Well then, Mama N.
Snow started mid-day Christmas Eve... and only stopped for a couple hours here for two weeks. The neighbors were kind enough to push us a few times through the snow.. at one point I went out and measured the snow standing on the birdfeeders..... over 15 inches of snow, and that was before the last heavy couple days of snowfall.. We usually get this much snow over the winter, sometimes a lot at a time.. but this was the first year we have been hit for so long without any break with so much snow buildup. And the whole time we were in a deep cold spell- I'm really happy I got the bug to really cap all the windows inside this fall, I think it really made a difference heating-wise during this cold snowy spell.
Well then.. today we hit an almost record breaking high of 60. All the snow is melted off except for the big plough pileups here and there. Springtime warm with a lot of fog off the remaining snowdrifts. Fine day to finally get out south and hit the craft stores.
Tonight we are under a winter storm watch.. cold front moving in leaving us with an inch or two of white.
I'm glad I got out today while I did. I got some excellent deals at the craft stores today. A 45 dollar Lemax jeweler for only 8 bucks. And a stack of organizers on sale. Some at Michaels at 50% sale+25% off total purchase coupon. And a couple of 30% ones at Jo-anns- had a 5 bucks off total purchase too for there. I'm accumulating enough little bits to make minis and minis building up to need some more reasonable storage for it all, lol.
Been working on some projects- I got a set of large market boxes done, and drafted up and made a new small market box set. A four set of ploughmans boards. Working on a half dozen fish and chips, and a bunch of bits to pull together into brown paper bag lunches.
Making a jewelers display counter. Because while I was making that, was thinking about what to display naturally.. and started checking around online more for inspiration than anything else. Holy fuck. If I thought mini food and some other minis stupidly expensive and I got skill enough to suit myself... mini jewelry is just insane. Relearned how to use a regular wire jig to downscale to make tiny jewelry. And had the dickens of a time finding flocked paper today to make mini displays with. Found some small sheets of flat black only. Found a couple sheets of an odd pressed white stuff on clearance that might work nice too. Everything else is flats/matts and glitters right now.
I've been taking a bunch of pics and notes of stuff while making things recently. More to keep track of what I'm doing while building than anything else. Might post up some tutorials for future reference soon..
Welcome to Growbox Hill
Welcome to Growbox HIll!
Showing posts with label Fortunes Turning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fortunes Turning. Show all posts
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Time for some mini's
Been a while since I've posted anything. House has been quiet, not much going on. Winter is well and truly here. Amusingly enough, I still have yellow mums blooming in the solarium.
For weeks now most of my time has been in creating minis. My arm still isn't up to snuff for some of the more regular winter labors, but it's working well enough for this. And I've been feeling the creativity flowing, so I work it when I got it, right?
Been collecting and watching tutorials, pinning a crapton of stuff on pintrest for a while now. Ebay and Etsy have been great sources of inspirations. But whew boy a lot of the little foods and detailings like that are frigging expensive!!! I mean seriously, I pay about 20 bucks max for large buildings that I can't make myself, and someone wants 15 bucks for a couple little pies? Nuh-uh. Some of these miniatures are absolutely breathtaking, but I just can't justify shelling out like that when I can make it myself. And I also have a lot of difficulty finding these on a small enough scale- most stops at 1:12, and I need more like 1:16. So a small dish in 1:12 is a serving dish to my scale.
Anywho, been making stuff :) I'm going to post a couple posts about this, since they are going to be photo-heavy.
So some of my completed projects first....
Cheeseboard, this is on a 1inch square board. A variety of cheeses, meats, and olives.
Another pic of the same board, from a different angle to show all the goodies on it.
Another 1 inch board, this one has roast beef and swiss with muststard sandwiches being made on it.
A tasty platter of fish.
A large bowl of salad with cold meats and eggs, and a Hawaiian bowl of meat and such.
Fresh sliced lemons.
A couple griddles of breakfast and lunch offerings with a bowl of broccoli crowns.
Some various stew bowls and one pot eats.
A variety of tortes.
The new bakery stand full of sweets with some savory and "unfinished" pies in the foreground.
A closeup of the bottom row. Boards of little sweets and toasts with fresh fruits and jellies. Pies of various sorts.
Top of the bakery stand, with several more pies.
The new sausage display. I has already had most of the meats made from a few months back, and needed a display for them all :)
A closeup of a couple of the roasts, buckets of olives, and bins of fish and sausage.
A spice stall, with hanging scale and full of various real spices.
So some of my completed projects first....
The other end of the stall.
Detail of stall.
Middle of the stall.
Counter end of the stall.
Apparently I didn't take pics of the fabric rolls and new cutting table I made. Ah well, that can be for another time. So these are some of the mini's I've been making to go into Fortunes Turning.
I'm going to make another post now, which gets into things like the scales of things, and the materials I've been using to make this stuff.
Apparently I didn't take pics of the fabric rolls and new cutting table I made. Ah well, that can be for another time. So these are some of the mini's I've been making to go into Fortunes Turning.
I'm going to make another post now, which gets into things like the scales of things, and the materials I've been using to make this stuff.
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Lovely Autumn
10/9: Got a bit done in the garden today. Cut down the Pink Bumblebee tomato- got about 2 quarts of red and green tomatoes. At the very end of of the process, I found a tomato hornworm on the very top of the plant- and it was heavily infested with braconid wasp cocoons! This is a very good thing, because those little wasps love to kill tomato hornworms. The adults also love to eat dill flowers, which I have in pots right next to that tomato plant. This means my companion planting for pest management works there with zero pesticides needed. When I went and cleaned out the raised bed of Freds I looked to see if there were any more I could feed to the wasps, but no such luck, lol. Got the Freds cages torn down and plants cut back- I still need to go and pull the root masses out of both beds.
Also cleaned out the big lasagna bed of it's brassicas and weeds. It still needs a fork cleaning before I cap it with clear plastic to start solarizing- but that's ok, found out today I was out of clear plastic, heh. So now all three of those beds are cleaned up, the first one completely set, the second one almost set- still need to put in bulbs. Big bed got it's basic cleanup done, needs a good dig and capping.
The kennel beds still need some cleanup, but not much. Right now I'm happy to let the nasturtiums and marigolds grow out, and let those Beer Garden radish seedlings do what they want to do for now. The straw bed capping the area needs some weeding attention though.
The greenhouse is pretty much empty and awaiting some fresh setting up. I need to do a little tending to the walls and pin the top flaps down nicely. Right now plans are to just leave the top open- I can't roof it by myself, and honestly not sure how I want to roof it again at the moment. I also have a lot different overwintering into spring plans this year than I did last year.
Still need to clean up the stair garden. I think it's going to see some different use too. The shadier side is going to start getting planted in with some of those shade loving plants that I've let sit for too long honestly. Those will soften out the mowing edge there. I need to get one of the heavy RR ties down by the pole barn up to the garden to cap off the sidewalk side along the garage.
The cooler I used to trap and drown all those squash bugs showed no signs of life, so I dumped the cooler out. I hope I got them all.
Got the southern edge of the solarium beds cleaned out today- all the grape hyacinth patches are now clear and open, and a goodly outside border is cleaned out of the grass too. I now have a full walking path again. I'm thinking of getting out the old hexagonal concrete pavers I made a while back, and drop them in as stepping stones in that walkway. Probably would need to make more to make a full walk, but hey, I can get a start set in. I need to make some more pavers in general too.
Now it's time to be off to make some crispy chicken salads for dinner, then a town hall meeting tonight.
10/10: another round of clearing out the freezers. I happened to have 4 quart packs of ham stock, so that's now reducing down to another pint sized package of ham cubes. A couple random 2 packs of pitas leftover got made into some nice pita chips with a couple different seasonings. Those are now cooling and will get vacuum sealed into quart jars for snacking on. A half dozen various savory flavors bagels got sliced up and toasted dry in a 325 oven for about 25-30 minutes, and then into a couple more jars- those are gonna be used as soup croutons through the winter, yum. Since we still have a few stacks of large flour and small corn tortillas in the freezer, I think those might get baked into crisps too.
The peach pulp is still draining, so since the dehydrator wasn't being used for that- I did up a tray of the fresh ambrosia corn, 2 trays of regular corn, and a tray of peas out of the freezer.
Realized I still had those 2 quart bags of cherries in sweet juice that were canning fails last year, went into the freezer, and got lost. I thawed one of those out to try out a bit of an experiment. Since it was already in sweetened juice, I added in about 1/4 cup each of some cab and pinot, and a steeping ball with a cinnamon stick, couple slices dried lemon, a few hibiscus flowers, a few cloves, and a few slices of fresh ginger. I was out of dried clementines, so I figured the lemon/hibiscus would make that nice tang. That's burbling on high for now, then will get the steeping ball removed and turned down to low overnight to help reduce it all.. then tomorrow I'll do a spice check. Add in some spiced rum, maybe some of the peach juice that has drained off, and really reduce it down- I want to almost gel the stuff if I can. If the reduction works, that will make for some tiny tasty ice cubes- and those will get baked or used in drink goodies through the winter. We shall see how that goes, lol.
I've started tossing some stuff too- old somethings that didn't get labeled, and have enough freezer burn on them that I can't tell either.
I need to do a vacuum sealing of a handful of stuff soon- cubes of concentrated chicken stock, ham cubes, and a bulk of spring chive butter and garlic greens butter. The peach leather and cherry cubes will also need to get frozen. And now that I have got the seed stock sorted out and got the deep freeze pile done- that too needs to get sealed and tucked into the freezer. I need to repack and detail catalog the list to shrink out all the extra packaging, but I think I might have managed to keep within a quart or so space. Got a goodly round of dehydrated stuff in jars to do up too on the shelf.
