Gloomy Day

Sitting in the living room looking at a sky that looks ready to drop the rain anytime. I am so ready for planting!
It is supposed to rain and have highs in the 40s most of the week so I will have to be happy with my inside plants. Cucumber, luffa, zucchini, and squash plants are all starting to get big.

The cauliflower, broccoli, oregano, marjoram, parsley, brussel sprouts, basil, sea oats, and walla walla onions are sitting under the grow lights doing good. I have some ready to repot so I do have a little gardening to do.

I am going to start tomatoes today. And I want to start impatiens and a few other flowers.
I could start radishes outside today according to my schedule but with the temps going below freezing this week I will wait. I don't have my plastic yet. Next week is early enough, or even the next.
I planned on April 1st and I think I will stick with that date.

 Rosemary (one for me and one for Heather) and Orange Thyme (I will divide this) ready to repot into house plant pots.

Spearmint I am going to divide. Half in a pot for Heather to have in her apartment, the other half I will plant outside in a container so it won't spread!

Connie found a home for Rosie with an older set of sisters yesterday. She cried and cried but she knows she did the right thing. She has too many dogs and Rosie will be spoiled there. Hard thing to do but I am proud of her. Rosie was supposed to be Heather's but she didn't want her after a while and Connie took her. But Connie had 4 little dogs in the house and was going nuts!

Yesterday was fun. Sister Tammy was around most of the day. I get to enjoy her company more when Andy is on the road. When he is home I usually go to her house. Fun with her husky puppies! They are so cute at 4 weeks!
In the evening we took Rosie to her new mommy and then Tam took us to Country Kitchen to eat. Alex and Danny were pretty good but they were tired so I give them a little leeway lol....

Even the cat is ready for sunshine!

More chld labor

Salad beds ready for planting. I am going to put in radishes, leaf lettuce, peas, and arugula. I Am planning about April 1st. I have the hoops up and plastic and water jugs to help protect them.

Lexy, Alex, and Connie (daughter that don't like photos took) helped me make the mix yesterday.
I feel like i am going to get in shape even without trying!

Romance

I always love how this turned out. Connie helped me with the set up. We had a blast that day!

My babies, this picture is 2 yrs old.

DJ (26) Heather (30) Connie (19)

Seedlings

Today I took seedlings from the covered containers down on my germinating shelf
and moved them up to the taller shelf.

I just set the peat pots in the 2 1/2 inch pots,
they will get transplanted as needed directly into them:

9 walla walla onions (I am starting 18 more today)
2 straight 8 cucumbers
2 oregano
2 sweet basil
2 luffa
3 romanesco broccoli
1 sweet marjoram
4 broccoli
6 cauliflower
3 brussel sprouts


still to germinate are:
2 zucchini
2 acorn squash
4 parsley
1 romanesco
3 northern sea oats, these are ornamental grass

This is the grow light cabinet Ben set up for valentine's day in 2010! You've got to love a talented man!

Urban Homesteading

My gr-gr-gr-grandparents came to the U.S. in the early 1800's. After settling down in our little town they practiced the skill of urban homesteading! They grew their own vegetables, raised their own animals, had a compost heap. They made their own clothes and canned their own food.

Generations have followed them, in the same town and others. Urban homesteading has been a fact of life in my family.

I follow in their footsteps. I have gardened since I was a child. Learned to sew from my mom. My gr-grandmother taught me how to quilt. I can my own veggies.  I have pasted the skills down to my children and they are currently teaching their children to urban homestead.

I have lived in the same house since 1996 and have had a garden on the same plot since then. I can, I cook, I eat, I grow. I urban homestead. I have a garden, composting. I have an orchard, rhubarb, and asparagus patch. This is urban homesteading at it's finest!

Snow Snow Everwhere Snow

The ground has about 5 inches of snow on it. Winter in Iowa.
This weekend I got a break from winter. As a Master Gardener I have to have 6 hours of continuing education each year.
I found an advertisement for a symposium. Iowa Arboretum was having a 5 and 1/2 hour symposium on plants and people. Ben took Connie and I up to Madrid because it is a 2hr drive. He found other things to keep him active till we were done.
One speaker spoke on entertaining in the garden.  I wasn't very interested but Connie was. The second speaker was our Master Gardener Coordinator. She spoke on Edible Landscaping. Right up my alley!

