Holy Wind Turbines Batman!!!
~~~~~
Just got a call this morning, the contracts are signed on our windmill grant, it is really happening!!!
We are getting a Skystream 3.7 with the works.
Break out the champagne, we are going to celebrate!!!!!
Month: April 2007
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Garden-y Goodness for 2007
(warning, this post will either bore you to tears or excite you to no end)
I purchased my seeds this week and so am laying out my garden plan for this season. Our growing season is brief; we plant the last week of May (depending on the moon) and it can frost by late September. I need to add a few truckloads of some organic manure, add our homegrown compost and till it all in so I can plant the earlier crops (peas/radishes/spinach) in the next two weeks. The vegetable garden is about 1200 square feet of growing space.
Fruit News
We put in 30 raspberry starts last year (10 each of three different kinds) and are adding 10 more today. These are called "Anne: yellow".
We also planted some more pear trees and next year will add another 15-18 apple trees to our growing orchard (as money allows).
Vegetables I will start by direct seeding
Black Seeded Simpson lettuce
variety salad bowl lettuce/s
Ruby Red swiss chard
Bright Lights (rainbow) swiss chard
Tyee hybrid spinach
Waltham butternut squash
Nutty delicata squash
Howden pumpkins
Big Max pumpkins
Blue hubbard squash
Sunsweet watermelon
Sweet favorite hybrid watermelon
Hannah's Choice muskmelon
Seneca hybrid zucchini
Raven hybrid zucchini
Cocozelle zucchini
Plum purple radish
Cherry Belle radish
Nantes Fancy carrot
Scarlet Nantes carrot
Shin Kuroda Carrot
Purple Haze carrot
Marketmore 76 slicing cucumber
Provider bush green beans
Blue coco pole bean
Gold of Bacau pole bean
Lincoln shell peas, 50 feet to plant
Alderman Tall Telephone shell peas, 50 feet to plant
Oregon Giant snow pea, 20 feet
Early Sweet corn
HERBS
basil
oregano
dill
parsley
cilantro
borage
sweet annie (aromatic)
lavender
I am forgetting the rest of the herbs as my brain has the hiccups.
Vegetables I need to plant as seedlings (our season is so brief)
Brandywine tomato
Yellow Brandywine tomato
5-6 other tomato varieties (buy seedlings locally) about 25 plants all together
Asian Eggplant
5-6 varieties of peppers (buy local seedlings) about 12 plants
Broccoli (local), 6 plants
Green cabbage, 6 plants
Red cabbage, 6 plants
Leeks
Stuttgart onion sets (planting only 2 lbs this year, grew too many last year)
Thoughts on the amount grown/preserved last year
I am fairly happy with the amount I grew/preserved last year; we have used about 1/2 of our freezer vegetables, about 1/4 of our preserves and jams, 3/4 of our maple syrup (OMG, we used nearly 8 GALLONS) all of our canned tomatoes (65 quarts!!) and all of our frozen berries (4 gallons!!). I won't make much jam this year as we have soooo much left over but will freeze more whole berries. Overall, I am happy with the amount planted.
It will look like this before long
And then I will blink and it will look like this
this monkey plant grew all winter long
Break out my scuffle hoe, I am ready to roll in the earth.
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Look Who's One!!!
Look who's one!
Happy Birthday Lucy-kins!
~~~~~
"Happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to you
you're the best girl in the worrrrrrld
but the yard smells like poo"
puppy love.
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This and That
(with bonus stuff)
~We are having a water heater heat pump and new water heater installed today! The heat pump will make our hot water heater use about 65-75% less energy to heat the same amount of water. I do like me some energy efficient goodness. Watch me do the dance of energy savings right now!!
(or you may choose to avert your eyes)
~ We have finished building the bookshelves for the bookstore in our barn!!! We finished another book room last year but this was a much larger project and we are relieved to have these shelves up!
~Now that these (4000) books are out in the barn, Roo can have her bedroom!! I started painting yesterday but Roo helped me so, SO MUCH that it may take a while before we are done in there.
Here are a few "before" shots of her tiny little room
(it will be two shades of pink with white trim)
~tomorrow we are picking up this year's fruit trees and all of our seeds at FEDCO, our local organic seed/scion co-op. A very happy day for me!
A few signs of spring
~There are other signs of spring as well: I have booked two pregnancy photo shoots for the next few weeks and am SO looking forward to it!
I am easily pleased.
happy, happy, happy.
P.S. my gifting mama's creation is in the mail, my apologies to my recipient for my ass-dragging lateness.
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Self Portrait Challenge
April's Challenge: The Body.
