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Today, I joined in on the groundchat, where we talked about Urban Soil.  The topic was interesting, but I learned so much more.  The first thing I learned is that there is such a thing as a “soil scientist” – someone who studies soil.  I had assumed previously that this fell under geology, but they have their own profession. The host of groundchat, Cristina shared a blog post about Urban Soil which led me to looking at some other posts on the blog, including this post about soil structure.  I’m still doing lots of research about soil, I never knew that there was so muchRead More →

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In: Garden

I’ve been learning so much from other gardeners on Twitter and one of the people I follow mentioned that there was a #herbchat today.  I joined in, finding it easiest to follow on Nurph and learned quite a bit about growing and planting herbs!  I have two parsley plants left from last year that are looking a little spindly, but the host of herb chat, Nancy said it should thicken up when it gets more sunlight. Obviously I’ve already started some parsley seeds, but I am not also going to be on the lookout for German chamomile, basil, thyme, and oregano.  I already have orderedRead More →

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Look how big my little cabbage sprouts are getting! They are getting so tall they are nearly at the top of the greenhouse.  I ordered a 25 cell greenhouse and some more coir pellets from Burpee and I hope they get here soon because the cabbage is going to outgrow the height of this greenhouse soon!   The kale is growing nicely too, I probably didn’t need to put three seeds in each one, three came up in one and two in the other.  I know I’ll have to pull three of them, which seems a shame.  I hate pulling the innocent little plants.  IRead More →

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  I spent some time today organizing my seeds.  My goal is to figure out what I have and what I need so I don’t buy what I already have – like last year…and the year before.  I have way too many packages of cucumber and sunflowers!  I found that a medium size index card sorter that I had works nicely for seeds.  Though it won’t work for long if I get too many more, it is pretty full as it is! I also found some bulbs from last year that I’m pretty sure are narcissus.  They somehow lost dirt or pushed themselves out ofRead More →

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My little cabbages first poked their green little heads out of the coir yesterday morning!  By last night, they were up and showing their cotyledons.  This morning they almost look like plants! The kale decided to germinate overnight too!Read More →

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I added some kale seeds to the greenhouse today, I decided I can put them out under the window in the hot bed with the cabbage.  I’ve never actually eaten kale and I’ve never grown it before, but the cavies love it and even the rabbits will try a nibble.  I picked up a packet of Burpee’s Dwarf Blue Curled Vates (admittedly, mostly because it looked the prettiest) and decided to give it a go.  Who knows, I may even eat some of it myself! I also started a notebook.  I decided it was important for me to know what I planted this year soRead More →

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In: Garden
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I planted some parsley and cabbage seeds today in the new greenhouse I bought.  This is a small greenhouse from Burpee, and I plan to use it to sprout seeds.  I hope to find a larger one to move them to under lights after they’ve sprouted.  I got seeds from a friend, I just couldn’t wait to start growing stuff.  I plan to put the parsley in pots outside for the summer, then inside for winter for year-round cavy and human food.  I hope to transplant the cabbage into a hot bed under a window for some early cabbage, also for humans and cavies.  AfterRead More →

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In: Art, Dogs, Pets, Photography
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It has only been a week, but a week of work towards goals can be huge.  So here is my progress toward my goals so far (I’m planning to do this monthly, but wanted to give a bit more description of what I’m doing for each one than I did in the first post. Learn to love myself. This isn’t something that I’ve found specific things I can do – yet.  It isn’t something that I can ever say I’ve “achieved” necessarily either, it is more of a continuous process.  But I’ve started! Take at least one online course to learn something new. I’ve signedRead More →

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In: Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain
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This is a picture of me, five years ago.  Five years ago, I had a surgery on my arm that was supposed to stop the tingling from a pinched nerve and prevent nerve damage.  Five years ago, that surgery damaged my nerves and sent my autonomic nervous system into a tailspin. Five years later, I’m still experiencing the pain and affects of that surgery, and they aren’t getting better, they are getting worse. This is the first year that I actually didn’t think about the fact that it was the anniversary of my pain, the day passed just like another holiday.  But now, I thinkRead More →

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In: Art, Chronic Illness, Dogs, Pets
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Did you make any New Year’s Goals or Resolutions? I like the word goals better because it is something to work toward rather than saying I have to do it.  That means if I mess up, I can just get right back up and start off again, rather than giving up because I broke my resolution. Here are my 14 goals for 2014. 1. Learn to love myself. 2. Take at least one online course to learn something new. 3. Train my dog in rally and earn a title. 4. Spend 10 minutes each day cleaning or organizing something. 5. Do art more often. 6.Read More →