"Good heavens Miss Sakamoto - you're beautiful!"

Spent the morning outside "dirting". Yes, that's a 'thing' now. I have a poetic license, remember? *snork*

A few nights ago, I'm watering the plants, and see this peeking out of the damp bag of hollyhock seeds: Oh hai! So, I open it up to see all sorts of little seedlings not waiting for me to put them into little paper pots before sprouting. Naughty seedlings.

As I said, these were taken a few days ago. The squash is ALREADY out of control (zucchini.) They are in egg cartons, remember? So, I'm going to have to do something about those this afternoon. This will require me to get covered in newsprint to roll them little potlets.
Again, a few days ago. These are the random sunflower seeds I had in a baggie for, uh, at least 2 years. I had to raise the lights yesterday, I'm worried they are growing too tall, too fast.
The weather has been completely mad, with snow and rain storms - I hope they can wait another 2 weeks before going outside. Below, is the tray of Box Car Willie tomatoes I planted. I hate these little seed starter things, but it was the only tray the store had that I happened to be in.

And, (heheheh) Check out mah new specs:

Because you NEVER know when you're going to have to BLIND someone with SCIENCE! (Or give peace a chance.) Also, Clearly Contacts was having a STUPID sale - They're perscription, and INCLUDING the 2 day shipping, they were $28. So, yeah. I get goofy glasses.

Ok. I've eaten my lunch and chatted on the phone with my bro, so I guess I should sit my arse outside on the step and finish banging holes in the bottom of coffee cans so I can fill 'em with dirt.

Happy Saturday!

~Lori

Say "Versatile" 35 Times.

This Award has RULES. (I HATES me some rules, but I guess I'll play. Because playing is funner than rules. Damn, I'm picking up Tucker Speak.)

1. Link back to awarderer. See below! Tucker the Puppy (Through Bruce, who Tucker owns) Awarded me this purdy square.

2. Tell 7 facts that people may not know about you... (uh oh.)

3. Pass this on to as many blogerers as you want to! (I think at one point there was a number attached to this rule.. but y'know. It hates the rules!!)

So, it was Tucker through BRUCE over at JADIP (Just Another Day in Paradise) that decided I was Versatile enough to get a pretty green square that says so. I loves GREEN.

Bruce and Tucker have been on my daily read list for a while now. I think I stumbled on him from Dude Craft... but I know Andie and Bruce read each other too( She is my self confessed Doppleganger, or maybe I am hers? And she is also Goddess of Pickles) So I may have come across him there. Any way, he makes me giggle. I love the internets.


7 Facts People May Not Know About Me.

This one might be a little hard, since I love talking about myself love telling stories... let's have a think...

1. I often forget the simplest things, and will ask my honey 3 times the same question - but I think it's because my head is FULL of 80's music lyrics, that there's no more room for new stuff.

2. From grades kindergarten through 8, I went to 10 different schools. Three of those were in grade 4 alone. It's no wonder I had trouble with math.

3. I'm addicted to love (... Might as well face it!) but it's only because I'm really REALLY good at it.

4. Although I'm friends with LOTS of people, I'm happiest when I'm spending time alone. Think Think Think. Write Write Write. Never been someone who had to call anyone up for company. I go out all the time by myself, and never feel weird about it.

5. I have been 5 feet tall since I was 13.

6. I write a lot of smutty stories under a pseudonym (No, I will not tell you what it is. That's the point of a pseudonym! Baha! )

7. It takes ALL MY effort to walk by a mirror and NOT look.





Whew. That was HARD!

So, now I have to choose somebody to pass it on to??? sHEET.

Ok, so I read my bloglist everyday - here are a few that I particularly enjoy (who haven't already been tagged with being VERSATILE, as far as I can remember. hehehe.)


Fiona at Rowangarth Farm - I love reading her posts. She really is versatile , from what I've learned - and the things she is doing are on my own path. Oh, and she lives in the same province I do, so I can actually use her farm experiences and advice.

Frugal Homesteads (It's not just for hippies anymore...) This family BLOWS MY MIND. I love that they have recorded all of their experiences. I learn best by reading THEN doing. When every they post anything, I jump on it to SEE!

Aimee from New To Farm Life. Aimee's blog was the first farming blog I came across, and I ended up staying up over an hour later than I intended to reading all her posts. She writes so well, that you'll feel like you're learning right along with her. She and her husband do so much on their farm!

Do you see a pattern here? hehe, yeah. I once said to my beloved that my 22 year old self would NOT recognize my 37 year old self. His reply was that he likes my 37 year old self just how I am now. :)

Ok. I need to have a shower BADLY, so I have to get OUT of this chair!!! (Oh, wait, that was an 8th thing you didn't know about me... and probably could have lived without. hehehe.)

~Lori

What Day Is IT?

So, I turned on and used my new sewing machine for the first time.

Ooooh my. It runs so smoothly, and fast, and I was almost afraid of it. My old machines are finiky and .. well, a little bitchy. Go too fast, and they scream. The blue Shark needs a kick start to use it. The OLD OLD one, you gotta talk nice to first. ON and on.

But, this new one comes with so many fancy-fang-dangled-doolallers I'm going to have to learn to use. I was happy to see it can stitch with 2 needles (had the presser foot and plate attachments). All I did though was stitch out one sock monkey (because I could only find one of my "Little Scotia" tags. I put them somewhere safe, and now can't find them.) Then, I started in on some new sock critters.

I loveses them. I really missed this.

