Winter Time

So, I have been working on a few projects. I'm still feeling pretty tired most of the time and I've been working some weird hours at work lately. I'm almost done with a quilt top. I just have four more rows to sew together, then I get to go shopping for batting and backing! I have bought a few baby fabrics to start a baby quilt. Hopefully I can get it done before the baby is here.

We still have yet to put our garden stuff away, or rake leaves. We've been pretty lucky that we've only had flurries so far this winter season. I know our luck won't hold out much longer. I don't think it will be that detrimental to our garden if things aren't taken out before winter, but I'm not really an expert on stuff like that.

Fall is Here

So fall is definitely here. It has been very cool here and the leaves have turned their beautiful colors. We're planning on taking out the fence and other garden things sometime in the next week. We'll till it under, then put the leaves from the tree over top of it.
I'm still trying to get motivated to start some of my indoor projects. Of course, I haven't had as much motivation to clean my house either. I'm sure I'll find the energy soon.

Tomatoes Galore

Today I went and picked some tomatoes out of our garden. In a day or so, I'll have to pick them again. I had so many that I decided I would try dehydrating them, along with a few jalapenos that have been sitting on my counter for a few days. With the next batch of tomatoes, I may just have to can my own salsa. I'm pretty sure I'll have enough tomatoes and the jalapeno plants are still producing. Now I need to look for a yummy recipe. I did make some of the tomatoes into fresh salsa for supper. It looked really good!

Harvest

I had my first harvest of our garden a few days ago. There were three Roma tomatoes that were a very pretty red color. So, I picked them! And I ate them! And they were delicious! There are a lot of green tomatoes, yet, so hopefully they will turn soon and the canning can begin! I also have a lot of flowers on my bean plants. I'm hoping to have beans galore! And of course the cucumbers are taking over their corner of the garden so I'm going to need to start looking up good pickle recipes too!

Awaiting Bounty

I went out to the garden today and it's looking pretty good, except for all of weeds. I haven't been able to weed because of all the rain. The thunderstorms last night started to unbury some of our onions. There are some tomatoes and one of them is even starting to turn red. Two of our pepper plants didn't make it, but the rest of them are OK. They haven't started to flower, but they did survive, which is half the battle.

Our tiger lilies have also bloomed and some of my wildflowers are starting to bloom as well. I'm not sure what flowers they are except for pretty. Once they get bigger, I'll post some pictures.

Will It Ever End?

The rain just doesn't seem to quit. My husband went out to mow the lawn yesterday and couldn't because the ground was too wet. Most of our garden has really taken off, but we can't get out and weed because it always rains when we have the time to do it.

So I guess it's on to indoor projects. I've been working on getting some of my recipes into the computer so I don't have as many loose papers to keep track of. Once I'm done with the loose papers, I'll move on to our favorite recipes from books. That way all of our favorite recipes will be located in one area, and I won't have to try and remember what book/magazine/paper it came from. I think it will be really helpful to have the recipes centrally located, not only for a fast reference, but to help keep clutter out of my cupboard. I'll post a picture of my plethora of magazines and cookbooks, just to show what kind of order needs to be done.

Green Thumb

Our fence seems to be keeping out the rabbits. So far none of them have gotten in. Here's what our main garden looks like now. The white buckets are around our peppers. I was told that peppers love them because it helps to keep them warmer and they grow better that way. Not to mention it's an extra obstacle for the rabbits to get around when they try to eat pepper plants. It's a small garden, but it works for us. We usually get enough produce for us to freeze or try canning. We may have a bigger garden someday, but right now it's the right size.

Our roses are also blooming. They are so beautiful. They smell really good, too, except that you have to be right up next to them to smell them. I like these the best since they are tipped pink. Their blooms seem to last longer than the red roses we have. We do get them to bloom a couple of times during the summer, and they're very pretty each time.

Fresh Fruit

Since we got our fence up, it seems to be keeping out the rabbits really well. I'm very excited about this since I haven't been able to grow green beans since we moved to this house. I did have to go to the Farmer's Market Saturday to buy some rhubarb. We have our own plant, but it seems to be too dry for it this year. I've picked three times and this last time it didn't look all that ready. I made strawberry rhubarb sauce with it and it tasted really good! I have plenty of strawberries and rhubarb now to try to can the sauce. It will be quite the adventure since I've not canned this sauce before. It's always an adventure trying to can in our kitchen though. It's a little small, but we manage to do it!

Rabbits

I absolutely cannot stand rabbits any longer. They decided to eat my pepper plants. All of them. Down to hardly any stem left. Whoever said that rabbits won't eat pepper plants are LIARS! They love them! Can't get enough of them! I'm trying to salvage what is left of them, but I don't have very high hopes. We started to put a fence around the garden, but with the lightning storm, we decided to call it a night. They also like onion tops. Fortunately, not as much so the onions are doing all right still. I'm hoping to get the fence up before the green beans start coming up!

