Ahghhggrrr

It has been snowing (flurry) since 4 am. Yes 4 am, that is what time my day started. It finally stopped moments ago, it will be really nice to see spring. I can hardly wait.

We got our electricity bill today. We used 1231 kwh last month...that's a lot for us expecially since we haven't been running the electric heater. That avg out to be 1769 watts per hour. OUCH. We will see where we can cut. I know that if we don't have more sunny days the solar panel doesn't do anything for us durning the winter. I think that shutting the water heater off more will certainly help. We are also looking to install motion sensor lights upstairs (that are really awsome) that we will get from the local hardware. They are a bit expensive but as long as they save us some money since the boys are not shutting the lights up.

On a happy note Smiley woke up in the middle of the night to use the potty! YIPEE....this is a great step!

Well I need to put all the clothes away that I folded last night and finish washing the bed sheets!

Toodles!

So far...so good!

Today I was very happy to go into service this morning. I was a good day. When I came home Duck was doing his homework the boys were playing so I started the dishes, started the laundry and then started on the netty pots. I used the yogrut containers from work that they toss and a soldering iron. I hope that this will work, I have a few more pots to do so I can put them in the tote. Tonight I will mix the nutrient solution and let it set overnight.

I transplanted most of the beans and sunflowers into bigger pots. Tonight I will plant some more beans and tomoatoes. I'm thinking about starting them out in bigger pots, I know for certain that next year I will be starting earlier and in bigger pots. I think that I'm going to be behind.

I went ahead and planted a few more tomatoes and broccoli. Tomorrow after work I will create an inventory of what I need and what I have. I will go ahead and plan as if I have the lettuce in the garden, if the hydroponics system is functioning (the one outside) by then, I will replace with tomatoes since it is best to grow cabbage and tomatoes together to cut down on cabbage worm.

I got a LOT of laundry done tonight, I will put it away and head to bed. I have to be up early so I need to hop to!

Night!
Katy

Another Blah Day.....

Nothing really new here. I'm really happy to see some more seedlings from 2.8 growing well under the grow light. I am excited to get the new lights up to introduce more plants. Duck picked up the pea gravel tonight so that is a start on the hydro systems. I am very interested in trying the system out this weekend, I really just needed the motivation to get it done. I also am trying to go out in service in the morning, I wanted to this morning unfortunately I woke up too late to get ready. I think that I'm going to take my shower tonight. The boys have been ruthless today, they have been fighting and screaming. We are working with the baby, he loves to scream all the time...sadly this is one of the signs that Sunshine showed when we first thought about ASD. While I don't think that this is a possibility, we are working hard on getting this behavior changed. Smiley is very affectionate and very strong willed. It is amazing to see the two when they see the sunflowers that they planted growing, like kids in a candy store. Well it's time for bed, I need to get up in the morning and try to get my shower done tonight. Another lazy day, not a lot done, but a dent in the chaos of our lives!

Toddles!
Katy

By the way, the one in the 2 liter is an experiement, I started it out on the 8th as a tomato plant, it has grown really really well!

Here is another pic of the lot of them. I am very excited at the beauty that Jehovah allows us the pleasure of witnessing.

Planting spurt..

The first planting took place on 1/25 or 26th I can't remember but I have it written down on the popsickle sticks that I used to label each plant, the second was on 2/8 and then the third today. I have some pics that I'm downloading right now. I'm trying to get my hyrdo system up, hopefully we will get one up this weekend. I'm lacking the following...netty pots, gravel and fertilizer. Miracle grow is the cloest thing that I can find right now at 20-20-21. I'm going to have to try it atleast. If it doesn't work then I will use that mixture to water the rest of my plants, clean the items and then order some from the internet. I really rather not do that, but I will. I have found a system that I really want to try, it seems the best for my needs for inside the house. So I would like to let everyone know right now and finally, my hydroponics system if for vegatables ONLY nothing illegal which I've been asked if that is what I'm doing. Hello! If I were doing something illegal would I post it? Would I spread info about it? Nothing is further from the possible truth. We are very excited at the possibility that we will be able to eat fresh lettuce year around. Here is one of the systems that I'm going to be trying..I'm really looking forward to seeing the results: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHiKKuAanyE&feature=related

Okay...so I really enjoy planting. I've read that Farmer's Almanac in parts that pertained to our area. I've leared a lot of useful info and we will be getting material for the cold frame which I hope to have pics of this weekend. (my work weekend) if we get them done that is!

