Children's Gardens

Yes, another garden post.  Can you tell I have seeds and springtime and gardens and warm air on the brain?  Daydreaming about summertime is the only respite for the soul when it's cold, gray, snowy, icy and otherwise dreary outside.  I keep telling myself that all this snow is a good thing; that it's refilling reservoirs and water tables after last year's drought, but enough is enough already!  Is one 40 degree day too much to ask??? 

So, I dream about gardens and lovely green, growing things.

The kids are dreaming of summer and  finalizing their garden plans too.  3 years ago, we plowed up a small space around the clotheslines poles for each child to have their own personal garden.  It's only 5 foot in diameter with the aforementioned clothesline post in the center, but they've so enjoyed having their own little spaces!  I love that they choose their favorite foods to plant and tend...and I love how they take people out to see what they've grown.  At 3 and 5, they were already developing pride in what they could do.  That is simply awe-inspiring to me. 

Each year when the seed catalogs come in, the kids pour over them trying to decide what to grow each year.  They've tried some unusual items: white cherry tomatoes, ground cherries, huckleberries, pink eggplants.  Most of those things were gross, but some of it was a smashing success, for instance sunflowers, sugar snap peas, yellow pear tomatoes.  One thing is for sure, my kids aren't afraid of experimenting.

So what's on their agendas for this year?  Isaac is planning on sunflowers or walking stick kale, yellow pear tomatoes and sugar snap peas.  Mara is set on sunflowers, broccoli, carrots and spinach.  All their favorite foods :)  My kids are learning to grow what they eat and eat what they grow.  A mama can't ask for more than that.

How have you encouraged your children to get involved in the gardening process?

Are You Ready To Get Dirty?

That's a line I've always wanted to use; Mike Rowe pulls it off so well.  Of course, he IS Mike Rowe :)

We're almost mid-way through winter here and it's time to start getting dirty.  Time to plant seeds!  Over the past few years, I've learned a few good lessons and tricks in regards to seed starting. 

First, I've learned that a great place to germinate seeds is on top of the ductwork in the basement.  The trunklines coming off the furnace give off enough heat to warm the soil and the seeds germinate very quickly.  Once the seeds germinate, I take them down off the trunklines and put them under grow lights. 

Second, I've learned that those nifty little homemade newspaper starter cups aren't what they're cracked up to be.  They tend to draw all the moisture out of the soil drying out the seedlings and can turn to mush after a few good waterings.

Third, you have to be very, very careful if you decide to fertilize your seedlings.  It's extremely easy to over-feed them, even with a lovely organic, all-natural fertilizer.   

Fourth, when it's time to harden off your seedlings, if you have more than a tray or two, put them in a wagon or cart to wheel them in and out of the sun.  Makes things so much easier.

All those tricks and lessons aside, I'm extremely excited to start planting!  I have a couple new varieties of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants that look delicious as well as the old tried and true varieties. 

Do you have any tricks/lessons to share? 

And Speaking of Seeds:

As promised yesterday, I've spent the past 24 hours cleaning house and browsing through seed catalogs.  There is one particular seed I'm looking for and I'm having great difficulty finding it, but I persist.  Call me a woman on a mission.

I'm looking for a compact/bush habit, heirloom/OP winter squash, with 2-8lb (+/-) fruits that keeps well into winter. 

That sounds simple enough.

That is, until you go looking for one.

I can find good keepers.  I can find 2-8lb fruits.  And I can find compact/bush/semi-bush winter squash.  I can't seem to find all 3 qualities in the same plant.

Typically we grow butternut varieties which are the perfect size and  keep quite well, but 2 months into the growing season, my garden is a big, weedy tangled mess of pokey, scratchy squash vines.  There are squash vines in the corn.  Squash vines in the tomatoes.  Squash vines growing across the yard into the berry patches and vining on the grape arbor.  No more 'vigorous' vines for me.  I need something a bit smaller and tidier, even if it has a smaller yield.

So does anyone have a recommendation for squash that is an appropriate size for a small family, an heirloom/OP so we can save the seed and keeps well, but doesn't take over the whole bloomin' backyard?

