Is it Spring Yet??

My little green house, 2013

We’re not even into the new year yet, but already, my three go-to seed catalogs are here!

Seed Savers Exchange, Bountiful Gardens, and Baker Creek are the three companies from which I’ve started to purchase my  seeds.  All three companies are part of an effort to protect and preserve heirloom, organic vegetables, fruits, grains, and flowers.  Maybe a little more expensive than just buying a packet of seeds from a seed rack at Wal-Mart, but definitely worth it.

basket of herbs– calendula, horehound, mint, and dill

These catalogs are just what I need to perk me up and to remind me that the cold and extended darkness of winter won’t last forever.  Spring! It is just around the corner!

I made some mistakes last year and am mentally preparing on how I will correct them. (2013 was only my second year gardening)  And I have decided to take advantage of any warm days that we’re gifted with until Spring’s arrival and use them to “play” in the garden.

Just yesterday I went out to clean things up out there and dragged wood beams to start making a nice, clean cut border for marked beds.  Next, if given the chance, I’ll be out to make, and set up, trellises and to do more clean up.

Calendula, 2013. One of the seeds I saved for next year. 🙂

A few of the mistakes I made in 2013….

I was so excited and could not stop buying seeds!  I bought so many different seeds, I couldn’t even plant them all.

I also learned that just because you can have someone plow and till for a massive garden, a massive garden doesn’t mean more food if you can’t take care of it all.  I probably could have grown twice as much food on half the space if I had been less scatter brained in my planning and had had the ability to actually stay on top of it all.

I also learned that a household of 5, with only two people really liking tomatoes, does NOT need  30+  tomato plants.   Opening a seed pack doesn’t have to make it an all or nothing deal.  😛

It wasn’t all bad though.  I learned from 2012 not to underestimate the destructive power of garden pests! And had an excellent crop of cucumbers for the lesson in 2013, perfected my spicy pickle recipe by the end of the summer, and also got a nice little box of butternut squash to hold me over for the winter. I even managed to save some of my own seeds so I don’t have to purchase to replace them.  🙂

Fresh dill for making pickles.

So, Boston Pickling cucumbers, Black Cherry and Cherokee Purple tomatoes, Clemson Spineless okra, Waltham Butternut squash,  Blue Jade corn, and more are all on the list of things to go into a garden cut down in size by a little more than half, using some space saving trellises in 2014.  And yes, I am already excited!

My shopping list (greatly reduced from last year to more realistic proportions)  is ready and soon to be ordered.  February will be time to start seeds and will mean time spent basking in the sun and heat of my little but much loved green house.  March 15th is the last frost date, but even if we have another extended cold spell, better decision making should leave room to house seedlings long enough to wait it out and still have everything I want to grow.

Spring isn’t here yet, but it is almost time for seeds and green houses already and that’s good enough for me!

A Belated, but Sincere, Happy Thanksgiving

Last winter was a bad one for me.

As if the shortened days, bitter outdoor temperatures, and apparent lifeless landscape wasn’t enough to bring a person down, we had a number of other setbacks last year too.

We’ve been trying to become more independent and self sufficient, but we are still learning and tweaking and adjusting things. We’re also pretty laid back about it.  We realize a need for independence for our own reasons, but we aren’t particularly hurried so we don’t go all out at the get go…. ie we don’t always do it right the first time around.   We’re ok with trial and error.

The first lesson we learned was that our wood stove in the basement didn’t have the capacity to heat the house.  It was a cold, cold winter outside and inside too.  We were reduced to cutting off parts of the house by putting blankets over doorways, eating in the living room where it was warm, wearing coats in the kitchen, and running space heaters.  I was not a happy camper.  I rarely am in the winter, but there is no bigger sissy than me when it comes to cold!

Our stores of canned goods diminished quickly for our efforts with our first garden and my first lessons in canning.

To add to my personal misery, I was losing chicks left and right, and couldn’t understand why.  Nothing I did was enough to save them it seemed.  No heat lamp, bringing them back into the house, no antibiotic, nothing.  I lost around half of all my chicks.  Long story short, we finally ended up putting down my entire flock, which was a miserable experience, then started over.

The time between last winter and this one wasn’t all good either so I went into this winter at the start incredibly down, expecting all the worst, expecting a replay of last winter, anxiety pre-mounted. Zero holiday spirit.

Today, it is cold outside, the sky is gray, earth is once again apparently lifeless, there is  about a foot of snow on the ground, and it is still falling.

John went out this morning and shoveled the gate to the run and shoveled the snow in front of the coop so I could get inside.  The hot water runs have started with me cursing for my extremely cold-sensitive fingers. But as much as I hate winter in general, and as much as I hated last year in particular, I am actually incredibly happy today.  Feeling super.

The new, very large wood stove is keeping the house comfortable– go free heat!  I still at least have a crate full of squash in my kitchen and cabinets overrun with pickles, and outside are 32 juvenile chickens that are happy, healthy, lively, and just seem unstoppable.  Not a single problem, not a single loss. They haven’t a problem or a care in the world despite the snow and cold.  They couldn’t be more perfect. ❤

This really is gearing up to be the happiest and best winter I could ask for as I’m realizing the little things I have to be thankful for, and if it hadn’t been for everything that went wrong last year, I don’t think I would be able to recognize the things I have to appreciate this year.

For the first time in a very long time, in cold and snow, I actually didn’t rush directly back into the house but simply stood there and just….. looked… and then wandered a little.  Instead of my feeling like everything is dead, it seemed as if everything is merely resting… sleeping, under a pure white, fluffy blanket.

Incredible how one’s perception can change…..

So, I’m late in being thankful, but I suppose that late is better than never.  I’m actually thankful for a miserable winter last year as it gave me the ability to see what I can be thankful for now and a changed perception of the season I have despised so much for so long whether permanent or temporary, many a lesson learned over the course of a year’s time, for the signs both big and small that we are getting better at all this here farmin’ stuff, for my beautiful, healthy young flock, for some very special friends I have made, and for the health and comfort of my family.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  But this time I *really* mean it.