The kindness of community

It's worth getting to know the small business owners in the area.

It's worth asking them their recommendations for products needed, or if they want to get rid of pallets.

It's worth building these foundations for a day like Sunday.

Saturday night the local deer had a meeting followed by a party in my garden.

They voted and decided to leave the squash alone (this time) since last meeting they ate squash leaves.

This time they decided to eat the tomatoes in the front right side as well as the swiss chard and the green beans

(but only if they are new and bearing flowers and new little sweet beans.)

Yes, they ate my tomatoes (but left one giant one alone!)

So I went to the garden store and Mike was there...

He asked how the chickens were and if I needed any feed...

"No I bought some when you (Mike) were on vacation a few weeks ago...

We're good, it's just the deer..."  

I told the story about the deer and their local union meeting and after party...

So we decided on a fine liquid fence.  

He also suggested a gun or bow and arrow.

I then went out to look at the plants...they always make me happy to see...and something amazing was out there...12, one year old strawberry plants for $8...but wait...a 50% off sign was next to it...I went in and asked if the strawberry plants were half off too...and by golly they were.  

I went out to study them...I called my husband about them as just a few days ago we were discussing strawberry plants and our future as growers of strawberries...

and I checked what they had...one everbearing and eight June bearing.  

That's all that was left.  

Mike then came out and asked if I wanted any, he'd load them up (that place loves to load up you car for you...nice thing about the "small town" feeling of our area) and ring me up...I thought I'd buy 3 pots (36 plants plus daughter plants coming out everywhere so closer to about 50.) but only one of them is ever bearing..."We'll have strawberries in June...just have to have a little patience." I told Mike.  

"Well, take them all." was his reply..."not everyone has vision like that."

I now have over 100 strawberry plants in my back yard.

All for $12.
I still need to plant them, but this is where they will go.  I need to put down compost and straw and then plant, but this area has been liquid fenced and should be safe until I get the time to do this... so I may just get some berries after all...
with some patience and vision.

Scrumptious Saturday...what's not cooking

The bread is baked.

The tomatoes picked.

It's cooled off here, but still I try not to cook too much.

It's summertime; the time of fresh eating.

And, I try not to think about it, but time to start the first thoughts of next year's garden.

Seed saving is in full swing.

I let some of the first green beans go to seed so that I could get more seeds for next year.

My provider green beans have been going berserk...they produce so well and continuously.

So the first dry beans have been picked with hopes of seeds for next year.

I have also been going to the farmer's market to buy tomatoes.

Varieties that I didn't plant this year.

Why?

I save the seeds.

The seeds that will grow next year.

For example I bought "heirloom" tomatoes from a farmer who said they were the variety

"heirloom"

(Some of the family farms, the rest sell at the markets so the sellers don't know as much about the produce as the farmer part of the family sadly.)

I think it's a Cherokee Purple.

Let me know if you think otherwise.

To save the seeds, I scoop out the seedy goo from the tomatoes and place it in a cup.

Then I add a little water (enough to cover the seeds and then an extra inch or so.)
Then I give them a stir to loosen the seeds from the goo.

I put it on a window sill and let it build a moldy crust (about 3-7 days)

Then the goo is removed and the seeds are cleaned from their protective gel.

(This is why tomatoes are moist, but don't sprout inside a good tomato.)

Then the seeds are placed on a towel and dried for about a day.

Then the seeds are placed in labeled envelopes and put in the seed bin part of our fridge.

This process only works for open pollinated "heirloom" tomatoes.

Ones bought at the store unless they are labeled as an heirloom variety usually will not grow true to the parent (they won't look like the tomato you bought and/or may be sterile.)

That simple.

Lets talk cost.

Organic seeds cost about $2.50 for a packet of 20 seeds.

I get about 100 seeds from a tomato (depending on type and size.)

I only spend about $.50 for an organic heirloom tomato or $2.00 for a pint of cherry tomatoes.

See the savings?

Not to mention from those 50 cents I get tomatoes to feed a family for a year.

For many years to go.

For the cycle keeps on going.

For this I am thankful.

Frugal gardening at it's best, the way it was meant to be.

It's been a few eventful days around the city homestead...

A few of you have been asking about our Pumpkin.

