Tuesday, March 23, 2010

First warm Spring weekend

It arrived with a vengeance, and was received gladly, I am speaking of course about Spring and the incredible weekend we just had. it was such a treat to be able to spend the day outside and start getting things organized for planting. of course the temptation to stick seeds into the ground to soon is ever looming, and it took some major restraint on my part to stop from running to the nearest store to pick up some packets!  Instead I started putting homemade compost on my vegetable beds, they will need to rest a little longer before I can start planting. It is a joy to see how all the waste over this past year has turned into a rich compost.





 I'm sure we will be rewarded greatly as long as all the other elements are balanced.
I just finished ordering my seeds from
http://gurneys.com/default.asp

I've had good luck with them in the past, even when living in high desert areas.

I will be planting peas in the next few days, according to our friend Gina, March 17th is the date for those, I am about a week late, but I figured we live North from her so that should work :)

Probably will be ordering a few more chicks this year to add to our flock, I've narrowed it down to the following varieties. Dominiques















Silver Spangled Hamburgs







or white orpingtons  



We also scored some old windows this weekend, that I going to use to build a greenhouse with.....that's going to be an interesting project. I'm hoping to make the whole thing out of recycled lumber etc. So, many searched on craigslist and driving around building sites looking for scraps!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

a great site!

http://www.buckscountyfoodshedalliance.org/

Spring has Sprung

It's been a while since I posted anything, not because I'm lazy:) But winter seemed to take a toll on me. Combined with my firefighter classes it has not left a lot of time for writing. However, it seems that now the days are getting longer I am finding renewed energy to put fingers on the keypad.






Yes, I am glad winter has come to an end, even though it is a time of rest, I found myself becoming restless! I would visit websites selling seeds to see when they start shipping. Our chickens and ducks too were becoming tired of being cooped up (no pun intended). last week I detected the first signs, the snowdrops I planted last year were peeking through the ground, the daffodils we bought at the Supermarket when we first moved here and I stuck in the ground when they finished blooming also are up. I had forgotten about those, so that was a real nice surprise. The make shift pond for the ducks has defrosted, and they finally got to swim again and clean themselves. They seem so happy now! I did seed some lettuce indoors, and have been harvesting some young leaves, yummy!



This weekend, I plan on throwing some compost on our vegetable beds and layout 2 more boxes. Even though I can’t plant officially until May 15th, it's time to get things started. We are also thinking about getting some more chicks this year, perhaps some unusual varieties. But not more than 4!



It is such a beautiful morning today, the birds are singing, black cat is sitting on my desk, and the sunlight is beaming in.




I'll try to post some pictures today

Monday, December 21, 2009

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Christmas time at Longwood Gardens

Even though it rained relentlessly last Sunday, we stilled braved the drive through freezing rain in the morning to see the beautiful displays at Longwood Gardens!