Finally!

Yay, I finally got some of the seeds started.  I purchased some plastic containers with the lids and some soil and got 5 containers started with different lettuces, spinach, all my herbs, cucumbers, all the pepper plants, all the tomato plants, cauliflower and broccoli.  Rob made a shelf in the goat shed with the clear roof so they should sprout quickly, I hope.  I got all but 12 packets of the seeds that I ordered.  They are on backorder and hopefully should arrive sometime soon.

We got all the chickens except Dumbledore banded with colored zip ties today.  Snow White 7D is in the front here with blue and yellow bands.

And here are Rachel (left) and Phoebe (right) bellies from above.  Getting more pregnant all the time.  Yay!!

Aylia sent me the link to a cool website today Farm To Market.  They have some neat gardening supplies and things.  I like the paper cup maker to use for starting seeds.

Also, there was an article in Sunset Magazine that my mom and Aylia showed me.  Here is her blog, The Zero Waste Home.  I think it was January or perhaps February issue of Sunset from 2011.  Very interesting.  She takes her own containers to the store in the bulk section and fills them up.  QFC does not have a bulk section and that is where we do most of our shopping, so that wouldn't work for me.  But by having the garden this year and raising our own meat (pork, chicken and turkey, possibly beef next year, milk and sheep also) we would cut down on the container issue and use less gas also.  I do use reusable grocery bags that I take in with me each time.  And I reuse the plastic bags you get from the store as poop bags, so I am trying.  We do recycle a lot, and only go to the dump twice a year to the cost of maybe $60 for the year.  The recycling place on the island does not take a lot of different plastics, however, so I need to be choosy on what packaging to purchase.

Happy Valentines day to all.  Rob and I decided our valentines gift to each other was the pig.  And, he had the day off so we got to spend it together planting seeds and banding the chickens and turkeys.  I am so ready for a nap.

Yucky, yucky rain.  The backyard is really like soup.  Perhaps we need to put a pond further up the back end of our property that could fill and then run drain lines to the garden, the goat sheds and the pig shed for water.  That would be cool.  Also, we have a couple of rain barrels we need to put spouts in and get under the downspouts to catch water for the garden and animals, that would be less saturation on the ground also.

I got started on another hat, knitting.  Kasara gave me a very cool bag with lots and lots of needles, all different sizes and types in it, so I don't have to keep asking her if I can borrow them.  hahaha.  It's awesome!!!  Now I can keep all the needles and pattern books in one spot and all the yarn in another.

Am thinking about turning off the electricity for one day a week or month in our house, just to unwind and not have so many distractions.  (And to see what difference that makes on the electricity bill.  I don't think it is bad now, but would be interested to see just how much we are actually using in a day or 18 to 24 hours or so.)  I am thinking it would have to be on a Saturday, because during the week, working at home, I would need to power my laptop for work and the battery only lasts 2 hours so that wouldn't work for me.  Sunday there might need to be some last minute homework to get done, so I think Saturday might be best.  Or if that does not work, perhaps two evenings a week we shut off the power and just use the hurricane lamps that I have and play board games, card games, read books, talk, knit or just veg out.  Haven't talk to the family about this yet, but will bring it up soon.

Talk to you later!!  Have a great one.