Fireworks in Boston

NSTA in Boston - a photo story

One back breaking weekend

What better thing to do on a Saturday morning than to get a large shipment of compost...mmmmm! We found a source on Craigs List for some PRIMO compost. Combination of horse and sheep manure that was mixed with shredded yard waste. Then drawn out into 'wind rows' to cook. Yes, comes up to 160 degrees on its own. It is turned multiple times and finally sifted into the wonderful compost. A year old and doesn't smell bad at all.


We got over a dozen strawberry plants in - will probably transplant some when we build the 2nd strawberry bed. Then we got the potatoes and onions in the vegetable raised bed.

The online calculators said we needed 16 cubic yards to fill three 4'x8' raised bed for the veges, and three 3'x3' raised beds for the strawberries. Well, three beds are full and one of the strawberries and doesn't even look like we made a dent in this pile!

Needless to say, I am still laying on a heating pad on Tuesday!

We didn't get to the cold frame project yet - but I picked up the windows. Geez, we have enough windows to build a greenhouse! Not sure the coldframe will happen this spring. It might just become a Fall project. We used all the wood on the raised beds, and I probably maxed out my honey-do list for the yard. Chris will be on to other projects like a shed. We also got our delivery of mulch from the Boy Scouts - so I guess our spring yard work is just beginning ;-)

Spring Fever

Can't believe it has been 3 weeks since my trip to Williamsburg. All you need is one nice day in February where the temperature hits 60+ degrees, and you've caught Spring Fever. So how can one treat the symptoms so early in the season...well...we might learn a few tips from history.



Even in February, you can see colonial technology in use to extend the growing season in Williamsburg. In fact the Romans would force vegetables and extend their growing season by placing mica over boxes like mini-greenhouses. For me, I was inspired by these classic coldframes in the colonial city. And thought THIS was the cure for my Spring Fever.

I began plotting immediately. But where can I get some old windows? When we got home, I made a post to my homeschool yahoo groups and BAM...I got a reply in 15 minutes from a mom getting her windows replaced in just a few weeks. Awesome!

So tomorrow is the big day and I can pick up the windows any time. We have some old lumber left over from our deck project and I have cleaned out the prefect 'south facing' spot for the cold frame. There are some great resources on the internet to build your own cold frame. University extension centers rock! A pdf on constructing Hotbeds and Coldframes was my favorite as it talked about using manure for heat.

Now one other detail that I just loved was the twig weaves and hay surrounding the cold frame for insulation. My husband wants to reuse some chicken wire...but this looks SO much better. Perhaps we can use the tops of the bamboo we plan to use for the tomato cages.

So, what to plant? It is amazing that we all don't have some basic knowledge of gardening. I mean, it should be as common as reading and simple math. But unless you lived on a farm, had parents who gardened, or joined a 4H club, you more than likely didn't get an education in gardening. 

It amazes me how much research I need to do about WHAT I should plant in a cold frame and WHEN I should plant it. Most seed packets, of course, give you the best time to starting outdoors after frost or indoors. But a cold frame? From what I gather, it is a good place to grow cold crops like lettuce and radishes (those are on our list). Spinach is another...but we aren't big spinach eaters.

This weekend is the best timing for building the cold frame - we have a plan, a location, and materials. Unfortunately, the forecast is for rain through Saturday night.

Still gotta get an iPhone?

Some days you wonder if you aren't quite keeping up with the Joneses. I mean, it must be so much better over there with their MacMansions and iPhone gadgets. But then David Lynch is there to set the record straight.

The Advent Tree

I don't know when it became tradition to open small gifts every morning leading up to the BIG present day...but somehow our family succumbed to this annual ritual. I suppose for our family it started the year I found that Playmobil Advent Calendar on sale at a Zany Brainy. As a grown adult, I can't help but to think back and wonder how many of those traditions I remember so fondly came about by some odd event of consumerism.

