the bed and turned it into the soil with a fork, about 6 inches deep. My rationale was to incorporated the organic matter into the deeper layers of soil and give the worms some time this fall and again next spring time to work on it. The soil in this part of the county in very clay-like. I did manage to get 4/6 beds handled in this way. I will try to get back out again to put more leaves on the other two but NOT turn it in- maybe I will not notice a difference and won't have to work so hard! :) Three of six done! The tomato waste yard-makes me very sad, but think of all those heirloom volunteers next year!

Tom spent a good long time in the woods recharging his batteries, scouting a location for his deer stand. He was happy about the snow fall and was able to track several groups of deer-his tally was 2 grouse, 6 wood cocks, and 5 deer sighted-pretty good for one morning! Then we had some time to play too-the girls headed to the slough to play in puddles. (I just sat on a rock-too tired to move!) They created paths and made snowballs to float in the water, oops water goes over the tops of boots! Thank goodness I know these girls and have extras packed for the ride home! Snow ball incoming!! This video makes me laugh...at the end you will clearly hear my 7 year old say 'Oh Shit', cracks me up every time.

Eye Candy

Pretty aren't they?? Monday night it got down to 24 degrees at the farm. It caught me by surprise-even though it really shouldn't have. End of September is pretty good for here. My tomatoes were just starting to produce, but no amount of covering was going to get them through 24 degrees. I was off work yesterday so I went out to collect what I could and lament all those pretty red fruits on the vine...
I came home with 2 huge cabbages (one had split in the cold) a handful of orange tomatoes which didn't seem to be affected by the freeze (hmm...), some dried beans and these beautiful winter squash.
I had a really hard time deciding which varieties to plant. I was shopping at Baker Creek Heirloom seeds and I had 90 varieties to choose from (90!) I was like a kid in a candy store. I eventually settled on three- Iran, Red Kuri, and Sweet Meat. I also picked a french pumpkin which was supposed to be flattened with alot of ribbing. My selection process was a little vague-I wanted something different than the acorn or spaghetti squash our family was accustomed to, it had to be aesthetically pleasing, yummy and (hopefully) a good keeper.
I had very good germination rates and amazing (take over the garden) growth of the vines, lots of flowers but not as many mature squash as I was expecting. Now that I think about it...I did pick some Red Kuri for my family, and let another family member go pick what she wanted, so I really can't complain :D




This is the Red Kuri-it is small and very yummy-I have prepared it once by peeling and cubing it, then roasting with a brushing of maple syrup.



Sweet Meat- I haven't tried this one yet but I love the sea foam green color



This is supposed to be Iran variety, the color is not as described in the catalog but the shape and size are right-maybe they just didn't have time to mature or our cold and dry summer affected them.

Dried Bean Experiment

My gardening experiments continue...
My goal for the garden was to see what kind of foods my family enjoyed eating, grow easily for a novice, and be stored to be eaten over the long winter. This winter we are not depending on this food to survive, but next winter may be different.
These are Black Valentine bush beans. They produced a nice green bean, good flavor but not huge quantities. I left one section unpicked all summer and allowed them to dry on the plant. I took them out of the garden last week, they were beginning to split. I picked individual pods but I can see where pulling the whole plant would work pretty well-especially if you have a lot to do.
From an approx 2foot long row of plants I got 15oz of beans. I'll post again once we have eaten them! I also have a HUGE number of purple pole beans maturing on the vine, waiting to be picked in another week or so!

Beans in the Camper

Lots of beans in a small enclosed space...sounds like a really bad idea, right? This weekend that was exactly what happened.
My garden is crazy with green (and yellow and purple) beans. Call it first timers enthusiasm I guess. I have frozen quite alot already, bringing them home Sunday evenings and cleaning, blanching and freezing the following morning. This weekend was different. I had a wonderful, talented, and oh yah beautiful, knockout sister helping me (did i forget anything Tracy??). With her and her husbands help we picked a whole cooler of beans, and turned them into 11 quarts of frozen beans!
I am very sad to have lost all my pictures: piles and piles of beans, the little camper stove and all the filled bags in the freezer.
I may pick a few more for a batch of Dilly Beans, but the rest I will allow to mature and keep as dry beans for consumption and seeds for next year. It feels good to have 'finished' something.
K

