Scrambled

It has been hot. Simple and quick meals are in order. This can work for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Most of the ingredients are local as well. 

I went to the farm stand today and the only eggs they had left were 4 turkey eggs. I thought they would be interesting to try. I picked some lambs quarters, basil, sage, rosemary, chives, and one pea. I sautéed all of that in butter with green onions and young garlic that I had chopped and frozen. Then I added salt, pepper, and some local raw milk cheddar cheese. I toasted some new to me gluten free bread and then rubbed it with garlic and a little butter. Added some fruit (local strawberries) to the mix and it was a yummy, healthy 5-10 minute meal. 

What we did today

Lots of lettuce and a few peas in the back 

A native perennial garden getting started

The salmon berries are already showing life

The beginning of my herb garden- basil, lemon balm, chives, perennial sweet peas, yarrow, bee balm.  I've since added sage and rosemary. 

Beautiful peony

So today we were busy out in the yard.  It all started because yesterday my husband surprised me with a window box right out our bedroom window.  So, of course, today I had to go get flowers for it. I will post a picture of it when we are finished with it.  While we were at the nursery, we saw two gorgeous peonies and could not resist.  We planted both of those with some Persian buttercups aka Ranunculus.  We planted a semi-dwarf Montmorency cherry tree. I've been working on an herb garden- the fencing isn't going to stay that way, but right now that's the only way to keep the dog from laying on it.  We found out (from a lovely lady who was gardening next door) that a bush we were thinking of removing is probably a chokecherry, so it will stay.  I want to try making chokecherry jelly or jam. I would like to get some chokeberries as well so I can make juice from them.  It was a long day, but didn't feel long as we love being out in the yard doing things.  It is very satisfying to us.  We are tired now, though!

Photo update.

Hiked up Bear Creek trail

It was lovely. 

Visited family and got to see a Mariners game- they won!

Bought a new shower curtain that makes me laugh.

Planted blueberries, and a bunch of other things I will post later. 

We were told blueberries don't do well here, but I hope ours make it!

Went to the Mother Earth News fair and got to see one of my favorite author/speakers- Joel Salatin!

Recovered the seat of an old rocking chair. 

The color here is quite faded from what it really looks like. 

Dirt and rocks

Saturday evening I watched The Edible Garden with Alys Fowler from the BBC.  I loved it- so inspirational.  It made me re-think how we were planning to arrange our garden.  Then, today, I saw that free dirt and rocks were being offered on craigslist.  We went and shoveled dirt into our pick up truck, unloaded it (after we put cardboard down), and then we went and loaded the truck with river rock.  We have plans for it, but no pictures, yet.  We were too tired to unload it tonight.

Laying the cardboard down

The pick-up truck full of dirt, and our new wheel barrow on top.

What we have still to do

Ryan laying more boxes down

Unloading pick-up

The making of a garden.

More to follow!

Tidbits

An update on what has been going on in our world: 

I made sprouts for the first time! It was super easy. I followed instructions I found on Mountain Rose Herb's youtube channel. I found a set of sprouting lids for my mason jars at a health food store, and got some alfalfa sprouting seeds. They are good, and it was fun to watch them grow.  It is definitely something I will do more often, especially over the winter when local greens are harder to find. 

Next to the sprouts- raw, local goat milk! I have been eliminating cow dairy from my diet to see if that clears up some health issues I have been having. The goat milk tastes great. 

I have been finding all sorts of things on our local yard sale page on facebook- the chives pictured here are from a lady a few miles away.  I got two chive plants from her.

Speaking of the yard sale page, we picked up quite a few bags of free mulch, bought a small wood chipper, a zoku popsicle maker, and we will be getting a puppy in a couple of months (she was born yesterday).  It has been great to find all this for a good deal, and not have to buy anything new.  It has also helped us get to know people and get to know our community.  I have learned so much already by talking to people.  We dug up the big shrub in the middle of our yard yesterday because we have other plans for there, and someone in the area wanted it.  She and I talked for 2 hours, and she told me all about the best hiking, gardening classes, canning, herb walks, etc.  We had a great time, and our plant is going to a good home instead of a dumpster.  Plus, we now have a big hole in the middle of our yard, which is a great start for what we have planned for there.

Well, that is enough of an update for now.  I made some coconut rice krispie treats (gluten-free!) that I'm going to go enjoy with my love. 

Seedlings

I started a few things right before spring break, and they are doing nicely.  The self-watering tray I bought makes for MUCH healthier seedlings.  I've been quite pleased with them, so the slightly higher price was worth it to me (and I can probably re-use it).  Now, we just need to get some grow lights so that the seedlings don't get too leggy.

