How Grows It?

Pretty good I must say. I was having some anxiety that things weren't growing well at all and then I looked at the pictures from the last post and I realized things have indeed been growing well. Except for the spinach which I ripped out and fed to the chickens yesterday. After having germinated weeks ago, many plants had just begun to grow their first true leaves. They were wasting precious greenhouse real estate so, they had to go. In their place I plugged in 6 Melissa Savoy Cabbage which was needing more space. I gave the chickens all the very small brassicas that had been frost damaged and re-planted the large healthy ones in my largest bed. Now I am left with 3 Gustus Brussels Sprouts, 4 Thompson Broccoli and 2 Snow Crown Cauliflower. I have more of everything but the savoy cabbage started that I will nurse along until more space opens up when the peas and lettuce finish.

Melissa Savoy Cabbage

Gustus Brussels Sprouts

Thompson Broccoli

3' x 7' bed containing beets, carrots, lacinato kale, rainbow chard, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts.

Early Wonder Tall Top Beet

Rainbow chard that is still growing slow.

Scarlet Keeper Carrots
The Blush Butter Cos lettuce is huge! It is also so incredibly beautiful. It will pain me to pull it up and eat it! But, I am looking forward to having butter lettuce to make wraps with that didn't cost nearly $5 a head. A few are nearly large enough to be harvested, perhaps in another week.

The Lincoln peas are climbing up the brush now and I will stop watering them until they are starting to set pods. I have been deep watering them weekly but I started to notice lots of lush leaf growth and not so much climbing. Too much watering can have this effect.

I potted my calendula, chamomile, sage, oregano and stevia and they now are sitting just outside the greenhouse and putting on some nice new growth. Sitting with them is a pretty little mini rose that my brother gave me for Mother's Day which needs a bigger pot.

All of the tomatoes had to be brutally pinched of all their sun scorched leaves. I wasn't patient enough to gently harden them but instead just moved them to the greenhouse during an ideal stretch of weather. Though it was warm and there was no cold stress, the sun was too strong even filtered through the greenhouse and the leaves started to yellow and wither in some places. I knew they would be fine because once adjusted they were starting to produce suckers and new top growth that was a lush darker green. I now have them sitting in the 5 gallon black pots out of the greenhouse to get some extra heat during the day and to make it easy to bring back in should we be threatened with a frost. Doubtful at this point but, it's Maine, you never know. These little babies will be put in their final pots for the summer next week(end). I am anxious to try a new compost that I have been eyeing at the feed store since last year. A local company makes it called Coast of Maine (who make organic gardening products from local sources). Their Lobster Compost is the one I want to try as well as their fish bone meal for the tomatoes to prevent blossom end rot. I'd also like to try using a fish emulsion fertilizer during planting to give everything an immediate boost. Our growing season is so short here that I don't want to waste a minute!

I had thought that I was going to get my Back to Eden garden started this year but, yet again, I will need to wait. Because of this I have been forced to be creative! I am going to be making instant temporary raised beds out of 2 Bagster dumpsters. You know, the dumpsters in a bag that you can get from Home Depot. They are only $30 each and are 8' x 4'. So, for $60 I will have raised beds that need little more prep than being filled, amended and planted. No heavy lumber or whacking my thumb with a hammer. Simple. I'm so excited to try this idea. Yeah, it's a little red neck, but you know what? I so don't care. I am just thankful for a solution to growing my garden.


After I "get the garden in" I will do another post. Til then, enjoy the rest of spring!

April Gardening Synopsis

Blush Butter Cos lettuce
April was weird. Just strange and out of sorts. The weather had been cold then warm then really cold then just annoyingly in the 50's... frustrating is what April was. The greenhouse is alive but growing slowly. I wish that the onions were farther along than they are but hopefully they will catch up soon so I might have a decent crop once in the ground.

I have new cole crop starts that will be for both me and joining a few other vegetable starts as a give away in a fundraiser supporting Maine midwives gaining licensure. I also have a few medicinal and culinary herbs that are doing great so far.

The tomatoes are still in the basement under lights but will soon be out in the greenhouse. They are growing quite rapidly! The peppers are slower growing of course but I have a feeling they will take off when the heat comes. I will likely pot them in the black containers to make sure they get lots of heat. I think them growing in the greenhouse last year prevented them from getting enough sun which stunted them. I really need a decent pepper crop with the amount of salsa and hot sauce we go through!

