Thoughts on Fall Garden 2007

Well, after everything I planted, the survivors were, Mesclun (no surprise there), Turnips (handles the winter marvelously), and Garlic (easy cheezy).

I picked a salad today for our guest, Jason's aunt and uncle from New Hampshire. Aunt Carol was delightfully impressed as I picked it just before lunch. This made me happy.

So, I wanted to try an Early Spring Garden this year, but managed only to plant sugar snap peas, broccoli, parsely, and onions. I did not even prepare the soil, just punched holes in the ground with a stick and stuck in pea and broccoli seeds. Who knows if anything will pop up. I am hoping this rain we just had filled in the holes better with soil as I only scratched over them with my hand rake. I have to say, that this pregnancy is pooping me out.

I do want to have a garden this year, but it will have to be a small one. I am actually going to The Farm for the month of April to apprentice in organic gardening and permaculture. I am really hoping to learn alot, so I can apply it to my home garden, and share my knowledge with my garden friends. I am also taking a trip in May to visit family up north, then will return home to begin a summer garden--oh, and get ready for labor, hehe!

I am thinking that I will purchase a load of compost manure this month (March) and spread it over my garden to let rest until the end of May till I can get to double digging. It is an expense that I would not usually make, but I feel like I need to nurture my soil this year since it's been a couple years since my last addition of manure. I will probably spread some more leaves, too (we did cover with leaves in the Fall).

Right now I plan to do companion gardening like last year. I loved all the colors, and attracting all the honey bees! I've actually seen my first honey bees of the year buzzing around the purple flowered ground cover (clover?). Their heads were a fuzzy bright pink. I wish to plant a bee garden just for them...

I have many plans for the garden, but the hardest part is keeping it simple. I will just have to take it day by day, and allow the garden to arise of its own accord. In the very least, I will revamp my garden with my acquired knowledge from the April apprenticeship. Perhaps, even, start from scratch.

Dark Chocolate Visions of a Simplified Home

Lately I've been going through alot of my stuff in the house, trying to weed out and organized things that I've had for a while and stuff that is newly coming into our home.

I ask myself,"Why is it important to me to have this all organized?"

Besides making my house a chaotic mess, I have many answers in my head to support my conviction. One is the peace of mind I get from having a place to put my things. Ahhh, it's as if I ate a piece of dark chocolate. I can see it now, sitting back on my sofa, with nothing to clean up because it's all in its place. Nothing left to do but dream up projects... and...um... do them!

Hmm... I may be closer to the truth... I have a bit of a guilt complex when it comes to focusing on projects when there are dishes, laundry, cooking, shopping, cleaning to be done. I know, this is normal life in a home, but I keep trying to rebel against it. With a baby brewing, I realize my chores will only increase...
But....
I will continue my search for solace in organization and simplification.

So far, I have built all the bookshelves in the living room area that are needed, and am now ready to enter the bedrooms. First, our bedroom, then, the guest room.

The Problem/Mess #1
My guest room is mimicking a storage/closet/baby/sewing room.

The Plan
Build wardrobe in master bedroom to move my closet (and some of Jason's) into, thereby creating a place for sewing/craft supplies (all the stuff on the bed).

Thoughts
This will not entirely solve my problem, but move some stuff to a permanent place, and other stuff to a purgatory of sorts.

On the Bright Side
As these structures come to life, I find that the chaos is slowly disappearing. Maybe it's all the chocolate I've been eating... but I'm starting to see some blue skies.

Hints
When I decided to fight The Mess, I found that putting things in piles helped to make organizing more manageable. After widdling down to 6 piles, we invested in plastic storage boxes, which are easy to stack and carry.

Some Difficult Things to Weed
Clothing: I have gotten rid of many items, but still have alot (in my opinion, but I've seen worse). As I buy new clothes, I purchase more "sportive" pieces that are interchangeable, breathable, and well made. During pregnancy I have benefited from my old "big" clothes, and the thrift store. I do have a few pieces that I wear maybe once a year, but that is my choice, and I'd rather keep them than wish I had them...