A bit of Tippy and friends.. and gosh it's been a long time since one of these, right? This spring the McSwanums had their babies.. and amazingly enough, all of them survived to adulthood, including the ugly signet. There was one baby that stayed brown/grey so long after it's siblings had gotten their full white on and were on their flapping runs across the pond I had started to wonder if maybe a goose or heron or something managed to slip an egg into their nest.
Today I'm happy to say that that ugly signet has since then gotten it's full white, done all the strafing runs across the ponds and such.. and this afternoon is the first time I've seen the ponds clear of swans! I know the family is probably just in the next pond over and will come back so long as the weather is good.. but yay for junior.
With the cats.. over the last two years we have lost two of our bubbas to old age- Argent in 2015, and Pooks in 2016. Now the twins are hitting that senior mark and showing it, and I've been adjusting the cats diet for this. Tikki mostly don't care about food, she isn't finicky about dry food, and don't care much for wet food, and can be hit or miss with treats. Nova is my big boy, and will tuck up into pretty much anything I lay down. But Ocelot and Marbles are getting older, and need extra.
Since this spring, I've upgraded the dry food. I used to only use Purina indoors or Meijer brand in the 2 feeders. Now the office feeder has that since the cats still like to eat it. The kitchen feeder now has had Purina Beyond for a few rounds, and all the cats really like that. It's rare to catch a sale or coupon with this stuff, and it's a bit more than twice the price. Been giving out a can of wet food a day in the morning too. They all mostly like beef and poultry more, and can be hit or miss with seafood. But Purina Fiskies and One are their faves.
10/13: ohhhhh, Friday the 13th. Only pretty much not, lol. Today was a south shopping day, had a random handful of oddbits to pick up. Got a new HotShot water heater, ours was screaming to death. And after yesterdays dinner and scrubbing out the large deep 6/7 quart nonstick Calphalon pan.. I finally decided to make a dedicated effort to finding a replacement pan today. Ended up getting a 8 quart stainless steel Calphalon dutch oven. It was a bit pricey at 40 bucks, but it will last for ages since it's stainless, and the cheapest comparison at Target and Meijer was nonstick 5 quart at 40 bucks. It's about the same size and shape as the old one, but a bit deeper with straight sides, and two helper handles instead of one with a long handle. And it came with another 12" lid. I've already chucked the old pan along with the screaming hotshot into the garbage.
Hit Michaels- had a 25% off total coupon, a rarity around here for them. Wasn't much of interest, though the Lemax Christmas collection has one thing that's cool- Sugar Shack Maple Hut. No power, stand alone, pretty neat. I did get to pick up a couple packages of findings on clearance that will make for an excellent stack of pots and plates for mini-food.. I'm finally getting up enough of a collection of this stuff now to start really making stuff.
Hit JoAnns. Had a couple 40% off full price, plus a 25% off total purchase coupons. Got another pair of the 60" 3 pack clear plastic gift wrap for cheap. This is the clear plastic I use for my windows- I've covered this before but.. with the coupons the plastic ends up cheaper than regular window plastics, even when they are on sale- plus it's thicker, comes in rolls instead of trying to unfold compressed squares, works beautifully to fold out and tack into place so long as you understand how static electricity works. I have some 4 mil sheet plastic on hand too- time to start seriously capping off windows and such to prep for winter. And that roll will give me my clear plastic to start solarizing the big lasagna bed.
I'm still not feeling Halloween really. Just a couple weeks out, and Nightvale is still just in some basic setup- and I'm already thinking about tearing some of that out in favor of some more Autumnal theme. Main street is already pretty much spooky free. I think the Alley might be packed back up too. Just feeling slaggy this year.
10/16: Last couple days were dreary and wet- the rain promised late Friday night came in and kept coming in...
On Saturday my love advised me that the siphon somehow got left on suction out, and pretty much drained the big tank. But over the course of the weekend, the big tank was pretty much filled up again. Watering needs on the outdoor gardens are down, so now I need to be bringing water indoors while the weather is dry over the next couple days. Got most of our summer/winter wardrobe swapped out and cleaned up too... It's supposed to be spectacularly sunny, warm, and nice for the next couple days, so a lot of line drying will be going on.
I got around to tinking around a bit with the village... I decided to go ahead and just pack back the alley, and the Orphanage, and most of the backstreet. I got so much other going on right now I just ain't fussing, lol. But Main Street, Scarry's Amusement Haunt, and the Drive In are wired in and getting mostly set up. The lower level of the Amusement Haunt is slow- both because of inspiration of distributing maze, and because Sheriff Nova keeps insisting on raiding the maze, lol. But a lot of the living room is cleaned up now. It was rather an explosion for a while there.
Today was fine and clear, and even warm in the sunny upper 50's. Did the final crisping off of the peach leather into dryness for peach powder- a few pounds dried down into a nice 8 oz jar. So I pulled off the 3 bags of Jen's Apple Pie Filling from the freezer and tossed them into the fridge to thaw out for trying out for dehydrating next. Why not? I still have a quart of cherries in liquid in the deep freeze too to do something with. I also tossed a bunch of stuff from the deep freeze into the garbage- some various things not really labeled and frosted and it was time anyway, lol. Along with that came a shelf clearing up- and realizing that we have about 6 tubs of ICBINB for mom and sis to pick up- we don't use as much as they do, and we have a full big tub in the fridge already. And a clear shelf on the bottom meant I could do some other cleanup... candles.
I got a lot of jar/crock/ect candles. And some cleanup is due. I got a couple batches of wax built up from previous cleanups, and a lot of glass to clean for anything..
So some greatgrans cleaning tricks..
For soot removal on glass. Take a cleaning cloth and lightly dress it with vegetable oil to quickly swipe away soot. Be sure to take a couple goodly swipes with a clean cloth after the oil and soot removal too to try to get as much out as you can. After that, repeat the same process with a lightly dressed rubbing alcohol cloth to really remove the oil and soot remaims.
Freeze your candle holders for cleaning. Those bits stuck to the bottom and so on. Freezethem and the wax shrinks and will crack apart easier.
10/18: gosh, this entry is getting pretty long, guess I better get my typing done and post this. We are into what is likely to be our last few days of warm and sunny weather- got a lot of linens on the line yesterday. I also got the raised beds dug out of the tomato roots and the roots into the compost, and a nice thick heap of leaves and pine needles for the compost pile- buried the raised beds under pine needles. I also got the little molly alliums planted into the center lasagna bed- just the pink and yellow mix and the white ones. I ended up not using the bag of yellow molly's because I didn't need to :) Got some of the porch furniture down to the pole barn, and some more stuff from the pole barn up to the house. A bit of tinkering on the workbench getting some stuff organized for making some minis finally. Sat down and really figured out how to set up the snow fence for this year- it ended up not happening last year. This winter we are planning on using the pole barn for parking since the other vehicles aren't there anymore- makes keeping the end of the driveway easier than clearing the whole darn thing every time it snows. I can deal with a few hundred feet of sidewalk down to the pole barn, lol. Makes me wonder why we didn't do that years ago before the pole barn had stuff in it.
Today I relaxed for a while this morning- as in some zen stretching stuff. I've lost touch with myself for a while now, with sickness and injury really throwing an extra wrench in there. I want to get back into meditating more, maybe pick up tai chi again. Then I hit the hall to take care of paperwork... then it was time to tackle another round of bulbs- this time the big alliums. I've been working on keeping the side section of the herb garden relatively weed free and buried under leaves for a while now.. and the trample pattern is emerging on that side for how walkway is going to shake out. So today I cleared out the leaves and as much weeds as I could. Popped in the butterfly bush into the middle with 3 lavenders along the walkway side. They are some of the big heldover ones that needed to get into the ground. Then somewhere around 100 various alliums around the whole area. Some from growing out last year- and I have a bunch of tiny baby bulbs to pot up to grow out from those. Purple Rain and Wild About Mixed, which give the large classic balls of purple and white. Christophii, a reddish large start type globe, and Drumstick, a tight budded egg shaped head. I was tempted to put in a few other things too, but figured that was probably plenty to fill in for now and if I got some spots open next year, then I'll fill then.
Still got the solarium bulbs to put in- all those grape muscari, lol. Got 100 of them in the packages. And after cleaning out the current border real well recently, I realized the muscari blocks from 2013 are still very much blocks, and need breaking up more than needing more. So I think instead of putting in more blocks I'm going to dig out the whole border edge and just set in all the muscari at once to re-distribute them nicely. Nice and plush. They will make that whole walkway edge very well filled in very quickly. Then it's time to tackle the space around the little maple tree- and that little maple tree is getting cut down soon while it's still little and not endangering the house yet. It's taken several years of mowing and walking around to really figure out where some of these borders are falling around the house, heh. On the other end of the solarium in the wee folk garden I'm going to be putting in crocuses, snow drops, and eventually more muscari- this time Magic Carpet Mix- it's all the other shades and colors the muscari come in, and I got a bag I can pot up for propagating this winter.
Got some other bulbs for potting up this winter too- mostly fritillaria, including a tiny chocolate and yellow one I'm extra excited bout- weren't cheap since it was Milager's and such- 90 cents a bulb! But they are dear, and I couldn't resist- and till I know where they go outside I'm happy to grow them out in pots for a while.
