Spring has to be close doesn’t it?
Spring needs to get here. I realize we’ll probably get more snow, and it is Ohio, so that’s ok, but…I’m ready for spring. Driving home today the spring green grass and the winter wheat looked odd with snow on it.
Even though the weather isn’t ready outside, it is time to plant seeds if you are going to start them indoors. I have tried doing this many times, and they always get leggy and are unhealthy plants.
This year I read up before I planted. I read that seedlings need 12-16 hours of light to grow strong. The reason that they get leggy is to reach for light. This makes sense and I figured I’d try it, it wouldn’t be that much of an investment.
I bought a $12 fluorescent shop light and hung it a few inches above where the top of my seed tray would be. I planted seeds and put the plastic lid on the seed tray and put it in the kitchen window. When the first seeds sprouted, I put the tray under the light. I turn the light on when I get up around 6am and I turn it off between 7 and 8 at night.
I am amazed that I went years without figuring this out. You can see the seedlings in the background are short and they’ve been sprouted for over a week. They are getting thicker rather than taller. Those are multicolor peppers. The few seedlings in the front are tomatoes-they sprouted this morning-no joke. Not in the picture there are some cilantro seedlings that have sprouted.
In a couple weeks when it is time to plant vining plants like cucumbers and squash, I am going to get another light. I will have healthy plants that the birds won’t bother!
Dad and I (mostly dad) pruned the apple tree this weekend. Right now it looks really bare, but once it gets leaves it will look nice. When I moved in there were two pine trees right up against it, so for years the apple tree had to grow up, east or west. In short, it was uneven and unhealthy. I also discovered that one fork of it is rotten down the center…the one leaning over the privacy fence. Anyway, big job, but it is done now. Plus Gurney is happy because until all the branches are cut down for burning or smoking, the birds are all at eye level. Bird dog heaven!
Spark Space
Yesterday I was at an all day meeting in Columbus, Ohio. We were at a place called Spark Space. It is a meeting space in downtown Columbus with funky meeting rooms.
That is the room we were in. It’s called ‘The Think Tank’. Sadly, you cannot get inside the tank. I have looked at those striped chairs often at Ikea, but have always wondered about how comfortable they are-I must say they are pretty comfortable.
They have toys all over the place. Our room had mostly Mr. Potato Heads. It also had a little ski ball type game and a couple soccer balls.
They provide snacks (that’s what their website says-this included muffins, chips, almonds, candy, granola bars, fruit, yogurt, about any kind of drink you could want and all kinds of other stuff).
The rooms are also filled with ‘office’ supplies. There are white boards, a projector, a dvd player, pads of paper, markers, pens, sticky notes, big pads of paper on easels, paper clips, etc.
This is a really neat business idea, and all of the rooms seemed to be occupied yesterday. We were there from 9am to 5:30pm. That part of Columbus is also nice. It is right across from Nationwide arena and that whole area is upscale and not run down.
If you ever need a meeting space I’d suggest looking in to this.
New Year, New Goals
I’ve had a lot of trouble coming up with new goals for this year, and I normally don’t.
But here goes…
•150 Projects-last year I only made it to 119. Same rules as last year, just less this time. I think if I didn’t own a house, 300 would be no problem at all, but I do. (I am up to four so far this year.)
•To design the vegetable garden in such a way that it is more efficient and provides more for winter as well as for fresh summer eating. I would like to try and grow some new things like carrots and I want to make a mini greenhouse for starting seeds. Also there will be zinnias this year, even if I have to tie the dog up. (I don’t know if I ever wrote about that. I planted zinnias three times last year, and they’d sprout, then Gurney would dig them up.)
•Get the kitchen and bathroom done-these are both on their way to be done it’s just taking a long time. There is most of a kitchen ceiling now though!
•No pop for a year. This really shouldn’t be a problem for me. I have pop maybe once a month, but I just want to prove to myself that I can do without.
•Get my new etsy store ‘Red Fox Gifts’ up and running and hopefully making money.
I could make a whole other list of things I want to finish or fix on the house this year, but they really aren’t something I have a ‘goal’ of getting done, they just happen when they happen. Things like filling in the cracks of the foundation with mortar or to finish painting the woodwork.
