Welcome to MN

April 19th: Update

2011-04-19T21:21:00.000-05:00

The peas are planted - this year they will be running along the side fence, where the watermelon seeds were planted last year (major FAIL, I think they rotted away before they had the chance to sprout). I changed locations because I noticed that the shed they were planted next to this past summer is starting to flake paint. Who knows if the paint has lead in it, so we aren't going to take the chance. We'll plant sunflowers there instead and leave the seeds for the birds.

I planted the peas on Sunday (April 17, for the record). Half of the seeds were "saved" from the summer's harvest (1 sugar snap variety and one snow pea variety). The other half were from a seed packet. So.. we'll see if my methods of seed saving for peas was a success. That is, gather the overlooked, overripe pods, dry them, harvest the seeds. Store in a little glass bowl in the seed cabinet.

The green onions continue to revive themselves, so we already have a nice crop of green onions/scallions. I checked on the blueberry bushes and they seem to have survived unscathed. The strawberry plants survived the weekend snow. Whew, whew, and whew. Our chives have already sprouted back up from the dead as well. Those are the best kinds of garden plants!

The tomato and pepper seedlings are happy, as are the spinach and arugula. I plan to transplant the spinach & arugula as soon as possible so they have enough space - they are growing quicker than expected. Herbs are sprouting up too, but I did a bad job of labeling them so currently, I don't know what's what.

My approach to gardening continues to be very off-the-cuff, fly by the seat of my pants (this is totally how I cook too, although I try to write down a "recipe" when the food is Yum! like the restaurant). So far it's working just fine - a backyard full of sunlight and healthy soil are working in my favor - but I know I need to eventually make note of what I'm doing and what's working best or what's majorly failing. And not rely on my memory. Hmm.. I wonder if I could hire an assistant or a secretary of sorts to stay on top of it for me. Daydreams.

Starting Indoors

2011-04-16T01:06:00.000-05:00

If I remember correctly, I got a bit of a late start on planting seeds to start indoors last year. St. Patrick's Day is my goal, and this year I again missed it. But only by a week! I planted tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, spinach, arugula, and a number of herbs. Maybe something else too. Outside, the onions from last year are in the ground (they overwintered in order to get a head start this year). I'll plant more directly into the beds soon - and if the ones that overwintered end up growing nice and big and are a success story, I'll leave most of the "new" onions there overwinter and have that be my onion strategy. The ones I dug up at the end of fall (planted from seed in the spring) were all smaller than golf balls.. most were the size of marbles.

I still have plenty of vegetable seeds that need to be planted. Some I'll plant directly into the beds once it's a bit closer to June - such as carrots (mine did really well last year doing this) and green onions (which overwintered successfully all on their own, despite being feasted on by rabbits). Also cucumbers (did great!), summer squash (again, great!) and pumpkins (not great, but not bad either).

I'll admit: I am behind. I feel like I'm further behind than I probably am in reality. Okay, except for the peas & beans - I haven't started those seeds yet, so the spring crop might be doomed. Thankfully, they can handle the warmer days if they have some shade, and will produce an okay fall crop. Last year my peas & beans were spindley sprouts anyways, which caused them to be non-prolific (especially the peas). Great for snacking though! Ack, I forgot the beets too! Those will be new this year. (Maybe - if I ever get them started)

Here are some sprouts! I think this is spinach/arugula...

Happy planting! I'm going to try to catch up this weekend on the seeds that have tragically been left behind thus far. The school I teach at is insane this time of the year (okay, *all* times of the school year). This whole teaching gig sure does make it difficult to keep up with the better parts of life! I don't have any free time to enjoy the outdoors and get things done around the house/garden, save for the rare (& delightful) hour or two on weekend days.

OH! The strawberry plants overwintered fabulously and currently look quite nice. But the snow (sNOw?! blech.) was just starting to come down too, so I don't know if they'll still look nice in the morning. I covered them with some nearby straw, but I don't know if that's enough to keep the leaves safe. We'll see! It's all a great big scientific experiment, if scientific experiments had a tendency towards awful, neglected record-keeping. I promise (myself) I'll be better about this next year! And this year too, especially in the bustle of the harvest/canning/freezing season.

One more thing, I need to read up on grapes, raspberries, and blueberries. What temps they can handle, how to prune (yes, I know, prune in the fall. too late for that now!), etc.

Oh! And we got married in Iowa, by the way!

2011-03-25T04:10:00.000-05:00

January 8, 2011. It. was. perfect.

Welcome back!

