“The worst thing you can do for those you love is the things they could and should do themselves.” Abraham Lincoln

Self sufficiency at first glance seems complicated, but like all great things, self sufficiency first starts in our thought life. Its a twinkle, a spark, a small fire and finally a full on blaze. Most importantly, however, self sufficiency is an attitude.

No one can make another person self sufficient just like no one can build another person’s self esteem. Self sufficiency grows in the hearts of those who truly want to become self reliant. As I said before, self sufficiency is an attitude. Here are my ABC’s of self sufficiency. The beautiful thing about this is that another person may have a completely different list of building blocks from which they draw upon. These are mine:

A- Attitude of heart and mind that you will do something to break the chains of dependency on others for your emotional, physical and intellectual needs. Self sufficiency involves finding ways to fulfill our own needs while still being autonomous within family life.

B- Believe in yourself, your skills and abilities.

C- Create goals for yourself, short term and long term. People without goals waste time in aimless activities. Most of the time a lack of goals shows a lack of accountability to themselves and those around them.

D- Decide to be accountable for your own life. Accountability means being “on purpose” and taking responsibility for your thoughts, feelings, actions and mistakes.

E- Efficiency is an important feature of self sufficiency. There is a quote by David Wolfe that I have always loved: “The way you do a thing is the way you do everything.” If you are unproductive in your thought life, you’ll be unproductive in your physical life. We need to be efficient in how think about our lives, as well as how we perform in our day to day life. If you’re the kind of person that does things aimlessly, you’ll be less efficient in the things you do.

F- Fortitude…from the dictionary: mental and emotional strength in facing difficulty, adversity, danger, or temptation courageously.

January is gone! It slipped away like a toddler set free to hunt for “dragon eggs.” Simone’s imagination has become colorful and vibrant over the last few weeks. While she and Noah have always pretended there were dragons in our large field of nothingness on the south side of our house, she has allowed her imagination to soar, searching for those elusive dragon eggs.

That’s how I feel about January. It was elusive, mystical and now gone. February has arrived with a renewed sense of purpose. I hope by the end of the month I’m not wondering where the month went. So much happened in January and I feel it was the great start to a new year. I hope that February will be just as amazingly productive.

As our seed packets start trickling in from different seed catalogs I want to start them, but I can’t…I need to wait till the greenhouse is complete. The temptation is strong, especially since all our seed cell flats arrived a few days ago. I did soak all the tea seeds, but they turned out to be duds. Only four tea seeds were actually viable.  I’m quite disappointed that we’ll need to get more tea seeds and try again. In the meantime I need to figure out what we’ll put in the ground to begin to prepare the area over the next few years before the tea seeds are planted outside.

The photo below is my final garden plan for part of the west side of our house. I have a few more things to label and color in, but for the most part its finished. The brown circles to the right are where the golden currants will be. Even though I put them in last on the plan, the area needs earthworks for passive water harvesting, so it may actually end up being a much bigger area than in the garden plan, especially since Indigo will be planted in between each currant bush to fix nitrogen. Being that currants and Indigo are perennials, they will definitely take precedent over any seasonal edible landscaping. I can always adjust how many squash, chilies, fruits and other herbs are planted after the earthworks are completed. I think I made myself nauseous worrying that the currants and indigo wouldn’t have enough space. (Click the photo to get a full sized view)

The next garden plans I draw up will be the continuation of the first plan. By the time I’m finished with all the different plans, they should fit together like a huge puzzle. I’m also hoping that by the time I finish all the plans, I’ll be able to pin them up to the wall in the new work room.