Still got the front bed to dig up, clean up, and set in with bulbs- and plant markers. Got all the bulbs, but the plants won't be going in till next year. I'm going to use some of the small lavenders that are growing well and will set nicely as second year plants in the spring. The mums suffered a bit this summer, and look shaggy as hell. And what I thought was a bronze last year turned out to be a delightful pink with creamy yellow center instead, so some plans have shifted, lol. With the bronze I picked up this year, I now have mothers of sunny yellow, white, pink, and bronze to grow out- plus a handful of first year whites, yellows, and pinks that survived the summer. All of them are blooming now, so I can re-tag them so I can tell them apart again more reliably than just foliage shapes. Then they will start getting trimmed and such for cuttings and shaping again. By the time they are ready to go in next summer, the bulbs will have died back and the lavenders should be established.
And ugh.. need to tackle the mint hill, seriously. I let it run rampant last year to give the mints more time to establish and crawl- but now it's a bit too rampant and needs serious cutting back. No pulling out anymore- now I want those weedy root masses to stay in place to keep the hill in check while the mints keep stabilizing in. But now the mints are ready. And some of the smaller woody tree weed crap needs it's final killings- not just cutting down this time, but also painting the stumps with kill solution. I'm tired of fighting the damn things, and it's time to move on. I'm going to whack down that weedy thing growing in the bed of Jay's Sky Irises too and give it a kill painting. I got enough chemicals left to do another round of spraying the driveways too- but between all of that, it will use the chemicals up, and that's not a bad thing. I really hate using chemicals, and these have been around for a while now and need using up.
But enough with ramblings, time to publish this entry and go make some dinner- doing breakfast tonight :)
Also cleaned out the big lasagna bed of it's brassicas and weeds. It still needs a fork cleaning before I cap it with clear plastic to start solarizing- but that's ok, found out today I was out of clear plastic, heh. So now all three of those beds are cleaned up, the first one completely set, the second one almost set- still need to put in bulbs. Big bed got it's basic cleanup done, needs a good dig and capping.
The kennel beds still need some cleanup, but not much. Right now I'm happy to let the nasturtiums and marigolds grow out, and let those Beer Garden radish seedlings do what they want to do for now. The straw bed capping the area needs some weeding attention though.
The greenhouse is pretty much empty and awaiting some fresh setting up. I need to do a little tending to the walls and pin the top flaps down nicely. Right now plans are to just leave the top open- I can't roof it by myself, and honestly not sure how I want to roof it again at the moment. I also have a lot different overwintering into spring plans this year than I did last year.
Still need to clean up the stair garden. I think it's going to see some different use too. The shadier side is going to start getting planted in with some of those shade loving plants that I've let sit for too long honestly. Those will soften out the mowing edge there. I need to get one of the heavy RR ties down by the pole barn up to the garden to cap off the sidewalk side along the garage.
The cooler I used to trap and drown all those squash bugs showed no signs of life, so I dumped the cooler out. I hope I got them all.
Got the southern edge of the solarium beds cleaned out today- all the grape hyacinth patches are now clear and open, and a goodly outside border is cleaned out of the grass too. I now have a full walking path again. I'm thinking of getting out the old hexagonal concrete pavers I made a while back, and drop them in as stepping stones in that walkway. Probably would need to make more to make a full walk, but hey, I can get a start set in. I need to make some more pavers in general too.
Now it's time to be off to make some crispy chicken salads for dinner, then a town hall meeting tonight.
10/10: another round of clearing out the freezers. I happened to have 4 quart packs of ham stock, so that's now reducing down to another pint sized package of ham cubes. A couple random 2 packs of pitas leftover got made into some nice pita chips with a couple different seasonings. Those are now cooling and will get vacuum sealed into quart jars for snacking on. A half dozen various savory flavors bagels got sliced up and toasted dry in a 325 oven for about 25-30 minutes, and then into a couple more jars- those are gonna be used as soup croutons through the winter, yum. Since we still have a few stacks of large flour and small corn tortillas in the freezer, I think those might get baked into crisps too.
The peach pulp is still draining, so since the dehydrator wasn't being used for that- I did up a tray of the fresh ambrosia corn, 2 trays of regular corn, and a tray of peas out of the freezer.
Realized I still had those 2 quart bags of cherries in sweet juice that were canning fails last year, went into the freezer, and got lost. I thawed one of those out to try out a bit of an experiment. Since it was already in sweetened juice, I added in about 1/4 cup each of some cab and pinot, and a steeping ball with a cinnamon stick, couple slices dried lemon, a few hibiscus flowers, a few cloves, and a few slices of fresh ginger. I was out of dried clementines, so I figured the lemon/hibiscus would make that nice tang. That's burbling on high for now, then will get the steeping ball removed and turned down to low overnight to help reduce it all.. then tomorrow I'll do a spice check. Add in some spiced rum, maybe some of the peach juice that has drained off, and really reduce it down- I want to almost gel the stuff if I can. If the reduction works, that will make for some tiny tasty ice cubes- and those will get baked or used in drink goodies through the winter. We shall see how that goes, lol.
I've started tossing some stuff too- old somethings that didn't get labeled, and have enough freezer burn on them that I can't tell either.
I need to do a vacuum sealing of a handful of stuff soon- cubes of concentrated chicken stock, ham cubes, and a bulk of spring chive butter and garlic greens butter. The peach leather and cherry cubes will also need to get frozen. And now that I have got the seed stock sorted out and got the deep freeze pile done- that too needs to get sealed and tucked into the freezer. I need to repack and detail catalog the list to shrink out all the extra packaging, but I think I might have managed to keep within a quart or so space. Got a goodly round of dehydrated stuff in jars to do up too on the shelf.
A bit of Tippy and friends.. and gosh it's been a long time since one of these, right? This spring the McSwanums had their babies.. and amazingly enough, all of them survived to adulthood, including the ugly signet. There was one baby that stayed brown/grey so long after it's siblings had gotten their full white on and were on their flapping runs across the pond I had started to wonder if maybe a goose or heron or something managed to slip an egg into their nest.
Today I'm happy to say that that ugly signet has since then gotten it's full white, done all the strafing runs across the ponds and such.. and this afternoon is the first time I've seen the ponds clear of swans! I know the family is probably just in the next pond over and will come back so long as the weather is good.. but yay for junior.
With the cats.. over the last two years we have lost two of our bubbas to old age- Argent in 2015, and Pooks in 2016. Now the twins are hitting that senior mark and showing it, and I've been adjusting the cats diet for this. Tikki mostly don't care about food, she isn't finicky about dry food, and don't care much for wet food, and can be hit or miss with treats. Nova is my big boy, and will tuck up into pretty much anything I lay down. But Ocelot and Marbles are getting older, and need extra.
Since this spring, I've upgraded the dry food. I used to only use Purina indoors or Meijer brand in the 2 feeders. Now the office feeder has that since the cats still like to eat it. The kitchen feeder now has had Purina Beyond for a few rounds, and all the cats really like that. It's rare to catch a sale or coupon with this stuff, and it's a bit more than twice the price. Been giving out a can of wet food a day in the morning too. They all mostly like beef and poultry more, and can be hit or miss with seafood. But Purina Fiskies and One are their faves.
10/13: ohhhhh, Friday the 13th. Only pretty much not, lol. Today was a south shopping day, had a random handful of oddbits to pick up. Got a new HotShot water heater, ours was screaming to death. And after yesterdays dinner and scrubbing out the large deep 6/7 quart nonstick Calphalon pan.. I finally decided to make a dedicated effort to finding a replacement pan today. Ended up getting a 8 quart stainless steel Calphalon dutch oven. It was a bit pricey at 40 bucks, but it will last for ages since it's stainless, and the cheapest comparison at Target and Meijer was nonstick 5 quart at 40 bucks. It's about the same size and shape as the old one, but a bit deeper with straight sides, and two helper handles instead of one with a long handle. And it came with another 12" lid. I've already chucked the old pan along with the screaming hotshot into the garbage.
Hit Michaels- had a 25% off total coupon, a rarity around here for them. Wasn't much of interest, though the Lemax Christmas collection has one thing that's cool- Sugar Shack Maple Hut. No power, stand alone, pretty neat. I did get to pick up a couple packages of findings on clearance that will make for an excellent stack of pots and plates for mini-food.. I'm finally getting up enough of a collection of this stuff now to start really making stuff.
Hit JoAnns. Had a couple 40% off full price, plus a 25% off total purchase coupons. Got another pair of the 60" 3 pack clear plastic gift wrap for cheap. This is the clear plastic I use for my windows- I've covered this before but.. with the coupons the plastic ends up cheaper than regular window plastics, even when they are on sale- plus it's thicker, comes in rolls instead of trying to unfold compressed squares, works beautifully to fold out and tack into place so long as you understand how static electricity works. I have some 4 mil sheet plastic on hand too- time to start seriously capping off windows and such to prep for winter. And that roll will give me my clear plastic to start solarizing the big lasagna bed.
I'm still not feeling Halloween really. Just a couple weeks out, and Nightvale is still just in some basic setup- and I'm already thinking about tearing some of that out in favor of some more Autumnal theme. Main street is already pretty much spooky free. I think the Alley might be packed back up too. Just feeling slaggy this year.
10/16: Last couple days were dreary and wet- the rain promised late Friday night came in and kept coming in...
On Saturday my love advised me that the siphon somehow got left on suction out, and pretty much drained the big tank. But over the course of the weekend, the big tank was pretty much filled up again. Watering needs on the outdoor gardens are down, so now I need to be bringing water indoors while the weather is dry over the next couple days. Got most of our summer/winter wardrobe swapped out and cleaned up too... It's supposed to be spectacularly sunny, warm, and nice for the next couple days, so a lot of line drying will be going on.