2011-03-25T04:02:00.000-05:00

That would be aptly titled if I'd written this a few days ago, when the snow had all but melted away, and I could welcome joy, sunshine, and growing things back to the world. But, as Minnesotans know, the first thaw is always a teaser and sooner than later, the ground will once again be covered. And so it is. So.. welcome back, snow?

I have to admit, I was pretty bummed to see it snow just as everything was finally warming up. I meant to start the seeds for this year's garden the day after St. Patrick's Day, but snow depression got the better of me and I haven't gotten around to it yet. Soon though! I know that I really need to make it happen soon, or my plants won't be fabulous and prolific like they were last summer. Speaking of last summer, I never did post fall update pictures. That's because I was way too busy cooking and freezing and eating. Between harvesting the fruits of my labor, getting my classroom ready for a new school year, and celebrating at the MN State Fair, I didn't have any spare moments to blog.

So to update verbally:

Carrots: awesome. They were big and crunchy and delicious for everything from raw carrot sticks to chicken noodle soup.

Onions: Very small. Yummy, but golf-ball size or smaller. I started them in the ground (so.. June?) from seed, and that was a mistake. This year I'm starting them from bulb, so they've got a major head start. We'll see what happens.

Tomatoes: Wow. I couldn't have asked for a better tomato harvest. Every kind (red cherry, yellow pear, red grape, beefstake, heirloom, etc) grew well and produced well. The plants in the raised beds grew faster and produced more than the plants on the ground, but the ground plants still produced.

Green onions/scallions: Wow. Easy, tasty, good harvest. I grew way more than I could use, I should look it up and see if I can freeze them. I think a neighborhood cat or something similar tried to use a corner of this bed as a litter box though, that was odd. But like I said, grew way more than I could use, so I just left those plants alone & gave them to the chickens later.

Bell peppers: These also took longer to mature than I'd expected. I think I transplanted them, so that means they got a head start inside. I should've kept a journal though, because it's possible that I started them from seed outside (which means they wouldn't have been in the ground until June). Also they had a lesser amount of sunlight than the tomatoes, so possible that this also increased the time. I was able to enjoy plenty of these sweet peppers, but there were so many fruits that froze on the vine because they hadn't ripened by frost time. I should also research these to see if they can be harvested early and ripened indoors or frozen.

Hot peppers: I bought this as a plant from a nursery. It matured quickly and provided more peppers than I could use. I could have dried some of them, I guess, to use in the chili I make in the winter, but I didn't. Was overloaded with everything else I guess, and hot peppers aren't my favorite (or very useful in my cooking).

Broccoli: Excellent. I bought 2 plants from a plant sale when I was volunteering with the rain barrel people. It put out small florets at first which I thought was strange, but after I harvested a few times, it put out bigger and bigger heads of broccoli. I couldn't believe how much it produced. Very useful for my summertime mac & cheese (mac & cheese plus green onions, broccoli heads chopped into tiny pieces, and diced tomatoes).

Cauliflower: Okay. I bought it same way as the broccoli. 2 plants, both produced decent heads. I harvested kind of late I think, so it wasn't as tasty as if I'd harvested a little sooner. It didn't seem to regenerate, so seemed like a waste for the amount of work (watering) put in. At least compared to the broccoli, which just kept coming!

Cabbage: (green cabbage) Great! I'm not a huge fan of cabbage, but I picked up 2 plants, same way as broccoli. After harvesting the first heads, I kept watering and new heads grew! So, good plant. Watch out for slugs though, they LOVE cabbage plants.

Cilantro: Grew this from seed and from a plant hastily purchased late in the season from Walmart (around the time that tomatoes were mass-producing). Seed grew well (and quicker than expected) and plant was good as well. I planted this after harvesting the cauliflower and realizing it would not regenerate, so I pulled the plant and put in the cilantro. Yum for pico de gallo!

Cucumbers: Tried 2 varieties (one smooth, one spikey), they both grew fast & were prolific the entire summer long. Laura like the cucumbers especially, I preferred them as table pickles (great recipe). The hens liked it when we'd slice one in half and give it to them to peck clean. They wouldn't eat the rind but they loved the insides. Plant leaves got a white powder mildew thing on them from the summer squash but this didn't seem to kill the plants or harm the cukes.

Yellow summer squash: Also very prolific. Laura loved these for sauteing for lunch at work. I loved them in my spaghetti sauces. They quickly got a strange white powder mildew disease or something like that, and it seemed to slowly kill off leaves/stems, but not the entire plant. And it didn't seem to usually affect the fruit, although occasionally a small fruit would succumb. It was strange, I wasn't sure how to fight it back. Spread to the cucumbers and similar plants (pumpkins too).

