garden update: early August

Really the subtitle of this post should be "all the green tomatoes" because primarily, that's what we've got going on in our garden right now.

Yep. And there's more.

These ones look almost like pears or peppers.

This is just a tiny snapshot of the tomatoes we have going on right now. You can imagine the scope of the tomato issue when I show you that this is what the tomato beds look like right now.

Yeah... It's kind of a jungle. We don't win awards in this house for aesthetics, that's for sure. But in just a few weeks we will likely be up to our eyeballs canning tomatoes and making salsa. I'm not complaining because they taste pretty great. The few that have ripened so far were made into the first batch of fresh tomato sauce (which we freeze) and it filled the house with the best smell - like the best of summer.

Beyond the tomatoes, the beans have been producing like mad. This was not even all of what I picked the other night. I had about another two bags of that size.

So the netting we have to keep the chickens out is still askew from me ripping it apart to get in there and pick. I was racing a thunderstorm that night so I was moving as fast as possible. Again, not winning any awards for aesthetics.

None of our cucumber plants made it, but we have had so many cucumbers from our CSA and my grandparents' garden that I'm honestly kind of happy we don't have any more.

One really cool thing though, is this bed of sweet corn. 

It's so tall - and we're seeing some silk. Here come the ears!

It will be pretty awesome to have a few ears of corn from our own backyard. Crazy to think just a couple months ago these were just seeds. 

The chard is also still doing well. Big huge leaves and vibrantly colored stalks.

Last but not least we have peppers. Lots of those coming, of different types. Hopefully right around the time for salsa.

Late August is the peak time for us for gardening and canning, so I'm trying to stay ahead of the game with what veggies we're eating and preserving with a little white board on our fridge. 

How's your garden doing?

2014 resolution update - July

This is the first year that I've made a concerted effort to work on actually completing my resolutions for the year. Perhaps it's because I didn't aim too high and made them realistic. Here's an update on how I'm doing at the halfway point in the year.

Mind
Read 75 books.
Today I will finish book #46, so I'm well on my way to that goal. I do have to get the sub-goals in of finishing Margaret Atwood's canon (6 more books) and one Russian door-stop novel. I've been reading a lot of books that are part of a series, so I end up going through the series and it delays my next choices. Even if I don't hit the sub-goals, I will still read more this year than in any year since graduate school. I'm also reading in genres outside of my comfort zone, which is pretty cool. (I am a total graphic novel and comic convert.)

Write letters on three issues to my elected representatives.
I haven't done another one since this post on the DARK Act. I need to get on that. I might write next about funding to reduce hunger.

Body
Run a marathon.
I'm in my 8th week of a 23 week training schedule. (Most plans are 18 weeks, but I am drawing mine out due to previous injuries and lingering issues with my IT bands.) Last week's long run was 13 miles, and it was the first time I ran that far when it wasn't a race, and only my fourth time at that distance at all. It was quite honestly one of the most difficult runs I've ever had - humid and disgusting outside, dehydrated big time. Everything was screaming at me to stop, and even though I had to walk more than I had hoped, I finished. (Which was really only because of the two awesome ladies I run with.) 

It's been good to be on a training schedule and to be following it. I've put in 246 miles so far this year and that number is about to go way up because it's going to get hard soon - after the holiday weekend we bump up to 15 miles for a long run and I go into distance territory that my body has never traveled. It's an adventure, this marathon training. Don't forget, I'm posting photos on Instagram under the hashtag #yearofthemarathon in case you want to follow along on the adventure.

Drink 64 ounces of water a day.
I really need to kick this into high gear during this marathon training, because even though I do drink water constantly, I am always fighting being dehydrated in this weather. And I was doing some research this week that dehydration while running can also increase your heart rate, which is something I'm hyper sensitive to as an asthmatic.

Home
Start my home brew kombucha.
Done and done. Completely knocked this one out of the park, and it might be the coolest thing I accomplished this year (unless I do complete the marathon, that is). Read about it here. 

Sew a t-shirt quilt.
Making slow progress on this one. I finished cutting all of the squares for my quilt this weekend. (I'm technically getting materials together for two, planning to start with my own quilt to get the hang of it before I do Mark's.) Now it's time to fire up my grandma's sewing machine, which will hopefully happen in July.

Can one new thing.
Technically I've met this goal with our strawberry vanilla jam, a variant I hadn't made before. But since I think the spirit of this was for me to do something entirely new, I won't count this done yet. But it will be full on canning season in the next couple months.

Plant a bee-friendly flower garden.
Didn't really get around to planting specifically bee-friendly plants, but we definitely have more flowers this year compared to last, which is at least a step in the right direction.

Make the chickens some treats.
I actually completely forgot about this one, so this is a good reminder. Perhaps because of the heat and humidity, I'll make something that's refreshing for them.

Organize the basement.
The basement has stayed relatively organized since we transitioned one side of it to a work area for Mark. I still have a few things I'd like to do down there, especially to get a root cellar ready for later this year. But it's better than it used to be (at least when Stormy and Vader don't knock food bowls all over the place).

How are you doing on your goals for 2014? Share them in the comments!

my backyard oasis

When someone says "backyard oasis", you probably think they mean a yard you would find on HGTV - some fancy landscaped place with some kind of fountain and lush gardens. Well, this is mine.

Our deck has never been really used since we moved into this house, on account of the fact that the previous owners didn't take care of the wood, and so it's kind of a mess of splinters and shards. So we've ignored it in favor of the cement patio, where we have a table and chairs, and do most of our outdoor entertaining. 

But this year I was wanting to use that space more, because I wanted to use some of it to house my herb pots, and also because I wanted a space to sit outside that was comfortable and that the chickens didn't have access to, so I could be in peace. 

We moved the grill out of the way and off to the first corner, in an easily accessible spot that doesn't block the rest of the deck. Put a pair of flip flops by the back door so my feet don't get splinters. Bought two plastic Adirondack chairs at Lowe's. Added these deck boxes - ones we previously had with the brackets moved to accommodate their size. 

I also decided to try hanging baskets again. I tried them two years ago and couldn't keep them alive, but I'm giving it a shot again.

Mark also bought me a lily (my favorite flower) with my favorite colors (the colors of the sun - red, yellow and orange).

Now that I have colorful flowers, fragrant herbs and comfy chairs, I just add my coffee, a book and myself and it's my backyard oasis. 

around Next Gen House, lately

Pittsburgh had a beautiful, sunny weekend - and we took major advantage of it, catching up on a lot of outdoor work that had fallen to the wayside. We also were blessed to have my parents lend their hands with much of the work. I'll be showing off our handiwork in more detail once we finish off a few of the rough edges this week, but we managed to get a huge list of work done. (Including trimming back this bleeding heart plant that was competing with the rhododendron to eat Carnegie.)

I even started to create a small backyard oasis by trying to regain the use of our deck. The rattletrap grill got moved to make way for a couple of plastic Adirondack chairs, soon to be joined by a small table. Mark took the time to move brackets placed by the previous owners of the house to fit our own deck boxes, soon to be filled with flowers.

Those small things combined with large projects like repairing a retaining wall and prepping raised beds made this weekend feel like our most productive in a very long time. Ironically, many of the tasks we completed are ones that people look to as markers of a "more simple life." Gardening and DIY projects are actually anything but simple (wait until I tell you about the seedlings). 

It was good for me to have the time this weekend to be out in the sun, shoveling dirt, hauling stones, filling pots and digging holes. It was also nice to have time to get my kombucha started and get the house clean. Sunday night was the first time I've gone to bed in awhile feeling like I had pretty much checked off all my to dos for the weekend. 

I find it frustrating sometimes to see all the amazing homesteading things that other people are doing (and highlighting on their amazingly styled and organized blogs), wanting to have time to do every project that crosses my screen. These kind of tasks bring me a great amount of joy - creating things with my hands and doing things for myself. But the reality is that many of those urban homesteaders have alternate sources of income that don't require them to work full time, or have made their blog a business, so their actual job is to homestead. They're actually home for the majority of their waking hours. 

I work 45 hours a week and I spend at least an hour a day commuting, often two. I take krav maga classes and run 3 days a week. I cook dinner and do laundry and try to keep a house clean. So that whole idea that I can "have it all"? That I can tackle every interesting project I encounter and make my own everything and grow all the possible things to grow? Not going to happen. 

Tonight after work, I managed to finish potting herbs (more on that later). I did it while standing outside in my workout clothes after krav class, listening to an audiobook on my phone. As my pots filled up and the sun was setting, I looked around at the gardens and at the chickens running around and the soon to be finished little deck oasis and was grateful for how much I am able to do - really how much Mark and I are able to do together as partners - and didn't lament the things we can't.