Ahhh Color!

I was drawn in by the gorgeous color of these primroses!
Sure we've been having a bit of a pseudo spring lately here in the Pacific Northwest...but that doesn't mean that my color cravings are being met. I can't wait to get these in the ground in front of our house. A little bit of color goes a long way right now.

Have a fantastic weekend, it is going to be a busy (but fun) one around here!

Seedy

Territorial Seed Company is the supplier of our seeds this year...they are a family run company from Oregon whose focus is on seeds that grow in the Pacific Northwest.

I still may pick up another packet or so, corn and possibly cucumbers. There are also seed potatoes and onion starts to be picked up. But for now I'm all set up with the following:

Sweet Red Peppers

Easter Egg Radishes

Brandywine Heirloom Tomatoes

Heinz Sauce/Slicing Tomatoes

Sweet Basil

Mokum Carrots

Brussels Sprouts

Black Beauty Zucchini

Broccoli

Small Sugar Pumpkins

Eggplant

Butterhead Lettuce

Sugar Snap Peas

....

A Morning Off

I have felt a bit quiet in this space for the last couple of days. This morning I was thinking about why that was and honestly it's because I have been busy with life's tasks, there hasn't been a ton of time for creativity or reflection. It hasn't felt like there's been much to share. The fact that I even came to this conclusion was probably because I took the morning off. No work, no substitute jobs, no Zumba. Instead, I spent more time than normal putzing around outside with the chickens, watching the sun come up, playing a bit with Bam in the yard, and then making a nice breakfast for myself and the husband - red potatoes with onion and green pepper, eggs (from our hens of course!), and thick sliced bacon from our town's meat shop - yum!

Then it was off for some fun errands. My first visit to a small but wonderfully stocked and priced antique mall (I left with a few small treasures), then to a Food Co-op to pick out this summer's vegetable seeds - I can't wait to share what I picked out and even more I can't wait to get started with planting, our mild temperatures lately are giving me spring fever. I also hit up Joanne fabrics with my 50% off coupon to finally get an OLFA self-healing rotary cutting mat as well as quilt batting for the master bedroom quilt I want to soon start. There was a quick stop for lunch - tacos and then over to Costco. We went in for ground cover fabric, it's needed to line the new raised beds that are going in. While in Costco, I also checked out their selection of office chairs - I've been dealing with some neck/back/shoulder/hip pain lately, I think it's been a combination of the constant Zumba-ing and other working out, and sitting at my desk in a horribly unsupportive chair, working for hours.

I think life gets that way sometimes, the things you feel like you *have* to do can make your neck/back/shoulder/hip/etc. hurt. Sometimes it's nice to stop doing the things you have to do and go get a new chair instead. It also didn't hurt that buying vegetable seeds made me excited for spring to come or that getting set up with the cutting mat is making me excited to start my dream quilt. The morning I just had left me quite re-energized!

I hope your day is filled with things that take the pressure off rather than adding to it! Happy Thursday!

Sunny Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!

I'll be spending the day substituting in a kindergarten classroom,

should be fun, or at least interesting!

5 New Fruit Trees

I spent my Monday morning doing some yardwork. I finished doing some weeding and edging on the flower beds on the front and side of our house...the ground is soft because of all of the rain we've had, so both tasks were very easy. I also spent sometime in the orchard, driving stakes into the ground so I could train down the branches of our fruit trees. I went to a seminar about orchard maintenance about a year ago at a local Country Living Expo. The gentleman who taught the seminar is an expert with fruit trees and he explained that branches that are horizontal product more fruit than branches which grow vertically. It has to do with the way that the tree sends sap into it's limbs and blossoms. It is easiest to train the branches to grow horizontally when the tree is young and the branches have not yet hardened. The trees in our orchard are young, so we are focusing more on training them than on pruning. It was a great workshop, I'm hoping to take it again this winter.So Saturday we went to a local nursery and picked out five new fruit trees:

Sweet Heart Cherry and a Variety Cherry (it has four varieties grafted to it),

Red Nectarine, Nijiseiki Pear, and Jonagold Apple.

At the nursery the trees are in sawdust, so they come home bare rooted.

We haven't been overly particular about the spacing of the trees in our orchard, but they do all have a 15' to 20' radius around them...it's been easier to make this kind of space for our newer trees because the husband has removed several junk trees (alders). The alders had been a problem from the start, they shaded the orchard from sunlight, took over the soil with their roots, and were the source of pests and disease that have harmed our trees.
Having the excavator on our tractor makes it much easier to put the trees in the ground. Before we had the tractor it used to take a while to dig holes big enough for the root balls. The process is much quicker now.

In some areas our soil is very clay-like, so for new trees it is helpful to mix in some of the soil used in the raised beds in the vegetable garden. I even mixed in a bit of chicken manure to as fertilizer - the manure was a few months old. Fresh manure is hot and could burn the tree's roots.