A new thing we started in January and we’ll continue from now on is to count all the eggs we get each day. We’ve been writing totals down since the beginning of the new year, and so far we have 82 eggs. That’s all total from all our birds. The ducks have laid the majority of eggs for us, but Betty and her two illegitimate children are starting to lay more frequently as the days start to become longer. During the coldest part of the winter so far, we noticed that the duck eggs were a little more sporadic and also more compact in size, but as the temperatures start to warm, the eggs are getting bigger and more frequent. I don’t think it matters to ducks whether the days are short or long, they just drop eggs where ever is convenient for them.  The chickens on the other hand, will lay their eggs inside the coop keeping their nesting area clean and dry. This year we haven’t found one chicken egg yet laying on the ground outside the coop. The ducks have also gotten very good at hiding their eggs from us. 30% of the time they will just drop eggs where ever they are, but then there are other times where they will hide them in a dirt hole under the rabbitry and cover it up with hay from the pens, or they’ll lay in the duck house and push the eggs under a lot of straw so it looks like the nest is empty.

Our short list of priorities and goals for February are:

• Finish the greenhouse
• Complete more work inside the house before spring
• Continue working on garden plans
• Order asparagus crowns and more seeds
• Work on golden currant and indigo passive water harvesting
• Prepare the soil in first garden plan area for spring
• Start boxwood seeds and cardoon
• Clean broken glass out of utility fridge and cold stratify berry bushes and other seeds needing 1-3 months in the fridge
• Build top bar beehives
• Order bees to arrive in April

January: You/self-portrait/home

Here’s a link to the 2012 Photography Challenge

After two full days of persistent and meticulous attention to detail, the greenhouse frame is standing tall. Both Saturday and Sunday were perfect days for greenhouse building. On day one, Dom, Vicki, Gina and Noah worked together. On day two, Gina had to go back to her job, so it was just Dom, Vicki and Noah working together.

I was a little more composed after a good night sleep and yesterday I had the opportunity to sit outside and continue making garden notes as well as starting the rough draft for the garden quadrant where the greenhouse and Three Sister Guild will be going.

I’ll post the garden plans for the greenhouse area when I finish my other garden plans. The panels and structure modifications have not been added yet to the greenhouse. We need to wait until Dom has a day off again which will be this Thursday. In the meantime we found a great website from a man that lives in New Mexico who modified the same greenhouse we have. His design was awesome, and we’ll be making some of the same tweaks he did to his. I’m really glad we found him online. The greenhouse frame is strong, but not strong enough to withstand our very high winds and while windbreaks can help, there is still more we can do to make the greenhouse even stronger. Here is the link to website I found.

Simone played pretend and made strawberry pie. She found a green bowl, loaded it up dirt and creatively put the stones on top. No one in our family has ever made strawberry pie, so this was a treat for us to see her imagination all fired up. She was very proud of her creation and we were all proud of her ability to play pretend.

Yesterday turned out to be a perfect day to finish the windbreaks and start building the greenhouse. The weather was pleasant and virtually no wind was blowing. Dom and Noah finished up the windbreaks and then Vicki and Gina joined in to help build the greenhouse foundation.

I wasn’t involved in helping out with the greenhouse or in reading the rather detailed instructions for how the greenhouse all fit together. Talk about confusing. Well, at least to me it was. Everyone else seemed to have a handle on it. I think I was just flustered by all the activity that was going on inside. I felt like a caged animal and the walls were closing in on me. You see, I’m an introvert…hardcore, so if a lot of people are around in a confined space talking to each other or me, I get drained of all my energy quickly. I became unglued. At one point everyone was sitting in the dining room, either asking me questions, telling me something, talking to each other and making lots of noise. I don’t handle those situations very well. On top of everyone talking was Simmi coming into the kitchen every five minutes asking for more meat. She’s a meat hound, and as she saw the meat come out of the pan, she’d come with her plate protesting, “More meat, more meat…say please, say please!” That’s her way of ensuring the meat didn’t disappear into anyone’s belly before she got to swipe it. So my brain was on fire, I kept burning food, and I couldn’t even complete the task of making four breakfasts in a timely manner. It took until 1:30pm to actually make breakfast for Dom, Gina, Noah and myself. I dropped food, utensils and other items constantly, burned myself, burned the food, ran into two walls, tripped over laundry baskets and bounced off the laundry walls, scraped my hand on a few nails sticking out of the walls and then while outside going to take photos of everything, I fell into the pond. Last night Dom was kind enough to come in and make dinner. Thank God he gets me. I don’t know if dinner would have worked out for anyone last night had I made it. I just sat and directed him on what I was attempting to make. Everything came out well, but as soon as I got up out of my seat to help out in the kitchen, I’d start to burn stuff again, so I just gave up and let Dom finish dinner.

