winter flowers

forty five below

Edmonton was the coldest place on the planet last night colder than Antartica colder than Siberia. It was minus 37 here and the gardening catalogues are starting to arrive MacFayden's cover is all vegies and sunflowers I drooled and still I am drooling.
I am definitely trying to reign in my enthusiasm but I have at least 12 cuttings off my geraniums and that new one is coming nicely. I want to plant I think probably at least a half a dozen artichokes, and about a dozen fennel and at least a couple of packages of perrenials and herbs and if I could find a package or two of stocks or daturas maybe something that I can use for cut flowers or maybe....I will try to reign in my enthusiasm. I love the winter but I spend a lot of it dreaming of spring.
There are dreams of expanding my garden and rearranging the rhubarb and bringing native medicinals and edibles into the yard in the marble raised bed in the front yard.
With another couple of yards of dirt delievered in the spring enough for another raised bed for the garden at least 10 or 12 bales of straw for mulch and pathways, and a half a yard of sand to add to the beds that we have and a half a yard of stone for the pathway along the garage. I want to grow white tomatoes again. I want my cucumbers to grow this year and so I will start them in March I think. Sunflowers for seeds, beans varieties to eat, dry and pickle, corn for both dry and eating fresh, pumpkins and squash, roots for storage, onions and garlic for braiding and chickens for eggs. Peppers, and lettuce, spinach and fennel, herbs and flowers, corn salad and bloody dock, I need to settle down and curb my enthusiasm so that I can plan this out and plant beautiful things in raised beds that will be used for teas, and tissanes, food for the table and flowers for my spirit.
The garden catalogues are starting to arrive hurray.
cheers

It is 32 degrees below zero

It is thirty two degrees below zero tonight and will be bitterly cold for the next few days. I will have to go get Josh from Chase's house tomorrow and then I think we just might have a day. I love thirty below days when it is this close to Christmas, Yule, Hannakah, Kwanza, Saturnalia, and all the other close of the year the birth of the sun, the festivals of lights. Light and life, warmth and tribe, gather and celebrate life and the rebirth of light.
I am sitting here looking at the tree that we put up today, the fire has now died down in the hearth and it is time to crawl into bed under the feather quilt but as I sit here enjoying the quiet of the evening. The season has begun if I don't decorate another thing it looks pretty good, there are berries and shiny things for the dining room. There are more icicles for everywhere, especially around the fireplace. I only have about an hour or so left upstairs and then I can move downstairs.
I hope that tree that my mom sent is complete and the wreath in fairly decent shape for the back door. I will need to pick up a few more strings of lights to have enough for it and I can use it as the downstairs tree. Red, and crafted ornaments with rustic bits and pieces and I would love to have it all cleaned up and sorted out in time for Christmas.
Useable space oh my goodness do I dare dream....everything having a place and everything in it's place. Less stress more time easier to clean up this could be fabulous. I love winter, time to think about getting this ready for spring, de cluttered and ready for garage sale and rearranging. There is too much stuff that needs to find a different home, that needs to be gone through again and thinned out as much as humanly possible. I need to really take stock of what to keep and what to get rid of and what to pass on if anyone needs it. But at the same time I need to spend some time with the beastie boys doing those wintertime things that are so important to us. Baking, candy making, roasted foods, and comfort foods, teas, and deserts, coffees and old movies is what I have to mix in with the cleaning over the next few days. I really am enjoying this stress free Christmas I know what I am doing for presents for the boys and we're not doing the big family thing so I don't have all those extras to buy.

medicinal herbs

If I want to put in a medicinal and culinary herb garden in the front yard I should probably look into what the shamanic beliefs are for the native herbs and plants. I still want to add rain barrels and more vegetable beds in the back yard but the marble looks great used as a raised bed frames and it is able to make curves which wood cannot and when I mix the stone together it looks rather cool. However curves open up possibilities to really fill the garden with gardens. Stone in the front yard and wood and just brick paths in the back. To do this properly I had better study native edible, medicinal and homekeeping plants, uses and purposes. Standing People and an ethnobotanical dictionary as sources right now

So let us start with birch
which the unfurling spring leaves can be brewed into a spring tonic tea to clean out accumulated toxins. If you tap the sap it can be used as a cough syrup, I would imagine it should be cooked down the same way you would cook down maple sap. We have a paper birch in the yard already it could probably even take a tap this year.

