No progress...

Yesterday was my first day back to work after a glorious week of vacation time or staycation time. I miss being at home and following my own schedules. So, back to adulting I go.  This means that not much happens while I'm at work. Mostly because I want to be a part of the action and to say things like - "HEY! That's my tool you're using!" Because that happened a time or two.

This drill and the electric drill are the only two tools that I'm really comfortable with - actually the electric drill is a little beyond me too...you know anything that you can plug in.

Last night we tried to make the hinges that Tom found work, but then decided that they wouldn't. Maybe we could have tried to do something to make it work. So we took another trip to Parkrose Hardware - 2nd one for the day! 

 

This was an old hinge from one of the kitchen cabinets.

These will work much better and were a little more straight forward than the old hinge.  It would have been nice to not have to spend extra money, but there you have it.

There won't be much progress on a daily basis if I'm going to be a part of the deal. Things will have to wait until after I arrive home from work and after we eat dinner - if we choose to eat dinner first that is. 

A couple of days ago, Tom said that I have enough skill to build something like this on my own or anything with a good plan really. At the time I thought that was crazy talk, but I don't know, maybe it would be possible. If I took my time and really paid attention to the dimensions and measurements etc. I probably could build something. Especially with the YouTubes. It's crazy how much information is out there!! 

Can you picture it? Me being Joanne Liebeler of Hometime? BWAHAHA! She was my favorite on that show...whatever happened to her?

Why am I going down this bunny trail? Well, I might just find myself something to build...like...a...

BROODER BOX!

A little elaborate for a first project, but it would be SO COOL!

A little more straight forward...less angles involved here.

Why would I want a brooder box? Well, sometimes we find oursleves in a place like Wilco. Places like Wilco have chicks. There might be a day that I say I want a dozen...gimme a box! Maybe...maybe not...hard to say.

Okay...back to dreaming about being at home...doing hobby farming...homesteading...gardening stuff.

Being Inspired

Kickstarter Bonus for the Great American Farm Tour

Sometimes you have to get your inspiration from the YouTubes - we watch Justin Rhodes. I have to be honest, I did not find this guy - Tom did. AND when we first started watching his videos, I wasn't all that impressed. However, the more I watched his videos which was all about their homestead in North Carolina, the more I like him. Everything that he does is intentional and he is more than happy to show his successes along side the failures. Let's face it, none of us know it all! I know I don't. Because of that I choose to look at the things that I want to try as an experiment. Something that you learn from.

Now, the Rhodes family has hit the road on their tour and are posting daily...DAILY! That is something that I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around. Not that they are posting daily, but that they are traveling with their kiddos and visiting all sorts of amazing place and meeting amazing people! You wouldn't think that 24 hours would be enough time.

With that, I'm going to do my best to post here as many times a week as I possibly can. Last week was easy as I was on vacation and updating what we were doing on our little farm. It was an awesome week of being away from the crazy of work and focusing on what matters - getting our dream going.

I'm SO excited - the things that I call experiments are working. My seedlings are doing great! I've got the vision for the garden - which means that the weather could improve and not rain long enough for me to get out and dig out my raised beds. I'm shooting for 9, but I'm not sure.

I'm thinking the JM Fortier/Eliot Coleman way 30" wide by however many feet from the edge to around 3 feet from the fence. The paths will be 18" wide. Whew, that's going to be a lot of work!

We'll see...until the next post, check out the video HERE and give him a like and a follow.

Go ahead check them out...BE INSPIRED.

Seriously...then go HERE for all of his videos!

March 18, Saturday Projects

The rain theme that has been with us all week continued to this morning and we ended up doing our weekend run during what was said to be Sprinkles - it wasn't.

Then later in the morning we ran an errand...

Can you guess where? I chose to sit in the car and wait. When I parked it I didn't realize that we were actually in front of what was once Walgreens. Now that Walgreens is down the street "On the corner of healthy & happy" instead of a strip mall, Ace has moved into their old spot. Which threw Tom off for a moment. Now we are starting to spend a little money on the Chick Mobile project...it's not much, but it's a start.