Here are some photos of what was accomplished yesterday by Dom, Vicki, Gina and Noah. My dad stopped by to watch the process.

The windbreaks are now complete. Dom needs to lop off the portion of post sticking out at the top and then we need to choose some sort of flowering vine or fruiting vine to cover the windbreak. I’m considering flanking all three windbreaks with some sort of tall upright evergreen shrub.

Noah and Gina tightening the greenhouse foundation and in the photo above and Vicki tightening it in the photo below.

After the foundation frame was placed into the hole getting it as straight and plumb as possible, the gravel was shoveled in next.

Last night as the sun was setting, they wrapped things up for the evening. It was a good day.

Today, these are the things to be done:

• Finish building the greenhouse
• Continue to work on garden design

In the photo to the left is my incomplete final drawing for the front garden (now to be headed for the compost pile since I have to make a new final plan). I completed my first draft a few weeks ago, the second draft was finished two days ago, and yesterday I started designing the final plan. Its STILL not done, since I’ve come to mental stand-still on the formal design part. I haven’t created the formal garden because quite frankly I ran out of space! How big is this area? 52′x36′ feet and this is only one QUARTER of the front area. Yes, the area is quite large. In the photos I’ve taken of the area where we planted the crab apple trees…that’s this garden plan area. In the photo it doesn’t look that large, but after getting everything measured and finally getting the plan to scale, I can see what I have to work with in terms of space. Each square in the plan represents one square foot. You can click the photo to see it blown up full size. This year I’ll be planting each side of the walking path between the crab apple trees with alternating summer squash and zucchini for this year’s farmers market. Surrounding the squash and zucchini will be nasturtium (all the red spaces with the ‘N’) and behind each crab apple tree, chilies. As I said earlier, this design has not been completed so surrounding the chilies will be different herbs not yet populated in the plan.

My dilemma started when my thoughts of having a formal garden collided with the true amount of space I have to work with. I’m not willing to give up the idea of putting rows of Golden Currants (pictured in a grey thick line to the right) so Dom suggested dropping my stubborn desire for a formal garden and instead do complete rows of different berry bushes. *sigh*

The next problem is my asinine desire to place berry bushes in such a way as to not passively harvest all the water I can. I have NOT designed the berry bushes to take advantage of the the slope we have nor have I put anything on contour.  DERRR! So now I have to redesign the whole Golden Currant area. The new design will allow for between 18 and possibly 21 currant bushes in each front section. I’ll write another blog entry in a few days with the before and after final drawings and how my plans have morphed from simple and incomplete, to finished and ready to prep the land.

I took a break yesterday afternoon from designing which sucks the life right out of me since I get so freaked out about missing something (like the elephant in the room…passive water harvesting) and then hours of hard work goes down the toilet. Well, it doesn’t actually go down the toilet since practice makes perfect right? The more I work on my designs the better I will get at picking up on critical data needed to be incorporated. What seems so simple and obvious sometimes can be obscured by my desire for the big picture. In this case, the mistakes that I make will help me become better at what I do.

Anyway, stepping away late yesterday afternoon, I headed outside with Simone to take some photos of Dom and Noah as they worked on the windbreaks for the greenhouse. I was reluctant to put the greenhouse up until we had windbreaks in place. I’ve seen and heard horror stories on Facebook as well as in the product reviews for this particular greenhouse, about how it collapsed or all the panels blew away in a gust of wind 40 mph or greater…sometimes less! Our wind gusts can reach 75 mph in the spring. It will come out of nowhere and POOF! we need to head inside because the wind is so strong it knocks us around. With a great wind comes the dust storms which gets into any exposed orifice as well as in the clothing nooks and crannies. I’ve had sand in my underwear because I’ve refused to come in during a dust storm. I’ve determined that we do need to work in the high wind gusts and not run for cover like cowards. I know it seems stupid to do this, but hey, we do live in the desert! I just need to design desert clothing for spring and summer that will allow us to comfortably continue to work in a windstorm.

