Garden Beginnings

We are starting to work on my garden. I have waited six long months since we bought the house to work on the garden. These warm beautiful days have made the waiting hard. So we have begun the work. My husband built two frames that are four by eight feet each. We then filled them with 12 inches of dirt. So I will be able to reach the plants instead of depending on someone else to do all the work for me.

A few days ago we bought dirt. I tried and tried to find someone who would deliver composted soil to us but the cheapest person I could find wanted nearly $400.00 to bring it to us. I found bags of good topsoil for only $1.38 a bag at Home Depot. The girl who was helping me search online said the bags were nearly 2 square feet. So I figured I would need about 35 bags to fill the two beds. Well, when my husband picked up the dirt, the bags were less than 1 square foot. He ended up going to Home Depot four times and bringing home 90 bags of dirt to fill my two beds and give me some extra to fill pots with. My little man worked hard leveling out the dirt, first with a rack. Then he discovered it was much more fun to use his hands. Of course he did not realize that all this fun would be followed by the dreaded BATH. His least favorite thing to do.

Today we went back to Home Depot and bought some river rock to put between the two beds. I will be filling in the area with four or five stepping stones as well. Then my little one spent another hour leveling the rocks. He thought this was great fun.

I ordered seeds to plant in the garden last night. I found a wonderful company called Victory Seed Company that has heirloom seeds that have not been destroyed by Monsanto. Victory Seed Company is dedicated to keep the seeds pure. Some things like tomatos and peppers I want to use plants for. But the rest of the garden we will plant from seed. We are going to start them in the house in the next week or so. I am going to look at an Herb Farm that is not far from here to see about getting some of the plants I need.

So that's the start of my garden. While we were at Home Depot we also bought a sink and faucets and picked out counter tops for our kitchen remodel. But that's good for another post. Next month we will be totally gutting our kitchen and redoing the whole thing. Keep coming back to catch the updates on that.

Oh No!!!!

Many of you who have been reading this for a while know that I have talked about wanting pottery for a long time. I finally decided that my life is not getting any longer, my health is not getting any better, if I'm going to start getting the things I want, it's time to get it now. I found a couple of wonderful ladies who make pottery in their basement. I started buying just one or two pieces per month. I also asked for pottery for holidays and birthdays and anniversaries. Any time a gift was appropriate I asked for pottery. Finally I had collected service for 12 and several serving pieces. I was thrilled to have my pottery collection.

Yesterday I had unloaded the dishwasher and left them on the tiny little center island in our kitchen for my son to put away. Putting away the dishes is one of his chores. Since I didn't want to wait for him to unload the dishwasher so I could start the next load, I put them on the island. Later in the day my son went out to the kitchen. First I heard a load crash and the sound of breaking glass. Then I heard this hysterical nine year old crying, "I'm in so much trouble. I'm in so much trouble." I asked him what happened. "I'm in so much trouble." That's all he could say.

When I got out to the kitchen, I saw a mountain of glass and pottery. And my heart sunk through the floor. I was heartbroken to see my beautiful pottery all over the floor. But I also had this distressed little boy to calm down. As I sorted through the pieces to see if anything survived, I saw my husband's coffee mug was in one piece. Of course the pots and pans and silverware were fine. But everything else was gone. I'm not sure if there were two or three plates. I couldn't tell by the number of pieces. The was one salad bowl. I think three cereal bowls, although there may have been more. My absolute favorite mug was in a million pieces. My good pyrex serving bowl. Six glasses. We picked up all the big pieces. Then we swept up the rest. Just when I thought it was finished, I saw pieces of glass in the dining room carpet. So then I had to vacuum the carpet.

I know he didn't mean to do it. I've had the island tip on me when I tried to open the drawers. Fortunately there wasn't anything on it when it tipped on me. I guess I need to stop putting dishes on it. I spoke to the pottery ladies and they are getting started at making the replacement pieces for me. Too bad the insurance won't pay for clumsy. Sorry I didn't think to take pictures of the mess. But my mind was a bit preoccupied.

