::mini road trip - fainting goat::

 

We have three 4H project goats to pick up in the next several weeks. 

 

I decided that since it is no fun to sit in the car for half a day with all the kiddos we would make it into an adventure.

We love road trips, so we started calling these our "mini road trips".  I get on trip advisor and make a rough plan about where the goat is and what we could find to do along the way.  Just a few minutes to investigate. 

Our fainter goat was the first to be picked up and she was near Seymour, IN. 

 

We found a tiny diner that was packed with a very local Sunday crowd. 

 

Max had them all eating out of his hand with his cuteness. 

 

And then we arrived to get our little girl, Ariel. 

She is really the cutest little fainter in the land. 

She is first fainting goat for us and I have to say that I just really like her. 

 

Look at the awesome set up she had for her goaties. 

And look at all the colors!

I could not get over how cute they are. 

I may need 10.

Then we loaded our little baby girl into her dog crate and headed out.

Lily took my camera and took this picture of Max. 

 

And this one of Q. 

 

The kids where a little disappointed that the local Seymour bakery was closed. 

So I found a historic Ice Cream shop for the way home. 

I was located in Columbus, IN. 

 

And these kids LOVED it. 

The staff was so sweet and told us to check out the free indoor park across the street. 

 

 

Then we left the ice cream shop and headed across the street.

 

And there we found an amazing indoor free park. 

These kids could not have had more fun than they did. 

They ran around and got all that ice cream energy out. 

 

 

 

Then we headed home to get our little baby tucked in.

 

 

Such a pretty little girl.  She is fitting right in. 

 

::getting started with strawberry's::

Who: Pure heaven on earth.  Kids love doing the eater egg hunt for ripe strawberry's.  I almost never get to eat any because the shorties go over them like a swarm of locus.  I keep two beds that are 4foot by 8ft each and we have never had enough to take them into the house.  I plan to add a new 4 ft by 18ft bed this season to try and meet my own demand, but I think the supply will just increase to the demand.  I have read and researched about these guys for awhile.  I have my own way of managing them.  Don't be intimidated!  It's not complicated.  This plant is worth the little bit of set up it takes. 
     
What:  Their are two basic kinds of strawberry's - June bearing and Everybearing.  Depending on the exact variety June bearing usually given you one larger harvest.  Guess when?  You got it!  About June.  Everbearing gives you less fruit ripe at the same time but has fruit ripening through out the season.  My kids like Everbearing the best so they can always be on the watch for fruit.  Read the tags on the plants to check when the fruit becomes ripe.  There are one billions different fruit varieties to pick from.  My personal favorite is Quinault.  Mostly cause it has the word Quinn in it.  Seriously though - these guys have big flavorful fruit.  We eat them the day they turn red when they are still warm from the sun.  I prefer to buy small started plants, cheap as little guys from Lowe's or Walmart.  Then you can plant them easily.  You can buy them as a bare root plant and plant those crowns.  It is just a little bit more complex that way.  Here is a link that explains planting crowns better than I can.  
 
When:  Plant these after the last danger of frost has passed.  

Where:  You want to pick a spot that gets good sun.  Straws love sun and they drink it up. You need a spot with no other ground cover plants growing.  Things like ivy and grass will be too much competition.  Strawberries need their own space.  A blank spot in your flower bed would work well.   Strawberry's are very short in height, so they work really well in a landscape as a ground cover.  Are you asking "what is ground cover?"  Ground cover plants are plants that are short that are used to cover blank areas in beds.  Why not make your ground cover plants something you can eat?  They are pretty enough to have in the front of your house, worked in on the ground around foundation bushes.  Better yet rip out those boring old ever green bushes and replace them with blue berries.  That's a blog post for a different day.    

Where ever you do plant them, don't let the bed of strawberries be any wider than four feet.  You want to make sure that you can reach every spot of the bed with out smashing any other plants with your knees or feet.   If you can only reach into the bed from one side, like your house flower beds, I wouldn't make it much more than three feet wide.  You can make it as long as you have space for, but just think about how you will access it. 

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Keep in mind that strawberry's spread.  The mother plant is the one you are planting now.  She will send out runners, or daughter plants that will form into new plants.  After the mother plant is about three years old she doesn't produce as much fruit.  She will come back every year, but her fruit production goes way down.    You will need to rip out the whole bed eventually or just give it a little yearly maintence. 
               