Seriously.  I welcome any suggestions.        

And by the way, thanks to all of you who have entered the Happy Birthday Giveaway...just a few more days and we'll have a couple of winners!

Preparedness Challenge: July Edition

Once again, I sit here looking back on a month that has just flown by. It saddens me to see how quickly time passes the older I get, and makes me want to put the brakes on anything that takes time away from home and family. Like yard work, appointments, phone calls, standing in line, running errands. But since we can't stop time or even slow it down, all we can do is throw ourselves in headfirst and spend every waking moment of our lives doing what pleases us. Like playing with our children. And developing relationships. And celebrating every day. And reconnecting with friends and family. After all, there are only 2 things we can take with us: our faith and our relationships, so make sure you work on those things each day!



So now that's over, what have you done this month to be better prepared for winter? I know. It's crazy talking about winter, but it will be here before you know it. Get ready now so you can sleep when the wind blows!



Store Something: It's time to start saving seeds for next year's garden. We let one lettuce plant go to seed, along with some onions, herbs and greens.




Grow Something: Our green bean harvest was very disappointing this year, so tonight we're ripping out the old vines and planting a short-season Italian green bean. Hopefully they'll make up for what the first planting lacked. It's also time for a second planting of carrots, beets, spinach.




Harvest Something: Green beans, carrots, blackberries, red raspberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers.





Preserve Something: This month we put up green beans, applesauce, peach butter, blackberry jelly, and lots and lots of pickles.





Practice/Learn Something Useful: I've been practicing a good deal with firearms this month and am giving consideration to a CCP. That's still way up in the air though.





Do Something the Old Fashioned Way: We built our own deck over July shutdown. Does doing-it-yourself count as old-fashioned?





Have Fun! This month we took the kids to the AF museum, played card games on rainy nights, spent time in the pool, surprised Mamaw with donuts for her birthday and watched fireworks on the 4th. We also finished up an incredible series on Revelations at church.

So what was your July like? Any lovely productiveness you'd like to share?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I'm the shopper in our household, there's no getting around it. In the (nearly) 15 years that Jeff and I have been married, the job of stocking cupboards and planning meals has fallen on my shoulders 99.95% of the time. Often, the Mister will stop on the way home from work to pick up a gallon of milk. Occasionally, I'll send him up to the village to the Mom-n-Pop grocery store with a list of 4 or 5 items in order to make due til the next all-out grocery excursion. I know the better brands. I know the better prices. I know the sales cycles (to some extent.) Plus I can't trust that Jeff won't come home with 4 shopping bags full of Munch-n-Crunch, Cheezy Doodles, Chocolate-Covered Sugar Bombs and HFCS-Smacks. He's a good man and a great husband, but in terms of grocery shopping, he's a cave man.



After the last grocery trip, I told Jeff prices were going up. Sugar is up .50 a bag. Broccoli is double the price at about $3 a bunch. You can count on $4-5 for a dozen brown eggs. And don't get me started on meat prices...on that subject, let me just say Thank God for Bambi! I try not dwell on it because I know that most prices are cyclical, but it would appear that these prices may be here to stay. According to the PPI Report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, March saw the largest one month jump in food prices in 26 years! In it's sixth consecutive monthly increase, food prices rose 2.4%. Some of the 'startling' increases they report include:



Fresh vegetables up 56.1%



Fresh fruits up 28.8%



Eggs up 33.6%



Pork up 19.1%



Beef up 10.7%



Dairy products up 9.7%



So what does it all mean? It the trend continues, it means that $100 bag of groceries that you're buying this year will cost you $124 this time next year. Wrap your mind around that. If you spend $100 a week on groceries, you'll be spending nearly $1250 more this year on groceries! Twelve hundred and fifty dollars. It's frightening, isn't it? And what makes it even more frightening is the fact we can't avoid it. We can't opt out of eating. So what do you do? GARDEN my friend! Take up your trowel and get some dirt under your fingernails. Spend $25 dollars on seeds and reap the benefits ten-fold! Spend a little more for canning supplies and eat all winter on that $25 investment by preserving your harvest!