Peas & beans: I started these indoors and didn't see them sprout right away so they lacked decent light for the first few days, grew very "leggy". I think that made them not as hardy or prolific, although we did still enjoy peas and beans quite often. I also think they needed a sunnier location.

Cantaloupe/muskmelon: The plants I put by garage did better than the plants I planted along the bed with the grapes/raspberries. Mostly because the damn squirrels messed up all of those beautiful fruits - they'd take a bite out of them and then the fruit would be attacked by insects and rot. So, so difficult to prevent. This year we're thinking of making small wire boxes to put over the fruits as they ripen. The 2 fruits we were able to enjoy were absolutely delicious, so yummy sweet. The spoiled fruits we gave to the hens. They loved it. (But we cried.)

Eggplant: I got a dying eggplant seedling from Robyn. I put it in the ground and it did fine, it produced one eggplant. I didn't know how to tell when it was ripe, so it was harvested too late. Oh well, live & learn. We aren't big eggplant fans over here anyways, but we would've gladly baked it with some parmesan and enjoyed.

Watermelon: complete fail. I planted the seeds directly in the ground. From what I could tell, they never sprouted. Just a bunch of weeds.

Strawberries: Fun, tasty, didn't produce many but they were a definite treat.

Pumpkins: the small pie variety: We got a handful of full-term pumpkins and two or three mini-pumpkins (think golf-ball size). I used a few for pumpkin bread, that turned out okay. Next time I should try to make a pie though, I've never tried that with non-canned pumpkin.

Spinach: Put it in too late. We were able to enjoy some spinach, but I planted the seeds sometime in June (last- after the rest of the garden was planted, I think) and I was bad about watering the bed regularly. Plus we had a weird issue with the raingutters dumping water & tree gunk on the middle of the bed and that messed the soil & small plants up a bit too. Overall I think the front planter was a bad location for the spinach. This year I'll put maybe the broccoli there instead, or maybe the cabbage? I'm not sure. Something that's hard to kill.

Asparagus: Good. I got a few nibbles off of it, but I only planted one small plant so.. yeah. We'll see if it survived the winter or was nibbled to death by bunnies.

Apple tree: Going strong as far as I can tell. Bunnies tried to eat the bark late in the summer so I put a small fence around it, it seemed to heal. We'll see if it puts out flowers this summer, if so I think it'll be fine. It'll be a long time before it grows apples though, at least another 5-10 years.

Basil: grew into a couple of small bushes. Awesome, and very useful in cooking. Right by kitchen door.

Chives: plant was from Mom & Dad's house, it had overwintered on the deck. Hopefully that means it'll spring back once the weather warms up for good. Right now it just looks deadish. It grew well over the summer & fall and was also quite useful.

Sunflowers: Wow, these suckers grew fast & furious. Beautiful flowers, and lots of seeds were dried & harvested! We'll see if the seeds grow this summer! After harvest this year, I'll try to roast some or shell some.. maybe.

Raspberries: planted as bushes (well, roots I guess). They grew well, were tasty, and are probably plotting their takeover of the whole garden as we speak. Not many berries but enough for several treats.

Grapes: I didn't do a lot with my grape plant. I was too overwhelmed with everything else and this one got neglected. It put out two great looking bunches of grapes, but I never got to eat them because I think they rotted on the vine or were stolen by wildlife.

Blueberries: Same as raspberries, although towards the end of summer they seemed to be feeling sad. Probably wrong pH for soil, so they might not be so great this summer. I got to enjoy ripe berries several times, and they were delicious. So I hope I can keep the bushes alive and maybe even happy!

Zucchini: Same as the yellow squash, although I only had one plant so Laura didn't get to enjoy the zukes nearly as much as the yellow summer squash.

There's my post-harvest, post-winter journal. I need to do a better job of record-keeping this year. But since my entire garden was brand new this past year (& I taught summer school & I had a brand new classroom to get ready in the fall), you can understand why I was a bit overwhelmed. No baby steps here!