Plants are going full swing. Peas are up, most of the radish, lettuce and Chard outside are up. Up up up!

Put the tomato seeds in the night before last (in the house, on the big ol' shelf o' lights.)

The little mermaid above is a softie I painted, it's in my etsy store right now. I put both of my stores back online. I'm able to focus on them now, not so worried about pulling another Big Floppy. (Have an EEG tomorrow. I have no idea what that is exactly. I'm sure the internets can provide me with all the false information I'll need to be thoroughly prepared.)

*nyuk*

Today the pixies had no school. We got out of our jammies around 5pm. They ate chocolate and then ran around the yard, and now they are upstairs pretending to be quiet. It was a very good day.

~Lori

My Wish is His Command.

'Cause my honey is like that.

First, I have a "new" keyboard. From my Beloveds Techie Stash-O-Computer stuff. yay! I can type my 75WPM again!

Secondly, my post from a few days ago about the seedling set up? Aw yeah, it's happening!

My birthday was a few days ago, and we wandered around Home Depot because I wanted to price what it would cost to get a lighted set up for seedlings. When we realized that we wouldn't be able to fit both the children AND the things I chose in the car at the same time, we opted to take the children and my sweetie bought a gift card. (yes, there was a coin toss. Home Depot had a fifty percent chance of getting some child labour.***)

So, the day after I took my gift card up, with my Mother (and her bigger vehicle) Where I bought all the pieces for THIS SET UP:


That's right, It's living in the kitchen, beside the fridge. Because that's pretty much the last spot available in my entire house.

Heavy duty resin shelf: on sale for $39.99
3 commercial light fixtures $17.99 each = $53.97
6 Plant lights for fixture $7.98 each= $47.88
Power Strip $7.98

After taxes, a grand total of $168.48

plus $115 for seeds and containers
plus $40 for the vermi composting buckets and the worms themselves. (which reminds me I still haven't written about the worms....)

So, this year I've spent $323.74 on the garden. Yes, I'm counting the birthday present amount.

My mother bought me some dirt. (I think I make her a little crazy. She wanted to bring me to Giant Tiger and buy me clothing. I have MORE clothing than I could ever wear... what I NEEDED was some dirt for all the coffee cans. hehe.)

We went out to Native Woods Nursery's on HWY 93, and got 5 bags of organic 3 way mix, and 5 bags of regular soil (the awesome woman there said it was better for containers to mix the 2 - that the 3 way alone would be too dense for pots. I believe her. )

That cost about $35 - but I'm NOT counting that. Birthday prezzies from outside my own household are freebies. hehehe.

She also then joked when she saw my "grow lights" while putting the soil in mom's truck, and wished me luck with my "pot" plants. I will have to bring her an eggplant and tomato to prove it's for VEGETABLES! *snork*

The new shelf set up is allowing me to grow more plants (some which will be sold as slips, which I've not been able to do before.) and we'll also be harvesting more from our own garden this year too. I always aim for the break even. It makes me happy.

Peas are coming up lovely! Some of the radishes, lettuce and chard are coming up, too, despite the snow we got all last weekend.



Oh, and my sewing machines managed to carve out a little tiny corner for themselves. There are sock monkeys on the way! And probably some skirts.

~Lori

*** JUST kidding. This batch of kids are pretty good and mostly cute, so we're keepin' them. Home Depot can hire the big one that occasionally eats and does his laundry here, though.

It's all my own fault.

Dear Arizona Iced Tea in my keyboard. Arghlebargle.

I know, after years of telling the children to never bring drinks to the computer, I was the one to finally ruin the keyboard. The space bar is sticking and I have no use of some ofmy keys, and it is all my own damn fault.

That isall. I imagine I won't even try to write until Iget a new keyboard. Because this issome frustrating sh*t.

~Lori.

P.S. Yesterday was my birthday, but Ican't tell you about it. Because ARizona Iced TEa is very sticky.

What I Want Want Want Is what you Want Want Want

What I NEED for all these seedlings is a set up like this:

Indoor Seed Starting Blog Entry



What I HAVE is this:These guys are sitting on the Vermi Composting Bucket at the back door. (Which I can only open outside.. there will be a rant blog about that later, I'm sure.) Eggplant in the plastic cells, Hot Pepper in the paper cups, a garlic and green onion in the little clear cup.

Today, the tray filled with egg containers lives on the table. I put these in less than a week ago, and already the Sunflowers are peeking up. That's just freekin' awesome, considering we got a surprise light SNOW this morning. Heh.

These guys are currently on the top of the fridge, sharing the flourescent light. NOT ideal, but gotta do with what I have. Eggplant, Sweet Pepper and some hot Pepper in there too.

This is how close the flourescent light SHOULD be to these plants, but they are getting only a few hour rotation with the light on the swivel.

Look at all the babies! I'll be bringing the ones that DON'T fit into my garden to market to sell as slips.

This guy has shot up and is looking a little spindly. This is what happens when you don't have enough of the proper lighting. Every year I deal with it, and make due... chasing the sun on the carpet around during the day with one tray or another.

So Purdy and Green!

These are the onions that came home with the girls from "Halter Culture Club" (See: My Onions Growwww)


It snowed this morning, dark and overcast and a near white out through the back window - My beloved said he saw squirrels running for cover..., and NOW, less than an hour later, the sun is blazing through the windows.

Georgian Bay weather NEVER makes sense. But is sure is purdy here.

Wish I had something interesting to say today. Meh, maybe tomorrow. Happy Sunday.

~Lori