Simone was eager to help put the posts in the ground and help keep them steady. Dom dug the holes for the posts while Noah filled the post and holes with rocks and dirt. I didn’t want posts to be permanently filled with concrete in case we needed to move the wind breaks and/or greenhouse. In between each post are pallets. Yesterday, post sections were dug and two pallets were placed in between, and then they ran out of light.

All together there will be three complete windbreaks. The first, when completed will be eight feet long by eight feet high. The second and third windbreak will be four feet wide by eight feet high. They will be in a staggered formation to allow some wind through. The majority of wind comes up from the south west. Our greenhouse will be situated smack dab in the middle of the south west! Why? Because it made the most sense to put it there. Flanked on the other side of the greenhouse is a five foot high fence which will be the other windbreak for winds barreling down from the north during the cold winter months. Although the north winds don’t blow too often, when they come they can be just as damaging as the fury of a south wind.

After the second course of pallets are secured, the excess post at the top will be lopped off to get everything level. Its tricky getting everything level since the land is on a slope.

As Dom and Noah struggled to get the posts level, our neighbor showed up with a Transit Level to make our lives so much better! The above photo is of Dom and Noah getting the proper measurements. Our neighbor has a son the same age as Noah, so they love to goof off. The next series of photos is of Noah being goofy and making faces at his friend. I just kept snapping photo after photo because he’s too funny.







Once the windbreaks are in place they will be planted with some sort of perennial climbing vine. I’m not sure what to put there yet, but it’ll be gorgeous! We may choose a berry and flower, or honeysuckle or something we don’t even know about yet. For me its “when in doubt, go without!” I’ll be on the look out for the perfect perennials. I know when I draw up the master plan for the greenhouse area it will finally come to me, so I’m not fretting about it right now.

Originally we had planned to get the greenhouse foundation finished on Thursday, but the windbreaks took precedent. On our agenda from today through Sunday:

• Finish the windbreaks
• Complete greenhouse foundation
• Build the greenhouse
• Finalize front garden plan
• Continue to work on garden plans for other areas
• Start cold stratification of berry bush seeds
• Plant 100 Camilla Sinensis Tea seeds (seeds have been soaking for a little more than 24 hours) in seed flats once outer shell has cracked. Tea plants will not be planted outside until 2013 after they have grown and the ground has been properly prepared over the course of this year.

It may be another few days until I write another blog entry. Its still quite difficult for me to balance drawing up a garden design with other responsibilities. Its an area of my life I’m trying desperately to change in order to bring more balance to my day.

Wish me luck! This is all so exciting, nerve racking, and totally fun at the same time. Talk to you soon!

Vicki placed the next batch of orders which will arrive sometime in the first week of March.

Six elderberry were ordered, 3 York elderberry and 3 Nova Elderberry.

From Herb Wisdom.com:

Used for its antioxidant activity, to lower cholesterol, improve vision, boost the immune system, improve heart health and for coughs, colds, flu, bacterial and viral infections and tonsilitis. Elderberry juice was used to treat a flu epidemic in Panama in 1995.

