Friday, January 16, 2009

Paper pots and more

So, yesterday, after I finished blogging I went out to Mark and Meredith Heywood's - they were very generous to offer their home up for a weekly meeting place for me to pick up vegetables that Rick and Henrietta Cummings grow in their Edge of the World Farm. 
I met Mark and Meredith here at STARworks, when they were piecing their working lives back 
together after the fire. What great people! I have been following their blog with much interest, since Meredith often features local potters friends on her blog, and as a newcomer to the area it has been a great way to get in the loop of things.
Rick and Henrietta have been growing organically for over 20 years already, and I have been buying some great lettuces, cabbage and broccoli from them for a few months now. More info about them in the future!

After the veggies switched hands and my car was filled with that wonderful broccoli smell (you know the smell I'm talking about?!) I went to see my green/muddy-thumb friend Tom Gray
who runs the Seagrove Community Garden and is a great potter. Tom's blog is another one that I frequently read, he is one of those people who's energy radiates outward and touches everyone. He is a well of information also - always reading, always learning something new and sharing that knowledge. Yesterday, among other things  we talked about making newspaper starter pots, for starting seeds. I first heard about those thingies from Dianna Osmolski
who, together with her husband Bill runs the  Green Acres Ranch in Seagrove and raises grass few beef that is DELICIOUS!!!
Anyway, so we were talking about these pots, guessing how the little wooden tools, that you can buy from some seed catalogues, would work in reality...  and this morning when I was checking Tom's blog - he had already MADE a tool for this purpose (being a potter, of course) out of clay  A N D  put up a you tube video of how to make the pots. I'm telling you, this guy will get right on it and git'R'done.
Tom also surprised me with a gift of dozen eggs that were just busting out of the carton - they were so big - that I can't wait to taste. I love love love eggs. I think eggs are one of my favorite foodstuffs - right there with mushrooms and nuts. Thanks Tom!

So. When finally I got back to STARworks right before lunch (intoxicated by the aroma of fresh yummy broccoli!!!) I discovered that my better half Adam had already leveled the greenhouse posts AND poured the concrete around them to anchor the posts good and steady into the ground. WOW. Thanks Adam!!! He really is my anchor!
Now we have to fit the arches into the anchor posts, attach the center pole, build a wood frame around the base (oh, the posts on both ends of the greenhouse still need to be anchored first) then the two end frames need to be fit back in, then there is probably a long list of things we haven't even foreseen, and then we can put a sheet of plastic over the arches... and we're oh so close to starting our first seeds!!! I better get to making the newspaper pots!!!!
Today I will do an inventory of all the seeds I have left from last season. I know there are some purple Pak Choi seeds that I can't wait to grow! And several great salad mixes to start the spring right! 

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Winter ramblings

Wow. Time flies.
Christmas came - as always - as a complete surprise to me. What? Christmas? Again?
Didn't we just get through it...? Oh. Almost a whole year has gone by... 
I dodged the commercialism and buying mania almost completely this year, buying only cotton yarn, to knit some fancy dishrags, and hand blown (HAND blown???) glass ornaments.
Oh, and I make note cards, so lots of people got small stationery sets.
Vabandage vanemad, et teie pakk ikka veel teelesaatmist ootab!!!

I haven't posted any pix of the garden since it is dormant and sort of in a disarray, but we started to work on the "greenhouse raising" yesterday (even though temperatures outside suggest snuggling up on the couch under quilts with a good book...) so as soon as I am able to upload the images from yesterday's hard work you'll see what we did and what great helpers I have!!!!! I can't thank Adam and Santiago enough! We rented an auger that is used for drilling post holes from Seven Lakes Hardware .  In a moment of madness I had thought I can run this thing by myself. Yeah, right! There were times when both guys had to bear down on the machine together to keep it straight. We unearthed bits of broken glass and porcelain, a metal toothpaste tube, a brick, lots of rocks and bits of metal... it was like treasure hunt! And it warmed up outside by noon, so we had fun digging! Well, I mostly had fun watching the guys have fun!

Next job on the list is to level the posts and pour some concrete around them. That's supposed to happen today. Prrrrrr, it's cold outside!!!!! 

There is a cool blog that I wanted to share with everyone that I just discovered - Thank you Beth for sending me this link! I envy people with great sense of humor and a gift with words.