The tomatoes look a little yellow tinted in these pictures but I think that is just the light! They were yellowing just a bit before I potted them on but I think it just because I waited way to long to do so and they ran out of nutrients. They have recovered fine and are ready to be hardened off. According to the almanac we have passed our last frost date but should we have an unexpected one the greenhouse will protect them fine.


The chickens have been free ranging at will but will now be going in a pen for the summer. The poop is getting out of hand!

My Partridge Cochin hen

So there you are! April was weird, lol. I am going to be getting insanely busy in the next few months so likely posts will be erratic but I will shoot for at least once a month to update. Between getting the house finished, the garden, 3 young children, church, helping host a parents support group and a summer apprenticeship with a local midwife I am in for an eventful summer! Pray for my poor brain to keep up!


Til next time!

Springtime Madness Begins

"While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease." -Genesis 8:22 (ESV)

During the winter it's easy to forget God's works in nature because it's bare, cold and where I live it is snowy. What could possibly be happening? But, then the snow starts to melt and I know that even though there is an obscene amount of mud at first, the earth will drink it in and keep it for when the plants need it in the summer. At least that's what the wild plants can look forward to. As much as I like my raised beds, for our long term goals of food independence, the method is somewhat restrictive and expensive. After watching the Back to Eden film again and mentally taking stock of what we have available, the B2E method of gardening really seems to be the smartest approach. I just need to find a place for it on our lot! We have a pretty good pile of fully composted horse manure that will be the base and I will find some wood chips somewhere.

The seedling hotel
The greenhouse is back up and running at about 50%. I still have a couple beds including the big one to get watered up and ready for seeds. Two of the small beds have been seeded with peas and spinach so I am anxiously waiting for little seedlings to pop up! It got up to 68°F in the greenhouse on Sunday with full sun, so with a few more sunny days they should be up. In another week I will put the onion, cole crop and chard seedlings out during the day to start to harden so they can stay out full time.

Poorly germinated onion starts... see the big bauld space in the middle?

Speaking of seedlings, my onions had a really horrible germination rate this year! I thought perhaps it was my fault but when I went back on Fedco Seeds website to see if they had more available it had that variety discounted. So, I am thinking that they may be having general germination problems with it this year. I will email them to let them know my out come and will be ordering a different variety that is a cross of the Copra I have and another onion. These seeds are open pollinated or "heirloom" as most have come to know them as, so I will be able to save seed from them. As a side note: I fully support Fedco. They are a Maine company who get seed from real growers and this is a seed co-op which means they basically are sharing seeds with their customers! I am not at all upset by my onion seeds poor performance because I know they are real seeds that were collected by people who care. My cousin in Michigan gets her seeds from them and if she keeps going back then I know I'm in the right place! Prices are also great and I get free shipping because I am local.

Everything else is nice and healthy!

Along with my new onion seed I will be getting a few other things. I haven't quiet decided on them all but as of right now I am planning on a storage carrot and some winter spinach that I hope to nurse along in the greenhouse this winter with the lacinato kale. My large deep bed in there will get insulated and heavily mulched and hopefully with enough snow to insulate the actual greenhouse we will have greens all winter long. This is optimistic though because it will get down to -10°F at night in January at least a few times most years. Guess we will see!

Tomatoes

I am incredibly thankful for the abundance of eggs we have been getting! I have been selling eggs again and even used 5 dozen to get credit toward my feed cost last week (my feed store buys eggs from small farms to sell to customers at no profit to them). I just opened a new bag of feed for them Monday, so I am going to see how many days it takes for them to go through it and how many eggs in that amount of time to get an average cost per dozen. My hope is in another year or two to do what Paul from B2E does and feed the chickens on nothing but yard and garden waste/produce. My flock right now gets most of my kitchen vegetable waste so it will be a fairly easy transition for them I think. I will then use the compost they make in their run on the garden. I will likely then reduce the price of my eggs because they will basically be free to produce. My heart says to someday make good food easily accessible to those who need it and I truly want to make that happen! I have had that dream for a while, may the Lord make it so. :-)

Just waiting for the peppers now. They might need a few days near the wood stove to come up
Sorry this post is a few days late, but as the title says, the madness is beginning. More spring is ahead! Til next time!

