A Picture is Worth a 1,000 words.

Here is my picture.  The jewel of our garden and I can't even eat them.  ALLERGIC.

Enjoy. 

Update for this year's projects.

The 5 week project that turned into 3 months........

Well, I promised pictures of the kitchen remodel.  Here are the before and after pics.

That wall with the cabinets on one side and the china cabinet on the other is gone.  That was scary.  It started making a lot of noises but the house is still standing. 

I confess, we still need to caulk the baseboards and do some touch up painting.  I swear, every time somebody did anything, I had to repaint.  Some places have 3-4 coats already.  I never covered up my kids' doopers on the walls that much!  :)  Come to think of it, they didn't have doopers. H


Now that it's all said and done (wonder where that phrase came from), I can't picture it any other way.  I don't even regret painting the pantry tangerine orange and I love my Mason Jar light in the pantry.  

This is the after on the fire place.  No idea where the before picture is.  What is black now was this glossy dove grey porcelain tile.  The fireplace surround is approx. 120 years old and Jonathan and I built the hearth.  It is now painted to match.

Shout out to BECKY, thanks for finding the fireplace surround.

These projects have kept us from really aggressively gardening this year.  We only have potatoes, Egyptian onions, and three kinds of tomatoes this year.  I may or may not plant other things.

We have an actual plan for converting the backyard to ag but since we will have to terrace, it will be a 5 year plan.

My other project for the summer is sorting out the loom room.  Everything that we didn't know where to put or what to do with ended up on the loom room.  Now I have some weaving that I need to do, I've got to have room to do it.  Every house needs at least 1 loom.  At one point, I had 6.  I've cut back a little and just have 4 now.  2 with projects and 2 without.

HAPPY TRAILS.........   

Silence......

Yes, I've been quiet for some time now.  Not that I didn't have a "voice", I just chose not to use it.  

Urban Farming 1.0 was an unmitigated disaster.  Things I learned from it - lots of DON'Ts.  

• Don't plant too many seedlings in a space - those spacing recommendations are there for a reason - USE THEM.
• Don't skimp on water, especially with potatoes.  If you're planting in potato sacks, water more than you think you need.
• Don't be too ambitious.  Ambition is a great thing but start small, 1 or 2 varieties - not 20 or more.
• Don't plant in one of those upside down planters.  They @&%*#.  The tomatoes didn't like them but the Serrano peppers did okay.  Well - at least they didn't die.  

Things we did right -  actually, the Serrano peppers and the okra.  We had enough of both to pickle them.  

Burning question - why doesn't my compost, well, um....., actually compost?

Urban Farming 2.0 will be much better.  So far, the only things growing are my Egyptian Walking  Onions.  These are upside down onions.  The onion is actually the fruit at the top.  When they get heavy, they drupe down and the onion touches the ground and starts growing roots, then sprouting out again.  Ta-da, they "walk" around the garden.

Things Chateau Willow (yes, our house has a name) has done since the spring/early summer fiasco.  Jonathan's little brother Scott died from AML (a kind of leukemia).  He had a wonderful spirit and it was sad to lose him so young.   There was an upside to that, we got to know Adrian and Emily better (Jonathan's siblings that were really little when we got married).  That has been a gift that we never would have pursued.  We sought the services of a great landscape designer and actually have a "5 year plan" to transform the backyard into a real urban farm.  

Then, someone felt the urgent need to do a 1st floor remodel.   NOTE TO SELF:  Never start an extensive remodel project the Friday after Thanksgiving and expect it to be finished by New Years.  We tore up 4 different kinds of flooring, ripped out a wall and built a walk-in pantry plus new cabinets, a farmhouse sink and granite.  Of course, we're to the end of January and still haven't finished the backsplash or the baseboards.   If we ever get an "after" picture, I'll post both before and after pics.

Hope all finds you well and blessing to you for the future.