I've been a very bad girl! Let's just say, it's been a busy year so far, but I'm determined to get back into this blogging thing!
I'm not even going to attempt to fill in the fast few months- we're starting fresh from here on out!
OKAY!
So, it's SPRING if you hadn't noticed, and that means being OUTSIDE! HOORAY! This year, I'm determined (lots of determination around here!) to keep myself busy during the summer, AND I've been doing lots of reading, and I am GOING TO FARM. And make lots of changes. So, let's chronicle!
1) This is my new territory, the previously abandoned side yard. No one uses it, it's usually overgrown, and the kids just use the sidewalk to get into the basement. Scooooore. It's southern-facing, sheltered by fencing on 3 sides, and the house on the remaining side, and gets pretty good sunlight during the day. I'm killing the grass with tarps, because I am lazy and hate pulling out live grass. They've been cooking under there for about 2 weeks, so I'm going to check it this weekend and see if I can get started!
We have a tiller on loan from a parent, so hopefully I can figure the thing out (I failed at the push mower last weekend... ugh.)
The narrow part between the fence and the stairs is getting the cardboard treatment, because we don't have another one of those AMAZING tarps that I'm using on the big part. It should do the same job though.
I also made myself a make-shift potting bench!
So what's the P.L.A.N? The plan is this:
2) Clothesline. And, no, I'm not running at you with my arm aimed for your neck (growing up watching WWF makes this my initial reaction too), but I'm going to try to put as much of my laundry as possible on this bad-boy (and there's bad-boy #2 waiting to be put up. Or maybe that one is bad-girl?) I fully disclose here that there are some things that I'm sure will be put in the normal dryer (line-dried towels I've found are pretty horrific. Kind of like sandpaper) and I'll give myself concessions for bad weather, and just laundry emergencies, but I'd still like to use it as much as possible. I even made myself a swanky little clothespin bag (naturally), and I find that I really like folding clothes as they come off the line. Maybe this will help the insane closet situation too (still unresolved.)
3. CSA's. Like whoa.
A woman rang the bell out of the blue last weekend, offering us several gallons of raw milk that she was going to be unable to sell due to a cooler malfunction. She had seen our pigs driving by, and knew that pigs *love* milk, and didn't want it to go to waste. Of course, I eagerly accepted the milk, and after talking to her for a bit, I found out that she and her husband run a dairy between Washington and Sperryville, previously unknown to me. The only dairy that I knew of has a GINORMOUS waiting list; she has open shares. Long story short, as soon as this little lady gets paid, I am high-tailing it up to her place and BUYING A RAW MILK SHARE. Oh. My. God. If you've not had raw milk (and I guess few people have, since it's pretty much illegal), this is milk unlike anything you've ever tasted. Un-homogenized, with a thick topping of yellow cream, and it is absolutely to die for. Susan and I split a weeks' worth of milk from the other dairy last summer while her friends were out of town, and it was deeelish (and, I admit, I totally stuck my finger in the bucket of pig-milk, out of curiosity. Purely scientific, I swear.) I can't wait. Butter. OH MY GOD BUTTER. Gonna make so much butter. And ice cream. I even want to delve into cultured products, like yogurt, and I'm dying to know how to make sour cream without killing myself.
To add to that, our local county list-serv had an add yesterday from an older couple looking for someone to share their CSA share from Sunnyside Farm. They're out of town a lot in the growing season because they're retired, have a house in Maine, etc, so they don't get as much use out of it as they'd like to, and I'm just one person, so there is NO way I could eat a whole share. So we're going to alternate weeks picking up, and split the cost. It works out to be $25 a week. Which is really really good. Sunnyside is actually so awesome, they sell at the White House Farmer's Market.
So that's two strikes off the local eating list: dairy and veggies (plus I think Sunnyside does eggs, and fruit in season), and I still have locally grown/milled wheat from Purcellville Now I just need to trot down to Mount Vernon when I deplete all the meat in my fridge...
Totally unrelated to the subject of farming and sustainability, I've been working on a lot of sewing/crafty stuff for dance! Yee haw! Got my tassel belt started, after THREE YEARS of languishing in a bin of uncompleted projects,
and I finished my first version of my choli ( a sort of crop-top-type thing), though I want to tweak it a bit, and then I still need to make my "real" version (this one was just for practice, but I made it pretty enough to wear!)
The fabric is a hand block-printed piece that my high school art teacher gave me. When I was in high school. Like, 6 years ago. Or more. And I've never touched it.
I had *just enough* and had a lot of fun making sure that the patterns mirrored, and even that the little trees went the same direction (even under the arms!)
I'm also about to do a little fixing on one of my favorite hoodies. It's white (I know), and it's had a stain on the pocket forever (obviously), so I'm going to cover the pockets with some super-cute fabric I picked up yesterday at a quilt shop in Warrenton to cover all my sins...
After that, I'm going to recover this ottoman that I picked up off the side of the road, with some nice red waffle-weave-ish upholstery fabric that I bought a while ago and since forgot my plans for...
Sebastian approves!So, productive weeks ahead!
