September Wrap Up
Yeah, I know. I know it's 2/3s of the way through October. I've been busy trying to make up for the time I lost with my fails in September.
According my my gardening charts, I was supposed to start the seeds for my fall garden in September. It's generally pretty warm here in September, but this year, summer really didn't even kick in until then. There is no a/c in the room where I start my seeds and no room in the rest of the house for all of them, so I just had to let them go. That was so sad. There were about 150 of them. I decided to wait until it was cool enough to keep them alive before I would re-seed. The end of September and beginning of October I started all over again. Now I'm racing to get them all transplanted from the starting trays and into pots so they can get big enough to go in the ground before it starts to freeze. Everything will be going into the new east garden for the winter. It's sheltered from the north wind by the house and hopefully, the brick 3 story church and the alley way right next to it will reflect some heat back.
Meanwhile, I heard about a gardening technique and a movie explaining it, called Back to Eden from some local growers. Basically, it involves laying down cardboard or newspaper, a layer of compost and then 6-8 inches of wood chips and planting into that. The wood chips hold onto water and release it when it's most needed, and reports are that it can cut your watering by 70-90%. I figure living in a drought stricken area and trying to start a market garden, that sort of system would be a good one to use. Since I'm turning the east side of the yard into my new planting area, I thought that would be a good place to try
it out. I called my local electric co-op and had their tree trimmers deliver me a full load of wood chips. A full load of wood chips is about 10 by 15 feet and about 4-5 feet high. It's a lot. So I got busy hauling it. My husband has pointed out that every time I estimate how long a project will take me, I should multiply that by 4, and really, he's right. I figured I could have that pile moved in 2 or 3 hours. HAHAHA. 2 days later and 2 people working, half of it's spread over the east side. That took so long that I got behind on my sewing and haven't been able to get back out there to plant the garlic. The existing garden has gone insane with weeds and needs to be cleaned up and put to bed. I plan on spreading the rest of the wood chips out there, but that will have to wait until November. All that's left out there is peppers (tons of them), a few melons and an okra or two.
I got the chicken coop nesting box built, but realized that I needed to finish all the siding first, so supplies for that are all purchased and Sunday is the day. A few of my babies have finally started laying and I want them to have a better place to go than the milk crate shoved into the corner of the coop. It worked ok for 2 layers, but now I have 7. I've also spent some time chicken proofing one of the side fences to the chicken pen. Those babies are sneaky snakes when it comes to escaping, but they can never figure out how to get back in. And even though we live "in town", we still have marauding chicken killers and I'd hate to have one caught outside the pen and the relative safety accorded by the coop.
Besides hauling wood chips for two days, I also purchased a truck load of gravel to finish out the
greenhouse floor so I could get it ready for winter. Gravel is quite heavy and that little job also took me two days. I filled in the green house and then patched holes in the driveway with the rest of it. My big unplanned plan was to put a couple of my white barrels in there to fill with water and create a heat mass inside, but of course, they won't fit through the door. I may purchase some of the clear storage tubs and do the same thing, but I didn't really want to buy anything.
On the indoor and sewing front, I've been putting together a Dresden Plate quilt for a client. I got it basted and started quilting it today. I also have a batch of diapers to get done to go to Seattle with us on our grand baby visit. I've made and canned quite a bit of chicken stock to prepare for winter soups and stews, and I tried a new recipe for candied jalapenos. Doing a Fall cleaning and collecting items for a garage sale that will be happening in November with a friend. All that stuff is piled in the dining room.
And that, my friends, is where I am right now. I can look around from the spot I'm sitting in and see all the things undone. A pile of diapers, 2 quilts to be quilted, some embroidery to finish, some knitting to do and a pile of stuff I've decided I don't want in my home any more. So, I turn back to the screen, throw another log on the fire and snuggle the cat in my lap and just don't look around. Everything will still be here in the morning.
It always is. :)
According my my gardening charts, I was supposed to start the seeds for my fall garden in September. It's generally pretty warm here in September, but this year, summer really didn't even kick in until then. There is no a/c in the room where I start my seeds and no room in the rest of the house for all of them, so I just had to let them go. That was so sad. There were about 150 of them. I decided to wait until it was cool enough to keep them alive before I would re-seed. The end of September and beginning of October I started all over again. Now I'm racing to get them all transplanted from the starting trays and into pots so they can get big enough to go in the ground before it starts to freeze. Everything will be going into the new east garden for the winter. It's sheltered from the north wind by the house and hopefully, the brick 3 story church and the alley way right next to it will reflect some heat back.
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| mount wood chip |
it out. I called my local electric co-op and had their tree trimmers deliver me a full load of wood chips. A full load of wood chips is about 10 by 15 feet and about 4-5 feet high. It's a lot. So I got busy hauling it. My husband has pointed out that every time I estimate how long a project will take me, I should multiply that by 4, and really, he's right. I figured I could have that pile moved in 2 or 3 hours. HAHAHA. 2 days later and 2 people working, half of it's spread over the east side. That took so long that I got behind on my sewing and haven't been able to get back out there to plant the garlic. The existing garden has gone insane with weeds and needs to be cleaned up and put to bed. I plan on spreading the rest of the wood chips out there, but that will have to wait until November. All that's left out there is peppers (tons of them), a few melons and an okra or two.
I got the chicken coop nesting box built, but realized that I needed to finish all the siding first, so supplies for that are all purchased and Sunday is the day. A few of my babies have finally started laying and I want them to have a better place to go than the milk crate shoved into the corner of the coop. It worked ok for 2 layers, but now I have 7. I've also spent some time chicken proofing one of the side fences to the chicken pen. Those babies are sneaky snakes when it comes to escaping, but they can never figure out how to get back in. And even though we live "in town", we still have marauding chicken killers and I'd hate to have one caught outside the pen and the relative safety accorded by the coop.
 |
| Ta-Da! |
greenhouse floor so I could get it ready for winter. Gravel is quite heavy and that little job also took me two days. I filled in the green house and then patched holes in the driveway with the rest of it. My big unplanned plan was to put a couple of my white barrels in there to fill with water and create a heat mass inside, but of course, they won't fit through the door. I may purchase some of the clear storage tubs and do the same thing, but I didn't really want to buy anything.
On the indoor and sewing front, I've been putting together a Dresden Plate quilt for a client. I got it basted and started quilting it today. I also have a batch of diapers to get done to go to Seattle with us on our grand baby visit. I've made and canned quite a bit of chicken stock to prepare for winter soups and stews, and I tried a new recipe for candied jalapenos. Doing a Fall cleaning and collecting items for a garage sale that will be happening in November with a friend. All that stuff is piled in the dining room.
And that, my friends, is where I am right now. I can look around from the spot I'm sitting in and see all the things undone. A pile of diapers, 2 quilts to be quilted, some embroidery to finish, some knitting to do and a pile of stuff I've decided I don't want in my home any more. So, I turn back to the screen, throw another log on the fire and snuggle the cat in my lap and just don't look around. Everything will still be here in the morning.
It always is. :)
You are amazing!
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