The Rain Made Me Change The Header

The rain is still coming down so I had to find some things to do today. 

• Take the little one to the dentist.  (No cavities!  She didn’t bite this dentist so he’s a keeper.)
• I’m still very sore from the Chiropractor’s visit.  (I have to go back tomorrow…)
• Nearly died of boredom then remembered I wanted to work on something that would make me feel like stabbing myself in the head.  Hmm, I should try to change the header.

Taking a walk into unknown blog design territory always fills me with trepidation.  I’m pretty sure it will involve some loss of blood and a computer smashed to a thousand pieces.  I Googled the info and found some instructions I could follow.  I would give you the link but I can’t find it anymore.  (Sure she lost the link.)

Basically, it involved creating a collage in Picasa with a selected file.  This was surprising because I thought Picasa was not around anymore.  I guess they changed their mind.  I chose the pics I wanted, arranged them, changed the background color, added text, resized it and then saved it.  In Blogger I uploaded the pic and selected “instead of title and description” and “shrink to fit.”

What I would change next time:  I would create a new folder with only the pics I wanted in the collage.  It was a pain to go through and delete all the photos I didn’t want.  



The rest of the day I’ve spent dealing with homeschool stuff and reading my cookbook.  I’m excited that it’s one of the original versions.  

We tried the strawberry jam today and it was wonderful!
  

Rainy Days

I'm getting better about paying attention to the weather forecasts and planning around them.  In the past I have always stuck my head out the door to see what the weather was for the day.  Now that I want to garden better I'm trying to plan ahead and work with the weather.

This week is going to have some rainy days.  This leaves me with not much to do in the garden.  There's no watering or feeding to be done.  I can spread a little mulch for soil improvement.  Mostly it will be just watching things grow.  Here's some things I can do:

• Stalk the UPS truck.  (This actually worked, my cookbook came today)
• Go see the Chiropractor.  (This was the first time I saw one.  Holy cow!  The little one was totally freaked out watching.  I may be a few inches taller now.  Are you supposed to be really sore later?)
• Grocery shop.  (I had a dream last night where I went grocery shopping, came home, then proceeded to tell my husband about every item I bought.  Sadly, it was one of the best dreams I've ever had.)
• Can some jam.  (I wanted to make strawberry jam the other day but ran out of time.  The little one helped me can up 12 half pints.  People love when you give them jam.  Like crazy love.  I'm hoping to save some for a Food Swap in June.)

• Experiment with Windows Live Writer and hopefully not mess up this post.

Zulilly Shoe Deal

I just picked up these cute boots at Zulilly for under $25 shipped.  They have lots of sales going on all the time for lots of other things.  Check them out at Zulilly.com.

There is also some really cute shirts from Food Fight.

Low Raised Bed

I was perusing the current edition of Mother Earth News, just minding my own business, and came across the article How To Make Cheap Garden Beds by Cheryl Long.  I am completely all for this.  If you know anything about my property you know it is nothing but rocks.  Big rocks, little rocks, heavy rocks, round rocks, white rocks, brown rocks, etc.  I have only ever built completely raised beds for gardening and hauled in dirt.  I currently have 12 beds mostly 4 feet by 8 feet. 

As I read the article I stumbled upon the phrase "low raised bed."  Hmm, I might be able to do this.  I found a test area and gave it a try.  It was a lot of work but I now have a low raised bed which measures 7 feet by 2 feet.  I dug up the soil and got it all loose 4 inches deep. 

Let me tell you what's going on in the pic.  At the bottom right side is what needs to be dug up.  Notice there's still some green weeds growing.  Next to that is a "small" rock that needs to be dug out.  To the left is the tilled up soil mixed with very small rocks.  In the upper left is what was finished and covered with mulch.  In the upper right are not so small rocks I tossed to the side and form a border along the fence line.  

Now the mulch can decompose and start improving the soil.  I am going to try planting some extra seedlings there in a month to see if the bed is usable this season.

I wonder where that pot went.  Ah, there it is.  Whoa lady, you're gonna need to get through me to get that pot.  I need that pot... You're gonna have to scratch me.  Pot.  Scratch.  Pot.  Scratch.  Fine, you win.

Today was the first official harvest of the season.  I did a health pick of all the greens and it added up to quite a bit.  I have spinach, swiss chard, 3 lettuces, and fennel.  It was one gallon bag's worth.

Researching Greenhouses

I've been battling with things in the garden for several years.  The more garden blogs and pics I see the more I want a greenhouse.  This seems to be the way to go to get plants grown and healthy enough to put outside.  This is one of my downfalls of gardening with seed.  I invariably put things out too early.  Usually I'm running out of room in the house or the weather pretends it's going to behave.  

Greenhouse by Exaco.    There's no prices on the website.

Greenhouse by Duramax at Lowe's.  This one is under $1000 and is the largest so far for our budget.  70 square feet.  I'd like to be able to attach shelves along the sides.  I don't know if this is possible.  If not I'd have to buy metal shelving units to maximize space.

 

A one piece unit from Solar Gem.  No prices on the website.  I've emailed them.  I'm not sure how much I like the look of this.  Obviously I can't attach anything to the sides and I would have to have shelving units.

The biggest consideration for choosing a greenhouse here is wind.  It would be pure foolishness to consider anything with soft walls such as polyethylene.  I might as well throw my money out the window. 

I have awhile to consider what I will get.  It's pretty much too warm here now to have anything growing in a greenhouse.  It would only be used for storage or protecting plants at night from critters.

My only other choice is to carve out space somewhere in my house for 3 months out of the year and just be more patient with growing inside.

What's Cookin?

Now that all the labor intensive work is done in the garden, I'm mostly watering and doing damage control.  I've set a small goal to plant something everyday.  Today I planted some okra seeds and coleus seeds indoors.  I need a greenhouse...  In other news I decided to buy Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child.

 

I've checked this book out of the library several times just to read.  It's an invaluable resource.  I'm happy I'll be adding it to my library and I'll be able to write notes in it.

Tomorrow I'd like to try making some strawberry jam with the little one.  Strawberries are on sale cheap and I love have homemade jams instead of buying them.  Now I just need to see if I have some jars...

Ball Canning Website

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Gloomy Day

I did not want to go outside today.  I did not want to work on the garden.  The freeze made me feel frozen.  I was tired of gardening.  I was tired of planting.  The skies are so very cloudy.

But outside I went.  I was reluctant and petulant about it.  I grumbled at the cats.  I pulled all the dead plants out and reseeded.  I planted new tomatoes plants.  I left some of the zombie plants in the ground.  They have a knack for coming back to life.  I started some more cucumber seeds indoors.

" As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again."-Scarlett O'Hara