Big (realistic) Garden Dreams: Starting Seeds

Copra onion seedlings 2015

You might have already guessed this but, I love starting seeds. It kind of goes along with my obsession with love of seeds. Every spring I anxiously keep my itchy fingers in check until the almanac says I am in the right timing. I patiently and lovingly tuck those little plant baby makers in the soil, water and wait. The first year I did this it was a complete and utter fail because I knew nothing. I mean, how complicated should this be? Seeds fall on the ground and grow without anyone helping in nature... What I was forgetting was that I was not nature and I was not growing seeds like God intended. Agriculture is man made after all. So, most of my seedlings died that year. (Can you see a trend in my series here? I failed a lot before I got a clue). Because of my less than successful experiences, I have a few tidbits of wisdom for you.


I think timing is the first big one. So many times I have started way off the mark, either too early or late (um, starting tomatoes in June anyone?). It wastes money for one thing and it just doesn't make for a real productive year! I am a big fan of an almanac (either can be found online or purchased in a small local store). It will give you approximate frost dates and planting by the moon charts if that strikes your fancy. Always read your seed packets for exact instructions but here are some references that I also deem useful:

Almanac Chart, just plug in your zip code for personal dates.

This chart needs you to plug in your first frost free date at the top.


Water is the next big thing as it can be kind of tricky. I chronically forget to water my seedlings. Sometimes this works in my favor because my seedlings never become water dependent. Or, sometimes they just die. What can I say? I'm a bit scatter brained these days! If I were to water properly I would keep seeds and very young seedlings consistently moist and then once the first true leaves appear then I would back off on the watering a bit. I try to water about 3 times a week or every other day at this point while they are in single cells. Then after I pot on anything in need I try to only water them every 2 days. The reason behind this is preventing water dependence and shallow roots. When you soak thoroughly a few times a week it then forces the roots to drive deeper to access the water being stored in the bottom of the pot. Many people also like to bottom water with a tray but I am not a huge fan of this. Personal preference, experiment with what works for you!

Potting on is the last thing to seedlings. Most plants that need to be started more than a few weeks ahead will need potting on at least once to prevent root binding and "legginess". I like to pot my tomatoes on when they are about 3 inches high and I bury them right up to their top leaves. I have found that little 4 ounce yogurt cups are the perfect size for the first potting on. Tomatoes I tend to like to pot on 2-3 times depending on when I can get them in the garden. Things like greens usually don't need much start time and I try not to waste space with potting them on (the bigger the plant to bigger the container). Also, onions do fine in the little cells until it is time to plant outdoors once I transfer them from the flat and having them in cells if better for their roots when transplanting.

Potted up onion seedlings 2014

Starting seeds is a skill! It takes trial and error and perseverance but it is a very worth while knowledge. Happy Spring everyone!

Big (realistic) Garden Dreams: Choosing Seeds

I love shopping for seeds. Love. It. I am shopping for seeds pretty much as soon as Christmas is over an I can feel free to do so and not feel like a freak. There is just something so exciting about reading descriptions and day dreaming about the possible bounty. Hmm... do I want a funky heirloom tomato that looks almost to weird to eat? Or... no wait! The cucumber that claims to be the original pickling cuke. Yup, I am a seed lover. Tiny little miracles that all look so different and act just as uniquely.

After years of gardening and buying seeds I have learned a couple things. First is, try to find a smaller and most local company. This really will work to your advantage because odds are they are going to have many varieties that are just for your climate thus being the most productive. There is no point in buying a drought resistant variety if you live in Seattle if you get my drift. Second, don't buy without a budget! There are many years I have spent over $100 on seeds because I just couldn't help myself (see above... I LOVE seeds)! There is no need unless you are planting an acre. And, now we come to the realistic expectations and goals.

Before you start shopping, make a list of things you want to grow and then take inventory of your growing space and the number of growing days in your zone. It's not as complicated as it sounds but it might take an afternoon of dedicated time. Well worth the effort I promise. Once you have your info look up the space requirements of all your varieties and compare to your actual space. From here weed out your list (sorry couldn't resist the pun!). With your messy piece of notebook paper you are now ready to shop!