I got around to tinking around a bit with the village... I decided to go ahead and just pack back the alley, and the Orphanage, and most of the backstreet. I got so much other going on right now I just ain't fussing, lol. But Main Street, Scarry's Amusement Haunt, and the Drive In are wired in and getting mostly set up. The lower level of the Amusement Haunt is slow- both because of inspiration of distributing maze, and because Sheriff Nova keeps insisting on raiding the maze, lol. But a lot of the living room is cleaned up now. It was rather an explosion for a while there.
Today was fine and clear, and even warm in the sunny upper 50's. Did the final crisping off of the peach leather into dryness for peach powder- a few pounds dried down into a nice 8 oz jar. So I pulled off the 3 bags of Jen's Apple Pie Filling from the freezer and tossed them into the fridge to thaw out for trying out for dehydrating next. Why not? I still have a quart of cherries in liquid in the deep freeze too to do something with. I also tossed a bunch of stuff from the deep freeze into the garbage- some various things not really labeled and frosted and it was time anyway, lol. Along with that came a shelf clearing up- and realizing that we have about 6 tubs of ICBINB for mom and sis to pick up- we don't use as much as they do, and we have a full big tub in the fridge already. And a clear shelf on the bottom meant I could do some other cleanup... candles.
I got a lot of jar/crock/ect candles. And some cleanup is due. I got a couple batches of wax built up from previous cleanups, and a lot of glass to clean for anything..
So some greatgrans cleaning tricks..
For soot removal on glass. Take a cleaning cloth and lightly dress it with vegetable oil to quickly swipe away soot. Be sure to take a couple goodly swipes with a clean cloth after the oil and soot removal too to try to get as much out as you can. After that, repeat the same process with a lightly dressed rubbing alcohol cloth to really remove the oil and soot remaims.
Freeze your candle holders for cleaning. Those bits stuck to the bottom and so on. Freezethem and the wax shrinks and will crack apart easier.
10/18: gosh, this entry is getting pretty long, guess I better get my typing done and post this. We are into what is likely to be our last few days of warm and sunny weather- got a lot of linens on the line yesterday. I also got the raised beds dug out of the tomato roots and the roots into the compost, and a nice thick heap of leaves and pine needles for the compost pile- buried the raised beds under pine needles. I also got the little molly alliums planted into the center lasagna bed- just the pink and yellow mix and the white ones. I ended up not using the bag of yellow molly's because I didn't need to :) Got some of the porch furniture down to the pole barn, and some more stuff from the pole barn up to the house. A bit of tinkering on the workbench getting some stuff organized for making some minis finally. Sat down and really figured out how to set up the snow fence for this year- it ended up not happening last year. This winter we are planning on using the pole barn for parking since the other vehicles aren't there anymore- makes keeping the end of the driveway easier than clearing the whole darn thing every time it snows. I can deal with a few hundred feet of sidewalk down to the pole barn, lol. Makes me wonder why we didn't do that years ago before the pole barn had stuff in it.
Today I relaxed for a while this morning- as in some zen stretching stuff. I've lost touch with myself for a while now, with sickness and injury really throwing an extra wrench in there. I want to get back into meditating more, maybe pick up tai chi again. Then I hit the hall to take care of paperwork... then it was time to tackle another round of bulbs- this time the big alliums. I've been working on keeping the side section of the herb garden relatively weed free and buried under leaves for a while now.. and the trample pattern is emerging on that side for how walkway is going to shake out. So today I cleared out the leaves and as much weeds as I could. Popped in the butterfly bush into the middle with 3 lavenders along the walkway side. They are some of the big heldover ones that needed to get into the ground. Then somewhere around 100 various alliums around the whole area. Some from growing out last year- and I have a bunch of tiny baby bulbs to pot up to grow out from those. Purple Rain and Wild About Mixed, which give the large classic balls of purple and white. Christophii, a reddish large start type globe, and Drumstick, a tight budded egg shaped head. I was tempted to put in a few other things too, but figured that was probably plenty to fill in for now and if I got some spots open next year, then I'll fill then.
Still got the solarium bulbs to put in- all those grape muscari, lol. Got 100 of them in the packages. And after cleaning out the current border real well recently, I realized the muscari blocks from 2013 are still very much blocks, and need breaking up more than needing more. So I think instead of putting in more blocks I'm going to dig out the whole border edge and just set in all the muscari at once to re-distribute them nicely. Nice and plush. They will make that whole walkway edge very well filled in very quickly. Then it's time to tackle the space around the little maple tree- and that little maple tree is getting cut down soon while it's still little and not endangering the house yet. It's taken several years of mowing and walking around to really figure out where some of these borders are falling around the house, heh. On the other end of the solarium in the wee folk garden I'm going to be putting in crocuses, snow drops, and eventually more muscari- this time Magic Carpet Mix- it's all the other shades and colors the muscari come in, and I got a bag I can pot up for propagating this winter.
Got some other bulbs for potting up this winter too- mostly fritillaria, including a tiny chocolate and yellow one I'm extra excited bout- weren't cheap since it was Milager's and such- 90 cents a bulb! But they are dear, and I couldn't resist- and till I know where they go outside I'm happy to grow them out in pots for a while.
Still got the front bed to dig up, clean up, and set in with bulbs- and plant markers. Got all the bulbs, but the plants won't be going in till next year. I'm going to use some of the small lavenders that are growing well and will set nicely as second year plants in the spring. The mums suffered a bit this summer, and look shaggy as hell. And what I thought was a bronze last year turned out to be a delightful pink with creamy yellow center instead, so some plans have shifted, lol. With the bronze I picked up this year, I now have mothers of sunny yellow, white, pink, and bronze to grow out- plus a handful of first year whites, yellows, and pinks that survived the summer. All of them are blooming now, so I can re-tag them so I can tell them apart again more reliably than just foliage shapes. Then they will start getting trimmed and such for cuttings and shaping again. By the time they are ready to go in next summer, the bulbs will have died back and the lavenders should be established.
And ugh.. need to tackle the mint hill, seriously. I let it run rampant last year to give the mints more time to establish and crawl- but now it's a bit too rampant and needs serious cutting back. No pulling out anymore- now I want those weedy root masses to stay in place to keep the hill in check while the mints keep stabilizing in. But now the mints are ready. And some of the smaller woody tree weed crap needs it's final killings- not just cutting down this time, but also painting the stumps with kill solution. I'm tired of fighting the damn things, and it's time to move on. I'm going to whack down that weedy thing growing in the bed of Jay's Sky Irises too and give it a kill painting. I got enough chemicals left to do another round of spraying the driveways too- but between all of that, it will use the chemicals up, and that's not a bad thing. I really hate using chemicals, and these have been around for a while now and need using up.
But enough with ramblings, time to publish this entry and go make some dinner- doing breakfast tonight :)
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Rainy day...
9/19: I awoke to rain gently tapping the roof.. so I decided to snuggle in for an hour and watch the morning news and hubby made coffee. Hung out with mom for a bit, then hit the solarium for a bit of indoor work while the pepper mash came up to heat.
Capped off 3 windows with the foggy plastic on the north wall, leaving the last one open for now to use as an exhaust fan for the mash- that shit is toxic. But some more cleanup and re-arranging done again out there to prep up for winter. Later on tonight we shall see where the taste is at and where the liquid level is at, I'd like to reduce it a bit because it's rather thin right now. And it still needs a good stick blending too, but that will come later tonight as well.
Got the last 2 quart packages of Toothache plant sealed up and on the shelf. Glad that's done for the season. One last round of big stuff to go, the batch of garlic salsa. I got all the tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro in the freezer. But that will wait till after I get the hot sauce done at least.
The rest of the week we are supposed to be coming into something of a heat wave, upper 70's and might even hit 80's. Yikes. But it's also supposed to be dry, so I will be able to get that last round of mowing done before the leaves start falling. It's actually been kind of nice to really keep pace with the garden this year. I've had some losses and successes, and overall good year.
9/22: The gentle tapping of Tuesday has turned into a heat wave indeed. Yesterday I got my Zen on mowing down some of the last mow of the season till that got done. Then went into town with a huge donation load with sis. Astonishingly enough, our first then second favorite resale shops weren't taking donations, and Goodwill got it all.
Early this morning I watered well and set in soaker jugs to the perennial bed I just planted in. Glad I hadn't really started into the other two beds yet. And cleaned out some beds early. And that we have saved up a goodly batch of water. Turns out the second harvest is hotter and dryer this year than the first harvest was.
Tomorrow is a moving day. Mom and Sis are taking a full truck to storage around the lake. Sunday is transport and dropping off and coming back.
9/28: Busy few days. First truck got unloaded Sunday, a couple dear friends and a new member to the crew helped unload, then we had lunch. Puttered around in town to kill time while rush hour traffic was going on came back home. Picked up an outstanding replica of the Alcatraz 1909 lighthouse complex- FT now has a prison, lol. Picked it up for 7 bucks, sells online cheap for 30+shipping, or more like 50-100 bucks regularly. I just thought it was cool as hell, then looked it up to see if it was really what it was labeled as, and got a steal.
Monday was getting the house straight and shuffling around some FT village stuff to blow off stress- there's going to be a large amusement haunt in Nightvale this year :) Then turned around and left for Wi again Tues morning, had a wake for a dear friend, came home Wed night.
Got a little shopping in while in Wi from a couple local old loved stored I know I can only find some thing in... picked up some more bulbs for the gardens, and 5 Dept 56 lights that were on deep clearance. I now am the happy owner of 7 pieces total of Dept 56- the stuff is sooo nice, but sooooo expensive I rarely can afford one piece, let alone pick up a few for a few bucks each- and holy crap it happened twice this year. Sis noted some tiny bat light strands that were inexpensive too, and it was funny- I had seen Dept 56 strand bat lights, they were around 20 bucks. I picked up 4 strands at the grocery store for the same price, lol.
