Monday, March 21, 2011

Monday Morning Chit Chat - The Sounds of Silence Edition

Well, it's Monday morning and it's very quiet around her today.  Kat is back to school after spring break, and Shane left yesterday for his who-knows-how-many-weeks-long trip to Garden City, KS.  Seeing him off was a little harder than I expected and I will miss him, but those of you who know me well know I'm reveling in my solitude this morning.  Not to mention, it looks like I'll be too busy to worry about missing him much.

Since mid-week last week, Shane and I got a lot of work done together.  For starters, we prepped our raised garden beds.  This is our third season using them, and with additions of compost each year, the soil has become very easy to work.  We were able to quickly turn the soil using just garden claws and garden weasels.  No tilling was necessary, which is a good thing, because our tiller wouldn't start, and Shane didn't have time to work on it.  He did have to grab a shovel to plant some berry bushes and to break some new ground for potatoes, though.

We added some cattle panels to a couple of our garden beds for peas and beans to climb on, I cleaned out old growth and leaves from our asparagus bed, Shane planted some pampas grass clumps that his boss had given him, and he also made sure our lawn mower is working well, since I'll likely have to use it before he gets home.

On Friday, Shane took the afternoon off to go to the doctor (he needed a new allergy prescription before heading out) and to get more garden preps done.

On Saturday, we did some final preparations for his trip and then went out for a late lunch/early dinner at Zio's Italian Kitchen.  Our 11th wedding anniversary is this coming Friday, so we wanted to go out before he left. We made it a family meal with Kat instead of just a couple's meal, and had a really nice time. After our meal, we went to Barnes & Noble, where we each bought a book.  We also made a list of four books we found about urban homesteading, then came home and ordered them from Barnes & Noble online, where they were about half of the in-store price.  We usually won't buy brand new books, but when they are reference books that we'll use over and over, sometimes we will.

Our next stop was at Bed, Bath and Beyond where I used one of their coupons to buy one of those Total Pillows that are advertised on TV.  I have lots of trouble with my neck and right shoulder, and I'm hoping this pillow might take care of some of my discomfort.  After our shopping trip, we stopped by a Redbox to get a movie to watch with Kat and headed home for the evening.

Shane left around 11:00 on Sunday morning.  My afternoon was spent picnicking in the park with Kat and getting clothes and lunch foods ready for her to go back to school.  My evening was spent reading, which was fine by me.  I did talk to Shane on the phone for a while; he called to let me know he and his foreman had arrived safely and had checked into their room.  The drive took them seven hours, with just a drive-through lunch and a couple of bathroom stops.

This week I'll be very busy.  I'll be planting out our peas and pole beans that we started from seed, along with cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi (just a few of each) and all of our salad veggies and greens like collards and chard.  That should give me a week or two before I have to plant anything else. 

On Thursday evening, I'll be attending Kat's second grade music program, along with my daughter and son-in-law. In between, I'll just be trying to keep up and adjust to our somewhat new routines.  I'll be scaling down the cooking, ramping up the gardening and other outside work, and hopefully increasing my reading time, too. 

That's about it for this week.  How did your weekend turn out?  What do you have planned for the days ahead?

5 comments:

Melynda@Scratch Made Food! said...

Raised beds are next for me as well. I was thinking of building the borders using cinder blocks. That way it would also be easy to take down. Without the raised border it will be difficult to keep feeding the soil, with natural additions. Enjoy your week, hope the weather holds out for all your out of doors work.

Mark said...

Geez, you're busy!
All I can remember from this past weekend is running up and down the stairs a billion times doing laundry. And the funny thing is, my piles of clothes never get smaller. What gives?
Enjoy your outside work.
Your Friend, m.

McVal said...

I'm jealous of your garden! I vow to actually plant stuff this year! You've inspired me.
I had a very nice, but busy spring break and am looking forward to bits of time this week to get some sewing done. Sewing deadlines for projects for the girls this week...

Sonya Ann said...

I'm just now getting back into the swing of things. Anna was home last week and it was nuts. She is what made me crazy for all those years. Who knew?
I hope that you post some pics of your garden. You can curse me while you take them.
Have a great week!

Jill said...

I'm just waiting for warm enough weather to get started. I'd love to do raised beds but the expense has been holding us back. :-( I agree you have to post pictures! LOL
My weekends are so crazy busy I couldn't begin to list all we do and you sound like us! Super busy:-0
Have a great week and enjoy your reading time.

Blessings,
Jill