Usnea species or Old man's beard grows I think out at Twin Lakes and could be collected as windfall out there this is one of the basic and most sacred of the native medicinal plants and thanks should be remembered when collecting only windfall. The description for collection to make sure we get the right one follows First check the outer portion of the plant for colour it should be gray- green with the cord like stems round not flat. For your final diagnostic check, moisten the stem giving it a gentle tug toe separate the out layer without breaking the white cord inside. The thread should expand and contract like an elastic band. If the windfall you have collected has all these features it is Usnea.
Usnea can be collected at any time of the year for use in your medicine bundle. Usnea contains powerful antibiotic compounds such as usnic acid that are able to treat urinary and repiratory tract infections, athlete's foot, ass well as other fungal infections. Recent research has isolated immune-strenthening compounds from several of the species. The lichen may also prove useful as a smooth muscle relaxant for the colon for the colon and bronchi. Any herb that assists the respiratory function to help us breath deeply and easily also nourishes our hearts.

Also out at Twin Lake there is tons of Field Horsetail, these dinosaur plants grow on rhizomes and from spores if I transplant a large section of the patch it should take in the garden. The plants are full of silica but some of the peoples used them internally for urinary, kidney issues and they can be used for skin rashes and wounds. There are 2 cycles to the growth of the plant withonly the first stage being fertile . In the first stage a jointed branchless flesh coloured fertile stalk appears in very early stage appears in very early spring and then quickly withers. The cone like structiure at the tip is the spore bearer wehre millions of spores hide out in tubel like structures awaiting their 48 hours of life. Yes they only exist 48 hours then kaput. The second stage of growth produces the green barren stalk with branches radiating from the leaf axils to give a Christmas tree effect. This sterile stage lasts through the summer and the leaves remain quite vibrant until autumn.

We love camping out there with the canoe and short drive. We can go we can camp canoe and fish and I can collect lots for the medicine bundle sounds like a plan.

drought

If anyone hasn't noticed around here we have not really had a lick of moisture all year. Not a lick. I am definitely putting in more rain barrells next year 5 for sure with the 3 I have that will give me 440 gallons of water for my vegie and herb gardens and anything else I need water for out side. I will change the overflow system and raise the barrells up at least a couple of feet so that I have better pressure for watering.

Samhain

It was a rainy cold Samhain for us this year but the response to the home made caramel apples was warm and the kids thought it was great. I need to find a better caramel recipe for next year something a little more towards toffee than caramel. I will need to find something tall to do the dipping in since most of my pots don't have that slim shape. I really need to find a place for privacy for sabbats, I just don't get anything done when the whole house is watching me. I don't know why, I have this fear, phobia, and I need to work through this. It is almost one of those block things that stand in the way of Karma and that whole thing of dealing with our past in order to find my karmic path. The spot that I have figured out will work perfectly.
The wheel is turning to the cold of winter, the dark of the year, the time to study, cook and craft. I will plan my garden, set up my space to craft with the tools that I have managed to collect. I will have the spaces, organized to purpose, in order to make our lives simpler and more easily managed. I will use the time of darkness to study the laws, economics, availability, and viability of our dream business. A business plan for our future and our son's futures to give my husband that gift. I want to put the next part of my garden's foundation as well, there are bits to finish and there are new bits to go in including the front medicinal herb garden possible gardens.
The oval centre raised bed with 4 stretched triangular beds on the outside corners with the tree in the centre is going to look great. If I stick with native medicinal plants, teas, spices and small fruits it will look great mix in a few vegies in some of the beds as well as flowers and the beginning of the switch to edibles will be in full swing.
Tinctures and teas, vegies, and fruit and I will be half food secure.

