Marsia's Diary

Thanks guys! I was so sore from planting big pots with fruit trees in them that I took the morning off and finally went to my big box grocery store here. It's really good and has many of the foods I really like and some new ones to try. I got a few new spices like one called Old Bay that I think is used in shrimp and crab boil. Another was truffle flavored. I also stocked up on honey and maple syrup for K because prices are definitely rising, and I want to buy things that will keep to buy them at lower prices, but also because Biden announced food shortages coming in the future, so I want to make sure we have lots of our normal foods on hand just in case. I took it easy today except for moving a big stack of boxes that was hiding in a row of furniture, and I watered the new trees which are happy under their new shade cloth in the screen house. The weather cooperated and it was mild temps today, and they'll slowly rise, so the new little leaves will be ok.

Clothes are definitely fitting better, but I am still pretty darned chubby. I am so happy it's fun getting exercise and I'm not worried about slowly losing. I am watching videos on permaculture practices all over the world where they bring back farmland from desert conditions and such. It's magic!
 
Marsia said:
I am watching videos on permaculture practices all over the world where they bring back farmland from dessert conditions and such. It's magic!
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:rotflmao:I bet it's mostly science and hard work but the combination often looks like magic from the outside! Just like you losing weight "spontaneously" is going to look like magic to anyone who doesn't know how hard you're working
 
So tired & sore so that you "took the morning off" & went shopping :svengo: I find shopping really exhausting. I think stocking up on things like honey is a good idea. Honey lasts forever & it's getting very expensive.
Your garden must really be taking shape.
 
Llama said:
:rotflmao:I bet it's mostly science and hard work but the combination often looks like magic from the outside! Just like you losing weight "spontaneously" is going to look like magic to anyone who doesn't know how hard you're working
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Love this! It kind of is magical science like alchemy or something when we do find things that help to lose weight without it seeming like Sisyphus and his trusty boulder!
Emilyrose said:
Oh God, not another thing! Haven't we suffered enough?

Well done on the better-fitting clothes. You are doing swell, as they say in your country. ;)
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Thanks Em! In the news they are saying that Russia's war with Ukraine is causing fertilizer shortages here. As someone whose family had a subsistence farm and worked some pretty rocky, awful soil (but did ok at turning it around), I wish farmers would go back to enriching the soil the old fashioned way - by plowing cover crops in instead of using commercial fertilizers.

Also here there is the added bonus of fast rising inflation making groceries noticeably more expensive than last year. That is why I am putting in a garden first thing.

I hope you don't have these problems where you are!!! If things do get like that where you are, take a few bags of garden soil, lay each bag on its side and poke holes in it for drainage, roll the bag over and cut the other side off the bag, and grow veggies directly out of the bag. If it gets too cold out, put a clear plastic bin over the bag to protect the veggies. Insta-garden!
Cate said:
So tired & sore so that you "took the morning off" & went shopping :svengo: I find shopping really exhausting. I think stocking up on things like honey is a good idea. Honey lasts forever & it's getting very expensive.
Your garden must really be taking shape.
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Ha! I actually was a little tired from shopping as I bought these huge pots at the store, and that combined with the huge toilet paper and paper towel bags meant that I had to stuff the car like I was playing 3D Tetris! I am researching how to get bees for K's beehive, but we also need to put in a lot of flowers that all bloom at different times of year first. So just getting a little emergency honey first! But I do plan to have some bulk dried beans and grains on hand just in case, too. I don't like the rising inflation and just want to hedge our bets. I figure if the sky is falling, we'll be prepared, and if not, we will have cut our grocery expenses a lot.

Yesterday zipped by so quickly. In the morning the electricity was out (turns out a squirrel getting in the equipment caused it) and so I went to a cafe and recharged my phone and computer. Then I ordered tea camellias for making black and green tea. Did I mention there is a tea plantation here I want to visit to learn how to grow my tea plants? Can't wait to try this! Also mowed half the lawn (much easier this time) and got the potatoes in. Then poof, the day was done. Talked to J and K who were going to a movie and dinner, which is nice. K usually has so much homework, so it's good to see them out doing nice things.

