No figs-- cherries & gooseberries instead!

I opted NOT to get figs this year. There's a small tree next to our house, and we can see how much we like those.

My next door neighbor, who shares my love of gardening, gave me an extra gooseberry plant! I am very excited, especially since I've been hunting for one! I think the berries look like miniature dinosaur eggs.

The main reason for no figs? Costco had semi-dwarf cherry trees! And not just any ol' cherry trees, but 4-grafted cherry trees, meaning they may have up to four different types of cherries on one tree. LOVELY. So, we got two of them, and we'll plant them in the far north corner of the yard. They're approximately this big (see below), so we may have some fruit this year.

Yesterday was annoying. I had wanted to dig in the yard (Maddie's recovering from surgery, so she was cooped up inside), but it was POURING. So I sat inside and worked on my garden plan. :) That was fun, but I really wanted to get my poor plants in the ground.

So, I currently have 16 blueberry plants outside (they have decent root balls on them, so they should be ok, but...), and 12 raspberry plants.

Inside the laundry room, there are all my rhizomes and roots (no super big hurry on planting those), but also my dwarf apricots and my peach. Those need to get planted asap.

And finally, in my car, there are the two Costco cherries.

As of right now, the cherries, apricots and peach trees can go in, since their beds are done. That will probably happen today, rain or shine (or gray cloudy, which it is right now).

THe next row houses 3 blueberry boxes for 6 plants, but 2 of the 6 are plants I don't have yet. Duke Blueberries should have another type of blueberry for cross pollination, so I have to buy those still, so I will leave space. That means, even with the next row, only 4 blueberries get planted. Eeek! Alongside that row is a row of raspberries (long boxes), so that may need to get done asap too.

Sigh, more box building, more digging, more rock sorting. This would be so much more fun if it was not in the rain....

Sewing goals

I've decided this year, I will become better at sewing.

Now, I already have a few projects in mind, like taking a simple sweater from a thrift store and turning it into something like this:
But those type of projects I'm already ok with doing. I want to do something outside of my normal repertoire.

I love blouses, tunics and dresses. Nothing too complicated, but with rich fabrics.

So that's my goal: to become more familiar with pattern-using and pattern-making, so that by year's end, I can whip up projects for gifts and have more in my closet.

Now, I don't have a serger right now, and, in the past, this has hindered me some. But, the more proficient I become at sewing, the more I can justify a cheap serger. But right now? I can't really justify it if I don't sew too often.

But first things first: First garden and chickens. As I said, this is a long-term project, not one that has to be accomplished in the next week. Besides, my sewing in the near future will consist of that HUGE mending pile I have, as well as sometime making the adorable blouse, above. :)

New plants!

Yesterday, we went to the home and garden show. I picked up a few things!

A dwarf peach tree:

Two dwarf apricot trees:

A double red peony root:
Five calla lily rhizomes:
Five glory lily rhizomes (grows in shade!):
Four mix dahlia rhizomes:
And,
I'm probably going back today to pick up a sweet honey fig tree:

A day full of pretty and anticipated yum.

Garden Dog

Garden dog in the garden= happy dog.Happy dog covered in dirt.

Alert dirty garden dog hears a new noise.
Gratuitous bottom shot of garden dog helping till the soil.
Garden dog is still dirty.
Happy garden dog, showing off her new coat colors.
Another gratuitous bottom shot of garden dog tilling.
.Garden dog after significant bathtub soaking
Garden dog, done for the day. Wet and sleepy.

Raspberries!

I love craigslist.

Yesterday, I found an ad selling Tulameen (bearing throughout the summer) raspberries for next to nothing.

B and I hadn't planned on getting raspberries (we would just get them at a local farm) because we thought they'd be a bit too pricey. But now? We're going to be the new home for at least 12 plants. They'll go in as a row right next to the blueberries.

We are really excited to be adding another fruit that, once in and established, will bear fruit year-after-year. It's nice not to have the additional expense, and know that they will be there next year too. And raspberries! Oh yum.

I still need to build my baskets for my strawberries. We're getting approximately 50 plants (again, another craigslist find). And once my raspberries are in, the goji berries (3 or so plants) will go right nearby, as well red currants. After that, I think we're done with the recurring berries... though I might add a gooseberry plant for fun.

So completely exciting.

Blueberry Update, Wisteria, and Kale Recipe

I'm discovering muscles I knew I had, but that haven't been used in a long time. The blueberry raised beds are built, and they're in the process of being installed. It's been drizzly here, so the ground is wet. Wet ground = heavy. Heavy= muscles tested. I have 4 beds installed, and I'm hoping to get to the final 4 (haha) today. Those plants need to go in! Each bed is 2'x4' and 1' tall, and each will hold two plants, giving each plant a 2'x2' space. They may eventually need more space, but we're guessing by that time (YEARS from now), we'll be in a new place (hopefully, our very own place). But since that's years off, this is the plan for now. THey look good, and I'm being careful, using string and stakes) to get them in JUST so.