While I am sure you are talking about the kitten my husband brought home, it reminded me that you haven't seen the garden recently.

Well, as you can see Pumpkin is a small snoozy cat who loves a little boy.

His heart belongs to that little boy and the little boy's heart belongs to his kitten who is now

Pumpkin Duncan Shumunkin.

The pumpkins in the garden are doing well too.  

I only planted the New England Pie and Long Pie seeds (one each but have many more), but also got about 2 other types of winter squash growing as well.

We didn't cage the tomatoes this year, and now I am wondering how I'm going to pick them.

The main problem is that I get too many volunteer tomatoes and then don't have the heart to pull them.

Lesson learned...next year I will be heartless.

The calendula is growing like wildfire and seeds are all over the ground for next year it seems too.

I have pulled tons of potatoes and am still waiting on the blues.  

They seem to be very slow.

In place of the potatoes pulled, I have planted fall spinach, lettuce, and carrots.

The peppers have also been taken over by the volunteer tomatoes.

Garlic has been pulled, cured, and is now in our refrigerator waiting for the biggest and best to be planted in a few months.

And the corn.

It is currently 15 pints of creamed corn.

In our full bellies as corn on the cob.

Waiting to be husked and frozen.

In the fridge for dinner tonight.

About to be put into corn bread.

Basically everywhere.

I'll have to update later on how much there really was.

So far the count is up to 48 ears.

Today is the last day to become a follower or be an old friend follower and comment in order to win a beautiful green glass chicken.

The gateway drug for any homestead.

Wouldn't she look lovely on your countertop?

All you have to do is comment

HERE

Let us know what your favorite post is and/or what you'd like to see in the future!

We really appreciate our followers and love knowing what you like.

Back in the saddle again...

While we've been "homeschooling" through the summer as planned, it hasn't been our traditional type lessons.  We have spent time in the garden, taking care of chickens and charting production of both.  

We have been exploring the world around us and thinking about geography in relation to where we are and where we are going.  

We have been thinking in a way about multiplication and division, without using those terms.  

And as usual we have been baking, cooking, and talking about our friends the "yeastie beasties" that make bread soft and fluffy.  

I am tempted to create a child's bread baking book in a story format..."Once upon a time in bread land princess wheat was kidnapped by the yeastie beasties..."  it is a story told too often in our home.  

After scouring the internet, I finally found the cure for the crankiest sewing machine on earth...and cured it from it's issues (which two sewing machine fixers couldn't fix.)  

C. is very interested in creating a princess costume for Halloween (she's been talking about Halloween since November when the candy ran out.)  

"Home Ec" may be her idea of a good time.

But now it is the time when we start the formal lessons...

It takes a while to get back in that saddle again.

W. is really looking forward to a history book that I got out of the library.

It is so far over over his head, but that's okay...I know how to paraphrase.

We are continuing on in Saxon Math and Phonics Level 1.

For science we are exploring the world around us.

And reading...lots of it.

I read a chapter of On the Shores of Plum Creek...

W. reads about 10 pages of Hop on Pop...

or a Biscuit book...

or a reader from his Phonics program...

and for math, reading and science all in one...

there's always reading the cookbook.

Locally Delicious...Very nutritious

Dinner...Ahhh Dinner

Mostly homegrown

Chicken from a local farm roasted with homegrown herbs on top of a bed of our own Swiss Chard braised with a bit of broth and fresh (homegrown...may I add) garlic...

A side of potatoes (that I grew) baked with a touch of local butter and backyard herbs...

Carrots and beets (that both grew in our garden,) glazed with a touch of local honey...

Each item cared for by either me or someone I have met in person...

Something is so right about it.

Tired...

Lots of things have been happening around here...

Potatoes are blossoming.

Spinach has bolted.

The chickens have been moved to their permanent scratching grounds after using them to kill grass and fertilize our new corn "field" (small patch about 10x15.)

This is where being tired comes from.  See I have little to no carpentry skills.  My husband is a wire cutter and saw pro.  Somehow we managed to cut windows in the chicken coop for better ventilation and then attach mesh over them so there are no escapees.  Then we built a little box with wire mesh to act as a tunnel from the coop we rebuilt to their wire dog cage.  Then I remucked their coop (why not...it's nice sometimes to just start fresh.) 

