This poor blog gets left by the wayside most times. I maintain three others in addition to this one and 3 Facebook pages. Sometimes I wonder about my sanity.
My gardening is slow going this year. I really haven't had a whole lot of motivation for some reason. Well, I think I kind of killed off my motivation last year. For some reason I was really burnt out by the end of the season and more than ready for the season to be over. I am just now thinking it might be okay again. I still can't get myself too excited about the garden though. I am slowly planting but not with any sort of gusto that I have in years past.
I am trying to grow all of my family's onions and tomatoes for the year this year. And most of our potatoes. Herbs I'm trying to get established as well. Anything that is a perennial makes my life so much easier.
I think this weekend I will be sowing lots of my cool season crops and transplanting a few more onions. I need to work on my compost. I have about three different things going there and I need to make a decision and pick one spot for it.
My to-do list looks something like this:
mow lawn, around fences especially
build better compost area with the pallets
build nesting boxes with pallets
put roof on bigger chicken coop
plant: spinach, flowers, broccoli, cabbage, onions, sage, thyme, savory
amend tomato beds in preparation for planting at the end of the month
cut down two dead trees in yard
edge garden beds
pull out weird rock garden from previous owners
decide to either repair or rip out back porch
I think all that should keep me busy for a while. I should stay out of trouble at any rate.
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Friday, February 28, 2014
A Feeling of Spring
Sometimes. Not today. We are supposed to get more snow tonight and tomorrow. I'm okay with that. The ground needs it. I'll take every little bit of moisture Mother Nature wants to hand over.
We have had some good almost-Spring-like days though. Not too long back I was raking the yard in a t-shirt. As of today I have a couple inches of the white stuff on the ground. I need to get my onions and celery started this week. I'm a bit behind on seed-starting. I'll get there but I don't have a ton of motivation.
I'm not sure exactly what has happened to my motivation. With my yarn business getting going and all I just seem to have lost some drive. I'm hoping as the days continue to grow longer and more of that lovely sunshine happiness comes in my motivation will return. I'm figuring out that I think I need my winter to be quieter and my summers to be spent out and about. I'm thinking I won't be doing our winter farmer's market next year. We'll see how I feel at the end of the summer season and then I'll decide.
As I'm mulling over the market season I'm realizing I'll need to be starting some herb seeds here shortly as well. Uh-oh. I'm not on top of this so far. I'd better use today for some good planning and list making and then go get some seed starting dirt. A little less than a month and it will be officially Spring.
We have had some good almost-Spring-like days though. Not too long back I was raking the yard in a t-shirt. As of today I have a couple inches of the white stuff on the ground. I need to get my onions and celery started this week. I'm a bit behind on seed-starting. I'll get there but I don't have a ton of motivation.
I'm not sure exactly what has happened to my motivation. With my yarn business getting going and all I just seem to have lost some drive. I'm hoping as the days continue to grow longer and more of that lovely sunshine happiness comes in my motivation will return. I'm figuring out that I think I need my winter to be quieter and my summers to be spent out and about. I'm thinking I won't be doing our winter farmer's market next year. We'll see how I feel at the end of the summer season and then I'll decide.
As I'm mulling over the market season I'm realizing I'll need to be starting some herb seeds here shortly as well. Uh-oh. I'm not on top of this so far. I'd better use today for some good planning and list making and then go get some seed starting dirt. A little less than a month and it will be officially Spring.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Weather Reports
The weather news, Facebook, and any other place the weather report shows up has been driving me crazy. It is Winter people! It is supposed to be cold and snowy. Spring doesn't even think about arriving until mid-March. In all reality we just started on the journey called Winter. All the hoopla about how cold it is and how much snow we are getting is a little over-blown. Now, power being out or people getting something like 3 feet plus in snow in a day or so I see as news worthy weather. But, come on. It is supposed to be cold this time of year in the Northern hemisphere. Personally that is part of what I like about it up here.
This time of year is one for being inside. Working on inside repair projects, needlework, reading, watching movies, planning the garden, and lots of other things. Summer is for the hectic outdoor season. I don't know about anyone else, but by the time Summer is over I am ready for a break. I am usually ready for Spring and Summer too by the time Winter is done but I really enjoy Winter. Besides, most people really don't have Winter for all that long. A few months of some yucky weather that isn't great for driving.
