A blog in which I do not talk about children (much)
This may some as a surprise to some of you, but I do still have a life outside of children. And today I'm going to talk about it. This will be a very short blog, obviously. :)
I like to garden. I have a square foot garden which I just put in this spring, with the help of my Dad and husband. I am in the process of putting my beds to "sleep" for the winter, while also trying to prolong my growing period. I have several broccoli plants out there right now, and they seem to be doing well in spite of the fact that we are having frost every night. I'm interested to see if we end up getting anything. I need to get some sort of plastic sheet or something to put over them at night and maybe even during the day to set up a little bit of a greenhouse effect, I think.
Anyway, to put the beds to sleep I am 1. tearing out old, dead annuals, 2. adding compost from my compost bin, 3. mixing well, 4. smoothing out the ground and covering with a thick layer of shredded leaves from our yard (yay for no leaves in the yard!), 5. putting chicken wire over top to keep the leaves from blowing away. Then in the spring I will rake the leaves off (or mix some of them into the dirt, depending if they look rotten or not) and all I will have to do is plant my seeds.
None of these things cost anything but time! The compost bin is full of stuff that we throw away anyway; the shredded leaves as mentioned above came from our yard, and the chicken wire is leftover from last year's garden fence, which was replaced with a much nicer one this year. Nice, right? I do have to go and buy some cow poop to spread over the asparagus and rhubarb beds. But, see, if we had more land, then we could just keep some chickens around, and then I could just use their poop. :D Or we could keep cows.
Anyway, I am really excited for the spring. No tilling, no installing anything at all - I just scoop away the leaves and plant. The end. I'm pretty thrilled about it, not gonna lie. Hopefully this will be the easiest spring ever, at least as far as gardening is concerned. And I will be able to get my plants into the ground early because I won't have to wait for anybody to help me do anything.
I've also picked up running again. I try to get out 3-4 times a week, but sometimes I only manage two times. But hey, I figure anything is good! I've worked back up to running 4 miles at a time, and I have a new partner - my dog, Penny. Since she turned 1 in August and her growth plates are officially closed, I have been trying to run her more. She loves running with me, now that she's gotten used to it, and has gone up to four miles at a time with me. She is a different dog for the rest of the day after she goes for a run - hardly ever chews on stuff, and just generally not as naughty. She's a mutt and weighs only 26 lbs., but she is long-legged so I'm pretty sure she has some herding breeds and just generally athletic dog genes in her. I really want to enter us in a race together but there aren't that many races that allow dogs. There is one in February, which I did last year, where the dog is actually assigned a race number and everything - pretty awesome. But that is a really difficult course and we have no way to really train for it, plus it's in Kansas City and traveling isn't quite as easy as it used to be! So I will keep looking but I doubt I'll be able to find anything until the spring.
In other news, the baby pooped while I was changing her diaper today - twice. I went through three diapers in about 5 minutes. And poop got on her clothes too. All you experienced mothers can relate, I'm sure.
Now it's back to the grind until the kids leave for their visit and I can leave for a run. :)
I like to garden. I have a square foot garden which I just put in this spring, with the help of my Dad and husband. I am in the process of putting my beds to "sleep" for the winter, while also trying to prolong my growing period. I have several broccoli plants out there right now, and they seem to be doing well in spite of the fact that we are having frost every night. I'm interested to see if we end up getting anything. I need to get some sort of plastic sheet or something to put over them at night and maybe even during the day to set up a little bit of a greenhouse effect, I think.
Anyway, to put the beds to sleep I am 1. tearing out old, dead annuals, 2. adding compost from my compost bin, 3. mixing well, 4. smoothing out the ground and covering with a thick layer of shredded leaves from our yard (yay for no leaves in the yard!), 5. putting chicken wire over top to keep the leaves from blowing away. Then in the spring I will rake the leaves off (or mix some of them into the dirt, depending if they look rotten or not) and all I will have to do is plant my seeds.
None of these things cost anything but time! The compost bin is full of stuff that we throw away anyway; the shredded leaves as mentioned above came from our yard, and the chicken wire is leftover from last year's garden fence, which was replaced with a much nicer one this year. Nice, right? I do have to go and buy some cow poop to spread over the asparagus and rhubarb beds. But, see, if we had more land, then we could just keep some chickens around, and then I could just use their poop. :D Or we could keep cows.
Anyway, I am really excited for the spring. No tilling, no installing anything at all - I just scoop away the leaves and plant. The end. I'm pretty thrilled about it, not gonna lie. Hopefully this will be the easiest spring ever, at least as far as gardening is concerned. And I will be able to get my plants into the ground early because I won't have to wait for anybody to help me do anything.
I've also picked up running again. I try to get out 3-4 times a week, but sometimes I only manage two times. But hey, I figure anything is good! I've worked back up to running 4 miles at a time, and I have a new partner - my dog, Penny. Since she turned 1 in August and her growth plates are officially closed, I have been trying to run her more. She loves running with me, now that she's gotten used to it, and has gone up to four miles at a time with me. She is a different dog for the rest of the day after she goes for a run - hardly ever chews on stuff, and just generally not as naughty. She's a mutt and weighs only 26 lbs., but she is long-legged so I'm pretty sure she has some herding breeds and just generally athletic dog genes in her. I really want to enter us in a race together but there aren't that many races that allow dogs. There is one in February, which I did last year, where the dog is actually assigned a race number and everything - pretty awesome. But that is a really difficult course and we have no way to really train for it, plus it's in Kansas City and traveling isn't quite as easy as it used to be! So I will keep looking but I doubt I'll be able to find anything until the spring.
In other news, the baby pooped while I was changing her diaper today - twice. I went through three diapers in about 5 minutes. And poop got on her clothes too. All you experienced mothers can relate, I'm sure.
Now it's back to the grind until the kids leave for their visit and I can leave for a run. :)
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