Photos: Many of our photos are in digital these days, but I do have 2 huge boxes that are filled with photographs. I haven't started this project, yet, but I plan to stuff all the photos in albums unprejudiced, stick them on a shelf, then later, organize them. We'll see what actually comes about...

Knick knacks: We don't have too many, but we do have them. I often imagine leading the life of a traveler... I could only have a few bare essentials... However, we do live in house, so it is not such a big deal to have a few miscellaneous things lying around. I do want to get rid of what is not important to us, as I feel we don't have room for such things, and they actually take up precious time and space.

AquaHelix - the 1/2 Gallon per Minute Showerhead

Jason had the idea that since I love to take long hot showers, that it would in our best interest to find a low flow shower head. "Sure, I don't care. My sister and I grew up using one," I said.

Well, little did I know the search Jason was to embark on. I figured he'd find a generic nozzle, but instead, he found a unique super low flow nozzle... the AquaHelix

So, Jason ordered it directly from the inventor (even chatted with him on the phone). We got it in the mail yesterday (superfast). Jason installed it promptly (must have been easy to install), and well, took a shower. He was so curious to see if I liked it (plus we only have a couple weeks to return it if we don't like it); I took a shower next.

My commentary:
It works! And it tingles. It was strong enough for me on the low setting (I haven't tried the high setting yet, but don't think I want a stronger tingle yet). What I mean is, that there is a slight zippy stinging at first, compared to our old nozzle. What amazes me is that the AquaHelix is as small as a microphone, shoots out one stream of water, yet, because it is spiraling, looks and feels like one spray. The farther from the nozzle you stand, the lighter the feel (almost misting). It truly was strong enough to wash the soap from my hair (stonger than our old showerhead, even). And the irony for me is, I can take a nice hot shower for as long as I want, yet, because the stream is stronger and cleans off the soap quickly, I don't know if I want to shower for too long, even if it is 1/2 gallon a minute. Ha!

Jason plans to keep both nozzles hooked up with a valve to switch flow to either one. Our other nozzle is a handheld, and is really useful for washing out screens (for when I'm making t-shirts), etc... I will definitely use the AquaHelix for my showers, and look forward to getting use to this new feeling, wow!

Jason Puts Up a Wall

Our Library is on its way to completion. Jason put up a wall near the entryway just before he came down with the stomach flu, Yuck! Poor thing... So, now I just need to put together the final bookshelf for the living room to finish our library.

Other things:

J built the compost bin higher

I am sewing more and more, mostly baby stuff and maternity items

Composting Toilet is still working out great, although J did switch to the city toilet during his illness. We are about to store the peat moss in a covered trash can to protect it from rain (not necessary, just something to make me feel better--I don't like the wet peat moss at the bottom of the bag)

The Garden is going pitifully well. There is still mesclun to pick. Turnips survived without any protection, although I didn't eat too many. J pruned the fruit trees a couple weeks back. I have started my Spring/Summer garden plans. They will be nice a simple to accomodate my pregnant state. I'm thinking, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, radish, and beans, lots of marigolds and cosmos, and, if I feel up to it, some other things.

I've started started laundering my baby stuff. We are starting to implement a greywater environment, meaning, switching to greywater friendly soaps. First is the laundry detergeant. We found a recipe to base a liquid soap made from our bio-deisel supplies. We need to do a couple of experiments, but it looks easy enough.

Bio-Deisel, by the way, is going fine. Production is much slower in the wintertime, saved for warm weekends. We use 70% bio-deisel, 30% regular deisel in the winter, but we drive less too (summer we use 100% bio-D).
So, still, overall, throughout the year, we emit 10% of what we were with our old Nissan gasoline Stanza.

Well, I can't think of any other homesteading updates. I'm just taking it day by day with this pregnancy thing, and nesting when I feel like it. Housecleaning is kept to a minimum, but I am having bouts of deep cleaning too, which is always fun. "J, can I get rid of this? or J, can I build this?"

Oh, forgot to say, drying laundry outside on the clothesline still going fine. I just have to remember, watch the weather, although rain-washed baby clothes are great! (We've had our line for 2 years, now? and probably for the last year I have been using is regularly. I've only used the dryer 4 times in the past year...)

