Yes I know, it’s not officially spring yet, but the past week has been in the 60’s and 70’s, my windows have been wide open, my flowers are coming up, lettuce, spinach and garlic are peeking through the soil, and I hear Stark Brothers calling my name!
For years Jim and I have purchased all of our fruit trees from them, they always do so well! We’ll have had our little orchard at this house planted for two and a half years now, and some of our fruit trees are over twelve feet high!
This spring, I ordered four elderberry trees/bushes, not only do they make wonderful jelly, but elderberry tinctures are excellent for a variety of ailments. I’ll be happy to be adding them! I also ordered some horseradish plants, and a handful of shrub roses I plant to replace a couple of the bedding plants in front of the house with.
Jim and I stopped at Lowe’s on Saturday while he was home and picked up six lovely Helebore’s, which I’m planting up around the tree covered area on the side of his shop.
I also ordered a very nice Hill clothes dryer (Australian brand umbrella clothesline) as I’ve decided I’ve spent enough time hem-hawing about where to put a clothesline… and an umbrella stand is not nearly so obtrusive, and can be taken down easily.
On my list to order and plant this year as well are some exotic varieties of Echinacea. I’m still at the tree/shrub/perennial only stage, or “hardscaping” if you will, but I figure another couple of years and I’ll have time to plant some pretty annuals!
This morning I arranged for a surveyor to come out and double check our corners, and add markers along the lines, so we can see about fencing the place in. At minimum we’ll be fencing the orchard in this year, moving the chicken coop over, and getting chickens again. I’d like to fence all of our measly five acres in though, because I am entertaining the thought of a few milk goats. The area behind our house is very steep and wooded, and we’ve no desire to clear it as we’d lose our privacy, so it’s good for goats, poultry, or a pig or two, but nothing that requires pasture or flat ground!
Anyone guess where this is leading? Yep, Jim and I have decided to make this home permanent (of course that’s providing his job doesn’t require us to move) and that means doing some of the things we wouldn’t normally do if planning to sell after a few years… which was the original plan!
I will be planning my studio now! And hopefully we will be able to build it next year. Then I will no longer have to bring my longarm customers through the house, and I will also be able to free the upstairs bedrooms… one for an excercise room and the other for a guest room. I don’t know if I can fit my longarm, rolls of batting, bolts of fabric, a large cutting table, and all my sewing machines into a studio the size we can afford to build (probably around 24’ x 32’) but if not, I guess I will have to sell some of my machines. If anyone has any killer layout plans for a studio that size, I’d love you forever if you’d share them!
Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 8:52AM ;)
I told Jim that I wanted a clothesline to save money and of course help out the environment… but what I truly wanted one for was so that I could drench my fabrics in starch and hang them out to dry!