How:  You can buy little bareroot crowns really cheap or still fairly inexpensively you can buy started plants from your local nursery.  Plant your plant or crown as directed.  I give them about a one foot circle of space around each plant.  This will seem like over kill for the little plant but don't worry.  She will spread.  The first year you are supposed to pinch off any runners or baby plants, that she sends out.  It helps her focus on getting her roots set before she starts having babies.  Then keep her watered and let your kids start searching everyday for fruit.  When late fall rolls around buy a three dollar or less bale of straw and cover up those ladies with a thick layer of straw.  Your could use dead leaves or dried grass clippings too.  You want this mulch layer to be at least three inches thick.  Come spring rake it off and let the pretty girls go crazy.  If she starts sending runners into places you don't want them to go, then push them in the right direction.  If they refuse to listen then pluck them, Mamma will just send out another runner in another direction.  Mulch them all up again come late fall (around mid October).  Year three - repeat as you have been. 

Now year four is when you need to start doing some yearly loving to your strawberry bed.  Nothing crazy.  Don't get scared, you got this.  Mentally take your little bed and divide it into sections.  Let's say it is six feet long and three feet deep.  Divide it into sections that are one feet long.  You have six sections now.  In early spring grab your shovel and dig out all strawberry plants that are in section one and four.  Buy a bag of compost at the hardware store and fill in the area that is currently plank.  To help discourage weed growth on that blank soil cover it will some mulch (like straw, grass clippings, or dead leaves).  Then let your remaining strawberry ladies go crazy!  They will quickly send runners into the open area.  As the weather gets cold mulch as you have been.  The next spring dig out two other sections that you have not dug out before, like three and six.  It is important to add compost to the areas you are digging out.  You will be removing the top layer of soil with the plants and you need to replace that soil with a high nutrient place for the babies to grow.   
 
Potentially you could make this strawberry bed last forever with out having to replant it. 

Extra Credit:  Strawberry's do nicely in raised beds.  They look so pretty.  Pintrest is loaded with ideas.  Investigate and make that blank spot in your yard into a little strawberry patch.   

::final week of personal remodel::

One month flew by and my personal remodel month is over.  It went so well.

Financially -
I tried to work over time over this last month.  I didn't get any, and that didn't make me cry.  I feel like I was working too much overtime.  I was letting chasing money get too high on my priority list.  I am glad we have gone through all this with out overtime, just so we could get an idea of how our budget works with out extra cash in it.  Our written budget is finished.  It is wonderful, we use it as a guide all the time.  It is so nice to have a road map to our money.  I never did audit our spending in January.  It felt like that was looking back too much, I am focused on moving forward.   I did not set up a Christmas account yet.  That is just going to have to be filled with over time money when the chance presents its self.  Josh and I have been making an effort to discuss our money each payday and this communication is working wonderful. 

Weight Goals -
First of all - I am down 12 pounds.  That is a wonderful start.  But more importantly - I have really changed the way that I feel about food.  A little hungry is not going to kill me.  I have to make myself eat a preset small portion and then wait 20 minutes before I decide if I am still hungry.  Almost all the time I am no longer hungry if I give myself that wait time.  My meal that I used to eat at Qdoba was 1400 calories.  That is more than I am currently allowing myself to eat in an entire day.  Calories counting is working really well for me.  It speaks to my nurse side that screams that I must chart everything that happens.  I have not been to Qdoba in over one month, but I have cheated a little bit and had a few bites of some fried food.  But very little.  I have been terrible about working out.  I feel like I still need to grab on to that to really make this transformation complete.  I can't do it with just food changes alone.  On the success side - my nonprocessed food intake has sky rocketed.  I am eating a great deal of fruits and vegetables and enjoying it.  I have added protein smoothies to my breakfast routine and those beat the grab out of my usual breakfast peanut butter and jelly.        

I have loved this process and I can't wait to keep it going. 

 

::personal remodel - week three::

Week three of the personal remodel rolled around.

Financial Progress
I can't get an over time shift to save my life.  There isn't anything I can do about that but wait, so till then I am really enjoying being home more with the shorties.  I miss their little faces.  The printed budget has really come along.  Josh and I are doing a good job of have money meetings.  I think more than anything else having good communication with Josh about our finances is the best part of this whole gig.  I haven't been able to make any progress with starting a Christmas account.  There just isn't anything left to start it with, but once over time rolls around again I will throw some money at it.  Even though it isn't a perfect situation I am pleased with the progress that we have been making. 

