no.

I've JUST realized that there's only one week left till Christmas.

It made me swear when I realized it.

Guess who hasn't decorated or done much in the way of anything to make the house feel christmassy?
This gal.

The top 1/3 of my Christmas tree is sitting on my couch. I didn't want to move any furniture or put much effort into prep this year- I feel like most free moments are dedicated to sewing.

Maybe I'll plug the tree (top) in tomorrow.
Get some comfort and joy flowing.


One of the Friendlies* and I have the same birthday. We commented today on the fact that we didn't get snow for one of the first times in our lives.
WHERE'S MY SNOW?




*Friendlies aka hotfarmerboys aka victory garden boys. 

Last but not least, 25 things part 5

Ha. I actually followed thru on something.


20. I inherited my mom's stinky feet. So gross.

21. I like the way my dog's feet smell....  they're sort of like Fritos.

22. My mom died 9 years ago, I miss her every day.

23. I've started to read James A. Michner's "The Source" 8 times. each time I start it, I get a little further into the book and like it a little more... but I've never finished it. I have this idea in my mind that it's a really long book- but I think it's just the first copy of it I owned was printed in a strange way as to make it seem like the longest book ever. I've read longer books.
23.b. I've started to read "The Lord of the Rings" 4 times and never gotten past chapter 2 of the first book. I think if the characters in the book were each named things like Mike, Ralph, or Fred... I'd be more likely to read it- there are too many names that my brain can't translate into distinguishable characters.

24. I like to grow my food, can and preserve, cook amazing meals.... but I also love processed foods.... so so much.

25. I have a number of friends who are strictly "online" friends- People I've never met in person but whom I've gotten to know over the years thru a variety of forums and blogs. I have a few friends in real life that I've met through the same means... The first "forum" (other than the chat rooms in the 90's.. I never stayed with one of those for long enough) I was a part of was created because of a portly cat named Buddy who liked to monorail pose on the back of a couch. Thank you Cute Overload. Maybe I'll tell the whole story some time. I have a number of crew members from my puzzle pirate days on facebook...

Hopefully I haven't scared off friends by posting these... if you're feeling up to the challenge, please let me know where I can find your list!

seriously?

I'm really wishing that it was the weight of everything grown, not just the weight of edible produce, that we were measuring for the 1000lb challenge.

Since the heavy frosts have hit, I've been slowly cutting back the warm weather plants- the peppers were the first to go, the eggplant (another failure crop), and then I started in on cleaning up the tomatoes....

Oh dear.
Those tomato plants...

I know that most of them had a late start... or an interrupted start (relocated by either the chickens or myself)... but come on- there should have been a better yield. I guess I was really counting on the frosts being later, or lighter for longer. I took almost 15lbs of green toms off the plants in the first culling after the frost... There's another 15lbs at least out there... But I just had a shower and I don't want to smell like a tomato plant all day.

So yes, the one plant that I pulled today? It was that nasty yellow pear. A mistake planting, it was suppose to be a Sun Sugar, those are my favourites... a grape sized sweet tom in a rainbow of colours... like jelly beans! Anyway... if we'd been weighing/ measuring the plants? This dude, even after SERIOUS pruning all summer... 11 feet long and about 18lbs... One plant!!!

Winner for best yield and best taste this year would go to those speckled paste, they weren't too too dry, and they were super pretty.

I haven't updated the challenge page in awhile, I'll let you know when I get around to it.

1000 lb challenge update!

I've been on blog hiatus- The weather! the GLORIOUS weather! Honestly, I'm tanned like it's July... May was very very good to me and to my garden.

backtrack: May 31st and I have two tiny tiny tiny tomatoes on my tiny tim plants!
1000lb challenge you've nothing on me... so long as I remember to weigh my produce.

Tally thus far?*

Spinach: 600g

Hey, that's over a pound! WOO WHOO!


What's in the beds?
Bed 1: Garlic, beets (gold and red), rainbow chard, tiny toms, habinaros, eggplant, peas, spinach

 

Bed 2: Green Beans, mini sweet peppers, sweet alsort (peppers), carrots (purple and nantes), soy beans, brussles sprouts, ground cherries (cape gooseberries), tomatillos, basil, onions.

 

Speckled Roman (paste tomoato), Groseille (current tomato), Sun Sugar (BEST EVER cherry tomatoes!) in the front bed.

Strawbales: cantaloupe (something keeps digging it up though), spaghetti squash, buttercup squash, Fedierly (a weird paste tomato that is suppose to be a good all round variety too), Black Cherry toms... and space for the mystery tomatoes. Oh! and another Tomatillo, and a broken tomatillo from yesterday's storm- I dug up the root ball, it had three leaves below the break, we'll call it an experiment .

dry land

breathe on these dry bones....

