independence Days- week 18

It's that time again.  Mondays and IDC updates seem to come around so quickly.  It's been a busy week here, what with garden preps, house preps and all the usual craziness of my life.

1.  Plant something-  No,  I was planning to plant peas this last weekend but we were predicted to have snow (which mostly missed us- YES!).  I did manage to get all my little seedlings transplanted.  I have the flat that is going to Roger and a few things for my Mom but mostly they're for us.  I have no idea how things will produce at the new place and last year was such a bust in the garden that I've gone overboard.  I've got 54 tomato plants (8 varieties) 20 peppers (7 varieties plus I'll get some Peter peppers from Roger), eggplant and tomatillos.  My broccoli needs to get in the ground soon as well.  I'm hoping to head out to Roger's on Wednesday evening to plant my peas and chard.  My All-Blue potatoes arrived today as well so I'll need to dig a trench for them as well-  Oosh!  It's a good thing I've been doing my back strengthening exercises!

2.  Harvest something- No

3.  Preserve something- No

4.  Store something- hmmm- I don't think so.  I'm trying to not pick up too much extra these days since it will just have to be moved eventually.

5.  Manage reserves- ate almost entirely from stores except for milk, cheese, bread and eggs.

6. Cook something new- no.  But I did try some new things!  Sunday afternoon at the local community Rec Center there was a Slavic Bazaar. I was a bit disappointed that there were no crafts to buy but they did have live music, a display from the Czech Museum in Cedar Rapids and lots of food!- for free!!!  YUM

7.  Prep something-  Um. no- we're back into negotiations with the owners of the property about paying for the repairs to the septic and well ( we found out the well doesn't meet code requirements either) so we'll hear back from them soon.  

8.  Reduce waste- Nothing more than the usual.  

9.  Learn a new skill- have done more research into well and septic system code requirements this week than I would have liked- but it's always good to be knowledgeable in these situations.  I need to figure out what to do with my potatoes now as well.  We've only tried them once before so we'll se how they go.

10. Work on community food security- not much here.  The children were playing around on Free Rice this afternoon  J14 was working on German vocabulary and K-9 was doing multiplication.  It's quite a great deal,  for every question they answer correctly the corporate sponsors donate 10 grains of rice.  They did about 3500 grains of rice today.  I11 said their teacher has had them use it in school as well.  J14 was talking about counting out how much 1000 grains of rice actually was. Maybe a task for a rainy day.

11. Regenerate what is lost- I never seem to know what to do with this one.  I did have a great chat with my Mom on Thursday afternoon while I waited with her for my Dad to get a cardiac MRI.  We'll be going down Sunday morning to spend Easter with them and I hope to check out the stash of canning jars she thinks are in one of the old grain bins.  I also need to make sure she is willing to teach me about pickling this summer.

12.  Behavior change- Oh, the procrastination bug has been biting!  I took me forever to get my student's final evaluation copied and mailed off to his academic supervisor last week and today I managed to put off calling an outpatient to schedule an appointment.  I also need to call my doctor to schedule my annual appointment with her.  I've had my last refill of my thyroid meds and she will want to do lab work before she writes me another year's worth of prescription.

I don't know about this last week.  I feel I spent a lot of time transplanting little plants but let a lot of other things slide.  Of course,  I had several weeks worth of housework and laundry to catch up on so that took much of the weekend.  I am just so anxious to get this house mess sorted out and get on with it I can hardly stand it! I just want to be there and get my hands dirty making it ours.