I must say a few months isn't too bad. Where I grew up Winter was more like a nine month affair. Snow on the ground from October to the end of May usually. Gardens consist of peas, potatoes, and carrots unless you have a heated greenhouse. My mom gave up on the garden after she had her peas, potatoes, and carrots freeze in about July. There were years that there was at least a small snow storm on the Valley floor every month of the year.
Growing up like that means that in all reality I love Winter. Skiing, sledding, walking through the snow, playing in the snow, looking at the snow, and all manners of winter sports. I kind of miss having more Winter to be honest. Now, there is hardly a reason to own cross-country skis let alone anything like a snowmobile. I do love skiing. We would ski in to get our Christmas tree. We would go snowmobiling on the weekends. Christmas day we would go skijoring (skiing while being towed) behind the horses. We were all pretty happy about Winter.
Now it seems all people do is grumble about it. Too bad. I think I'm going to go enjoy some snow and Winter weather now.
This time of year is one for being inside. Working on inside repair projects, needlework, reading, watching movies, planning the garden, and lots of other things. Summer is for the hectic outdoor season. I don't know about anyone else, but by the time Summer is over I am ready for a break. I am usually ready for Spring and Summer too by the time Winter is done but I really enjoy Winter. Besides, most people really don't have Winter for all that long. A few months of some yucky weather that isn't great for driving.
I must say a few months isn't too bad. Where I grew up Winter was more like a nine month affair. Snow on the ground from October to the end of May usually. Gardens consist of peas, potatoes, and carrots unless you have a heated greenhouse. My mom gave up on the garden after she had her peas, potatoes, and carrots freeze in about July. There were years that there was at least a small snow storm on the Valley floor every month of the year.
Growing up like that means that in all reality I love Winter. Skiing, sledding, walking through the snow, playing in the snow, looking at the snow, and all manners of winter sports. I kind of miss having more Winter to be honest. Now, there is hardly a reason to own cross-country skis let alone anything like a snowmobile. I do love skiing. We would ski in to get our Christmas tree. We would go snowmobiling on the weekends. Christmas day we would go skijoring (skiing while being towed) behind the horses. We were all pretty happy about Winter.
Now it seems all people do is grumble about it. Too bad. I think I'm going to go enjoy some snow and Winter weather now.
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Winter Weather Continues
Rightly so too since it is January. We survived Christmas and it is just about time for my boys to return to school. Monday they go back. I say survived about Christmas but it was a lot of fun. We had company and I was realizing I think it is the first time we've ever hosted Christmas. I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed not travelling over the holidays.
One of our best Christmas presents was that we started getting eggs from the chickens. I started keeping a light on for them and they started laying. Hooray! No more buying yucky store eggs. I got to introduce my in-laws to farm eggs too. I think we have some converts. :)
I'm hoping we don't get too hammered with the cold weather that is moving through. It is a royal pain keeping waters thawed and we need more firewood. I'm never excited about calling anyone about firewood. We also need to get a chainsaw because I do have a couple of small trees that are dead that need to come down. Little by little we'll get this place in shape.
Today is the start to really getting my office/work studio set up to where I might actually be able to accomplish something. Plus I'd like my bedroom to not be such a big mess. I'm not good at keeping things contained so I'm hoping to corral myself.
I also need to go through my seeds and see what I have and what I need. I actually have a pretty good plan laid out for the garden this year. Not that I'll really stick with it. I never do, but it is a good place to start from. Now I just need to have more seed catalogs get here. I love browsing through them. I seldom order but they are great for ideas and for planning.
Also, we need to get our site picked out for our apple trees. We got four for Christmas. I'm excited to get them in and going. Every little bit helps us get a little closer to the goal of providing as much for ourselves as practical.
One of our best Christmas presents was that we started getting eggs from the chickens. I started keeping a light on for them and they started laying. Hooray! No more buying yucky store eggs. I got to introduce my in-laws to farm eggs too. I think we have some converts. :)
I'm hoping we don't get too hammered with the cold weather that is moving through. It is a royal pain keeping waters thawed and we need more firewood. I'm never excited about calling anyone about firewood. We also need to get a chainsaw because I do have a couple of small trees that are dead that need to come down. Little by little we'll get this place in shape.
