learnin young

Baby moo is learning quickly that the milk stand offers yummy kibble. She has run and got up on the milk stand for a few weeks now after momma gets milked and today the little dear actually had the nerve to yell at me n tell me to hurry up. She couldnt get to the stand quick enough. We are seriously considering keeping her as she is just too cute.

plantin taters and corn

This year the potatoes went out in the front garden. The tiller was taken through once after the compost had been added and then trenches were made. The seed taters were tossed in the trench and then I lost my mind and decided that I was going to plant corn too. Yes, you read that right but I just could not help myself. The last few days of 70-80 degree weather was likely what caused my lapse of good judgment and I had been looking at my companion planting chart which told me that corn and potatoes made good companions. Yes, it is technically 4-6 weeks early for planting corn but with no freezing weather in sight for the next two weeks, I just had to attempt it to see what happens. If it dies from freezing, it is only a bit of seed lost and one I have plenty more of. Sometimes a girl just hazta do what she hazta do!

We were planning on trying the trench method with our corn this year anyway as I have read that it stays upright much better in big winds when it is hilled like potatoes. The stem of corn is much like that of a tomato and keeps rooting so long as it continuously gets buried. It should be a neat experiment and if it works we will certainly enjoy early corn with some new potatoes this summer. Another advantage with growing the two together is that they are both nitrogen hogs and we can pee on them to provide them with fertilizer. Okay, technically, we won't actually be peeing on them but using a tea for fertilizing purposes.



The entire bed is fill with potatoes with the exception of an 8x10 section and a thin strip of herbs and flowers. The seeds were placed about a foot apart with a kernel of corn between each plant. They were then covered with a few inches of soil and will be hilled as needed throughout the season. The taters should be ready to harvest new potatoes in June and conceivably we could also have corn then as well.

the "green thing"

Saw this on a board today and had to share. I do not know who the author is so I cannot give attribution, but if someone knows who the author is I would love to know and gladly give it.

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to her and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

That's right; they didn't have the green thing in her day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, using the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But they didn't have the green thing back in her day...

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks.

But they didn't have the green thing back in her day...

Back then, they washed the baby's diapers because they didn't have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts - wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But they didn't have the green thing back in her day...

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a pizza dish, not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn't have electric machines to do everything for you. When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used wadded up newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But they didn't have the green thing back in her day...

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty, instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled pens with ink, instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But they didn't have the green thing back in her day...

Back then, people took the streetcar and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus, instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But they didn't have the green thing back in her day...

around the homestead-chitting and planting potatoes

please excuse the occasional stutter and the couple "ummmms!"

the great mushroom adventure-innoculation