Today was a garden cleanup day. Got the whole batch of Tobago Seasoning and Trinidad Perfume peppers that were chilling in the fridge and fresh picked in the dehydrator to straight dry. Tomorrow I'm putting the last smoker batch of Aji Limons on- very happy that I will have a nice full jar of those for storage. I still have a good-ish flush of peppers on the 2 plants in the solarium, so I might still get a small batch for straight dehydrating too if I'm lucky.
Sis helped me out shuffling bins and big pots around- now the blue bins are boxing in the kitchen window bed, and it's filled with potted irises, first year lavenders, and a couple strawberries. That will get mulched in a bit to help keep them cozy through the winter. Since the next couple nights are supposed to bottom out into the upper to mid 40's, had to pull some plants inside. The 5 Tobago Seasoning peppers are now sitting on the basking edge of the pond in the solarium so their fruits can ripen in the warm. 3 coleus, 3 lucifers, and a couple other pots of small bulbs came inside too.
Moved the 5 gooseberries that might still be alive over to the kennel side.
Emptied out and cleaned up a lot of half gallon pots and other pots and added in some sweet feed to make a barrow full of mixed dirt- then used up all my half gallon pots repotting the asparagus. They had lived in those 3" pots long enough, and probably wouldn't have survived the winter well in such small pots. And this way, they have springtime to grow in happy again. I won't have their bed ready till later on next growing season anyway. I still haven't even fall cleaned it yet.
Picked up the first bucket of Chinese Chestnuts for this season- They are already in the fridge chilling, I'll pick out the best 6 for seed stock, then process up the rest for eating storage. It's only a little bucket, so no biggie. After this last weekend move, I'll start picking up more for bigger bucket storage. I want to try out a whiskey recipe and a sugar syrup preserve recipe, and a drying batch for nut flower. Probably only about 10 pounds total, if that. Each gathering will get another best 6 for seed stock picked out of it. Next spring I'll pot them up and start growing them out for planting somewhere. This fall the trees themselves are for sure coming down- I've already been talking to a guy I know about the removal. It just has to happen, that tree is really old, brittle, frail, and overhanging into power lines and over the solarium roof, causing extra damage to the skylight. I'm thinking I'd like to leave the trunks long if I can. Use them as platforms and posts for other stuff, like bird feeders and such. They have a lovely structure and I like the lilly of the valley pool around the base.
Sold the car- happened to be that the neighbor was interested in the car anyway, then his truck died and he needed a vehicle. So now that one is off the books. Need to figure out where to donate or slab the other one off to. It time to clear that space off too.
9/29: how time flies. Today I sealed up most of the windows in the solarium, and sorted out flower bulbs, cleaned up the solarium some more.. Popped off the Aji Limons into the smoker early, and then got them dehydrated off and into their jar today- I now have one whole pint! Took the plunge and waded through all my bulbs, and got some basic sorting done as to which beds they are going into. The front row where the hibiscuses are growing is getting some overdue attention in the coming weeks. All that's growing on right now is the hibiscuses, and I'm not sure where the daffs went, lol. The original bed was 3x14, and the original section isn't too bad. But it's a pain to mow around now, and the bed needs reopening and a bit of lengthening maybe. Might end up being more like 5x16 by the time I'm done churning stuff up around the outside edges. The wee folk garden area is getting a freshening of bulbs too.
There's bulbs going out into the herb garden, and a heap sorted out for the perennial lasagna bed switchover. And another pile for potting up this year because they are almost ready to split. Got one lone bag of something that didn't get it's ID tag included, and a couple missing small bulb tags, so I will have to re-pot that one to figure out what it is again, lol.
9/30: Had a town hall meeting this morning, followed by picking up a truck. Then a lot of tinkering and fussing with cleaning, and sorting plants, and so on. Got the first stall of the greenhouse cleaned up and stuff put away so I can start filling it with some leaves for me to nestle those 30 pots of asparagus I just repotted the other day into. Took some plant tallies, moved a few fruits- raspberries and jostaberries to the greenhouse porch. Culled out the last couple brown bags of seeds for their deep freeze.. I didn't bother with sorting flowers, because I always use those up pretty quick. But some of my seed stock is getting kind of old, or I know I won't be using for the next year or few while I use up some other seed stock. So right now from the total drawer, I've culled off about 10% as straight get rid of- it's all just things I've gotten in trade that I wasn't too interested in, or stuff I've tried that wasn't our speed. Of the 90% of whats left, about 15% of it is flower seeds. Of the remaining 75%, I culled out about 30% for deep freeze. Looking at the piles, I can tell I've reduced the overall stock by about 40% between the toss and deep freeze. All the seeds culled off for freezing will only take up a quart space at most by the time I'm done sealing down the packages. So now I need to catalog the freezer stock and write up it's list to have on hand and another in the package.
And ha, already on to more seeds. The other day in Wi I picked up a packet of spiderwort. Already starting a short wish list with Biquinho pepper. It's another seasoning pepper. And fresh stock on Dwarf Wild Fred- I just looked him up recently, and only a couple sellers offer it, and their pics do not match up with what I got. So now I'm on the hunt, lol.
Capped off 3 windows with the foggy plastic on the north wall, leaving the last one open for now to use as an exhaust fan for the mash- that shit is toxic. But some more cleanup and re-arranging done again out there to prep up for winter. Later on tonight we shall see where the taste is at and where the liquid level is at, I'd like to reduce it a bit because it's rather thin right now. And it still needs a good stick blending too, but that will come later tonight as well.
Got the last 2 quart packages of Toothache plant sealed up and on the shelf. Glad that's done for the season. One last round of big stuff to go, the batch of garlic salsa. I got all the tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro in the freezer. But that will wait till after I get the hot sauce done at least.
The rest of the week we are supposed to be coming into something of a heat wave, upper 70's and might even hit 80's. Yikes. But it's also supposed to be dry, so I will be able to get that last round of mowing done before the leaves start falling. It's actually been kind of nice to really keep pace with the garden this year. I've had some losses and successes, and overall good year.
9/22: The gentle tapping of Tuesday has turned into a heat wave indeed. Yesterday I got my Zen on mowing down some of the last mow of the season till that got done. Then went into town with a huge donation load with sis. Astonishingly enough, our first then second favorite resale shops weren't taking donations, and Goodwill got it all.
Early this morning I watered well and set in soaker jugs to the perennial bed I just planted in. Glad I hadn't really started into the other two beds yet. And cleaned out some beds early. And that we have saved up a goodly batch of water. Turns out the second harvest is hotter and dryer this year than the first harvest was.
Tomorrow is a moving day. Mom and Sis are taking a full truck to storage around the lake. Sunday is transport and dropping off and coming back.
9/28: Busy few days. First truck got unloaded Sunday, a couple dear friends and a new member to the crew helped unload, then we had lunch. Puttered around in town to kill time while rush hour traffic was going on came back home. Picked up an outstanding replica of the Alcatraz 1909 lighthouse complex- FT now has a prison, lol. Picked it up for 7 bucks, sells online cheap for 30+shipping, or more like 50-100 bucks regularly. I just thought it was cool as hell, then looked it up to see if it was really what it was labeled as, and got a steal.
Monday was getting the house straight and shuffling around some FT village stuff to blow off stress- there's going to be a large amusement haunt in Nightvale this year :) Then turned around and left for Wi again Tues morning, had a wake for a dear friend, came home Wed night.
Got a little shopping in while in Wi from a couple local old loved stored I know I can only find some thing in... picked up some more bulbs for the gardens, and 5 Dept 56 lights that were on deep clearance. I now am the happy owner of 7 pieces total of Dept 56- the stuff is sooo nice, but sooooo expensive I rarely can afford one piece, let alone pick up a few for a few bucks each- and holy crap it happened twice this year. Sis noted some tiny bat light strands that were inexpensive too, and it was funny- I had seen Dept 56 strand bat lights, they were around 20 bucks. I picked up 4 strands at the grocery store for the same price, lol.
Today was a garden cleanup day. Got the whole batch of Tobago Seasoning and Trinidad Perfume peppers that were chilling in the fridge and fresh picked in the dehydrator to straight dry. Tomorrow I'm putting the last smoker batch of Aji Limons on- very happy that I will have a nice full jar of those for storage. I still have a good-ish flush of peppers on the 2 plants in the solarium, so I might still get a small batch for straight dehydrating too if I'm lucky.
Sis helped me out shuffling bins and big pots around- now the blue bins are boxing in the kitchen window bed, and it's filled with potted irises, first year lavenders, and a couple strawberries. That will get mulched in a bit to help keep them cozy through the winter. Since the next couple nights are supposed to bottom out into the upper to mid 40's, had to pull some plants inside. The 5 Tobago Seasoning peppers are now sitting on the basking edge of the pond in the solarium so their fruits can ripen in the warm. 3 coleus, 3 lucifers, and a couple other pots of small bulbs came inside too.
Moved the 5 gooseberries that might still be alive over to the kennel side.
Emptied out and cleaned up a lot of half gallon pots and other pots and added in some sweet feed to make a barrow full of mixed dirt- then used up all my half gallon pots repotting the asparagus. They had lived in those 3" pots long enough, and probably wouldn't have survived the winter well in such small pots. And this way, they have springtime to grow in happy again. I won't have their bed ready till later on next growing season anyway. I still haven't even fall cleaned it yet.
