Gathering of Thoughts

I keep kicking myself.  I was going to go to an auction on Saturday and I completely forgot.  You are probably asking what this has to do with the garden.  Well, it was a landscaping company's auction.  They had trees!  And I missed it!  Doh!  I didn't even realize I had forgotten it until Sunday when I was finally getting around to reading Friday's paper.  Oh man.

Such as life. It does save me money to not go but still... It would have been really nice to get our apples.  We want to start an apple orchard.  I guess we'll have to go about it some other way.  Of course we need to decide where we want the orchard first and we should probably dig out the sage brush.

I am about to go ahead and dig out my other four beds.  I'm seeing I'm quickly running out of room.  I still have about 20 tomatoes, 6 Brussels sprouts, several Walla Walla sweet onions, rhubarb, garlic, spearmint, lavender, sage, and I want to add a pumpkin area for the kids too.  On top or our stuff I'm doing a half share in one of our local CSA (community supported agriculture) farms.  I'm going to be canning like mad.  Yippee!!  I need to keep an eye out for a dehydrator too. 

A few supplies I need to get for the summer growing season:

A hot plate/burners - I have a flat top stove and it doesn't work for canning
Jars, lids, and rings
Dehydrator
Lid rack for my jar lids
Probably another shelf set up for the canned goods

With the CSA I can also get milk.  I don't know if we'll go in on that full time.  I'll find out if the kids and us even like raw milk before we dive in and/or commit to anything there.  There are also opportunities for flour, honey, meat, and fruit.  I'm thinking I'll like having this in addition to our own garden.  I'm also considering the Co-op that is trying to open in another little town close to us.

I'd better see if I can get some digging done this morning.  Also, I just realized that my husband had said he was going to work on putting the chicken coop together this afternoon.  I'd better get my cinder block set up for the feet.  I also need to clean up some more of the tumbleweeds back there and work on the new gate.