Homestead Delivery!! PBR slugs, and Tomatoes are taking over

It may not seem like much, but last Thursday I went out into the garden and picked a few things to deliver to Power Puppy and Chef. Each of them received a bag of freshly picked mesclun, lettuces, swiss chard, nasturtium flowers, peas, yellow neck squash, and a mix of herbs.

Of course, I clipped a few sprigs of fresh Lavendar for their bedside stands, and some freshly picked Salal Berries.

It felt so good to be giving them this little bit of food fresh from the garden, even if it was hardly more than a salads worth per person.

The garden is growing along smoothly, and I am super happy to see the difference each day.  Right now I am battling two problems though; space, and slugs. I did the right thing at planting and planned out how much space each thing would take, and there are now crowding issues. My space issue however, is that I want more!  I want more space to grow more things!  Already in the works for next year is a plant to extend the garden another ten feet or so, add boxes to the raised garden portion, and soil improvements.  Ideally I wanted to do them this year, but, time and money got in the way.  Next year, during the winter I am going to build up the boxes around the beds, mix the soil, layer with compost and manure, and have it ready for next years planting in Spring.

But, that is only the first problem, and it hardly is a problem, it is more of an addiction.  As to the other problem, slugs, it is a never ending battle.  In an effort to stay simple and away from chemicals, I am using  an old trick my grandma used to use.  Filling small containers with beer.  The slugs are attracted to the beer, climb in, get all drunk, and drown.  Not a bad way to die all things considered.  It does mean though, that each day I need to chuck out the slug beer goo, and refill with more beer. Now.... I love beer, but I am not about to use anything of quality to drown slugs if I can help it.  Thus, for $6 I picked up a six pack of PBR, cut the bottoms off some coke bottles, and placed the slug traps around the problem plants.  It worked earlier... worked really well... perhaps this time I will need to put at least ten more traps out to keep them from eating everything.

And to round this post out, here are a few photos of the garden as it is, including the  tomato plants that are now standing nearly 4 feet tall!!! 

 

July Sunsets

Wanted to share a few photos.... it was so beautiful. Have been eating two salads a week from the container garden, fingerling yellow neck squash and zucchini, and handfuls of snow peas.  Nummy!

Summer Potlucks

I grew up with a family that loved to gather for various reasons and eat. Whether it was a holiday, a birthday, a wedding, an excuse to have a garage sale (which has now become a full event replete with a parade), or simply to have every one in one place for just a moment. Many fond memories of family members and community members gathering around, each coming with a dish of homemade goodness. These potlucks were a foundation of our family and our community, and when I was a child my grandmother collected the stories and recipes for my grandfather to compile into a book aptly named Olga Potlucks and Memories.  My grandfather enlisted my little youthful hands to help him piece together copy after copy of this book to sell at the Olga Artworks as a means of raising money for the Olga Community Club.

At each potluck, there would be pies of local berries, freshly harvested seafood, casseroles, grilled meats, and the requisite freshly harvested vegetables and fruit.  Family gardens yielded the colorful abundance that would end up on our table, and eventually our overflowing plates. There always was some sort of campfire, sometimes music (live or on the stereo) and enough cheap wine to keep the world happy.   It is with this mentality that I was excited to have the 'homestead' over for dinner on Saturday.  Each person, brought over a unique dish, and we gathered around the campfire outside to chat until way after the sun went down.

I was reminded that night that what makes a friendship, or a community, strong is those moments.  When we all gather around and break bread with one another, tell stories of fears and dead things, gawk about slug porn, and simply laugh about nothing and everything. I love our friends and neighbors.... they make the day fulfilled, and the soul uplifted.  These are the stories I hope to share in my own book, years down the line.

Come along... to Alexanders Rag time... what?