Things are getting scary, folks. As my friend Sue said, "this country is going to the dogs," which I think is unfair because even dogs have standards! We've outsourced all our basic needs to the lowest bidder, forgotten the skills necessary to accomplish/acquire those basic needs and now we're complaining because we're snared hook, line and sinker. We're completely at the mercy of corporate America and unless we take action to free ourselves, the hook is only going to dig in deeper. Reclaim your freedom by standing on your own two feet and relinquishing convenience for knowledge, individuality and ingenuity!


Think you can't do it? Think you're incapable of feeding yourself? My dear old great-aunt Margie did it right up til the end. She lived on the 17th story (give or take) of a retirement high rise in downtown Ashland, Kentucky and raised a garden on the balcony of her apartment. She simply split bags of top soil and planted tomatoes, peppers, eggplants right in the bags. She was about 80 at that point.

Still don't think you're able? Too complicated or difficult for you? Both of my children had small gardens last year that they tended themselves. Sure, they had a bit of help from mom, but the kids planted their seeds, pulled weeds and harvested the bounty of their own accord. They were 3 and 4 at the time. You're smarter than a 3 year old, right? I'm afraid that we're coming to a point that we won't have a choice in gardening. You'll either raise your own food or you'll go without. As for me and mine, we'll eat. And we'll eat well.

Product Review: Hometown Seeds Sampler Pack

In recent history, there have only been 2 Christmas gifts that have made me cry. One was a mother's ring from my husband. The other one: a box of hundreds of seeds from a dear, dear friend. I love seeds! All kinds of seeds! I normally stick with one or two seed companies to ensure that I receive quality seeds...what good is cheap shipping or low prices if your seeds don't germinate? This year, however, I branched out and tried seeds from Hometown Seed out of Utah and have had wonderful experiences with this company.

First of all, I was thrilled with the quick shipping. They must have dropped the order in the mail as soon as they received the email because the sampler pack arrived in just a couple of days. 2 or 3 if I recall correctly. I get so anxious waiting for seed orders to arrive, so the quick delivery really appealed to the GenX-Immediate Gratification gene!

Second, the seeds were sealed in plastic packages instead of the paper envelopes that most companies use. You may be asking why that is a good thing? Paper envelopes allow moisture in, and even draw moisture which dramatically lowers shelf life and seed germination rates. If you're looking for seeds to add to your long-term storage, you NEED sealed plastic packages!

Third, I'm thrilled with the high germination rate. There's nothing more heartbreaking than tenderly planting your beloved seeds, watching, waiting and NOTHING grows. I'm particularly happy with the tomato germination rates. The yellow pear tomato seeds have rates of over 95%, likewise the other varieties.

Overall, my experience with Hometown Seeds has been excellent and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to family and friends. I'll be sure to do a follow-up post this summer once the plants are in the ground and producing. Click on the hyperlink above or the banner at the right to browse their wonderful selection. And make sure you check out the Survival Seeds!

Preparedness Challenge- Week 1

It's rare to find good news in the newspaper or online, but lately the news has gone from bad to worse. I'm sure you've read about the jobs lost, the foreclosures, the weather emergencies on the East Coast. You've probably read about the rising number of homeless families and families living on food stamps. Increasingly, the stories are of terrorism, both at home and abroad. Lots of scary stuff out there in that big old world, and for the most part, there's not a thing we can do about it.

For the most part.

There's nothing we can do about weather, jobs or terrorism, but as a friend of mine would say, we can lessen the negative impact. Repeat those words: lessen the negative impact. We can't change who or what will impact our lives, but we can change how it will affect us. And therein lies the challenge. I'm challenging you to prepare for the negative to lessen it's impact on your everyday life. So how do you do that? It's so easy.

You need water to survive. Do you have water? Do you have a way of filtering water? There are so many options out there. Many of them are beautiful and expensive, many of them are effective, but homemade ugly. It doesn't matter which way you go, as long as it works.

