Extra! Extra! Read All About It! STEVIA SPROUTED!!!

Oh my gosh, I am so excited! This morning hubby and I were talking and he asked me how long it takes the Stevia to sprout. I told him I was not really sure and then I went to check on it. THERE ARE TEENY TINY SPROUTS!!! Too small for my crappy camera to capture, but man, are they cuties! That means so far my Stevia set up is a success! Hooray!!! And today is Monday...I just planted them Saturday afternoon....that was fast!

How I did it so far, if you are wanting to try it....

Soaked the seed starting mix really good with water. Laid seeds on top, did not cover them with mix at all. Did not water from top at all after seeds were laid, only from bottom. Sat container on heat pad. Covered container with plastic (actually press n seal because I was out of saran wrap). Used a small lamp with a CFL bulb to provide light non-stop, 24 hours a day.

That is it so far. I am just thrilled it worked! My packet was only 10 seeds and I sprinkled them all in this one container. I will wait and see how many sprout and when they are bigger move to other containers. I think I will also pick up another packet to start. Stevia can be grown as a house plant, so I want some to keep indoors too. For now I plan on leaving the cover and heat on for a couple more days, but I will monitor them and play it by ear. I'll post pictures when they get a little bigger.

Happy Monday! :)

Seedling Update and Stevia Starting....

Seedlingville....has spread to several rooms now because I am running out of window space. We were going to get the greenhouse put where we want it and move things in today, but we are in for a hard freeze over the next few days, so they will be living inside a while longer. And let me ask you this, because hardening off really scares me! I am thinking that they will need to be hardened to even get use to the greenhouse. What do you think? A few hours a day in the greenhouse and build up to fulltime until planting? Or would they be ok to just leave in there fulltime straight from the house and then hardened off from the greenhouse? Do they even have to be hardened from the greenhouse? Help! I have no clue!

Tomatoes and onions...


More Tomatoes and Peppers...

Another of Tomatoes and Peppers....Plus the tall things with sticks are Moon Flowers - they are vining up the sticks already!

The cut off milk jugs each have 4 plants in them.

I started the Stevia seeds today. And this is my set up...

They seem to be a pain to start - packet said keep them warm, moist and watered from the bottom, covered, and under light for 24 hours a day until they sprout! Once they sprout the cover can come off, the heat pad can go bye-bye, and the light can be reduced to 14 hours per day.

What do you think? Will it work? Stay tuned......

Are the Cats on Strike or Something?

We have had a first around here...mice in the house! I thought it was just one, because there was very little evidence. But so far we have caught four! Ewwwwwwwwwwww! With as many cats as we have around here, I am very surprised! I do wonder if cleaning out the flower beds around the house had stirred them up. Either that or the cats have gone on strike...napping in the spring sunshine.

Yesterday we planted two apple trees, a Winesap and a Mcintosh. They are fabulous! We also planted two raspberry bushes. The raspberries are three years old, so I think we'll have a few berries this year. Of course, it will be several years before the apple trees produce, but my parents have an apple tree that put out a bumper crop last season so we'll have pleanty in the meantime.

I also planted some Jewel Weed seeds yesterday. I have never dealt with a seed that had to be kept in the fridge before. Jewel Weed grows wild, but I have never found any. It makes a wonderful poison ivy treatment. I bought a bar of Jewel Weed soap that I swear by, and would love to get some growing and make some of our own. I have read that it can easily take over an area. And that it can be hard to get started. It seems it is one of those feast or famine things...either too much or not enough. Hopefully it will be a success.

The cold frame is done. The greenhouse will be done later today. I'll post pictures soon! I am waiting on my onion plants and potato sets to be delivered. Darn it. I think I have already said it, but I am not going to order from catalogues again unless I absolutely cannot get it local. Makes for a bit of frustration when the dirt is ready and your stuff isn't here yet! I know, there is pleanty of time. I just keep thinking back to last spring when we ended up getting a ton of rain and the soil stayed saturated.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Seedlings and Cold Frame and Green House Building Update....

The tomatoes and peppers are doing great! I think I need to transfer them to individual pots soon.

These are experimental...Morning Glory vines and Moon Flower vines. This is the first year I have grown either, so I wanted to try starting some indoors. They are doing really well. I hope they continue to!

Ok, remember this picture of the canopy frame from an old wagon that I found here on the farm and planned to re-purpose as a little green house?

My AWESOME husband has transformed it into this so far....

This weekend he will attach the door and plastic and it will be done!!!! I think it is fantastic! he's a talented man, for sure. :) I have never had or used a greenhouse before, but I am going to learn!