Weight Progress
This is really trucking along.  I started counting my calories and this makes a huge difference.  It really keeps me aware of what I am doing to myself.  I got an app on my phone that tracks calories and is also my food diary.  It's working really well.  I like the whole system.  My water, fruit, and veggie intake is through the roof!  Although since it was coming from about nothing it didn't have any where to go but up.  After a rough few days I am really enjoying having the size of my stomach be smaller - I can eat half of what I used to and I feel full.  After I eat a small amount I make myself stop eating and let it soak for 15 mins before I decide if I am still hungry or not.  I don't know why it takes 15 mins for my stomach to tell my brain that it is full but I am trying to give it that time now.  Portion size was one of my biggest issues and right now that is very under control.  I am really happy with this progress toward health.  I am making my breakfast a protein smoothie and I starting to look forward to it.  It tastes really good with frozen bananas and blueberries in it, and I feel full for at least 4 hours afterward.  

::personal remodel week two::

Money Progress-
We are do for another money talk.  I am not able to get any over time at work right now.  
The biggest problem I am running into with the budget is that we make enough money to make our end meet, but not enough money for the extra's category.  Things like vacations and hobbies.  Those things have to be covered by overtime, so I hope things pick up soon at work.  It will.  
We did our taxes.  It was ugly.  Every dollar that I had put aside to put into our Christmas fund is going to have to go to the IRS.  I am going to change my deductions at work so I don't have to pay next year, but meanwhile this year my Christmas fund is also going to have to be covered via over time.  

Weight Progress -
Still Qdoba free.  It's a good habit to break. 
I have started counting calories on my phone with an app called Fitness Pal.  It's pretty easy to use. 
I am considering adding a meal replacement shake for the next month or so to just help myself jump start my weight loss.  More to come on that.  
I am not doing so hot with the elliptical.  No good excuses on that.  Time to get back to it.   

::new chicks for 2014::

 

Big Mama

The kids have been all over me about wanting a puppy.  Sometimes I start to crack and think that maybe I want one too.  Let me say that a puppy is about the very last thing that I do need.  But the cuteness, the puppy breath, the joy...  Spring always makes me want baby animals around.  To keep the puppy urge at bay Josh drove me to Rural Kind and let me buy as many chicks as I wanted.  They are so CUTE!  And they don't chew up your shoes.  I held myself to 12.  One already came to an early demise, but the other 11 are doing great do far.  We currently have three hens on our farm right now.  Three big pretty Rhode Island Reds.  Big Mama - our farm matriarch - is still going strong.  She has been laying huge eggs almost all winter.  I just love that old girl.  She has two minions from last season that she keeps track of, but I wanted some more for this year.  I was so lucky that Rural King had a wonderful selection of babies to choose from.  I have wanted some fun breeds but have been unable to mail order them - you need to be ready to go pick them up from the post office and they don't give you an exact day till right before they arrive.  That doesn't work with my job, so no mail order.  Till I found a friend that loves chickens too and makes her father pick her mail order chicks up for her.  I got three chicks from her last fall but my heat lamp broke and they died.  I was so disappointed.  I want to try again latter this spring, I hope to pick up some Maren's and Silkies that way.  Till then I am loving shopping at Rural King!!!  

 

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We got two Light Brahma's.  These ladies have fuzzy feet!  It really is so cute.  They are known for being friendly and easy to handle.  They mature slowly but are good layers and can take severe cold. 

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We got two Barred Rock's, but one met an early death.  I have wanted one of these for awhile.  They are so pretty, and to me they look like a classic farm animal.  They are good layers of brown eggs.   

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Two Black Australorps.  These girls lay light brown eggs and are known to be friendly.  They shine green in the sun!  Just like my ducks.  I can't wait to see these girl scratching around. 

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Six Araucana's.  Two light and four brown.  These crazy girls lay green to olive colored eggs and they have feathers around their face that look like cheek puffs. 

