Wow....

Yup, that is a picture of a wheel barrow half full of green tomatoes. I've already done tonnes of g.t. salsa and g.t. pickles. Lots will get fed to the chickens I'm sure. Anyone have ideas for the cherry tomatoes?

Yup....

Once again, life got away on me there. I've been all over the province, in the garden, working hard (even in someone else's garden) and in general trying to get back to some semblance of what I see as 'normal'.

I have a job to make 50 of these guys. This is 10. Where am I going to put them all!?


This is what was left of the herb patch after we ripped it out of it's back yard garden in Toronto. I wish I had taken a pic of where the herbs got moved to. Gorgeous.




and I got to make some new friends....



Yup, I've been busy. ;o)

I'm back....

I'm home... and it's Fall! Crazy. Some of the trees in my yard are even naked and I missed the entire thing. Some look like this.



This looks like what may survive of the harvest of the mystery plant of '08. Every year there seems to be something sprout in the compost. This year it was pumkin with the biggest, craziest vine I have ever seen. It was HUGE! Most of the fruit got blossom end rot but I did save this four beauties. I wonder if they will ripen? If they don't, they still look like a whole lot of chicken food. Of course Garm is home with me and demanding as ever. I missed him too.



When I checked on the 'Girls. I found the most amazing brown egg ever. My friends who looked after them for the two weeks said someone had started laying brown eggs. Wow, they are super pretty. If I figure out who is laying these, she may be a candidate to over winter. I'm thinking it's the Moran, she's the only odd one out, and she hadn't started laying yet.

What I did today

-laundry, it was nice and sunny out to dry on the line
-fed chickens, gathered eggs
-brought an entire load full of garbage to the dump out of my basement. I'm sorry, it went to landfill but just because there is too much stuff in the world does not mean it had to live in my basement
-got more sand for the chicken run (grit)
-worked on the chicken tractor (it's almost done!)
-pruned the tree over the driveway (finally)
-visited with a friend
-lunched
-fed the chickens their greens (dandelion)
-poked at the compost (does this count as productive?)
-dined on local bison and fresh homegrown veggies (thanks Jenn & Paul!)
-squished my dog (mental health time)
-didn't feel like writing a real blog post... goodnight!

Happy Happy

Happy Tulip-versary Kendra and Gregg!!

And now for something completely different...

I don't often sit down and actually write for this blog, a random smattering of pictures is usually how I communicate. Ask anyone who loves me, I'm not the greatest at talking about the important things. So I'm not sure where to start, maybe I'll just point you all over to Causaubon's Book. http://casaubonsbook.blogspot.com/

She's got a lot of important things to say. Let's start there, maybe later, I'll tell you about the chickens....

What's On the Table

I have been working very hard the last week or so. This is one of three bridesmaid's dresses that are very close to being done. The flaw in the "Get Them All Done On the Long Weekend" plan was that the prototype dress was never hemmed. Therefore we never saw the hem to see that a blind hem in this satin is impossible. So.... all three dresses are hemless awaiting first a sample from me of one more type of hem and the the bride to choose what she likes.

First I am taking a couple of days "off". Off is qualified as there will probably be at least one day of wardrobe planning for my zombies. Other than that, rest, recreation and wardrobe planning is a holiday in my world.

Happy happy....

ps.. no sign of a mama bird, I may have some orphan eggs on my hands.

Mystery Flowes

This is a mystery plant. It was living on the lawn, for I dunno, 10 years, probably more since there was a bed there. Every spring there would be a little orange flower and I would think, "I should move that." Well last year I remembered at the right time and look what I got!

What did I get? Any ideas?

Garden Season

Today I feel like I have really started gardening season. I cleaned out the compost, moved the compost bins to kill a new section of lawn and planted asparagus. This is noteworthy, I have wanted asparagus for a long, long time. In fact so much I have been responsible for two other beds being planted at friend's houses. I now have my own.

While cleaning out the compost I made some discoveries. The bags, labelled compsostable that came as shipping packaging I put in last year are, in fact not even a little bit biogradable. I mean, look at that picture, those are completely functional, usable, albeit dirty plastic bags. After a year of biodegrading! The only other things I had to dig out were the usual assortment of sticks, small logs and corn cobs and of course the wooden spoon that is 2 years in and still completely solid! Nothing like a good compost challenge to keep it interesting.

I'm a geek.