Finding Abundance

I went to a class sponsored by Backyard Abundance today. This is a local group advocating permaculture and local foods. It was an inspiring morning. Not much new information for me but it did motivate me to work more on our permaculture plan for the property.

Now I'm really pumped to attend the two day workshop in March on landscape design. This is the first in a series of classes that they are providing that will eventually lead to a nationally recognized certificate in permaculture design. I'm going to have to save my pennies.

I'd post more... but we're still celebrating the signed offer for the house and I've had more wine than I am able to easily type with.....

Have a good rest of your weekend.

Ooo, a chance to win!!

Penny over at All Natural Mama is hosting a giveaway. A cast iron skillet!!! Can you believe that!? What a sweet deal. I really hope I win. I love, love, love cast iron. And I only have three! I have one large (12 inch), one medium (8 inch) and one small (4 inch). Would you believe that the small one gets the most use? It's just the right size for cooking a single egg.

In house news- we have no news. We haven't had a call from our realtor so either he is really busy or the buyers let the deadline pass without accepting the counteroffer. I just wish I knew one way or the other.

Updated just minutes after posting!!!

Heard from our realtor. They signed!!!! And they now have our permission to show the house to perspective renters and if they can get it rented they will close before April 1.

Darn it, we don't even have any champagne!

Another offer

Woo Hoo. We have another offer on the house in town. Another property investment group. Again they offered low but our realtor called theirs right away and told them that we won't go for less than $..... Their agent called them and they said OK, send the counter offer. So that is off to them this evening. They have until 3:00 Friday afternoon to take it or not. I was rather surprised, they are offering a CASH sale. Eeek. Who has that kind of money just lying around!?? Definitely not me. The downside is that they don't want to close until April 1 (not exactly an auspicious day) But at this point, I'll take a firm offer. And, we've lived with our current financial situation for about 10 months already, we can do this for another two. Of course, our financial cushion is much, much flatter than it was a year ago- but there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Now, think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts.....

Looking up

Things are looking up on the home front. V is feeling a bit better already- after only 2 days of antibiotics. The sun was shining this afternoon. And, when V and I went to the house in town to shovel the walks (we had about an inch and a half of snow yesterday- with wind!!) there were fresh footprints in the snow. Someone had been by to look at the house. And, we had a call from our realtor. There are 4 showings scheduled between now and the end of the week. Hurrah! Hopefully something will come through for us. This makes me even more glad we turned down that offer we had over the weekend. Something better is in store- I can just feel it (either that or it's the warm cat on my lap!).

We had a brief meeting at work today to clarify schedules. Our new therapist started with us this week (I had done some orientation with her a week or so ago) so assignments are being shuffled. I'm actually ending up being the "jack (or jill) of all trades" I'm doing lots of coverage when people are off or have conflicts. And I'm picking up most of the cognitive evaluations that we do for placement purposes. It's a jumble of stuff and rarely the same thing every day but it won't be dull, that's for sure! At least I have a set schedule of group coverage so I know somewhat of what I'll be doing in a day.

I need to sit down with my calendar and start plotting out planting dates for things. Unfortunately, the weekend when I would probably be setting things out in the garden we will be out of town for my niece's wedding in Colorado. Maybe I can schedule a few days off after we get back to plant and recover from the wedding. Of course, looking at all the ice and snow out there, it's hard to believe that it will ever warm up. It's been forever since I've seen the grass- even cold and brown!

Independence Days, long overdue

It's been a long while since I posted an Independence Days update. Of course, we are in the dark days of winter so the production aspect is absent. But, here goes the update:

1. Plant something- Yes, I actually did. I planted some chive seeds in a little pot on the kitchen windowsill. I saved some seeds last year from our chives in town and while I could transplant some from there, I thought I'd try to to start some from seed. I also picked up some herb seeds (see the last post) and hope to get the rest ordered soon. I also have figured out where I will do my seed starting this year. I don't have the set up I have used in past years and now I have cats to contend with. I'll do a post on the seed starting cupboard when I get it up and running- I'd hate to spoil the surprise.

2. Harvest something- Nope, only snow and ice. And we've got plenty of both that I'd be willing to share with anyone who feels deprived.

3. Preserve something- not yet. I got a good deal on some organic oranges so we have been saving the peels and will make candied orange peel. I also need to process some apples from the fridge but I'll need to see when I have time to do that.

4. Waste Not- Um, just the usual. We have been really good at remembering to take the cloth bags to the store lately. I did resort to getting little packets of hot chocolate mix for the sledding party the other weekend so that contributed to extra waste around here.

5. Want Not- Hit the sales at the store recently and got some extra dog food and toilet paper- all the things that make the world go around. V picked another 50 lbs of ice melt/rock salt today. Our entire driveway is a skating rink so I'm sure that won't last long.