You need food to survive. Do you have food? Do you have enough to sustain you during an emergency? Do you have a way of preparing food if the power is out? Again, so many options to consider. The LDS advocate a year's worth of food in your storage, and I believe the same thing.

You need shelter to survive. Is your home secure and functional? Do you have a backup plan for bugging out if you need to refugee? Do you know your neighbors? Do you trust them?

You need heat to survive. Do you have a working furnace? What's your backup plan for a grid-down situation? Are there enough blankets in the closet? Do you have extra fuel for your stove?

You need air to survive. Do you have a CO2 detector? Are your windows screened? Have you considered respiration masks to contend with pandemics?

You need light to survive...or at least be comfortable. Have you worked out a plan for lighting your home when the power is down? Is there enough oil for your lamps and batteries for your flashlights? Have you tried a hand-cranked lantern?

Yes, there's a lot to consider regarding preparedness and everyone is going to have a different approach, but that's what makes it wonderful. And as long as it gets done, it doesn't matter how you approach it. So here's the deal. Let's get prepared by spurring each other on. Each week, let's dish on what we've done during the previous week to ready ourselves for the worst. Leave comments and let us know what you did and how you did it. Your comments may encourage someone else, or remind someone of something they've forgotten. Survival is a community effort, be it a real community or a virtual one and it's up to you to get involved.

I'll start by saying that this week, I purged my basement making it a more livable space. I gathered up extra blankets and pillows and put them in a convenient spot. I organized some of my dried goods to create a little extra storage space. I mailed a few seeds to friends who I know will appreciate good tomatoes. Mara and I practiced sprouting seeds, baking and making yogurt.

So that's what I did.

What did you do this week?

Garden Planning

It's hard to consider your garden when it feels like 7 degrees outside, but spring is only 48 days away so it's time to get busy! There will be some major overhauls this year as I surrendered 2 deep raised beds in order to raise strawberries. I keep telling myself it will be worth it when those sweet little berries start to ripen! We'll also be doing some crop rotation due to last year's tomato blight. And unless it's a soy year, we won't be planting corn. (Darn you, cross pollination!)

This year, we'll be raising the usual stuff; half-runner beans, bell peppers, tomatoes, snap peas, onions, but we'll be using our corn patch for squash and maybe a few pumpkins. Even if we DO plant corn, we'll go the 3 Sisters route and plant the squash intermittently with the corn.

Did you know that if you have problems with raccoons in the corn patch, planting squash and pumpkins will help? It's true! Apparently, raccoons don't like the bristly, prickly feeling of the squash and pumpkin vines. I don't know if that's true as I've never asked a raccoon what it does or doesn't like...but the years we've had vines growing throughout our corn patch, we didn't have any problems with those doggone little scavengers. So there's your useless piece of information for the day.

The funnest (?) part of it all is starting the tomato plants! Last year I had dozens upon dozens of tomato varieties, but this year, it will be narrowed down to under a dozen varieties. My favorites from last year:

Russian Big Romas. Imagine those little Romas you find at the grocery...now imagine them larger than your fist. Oh yeah.

Trophy. This variety has officially dethroned my usual choices for the all-purpose big red slicer/juicer. The Trophy tomatoes we grew last year had no splits, mars, blemishes or cracks despite the blight and terrible growing weather. They also had no problem with rot and grew to enormous proportions!

Amish Paste. This is a thick, juice-less, nearly seedless variety perfect for paste, sauces and such.

Debarao Black. Small, dark tomatoes that are sickeningly sweet, lacking the acid bite of most tomatoes. We used them for salads and drying.

Black Cherry. Small, dark, sweet and incredibly delicious. They'd probably be great for salads, but the ones we picked rarely made it in to the house.

I was blessed with seeds from all over the country, through exchanges with friends and family, but many of my seeds come from a site in New York called WinterSown. Heard of it? Go through the Gateway to Seeds, play the little word game, print off a form and send in an SASE for free seeds. Yep. That's it. OR, send in a small donation and get tons of free seeds! If you're wanting to try out different varieties, but find the price of seeds cost-prohibitive, try WinterSown!

Well, it's time to get back to reality. All 19 degrees of it.