By the way, this year we're hoping to volunteer with the rain barrel distribution again and snag some free barrels that have the removable lid. They look more like trash cans, but we didn't end up liking the function of the barrels we chose last year. Hard to clean (no fully removable top) and the spout wasn't screw-on, so it sometimes popped off during use (frustrating because then the water sprayed out all over until you could replace the hose). Also the over-flow hose had a tendency to slide off during heavy rains, which was definitely no good and if left unchecked would have caused water damage to our foundation. So while they looked awesome, they didn't perform as well as expected. Better luck this year! :)

Also, loving the hens. This year Laura's going to build a permanent outdoor coop behind our garage and a small winter coop inside our garage. Next spring we'll get 2 large-breed hens (we have mini-breeds currently), they'll lay the whole summer and winter and the following spring we'll add 2 more hens (so 4 total). At the end of fall, we'll butcher & soup the first 2 hens since their egg production will be basically over (after 2 summers of laying). We'll overwinter the 2 hens remaining. Each spring we'll get 2 new hens and each fall we'll butcher the 2 older hens. So we'll have 4 hens in the spring/summer/fall and just 2 during the winter. Winter is the time when you have to buy them massive amounts of chicken feed, they don't need hardly any in the other seasons because they eat bugs, worms, grass, and garden scraps all day long. So.. win win? By the way, we've gotten way more eggs this winter than we could eat. I just don't have as much of a taste for eggs in the winter like I do in the summer. In the summer, I love me a yummy hard-boiled egg. In the winter, I just want soup and fattening sweets like cookies. The eggs do come in handy for baking those cookies though.

The Garden: An Update in Photographs (part I)

2010-07-16T15:04:00.000-05:00

Part I: Driveway & Front Yard

These were all taken right around July 4th. Welcome to our garden...

As you pull into the driveway, you'll see our quickly growing sunflowers running the length of the driveway. Here they are at the very start of July:

And here again about a week later:

Currently, they are about an inch away from the bottom of the hanging pots! It's absolutely lovely.

Right by the kitchen steps are a few more flowers:

Moving towards the front yard, our little herb garden complete with guard kitties:

Two different kinds of basil, both ready to eat, cook with, and dry for storage. You can see some of the chives too - there's a big clump of chives here that came originally from my parents' home in WI.

Moving to the front corner of the house, our strawberries!

Recently they have begun putting out runners (all over the place!) so it'll be interesting to see what the strawberry bed looks like next year. Also, we'll need a fence or cage or something, at least to put on during the night when visitors come to nibble. So far we've had moderate success - half of our berries make it into our mouths, fully intact. The other half suffer bite wounds from either squirrels or bunnies.

More views of the strawberries:

Now to the front of the house! This area has also changed a little since these photos were taken - the pumpkin plants are exploding out and over the bed and there are baby pumpkins in our "patch".

This is the bed where our spinach is also growing. It's not a problem that the pumpkins are taking over, because last week the spinach started to bolt. I still pick leaves off every so often, but they aren't as tasty as they used to be. Here's a view of 1/3 of our spinach around the 4th, a week before the plants began bolting:

Turning out to face the street, you can see our asparagus (okay, you can't *see* it very well because it blends in, but it's about a foot and a half in diameter and a few feet tall. Looks healthy!

And our apple tree. We'll put a second apple tree in either later this Summer or early next Spring.

Thus concludes Part I. Stay tuned for the Backyard Tour! That is where the real garden insanity resides. (No, not the bunnies...)

What I've Been Up To

2010-06-08T06:01:00.000-05:00

or, rather,

Where I've Been.

For this:

(in Bethel, not in Anchorage)

That included this:

(can I keep him?)

Followed by the enjoyment of this:

(I only harvested a rock, so I didn't break any of the rules)

at the Botanical Garden, where they have the following:

Zombie tulips (really.. have you seen a more undead flower?)

Me, photographing the zombie tulips (and normal tulips, seen in the background)

Gender normative flowers (can't we escape this dichotomy anywhere?!)

And what visit to Anchorage would be complete without the Saturday Market? (two words: salmon quesadillas)

So, that's what's been up with the lack of posting my postings.

More Food!

2010-06-02T19:09:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I know that you're supposed to pick & eat the broccoli before it blooms. Well, I know that now, after receiving sage advice from Facebook friends. Because when I have a garden related question, to whom do I turn?

BUT - and here's where my buddies from afar were wrong:

Broccoli that has already begun to flower is actually still very good. Also, did you know that broccoli could be so pretty? I bet more people would eat broccoli if it came with its own bouquet. Maybe not. But consider this a Public Service Announcement: broccoli in bloom = most definitely edible (and still yum).

That one where I post about things that are delicious...

2010-06-01T22:52:00.001-05:00

The first berry of the season.

Backyard sunsets.

Scandinavians.

More Love.

2010-05-29T19:55:00.000-05:00

da Vinci, the early years:

We love it when the kids visit! It gives us a great excuse to be "off the clock". Even though it may not look that way here... this picture shows the only child labor involved the entire afternoon. The rest of the time it was sprinklers, sandboxes, and snacks, I swear. But hey, kids gotta earn their keep somehow, right?

Day Laborer

2010-05-22T20:20:00.001-05:00

Very dissimilar to a "Day Tripper".

