Twenty past February

There are other things going on around the house other than scanning and typing out diaries and journals and organizing research information. 

We don't know if the groundhog was right and there is an early spring here for us but the birds and frogs, weeds and trees are saying there is going to be an early spring. The "Tuesday" tank that is growing turnips has done well all winter.

This turnip will be added to some soup this week.

The mulberry tree is putting out leaves and so pretty at this time.

We lost one of our peach trees so we went to the nursery to purchase another since the peach tree needs a mate. We picked out a Georgia peach known to grow well in our area. The trees do not have to be the same variety. 

I needed to move some daylilies so since the weather is looking like early spring instead of winter it needed to be done now. I divided them and transplanted them to another location.

The lemon tree is starting to bud out and bloom. There are so many things leafing, blooming and just growing like crazy it will be very bad if we get some more serious cold weather.

We now have seven large cattle water tanks we are using for raised beds. I have named them days of the week so when Charles and I are talking about them we know which one it is. Sunday is growing onions and carrots, Monday is growing garlic, Tuesday is growing turnips, Wednesday is growing herbs and the basil is already emerging and basil is very sensitive to cold.

This is where we dressed out a small peach tree and I planted the daylilies around it. We put out 2-2-2- Chicken manure and pine straw over that. Then the daylilies around it. 

We also dressed the blueberries front and back doing the same thing with the chicken manure and pine straw.  I also transpanted some blackeyed Susans that I needed to move from an area that they decided to emerge from.  In our yard blackeyed Susans will just show up in areas least expected.

These tanks are Thursday, Friday and Saturday, left to right. Thursday is a new tank. 

We had a beautiful rainbow above other side of the house the day before yesterday. 

Our first year with the hoop greenhouse has been successful. Everything we put in there survived and grew, (so far).

We are still eating simple meals.  Here is BarbQ chicken, rice, green beans, sauteed fresh picked carrots and carrot greens with garlic and preserved lemons chopped up over the rice and beans.

Since I understand the way diaries were written in the past I started writing down what is going on around here. This is a way to know when we planted something or when we saw the first Wax Wing birds or when we will see the first hummingbird.

I am slowing conforming to the time but there are still things I need to remove and get rid of or at least pack up and put it away and see if I will need it again.

I am now much more used to the old way than the new way. I like the sounds I make now, it reminds me of the time when I was younger and I could hear things better because I was not distracted. If you are not hearing what you do then possibly too much is going on.

I am still keeping a stash of certain items because being in the middle of a Great Depression study makes me realize that in today's time we need to have some extras put away for tough times whatever that reason may be. 

We don't have a milk cow or a farm to help us be more sustainable so we have to do things urban/cityfied.

I understand the value of everything now. I remember as a young person how we would go outside of our city and we would pick berries and fruit that grew wild. Many people did this. We picked blackberries and plums and peaches and pears.  Neighbors shared fruit with each other. I don't see these things growing wild as I once did because our towns and cities have spread out so far and cut all these natural fruit and nut trees down. So we have to find a way to grow what we can. 

In the diary of Lena and Edith I see where they sew a lot and now I plan on getting back into sewing.  This is something just like canning that I stepped away from but realize it is important to bring it back in our life.

One reason is we forget how to do things and we do not need to lose these skills nor the tools.

Growing vegetables is something we just keep trying at and learn more each season. Each season is different and we have to adjust due to weather and bugs and many factors. We learn to slow down and observe more what is happening around us. 

I had no idea how much lettuce we could grow in these cages that Charles built. For the two of us we just need one cage of lettuce so now we have changed this since harvest.

Now one cage is cabbage and one lettuce and another a different type of cabbage. We learned the only way we could grow lettuce, cabbage and dill is in a cage because the city wildlife enjoy these vegetables too.  Our parsley that grew all fall and winter into a beautiful large parsley plant was almost wiped out in one evening by some critter that likes parsley. It left us about 1/3 of the plant. 

This has become a peaceful life in a noisy world as long as we don't peek too far into what is going on outside of our home. I find I cannot take the stress of the real time so 1932 is a very comforting place to be for the year.

Life is too short to worry about the things we have no control over. We can make where we are a comfortable place to be. We do it slowly and if you think that oh I cannot afford to change or it is too much work or it will take too long.  Just remember that the same amount of time is going to pass either way so if we start right now next month we will either be right were we are now or we will be one month in the change that we are making. Grandma Donna