I love my garden

Princess Bear (PB) & I had so much fun with our first garden. All of the seedlings I planted in the spring had gone to ruin :( It was a great learning lesson though. I really had no idea what I was doing. Since then I've read A LOT on gardening, taken a course at the UofI extension office & am considering taking the classes to become a master gardener. What we wound up with was carrots (still growing), peas- didn't make it for some reason, green beans had some nice sized but the plants didn't thrive as much as I hoped, corn- still coming in!, and more tomatoes than I know what to do with! We are bringing in anywhere from 1-2 dozen grape tomatoes daily as well as a few large (we planted beefsteak, heirloom & roma). Our pumpkins are looking like a bust- oh well better luck next year! I'm not done for the season though! I'm planning on putting in some lettuce in the next few weeks since they say that will grow through October here in Zone 5. I love the idea of fresh lettuce so late in the year! Once we had the garden cleared & tilled it really wasn't too much work. I do know that next year I want to try Square foot gardening so we have more return on our room. My dad says he's also going to give us some more space to plant next year. I figure if I start planning now that I will have a pretty good idea come spring what I want to do & be able to have a good return on all 3 crop times (early, main & late fall). I must confess that the big disappointment was the pumpkins not turning out as I expected. Live & learn right?!!!? Princess Bears main job has been bringing in the tomatoes every day. We learned very early on that once the tomato has some red on it that we needed to get it off the vine & into the house. We let them redden the rest of the way on the windowsill. If we let them get any riper on the vine the critters get them before we can! Not ok with me!!! I also want to try horse trough gardening next year. I used a variety of containers from the dollar store & UFS this year (& got to use a drill for the 1st time!!!) If anyone is looking for a great magazine to add to their reading list consider Mary Jane's Farm I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this magazine & how much I've learned from it in a few issues! I have a few other magazine recommendations to throw your way- another day! Its late & I hear the shower & a book calling my name!!!

Ugh...sickness & whatnot

Soon I'm going to just scream if I can't get back to blogging with some regularity! Over Labor Day weekend Princess Bear (PB) & I house sit for my uncle's dogs. Princess Bear & I are both allergic to dogs but we love them & live with 2 of them so I didn't think house sitting would be a big deal. Yeah, by the time the weekend was over I was the owner of a lovely respiratory infection. My mom has been teasing me that when PB & I move out that we can get a poodle (supposedly wonderful if you have dog allergies). Ok, not to upset anyone that has a poodle but I'm just so not a poodle person! Most of my life we owned sporting dogs. My 2 favorite breeds are English Springer Spaniels & Boston Terriers (yes little but they have a big dog attitude!). I like Mastiffs, Newfies, Great anything (danes, Pyrenees(?)) If you haven't figured it out- I'm not much for small dogs. I think I might consider allergy shots!

Other than that life is still the same here. My mom & dad are threatening to toss PBs room at the end of the weekend if it isn't up to their standards. I'm so tired of this room thing! School is going well. I'm only taking one class, ASL (American Sign Language) 1. I was in a panic the first night of class because the instructor is deaf & there is no interpreter. Its actually worked out well & forced me to learn quickly. So that is the short version. I'll be back on Monday & give a long version of what has been going on! Have a great weekend!!!

Sarah

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok so I mentioned back in April that I wanted to get back to blogging. My other blog is still down as well. I'VE MISSED IT HORRIBLY!!! Some of the lack of blogging is my fault but the majority of it is due to my parents irrational thoughts on computer time. They were convinced that my computer time is what was making it so I wasn't getting things done they way that they wanted so they placed a lock on the computer room door. Yes I am serious- not joking even a little bit. We won't even get into the fact that the computer is mine. Its a secret!!! :) Honestly its as silly as them locking the room. One of the things I've been really upset about is the lack of blogging in my life. This blog especially is such a wonderful outlet for me & I'm glad to be back. I don't know if I can do 30 days in a row with the weekends but all weekdays I'm here by myself count on blog posts! I'll work on getting my other blog up & going again sometime in the near future but that is going to take a lot more work. For now I'm just going to say "hi"! I'll do more on filling you in tomorrow!

Starting our garden

OK...I am going to pick a day to start 30 days of blogging. Probably Monday. I've been doing lots of stuff to start our garden (not that you can tell by looking at the yard). I attended a hour & 1/2 class for beginning gardeners taught by master gardeners. It was such a good use of my time. I really learned a lot. I spent time pricing top soil and deliveries. Apparently by the time I get the pea gravel dug out I will need somewhere between 2-4 tons of topsoil. Our backyard literally has NO grass because my dad hates cutting grass. All well & good until you fast forward 20 years and want a garden! I'm also attending a conference for parents of special needs children that is from 8am to 3:45 tomorrow. I hope I learn a lot there as well! Here is a bit of our seedlings and where the garden will be in the backyard!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

And I thought I was on a roll!