We managed to fill the compost pit.  I am thinking about letting that decompose while I build a real compost bin and use that.  Our compost pit is beginning to not serve it's purpose as well as it used to. 

A sock has been almost finished (one of my year's goals.)

And June is just bursting out all over here.

We got a new camera after months of issues with the old one, but there is a distinct lack of pictures here due to the screen on our camera compatible computer (say that 10x fast) now won't turn on so no pictures now.

Sorry it took so long to post, but we've been working from after work to bed time for about a week to get everything finished before the blazing heat began.

So I am about to go learn how to use the new camera and then maybe try to fix the old screen...wish me luck.

The golden hour

It was one of the days where the kids decided to fight, cry, and repeat...much to my dismay.  

Full of things that I know I would have found boring as a child.

Car repair, therapy, unloading the month's grocery order.

At last the last fight was over...

A calm reading of Little House on the Prairie (tough to do since it was the chapter about cowboys.)

To bed...Sweet bedtime...for the little combatants.

Momma Time!

Get outside and pick lettuce.

Check for eggs.

Dig up the volunteer tomatoes growing in the front yard (now how did those get there?

Right...C's pick a tomato, take a bite and throw game she loved to play last summer...)

Plant the peppers and most of the tomatoes amongst the lettuce, carrots and spinach.

Oh my...more tomatoes growing in the compost heap...big beautiful plants...better than some that I cared for for months...oh well.

Notice the Nasturtiums coming up with their odd round leaves.

Smelling the grass of the neighbor's mowing.

And as the last of the tomatoes that were going into the big bed...

the sun began to set leaving a golden cast to the word around me.

Ah the early golden moments of summer.

The I hate stink bug club.

Stink bugs...I hate stink bugs.

At night they fly so loudly...you can hear each beat of their little wings.

And the stench.

My cats love trying to catch them, but they release their namesake odor.

Musty, with a touch of rotten decomposing meat.

So the local tv station put out a video of a bunch of comercial traps...

$50 on average.

(not in the budget)

So then a local tried their hand at it and suposedly made an even better trap...

for (drum roll please...)

$7.00 or less...

Watch this...

I'll be making one I'm sure...

So I don't have to look at

Adult Stink Bug Credit University of Guelph

Chive Vinegar...

Last year while walking through the library, I saw the prettiest jar of pink.  

It had a label on it as chive vinegar.  

The local gardening club has a group of ladies that keeps a little herbal garden outside the library.  

They harvest and sell the herbs in the library as well as some of their concoctions from the herbs.  

This year I decided to make some of my own chive vinegar for salad dressings and possibly pickles.  

First I waited and waited for the chives to bloom...fully. 

 The lovely little purple flowers, as well as the stems on which they stood came in with me.  

After a good rinse, I cut the flower heads off and plunked them into a quart jar of vinegar.  

Then the stems got finely chopped and added to cottage cheese.  I set the chive vinegar in a dark cupboard and waited...but alas the wait was unnecessary.  

The next morning, the vinegar had a pink tinge. 

My husband must have thought me crazy for being so excited, but rarely in my life do things happen so rapidly.  It has been a week that they have been seeping, and it is such a lovely pink color now.  

This morning I went to the cupboard to give it it's daily shake and from a distance thought that it was molded at the top, but I had nothing to fear.  The white appearance on the top was just vinegar bleached chive flowers floating on the top.  

I thought it was odd if something molded in vinegar.

So below is not so much a recipe, but a method...

Chive flower vinegar

Chive flowers (I used about 1 cup)

Vinegar (I used one quart white)

glass jar and lid.

Wash and place the chive flowers in the vinegar in the jar.  Let it sit in a dark place.  Give a daily shake.  After about a month, strain and put in pretty bottles (or not so pretty...your choice.)  Enjoy on salad or other dishes that need a little chive vinegar flavor!

Sorry...

Today was a busy day...

We got up early and W. decided to start math at 7:00 this morning.  He loves apples and right now we are charting how many apple seeds in each apple half we eat.  He loves apples more than any other food right now.  I got him to pair his four apple halves (after carefully scooping and counting the seeds) with a "peanut butter spoon" a delicacy in our home...otherwise known as a big scoop of peanut butter on a spoon.  We must have gotten the weirdest bag of apples, for most halves have only 0-3 seeds.  