So it is, the tradition of opening a tiny box every morning to reveal the wonders of a Christmas landscape of plasitc toys only to culminate with a Santa equiped with a brown burlap sack and a stick - oh yes, did I mention Playmobil comes from Germany. Oh what an America we would be had we instituted that Santa-wielding-a-stick tradition to all those bad little boys and girls. I mean really, coal? A swift whack of a stick while bound in a itchy bag would be so much more memorable, yes?

It was well into the first week of December and the rattlings of my youngest was getting louder and louder. "When are we going to start the calendar? When do we get to open the presents? Huh, mom...Huh....When!?"

My husband, being genuinely helpful, found a playmobil advent calendar online. And for only $50 we could have one delivered this week!! Somehow I saw all my best efforts for catching sales, combing advertising inserts, plus all my best attempts of being fugal this Christmas were just about to go out the window. Apparently my sentiment wasn't reciprocated amongst the family and I knew I had yet another item added to my holiday todo list.

We have all been there. Festering in the orthodontist waiting room - waiting only hear how it will be yet another few months before THIS ritual will come to an end (somehow this story seems to lose its appeal the 4th time you hear it). You sift through the odd sports magazine, some book about "How I lost my retainer" stories then settle for a holiday issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Ah, just what an over-tasked mother needs the first week of December - MORE IDEAS!

Combing through the pages too exhausted to actually read the articles - I am totally into this for the pictures. Then I see it. The perfect picture! I don't even have to read the text...I could just tell from the photo. Tiny little boxes with numbers on them. They could only mean one thing - An Advent Calendar!

"I could do that" I think to myself. I have some small jewelry boxes I would wrap in fancy paper. I surely have small trinkets in my 'secret closet' that could fit in these boxes. Certainly, this MUST be the answer to my advent calendar woes!

Upon driving home my mind wastes no time in escalating this simple task in the Martha Stewart of all tasks. "I could have theme....like the purpose of Advent itself...preparing for Christmas. Each little gift could have some basis for what we do to prepare for the season. Cooking, Entertaining, Giving, Decorating. Oh, this is going to be great!" Again, famous LAST words of a mother who wonders why she drinks so much.

I was convinced that just a short trip to Michael's and an evening of wrapping, I could have everything ready for my daughters to regale in the wonders of this tradition by morning. LIttle did I know what was in store for me. Did anyone ever tell me that 24 was really a BIG number? Especially when you need 24 boxes...and wrap 24 presents...some of which were tops and bottoms...so it is like wrapping 48 presents!


The first night I got the shopping done. And despite my best attempts at keeping the idea a secret from my little one... it was leaked. She was so excited. This translated into the constant questioning about when the presents will be ready. "Huh, mom...Huh....When!?"

Fast forward to Saturday. Ok. Now it is the 8th day of December and the girls are getting antsy. I thought I had best take my morning coffee downstairs and start on wrapping. Not even an hour into my 3 hours of wrapping that day when Hannah hollers down the stairs - "WHAT DAY ARE YOU ON?" All I remember was thinking that this is going to be a LONG day.

After 3 hours of wrapping - did I mention how LARGE the number 24 is! - I was ready to come upstairs to set out the gifts. Being the NUT that I am, I didn't want them opening them until I could get a picture...and they still just had the pink post-it notes on them indicating the date. That would be another 2 hours to add ribbon & adorn them with the 'perfect' Martha Stewart tags.

So, a full week and 8-10 hours later, I have finished my perfect vision I had when sitting in that orthodontist office. One has to think - WHO do these magazine people think they are?! Sucking us in with their pretty pictures and fancy ideas. Who has the freakin' time for this stuff?

In the end, I must admit, I am really proud of myself on this one. The pictures are adorable and the girls LOVE the idea. Perhaps I have created a monster tradition that my girls will try to obtain year after year with their kids. For me, I paid my dues. I will be using the same wrapped boxes next year!

Welcome to the baked world of Freshly Baked Gingersnaps!
-Ginger