Catch up

You'd think I'd know better than to try to maintain four different blogs on top of everything else.  Nope.  I'm a glutton for punishment.  I do apologize though.  It means somebody gets neglected.  It just happens to be that this particular one is my neglected blog.  If you want to see lots more of my posts then you can visit me over at Two Bit Acres or Little Hawk Yarns or Adulthood.  See?  I'm kind of crazy.  I think it is more that I have a lot to say and my kids and husband can only listen to me say those things for so long before they need a break.

So, now that I've done the blogging no-no of apologizing I will play a bit of catch up here.  The garden is doing very well.  Despite my total lack of weeding.  I even left it to fend for itself in June for 3 weeks.  I had some serious weeding to do when we got home.  Luckily my mom and a friend of hers came to visit and they did most of it.  I couldn't believe how much they got done.  I'm seeing that I need to get out there and attack things again. 

I cannot believe the number of weeds this place has.  Granted I don't think it has been gardened like this before so we are turning all sorts of weed seeds to the surface that lets them germinate.  I figure it will be a couple of years of being a royal pain before we get the weeds under control.  It would be a lot easier if I were willing to just blast the herbicides, but I'm not.  I will use them but very carefully.  I'd prefer to be totally organic but I'm not about to let things like puncture vine come in.  I am feeling very overwhelmed with the weeds but I know one of the best things will be to get grasses in to take over and getting the pastures grazed.  Although I don't have cattle or sheep at this point I may offer my neighbor some graze.  He has cattle and a couple of horses. 

I wasn't sure what would come in this spring after the lack of water we had last year.  I'm seeing a lot of cheat grass, Russian thistle, and other nasty weeds.  So, we mow, we spray, we seed grass, we pull  weeds and this next spring if the money works out we'll pick up something to graze.  Either that or we'll rent the pasture.

My worry with getting our own critters is that I don't really have shelter for them or a place to store hay.  Even more so we don't have the financial where-with-all to just build that either.  As a result I'm working on the little things first.  Chickens.  I have 3 hens (I hope).  I just got them about 4 weeks ago.  They are quickly growing and are about to go to their outside coop.  I'm in the process of building them a protected run/tractor that will attach to their coop or be free standing.  I'm also putting in a gate between the garden and the side yard where I'll keep them.  I need to keep my dogs out of them along with the coyotes and other critters.

Little by little we are getting this new place of ours in shape.  I have to keep reminding myself that we haven't even been here a year yet.  We are installing a wood stove this fall.  That should help with heating bills and will keep us in heat should the power go out.  My to-do list is miles long.  Everything always needs cleaned.  Especially since we have two little kids, two dogs, two cats, and three chicks.  We need new carpet/flooring but we aren't going to do anything there until the two-year old and the pup are both fully potty trained.  No sense in it.

Besides all that and entering into the harvest season in the garden I've started selling my hand spun yarn at our farmer's market.  So much fun.  Let's see, I'm also helping out occasionally at a co-op grocery that is due to open soon, and I'm starting a Farmgirl Sisterhood Chapter.  For those that don't know it is a local group that is tied in with Maryjane's Farm.  You can check that out at www.maryjanesfarm.org

I think we are mostly caught up here.  Probably not truly but I'm seeing how much I need to get done so I'd better get started.