Just as we were putting the last tree into the ground it began to rain.

But then of course part of the sky cleared to let the sun through and I caught this picture of the rainbow...kind of a nice sign for our new trees.

House of Chicken

As promised, here a look at our new and improved chicken area.

The netting came from the Fisherman's Terminal in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. Friends of our recommended going there to find it. To our plesant suprise it didn't cost us anything but time and the gas we used to drive there. It is used netting, so it had a bit of an odor - sort of a light fishy, salty, mildew kind of smell. Considering it is being used outside, the smell really hasn't been any issue, it was just a mistake to take our Jeep to pick up the netting rather than the pickup truck.

The hens have been enjoying themselves, flying around in their new area and perching on their coop. It took a day or so for them to adjust, but they seem to be pretty happy.

We ended up using some pvc drain pipe that the husband had left over from an old project to hold up the netting, otherwise I would have to crouch down when retrieving eggs.

I think the way the pipe and fence posts raise the nets gives them a bit of a circus tent appearance. Between the wire and the fence posts, this project cost us about $200...So you can understand why I was happy to get the netting for free.

I was more than just a bit upset at the hawk that killed my hens and forced this little renovation upon us. Though I am relieved that my birds are going to be safer now, I have not worried about them since we moved them. It is also nice to not have to let them out of their tractor in the morning and close them in at night. The new area allows for a more low maintenance flock, this will be nice for us when we travel, our chicken sitter will only really have to collect eggs and monitor food and water levels.

Chickens: An Update

One of my hens enjoying the morning sunshine near their

water container. They are looking very mature these days,

recently their eggs have been large and beautiful!

My girls (and Berkeley!) were in need of a coop cleaning, so I took advantage of the beautiful sunshine we had here Friday morning and went out to do a little housekeeping and food and water freshening for my poultry. I took the picture below after I'd raked the used hay out of their coop, they like to scratch around in it and look for little grains. Having the hay spread around keeps the ground from becoming too muddy when it rains - plus it keeps the chickens happy and busy for hours at a time.

It's been a while since I've talked about my birds here...mostly because November and December were pretty difficult months for my flock. I guess the freezing temperatures have made the wildlife around here pretty desperate to stay fed because we have lost three hens...that was after the injury incident we had with poor Berkeley.

One of the hens, scratching through the hay that

was raked out of the coop on cleaning day.

I don't think that I ever explained that Berkeley was okayed by me to be put down by our neighbor. After his wing injury I separated him from the rest of the flock (which was 7 hens at that time) in his own little cage (the man cave). At first this seemed to be a good way to help him heal safely, but then he stopped eating and crowing...he was depressed and kind of gave up. Knowing that he wasn't going to ever regain full use of his wing, I felt like the question of quality of life was being answered on it's own. We pretty much said good bye to him, it was harder on me than I would have guessed. BUT...the story changed when our neighbor had mercy on him and decided to give him a couple of days confined to a kennel area by himself. Interestingly enough, being away from his hens and having the chance to recooperate solo seemed to do the trick. His bandages were removed and our neighbor trimmed his wing feathers so they wouldn't drag on the ground (and trip him). He was returned to our flock and didn't miss a beat fitting right back in, the hens were pretty happy to see him, actually.

Berkeley with his beautiful dark green tail feathers.

He still can't fully use his injured wing,

but that doesn't keep him from ruling the roost.

In Berkeley's absence though, we had lost a hen. I am guessing that a hawk took her, though we didn't really see feathers and there was no other trace of her, she seemed to have just vanished, so it could have been a coyote that somehow came under (or over?) our garden fence.

So we were then down to 6 hens and Berkeley. Within about three weeks of that (late December) we lost another two hens. This time we knew it was a hawk because the husband spotted the murderous bird sitting on our fence just after it had killed a hen. We buried that first hen and kept our remaining birds (now 5 hens and Berkeley) inside their tractor coop the next day. The next day I let the birds out to free-range in the morning. Looking back, this was foolish, and even though I questioned the wisdon of my actions at the time, I guess I just was naive enough to think the hawk had probably moved on. That same afternoon the hawk returned and killed another one of our hens. The worst part was that somehow in the scuffle the door to the tractor coop swung shut and closed three of the remaining chickens in (Berkeley and 2 hens) and locked out the other 3, two of which survived. It must have been a wicked skirmish, because every one of the surviving chickens looked a little rough. They all were missing a few feathers on their backs and tails. There were feathers all over the garden. The husband burried the killed hen and we kept the rest of our flock locked up in their coop for about the next week while we planned a new area for them. It was hard for me to see that for the first few days the chickens hardly came out of the top part of their coop into their run, maybe just for a few minutes to eat and drink, or if I gave them some corn scratch or kitchen scraps...they were pretty traumatized, and I was feeling very guilty.

