Just two days after I wrote about sowing my first seeds, and being so nervous about it, I went down into the basement to check on the seeds and there it was! Ah, a sight for sore eyes! I love it! In 50 days or so we’ll be eating lettuce: our very own, with a …
Category Archives: food (growing, cooking, preserving)
Poll: Why Do/Don’t You Simplify/Prepare in the face of Peak Oil/Global Warming?
{This is a second attempt at this poll. I deleted the first one: the polling service wasn’t working properly. My apologies to those who already voted; please vote again.} I am curious about how my readers think about Peak Oil / Global Warming. Do you think the threat is real? What do we hope/fear for …
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Garden Plan and Onions and Potato Order
I am having fun with the garden plan. There are so many possibilities, so much to do! I’m cautious about planning too much. I want to concentrate on the food growing areas first: the veg garden, herb garden and some container gardening, and perhaps some berry bushes around the perimeter. But we need to address …
*We* are The Economy
I had a great discussion with a friend about David Orr’s essay, “Loving Children: a Design Problem“. She concluded that the breakdown of education is one of the many results of an unfettered capitalistic economic system. It sounded like the end of our conversation, because, you know, The Economy: what can I do about that? …
Germinating and Growing Seedlings under Lights: Chamber Set-Up
Today we finally had a chance to set up our germination/seedling area in the basement. It’s not fully done yet, but so far we have: One large Gorilla shelf rack – fits 4 standard Jiffy or Burpee seed starting flats perfectly. $87.97 four shop lights (2 sockets each), chain links and S hooks included. 4 …
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We Can Have Chickens!!!!!
We can. We will. Now, which, and how many? And where should they stay… Maybe ducks too? Which would you recommend? So happy!
A Gift of Self-Sufficiency
Snow fell during the night and a good part of the day. It stopped by 3 and I set out. I used the tiny electric snow thrower that was given to us via FreeCycle, for about half the driveway, and shoveled the other half. Took me 2 1/5 hours in all for about 1000 sq.f. …
Homestead TO DO Lists
I can feel I’m back in the thick of things when I feel one of those big TO DO lists coming on. And boy, is there a lot to do! I decided to put these lists in my sidebar and I’ll cross out as I get things done (and for each item crossed out I …
Let It Seed – I mean, Snow!
Finally we got some snow: about an inch, I should say. Amie ran out to play before school. For once it wasn’t difficult to get her into her clothes! Sadly the snow was too hard for snowmen, snow angels, and snowballs, but she had a lot of fun just scraping it off our car and …
Thoughts on our Compost Bins
While lying in bed, surrounded with a lot more books now (so I’m feeling better!), what better things to do than dream, despair over how little we’ve done (as a prod), and plan our next moves. One of our priorities is our compost bins. The Starbucks coffee grounds and the neighborhood orphan pumpkins have filled …