Well, I was doing well. Honestly I think I'm going to try setting a goal of blogging everyday for a month straight just to make it a habit again!!! We're all still recovering here but I think we're close to the end of the sickie road! I went to the Dr on Monday and she declared my lungs clear! Now I just have a nast sinus infection but the antiobiotics are already making me feel better! Princess Bear (PB) has had one heck of a week at school. The last 2 days she's come home with 0 stars. Not a good thing! I've taken away TV both days. She's also getting into a habit of "lying". Saying she hasn't done something or she has. I'm timing her out for those but it doesn't seem to be working. I'm nearing the end of my rope on this one! I think its because I'm still very tired & not feeling 100% but regardless not a good situation.

This week I planted all my greenhouse trays. I have 6 greenhouses with 72 places in each one. Each place received an average of 3 seeds. Next week I have to start clearing out the pea gravel. My friend Maria was going to help me tomorrow but her daughter is sick. I am very excited about the garden though and hope it turns out well. Here is what I can remember of the seeds: lettuce, spinach, peas, green beans, yellow squash, zucchini, beets, radish, corn, carrots, green onions, steak tomatoes, roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, basil, rosemary, lavender, dill, chives, catnip, mini pumpkins and champion pumpkins (they grow to around 100 lbs!)

My parents are going out of town tomorrow & I'm looking very forward to the break. Now if someone would just take my daughter for a few hours I'd be in heaven! Maria & I were going to do yard work in the afternoon and then we were going to have a potluck with my friend Jessi. I'm feeling a bit bummed that now the only thing on the books is PB's swim lesson.

Well that is the story here! If anyone as any gardening advice please share!

Sarah

Still here!

Yep- Still here! Still alive. We're still sick though and I'm trying to get some rest. Yesterday my mom & I both went to the Dr. who says its completely viral and only time will help. He did put me on more prednisone since my breathing is so bad due to the virus. We've had this for over a month! I'm so sick of being sick!!! Today my best friend & I took Princess Bear and Katie (My best friends niece) to a fire station. Jessi (my best friend) is dating a firefighter & everytime PB's school went she's been sick. Andy really went all out & the girls had a blast! They got to ride in the truck, spray the hose & try on the helmet. Big fun was had by all. I'll try to post pics soon! Now I'm off to get some more barrettes ready for the salon and get some sleep!

So I'm going to try gardening!

One of the things I've decided I want to give a lot of focus to in my life is living a more green, healthy lifestyle. I'd been giving some thought to having a garden (I'm not an outdoor person so I'm not a natural gardener per se). I asked my dad if I could clear out some of our garden boxes in the back yard for a veggie garden. He axed that idea...it seems as though he's a bit attached to his flowers! Then I heard about the Burpee Cash Garden seed set. I thought this was so cool in theory! Then I found a blog giving away a Burpee Cash Garden seed set. I signed up for the giveaway and decided if I didn't win I would purchase the seed set and Princess Bear (PB) & I would set up a bag garden on our back patio. Well lo and behold I won the seeds! I'm so excited! I've done some research on bag gardening and we're going to be good to go! Then my sister & I started talking about CSA's and once again I was on the hunt. For those of you who don't know what CSA is it stands for Community Supported Agriculture and basically you buy a share in a local farm and for approximately 20-22 weeks you get a fresh delivery of veggies for approximately $15-$19 per week. The advantages are that most CSAs are organic and the veggies are still much fresher than what you get at the store. The CSA that my mom and I opted to go with also has a free range chicken egg option, and a cruelty free beef, pork and chicken option. If you are interested in learning more about CSAs you can google CSA or go HERE

I've also decided that I'm in a place where I'm ready to dump some of this extra weight I'm dragging around. I've gotten to terms with why I gained the weight and now I'm ready for it to be gone. I was giving a lot of thought to a clean eating diet. I figure it has to be a very healthy option and would only help PB with some of her health issues. Last week I bought the book Skinny Bitch. I LOVED THIS BOOK! I will also let you know that the authors of Skinny Bitch think that everyone should follow a pretty strict vegan diet (something that is mentioned no where on the cover). I was basically a vegetarian in college and reading some of the things in Skinny Bitch reminded me why. I really can't stand the thought of animal cruelty and the majority of domestic animal butchering practices are beyond barbaric. So once again I was giving thought to becoming a veg head (although I don't know if I can give up seafood!) My mom doesn't want to give up meat but is willing to pay extra for humane slaughter practices. I was back on the phone with the CSA we picked and started asking about their animal rearing practices (no growth hormones or antibiotics!) I was invited to come visit the farm...I loved that they are so confident in their practices! I also asked a ton of questions about the slaughter house they use. Not only were all my questions answered but I was also given the name of the meat locker used as well as the owners name and phone number and told that I could visit that as well. So now I've decided that this summer is going to be one of healthy living for PB and myself. The only animal products will we consume will come from our CSA or another cruelty free locker but the biggest majority of our food will hopefully be from our garden or CSA deliveries. I'm also going to try to get PB on soy milk and off of high fructose corn syrup (did you hear that there is now mercury being found in HFCS?!!!?) So those are some of my plans for this summer & I've got to tell you I'm pretty excited!!!