And The Fun Begins!

May 7, 2009
Okay -- Inspired by simple mom 's Spring Cleaning Party I am going to join in with some caveats. I work full time so my spring cleaning will be spread over weekend days. I will post before and after pictures even tho' the "befores" will humiliate me. It's tough for me on the cleaning and organizing front, as I have stated before.

One of the concepts that I have a problem with is the "everything should have a home" concept. It's not that I don't believe in it, nor is is that I don't agree with it. It's that it has taken me at least 4 books on organizing and many websites worth of reading and podcasts worth of listening to even hear the term OUTLOUD in my head (if you know what I mean). One day very recently I said to myself --- OH! Wait! You don't just mean what room should it go in or how do I sue this item, but in what actual drawer or on what actual shelf does this particular item should this item always be found and returned to! A place that if I went so far as to print a label and stick it to that particular spot, in six months not only would I probably find the item there, but I would still agree that it belongs in that chosen location. Ooooohhhh!

CONCEPT HEARD AND FINALLY RECEIVED!

This has opened up some thoughts for me. The decluttering has been working somewhat, but the step further to determining -- why what is left is where it is and should it be there -- is a much bigger deal. I have just started working on that part of the picture and man I have a lot of work to do along those lines. A lot of thoughts to process, first I have got to clear out spaces in my brain for all of the "no kidding" comments that I am anticipating to be stored. Augh!

A Little Success

ORGANIC GARDENING - ANIMALS - BEES - WORMS - WATER - WILDLIFE - KNITTING - FRUGALITY - LOW CARBON FOOTPRINT - LEARNING

My garden is going very well. I planted 3 kinds of peas: English, Snap and Snow. All of them are producing excellently. I planted them in early January even tho' all the information I read said to plant them on Feb 1st. I am glad I was too impatient to wait.

My tomato seeds -- all heritage -- also have done really well. I have 18 tomato plants in the ground. 16 of which I grew from seeds. The other two I bought at the March Dallas Organic Garden Club meeting.

My tomato varieties are as follows: Russion Black Krim (from the DOGC mtg), Beefsteak, Yellow Pear, Sweetie Cherry, and Brandywine. All are doing great. In fact last night I got the soaker hose in place, so all that is left is for me to feed them -- then they can feed me.

My Brussel Sprouts look suspiciously like 2 - Brussel Sprouts and 2 - others (?), to early to tell for sure, but I am thinking maybe brocoli or cauliflower. Lettuce is going great as are my potatoes. My potato tower is 3ft high now.

I got two new chicks. They are Heidi and Helen. Heidi is a Buff Orpington and Helen is a Silver Laced-Winged Wyandotte. The are nearly completely feathered now and have been making daily treks (on the weekends) out to the yard. I have them in a pen so that the other three: Hester, Hilda, and Hazel can get used to them.

The worms are doing fine, but wormeries are a little slower going than I had realized. Other than a few ounces of worm tea, the wormery still hasn't earned it's keep, but I have high hopes. And, the worm tea did go on the peas which are doing great soooo.....

I have decided against rabbits. Rabbit poo that could immediately go into the garden would be great, but I have old chicken poo to use in it's stead. They are not necessary and would be an added expense so frugality wins.

The swimming pool for the duckweed is cancelled for the time being. I haven't quite figured out the right spot for it.

Guppies are needed for the pond and a new air pump. Sounds like an expense for a future paycheck.

No knitting going on -- it's gardening time!

Cutting electricity -- I need to work on this goal. I have just read about a very interesting power strip on sale thru my electric company. It notices when your computer goes to sleep and it turns off your peripherals automatically.

My water bill should improve this year. I have completed the guttering around the garden shed and I currently have 2-30gal drums piped together collecting rain water. This is in addition to the 20gal drum by the front porch. This is just the beginning of the rain catchment system planed for this place and I have already noticed some improvements that I need to make before the entire 6 drum system will be working in unison.