Praising and Prepping!

Have I told you lately how much I love the church my family attends? I love it. I never thought I'd enjoy a mega-church (if this one qualifies as a mega-church), but now that I've figured out the ins and outs of First Christian, I love it. This has been an important year for me, spiritually. I came home to God after a long hiatus and am seeing things in a whole new light. Scriptures make more sense to me, and thanks to a funny pastor, the sermons are enjoyable and enlightening. That's not something I could say about the small congregation I used to attend.

Anyway, Craig preached a moving sermon today on moments that sort of freeze time; moments that are history-making, whether you realize it or not. And the birth of Jesus was the biggest of those moments. He really challenged us to use our imaginations and think about what it must have been like that night, when an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing God was born into a helpless, shivering baby on the floor of a stable.

Imagine the God that parted the seas, calmed the storms, brought the plagues wrapped in a scratchy blanket and laying in a feed trough.

Imagine that for an instant the doors between Heaven and Earth were torn open and God stepped through them, surrounded by the Heavenly Host.

Imagine the Angels crowding through those doors to see the miracle happen and then unable to contain themselves, singing to humble shepherds in the fields.

Imagine the thoughts going through the minds of the shepherds! "After waiting for thousands of years, He has arrived!"

I can't even begin to say it as eloquently as Craig did.

I was too busy crying to hear him LOL.

Now onto the prepping! I read a frightening article this afternoon about projected food shortages in 2010. Yes, we've all heard about the record-breaking crop harvests. But riddle me this Batman, how can it be a record-breaking year when half of the 'Bread Basket' states have been declared disaster areas? It's only a record-breaking harvest if you can get the harvest out of the field right? For instance, soy bean harvests. The first pic shows the major soy-producing counties, based on 2008 figures. The second pic shows counties declared a disaster area in 2009.

Notice anything? There's been an awful lot of disasters declared in America's soy producing areas. But everyone is still screaming 'record crops!' Even locally, we're hearing it. The farmer took a record corn harvest from the fields behind our house, but what they're not mentioning is that the corn is molding from the record cold and rainfall.

I don't know what it all means. I'm pretty certain someone is telling half-truths though. Either way, we're hedging our bet here at the Run. We'll be stocking up on essential items like wheat, corn, sugar, rice and dairy, just in case there IS a shortage and prices skyrocket. Having a full pantry is such a good defense against inflation...stock up while it's cheap, and use it when the prices go through the roof. So, we put together a decent-sized order through Emergency Essentials for grains and dairy, and I think I'm going to try PrepareCo. for dry corn and possibly a few other items. If PrepareCo. turns out to be a pleasant shopping experience, I'll be sure to post on it. It's always good to know who you can trust and who you should avoid, yes?

If you haven't started to stock up, why wait? Just one extra bag of rice, beans, pasta or sugar and you're already started! Buy what you use, store what you buy, eat what you store. How easy is that?

Next up: Seed orders for 2010!

Best wishes from the Run.

Speaking of Seeds

It's getting to be that time of the year again; time for seed catalogs! Catalogs have just started rolling in, but I won't get my favorite one for another month. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds is my favorite seed catalog, for both information and the beautiful pictures. Admittedly, they aren't the cheapest company going, but they do have great shipping rates and an unbelievable selection. Their 2010 catalog doesn't come out til December, but that doesn't stop me from daydreaming about next year's garden.

I've got tomato seeds aplenty, herbs too. This year, I'll be researching corn varieties more than any other vegetable. The problem we're running into is that we are situated right smack in the middle of a corn field. There's 100 acres of corn behind us, a couple hundred acres across the road, so anything we plant will try to cross with field corn. This summer, my beautiful Country Gentleman corn was so tough and dry that even critters wouldn't eat it, so open pollinated heirloom varieties are out of the question.

The way I see it, we have a couple options for next summer:

1)Hope and pray that the farmer plants soy instead of corn and then I can proceed with my beautiful heirloom varieties.

2)Do without fresh corn, or pay an arm and a leg at one of the local farm markets. It's such a disgrace to pay $5/doz for corn when we live in the middle of a corn field!