My garden is coming along well, but I mostly have things in pots in the screen house right now. The huge cloth raised beds need to be filled next, and I have to hurry because my root stock strawberries are already here, plus I need to put the yam slips in soon. So today is a tromping through the woods day gathering more rotted wood for the bottom of the raised beds. Lumi really likes following me though the woods, so this will be fun. Happy morning!
 
Marsia said:
I wish farmers would go back to enriching the soil the old fashioned way - by plowing cover crops in instead of using commercial fertilizers.
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I don't know what it's like in the US but here farmers absolutely do (and have been for many years). It's just nowhere near enough given the amount of crops they're producing (which in turn is necessary to feed the growing population). With some fertilizer up to 5 times the normal price you can bet they're doing whatever they can to reduce how much they need.

I really look forward to your tea experiment! Tea bushes are such gorgeous plants.
 
Wow, I looked it up LaMa and last year our government started paying farmers to grow cover crops. I guess I've been in drought laden CA too long where I only see organic farmers doing that, but the huge commercial farms and orchards in central California still had bare soil in-between crops. I am glad I looked this up because of your comment. I get frustrated with the attitude here that the old ways are outdated, so we must do the new thing and call it progress. But they actually went back to what works - amazing!

The tea bushes are on their way! Should have them in a week, so I'd better go visit the tea plantation soon.
 
Growing your own veggies in a garden is a wonderful thing. They taste so much nicer as well. We love picking blackberries in the autumn here too and making jam and crumble with them.
 
Thanks everyone! I love picking blackberries in the fall, too. At our old house I'd make blackberry apple crumble. I bought a couple of thornless blackberries here that are blooming right now. I hope the garden does well with all this sun and heat. It will definitely be a learning curve. It's probably good that a lot of things are in pots because I can move them around and figure out where they like to be this way before permanently planting them.

Today was productive. I pounded in more than half the fence posts for the garden deer and rabbit fencing and puttered around with a bunch of stuff. I am a little sore from the fence posts. They were 7 feet tall (2.13 meters) and heavy duty, so took a long time to pound in. My lizard friend tried to walk up to me while I was sitting down in the screen house, but I shooed him away and he skittered away and kept looking back at me. They are so funny.

The painter won't come until Monday, so I have lots of time to get the garden in and not have to have my entire kitchen packed up yet, and I don't have to move into a room farther away from the paint fumes yet. I hung out at the marsh some today because it was so full of water from the river. It is so pretty there but has rather mucky sides to the pond. I can't wait to find some cattails to put in. They create nice habitat for critters because they have edible roots, and they don't mind brackish water.

Not much new here. Just had a good workout day and enjoyed all the different big birds swooping through the air. Sometimes they fly overhead and there is a massive shadow swooping over me, and I look up and the bird is already gone. This is such a paradise. I would go exploring more, but the back yard is so lovely, I don't really feel the need yet.
 
Hi! Had such a nice walk in the drizzle today by the intracoastal waterway, a river system that stretches from Florida all the way up the southeastern coast. Lots of happy skittling crabs everywhere and charming long boardwalks out to 2 little islands. I skipped gardening today and went to the pet store and had a long conversation with another cat mom whose cat only eats the same brand as mine, and you can't find it in pet stores now. She helped me for maybe 15 minutes. People are almost too helpful and friendly here. Also stopped at a Gullah farmstead and got loads of strawberries, a nice tomato, and some summer squash for hardly any money. Will have to go back. The strawberries were delicious and I hardly made a dent in them. There was a nice grandma there dressed in traditional African clothes. I like the culture. They are very back to the land and simple and forthright.
 

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Thanks Cate and LaMa! Another day whooshed by. I had to wait for the tile delivery today, and it also came at the end of the day, so I took apart the beds the last owners sold us so they are not in the way of the painter. It rained and I had a nice time looking at all my happy plants in the rain. It never rains this time of year in CA, so this is so luxurious and lovely! I also ordered mattresses for us and an extra for a guest bed. J's brothers will be helping us move, so I wanted to make sure I have comfy beds for them when they get here.

