01.08.10
The real deal
Yesterday I showed the original hand drawn plan for my garden before we moved here. Here is what it actually looks like
This shows the garden plan for winter 2009/2010. Tomorrow, what we’re growing this year. |
01.07.10
The garden plan
I drew up a garden plan before moving here with beds and greenhouse. I say drew up because it changed. The footprint is basically the same but the beds and placement of the greenhouse and chicken moat aren’t.
This grand plan allowed for trees and beds and a chicken moat that surrounded the whole garden…..Tomorrow, the actual plans as it sits now.
01.06.10
New Year and a new blog
It’s time to get going. It’s January 2010 and the whole year is laid out before us. We’ve lived here through 6 seasons and I feel it is time to get started. Get started on this year’s garden, get started on this year’s inventory of socks, time to get started and get busy.
Follow along as I document my journey as I design and plant a market garden for this year’s farmer’s market. I look forward to sharing my 12 years of Master Gardener experience with you and encourage comments.
Let’s get started!
01.29.09
Random Thursday
The last supper:
Last night we had the last supper with the harvest from the summer garden. There is still lots of Elk and lettuce in the process plus some overwinter carrots and the chickens are still laying; but basically, this is it from the garden.
Clockwise from left to right after the first ‘go round’ of servings.
Elk Steaks
Roasted, Fried Red potatoes
Home canned peaches
Mixed greens + carrots
Deviled eggs
You know, it is really time consuming to cook from scratch. Of course it would have helped, time wise, if I had decided upon the dinner menu before 4:30.
It was a very good feeling to have this meal. Other than the salad dressing and beverage, everything else was either grown here or processed here.
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Following up on the above post. Now that we’ve been here basically a year (growing season wise) I have a better feeling for what and how much to plant. This year was the first year I tried a winter garden. I followed this book Four Season Harvest . This author has several books, this is the one I purchased. With very little time, sweat and energy we did pretty good. I have plans to invest a few $$, time and sweat plus hire a couple local ‘workers’ to help expand things for this year.
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What good timing. I received my Mother Earth News in the mail yesterday and it talks about growing your own food and how to cut your food budget in half. They really addressed the ‘difficult’ times we’re in and have great suggestions for those who have lost their jobs and/or homes. You can go here to check out their online magazine. Mother Earth News posts almost their complete magazine the month after it arrives on news stands. This one is a good one!
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I also am processing the last pumpkin from summer. I kept it outside hoping to avoid the dreaded rot that sometimes affects pumpkins if you bring them inside. It survived the snow
and being used briefly as a bird feeder. I decided to bring it inside earlier in January and it did fine. Last night we baked it in pans with water. It took about 2 hours to cook. This morning I scooped out the meat and processed it. Right now it is hanging in one of my late Grandmother’s kitchen towels dripping pumpkin juice. Later this afternoon I’ll make pumpkin bread with raisins and walnuts. Yum!
01.15.09
Time to sow?
Planting a garden? In January? Well yes. You see the temperature has been very nice. About 70 degrees + for the past few days. There is a minor chance of rain next Tuesday.
This year I’m trying to start artichokes from seed. Yes, I know, hold your horses. Before y’all get up in arms I’m actually following the directions on the packets. Can you believe it?
First I harvested some moss from one of our trees, nestled the artichoke seeds in the moistened moss and put the wad inside a plastic bag inside the fridge for 2 weeks to trick the seeds into believing it was winter. When I took it out last week the seeds seemed to be plumper.
These sprouts were left in the moss and I found them left in the plastic bag. Hey, I guess these directions really work…go figure!
I planted the plump seeds in cells and guess what? They sprouted 5 days later. Now it looks like I’ll have 120 artichoke plants. Oops! According to the packet only 50% of the sprouted seeds will be viable. That makes 60 plants.
I’ll share with my friend and, hopefully, we’ll be eating artichokes this fall.
Today I planted Iceburg Lettuce and Red Sails lettuce seeds. Also some early peppers. Just for kicks I planted a flat of Glacier tomato seeds. These are fast, only 60 days to mature in ideal conditions. I figure if I can get them sprouted, keep the cats out of them and transplant them in the greenhouse in April I may have tomatoes by August!
04.18.08
We toil for years and what do we get?
The old adage that life isn’t always fair can also be applied to my yard. I’ve toiled for years, YEARS I say; 19 to be exact. Digging, planting, pruning, fertilizing, building soil, adding amendments, killing slugs, patiently worrying about late freezes, snow and hail. And what do I get? What I say? This
Beautiful blossoms on my two pear trees. These trees were planted for the two oldest kids. They have never really produced pears. Mostly because we usually get a freaky high wind and pounding rain in April when they are blooming. But NOoooo, not this year. The year we’ve sold the house. The year we’re moving. Yes, the deal is final, the papers are signed and the loan has been funded.
I’m sure this year will be a bumper crop of pears. The new residents of our house will think what a bonus. Beautiful pears fresh for the picking from the trees.
Sometimes Mother Nature is just cruel.
04.07.08
Is it Sunday or Monday?
