Off The Beaten Path

I have ONE plant left to get into the ground. (A York elderberry from the 50% off wagon at the garden center). In the last couple weeks, I planted 36 plugs of groundcover, 2 elderberry, a kiwi, a galliarda, 2 aronia berry, a pot of weld. I have potted up 2 fig trees for winter…

As of this weekend, I had 3 plants left to get into the ground: 1 potted Issai kiwi, 1 weld, 1 betony. I was ALMOST there; almost caught up to myself. And then this happened: The nursery was having a sale, you see. So, now I have 1 kiwi, 1 weld, 1 betony, 2 ChicagoHardy…

I keep forgetting to write. Partly because I haven’t done anything interesting, but partly because I get busy with the little day-to-day stuff. We added another small human to our family this summer, so that takes much of my available time and energy at the moment. What I manage to get done is in 10-30…

My world lately has mostly been your basic childrearing, plus chivvying the kiddos through their homeschool curriculae. We’ve gotten a wee bit behindwards, so we’re working to catch up. One of them finished this year’s workbook just today. The others aren’t quite there yet. I’ve also made a few batches of Zapplesauce. For those unfamiliar…

It’s been awhile. I’ve been busy, it’s been stupidly hot, and I just havent gotten around to writing. Some stuff has happened: We finally got some more of our stored stuff here. The wardrobe forms the wall of our room and for the first time since we moved in, we have a measure of privacy.…

When we set out to live this particular life, we knew it would be bare-bones, zero luxuries, do things the hard way. And we were prepared for that, and for 2 years we did indeed do things that way. Then a few luxuries crept in. First, back a couple months ago we got a fridge.…

There are times when it feels like absolutely nothing has been accomplished, or we’re even moving backwards. For instance, I planted lettuces and basils. They came up nicely. And now they are just simply gone. Slugs. Backward momentum. I spent months pre-starting various seeds. Had to replant most of them. They were doing well….now, they’re…

It POURED rain last night. We’ve had very little rain to date this season, and it was very needed, but we got several inches of rain all at once. All of a sudden, the mosquito population is bursting forth in great numbers. The growth of the garden plants is likewise exploding. My cabbages and kales…

I finally completed the first of my two winecap mushroom beds. I still have the other to do, of course, but I have to figure out exactly where to put it. For now, shaded areas are still at a premium. In a few years, we will have all the shade we could want, but the…

Okay, so we havent moved MamaCluck yet. We do have the cages, but we’ve thought of a better option for longterm separation. I borrowed a full piece of plastic trellising and we will use that to section off a portion of the pen. I also found a new home for the rooster. They’re aware that…