thanksgiving

It is thanksgiving weekend and the snow is falling, the wind is no longer howling but it is still blowing. This cold weather snap is early it is not just me and only happens once every 25 years or so according to the weather channel. I haven't got the last odds and sods done in the garden yet so hopefully it will warm up long enough to rake the leaves out of the front yard and into the compost, roll up the hoses, empty and move the rain barrels down and away from the spout until spring, put away all marble into piles and the square pieces onto the work bench, and finally just clean up outside.
Then there is a ton to do on the inside, the last of the cranberries to get done up all ten pounds of em, the salsa verde and now with some rippening I may have enough for some solid packs, as well as pumpkin marmelade, sorting through Mom's stuff and stuff going out to the garage for a garage sale, the smoker is sitting out there taunting me to get to work, and I need to pick up fabric to make a costume for Josh for Halloween, plus we want to celebrate Samhain with all the comforts and fun that the holiday brings. I will do ritual privately, smudge the house but all of that has to be organized. There is also the need for firewood if this is going to be a long hard winter, and bird feeders, small animal feeders, to be cleaned and set out.
If the weather lets up maybe one last day of fishing and picking some rosehips at the pond. enough to dry for tea and enough to make rosehip jelly. Candles candles and more candles to be found for everything from my tapers to votives to pillars to wicks, wax and oil.
I love this time of year I always look at it as the time to shift gears from summer to winter, from busy doing, building, growing, to busy learning, crafting and being. The fall we start to slow down, look over the successes and failures, take notes make changes, we pull all the pieces acquired over summer so that when the snows come we will have things to craft with in the kitchen and in the workshop. Tools are mended and I have a lot of that to do this year, life slows to a pace that is easier to handle and a world that is smaller, quieter, covered in snow and scented with wood smoke and cinnamon.
Autumn is here and if the snow seems a bit early I don't mind a bit with all the hustle and bustle I need to shift back down from doing to being.
Bina

pumpkins for little boys

The boys all got to pick their pumpkins today....a bucket moment. The tomato vines are pulled and in the compost and the herbs have been harvested. There is some cleaning to be done though and the dirt from the potatoes needs to be dumped in another bed. The youngest was out with a mug of hot cider in one hand and his special little highland dirk to harvest his pumpkin.There will be snow this weekend and I am not ready I will empty the rain barrels when I plant the ferns, and bulbs and water Jay's tree in. I will grab one of those flowery pillow cases and see if that helps keep it safe. I really want to turn that into a place of beauty and zen calm type feeling.
I finally decided on an old fashioned purple crocus, white and purple tulips, with the ferns and the lady's mantle surrounding Budda with the cherry blossoms in the spring it will feel peaceful. A place for tea.
There are so many pots, and fountains, and bird baths, and garden furniture it's crazy, but with the marble and the grapes our backyard is going to be incredible. Hubby may even be able to use the computer comfortably out there and that is what I really want for him. I want to make a place of laughter, and food, music and conservation. That is the 3 year plan an edible landscape that takes into consideration the body and the soul, repurposing recycled materials to do it. With as many eco friendly solutions as I can think of.
The slugs are out of control, and I have snow fence so maybe I can figure out how to get rid of the slugs.....all decisions for another time.
cheers

karma is awesome

The 25 year old guy that robbed, raped and attacked my mom got beat up by his fellow inmates. Forgive me if this warms the little cockles of my heart and I do a little happy dance at the news. I am not so thrilled with the justice system.
Hubby came home with the newspaper and on the front page is a huge article on how Jesse Toews was beaten up in jail. His fellow inmates found out what he did and handed him is butt on a platter with a few teeth on the side. He is/was in the Edmonton Remand Centre awaiting a psychiatric assessment to say whether he is sane enough to stand trial, or if he goes to the hospital or to the prison. However he couldn't get to see the shrink before the inmates found out what kind of slime he is sooooooo they handed him his ass. teehee
So we found out via the newspaper not the court, cops, crown, or anyone else that this guy was going to appear in court on the 29th. We heard October 29 on the radio but it is actually September 29th so off to court I go tomorrow to look this person in the eye. The newspaper article that I read about this whole thing said something to the effect that due to cutbacks in health care spending he couldn't get this assessment and if he can't get this assessment he can't be tried. If he can't be tried we have to live through this nightmare longer and I don't want to.
I know that I believe Karma will get him in the end and the law of three lets me know that it will be three times good or three times bad. Karma has not let me down, lady bright karma has not let me down. I hope not to let the Lady and Lord down. I have to hope that I can fight for health care and can advocate for psychiatric beds and care and in a bizarre way hope that I help the man that right now I cannot forgive. If he is truly ill then he should have been locked up. If he isn't then I hope that karma bites him in the ass again.
That being said the previous cutbacks made to our Alberta healthcare system and mental health systems over the last 20 years with very little reinvestment when times were good. So there is not a lot out there for truly ill individuals or their families. There are also a lot of them out there that I would like to hit with a big stick, put them to work or in school and tell them to suck it up.
So if this is a good defence attorney I hope to know tomorrow. The thought that any other victim or family member has to run the risk of some one that is mentally ill attacking, raping and robbing their mother on a bright sunny summer's day. I want them locked up, they can stay there until they are no longer any danger to me or anyone else.
This talk of community group homes probably privately funded and owned means that these people are going to be living near me and my friends, neighbours and family. They will not be living near any of the politicians that is just not done. There will not be the kind of supervision, support and treatment these people need. When this policy was adopted in the US the numbers of homeless, and prison entries jumped. We are halfway there they started in the 1990's under Klein and now continues under Stelmach. Who is going to have to be killed before the privatization of stuff that should never be privatized is going to be stopped?

