Poor Neglected Spot

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.

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.

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.

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.