Changes

Sorry for the erratic posting schedule--lots of things on my mind, I haven't felt composed enough to put together a coherent post.
We just returned from another long weekend in the country. I have to say -hot running water is one of the seven wonders of the man made world!
The time we spend at the camper/ArkWork Farms has been changing us. Externally we are browner from the sun and the dirt which has become ground in-but not leaner yet (too many steaks and brats-not enough homegrown veggies-but that is changing). Internally we are changing as well-more thoughtful and less reactive-its hard to put a finger on but I like it. It has been so cool to see my DH return to the man I remember-creative, resourceful, (and sweaty!). He has spent too much time behind a desk it the past 10 years.
This weekend we (mostly he) built the second chicken tractor. The banties in the apple orchard need a new home-the apple are growing on the baby trees and I don't want them to eat those precious apples. The plan all along was to get them into a tractor so they can fertilize the grass. Once the second batch of meat chickens (the Nuggets as we like to call them) are done the hens can go back to the coop. (Or we will be living next door and we will take them)




The garden is looking great! I had no idea I could create something so beautiful! we are currently harvesting radishes, lettuce, some bolting spinach, swiss chard and peas. The pepper plants are struggling a bit-they are puny but starting flowers, the turnips continue to be eaten by a tiny iridescent bugs which eat holes in the greens-but they continue to grow and I can see nice purple skinned tubers in the ground. The show stopper in my garden are the four rows of potatoes. They have such beautiful flowers! I should have planted them further apart, we were not able to hill them very well, so i just filled the trench between the rows with old leaves-it's all an adventure!

I was very disappointed on the 4th, I discovered my children do not know how to spit watermelon seeds--I mean really, what is the world coming to? They have never had a watermelon with seeds-it was fun to see them try to spit those buggers out.

I will leave you with a view from our (camper) front door: ArkWork Farm on the right and the adjacent old farm (future home??) on the left.

Weekend Wrap-up

Another busy weekend has flown past, but in a good way. Full of things I am proud of. Mom is feeling better and may return home tomorrow! Lizzy had a nice 7th birthday party with her friends (I got lost picking a girl up, and nearly ran out of gasoline but made it on time -mostly!). Both girls showed at a local 4H show-Lizzy in a lead line class and Erin in a walk-trot class. They both did their best and had fun. It still floors me to see them up on this 18 hand horse with such confidence.
My novice garden is going well! We hilled potatoes-they are starting blossoms. I finished the pea trellis (sticks and strings leading to the perimeter fence) I am seeing that it may have been a bad idea to plant so close to the edge-I am in mortal combat with quack grass in these areas. But the edges seem to be protected from something which is making my turnip greens look like fine green lace. The turnips planted in front of the peas-along the weedy perimeter fence look great-the plants in middle beds are full of holes. Hmmm, habitat or beneficial bugs? My pepper plants also look like they want to die, they have turned a yellow green color and the lower leaves have a grayish tracing in the leaf away from the 'veins', the new leaves do not have the grey so I believe that is just the old leaves getting burned from all the sun. I fertilized them lightly and watered heavily, hoping that will get them back to a normal-not death bed-color green. I also removed the milk jug cloches from half the group. They were only transplanted 1 week ago.
The carrots did not germinate well-i think they were too dry, so the bed I take spinach out of will get more carrots. I am in love with the garden! I just wish I lived where I gardened-or gardened where I lived :)
I have been thinking about this having a foot in two different lifestyles and it kinda sucks. I am so thankful that I have had the opportunity to play with this homesteading lifestyle (thanks for sharing your farm Dad), but being between is not much fun. I am anxious to see if our house will sell. I am anxious to start work on our own place instead of 'playing' on someone else's place -even though it is shared with such abandon!

A Taste of the 'Good Life'

We are three days into our first four day 'weekend' at the camper. Our camper sits in the woods near the rear of my father's 40 acre farmette. My garden is finally looking less like a patch of dirt. The potatoes have taken off, the pole beans are up and the peas are begging for a trellis. I finally planted the peppers and tomatoes which have been adorning my deck for so long! Tom and I planted a 40x60 (?) foot patch of peas and oats yesterday in the hopes that we can use them for chicken feed-either scythe and store them or turn the girls loose in the patch. My girls were riding their bikes everywhere! We were all very tired little campers last night!

