Reflections

Each morning I am usually up by 5 am.  My little pug dog Tucker, needs walked, so he and I take early morning walks.   Sometimes it is still dark out.  I take a flash light, but sometimes the moon is so bright and the stars are so twinkly that I don’t even use it.  It is so quiet and still.  There are no cars on the road, nothing to break the silence.   Sometimes while Tucker is snuffling the bushes, I just stand there and marvel at the beauty around me.  Being in the mountains, we have almost no street lights, so when it is dark, it is very dark.  The moon shines so bright that it is like someone turned on a street light.

The moon rises in the evening in the east behind our house and sets in the west, in the front of our house.  This morning as we ventured out, it was that time when it isn’t dark and it isn’t light out either.  I could see the moon setting as it glowed out from behind the pines and cedars.  The wind was blowing, but not too hard and the air smells so good up here.  It is a great time to just pray or meditate.  I never get tired of looking at the scenery up here and I am so very grateful that I somehow managed to end up here.

Brillant Idea!

When it comes to ideas, I never have a shortage or run out. I think most of them are brilliant, however, my husband does not. But I think I hit upon a good one this time! We have a teeny, tiny shed attached to the side of our house. It is about 4 x 8. It is ok for storing some tools or paint, but that is about it. Meanwhile I have my big freezer in the big storage shed because there is no room for it in the house.

I wanted to move the chicken to the back of my yard and put them in that little shed. However, hubby said NO! He wants them kept by the goats and doesn’t want them close to our neighbor. I had to agree with that. So I was thinking. We have this nice area in the back corner of the yard where the neighbors huge pine tree hangs over and keeps it shady most of the time. The snow never accumulates much there either due to this tree. If it does accumulate, it is the first area to melt off. My husband currently keeps his work table, aka two saw horses and a piece of plywood, and ladders back there. Looks tacky and messy to say the least.

Since we can’t grow any food back there due to the large amount of shade, I thought what if we put up a nice big shed for hubby and his tool chest and saws and ladders and all his man stuff? He agreed that would be a wonderful thing. So that would give me a small, empty shed. Hmmmm… now what could I possibly do with a little extra square footage?

Then it hit me! I could move my freezer into the little shed and since my hubby already put up floor to ceiling shelving in there, I could make a pantry! I could put all my canning supplies in there, picnic baskets, all sorts of things that are  currently getting lost or shuffled around in the big shed. I could store all my jams and canned goods and large things like cases of paper towels and egg cartons in there. It is on the north side of the house, so it is cool, dark and dry in the shed. Perfect for storing canned food.

Since this little shed is attached to our house and right off our deck, it would be handy too, summer or winter. DH will also be building a small deck in the front of this shed this summer, which will make it one step off our deck. Perfect location. So….. I think this is what I will start saving for once the skylight is in and paid for. A new shed! One thing about being on a small budget is that it really makes you get creative!

Front view of small shed

Side view of Shed

Looking into the shed

Shelving already installed in shed.

Update!

On March 28th, we met with Supervisor Jeff Stone and his assistant Olivia Barnes.  While the meeting was overall positive, no absolute promises were made.  However, I did request the ordinance governing goat keeping be removed or altered to allow miniature goat keeping at the least.  I gave Supervisor Stone and lot of material on living green and the benefits of backyard dairies and chicken keeping.  I also gave him all the information from Seattle, including their new ordinance which allows goat keeping and all their health research.  Phyllis Schulman, Seattle’s city Councilman Conlin’s assistant, has offered to call Mr. Stone on our behalf and I will be asking her to go ahead and call him.