There has been great advances in the homestead! Delectable treats from Chef, and a new pallet garden for Super Mom! PP has moved into her new place with a sweet comfortable retreat in the backyard, best enjoyed with wine and sunsets. These days are sunny and hot, and they bring all sorts of wonder to the garden. Super Mom and family have acquired a large amount of buckets and pallets, perfect for fence and container gardening. My little part of the homestead is growing faster than I can keep track of! I messed up the watering one day and accidentally killed off small things pumpkin, and I feel horrible for it.... but everything else is growing so fast that I am rushing to make sure the peas climb the trellis and the tomatoes are properly supported. At the same time there is a push to get the slug traps out, since the last few days their slimey trails have been spotted along the garden paths and across the cucumber leaves. A few cut bottles filled with left over beer have attracted and drowned over 20 of them, but I can't seem to stay on top of it. There has been no sign of rabbits, deer, or even dogs, breaking through the fence, which I am thankful for. Will post photos tonight!

Wanna shave my llama?

Now for something completely different.  Across from where I work there is a pasture that during the summer months is filled with a small sheep herd. Standing watch over them is 'thunder' the llama. Recently the owner sheared the sheep, and likewise the llama, and was going to discard his coat for lack of anything to do with it.  Thankfully, it was quickly snatched up and is now drying after its second wash.  This is the third or fourth fleece I have received for free and I am feeling a greater need to get a spinning wheel.  Spinning yarn by hand or on a drop spindle takes a lot of time, and prevents me from making thin yarn.


The offer has gone out to the homestead group that they can have skeins of their own!!! once I get around to picking, carding, and spinning it. :)

In other news Chef rescued some left over plants from some of her students that have been placed lovingly in the garden.  No sense letting good seeds go to waste, so now a 'bunch' of bunching onions and some specialized basil sit in the garden waiting for the thunderstorms this week.

Morning sex....

Woke up early this morning, as I do every morning in the summer.  The kitties following me from the bed to the door to let Rose out. They rub around my feet as I make breakfast, purring softly, begging me to sit down.  With my coffee cup in hand I walked out onto the 'bedroom' deck (home of the container garden), my bathrobe pockets stuffed with qtips, plant markers, a sharpie, some twine, and a pair of scissors.  It feels wonderful to dig in the garden early in the morning, feel the cool soil under my fingertips.  The first blooms of my yellow neck squash are showing and that means its time for some high quality plant sex action.  If you did not know, squash have both male flowers and female flowers.  Only the female flowers produce the fruit, but they can only do so with the pollen of the male flower.  While nature has developed this system to use birds, butterflies, and bees as the pollinators, my garden needs a little help. While I have planted bird and bug friendly flowers around the property, they simply do not come to the deck often enough to help my squash plants 'get it on'. So, there I am with a qtip in hand, jabbing the male flower, then delicately stroking the inside of the female flower. I repeat the process a few times on each flower (having some difficulty with the male ones releasing enough pollen) all the while the cats are overseeing the operation from their perch inside the door.  I feel silly, and repeat the process again.

In the main garden there is some growth from the lettuce bed.  Little sprouts stick up in cute little lines across the 'cut and come again' area, and the one of the cucumbers on the edge is beginning to flower.  The tomatoes have all grown at least two inches, their tops now lashed to the frame.  The marigolds I planted yesterday evening have brought a welcome splash of color in the middle of everything, along with the earlier planted dahlia.

As the Garden Grows

This weekend we were at my mothers for some much needed poolside BBQ time on the other side of the state.  I was a little worried that the weather would dry out the garden while we were gone, but made due with a thorough morning soak on Friday. The time away was a much needed mini vacation, as I have had a lot of negative emotions and stresses bouncing about my head.  Work has increasingly become a drain on my life, and my favorite hobby took a dive when I re injured my knee. To say the least, on Thursday I found myself a blubbering mess fully broken down and crying on the floor. Super mom was there, and was well aware of everything that had been going on in my life. She had kept reminding me to stay positive and proactive as the work world crumbled around me; my compassion and concern for my coworkers and the business having been thrown violently back in my face.  She was also there when I first injured my knee while skating, watched helplessly as I was wailed on in my first rather unprepared foray into a more complicated position.  She was there laughing with me and keeping up my spirits as I took a month off from the one physical activity I loved and did every week. (Coincidentally the activity that brought this whole homestead together) Lastly, she was there when I decided to come back to skating feeling like I had the strength and that my injury would no longer hold me back.  On the second day, near the end of warm ups, I fell, and fell hard.  A familiar pain came shooting through my body like lightning, nausea washed over me, and I couldn't stand.  I knew it, I had tore one of the ligaments in my already surgically repaired knee. 