We've been thinking about what to use to create a small barrier between our plot and the shared tree area and back shared lot. No, we aren't being anti-social... we just thought it'd be nice to have an additional layer of privacy.

I'm leaning towards Wisteria. It loves the dirt and weather in our area, and the area I'm thinking of putting it would get at least 6 hours of sun in the summer (which is what it needs). It would get more winter sun because the trees wouldn't have any leaves.

(photo courtesy of about.com)

I think it will grow enough. I'm going to make a VERY simple trellis for it, and probably paint the trellis a violet color so to add some color to the vines in the dormant winter months. It's one of the plants we probably won't be able to take with us though (unless we cut it back and dig it up), so we'll have to find a decently cheap supply.

I was going to put climbing beans on the area, but it gets some partial shade, making it not the best spot for sun-needing beans.

So, last night, I had a lot of veggies in the fridge that needed to get used. I would have taken photos, but I honestly thought it wouldn't turn out well. But... it did. So, here's my new kale recipe.

PUT ALL IN BOWL 1:
3 cups chopped kale (chopped into approx 1/2" pieces)
3-4 roma tomatoes (you can use any tomato; but I wanted to say I used romas so you'd know the size)
1 small yellow onion, chopped finely (mine was 1.5" diameter)
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
4-6 red potatoes, chopped into approx 1/2" cubes.
2 cooked and chopped bratwurst (you can use any sausage, but I used this because we had some fresh, really really good, straight-from-the-farm, bratwurst)

BOWL 2 (liquidy ingredients)
1.5 cups cheese ( used an Italian 5-cheese blend, finely shredded, and a little cheddar)
1/3 cup nonfat plain yogurt
4 eggs
2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper
2 tbs olive oil

Mix ingredients of Bowl 1, and mix ingredients of bowl 2. Then mix together.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour mixtures (now all combined) into greased pan/casserole dish, and sprinkle with a little cheese. Cook for 35-50 minutes (it depends on the potatoes). Cover in foil for first 25 minutes, so cheese on top does not burn.

It turned out pretty darn well! I'll be using it again. I was just hoping to get rid of stuff in my fridge, but now it's a new recipe to add to our collection.

Laundry Room: Before and After Photos!

Here are the photos from the laundry room project. I'm really happy with how it all turned out. We will be soon putting some (probably brown) curtains in, but I wanted to share the photos sooner rather than wait until those curtains were installed. Hurray for finished projects!

BEFORE PHOTO: I found my camera charger after I had dismantled some of the shelving. So I took a photo of the shelving so you'd see how much yucky stuff had already been removed.

BEFORE PHOTO: Outside of laundry room. It needs to be pressure washed and painted this upcoming summer. Badly. But this way, you see how the laundry room is a separate entrance.

BEFORE PHOTO: The gosh-awful, disgusting floor before. Mud outside= mud inside. Years of this= caked on grime. This is pretty much the entire walkway inside of the laundry room. Needing to keep clearance for the machines and having any storage in there resulted in claustrophobic nastiness. I had to SAND THIS ALL DOWN BY HAND. So gross.

BEFORE PHOTO: The infamous NASTY shelving, literally made with pallets. I have no problem with projects using pallets, but this one was just funky. There were way too many pieces of wood. Too many nooks and crannies for spiders to hide (and there were a LOT of them). No way to clean the floor (you'll see as such in the next photo). PLUS, the shelves were WAY too deep and oddly spaced vertically. And those vertical beams did not help matters any.

BEFORE PHOTO: Plus, the nasty shelves? Covered the window. I had already removed a bunch in front of the window when this photo was taken, but you get the idea.

BEFORE PHOTO: Window covered by shelving (shelving already partially removed).

BEFORE PHOTO: The gross gross gross floor. Mud and grime. (And my sexy slippers)

BEFORE PHOTO: Apparently, when a prior tenant spilled paint, it wasn't worth cleaning up. That's about a quart of paint! And look at that nastiness grime and dirt in there (that you can't reach because of the pallet).

MIDWAY THROUGH PHOTO: One wall painted. Still a ton of mess.



MIDWAY THROUGH PHOTO: Whoa, the leaning towers of unorganized crud.




MIDWAY THROUGH PHOTO: Nasty old yellow and red spilled paint cleaned up.


MIDWAY THROUGH PHOTO: Where the red paint WAS. It was chipped off. The drips on the wallboard weren't worth chipping because they could be covered and weren't very bumpy (as in, they would show through the paint).

AFTER! Good-bye messy floor. Good-bye unpainted walls (just drywall and spackle before). Good-bye unpainted ceiling. Good-bye clutter. Good riddance horrible shelving.

AFTER!