Boom-de-yada

The world really is a great and beautiful place. The dew drops on the nasturium leaves sparkle like perfect round prisms, the reds of the runner beans, the yellows of the sunflowers, and the massive tangle of the tomatoes. The greens and silvers of my herb garden and the jewel like colour of the jars of filled preserves on my shelves.
The potatoes need till at least the end of September and I am watering the bejeebers out of the last barrel so that I can increase the size of the top potatoes. I planted too late and will need to plant earlier next year, this will work and work well if I can figure it out for our climate.
My garden is still growing and I have covered the tomatoes with a greenhouse made of plastic. and it is so far holding. I have almost got the top layer of the firepit platform done and I love the way it is coming together. The next step will be the actual firepit and the base for the bake oven, I can`t wait for the first fire with all the sparkle off the rocks. I think this year I will plant crocuses, snow drops and some tulips back by Jay`s tree and Buddah. The cherry tree has produced so many cherries this year and I hope to have just enough left to make cherry jelly, and with crocus, etc under the blossoms in the spring.......
like the song says I love the whole world it really is a great and beautiful place Boom de yada.
Cheers

Hmmm

I think I might have come up with an idea. It could be a very cool idea. I don't know how to make it work. But I know it could work. Environmentally friendly even. I might have even found the one piece of machinery I need to put it all together. Hmmmmm I really am starting to like this idea.
How do you protect a name? If MacDonalds can trademark everything to do with mc and mac and all there must be a way to protect a name and an idea. Hmmmmm who would I ask I hate business people.....Crystal!! Crystal will know about the rules and the government should be able to help as well. Micro credit in most business peoples eyes but a lot of cash to me. Hmmmm I had better think this through, make plans, but first get that piece of equipment to start up. Hmmm I am going to have to sleep on this one and try and keep my big mouth shut.
Hmmmm

frost free days 2009

There was a frost warning for last night and there is another for tonight and it is only the 10th of September. There are hundreds of pounds of tomatoes out there, beans, peppers, basil and more tomatoes, fennel, tomatillos, onions, and carrots. I have chicory coming up for whitloof, some spinach, and some late cabbage seedlings that will tolerate the cold all going well. I don't want to lose these vegetables after raising them from seeds and working away at them all summer.
The greenhouse is made of medium weight poly, ducked taped together to form a single piece, weighted down with marble and I filled it with candles. I hope the heat from the flames will keep the temperature far enough above freezing to protect the tomatoes. I have one side that opens easily to vent the heat if it does get up there next week. The pumpkins are covered with floating row covers and plastic to protect them from the frost
I have nothing to lose and 4 to 6 weeks to gain on either end of the growing season.

cob oven

I love it when a plan comes together the way you want it to.....insert maniacal giggle here. I have holiday time and so does hubby, I have hauled enough marble to pretty much get it completed at least to the dome, I have design in my head and all the pieces to pull it all off, the form for the base of the bake oven.
It all started with the patio and now I am consumed with what can I do with it next. There are still a few spots that I really want to tweak like the corner by the tap is too black and the other spot is too choppy so I need to move them a bit and replace them.
The stone is beautiful, the base of the firepit is going to be beautiful. The white layer that is the one second from the top glitters in the sunlight, from the quartz crystals and mica flakes and then the black granite layer for the top with the streaks of quartz and burgundy flecks scattered about mixed with the deep almost black green with gold threads and jade green pieced together to form the top. The local stone guy identified my purple flecks as garnets, and the one piece of stone for under the firepit has what looks like ammolite in it which I hope will sparkle in fire light. I will pick up the 5 bags of mortar for the platform and hope that I have enough to do the beginning of the firepit, table, and back oven platform. I know that everyone says to use firebrick, but I have some great sheets of marble that I could even stack 2 together which would make it 2 1/2 inches thick that should prevent cracking. I have to make sure that they are at least 27 inches accross and I think 30 inches deep so the form is fairly hefty I don't know how high I am going to make the oven floor yet. I also have to figure out the chimney, door, ledges and shelves, but that will have to wait as I stack the stones. I cannot wait for the first fire. The hope is that the mica, quartz crystals, garnets, pyrates, and the beauty of the stone will shine through and sparkle in the flames.
The next step will be margaritas and mud. For that I need clay not great clay but clay, straw and sand. I need to figure out the recipe for cob. I will keep it tarped this year to prevent snow and rain off of it and put the marble top on next year, that should give it enough time to crack and be resealed and made ready for exposure to the elements. I would love to try and figure out how to make it really funky, ......a gargoyle, a candle holder, a mantle, a spit, a roof on the chimney made of stone...
Josh and I built his kendo sword bamboo pole practice target today. I think we will try to stack marble around the base as well as stomping down the fill as well. He looked so excited about it and was just going crazy on it with his bamboo kendo sword. So he seems excited and will probably spend more time in the yard with me which will give me some company and that will make my work more enjoyalbe.
I have been accused of not finishing up my projects....soooooo I will finish my projects while mom is here. I have the firepit and oven to do. The chair to recover and fix. The garden benches and flower boxes to build. Canning to be done. But I am on holidays and I want to build as much of my crystal cave, and earth oven as I have supplies for. I would love to build a fire in it before my holidays are done.
Jake wants dreads.

