|
primrozie
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Primrozie
Interests: I like many crafts, but mostly working with herbs; do-it-yourself projects; animals; friends; self-sufficiency. My goal for retirement is to have a small homestead.We have a very small lot. My veggie garden consists of (6) 4' x 4' raised beds. I usually have a few containers also that hold vegetable plants.
Expertise: Creating herbal products
Occupation: CDL trainer; school bus driver
Industry: Transportation
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
8/13/2004
|
|
| More PlantingsWe had a beautiful weekend here. Much rain on saturday, but the garden needed it. Here's what I got done:
- Remaining 3 beds turned over
- More mushroom manure added
- One bed had a lot of weed roots ~ very thick and deep so I decided to sow yellow clover seeds and plan to leave it without veggies until the fall garden needs to be planted. I'll turn the clover under and add mushroom manure before planting transplants in there.
- Planted Cylindra beets and Chatenay carrots in another bed.
- Planted shallots. I'm not happy about it, but I just received the shallots I ordered along with my seeds. It's a good thing I had saved some from last year or I would have just now been planting any shallots at all!!! I started them in flats so I can keep an eye on them and will transplant them when I see top growth. They also don't look very nice. Many were turning black. I'll have to find another source for ordering them next season.
- In the house I planted fennel, chard, kale, spinach, basil, more lettuce. More herbs will follow.
Husband doesn't want to use the drip system since we had trouble with our well last year. He set up a rain barrel which uses the roof of our little shelter in the gardens downspout and hoses. Works great. Requires carrying water in buckets to the beds but no big deal. I'll get pictures over at the other blog. All in all it was a great weekend.
| | |
| Spring is in the air ~ even though it's snowingAnd such is the weather in Western Pennsylvania. It's okay though because we love broccoli and spinach and lettuce and peas and all that loves cooler weather. Without our cold spring our veggies don't grow right.
I post almost regularly over at the blogspot site because I can post pictures over there for free. Don't forget to visit me over there now and then!
This weekend I visited my goldfish. I had to break up the ice again. It freezes over so easily. They are okay in there though since it is deep enough. They came up for a peek at what was going on, so I gave them a bite to eat. They look much bigger than last year! I should be seeing some babies soon too. When they are born they are all black, so it is difficult to see them when just passing by. I see them when I'm sitting there for a bit watching in the spring.
I've tried out a practice my British blogging friends have done and I planted up some shallots in a seedling flat. It's too early here to plant out as it was for them a month ago. They set them in their greenhouses and watched as they developed roots and tops! I've never done this before and I'm just so delighted to think I've got a jump on the season this way. Of course, I had to try out the red onions as well. We'll see how they do.
I also began to clean out the greenhouse. My family uses it as a catch-all through the off season so now we need to find places for all the stuff that was left there. I'm using grow lights at present in the house and also have broccoli, tomatoes and spinach which have come up. The tomatoes will be transferred to paper pots but the spinach and broccoli will soon go outside.
Pictures will follow shortly!
| | |
| Spring is in the air ~ even though it's snowingAnd such is the weather in Western Pennsylvania. It's okay though because we love broccoli and spinach and lettuce and peas and all that loves cooler weather. Without our cold spring our veggies don't grow right.
I post almost regularly over at the blogspot site because I can post pictures over there for free. Don't forget to visit me over there now and then!
This weekend I visited my goldfish. I had to break up the ice again. It freezes over so easily. They are okay in there though since it is deep enough. They came up for a peek at what was going on, so I gave them a bite to eat. They look much bigger than last year! I should be seeing some babies soon too. When they are born they are all black, so it is difficult to see them when just passing by. I see them when I'm sitting there for a bit watching in the spring.
I've tried out a practice my British blogging friends have done and I planted up some shallots in a seedling flat. It's too early here to plant out as it was for them a month ago. They set them in their greenhouses and watched as they developed roots and tops! I've never done this before and I'm just so delighted to think I've got a jump on the season this way. Of course, I had to try out the red onions as well. We'll see how they do.
