Our Homestead - an update

Ok, here's the deal... I'm hoping to resurrect this blog in an attempt to share my ambitious project of re-landscaping our property.  Because we plan to incorporate mostly edible and medicinal plants, I figure this is the best place to share and document it.  Today, I'm just going to talk about how the property is now and what we have done with it so far.  Next time, I'll do an overview of what our plans are going forward.

Here is a little background on our property.  We have a 60-year-old house on a postage stamp-sized (60 x 100 foot or 0.15 acre) lot in a small town.  While we would love to have some acreage, some animals, and get away from town, it just isn't going to happen right away.  So, we've decided to make the most of what we have.  If we do find the right piece of property a few years down the road, we can write this off as a learning experience... a "practice run" if you will.

From our patio, looking west.

Here are some photos of our backyard garden from last summer.

We have one bed that is approximately 10 x 30 divided into 5 smaller beds, a long thin bed (18 inches x 22 feet), plus a number of pots and containers.  We converted this from a gravel pit about 3 years ago and each year it just gets better and better.

From my studio, looking east.

Yes, we use some Topsy Turvy planters for our tomatoes.  We have very little south-facing space and have to maximize what we have.  In our northern climate, tomatoes need all the heat they can get.

Me, breaking in our new tiller

This spring, we dug up a 15 x 27 rectangle of grass in our front yard, fenced it, and turned it into yet another garden.  The best part about this project wasn't all the food we could now produce (which is pretty awesome), but the conversations it has started.  We have gotten to know our immediate neighbors much better.  Folks we've not spoken to the entire 5 years I've lived here have stopped to tell us how great it is and how nice it looks.  I even had a woman at the library stop me and ask if I lived at the house (on our street) with the great new vegetable garden.  I never imagined the project with receive so much attention... fortunately it has been all positive.  When the city was replacing our water main a couple of months ago, even the city project manager complemented the project.

All planted, now grow dammit!

This is the new garden space.  The fence is 30" tall (city code), but it is enough to keep out dogs and we're hoping it will be too much work for any other critters in the neighborhood to deal with the fence when there is plenty of other stuff more readily available.  We bought a little tiller to help prep the space, and it is perfect for us.  It is small and only uses 6 amps, so we can run it off our solar panels.

In this bed we planted chard, beans, corn, onions, carrots, beets, kale, squash, and cucumbers, plus sunflowers, zinnias, and marigolds.  It is greening up and filling in nicely.  We can't wait to start harvesting from it!

New garden fence

Here is a street view.  The fence is set back from the sidewalk, creating a small flower bed.  I planted 5 Lavender plants, which will be wonderful to harvest once they fill in.  Between the lavender, I planted irises and lilies.  I will add more lilies this fall, the best time to transplant them.  This bed will keep the fence from being a giant swath of white wood, add some function as well as color, and give the neighbors something pretty to look at.

Here is the rest of our yard.  Just grass with some rhododendrons that might be 50 years old.  This photo was taken about a month after I moved in, so we had cut the rhododendrons way back, but hadn't made any other improvements at that point.  We have a corner lot, and we have moved some roses down to the east edge (to the left, out of the photo) that we hope to create a hedge with.  Really, right now its just an unexciting lot of grass that has to be mowed.


Lastly, one of my lilies currently in bloom.  So Pretty!

Lilies in bloom

Well, there it is... a summary of our property as it is now.  Next up... our plans! 

Forgive me...

but I'm going to brag a little. This has been a highly productive week for me and I feel like sharing. On Monday we went on a field trip to Tulip Town as part of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. We went early in the morning to avoid the crowds and had a great time. We even got our picture in the newspaper. I let Ethan use my point and shoot camera and he had a lot of fun taking pictures. Here is my favorite of the ones he took:

Here is my favorite that I took:

You can find more of the photos we took that day on my Tulip Trip Flickr set.

Tuesday we had library day and swim lessons. I took all our garage sale leftovers to the thrift shop.

Wednesday we went to grandma's where Ethan got to see the chickens and plant his very own row of onions in the garden.