public health care vs private

I feel kinda perversely proud today. We have a lovely lady who is from Georgia up here visiting and she fell and broke her ankle. All her friends were in tonight visiting and they are all just lovely and they can't say enough about how great our little hospital is. They are so impressed at how nice our hospital is, how great they are being treated and just gushing. I have a country where we have universal health care and it works for all it's faults and for all the political rangling from Edmonton it works. It works well and we deserve to have it continue to work well. Public health care is looking better and better to the Georgia lady with the broken ankle.....now if only the politicians can leave well enough alone and not screw things up.
I am so proud of all the people I work with.

Fair Day tomorrow

Tomorrow is Fair Day for us and I can't wait. One day off with hubby and kids that make those summer holiday memories. That and watch them ride the midway till they want to puke. I love going around the livestock pens and watching the little 4h kids with there calves and goats. I want to look at all the displays of handicrafts and kitchen arts and see who won the blue ribbon and for what.
My garden is growing beautifuly and I am sure that I can get one more raised bed in with the ones that I built this year. I have started covering one of each of the flowers with little cheesecloth baglets to protect them from cross pollination so that I can save seed for next year. I will probably do the same thing with the lemon cucumbers as well and some one said that peppers are really promiscuous so I will toss a little cheesecloth on a couple of them to protect them. Next year I will be paying a lot more attention to beans, lentils, cucumbers and peppers so I will have to keep my eyes peeled for sources.
I think I might have found a source for heritage chicks next year that is not far out of town. I hope they are giving away native seeds at the fair like they have been everywhere else. I have a bunch of it that has all been giving to me at every public event, and parade for the last couple of months and I will be planting it in the fall into the new front beds.
Cheers

Canada Day

It's Canada Day and I had to work but managed to get a bit done in the yard. My 16 year old teen boy watered everything for me and weeded the raspberry hedge for me bless him....but he owes me some slave labour. He got a dread kit for doing well in school, passed his first diploma and so I bought it....10 hours of backcombing, waxing, scrunching, and dreading up his hair he owes me and I pretty much own him tomorrow so that the garden gets done. I want to make a couple of frames to finish off the tomatoes and I found a dozen more spiral stakes to stake the ones that I can't tie to the frames. Now to get the cucumbers up on frames...where is the time going?? I swear there is so much to do and it's July so there is always weeding to keep me occupied if I even think I might be getting a little bored.
The base for the adobe oven and spit/firepit is 2 layers high and I might just get the next level done on my days off. If the weather cooperates that is. If it doesn't and I can't work outside I have a family room that needs a bit of work well a lot of work two little boy sleepovers will do that to any basement. They tried to clean up I am sure I saw an attempt made but it is time to strip it out to the baseboards and get er done. LOL While I am down there I think I might try and make some decisions about paint and switching things around. There is an airtight wood stove down there and we just got permission to buck and split a cord or so for free. If it goes well
we may find another cord or two and pay for the cutting fees. Any bit of help on the winter power bill would help.
That being said it is the beginning of garage sale season and I just found the boys an air hockey game for like 5 bucks to I think I am going to turn it into something of a sports pub type idea with fitness area maybe even a dart board or a little wet bar. With the wood stove going it would be a really nice place to spend the evening. So I need to find a couple of comfy chairs and get a couple that I have recovered. Definitely need to pull it all apart and do the toss, freecycle, store, put away where it belongs and keep piles. See where I am for what and decide on what I want to find, fix and figure.

