::cottage garden 2014::

Here is the game plan for this year. 
The onions, peas, cilantro, and spinach are already in the ground.  
I think because it was such a hard winter I am extra excited to get this garden underway this year.
I am bringing back a center green bean teepee.  When I look back at old pictures it just looks so pretty.  
This will be my first year to try tomatillo's.  We will see how that turns out.  I can already taste the green salsa. 
In the very back of this garden will be a skinny row of sunflowers. 

::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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