life

things happening in life lately

1. best friends in town for a long 4th of july weekend

2. playing with this little guy

even if it’s just to watch him sleep

3.  attempting to keep the garden alive

4. family in town to visit

5. and beginning last week, i’m back to work.  only 3 days a week right now, which is a blessing, but it didn’t make dropping jonah off with the babysitter any easier.  i was pretty much a mess the whole day, but i really do love my job, so hopefully i can find a good balance between work and jonah and everything else going on in life.  it’s been pretty busy around here but the long days of summer help me feel like i can fit in everything i need to.

from last weekend

got a few things done over memorial day weekend last week.  i daily go through the mental struggle of loving this laid back domestic life i’ve had over the past two months (just learning how to be a mother and doing stuff around the house and garden) and the desire to rev things up a bit a lot.  for example, i’ve had the urge recently to literally bag up my entire closet, donate it to goodwill and then hit up every store in sight for a crazier, edgier wardrobe.  on top of that i want to walk into the nearest salon and say “have your way with me!” -  still considering both of those options.  but in the meantime i’m also very content with this slower paced mom-life (if only i could continue doing this and continue picking up my paycheck every 2 weeks. siiiigh.)

baked some chocolate chip scones that didn’t really turn out as expected but were edible enough

grabbed a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store for dinner one night last week and after finishing off the bird, dropped the whole thing in a stock pot with some veggies and herbs and cooked it down into chicken stock

the beginnings of chicken salad

it was a bright sunny day, so i laid out all the cloth dipes for a nice bleach in the sun

the front porch right now

garden update: may 9

what i’ve planted:

- lettuces

- spinach

- herbs

what’s growing:

- tomatoes

- peppers

what’s left to be planted:

- squash

- green beans

- zucchini

- cucumbers

what i’ve been attempting to cook from lately:

p.s. no, we’re not vegetarians.  but meat is expensive!

the good with the bad

although i took a brief break for some house project reveals, what i really need to tend to (both electronically and physically) is the garden.

the good:

- was able to plant two types of spinach, four types of lettuce, strawberries, two types of potatoes, two types of carrots, and two types of onions a week or so ago.  already seeing a few sprouts. hooray

- had the Big Event kids back for another round of mulching/yardwork.  the garden pathways are now thick with mulch.  i did some weeding beforehand so hopefully this keeps the weeds to a minimum again this year.

- the seedlings i’m growing under lights are still struggling along, some looking better than others.  but i still have about 2-3 weeks until it’s safe to plant them outside, so here’s hoping that they’ll put a little more weight on before then.

the not so good:

- the soil in our boxes settles over the course of the season and needs to be topped off each year.  ideally, this will come free from the compost we’re generating.  but this year our compost just wasn’t ready and i needed a lot of soil.  so we sprung for one load of compost and one load of topsoil.  the compost looks fantastic.  the topsoil looks horrible.  to be honest, it looks like fill dirt – full of fist sized clumps of dirt that may as well be rocks and not very crumbly at all (looked almost clay like in some parts).  so now i’m nervous that i’m going to kill everything because they’re getting suffocated by the dirt. marvelous.  i’ll keep you posted

startin to itch

guys, the weather’s in the 60′s, it’s sunny but still cool and i’m just itching to get out in the dirt.  we’ve done it a little – bought a load of compost from an acquaintance of ross’s who has their own composting business.  dark, rich, soil in our boxes makes them look ready to plant – right now.  we’ve been faithfully adding to the compost pile (i’ve actually started my office composting – mainly coffee grounds, banana peels and the like, but every little bit helps!).  just yesterday we covered the pile in a tarp and secured it with bricks – should heat up nicely now.  all the first round seedlings are doing OK – i just thinned out my broccoli yesterday; this is the first year for broccoli and i’m very excited.  i also planted a flat of lettuce – people, grow lettuce!  it’s by far the easiest, most near-instant gratification plant to grow – so do it.

i keep looking at the planting dates on the back of my seed packets – is it time, is it time?  not yet, but it’s getting closer. and this year:  flowers.  i’m going to make up for lost time on flower planting.  in the meantime i have to catch up on

a) how we made our seed shelves this year

b) how all the seedlings are doing so far

c) what we’re growing the year

so behind!!!  what else is new

lettuce and herb harvest from last summer’s garden.

the day’s accomplishments

stocking up at the farmer’s market

finally clearing out the garden

weekend plans and random thoughts

although i’ll be sad to leave ross behind, i’m so excited to be travelling down to lake lure this weekend for my niece’s 1 year birthday party.  ross is shooting a wedding on saturday, so he has to stay.  and sadly, we’ll both miss the virginia tech – miami game this weekend.  (::nervous wincing face::  it might be for the best)

last night was a night of frenzy.  the highlight was a free dinner at the Farmhouse – a southern food restaurant literally located in a converted old farmhouse – for my organization’s 40th anniversary.  when that ended at 9 there was still some last minute birthday shopping to do before going home, finishing gifts, wrapping gifts, packing for the weekend, doing two loads of laundry, and getting the house cleaned up a bit.  we didn’t fall into bed until 12:30, and even though i was exhausted, i had started to get a second wind and couldn’t fall asleep right away.

miraculously, i rolled into work more or less on time and have been battling it out all day trying to stay motivated.

it’s very rainy today and looks to be rainy all weekend long, but its been dry for a while, so i don’t really mind.  makes me a little more ok with the fact that fall is coming.

this could be a product of my past three years of full-time mountain living, so don’t send out an intervention team, it’s just who i am:  i’ve become more and more enamoured with the idea of homesteading.

hello?

….is anyone still reading?

yeah, i said homesteading.

 

so homesteading (in 2009) mainly just means trying to live as simply and self-sufficiently as possible.  yes, i still live in the suburbs, and no, i have not joined a commune, but the idea of doing a few more things myself sounds rewarding to me.  i’d start with chickens if i could, but alas, my stupid Town Code does not allow them.  while i brainstorm ideas around this, i’ve started living vicariously through posts from here.  the author is a modern day “homesteader”, graphic designer by day, and writer for Mother Earth News.  She’s a real person telling her story about her real life experiences of balancing her tech savvy day job, with the experience of raising chickens, sheep, geese, rabbits, and a garden in Vermont.  how cool.

i’ve already got the garden part underway, now if i could just smuggle in some chickens…

gettin into the groove

what we’ve collected over a week

what we collected just this morning

sungold cherry tomatoes and yellow pear tomatoes

yellow beans:  Pencil Pod

green beans:  Contender

horn of plenty yellow squash

the tomato harvest has finally arrived

garden update: mid-july

the first* harvest is in!  ross and i came home from the beach last weekend to find a beautiful yellow squash and green zucchini just waiting to be picked.  and i’m not exaggerating here:  they were gorgeous

the strawberries are ramping up again for another mini harvest (since these strawberries are “everbearing” they produce small, continual yields over the whole summer, instead of one, big, fat yield in june).

as of yesterday – july 23 -  two super sweet Sungold cherry tomatoes were plucked from the vine and popped into each of our mouths.  first tomatoes of the season!!

——————————

*no, i guess its not really the first harvest of the year – we’ve been bringing in loads of herbs, lettuce, and beans already (and recently: potatoes and shallots too!), but squash/zucchini and tomatoes are what really get me excited, you know?

what you’re lookin at:  four types of loose lettuce (2 of the types are lettuce blends, which are actually made up of many types of lettuce), onion chives, parsley, basil, green beans and dill.

garden update – early july

shots snapped in the garden last weekend.