The last speaker was from Kansas speaking about the food and medicinal uses of prairie plants. As a Master Gardener, when I am asked in that capasity I can't talk about the medicinal uses. So it was nice to hear someone talk about it!
As a reward for sitting for all those hours I bought me my first terrarium!

I still have to identify my plants lol, should have asked them! Duh!! I will send them an email!

So I only have to get another half hour for my certificate. Plus the 6 hrs of volunteering but that is easy with the garden maintance!

Then Sunday was our garden railroad club meeting. That was refreshing!

Update

Well I didn't realize there had been almost a year since I posted! Maybe this will be a yearly update site rofl....

Tammy and I still go to the boat once in a while. It is fun to have girls night out! We took Connie and Heather last week for Con's birthday. Supper and slots! Connie had her first legal drink, strawberry daiquiri of course lol... She says slots are boring but she can't wait to go to concerts! It was so funny, none of us drink much so it was fun.

So much has happened this year.

Heather finally left that man on Labor Day weekend 2010.  He had abused her once too often.
It was a nasty custody fight. He tried everything he could to get her arrested or get the kids taken from her. All efforts came back unfounded. Of course, he was just doing it for spite. His daughter got taken from him last spring for his neglect. No way they would have given him the boys. They would have come to me.  Heather went through hell though. Now she has a protective order in effect for the next year, and he has to pick kids up at police station.

Danny has gone from not being on the weight chart the First of Sept. 2010 to in January 2011 he is at 50%!
We had suspected that his father had not been feeding him but we can't prove it. Doctors are so relieved!
Danny is 18 mths now.

Alex is in preschool. He is 4 1/2 now. He loves school and says ABC's and counts all the time! He knows the days of the week and is working on his months. He is learning to spell and can write his name!
Here he is playing in the snow this week!

We got a momma and 6 puppies (miniature schnauzers) in Sept. Connie kept one, Heather and I also kept one. The other three found homes and after the momma gets spayed this week we will find her a home.

Ben is building garden railroad bridges in his spare time. He is hoping to sell some. Connie is going to put a railroad at the little house.

Oh, Connie is letting Heather and the boys stay with her for now. They are so happy now and Danny is even starting to talk a little!So the schedule has settled down. Kids with Mommy till noon, then Alex in school and Danny to daycare. I do the picking up by 5 and they are with me till 8pm when Mommy gets to have them for awhile to put them to bed. Then she is off to work and at 8 am is starts all over again! Heather love the weekends when she gets to see more of them. She sees them just as much as a mommy that works days but she feels like she doesn't see them hardly at all.

Even with all that has gone on, Heather will have her BSIT/WD next week! She has been awesome! Working full-time, having two kids, going through hell with that man while supporting him and his kid too, and she still gets at least 3.0!

I am still in school. I will get my AAIT about Thanksgiving. School got all messed up with all that went on with Heather.

Connie turned 21 last month! Where have the years gone? Seems like just a few days ago she was Alex age. She doesn't have a boyfriend right now. She had a bad relationship last year and is being careful.

I have not spoke to my son since last July. I will not put up with the lies and name calling anymore. YOU JUST DON'T CALL YOUR MOTHER THE NAMES HE CALLES ME!!

Tori went to live with my sister, Vicki. She wanted a calm, couch potato dog. That described my Tori to a t...I do miss her so but she would not bond with Ben at all!. After 2 years she still wanted only me.

I started square foot gardening last year. I love it! I only used one 4x4 plot but now have added two 4x4's and two 2x4's for this year! I want more veggies lol...
There is little weeding and only a small amount of upkeep once you get the beds in!
This is the first bed seeded:

This is the bed in the middle of summer:

This is the tomato in a bucket I was still picking tomatoes at first freeze. Ben is going to make me some panel cages, these were on loan from a neighbor. The tomato got over 7 feet tall and laying over the sides! I am going to prune the top this year.

 This is the "Pick-a-Little Orchard" Connie named it that. There are green apple, red apple, peach, apricot, and nectarine. There is a cherry but I don't think it lived so I ordered 4 cherry bushes for spring

 This is the garden tool box Ben built for me. It will be on posts by the beds. I think I will like having my tools and journal in it this summer.

 I tried topsy turvy but I think the bucket get too hot so maybe I will try it somewhere else this year It was in the sun all afternoon and evening.

I will add some photos of our life later.....