After that, we went out into the yard and mowed, and mowed, and then mowed some more.  I dumped all the grass that hadn't gone to seed onto the paths in the larger garden.  The grass that had gone to seed I put in the chicken run (TREATS! oh they get so happy.)  

Then to the showers and it was time for a quick lunch before taking W. to his therapies.  

While he was there, C. and I got some manure (10% off discount on top of a sale! score!)  We picked W. up and went back home.  

C. is taking a nap and W. and I just finished putting the manure on the garden.  

It needed a little more depth and I thought manure would be a good way to boost the fertility of the soil.  So now I have about 6 inches of compost and manure as well as peat on top of a layer of cardboard that acts as a weed barrier.  There the grass under it will decompose with help of our little wormy friends.  

While all this was happening, I found several cracked robin eggs.  W. investigated them.  Sadly, we also found a dead baby bird.  It looked like it hatched too early.  Yolk was everywhere.  The ants had already moved into the area and were carrying it off bit by bit. 

I love spring.  

So much life.  

It's hard to see the death that also comes this time of year. 

 I rather focus on the life.

Expansion...

I've talked before about the grand expansion plans for this year.  

They have finally come to fruition...

The apples have blossomed!

Tuesday and Wednesday lent perfect opportunities for the finishing of the projects.  

Warm, but not hot, and sunny with lots of light fluffy clouds made for perfect heavy duty work weather.  

We first got all the cardboard that the high winds had moved all around and placed them back on the bottom of what would become the new garden.  

I put W. on the task of  watering the cardboard...why? 

First I wanted it weighed down so that it would stay put while I finished loading the compost onto it.  

Second, I wanted it wet so that it would hold moisture and decompose quickly while providing a lovely barrier to kill off grass and weeds that were working their way up.  

He did a great job.  

While W. did his task, I turned the compost heap.  

I hadn't done this task since I mucked out the chicken coop.  

The top foot was rich in worms (and chicken guano.)  

Under that, was rich thick moist, earthy smelling, compost.  

I filled bucket after bucket of it and poured it upon the cardboard.  W. was put in charge of spreading it with a hoe.  

From top left clockwise: (small bed) potatoes, the new large garden, (bottom) the herb garden, (small, far left) lettuce, beets, spinach, peas and carrots.

Once the bed was filled and spread, we pushed some of it aside to create walkways through  the garden.  In the first strip we planted red and yellow onions.  

We use so many onions through the year so we figured plant lots (as in 150 sets.)  

Also, we had some rogue garlic pop up from last year's crop.  I pulled them up gently, and then replanted them in neat little rows.  

The potatoes went in as well into one of the beds built last fall.

The kids loved the idea of blue fingerlings.

We planted red, white, and blue potatoes W. found at the grocery store.

They were overpriced, but I figure for $3.99, we'll get lots of little yummy potatoes.

My rhubarb has decided after 3 years of not bolting, to try and bolt every day.  

Every morning I go out and pull out yet another attempt.  

Yikes! 

What does this mean for the season if even the 

rhubarb can't make it to May?

During all this we had botany lessons about the food cycle (from food to compost (side loop into chicken food and eggs to compost) to worm food or bacterial food to soil (plant food) to things we eat) and the water cycle.  We also talked about underground plants and above ground plants.  

So much can be fit into every day life.

A whole lot of haulin...

Sunday afternoon was a glorious time.  

It was so warm, almost hot.  

The sun came out and the children started begging to go out and play, and I can't say no to that for I was itching to get out myself.  

I've been reconsidering my garden space ever since I looked at all the seeds I have, and then looking at the little garden room I really do have.

So it began, the Spring expansion I have been planning all winter.  

I began hauling more rocks left by the previous owners.  They had rock walls that were not properly put together so their rock walls were falling every so often upon my strawberries and raspberries.  I moved these to the area where I was going to make our biggest garden bed to outline it and keep the kids and dog out of the area.  

Then I sent the kids on a mission.  

I had collected boxes all winter to the point were we didn't have a garage, we had a box storage area.  The husband was complaining about the vast quantity of boxes everywhere.  

The kids' mission was simple...get the boxes and bring them to me.  

They did this as I tore the boxes apart and placed them where I wanted the garden to be.  Then I placed the rocks around the border on top of the cardboard.  