Yesterday we received a fax from Olivia that she sent to Code Enforcement:

Gentlemen,

Supervisor Stone met with Mr. and Mrs. Jakubac to discuss their lack of compliance with current ordinances.  The conclusion of the meeting is that the Third District Office will be researching ordinance language that addresses the keeping of miniature goats.  Our office may utilize various departments to research the matter and it may take some time to reach a decision on any ordinance amendment.  In the meantime, the Jakubac’s have agreed to minimize any impacts of the goats to the adjacent property owners.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Olivia Barnes

Legislative Team Member
Supervisor Jeff Stone
Third District
obbarnes@rcbos.org

Phone 951-955-1033
Fax 951-955-2194

So all of this means that Code Enforcement cannot give us any more citations while Supervisor Stone works this through.  Tomorrow we have our hearing about the last citation.  I doubt we will get our fine back, but at least they will know we are working with the county and are not blatant law breakers.

If you feel you want to support this cause, you can email, call or fax the Supervisor to show your support.  We have to show him that many people are in favor of this change, otherwise nothing will change.  I will me asking Phyllis Schulman, who is Seattle city Councilman Conlin’s assistant to call Mr. Stone.

We sincerely appreciate all the support we have received thus far.

An Enchanted Corner

Here is another project!  We had this one little skinny birch tree in the corner of the front yard.  It had been run over by the snow plow 2 winters ago and almost snapped in half.  We thought it was a gonner.  However, it has lived barely.  It hasn’t really grown, but it is alive so I have hope.  However, I love the look of storybook cottages that have the big, droopy birch trees around them..  It is a nice contrast to our 75 ft tall pines and softens the look of the garden.  So what the heck I thought.  Let’s get a couple more.  So I did!

These trees were so nice and full I just had to have them.  Someone really should keep me out of the nursery.  LOL!!!  Anyway, after I got them planted, the spot just seemed to be calling for a bench and a table for summer time reading and iced tea drinking. Once these 3 trees get big enough to make some shade, I have a feeling it will my favorite spot.  The only problem with gardening is waiting for things to grow.  But I do love seeing the progress from year to year.  It is exciting to see things get bigger over the years.  I try to remain patient and remember the old adage.  First they sleep, then they creep, then they leap!  Most  of the trees, lilac bushes and roses are around the creeping stage and I anxiously await their leaping!

Mulch, mulch and more mulch

Another thing that has been keeping me busy is mulching things.  I am very lucky because the water district I work for brings in cedar and pine mulch from the tree trimmers.  This mulch is free to anyone who lives in our water district.  So here is what I got for free a couple weeks ago.

Yep, that is a dump truck load of mulch.  Since we are in a drought, it is important to mulch your garden to save water.  It is something we all should be doing whether we are in a drought or not.  Conserving water is everyone’s responsibility.

Here is an area outside the goat pen that I redid with some ivy, lambs ear and lots and lots of mulch.  This is  a very shady area due to the two oak trees and veggies won’t grow here.  So I made a viewing area to look at the goats.  I also put one of my old claw foot tubs out there to grow more ivy and some flowers.

Here is a view from the side as you come up our little dirt lane towards our house.  We will eventually be moving the feeder and I thought this would be a nice little area to goat watch.  That is Jazz sticking her head up from eating!

I also moved several large bushes from the front of their pen to the side so I could plant raspberries and blackberries out there.  I then had to mulch the new plants and mulch the front bed as well.  I still have the front garden and the side to go, but they were mulched last year, so they will just need top dressed.  I am amazed at how much water we save by mulching.  Later this summer we hope to get our patio in and we will be mulching all around what isn’t patio as well.   It also helps to keep the dust down.

No comments?

I have been getting a lot of hits lately, which is great!  But no one is leaving any comments.  I would love to hear from others, so please feel free to post your thoughts!

Le Petite Potager

Well I have been working on the potager getting it ready for planting.  It doesn’t look so great now, but by the end of summer it will be fabulous.  We are still adding compost and trying to better the soil.  I know this will take several years, but if we keep working at it, it will be black gold before we know it.

In this picture, I have laid some stepping stones at both of the open ends and filled the path with mulch.  This will provide a nice walking space for getting to things in the garden.  I also took my arbor that someone ran into this winter and put it over the entrance to the potage.  I then moved my two New Dawn roses that survived being run over and put one on either side.  It doesn’t look like much now, but they have already started growing like crazy.  I am envisioning them covering the arbor and how lovely they will look in full bloom.