The first time you shop on your chosen company's site (or seed rack) don't buy. Make a wish list and then walk away. Just walk away. You will be overwhelmed by the many choices and you will bust your budget. Seeds are like any other thing in this world, there are trendy things that are there just to make you spend money so by really taking your time it will be easier to stay focused and not get caught up in all the "NEW!" and "EXCLUSIVE!". They might not be lyin' but if you are new to the garden go with the varieties that have good reviews. Because of my own preferences I tend to gravitate toward heirlooms from my area because they are truly time tested and are not as much a gamble plus are just more natural. I usually start my wish list months in advance and then whittle it down to my 'buy' list as I reason with my irrational seed loving self.

Now that I have told you to go slow, if you plan to start seeds please don't wait forever! Here in Maine we plant Memorial Day weekend. Most things need a 6 week head start (except for your cold weather crops). So I try to have my seeds ordered by the end of February so I have them by early to mid March. Onions for storage benefit from being started as early as 8-12 weeks early to get them to a nice size for planting in the garden. Tomatoes are one of those that can be easily started to soon, 6 weeks is plenty or you will to re-potting over and over with little benefit to the end result. You only need enough time, don't stress it or jump the gun.

And, lastly, have fun! Every year you can try another new something and slowly collect your favorites.

Til next time.

Snow Makes Me Think Green

The first year I started my own seeds.


Not money green, foolish, seedling green! Here in Maine if you want a decent tomato crop before September you have to get those babies going early. But, you already knew that didn't you? See, you've redeemed yourself already. Well all this cold and snow has me craving to anxiously peer at the flats for signs of sprouts, brushing my hand across those tender little tops and spending an evening tucking delicate onion seedlings in individual cells. While I will be the first to admit that I am no master in the garden, I love it more and more each year. I dream big even if I grow small.


So dream big I shall! Well, with a hint of meticulous planning cause that's how I roll. In honor of the pre-garden season I will be doing a series on how to start your growing season off on the right foot. This year I really need to be super organized and stay on top of my chores because I have a young baby. He's a little time thief I tell ya! But, if he loves the outdoors as much as his big brother and sister, he will love just hanging out with me while I tend the beds. He hung out with me all last summer (ok, he had no choice because he was still in my uterus, but a mama can hope)! Back on track, this series will take you through what and when to organize with lists, seed selections, space allowance and how to be realistic with your time. That last one I am still working on because I have a bad case of optimism and always think things will take me less time than it really does. Like writing.

While you are waiting for the wisdom that is about to ensue, here are some posts from last season to hold you over:

Seed Tapes

Welcoming May

Managing the Small Greenhouse

How to Re-pot Onion Seedlings

Growth

Planting

Record Keeping


Til next time!

Looking Ahead: Calculating How Much to Grow to Feed Our Family

Starting seeds for herbs, fall cabbage and brussels sprouts.
I have a confession. I hate math but I love to calculate and budget things. Weird, I know, but I never said I wasn't a strange one! When Montana Man is away I like to keep myself busy in the evenings and lately I have been wrapping my head around how we can affordably, both with money and space, grow the majority of our food. If you were to look at our grocery receipts you would see I spend 80-90% of our food budget on produce (organic mostly), dairy products and animal protein most weeks. If I am re-stocking our gluten free pantry than this skews the ratio a bit... but you get my point. I can easily spend $20-$40 a week just on produce (or $1,040-$2,080 a year!). This year as I have seen positive fruits from my garden it has motivated me to solve the puzzle that is fitting all the plants we need into an affordable space within means I can actually achieve. I have now seen that properly managed intensive planting (more plants in less space) actually works and it has really encouraged me! So, I started my project with a list (of course) of all the veggies and legumes we eat regularly that I felt are practical for us to grow ourselves.

Our family eats in a year (approximately):

Tomatoes: 200 pounds
Onions: 108 pounds
Carrots: 48 pounds
Potatoes: 300 pounds
Green Beans: 30 pounds
Dry Beans: 20 pounds
Beets: 50 pounds -
Broccoli: 50 pounds
Brussels Sprouts: 10 pounds
Cabbage: 30 pounds
Butternut Squash: 50 pounds
Spaghetti Squash: 100 pounds
Pumpkin: 20 pounds
Zucchini: 20 pounds
Summer Squash: 10 pounds
Peas: 10 pounds
Peppers, Bell: 50 pounds
Peppers, Hot: 25 pounds
Parsnips: 20 pounds
Spinach: 50 pounds
Swiss Chard: 50 pounds
Kale: 25 pounds
Garlic: 50 bulbs
Cucumbers: 50 pounds