8 cubic yards of compost:

Moving it to various vegetable beds:

Task completed.

Sewing (in our new back door!)

2010-05-20T18:27:00.001-05:00

Also, love. Love the seamstress, love the door, love love love.

Love.

2010-05-19T23:35:00.001-05:00

Campfires in our backyard.

Tuesdays are for Making Blisters

2010-05-18T23:53:00.000-05:00

I had a load of compost delivered this morning (8 cu yards, which is a LOT of compost). I spent the morning vacillating between filling garden beds, supervising our backyard door construction, and installing the 4 rainbarrels we earned from the Recycling Association of Minnesota. Here's this weekend's Elk River site and Laura "earning" a rainbarrel. It was a tough job, but someone had to do it! In fairness, she did work hard when there was work to be done.

Today was a different story. Talk about hard work! The compost hauling and shoveling nearly did me in today. We have 10 raised beds total - the one that's in the front of the house and the one with the peas & beans were already filled earlier this month. The other eight need some serious filling and will suck up all of the 8 cubic yards of compost - and then some. I filled two of the eight beds completely and got a great start on a third (the long one that stretches all the way across the back of the garden area). So I have five and a half left. My goal is to have them done by the time Laura's friends come tomorrow night. Yikes. My hands ache from today's shoveling and cannot bear the thought of tomorrow morning's job.

What is it about wheelbarrows and shovels that entice ugly, mean blisters to angrily pop out of soft, delicate hand skin? I wore gloves today. I did, I swear! But I still managed to come away with four reddish-white burning mounds of misery protruding from my upper palms.

To take my mind off of the pain, here are some pictures of our rainbarrels and compost bins:

Compost bins: large for everything except food, small for food and bunny poop/dried alfalfa hay mix

One of the rainbarrels, pre-installation.

Post-install.

Next up: How a Window Became a Door: A Story of Courage, Hope and Transformation.

Bursting into Life

2010-05-05T23:30:00.004-05:00

This was an even busier-than-usual weekend, what with bonfires, May Day celebrations, and a visit from my mom (and the accompanying carload of "here's-boxes-of-your-junk-from-my-basement").

Despite that, we managed to get some things done around our house. Laura brought out our push-reel mower and mowed the lawn without polluting the air. Have I mentioned our push-reel mower before? My almost-90 year old grandma gave it to us when she cleaned out her garage this Spring. I was under the impression that it harkened back to olden times, but apparently my grandma purchased it shortly after my grandpa died - less than 10 years ago. Why on earth would a frail 80 year old lady buy a push-reel mower? It's true, her lawn is small, but still! I don't even think she'd ever mowed the lawn before, let alone with a push-reel lawnmower. Those things are way more exercise than an elderly person needs. Needless to say, she used it no more than twice and decided maybe it would be better off as a dust-collector in her garage. Now she has a local kid mow her lawn, which is totally the way to go. I think when I'm 80, I will be hiring a neighbor kid to mow our lawn. It's a good tax-free job for kids and will give me more time to rock in my rocking chair and sip lemonade with Laura as we gossip, reminisce about the good ol' days, and bitch about how everything's going to hell in a handbasket and just what is it with kids these days, no respect for their elders, listening to that rock 'n roll devil music.

Anyways, as I was saying - we did get some things done around the house this weekend. Bachman's had their 125th anniversary sale, so I picked up strawberry seedlings, raspberry canes, and a few free tomato plants. Then, feeling productive and wanting to enjoy the beautiful morning weather, I planted the strawberries! They are happily growing in front of our house now, hoping that the neighborhood bunnies will pass them by with nary a nibble. We'll see about that.

More details on the strawberries: 2 different types, one is a June-bearing variety and the other is something I'd never heard of before, called a "day-neutral" variety. The day-neutral strawberry plants are supposed to be relatively similar to ever-bearing, but produce throughout the growing season (while ever-bearing, despite their name, typically produce only two crops during the growing season). I don't recall the names of the two varieties that I chose, but I'll add that soon along with photos. I can't wait to update on how they do - and more importantly, how wonderful they taste!

Woot!

2010-04-21T17:30:00.000-05:00

The peppers have finally sprouted! I planted them the same time I planted the tomatoes, but it took the peppers 2 full weeks longer to sprout. I thought for sure they were rotting in the soil, completely failing.

This garden is just about ready for business. Now if my school would just go on a second Spring Break, I could get everything planted and finish up our backyard. Of course, that'd be the day before we have a freeze or get a freak late April blizzard, so maybe I should count my blessings and remember how ahead of normal planting season we are. It's just been so summer-like already that my brain is convinced I should have more done in the garden, that I'm running behind schedule. Seriously, it's been in the 70s most days this month. That is unheard of. This is Minnesota! Land of the near-eternal winters!