I also intend to make or have made a sign to hang on the top of the arbor that says, Le Petite Potager.  The left side of the garden is surrounded by cedar logs and the right side is made out of cinder blocks that we got for free.  I intend to fill each hole in the blocks with dirt and plant strawberries and lettuce and maybe a few flowers here and there.  Should look great once everything gets growing.  I am trying to waste no space.  Also at the back of the path you can see 3 pots.  These will be getting planted and moved and our compost bin will go there.  We are waiting to put that in because the neighbor behind us is putting in a new fence.  Once he is done with that, we can then put in the compost bin.

I will be putting in my bush beans tomorrow in the left garden.  I have already planted my french beans and peas in the garden by the chicken pen.  I am going to space out some of my planting so they don’t all come at once.  But I do want to get a lot of bush beans at once so I can can.  Hopefully it is going to be a busy summer!

What I’ve been up to

I must apologize for not writing much lately. Things have gotten a little out of control. I took on a second part time job as the secretary at my church. It is much harder than what was explained to me and I have had to put in more hours than expected. Hopefully things will settle down soon with that. Meanwhile at the water district, we are in the midsts of changing over our billing system. This means the regular secretary has to be holed up in the back room manually entering all of our customers into the new system. Then I get to learn to do the billing. So I have been going in 3 or 4 days a week to watch the front office and let her work in peace.

We are also getting ready for my daughter Emily’s 13th birthday party on Sunday. There is nothing like people coming to your house to get you up and doing some much needed projects. I re-grouted around the kitchen sink, the toilet and the bathtub. I put in a new rug and some new jars to hold Q-tips and cotton balls. It is finally starting to look half decent. I still need to finish painting the ceiling and hopefully before winter comes again, get a new heater in there.

My husband has been working on trim. I finally, after 3 years, have baseboards and trim all around the doors! I cannot tell you what a difference this makes in the house. It now has a finished look as opposed to a project half way done look. This meant I could finish putting up the wall paper border in my kitchen. It feels so great to have the kitchen almost done. I am hoping he will install my new faucet this weekend. He was working on the new tub fixtures we bought, but as per usual, ran into a snafoo. The hot and cold water faucets fit fine, but the one you turn to put the shower on is a completely different size from the new one. Go figure. In a normal house, all 3 would be the same size. Now, since we aren’t plumbers, we don’t know what to do. DH is going to talk to someone and see if we can just install the shower handle but get a new faucet with a diverter and use that instead. Honestly, it is always something.

I will try to catch up on our homestead happenings by making several different posts.

Where does the time go?

My apologies for not writing for so long.  I promise to catch up over the weekend.  Lots happening around here.  I took a second part time job at my church and it is taking me some time to get in the swing of having two jobs now.  Both are part time and flexible, so I hope it works out.

A dear friend of ours passed away on March 2oth and we attended his funeral on the 27th.  That evening, my best friend Debbi, was run over by a Ford F250 while riding her bike in Big Bear.  Luckily she is not seriously injured.

My daughter Emily had to get braces on again this week and is having some serious pain, so we are trying to help her with that.   I guess sometimes life gets in the way.

Meanwhile back in the garden, things are moving along.  The strawberries are coming up really nicely and I am thinking about ordering in another 25 to 50 plants.  Most of the raspberry and blackberry starts I put in the other week, seem to be taking hold as well.  That is really exciting.

My hubby put the compost from our goat pen into the potager and has the smaller bed all turned and ready to go.  I even saw some worms in there!  I have been going through my seeds and trying to plan what is going where.  My friend John has offered to start my seeds in his green house for me.  So I think next week will entail a lot of planting.

One of our problems is that our growing season is so short here in the mountains.  I definitely see a greenhouse in my future!

This weekend I will get some pictures posted of what’s going on in the garden.  Hopefully life will settle back into a comfortable routine now.