The laying hens are back to full production: 8 eggs/day from the 9 leghorns and 19 eggs/day from the 25-ish banties. They were improving within 4 days of moving them into more spacious quarters.
Tom and I have been able to sell eggs to co-workers. We can't market them as organic because of their feed (Purina-Layena) but I think they are better than commercial organic!

What A Weekend!

Thank God for Memorial Day Weekend. We spent three days and two nights in sunny Hamburg, WI. First class accommodations (camper), 4 star restaurants (campfire food) and lots of recreation (walks in the woods, catch with the girls, reading and star gazing). As a family (that was the best part!) we planted most of the garden and formed a bucket brigade to water it (do do list: buy a longer hose!).
Erin built her first fire and cooked foil potatoes by herself, Tom and I were chased by an angry mama turkey, and 6 year old Lizzy -well she was just Lizzy! Happy, funny, hiding in the long grass-and the winner of the most ticks contest!

Kris

For Your Viewing Pleasure

View of barn from ArkWorks Farm, the farm needs lots of TLC. Lots of junk laying around and outbuildings (like that corn crib) which are dilapidated. The barn is still in good shape-structurally.



My garden-raised beds approx 2 1/2 feet wide x 15 ft long with lots of lawn clippings in the walkways the rest of this fenced area will be sown in cover crops-the soil is very clay-like.



The laying flock temporarily housed in apple orchard. Banties and leghorns. Any idea what the big black rooster is? He is very mild tempered toward people, and has this beautiful green sheen. He was included as a free 'rare' breed with last years cornish cross meat birds.

On Big Rocks and Small Potatoes

I've been pretty quiet for a few weeks. I have not been very good company for my family, my co-workers, my clients or my blogger friends. I had withdrawn into my protective shell and am now just starting to peek out. In the last 4 weeks I have re-read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and finished the entire Twilight series-that is what I do to escape and I have had it BAD lately. I look back and think -what a waste of time! But it was what I needed.

I've been thinking about big rocks. I have been scattered and not focused on the important things in my life. Tom and i attended a time management class a few years ago sponsered by Franklin Covey. The take home message was this: your time is finite, fill it with the most important things first, the not so important things can fit around the so called 'big rocks' like river sand. My big rocks are my children, my husband, my health. I realized my business is not even close to a big rock-so why am I filling my life with it? Now I need a job to make money just like anyone else, but this business takes up a disproportionate amount of my life. When I am not at work I am thinking about it (and resenting it). I plan to sell my portion of the clinic within the year. But first the exciting news...

After much soul searching, Tom and I have decided to place our house on the market. I hope to have it ready to show by June 1st. It looks like we will be able to buy the farm adjacent to my fathers place. It is a 100 yr old farmhouse which is partially remodeled, a nice barn (which will need some new roofing) and a bunch of out buildings which probably just need to be knocked down! She would like to sell 20 of her 40 acres (we want first dibs of the other 20). I am calm and happy about moving our family out there but a mess when considering getting our house ready to be looked at by strangers. I am paralyzed right now...where to start. It doesn't matter I just need to start!

My (very first) garden is going well, no great! Not that anything is really up, but it is so much fun! The girls and I planted potatoes last weekend (10 lbs of seed potatoes--caribe, rose gold, yukon gold and i think pink cloud), onion sets, spinach, beets, swiss chard and kolrabi and some peas are in. Today I am headed out with more lwn clippings for the walkways and to finish the garden gate. I will also finish the chicken tractor. This time I will remember to bring the camera so I can post some pictures.

Erin (the 11 yr old) will be in her first horse show this weekend. She rides saddle seat on one of the lesson horses both sat and sun. I am so proud of her! I was a horse crazy kid too, so I love being able to give her this experience.

Thanks for listening my heat feels lighter already!

(Christy -thanks for the great book review on 'One Second After'- scarey and totally plausable. It has me revisiting food storage and self reliancy in a less abstract way.)