The flock always seems to pay attention to what I'm doing,

they started drinking the fresh water I'd brought them

before I even had a chance to finish hanging the container.

I plan to share a bit about our new chicken area soon...but suffice it to say that our chickens (Berkeley and our 4 remaining hens), are now safe and happy in their new protected area. My guilt has started to lessen, I have learned some lessons the hard way and unfortunately my hens paid the price. I plan to add new chicks to our flock this spring, but in the mean time it is healing to see my birds playing happily in their new safe area. Their egg production is back on track, we are typically collecting 2-3 eggs a day again (there was a week or two where we had none or maybe 1 egg a day)

*A first for me* I uploaded a quick video of my birds scratching around and spreading hay next to their coop...not the most interesting footage ever, but it was a good experiment for me since I've never used video on my blog before!

Afternoon Tea for Lunch

My tea rituals have become quite a nice habit - not quite a daily habit, but close.
One day this week my tea time and lunch time kind of morphed together...it wasn't the most balanced lunch ever, but it was yummy - a good mix of sweet and savory. Lately I've been brewing green tea with Earl Grey and stirring milk and honey into it right in the pot.

I have two of these vintage tea cup and plate sets. I found them recently at a thrift store that raises money to support a local senior center. There were actually four of them in all at the store, I've been tempted to go back and see if the other two are still there. Almost everything at the store is priced pretty low.

An Embarassment of Riches!

Remember when Dupree says something about *An Embarassment of Riches* in the movie "You, Me and Dupree", I always loved that line because that's how I feel when a bunch of fantastic things all happen to me within a day or two. I want to share because I'm excited, but at the same time, I don't want to be boastful. It's almost embarassing how good I feel. So I will try to err on the side of "I'm just sharing this because I am so excited and it made me smile, not because I am bragging". Okay, so this is the second post of the day for me...but I just couldn't hold off on this one...

I took a last minute substitute job this morning and I literally had 20 minutes to get ready and out the door. This has happened a couple of times, and the husband is always super helpful, starting my car to get it warmed up, pouring my juice and setting out my vitamins, he even collects my laptop and all the cords and cards that go with it so I can do my online work during the teacher's prep period. It's very sweet, he's quite the keeper. I guess he was feeling just as appreciative of me for being willing to get up and take the sub job even though we'd been up late having one of those great conversations that seem to only happen late at night. So to show his appreciation he suprised me by spending 4 hours cleaning our house, and it looks and smells fantastic. This is after he suprised me last night by bringing home episodes 1-8 of Season 3 of Big Love (I gave up HBO a while back to save us some $, Big Love was/is my favorite show, and I've missed it!) And as if that wasn't enough, he had another suprise for me when I came home...another set of raised beds for our garden. There are four of them, two that measure 4'x10' and two measuring 4'x12'. He hit the hardware store for the lumber and then cut and assembled the frames in our garage.They will still need to be given a coat of weather sealing paint. Then we will lay down landscaping cloth and fill the beds with an enriched soil that is sold specifically for vegetable gardens. The biggest successes of our garden last season were with the crops we grew in our raised beds, the soil is good and it's much easier to keep weeds at bay. Needless to say, I'm excited, a clean house and raised beds on the same day! Now it's time to start thinking about buying/ordering seeds!

By the way, the picture of Figaro above has nothing to do with what I shared, though he does look particularly happy and I'm pretty happy, so maybe it does work!

Sunny Day, Sweeping the Clouds Away...

I mentioned yesterday when I blogged that it was beautiful but cold outside, which was true...but it wasn't so cold that I could resist when the husband offered to set me up with an adirondack rocking chair on our upstairs deck so I could enjoy the sunshine...isn't that beautiful!?Folks, you have to remember that this is January in Washington, so sunshine is at a premium. Who needs a corner office in a fancy skyrise building when this view is available!? This was one of those occasions where the benefits of working from home are just too good to fully explain.

I brought out a few pillows and a down throw to cuddle up with.
My little buddy Bambino even got to come up to enjoy the view with me (this is a big deal, he's never allowed upstairs in our house).

Once I set down the camera (hard to do) I ended up getting about an hour and a half of work time and a healthy dose of sunshine-provided vitamin D.

The husband even joined me up on the deck for a while...spending his time planning and running numbers for some upcoming business stuff. I like how casual his drink and calculator look sitting on the railing in the picture below, somehow it works.

I feel lucky in so many ways right now...that we have such an amazing home with beautiful views and that our schedules and job responsibilities leave time for us to sit quietly together outside to enjoy the sunshine and crisp air on a beautiful winter afternoon. It was very peaceful.

