In the Garden: Fall Clean Up

Its Fall in the garden and time to the put the beds to bed for the season. I don’t normally mulch my planting beds in the fall, but the chicken coop needed to be cleaned out, so what the heck, might as well use one thing for two purposes. I don’t know what other urban chicken farmes use, but lately, we have been using straw to bed the hen-house and roosting boxes.

I ended up pulling out all the old straw and hen turds and threw them into the garden beds. My thought…straw will help keep weeds down and existing plants warm till next spring, while the girls’ little surprises add nutrients. Genius. I know.

 

 

Almost all cleaned out. 🙂

I still have some cabbage in the garden, so I just placed the straw around  the plants still above the soil. Notice the bitty rosemary at the bottom of the pic. I am really quite proud. I threw down some rosemary seeds last spring/summer and then realized I was supposed to start them indoors(oops)…. well, to my surprise a few of my seeds popped up! I really hope they make it through the winter. Pretty, pretty please! I have not had good luck with rosemary in the past….

 

Now, that I’ve got all the old stuff out, the new must go in…..

 

 

 And I’ve got my littlest helper with me, although, me thinks he thinks the coop could use a little deodorizer. 🙂

 

Alright, the fresh straw is down and ready for some eggs!

My hope is that, throughout the winter as I clean the coop, I’ll add more old straw and droppings to the rest of the beds, and by next spring I’ll have a most awesomest soil my plants every did see! ;D So…. we’ll see….

 

 

 

Thrifty Halloween: Creating a Kids Play Wardrobe

 

 

If you have young’ns you might be able to relate.

Kids LOVE to play dress up, at least, I know mine do. 🙂 And one of the thrifty ways to build a little closet of play clothes for them to dress up in is to shop the thrift stores around Halloween. That’s right, HALLOWEEN. Betcha didn’t think of that, did ya? 🙂

I know, I know, I am genius!

Ok maybe not a GENIUS….. it hit me a few years ago when I saw the cost of play clothes online or at toy stores. HOLY MOLY! Then after my two sons first Halloween dressing up, I noticed they continued to dress up and run around the house in their Batman and  Robin get up after Halloween.

Lightbulb.

The following year I it hit up my local Goodwill Thrift Store two months before Halloween, when they start putting the Halloween costumes and decorations out. Wanted to make sure I got to the good pickings before they were gone. 🙂

 

Scanned through the racks and picked up a few more costumes(and when I say ” a few more” I mean, like five of six) for just a few bucks each. Over the last two years I have built up their play closet to more than  just Batman and Robin. Now, they can be Spiderman, Hulk, pirate, Peter Pan, solider, construction man, Darth Vader, storm trooper, knight, and vampire. 🙂

 

 

 

A Mushroom Adventure

I think, I might have just found a new hobby! mushroom hunting. This last Saturday I made the 2 hr trip to visit a friend in Port Angeles and discovered the thrill of mushroom picking. My girlfriend said if I came up to visit her, she would take me mushroom picking for Chanterelles. What are these Chanterelles she speaks of????

Now I know nothing about mushrooms, so I had to rely on her to show me which ones where the right ones. Once I got started I couldn’t stop, and it really wasn’t that hard. After I got back home though, I made a beeline for the computer to find out as much as I could about these little guys

http://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/chanterelles.html

This site here has some good info about Chanterelles, just in case you are interested. 😉

My route in the purple. 🙂 from Tacoma to Port Angeles

Just so happened that, that day we had the RAINYEST day we have had the WHOLE year! Good thing I brought my snowboarding jacket that afternoon. Seriously, I think we got a few inches in a few hours, it just DUMPED on us. That’s not the best part though…. while in the middle of the woods picking shrooms  I hear a call.

“Christina! Did you here that?”

“Um, no…”

A few minutes later, I hear this call from a mysterious animal again.

“Did you hear it that time!”

“yeah! That is a BIG bull elk.”

“um. WHAT?!”

Didn’t know where this guy was coming at, but I didn’t want to be around if he came charging out of the woods….

Nine pounds of mushrooms and a little faster heart beat later we came out of the woods unscathed, but heavy with our treasures. We needed a little warming up and drying out, so we stopped at the hungry bear café right on hwy 101. Had hot coffee and slice of rhubarb strawberry pie al la mode and watched the rain outside. Such a refreshing afternoon with time just for me and my girl. 🙂

http://www.hungrybearcafemotel.com/

Since I really had no place to be, my mushroom picking partner asked if I have ever been to Rialto beach. I have been to quite a few beaches on the coast but never made it over to Rialto. So, the drive continued westward toward the coast. As we rounded the corner on the highway, just off to the left in a field we spotted all these guys. coincidence? I think not! 🙂

OK, here is my disclaimer, I did not have my phone with me to take pics, but I tried to find some that showed the beauty of the beach and what the weather was like when I was there.

After a loooooong day, I had all to myself (thank you to the handy husband to for watching the boys) I made my way back home to unload my treasures and start drying them out.

Two and a half days later and I am STILL drying mushrooms…. I hope to be finished by tomorrow. The house has a very earthy/woodsy smell right now. It’s just GREAT!

Until next time…..;)