After this, the kids and I dug the finished compost out and hauled wheel borough after wheel borough of compost to the new garden.  I saw worms a size I have never seen them before.  They must have been getting fat on the richness of the soil.  

They made new pencils look tiny.  

W. caught some of these and fed them to the chickens who would delight in playing tug-o-war with them.  

I still need some more soil, so I may dig up some of the soil from the last place we mobbed the chickens to destroy grass.  

It should be very rich due to the free fertilizer the chickens deposited for us there.  

Our next mission:

Potatoes and onions need to go in!

(Pictures will be added after the sun comes up...

if we ever see the sun...

it is Pittsburgh after all (famous for the lack of sun and overabundance of clouds and drizzle.)

Round 3 planting

More planting occurred today.  We just did not have enough tomatoes and the new varieties came in.  So today  Moskovich tomatoes went in as well as Gilbertie Paste tomatoes and more California Wonder peppers.  Lemon Balm and some supplementary spinach went in.  Last time I planted indoors, I made some paper pots and filled them with some potting soil.  I decided to go a different route this time.

For Christmas, my in-laws gave us a Kureig coffee maker.  It makes a perfect cup each time.  The one thing I hate is all the waste it creates.  For a time, I took off the foil top, dug out the coffee grinds, then recycled the plastic bottom and the foil tops.  

Then I realized they look like perfect little pots, and coffee can be used as a potting medium as well.  So off came the foil tops with a small knife and with a few jabs of the knife, I loosened up the coffee grinds.  I then added a touch of potting soil and water and poof...there I had some little one inch pots.  Perfect to start seeds and then transplant them into larger newspaper pots.

Let's see how this goes.

I'll pay for this tomorrow...

Monday is usually my work day.  I work one day a week and am home for the rest.  I had a cancellation so I went home for a few hours in the middle of the day.  The weather has started taking a turn for the damp coolness that usually precedes the blasting heat of summer around here. 

 I figured I would hoe the beds I started last summer and fall.  It took all of 10 minutes to do this as the soil was the best I have ever seen.  Soft, crumbly, dark and rich, it will be the best food for our food.  I then decided it could maybe do with a little nitrogen from our chicken coop aka "chicken poo."  I went in with a bucket and extracted a mass of our deep litter from the past 6 months.  It was starting to mature to a nicely aged mass of fertilizer.  So I put one bucket on each of our raised beds.  

Then I figured I shouldn't stop there. 

 I opened the muck door in the back of the chicken coop that goes straight into the compost heap.  After 2 hours, I had finally cleaned out 6 months of weekly layering of chicken litter.  I also took the time to use some of the compost from last year and layered compost with chicken litter in order to get a lovely bacterial colony going in the heap.  Worms were everywhere in the deep layers about one foot below ground, a sure sign of healthy soil that has been produced.  

With the work all done, I jumped in the shower (I bet my afternoon clients were happy I did this!) and went to the local feed store.  There I bought a big compressed bale of peat moss for lasagna beds and mulching later in the season, and on a whim asked how much for a discarded pallet.  The pallet recycler gives them a dollar each so he'd give me the same deal.  I also got a few seeds that I saw and liked.  

With all that done, I went back to work, clean, energized, and hopeful about my garden.  But I knew after all the lugging, pushing, and tugging, I'd be paying for it the next day...

and boy o boy am I ever.

Yarn along...

So I decided to join the yarn along since my sister is MIA

...In Ginny's words

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? ~

We are reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder for school.  I think it will take us a few weeks to get through, but W. loves how different "real" school is vs. "long time ago" school vs. "our school."

I am reading Growing 101 Herbs That Heal by Tammi Hartung.

I'm thinking about growing some herbal tea and making some lotions for my childrens' very dry skin.

I am knitting MY SOCK!

I was at the pool last weekend for W.'s swim school knitting.  An older lady started asking me about it and told me that I look like an old pro...yikes!

Soulemama had a giveaway a few weeks ago...and guess who won...again!

When it comes to her giveaways, I win the ones I want the most...art supplies and now beautiful yarn.  

It truly lives up to its name.

"Squishy"

The color was inspired by the movie Titanic.

I tried to get the beautiful subtle hues in it.

It is so nice.