Next it is locating a tiller...hopefully my neighbbor comes home soon :) If not we will have to either pay someone to come out and do it or rent one.

On a funny note I hurt myself really bad last night...in my sleep. The funny part is doing something that I hate to do...yoga. I was dreaming that I was doing yoga, which is really odd, then I felt a HUGE sharp pain and quickly woke up in a yoga pose. I pulled the muscle in my sternum and I would like to say, it hurts REALLY BAD.

Okay, I hope that you enjoy the pics, the youtube video and if you get bored...go to youtube and type in hydroponics. On a side note, it would be good to stay away from those referring to marijuana. There is some wonderful info and check out the verticle gardening ones too, they are really cool!

Night, Kate

A bit better today..

I feel a bit better but I still feel this heavy burden on my shoulder..not sure what it is or how to explain it. In the mean time I think that I will do more reading in the society provided material on family and children. I plan on going out into service both days this week as long as it is atleast nice.

On a lighter and much happier note...I would like to propose a question...What does $50.00 get you? Late last night I saw an ad on Hoosiertopics.com for 200+ canning jars..make an offer. I stated all I could give would be $50.00. They even delivered them to us today..now my front porch is covered with canning jar...guess what I'm doing tonight? Yup...cleaning jars. This also means that I will have enough this summer for all my tomatoes, peas, corn and beans. YUMMY, and oh so exciting...

Gotta go..toodles~

Working upstairs today....

We moved all the plants upstairs, I'll try to post some pics if I get them. I'm really rather depressed today at some news I rec'd. I really hate it when people degrade my parenting. Last time I checked they were my kids, since they aren't abused and they aren't bad children. We don't have conventional teaching as most in the day in age. We don't do anything without our children and again we are told that's wrong. (well there is only one thing that we do without our children...but to keep this G rated, it is left up to mommy and daddy time) Why is it wrong? Why would we have children if we didn't want to spend time with them? In 12 yrs Sunshine will be 18 and will be off doing his own thing...infact I probably don't have to wait that long, I'm probably looking at 9 or 10 yrs....why waste a minute with them now?

Okay, today was a bad day. I am still really upset and not sure how to approach it. While I think that I will ride this one out, in the mean time I'm not sure what to do or think. I'm really tired, my eyes are sore and hurt so bad. I am just dumbfounded.

This afternoon we cleaned the spare room and set up the plants inthe window, they perked up today so I'm thinking it will be good lighting for the starts and the hydroponics. Now I just pray the boys leave the plants alone. I will put in a grow light so that I can have the 16 hours that they want. We will go get the tubing for the hydro systems this weekend (mon or tue since I work in retail). I think that I have enough buckets to start and I will order some offline as well since I want to use the right mesh pots. If I can grow all my own lettuce that would be great! That will free up a LOT of room in the garden to plant more tomatoes. We are also going to build a hoop coldframe.

Goals/Plans for this weekend (done by Tue)

Fold and do all laundry tomorrow (fri)
Finish up boys room (Sat)
Laundry Room (Sun)
Kitchen (Mon) Hydro system
Livingroom/Hall (Tue) solar stuff

Okay I need to go, I see a shower and motrin in my very near future...

Me.

ye-ha!

First of all I really want to say that I'm so happy that my adorable kitty came home. I really missed him, he shows me affection when I'm just sitting doing nothing and the boys get a big kick out of feeding him and opening the door for him to come in or go out. He is a wonderful member of our family that will never be able to be replaced!

