First of all, Joe and I each had busy weeks at our other jobs - me doing bookkeeping work and Joe on a construction job. So Monday through Thursday nothing really happened - except I did almost finish reading a book called 'Green from the Ground Up' which is giving us lots of ideas on green building materials. So much to think about!
Friday was a rainy day - you know I'm not a real farmer yet because I don't work outside in the rain. Joe was at work so I had a quiet day inside - paperwork, phone calls, visiting with my sister.
Which left Saturday as our only real work day for the week and with so much to do we were kind of all over the place. The most important thing we had to do in the garden was to start preparing a new home for all the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cukes, basil, etc. that are still in pots. So here's Joe tilling up, well, my mother's entire backyard. Yesss, we asked first. :) And as usual, the chickens followed close behind him, eating bugs as they went. Next weekend we have to till in some mulch, make rows, put up fencing, and then transplant. Big project.
Next we ran over to Home Depot and Lowe's - a trip we've been meaning to take for weeks now. We just wanted to take a look at everything available and measure things to get a better sense for a our drawings. We're also still in the process of figuring out what to do with our electricity, which needs to be moved to a temporary pole. So let Joe stand in the electricity aisle for an hour and he is, of course, well on his way to becoming a complete electricity wiz. There is nothing he can't learn - it's amazing. I, on the other hand, get tired feet, a hungry belly, and a bad attitude. Not one of my finer moments.
Then it was back home to work on the floor plans which need to be reworked again to allow for more windows on the south side of the house. The whole point of the passive solar is to have as much sun hitting our concrete floor in the winter as possible, keeping it warm. So we played with more ideas until it was time for bed. Then Sunday was our city day, which ended the week. And now for the pictoral update -
First, the vegetables - we continue to eat greens and radishes from our garden, which is such a pleasure. I sow more seeds every few weeks to make sure we'll have a continual supply through the summer. The first batch of arugala has gone to seed and has gotten quite bitter so we haven't been putting it in salad anymore. But I just read that with the really mature leaves you can cook them and they taste better. Same with radish greens - they are a bit fuzzy and weird to eat raw, but cook them with some butter and they're delicious! Waste not, want not. Here's a head of new lettuce - still too small to eat from, but so pretty.
The broccoli is really starting to get big. I'm thinking that soon it will be big enough that we can take the fencing off without the chickens attacking the plants. It'll be an interesting experiment anyway...
As I said earlier, the tomatoes, peppers, cukes, basil, etc, are still not in the ground. I've read that tomatoes shouldn't stay outside at night until temps are consistently above 50 degrees, which I think will be this coming weekend. So we're still bringing them in and out each day and they are growing REALLY well.
Here's the lastest home for the teenage birds - cool huh? It's like a chicken fort.
Although the chickens do spend more and more of their time these days running around the yard with the laying hens. Some are smarter than others and get out to play even when they're not supposed to. 
And then our city trip - the point of the trip was to see a play called Spring Awakening, which was really great. I'm a huge broadway fan, been to about 15 shows in NYC and London, but this was Joe's first one, so it was exciting. I think he liked it, although I don't know if he'd tell me if he didn't... but here's me in front of the theater.
Other than that all we did was walk around 3rd St to see my old neighborhood and reminisce a bit (this is where Joe and I spent our first months getting to know each other - hard to imagine now that we're living the country life). And then we just did a whole lot of eating -
First, Ukranian food at a street fair downtown -
Then, Thai food at The Republic in Union Square -
And finally, amazing sushi and seafood at Josie's East on 37th and 3rd Ave.
And we also thoroughly enjoyed the train ride each way - we've always enjoyed train rides together and this one was especially fun, both for the silly company -
and the views -
So that's it, you're all caught up and now I'll try to keep on schedule. Yesterday Joe and I both had to work, and this morning I have Natalie, who's sitting next to me playing with a wooden spoon as I type. But we've got a long list for this afternoon, so hopefully it'll be a good one. Later!
No comments:
Post a Comment