Tomatoes- 4 different kinds

Several medicinal herbs and Marconi peppers

Eggplant and mini yellow stuffing peppers

Most of my seeds this year came from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds. I have a lot more to get started, but these will have a big head start.  Outdoors there are a few things coming up as well:

Peas and greens just starting to come up. 

 What are you growing right now?  What are you most excited about growing and why?  I am excited about my medicinal herbs so I can make some herbal medicine for us.

Yard update

We spent this afternoon putting in some fruit bearing plants- apple trees and raspberries.

Apple trees in along with apricot trees. The mini-orchard is starting to take shape.

Blue watching over the trench for the raspberries

Raspberries planted- 3 different kinds

We are looking forward to the fruit of our labor! :)

Little things

Today started covered in snow and ended in beautiful blue skies (and most of the snow gone).  We are supposed to have a stretch of good weather so hopefully we can get some projects done outside.  I started spring cleaning inside tonight.  We have one room that has become a total junk room.  I am slowly making progress on it.

Not the greatest picture, but it shows the raised bed we built.  The white fencing is just up temporarily to make sure Blue doesn't jump up on it.  We seeded it with peas, sweet peas, mixed greens, and poppies (the culinary kind).  There are some things popping up- either greens or poppies.  We plan to build more of these soon.  

Sunday happenings

Today

Tomato seedlings growing

We also have onion, peppers, and some medicinal herbs started indoors.  Outdoors we have some poppies and greens going.  We also planted peas, but they haven't come up yet.

Brunch-Vegetable herb goat cheese omelet 

Bell peppers, greens, garlic, farm fresh eggs, goat cheese, dill, thyme, sea salt, pepper, and Braggs sea kelp delight seasoning

This morning we were out in the yard planting our second apricot tree and a neighbor we had never met came over to talk.  Turns out he is an arborist. He said he could give us pruning pointers and such, which is great because we are planning to put in a mini-orchard. 

Busy

Finals, a death in the family, unexpected travel, extra work, and spring happenings have been going on around these parts.  The best bits are that the a good friend came and rototilled our garden patch for us.  We'll have to go over it once more, but it's so exciting to see it start to look like a garden!

My husband has also been working hard on getting our chicken coop up.  Here are some progress shots:

While he was doing that, I was busy inside finishing my mother's birthday present.  I had knitted some dishloths, and found some matching fabric to make napkins with, so I made a set of 12 napkins.

They are far from perfect, as I am just learning to sew, and am self-taught, but I am glad I made it through all twelve, and as long as you don't examine them too closely, they look good. ;)
I'm now off to spend a few more precious hours with my husband before he flies out to see his family for a week.

Using what you have

So, the other day, while my dear husband was sleeping, I decided I was going to build a table to go in front of one of my south facing windows so I could plant more plants indoors.  I have not yet been acquainted with my husband's power tools that he was given for Christmas (meaning- I was too scared to use them all by myself), and so I tried making said table with a saw, hammer, and nails.  While I know it can be done, I miserably failed.  It probably had something to do with the fact that I thought I could get away with having only 2 legs (what was I thinking..?)...Anyways, I then proceeded to wake my husband to tell him of my failure.  Being the wonderful man he is, he came to my rescue, and built me a nice little table.  It looks like this:

It's a rough looking little thing, but it serves it's purpose well, and I think it's cute.  The best part?  It didn't cost us a dime.  We scrounged around and got creative, and were rewarded with this little guy.  Using what we had made it so that Mr. Table only gets 3 legs, and we had to do some things the long way (putting in screws by hand, etc), but it all worked.

In general, we try to use what we already have, and make buying  something (especially new) the last resort.  That goes from everything to cooking to crafting to building to clothing.  Some of the best items, ideas, and food come from having to "make do".  :)

Composting

As the weather begins slowly but surely turning to Spring, my thoughts and plottings have been all about my garden.  We were in an apartment the last two summers, so this is the first place that we'll be able to have a garden.  We have big plans, as I'm sure many of you do as well.  One thing that will help make our plans a success is compost!  It is such a rich nutrient for plants, it's easy to do, and can be done for FREE.  What's not to like?  The hardest part is building the compost bin, which really isn't too hard at all.  Sunset.com has plans for some nice looking ones.  However, we wanted to build one without spending a dime, so this is what we came up with:

We rent our house from hay farmers, so there are always a bunch of old pallets lying around, so that's what my husband used for the wood- except for the back, which is an old wheelchair ramp that was lying around as well.  One could easily do something similar because I've heard some places will give you their pallets for free- just ask around.  We made 3 chambers so that once it gets going one chamber will have finished compost, one will be "cooking", and the other we will be adding to.

Do you have a compost bin? Planning on making on? Please share!