Corporate Bullying

We've heard a lot lately about bullying. I want to tell you a story about corporate bullying. In a small garage in Vermont there is a guy who is printing t-shirts one at a time. His t-shirts say, "Eat More Kale." He is trying to promote healthy eating. Bo sold his shirts from a booth at the local farmers’ market for four years. As his popularity grew, he began traveling the Northeast sells shirts and passing out stickers. Bo was doing well printing shirts in his garage until the day he received a Cease and Desist Order from Chick-Fil-A. It seems the Chick-Fil-A company is afraid that it will be too confusing to their customers to see Eat More Kale. Their logo says Eat Mor Chikin. They have been bullying Bo since then. At one point they tried to order him to send them all of his t-shirts, stop printing more, and pay them damages.

Now I don't know about you, but I am not confused at all by a green leafy vegetable

and a bird.

I can tell the difference. And I don't see any similarity between the two logos. In my opinion, Chick-Fil-A is a corporate bully trying to drive a small time local business under. My biggest problem is I just don't see why. It's not like Eating Kale is going to take any business away from Chick-Fil-A. The people who eat Kale are not likely to be going to a fast food place and eating chicken sandwiches. They are just not the same thing.

From the Eat More Kale website:

Most obviously, it's about eating healthier. Kale can be delicious and a SUPER FOOD! You *should* eat more of it. An ancient ancestor of the cabbage plant, kale is primarily a cold-weather crop with a taste not unlike collard greens. It grows in a lot of conditions and climates that are inhospitable to other vegetables and can get tastier with a hard freeze.

Eat More Kale is about supporting small business, business that actually cares and hasn't been swallowed up by the profit-hungry, corporate mentality. I am a one man show, so my shirts are distinctive, offbeat, one-of-a-kind works of art. I have no giant call-centers to hide behind and I don't need them. I am one man with one squeegee and that's how I like it. When you see someone wearing one of my t-shirts you will instantly recognize it's personal style, character and the care I took to craft it.

I'm also about eating locally, supporting local farmers, bakers, famers markets, farm stands, CSA's, community gardens and restaurants, sustainable lifestyles, social commentary and community. Most importantly, I'm about printin' Vermont's one-at-a-time orginial design t-shirts. Have fun and remember: eat more kale!!!

Please go sign Bo's petition. Tell Chick-Fil-A that they can not bully Eat More Kale like this a get away with it. Stop buying their chicken if they continue to bully Bo. Show them with your dollars that this kind of behavior won't be tolerated. For a business that claims to be so Christian, they are certainly not showing Christ-like behavior.

EAT MORE KALE. It's good for you.

Cold Short Days And Evenings By The Fire.

I can't believe this weather we are having here. A couple of days ago we woke up to 12 degrees. Yesterday I sat outside on the porch swing and watched Dakota ride his bike. It was 61. Today it is back down to 40. It is so crazy.

I got a seed catalog in the mail the other day. I was so thrilled. I don't think I've ever gotten one of those before. I have just about worn out the pages looking through it and then trying to visualize what my yard will look like if I plant this plant or that one. It does give me something to do while I sit all snuggled up beside the fire on these really cold days.

I thought I wanted to plant herbs in a couple of old tires in my front yard. So today I was looking up the directions on how to cut the tires and turn them inside out. You can imagine my dismay when I learned that the old tires have cadmium in them. This heavy metal will leach out into any herbs that I plant in them. So I guess I won't be able to do that. So now I have to come up with another plan to plant my herbs. Most things like basil and oregano I will plant in the back yard in a raised garden bed. I also plan on planting tomatoes and peppers in that same raised bed. But I want to plant mint and lemon balm. If I plant them in the raised bed with my other things I will soon have nothing but mint or maybe lemon balm. But one of them will win out and take over the space. So I'm looking for ideas for this. I think I'm going to do a second raised bed with strawberries in it.

I'm thinking about a weeping willow in the back yard as well. I just have to figure out where my husband plans to put his garage. Then I need to make sure I don't plant it where it will shade my garden area too much. I love being able to plan all this out in the big backyard that we have.

I think I'm going to take out whatever the unknown tree is that is growing on one side of the trellis and replace it with grapes on both sides of the trellis.