And this is the Captain, my hubby, with the almost finished cold frame, propped open. The lid is hinged. Doesn't it look wonderful? All that is left to do to it is to attach the plastic to the lid. We had wanted to use plexiglass, but he priced it and it is just not in the budget right now. I think the plastic will be fine for now. Rain may be an issue if it pools on the plastic, so we'll have to keep an eye on it. I am just thrilled! :) I will post pictures of them as soon as they are finished.

There is a Farmer's Market meeting tomorrow night that I am going to attend. I have never been a vendor, and I don't have anything specific to sell there (yet) but I think it may be in our future so I am going to go and see what it is all about. I think it will be fun!

Ducklings - I just checked the calander and it is approximately 26 days until their arrival!

Have a great night! :)

It Just Doesn't Get Any Better Than This....

You ever have one of those days? Just a wonderful, perfect day. Doesn't matter what junk is going on in your life, community, or the world on those kind of days. Worrys just seem to fall away. Inside you feel a true sense of peace. And connected to God. Outside the afternoon sun has warmed your skin. The breeze brushed your face. Then the coolness of evening settling in. Today was one of those days for me. Just now was the topper to it all...walking out on the deck into the darkness, looking up and seeing a clear sky full of stars. While gazing and giving thanks, in the distance frogs are singing their evening chants. And just when you think it couldn't get any better, the coyotes in a far pasture begin to cackle and howl. The air smells like spring. You're tired, but in the good This-Was-A-Great-Day sort of way. I love country life. And I love these days! :) May we all have lives filled with many of them, and learn to be thankful for the ones that aren't so perfect.

On to the rest of it...we started some seeds! Tomatoes and peppers, and a few broccoli for experimental purposes. So far we have learned that you don't start broccoli with tomatoes and peppers! They are fast to start. So I will be moving them out of the flat. We also finished the compost set-up and moved the compost I started last fall. I made 4 loaves of bread. I looked up 5 new recipes. We trimmed bushes. We got the supplies to finish the green house. We cleaned flower beds. We had dinner outside on the deck! We are counting down the days until the ducklings arrive. I have been knitting and loving it. Ok, you have to promise not to laugh at my knitted dishcloths when I post the pictures! Or the "greenhouse" either. Or the compost system, the one that when my 11 year old son refers to it he says, smartalecy, "your compost bin" and literally does the quotation thing with his fingers as he says it!

I am going to make time to sit down and blog about all of these things. Which reminds me...I need to remember to take pictures of stuff too!

How was your Monday? :) Wishing you a wonderful week!

Seed Starter Success!

Wow, it has been a long week! My son had a tummy bug and had a night of the pukes and a day home from school to re-coup. Poor kid! My little one was home today because her cold turned into a fever and non-stop cough yesterday evening. She is a lot better today. She hates to take medicine, but we got some into her last night and she felt so much better. She told her daddy that "The medicine made my smile come back." The school science fair was this week and the older two did a project called Battery Battle to test battery brands.

They won a first place blue ribbon! I am very proud of them and their hard work. By the way, this brand was the winner of the battle....

And the seed starter is done! My husband is a genius and I swear there is nothing he cannot do. THANK YOU HONEY!!!! :) He built the frame and the light fixture we found in the shed to re-purpose ended up being broken and not working, so we did have to buy one. The finished product....(empty flats)
I am so excited! And nervous! This is the first time we have started seeds indoors. Now, if that seed order would just get here already! This is my youngest reading a book to one of our kitties. She called this box her school room and I cannot tell you how many times the cat jumped out and she ran after him to take him back to "school". As you can see, he seems to be napping. I think he finally got tired of jumping out and gave up!

This weekend we plan to get the cold frame built. We aren't quite done planning it yet, but with my husband's talent, I am sure it will be wonderful! We are due to get a little snow tonight (blah!) but it is supposed to be in the 70's next weekend, so I won't complain. I still have things in the house that need done, so I will take advantage of the snow days.

I emailed the hatchery we plan to buy our ducklings from, Cackle Hatchery, to see when ducklings would be delivered. They said after Easter. That is fine by me! I haven't ordered them yet because I want to have the brooder set up and the temperature tested and have all of the supplies on hand to be ready for the call from the post office when they get delivered. We plan to place the order this coming week. Why ducks instead of chickens? Well, we have never raised any poultry before so we are beginners. When we started researching poultry, ducks seems to be a good first choice to get our "feet wet". :) LOL If all goes well, chickens will be the next poultry addition.

I hope you have a great weekend! :) I will be posting soon about my composting adventure!!