Another thing I have done this year, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it…. Time Warner is coming to hook up cable this week. Not just basic cable either, digital cable…I called for basic, but I am easily swayed. There is a tv in my living room-there hasn’t been one for two years. It doesn’t look as out of place as I pictured it. Still…television…
There are some other things I’d like to do, but I don’t know if they will happen. For example-I want to knit a sweater. I’ve never knit a sweater and I think it would be a good learning experience. I’d also like to learn to use the spinning wheel.
So here’s to a new and better year.
Where I’ve Been
This is what my kitchen looked like when I moved in:
This is what my kitchen looks like now:
What the kitchen looked like in between those pictures was a really big mess. I found many things I didn’t want to find like a wall full of coal (literally, there was a pile a foot high on the floor and dust on -everything-). When one of the ceilings came down it brought a fully intact rat skeleton with it (interesting and gross at the same time). On top of the coal dust, when the water heater came out one of the lines got cut before the water was off, so there was wet coal dust everywhere.
It has been an experience, but it is starting to look like a kitchen again. My stove and fridge aren’t that old, but I bought a new vent hood/microwave and a dishwasher. I’ve never had a dishwasher and I am quite excited about that.
So maybe soon my kitchen will be a kitchen and my garage will look a lot less like a Lowe’s store.
It’s about that time to reflect on how I did on my goals.
- 300 projects-I didn’t come close. In years past (before I owned a house) this would’ve been cake. Currently I am at 99 and half finished with 100. I also have more Christmas gifts to make, but I will not reach 150, let alone 300.
- Eat Healthier-I eat out less, and most of the year I did very well. I lost around 10 lbs. But with this kitchen project, there is nothing healthy in my house to eat.
- Keep a daily journal-I did this for about a month, but I found it useless. I either do the same things every day or just wrote about how I procrastinated about doing something. What I have done though is kept a notebook of things that is a record of what I am thinking about or working on. It lists all kinds of things (and I’m anal, so it has an index)…it has shopping lists, completed projects, unfinished projects, things I want to look up etc. I carry it with me almost all of the time.
- Write more letters-I sort of did this. I have written letters, but I have sent out packages to people as well.
Cheep!
So…
I got eight of these:
Then I made the mistake of calling the feed store and ended up with one of these:
And now I have a total of nine of these:
“The Plan” was to keep three for egg layers…the rest would be butchered for meat. Mom said I wouldn’t be able to do it and she’s right. (See? I admit that.) I cannot keep all nine though. I’m standing by that…really.
I think two are roosters. In the last picture it’s the one with its head up the highest (red in color) and the black one in the very front. They cannot stay no matter what.
That would leave seven. In theory I could have seven, but I don’t think I want seven. As I decide to keep them ‘for sure’ they get names. The pale yellow one is Lucille. The black and white one to the far left is Cora. I know the youngest one (in the middle picture) is staying, and she has attitude. She is two weeks younger than the rest, but she can definitely hold her own. She is an easter egger-she should lay blue or green eggs. I haven’t decided on a name for her yet. One of the rhode island red hens likes her belly scratched, but I haven’t named her yet either.
It has been an experience having baby chicks around. I’m ready for them to get out of the house though…but I have another month of them being inside. I do enjoy them a lot though.
A New Year
I’m sitting in my living room drinking a hot cup of tea, with the Christmas lights on and a candle burning in the fireplace. It is all quiet except for the furnace running and the occasional jingling of Gurney’s tags.
I should be cleaning, but I’m just sitting here.
I’m not big on New Year’s Resolutions because I tend to break them quite efficiently and quickly, but I do like to set goals and try to keep them.
This year:
- To create 300 ‘projects’. Since buying this house I’ve found that I work on the house and rarely do anything creative. There are rules that go along with this. A project has to be something creative, so it can’t be something like painting the walls or remodeling the bathroom…no ‘renovating the house projects’ count. Some cooking can count such as fancy cakes-baking cookies on a whim does not count. When making multiples of things, like mini food, I can count them each if I choose to (and I’m sure I will become desperate and choose to). All rules are at my discretion and subject to change.
- To keep a daily journal. I have always thought this was a good idea, and yes, I could do that here if I chose, but some things just shouldn’t be broadcast to the world-contrary to some of the things I read on facebook every day. So instead I printed out an additional copy of the planner I will be using at work. It is one page a day, lined, with the date at the top.
