The Front Porch Swing

[Beekissed]

Oh, yes!!! I love spinach dip and French bread!

 

[downrangechick]

Well it is -1 in my neck of woods. Got half of kids off to school and other half home with school called off. Oh I am dreaming of warm days and playing with my feathered and furry friends.

 

[Beekissed]

Get out the seed catalogs! That's my Jan/Feb catharsis to dispel gloomy days. I get out my notebook and start plotting out the garden, decide what I'm going to buy and plant, where I'm going to plant it, etc. This year I'm going to do some square foot gardening, modified raised bed style rows, trellising of vines on cattle panels, companion plantings, clover in the pathways and a sacrifice area.

I'm going to dig out my Tomatoes Love Carrots book and study up on it again. I'm going to get heirloom seeds this year for tomatoes and start them like my granny always did~in a porcelain wash pan on a windowsill, though I'm going to stack the deck a little and place a heating pad under that pan.

I'm going to make up my own starting soil and add some of my soil from my coop to it. It's well composted, loamy, rich and ready to help things grow.

Seed catalogs! The country woman's shot of sunshine to the arm in the middle of winter.

It's as good as a flu shot...

 

[downrangechick]

Very true. I am still using seeds my grandfather and I collected from the time I was little. Our compost is ready to go. Cow poop mixture. My tomato plants grow 5 ft tall. This year I dumped all my pot ash in the garden hopefully it's not too acidic. It's exciting to plan the garden.

 

[Faerie]

Seed catalogs are my saving grace this time of year, when it's cold and snowy out and I am missing my garden!!

 

[Beekissed]

Last year I didn't do a garden and it was strange not to be gardening. It's just something that is so a part of my life that it feels weird when I cannot do it. It's when I feel the closest to the Lord and how He must feel to have created something....I plant a seed and it grows into a plant that provides so much food. It's like a miracle!

I walk along suckering tomatoes, pulling a weed, tying up a vine, removing an insect or bad fruit and it feels like an age old rhythm that's been going on since the beginning of time and it connects me to all those who have gone before and have walked in their gardens in just that way.

That's one reason I really wanted honey bees too...it seems like such an ancient type of farming for food, tending bees. Gives one a sense of the age of the Earth.

 

[lindz8504]

I have been trying to plan out how I want our garden since we moved! Still haven't quite got it figured out yet... I need to get on the ball!

 

[downrangechick]

I also did not have a garden last year. I had a series of surgeries and couldn't find the strength. It was difficult not walking through it with admiration. This year it's not holding me back. I am having a huge garden again. Oh come on spring!!! My husband and I are having a hive built for us by the Amish family down the road. We use it for allergies here among other things. One tablespoon a day for everyone and no sneezing or stuffy noses for the day.God's natural allergy cure. It has to be honey within a 2 mile radius due to the local pollen that are collected by the bees. Something else to look forward too.

 

[IAFarmGirl]

Man, is this forum dead tonight! Must be something good on TV to lure folks away, 'cause they aren't chattering on the forum tonight. What's the big draw out there in TV land?

My life is always weird like this....was raised without TV and haven't had one all these years(at least, not with any programming...just VCR/DVD player) since, so I never do know what is playing and am always mystified when folks can't get away from their programming. Just called one son and he was in a hurry to get off the phone to watch some gun show thingy.

You'd think I'd get used to this but it always surprises me when the population collectively signs off of all other activities to park in front of the black box, like one big family. It's puzzling and a little scary to think of something as powerful as that controlling the masses.

I checked in but since there wasn't much going on I went and sat by the fire and read a good book!

 

[IAFarmGirl]

I didn't get my garden in last year either and I sure miss it this winter. I am looking forward to getting into the garden this year. Last year we were too busy building a house for my mom. Her new house sits at the back of our property. She goes out and gathers the eggs during the day while we are at work so they don't freeze in these sub zero temps we are having. If she doesn't think the girls are laying well she starts talking to them about how good some chicken stew would taste. Never fails as the next day every hen we have will lay an egg!