<<<<< Volume 1. Vol. 2.>>>>> 1. The Weirdness Within, 2. The Uncomfortable Consumer,
3. Technology, Me and Programs, 4. When will we ever learn?, 5. Sex, drugs and smoking,
6. Suppression Equals Depression, 7. Practicing Awareness, 8. Long Distance Friendships During War, 9. Away we go, 10. Children and Pit Bulls at Christmas, 11. The other side of the story...I & II, 12. The things that divide us, 13. Getting a plan together and a Garden, 14. >>>>> The End of the Story Click the links within the post to see the relevant stories, pictures or videos and thanks for stopping by!
I must say how thankful I am for the internet... again. It lets you do almost all the things I used to do in person or by hand like for instance comparison shop. It's hard to find certain specific pieces in our area sometime and other things not at all. The coolest part is if you do it right and just save the items in a list of sorts and research it before you buy it then it can save a lot of hassle! And take Pinterest for example... while it may be old news to many of you, at first I really thought it was another time suck but as I learned how to use it while cleaning up my computer especially the bookmarks, I found it very useful to save ideas and pictures in one place. It has saved me a lot of time when I finally got everything sorted, tagged and squared away. It pointed me to several blogs that I'm interested in too but the point to this was it let me get my thoughts organized enough to know what I need to do next... easier than before. The bad part is there are so many other great ideas that you could spend the rest of your life trying them all out... which I may just accept that challenge. :)
Many of you know I am moving again...sigh. So there has been a lot of year end clean up, book work, house organizing and cleaning, long time plans being put together and then sometimes rearranged. Researching different ideas about so many things I don't have a clue about, is time consuming but the pay off is saving energy, money and time. And I must say that the prepper's out there may be a little extreme at times but they have a lot of great ideas about so many things... that they put my little preparedness ideas to shame! While I love the idea and the experience of getting back to the basics of life, I'm not going to stock pile a lot of mass produced food to survive whatever these trouble times that lay ahead. Living in a small contained space prevents that but the main reasons is... I can't say I want to live through all that is to come. I also understand that to be able to survive the emergencies of life means having the skills to do as much as possible for yourself and that's more important that stockpiling supplies. I'm lacking in many of those basic skills so now I'm trying to correct that little by little and the first step while I wait on other parts of the plan to come together, is planting my very first garden.
Yes you read that right and if you know me then you can stop laughing at any moment. I know I have a brown thumb but I'm hoping it's because I didn't have the time, knowledge and energy for it. Now that I have 2 out of 3 and am reading as much as possible... just maybe I can grow something to eat. So I bravely ordered some organic heirloom seeds from the internet and begin to dream a little dream. I set up a little grow station in the front living room and then rigged some lights which were a little small but all I could do at this time. I got some seed soil when the seeds arrived and after soaking them, started planting them in the biodegradable cups nested in roasting pans with lids. Later 3 trips to HD and I had enough concrete blocks to make 2 large raised garden beds in addition to the 2 in front of the house and then I made 3 trips to recycle center for some rich new compost to fill them all in after laying down the fabric to keep the weeds out. These beds are not perfectly level as you will see but for my first try, it could have been worse! :)
Next the plan is trying to construct a sort of cover for the beds using chicken wire, 4x4's, 2x4's and a few hinges to keep the critters out, while giving us access to the fronts. After reading I knew I'd need a trellis for the cantaloupe and maybe the watermelon, if they make it that is, and then I have some old pallets and steps risers to assemble an herb bench. I wanted this to be be able to be broken down at the end of the season so it took a bit to figure out how to do this as cheaply as possible using what I already had.
When the last seeds planted starting to sprout, I think maybe I left the lids on too long even though they were vented and I should have done a more staggered germinating schedule but it was too late at this point. I was trying to be careful in watering them too much too but now the watermelons look like they are dying but the squash has really taken off. The lettuce looks like it isn't going to make it either and the tomatoes could go either way at this point. Well plan B is to buy plants that are well on their way from the local nursery but maybe I can get these to come back? Well see...