Elderberries have been a folk remedy for centuries in North America, Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, hence the medicinal benefits of elderberries are being investigated and rediscovered. Elderberry is used for its antioxidant activity, to lower cholesterol, to improve vision, to boost the immune system, to improve heart health and for coughs, colds, flu, bacterial and viral infections and tonsilitis. Bioflavonoids and other proteins in the juice destroy the ability of cold and flu viruses to infect a cell. People with the flu who took elderberry juice reported less severe symptoms and felt better much faster than those who did not. Elderberry juice was used to treat a flu epidemic in Panama in 19951

Elderberries contain organic pigments, tannin, amino acids, carotenoids, flavonoids, sugar, rutin, viburnic acid, vitaman A and B and a large amount of vitamin C. They are also mildly laxative, a diuretic, and diaphoretic. Flavonoids, including quercetin, are believed to account for the therapeutic actions of the elderberry flowers and berries. According to test tube studies2 these flavonoids include anthocyanins that are powerful antioxidants and protect cells against damage.

Elderberries were listed in the CRC Handbook of Medicinal Herbs as early as 1985, and are listed in the 2000 Mosby’s Nursing Drug reference for colds, flu, yeast infections, nasal and chest congestion, and hay fever. In Israel, Hasassah’s Oncology Lab has determined that elderberry stimulates the body’s immune system and they are treating cancer and AIDS patients with it. The wide range of medical benefits (from flu and colds to debilitating asthma, diabetes, and weight loss) is probably due to the enhancement of each individual’s immune system.

At the Bundesforschungsanstalt research center for food in Karlsruhe, Germany, scientists conducting studies on Elderberry showed that elderberry anthocyanins enhance immune function by boosting the production of cytokines. These unique proteins act as messengers in the immune system to help regulate immune response, thus helping to defend the body against disease. Further research indicated that anthocyanins found in elderberries possess appreciably more antioxidant capacity than either vitamin E or vitamin C.

Studies at Austria’s University of Graz found that elderberry extract reduces oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Oxidation of LDL cholesterol is implicated in atherogenesis, thus contributing to cardiovascular disease.

1. J Alt Compl Mod 1995: 1:361-69 2. Youdim KA, Martin A, Joseph JA. Incorporation of the elderberry anthocyanins by endothelial cells increases protection against oxidative stress. Free Radical Biol Med 2000: 29:51 60

Two Maypop

From Hubpages:

The maypop- also known as the passionflower, scientifically named passiflora incarnata, is a wild vine that grows throughout the eastern United States. It is a unique looking plant with three-fingered leaves and intricate bright purple flowers that bloom in the summer. It grows in near or in fields and in recently turned earth. The maypop is generally considered a pest due to it’s quick growth and hardiness, though it is classified as a wildflower. Various members of it’s genus passiflora can be found throughout the world. It’s South American cousin is the bearer of passion fruit.

However pesky it may be, don’t be too quick to kill it if it pops up in your yard. The fruit it produces can be eaten and when it grows with plenty of water it is quite tasty (as the many animals than love it can attest) and the whole plant has sedative properties that have been used throughout history to treat sleeplessness and hysteria, and it’s still in use today.

In natural medicine, there are many uses and indications for the Sea Buckthorn. Leaves and flowers are utilized for arthritis, GI ulcers, gout and skin rashes and irritations. Tea made from the leaves contains vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, amino acids, and fatty acids. The tea is typically used for lowering blood pressure and serum cholesterol, prevention and treatment of diseases of the blood vessel, and for increasing immunity. Sea buckthorn berries are used for preventing skin infections, improving sight, and slowing the aging process. The tea is commonly applied to sunburns to reduce swelling and irritation while promoting healing.

Seed or berry oil is used for asthma, angina, hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol), as an antioxidant and as an expectorant. Sea Buckthorn oil is used in traditional medicine to slow the reduction of mental agility associated with aging and to reduce the side effects of cancer and cancer treatments. It may be used to treat GI tract diseases including ulcers, GERD, upset stomach, dyspepsia and constipation.

Sea Buckthorn is a supplemental source of vitamins C, A, and E, beta-carotene, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids. One recent study suggests that Sea Buckthorn seed oil may be effective for assisting in weight loss. Chinese researchers have completed a study suggesting that Sea Buckthorn oil extract can lower cholesterol, reduce angina and improve heart function in patients with cardiac disease. Research on Sea Buckthorn as it relates to weight loss, cardiac disease and cholesterol levels are ongoing and appear to be promising based on initial results.

