Showing posts with label new england. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new england. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Time to Garden

So it's time to start the garden! This is the first time I've worked the soil at the new house and man the soil and lighting sucks! In the fall we took 4 large trees down (I am still splitting that wood) and even without all the leaves forming, my garden is still considered 'partial sun.' The garden is about 40 feet by 25 feet. The soil is very clay based. I have added a yard of garden soil, 3.8 Cft of peat moss and about a yard of horse manure. Still I am weary of the quality of the soil. Last weekend Jaiden and I sowed seeds for arugula, kale, collards, radishes, and spinach. All are very easy to grow, but I would be surprised if they grow. A few days ago I also planted about 160 onions. I don't know what I'm going to do with all of these onions. I think I wont let some of them grow big and just pickle the small ones. I've been using wood chips to mark my plantings.
Also I have two raised beds that this year I planted two rhubard plants, 5 horserashish plants and some garlic in. I'll have ot build some more raised beds because I have previously ordered asparagus which if I can grow it correctly will take over.

In the front of the yard I have planted two large Duke Blueberry plants and two red rasberries. the Blueberrys are already doing well since I had some pine wood chips to put in the hole. Blueberries love acidic soil and pine sap provides that. I have some more blueberries coming and will also plant them in the front.

It's all coming along. On saturday I pick up the bees for my hives. Anna and Hailee had made thier first batch of lip balm using bees wax. It came out pretty good. Alot cheaper than if we were to buy it.

 


Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Waiting for the storm to hit.

Well- it looks like we in New England are going to get our first big snow storm of the year.  Some forecasts predict about 12 inches of snow between tonight and tomorrow. Other forecasts predict up to 24 inches. This will be our first bid snow storm in the Brightman house. The only thing I'm worried about is losing electricity. I have not bought a generator, so I might be regretting that soon. We have lost electricity before but only for brief periods. This storm caused quite a mess down south already with lots of power outages.

We do have a wood stove for backup heat, but it's a small soapstone stove.  These stoves don't produce a lot of heat and just work on radiant heat. Still we could gather around that and I'll tell stories of Star Wars just like in Family Guy.

I think everything will be OK. This Brightman house does get a little scary being on top of a hill. The wind can be pretty awesome during a storm. And because of all the window, when there's lightning you think it's going to strike you in your bed. I am always jumping for my life during a lightning storm.

Just remember, all of this snow is because of global warming, or climate change, or global cooling, or the hole in the ozone, or the gay baby arctic polar bear being abused, or…..