Wanting to become self sufficient...

We want to become self sufficient as far as fresh vegetables this summer.  Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.  We have a nice lot here in the country and we have two farms down from us that will provide us with horse and cow manure for fertilizers.  We plan on renting or borrowing a tiller to get our garden ready to plant in the early summer.  They say not to plant until after the first full moon in June, or at least that's what I remember them saying.. [whoever "they" are.]  If anyone knows of anything different let me know.

I have to know if I'll be consistent in maintaining the garden before we invest in a tiller.  Would hate to pay $200.00 for one only to not use it after the first year.  If anyone has ideas on what we should plant let me know.  I'd like to have one or two tomato plants, some carrots, maybe zuccini, we could try broccoli [I remember growing broccoli years ago and how delicious it was right out of the garden] and plan on planting some herbs.  Any suggestions?  I guess it's best to plant what we would like to eat because, after all, it will be us eating it.. Ron was saying it would be a shame to plant a garden and let it go to waste but I say if it only costs for a few packets of seeds and my time and effort and we only get a few meals out of it then it will be worth it.  [Plus my sister Callie is giving me some seeds so it probably will cost us nothing the first year].  I will be on the lookout for bottling recipes in the fall to preserve the produce to make it last through the winter.

You win some.. you lose some..

Being that we had such luck with the pot roast the other day we decided to make a ham and scalloped potatoes last night.. that was a complete flop.  The potatoes never did completely cook and the ham was so so.  I decided to take the left over ham and make a barley and dried peas, etc and ham soup.  The recipe I have makes a ton of the stuff so I'm hoping it turns out well and we can freeze some of it for later.

If you're out there...

I see from the map thingy at the side [I have two actually because I'm an overachiever] that I have been having a lot of hits on my blog.  If you drop in please leave a comment so that I know that people are still interested in my ramblings, even if it's just to say, Hi!   I'm hoping that Blogger hasn't put my account to where I have to approve comments because I'm basically too lazy.. lol.

My Belly is Happy

We had a very delicious meal this evening.  We slow cooked a roast of beef in the slow cooker for most of the day, had mashed potatoes with gravy  and green beans... mmmm.  It was the best roast of beef that I've had in a long time.

Our New Kitten

We have a new member of our household, a kitten named Molly.  She's energetic, wily, strong-willed and in love with our dog, Tinka.  What more could you ask for?  Here she is acting as a draft stop for the door.. Ron made her a scratching post house that she loves to go into when Tinka gets too rough.  And She's showing off her monkey hands techniques with the empty packet of sweetener that Ron shares with her every morning.  The last photos is of pretty poor quality but it's Molly and Tinka making all lovey dovey.

Our Crazy Weather

Today was a gorgeous day.  I couldn't believe how warm it was.  Yesterday was just as gorgeous once the day got going.  Both days I worked on my flower beds [which seemed like a good idea when they were created but have proven to be a pain to maintain] I just have one more flower bed to go and that one is the most difficult because it's on a slant and so I can't really use my seat to work in it like I can the other flower beds.

My bum arm and sore back have caused the task to be more of a pain than necessary so it's slow going especially on one half of the front yard.  And I'm sure I'll be paying for it in the days to come.  But it had to be done and now was the day to do it.

This summer I'm considering putting in a vegetable garden, just a small one.  We were thinking of borrowing a neighbour's tiller to get the soil ready.  We need to see if I'm going to stick with it before we consider investing in a tiller of our own.  I'm all excited about it now but we'll see once the real work on it starts this summer.  Being retired hopefully will keep my motivated.