After returning from running errands I went back into the hoop house to check everything out and move some trays around again. The main reason I did that was to take a peek into the trays to see what was going on. 

While I was out there I found my 2016 calendar and looked to see what I did during this same week a year ago...

First, it occurred to me that my vacation must have been in April and not March since there were all sorts of notes in April. Anyway, March 2017 doesn't look terrible productive because I started so many items at the end of February and had them sitting in our Living Room for a couple of weeks. I do have several things that need to be started NEXT weekend. So yeah, way ahead of the game this year. 

Also decided to take the low tunnel down. I think that the plants are going to survive just a little longer. It was a good experiment, even if I don't get any Flower Sprouts or Purple Broccoli - at least I know that they will survive the winter here. Let's face it, winter in the Pacific NW is more wet than anything. And snow, although not unheard of, doesn't last long when it does happen. This year was a freak year.

So - here are the plants that I grew under the low tunnel - not convinced that I'll get anything (besides Kale). If I do, it will be a welcome surprise and confirmation that we are able to grow through the fall and winter months around here..

More progress has been made to the Chick Mobile! Today the chicken wire was attached to the front corners of the coop, the wire goes from the corner to the door on each side and about the same distance down each side. It looks pretty cool - 

While I was resting Tom took a trip to the home improvement store after finding out that Shurway was closed for the day in search of 1x4 lumber. When he returned I helped with the nesting box frame which was a combination of re-purposed wood from an old deck off the front of our house along with the 1x4. It was kinda fun putting it together, but the best part was the Swivel Bar (which I had no part in). 

Coolest part of the whole coop!

See...the COOLEST part!

Tomorrow is a relatively short day at home for us as we have worship time in the morning and then later in the evening is our Small Group time. Also, I'll be getting ready to go back to work on Monday and will need to get my work clothes washed - ugh. There may not be much action on projects tomorrow :(

It's time to end this for today with a photo of my itty-bitty Marigolds.

Day 5

DON'T TELL ME...IT'S RAINING AGAIN...

Working on outside projects started off slow today...after a REALLY nice day yesterday the rain came back...

It would have been too good to be true for the sunshine to stick around for the rest of my week of from work. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

CLEAN UP TIME

My outside work was getting the hoop house all cleaned up and organized, now that I'm basically done with getting seeds germinated in trays - for now. In fact at this time last year I was only getting seeds into trays...and now I have all sorts of seedlings happening! Way ahead of the game!

SO EXCITED!!

Anyway, having the trays on the shoe rack by the door made it feel more crowded, so that needed to be changed. Some stuff needed to be thrown on the burn pile or into the garbage. It was a quick little project and during the moving of the trays I did see that the Chinese Forget Me Not's (Cynoglossum Amabile), Ellagance Purple (Lavandula angustifolia) and Nasturtium (Tropaeolum minus) were all starting to sprout, wahoo! I was a little concerned that the temps may not have been warm enough, but it appears that they were okay. Especially with the lids on the trays to keep them from getting too cold.

This is what the inside of the hoop house looks like after the clean-up...

Tom did some more work on the chick shaw and I was available to help out too! The first thing that I helped with was the ripping of 2 x 6 boards into 2 x 2's. Thus the hearing protection and the mask. Since I suffer from allergies and have mild asthma it's best that I "suit" up for this task.

Later on, Tom took the 2 x 2's and cut them even further for the vertical posts and the diagonal braces. This is where I come in and fasten the posts and braces with screws with MY TOOL.

Below you can see the diagonal braces and the two short posts to the rear of the structure. The nesting boxes (milk crates)  will be directly above the short wall in the back. That will be one of the purchases that we'll make to complete this project.

The Chick Shaw plans are pretty entertaining Tom is up to Step 18 where it asks "Are we having fun?" If not it's time to take a break - have some tea or have a stretch or whatever. Fortunately this is still fun for Tom and I am enjoying running that drill - MY drill! 

