Posting again

Seems that I have a habit of posting for a bit then completely ignoring the blog for long stretches of time.  This time there was a mis-communication on moving the blog from blogspot to our own domain and then going to Wordpress for posting.  I wasn't sure that actually ever got set up and then I was told I could post from blogspot still....by that time I had already kinda lost interest in the blog and just never got around to posting again. 

Obviously.

Well, yet again, I am back to posting and this time hopefully I can keep it up more regularly in the coming year. 

I think the end of the old year and the start of the new really make me think about posting.  I always have all these ideas that I want to do and talk about, especially during the cold month while I shut myself inside and wait for spring to arrive. 

So much has changed this year going into 2013 I am still trying to wrap my head around it.  Soon I will be putting together my seed order for the year and another garden season will be started.  I am hoping to get tomatoes and peppers in seed pots by Feb 1.  Guess I need to get myself in gear and find somewhere to put them!

-Fin

Going Official

As of today, this blog can be found at "www.suburbanreject.com" as opposed to simply another speaker on blogger. :-) I'm looking at shaking things up on the server software side of things with a few of my pet projects. If that ever happens, not much will change from the reader/design perspective (outside of no longer being a 'blogger' site).  For now, the old blogger site redirects here, and all links should remain functional.  The RSS feed is now: http://www.suburbanreject.com/feeds/posts/default

-- Fate

The garden is in bloom

It's planting season!  It's a super busy time, so posting has been bad again, but I've been taking pictures of all the stuff that's getting done!  Hopefully I will have time to start posting more soon!

- Fin

Current chick pictures

-Fin

New green house frame and seedlings

Statice:


eggplant - listada de gandia:



Cabbage - savoy:



cabbage - early flat dutch and red acre:



Pics of the new greenhouse frame:





It was way too windy to put on the plastic today. I had no desire to become a kite. I will be working on that in the next couple days.

- Fin

Reworking the garden

So, this is the plan I made out for the new setup for the garden. I used this program. It was kind of a pain to use, since its all web based and kept freezing up randomly. However, its the best of its kind I've seen out there, so I made do. Its nice because if you add in where you planted all your plants, then it will tell you next year where not to plant the same thing. I haven't gotten a chance to go in and add plants in since I've gotten my finalized seed list, but I will be doing that eventually. It will also send you reminders on when to plant out seeds, or start seeds for transplants based on your zone, so that's pretty cool.

The area inside the "fencing" is in the backyard. The four boxes on the bottom are in the front yard. I just included them on there so I could put in what I planted. Pretty much all measurements are accurate, and I went through and staked out the garden according to the plan I made out.



Eventually all the staked out areas will be wooden beds like so:

However, I only have so much wood so far, and its about used up. My brother made up those boxes for me a couple weekends ago, and I finally had a chance to get them installed inbetween the rain today.

I'm using hay to mulch between the beds to keep down the weeds, as well as keep the soil moist. I am not going to have enough hay to do the whole garden tho, at least not with what I have now. I will be posting an ad on craigslist for more hay, trying to get some wood chips, and paying attention to the ads to see if I can get some more wood. I just love the look of the boxes, looks very tidy. I put up the string so I could tell where the beds and walkways would go, I needed some kind of visual marker.

In between working on the garden, while it was raining, I was productive inside as well. I made some DIY seed tape, these are carrots:



I will be doing more as time allows. Probably more carrots, some lettuce, and maybe some radishes, beets, and turnips. I'm not sure how well these will work out, but its an experiment I'm willing to try. I don't have enough patience to plant these seeds one by one, as they are super tiny, and usually end up just scattering them out, then thinning. That's not a bad way to do it, but I'd like to see if this is better.

All in all, I think its been a pretty productive day!

-Fin

Clothes lines

I hang my clothes outside.

I haven't used my dryer in close to a full year now. I have a line and a drying rack indoors that I hang my clothes up on when the weather is too bad outside for my wussy-ness. I hate the cold. This has been working out for me very well this winter.

Last year I had some issues during the winter with my clothes taking way too long to dry so my dad suggested that I use a fan to get the air moving a bit. That worked like a charm. We've had so few days this winter that have been too cold or rainy/snowy that I think I've only dried my clothes indoors just a handful of times. Mostly I have been paying attention to the weather and hanging them outside.

As you can see I have room for one more line:

There have been enough times that I've really needed more space that I think I am going to go ahead and get another one this year. I'm trying to decide between putting in another chain or one of the plastic coated metal lines. There are advantages to both.

I hang everything that would usually go on hangers up wet on their hangers then put those through the linkage on the chain. It takes up a whole lot less space that way and I have the advantage of not having an extra step. I can just take the clothes inside and hang them right in the closet, instead of having to take them off the line and hang them up.

I'm sure my neighbors think I'm weird being out there on these colder days hanging up my laundry. I'm sure they think that I don't have a dryer. The truth is that I DO have a dryer, I just truly enjoy being outside hanging out the laundry. I even enjoy hanging it up inside, tho not as much as being outside. I've noticed a big difference on wear and tear on my clothes too. Especially the pieces that have some kind of elastic in them like underwear and bras. The heat from the dryer tends to ruin the elastic so they go all weird really fast. Hanging them up to dry I don't have that same issue and they look brand new, even six months to a year after purchase.

I've been considering getting rid of my dryer completely. I would really love to put a sink in next to my washer, since its in my fish room, I could really use the water source! I probably won't, at least not any time soon, but it is something I am considering.

-Fin