Frost Willow Urban Farm

I realize that this little plan of mine will probably only effect me and mine but the thought that I might just possibly piss a few people in high places off...well it is just too much to resist. I wasn't planning on becoming an environmental activist but I think I am and have and now I think I am ready to make some noise. Calculated, responsible, solidly on the side of right type noise that gets things just a little changed sometimes a lot of changed.
It all started a little while ago when I heard about the 100 mile diet, then there was the documentaries The 11th hour, The Inconvenient Truth, Who killed the electric car?, The Take, Michael Moore's films and that sort of cleared the fog and made me think. So I decided to start after the low hanging fruit compact lights, line drying our clothes, turn down the hot water tank, wrap the hot water tank and pipes, drive less, use cloth bags at the store, take my bottles back, recycle, repair rather than replace and all of that sort of stuff. It's been fun, and it has been interesting, but now we're moving up to the middle fruit and I still have to keep up the low hanging fruit and do those things better.

So this year I have put in 5 raised vegetable beds and put newspapers 5-10 layers thick between them to kill off the grass with about 6 inches of straw on top. I have also planted a corn block back by the compost heap. We have planted 4 apple trees, 2 currants, 1 cherry tree, 2 gooseberries, six grapevines and perenial herbs and vegetables. We have planted heirloom seeds multiple varieties of cucumbers beans and tomatoes, then just single varieties of corn, peas, beets, carrots, onions, spinach and pumpkins. I have planted Strawberry Spinach and Asparagus Peas which both date back to the 1700's, corn salad, sorrel, both of which are perenials, and artichokes. I am trying to grow artichokes in Alberta am I nuts!!?? I have an orange tree and a lime tree in pots on the front step, and potatoes growing in barrels that I recycled from the hospital laundry.
I hope this works I am also planting the early potatoes into the straw this weekend, another new thing to try but which would open a lot of territory for planting spuds next year.
Speaking of weekend projects Arhgggg this cold has put everything back at least 2 weeks and I have a ton of staking and trainning to do. The currants have to be moved to the front yard onto either side of the walkway, the bed accross the back needs to get weeded brutally so that I can plant some of the herbs and natives and other perrenials so that I can fill in with them next year.
I also am going to finish the patio once and for all and get at least a couple of layers of stone down and mortared into place. I need to get the frames into place and the bean poles have to, have to be put into place cause when they start to grow oh boy will they grow. I will have to wire the pole cross pieces into place and check the hedge trimmings to see if I still need any of the heavier pieces. I might try to take out the gate as well and move the lilac before it gets any bigger it is a nice shape to plant as a garden gate post. That will leave room for the wildflower and grasses along the fenceline the rye and joe pye will grow high enough to provide privacy the raspberries need to be edged off and then the weeding can begin. I have to turn the compost as well and give it a good water..water Friday, turn Saturday and water again. Better water the corn block as well and give it another planting that will be the bed that gets the compost dressing out of all the summer gardens. I also have some more newspaper to put down I think along the fence and across the garden, the topsoil under the tarp I better use up for the Yukon Gold potatoes in the straw and then put that tarp into the camping gear.
I should measure that floating row cover just to see how much I will need to build a frost house and seriously consider it so that I can add some real time to our growing season. I just need to be able to stand up inside in order to work and put candles down or trim oil lamps or whatever it takes. I probably only need to enclose oh all of it!! I have the rain barrels but the water is not very nice and I am going to use it to wash off the patio cause the roof wasn't rinsed yet.
It is so dry. Less than an inch in like a month I need to get the front one on PDQ as well to gather that water but the barrels need to be washed out!
It would be nice to find the time to make the moss mortar but I don't know it is so dry and I will have to fix the prime barrel it is still leaking darn it all. I would really like to figure out a better filtering system for the rainbarrels the idea itself is sound it is just the tweaking now that is making me a bit nutty. It is worth the present 200 gallons of water storage and if it gets dry the way Jay said it would get dry I will probably want more and they're recycled from our laundry.
Well I had better close this for now since I have to get up with the boys in the morning and then will have a busy day as I can see from the list and the plan for this first summer of building the garden. I will be eating organic, I will listen to bird song, I will plant wildflowers and count bees, I will make cherry jelly from cherries off my own tree.
cheers.