Chicken: 80 pounds +
Red Meat (beef, venison, moose, bison): 60 pounds
Pork: 50 pounds
Fish and Seafood: 50 pounds -/+
Eggs: 50 dozen+ (we already have a laying flock)

Milk: 100 gallons +
Cheese: 80 pounds
Yogurt: 20 quarts +
Other dairy: 20 pounds +

Apples: 50 pounds +
Berries: 50 pounds -/+
Stone Fruit: 25 -/+
Rhubarb: 15 pounds -/+
Bananas: 100 pounds -/+
Grapes: 20 pounds +
Melons: 50 pounds +

I am not going to list our grains simply because it is superfluous to this project, we will never have enough land or money to grow our own grains efficiently. And, honestly, we tend not to eat a grain based diet so I don't mind continuing to buy this category from the store or perhaps someday from a local mill or even online. If we were too look at this from a "survival" perspective, potatoes would be a fine replacement starch in our diet and cornmeal would once again be a staple as it was centuries ago. We would likely be healthier for it!

Each family is different and your list would likely look much different than mine. These amounts are also based on our current family size of two adults and two children who are eating real food. Once baby #3 starts eating solids as a main diet the amounts will likely increase slightly.

After printing graph paper to test fit and playing with companion and succession planting theories I concluded that with the available area with full sun around our house we can grow most of the vegetables we need in five 12' x 4' and two 3' x 20' raised beds. The two 20' beds will be along the southwest facing wall of the house and the other beds will be on the northeast side of the house beyond the house's shadow. I believe each spot gets at least six hours of sun but I will track it more carefully this summer to make sure. So, with these seven beds plus what I currently have that gives me 405 square feet. I'm sure many of more seasoned gardeners think that sounds completely ridiculous and way too small. If it is, then I guess I will find out and need to add on! But, here is how I broke it down:

12' x 4'

Bed 1:
48 potato plants (1 square foot per plant)

Bed 2:
3 zucchini
2 summer squash
4 pumpkins
4 butternut squash
4 spaghetti squash
(all have at least 24" square and vines are run over the sides, bush varieties in the middle)

Bed 3:
16 broccoli (18" square per plant)
96 pole beans (trellised, one row on each side, 3" spacing)
8 brussel sprouts (1 square foot per plant)

Bed 4:
16 broccoli (18" square per plant)
48 cucumbers (trellised, one row on each side, 6" spacing)
16 cabbage (18" square per plant)

Bed 5:
144 peas (trellised, one row on each side, 2" spacing)
108 onions (4" plant spacing, 6" row spacing)
360 carrots (2" plant spacing, 4" row spacing)- spring
48 beets (3" plant spacing, 1 row)- fall
144 spinach (3" plant spacing, 4" row spacing)- fall

20' x 3'

Bed 1:
13 tomatoes (18" x 24" per plant)
160 bush beans, for dry beans (3" plant spacing, 6" row spacing)

Bed 2:
13 tomatoes (18" x 24" per plant)
180 onions (4" plant spacing, 6" row spacing)

Four 3' x 2' beds:
swiss chard
kale
any experimental greens

7' x 3' bed:
spring spinach
miscellaneous fall/winter crops

Topsy Turvy planter(s):
all peppers
(I have 1 and would like to get 3 more)

I used a few online charts to give me rough ideas of crop yields and such (just Google 'vegetable yield per plant') and paired that with how much we eat of what and how frequent. Not rocket science but quite a mental chore especially for my pregnant brain! Of course all this calculating and planning is well and good, but the true test of whether I am right or not will come a year after we harvest. We will either have enough or not. I did list other food categories above but I am going to keep this post to just vegetables so it doesn't become a book! In the next few years we would like to add raising a pig every spring, a milk cow and raise her bull calves for meat but keep or sell heifers and hopefully our new chickens will be hatching chicks every year for our freezer and to replace old hens. This year we will are raising 32 roosters for meat and that will give us about 160 pounds of dressed meat which should see us through a year at least plus all the chicken stock I could ever need!

I've just started a few more seeds today for fall savoy cabbage and brussels sprouts as well as herbs that I had kinda forgotten about. I don't grow many herbs right now simply because I don't have a ton of room. At the house I will be making a dedicated perennial herb garden as well as grow more annual culinary herbs probably in pots. I do use a lot of herbs in my cooking so it would be nice to grow a surplus and dry them since most are fairly expensive now. I would also like to perhaps plant some garlic in the fall but this may depend on whether I have my raised beds in or if I want to sacrifice most of my large raised bed in the greenhouse... decisions, decisions!