Today is the start to really getting my office/work studio set up to where I might actually be able to accomplish something. Plus I'd like my bedroom to not be such a big mess. I'm not good at keeping things contained so I'm hoping to corral myself.
I also need to go through my seeds and see what I have and what I need. I actually have a pretty good plan laid out for the garden this year. Not that I'll really stick with it. I never do, but it is a good place to start from. Now I just need to have more seed catalogs get here. I love browsing through them. I seldom order but they are great for ideas and for planning.
Also, we need to get our site picked out for our apple trees. We got four for Christmas. I'm excited to get them in and going. Every little bit helps us get a little closer to the goal of providing as much for ourselves as practical.
Friday, December 13, 2013
Winter...
...has closed in on us. Almost Christmas and we've come through quite a cold spell. We had roughly a week where the thermometer never even made it close to going above zero let alone getting up to the freezing mark. I was very glad the only critters I have at the moment are the chickens, dogs, and a cat. It has been tough enough keeping their water thawed. At least our incredibly cold temperatures seem to have broken and now we are just getting cold at night.
I figure my root crops that I left in the ground are goners. We had such hard freezes for so many days in a row that there is no way the veggies made it. Especially since I hadn't mulched them. Oops. Such as life. Now I'll have to buy taters and carrots. My onion stash is holding up okay. I should be alright through Christmas. I've had some losses due to improper curing. I think I rushed some of the harvests into storage. I seem to remember we had a couple of storms that rushed me a bit. I'll have to be more careful next year. I'll also be planting about double the number of onion sets. I did 200 this year. I have garlic in too. I hope it does well in spite of being frozen solid for a week.
I have four new beds dug and two more to dig for the spring planting. I think I'll have enough tomato cages. I need to be better about actually pruning them. I had a little trouble with blossom end rot in a few of the plants this year. Next year I'll be trying a pile of tomato seeds I got from my mother-in-law. They are from an exotic seed company in Germany. I will probably still add a couple of my favorites into the mix as well as the new ones. The Beefsteaks seemed to do really well here last summer and the Super Marmandes did alright. The Brandywines were okay but the bugs got them in a hurry and the Amish Paste were the ones with the blossom rot. I'll change where the tomatoes are going and I'll make sure there is plenty of mulch and compost there. I may even throw a Tums in when I transplant them to make sure there is calcium. We'll see if I remember.
I'll be interested to see if the grapes fair okay over the winter. I mulched like crazy knowing they are on the north side of a fence and the snow builds there and melts very slowly. Hopefully the snow will actually help insulate them to an extent. In addition to the grapes I am hoping to get a small orchard planted next spring. We go through so many apples that we are going to need to grow our own. And I want to try pears and some plums for a little variety.
There has been talk from my son of possibly wanting to do a market garden too. I may plant enough of a few things that he could bring some to the farmer's market with me on occasion. We'll see though. I'm hoping I start seeing seed catalogs here soon. I think I'm finally ready to start really thinking about the garden again now that I've had a break. During harvest I was very ready to be done. That is something I like about the garden. Just when you are about ready to go bonkers from too much of one thing the season changes and you move on.
Let's see, what else? In the back of my mind I keep thinking that I may want to try supplying a new grocery store with herbs. Or I might take herbs to market. I haven't decided yet. I do know that I need to be better about cutting and drying for myself next year. I never did get my parsley put up so I'm almost out. Dang! I'll have to make sure to stay on top of that stuff and get a dehydrator sometime in the next six months or so.
I'm off to work on that never ending to-do list since Christmas is barreling toward us and picking up speed.
I figure my root crops that I left in the ground are goners. We had such hard freezes for so many days in a row that there is no way the veggies made it. Especially since I hadn't mulched them. Oops. Such as life. Now I'll have to buy taters and carrots. My onion stash is holding up okay. I should be alright through Christmas. I've had some losses due to improper curing. I think I rushed some of the harvests into storage. I seem to remember we had a couple of storms that rushed me a bit. I'll have to be more careful next year. I'll also be planting about double the number of onion sets. I did 200 this year. I have garlic in too. I hope it does well in spite of being frozen solid for a week.