Hold on, Let me get some more firewood...

Another cold morning. We use the fireplace most days. On days where I am out running errands we use the thermostat, and if the outside temp in high fifties or about, the windows and screen door is opened (like yesterday, awe, fresh air).
Using the fireplace makes the house more dry, so it is perfect for drying some laundry.
No matter how we're heating the house, if the sun is shining, the front door is open to let the warming sunshine in through the glass door.

So this past month I built 3 floor to ceiling bookshelves, and have plans to do one more in the living room, and a wardrobe in the bedroom. All this is in preparation for baby due at the end of June. Since we are going to use cloth diapers, I am diligently researching and designing a diaper station, diaper bag layout, and everything else that goes with a baby. I guess diapers are a big one in my mind. HA!

Jason has been crazy busy at work so he hasn't been able to work on many of his projects, although, since it is cold out, I've noticed he's been doing more computer and paperwork stuff. We did start our taxes last week, but have yet to wrap that up. Maybe this weekend. Jason did get his lumber, and it has been drying for the past month. He plans to put up his beams mid February, weather permitting. I'm so excited to think he'll have a workshop soon! Okay, well I am also thinking that, finally, I will get my metal roof, front porch, and garden shed not far afterwards, but, now I won't feel so bad. Hehe!

I actually stuck to my grocery budget this month, yay! We are using the old envelope system, which helps me not to overspend, and thus, keeps us on track to pay off our house this year. Mortgage burning party? I think so. Looks like somewhere between August and October depending on whatever life brings us.

Homemade Spice shelves Make Space, and a Renewed passion for the Power Drill

Last weekend, after being prompted by Jason to get my stuff off the floor, I decided to devote a whole day to a slow paced carpentry lesson, which seemed to help me forget my nausea. I pretty much had the boards cut to size, the quarter-round measured, and Jason was there to guide me along the way. Both shelves are serving to clear up some cabinet space. The shelf to the left holds all my spices, and the shelf to the right holds all my teas and mugs. In this process I ended up weeding out my cabinets of miscellaneous jars (now donated to Jason's future shed), and plastic tupperware, which I am scheming to get completely out of my house (they are so awkward to store.)

All in all, I am very happy with this project and feel encouraged to get on that built-in bookshelf that I've been dreaming about. It shouldn't take too long, especially with my new power drill skills, and it will immediately clear up another big section of space--a freestanding bookshelf which will be also donated to Jason's future shed.

Speaking of the shed, Jason got his plans revised and renewed. He also got his beam joints in the mail the other day. So now all he needs to do is pick up his beams that have been cut and are waiting on him at the saw mill. Then we'll see some action! I cannot wait, because not only will he have a kickin' workshop, we'll have loads more space in our utility room, which has been housing misc. tools, garden supplies, and such that currently won't fit into the cluttered 6'x 10' workshop. Yes, I have an agenda with that space, but only to improve the functioning of the household. The small workshop will house primarily gardening stuff; the utility room will be a better laundry room and hold our bicycling gear. This house is in a constant shifting cycle, especially with the seasons, so more organized, the easier, period.

Merry Christmas-time!

I guess I'm in the mood for Christmas, although the weather has been strangely WARM? Well, I've been enjoying my mesclun salads, and spreading around the fallen leaves for compost.
Actually I am almost through my first trimester of pregnancy, and finally feeling a little more like myself. I've had a little nausea, and much fatigue, so I haven't been getting too much done around the house.
Now that I am feeling more energetic, I've got plenty to do. Christmas gifts, baking, mailing cards, etc...
Next house project is my spice shelf. I've got the boards cut, but they've been on the floor for the past month. I can't wait to get them up. It should free up some cubbard space in my utterly tiny kitchen.
Also for the past month Jason's been down with a hurt back. So no composting toillette. We do miss it though, because it surprisingly kept the stench down!
Now that we're expecting, I am hoping to finish setting up the rest of the house before June, my due date. No problem! Ya right! We'll see what actually gets done. After these spice shelves, I plan to build my built in bookshelf (and get rid of a free standing one.