Alright! That's enough for today, til next time!

This post was shared at Green Thumb Thursday Bloghop.

Mid Year Goals Readjustments

Occasionally I like to go back a few months in my archives and see what I was thinking about at the time. I reread my goals for 2014 and realized so many of my goals have either been taken off the list or evolved in some way. Much of this had to do with expecting our third child at the end the growing season, house progress and a reality check. But, like I said in that January post, they were likely going to do that! I have found myself taking things a little slower and trying not to look too far into the future. Obvious goals I now have are revolving around preparing for our new arrival and I have been posting about them recently. Instead of give a definitive list of goals that are likely to change again, I'm going to kind of give you are more realistic look at what my life will be like the rest of the year. I don't often give much detail about my life because this is a public blog, but as I have been working through some things I realize that some of you might be encouraged or could at least relate in a way to me.


Tomatoes, May 25th and June 9th.
First of all, my husband is a cell tower technician working for a company that subcontracts all over New England. Most weeks he is gone a full five days about 2-6 hours away and is home on the weekend. Because of this I am what you would call a 'married single parent'. Until recently I had not really made peace with this situation and instead just did what I had to to deal with it. I wasn't bitter and wasn't outwardly dissatisfied (much) but internally I needed to face and deal with the fact that my family's dynamic is different than most of my friends who have husbands that are home every night or even work from home. Sure, they might get a 'taste' when hubby goes out of town on a trip occasionally, but there is something very different about it being a constant weekly thing. Thankfully I have a very supportive and loving extended family who helps as much as they are able and I am so thankful for them (Mom, you keep me sane most weeks!). Until our house is done we will have been living with my parents for two years and obviously that takes some pressure off as far as being able to run to the store without loading kids into the car every time or have even a half hour to cook dinner while my mom takes the kids outside to play. When we move into our house they will still be very close by, yet there will be a new degree of separation. I will be responsible for my physical house (including a solar power system, propane, snow, yard care, small repairs, etc.) as well as need to be 100% on for the safety of my children, self and animals. My parents are close but they are also very busy! The help they give I consider a blessing not a given and I don't ever want them to feel obligated to help me because I am a single mom 75% of the time. I truly want them to be able to enjoy their grandchildren, not be another parent. So, now that you have a picture of this dynamic, lets dive into what I have as realistic 'goals' now through next winter.


Montana Man making us breakfast this weekend, Puzzle Boy got a kick out of him wearing his Buzz wings!
It's now June so that means summer is here! I hate heat but I do like summer for the things it brings like gardening, beach days and picnics, green grass for kids to run around without having to put on a thousand layers... I will admit the perks *winkwink* But, oh man! I do hate the heat and humidity and getting a real taste of it yesterday made me realize I am in for a sweaty and swollen summer personally. However, I am determined to not let it get me and to give my kids the best summer I can.

Over the summer my priorities are gardening and canning, schooling Puzzel Boy, raising the new chicks, preparing for baby, finishing a house and making a few memories with our kiddos. Ok, writing that out it seems like a lot! Hahaha! Things will be taken in stride though and likely we will spend the worst heat days hiding in my parents a/c bedroom or in a kiddie pool. On cooler days I will plan to work on my lists and anything that needs to be canned will be done in the early morning before it gets too hot. I'll be honest, on days where I can or am working on bigger projects, the kids will likely have a movie or two but I will try to reserve those times for a rainy day or even get a sitter so I can really buckle down. Canning is a big thing to me and I see it as a worthy investment of my time to be able to feed my family during times of less or more healthfully. Pretty soon we will be trying to eat the majority of our food from our own effort, so this is an essential practice to really focus on.
I have touched on homeschooling through the summer and what our plans are there, so I won't rehash that!
Our new baby chicks have arrived! I will be doing a separate post on that later, they are so stinkin' cute!
Preparing for the baby... I have just done a post on that as well.
As for the house, Montana Man is taking some of his vacation time this week to make some progress. Yesterday, with the help of my cousin and her boyfriend, he finished the roof and took down the staging as well as built a shelter for the generator we affectionately call the 'genny house'. I'm not exactly sure what else he has planned for this week but we should be pouring the basement floor and finishing the electrical, maybe ordering plumbing. Next week the windows and siding will be delivered and that will be the following weekends project! 'Brick by brick' we are getting there! I am trying really hard not to stress over its completion given I have about 11-16 weeks left in my pregnancy. I am trusting God will provide!
Taking the time to make memories? Likely the only thing we will do as a whole family (meaning with MM), is spend 4th of July together somewhere up the coast. We took a ride up to an old Civil War fort last year and had a really great day. This year we haven't decided what we are doing yet but it likely will be similar. Me as the mama would like to take the kids to the beach either a lake or the ocean, visit friends and just play with them. Bubbles, picnics in the yard, lazy days and maybe a trip to the mall on a really hot day to just walk in the cool a/c and visit the merry-go-round. Simple things but things I know I remember doing as a kid with fondness.