Cooking outdoors -- I've done nothing to further this goal except buy a sun tea jar. It is in my thoughts though and the BBQ already exists so it's really the solar oven than I am pondering. I have done some research. It's a project for the future.

Couponing is a real boon for me! I have cut my spending by 40% I bet, and I have built a bit of a stockpile. I am feeling really good about that.

My short falls are in decluttering and cleaning. I donated two boxes full of items to the church garage sale, but that truly doesn't begin to make a dent. And the cleaning, well...it's still in a desparate state. Obviously I am not giving these aspects of my life improvement enough emphasis - since they are not even in my headline. That will have to change.

I still have a goal of having my garden on the DOGC garden tour in 2010. Hope my house will be clean enough by then so that people can come in a use the bathroom if they need to.

I still panic occasionally about keeping all of the balls in the air, but when I write it all down it looks like I am making some progress here at Powell Cottage.

It's Time for the Fog to Clear

Assuming that I have 15 years to live, what do I want to do with them? What impact do I want to make, or for that matter not make?

I want to live lightly on this world, but I also want this world to live lightly on me. I don't want the weight of the world to be on my shoulders. I can't carry it. I would happily help someone or many people who are in difficulty carry their weight as well, but that is all. I cannot provide a solution for the world. I can only provide solutions for myself and by example for others.

Enough philosophising! What are my intentions to make this happen - to carry my own weight. Organic gardening, animals with use, bees, water, wildlife, knitting, low environmental impact, frugal living, learning - constant, continual learning.

How am I faring so far? My garden is organic and begun for the year. Most everything started from seed. Organic and frugal! I have 3 chickens about to become 5, eggs and manure make them useful. 2 cats - no use whatsoever, but I am committed to them until they pass. 5 - Cocker Spaniels - no use again, but they are my family and they keep me sane. Worms - working away in their wormery - very useful. Bees! Not here yet but I am determined. There will be bees in my life in the next year or so. Rabbits are next on the list, I am not sure that they are necessary, but they might be fun. :-)

I have a pond in two sections the larger is for the dogs to swim in and the smaller holds the water lily and the pump. I am about to add a small swimming pool to the mix to grow duck weed and provide more water for my backyard habitat. Oh, and guppies would need to be added for mosquito control.

Wildlife is just for fun and entertainment, but necessary!

Knitting is for me and my warmth needs, and for gifts, and for decoration, just general homespun work.

I have already cut out my natural gas for home heating bill, and it wasn't nearly as difficult nor as cold as I thought it would be. Amazingly it also wasn't very expensive. My heating only the portion of the house that I lived in with electric heat didn't raise my electricity bill very much at all.

Next is moving my cooking to outdoors. That will include my BBQ, and definitely a solar oven, but it may also include some other kind of oven. I am not there yet though. If at any point in time I get a new job closer to home that would cut my gasoline consumption, too. My water catchment system is coming along. Last weekend I bought 6 containers to hold the water. This weekend I need to build up the places to raise the containers off the ground and to gutter the house to get the water to the containers. It's a process. :-)

Couponing is a whole new world for me. I knew that this world existed. I just didn't have the knowledge about how to use it. I am gaining that knowledge with the help of the internet and things are looking very promising on that front.

This is part of the learning. I guess that means that I am doing pretty good on carrying my own load, but I don't feel that I am doing very good on being an example. That is the next big area to explore.

Living the full life here at Powell Cottage.

Oh My Goodness Remember This When Canning

It is about 18 hours since I last threw up. Not a very appetizing beginning I know, but I am writing about it to remind myself about how careful I will need to be when I start canning. I did this to myself, but I think it was the chinese lunch from the day before yesterday that infected me. I am just now able to concentrate long enough to even get on the computer. Yesterday, I just got sick and then slept and got sick and slept from 4am until 10pm. I had one worse experience with food posioning than this one about 10 years ago. I slept on the bathroom floor during that lovely event - for two days. Well, that's all the concentration that I have in me. By the way the new computer is here and it's great! Hope your healthy, from Powell Cottage.