I made a nice stir fry of chicken breasts and cabbage and Chinese veggies. I like making mostly veggies and not having to worry about who likes which vegetables. Got good exercise bringing the tile up the stairs and half of it up another flight of stairs. Nice mellow day. Tomorrow I finally get the garden fence up and at least one big bed done and strawberries planted. It was good having a couple of days off and now I want to finish up the garden beds and move on to painting.
 
Lots of exercise again!
Marsia said:
I made a nice stir fry of chicken breasts and cabbage and Chinese veggies. I like making mostly veggies and not having to worry about who likes which vegetables.
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That's why I'm not cut out for family life... I stress out about making everything right for other people and forget about myself.
 
Llama said:
That's why I'm not cut out for family life... I stress out about making everything right for other people and forget about myself.
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I used to stress out about that stuff, but after a while it becomes second nature. I don't remember to make enough of the veggies that I like that they don't though! So it's been nice doing that.
Emilyrose said:
Another excellent day Marsia. You’re creating such a wonderful environment for yourself and your family.
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Thanks Em! I really love making home feel like a cozy nest.
Cate said:
Will J be doing the move & you staying there, M? You have been so busy. I hope you get some rest before everything arrives.
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Yes, J will come over with his brothers and with K and they'll rotate driving the moving van and the rv. K will help navigate. I will stay here because we have no idea when the contractors will be done, and I need to be here for that. Plus we don't know anyone to be a cat sitter. We're still working out details though. Things may change a bit.

I didn't mean to be this busy. With the announcement of potential food shortages, that changed our plans a lot. We're also worried about possible diesel shortages which will make moving a pain in the butt. We're just kinda going with the flow.

I didn't get the crazy amount of things I wanted to get done today done, but I did fill up the bottom of the first big 6 foot (1.8 meter) round bed with rotted logs and then a bunch of soil. I also got 10 purple asparagus planted and I went out this morning to a cafe and had a lavender coffee and a chocolate muffin (so delicious), then went and got nice groceries including fresh blueberries that I am about to eat. I sweated off the extra calories today for sure. I got tired of wearing jeans and long sleeves in the humidity and heat, so I got out a bathing suit top and shorts and was so much happier! I am very tired now. I didn't realize how darned much rotted logs and soil those beds hold! It feels really good making a garden that will be so low maintenance once it's set up. All the fruit trees and berry bushes are in leaf, and I am really happy they all made it through the mail!

I am definitely feeling like this is home now. I really don't feel like a transplant anymore! I think I made it though the mail and my leaves are starting to come out!!
 
Thanks everyone! I had to wear covering clothes the next day because I haven't worn a short sleeved top in ages, so wanted to make sure not to burn, like LaMa says. It was sooo muggy for a couple of days, so I took time off and made sure my tile matched the flooring I picked out. Well it was discontinued and so were the next 4 tiles I picked out. So I spend a couple of days tracking down tile that I like and that is in stock because if I have to order it, it will come after my family gets here, and the idea was to have construction over with by the time they get here. So I finally found enough tile today. It also cooled down, so I got in a bunch of gardening early this morning.

The painter didn't come Monday, but will be here tomorrow. So things are moving along. I am so happy that my big raised beds are slowly filling up with soil and things are getting planted at a good rate. I should have all my perennials in in a week, I am hoping. Then I can start seeds for the second planting season. People here do an early planting, then things die back in the blazing August sun, then they do a second planting after that. So I should be ready for that if I keep at it.

I had a frog guardian yesterday. It was like in the anime movie Spirited Away. At first I disturbed a toad who was resting in a hole in a log I picked up to use in the bottom of my raised beds. I felt bad I took his home, so I found another log that wasn't rotted enough for my beds and gently put it over him. So then a little while later, I found a little tan frog next to my door bell. He stayed there all day and opened his eye at me every time I looked in at him. I had a little guardian that was as if I was being rewarded for giving the toad a home back. There are so many happy little creatures here.

I am noticing that there are a lot of retirees from the New York area here. I like talking with them as I grew up there and it's nice to talk with people with my cultural upbringing. I am going to sleep early. I've been doing so much gardening that my thumbs and forearms are sore from shoveling dirt. I think I'll get in PJ's and call it a night!
 
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