Sea Buckthorn tea, oil or berries can be used for a variety of skin conditions and to heal wounds of the skin, and scientific studies indicate it may have some antibiotic properties. Extracts can be used for acne, rosacia, insect bites and sunburn.

Four Viking Aronia

Description from The Blueberry Croft

This is not a blueberry it is an aronia berry.  Select cultivar for fruit and fall color. Viking Aronia grows to about 6 ft. It is Self fruitful. ‘Viking’: It is vigorous, widely and easy to grow. Aronia is native to the eastern U.S. but the best varieties were bred in Eastern Europe and Sweden. Viking was developed in Finland. This Black Chokeberry, is an open, upright, spreading, somewhat rounded deciduous shrub. It displays clusters of 5-petaled, white flowers in spring which are followed in early autumn by blackish purple, blueberry-sized fruits which usually do not persist into winter. Lustrous, dark green foliage turns an attractive purplish red in autumn.

Although technically edible, the fruits are extremely tart and bitter, and are not recommended for eating off the bush. They will make your mouth pucker. Attractive fall color and fruit give this shrub good ornamental value for a shrub border. It is tolerant of wide range of soils. Best fruit production occurs in full sun. It spreads by root suckers to form colonies. The plants will yield in two years or less after planting and increase in production for the next 3 years when they reach maturity. .

Viking and Nero were selected in Russia and Europe for commercial fruit production. In recent years, these two cultivars have been introduced back into the United States because of their health benefits. They were selected for larger fruit suitable for jam-making. Juice from these berries is astringent and not sweet, but high in vitamin C and antioxidants. They have 3 times the antioxidant levels that are in blueberries and are noted for their health benefits. It grows in Zone 3-8. The fruit of black chokeberry has higher levels of antioxidants (anthocyanins and flavonoids) than any other temperate fruit. This is generating an increasing level of interest among consumers’ small fruit producers in the U.S.

The berries are naturally astringent but are extremely astringent if picked before they are fully ripe. They are least astringent after they have been through a couple of autumn frosts. Freezing reduces the astringency of aronia berries. The Berries are harvested after they are ripe in late August or early September.  zones 3 – 7.

Two Bicolored Butterfly bush

From Gurneys:

Blossoms when most shrubs have finished flowering for the season—late summer—for a welcome flush of color. Arching sprays of foliage frame clusters of sweetly fragrant flowers that resemble lilacs. Perfume attracts droves of butterflies— that’s exactly how this beauty got its name! At 6-10 ft., it makes a supremely colorful lot line screen. Prefers full to partial sun. Potted plants. Zones 5-9.
This plant attracts hummingbirds and butterflies.

Four Josee Reblooming Lilac

From Gurneys:

This hardy lilac loves the sun and is just the right size (at 4-6 ft. tall) as an accent shrub or grouped as a hedgerow. Fragrant, lavender-pink panicles of trumpet-shaped flowers are 4-5 in. long and can’t be beat as cut flowers. Even butterflies can’t resist this lilac. Potted starter plants. Zones 2-9.

The other items ordered not shown are:

One Silver Bells Chocolate vine

One Violet chocolate vine

Six packets of boxwood- Buxus Microphylla each containing 40 seeds each.

I asked Noah to help me plant fruit trees yesterday. At first he objected stating “Mom? Can’t I just have one day off where I don’t have to do anything except play video games?” He acts like we require him to do so much during the day. There are times when we do ask him for help, like when furniture needs to be moved, concrete needs to be mixed or other heavier ‘manly’ work needs to be done, but its not an every day occurrence. Of course I always pull out the big guns when he explains how tired he is (even though he didn’t do anything most of the day except watch tv) and I usually bounce back with “where’s Dom right now? where did he go Noah?” LOL Oh that’s right after five hours of grueling heavy lifting, making bread, staking and pulling lines, he went to work 8 hours at his job. Or even that he spent two hours juggling making bread AND wielding pick axe because the ground is so hard and compacted it can’t simply be shoveled in order to make the holes needed to plant 10 trees today, and THEN he scooted off to work for 8 hours on his feet. So what were you saying about being tired?