Picked up the first bucket of Chinese Chestnuts for this season- They are already in the fridge chilling, I'll pick out the best 6 for seed stock, then process up the rest for eating storage. It's only a little bucket, so no biggie. After this last weekend move, I'll start picking up more for bigger bucket storage. I want to try out a whiskey recipe and a sugar syrup preserve recipe, and a drying batch for nut flower. Probably only about 10 pounds total, if that. Each gathering will get another best 6 for seed stock picked out of it. Next spring I'll pot them up and start growing them out for planting somewhere. This fall the trees themselves are for sure coming down- I've already been talking to a guy I know about the removal. It just has to happen, that tree is really old, brittle, frail, and overhanging into power lines and over the solarium roof, causing extra damage to the skylight. I'm thinking I'd like to leave the trunks long if I can. Use them as platforms and posts for other stuff, like bird feeders and such. They have a lovely structure and I like the lilly of the valley pool around the base.
Sold the car- happened to be that the neighbor was interested in the car anyway, then his truck died and he needed a vehicle. So now that one is off the books. Need to figure out where to donate or slab the other one off to. It time to clear that space off too.
9/29: how time flies. Today I sealed up most of the windows in the solarium, and sorted out flower bulbs, cleaned up the solarium some more.. Popped off the Aji Limons into the smoker early, and then got them dehydrated off and into their jar today- I now have one whole pint! Took the plunge and waded through all my bulbs, and got some basic sorting done as to which beds they are going into. The front row where the hibiscuses are growing is getting some overdue attention in the coming weeks. All that's growing on right now is the hibiscuses, and I'm not sure where the daffs went, lol. The original bed was 3x14, and the original section isn't too bad. But it's a pain to mow around now, and the bed needs reopening and a bit of lengthening maybe. Might end up being more like 5x16 by the time I'm done churning stuff up around the outside edges. The wee folk garden area is getting a freshening of bulbs too.
There's bulbs going out into the herb garden, and a heap sorted out for the perennial lasagna bed switchover. And another pile for potting up this year because they are almost ready to split. Got one lone bag of something that didn't get it's ID tag included, and a couple missing small bulb tags, so I will have to re-pot that one to figure out what it is again, lol.
9/30: Had a town hall meeting this morning, followed by picking up a truck. Then a lot of tinkering and fussing with cleaning, and sorting plants, and so on. Got the first stall of the greenhouse cleaned up and stuff put away so I can start filling it with some leaves for me to nestle those 30 pots of asparagus I just repotted the other day into. Took some plant tallies, moved a few fruits- raspberries and jostaberries to the greenhouse porch. Culled out the last couple brown bags of seeds for their deep freeze.. I didn't bother with sorting flowers, because I always use those up pretty quick. But some of my seed stock is getting kind of old, or I know I won't be using for the next year or few while I use up some other seed stock. So right now from the total drawer, I've culled off about 10% as straight get rid of- it's all just things I've gotten in trade that I wasn't too interested in, or stuff I've tried that wasn't our speed. Of the 90% of whats left, about 15% of it is flower seeds. Of the remaining 75%, I culled out about 30% for deep freeze. Looking at the piles, I can tell I've reduced the overall stock by about 40% between the toss and deep freeze. All the seeds culled off for freezing will only take up a quart space at most by the time I'm done sealing down the packages. So now I need to catalog the freezer stock and write up it's list to have on hand and another in the package.
And ha, already on to more seeds. The other day in Wi I picked up a packet of spiderwort. Already starting a short wish list with Biquinho pepper. It's another seasoning pepper. And fresh stock on Dwarf Wild Fred- I just looked him up recently, and only a couple sellers offer it, and their pics do not match up with what I got. So now I'm on the hunt, lol.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Fortunes Turning, Early Spring!
And now here it is finally spring... and the most recent setup of the village. I just started the tear down on this one the other day... But now we are getting all caught up on what's been going on around town for the past few months! Been quite the backlog going on obviously.
Since this last round of starting the village, I've acquired all sorts of crazy stuff.. various foliage, some great new buildings and folks for super cheap and mostly at resale shops.. a lot of toys and tons of building materials.
I've learned from starting to make stuff and keeping an eye out for cheap stuff to fill in with that scale really matters... and really don't. Most village scale is around 1:32, but I can work up to 1:24 or down to about 1:48 depending on the item. I've even picked up a few 1:64 down to tiny N scale items to fill in some of the wee areas of town. But knowing what these scales are really matters when looking up stuff blind online.
And lol- lights. Gosh I love little battery operated lights. The things are bloody damn expensive. And the big bulb lights- using LED bulbs instead of the glass ones is a great option, especially with buildings that sit down flush instead of having a light hole. I picked up a box of clear ones after Christmas, but they didn't have any more of the colored ones. And yep, it makes a HUGE difference, using colored glass is better than trying to color a clear LED bulb outside, lol.
So anywho.. on with some pics. I didn't get a good whole shot of this one, it was all day pics and the one I got was badly backlit due to how bright the room is now.. But there are more detail pics this time :)I'm going to see if I can load 9 pics in one post or not, lol.. Sometimes Blogger is kind of squirrely.
Note the Menards billboard. These were hanging on the shelves for years at 6-7 bucks each, sometimes on sale for half off.. one day wandered in and they were on clearance for 1 buck each- I bought 5. Next time I visited, they were back up to full price again to be packed away for the season. The lights on the top of the sign are rather bright- I plan on making a few new posters to put up on a couple of these :)
And the other end of Upper.. I skipped over the Cheese Sandwich shop and The Trouts hangout. But I wanted to point out some fun stuff. The little garden is from Target, the mushroom and Honey guys hanging out on the bridge are Shopkins, and that great farmer with the big ole scythe was part of a toy set from the local farm store. The arch the mushroom is hanging out in and the beehives on the bridge are typical scale for Joanns/Michaels fairy garden stuff- The Menards billboard is to scale with the "standard" village stuff. The mushroom in the arch is actually the one that finally broke me down and made be collect a bunch of Chefs Club Season 6 Shopkins- I had to have one to live in the adobe houses. I mean, mushrooms are obviously living in adobe houses, right? Their compost is apparently pretty great considering how well that garden is growing.
For some fun scale action.. The fabric cart is a random trinket I picked up at a resale shop for a buck or so. The tree house came from this springs fairy Michaels, and the bridge from last falls fairy Joanns- which I got stupid cheap on clearance because it had a cracked rail and was damaged- drop of glue fixed that shit. The three shelf stand on the right and the big box on the left come from Target toys- the little box in the big one is one I made from Popsicle sticks. Mr. Mailman is from standard village collections, as is the Mac in the background. The farmer on the left and the bins of potatoes and tomatoes are from the same toy set from the farm store.
And now we are all caught up with a tour around of Fortunes Turning since really kicking it up last year. I might consider a full folding of the village for a while.. or not. Maybe change out stuff a lot.. or not.. But it is a place that changes, and it's fun to change it around. I have to start remembering to take pics of stuff when I transform it- and put up notes when I make stuff. I've been compiling a lot of links about coolness, but that's pretty much a draft, lol.
So Happy Spring from Fortunes Turning... May the whole of Nightvale county prosper. Keep in mind the rules about The Dog Park, and always respect other government signs. Please don't tromp over the new plants, and don't forget the ditch works.
Fortunes Turning 2017, Imbolc opener...
Because yes, the village changes... After a while the heavy snowscapes of full winter start getting muddier, and bits of green start to show up. Especially after the oddly mild winter we had, it seemed appropriate for the inside to start working the outside, lol. And by mid-January, I was just ready for another change of scenery. And in general having a smaller village, and not so much decor out anymore... the living room has been kind of full since Labor Day, sheesh.
The whole village, back on the window wall again. That red fabric with the sunbursts is just as approproiate now to hope for the new spring to come as it was as a backdrop through Christmas. Nice pop of color. Most of the crazy amounts of fabric I've been doing has been put away in favor of the bit mellower set up. This is a bit like Autumn was, a wee bit of time as kind of a hold...
Upper Main got a nice new couple.. Bob and Not-Bob, the Trouts. And the Winery is doing a brisk bit of business with some warm ups..
The Farm has shifted again, and the critters are enjoying a relatively snow free yard for a change.
Lower Main has thriving business going on, most of the smaller vendors have kind of taken over the Green.
And one of the few night shots that is pretty cool and turned out clear. Sal is out front baking up the best brains in town- he's a local legend, and one of the only food vendors that is open all hear round. The Copper Lantern is warmly aglow, and a new soup stand guy has taken up residence next door. We aren't sure what to make of him yet, he got some weird friends... but the soup is actually pretty good.
It was kind of nice to reshift and cut back the village like I did- I have enough stuff now to do some really fun rotating in and out of everyone.. and still looking forward to Halloween time when some of the spookier guys start peeking out again..
It was kind of nice to reshift and cut back the village like I did- I have enough stuff now to do some really fun rotating in and out of everyone.. and still looking forward to Halloween time when some of the spookier guys start peeking out again..
Fortunes Turning part 4... and the close of the 2016 year
With the winters coming had to come the time to majorly change the scenery in Fortunes Turning. I already had some stuff- again recycling pieces around, and a couple newer pieces that I haven't adapted yet.. I did end up picking up a couple pieces of new fabric to fit in with Christmas colors.. and the village was festive!!
It's a blurry picture, but... This is how I set up for buffet style service through the holiday...
This is a much better detail pic. The holly fabric and a nice shimmery dark green fabric are the new pieces, as is the ribbon. That top layer is a red plastic table runner with a cheap paper runner over it. The ribbon is pinned in with a reindeer button to help keep everything together in place. On the top of the gold package are some un-candles. I picked up a handful of them new in the box, and they are rather nice. I don't fill them with water and oil like supposed to do- I use the large pumpkin sized tea lights, and those fit perfectly in the top- and I keep the tins once they are empty because they are perfect for burning votive candles in too!