Collapsing on the floor out of site, the fear and frustration overcame me and I fell apart.  As I sat there feeling utterly hopeless, broken, and frustrated that I had now lost the one activity I was looking forward to for relief from work (I kept blubbering something about "I just want to skate it out, I just need to skate").  Super mom sat there consoling me, and telling me that I am better than all of this.  She then said "Do you want me to call 'Power Puppy'?".  I nearly broke down laughing and crying, my first thought was a playful one "she is going to think this is a clever ploy to get her back to the track!" (as PP had moved away from the team a few months prior).

Needless to say, I found myself a few minutes later carried down the stairs to the car, and driven home by PP. The whole time I felt horrible since I knew that both Super Mom and PP had some crap going on in their lives that was just as pressing, and here I was a broken down bumbling idiot.  Yet, as we pulled up to the house, and I showed PP the garden for the first time, a new emotion started to fill me. We talked and hung out for a little bit, and after they had gone home, I signed online to find the previous post from SM. That feeling from earlier grew into an even greater overwhelming feeling.  While feeling so scared and weak, my friends and Dutch Boy had stepped up and reminded me not only to be strong, but that they could hold me up till I found my footing again.

After coming back from the weekend, I was so happy to see the growth in the garden.  The garden has now taken on -or maybe always was- a metaphor for my life. From the shit spread everywhere, new growth is happening, new possibilities and hope are sprouting up. If I can keep seeing this as the new opportunities that might be sprouting in my life (even if I can't see them at first) then maybe I can keep my head up. Perhaps the world will be clearer when the whole 'homestead' group is over for dinner on the deck after harvesting our food from the garden.  That is really what ALL of this is about, life, work, play, it all comes back to being happy and developing the relationships that help engage and enlighten our lives. 

From Super Mom

This came from Super Mom.... and I smile each time I read it. 

Gardening. Homesteading. For me, they’re awesome ideas and great concepts, which have a lot of valuable lessons all wrapped up in them. They’re also very academic concepts. At least, they were until about three weeks ago.

I admit, I’m basically a city girl. Not a big city girl by any stretch of the imagination, mind you, but very much a girl who grew up surrounded by paved roads, immediately accessible chain stores, and neighbors. Lots of close neighbors. Small yards and did I mention immediately accessible chain stores? Pavement spreads quickly and people grow lawns, not vegetables. Gardening wasn’t something my family really did all that often during my formative years, other than the occasional potted tomato or pepper plant, and when I moved out on my own, gardening tended towards experimentation with flowers, along with the random never-quite-finished windowsill herb garden.

Then The Great Visionary in my life seizes an opportunity…

The Great Visionary (TGV for future reference) is one of my best friends and an unabashed opportunist. She believes opportunity knocks, and you need to answer the door with a smile and ready hospitality. So recently, a bit of land became available and she saw the opportunity to create something beautiful. Opportunity provided a chance for growing food, friendships and our own special kind of fellowship. You can’t go wrong, baby!

As for true beauty, I mean, sure the garden LOOKS cool – I mean seriously? We have driftwood fenceposts and an arched entry way and it’s terraced with little cedar walkways! How cool is that? But really, the beauty is a lot of people coming together to haul dirt, laugh about having neon carrots and pondering how devious rabbits can be and how confused lost and stuck Labradors can become. Soon, we’ll have weeds to pull, food to share, and recipes to enjoy (along with wine. I mean seriously – mmm. Wine….).

This is definitely an opportunity that was unexpected for our family and 100% welcome. Granted, we tend to wander around looking a little bit lost – “You want the dirt… where? Um, on the ground, right?” – but we’re learning. And the Small Thing is excited about a pumpkin plant named Steve. Or perhaps the pumpkin it hopefully produces will be named Steve? Or, uhm, something like that? Pumpkins! Children! Steve!