The real reason I wanted to plant trees with my son is to have time with him. I want him to have his hands in the dirt, smell the earthiness of the aged compost, understand how to plant a bare root fruit tree, and planting 10 trees provides 10 repetitive actions that will sink in without him even realizing it. Even if he leaves for college in a few years and never plants a tree, I want the knowledge to be there, planted in his brain.

In first photo, Noah is mixing our compost which has been aged six months with purchased compost from last year. Dom’s compost rivaled the stuff we purchased last year. Actually, I was blown away by his compost. It was so beautiful, earthy, rich and amazing. It was light, fluffy and so soft I just wanted to keep my hands in it. I thought faeries would pop out at any moment! Just kidding. He has really perfected making compost in the high desert. That is no easy feat!

The yellow lines in the photos are our stringed off areas of where concrete pavers will create our walkway to the street. The fence will be opened up and a garden gate will be put in. Flanking both sides of the walkway to the street are 8 Radiant crab apple trees, four on each side of the walkway. This year when the weather is warm enough to plant, in between the crab apple trees I’ll be planting alternating zucchini and summer squash. In front of the squash along the edge of the concrete pavers will be edible day lilies.

A Fuji apple tree was planted half way from the walkway to the pond. The pond area will be completely fenced this spring in so that the ducks can’t wander into our gardens and devour everything in a single night. Below is a Jonathan apple tree which is located halfway from the walkway to the greenhouse.

Yesterday was a day filled with excitement, stress, bewilderment and exhaustion. A lot of work was done, but not by me…by Dom. I worked him too hard I fear, spreading him very thin with my list of to-do’s. Unfortunately, the saying is true “when it rains it pours” and there were a whole host of things that needed to be accomplished yesterday. Fortunately everything got done but not without leaving my man with a feeling of angst and wondering when he would be able to actually sit down and rest.

It started off with Dom wanting to make sure the next two loaves of bread were baked. He’s made a commitment to making bread either everyday or every other day as needed. We are still buying Noah the cheapo bread that he likes, but soon enough that will come to an end, leaving store bought bread behind in the dust. Making a no knead bread is fairly simple but it does involves some time commitments. Add to that us shifting to sprouted sour dough no knead bread, and you can see how the process and time commitment will change even more.

Anyway, before baking the bread, he needed to fill in a few ditches we formed last year in front of the house so he could pull the truck right up to the house and unload the furniture. A few days ago we were able to get some stuff off of craigslist for free, but running out of time, Dom needed to leave the furniture on the truck until Noah could help him take it all off. So, the ditch is filled, and bread is finished, and now the truck gets unloaded. A free couch in great condition needs to go downstairs into our office. We got the couch for free when the guy with the ad said “if you can get it out of our basement, you can have it!” Dom and Noah went up a few days ago, snatched it from one basement only to bring it to our basement. I guess it was always meant to stay underground.

Next was a fridge one of his co-workers gave us. The fridge has some wear and tear and rust on it, but it works great. The fridge will go into the utility/summer kitchen. I thought the fridge was going to do him in for sure.

After the fridge, Noah and Dom brought in our new nightstands. Okay, so they aren’t new, but they are new to me. I was on the lookout for a second dresser with three drawers when I found a matching set of nightstands for $75.00. They were heavy requiring both guys to pick them up (I know they don’t look it right?!) The nightstands were brought downstairs. I haven’t decided what color to paint them yet, but we’re leaning towards just a simple black.

