Good wishes/positive energy requested

We are having a great trip. Tomorrow we'll look at houses. We have 2 second showings this week, so if you have positive energy/prayers etc. left to send, we could really use them this week!

I'll have internet access tomorrow night and then will be totally out of contact until Monday.

Going out of town

We are leaving tomorrow morning to go out of town for a week. We'll be going to WV, so Mark can go rock climbing, then down to GA to look at houses again and then to NC for my family reunion. I may find time to check blogs while I'm gone, but I may not, so don't worry if you don't hear from me for a week.

I'm feeling better. I started taking a multi-vitamin and St. John's Wort. I think just realizing I was depressed and doing something about it helped a lot. I'm feeling much more hopeful and I'm really looking forward to being gone for a week! I really need the break.

We got a really bad offer on the house and when we countered, they changed their minds. Apparently, they only wanted it for the really bad price. We currently have 3 people who have us in their top 3, at least 1 of them will be coming back while we are gone for a second showing. So keep you fingers crossed for us, send positive energy, etc. I feel like we are getting close!

I'm going to put all this house stuff out of my mind while we are out of town and focus on finding a great house in GA and then enjoying my family, many of whom I haven't seen in 2 years. We have some very good looking house possibilities this time around.

I hope everyone has a great 4th!

OLS - Week 3

This is really getting old! I didn't eat my dinner sideways. I researched this and it is happening to lots of people but no one has any suggestions on how to fix it.

Anyway, I did manage a totally local meal this week. I just wasn't up for it last week.

Breakdown:

BBQ chicken breast- Locust Point Farm - 7 miles
Corn on the cob - Dietweillers Farm - 6 miles
Asparagus - Dietweillers Farm - 6 miles
BBQ sauce - not local

It was the first corn of the season. This isn't how we usually eat, we almost always have something over pasta or over rice with very little meat. But with no local pasta or rice, our totally local meals look a little different than our norm. I've made pasta a few times but haven't had the energy for that lately. I've really been struggling with depression the last few weeks.

Garden

Blogger is insisting on loading some of my pictures sideways again. It does not matter how I turn them before I load them, they end up sideways. Any ideas on why this is happening and/or how to fix it? So, sorry for the sideways pictures.

It seems like it is about time for a garden update.

Here is my banana tree. It is doing well and putting out new leaves on a regular basis.

Here are my sideways brussel sprouts, they are growing like crazy.
My hungarian paste tomato finally has tomatoes forming. The amish paste still don't, but are covered in flowers.
The sweet olives are covered in tomatoes. I can't wait for these to ripen.
The tomato jungle is getting more and more out of control. Everyone got moved to bigger pots this week. The amish paste are much happier now.

OK, I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I'm not sure what this plant is. I have 3 of them that are doing great. They had little white flowers a few weeks ago. I started them from seed, but I started a lot of stuff, much of which didn't end up getting transplanted for lack of space. I could search my seed packets and figure out what this is, but I'm lazy and was hoping someone could tell me.

Edit: It is purslane. Now I need to remember why I started that and what to do with it LOL.

Independence days - Week 7

1. Plant something - I didn't plant anything new, but I did transplant a few things to bigger pots. I had hoped they would be in the ground by now, but since that is nowhere in sight, bigger pots were necessary. More transplanting needs to happen.

2. Harvest something - I harvested the last of my peas this week. I didn't get a ton but I only had 1 plant of each type and the temps were in the high 90s this week. The snow peas were still good, but the shelling peas were very bitter. I think the high temps got to them. I pulled out the peas and will try again in the fall.

6. Manage your reserves - Managed to eat quite a lot from the freezer this week. This included making lasagna from scratch which is delicious!

7. Work on local food system - Visited the farm market again this week and continue to get our milk locally

8. Compost something - I shredded up a bunch more newspaper for the worms this week. They are very happy now.

9. Learn something - It isn't related to food but is related to self reliance. I learned to knit with needles this week! It is awkward at first but very fun once you get the hang of it.

10. Store something - I had a coupon for Petsmart so I stocked up on cat food and litter this week.

I have to admit to letting depression get to me a little this week so not much happened. I didn't even make a local meal for OLS. The extremely high temps along with this house not selling and the house in GA falling through got to me. I'm hoping to do better this week.

A book club right up my alley

Sharon is hosting a gloom and doom book club. I've read quite a few post disaster/survival books lately. I think it will be fun to read a few more and discuss them with other people.

Surprisingly, I don't find these books depressing. I figure it is a look at the worst case scenario so that I'm prepared for whatever may come. Seems to me things can't be as bad as they are in most of these books.

If anyone is interested in depressing reading (LOL) join us in our wallowing.

Independence days - Week 6

Man, I can't believe we are on week 6 already. I really thought we'd be moved by now and I'd actually be making progress on this challenge. Oh well....

1. Plant something - not this week

2. Harvest something - strawberries and snow peas still

3. Preserve something - nope

4. Prep something - I ordered some row covers on sale for when we are able to have a big garden

5. Cook something new - not this week

6. Manage your reserves - I inventoried the freezer this week so that I know exactly what we have and what we need to use. We made good progress this week at using stuff from the freezer.

7. Work on local food system - my favorite farm market opened last week and we went and got some stuff there

8. Compost something - ongoing every week

9. Learn something - I've learned a lot in the last week about roofs and septic systems and wells and water quality

10. Store something - I ordered some pasta microwave meals for Mark to eat for lunch so he doesn't have to go out, they will also make good emergency meals. I didn't really store anything else this week.

It wasn't a very good week, but I was distracted by a bad inspection report on the house we wanted to buy. Nothing is totally decided yet but we are leaning toward walking away and finding something else. We got back a bad well report today, the water is contaminated and most likely the well would need to be moved. It was the final straw, this house wasn't meant to be.