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::beginner gardener::

I love gardening.  LOVE IT!!  Watching things grow and thrive makes my heart sing.  Seeing plants fail burns me up and makes me research like a fool how to fix it for next time.  I am not a pro yet.  I think I could do this just about my whole life and still not have it all figured out.  But here is the great thing about gardening - it is as complex as you make it.  If you want to go nuts with companion planting and natural soil building mulch and planning your various staggered plantings - then call me because I love all that crap.  But it doesn't have to be like that.  People get so overwhelmed by the whole thing and don't start at all because they assume it is too complicated to even try.  WRONG!  Go for it.  Just keep it simple.  It doesn't have to be a big deal.  Pick a few things that you like to eat or have interest in growing and do it. 


Here are the dead basics for how to grow some of the most common garden plants.  Please keep in mind that you don't have to have a perfect raised bed area to grow veggies.  My first tomato plant was between some young rose bushes in a blank spot of my flower beds, right against my house.  Find a sunny spot next to a young tree that doesn't provide much shade yet or in a corner of the yard.  Don't over engineer this, you can build a dream garden eventually.  Don't let yourself get lost in the voodoo of compost and improving your soil.  You can learn all about that latter.  This year just buy a garden spade (small garden shovel) and prepare to learn.  It is ok if you fail.  You're not going to starve to death based off your harvest.  You still have the grocery store.  Set your first year expectations at low and try to have some fun with it.  If you only remember one thing - go small.  You can go big next year, or in five years, but go small now.  Pick just a couple of plants.  You can grow it bigger next year, but its pretty hard to shrink your garden once it is in the ground.  

 

Tomatoes - these are the most common home grown veggie around here.  There is nothing that is a more exact slice of perfection than a warm from the sun tomato.  These are very rewarding to grow at home but can be an little intimidating.  They also are fairly hard to kill once they start growing, so don't be a scardy cat.     
Who:  The easiest thing to grow are cherry tomatoes but don't be scared of the regular tomatoes.  The larger tomatoes come in a wide variety of colors and shapes.  
What:  I am a huge fan of a variety of tomato called Black Krim.  They are dark purple and might look rotten to some.  The flavor is unbelievable and this variety is easy to find.  You can not go wrong with a Brandywine variety.  If you go with a cherry tomato then pick Sweet 100.  They are like candy.   Walmart has a large variety of cheap and healthy plants.  I think they sell for less than $4 a plant.  Take a minute to walk around and pick something that looks interesting to you.  If plain old red looks good - go for it.  
When:  Plant them after the last chance of frost.  For us in central Indiana that is after Mothers Day.   
Where:  Find a blank spot in your flower beds or in your yard that doesn't have grass in it.  A tomato plant needs about three feet of ground space to grow in with no competition.  Visualize a three food wide circle and plant the little tomato in the middle of that.  It will seem like too much space for such a little cutie but that thing will grow like crazy and need that much room.  You need a spot that gets as much sun as possible.  Tomatoes love sun and they like heat.  Give it to them.    
How:  Dig a hole that is about twice the size of the pot your plant comes in and plant your plant.  Don't get crazy with this.  It's that easy.  Some plants come in a peat pot that you can plant directly into the ground.  Read the directions on the plant to make sure.  You can make this simple step very complex if you want.  Feel free to write a thesis paper on the planting process.  Or just dig a hole and plant your plant.  It's ok to plant a tomato plant a little too deep.  He will forgive you.  Better too deep than too shallow.  From there you just water him when it is dry out.   You can use a hose or a watering can.  There are lots of theories on how to water a tomato.  To keep it easy for now, let's just stick with the idea that if you stick your finger one inch into the soil right by your plant you should be able to feel moisture.  If not - then water that plant.  When its hot he will need more water, if it rains he will need less.  If his leaves look wilted and sad, give the guy a drink.  Tomatoes are pretty forgiving of the occasional over watering and start to look pretty obviously wilted with not enough.  When it starts to really get hot out you can help your plant hang on to his water by putting mulch around the base of him.  If a plant starts to grow in your tomatoes three foot circle that isn't your tomato - pull it out.  After the plant gets a good hard frost, October for central Indiana, it will be dead.  Pull it out and start dreaming about next year. 
Important Tip:  When you're at the store pick up a wire tomato cage.  You plant your plant then you push the cage into the ground around your plant.  It will grow up through this cage.  We cage tomatoes to help them stay off the ground to make the fruit rot less quickly and stay away from bugs that think they look tasty.  
Extra Credit:  Most neighborhood flower beds have crummy soil.  Buy a bag of planting soil while you are at the store.  Dig your tomato hole big enough to fill it with this high quality soil and then plant your plant in this supplemented hole.  It will help your plant grow even faster to have nutrient rich soil to grow in.
For Next Year:  Look up some articles about how you can trim a tomato plant to improve the fruit it produces.  You will still get fruit from an untrimmed vine, but the quality will improve with some vine trimming.  These plants can get pretty crazy, so a good trim helps keep them under control.  Google tomato trimming and load yourself with all the information you want. 
 