It will be MORE fun once it is ready to roll out in the field and add chickens. We'll also have to add a Portable Electric Chicken Fence...the brand is Premier 1 check them out HERE. The fencing is a future post.

Having it rain most of the time that we were outside - and during the days that we had planned to do stuff outside it was nice to see this...

These popped up in the burn pile again.

A little bit of sunshine in the gloom of the day.

Day 4 - the Day after...

Yesterday was the NICEST day all week! It figures - the day that I have a dinner gathering planned.

The majority of the day was spent cooking up a variety of Indonesian dishes that my mom cooked a lot when I was growing up. She was the BEST and I miss her cooking so very much, but I think I do an okay job at recreating what she made with the help of a couple of cookbooks. It's a good thing that I paid attention when she was cooking, so this cooking thing wasn't so much of a mystery when it came down to it.

Even though I didn't do one thing outside, I did check out what was happening in the hoop house. Everything couldn't be happier! All of the seedlings looked really good like they had been craving to be outside. I'm still hoping that my flower seedlings will germinate soon, but they only have been in the hoop house since the weekend.

The hoop house in full production mode. This is a welcome sight! There is a narrow planting bed opposite the potting bench where I had my tomatoes planted last year. I'm not sure what I'll experiment there this year - maybe the Asian greens and bunching onions...I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure if Tom wants to use this space or not. It is only mid-March, so there is time to decide.

There has been no progress on the chicken mobile. Maybe this afternoon. We'll need to get a couple of other supplies before it will be finished. Wheels for sure and some milk crates for the nesting boxes.  Other than that, the cost to build this has been very low. 

A couple of days ago I was going through some really old photos...

June 2, 2002

There was a nice older woman in our church who let us use her old tractor to till up our garden. 

We thought we would grow some roses where the fence is now. What a gnarly looking yard!

Top photo 2003 - Bottom photo March 16, 2017

The beginning of the privacy fence.

I don't remember exactly how long after the house started going up across the street, but I was starting to feel a little like a spectacle while working the garden boxes, I think we started this in 2014. 

Now it will go all around the space where we have the garden boxes to try to deter to furry creatures from coming in and helping themselves to a bit of a buffet. In the before/after picture it already shows part of the fence that comes along the driveway. We thought that the project would be completed this year. However with the addition of the chickens, we'll need to do a wait and see on how that will all work out. 

We'll see what happens today. Our schedule is a little off today as I wanted to wait to run, but then Tom informed me that his appointment was a 8:30. Maybe midday we'll see. 

Hoping to get some stuff done on the hobby farm today!

Day 3!

It was raining when I got up this morning and when we went out midday and hey - it's not raining much now, but it is still so, stinkin' WET! Here is something entirely different for a rain shot!

You know it's wet when the garden has puddles!

NO PLAN FOR THE DAY

Most things in the hoop house are under control and requires not much of my attention at this point. Because of that, this morning was spent indoors. Besides napping and eating breakfast I did go through a cabinet that needed to be cleaned out of stuff we don't use.

Also, we are having friends over for dinner tomorrow and I needed to get my menu/shopping list put together and do a little shopping. Tomorrow I will need to make a trip out to the Asian store for a couple of other key ingredients.

ANYWAY...

After returning from our trip out we got to work outside. Now that the shoe rack that I was using in the Living Room was empty I decided to use it in the hoop house to create a little more room on the bench.

I love to re-purpose stuff!

The whole unit is usable now! The rack only takes up the space that two trays would so this will work out quite nicely.  The plants might be happier here too, but then I might move them to the other end. I haven't decided yet. We'll see how things go over the next couple of days.

In the big picture starting seeds and being able to start things way earlier than usual is still a new thing for me. The hoop house has made that possible. In past years I would drag out the trays and then try to keep them safe on the back stoop until they germinated. That worked out fine, but man this hoop house is so much better! Plus, the lids don't need to be secured while in the hoop house. Why I never thought to set things up in the Living Room is beyond me. Oh, I know, we now have less stuff in that room, so it was easier to just use the old TV stand in addition to the shoe rack.

