Things I want to do

As always, my horizons keep on expanding, as I learn more (I've been doing a lot of reading). It is exciting.

I've started a list of things I want to do someday:

• keeping chickens
• keeping bees
• making cheese
• growing most of my own veggies, and preserving them for the winter
• growing stuff in a greenhouse for the better part of the year
• living out in the country

Also, of things that I want to do this year:

• eat more local & seasonal food - things like fresh produce, honey, meat, eggs (hopefully)
• get to know local farmers and gardeners
• to learn more (by reading, listening, and doing) about living in a way that's sustainable, not destructive
• to try my hand at canning food
• to try making yoghurt (since cheese is a little bit too much of a stretch a right now)
• to walk when I can, bike when I can't walk, bus when I can't bike, and not drive (or make my parents drive) unless I need to (although this is slightly complicated by the fact that I'll soon be getting my G2 and I need to practice...)

However, I'm finding that theree can be a sharp difference between the ideal and the practical - and it's already coming into play out in the garden:

Some creature (more than probably a squirrel) decimated more than half of my peas, EIGHT of the twelve kale plants I planted, and killed some of my beans,  chard, herbs, and just-sprouted lettuce seedlings, cutting  them off at soil level and digging in the ground, but hardly eating any of them!

Before we got 3 bags of potting soil, we accidentally managed to purchase four bags of potting soil instead.

Most of my poppy seeds that never came up, and the 2 that did died because I didn't water regularly enough.

Several of my tomatoes have contracted some sort of blight (a sunken brown ring around the bottom of the stem) which appears to be killing them.

So things go. For most of it, there's only so much I can do about it beyond weeding and watering and trying to keep my garden as healthy as possible. We'll see what comes through in the end.

On the other hand, I have had successes in the form of my swiss chard recovering from some sort of bacterial blight and going on to make enough leaves to saute up for lunch (with mushrooms, red pepper, and toasted pecans) - it was delicious!

We've also had fresh herbs in salad dressings and other dishes, basil pesto, and lettuce for salads.
I can't wait for more to come.