It’s been a lot of smiles, a lot of little updates from TGV about what’s sprouting, who all has visited the garden, and how much love is going into it. I’m excited to have something else that brings our little “family” together and am looking forward to time spent in the sun weeding, harvesting, and enjoying the fruits of our labor. Spreading pavement? Crazy city life? Get outta here – we’re gonna watch our garden, and our family, grow!

June 11th, 2013

A few days ago we filled up the remaining of the garden beds with soil and planted the seedlings that will grow to feed the homestead.In an effort to keep the bunnies out I picked up a bag of dog hair from Power Puppy. It is yet one more step that I plan on taking in an effort to keep the garden as organic as possible. While spreading the black and white well washed locks around the fence line I noticed the first seedlings of the Broccoli Raab, Lettuce, and Spinach poking through the soil.  It is rather encouraging to see everything growing so well, and hopefully I can keep everything moving along smoothly.  With each little green leaf that pokes through the soil I see how it will mature and fill the garden, and I am anxiously awaiting the moment that the garden is a veritable edible jungle.

6 June, 2013

The growth continues!  Nearly the full 'homestead crew' was over today to finish up the last load of soil and plantings.  As a full yard and a half rounded out the lettuce bed and the three sisters bed, the seed packets sprang open and flung their contents into the precious dirt.  I was excited to show Small Thing that the onions she had planted were already rooted and standing tall, as were the peas and cucumbers we planted. In a quick inspection of the garden we noticed that her pumpkin had sprouted and was poking through the soil. 

It is encouraging to see her take to gardening like I did as a kid, it's fun and dirty.  Seeing something you planted grow and change each day makes it a brand new discovery every time you see it.

Right now I am at a loss for words as to what I really want to say and express.  There is simply too much going on that I can't seem to focus on this one task and complete a simple blog entry. Oh well, here are a few photos of the garden to hold me over till the next post.

First Sprouts 3 June 2013

I went out to the garden this morning around 6:30 to look at the sweet growth over the last week, and very excited to find that the peas that we planted a week or so ago have already sprouted up! Likewise the onions that Small Thing had planted are poking up through the ground, and the potatoes from Chef are poking their heads up through the ground.

The garden on the deck is doing nicely, and easily grew a full two inches over the weekend.  Undoubtedly,  the three days of continuous sunshine really helped. Really looking forward to getting the last few steps of the garden in place so it can be fully up and running.

First Garden upset

Last night after going for a swim, I went to the garden for a little dirt therapy, only to find the first 'Garden Upset' of the season.  There, sitting on the side of the lower terrace that I had not planted yet, was a dog turd.  The neighbors rowdy black lab had broken through the deer fence, got trapped, and shat all over the garden.  Not only did I spend my time picking up the neighbors dog shit, I had to also patch the fence, and keep my anger down. 

I can't fault the dog for pooping, chances are it found its way into the garden and couldn't find its way out and thus, walked everywhere and pooped.  It happens. What does trouble me is two things.  This confirms that Rabbits will be able to get in under the fence and that is something I will need to take care of right away, and two, this dog has been a thorn in our side for a while. Since we moved in to the house in October, this dog has routinely escaped his house and made his way over to the trees by our bedroom.  Being the ever vigilant watch dog, he alerts us and everyone around that there is a raccoon or other animal in the area.  While normal dog behavior hardly bothers me, it frustrates me and the Dutch Boy when it is 4 am in the morning.  After several nights of this -granted at intervals over several months- Dutch Boy spoke with the owners, and that issue has not come up in a while. 

Likewise, I am not bothered that the dog comes over to visit. It seems everyone in our neighborhood has the same concept of dog ownership and freedom that I do with Rose my girl.  If Rose needs to go outside, I simply open the door and let her out, trusting her fully to come back when called, trusting that she doesn't tear up peoples lawns, and knowing that she is safe. The neighbor up the street lets their old golden retriever do this, as does the owner of black lab, albeit less so with him.  The golden and my girl are fairly care free, stick around, and do nothing but investigate and sleep in the grass. The lab, well, it is a lab, so it gets into all sorts of trouble. Again, I can't fault the dog for the garden upset, nor can I fully fault the owners, I simply need to be better and make the required changes in the garden so it doesn't happen again. At least we have spare strips of colorful kite material to tie on to the fence to make it more visible till another solution can be found.