The Ward has now become more of a part of the village.. The kids sandbox is now a great sledding hill, and fat snowmen keep an eye out. The Drive In has had a lot of icy foliage spring up and looks to be well served and has cars coming to watch the Christmas movies :)
The whole under the falls is gone, and the snow people have taken over with their giant present of goodness. The two hurricanes on the right are filled with polyfill and blue mini-lights and light up the corner of the hearth nicely. The tower is still on pretty much all the time, and the Celestial Falls are still headed up by Job.
And all the snowfolks have moved in. The Blood and Vine is gone, and their Blood Falls with it. The Cheese Factory has taken up the space, and the new Grilled Cheese shop down the hill is right happy for such a good local supply. The Farm has sprung up in the corner, complete with awesome strung lights all along their white fence like a proper farm should. The vendors have gladly moved in too, there is even a new fabric seller cart in town.
The Trading Post has finally gotten to Upper Main, along with the general store and the Mac. Finally got a Fire Station in town, and a nice long pond for ice skating on.
The new Copper Lantern is up and glowing, supplying folks with lamps, firesticks, and flints.. and the folks up at the winery are all raising their beers to the grand opening. The heart of town is a bit more subdued, the Town Hall has finally lost it's Mayor and now there's a Christmas tree installed on the front steps. The Church is still servicing through the holidays as well.
And that's how Fortunes Turning turned out in 2016.. of course there are a lot more pics, dozens and dozens of much closer up shots that show vignettes of daily live in the village.. and yes, almost all of them have a story attached, lol.
Since New Years Eve, the village has seen a couple more seasons... But that's another year and for other posts..
And that's how Fortunes Turning turned out in 2016.. of course there are a lot more pics, dozens and dozens of much closer up shots that show vignettes of daily live in the village.. and yes, almost all of them have a story attached, lol.
Since New Years Eve, the village has seen a couple more seasons... But that's another year and for other posts..
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Slowly being busy
January 25...
Weather has been a bit odd, the January thaw was more of a March thaw. But been getting things done around here. Did quite a bit of cleanup in the general kitchen outdoors area. A lot of pots to shuffle around and some leaf debris to clean up, some stuff to throw out. And got a handful of put off errands done. It's no fun to make the more special trips out and about sometimes, but that's ok on a nice day, right?
Picked up a handful more stuff for the ongoing Fortunes Turning. It's kind of turning from Nightvale to Springfield right now. I realized I didn't have any spring/summer foliage, everything so far has been autumn and winter. Fortunately the out and abouts included hitting the craft stores- and Michaels was gold this time with their sales on some really good foliage. I picked up a couple "mats" of plants that when pulled off their bases is providing me with a shitton of small plants that look great scale wise.
And I've been obsessed with online searching for making mini's. I'm getting to the point where some of the stuff I want going on in the village is pretty much fuck that cost wise. I'm almost always very good at waiting for the right combinations of sales and coupons when I pick up pieces at the store. I hunt the clearance bins for damaged items that come super cheap and that I can repair or make into something else. Like I picked up a really cool bridge that was originally 20 bucks for 4 bucks- the railing was cracked and needed a dab of glue to be good as new.
I regularly scour the thrift and resale shops for stuff too. At least half of my buildings have come from thrift stores. Smalls are a bit more of a challenge, but I regularly look at kids toys for some of that stuff. Like after Christmas the local farm store had a neat and cheap clearance farming set full of goodies I want to put into spring season.
With all the fixing and refurbishing of pieces I do... now I'm really getting into some actual making of stuff. It's just cost prohibitive some of these odds and ends. It's one thing to pick up some of the buildings or smalls that just realistically are beyond my making skills. But I can make a corn stalk instead of paying someone else an unholy amount of money for it, lol. Or a bunch of other things. So yeah, been looking up a lot of interesting and neat mini making stuff. Actually compiling quite a pile of links of stuff together for future use. Fun times :)
Cleaned the crap out of the solarium too. It was just, ugh. Been mostly too cold for that too, but I figured I could blow the few hours of wattage running the space heater. But now the whole place is properly cleaned up and organized again so I can start wrecking it again, hehehee.
So now most of the bulbs are potted up, still have some to go. Got more garlic I need to figure out what to do with. Started a bunch of the wild gathered asparagus seed today- decided to use those rock wool cubes. Figured in the scheme of things, the few lumps of that out on the back 40 isn't a big deal, and I'm honestly curious to see how well it works or not. I did a cuttings test with the rock wool last fall, and that turned out pretty good for coleus and scented geraniums.
It does seem early to be starting seeds but... I have many pots already set up and cold strating in the solarium, and I've been starting pots of greens and some herbs and garlic greens for a few weeks now for some fresh eating off the windowsill. Unfortunately it's been overcast a lot and the lettuces aren't happy about it. But the garlic don't care :)
So now I'm off again.. need to finish up some things before getting ready for dinner. Mmmmm, chicken thighs tonight.
Weather has been a bit odd, the January thaw was more of a March thaw. But been getting things done around here. Did quite a bit of cleanup in the general kitchen outdoors area. A lot of pots to shuffle around and some leaf debris to clean up, some stuff to throw out. And got a handful of put off errands done. It's no fun to make the more special trips out and about sometimes, but that's ok on a nice day, right?
Picked up a handful more stuff for the ongoing Fortunes Turning. It's kind of turning from Nightvale to Springfield right now. I realized I didn't have any spring/summer foliage, everything so far has been autumn and winter. Fortunately the out and abouts included hitting the craft stores- and Michaels was gold this time with their sales on some really good foliage. I picked up a couple "mats" of plants that when pulled off their bases is providing me with a shitton of small plants that look great scale wise.
And I've been obsessed with online searching for making mini's. I'm getting to the point where some of the stuff I want going on in the village is pretty much fuck that cost wise. I'm almost always very good at waiting for the right combinations of sales and coupons when I pick up pieces at the store. I hunt the clearance bins for damaged items that come super cheap and that I can repair or make into something else. Like I picked up a really cool bridge that was originally 20 bucks for 4 bucks- the railing was cracked and needed a dab of glue to be good as new.
I regularly scour the thrift and resale shops for stuff too. At least half of my buildings have come from thrift stores. Smalls are a bit more of a challenge, but I regularly look at kids toys for some of that stuff. Like after Christmas the local farm store had a neat and cheap clearance farming set full of goodies I want to put into spring season.
With all the fixing and refurbishing of pieces I do... now I'm really getting into some actual making of stuff. It's just cost prohibitive some of these odds and ends. It's one thing to pick up some of the buildings or smalls that just realistically are beyond my making skills. But I can make a corn stalk instead of paying someone else an unholy amount of money for it, lol. Or a bunch of other things. So yeah, been looking up a lot of interesting and neat mini making stuff. Actually compiling quite a pile of links of stuff together for future use. Fun times :)
Cleaned the crap out of the solarium too. It was just, ugh. Been mostly too cold for that too, but I figured I could blow the few hours of wattage running the space heater. But now the whole place is properly cleaned up and organized again so I can start wrecking it again, hehehee.
So now most of the bulbs are potted up, still have some to go. Got more garlic I need to figure out what to do with. Started a bunch of the wild gathered asparagus seed today- decided to use those rock wool cubes. Figured in the scheme of things, the few lumps of that out on the back 40 isn't a big deal, and I'm honestly curious to see how well it works or not. I did a cuttings test with the rock wool last fall, and that turned out pretty good for coleus and scented geraniums.
It does seem early to be starting seeds but... I have many pots already set up and cold strating in the solarium, and I've been starting pots of greens and some herbs and garlic greens for a few weeks now for some fresh eating off the windowsill. Unfortunately it's been overcast a lot and the lettuces aren't happy about it. But the garlic don't care :)
So now I'm off again.. need to finish up some things before getting ready for dinner. Mmmmm, chicken thighs tonight.
Saturday, January 14, 2017
2017 growing already started...
Happy New Year! I had started to use an old draft... the 2016 tomato and pepper gardening notes. They were rather optimistic till I hit the death wall and finally admitted defeat in September, sigh. 2016 was rough in a lot of ways- and I hope that 2017 turns out better.
But this years season has already started- I sowed in lettuce, herbs, and some toothache plant on the 28th, and already we have some lettuce peeping out as of this morning. I've also started up most the the stuff that needs cold stratifying- thimbleberry, serviceberry, red and white currants, a bunch of kinds of columbines, hibiscuses and hyacinths, and a handful of other random flowers. Most of the solarium plants are looking pretty good, so that's nice. It has stayed above freezing so far this winter- but then we didn't really see any full on cold till a couple weeks ago, so that helps.
I've kind of been chomping at the bit.. I did a bit of awesome sale action with a couple of my fave seed vendors and tried out a new one just prior to Christmas as part of my yearly stocking... But my sis and I traded "vendor lists" for an unexpected treat to unwrap- and squee to getting my wish list filled!
So now is the time for remembering when strats need to get underway- and what is still waaaaaay too early for me to even dream about- but hey, still, I'm dreaming :) and it's time to learn about some new seeds that are coming up...
Devil's claw is one I've been looking at for a while, but is always one of those wishlist items really- and this year it is now for the growing.. Interesting plant really :)
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0801.htm
http://art-fromthe-heart.deviantart.com/art/Giant-Devil-Claw-Phoenix-138005761
January 2
Was planning on running errands early afternoon while the weather was still nice... but got a call from a friend I hadn't spoken to in months in the late morning... and four hours later.. Lol. At least I got the shopping list together and dinner is in the oven.. a bit of laundry and plant watering done. But it was a good call... I hermit up too much and don't keep in contact with people enough- I got a lot of really great friends, and I just have... drifted.