6. Community food systems- While I haven't actually done this- I'm planning to go to a series of events sponsored by a local organization that promotes local foods and permaculture. 7. Eat the food- Hm, let's see. There was a lovely beef veggie soup of local ingredients, all from stores. Except for milk, eggs and citrus fruit/juice. We've been pretty self sufficient.

It's been a while since I made yogurt but I may be trying that out again in the near future. V is now on his third course of antibiotics trying to kick a sinus infection. He's now on a 2 week course of antibiotics (Levaquin) that are almost guaranteed to shred his guts, hence the yogurt. Hopefully this round will do the trick though. He's been fighting this since just before the start of the year and a month of living with him living with the off and on "ice pick through the face" pain is getting really old. And of course, all three times he has been to the doctor I have had to coerce him to go... sigh... men.

Impulse buy?

V and I made a trip out to the grocery store this afternoon. They were having a good sale on a few things today only in honor of their 80th anniversary. While we were out and in that part of town we stopped at a local garden center to check out their seeds. I knew that they carried seeds from Seed Savers Exchange and wanted to see what they had.

Only a few....

I picked up a package of the Black Sea Man tomatoes. They are the one new tomato I want to try this year. I was thinking about just trying to get a plant when we make our trip to Decorah this spring but I was worried that they wouldn't have any. This way I can share some plants or seeds with others. I just think they look so cool.

I also got some seeds from Botanical Interests out of Colorado. I got some Clary Sage and Summer Savory for the herb spiral and a mix of heirloom varieties of basil (cinnamon, genovese, lemon, lime, mammoth and purple) that should be fun.

The true impulse buy was a pack of hollyhock seeds. An heirloom variety called The Watchman. They evidently are such a dark purple that they look black. And the package says that the blossoms are edible. I guess I didn't realize that hollyhocks were edible. But black flowers looked so fun.

I still need to pick up a few more herbs. Many of the perennials we are planning to pick up as plants this spring since I know that several places here in town carry locally grown herb starts.

Some of the more obscure things I want I'm likely going to have to order. I will need to check out to see if Botanical Interests has a website since it looked like they have good stuff.

Recitals and such

J15 had her violin recital this afternoon. She is glad to finally have it over. My parents drove up to hear her play. J15 played second to last of a group of 17 students. The children ranged in age from a little boy probably 5 or 6 to J15 and one of her friends who were, I think, the oldest. It is kind of fun to have the mix of beginners and more experienced students.

Waiting before the recital.

Isn't she pretty? Of course, I may be just a bit prejudiced about that. Her violin is a family heirloom on V's side of the family. It was her great, great grandfather's, built in the early 1800s and was supposedly, one of the first in the state of Minnesota long ago. I did shoot video of her performance that I may try to post later. It's too long for blogger to accept and I don't feel like editing it tonight.

I12 baked the cookies that we took for the reception after the recital. He is doing a cooking unit in school and has to prepare three different dishes. Each recipe has to have at least 3 ingredients that need measured and he has to write out the recipe and detail what he did and what he had help with. I was thinking about this assignment, thinking that it wasn't really that difficult but then I thought about all those people out there who don't cook. (oh, and butter doesn't count as a measured ingredient- probably because you just cut it off the stick) Most box mixes don't have 3 or more measured ingredients. He's had the assignment for only a week and is already finished with it and it isn't due until mid February. But then, he likes to cook.

We did hear back from our realtor this morning. We had asked the prospective buyers to change the closing date back to the one they had originally proposed but with the new, agreed upon price. They decided to walk out and keep looking. I'm not sure what was on their agenda but now we are once again without buyers for the house. But, really, I'm not that worried about it. There was something too fishy about this offer that made me a bit uncomfortable. Like I said in a previous post, a new add hit the newspaper yesterday and the house hunting 'season' here is just beginning.

It is raining here today- and almost 40 degrees!!! Of course, with as much snow and ice as we have on the ground, it is a slippery mess out there. I still need to finalize my seed order. I don't think I'm even going to be ordering any veggies- I've already got plenty of seeds but I do need to order my herbs. And the cherry tree that we want- and a couple more blueberries.

I did run across a bit in the paper about a series of programs called "Seeds of Sustainability" sponsored by Backyard Abundance, a local organization. I have seen information on their organization for a while but have never been able to attend any of the events they have sponsored because of conflicts. But I think I'm going to try to go to some of them this year. They are planning a two day workshop in March about permaculture landscaping. It costs $110 but may be worth it. I'm going to try to go to the event next Saturday. It's called 'Find Abundance in Growing Food'. I'm not new to growing my own food but I'd really like to meet some of the people in this organization. I've been feeling the need for more local involvement and this could be the way to go. They are also going to be sponsoring a seed swap on March 6 that could be fun. That is K9's birthday but hopefully I can sneak away for an hour to do a swap or two.