a post for progress

I was talking with a friend of mine tonight about her recent conversion to the "hippy" life.  Then I mentioned how quickly my little hippy conversion happened. Like... in the course of about fifteen minutes.

Then I thought, the garden (what else?).  The transformation from last year to this year - for a piece of land untouched by anyone really... but me (occasionally with help)... it's pretty dramatic.  See?

June 2012/April 2013

what those idiots on pinterest don't tell you

[Disclaimer. There are two ways you can read this. You can think 1: My stars this girl complains a lot...  I'm disgusted with her attitude. OR 2: My stars this girl complains a lot... but it's funny and I'm going to learn from her mistakes - while having a good laugh.]

11: Grow all my own herbs and veggies.

The garden.

My precious, wonderful, well-loved garden.

The soil kind of sucks and is mostly full of roots from the trees I chopped down last year.  It's 99.9% ready-to-throw-in-a-kiln clay and therefore the plants struggle to form roots like truth struggles to permeate through the liber... oh wait. I probably shouldn't say that.

So I decided I'd build raised beds and use the topsoil that I could scrape up and pull the roots out of, mix it with manure and compost, and at least give the plants a chance.

And then I did what any good innovator would do and scoured Craigslist for free pallets because there is no way I'm going to go buy wood. And I found some!

Behold.

one: make soap

Make soap. As in, oils, water, lye.

I can grate up a bar of Fels-Naptha, mix it with baking soda and borax and call it laundry soap without any real thought.

I've been doing all kinds of research (probably more than is necessary) on how to properly make soap.  Yesterday, I had finally scrounged up all the necessities and got to work.

Thanks to this easy to follow post for clear directions!

ready!

a journey to self-sufficiency

Simply put, necessity breeds creativity.  Take, for example, this picture of Jeanne and Lucie making bracelets:

I would have never thought to use my toes. I would have searched for tape until I didn't want to make a bracelet anymore. 

It started last summer...

I can't wait for peas to grow

(I wrote this over the summer, and was gently reminded of it by one of my kids a couple days ago. So here it is.)

For the record, what was once a forest in our back yard is now a mildly-successful somewhat recognizable as a type of garden-ish space.

Of course, given that I planted everything so late and since the weather has been exceptionally warm lately, perhaps I can decorate the Christmas tree this year with pumpkins?? Maybe I could even carve an angel into a pumpkin and place it atop the tree?! And you thought angels glow. (Glew? Glowed? What should that tense be?)

This is why people in Upstate New York plant gardens before mid-June. But I lived on a bus, and it's not about the final product right now; it's about the process.