Thursday I worked my little tail off and broke my single day production record and produced 1220 lines of transcription. Before 3:00 p.m. Ethan also had swimming again.

Friday I helped my mom load her wares for the local Garden Art Show into her car. While I was at her house, I helped myself to some of the anaerobic digester compost (very rich, dry, not stinky compost) she got for the garden. I turned the dirt in our garden at home and added in the good compost so we have a place for our tomatoes and peppers. I planted potatoes, onions, lettuce, spinach, mesclun, basil, parsley, and cilantro in containers. Cliff built a potato box last week, so that is what were growing our potatoes in this year. He painted it black to help retain heat and protect the wood. Here is a photo of the potato box:


I took more items to the thrift shop to donate and found the *perfect* bookcase I needed for our school room. Well, it wasn't perfect; it was 8 feet tall (I have 8 foot ceilings) and only 8 inches deep, but it was only $20 and everything I'd looked at so far was $80+. I couldn't even make it myself for that. The books can hang off the shelf if necessary, and I had Cliff cut the top 2 feet off for me.

Saturday I sanded, filled, and primed the new book case, mowed the lawn, took the kids for a bike ride to the park, and started lining a knit bag that I've been avoiding for almost a year.

Sunday I sanded the book case again, and painted the first coat in the color Ethan chose (dark red). We took our lunch to the beach and the kids played at the playground. I ran two clothes lines and am looking for a sewing pattern for a clothespin bag. Right now I'm soaking beans to make my white chili later in the week and I still plan to mix a batch of artisan bread dough. oh! I finished lining the cabled bag! Here's a final photo:


All this and I still worked every day, cooked a full dinner from scratch every night, cleaned the house, and did laundry. It must be spring.

oh! Fireplace update. The new mantle is framed in, the pipe has been run in the chimney, the electricity is wired in, and the new stove is sitting in its new spot. Hopefully, the project will get wrapped up this week.


Phew! I think I need a vacation.

A Season For Change

That's what is commonly said, right? Spring is all about renewal and change? Well, for me there is something about spring that incites BIG change. Nope, no simple spring cleaning in this house. In the past couple weeks, we've started some big projects around here.

The biggest project is the new fireplace. Here is what it looked like before:
Ethan is "helping" break up the cement that was under the tile hearth. You can see what the brick was like. Last week they ripped the old brick face off the fireplace and cleaned it all out. Now we're waiting for a new gas insert to to be delivered, which should happen early next week. Once the new fireplace is installed, a new low-profile oak mantle will be built around it. This is what it looks like now:


Along with a minor remodeling project (fortunately, I don't have to do the hardest parts of the project), I've been doing some drywall repair in the entry way. Tom, a contractor friend of the family, fixed the southeast corner of my house where the foundation has some issues. You can walk across my dining room without feeling like you'll fall through the floor now.

Speaking of dining room, I've decided to turn the dining room into our schoolroom. I bought some great maps for the walls and I'm going to build a small bookcase to house all the school books and supplies. There is a TV for the occasional educational video/documentary and lots of table space to spread out for projects.

Why yes, that is my knitting on the table... I've discovered if I knit while Ethan is doing schoolwork I don't nag and hover quite as much so he's not so rushed, but I'm still available for questions and to review his work. The project in the basket is Ethan's Tunic, a great kids pattern (#232) by Knitting Pure and Simple.

I've also been purging stuff. I know I have way too much stuff. A lot of it I just ended up with when I moved here and didn't even really like, so I'm getting rid of it. Next weekend we're having a garage sale. (If you live nearby, the sale will be listed in the clamdigger but I won't be sharing my address here.) These boxes are only a small part of what I'm attempting to get rid of:
I have many more boxes in the garage too. No, there is no yarn in any of these boxes. Whatever is left on Sunday goes to the thrift shop, freecycle, or dumpster... in that order. I hope having all that stuff out of here will leave me feeling a bit less burdened, literally and figuratively.

So, what kind of spring projects do you take on?

