2011 Garden

 So, here it is, our 2011 garden space.  Yes, you will notice it was the foundation of a house and we are using cement blocks from said house.  : )  The picture above is where we will put our strawberries (back plot) and perrenial herbs (front plot). 

 This is an overview of the garden.  4 main garden plots, a small square plot in the back right corner and the strawberry and herb plot directly in front of me.

 The garlic up close.  I can't wait.  Yum!  They are definitely looking better after a little rain.

 Close-up of garlic.

 Close-up of main beds and garlic.

 Love that new dirt color.  The house in the background is where we live and then if you look at the step up from the garden, that slab of cement will be where the greenhouse will go.  Our landlord is building it. : )

Another view of the strawberry and herb plot.  We are so excited, as is Wayne, our landlord, he built most of the garden and is putting in the fence around it, I think the fencing will be complete once we get all the dirt in.  We need to keep the neighborhood kitties from going potty in what they think are litter boxes. : )

Meal Planning

I thought, well we grow food, now its time to plan out a meal plan each month.  This might make life really easy and I was reading the Keeper of the Home Blog and came upon the Plan To Eat meal planner.  I was thinking wow, this might make life a little more easy.  It saves your recipes and tells you what you need to buy to make these recipes and seems like a cool life saver.  Then I saw that there was a giveaway.  Shoot, I would love to win a year subscription. 

The giveaway is here.

Seed Ordering Time!!!

Ok, it might be getting a tad bit late, but that is how life is going lately.  I'm ordering from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, since now I live in the South and of course, there are collard greens on my list.  LOL!

Here it is:
Catskill Brussel Sprouts
Early Flat Dutch Cabbage
Erlene's Green and Mississippi Brown Cotton - I gotta try it, lol.
Rosita Eggplant
Arugula
Green Glaze Collards
Vates Kale
Tatsoi
Texas Early Grano Onions
Cascadia Snap Peas
Dark Green Zucchini
Baby Butternut and Waltham Butternut Squash
Small Sugar Pumpkins
Tomatoes:
Homestead
Arkansas Traveler
Big Rainbow
Sugar Cherry
Amish Paste
Roma VF, Virginia Select
Long Keeper

Wild Bergamot
Borage
Echinacea
Lemon Balm
Globe Amaranth (Mixed Colors)
Love in a Mist
Statice
Strawflower
Celosia
Nasturtium

Scarlet Flax
Red Clover
Buckwheat
Winter Rye
Millet (the bird's gotta eat)

I think that's it.  I'm really excited and I was just outside and my landlord is getting the spot ready for putting up the greenhouse.  It's going to be great, besides all of the winter sowing I will be doing.  : )

What  is y'all's favorite seed company?

Still No Name. LOL!

He ran and ran and ran around the goat shelter for like an hour.  At one point he stopped and was huffing and puffing.  He is such a cutie and loves to be pet.  We really need to get some more pallets and make a play gym for him.  Mama is quite protective too.  He runs off and she starts freaking out and then starts nickering at him if he gets too close to me or Marley goat.  Such a good mama.

Our New Little One

Here he is.  So cute and Yogurt is such a good mama.  He was born this past Monday at 1:50pm.  He is doing well with the cold weather here.  He does not have a name yet though.  I think it will wait until Saturday when Dave can see him in the daylight.  This is a B year so it will need to start with that.

Too Long Again and Some Great News!!!

Sorry its been so long since I posted last.  Lots has been going on.  My son was here for about 7 weeks and I just didn't get on the computer long enough to post.

So the big news.  Yogurt started bagging up this morning!!!!!!!   Yay!!!!!  Can't wait to meet her babies.  If y'all (I can say that now, I am in the South : ))  have some good "B" names for boys and girls share them, please.  We started last year with "A"'s and today starts the "B" names.  So exciting!!!!

I will post more in the next couple days!  Happy New Year to All!!!!!

Goat Kidding Kit

It's about that time and I just realized yesterday that I hadn't even thought about getting a birthing kit together.  Yogurt is getting huge and we really think she will have two kids.  :D

I'm hoping to be here when she kids, but most likely I won't be.  I'm hoping Dave will do ok by himself.  I'm sure she will kid just fine by herself, we will just need to get her and the kids inside the shed as soon as we can after she gives birth.

NC State Fair!!!!!

 Big beautiful Elephant Ear.  So pretty.

 One of the featured gardens.

 Love the herbs in this one.

 My favorite of course.  It's got all veggies in it.  :D

 A shot of the whole display.  Sweet potato vine in the back.  It was really pretty with the red veins and green leaves.

 This was a display on growing a row for the hungry.  I need to do that next year.  :)

 In the greenhouse pretties.

 Love the bumpy pumpkin.

 A row of gourds. I had a hay day taking pics in this section.

 This thing was massive, very cool.

 Huge turbans.

 Looks like apple and bottle gourds, they were bigger than I've seen too.

 This was really pretty, but I can't remember what it was and the print on the card next to it is too small. :(  I want to grow it. 

 Chicken painted gourd.  Very cool.

 They're just huge.

 Of course they have a gourd club here in NC.  They even were giving away free seeds in little baggies.  I had to make sure they were all the same before I picked one out.  :)  Heh.

 Love the one on the right with the leaves, so pretty, I love fall.

 Small bumpy gourd.

 Here are the big monsters.  The pumpkin growing contest.  I think the biggest was 800 and something.  Did anyone see the world record pumpkin this year it was like 1800 plus.  Very cool.

 Massive watermelon.

 Tomatoes.  Yum.

 Look at this big guy, but he doesn't look very good anymore, oh well, pretty big though.

 I guess NC grows sweet potatoes, because they had tables of them.  : )

 This is so cool.  They had a lot of big ones.

And me, being a rule breaker, rubbing me some pork belly.  Loved the fair, definitely going back next year!!  I even got me a shirt.  : )

Homemade Hand Dishwashing Liquid

I'm totally going to try this recipe.  Way cool and cheap!  

  Homemade Hand Dishwashing Liquid

 Ingredients

• 2 Bars shredded Octagon soap
• 1 cup baking soda
• 1/4 cup washing soda
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

Directions

Put shredded soap in 4 1/2- 5 quarts of water and melt on stove. When melted, turn stove off and add all other ingredients and stir. When cooled down, pour in sealed containers. Use as you would any other dish detergent. The only thing is that it doesn't sud much, but gets dishes really clean. I keep a partial bar of Octagon soap by the sink to use when needed. I also use 1/8 cup of vinegar in the rinse water. Hope this works for you!

Here is where I found this awesome recipe:  http://georgiafarmwoman.blogspot.com/2010/10/homemade-hand-dish-washing-liquid-not.html

Sprouts!

Of course its in the fox farm mix.  I think the compost isn't as fine a mixture as with the fox farms soil.  This is from Sat. Oct. 9th, yes I know, slow to get pictures up, but that is because I worked six days this last week. :P