Is it worth it?

So, the ultimate question that I have been facing is:  "Is this worth it?"  The question is multi-fold and complicated, as is the answer. The complicating factors and muddy conclusions have left me thinking about this subject for a long time.

First and foremost I must say that the number one criteria for deciding if this is worth it, is financially.  Like many others across the country my pocketbook is the one thing that seems to be perpetually hungry.  I do not spend lavishly, but I do enjoy some of the finer things in life.  Fitness is paramount to me, and the $40.00 monthly investment is an investment in years after retirement, and is thereby justifiable. Likewise, I enjoy wine and beer, but because micro brew beer is not as readily available as it was where I used to live I have given that up in trade for my $7.00 bottle of wine that last about a week and a half.

I have debt that I am trying to pay off, and a job that hardly pays enough to cover the basic expenses. But, the tradeoff is that I live in a beautiful home with a wonderful person, I have access to the land that I love, and I have the people and things in my life that bring happiness.  So, with all of that being said, I am very open to financial trade offs when it comes to deciding if this endeavor is 'worth it'.

Both Dutch Boy and I enjoy good food, but we also enjoy simple food.  Like this weekend Chef brought over some excess from a haul of mussels she harvested earlier in the day.  At the bottom of the pot I dumped in the butter, sauteed two onions, a handful of mushrooms, a cup of wine, tossed in the mussels for some steaming, and topped with fresh cut tomatoes. Served it up with slices of warmed french bread and we ate it right out of the pot.  Now one plate of this in a restuarant would cost us between 15-20 bucks. For us it cost about $4. (onions 35cents a piece roughly x2, tomatoes 50cents a pieces x2, mushrooms 50cents, mussels free, bread 1/2 a loaf $1.50, and roughly 3/4 of a cup of wine from a $7.00 bottle).

Now, like every other would be homesteader out there I have gone through the various financial calculations to see if the above incident (or others like it) would make financial sense. The standard is to take the cost of the meal ingredients/end meal costs and compare those.

*restaurant: $15-20 per person - 30-40 for one meal    Home: $4.00 per meal, with left overs 5 meals.

Then factor in time.  This is the kicker, restaurants and large scale farms are more efficient than I am, or could be, at all of the various tasks of the job. All of the perceived savings are quickly swallowed up by my labor costs if I use the standard calculation of what is an hour of my time worth.

Like many other homesteaders/self growers/gardener wannabees, we realize that this is not mathematically correct.  We are not adding work hours to the work day, or taking away hours from a work day, so making the equation to work wages is not accurate.  What else would I be doing with that time.... watching Spongebob and petting a cat? So, truthfully I am 'working' for free because I am getting enjoyment out of the act.

Additionally, I am seeing an added benefit out of this that is hard to quantify financially. Last night after finishing up with a group of girls from my team, one of my team mates handed me a bottle of freshly made Mead, and Power Puppy gave me a bag of nuts from her recent trip to Texas. So, right there I have an example of how financially this is may or may not be a wash, but the quality of life is greatly improved. How many people that are financially struggling, eat like kings and queens? Twice a week so far I have been able to make a super healthy salad for Dutch Boys pre-soccer meal with mostly garden grown ingredients.  I have added fresh herbs to a few of our meals, and the canned farmed goods from last year is still a few meals waiting patiently.

Next up: How to benefit personally and emotionally from all of this

25 May, 2013

It may not seem like much, but a lot of progress has been made on the homestead.  All of the posts are up and all of the posts are supported.  Even though I decided to press forward ahead of schedule and thereby snap the drill bit. 

Dutch Boy had been following after me and securing the braces to the posts after I drove in the braces with a mallet.  Most of them were done, but I was low on posts and braces, and after a quick trip to the beach with Dutch Boy and a subsequent trip to Ace Hardware.... I was ready to finish the rest.  Maybe a little to eager and ready. 

