Week 1 - 3

Great. Im behind in the blog already!

I'll just zoom through and do the first three weeks here in one fell swoop.

So, the garden outline is finished. The irrigation lines are lying in a tangled mess, waiting for the rain to end. Yes, ironic isn't it. The solar kit instructions have been read, and re-read. Again, waiting for the rain to end. The rain barrels are pretty much full.

We built a small greenhouse this year for the seeds. It was fun, very McGiver, used a few pieces of pvc pipe and bambo from the yard. Duct tape, a girls best friend. It's not pretty, (really, not pretty at all), but it has done the job. We have had wicked wind this spring, and it was air tight enough that it actually got lift from an updraft, that was fun! 50 mph winds, raining, and hubby and I are out trying to lash up the 3mil plastic sides to keep the "greenhouse" from flying away.

So, our first full blown experiment in veggie sustainability is off the ground. The current internal debate is the advisability of urban chicken raising. The children all think this would be a great idea, they have visions of fluffy little chicks running around. We're not so sure its a good idea. I am convinced they will be running around, probably terrified as our 4 yr old golden retreiver tries to "retreive" them, or my three children try to "pet" them.

We have looked through all the chick cataloges, and frankly, the chickens kind of freak me out! Beady little eyes looking at me from the pages. I'm going to be a hard sell. Im not sure the eggs are worth all the extra "fertilizer". A friend has been doing Urban Farming for a while and she is happy to share extra eggs for some veggies, so I think that's the way we will go.

We're anxiously awaiting the seeds from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds. I love this site and their graphics are beautiful.

Here are a few sites we have enjoyed using in planning for this years garden:

www.vegetablegardener.com
www.kitchengardenseeds.com

As this is a family project, the kids are working on the photos. As they get ready, I'll post them up.

Oh, yeah, the bookstore. Well, we did an estate sale recently and got an AMAZING collection of books. This person was one of the most well read people I have ever meet (through their books of course, not in person!) Around 600 books! A cookbook collection you would not believe, 200 or more, representing every major country in the world. Classics, in english, and french. (many of them 1st editions) Also, books in a number of other languages, including swahili! wow. very fun going through all these, (not so much fun digging them out of the garage and carting them all back to the store!)

Stay tuned, we will have them all catalogued and listed over the next few weeks.