Only two days ...

Only two days before we are out of here.  Can hardly believe it.  It snuck up on us really fast!!  Scott picked up the truck today and we have most of the backyard packed up and pretty much of the shed.  We hope to get the back two bedrooms packed which won't leave a lot to pack up tomorrow.  But most of the stuff to pack tomorrow is the big furniture like the living room furniture and the bird cages etc. But one more step to leaving the city gal behind!! I have had a break now so I need to get off my duff and start some more packing!!  Peace out!!

Wow!! Not long now!!

Not long now.  Count down is down to less than a week left! We have found out one fantastic thing though.  We are getting to go to a much larger house and even more important, more land!!  Wahooooo!  Scott's uncle has a house that he has decided to sell and we will be purchasing it.  We are so excited!! It will give us plenty of room for the kids (our dogs!!), our garden and one day for a horse or two, and maybe some water buffalo. Water buffalo are a totally whole different story I will tell one day!!  There is a reason to have them!! (Mainly for milk ... long story short!!)

It is a good thing we purchased the garden tractor we did as we will have 13 acres to tend to now!! We cannot believe it as our dream was to always own 10 acres!!  So God has prevailed and given us a tad bit more than what we have always wanted! It will give us more land to become more self sustaining at some point. We will always need to purchase some things (like meat ... I cannot kill something I raise!! Too much of an animal lover!!) but we would love to be as self sustaining as we can. It would be a wonderful thing!!  And fresh vegetables taste so much better than what you purchase at the store.  I had forgotten how good home grown tomatoes were until a couple years ago when I first started with just tomatoes.  And my garden has grown each year. I hope to have a very nice sized garden this year!! I think we will be doing the square foot gardening though. Give it a try and see how it works out.  I cannot wait to have all the yummy veggies we have chosen and fresh herbs from my herb garden!! I am quite excited with the prospect of learning to cook with fresh herbs and the herbs coming from my own garden!! I have never grown herbs before (except some lemon balm and chocolate mint!!) so it will be interesting!! :)

The house is huge too.  It is a 6,000 square foot house. PLENTY of room for the kids and anything/one that comes to our house!! LOL  Plus the really exciting thing for me is that I will get the chance to sponsor family get togethers now!! I didn't think about it until Scott said something about it and that made me totally excited!! We have never lived around family so never got the chance to sponsor a full family get together. So it will be so much fun to do that one holiday or summer get togethers!! Fun, Fun, Fun!!  And if my family comes to visit, we have TONS of space for everyone to stay at our house and be quite comfortable!! What an exciting thing to think about!  What a wonderful blessing!!

So that is the big awesome news for the moment!  As soon as we get there and get semi-settled, I will post tons of pictures of our place. And of family!  Will be tons of pictures! I love to take pictures and post them. And there will be so much to take pics of out there!! LOL And I am sure there will be tons of stories too ...  I look forward to participating and passing them on!! << wink wink >>

Final Garden Tally!! LOL

General Veg group - specific name group - how many seeds/peat pots planted 


Vegetables ___________________________________

Lettuce - Iceberg - 12
Sweet Corn - Early Choice Hybrid - 12
Cucumber - Poinsett76 - 12
Onion - Sweet Spanish Utah Strain - 12
Tomato - Spanish - 12
Pepper - New Mexico #6 - 6
Tomato - Crimson Fancy Hybrid - 6
Peas - Sugar Daddy - 12
Tomato - Beefsteak - 12
Pumpkin - Early Sugar or Pie - 12
Swiss Chard - Bright lights - 12
Lettuce - Black Seeded Simpson - 12
Radish - Cherry Belle - 12
Tomato - Roma - 12
Carrots - Short n Sweet - 12
Turnip - Purple top white globe - 12
Celery - Tall Utah #527OR - 12
Carrot - Danvers Half long - 12
Sweet Corn - Silver Queen - 12
Cucumbers - Milano - 12
Pepper - Sweet Banana - 6
Broccoli - Waltham29 - 12
Garden Bean - Greendrop - 12
Carrot - Nantes Half Long - 12
Lettuce - Garden Blend - 12
-Prizeleaf
- Royal Oak Leaf
- Salad Bowl
- Red Salad Bowl
- Ashley
Onion - Walla Walla - 12
Peas - Melting Sugar (snow peas) - 12
Cauliflower - Early Snowball A - 12
Sweet Bell Peppers - Red, Orange, Green and Yellow - 12


Herbs
__________

Chamomile - German - 12
Lavender - Verea - 12
Lavender - True - 12
Parsley - Hamburg Thick Root - 12
Parsley - Plain or Single - 12
Basil - Genovese - 12
Basil - Sweet - 12
Basil - Bush Spicy Globe - 12
Chives - Onion - 12
Chives - Garlic - 12
Tarragon - Redowski - 12
Rosemary - Officinius - 12
Dill - Bouquet - 12
Oregano - Vulgare - 12
Sage - Broadleaf - 12
Cilantro/Coriander - 12
Majoram - Sweet - 12
Fennel - Florence - 12



And we still have to start some garlic and potatoes!! Eye-Carumba!! LOL I wasn't thinking of doing it quite this large my first year in the country but Scott kept finding seeds he thot we needed too so it has grown to this!! A total of 7 little starter greenhouses and a few 6 packs of peat pots with garden soil in them. I also got a small bag of plant-tone organic fertilizer but it won't touch most of the garden!! LOL It is a small bag!! LOL

We are thinking about using some of our moving money to purchase a cultivator too as it would come in handy for the garden and other things. But we shall see!! It would be a nice tool for future gardens, etc.

I am so excited about this! I told Scott we needed to invest in a side of beef too when we first got there so we would not have to worry about meat for a while. Then with this garden, shoot, we will be pretty close to being self sustaining already!! LOL We bought a new Food Saver to make everything air tight for storage too. We have an old one but the last time I used it before Scott came home from his cruise, it did not seal properly so things were not air tight. We bought the pretty stainless steel one to match our other appliances. I already have the three air tight containers too. They have a new square one you can get too so maybe one day we will have that too but it is not a high priority!! I am just glad to have a new Food Saver so we can better protect our frozen foods so they last longer!! Initial investment is high but it will save us mucho money in the long run! That is the way I feel about buying a side of beef from a butcher. Initial expense is high but it saves us money over time! So I hope we are able to do it. The less expense we have to have after he retires, the better off we are.

True Countdown

Well, it is truly not long before we move.  Aprox 17 days!!  Yikes!! I really need to get a move on doing the packing.  I did get the chance to finally get ready for planting my garden.  I am quite excited.  I bought seeds this year to start all my garden plants.  Should have a decent garden if all goes well!!  We purchased seeds for 6 different types of lettuce, broccoli, 3 types of tomatoes, cucumbers, garden beans, sugar peas, 3 types of carrots, 2 types of corn, oregano, cilantro (coriander), rosemary, dill, lavender, chives, sage, tarragon, 2 types of basil and Chamomile. I am so excited by the thought of my garden!! And I get to actually do some herbs which I have never done.  Which means I will have to learn to cook with fresh herbs!! Totally psyched!! :D   Plus now I will get to add goodies to the dog's food to make their diets better because right now they are on crap food which I absolutely hate!  I am trying to talk Scott into investing in a side of beef so we don't have to worry about purchasing meat forever. That would be a major investment at first but major savings over time too!  Will keep our grocery bill down low!! Wahoooo!!  So stoked!! LOL Anyway, not long now!! :)