Update: June 2nd 2013:
14.
3. Technology, Me and Programs, 4. When will we ever learn?, 5. Sex, drugs and smoking,
6. Suppression Equals Depression, 7. Practicing Awareness, 8. Long Distance Friendships During War, 9. Away we go, 10. Children and Pit Bulls at Christmas, 11. The other side of the story...I & II, 12. The things that divide us, 13. Getting a plan together and a Garden, 14. >>>>> The End of the Story Click the links within the post to see the relevant stories, pictures or videos and thanks for stopping by!
I must say how thankful I am for the internet... again. It lets you do almost all the things I used to do in person or by hand like for instance comparison shop. It's hard to find certain specific pieces in our area sometime and other things not at all. The coolest part is if you do it right and just save the items in a list of sorts and research it before you buy it then it can save a lot of hassle! And take Pinterest for example... while it may be old news to many of you, at first I really thought it was another time suck but as I learned how to use it while cleaning up my computer especially the bookmarks, I found it very useful to save ideas and pictures in one place. It has saved me a lot of time when I finally got everything sorted, tagged and squared away. It pointed me to several blogs that I'm interested in too but the point to this was it let me get my thoughts organized enough to know what I need to do next... easier than before. The bad part is there are so many other great ideas that you could spend the rest of your life trying them all out... which I may just accept that challenge. :)
Many of you know I am moving again...sigh. So there has been a lot of year end clean up, book work, house organizing and cleaning, long time plans being put together and then sometimes rearranged. Researching different ideas about so many things I don't have a clue about, is time consuming but the pay off is saving energy, money and time. And I must say that the prepper's out there may be a little extreme at times but they have a lot of great ideas about so many things... that they put my little preparedness ideas to shame! While I love the idea and the experience of getting back to the basics of life, I'm not going to stock pile a lot of mass produced food to survive whatever these trouble times that lay ahead. Living in a small contained space prevents that but the main reasons is... I can't say I want to live through all that is to come. I also understand that to be able to survive the emergencies of life means having the skills to do as much as possible for yourself and that's more important that stockpiling supplies. I'm lacking in many of those basic skills so now I'm trying to correct that little by little and the first step while I wait on other parts of the plan to come together, is planting my very first garden.
Yes you read that right and if you know me then you can stop laughing at any moment. I know I have a brown thumb but I'm hoping it's because I didn't have the time, knowledge and energy for it. Now that I have 2 out of 3 and am reading as much as possible... just maybe I can grow something to eat. So I bravely ordered some organic heirloom seeds from the internet and begin to dream a little dream. I set up a little grow station in the front living room and then rigged some lights which were a little small but all I could do at this time. I got some seed soil when the seeds arrived and after soaking them, started planting them in the biodegradable cups nested in roasting pans with lids. Later 3 trips to HD and I had enough concrete blocks to make 2 large raised garden beds in addition to the 2 in front of the house and then I made 3 trips to recycle center for some rich new compost to fill them all in after laying down the fabric to keep the weeds out. These beds are not perfectly level as you will see but for my first try, it could have been worse! :)
Next the plan is trying to construct a sort of cover for the beds using chicken wire, 4x4's, 2x4's and a few hinges to keep the critters out, while giving us access to the fronts. After reading I knew I'd need a trellis for the cantaloupe and maybe the watermelon, if they make it that is, and then I have some old pallets and steps risers to assemble an herb bench. I wanted this to be be able to be broken down at the end of the season so it took a bit to figure out how to do this as cheaply as possible using what I already had.
When the last seeds planted starting to sprout, I think maybe I left the lids on too long even though they were vented and I should have done a more staggered germinating schedule but it was too late at this point. I was trying to be careful in watering them too much too but now the watermelons look like they are dying but the squash has really taken off. The lettuce looks like it isn't going to make it either and the tomatoes could go either way at this point. Well plan B is to buy plants that are well on their way from the local nursery but maybe I can get these to come back? Well see...
Update: June 2nd 2013:
14.
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