Morning all! How's everything? Doing well here. Making progress. Making progress. Each day is another step closer to having everything planted. The soon to be new workshop is coming right along. All that's left to do is sand the spackle, paint, and lay the flooring. Going to pick that up once they're ready for it..
I had a not so minor complaint with the guy who did the mudding of the walls. It's been addressed and I'm assured it won't happen again. It still breaks my heart though. Here in Ga; we're in an Extreme Drought. Droughts and Gardening can be tricky. Last week we got rain and I managed to squirrel away multiple buckets stored in the greenhouse and a 30 gallon rubber trash can full sitting next to the house. Well between the house and greenhouse. The guy that did the tape and putty put his motorize mixer thingy in my 30 gallons of rain water to clean it! To add insult to injury he dumped all of that saved water out when he left. I messaged the contractor (nice man). Told him what happened, and nicely asked if he could spread the word to his guys to please not use any water in containers out there as this is for the garden. I was heart sick. Now I'm scrambling to use things like water caught in a bucket while showering, dish water, and bath water. Bath water is a workout as it's hauling heavy buckets of water to the garden. If my ancestors could haul water; I can! We have rain, hopefully, next week, but it doesn't look like much, and may fizzle if it keeps the same patterns as in the recent past. So time to be creative!
As for the garden, each day I'm putting plants in. Doing as much as I can to use every nook and cranny I can find. I'm even utilizing the chain link fence. Gardening can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. I try to keep my costs to a minimum. Utilizing my own dirt for raised beds or opting for inground when needed. I save my seeds from year to year so buying seeds is rare. My chickens provide compost and manure for fertilizer. I use manual tools rather than tillers or other items that require gas and maintenance. Anything I have to buy is covered by the plant sale I hold each year. This has allowed me to add a few things I normally wouldn't have been able to purchase: 4x8 galvanized raised beds; potting soil for starting seeds, pots, etc.. Although in a pinch I've used my own dirt, empty yogurt, or sour cream containers, and foraged cinder blocks. Even with the help of a plant sale to fund my garden; I still make a point of making do with what's available at the time. I'm currently in the process of spreading 2 loads of wood chips in the walkways of my garden and in the chicken coop. cardboard on the bottom topped with wood chips in my walkways suppresses weeds and keeps the soil around my plants cooler. It also holds moisture which is a must this year. I can get these free wood chips by being on a list with a tree service; Chipdrop.com, or going to the landfill and loading up the truck. This time a tree service brought 2 loads and so I have a mountain to bring down.
On the kitchen front ,I'm still making due with what's on hand. I need to get in the kitchen and make up some bread, granola, and chocolate syrup. The chocolate syrup will be used to make yogurt pops. I have some yogurt I need to use. Last month, before I knew my she shed would be ready so soon, I purchased a silicone popsicle mold. I love it! A few days ago I made pineapple yogurt pops. I'm thinking this is going to be my stand by for desserts this summer. I have strawberries coming in currently an so think I'm making some strawberry pops today as well. I can make them and then remove them from the mold, put in a freezer bag, and back into the freezer. This way I can do a variety of popsicles.
WELL JUST DARN!
This is the view now from my garden to the left side of my driveway. While it used to be pasture, the back of the pasture held these wonderful old but healthy hardwoods. Now they've been pulled up by the roots to make way for 150 townhomes! Every single one. They've cut trees up to our property line in the backyard. I used to could lay in bed at night and look out my window into the backyard and see fireflies so thick it was like lights on a Christmas tree. Not any more. I'm told the developer has to replant in the 35 foot buffer between existing homes and the new development, but how long until they grow to make up for this monstracity? This makes me sad, and all I can say to all of you people fleeing your blue cities for greener pastures in red states lie ours; In this case, crapping on your new town by voting how you always have, isn't going to help. And keep your mitts off my chickens! If you don't want to hear chickens I suggest you stay in the city.
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