When pre-drilling a hole through a brace I stepped backwards to steady myself with my bad leg, and my knee crumpled.  Causing me to fall and torque the drill sideways snapping the bit in half.  OOPS! Thats what I get for being to pushy to keep moving forward. 

I had wanted to have the posts in before Super-Mom and Chef arrived, seeing as the posts are not only frustrating, but also confusing.  I had other plans at the start, but since the actual bedrock is about 4 inches below the soil in the lower portion of the garden, I couldn't sink the posts as deep.  After dig down as deep as possible, and back filling with heavy rocks and sand, the braces were still necessary.

While on the beach searching for more posts, Dutch Boy came up with the idea of a arched top over the entrance and found the perfect log.  After the ladies showed up,  he held it in place while I tied some sisal rope around the beams to secure it in place. Small Thing, Super Mom, and Chef gathered cut grass from the freshly mowed lawn, and tacked the deer fence into place.

Small Thing sat in the soil and labeled the plant markers as we spoke of irrational fears and crazy emotions.  It was warming to watch her plant the first two rows of onions and her very own pumpkin.  She may grow to love a garden, as I know I did as a kid.

Chef had brought over some lemon cucumbers, and a tomato as a donation to the garden, and we happily planted them in dedicated mounds in the middle terrace. The blueberry muffins however, ended up as a snack, thankfully free of dirt.

All that is left now is to:
*bring the industrial stapler by, properly tack up the deer fence,
*bury the bottom of the fence to rabbit proof - maybe double up? (get some hair clippings from the Power Puppy)
*add another yard of soil/compost
*plant the 'three sisters' area
*start the first batch of lettuce and salad greens
*plant the tomato/peppers 'trellis?
*plant all of the last goodies!!!
* oh.. and maybe tie some reflective tape to parts of the fence so things and people don't run into it.

YAY!!! Look at this progress, and only after a few hours here and there.  Yesterday I finished leveling the space and moving the excess mulch.  It has been a little bit backbreaking, but good nonetheless.  It feels like I have been working on it for a week, but the truth is that it has only been a few hours on the weekend, two hours earlier in the week, and an hour yesterday.  In the spirit of the homestead, I gave a few wheelbarrow loads of mulch to the neighbors in exchange for using their wheelbarrow.  It took a bit of planning, re planning, and raking to get the remaining mulch in a somewhat level spot.  I decided to terrace it a little bit (mainly because I couldn't bust the clay under the center of the mound).  So the 'lower terrace is the potato and onion field, the center terrace will be the leafy greens and num nums, and the psuedo upper terrace will be the entrance and the 'three sisters' planting.

Yesterday as I was finishing up the last bit of leveling, Super-mom and Small-Thing showed up with a truck load of dirt.  We hoisted Small-Thing up into the truck, handed her the shovel, and had her start to fill the wheelbarrow.  Load after load the lower terrace filled up, and we rushed to get the truck unloaded as the first drops of rain tried to sprinkle down on us.  It became evident as we leveled the soil that one yard was not enough, and we would definitely need more. Thankfully, Super Mom and Small Thing are willing to return in a few days with another load. 

I am really looking forward to this weekend with Super Mom, Small Thing, Chef, and maybe my own Dutch Boy finishing up the soil, posts, fences, and start the planting!  I can't wait for one of the other core members of our group, Power Puppy, to make her way back from the tornadoes of Texas to start getting her feet dirty.

ps. I promised Small Thing a pumpkin of her own (named George) if she keeps helping.

Left on the to do list for the homestead garden project:
* Add more soil
* Install Posts, and place bracing on posts (since the posts are not dug into the ground)
* Put up Deer Fencing (look into rabbit fencing along lower 2 feet)
* Figure out a gate - Maybe this should come before the fencing?
* Start planting
* Lay out sprinkler
* Mulch over starts with left over mulch
* Build and Install Trellis/cages for tomato and pepper patch.
* drink wine with friends.