Today I watered the garden... again.

It's April 10th. Has it even rained yet this month? I mean, more than that splattering this morning. Not going to be much of a 1000lb challenge- unless it's a 1000 litre challenge? How much water can you pour on your garden?

I want to avoid writing work related stuff right now- I feel like I'm there so often though, there's not much more to life. Ug. I'm so boring.

How about a picture of one of my future sheep?

picture from flickr.

Week 1

Welcome to week one of the 1000lb challenge!

While I still haven't built the two new beds, I did chop down some bushes, and got some seeds in the soil.

I have a problem.

I'm addicted to the kitchen garden planner on gardeners.com . The pre-planned gardens are really cute... but it's the square-foot template planner that I'm in love with. You drag and drop the pictures of the veggies you want on your plot, and it gives you a list of when to plant, how many to plant, and how to plant it... So cute. I've redesigned my garden a million times in the past two days.

But... I did finally break down and got some seeds in the soil.

I'm doing the square foot thing, sooooo here's the run down:

in the ground-

12 square feet of garlic

4 sf golden and red beets

4 sf of rainbow chard

2 sf sugar snap peas

2 sf snow peas

to be planted-
(in that first bed after the frost is done, seeds have been started in the house)

4 sf sweet bell peppers

2 sf HOT chilli peppers

2 sf eggplant

I've noticed the squirrels aren't so into digging in a moist bed- I've been really laying down the water (as we've gotten 2 good days of rain in the past month), but my plan after work today is to cut the squirrel net to size and figure out a nice neat way of attaching it.

ALSO! I got word this week that I can team up with one of the farmers market booths to sell grocery bags (crocheted market bags and sewn veggie bags) along with some worm stuff ... This is with the victory garden guys (Richard's son and his partner- they moved into Richard's place in the fall). I'm pretty pumped, they're doing some really neat things over at the garden, and I'm excited to be a part of it too.

I'm wondering about sprouts.

I know the guys are doing pea shoots and some other things... I'd like to do the spicy sprout mix to sell too.

ok, too many ideas.

grow time!

So I finally conceeded that the back yard is no place for my raised bed. There's just not enough sunlight to support the things I want to grow back there. Taking a cue from the victory garden I worked in two summers ago with sweet Richard, I got brave, decided not to care what the neighbours think... and moved the bed to the front yard!

I still need to give the yew bushes a good trim to make room for the second bed that I'm going to build (next week after payday), but right now I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

I grew some veggies in that flower bed by the front door last year- so it's a natural transition. The biggest comment I've gotten since putting it in is "aren't you worried people will steal from it?" Oh good night! If people need to steal veg, they need veg! We don't have a lot of foot traffic (or any traffic) on our little street- I know most of the faces that pass by the door, or at least know which house they're headed to. We don't even get much drunk traffic after the bars close- and we're not on the route that the kids use to get to school.. so I think most of my plants are safe. I've still got the posts though to put up the squirrel/cat nets. I hate the squirrels digging up my seeds, and the idea that a cat wants to pee on my veggies grosses me out so much.

As of this morning I've got 5 little garlic babies poking their tips out of the soil... very exciting stuff. I'm trying so hard not to plant other things yet.

fingers crossed

happy 25th week birthday littles!

The Bantam Cochins are 25 weeks today... know what that means? Eggs! Soon!

All bets are that the splash (Darlene) will be the first of the two to lay. The Blue, Maria N'coco, is a little smaller and her comb and face aren't as red as Darlene's is.

I've been trying to get Cheepers (the black hen) to use a new nesting box [re: crate from the clementines] I've even been putting eggs in it so she'll get the point. Today she rolled the other eggs out of the box and into the spot where her old box used to be... and laid an egg there. I'm still not quite sure HOW she did it.

One of my neighbour's homes is up for sale. This makes me nervous... what if they're really against urban chickens?

side note: did I mention the old couple next door to me? I offered them eggs and they turned them down, saying that they thought eggs should come from the store in packages, and that they "like[d] me, but who knows what might be wrong with those eggs". I also heard this from a friend of mine. Which, makes me wonder how we ever became friends in the first place.

Anyway, it means I've been keeping the girls in their run- no time out free ranging... I don't know when potential buyers are going to be going through the house. The backyard to that house meets my yard with about 20 feet of chain link fence... perhaps that's the side where I should be putting the hedge in first? I'll hold tight, they might be city folks who'll want a high privacy fence (it's a lovely expensive house, the sort that always ends up with a high privacy fence).

photo diary (or) how to end up with too many vegetables

Once upon a time there was a girl with a little too much time on her hands.... um. ok, that part is a lie.
Once upon a time there was a girl who was really really good at starting projects, not so good on the follow thru, and who was a little over-extended. She liked starting seeds.... so she did. Until eventually her sun porch was filled with seedlings (and with pieces of the kitchen that still needed to be installed)


One day, a kind neighbour made the mistake of letting her into his yard.