3)Research hybrid varieties in hopes that we'll have better results than we did last summer.

So, all you corn/seed experts out there in bloggerland, riddle me this: would hybrid corn varieties cross with the field corn resulting in nasty, inedible corn? I know next-to-nothing about hybrids, so any information you have to offer would be lovely.

Homestead Challenge Wk 5

It's been a crazy week here at the Run. Thankfully, mercifully, we have water! Woot! Woot! No more lugging water in from the pool or boiling water for dishes!

Isaac started Kindergarten on Wednesday, so it's a time for adjustment. HE loves it, I'M the one that came unglued. So now he's a big boy, riding the bus, carrying a book bag and being Mr. Independent. Sigh. He's getting so big so fast.

But now, on to the challenge.

Plant Something: Nope. Not this week.

Harvest Something: Tomatoes by the bushels, Lima beans, pumpkins, herbs and onions

Preserve Something: We're still preserving tomatoes here: drying them, saucing them, stewing them, freezing them. We also put up a few pounds of Lima beans, both for eating and for seed.

Eat the Food: I had the sheer joy of eating a dried Black Debarao tomato this week and OMG! They're so sweet, incredibly sweet!

Reduce Waste: Our water bottles and pails are filled and in storage once again, so no buying more water. As always, scraps go to the chickens and leftovers go in the boys' lunches.

Reuse/Repurpose/Reclaim: I lucked out and found a number of wool sweaters this week, which means that wool-felting and homemade mittens are just around the corner. Old sweaters make the best mittens ever!

Have Fun: This week was one of so many changes. Isaac is gone nearly 4 hours a day, so Mara and I spent a lot of time doing puzzles and games. We had a game night this week and played Uno Attack with house rules, which turned into a color/number matching game for the kids. We spent one evening playing backyard baseball; that is until Mom hit Isaac square in the belly with a line drive. Game over LOL.

And the Winner Is.................

Jan from Bit of Soil!!!! Email me with your address and I'll get your seed package out in the next day or two!

To the rest of you gals....I'll have more and very soon!

Seed Giveaway!

Who loves free seeds???? How about a drawing????

I got ambitious yesterday and finally cleaned out the old seed stash, and now I have around 30 packages of seeds that need a friendly, loving home. Most of them are from the 07-09 growing seasons, kept cool, dark and dry so they should all be viable seeds. There are a few tomatoes, radishes, kales, beans, you name it. Some are commercial, many are homegrown and saved. Some are hybrid, most are not. Some packages are half-full, others have never been opened. It's a hodge-podge of possibility and I'd like to share it with someone!

So, lets say, if you want to be in the drawing for a box of vegetable and berry seeds, why don't you put your name in the comments section and next Wednesday, I'll have Isaac choose a name at random. The winner can email me their shipping address and in a few short days, receive a lovely little box of free seeds, courtesy of Chicky-Bit Run.

Good luck!

What's Normal?

The kids and I have developed a friendship with Pam, the lady behind the counter at our local Mom and Pop grocery store. Isaac is always anxious to tell her about what's going on in the garden, while Mara inundates her with poultry talk and I tell her about any 15 minutes of fame I'm enjoying.

On a recent trip, Mara was excited because we had just wrangled our new hens...a pair of beautiful Ameracaunas from dear friend Ann...and told Pam all about the green eggs they'd lay eventually. Pam got a funny look on her face..."Green eggs? White tomatoes. Purple beans! Do you guys raise anything that's normal???" That got me to thinking about what IS normal?

We raise heritage breeds of poultry and grow heirloom veggies, all of which are normal or at least were normal 100 years ago. These breeds were brought over from the old country, raised by hand on small, family farms and city lots, carefully preserved and passed down to the next generation. But then something changed the way we fed ourselves....commercial food production. Large companies began to ship food all over the country and sold it dirt cheap. They didn't want the most delicious tomatoes; they wanted the ones that traveled well. They didn't want beautiful eggs from old varieties of poultry; they wanted chickens that laid the most eggs as early as possible. So in many ways, we've been conditioned to believe that tomatoes are supposed to be red, eggs white and beans green. Anything else is abnormal.

