So things here have been crazy, and there hasn't been much "homesteady" type stuff going on to post about. But that's all about to change!
We are purchasing 5 acres of land, and hope to move onto it the first week of June. We will be off-grid (mostly the old-fashioned way, at least for a good long while). There should be some good posts about raising a garden and animals off-grid, while conserving water (our well is in, but there's no pump or anything installed, and no money for it for a while). I'll try to take pictures of the whole process.
We will be putting in a garden right away, and fencing off areas as soon as we can afford to, for animals. We plan to get some dairy goats, and possibly rabbits at some point.
We did buy chicks in March, and they should be laying in August. We also plan to buy some mature hens, as well as more chicks. Look for posts to come soon of our little ladies!
Right now, in addition to packing for the move, I am trying to gather information for all my heirloom seeds. I got all but two of my seeds Baker Creek. Now, I'm happy with my order, and their service, but I have to tell you, I'm pretty frustrated with the fact that MOST of the seeds I got came with little or no growing information printed on the packet, and most had no pictures of the variety in question. I have news for you, Baker Creek, there are a lot of first time gardeners out there who ordered from you (I've seen their blogs), and I'm willing to bet they're none too pleased with their info-less packets, either!
I'm going to see how my seeds do before I decide where I'm buying my seeds next year, but if I can get the same varieties elsewhere, with proper information-printed packets, then I probably will. In fairness to them, though, I have to say I bought my seeds in 2009, so I can't say if their packets are still as barren as they were last year.
So since rareseeds.com couldn't be bothered to give me growing information I need, I'm forced to spend DAYS looking up the data on these varieties. But guess what? Since these varieties are RARE, there isn't much out there on them. Ha ha on me! So it takes me, on average, 20-60 minutes per variety to scare up information on them. In many cases, I've had to supplement with basic information out there on the net, which doesn't always apply, since I got many early varieties.
Oh, and did I mention that I got 54 varieties of rare, heirloom seeds?
Fifty-four!
Times a minimum of 20 minutes. And usually longer.
Yeah.
So what does all this mean for you? Well, if you happen to have some of the varieties that I have, you will be wanting to kiss my feet pretty soon...because I plan to post my extensive, pretty chart with pictures in the next few days. If you have a lot of the same types, then I will be saving you between 18-54 hours of tedious, mind-numbing, frustration. Hence, the feet-kissing. ;-)
So be sure to check back soon--or better yet, sign up for the RSS feed and as a follower for the latest updates!
Hang on. It's going to be a wild ride!!