I am planing on making a pair of socks for each of the kiddos out of it.

It is from Katie's etsy shop

 knit IT UP.

If you buy from Katie, put Citysister in the notes to seller 

PLEASE!

I want to be able to get more from Katie's beautiful shop!

And it is also grand to be able to help a "momtrepreneur."

And just one more shot of my sock...question for you knitters...

I always knit everything inside out...

what can I do?

What I've been doing while MIA...

Well, after my last post, things kept happening...

The drain pipe for our tub burst leaving our kitchen and basement flooded.

In its wake, I ended up throwing out food and parts of the ceiling 

(and at times both in one mushy handful.)

Then I called my mom.

"At least everyone has their health."

Mom why did you have to jinx us.

W. got sick the very next day with a fever of 103.6

Well life goes on.

We've been...

Making honey wheat bagels.  

The recipe I used I decided was too sweet.  

Next time I won't use so much honey.

Maybe when I get the recipe perfected, I'll post on that.

Making popcorn.  A true comfort food.

All of our paper bags were destroyed in the flood, 

so I made in in a pot the old fashioned way.

I've always been afraid of this method ever since my cousins got really bad burns from hot oil while making popcorn this way many years ago.

Studying plants.  This is our lavender that we planted a few days ago in coconut coir.  

The onions are starting to poke their little leaves up as well.  We also started sweet potatoes, but we'll see what happens there...it is a big experiment for us this year to attempt those.

I am thankful that we have so many opportunities.  

That our pipe burst didn't destroy too much.  

That we did not truly have a flood such as many have to endure.

Things could be much worse.

Magic!

A few weeks ago I noticed something growing from my poinsettia.  

I didn't have the heart to remove something green and growing this time of year.

I am glad I didn't.

Somehow a crocus bulb found it's way into my compost heap, survived, and was fine making the move.

Magic!

Spring is almost here.

Infected

While wandering around on the internet, I came across Cold Antler Farm's blog.  On the sidebar, there is a picture of a diseased heart. 

  One with a disease that will infect and take hold of your heart.  

That's right, Farmheart.  

I think I first contracted in in early childhood.

My grandmother's friend had sheep.

They were soft and woolie and just fun.

I would tell my grandmother how I was going to be

a farmer and a stained glass window maker and a veterinarian.

I guess I would have been very busy.

I also remember going to my great grandfather's farm.  He had tons on ground bees living underground.

In the hot summer, they were fanning out their hives.  My brother and I stomped on those bees out of fear.

I remember the anger our great grandfather had at the sight of this.

These were valuable pollinators.

His dear friends.

He explained how everything on a farm worked together.

Maybe that's what I love about our little backyard homestead.

We work on it.

We dream about it.

It brings us all together.

Having a bad case of farmheart gets me through those rough times.

When the "hen" is actually a rooster.

When it is cold and things need to be done.

When it is 100 degrees in the shade and canning needs to be done.

But it is also a rewarding disease.

How many diseases can you say that about.

Because of it, I've seen my son hold a little baby chick so tenderly and whisper in awe,

"Isn't it a cutie?"

Because of it, my kids know vegetables don't come from a store.

Because of it, my daughter will sit next to me and tell me how she wants to wear a sheep as I knit (on a sock!)

(Insert silly mental image of a 2 year old with a big sheep on her back.)

Because of it, I sit hour after hour at night

sipping on tea (that I grew)

dreaming of the garden while pouring over seed catalogs.

Because of it, I yearn to get dirty.

Are you infected too?

Cold Frame of mind

I found a great article here about cold frames.  Oh how I love the idea of getting out there sooner rather than later.  I have begun my winter ritual...over dreaming the garden.  Over thinking where and what I shall grow. And planning to grow more than we have room for, of course!  I sometimes plan like I have a garden that is over an acre in size.  Then reality hits...I only have 1/4th of an acre TOTAL...My garden consists of:

a strip 18 inches by 20 feet

a patch 5 feet by 20 feet

a berry patch (poorly maintained...my fault) and the blueberries I think have been chomped by deer

2 raised beds about 4 feet by 6 feet (with plans for 4 more this spring)

So that is a grand total of 163 square feet more or less with plans of another 96 square feet or 259 square feet total (more or less, some gardens may be bigger or smaller.)  So here is my challenge this year.  As one of the goals set forth here, I am going to weigh everything I grow...or at least everything I get in the house (W. has a habit of eating in the garden.)  I am going to make a separate page where I list what I planted, spent, and grew.  I challenge my sister to do the same (ah ha something to make up for the jam challenge that never happened!) To see how cost effective the garden is.  I may even have to throw in cost/time canning/freezing...eggs...I am not yet sure if I'm up to that challenge just yet.