Okay, back to the progress report:

All sprouts are now outside, soaking up the sun.

Firepit and embers grill has been dug and partially completed. I even found free firebrick posted locally online! And surprisingly, not on Craigslist, which is my usual go-to. Now all that's left is picking out the right stones from the lake house and bringing them home to outline the pit. And then invite everyone over! We already had our first private fire (pre-digging), and it made my heart so happy. We cooked sweet potatoes and onions over the embers, that was a grand success. I loved every minute of it... like camping, but with a real bed to climb into after the embers died down.

I've been schlepping concrete all over, setting up raised beds here, there, and everywhere. That part is almost over, whew! What a workout. Who knew that concrete blocks were so heavy? :) I just hope they last forever and that we find bright colors to paint them, so our garden beds can emulate some sort of Caribbean paradise. I do feel a bit hedonistic enjoying fresh, juicy veggies... or when we blend some of the fresh berries into margaritas.

Oh, and we're getting the "green" gardening tools ready too. Laura & I both volunteered with RecycleMN and earned 2 rainbarrels and an enclosed outdoor composter. That will help with watering the veggies (if we ever get rain) and we can be legal composters of food waste now. Before, we were going rogue and throwing our food waste in with the composting yard waste in an open backyard bin, which is a big no-no according to city ordinance. Of course, we'll be going rogue soon enough anyways with egg-laying hens (also a big no-no), but I do try to follow the rules if they aren't too inconvenient and/or ridiculous. The "no-poultry" rule is one that is ridiculous, because our hens will bother our neighbors far less than next-door-neighbor's 2 loud obnoxious face-eating dogs. Or our across-the-street-neighbor's ghetto-blastin' crack house.Anyways, things that I love:

Rain Barrel

Composter

(photos soon)

Busy Spring!

2010-04-13T23:01:00.000-05:00

Well, Spring kind of snuck up and pounced upon us, so our household is bustling to and fro working on as many projects as we can juggle at the same time. We have made SO much progress. It is exciting times in our backyard right now! Details to follow when I have a chance to catch my breath. That might not be soon.

In the meantime, here's a glimpse of the backyard - you can see some of the progress.

Delivery!

2010-03-30T17:18:00.001-05:00

My delivery came today! Lowes has a great deal if you need a delivery. For less than $60 (set fee, regardless of how big a load), I got a huge delivery of concrete blocks and topsoil. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-5 tons, seriously. There is no way I could've hauled it myself for less than $60 in gas money, let alone all of the extra physical labor and time that it would've taken to do it myself.

I'd rather spend the energy on putting the blocks & topsoil where they belong in my landscaping design - that will take more than enough hours, I know!

Today was a beautiful day for delivery. With temps hovering around 70 degrees (unheard of in MN in March), I was able to start hauling - brick by brick - the concrete that will become a series of raised vegetable beds. Also, during the delivery, I finished setting up the compost bin and re-installing the lockbox in a better location. Laura & I have finalized plans for the fence, and the previous location of the lockbox no longer made sense.

I'm taking a break right now, but I'll get back to it after I make supper and have something to eat. Carrying heavy blocks around really burns a lot of calories! I can only imagine how much my upper body strength will have increased by the time I'm through with this project. But it sure is exhausting. And I'm only about a 10th of the way finished. Yikes. I'll be working into the cool, refreshing darkness of the night tonight, and hopefully finishing it up tomorrow morning. Or at the very least, by tomorrow evening before Laura's dad comes over to put up ceiling fans and get things ready for the bathroom exhaust fan install next weekend.

In other news, I got a hitch installed yesterday so now my FT Wagon can hook up a trailer and bring free compost home! I'm excited!

Resistance is futile!

2010-03-21T19:30:00.000-05:00

We did it! We bested those ugly ol' shrubs that were plaguing the front of the house. They are officially done in. Well, kind of. They are now cluttering up the front of the garage, waiting to be cut up, dried out, and burned in a fiery pit. Or, if they get ~~too annoying~~ to be too much of an eyesore, maybe they'll end up at the local compost site. If I only had a chipper/shredder/mulcher...