("Photograph your good bits, bad bits, wobbly bits and sexy bits. photograph it all and show us your body . Don’t expect to see any traditional portraits, no pretty faces or full body shots, rather bits and extracts of your self.")
This is my hand
the one that reaches up, the one that forms the fist, the one that
lovingly caresses my babies
and my lover.
This is my hand, the one that exploded through that window years ago and
made bread this very morning and this is the hand that my mother owned,
still owns, will always own.
This is the hand that touched my babies heads as they were born,
touched my friend as he lay dying,
touched the tears as they fell.
This is the hand that brought me here
this is my one truest thing.
My hand is my truth.
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A Story
by, Roo 4/21/07
"Once upon a time there was a girl who lived in a swamp. She did not like living in the swamp because it was slimy and cold and everyone kept calling her swamp-girl. She did not want to be called swamp-girl. So, one day she caught an alligator and rode it out of the swamp and after that everyone called her STRONG-GIRL. "
The End.
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Self Portrait Challenge
April's Challenge: The Body.
("Photograph your good bits, bad bits, wobbly bits and sexy bits. photograph it all and show us your body . Don’t expect to see any traditional portraits, no pretty faces or full body shots, rather bits and extracts of your self.")
~~~~~
"you are beautiful", he said
"I look at this and see how you bend, see how soft you are and how gentle, see how you lean when the wind blows this way"
"oh" I said quietly
"I was thinking about how I am reaching upwards,
trying to hold on to the parts of the sky that do not belong to me"
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Bring on The Bombogenesis
(because we are prepared)
*****
We spent all day getting ready for the big storm to come:
we watched as many cartoons as we could (while we still have power) so now our brains are full of them.
we made sure all marbles needed the "how many marbles can you fit between your toes game" were accounted for.
they are!
we checked all pulleys and contraptions to be sure they are functional and well oiled
we tested the hardwood floors to make sure they are strong and sturdy, as well
Lucy made sure to locate her monkey so she knows where it is if the lights go out
all toes are present and accounted for
winter hats, found and tested for secure fit
we are well stocked in the cuteness department
I checked to make sure the garden is still safely buried in snow
yup, it is
and the backside of the kitchen still has snow above the window?
yup, it's secure alright.
Let's get this party started!
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because you are just dying to know
ETA: update at bottom
Operation Driveway
(blow by blow)
April 12, 2007
5:00PM: Dinner and discussion of snowfall accumulation (with the occasional choice curse words for our dead plow truck)
6:00PM: We make a plan! After the kids fall asleep, we will drink coffee and rum and drive up and down the driveway every few hours to keep the snow packed down. This sounds like it cannot fail.
7:00PM: board games, Roo falls asleep
8:00PM-ish: Jesse conks out, as well
9:00PM: phone call/s, much laughter
10:00PM: we break out the ice and rum and coffee and hang out on the couch
11:00PM: sound asleep on said couch
6:30AM (this morning): Operation Driveway was a complete and utter failure, we have 11 inches of accumulated snow.
May as well go back to bed.
ETA:This should be fun
"BY SUNDAY AFTERNOON ALL MODELS INDICATE A MAJOR COASTAL STORM TO DEVELOP OFF OR ALONG THE MID ATLANTIC COAST. FOR NOW WE'LL GO WITH THE CONCENSUS OF USING THE GEM AND EURO MODELS FOR GUIDANCE. GFS/WRF SEEM TO BE HAVING A PROBLEM TAKING SYSTEM EASTWARD FROM THE ROCKIES AND TRY TO PHASE IT WITH THE NORTHERN SYSTEM, ALLOWING IT TO GET ABSORBED TOO FAR WEST AND NORTH. ASSUMING THESE STAY SEPARATE ONE WOULD EXPECT A MORE SOUTHERN AND EASTERLY TRACK FROM WHAT THE GFS/WRF SUGGESTS.
IN ANY EVENT...WITH A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF ENERGY TO HIT THE MID
ATLANTIC COAST ON SUNDAY IT'S ALL BUT CERTAIN THAT MAJOR
BOMBOGENISIS WILL BE GENERATED LATE SUNDAY INTO MONDAY IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. THE SYSTEM WILL HAVE ENTRAINED COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF WATER ON ITS TRACK EAST ACROSS THE SOUTHERN STATES AND WITH
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT AMOUNTS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES OF WATER (TYPE
UNCERTAIN) TO BE DUMPED OVER OUR FORECAST AREA SEEMS FAIR TO
ASSUME. "
"Bombogenesis"!?! That can't be good.
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