On my mind...

Again following Rhonda's lead at
http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/, here is what I have on my mind today.

My $700 cat!

Well, $698.47 to be exact. Rico came to us as a "teenager" sized stray. After a couple of weeks of the little makers feeding and loving him, he was here to stay. Last fall I had him fixed and he began his life as a house cat. Here he is in the picture with his brand new bag of $75.27 special diet cat food.

We took him after hours to a vet an hour away when we noticed he was crying and straining, not able to void his bladder. Turns out he had a struvite crystal in his urine, which also brought on a bacterial infection. After having a catheter and and iv and having fluids pushed for 2 nights he was able to come home...on a urinary diet and 2 weeks of antibiotics.

Rico, you owe me. I had better not catch a glimpse of a mouse around these parts!

Keeping Track

This year I want to keep track of everything that comes out of this little yard of mine. I want to see just how much one yard "in town" can produce. It might be nothing, or it might surprise me, but so far it is super exciting. And here is the first tiny bit. Dandelion greens and some baby spinach I added to store bought romaine for our Caesar salad tonight.

And a few leaves of lemon balm. Geesh, I wish the mint was bigger.

So I remember what I planted...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx raspberries

--------------------------- onions
--------------------------- onions
=================== carrots
=================== carrots
=================== carrots





Waiting a few days to put in tomatoes...and whatever else I end up buying.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ beets
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ beets

++++++++++++
+++++++
+++
+ peas

--------------------------- onions
################### spinach
=================== carrots

************************ radish
************************ radish
************************ radish

O O O O O potatoes

O O O O O potatoes

O O O O O potatoes

O O O OO potatoes



P.S. Just because rocks, sticks, and toy grenades probably aren't very reliable row markers.

Graduated!

Yay!

Greenhouse Day!

Well, truthfully, knowing I have a bit of a habit when it comes to gardening, today was the first of probably a few 'greenhouse days'. I actually only ended up with 20 little plants, and most of them are BedHead's. She decided this morning to come with my girlfriend and I along with the little ones. And then she promptly came home and liberated a little piece of lawn for herself! She is going to grow a tea garden, in the shape of a circle, and she set about picking out her plants all on her own. Today was definitely one of the homeschooling perks. Impromptu field trip! Everything is/can be a learning experience if we open ourselves up to it.

Every spring, for the last 3 years I have made the trip to an organic greenhouse an hour away. They technically aren't certified organic anymore, but they haven't changed growing techniques from when they were. And that is good enough for me. Seeing how the proprietors live is an inspiration to me. There were 2 WWOOFers working there today. There is a straw bale guest cottage on site. It just has a great energy. The little ones see sawed for the first time and jumped on the trampoline. I mostly watched them while BedHead and the friend shopped. The friend bought 4 flats! I only ended up with 1 but I totally attribute that to the hardiness of these little plants...they keep coming back, so I don't have to buy as many!



We packed a picnic lunch and did the tourist thing. We also happened upon a liquidation sale at a business that was clearing out the previous owner's stock. We filled a bag for $30, and when BedHead added it up, it would have regularly cost $726! We ended up with some nice suede type winter hats, mitts, sandals and dressy boots for HannaBanana and Bedhead, boots for Peeper and a dress shirt, capris, a skirt and a couple sweaters for me. Score!

So much cheaper and healthier than eating out.

On My Mind

Thank you Rhona Jean at www.down---to---earth.blogspot.com for encouraging us readers to steal her brilliant idea. Really, if you could look inside my head today, it would look something like this...


This is my very cluttered coffee table, which seems to sum up what goes on daily in my life. None of this is staged-only snapped from above. You'll see my lap top open to my blogs, which I read every morning over a cup of tea. Peanuts from bedtime snack the night before, and a little Tiny Maniac's spelling test. 10/10!!! A couple of books my eldest two are reading; notice how one is by L.M. Montgomery. Girls after their mother's heart they are. To round out the menagerie is the PS3 remote to control the SpongeBob movie little Peeper is watching while I read, and my textbook. Last night at midnight I just had to look up the word for sharp, localized abdominal pain. I couldn't for the life of me remember beyond starting with a p. I knew the definition, the word had just escaped my cluttered mind and I couldn't sleep until I looked it up. Pretty nerdy that these are the things I think about at night.

Happy Friday!

P.S. Parietal. A localized, intense pain that arises from the parietal peritoneum, the lining of the abdominal cavity.

So Far...

The weather has only cooperated with my attempts to get stuff done outside a handful of times. So far this is what I've gotten done.

The playhouse we started last year still needs to be finished.

New digs! The Lumberguy and I cranked this out pretty quick.

New raised bed. So excited! And new (dirty) truck.




HannaBanana's first deep bed. The little fence she picked out makes it look like a tiny cemetery.

Looking out the front door at the whole menagerie.

Because of my very limited picture taking ability and attention span, for now you'll have to imagine the little one foot wide strip around the yard. Maybe I'll have a pic once the peas start. And of my garden in the backyard. And my cold frame. And the wildflowers and garlic planted in old tree stumps. And somehow I'm going to fit a little hen house into all of this. I hope to keep track of everything that I grow in this yard to show just what a single gal can do with her own little piece of dirt.