I am always amazed by people like this  sure they have some advantages

no young children who need to be cared for at this time

warmer environment

years of experience

but overall, they are self sufficient on just 1/5th of an acre!  And they produce enough to sell as well...

A girl can dream.

So here is my plan...

Check over the catalogs

Check with friends 

(there is no way we can use all the seeds that we order...we can't use all 30 tomato plants that grow from a packet...especially when we want to grow a couple of varieties) 

to see if they'd like some seedlings or seeds.

Order the above.

I need to plan and research the whole succession planting thing as well as interplanting!

I've been looking here

to get ideas...as well as here


Get moving on some cold frames and checking for cheap hay (could be used later for chickens and then compost, or mulch when the weather gets better...waste not!)
I also found an interesting little bit here about square foot gardening and making seed mats.

Then the weighing can begin.

I hope to have the first broccoli, lettuce, spinach, carrots, potatoes and beets in maybe in early March when the snow melts and I can see ground.
I also found this, a guide and the method of The Three Sister Garden, an ancient method of growing corn, beans, and squash.  We've been talking about growing corn this year.  This method seems like it would be best for climbing dry beans, and flint corn...both things I want to grow this year (and who could say no to squash?)
We also want to grow sweet corn.
We also want to try to seed save.
This will involve some careful planning so that the pollination times are separated.
Anyone done this before?

New Year's Goals...Or...I like me just the way I am

Here it comes...the "new year how can I improve me" entry.

  I have some things I'd like to accomplish this year. 

Yes, like many I see a new year as a blank slate (as Anne Shirley would say "with no mistakes in it...yet.") But at the same time I feel a little silly.

 I am who I am.

  No more, no less.  

I know I will never be a size 4, be graceful (my grandmother used to call me "crash, bang, boom" for a very good reason) or have the perfectly clean home with the perfectly mannered and behaved children.  I may never have a larder filled with the fruit of my summer labor, grown, harvested, and preserved perfectly and the time to accomplish all of this and more. 

After all, I am quite comfortable being just quirky old me. 

As 30 draws ever nearer, I realize I have been perfecting the art of being me.

I am a piece of art.

Yes, I am an oddball.

I like doing some very odd things for where I am. 

Nobody I know here knits, keeps chickens, or cans things.

Some keep gardens...I know a few that home school.  

At the same time, I see room for learning.

Ah life, that never ending classroom.

Instead of making resolutions, I'd like to improve my knowledge of things.

To expand my horizons.

To become an even better version of me.

Citysister 2.0

Homesteading

Weigh everything we grow.

(Just to know...price it out...maybe I'll make a tally and let you in on it.)

Expand the garden so that it can support most of our veggie needs for the year.

(Yummy and delicious and very nutritious.)

Work on learning how to garden around the year.

(Cold frame, here I come.)

Can, Freeze, make pickles.

(Expand upon what I already do.)

Home life

Learn how to bake with alternative sugars (aka honey and agave syrup)

(In hopes that someday we have bees when we have more land.)

Improve my organizational skills

(As I can be really unorganized...but that's a secret.)

Minimize the clutter

(again with the organization...I can't even organize my thoughts here.)

Have a yard sale

(To get rid of all that aforementioned clutter.)

Knit a sweater and a pair of socks...oh how I wish for the perfectly hideous stripy long socks.

(The husband wishes for a cardigan with leather elbow patches.)

Homeschool

Expand my homeschooling network

(I am having a hard time finding like minded people around here.)

Further improve my organization.

(Again with the organization.)

Be the perfect mom 

(hahhahhahahahah) 

Overall, I am very thankful for the last year.  We set aside some worries and have begun to really realize what is important in life.

I have had this lovely chance to reconnect with my sister as well.  

As well as with those people that read this.  

Thanks for coming by and visiting with us.