As for the flower seeds that I started and had in the garage and only just moved them to the hoop house this past weekend. They are definitely happier and the Zinnias (the easiest) and the Asters are starting to pop up too. Hopefully it won't be too much longer and the other seeds will start doing something too.

TIME TO GRADUATE

Mary came by to check on her seedlings - they are starting to put out their true leaves. Since she will be leaving on vacation (a cruise, no less) I wondered if she might want to transplant to pots before she leaves. I don't mind taking care of the watering/misting of the plants, but she needed to decide on what needs to be transplanted. So she decided to graduate these guys a little early. I think they'll be fine and I'll keep an eye on them while she is gone.

These are just a few of her transplants. 

They should grow pretty quickly now that they have more room to grow! Should be interesting to see how much they grow while she is on her vay-kay. I'm happy that she gets a total girls trip!

ALLIUMS

I've been thinking of alliums today - specifically A. ampeloprasum (Leek) and Allium cepa L. (onion).

That was your botanical name lesson for the day. You're Welcome.

There were some leftover onion seeds from last year so I sprinkled those into a pot for germinating. Seriously, can't have too many onions! Also, I've been wanting to grow leeks again. I don't understand why growing them was so easy before. Granted, "before" was many years ago. Did a quick search on the google-pants and decided to go with a method that uses a seedling tray. I kind of did my own thing which was sprinkling them about in three rows in the tray instead of being careful and too perfect about it. Potting soil was sprinkled on top and then it received a nice mist of well water.

MOBILE CHICKEN COOP

The Chicken Coop is going to happen! The frame is progressing fairly quickly. The only things that we have had to purchase are brackets and the chicken wire. Tom's first idea for the wheels was to use wood. Now that we can see just how big it is (6ft by 6ft) this thing will need something a little more substantial so as not to collapse the wheels while trying to cart it around the property.

In fact this thing is so big, I'm wondering just how heavy it will be once it is complete. I'm not so sure that I'll be able to help Tom get it down off of the saw horses. Then again, we might be surprised, it could be lighter than we think too.

It has been fun helping with the construction even it's working the cordless drill....the BEST! Just a FYI if anyone needs any assistance with "ripping" boards, I'm well skilled in holding the boards as they are being cut on a table saw...hehe.

Dreams are starting to become a reality - this farm things is happening!

Staycation Day 2

Not a whole lot happened around the house or garden today. Rain, there was a lot of rain....

However, since I was able to accomplish the stuff that I didn't do over the weekend I needed to think about what to do today. Even for just a few minutes. My goal is to do something garden related each and every day. Now that Daylight Saving Time has begun it will be more likely that I'll get out and do STUFF!

So, today the trays in the hoop house were rearranged and the trays from the Living Room were relocated to the hoop house - their proper home. It might be just as "balmy" out there as it is in the Living Room. The best part of this is that all of the trays are in the same place!

Today all of the seedling trays are in the hoop house.

Tray on the left are Mary's seedlings - Middle tray are Marigolds - tray on right tomatoes, basil and celery.

OH - there is something else that I did do, I have decided to grow more celery - the four blocks that I have in my tray along with all of the tomatoes sprouted! This morning I started another tray of two rows of 4 blocks of celery seeds. When these seeds sprout I'll start another couple of rows and continue until the tray is full of celery. There are so many different things that I can consider an experiment, but the celery really is the experiment du jour. I was so frustrated that I didn't get anything last year!

Tom did some work on the Chick-Shaw (Justin Rhodes design)...the roosting bars were attached and the corner posts are in place as well. The horizontal piece is just to visualize what the frame will look like.

This picture doesn't show the angle, but the post on the left is 28" and the one on the right is 24" The 28" side will be where the nesting boxes will be situated. That in itself is a future post. A post which will include many of the photos from beginning to the finished product.