I have four new beds dug and two more to dig for the spring planting. I think I'll have enough tomato cages. I need to be better about actually pruning them. I had a little trouble with blossom end rot in a few of the plants this year. Next year I'll be trying a pile of tomato seeds I got from my mother-in-law. They are from an exotic seed company in Germany. I will probably still add a couple of my favorites into the mix as well as the new ones. The Beefsteaks seemed to do really well here last summer and the Super Marmandes did alright. The Brandywines were okay but the bugs got them in a hurry and the Amish Paste were the ones with the blossom rot. I'll change where the tomatoes are going and I'll make sure there is plenty of mulch and compost there. I may even throw a Tums in when I transplant them to make sure there is calcium. We'll see if I remember.
I'll be interested to see if the grapes fair okay over the winter. I mulched like crazy knowing they are on the north side of a fence and the snow builds there and melts very slowly. Hopefully the snow will actually help insulate them to an extent. In addition to the grapes I am hoping to get a small orchard planted next spring. We go through so many apples that we are going to need to grow our own. And I want to try pears and some plums for a little variety.
There has been talk from my son of possibly wanting to do a market garden too. I may plant enough of a few things that he could bring some to the farmer's market with me on occasion. We'll see though. I'm hoping I start seeing seed catalogs here soon. I think I'm finally ready to start really thinking about the garden again now that I've had a break. During harvest I was very ready to be done. That is something I like about the garden. Just when you are about ready to go bonkers from too much of one thing the season changes and you move on.
Let's see, what else? In the back of my mind I keep thinking that I may want to try supplying a new grocery store with herbs. Or I might take herbs to market. I haven't decided yet. I do know that I need to be better about cutting and drying for myself next year. I never did get my parsley put up so I'm almost out. Dang! I'll have to make sure to stay on top of that stuff and get a dehydrator sometime in the next six months or so.
I'm off to work on that never ending to-do list since Christmas is barreling toward us and picking up speed.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
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.
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.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Tis the busy season
Spring gets busy when you garden. There is so much I want to do and need to do that it can get a little overwhelming. At least today and yesterday I'm getting a forced break. It has been raining. Although, despite that I've gotten lots of weeds pulled. The soft ground makes for easy pulling. Good thing too because boy do I have bindweed here! Oh my. I will still take that over puncture vine but bindweed sure is invasive stuff.
The worst is that not a whole lot can be done about the bindweed. When you pull it the dang thing actually seems to propagate more. Any little piece of root can grow more. The seeds can lay dormant for close to 30 years and still germinate. Ugh! The weed killer chemicals will take care of it along with everything else around it, but I'd rather not use the chemicals. You can get rid of it with persistence but it does take a year or two of pulling, spraying, cutting, burning, and whatever else you come up with to get rid of. Oh, good example of how resilient it is: I saw some growing in the tire tracks of our gravel road the other day. Tough stuff.
It does have some good points. You can use the vines for ties in the garden and apparently you can use it for dye. I will be trying this.
So I've been trying to get rid of weeds, cutworms have gotten one of my tomatoes, I keep planting more seeds and plants as I get them, and I've been trying to stay dry.
Busy times but I do love Spring.
The worst is that not a whole lot can be done about the bindweed. When you pull it the dang thing actually seems to propagate more. Any little piece of root can grow more. The seeds can lay dormant for close to 30 years and still germinate. Ugh! The weed killer chemicals will take care of it along with everything else around it, but I'd rather not use the chemicals. You can get rid of it with persistence but it does take a year or two of pulling, spraying, cutting, burning, and whatever else you come up with to get rid of. Oh, good example of how resilient it is: I saw some growing in the tire tracks of our gravel road the other day. Tough stuff.
It does have some good points. You can use the vines for ties in the garden and apparently you can use it for dye. I will be trying this.
So I've been trying to get rid of weeds, cutworms have gotten one of my tomatoes, I keep planting more seeds and plants as I get them, and I've been trying to stay dry.
Busy times but I do love Spring.
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