For some trustee notes.. what goes on in a wee bit of local government :)
I set up a meeting for Wed with a couple of guys at the town hall about going over mowing contracts. Right now parks and cemeteries use two different mowing folks, and we need to consolidate that. So the meeting is in part to educate me on what is exactly in the contracts, and probably some discussion on who all can be contacted for bidding. This will start off a process of bring up the subject at a TH meeting, so it can be approved for us to actually start getting contract bids. After we get those, then we can present that back to the board to read over and think about- then vote on what to approve, or if we want to stay any decisions for a month so everyone can really go over the paperwork. By the time spring is going to kick in, we should have a consolidated and more economic plan voted in and contracted.
Janurary 4..
Got out and did my errands yesterday- while out and about got a call from Town Hall about a problem at one of the parks, and unsecured building. Heck, I didn't have those keys! Well, the guy that takes care of it did- and made sure I have my own key now so I can take care of it if needed. Today we sat down and talked mowing contracts... and I seriously need to clean my office. I can't tell one stack of "filing" from the next right now, heh. Hopefully the weather will play nice and I can get a bit of time in tomorrow.
I was able to get the first scatting of poppy seeds over Pookums grave yesterday. Kind of made me a bit of a wreck- I miss my boy and it really hurts.
Got some more seeds set up today- a couple more cold strats, white and yellow strawberries, and a couple more crazy berry types. Went through my bulbs, and my my I need to get some of them into pots for spring peeping! I got some sproutin' going on there. Asparagus seed will be getting potted up soon enough too. Growing season has really already started.
Puttered around in the living room today- getting some after Christmas cleanup done. And I'm ready for it to be done. Started dinking a wee bit with Fortunes Turning too- I guess I'm used to messing around and re-arranging it for the last four months, I'm kind of itching to mess around again. Soon enough I think early spring will be coming, lol. I know my love meant it with snarky encouragement.. but I'm kind of wanting to keep the village up more. And yet at the same time- pack up to the most part and renormalize the living room so I can start looking forward to Halloween all over again :) Maybe I'm just already tired of weeks of winter snowscape in the living room, lol. I do get tired of snow and cold very quickly.
With the turning of the year comes up thoughts of BeesNeeds again. The Etsy shop has been closed for quite a while now, and the FB page has languished. I've also been smacked with what amounts to writers block for a while now when it comes to being creative like that. I've been having some flare ups with creativity when doing village stuff here and there- and that's promising. And I've been slowly using coupons and clearances to build up the sparkly stock again for a few months now. Part of creativity drying up is looking over and over again at the same old stuff and trying to come up with something new. And just feeling nothing beautiful inside of me that needs or even is interested in coming out. And my workbench being buried forever under all the Fortunes Turning stuff and holiday stuff coming and going... But I would like to start up trying to sell stuff again- just because no one was interested last time means no one would be next time... sai.
January 8th..
Brrrrr. Baby, it's too fucking cold out there... But inside our first week of lettuce is looking good on the windowsill and this weeks round has popped up right on cue. I potted up 16 pots of spring bulbs today so they grow into some nice blocks for spring planting.
I have found that picking up bulbs at the tail end of their fall planting season and holding them in their original packaging and then "block forcing" them an effective technique.
January 14th... Not much going on.. been potting up more bulbs, started a bit more lettuce seed. It's been seasonably cold... But I am happy to say the solarium has been keeping at 10-12 degrees above the outside temps so far. That means keeping above that magic 32 degree mark for a lot of stuff- so far. We have dipped below the 35 degree mark a few times though, so I think a few of the plants out there might be toast- but last year some of them surprised me, so I'm trying to be patient. And plenty of them are looking rather healthy, so that's good.
But mostly just drifting around the house doing house stuff. Feeding the birds- and my word we got some birds. A few of the bluebirds are eating size, seriously. They put the regular ones to shame, and make the cardinals look puny. I need to make more suet cakes soon :) I make my own because I think it's healthier for the birds, and I use up a lot of "spoiled" grain products from the pantry when the moths get into it- I don't want to eat the bugginess, but the birds like it.
But this years season has already started- I sowed in lettuce, herbs, and some toothache plant on the 28th, and already we have some lettuce peeping out as of this morning. I've also started up most the the stuff that needs cold stratifying- thimbleberry, serviceberry, red and white currants, a bunch of kinds of columbines, hibiscuses and hyacinths, and a handful of other random flowers. Most of the solarium plants are looking pretty good, so that's nice. It has stayed above freezing so far this winter- but then we didn't really see any full on cold till a couple weeks ago, so that helps.
I've kind of been chomping at the bit.. I did a bit of awesome sale action with a couple of my fave seed vendors and tried out a new one just prior to Christmas as part of my yearly stocking... But my sis and I traded "vendor lists" for an unexpected treat to unwrap- and squee to getting my wish list filled!
So now is the time for remembering when strats need to get underway- and what is still waaaaaay too early for me to even dream about- but hey, still, I'm dreaming :) and it's time to learn about some new seeds that are coming up...
Devil's claw is one I've been looking at for a while, but is always one of those wishlist items really- and this year it is now for the growing.. Interesting plant really :)
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0801.htm
http://art-fromthe-heart.deviantart.com/art/Giant-Devil-Claw-Phoenix-138005761
January 2
Was planning on running errands early afternoon while the weather was still nice... but got a call from a friend I hadn't spoken to in months in the late morning... and four hours later.. Lol. At least I got the shopping list together and dinner is in the oven.. a bit of laundry and plant watering done. But it was a good call... I hermit up too much and don't keep in contact with people enough- I got a lot of really great friends, and I just have... drifted.
For some trustee notes.. what goes on in a wee bit of local government :)
I set up a meeting for Wed with a couple of guys at the town hall about going over mowing contracts. Right now parks and cemeteries use two different mowing folks, and we need to consolidate that. So the meeting is in part to educate me on what is exactly in the contracts, and probably some discussion on who all can be contacted for bidding. This will start off a process of bring up the subject at a TH meeting, so it can be approved for us to actually start getting contract bids. After we get those, then we can present that back to the board to read over and think about- then vote on what to approve, or if we want to stay any decisions for a month so everyone can really go over the paperwork. By the time spring is going to kick in, we should have a consolidated and more economic plan voted in and contracted.
Janurary 4..
Got out and did my errands yesterday- while out and about got a call from Town Hall about a problem at one of the parks, and unsecured building. Heck, I didn't have those keys! Well, the guy that takes care of it did- and made sure I have my own key now so I can take care of it if needed. Today we sat down and talked mowing contracts... and I seriously need to clean my office. I can't tell one stack of "filing" from the next right now, heh. Hopefully the weather will play nice and I can get a bit of time in tomorrow.
I was able to get the first scatting of poppy seeds over Pookums grave yesterday. Kind of made me a bit of a wreck- I miss my boy and it really hurts.
Got some more seeds set up today- a couple more cold strats, white and yellow strawberries, and a couple more crazy berry types. Went through my bulbs, and my my I need to get some of them into pots for spring peeping! I got some sproutin' going on there. Asparagus seed will be getting potted up soon enough too. Growing season has really already started.
Puttered around in the living room today- getting some after Christmas cleanup done. And I'm ready for it to be done. Started dinking a wee bit with Fortunes Turning too- I guess I'm used to messing around and re-arranging it for the last four months, I'm kind of itching to mess around again. Soon enough I think early spring will be coming, lol. I know my love meant it with snarky encouragement.. but I'm kind of wanting to keep the village up more. And yet at the same time- pack up to the most part and renormalize the living room so I can start looking forward to Halloween all over again :) Maybe I'm just already tired of weeks of winter snowscape in the living room, lol. I do get tired of snow and cold very quickly.
With the turning of the year comes up thoughts of BeesNeeds again. The Etsy shop has been closed for quite a while now, and the FB page has languished. I've also been smacked with what amounts to writers block for a while now when it comes to being creative like that. I've been having some flare ups with creativity when doing village stuff here and there- and that's promising. And I've been slowly using coupons and clearances to build up the sparkly stock again for a few months now. Part of creativity drying up is looking over and over again at the same old stuff and trying to come up with something new. And just feeling nothing beautiful inside of me that needs or even is interested in coming out. And my workbench being buried forever under all the Fortunes Turning stuff and holiday stuff coming and going... But I would like to start up trying to sell stuff again- just because no one was interested last time means no one would be next time... sai.
January 8th..
Brrrrr. Baby, it's too fucking cold out there... But inside our first week of lettuce is looking good on the windowsill and this weeks round has popped up right on cue. I potted up 16 pots of spring bulbs today so they grow into some nice blocks for spring planting.
I have found that picking up bulbs at the tail end of their fall planting season and holding them in their original packaging and then "block forcing" them an effective technique.
January 14th... Not much going on.. been potting up more bulbs, started a bit more lettuce seed. It's been seasonably cold... But I am happy to say the solarium has been keeping at 10-12 degrees above the outside temps so far. That means keeping above that magic 32 degree mark for a lot of stuff- so far. We have dipped below the 35 degree mark a few times though, so I think a few of the plants out there might be toast- but last year some of them surprised me, so I'm trying to be patient. And plenty of them are looking rather healthy, so that's good.
But mostly just drifting around the house doing house stuff. Feeding the birds- and my word we got some birds. A few of the bluebirds are eating size, seriously. They put the regular ones to shame, and make the cardinals look puny. I need to make more suet cakes soon :) I make my own because I think it's healthier for the birds, and I use up a lot of "spoiled" grain products from the pantry when the moths get into it- I don't want to eat the bugginess, but the birds like it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)