After! I quickly whipped together the new shelving unit. It's really strong, painted, and does the trick. It also takes advantage of the otherwise-unusable space above the washer-dryer (we have front-loading washer dryers, so we can do this). Enough space was left below the unit to access the dryer dials.



AFTER! Another interior shot. We may eventually put a card table by the window for crafts, sewing, and projects, but for now, it is destined for chick-ville in a few weeks.



AFTER: This is our little freezer. On top of it is my dehydrator and bread machine, two machines that can go out here and be used out here without a problem. And it's really nice to have more space in the kitchen.



AFTER! 100% organized tubs of things, with enough room on top for our snowshoes, and enough room on the side for Maddie's portable carrier and my drill.


So, that's the project. We are so happy with it. It's become a very clean, very flexible space that we actually WANT to go into, whereas before, it was somewhere we dreaded. Cost? Home Depot had a sale on paint, so... $10 for the green paint and $10 for the floor paint. We have leftovers of both, which we'll use probably on the chicken coop. The wood for the rack cost $10 too. So $30 of output total. Since it's a rental, we have to really analyze the cost/benefit to us, since we're improving something we can't take with us. But for $30, now we have, basically, an extra room we didn't have before. Well worth the $30.

Busy weekend

This weekend was crazy busy. The results? Two BIG, but half-done projects. That means today I'll be busying myself away trying to finish two things at once.

Photos soon.... I hope to have some crazy before and after shots!

Locked out and unproductive

SIGH.

I got off work a little bit early yesterday. So, I ran to the store to pick up the last few ingredients to make the crazy-large batch of burritos for B (put them in the freezer and he grabs one for lunch). I already have cooked up about 8lbs of meat and then shredded it.

Then I ran by a woman's house who was selling a brand-new 8-qt crock pot (yes, 8 quarts. LOVELY). I bought it and then realized: I LOCKED MYSELF OUT OF MY CAR.

#*$#!

Luckily, the woman had AAA, so she was able to call them and get my car opened for free. But it was an hour wait, and I didn't know her. She was working with her husband on an outdoor project, so I hung around outdoors. Luckily, it was warmish yesterday; about 50 degrees. but I still had my work skirt on and nothing to do. I had high heels on so I couldn't walk too far also. Sigh.

So beginning a few projects at home had to wait.

By the time I made it home, I had another email from a gal with a really nice coffee table I wanted (looks like this one but isn't), so I hopped into the house, yelled at the dog for chewing a show (grrrr!!!), and then hopped back out for the coffee table.

Tomorrow is blueberries! Also, a really neat recycling place by us (like super awesome neato recycling place with sinks, wood, antiques, you name it) is having a 50% off sale this weekend. We're hoping to find some good garden stuff, and maybe some paver stones for B to use on his front walkway.

And hopefully, HOPEFULLY, we'll find the camera charger so we can charge the battery and take photos. :)

Chickens!

We received approval yesterday from our landlord to have chickens!

B's pretty much left this one up to me, so I've decided on getting Silver Laced Wyandottes.
They're big hens, topping out at about 6.5 to 7lbs. They're coloration is BEAUTIFUL (I think). Plus, they will lay LARGE eggs and they will be brown. YUM!

Wyandottes are known for being more friendly than other breeds too. I'm not looking for cuddly pets, but it'd be nice to have something that doesn't try to peck me to death when I gather eggs, clean the coop, and shut them in for the night.
Here's what they should look like when they arrive. They can be shipped because for the first few days of life, chicks can live off what's already in them-- the yolk part of the egg they came from! Here's hoping all arrive safe and sound.

They're going to live in a tub in the laundry room for a while until they get big enough to go in a coop. That gives me some time to build the coop outside.

We wanted to get them started asap, because this time, we're starting from chicks. Chicks don't start laying until they're about 20 weeks old, so if we start asap, we'll have eggs this late spring and summer (prime laying season). Chickens lay based upon the amount of sunlight (14 hours), so we should be reaching that point right as they're getting to be laying age (we reach that point in late April, they'll reach laying age in late May/early June). You can extend the laying time by having a light on in their coop to make the hours of daylight seem longer. But they also lay the best when it's above 45 degrees. So, by doing this now, we're really getting in at a good time.

We decided to go with all one type because we want to try to eventually use them for meat. After about age 2-2.5, a hen's production really slows down. We really don't want to become a hen retirement home. I'm hoping we have the heart to cart them away to the butcher's, but.... hm. I mean, they'd be fabulous roasting hens. I eat chicken all the time, but I don't normally know my meat. They aren't going to have names (they'll be "The Fluffy Ladies"), and they will all look the same (making it more difficult to have a favorite). We'll see. My last chicken died at about age 3.5 of natural causes. I cried, and she had a proper funeral in the backyard and was buried, not eaten. Then again, she was a pet whom I loved dearly. She used to have 3 rooster friends, and I didn't really care about them (they weren't as friendly). Hm.

I'm ordering them today. They should be here next week!