TIMBER!

June 1, 2009 - Joe and I went over to the property yesterday morning to do a little tree work. We only had a couple hours, so I was under the impression that we were going to just cut down some really small stuff. But after I had cut down a few new trees, Joe pointed to a huge hemlock and said - 'I'm gonna take down this one. '

Oh.

We moved our cars out of the way, and then he showed me how to check which way a tree is leaning and where it's carrying the most weight. Then he cut a chunk out of one side -

Then he placed me a good distance from any potential landing zones and started cutting from the other side. Pretty shortly thereafter, I heard him call - "TIMBER!!!"

And then boom -

It was down. Joe got to work sawing off all the limbs on the top and sides (you have to leave the ones on the underside initially because they carry a lot of weight and could break a leg or kill someone). I carried all the limbs over to a big brush pile. When the trunk was clear on top and sitting on the few branches underneath, we lifted a branch until the whole thing rolled over onto the ground, then cut off the last of the limbs, leaving a big ole trunk for Joe to play with at somepoint. The job was done in under two hours, and we went on with our day. What a fun project!

Vegetable Gardening - In Containers!

May 31, 2009 - This post is for all of you who have told me that you would LIKE to grow vegetables, but you don't have space for a garden. We had a lot of extra plants this year and nowhere in the garden to put them - so for once I understood your problem... what to do?

Luckily, we have a little deck out of our one room house, and I quickly realized that a few vegetables were all it needed to make it my new favorite room! So I picked up a few cheapo pots and a couple bags of potting soil and here's what I ended up with -

Sooo easy, cheap, and hopefully, fruitful! This is my first time trying vegetables in containers, but I will keep you posted on how it works, so that you can all try it next year. Surely you can find one sunny spot out your door for one precious tomato plant??

Of course, if I was going to enjoy this new space, we needed a table and chairs, so that was my next, slightly more expensive, task. But it makes me soooo happy on warm sunny mornings! Plus it now doubles as my outdoor potting area! :)

Yes Please

May 16, 2009 -


I'll take one FAT pile of that arugula with my supper.

Too Big!

May 16, 2009 - I never anticipated having this problem - many of our plants are getting too big for their own good - These tomatoes are sooo ready to go into the ground, but the ground is not ready for them! Did I start them too early? Did we treat them too well?

We've had no choice but to put things in the ground early and just keep our fingers crossed that it's not too cold for them. We've rearranged what's going where in the garden beds because these tomatoes were supposed to go in the row that currently has our peas and spinach - which aren't even ready to harvest yet, let alone dig up. So far we're making it work, but jeez! Who would have thought THIS would be our problem.

Little Garden Helper

May 16, 2009 - Today Joe and I went over to the garden to do some work, and we were lucky enough to have a little garden helper! Who knew our neice Natalie was a natural in the garden!

To Our Friends At Creekside

May 16, 2009 -

Our friends at Creekside posted a comment the other day asking for a construction update - probably because we're never at the property and the 'site' hasn't moved past the final stages of demolition in the past several months... I'm sorry for the lack of house-building info lately, but honestly it's just because there ISN'T any info!

Yes, we are still building a house. Yes, we would like it to happen this year. No, there is not a foundation contractor about to show up on our property next week.

This house is very special and important to both of us, so it's not something we could really jump into too quickly. Last spring I was hugely optimistic about what we would accomplish right after we bought the property. But over the past year, our ideas about what exactly to build have changed a million times. Maybe we're just waiting for one idea to stick long enough for it to feel right? As you might already know, Joe and I are not huge consumers. We want this house to last us for a good while and we want to be happy in it. So we're thinking everything through. Plus, there's always so much going on! At the moment, I'm not quite sure how anybody gets a house built and has a life at the same time...

The latest house designs have been either timber frame or prefab. Deciding whether or not to put in a basement has been a HUGE issue. We currently have a lovely sunny loft in the middle of the house. We'll have one bedroom, a bathroom, and a spacious office on the north side of the house; kitchen, dining room, and living room on the south. Huge windows on the south side for passive solar. Hopefully a deck? But very few things are set in stone.

I promise we'll build our house, and when it starts happening, I'm going to document every last bit of the process. We can't wait to live there, enjoy the feeling of living on our OWN property for once, put in some permanent gardens and chicken coops, and hang out with our very cool friends at Creekside. :)

If You Have to Drink Soda - Drink This

May 16, 2009 - I've been trying to avoid soda for years. I used to stay away from it because in order to stay my ideal weight, I've always had to be calorie conscious. We all know that if there's one way to add extra calories to your diet, it's to drink a soda every day. I'm not a health freak though, so when I occasionally had a desperate craving for soda, I reached for the regular, not the diet. Diet Soda was a thing my mother never let us drink. Of all the things she cares about, this one she made very clear. Aspartame would kill you. She put the fear of aspartame in me at a good young age.

A couple years ago, however, I became aware of high fructose corn syrup. And when I became aware of it, it became equally, if not more terrifying to me than aspartame. I truly believe that HFCS is what has made America as fat as it is. This created a huge dilemma for. You see, sometimes I just REALLY like a soda. With pizza, for example, it's the only natural complement. So what's a girl to do when all the sodas on the market have one poisonous substance in them or another?? Half the time I'd opt for regular, the other half for diet. Either way, I was completely guilt ridden and regretted my decision after it was consumed.

Enter Blue Sky sodas made with cane sugar -

It's not the only soda brand available without HFCS, just the one that I happened to pick up at my very own local Hannaford. I brought home a six-pack, just to try out and see if in a pinch, it could fill in for a Pepsi - it totally passed the test. It tastes cleaner somehow, and doesn't leave my body feeling gross the way Coke and Pepsi do. It doesn't have caffeine either, which is a good change for me. As much as I've read about why HFCS is bad, I've also read that substituting other sugars isn't any healthier. So I realize that this product is still not a 'healthy' choice - sugar is still sugar. But at least human beings have been consuming cane sugar forever, so I have a little bit more faith that, in moderation, it's not going to kill me. Plus, we all get enough corn in our diet - it's in literally every processed food that we eat - so to kick one corn product from my diet makes me a happy girl.

Needless to say, I've decided to keep just a few of these sodas on hand for any time one of my 'soda cravings' pops up. Now I can treat myself to a sweet carbonated beverage with a little less guilt, and I'm that much closer to being completely high fructose corn syrup free!