After little man arrives I will be taking a 4-6 week break from normal life. I am setting myself up to not need to go anywhere other than the doctor's office or to quickly pick up groceries. I will have easy meals, a stocked house and anyone who would like to offer help will be gladly accepted and given a specific task (folding my laundry anyone?). After 6 weeks is up or when I feel ready if earlier, I will be back in action which will include babysitting my friends son a couple days a week while she is in nursing school. Right now I have him one or two mornings or afternoons a week so he is very used to us and our rules/environment so hopefully this will be an easy transition! I enjoy him being with us and so do the kids so I look forward to having him.
Around October/November, Montana Man will start going down to Georgia for 4 weeks at a time and then will be home for two weeks. During the winter in New England the work in often interrupted by storms and lack of jobs sites so a crew from the company he works for will be heading south, and he's on it. Financially, this will be a good thing. As a family, this will be really hard. The older kids will miss him as will their Mama! But, for the baby... it makes me sad that he will be gone so much of his first few months. He'll come home and he will have grown and changed so much! I worry about how well he will bond with his daddy. Emotionally it will be a very trying winter.
Sometime in November we will have the male chickens butchered at our local butcher shop. We decided that while we could do it ourselves, it was just too many to do without at least a plucker and a helping crew and we are willing to spend the money to have it done quickly and professionally. Believe me, it will be enough work just vacuum sealing all the meat!
November also starts hunting season and the men will be spending most weekends in the woods. If I get my hunter safety done, I as well will be hunting near our house when my mom can watch the kids. I much prefer wild deer to beef (as long as it isn't super gamey!) and would gladly have a freezer filled with venison and homegrown chicken for the year.
The holidays will be busy especially since Puzzle Boy's birthday is in December as well. This year we are going to start a new tradition of spending Christmas Day at our own home which I think will be wonderful.

Buds on the Glacier tomatoes.
I'm sure over the next six months I will be posting on a lot of these things, but I figured I would kind of give a general idea. And, maybe because I feel dumb for being so far from what I had outlined in January, I felt I needed to update to keep everything on the same page. Life is life, things don't always go as we'd like! And, sometimes we are blessed in very different ways than how we wanted or expected. Part of being successful homesteader is knowing how to work with what you have and making do without what you don't. Ideals are nice to think about but they shouldn't be your focus. I love building our life more each year and knowing we will someday be in a really awesome place of self sufficiency.


Rainbow Chard, May 25th and June 9th, beautiful colors!
Til next time, come back for a post on our new chicks!


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Memorial Day Weekend

Despite the patriotic meaning of Memorial Day, here in Maine this weekend marks the beginning of summer. Memorial Day weekend is planting time. We can safely say there will be no more frosts and most days get into the 70's or above by now. Tomatoes start shooting up like rockets, the cool weather crops are at their height and it's time to plant squash and cucumber seeds. That is exactly what I have done this weekend.

Saturday:

In my last post I had mentioned not gardening this weekend because Montana Man was home. I seemed to have forgotten he had a house and truck to work on! So, not wanting to waste the reasonably good weather I decide to scoot across the street to the farm store and grab some potting mix to get going. I looked online first to see how much this was going to run me (that's a Maine term... things don't cost you, they 'run yah') and I determined that the price of potting soil is dumb. Instead I got two 23# bags of organic compost and one 30# bag of organic garden soil as well as some organic slow release fertilizer. Back home I filled my wheel barrow about 2/3 full of our sand infused well rotted horse manure and proceeded to mix in batches about 4 parts sandy manure, 2 parts compost and 1 part garden soil. I mixed this all by hand and trowel... which took forever. My poor belly and arm muscles got a workout!