For some time, she planted and tended.... planted and tended...

... until things began to grow.... out of control. weeds, heat,rain.

... eventually, mother nature was kind to the poor wanna-be-urban-farmer, and the garden began to pay off.... in truckloads.

.... now her only problem is what the hell to do with all the fruit flies.

The end.

blue sky days

I haven't cut the lawn since pre-festival.

needless to say, it's getting to be like a hay field.

'Touff is happy about it. Fynn is annoyed with it. It towers over Fynn... he spends all his time pushing at it, hoping it'll move out of his way. Jelly steps over it gingerly.

I need two things to happen. I need the sun to shine, and I need to find a mower to borrow.

**photo from the ratpack camping trip. good times had by all, even by Miss Jelly... once I figured out she needed to be wrapped like a burrito at night to beat the cold.

count down to something

it feels good to be muddy.
digging in the warm dirt.. dirt warmer than the air.

I'm peddling as fast as I can, and I'm not keeping up. I can make it the last 5 days.

Yesterday I came home to an empty house, with no where I needed to be for 17 hours. I dropped my bags outside the door, took off my shoes and picked up my shovel.
I hunkered down in the garden for the next couple of hours. I dug a new flower bed for tall privacy plants (from seed) this year- next year a hedge will go in the back of it to screen out Mr."I'm BBQing STEAKS TONIGHT!".

The dirt worked it's way under my nails- on my toes and my hands. I scraped rocks, I moved hidden treasures (I think I found the hulk's arm and gi joe's head) and chatted with the kind neighbour next door. I worked till I hurt.

And it felt good.

More Art

This is a post by the lovely Tanya Davis,

If you're interested in participating, you can send her your answers...

Sadness Survey needs you

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Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 11:29am

I think a lot about sadness.. the happy kind, the tragic kind, the vulnerable kind... I write about it, too. And sing about it. And I talk about it... sometimes. Because people don't always like to talk about sadness. Why not? I don't know. So, I'm exploring that and I;m exploring sadness in general - an alternative research project, so to speak. I'm going to include some of my findings in an audio piece I'm making as a participant in the Centre for Art Tapes Media Arts Scholarship Program. It's somewhat of a docupoem.

So, if you want to take the time to answer some of my questions, that would be quite wonderful. Any of your feedback that I end up including in my audio piece will be anonymous (although I don't know how to make your comments on my note anonymous on facebook and only for me to see.. if you want to answer the questions but don't want others to read your answers, please feel free to write to me in a provate message). And I will only be using bits and pieces of what I can collect here, in a sound mosaic.

Les questions:

1. What is sadness?

2. What does it feel like?

3. What makes you sad?

4. What do you do when you're sad? Where do you go? Who, if anyone, do you talk to?

5. Do you find sadness easy to talk about? Difficult? Why?

6. What does sadness sound like?

7. Do you cry? Do you cry easily? Do you cry often? What does that feel like?

8. When was the last time you cried? What did you cry about?

9. When were you the most sad? Why?

10. What are the different ways you experience sadness? Can you put a name to them (ex. tragic sad, tender sad, beautiful sad, depressed sad...)?

11. Do you enjoy sadness at all, ever? Why or why not?

12. Comments, extras: please feel free to include any extra points you want to make here about sadness. Or answers to questions I never asked. Or comments or little stories. I would love to hear it..

Thank you for taking the time to write about this. I very much appreciate it.

Monday Bunday

a little slow moving today... sorry about that.
Work decided to take over my life today, then a board meeting ate the remains.
NOooooooo
that's not totally true, a visit from Megsheff made it brighter.

Bunday Monday is on hiatus for today... maybe we'll make it Tailio Tuesday?

'Touf was feeling a little under the weather this past weekend... but he made it thru just fine, Rabbit Guy, that pineapple juice trick really works wonders! (Now I just have to figure out how to get it in him a little easier) He was up to 14 pounds last week... back down to 13 after the weekend. Though, the way he was tucking into that pile of food when I left the house, I'm sure he'll be back up in no time.

It's warming up, and I think I'll start hardening off my seedlings at the end of this week... I found a store with some pretty cheap planters today... but I'm not sure if I want to look some more.. if we're moving I want to be able to take my garden with me and not have it fall apart when I try to lift it!