And So It's Begun

Last weekend and the beginning of this week we've really got things going on the garden front. We started with making two raised beds. The original plan was for 5 beds but after figuring the cost of lumber and our time we've decided to start with 2 and if we want more we can always add them. Filling them was relatively cheap considering we have a dirt pile at the bottom of the hill and a mill down the road where we got a load of sand. David made trips getting the dirt while I mixed in sand and dirt in the beds.

Next, David tilled the garden which is getting easier every year, especially because this year we didn't expand the garden so there was no grass to break up.

While David was tilling I made a trellis for the peas out of scrap wood, fishing line and staples. Easiest project so far, probably took 10 minutes to make from start to finish

Now it was time to start filling the garden with plants! First were peas and potatoes. We used one raised bed and two rows next to the beds for the potatoes and the peas are leaning against the garage wall. I plan to put sunflowers all along that garage wall to fill that blank space. I also transplanted some chives that were in the front landscape to one of the beds. May or may not keep it right there but this year I'm trying to keep all garden plants in the fenced in garden.

The cashier at Tractor Supply swore by this stuff when planting potatoes. We're giving it a try

Our onions are doing great!! So much better doing sets than the ones we started from seed last year.

*On a semi side note, I think I've killed a good amount of seedlings recently :o/ Most have sprouted so now I figured they need sun and more sun. Well after the last couple of really sunny days when I took them all outside it might have been a little overkill. Yesterday the leaves on the pepper plants started turning white and when I looked it up basically it is caused by too much sun light too quickly. This morning some of the plants are completely wilted over. Well, if they last, great, if not, I have more seed and will try again. Already learning from mistakes this 2015 season.

Good to Be Home

While we had a great vacation in Arkansas, it feels good to be home. For those that don't know David and me, we are very much homebodies and have fully embraced the rural lifestyle. We love heading toward home and the towns get smaller, traffic thins out and farms start popping up around us. Our home is quiet, serene, familiar and comfy. We also have tons of projects on both our lists that we are excited to start tackling! I have a few already in progress but I'll wait until their finished before I post them. For now, here's a little of what we got to come back to in rural PA.

Beautiful morning with an ominous north sky against the landscape lit up from the morning sun

Growth!! Our neighbor was kind enough to water our seeds while we were away

Reaching toward the sun

Little Getaway

It's been some time since I've posted but that's because last week David and I were in Arkansas! We were there visiting some friends who used to live in PA and helped them with projects around their 100 acres of land. The main thing we worked on was a camper that came with their property, however, we did start the first night we got there putting in fence posts in the pouring rain. Let's just say it was insanely muddy and the truck may have gotten stuck twice, ha! It really was fun though. We also did some fun site seeing, explored their property on four wheelers, fished (unsuccessfully, however if you count getting 4 ticks in the process as a success than I WIN!), shot guns, and killed snakes (all Shawn). Seriously, he killed one that had to be 7 feet long out his driver side window with his pistol, no exaggerating! The only time I've ever seen a snake that big was from behind very thick glass at the zoo. It was pretty intense.

I didn't take my camera so I documented basically none of the trip, stupid me, but I did grab a few pics on top of one of their mountains with my phone the first night we were there. I also added some pictures from when we stopped in Columbus to visit family on our way down. Aside from getting intimate with a gas station toilet in Cincinnati for some bowel issues, all in all I'd say it was a great trip. We got to spend time with good friends, enjoy the comforts of the outdoors, and get some shit done on their 'to do' list.

A little pick up game, check out Rick's mad ups!

         Look at those pouts.        Isn't she the sweetest thing you've ever seen!! Heart breaker in the making

We had mules for neighbors during our stay. This was David's morning ritual, messin' with the mules

Yaaaah, I didn't get that close to the edge

Beautiful Spring in Arkansas

Work Shop Repurpose

We have a work shop that we use a lot to store tools, parts, materials, etc. Basically we've used the building as it was when we bought it, but recently I really started to take note as to how we were and weren't using the space. I don't like having lots of unused space, especially when things don't really seem like they have a spot to call home. Since David primarily uses this space, I asked him if it would make more functional sense to tear out the shelves and build a large workbench area. He thought it sounded like a good idea so start the demo! All in all it took about 3 days and cost us $8, ha! We bought the material for the worktop (call lumber) and a couple of supporting brackets, but the rest was from repurposing the existing material, even screws. We need to finish the ceiling and David still needs to organize where things will go, but once that's all done I'll post an updated picture. For now it is as clean and tidy as it will ever be!

BEFORE - basically lots of shelving and space we weren't really using

Demo

Worktop built

Brackets to hold long items/shelving for storage

AFTER - shelf added above the worktop to hold items during a project

2015 Syrup Season Concluded

I'd call this year a success. I think we made around 3.5 gallons of syrup in total. The evaporator helped a ton, making the process of boiling so much quicker. Last year we would have to evaporate basically all day every day, which still wasn't keeping up with the intake, but this year we were able to evaporate about 8 hours one day a week and deplete our entire stock pile from the week. The only thing was by the end I did use the stove top primarily everyday for 3 days because the sap was on the brink of spoiling coming out of the trees and I didn't trust it to make it all week before getting to it. So about the last 40 gallons were done on the stove top. Going back to last years process really made me appreciate what we had going this year.

It was a good season but as usual I'm glad it's over. Not that collecting the sap got hard or tedious, but more that with the nice weather I'm excited to start working on other projects around the house now. I'm sure we'll have some minor adjustments for next season, probably add 15 taps to total 40, but all in all I think we have a pretty good system to stick to.

Cleanin' time                                                   Stored away until next season                     

I kept a tally of our collections - 219 gallons of sap

Interesting to see the color change as the season progresses - first batch (left) last batch (right)

Get Out the Garden Gloves

Garden time!! We were able to save quite a few seeds from last year, however we still purchased a few things. During the beautiful weather last week I got to planting some of our colder crop seeds, as well as our tomatoes and peppers. I planted more seeds than I planned for the garden, assuming not all of them will make it.

I also repaired the cover for our cold frame with thicker plastic. They used to have glass but after dropping one of the frames and snow packing on top of the other they both broke. It actually works out because the glass was more fragile and heavy, and definitely a pain to clean up when it breaks. At least with plastic I can throw some tape over any tears. We tried storing our seeds in the cold frame last year but I don't think it got hot enough so germinating took forever and some seeds didn't even grow. So this year we decided on growing the onions and carrots in the cold frame and storing the seeds in our work shed where it gets sunlight and we can crank the heat up too.

We've only been gardening for two years but we have learned a ton each year and make adjustments constantly. I'm sure there are things we could be doing differently or better but we try and land on what works for us while still enjoying the process, and keeping things relatively cheap! I'm definitely known to shop the thrift stores for canning materials and we frequent the call lumber at Home Depot often. Saving our seeds was relatively easy and cut costs too.

BEFORE

Repair materials

AFTER

Home remedies for adding nutrients into the soil - crushed egg shells, coffee grounds, wood ash

       Added soil                                    Added sand                                    Added nutrients

Trying onion sets this year. Starting from seed takes a long time, this way we're hoping to get in two crops

Onions in

Seeds planted

Their home for awhile - basil, lemon basil, sweet and green peppers, hot peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes