Planting a Pot Roast

One thing we really enjoy eating at our house is Pot Roast. A nice Chuck Tender Roast of Beef, cooked in the crock-pot for about 9 hours over carrots, onions, and red potatoes...you just can't beat it.

So when Katie and I gathered the vegetable seeds to go plant this afternoon, Katie mentioned "hey, we're planting a pot roast!" I hadn't thought of it that way, but she was right - we planted 32 carrot seeds, 18 onion sets, and 12 potato seeds.

The beef...well for the sake of completing the "meal" we'll use this: the cows next door escaped through their fence a couple weeks ago, so the owners came out and re-fenced the entire other side of the street, which is apparently theirs as well. They then loaded up the cattle, drove 12 feet, and unloaded them. Now we have a view of 5 cows out our front door! So neat!



Moo

Side note - I'm really, really tempted to ask them what they will be doing with that land; It sure would be nice to have some chickens within walking distance :D

The lettuce seeds seem to be coming up well, especially with the beautiful day we had yesterday.

I ended up planting twice the number of seed potatoes I had anticipated. I guess they just got the better of me - I couldn't throw away 14 perfectly good seed potatoes, so I planted 6 more in Bed #4. Here's a pretty cool shot of a seed potato - it's brilliant life, bursting at the seams and ready to grow.



Speaking of beds, I worked on Bed #3 by installing a $20 black plastic edging from Lowe's. That's no easy task, by the way. Hopefully I will be tilling it tomorrow, and dumping in a lot of peat moss and compost.

Last but not least, the farm animals :)

Planting Day

For those of you in the Southern Part of the U.S., Sunday is probably a good day to plant your root crops, as it aligns with the "lunar cycle." At least, that's the theory people believe in...I'm not sure if it's actually been proven to work.

So this weekend, I'll be planting a lot of crops, probably doing some tilling (with a family members tiller! ), and hopefully enjoying a nice, warm Saturday.

I am also creating a spreadsheet to help those of you interested in the Square Foot Garden's money savings (or losses). I'll track the costs of all the vegetables, compare them with store-bought prices, yields, etc. I'm still unsure on whether or not to count the building materials associated with building the raised beds. I guess ya'll can let me know if that is worth mentioning.

Looks like we will have one more snow, on Monday, for this Winter. I cannot remember a time when we've h ad so much snow, nor can I remember this many days it has snowed, in North Texas. It's pretty awesome, but I'm ready for Spring :)

Did we move to Minnesota?

More snow.

This time, they're saying, between 2-4." Of course, last time, they said 4" and it ended up being about 12."

I had a painters dropcloth in the garage, which I bought for a project, but never ended up using. I cut it into a 6' x 6' square, and along with help from my wife, we clamped it down to the beds in the crazy windy cold weather. (The cup idea worked alright, but not as well as I had hoped - the blew around)

We'll see how it works, tomorrow. Either it holds up, or all the lettuce is dead. I'm much preferring the former...

Counting down now...

It's February 21st, and the "last frost" is typically around March 15th. I can't believe it's less than a month away.

This evening I cut the seed potatoes, and put them in a box to "harden off." The cut (open flesh) side of the seed potato needs to form a protective casing (hardening), so disease will not easily attack the potato.

In addition, I now have 11 lettuce plants that have sprouted, out of 12 planted. I thought for sure they were all dead, and was getting ready to plant some more, when I noticed them yesterday. Not only is that a dang good percentage (I hope the 12th one comes in soon...), but it reinforces my trust in the SFG, or Square Foot Garden, technique. Bravo, Mr. Bartholomew.

So, with the lettuce sprouts, I now become like a parent to a helpless child. With cold temperatures in the forecast, along with more snow (yes, believe it or not), I've created some mini-greenhouses to keep them warm. At least, that's the plan.

After thinking about it for a while, (and I know I should really keep it simple...) I'm going to plant "The Three Sisters" in Bed #3. I figure, I already have corn there, I might as well channel my Native American ancestors and see how it works out. So, I'll plant beans (which I already have) and squash. I am not a fan of squash, but my mom will like it.

On an unrelated note (I really tried to transition...it's just not possible), I went fishing today for the first time since last year. I can't wait to get the boat running and get back out on the lake. Warm weather and relaxing on the water - you just can't beat that.

Silver Stars

I named this blog "Chance the Rapids" after Garth Brooks' song "The River" (if you haven't read the lyrics of that song, do so!). Music has always been a large part of who I am, and I have written many song dealing with many struggles. Recently in my life, something happened that inspired me, after several years of silence, to start writing music again.

Gold and diamonds, as nice as they are
I can’t see the Silver in me
You’ve taken what little there was
Smothered it in arduous lust.

Silver Stars,
shining at night;
Bright as snow,
burning inside.

When windowpane shopping for raincoats
It helps if it’s sunny outside
Shield your eyes from the man with the ties
Prepare for what you might find.

Silver Stars,
shining at night;
Bright as snow,
burning inside.
As nice as they look
They’ll cut into you;
Cause stars don’t come home,
Just there for the view.

You’re shadow is pierced
By dark ropes in the light.
And regardless of what you might say,
You can no longer betray.

Silver stars (shining at night)
Bright as snow (burning inside)
As nice as they look
They’ll cut into you.

And the blood pours out of me.
Where is your family?
As we look to the sky,
Silver Stars shine
And the five of us cry.

Silver Stars,
shining at night;
Bright as snow,
burning inside.
As nice as they look
They’ll cut into you;
Cause stars don’t come home,
Just there for the view.

Finally, a post!

First things first

I have been crazy sick - finally I'm well enough to move around again and get to doing some work.

North Texas. Snow. Craziness.



We received about 1 foot of snow at our house. I really have no words for the insanity that ensued. Snowmen galore, all schools closed, a crazy adventure losing my phone for 4 days. We are just not used to this. We ended up breaking the all time 24-hour period snowfall record (in N. Texas) and the most snowfall in one day record. 12.4" and 11.5" respectively.

Bell Pepper Transplant.

As you may remember, I have 6 seed pots on top of the fridge. Pots 1, 2, and 3 are Cherry Roma sprouts, and Pots 4, 5, and 6 are Bell Pepper sprouts. Unfortunately, Pot 4 never sprouted anything, while all the others sprouted multiple plants. So, I did a little "Gardening Surgery" and carefully removed one Bell Pepper plant from Pot 5, and moved it to Pot 4. I used a large spoon and dug extra deep, making sure I pulled ALL of the plant and did not split the root. Hopefully it will survive in Pot 4, and we'll be back on track. (Pot 4 is front and center)



Birthday

Well, last Thursday was my birthday, and my wonderful wife got me an awesome gift. I got a water-bath canning (jarring) set. I cannot wait to use it, but that will be several months away. Still, very cool.



The last bit of bed-work

Today I spent about 30 minutes tilling the soil (read, breaking my back). I needed to get a bed set up for corn, so I settled on an 8' x 5' rectangle that was in the sun. Below are pictures of the 4 separate beds:

Beds 1 & 2 - main vegetable beds



Bed 3 - Primarily for Corn (the one I tilled today)



Bed 4 - Primarily for Strawberries (though I'm tempted to grow lettuce there as well)



I think I'll end the post there - information overload, you know. More to come tomorrow...

Caboom

I've been sick for several days now...Hopefully soon I'll be well enough to take the time to upload all the pictures and tell what's been going on (it's been very busy).

For now, my head is going to explode :(

A little worry in the air...

While out in the garden preparing and working yesterday, I noticed the bird house hanging on the fence (which I made last year). It got me to thinking...probably a bad thing.

I'm not necessarily growing these vegetables because I need to. I could simply go down the street and get some from the store. Heck, I could even buy organic vegetables (for a premium, of course). What if, this year, a flock of birds decides to attack and eat my veggies? What if a rabbit gets through the fence and gets fat and happy?

Not much, truthfully. Sure, I'd probably be pretty sad about it, and probably angry at the animals that did it, but I'm not going to be without food for the year. But, like I said, it makes me think "What if I was in a position of 'living off the land' and this happened?" I would be without food for the year - that scares me. You can't stand guard in your garden 24 hours a day, though.

So the solution to solving this problem? I don't know. I guess that's why gardening is a learning experience. Hopefully I'll learn before I'm outsmarted, though.

Ulterior Motives

Surely not, right?

I went to our HOA's website to print off the form for the trees. There's a $25 fee with it! They want to charge ME $25 for one person to look at it and say "Okay, you can plant your trees," even though there are no laws against planting trees to begin with.

Well screw that.

I'll plant my trees where I dang well please!

Conversation with an HOA.

Sit down, folks.

So I have two Red Oak trees which I need to get around to planting. I probably shouldn't have even bothered calling the HOA about this, and just done it. But oh well, that ship has sailed. I present to you the conversation.

Before I start, the characters:

Me, the protagonist of the story :D
Jacques, the lovable but dense man in charge of our HOA. Even though he has a French name, for some reason his accent is Hispanic.

Jacques: "Hello"
Me: "Hello Jacques, this is Stephen, I left you that message earlier about the trees..."
Jacques: "Oh yes, oh yes, what is up my friend!?"
Me: "Um... not much. I just wanted to ask you if there were any restrictions on planting trees?"
Jacques: "Hmm. Well where do you want to plant the trees, in your back yard?"
Me: "No I will be planting them in the front and side yard. We live on the front corner of the subdivision."
Jacques: "Oh, the front and side? Well...I do not think there are any restrictions but I am worried. What if someone is driving and cannot see, and they run into the tree?"
Me: ...long pause..."Well, the trees will be in the yard...."
Jacques: "What if they are turning and cannot see?"
Me: "The trees will be planted up near the house. There are already 2 trees planted down near the street."
Jacques: "I'm worried about someone hitting your trees."
Me: "But, why would someone parked at a dead stop, if they could not see, feel the urge to drive into my hard, uphill, and ram my tree?"
Jacques: "Yea, I think it's best if you print out a plot of your lot, and tell me where the trees will be."
Me: ....sigh..."okay Jacques."


In other news, the bell peppers still haven't technically sprouted, but I'm feeling today or tomorrow is the day! Still nothing on the lettuce (obviously).

And so it begins...

The raised bed boxes are officially underway, with 12 lettuce seeds planted. Here is the layout to my garden (you can click on the image and it will come up much larger).



Katie came up with a great idea for dividing the beds into 16 blocks - I nailed 3 small nails on each side, and ran nylon strings across the bed. If the strings get destroyed after a year - big deal, tie a new one on.

Some sadder news - the bell peppers have not sprouted, and it has been 15 days. The typical germination time is 10-14 days, though. I think that it is just a bit too cold, so I moved the seed pots to the top of the fridge. Previously I didn't think this would work, because I measured the top of the fridge, and it was just as cold as the room temp. Today I found out, though, that the back of the fridge is a tad warmer.

(There sure is a lot to update...)

We're still not out of the winter yet, by any means, but at least it's above freezing for a few days. I need to get the new Red Oak trees moved to the back yard (temporarily of course) and there's likely more to do in the garden.

If you have any recommendations for the garden layout, let me know. Since this is my first year growing anything, I'm not sure how big things are going to get, and I'm not sure how much shade is going to be created by nearby plants.