- To eat healthier. I am not going to say lose weight, exercise more, etc. I know I should do those things and occasionally I do start exercising more, but I know from experience if I watch what I eat, I will lose weight. I find that lately I eat out way too much though. I need to start planning ahead for a lunch at work that won’t make going out so tempting. In the past couple years I have cut out aspartame from my diet entirely and high fructose corn syrup almost entirely.
- To write more letters-real letters. I know some people think it is silly when you could write an email or even instant message instantaneously. There’s just something about a letter you receive in your mailbox on actual paper.
I think four goals is a good start.
I’m convinced that 2010 will be a happier year and a productive year for me…so here’s hoping.
Nesting
I’ve been in a nesting mood lately. I’ve been finishing up projects and starting new ones. I’ve been in the mood to cook and bake.
This is my favorite project that I’ve finished lately. The fabrics are all pink and many have pink ribbons as well for breast cancer awareness. My grandmother died when I was eleven from breast cancer and that has had a big effect on my life-though probably not as much as it should.
Today dad and I are going to fix some holes in the house. There is one in the kitchen where the electric comes into the house. In the craft room the floor boards along one wall are just gone-when I ripped up the carpet in there, you could see that there had been water damage, but the floor was never fixed. Those two things weren’t a huge issue when it was warm, but it is thirty three degrees right now. I’m also going to have him take the air conditioner out of the window. Finally if we get to it, we might insulate and drywall the utility room. There is so much to be done to this house, and I can picture it being great, but I don’t have the time or the money to do it all now.
Lack of motivation.
This weekend was a lazy weekend. I really don’t have time to be lazy, but I could not find the motivation to do much of anything.
The kitchen is clean and the laundry is done, that’s something. Right? (It doesn’t seem like much if you would’ve seen my weekend ‘To Do’ list.)
Mom and Dad went to the camper this weekend, so anything I could’ve done on the house had to be something I could do myself. Saturday I could’ve painted, but I didn’t. Today it rained on and off. Tomorrow I am working. Ah well.
I have been working on this piece of embroidery for a friend, and I’m really ready to be done with it. He wanted a patch and I wanted to practice satin stitching-but I’m all practiced out. The holidays I decorate for are fast approaching and crafting holiday things is so much more appealing. I think one more week and I’ll have it done if I work at it. Here it is in progress:
Totally not my style, but he also seems totally thrilled with it. The black pen lines are where I traced it, the red pen lines are where I have corrected my tracing. A couple places like on the teeth, you can see a single stitch…I used that as a way to move from one area to another without knotting off and starting again. The eyes and very outer outline will be in black thread with a metallic blue mixed in. The teeth, the tear drop at the top and the circle below it will be gold metallic thread. Everything else left to fill in will either be light or dark blue. It is 4.5 inches tall. Lots of fiddly little lines…
After I finish that I am not sure what I will work on. I have quite a few projects in mind-but house things need done and holiday gifts need made.
I am so ready for Christmas. I have said that to Mom a couple times, but she says she is not. I want to get away from the whole lots of gift giving and that being the ‘point’ of the holiday. I want to decorate and bake and spend time with my family…gifts…eh. Half the time when someone asks me what I want, I can’t tell them. Generally if I want something a. I will buy it myself; b. I am too cheap to buy it myself nor do I want anyone else to buy it for me; or c. I will figure out how to make it. Mom has also wanted to know what I want for my birthday…I don’t know the answer to that either.
And it is late so I’m off to bed.
Moss Update
Today it just looks like nasty mold, I am going to get it out of there and hope it doesn’t pop up again.
Als0-hackers really need to find something more productive to do. While I am sure they are very smart people, my ftp site at work is not a good storage solution for German dubbed movies.
And I made a new header, it doesn’t link back to my homepage, but I’m not in the mood to read php and css tonight to fix that and the blue font color. Tomorrow maybe? Maybe this weekend? I also need to get Mom’s genealogy site going and Dad’s home health care blog started…but alas, there’s never a good time.
Growing Things
I put together a small terrarium yesterday with a glass jar from a candle that was rectangle shaped.
I added dirt and moss and apparently something else:
I don’t know what that is, but it doesn’t belong in my terrarium-as neat as it does look.
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