Well, we finally did it. We got the entire garden weeded, tilled, and planted in a week. The plot right next to the house, anyway. At some point (we say that phrase a LOT), we're going to prepare another plot out behind the barn for "tall" crops - beans, corn, stuff like that. So far we haven't seen any sprouts out of our garden, but the tomato plants haven't died, either. Mike has taken to weeding the strawberries out behind the house. Last night he even watered them. (Contrary to popular belief, the Spokane valley area, where we live, doesn't get near the rain Seattle does. The Cascade Mountains keep it all away.)
Yesterday we drove into Colfax to run some errands. I bought some boots (picture to come soon), we made some deposits at the bank, then we went to the grocery store and did some shopping. Amazingly enough, we bought no chips or cookies - it was all vegetables and paper products. OK, OK, there was some ice cream in there, too, but that's IT!
Tuesday we drove all the way to Spokane. It takes an hour and a half to get there, and you FEEL it. We went everywhere - Petco, the fabric store, Eagle Hardware, Costco, Staples, and the General Store. We spent tons of money on tons of things, including a lawnmower, a wheelbarrow, cat and dog food... you know -- luxuries. :) Hopefully the bulk of the spending frenzy is over, but I wouldn't bet on it (see today's Farm Lesson).
Besides driving all over Creation, we've been baking bread, making cookies, quilting, cooking, cleaning, mowing, writing, and spending time together. We're still blissfully happy, and can't imagine another place we'd rather live.
We managed to finish the weeding yesterday. I pulled the last weed chunk out of the ground just as the sun was going down. Mike also got several posts set into the ground, using a post-hole digger and gravel to set it. This morning he finished the posts and strung 3 feet of chicken wire around the perimeter of the garden to keep the dogs out. Eventually, he'll string it up to 6 feet.
Early this afternoon we drove into Colfax again. We went to the hardware store and bought some string, some garden hoses, and a few other odds and ends. When we got home we started planting. So far we've gotten down pole beans, tomato plants, cabbage, brussel sprouts, cucumbers, carrots, collards, and pumpkins. That's four rows worth. We'll keep working on it until we get the whole plot full, then we'll probably start clearing another plot. We've ordered a greenhouse that should arrive any day now. We'll get some seedlings going in there, too, so that we can do some longer-season stuff. After I scrubbed the dirt and grime off of me (sprinklers are MESSY!), I sat down to do some quilting (I'll probably do more after finishing this update) and Mike made some (very delicious) brownies. While they cooled he heated up leftovers and we had dinner and dessert. Then we played a few rounds of Boggle (think Scrabble, but played simultaneously and with dice instead of tiles). And that's all the news that's fit to print!
Well, it's official! We're legally married. We even got our marriage license in the mail Monday. I know it's been a (very, very) long time since we did an update, but we've been indescribably busy. Because of.. um.. technical difficulties, there won't be any new pictures up for a few days, but don't worry - they're coming.
We're back home now, in Endicott. We got in Sunday night and were just amazed at how overgrown everything was. In some places the weeds are hip-deep. We quickly added "lawnmower" to our shopping list. The first thing we did was start unloading the RV. We just brought everything in and dumped it in the middle of the living room floor. We're slowly going through it as time goes by. We unloaded until we were exhausted, then we came in and slept. Oh, by the way, he did "carry" me over the threshold. Those of you who've seen us know that I'm much larger than Mike, so "carrying" amounted to bending over, picking up my legs, and sort of heaving me 3 inches into the entryway, but it was enough. :)
The next morning Mike woke up at about 5:30 and made a pace map of the property. We'll need it when we start planning where we want to put everything. I woke up at 7 and we both almost immediately went out to start weeding the garden. We're going to put a plot right next to the house, since he had already rototilled that before we left and it was the area with the shortest weeds. We may put another, larger plot somewhere else, but for now we've got to get stuff in the ground tout de suite! We got it about half done, then spent the rest of the day baking bread and working (Mike) and quilting and baking brownies (me). Of course, there have been flurries of unpacking interspersed with all this other stuff.
Yesterday we went through all of our bills and wrote a ton of checks. I finished most of the Thank you notes. We couldn't get much weeding done because it was rainy yesterday. Finishing the weeding is today's task. After we finished the bills we drove over to Colfax. First we went to the lumber yard and bought some fence studs and chicken wire. We've got to have a deer fence to keep the dogs and deer out, or we can give up ANY hope of having a garden. Then we drove over to the bank, the quilting store, and the grocery store. I took up quilting on our honeymoon (see the wedding/honeymoon page for more details) and I'm almost ready to start the final part of it, so I needed some batting. We stocked up on all kinds of groceries, made deposits at the bank, then came home. I spent the evening creating a filing system for our bills (something more than stuffing everything in a big "TBF" folder) and Mike did some writing.
Today, Mike woke up at 0-dark-30 again. He's really got this farm hours thing down. I'm working on it. :) When I woke up, I made some breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast with apple butter) and Mike fried up some sausage. After breakfast we came upstairs and I got to work on email and some paid website updating stuff that needed to get done. Mike kept writing. A little while ago he went downstairs to bake another loaf of bread. The one he made 2 days ago is almost gone. :) After I finish this update, I'll change into my weeding clothes and go get that garden done!
Now that we're settled down, there should be more regular updates (hi Dad!!), so don't give up on us yet!