Which should look kinda like...

The original Chick-Shaw.

Sometime this summer we'll be carting this thing all over the place.

If you check out Justin Rhodes on the YouTubes and go to his How To playlist you'll see all sorts of vlogs related to chickens. Which is our inspiration. Actually, his whole channel is just awesome - so go...watch his videos now!

We gonna get chick, chick - CHICKENS!

Staycation - Day 1

It's day one of Stay-cation or day three if we start the count on Saturday instead. I have been looking forward to having a week off from the crazy. There is so much to accomplish.  This weeks looks like it will be quite soggy with lots of rain. Today did not disappoint, it rained and it rained - a lot!

Today included finishing up what I had intended to do yesterday and to work on the Chick-Shaw.

Yesterday I had intended to make some soil blocks for a variety of items that I wanted to get going. One being Lavender. That turned out to be the only tray I got done and on top of that I ran out of seeds and didn't have enough for all of the blocks. I decided to go ahead and just leave those blocks alone - they'll go back into the soil bin when I get the plants into pots. 

This afternoon I worked on the rest of the seeds. I included the "mystery seeds" that I found in my hoop house yesterday afternoon. Later I would find out that my tricksey gardening pal, Mary, left them for me a few weeks ago. I'm not very good about surprises...but this one is allowed. 

I am guessing that Mary got these during her trip to Uwajimaya

Seven trays - total

The tray that I did today included these two seed packets as well as a couple of seeds from Johnny's Seeds (my most favorite place). The Johnny's seeds were Dragoon (Mini Romaine) and De Milpa (Tomatillos). There were enough of the tomato seeds to do 8 blocks so I continued with that for all four seed packets. 

I love the photo of all these trays. The Hoop House is just packed with all of the things that we need to get seeds started. My estimation would be that I start half of the vegetables that go out into the garden and the rest are of course direct sow. When everything that is currently in my living room is big enough they will also go out into the hoop house. It looks like there isn't a lot of room, but there is plenty of room opposite the bench. Yeah, there is a planting bed, but there are shelves and...

I. WILL. MAKE. IT. WORK. 

Anyway, I finished that task SO FAST...that I had to improvise the rest of the time I was outside...in the rain...did I mention the rain earlier?

While I figuring out what to do, Tom was working on the chick-shaw floor by rolling out the chicken wire and getting it attached. That process will be a different post. 

Since I just LOVE working in the rain (sarcasm) I decided that it wouldn't be a bad thing to work on pulling more weeds from the low tunnel crops. Especially the weeds that were flowering. We do not need to go to seed. That is not allowed! It was quite mudding and just plain ol' gross! I focused on the plants in the front of the tunnel which included pulling up some of the field grass that got very thick. Those clumps were so hard to pull had to get a shovel and try to dig up as much as I could. 

Yeah, I don't recommend yanking out field grass. It's not that easy. 

Also, my semi-successful Chinese Cabbage was starting to bolt, so I pulled those up. So easy compared to the grass!! The cabbage didn't look the photo in the catalog, but then it isn't very often that something turns out just like the picture in a catalog or whatever. I'll try growing them again this summer.

At least we used some of the cabbage in bami not too long ago.

Good looking plants!

Even if there are no Flower Sprouts by the time we start transplanting veggies or sowing seeds into the garden, I know that these will grow and I'll just try again this summer and see if they do better to the point that I get a bit of a harvest. Mostly I like the idea of something new that is a cross between to different vegetables that I really like. 

When the seeds were delivered, there was a technical sheet included with the shipment, but it probably was recycled. Oh well. The good thing is that Johnny's has a library of informational sheets on the website. So I sat down and did a quick search and looked up several different vegetable sheets and printed them. Even if I didn't order seeds from them, I think the information will be useful when I go to grow those veggies.

We ended out day with cutting some stems of daffodils...

