(Some) Seeds are ordered!

I'm so excited.  I will start the tomato seed in two weeks.  And the girls and I are going to have fun with a little project hosted by Jenna at Cold Antler Farm (www.coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com) and grow some sugar snap peas in containers.  These seedlings will surely brighten up this cold and long winter.  According to a grow chart I found online, the following seeds can be started in advance indoors:  cucumbers, squash, peppers, tomatoes and pumpkins.  We are planting two types of tomatoes, plum and beefsteak.  I still have a lot more seeds to order for my ambitious garden plan.  What are you growing this year?

This moment

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

Linked from www.soulemama.com

This house

Is home.  It's 100 years of history, of living, of cooking, of summers and people and parties.  It's a welcoming space for friends and family and a constant reminder of the past.  It's safety and solitude and warmth.  With the winds howling outside it's confidence that it will stand strong.  It's work and rest and all the rest.  Got bless this house.

Quiet solitude

One of the things I enjoy most about our farm is the quiet.  I grew up on an island, yes quite a big island, in the middle of a lake.  There were lakes on that island and we lived next to one.  My mom made her own bread, bakes beans, chow chow, pickled beets and mustard beans.  My brother and I played in streams, old barns, apple orchards and rode our bikes everywhere we could.  I don't know how many miles we traveled to see friends but for the most part we only had each other.  And it was quiet at night.  During the days we listened to the sounds of nature.  There were rarely motor boats on our lake 30 years ago (oh how that has changed).  I'm so happy to be back to the quiet.  To sleep at night with nothing waking me but occasionally the furnace coming on while I'm in a lighter slumber.  That no one comes to our door offering services.  That we can sit outside in the afternoons, in the sunshine, with nothing in our view but the tree's and the sky.

Food

I am looking forward to a summer of fresh vegetables.  I've never had a garden this big of my own.  We always had a garden in the suburbs but the biggest one we had gave us tomatoes, squash, pumpkins and zucchini - easy plants to grow.  My current garden has asparagus, strawberries and raspberry perennials and I need to plan the rest of that garden - plus the kitchen garden next to the house.  I will probably grow potatoes, onions, beets, carrots, cabbage, squash, zucchini and cantaloupe in the main garden and the peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, kale, cucumbers in the kitchen garden.  It sounds very ambitious, I know.  And I've never grown most of these vegetables before.  I'll take any tips and pointers.  I mostly worry about the dog getting into them or ruining my garden completely.

I am learning how essential food is in any country home.  Things I've made in the past just for fun have become staples in our home every week - bagel's, pizza, pancakes and cookies.  I'm constantly looking at ways to stretch our dollar and the grocery list.  The other night we had taco's but I also made some brown rice.  I sauteed some kale, zucchini, onions and carrots and added half the brown rice to that mixture and added the leftover taco meat to the rest and voila - lunches and sides for a week.  I'm thinking about making home made dog treats and granola bars - please share if you have a favourite recipe.  After this garden is done in the fall I'm going to try my hand at home made soap and candles and preserving - tomato sauce, pizza sauce, salsa, pickles, jam to start.  I have to admit I've been out of my head thinking about spring and summer lately.  I daydream about my plans all the time.  What I really need to do is get that seed order in!

This moment

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

Linked from www.soulemama.com

And then we got a dog

My mother loves animals and so we always had at least one dog.  My husband and I inherited my mom's older dogs when she moved into a condo and when they were eventually put down we got a cat.  And when the cat got hit by a car and died we got a fish.  My kids asked for rodents (mice, hampster's) but I don't like anything that scampers.  And then we had a bearded dragon (my compromise instead of a snake) and, guess what.  Yeah, he died too.  We think from licking a floor that was just cleaned by a Swiffer.  This happened over several years people and we took very good care of all of our animals but just have had terrible luck.  Thank goodness the fish hasn't died yet.  He's a good fish.

And then we got Murphy.  What a joy.  A lovable black lab that we got when he was 10 weeks old.  He is now 6 months old and has grown tremendously.  He was the second biggest in his litter and it shows.  He's our farm dog and he loves nothing more than to eat horse manure, chicken feed and anything else he can get into his mouth.  We've taught him the word no and how to sit, fetch and come, he's very smart.  The one thing we are still working on though is that while he has manners in the house, he loses his mind outside.  He grabs the girls hands, lunges at their heads (to get their hats) and jumps all over them unprovoked.  He barks at the shovel and tries to bite it when I'm clearing the walk and plays the "catch me" game with items he shouldn't have.  I've been looking for solutions online and only found that we need to leash him around the kids when they are outside.  This I have to work on (and I'm open to other suggestions) as he spends all of his time on the leash pulling and trying to yank it out of my hands.  Well at least he's not attacking the kids.  God love ya Murph.