An Important Lesson

April has been an interesting month weather wise. The first 3 weeks were dry, not a speck of rain and the snow cover long gone. I was having images of parched, cracked earth and wells going dry. Last weekend the clouds finally opened and we received approx 3 inches of rain. And there is more on the way. Hurray!

My garden is planned out, the composted manure and rotten leaves are ready to be tilled into the garden. We are at the magic 4 weeks before the anticipated last frost. I want to till and rake and layout the walkways and get ready to plant potatoes. I am free tomorrow to work but apparently the world does not revolve around me! It is far too soupy in the garden.

I am so impatient. My whole life-if I wanted something, I could figure out a way to make it work. There is no way to get around Mother Nature. She is a solid immutable presence and I cannot push, cajole or sweet-talk her. I must accept the weather and work around it. So tomorrow I will rejoice in whatever weather we have. I WILL be patient, I will, I will.

must....have.....coffee

I started my (modified) detox plan by dropping coffee. Even with green tea to ease me through-I enjoyed a crushing headache for three days. I was a royal witch at work on Saturday! Apologies to my employees! Today I feel better, no headache, not tired. I am sleeping better now-no more waking up through-out the night.

I am also trying to eat as much raw food as possible-lots of salads, fruits, raw nuts and water, water, water. I miss sugar! But I do enjoy tasting the texture and naunces of plain yogurt flavored with fruit instead of the too-sweet homogenized Yoplait I usually eat.

I came across an interesting bit of info about protein-(we eat too much of it!), apparently there are cultures who maintain health at 10-25 gram of protein per day. Hmm, think our food pyramid is a little lopsided? I also saw on Yahoo news today, a new study which shows too much red meat and processed meats are bad for you. Really? Huh,who would have thought?
Anyway I feel good, optomistic and ready for the fruit juice fast (2 days max)!

PS Horse manure/wood shavings: I have a good supplier-how do I use? is it too hot to use fresh, I was going to till in fresh manure this spring.
Kris

Detoxification

I need an intervention! I don't like how run-down I feel. I feel closer to 68 instead of 38. My brain is foggy, I often can't find the words I am looking for, my memory is poor (this is NOT a new symptom). I just feel so tired and numb 50% of the time. I know I feel better when I exercise and stay away from simple carbs completely along with limiting even the whole grain carbs. I also feel better with a chance to play and unwind each day. I have gotten into a bad rut-and the difference between a rut and a grave is the depth of the hole!

Long story short-I have 5 days off for spring break and I would like to seize this time to perform some detoxification. I realize that the detox may only be in my head, that there will be some placebo effect gained by the effort of taking control back into my own hands. But rituals are very powerful things.

I am considering a raw food only, limited fast. Any suggestions out there? My herb craft is very rusty, I will be doing alot of research into any suggestions made-no following blindly! I plan to reduce my caffeine and refined foods intake over this coming week leading to my 'spring break'.

In other news-I (minimally) pruned the apple tree, no luck yet in an organic dormant oil. My seeds finally arrived, mostly from Baker's. I will start the tomatoes, peppers and cabbage this weekend (about 9 weeks from our historical frost free date). The solar hot water class is next weekend. Our bunnies got some lovin'. We should see a litter in 30 days! No luck yet on the Silver Fox doe. I also resisted the impulse to buy a new car. My (paid for) 2002 Saturn will do just fine for us for a while longer. I was almost seduced by the new car tax breaks and the hybrid tax credits until I did the math on monthly payments. Told you veterinarians are cheap!! I'll keep putting the payments into savings.

Against the Current

Making significant life altering change is alot like swimming against the current. Years and years of habit are not changed easily. I am tired, tired of kicking against the current, yet the minute I stop-the waves are pulling at me, nudging me back into the current of our consumer driven culture.

Okay-- overly dramatic, I know!! I'm just tired. It seems like the small daily changes I am making are not enough. It is so easy to just stop at the store, or pick up the phone and dial for carry-out.

On a positive note I did finally get a SQF garden plan put down to paper and seeds ordered. I am most excited by the winter squash varieties-who knew squash came in more than 'acorn' or 'butternut'. They are so beautiful!

This weekend we will prune the apple tree. Does any one have a good handle on organic dormant oil or what I need to do to not have wormy brown spotted apples?