Laundry Baskets, Sweet Potatoes, Storage Bins

Had a solo lunch break a couple of days ago and I was on a mission! Most of the time Tom and I can only hit one place because well, there are two of us and one or both of us often times will become distracted by something which results in not maximizing my lunch break. When I was lunching alone and I had errands to run AND an hour to get them done I could get all sorts of things done, but only if the places I needed to visit were in Beautiful Downtown Hazel Dell.

LAUNDRY BASKETS

SO the first thing I wanted to check out - the laundry basket situation at the Dollar Store. I wasn't sure that they had them, since I have never looked for them there before. So, I jet down to the store which is just over a half mile from the station, very convenient. Parking was perfect and into the building I marched and within a couple of minutes I found my laundry baskets...

What on earth am I going to do with these dudes? Well, a couple of months ago I was cruising through Pinterest and came across another way to grow potatoes...in LAUNDRY BASKETS?! It looks easy enough - and really potatoes are not that hard to grow. So that went on my list of methods to try. Last season  was the conventional dig a hole the ground and drop in a piece of potato. The method from two years ago involved no digging, but a lot of straw. Both were successful, but the in-ground method was best.

All  I need to do with the laundry basket place a layer of soil in the bottom and place the potatoes on top and add a little more soil and proceed as usual. The BEST part I don't have to take up any space in the raised beds to grow them this way. There will be an update as the season goes on.

SWEET POTATOES

The next stop I wanted to make would be at Chuck's Produce another couple miles down the road from the Dollar Tree. I love the store, but the parking lot is terrible! It's even more terrible when it is raining! Dashed into the store and bee-lined to the produce and located the Organic Sweet Potatoes which some were labeled as YAMS...grrrr....Anyway, went away with these two which I think are the Beauregard variety. So the flesh should be a nice bright orange. At $1.99/pound I think we'll get many slips per potato and get waaay more potatoes to boot. My initial investment in this...$3.63 (I think) Less than Gurney's who have 12 plants for $9.49. I hope to get at least 12 slips from these two tubers.

I had it in my mind to grow them last year or the year before and after reading up on how to grow/harvest them I wasn't sure that I really want to try them out. Until last week, I didn't know how to get plants or seeds or whatever it is that they grow from. THEN if I did figure out how to grow these things I would still have to do something to them to get the sugars to develop in them...oh boy.

Just did a quick search - yeah, these will take some effort to make sure that I don't ruin these. IF they work.

I guess I will never know until I try. Do something, even if it's wrong...at least you try right?

STORAGE BINS & SEEDS

There are a couple of things that I REALLY like - Fabric and Seeds. Two totally different things, but each so easy to buy. When we go to a store that has fabric I usually end up in the fabric section and somehow find something to buy.

It's not too different with seeds. The racks with all sorts of seeds for veggies, flowers and herbs...oh yeah - LOVE IT! Catalogs are pretty fun for me  too. I love the colorful packages whether they have a picture of the item or if it's an illustration. The BEST packets have a little window so you can actually see the seeds - those are fun too!

Over the past few years I have been collecting seeds like nobody's business - since I never really paid much attention to what I already had I would always get new seeds. Sometimes I would remember that I needed more of this, that or the other thing.

Until last year I wasn't taking care in storing my seeds. Most of the time they would just be in a pile in the old garage and getting covered with spider webs and other old building yuck. Last year I had an extra container that is shoe box sized and I decided it was time to treat my seeds nicely and put them in the box - what a novel idea! I used a few of the seeds that we had  stored, but I also bought a fair amount of seeds for last year's garden. The box  ended up pretty full at the end of the season and I also ordered seeds from Johnny's Seeds for my fall/winter garden. Yeah, it's pretty much an illness...

I'm not good at planning what I want to grow from year to year. I usually just choose the things that I have grown before that worked and don't think much further than that. Now I'm expanding what I want to experiment with and my seed selection is growing!

So, now I have a box that is full, Full, FULL and I needed a bigger box...