With my new soil all ready to be put to use, I first potted up some flowers I had gotten for my mom's birthday. Then I organized what needed to be potted up right now and what could wait and selected my sizes. Tomatoes were first in the five gallon pots. I filled each about 2/3 full of soil and then added two tablespoons of fertilizer and worked it in. I then took the tomato starts out of their little pots after striping off most of the lower leaves and placed the plant in the center. I then just filled in soil around it until only the top leaves were above the soil. All of the buried stem will sprout new roots and thus will have a much stronger root system.

Four bell pepper plants, two Jalapeno and one cayenne pepper plants all got planted in my hot pepper Topsy Turvy I got for a deal on Amazon. I will enjoy seeing how they grow upside down hanging from the framing in the greenhouse. It also elates me to have more raised bed and pot space to play with!

After mixing another batch of soil, more five gallon pots got filled (same as for tomatoes: 2/3 full, work in fertilizer, fill to top with more soil) and I planted two types of pumpkins, Delicata squash and Butternut squash. In two gallon pots I planted zucchini (1 tablespoon of fertilizer for this size).

Unsure of where I want my cucumbers to be quite yet, I planted seeds in the small 4" pots. Hopefully once they are a couple weeks old I will know where to put them!

I seem to have run low on soil again... time to call it a day!

Sunday:

My morning started in what is called the "grey hour". That mystical hour before the sun peeks up over the horizon but is hovering just high enough below it to light the world into a eerie grayness. I have always loved the grey hour. Normally I sleep right through it, after all I am no early bird. But, my precious little two year old finally decided at 4:45 am she was hungry after refusing to eat supper last night. I knew there would be no hope of her falling back asleep. Rather than being upset about the few more hours of sleep I was forfeiting, I just listened for a moment before getting up to get her. It was so... noisy! The Cardinal was singing his good morning song in a chorus with the other birds, my rooster roused and crowed a few times, the horses feet scuffling by his water. After I got little girl settled quietly in the living room and started my coffee, I was reminded that the world starts its day hours before I do. Nature's day dwellers awaken with the sun's rising and happily goes to rest at dusk. It has a lovely balance to it. In summer there is much to do and less sleep is prudent to make the most of the season. In winter there is nothing but to stay warm and fed and more sleep is welcomed to conserve energy and pass the days quicker. With having chickens, it's hard not to observe when they go to roost and when the rooster calls his girls to wake, no one tells them what to do! They don't fret over how many hours they get or the latest research, to them it is simple and not thought of. Not likely to happen, but it makes me wonder if rising and resting with the sun as generations before us did, would solve our tricky body clock issues. Just a thought.

After I put Mini down for a much needed early nap, I resumed my planting from the day before. I mixed another wheel barrow full of soil ( I had run for more compost and garden soil earlier) and proceeded in filling the rest of the pots I needed. I had four rainbow chard in small 4" pots that got replanted into one five gallon and then I started digging up the kale out of my deep raised bed. I put four in their own two gallon pots and the rest in two larger pots (5 in each). The chard and kale in individual pots are going to a friend.

The kale is sulking a little from being dug up.

Next I moved my prep table outside putting the newly planted cucumber seeds on it. I then worked some of the fertilizer into the now empty part of the deep raised bed and planted my two Rutgers tomato plants in opposite ends. Sixty of my Copra onions were planted in front of and between the Rutgers. So now the deep bed has two tomatoes, sixty onions and about 100 Yaya carrots. The remaining twelve onions went in between the rainbow chard in one of the smaller raised beds. I could have gotten all the onions into the large bed but I am hoping they will mature into large bulbs so I didn't want to crowd them.

I planted two five gallon pots with Kentucky Wonder pole beans and one five gallon with Northeaster pole beans, planting four seeds around temporary poles. I need to scavenge some tall saplings to make a four pole teepee in each pot once they sprout. And, finally I worked some compost into one of the empty raised beds to get it ready for the perpetual spinach that will be ready to plant in there in a few more days.

So except for a few more seedling transplants I am done with planting! Now it will be a summer of tending and watching everything grow.

Ok, I may have some plant pot organizing to do too...
I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! I'm going to go nurse my sciatic nerves that are on fire now.


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