Garden Yields

I have been making lists again! It's a compulsion and a way to avoid actually DOING something. It's okay-just the way I am, bursts of activity then lists. The list in progress is a list of vegetables-yum! I have been thinking about the kinds of food my family likes to eat and the kinds of food I would like for them to eat-they are two different lists! LOL-since frozen pizza doesn't grow on trees I will concentrate on the sauce!
I am working under the assumption (right or wrong!) that food supplies will be rather tight next year. I am hearing serious talk of water rationing in LA and farmers (no -PRODUCERS) who will be under serious water stress. So much of our commercial food comes from S. CA I can't help but wonder what another year of drought will do to food prices or even availability. I do not expect or even dream of being able to grow all of our own produce this year, my first 'real' year of gardening, but i would like to make a serious stab at it! I also plan to grow enough to have seeds for the following year.
So this leads me to the question I have. How do I translate say 20# of carrots into square feet of garden or 50# of potatoes into # of hills? I know no one can give me an answer-but a guesstimate? There are too many variables-soil, rain, temp, deer etc. I am going to talk to Dad first-he has been gardening there for a pouple years now-then maybe an extension agent or master gardener. Any other brilliant ideas?
BTW thanks Rose for the book-I think you must have wrote it just for me! It is so exactly what I needed to hear-I can't wait to read more!

Plans for tomorrow

I feel as though I have reconnected with old friends. I have been away from the computer for awhile but you guys are still here doing these great things, thoughtful commentary on our world, our culture and planning for spring. I can feel the warm sun and smell the dirt right off the monitor. It's good to be back! Tomorrow is my day off work and I am trying to group my thoughts and plans together. I want to try out this 5min no knead bread i have been hearing about-my family is pretty sick of my bread machine stuff! Drop off tax stuff to accountant. Continue to work on cleaning basement- my oldest's birthday is coming up and she is planning a sleepover party. I thought I would give the girls the basement-move the TV down there so they can watch a DVD and maybe use the craft area to made bracelets or something. So that means I/we need to transform my dumping ground into a happy space!

I am feeling a need to create art, so that will be on my list as well. Oh yes -grocery shop and meal plan for next week. We are supposed to get 4-8 inches of snow sometime tomorrow, I am hoping it holds off until later in the day.

As far as the yardstead goes....I talked to some one at the village about rules and regulations-well most certainly no poultry in the village! (I am even supposed to licence the rabbits! LOL! I'm breaking the law already) I wonder if I can convince anyone that a pygmy goat is a 'customary' pet, they are certainly less of a nuisance than an outside dog barking incessantly.

I am finding myself looking at parts of my yard, thinking grape vines here? Where do the raspberries go? How hard will it be to tear out these bushes and plant blueberries? I think part of my problem is that in a yard my failures will be very visible, but so will my successes. I am boldly going where I have never gone before! Thanks for being there ya'll.

(picture of back corner of yard-well traveled path to bunnies)

I don't have anything earth shattering to write about, just another week! The first week of cold lunch was fine. L6 loved it, I think she makes new friend where ever she goes, E10 is resigned to it-she is a creature of habit and doesn't like things to change. I have relented some and am allowing them one hot lunch per week-they can pick a favorite meal. We will have another sandwich making session Sunday afternoon. The cloth TP idea is pretty cool, I think-but I need another mesh bag for laundry days! Still on the compact! Nothing new purchased since the week of christmas, picked up 6 pairs of jeans at thrift store for $48.



I am planning a raised bed veggie garden for this spring! I have been thinking about where to put it... the sunniest place in our yard is the SE corner but that is very visible right between the house and an intersection-not so great for selling the place. I think instead I will find a place in the NW corner down by the alley-this is where our bunnies, compost area and metal shed are, it will be trickier to find >6hrs of sun down there and I will need a longer hose. It is also lower than the sunny corner -the grass is always green down there, even in August when the lawn in front of the house is a brown crisp (the mosquitoes love it).



It may seem silly to plant a garden you hope to NOT harvest, but i need this for my mental health. I can't go another year on the giant hamster wheel and the garden is a symbol of independence. I am off to fill up the bread machine before going to work! This weekend is also our family's last Christmas get together with my sisters family-we will be out at Dad's farm to snowshoe and eat chili! Kris