So I made my way back to Target (across the street from my office) and found this set. Which included 5 bins in 4 sizes and I have been successful in making use of each one AND giving Mary the original bin for her seeds. There are two small containers that are seed packet sized so I have placed the seeds that I have already sowed in one and the other has seeds that I want to sow - this coming week. The great thing is that I can store the two smaller containers within the large bin and the rest of the seeds will be stored in that one as well. Have these containers will help me stay organized. If I can't keep things in the house organized at least I can keep the garden stuff organized and easy to find!

This garden season wil be epic! That's right....EPIC!

Whaaaat?!

Last year I tried to grow celery - I don't know why, they aren't really a favorite veggie. 

Nothing happened.

This year I decided to give it another try and yesterday I saw the beginnings of what 

might actually turn into a plant!

Surprise Discount

OMG - so Tom and I were be-bopping around Target yesterday picking up some household items and all.

I'm gonna be honest - the outdoor/garden area at Target is not good. Well, they have a few patio sets, things we see flying off of our property because of the winds that we have at our house...you know, umbrellas, chairs, banners and flags.

ANYWAY...

We start walking down the furthest aisle where they have potting soil, plant food and other gardening related items.

AND they had this...

The only reason why I zeroed in on this is because I already use ecoscraps plant food and I really like it!

Since I've got seeds on my mind and have several trays started - the other thing that I have been looking at is potting soil. Especially since I have been using a soil blocker.

Man - this soil blocker is so great! Once the blocks have been formed all you need to do is drop a seed in the divot and keep moist - could not be easier!

Back to the potting soil...

I was looking at it and the price on the shelf was $2.08 - well, that's an interesting price. Not only that, it was a very low price for a 1 cubic foot bag of the mix. So I peaked around the corner and there  was a price checker not far, but even better...a Target employee. So Tom hefted a bag up and made his way to the lady and she scanned it and sure enough the price should have been $6.99 - after chatting another couple of minutes with her, she called up to the front registers to notify them that we would be checking out with the item and that the $2.08 should be honored since the price on the shelf was incorrect.

SCORE!

So, we loaded a couple of bags into the cart - deciding to NOT be greedy and take advantage of the error (hey, good on us, right?!) Although, I think maybe 3 bags would have been better than the two we went away with. Oh well.

We know finding another surprise deal like that is pretty unlikely...shoulda bought three...

It's time to get our hands dirty!

This Just In

check out their online catalog at www.johnnyseeds.com 

My order from Johnny's came so fast! The order went in last Thursday and I received them on Monday! I received a notification that they were shipped - then within 24 hours they arrived. I think the notification was a little late.

I love everything about these seed packets. Yeah, I know - they aren't that pretty, but each packet has so much information! See for yourself! Last year I didn't notice that the packets also put the minimum amount of seeds each packet should contain. I have no idea what some  of the stuff means, but hey - that is one information packed seed packet!

This will make planning easy to do. I'll have to get the calendar out and start planning when I want things to go into the ground.

www.uprisingorganics.com

A couple of weeks ago I got my order from Uprising Seeds. As you can see, more plain packaging, and not nearly as much information. I like these because this company is "local."

I have already got some of the tomato seeds into soil blocks and they germinated this week! I'm hopeful that we'll have lovely little tomatoes much earlier than my hoop house tomatoes from last season!

Based on my successful experience with the Johnny's seeds for our Fall/Winter garden, I was more than happy to place another order with them for our Spring/Summer veggies.

I do still use Ed Hume, Burpee and Territorial seeds, they are at pretty much any store you visit. However, placing and order seems more serious for some reason. It's an intentional thing - anyone can pick up seeds from the store. So many seed companies - so little time!

Currently I have a small container of seeds to go through...it's time for a PURGE! The container is full, Full, FULL! This will give me a chance to remember all of the things that we had in past gardens and to also figure out how old the packets are and if those particular seeds were successful.

Until next time...more dreaming...

What Does My Future Look Like?

It seems like my dream to become more self-sustaining is a dream that comes to mind more often all of the time. As much as I have enjoyed the many years that I have worked at my job, it just doesn't bring me a sense of contentedness. Like when I reach the end of my work week and all I want to do is "play" in the hoop house and check on the veggies under the low tunnel.