I also began to clean out the greenhouse. My family uses it as a catch-all through the off season so now we need to find places for all the stuff that was left there. I'm using grow lights at present in the house and also have broccoli, tomatoes and spinach which have come up. The tomatoes will be transferred to paper pots but the spinach and broccoli will soon go outside.
Pictures will follow shortly!
| | |
| Very Merry ChristmasOla friends! It's been a wonderful holiday so far. We've enjoyed time, food, and conversation with our family. Making more plans for the summer time and getting other family members to join in on the fun! I hope your Christmas has been a blessed one.
Now, we are back to working on the kitchen with baby steps. We've run in to some structural problems, which slowed us down a lot....and I was really disappointed, but I'm happy that we are doing it right. It's funny to us that every time we try and make repairs or upgrades such as insulating or replacing windows and/or interior walls we've been met time and time again with crooked spaces. Nothing was level. We've done a lot of work here and looks like we will continue to do a lot of work with any little thing we do here!
Our house is a little over 100 years old. Sometime in the 1950s it was remodled or maybe the word restored fits more appropriately, and the basement was added along with the dining room and indoor bathroom. An oil tank and furnace was installed. So, what started as more of a shanty.....turned into a small house. Small one bedroom house!
What we are hoping to do is make it more of a country style than modern since it is a very simple country house to begin with. I like wood furniture. Some stand alone pieces would be nice.
Our first kitchen project is the pantry. The kitchen pantry
was a closet with shelves. We removed the shelves after we installed
the kitchen cabinets so we would have room for the refrigerator so the pantry became a built in refrigerator ;)
Rather than have a separate cabinet to use as a pantry,we are
rebuilding the old pantry. Right now, the refrigerator is in the dining room.
Our dining room is pine wood. Not paneling, but boards. The two rooms are actually one that is separated only by a framed in beam entry from kitchen to dining room. We've decided to use this to our advantage and use the space as one room, with the dining furniture arranged as necessary. The oven and hood will be on the dining room side of the beam.
We've purchased pine boards to be used on the pantry walls and the wall that extends from the pantry to the sink. We won't have a door on the pantry like there used to be, but it will be styled more like cabinets. With all these really great pantry drawers we got from Ikea! :D
We took a ride to Ikea and got so many great ideas! We also came home with new counter tops and the pantry drawers. So this is where we're at right now. Enough to keep us busy for a while. As it is, we only have weekends to get any real work done.
The cabinets we have are oak so we will make use of some. The pantry will eliminate the need for all the cabinets we have and don't have room for. I like to have space and I'm not a person who collects things I need cabinets for anyway. My husband will use the ones I don't want in the garage to store his things.
While the garden lies under snow and the ground is frozen, we'll be busy in the house. Speaking of gardens ~ we just used the last of our garlic. We use much more garlic than I had imagined, so it's a very good thing that I planted twice as much this year as I did last year. Plus....I gave my daughter her own to plant (and she did) so that she would not do so much grocery shopping in my yard as she did last year ;)
I bought her the "You Grow Girl" book. She's growing herbs on her window sill now and garlic on her rear porch. I suggested that they build some grow boxes around their swimming pool. I believe that the gardening bug has bit them.
All for now. God bless.
| | |
| Good Morning :DIt's been a long time since I posted on Xanga. I haven't meant to be gone so long. My time is at a minimum so I just post at the Blogspot.
As you can see, I have not even been able to post there regularly! More changes are coming at work. Our dispatcher quit a couple of months ago and now our general manager has put in her notice for the end of December. This has become the worst year I've ever had there.
We're getting ready for Thanksgiving. My daughter, Audrey Ann, is having the dinner at her house this year. This is her first year being married and hosting a holiday meal. She's all excited about it. She's even chosen her own recipe for stuffing. ;)
Over at the other blog I'm posting a picture of my neice, Abbey, from our last weekend together. She's turning into quite a ham. Loving all the attention! It's the perfect Autumn weekend picture.
| | |
|