When I awoke this morning at 5:43 I rolled over after sleeping in the same spot all night and thought. Is it Monday or Sunday? If it was Sunday I easily could have slept in which doesn’t happen much. If Monday, it was time to get up. We spent the weekend at the Riyescott Hill House (this is what we call it) which overlooks our property.
By 
staying there we were able to get alot of work done. The owners of Riyescott Ranch have decided to rent out their 3 bedroom 2 Bath house as a vacation rental. We were the first to try it out. If you are looking for a quite, secluded vacation home to stay a few days or week in, this is the place. Located above the Pacific ocean you have a 360 degree view of the ocean and mountain range in southern Oregon. It was quite, beautiful and restful. You can email Linda here for more information.
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Saturday we helped Linda sow one of her pastures with new rye grass seed. The kids learned the valuable lesson of throwing seed into the wind. Katie came home with grass seed everywhere; inside her shoes, hair, pockets and pants. That night we shared a wonderful dinner to celebrate the soon to happen close of escrow. Wine, tri tip and roasted potatoes/parsnips with green salad and strawberry shortcake. The company was good and the food great!
Sunday we finished loading the 3 raised bed with top soil we rescued from the soon to be cut away bank for our house. KT and I planted red pontiac potatoes and soft neck garlic. The third bed will get soy beans next weekend.
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It’s time to start thinking about what you will be knitting or corcheting for the Knitting Olympics this year. As you know, the summer olympics are in August. During the last summer olympics the Yarn Harlot floated the idea we knitters get involved in the Olympics by starting a project during the opening ceremonies and finishing it by the closing ceremonies. It was fun project to participate in and the idea really took off. You can go here to see more.
Since we will be moved by then I’m thinking about what I could challange myself to knit. A sweater seems like it will be too much. Especially a complicated pattern that I would really need to pay attention to. Maybe a top down sweater that is knit in the round, for me of course. I’ll need to start looking at patterns and decide which yarn to buy. Anyway, I encourage to join in the challange.
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Recession? Yes, I do believe we can officially call it a recession. Since my living expenses are not tied to my sock knitting business I had a revelation this morning in the shower. ( I always seem to get my best ideas in the shower.) I’m not going to let this downturn in my sales get ME down. I am considering this a good time to increase my inventory. In the past as soon as I would list a pair of socks they would sell. Now I can knit away, without pressure, and list the socks as they are finished. This way I’ll have loads of pairs ready for the fall/winter buying season.
How’s that for make lemonade out of lemons?
03.25.08
They’re Alive!
Even though it is overcast outside;
Even though it is chilly outside;
Even though we are still having night frosts;
My seedlings are alive, ALIVE I SAY, A L I V E!
02.14.08
Photo Blog Day
Thursday, February 14, 2008
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My day
Here is a photo blog of my day.
The cat, Calypso, and is always under my feet. Today she was very interested in my ironing socks.
Yesterday I received this box in the mail from Territorial Seeds with enough seeds to feed the whole town of Brookings.
I have to inventory it and start splitting the order up between me and Linda. See those square pots on the top row? Those are cow pots. If you are a fan of ‘Dirty Jobs’ as we are you will remember the show he did with the Cow Pot guy. I can hardly wait to try them. In fact, if you go to the above link you can actually watch this season’s first 4 episodes.
Today is packaging day. Here is an image of the socks I knit for a customer. These are all Lana Grossa, expect for the one Toofootsies which is a yarn made from shrimp. If you are interested in me knitting socks from your yarn, you can go here to print out the form to mail with your yarn. My current lead time is 4 – 6 weeks.
Finally, the Rainy Day Yarn Club packets are going out today. I’m a bit behind due to several reasons but never fear, they are on their way.
10.26.07
Your Container Smells Like What?
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Does this look like my new studio? It could be. Shipping containers are the latest thing in building. They are sturdy, water tight, movable and secure. You can frame in a door, cut in windows, run electricity…really, you can almost do anything. Today the DH and I went looking at shipping containers. I’ve been toying the idea of using one for my ’studio’. I would put it in the back forest, have a friend cut in a couple windows and WA LA, instant Fortress of Solitude. They cost about $3,000 and depending upon what was shipped in them I could use one. The first we saw smelled like garlic. Really, like garlic. Next we talked to a local discarded equipment perveyor (junk man) and he said he would charge us $200 – $300 to move one if we found one we wanted. Low and behold, Land O Goshen…there were TWO in the paper today for sale. They only wanted $1000 for each. This sounded too good to be true. Well Yup r doodle, it was too good to be true. They were previously used for growing pot, Mary Jane…you know that illegal stuff. Now I will admit I have smoked a few in my day and tried really hard to inhale. Although I would not be the first in line if it was legalized, I but would at lease be standing around the corner. But I could not use a pot reeking shipping container to dye yarn and run my business nor could I use a garlic smelling container. On the flip side I may come up with some really interesting color combinations if I used the pot smeller for dying….Hmmmm. After talking to the junk guy I learned the ‘problem’ with using the shipping container for an office is the sweat. Yes, they sweat when it gets cold. You have to basically build around the outside and frame in the inside so I’ve thrown out that idea and will stick in my garage room. Oh well, it was a good idea anyway. |