Finally, It's Done

I finally finished planting our garden yesterday. We went to the store and bought seeds for cucumbers and beans, and pepper and tomato plants as well as tomato cages. I got everything without incident and even got the tomato cages up. I found out our garden hose does not have any holes and had little problems rolling it up. Now we just sit, weed, water and wait. We're planning on putting a fence around it on Saturday, and I'm hoping to clean out the spot for my herb garden so we can get that planted. (I'm really hoping to get to can my own salsa this year!)

I am thinking that I have my husband convinced that we should try growing our own tomato and pepper plants next year. It was a little pricey buying already growing plants. Hopefully we'll have the capability to do it!

I'll put pictures of our bounty up, once we can harvest.

Flowers

So I finally took a picture of some of our flowers. We had a really nice day on Sunday where I was able to get a picture of the flowers blooming. I'm hoping to plant some wildflowers in the next week. I've also looked at some flowering shade bushes that I think will be really pretty to have.

We're starting to get things together that we want to get done this summer. It seems the list just keeps getting longer. It started out as re-doing our plumbing. We've added cleaning out the shed, power washing our siding and porch, sealing the porch, sanding and sealing the outdoor benches, and replacing our windows. I guess it's going to be a really busy summer!

Rain, Rain

So, I have cut our seed potatoes Saturday so they can "cure" before they are planted. We were hoping to have them planted Tuesday, but alas, they still sit "curing" on my counter. It thunderstormed Monday night and rained on and off on Tuesday. There was even a chance of tornadoes. Today, it has been raining on and off again. Pretty soon it's going to be May and we're going to have a very late crop of potatoes. If my prepared potatoes are still good, that is. We still have a large quantity of seed potatoes, so we have an ample supply to try again. I don't know if they keep from year to year or not. I guessing not.

My husband and I aren't completely new to gardening, it's just been so long since either of us remembered planting some of the stuff we've decided to try this year. We've also decided to try the hanging tomato plants in hopes that the rabbits won't eat them off the vine. Of course gardening for us is always and exercise in patience, and somewhat futility, since there are so many rabbits in town. We're thinking about live trapping them and taking to them to the wildlife care center. We may even get some stray cats that we'll take to the shelter.

For now, we just wait for the rain to stop long enough to work in the garden again. I have some wild hollyhocks that need transplanting since they are in with our strawberries. But our strawberries looked to have survived another winter and our rhubarb has started to come up. Maybe this will be the year I can make strawberry-rhubarb preserves!

Our Lawn

My husband and I did some yard work yesterday. I went around and collected all the garbage (we live on a main road through town) and came up with a full garbage bag. Jason raked up the leaves and sticks in the front yard. He ended up with a very heaping wheelbarrow full. We decided to get an outdoor fire pot so we could burn the leaves and sticks in stead of hauling them somewhere. Once we got our fire pot put together, it burned merrily. Of course we didn't burn the whole wheelbarrow full seeing as it was starting to get late. We'll continue to burn it throughout the week. Now we get to work on the backyard and our gardens. I have some flowers to plant/transplant and more weeding around the strawberries. We have creeping Charlie everywhere, so it seems like weeding is a never ending chore.

Planting

So it's Easter weekend, and we plan on planting potatoes and onion seed today. First, we have to re-till the garden and put up a fence to keep those pesky rabbits out of it. I don't know why, but there is a huge rabbit problem in this town. I haven't been able to keep green beans or carrots since we moved to this house. And it doesn't seem to matter how much blood meal we put out, they keep coming. And they will eat tomatoes, if that's what's left. We have about a month before we should plant anything else in our vegetable garden. I do have some bare spots around some fences that need some plants. Hopefully the begonia's I picked up will survive. I have a nice shady spot picked our for them.

I'm also hoping to plant herbs in the next couple of weeks. We're expected to have mostly sunshine next week, so that will be really helpful in planting.

Why

A little information before I get into why I've started this blog. I work for a state university. And if anyone has worked for a state institution in an hourly position, you'll understand my plight. At the end of August of 2009, I was approached by a different department head and "encouraged" to apply to transfer to a position in his department. I did and he promptly retired. Nice, I know, but he was tired of what was going on and he didn't like being helpless. I don't blame him. It's not his fault. In October, I was called into a meeting with human resources and was told that my position was being offered for someone else to bump into. Needless to say, I have been very stressed out ever since. My husbnd and I have been doing what we can to keep our sanity. Tomorrow, March 26th, I find out what happens. Do I get to bump someone else, or do I have to take the layoff.

So, since my employment is uncertain, I have decided to try my hand at blogging for others to read. I do have a blog that I write for my family and another I write for my gaming friends. (Yes, my husband and I are gamers. Both table top and computer!) I will try to blog once a week, possibly more. However, I do have projects that I do, and I have learned that I need to set time to do these projects or they don't get done.

My plan is to blog about my projects and other things I've learned. I quilt, knit, garden, bake, cook, play computer games, table top game, play piano and other things. I've been trying my hand at making my own food mixes and own laundry soap. I've even made my own dishwashing soap, without great results. I'm still learning.

Please feel free to comment on my blog at any time. Ask questions, even! I do check my blogs on a daily basis, so I will try to answer everything I can!