In taking a step back, away from what our culture considers 'normal', I feel like I'm doing a great service for my children as well as my community. Whether they know it or not. My children are learning that looking different is a good thing! That black or purple tomatoes are more delicious than red! We're finding that many of the heritage breeds of poultry are extremely calm, friendly and have retained their natural instincts (broodiness, curiosity) that have been bred out of the commercial breeds. And by raising the heirloom variety veggies, we're preserving them for future generations, not allowing them to be lost to the ages.

Letter Of Intent

It's been more than a year since our little family began it's journey toward greater self-sufficiency, but that's such a vague phrase...'greater self-sufficiency'...that I thought I'd restate what it is we're trying to accomplish. And by we, I mean me.

My first and primary goal is to increase the production of homegrown veggies and fruit so that eventually, we may be able to cut out store bought produce altogether. Yes, it's a lofty goal, and as bananas aren't native to Ohio, it's going to take a lot of getting used to. My plan is to grow enough produce that I can trade for what I don't produce...such as apples, walnuts, etc.

My second goal is to learn to make as many cleaning and toiletry products as possible, thereby decreasing what we spend each year on soaps, cleaners, etc AND ridding our house of nasty chemicals. I'm thrilled with no-poo, so shampoo is pretty much a thing of the past. And I have an excellent resource for homemade soaps, but eventually, I'd like to learn soapmaking to make my own herbal soaps.

My third goal is to relearn some of the lost skills; candlemaking, knitting, seed-saving, herbalism, etc. Things that aren't *necessary*, but make life pleasant.

My fourth goal is to create a permanent food supply, through canning, freezing, drying, buying dry goods in bulk, etc. I'd like to get to the point that I have a 6-month supply of food rations in the storage area of the basement...at all times.

Lastly, eventually, I'd like to create a home-based job to contribute to our household budget; through selling soap, seedlings, eggs and extra produce. That one will be years down the road as my hands are full of youngsters right now, but eventually, that's my plan.

You may be rolling your eyes at this point, but having children, watching the economic situation unfold and being fearful for the future has lead me to believe that this is a necessary path for my family. I figure if all things work out and next year the economy is just fine...well that's great! If not, my family won't be going hungry. My deal with Jeff for the past year has been..."you keep the roof over our heads, I'll fill our bellies." And that holds true whether we're turning a corner of not. I feel like we've thrived over the past year and that in many ways, I've found my niche in life. Call me a recessionista, but I'm having a great life regardless of what is going on up there on Wall Street.

Busy Couple of Days

This past weekend just blew by in a hurry, but we accomplished so much!

Unfortunately we had to sell our wood stove, but a lovely family from the Cincinnati area bought it Saturday. We just couldn't find a place to install it in our house. Everywhere we looked there was a wall, an appliance, a rafter, a beam, *something* that made it impossible to install our stove. Sigh. That was disappointing. BUT, the income from the stove paid for most of the carpet for our living room, which is now ordered and on it's way. Plus a sheet of vinyl for the bathroom.

Before we did our carpet shopping, a lovely, dear friend of ours blessed us with 4 rain barrels...whoot whoot!!!!!! They're not hooked up yet, but we're one step closer to being able to capture rain water. Our plan is to build a small raised platform so that there will be enough water pressure to feed a soaker hose. The 4 barrels are all going to be hooked together, so one will overflow into another and with any luck, we won't have to haul much water this summer. Yay!

On Sunday, we did a lot of work around the house and yard. A lot of work. The smelly carpet that was flooded last week is gone and we're just waiting to buy a vanity before we install the flooring. But if we remove the old vanity, we'll have to remove the tiled back splash and replace it. One thing leads to another. So as a result of a 3 year old flushing an entire roll of toilet paper, I'll have an entirely new, beautiful bath. Hmmm. I should have thought of that years ago.