Peas:
Who: There are lots of different kinds of peas.  Some have edible pods and some do not.  We usually grow sweet peas that are designed to be shelled and eaten.  Read the seed packets and look for key words like "edible pods".  Some sweet peas will say they are "self bracing", this means they don't need anything to lean on to grow upright.  The types that are not self bracing will grow like a short vine on the ground or cling to fence/brace if they can find it.  
What:  I usually plant sweet peas that lean on my fence.  They are delicious and my kids love eating them.  I find the shells all over the yard and even with 60 feet of them I have never had any make it into the house.  My kids get off the bus and run to the peas to pick through them.  They are so sweet when they are young.  Don't be afraid to crack a few open early.  Once they get too big the peas taste like wood so eat the young ones up. 
When:  Early!  These are one of the first things I plant.  I put them in around April 1st.  If the weather is even decent I have planted them as early as mid March.
Where: Look for a sunny spot but they don't need as much full sun as tomatoes.  They do fine in a mostly sunny area.
How:  I live in an old brick ranch house, with a cement front porch that gets partial sun.  Every spring I take a rake and pull back the mulch from the first six inches of surface ground directly in front of the porch.  I take a stick and make a one inch deep trench running the length of the porch about three inches or so out from the porch base.  I randomly sprinkle pea seeds (which look like peas - because they are) about 2-3 inches apart.  Don't measure.  Don't get crazy.  I plant them closer than the seed packet says to.  They like friends to snuggle with.  Then take that rake and cover the seeds with the extra dirt.  When my pea plants start to come up they begin to climb the little willow fence I have leaning against the porch base.  You could easy use those cheap wire short fences to do the same job.  Even sticks stuck every six inches or so in the ground right at the porch base would give the peas plenty of area to climb.  They climb what support they can find and then they just climb each other.  They pop up out of the ground pretty quickly and will have a small flower on them.  That flower is what turns into a pea pod.  If you crack a few pods open and the peas are almost not visible then they are not ready, but keep trying!  Early peas are the best peas.  Once the plant stops making pods it is done.  Usually that happens about mid to late summer.  When you are no longer getting pods rip that plant out.  The plant makes a wonderful soil builder so I use the pulled plant to mulch around my tomatoes.             
Extra Credit:  Plant two harvests of these to keep pretty peas in your garden longer.  Put you first harvest in around April till mid May.  In a different spot plant some more seeds around Early June for a early fall harvest.     
For Next Year:  Grow more.  These rock.  If you can grow enough consider freezing some for winter.  Snap peas and snow peas are perfect for freezing in small quantity to add to winter foods.  

 