This weekend was particularly productive at Powell Cottage. I planted peas, and onion sets, and seed potatoes, and tomatoes, and peppers, and beets, and radishes, and spinach, and kale, and brussel sprouts, and lettuces (lots of lettuces) and other things that I can't think of right now. Seeds and sets, all the window sills are full and the onion bed has about 100 onions planted, and the potato tower is started. The shed is cleaned out. Oh, oh, oh and the asparagus is planted. I have high hopes for this asparagus. I have organized a place for the new raised bed by placing loads of large, leftover, plastic pots side by side in the area where the new bed will be. I am thinking that along with a new deck I will build a new trellis as well to shield the sun from my window but not necessarily from the ground so that the ground can still be productive. It's a theory anyway. Also my comfrey root and salsify arrived. I will open them when I go home. January is feeling really good right now! Really Springy!

My house is doing better as well. The den is better, but not great. The kitchen is better, but not great. The living room is not great. The bathroom is not great. The guestroom/closet is not great. And the bedroom is horrible. ...after writing this it doesn't look as if my house is doing better, but unfortunately this assessment is better than it was. Ugh!

My energy level is up. I am attributing it to my better financial status, and my improved outlook. Now it give myself pats on the back for coming up with free ways to do whatever it is that I want to do and I spend time working on what I have already got going on and not thinking up new things to start. This may be the best thing that comes out of hard times.

I also prepared the way for my shed water collection system this weekend. My plan is to gutter the shed and have the water flow into water barrels along the back of the shed. That's the plan anyway.

I seem to have lots of ideas these days. I evaluate them on whether or not they will save me money. No gas heat in the Winter is saving me money I think. The electricity bills will tell, but if heating 2 rooms with a space heater turns out to be cheaper than heating a whole house with gas; that is what I will do from now on.

Becoming self sufficient on my little 1/4 acre is the ultimate goal here at Powell Cottage.

The Narcissis are Blooming!

And the daffodils are coming up. Spring seems to come so fast after Christmas in Texas. Tonight it is supposed to be 27 degrees outside, so the temperature will seem like Winter, but it should be near 60 on Saturday. As I have said before Winter is a roller coaster ride.

I noticed on the weekend that the violets are coming up in the portion of my 1/4 acre that I consider the natural area. I have many areas in my yards. In back there is the lawn area which gets smaller every year and the shade garden area, and the back corner cover in Vinca Major and marked by my stone wall, then there is the shed, behind the shed not yet identified for use but I am thinking green house, there is the chicken yard/coop, the brush pile, the compost stable, the natural area under the pear trees, the clothes line area, the vegetable garden area which expands every year and the pond. The area near my back door currently has a very small deck but I have dreams of a screened in porch. That pretty much covers the back yard....the front yard is another story-for later.

I have been watching the GardenGirl online now for a few days and I really think she is inspiring. I have going to try to put a link to her on this blog...but it you don't see it then I didn't figure out how. Wishing you a deep Winter's sleep and dreams of Spring from Powell Cottage.

The Peas Are In!

Today the high was 53 degrees, but planting peas made it seem like just the right temperature. I planted 3 types of peas and I innoculated the seeds and I have actually recorded the types and mapped their location so I might really be able to make a decision about how they do.

Under my hoop house there is lettuce, and parsley, and cilantro, and spinach, and grass and henbit. Ugh!

I put up a potato tower, but my nursery didn't have seed potatoes yet, so it is loaded with a layer and hay, and leafs, and some beautifully aged compost. It ready whenever the seed potatoes arrive.

Tomorrow it is supposed to be warmer than today, but then a strong cold front should be coming thru. North Texas Winters are always a roller coaster ride.

It's always a ride here at Powell Cottage.