Speaking of fun, fancy toys, guess what quasi-impulsive purchase we made yesterday? Let me give you a hint, the weather was gorgeous, it was warm, sunny, and all around beautiful out. Give up? A snowblower! A John Deere snowblower! Yeah, no wimpy machine for us. This baby is a commercial grade beast that cuts a 36" path. What? Our driveway is kinda long. Of course it warranted dropping a grand on. Hey, if it were new, it would've cost us three times that much. Might as well get something high end that (hopefully) is going to last ~~until we have kids and they are big enough to be our shovelling slaves~~ forever. I know my dad is going to give me grief about it, but in my defense, it is a John Deere. I know he'll dig that.

Did I mention that my initial plan was to spend no more than $100 on a snowblower?

Yeah, sometimes I don't stick to my plans.

But back to the topic at hand: shrubs and how to destroy them. Yes, we are becoming experts at that. Just ask us when to throw hedge clippers at the problem and when to bring out the big saws. We've got that all worked out. Laura's a quick learner (and thankfully, a strong sawer).

So the front is all ready for the raised beds. The backyard mostly is too. I put down cardboard boxes today to kill the grass so I can till it under. Wait, do I need a special toy for that? Is this where one would typically use a rotatiller? Is a rotatiller necessary? Putting the nagging questions aside, my hope is to use the soon-to-be-dead grass to help nourish the soil that my foodie plants will grow big & strong in. But, despite the piles of boxes set aside after our move, I ran out. I was dumbfounded. I thought I'd have enough and still have a pile left over, but I'm in need of another 40-60 boxes. I think I'll be able to scrounge up another 20 at best though, so I'll need to figure out how to improvise on that.

I also finished tying the wire for the compost bin. That was a long, monotonous task. I think next time I'll pay the extra $15 to get the taller wire, instead of being thrifty and tying up two shorter pieces. Oh, who am I kidding, no I won't. Anyways, the compost bin is almost ready to use. I just have to figure out how to get the metal pieces I'm going to use as support "posts" into the ground. The ground is a solid mass and doesn't seem to want things stuck into it. It's not being cooperative. Wonder if it'd work if I brought the drill out and drilled holes in the ground? I think I might try that tomorrow, I'm at a loss for other ideas.

Our backyard is a bit of a mess from the landscaping-to-garden project we're working on. I am beyond excited to start growing tasty treats, but looking at how much is left to do exhausts me.

Our criminal days are behind us

2010-03-21T18:13:00.001-05:00

I installed the lockbox today. The air tastes much sweeter knowing that we can prance around outside, carefree and without keys, if we so desire.

Although just to be clear, it is an "emergency-only" designated lockbox. We'll see if it stays that way for long. :)

Breaking and Entering

2010-03-19T02:12:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, we started the physical labor of cutting down the uglier-than-sin bushes that decorated the back of our house. It was the first time that we had spent any amount of time outside (not counting the hours of shoveling snow in our way-too-long driveway). One of the first days of great weather and the snow finally melted away for the first time since we owned the house. We were having a lot of fun, despite the hard work, until Laura slipped as she was hauling the bin of branches over towards me. She got a nasty gash on her hand, so we decided to put the kibbosh on any more yard work for the day. Yes, it's all fun and games, until someone loses an eye*.

As we headed for the door, we both realized that we didn't have keys. To our dismay - and to start my freak out - the door was solidly locked up tight.

So let's recap: injured loved one, both of us locked outside the house, cellphones and car keys inside the house.

Crap.

I sent Laura across the street to our kindly old neighbor's house so she could at least clean her gaping wound while I freaked out in private about what to do. Or, in my head, WHAT to DO?!!

The only two options we had were to call a locksmith to come and get us in (about $70) or break a window and solve the problem ourselves (unknown cost but likely less than $70).

If you know me at all, you know that I am definitely a do-it-yourself problem solver. And frugal to boot.

Clearly I did not choose Option A. Since we had a basement window that was partially broken, I decided that would be the unlucky window that would soon be smashed. All of our basement windows have two panes of glass, so I knew it wouldn't be a quick smash and enter. Plus, I didn't want to get any gaping wounds of my own in the process, so I set up shop and took my time carefully breaking the first pane and removing all of the jagged pieces into a bucket, and then the same with the second pane. All said, I did a pretty decent job, and only ended up with 4 or 5 smaller pieces of glass falling inside the house. Turns out I'd make an excellent burglar! But I already knew that**.

To make a long story short, I got inside, got the house unlocked, and retrieved Laura from the neighbor's house. No more yard work that day. Instead, we drove to her parents' home nearby and had Dr. Mom look at the wound. She declared it "merely a flesh wound", at which point we turned our attention to the broken window. To the Hardware store! After dropping $40 at the Hardware store and waving buh-bye to our window***, we needed to do something more conventional in terms of fun. Laura's parents have a Wii and WiiFit, so we had ourselves a gay ol' time flapping like chickens, rhythmically kung-fu-ing, and doing other weird but ridiculously entertaining "exercises". I love it. I want one! But it seems such a waste to spend the money when nearby family has one for all to enjoy.

I did, however, purchase a lock box today. Take that, house! Try locking us out now!

********************
*No one lost any eyes. The hand wound looked absolutely horrifying though.

**I had some kid adventures back in Junior High that gave me a little experience. 3 that pop readily into mind: one involving my parents' house, one involving a friend's house, and the third involving an abandoned old school in a small town up north. Kids sure do dumb things! Little did I know, I was preparing myself with an important life skill!

***Did you know it takes half a week to get regular, run-of-the-mill glass installed? Sheesh. And $40? Please, it took you all of 10 minutes. And less than one sheet of glass. I suppose it's still better than me spending an hour or two trying to figure it out myself!

My Bleeding Pockets

2010-03-18T21:29:00.001-05:00

To get my gardening plans kicked off, I needed some supplies. And by "some" supplies, I mean a semi-load. 700 bricks and 4000 lbs of soil, to be exact. Luckily for me, I had recently scored a 10% off total purchase coupon from Lowes. Which meant that, in addition to getting delivery of these 700 bricks and 4000 lbs of soil for $59, I got a great deal on their price. I ended up below budget - well, maybe I'm being too quick to speak here, since I know there will be other things I'll need to purchase before this project is completely finished. But I had estimated that the costs would be about $900, and my total (including taxes and the delivery fee - and a lock box, which is another story altogether) came to $877.02.

Hooray! I came in under budget! And someone else is going to schlep a few tons of bricks and another couple tons of soil all the way to my house, which is, coincidentally, right where I need it!

How's that for a bargain? I am seriously oohing and ahhing over the delivery bit, because that is so much labor - and wear & tear on my station wagon, not to mention gas costs of the multiple loads it would take - and all for $59. Best $59 I ever spent.

My pockets gladly bleed for gardening expenses.

Ghetto Blastin'

2010-03-14T16:52:00.000-05:00

Let me start by saying that I absolutely love our neighborhood. It's a hop away from an amazing nature trail that goes on for miles. Our street is not a main drag, so it isn't busy - the streets couldn't be more safe.

But, we have a ghetto neighbor. What do I mean by that? I mean that in the "ghetto blaster" sense, because they are the most noisy, inconsiderate neighbors around. They blast their music from their cars - when they're driving, when they're playing in the yard, whenever. At all ungodly hours of the night, although during the day as well.

Fortunately, the city we live in has fairly strict noise ordinances. I need them today! After the police came and talked to our noisy neighbors, they turned down their music.

For 10 minutes.

Then they cranked it right back up. So I called again - because seriously, that is some major rudeness. I don't know if the police will come back out or not. I hope so, but then again, it didn't seem to do much good last time. But maybe a second visit would convince them to knock it off and be good neighbors.

I know, I know. I'm naive to think that they'll change their inconsiderate ways - especially seeing their reaction to the first cop's visit. But sometimes, all you can do is hope.

And invest in quality ear plugs.

March Madness

2010-03-06T19:03:00.000-06:00

Now that we're more settled in our new home, my thoughts are brimming with plans. I'm a planner by nature, and owning a house brings with it so many opportunities for planning different home improvement projects!

This will be the first summer we have a garden. Big plans for that! Tomatoes, onions, peas, beans, pumpkins, squash, peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon, raspberries, blackberries... yum! My dad claims that St Patrick's Day is the perfect time to start the seeds so they'll be ready to put in the ground. I forgot to ask him when exactly it is that they go in the ground. 4-6 weeks later? I'll Google it or give Dad a call (my human Google when it comes to all things grown in a garden)
That will take care of the backyard. The front yard, on the other hand, is a whole 'nother ball of wax. We have enormous, hideous shrubs along the front of our house. Those monstrosities will not be around much longer. Hit the road, Jack! We'll try something else in their place.. maybe sunflowers, or Laura's ancestral peonies, or.. ? No decisions have been made yet for that. Also in the front yard are three trees of varying sizes. I hope that we can get rid of at least two of them, and plant fruit trees in their place. 2 apple trees (so they pollinate) and then maybe a pear tree (if they don't require 2 for pollination like the apple trees).

Also in the works: painting most of the inside of the house, painting the shutters on the outside (from a bland black to a more lively candy red), ripping up the dining room carpet, installing a bathroom exhaust fan, installing a wood stove, and building a tandem, semi-attached garage.

And painting the entire shed.

Whew!