Life and times of a new farmer/homesteader
My day {
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Monday, January 22, 2007
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Today is Blue Monday, statistically the most depressing day of the year. Not for me though.Why is today Blue monday? Well, Christmas bills are coming due, and any New Years Resolutions should be blown out of the water right about now, and Valentines day is right around the corner, it's winter, and it's Monday. Look it up, I'm not making this up. But for me, today has been good. I got two more eggs, heard from an old friend through e-mail, played with Polly, walked into town and chatted with the local store owner, talked on the phone with a friend from the blog and my mother, read the Bible a bit (Exodus and John,) played poker online (and did pretty well,) and I am currently roasting one of my roosters. Life is good! I'm looking through seed cataologues for my garden and nursery catalogs for my tree and bush needs. I saw a great post on one of my new friends blogs about tea. I plan on getting a tea bush one of these days. I can get them through my favorite local nursery (www.raintreenursery.com) so I'm looking at what it will take to have one thrive. Has anyone here grown their own tea before? I would love to hear about it. I also want to get some citrus when my greenhouse gets built, but that may be a year or two out. I'm thinking Meyer lemons and Kefir limes. I might even grow coffee. First, I need a greenhouse, so this year it will be cherries, plums, figs, pears, and maybe a pawpaw. I have plenty of apples. I also am planning on getting some gooseberries, currants, and cranberries. I already have grapes, blueberries, and raspberries on order. They should be here in March. Seeds though! I can't believe the selections out there. I love Swiss chard and beets, so I'm getting a few varieties of both. Probably four or so tomato varieties, several chilis, eggplant, lots of different greens, cabbage (of course,) potatoes, beans. peas, roots, and all sorts of stuff. They have rainbow carrots now!?! I will get those, plus I need to get herb starts and seeds. I never grow enough basil. Whew! I already have my Jerusalem Artichokes, garlic, shallots, and some onions (mostly walking varieties,) in the ground. Plus flowers. My mom and I planted about a thousand iris tubers last fall, looking forward to the spring display. Some ended up underwater for much of the winter, so if they don't come up I'm going to plant cranberries there. I also have a couple roses. I hope they produce hips. If not, I will plant more. I planted a cover crop on much of my garden, fava beans, but they didn't break ground before it froze this fall. I hope they will come up in the spring. If not, I have ten more pounds, should be good for an acre. It was a bit difficult finding the innoculant in the fall, only one place in town (Portland) had it, so I bought them out. I have enough for 24 lbs of beans. I'm also going to get some wasabi root for my swamp. I don't know how it will do, but if it does well, it could be a good cash crop. Plus, I love sushi and sashimi. Two more months and I can get my in state fishing and hunting licenses. Then it's seafood, watch out! I planted an olive tree when I moved here, but we have had a very cold winter. I mulched and covered it, but I won't know until spring if it survived. If it did, it should produce this year. If not, I'll get another once I have the greenhouse up. I love olives. I love olive oil, but it may be a few years before I have enough olives to make oil. The snow is mostly gone now. It's been almost warm here the last day or two. I think it even hit 40 F today. It was a beautiful day. I hope you had a beautiful day... Walk in peace, Raymond { Last Page } { Page 93 of 181 } { Next Page } |