After everything was brought to its final destination, we had breakfast, Simone woke up and came out from her room and I had to do a little persuading to get my fully exhausted husband to go outside and stake and pull the string to mark the new garden areas as well as where the new paver walkways were going to go. I felt bad, but it needed to be done. Reluctantly (because he was tired) he headed outside and marked everything. I have been waiting for over two weeks for him to stake this part of our land, but because we needed to get the gravel near the greenhouse area, it had to wait. Since our fruit trees for that area had arrived, I needed to have the area marked so we could plant the trees today.

It takes a long time for me to plan an area out. How do you know what to plant? Where to put it? What will go well in a particular location? Observation, thinking, research and finally making the plan. It took over two weeks to get the plan solidified on paper. Frankly its exhausting drawing up plans. I feel a weight on me and in the back of my mind always looms the thought, “what if I left something major out, like an access point, lack of proper drainage, not enough passive water harvesting” so I end up spending hours upon hours in my room on my bed trying to make it all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. I have yet to draw up the master finished plan for our front formal garden because it scares me to death! A formal garden? Me? What-who said that? I’ve never been one for formal gardens, but in this area of our land, I feel its a good fit. Its the front of the house after all, why not create something a little more formal and beautiful. In the future, this will not only be our home, but also where we have our cottage industries and ultimately being visited by clients and giving tours of our operation.

The first photo at the top is of Dom staking out the front garden area. I love that its now done and I can see my “rooms.” Each large box I consider a room. I’m looking at left side and right side as two separate but identical areas separated by the walking paths.

Our bare rooted fruit trees have been soaking since yesterday morning to give them a nice long drink of water. Today they will be planted in the area that was staked out yesterday.

Things to do this morning and throughout this week:

• Plant 10 fruit trees
• Build canning station shelving
• dig out walking paths (prep for pavers)
• Draw up complete formal garden
• Stake out formal garden
• Order seeds for Three Sisters Guild
• Order seeds, berry bushes and roses for formal garden
• Thursday lay foundation for greenhouse
• Saturday and Sunday greenhouse gets constructed.

Another busy week ahead. Without jinxing us, we are also happy to report that none of us have even had a cold or flu in one full year. Simone usually gets at least one cold per year that lasts a few days, but even she did not get her yearly cold. I wonder how long that will last!

Here are a few more photos from yesterday:

Yesterday the first fruit trees of 2012 arrived on the homestead. I’m so excited to break ground and plant these beauties. Ten trees are all grouped together, bare rooted in tight formation. 8 Radiant Flowering Crab apple trees, 1 Fuji Apple tree and 1 Jonathan Apple tree. Since we’ll be planting 8 crab apples in the front of the house, it makes sense to plant a few more varieties of apple trees. I’m thinking of planting 8 more varieties but to keep it compact, four apple trees with two different scions each will be planted. I think the perfect location for them will be behind the new greenhouse. The new trees will protect the greenhouse from winds coming up from the southwest.

The previous home we lived in had the most gorgeous crab apple tree in the front yard. Its beauty ruined me forever!

Here’s a photo of what that tree looked like in the spring of 2010:

Do you see what I mean by being ‘ruined’? I was never able to get this tree out of my mind, so we got 8 more just like it. The birds were also in love with this tree, not allowing us to take a single crab apple from it. None could be found on the ground either. Because birds love them so much, I felt that 8 would be a little overwhelming for them and hopefully they would leave a few for us to make pectin. Sunflowers will be used as well to divert their attention away from our fruit trees and berry bushes.

This year we’ll be planting all of our fruit trees in a new way called the new-fangled method to expand root growth by 400%. Colorado State University has a pdf called “The Science of Planting Trees” . Peaceful Valley has a demonstration video that’s very helpful if you’d like to plant your fruit trees using this new technique.  I’ll post the video so you can see what we’ll be doing. The way they are now planting them makes more sense to me, so I can’t wait to see the results.

Today we’ll be:

• Unloading the fridge, couch and night stands off the trailer
• Staking and pulling lines to mark where the front walkway and crab apple trees will go
• Digging holes for all ten fruit trees
• Soaking the bare rooted trees in water over night before planting them tomorrow

So exciting!