Carrots:
Who:  Unless you have a raised bed that is filled with perfect fluffy soil and is about three feet deep, get the visual image you have in your mind of a foot long carrot and lock it in a box.  There are lots of really tasty short carrots that work much better in the average garden.  
What:  Every year I walk into the store and just grab a variety of carrot seeds that mentions something about it being tasty and on the short side.  Usually less than six inches.  These seeds are tiny and a little bit goes a long way.
When:  Early like peas.  They are tolerate to cold.  Harvest is generally in the mid to late summer.  
Where:  These need an area where the soil has been loosened up for at least the first 4-6 inches or so.  I would utilize an unplanted portion of you flower beds, but these would work great in a potted environment too.  Rake off all the mulch.  Use your little garden spade and loosen the dirt.  That means put the spade straight down into the soil as far as it will go.  Wiggle it around and pull it out.  Cross cut the area you already did.  Work your way over the area you want to plant.  Your not looking at a 40 square foot area so don't balk at the work.  It would take less than ten minutes to do a three square foot area and three square feet would provide a TON of carrots.  Rake your loosened soil to make the planting surface smooth, not perfect.  This should take about 60 seconds, don't stress out. 
How:  Sprinkle some seeds around the area you have prepared.  Ideally you want them all about one inch apart, but don't you dare get out a measuring tape.  Once they are on the ground take a rake and gently rake the seeds in.  Just very light pressure to help the seeds sink in a little bit.  You don't want them deep.  If raking them makes you nervous then before you put the seeds on the dirt, set aside a few handfuls of dirt to sprinkle over the seeds once they are down.  Little green carrot tops should spring up pretty quickly.  The orange part will be under the ground, and usually starts off a whitish color till it matures.  Your seed packet will tell you about how long it should take for your carrot to be mature.  When the tops are about 12-18 inches high I start letting my kids pull out one every day.  Many get fed to the chickens for not being ready yet but my kids love seeing whats happening under the ground.  Usually by that point my carrots need to be thinned a little bit anyway.  Thinning means that the seeds are close enough together that if they all went to full maturity they would over crowding each other.  When the kids want to check a carrot I make them pick the one that is the most crowded with its neighbors.  Once the carrots are coming out orange and tasting good you can pull them out all at once or you can pull them out over time.  When they start to taste woody or bitter - they are done.  I pull them all out at that point and use them or freeze my extras in a vacuum sealed bag.    
Extra Credit:  Really get your shorties in on planting these.  It is amazing what kids will eat if they feel like they grew it.  Carrots are easy and fun for kiddos to help with.  
For Next Year: Its really not any more complicated than the first year.  You can branch out and try new types, colors, or shapes. 

Cucumber:
Who: There are two main types.  Short little fat guys for making pickles or long skinny guys for fresh eating.
What:  We have varied over the years with what types we grow.  I don't really have a favorite.  I grow what ever is left in garden basket from the last year or what ever one looks interesting on the seed wrack.  You can eat the short little fat guys just like the long ones if you want to.  A little bit of cucumber goes a long way for me.  I let 3-4 vines mature each year, and that is more than I know what to do with half the time.    
When:  Like tomatoes then don't like to be cold.  Plant seeds in the ground after last risk of frost.  You can buy them as already started plants if you prefer, but seeds are cheaper and I have never had long to wait for cucumbers to start growing.
Where:  These guys need sun.  Lots of sun.  The good news is that they are a vigorous vine - which means they are hard to kill.  They will take up about as much space as you will let them have.  They would work wonderful climbing up a fence.  If you had a wooden privacy fence and gave them a few nails to catch on to, maybe even a trellis, they will drag themselves up in no time.  You can leave them to sprawl on the ground but keep in mind that you will need to cut them back when they start to knock on the neighbors front door.  
How: Find a spot where these guys can roam.  If you are going to let them climb up a trellis they don't really need a great deal of ground space.  I have a piece of chain link fence attached to two posts that I move around my garden perimeter every year.  Visualize a six inch half circle of space nestled right against the garden exterior boundary.  Stick your finger into the ground to make a two inch deep hole and put three cucumber seeds in that hole.  As the plants start to spout you will need to thin them down to just one.  Don't pull the extra out, because they might take their neighbor with them.  Simple cut off the ones that you don't want at ground level and allow the strongest one to keep growing.  As it gets larger you may need to direct it towards its trellis.  Once it grabs hold of the trellis it will usually climb pretty much by itself.  Any vine that grows outside the area I have set aside for them I just cut off.  You need to water these guys just about like tomatoes - if its hot and dry give them more water.  If you plant the skinny kind, as they grow you want to pick off cucumbers as they get to be about 6 inches long.  Much longer and the flavor isn't right.  Once they get a true hard frost they will die.  After that you just pull out the dead vines.        
Extra Credit: You don't have to use a trellis but it really does help.  Think about it this way.  If you let them grow up that is surface area that you don't have to weed.  You would only have to weed right around their base.  If you plant them on the ground you have to keep every bit of soil they touch weeded.  AND these guys will spread like crazy.  The leaves have small pokey things on them and they are not super pleasant to touch and weed around.    
For Next Year: How about a pretty trellis?  You can find lots of great ideas for making a trellis on pintrest.  You could take turns growing different vining plants on it.  Like green bean one year, then cucumbers, then maybe a a flower like morning glory.  I think this would be a nice way to pretty up a plain old privacy fence.  

As this post grows and grows (pun intended) I decided to write a separate post coming soon on how to get started with strawberry's.  Stay tuned :)