A Year Ago Today...

It was a year ago today that our 44th President took office. I remember turning the television in my then-classroom to CNN to watch the innagural ceremony. I also remember all of the uncertainty I was feeling, on a personal level there was uncertainty about my future employment and the survival of the husband's business in a dead economy. On a broader level, I remember feeling like I was living in a society that had been altered by war and poverty. In the days that have made up the last year, I have been able to get closer to having a balance that I was missing in my life a year ago. I thought I'd reflect just a bit...it's a beautiful and sunny (but cold!) January day outside, the kind of day that gives you hope for spring. I recently saw the first of my tulips beginning to peak out of the ground. In the next few weeks/months, the husband's business related work will be amping up again. Changes seem to be on life's horizon right now, so I suppose I'm in the mood to process all that's gone in in the last year.

My marriage has gained strength in the struggles the husband and I have had in the last year. We have both seen the other hit lows and still be able to reach deep to find strength. We have found ourselves going through things that have made us vulnerable to each other at a new level. It has been a good year for us to learn together to live on less and to find joy in what we already have. The pressures that we have at times been under have transformed into an ingenuity that probably would not have blossomed otherwise. I can clearly see how this whole "marriage thing" is dynamic, the relationship changes as time passes, maybe that's something I didn't fully realize before.

I have been able to take several steps to being content and happy in my professional life. This is an ongoing process, but I am happier in my job situation than I have been since I moved up to WA two and a half year ago. 2010 is a year for me to continue to seek out balance between my professional life and my personal life. It is the year for me to go to the next level.

There are numerous outlets for my creative side. I don't feel as "pent up" as I used to. I have made space in my home and in my schedule to be able to put into physical shape the ideas I have in my head.

Physically, I am in better shape than I was a year ago. Though I will forever be on that journey, I have been much more active since the end of the summer. Since the beginning of December, I have been sticking to my goal of exercising 5-6 times a week. Zumba classes and the ellyptical we have here at home are my current modes, but as the weather improves I want to get back to my outdoor walks and jogs, Bambino will be happy about that, he likes to come along.

As far as food, the husband and I have come close to elliminating from our diets any meats that come from feel lots that could be contaminated. There is a wonderful meat store minutes from where we live that sells only organic, grass-fed beef and pork, and organic free-range chicken. People literally drive from hours away to buy their meat at this store which is so convenient for us. Though we've been through some difficulties with our chickens (a story for another day), our hens are continuing to lay plenty of eggs to meet our needs. We had a successful harvest from our vegetable garden last summer and have plans to expand it further this coming season. We are also eating mostly foods made from whole ingredients, there are still some processed foods in our pantry and refrigerator, but because of the husband's migraines, we haven't bought foods containing preservatives or nitrates since we were married.

I can't imagine having the challenges and responsibilities that President Obama faces each day, and even though he is not without his flaws, I am still proud to call him my leader. I also fully support the efforts of the First Lady to improve the physical and nutritional health of our nation's children, it's a huge undertaking, but I think that her leadership by example is fantastic.

I think it will be interesting to see what the next 365 days hold, for the society around us as well as personally. I have to finish this post with the true but cheesy *Yes, We Can!*

It's a bit early but...

I just finished it and hung it, so it was time to share. I've worked on it a bit here and there ever since I took down my Christmas decorations...it was pretty fun to design this wreath with Valentine's Day in mind.
I guess this is my year for wreaths...I didn't think abou it, but I guess this is my second wreath since the New Year.

I used a heart shaped cookie cutter to get my shapes and my pinking shears to finish the edges.

I decided to hang this wreath inside because I think the felt wouldn't last too long being hung outside.

I am still planning another Valentine's Day-themed decoration, it is started and will hopefully be finished by the end of the month.

If anything though, it feels good to be a bit ahead of things!

W.I.P. Quilt

*A run down of my Work In Progress*

I mentioned the other day that I was currently working on a quilt...my first full sized quilt ever. The fabric I'm using is mostly thrifted and re-purposed, but there is a tiny bit of new fabric in the mix. Before sewing my squares together I sat down at my laptop and put together a plan for the layout. This step was actually pretty fun, and sped things up once I started sewing my pieces.

Bit of a tangent, but I had to take a moment to do a little show and tell for the new (to me) bulletin board I have hanging in my office/sewing room. It was purchased for only $30 from the Re-Store up in Bellingham, it had been salvaged from a school. It measures 8' by 4'. I've checked out similar boards online for about $240...so I got quite the deal! It has come in very handy with this quilt project, it's also been a great spot for me to start to put up some of my favorite cards and pictures.

Of course Fig has been hanging out as I've worked on this quilt, just like a cat to be curious about anything new!

Hopefully I'll be able to show the finished product soon.