Start of the Garden

So there is two parts to the garden. There is our 'kitchen garden' and then there is our 'homestead garden'. The kitchen garden is placed on one of the main decks that makes it easy for me to walk out and harvest quick things for a meal. This one I started the plantingfor a few weeks ago and had intended to only have this one garden. But that was before the tree removal talk.  4 Tomato plants, squash, cucumbers, pole beans, sugar snap peas, swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, basil, catnip, some strawberries, oregano, thyme, lemon thyme, and rosemary.  Not super prolific, but just enough to make a quick meal if need be. After the tree cutters came, we noticed they had also significantly trimmed off some limbs that had given us a little bit of privacy on this deck.  Not that we are really concerned with neighbors peeping in, it was just a little weird to get used to.  So, to make it a little better I built a small bamboo trellis to grow snap peas and some climbing cucumbers and squash on.  I am not sure if I picked the right plants as this area is what I would consider the 'shade' spot of the deck.  Due to one remaining overhanging branch, this area only receives an hour or two of direct overhead sunlight, and 4-6 hours of sunset mid to low angle sunlight.  I am really hopping it will be enough.

This garden is off and growing while I get the Homestead one established.  Today Truck-driving-super-mom is bringing over a load of soil to get the beds ready, and I am hoping that I have everything ready for her!  If not... at least there is a bottle of wine and a little bit of sunshine for our efforts!

Starting a collective

So, there were some trees removed from the property, and in their wake there is a decent size spot for a garden. This weekend we began the hard work of prepping the garden site, and while doing all of the research I can, some good news came into my life. I have wonderful friends, ones that are willing and excited to get involved. These friends are just as eager about the garden as I am, and thus have said that they will help out with some of the little bits and ends as long as they can share in the outcome. Am I ever going to say no to sharing my garden yield? HELL NO!! now take another ten pounds of zucchini. This collective arose from the first mumblings of splitting a cow between three families, and looks like it will grow into a group of friends that are beautiful and strong and I am super excited. Each one of the members of 'Our Little Homestead' has a special trait they can offer to the group. One is a vet tech and dog groomer, and has an abundance of clippings that are great for deer proofing a garden. She also has a way with animals, that will make working with 4 lambs on another friends property even more fun. A hidden talent we didn't know about her is her ability to 'pick and pull' large amounts of wool! Who knew that all you had to do was plop a full fleece in front of her and give her a glass of wine and talk about the weather. Another friend has an incredible drive, and an incredible daughter that is a good fount of energy that will be perfectly tapped by letting her loose in the garden. Did I mention that she works for a lawn care company and has a truck. Grass clippings, compost, soil... and a truck! We also have a bona-fide chef in our group that has just recently purchased a cider press. It just so happens that myself and the truck driving super mom have an abundance of apples and would love to make some cider of our own. Maybe even have super mom's husband start brewing some hard cider? Then there is me, the one who seems to take everything and do it full bore and make things bigger than they really are. I am trying to take a step back and sincerely evaluate my ability to perform to the level I want. It was while I had this deep soul searching questioning moment that I realized that the friends around me are going to make this thing work. What are we thinking about right now? I don't know. But, what I do know is that there is nothing quite as great as hanging out in the garden with my best friends, a bottle of wine, and maybe get some weeding done. Along the way I hope to also use this as a record of what is going on, and a means of kickstarting my writing again. Two of the members of the homestead encouraged me to write last year as a part of the National Novel Month, so I already know that the positive influence I need will be there. Till the next time... ta ta... I will bring photos of the garden, and a bottle of wine next time.

A new beginning

It has been apparently too long since I last wrote on here. Not that my writings were consistent enough to warrant more than a fleeting thought amongst the ether. I simply have been so scattered brain that I do not know what to do. Big changes have happened in my life. A year and a half ago I completely started over. My closest ally and husband of several years and I chose to end our marriage amicably, and I moved back to Washington State. It has been both an easy and a difficult transition. So many new things have filled the voids that were in my life, but they have also caused overflow into other realms that I previous thought were stable. For that I am not sure if I am thankful or scared. In a sense even the fear feels good and has the essence of thriving and development. Perhaps I will start over and write again. Perhaps I will finally realize my one true dream of being a published writer. Perhaps, or perhaps I will die in the anonymity that is this pathetic blogosphere.