After the carpet was pulled, we built more raised beds, 3 of them, filled and planted them with broccoli and lettuces. We had ambitions for cold frames, but the glass is so frickin' heavy, we're just making do and laying the glass over top of the wooden beds. I kid you not when I say that each sheet of glass is at least 50-60 pounds. Gardening is going to be a family project this spring, basically because I can't move those doggone glass sheets by myself. Need to find some lighter-weight glass/plastic to replace what we have.

Yesterday (Monday), I transplanted my herb seedlings into larger cups...all 113 of them. Sigh. I'm a prolific seed starter LOL. Next up is some tomatoes. We also built a 'room divider' to stand in front of the central air unit; both to hide the ugliness and provide a frame for peas to climb on. It turned out really cute....3 frames hinged together, about 5 feet tall, with fishing line for the peas to vine on. It's hard to explain exactly, but I'll be posting pics soon. Maybe when the peas start growing??? We also did a little bit of painting yesterday...just a few little things that needed a paint job desperately. Swept the porch, put away the Christmas lights (they were down, just not put away), pulled out a rocking chair. It's finally starting to look like spring around here.

I *Puffy-Heart* Wintersown Seeds

At first, Wintersown seemed like one of those 'too good to be true' schemes. You send them a SASE, they send you free seeds. You send them a small donation, they send you even more seeds. I've read at Freedom Gardeners that a number of folks participate in the SASE seed program and had wonderful experiences so I thought I'd try it. Here's what you do:

Go to Wintersown.org. Click on the link for free seeds, print out the form, fill it in and send it in with a SASE. That's it.

So last Monday, 8 days ago, I sent in my form along with a *small* donation and guess what I got in the mail today??? 12 packages of various seeds! 9 tomatoes, garden berries, peppers and eggplants...woohoo! They also included a nice flyer on how to save your own seeds for next year. Coolness. I didn't get all the seeds I requested...some varieties were already gone for the season, but she did an excellent job picking out fun, interesting varieties to try this year. And since I'm pretty good at saving my own tomato seeds, I can try even more varieties next year. Can't wait!

So assuming these are healthy, viable seeds, Wintersown has been a wonderful experience for me. If you've ever thought about starting your own tomatoes, it might be a fun way to get a number of fun varieties for cheap. Think about it, won't you???

Zoinks!

She was quiet...too quiet so I knew she was up to something. And what is amazing is how engrossed she was in her seed watering. Didn't even hear me come into the room.



What is more amazing is what a good job she did watering the seedlings! I think she may be as anxious as I am for spring to get here...ready to get out there and get into the dirt!

"Ewizabeff No No No"

Miss Mara just turned 3 and we've been working with her, trying to teach her things like her full name, phone number, address and such. She's doing fairly well so far. In fact just yesterday, we were talking about her name.

Me: "Can you tell Grandma and Grandpa your name?"

Mara: "Ewizabeff No No No"

Me: "No baby, can you tell Grandma and Grandpa what your real name is?"

Mara: "Mawa Ewizabeff No No No"

Me: "Maybe I need to rethink addressing her by her middle name when she's in trouble."


On the gardening front, Mara Elizabeth No No No took advantage of Mommy being out of the room yesterday and did some planting of her own. An entire package of eggplant and an entire package of celeriac. In a butter bowl. 300 seeds in a 2 cup capacity bowl. She was so proud of her work, even covered it very lightly with soil and watered it. So we covered it with plastic and put it in the basement to germinate. Who knows what might come out of it? We might end up with a whole 'nother variety of eggplant....one that tastes like celery? Now wouldn't that be a hoot? If that should come to pass, I think we should name it in honor of my darling daughter...Ewizabeff No No No.

Signs of Life

Things are really taking off in my little laundry room/greenhouse. Signs of life that mean spring is right around the corner. And I am so ready for it. To have been a relatively 'easy' winter, it's very possibly the longest doggone winter on record.

So far everything is growing beautifully, especially the herbs. Garlic chives, thyme and a million varieties of basil. Just a few more months and I'll have so much pesto I won't know what to do! But I know what I'll do....I'll put up a sign in the front yard....'Honk for Herbs!' and sell them by the bundle!