This past weekend we started working on things to get us to that self-sustaining lifestyle - or agrarian if you will. Actually if we were to back up a couple of years we have been working toward becoming more mindful of the food that we eat. While we still grocery shop at the chain grocery stores...I just don't always like what I see in the produce area. I mean it's fine and all, but after growing our own food for a little while AND actually cooking up stuff and EATING it...

O.M.G.

HOW could we let that happen?! Well, it was great last summer! We harvested potatoes and beans and kale and stuff from Mary's garden boxes and cucumbers and it was GREAT! We felt like we were living a little healthier too!

So much so that this year we are actively working toward getting a mobile chicken coop built. It is in the very super early stages of being built....

Yup - early stages - I wasn't kidding.

This will be for the chickens we'll keep for EGGS! Oh how I love a fresh egg...and OH how long it has been since I have seen a fresh egg. That's the thing about growing up with chickens, you don't appreciate it at the time because, as a middle schooler / pre-teen and all, why would I give a hoot about fresh eggs? Only recently have I thought about all of the eggs we had when I was growing up - they were quite literally everywhere. My mom's one weakness - the variety of chickens and other birds that we had on our property. Think Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds only without the hysteria.

That will not be me. I promise....I hope...

The coop will be ready to roll (literally) sooner than we think, but we still need to get the chicken fencing before we can get those chickies.

We watch Justin Rhodes of Abundant Permaculture and he is the "Apron-Wearing-Chicken-Ninja-Master." With the knowledge that I gained growing up with a crazy mom who wanted ALL the chickens and watching Justin Rhodes videos, I think we got this! Seriously, I don't think that it really has to be so difficult. Just need to get the home (chickshaw), the protection (electric poultry netting) and the food (bags of feed and kitchen scraps AND what's in the field). It's doable especially with all of the resources that I have at my fingertips I believe that raising chickens will be a snap!

However, I am going to cheat, just a little bit. I have found a source for pullets and they will be ready to lay eggs so much sooner than if we were to head to Wilco and pick up a dozen chicks - although that might happen "accidently." I have been keeping an eye on their ad on craigslist and will continue to do so until we are ready to bring the young ladies to their new home.

I'm so excited - I'm gonna be a farmer...YAY!

Another thing I've started would be this...

An old portable wardrobe frame holding my seed trays

I'm already crowding out the living room with seed trays...

There's still room...seriously - there is ALWAYS room!

I'm going to have myself a little plant sale. I have some cool flower seeds in the trays and I am thinking maybe some herbs wouldn't be a bad idea. Perhaps put together little herb gardens in plastic planters...hmmm...

We are treating each year as an experiment. How will we ever know what works if we don't try? I don't remember who said it, but one of the vloggers that we watch said "Try doing something even if it's wrong."

Indeed, even if it's wrong.

Here's my trying to do something. Last year I had the wild idea to try to grow celery. How hard can it be? Well, it didn't work last year. Alright, so there is a trick that I'm not getting.

Well, I've decided to try growing celery again. Aannnnd - so far nothing. Maybe I need to find out how long it takes to germinate. That might be helpful...ooh...just looked...14-21 days! What the heck?! Okay, so we are at 10 days. I'll quit getting my hopes up whenever I take a look. It doesn't help that my tomato seeds have germinated and the basil seeds too. I check daily...sometimes hourly...

Yes, I'm obsessed....check these out...

What can I say, I like progress. Wouldn't you know it, if you follow the directions on the seed packets the success rate is much higher! There are a lot of onions going on here. However, I like a success story when I can get it so I'm going to start ANOTHER packet of seeds once I get these in the ground! I'll be the crazy onion lady!

This week needs to go by quickly! I am taking a week of vacation to be a farmer-in-training type person. So many things to do. Hoping to do things right...but probably will do them wrong anyway.

Until next time get out and get your hands dirty!