The Ye-Ha...I bought some coupons off the internet the other day...off ebay. They were for those totino's pizzas. The local little store had a special 5 for $4.00. That means that they were 80 cents each which is a huge savings from even save-a-lot or Walmart at 1.25 each. Then...with my coupon I saved $1.00 for every 3 that I bought, which means that if I bought 15 then I would save $5.00 off the $12.00 bill leaving a difference of $7.00. This would have made each pizza only 47 cents vs the reg price. Over all I'm very pleased with my coupons and savings...

Today was a rough day...I got up at 10 til 3 this morning and started my day. I picked up CB and had her come in a hour early so we could get prep done. It was nice to have it all done in the first thing in the morning. It gave us a good start to the day and got it off on the right foot. I'm irritated at the people who constantly stand around or lean over everything instead of doing their work...if you are bored find something to do. How would they like it if I asked them to work off the clock and not get paid? Why should they get paid for doing nothing? It really is one thing if they are totally done with their work, the store is clean and there is nothing left to do, but I see an excess of laziness. While I admit that I have a few moments where I stand, I'm seeing it a lot in the crew and some of the mgrs. Quit being lazy, find something to clean or sweep...or go home. If your going to be a waste of time and manhours...why even come in? Okay, enough with that...I was happy to leave early and come back, but it made for a really long day. I had to stand during the meeting to stay awake and try to stay out of pain.

I was very happy that my wonderful Duck let me take a nap..the boys were so cute, they came up and woke me up, they were so loving and adorable.

I need to go, I want to get some things done.

Toodles...

Seedlings....

Since we are staging our garden we are happy to report that the first set of seedling have germinated. They were planted on 1/25 and have sprouted really well. I was also shocked at how fast sunflowers grow. Sunshine, after watching Walle had one of his overstimulated excitement skits of how happy he was to see the plant...of course now all our shoes are at risk..he keeps wanting to put the seedlings in a shoe. We will start round two on Monday, I will transplant the seedlings to a green pot and then start over. I want to get more seed trays, they are a bit costly right now, but if they are heavy duty it is something that I will enjoy using years to come. We think that we've found somewhere to get the fertilizer for free...and they will even load it. I will of course give them money, it takes gas to run a tractor and time, that time and cost should be compensated. If they refuse, I will take fresh veggies to them this summer. I am so happy to have found someone..we need approx 5 loads in the trailer and maybe one for the neighbor. We will also be doing a potatoe experiement this summer. While the potatoes worked just fine in the tire idea..it was a pain in the neck to dig them up and there is a lot of chemicals on tires. So I'm going to use old dogfood backs that are turned inside out. Since they have good drainage and they are made of a tarp material they will work well for my sack and I don't even have to spend that much money on them since the dog eats the food and we just throw them away. We are also going to cut his pen in half, since he is the only dog left out there, he doesn't need all that room. We will bury a cattle fence around it so he can roam free. We will also consider the double gate idea as well. I would like to pour a concrete run for him for at least part of it. We will use the other side for corn and beans and loofah. We will be working on the apple trees again this year...but the biggest project thus far will be they hydroponic system for the lettuce and tomatoes.

Well I need to get to work.

A full day at home...

Well Okay, I woke up this morning still feeling weighed down in the chest...and no, it wasn't my boobs. I feel like I've been punched and the perps arm came out the other side. This generally means that I'm getting sick...DARN IT. I don't have time for this. I did however manage to get some stuff done today. I'm happy with what little progress I made in the laundry room, I'm going to try to finish it off before heading upstairs to bring down the dirty laundry baskets and bed sheets. I took a five minute nap today and it really did me wonders...not sure why, but it gave me the boost that I needed.

I am very thrilled to report that we found that the broccoli, cauliflower and bean plants that we planted on the 25th have come up...this is right about on time. Once they are a bit bigger, probably next Monday I will transplant them into the green pots, which are bigger, and start them over again. I will keep each stick with the plant to document which live and which don't. This will give me a much better idea as to how much and when to plant. Since I want to start the tomatoes and some stuff early and do it in bi-weekly phases, it was important to start early. This will give me an early crop and a staggered crop which will prevent waste and allow a run of supply, not just one time frame.