Painting, playing, and pain

This past week, we’ve finally managed to put my family room walls back together. After the mishap with the paneling, it took multiple skim coats of mud, a couple coats of primer, and spraying texture to get the walls looking normal again. I expect to pain the ceiling and 2 walls next weekend and then we can get back to fixing the floors!

This weekend was the 2008 LYS tour. I didn’t have a lot of time, but managed to visit 3 stores, Wildfibers, Knot Just Yarn, and of course my own LYS Ana-Cross Stitch. Each store offered a free one-skein pattern and lots of fabulous yarn. I did buy something at each store, but I was good and spent less than $100. I bought mostly sock yarn, specifically non-wool sock yarns so I might have some summer-weight socks to wear.

This weekend was the Anacortes Waterfront Festival. After texturing the walls Saturday Morning, Cliff, Emma, and I went to the marina for the festival. We had ice cream, looked at boats on the dock, and Emma got to “build” a model boat. There was live music and typical fair-type food. We only lasted a couple hours before being completely exhausted and walking home.

Sunday, my mom & I hosted our knitting group for our monthly meet. It was a beautiful weekend and we decided to knit outside on the deck. Well, I sat in the sun and forgot to put on sunscreen. Yes, I do it just once every summer, but I fried my poor fair skin. My arms are burned pretty badly and they hurt. The burn has a funny shape at the elbow because my arms were bent while I was knitting. My face is burned, but not so bad. Even my scalp is burned!

While at our knitting group, I cast on the Drops Cabled Bag (98-54) that has been in my queue for quite a while. I remember when I first saw it I loved it, but didn’t think I’d ever have the skills to do it. So far, I’m finding it pretty easy (other than the math for the increases) and moving along pretty quickly.

Karma

Talk about Karma, I complained that I have nothing to write about on my blog, and the world gives me something.

Last night I decided to go ahead and take the wood paneling out of my family room. The pieces were not unmanageable for one person, though they were a bit big. As I was taking the paneling out to the garage, I misstepped, slipped, or something, heard a “pop,” and next thing I knew I was lying in the sidewalk and my shoe was on the top step of my porch.

My first thought is that I broke my ankle. I crawled into the house and made it to the couch. I had to have Ethan bring me my phone and an ice pack. I called my mom and Cliff, who both rushed right over. Mom took Ethan to her house while Cliff took me to the emergency room. Turns out it isn’t broken, but I sprained it pretty good. I’m not allowed to bear weight on it for two days, but after that it should be no big deal… Hopefully.

It is my right ankle so I can work, but I can’t drive. Why did I have to choose a profession where an injury could make working nearly impossible?

I suspect I'll get a lot of knitting done this week since I won't be going much of anywhere...

Ramblings

It has been a week since I've said anything... probably because there isn't much to say. Last week was pretty uneventful. I managed to get a little bit of knitting done on my sock (I am only 3 pattern repeats into the cuff) and finally got my second March square for the monthly CAL done.

The weather last weekend was completely crazy. There was wind, rain, sleet, hail, snow, sun, thunder… You name it; we saw it over the weekend. Since the weather was so unpredictable, it made it impossible to actually get out and DO anything. I was hoping to get in a short hike, but no way.

I did obtain all the supplies to make a swift over the weekend. I’m actually pretty excited about this… When I’m done, I’ll have a wonderful tool that cost me less than $10 rather than the $60+ for a commercial one, plus I will have made it myself! Now I have to find the time to actually build it. I'll be sure to write about the adventure when I get to it.

In my family room I have this lovely wood paneling on two walls. We decided that while the floor is in a state of repair, we might as well redo the walls too. On Sunday I removed all the trim pieces. The paneling is glued on, so it should make a lovely drywall mess when it comes off. Then we'll be in for lots of patching and texturing. And while we're at it, we're doing the floor of the entry too, so next weekend I'll be removing trim there (the new stuff we put in back in September) and pulling up vinyl to expose the hardwood underneath. I'll keep you posted on our progress.