Welcome back!
This is my sounding board, my blog, my place to brain-storm and dream and plan.
This might also be my place to vent occasionally. Hahaha.
The month of January was rough. There was lots of loss for my family. We lost two of my grandmothers’ siblings. They were older but their deaths were not expected and were close together. It was a hard reminder of our mortality and to make the most of the time that we have. I am glad that I had the time with them that I did. I had great memories of my uncle Lawrence and all the fun things he always had in his overalls and of getting to walk the farm with him. I remember him showing me my great-grandmothers peacocks when I was little. I knew my aunt Norma from afar thanks to Facebook and my heart is so happy that she got to meet my two girls when she came to visit.
I am hoping that February will break the grey, heavy funk that January left behind. In an effort to help turn things around, I have been working on cleaning and reorganizing things in my house. It feels sooo good to have things picked up and put in better places. Our house might be small but, my goodness, did the previous owners make the most of that space! There are built-ins and closets and storage spaces galore!
I managed to score a couple of older seed starting shelves back around Thanksgiving off of Facebook marketplace. I invested in new bulbs for them and I managed to get one of them mostly functional. The larger one needs a couple of new ballasts. I still need to nail down exactly what I want to grow this year, but this week I am hoping to get seeds started!
I may or may not have a seed collecting problem… I discovered Baker Creek and MiGardener’s websites and have acquired seeds from both. MiGardener is wonderful if you are on a budget. Baker Creek is a great resource for rare heirlooms, they have great customer service as well. Both sources also have a YouTube presence and they are such great resources.
My gardening space is still up in the air. I have a friend who has offered me some cinder blocks to use to build raised beds. Unfortunately my soil is a super dense clay and I do not have the time and resources it would take to amend the soil enough for an in-ground garden to be as successful as I would like.
I am hoping to do raised beds in the back yard for vegetables and hopefully some perennials. Along the north side of my house I want to have flowers for a cut-flower garden. In the front yard I want to have my herbs, a tea garden, more flowers and hopefully fruit trees!
This spring my projects include all new HVAC for inside my house (my current HVAC is in great running condition for it’s age but it is circa 1982 and that makes me nervous), replacing two windows in the upstairs bedrooms, hopefully convert the fluorescent lighting in the basement to LED and a big item on my wish-list is a dishwasher that I am still hoping is possible after all the big things. Outside I have raised beds to build, dirt to find, mulch to add to current garden beds, a chicken coop to build, trees to trim and remove and a fence to fix! It’s going to be a busy, crazy ride and I hope you decide to follow along to see what I can accomplish.
Until next time, I hope you have a wonderful day!