In this area from the fireplace to the window I'm going to plant some flowering plants. Maybe a rose or two. There is an area along the front of the house too that has been used as a flower bed in the past. My husband wants to plant an evergreen something in the front yard. Maybe I'll just do that instead of using tires to plant herbs. I'll find somewhere to tuck those herbs in in the backyard.

It is so much fun, looking at the catalog and planning and looking and planning some more. Can't wait until it's warm enough to actually do some of this planting. Make sure you stop back by in a few months to see what I ended up doing.

Winter Holidays

We have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather we are having to decorate our home for Yule. It is great to finally have a house where we can decorate and not have to worry about the neighbors being upset with our decorations. I remember one year we put lights on the bush in front of our apartment. We had deer in front of the bush. It looked very nice. Our upstairs neighbor knocked on the door a short time later. She wanted us to come out and look at the toy soldiers she had added to our display. She just couldn't understand why we did not like her little soldiers in front of our place. I tried to explain that we are pacifists and don't approve of soldiers, toy or otherwise. She just didn't get it. Turns out she didn't know what a pacifist was. I don't know what happened but sometime during the night those toy soldiers moved over to the other side of the sidewalk away from our apartment.

Now we don't have to worry about such things. Our yard is truly our yard and no one is going to add to our display. I like the simple look of white lights. Bob likes all the brightly colored lights. But this year he humored me and put out white lights. Our tree from the last few years died so we had to buy a new one. We found a package that had two trees instead of one. I love it. Two little deer, two little trees and one Happy Holidays sign. In a couple of weeks we will add a tree inside in front of that big window. But for now this is it. The packages are all wrapped and ready to tuck under the tree.

Happy Winter Holiday of Your Choice Everyone.

Giveaway

My friend Jenna over at Harm None Kynd Creations is having a great giveaway. You can check it out on her facebook page. You can also check out all of her great stuff on her Etsy store or on her web page. She is a wonderful artist and a great person. I really really want to win this so please don't sign up for the giveaway. Just go buy something from her. Remember, it's small business Saturday. Do as much of your holiday shopping as you can from small businesses.

Black Friday

We will soon be celebrating a fairly new holiday in the Winter Holiday Calendar. The day after Thanksgiving has come to be known as Black Friday. Black Friday is the day that traditionally the holiday decorations come out and the holiday sales go up. It used to be the beginning of the holiday shopping season. It seems though that lately those sales have been starting earlier and earlier. And the holiday shopping season has begun. A few years ago a few stores, mostly the big box stores, began opening early in the day on the day after Thanksgiving. It was not unusual to see the stores open their doors at 5:00 or 6:00 am. As the years have passed that hour has moved earlier and earlier. Now many stores are open at midnight on Thanksgiving night with big sales going on. I've even heard of a few stores that are opening Thanksgiving evening. All of this is to convince you to spend more and more money on holiday gifts.

There are people who just don't buy into the whole "more is better" philosophy. We have declared that the Friday after Thanksgiving should be called Buy Nothing Day. You should take this day to relax and spend it with your family at home. Do not contribute to the corporate greed that seems to be taking over this wonderful holiday season.

So I have been asked what my Black Friday shopping tips are. Here is my opinion:
1. Stay home
2. Do not buy anything on this day to contribute to the greed of the big box stores and general corporate mindset.
3. Take the time to enjoy shopping for your friends before this season of greed begins.
4. Shop local whenever you can.
5. I know I don't have to say this, but, Buy American as often as possible.
6. Buy handmade as much as possible.
7. Shop from the mom and pop businesses that are struggling to stay afloat.
8. Shop from small independent stores or handcrafters such as those on Etsy.com.
9. Make gifts whenever you can.
10. Give from your heart, not your wallet.


If you still have holiday shopping to do, a wonderful homeschooling mom over at Not So Average Mama is having a great giveaway. She is offering a $50 gift certificate for Amazon.com. Check out her blog and enter her giveaway. THen come back and let us know if you win.

Happy Winter Holiday of Your Choice,
Kathi