Pre-Season (Kale Chip) Harvest

I grow kale everywhere. Outside in the garden. Outside in the front garden. In the greenhouse (read: ugly hoop house in the front of our yard.) Inside to get a jump on kale starts when the greenhouse is full. It's pretty much an insatiable love for kale chips.

Er.

Kale.

5# of kale. Phase 1: Harvest the kale from the plants. Go for the outermost leaves
and use scissors for easy leaf cutting.

Establishing Roots

Sometimes, it's hard to remember that I am not going anywhere anytime soon. I feel like a spring start that's been hardened off in preparation for the outdoor weather.

I'm ready. Prepared. I've been acclimated and adjusted, theoretically I'm ready to be planted.

(read more after jump)

Under Construction

It's hard to acknowledge our progress on the homestead. We've been consumed with life off the land lately (read: working). What little time we've spent on the land has been spent responding to immediate needs (read: ant infestation, failing refridgerator, and integrating duck flocks).

This means the things that can wait to get done, have waited. We still have incomplete floors (they are missing the molding and some transition strips) and half-painted walls. I'm not sure I've even unpacked everything. As one of my dear friends noted on her brief stay, "you really haven't decorated or anything yet!"

Our yard. Oh our yard. It's on the verge of becoming one of "those" yards in the "country" with overgrown vegetation and random junk in piles throughout the lawn. Really, all we need is a rusted out car and we'd achieve the image.

"starts" from earlier this summer. we'll see how they grow.

Somehow I've been able to close my eyes, hold my breath, and have our friends and family over despite its imperfection. I cringe reflexively as soon as someone I love comes driving up. I try to remind myself that I truly cannot fix our house to the standard I want with the time and money that we have right now. Then I remind myself that part of this process I'm involved in requires that I put people first and connect with my community before saving my own pride or slaving to my own perfection.

I'm grateful to al our friends that have come to visit, come to help, come to stay the night and ultimately come along with us on this journey. It's worth the vulnerability to have you along.

You win some...

If I were to say, "it's been busy lately" then I would be painting you an inaccurate picture. I'm searching for other words....frenetic, intense, overloaded. In case you are a visual learner, you may find the following picture more telling than any of my words.

Taken at the END of my workday. Moments after discovery.

We have gotten a lot done. It's true in a sense. But no matter how hard I try, I cannot cram more than 24 hours into a day. Except daylight savings time. And I usually forget to take advantage of that (next year, next year). We finally expanded our duck pen, dug up part of the lawn for our square foot garden, installed a deer fence around the garden, built "tunnels" for our veggies while they attempt to grow in this stubbornly cold weather, introduced baby duckies to big duckies, and started a worm compost bin. Oh yeah, we both went to the dentist too.

(read more after the jump)