OK, so I’ve finally gotten to the point where I’ve decided that THREE blogs are too many.  I just can’t keep them all updated (let’s face it, even if I had just ONE blog, I’d still have posts few and far between).  So, in hopes of aiding myself in becoming a more reliable blogger, I have decided to consolidate this blog with my Media Knits blog.  I have already transfered everything over.  I like the idea of seperating out themes, but from now on, I’m just going to have a jumbled hodge podge of stuff at Media Knits.  Sa la vie…it’ll reflect my life even better that way.  Hope you’ll check out the ‘new’ blog, where you’ll get it all - knitting, sewing, music, movies, farm wishing, gardening, food, and MORE!  Peace - I’m out.

Trees at Jim’s (my father-in-law) house.

A forest to a child.  Enter…

 

     …and discover the magic that awaits.

© Rock Creek Farm 2008

They’re all smiles.

© Rock Creek Farm 2008

 We went out to Chase’s dad’s (Jim) house twice this weekend and Collin had a busy and fun time.  Calves to pet, ‘hills’ to run up and down, a swing-set, his lots of room to push his dump-truck, a chicken (the neighbors), the 4-wheeler (I know, I know - totally scary right?  But I trust Jim (and Chase) to go slow enough and hold tight enough.  Jim uses it to get to the cows for feeding.)  Collin and I walked around and talked about the flowers, the tree buds, birds, cows, and the like.  He listens so well and is always genuinely interested in what I have to say.  There’s no better listener to my rambles!

I enjoyed myself as well.  We took our bikes over there to store them while we try to sell this house, and I decided to ride one around.  It was so freeing and exhilarating!  I hadn’t rode in a year or so and man could I use the workout!  And who doesn’t love that ‘flying like a bird’ feeling of riding bikes?  I felt young again and completely refreshed.  Once we move, I’m going to ride it so much more.

Speaking of moving, the house has been shown several times in the last couple of days.  Tomorrow, a couple is coming back for the second time!  Hopefully that means something good.  (Cross your fingers with me will ya?  Both hands!)  I’m so anxious to get on with that next stage of our lives!  I can’t wait!!

Have any of you tried to sell house while you were living in it?  It can be a bit tricky.  Yesterday, for instance, I had just made a pizza and some crud in the oven created lots of hazy smoke.  As I was sitting on the couch eating some slices, a Realtor called and asked if he could come in the next 15 minutes to show the house.  I opened all the windows, left a note on the door regarding the smoke, then drove Collin and myself to my mom’s house.  Today, Collin and I were in the tub when the phone rang.  I ignored it, but then they called my husband.  He called a minute later to tell me that some people were coming to look at the house in the next hour - more like 10 minutes!  I quickly got dressed, put Collin down to run around (naked since I ran out of diapers, but had one in the car).  I was running around too, with wet hair, as I was trying to pick up Collin’s toys, put pillows on the couch, and the like.  I glimpsed a man at the window, picked up Collin to look out the window over the door, and there were three faces looking up at me.  I cracked the door open and explained that I had just gotten my boy out of the tub (I was supposed to be out of the house).  I ran to the bedroom and threw some clothes on Collin - sans diaper - and we sat ourselves down on the couch.  I felt bad for still being at the house, but their the ones coming back tomorrow.  So yeah, it’s a bit of a juggling act knowing that people might want to look at your house at the drop of a hat.  As long as we get this house sold soon, I don’t mind so much! 

© Rock Creek Farm 2008

Today I went through my refrigerator and tossed out many food items - most unopened.  I feel horrible, wasteful, and incredibly guilty.  Here, I’ve spent my family’s money on groceries, that instead of providing meals and nourishment - they have been thrown away.  On top of that, I’ve wasted precious resources - and not to mention that there are people who are starving!  I feel like a failure.  I set goals and they were far from reached.  This seems to be a problem of mine.  I can see how I want things, and at times I can get it pretty well planned - but I often times lack the execution of these goals.  There are several issues that contribute to this poor trait, but mostly I just need practice and learning.  I’ve only recently began my interest in cooking more substantial, hearty meals.  I have turned out some delicious homemade food, but not consistently.  When I do cook something, I am slow and it takes me much longer than the time given on the recipe.  I realize this has a lot to do with my inexperience, but it can sure drag out the process and make for some later-than-planned meals. 

Another aspect that I have issues with is not having an organized fridge/freezer.  I’ll buy some meat for a meal I picked out and put it in the freezer if I’m not cooking it right away.  Then, some time will pass and I’ll realize later that there is some meat in the freezer.  Then I’m likely to toss it because I don’t know if it’s OK to eat anymore (better safe than sorry thinking).  More often, I’m tossing out food that was partially used in some recipe, but wants you to use in 10 days - chicken stock, crushed tomatoes, basil, rosemary, cream cheese, juice, and other such items.  This happens especially with produce.  Fruit & vegetables are constantly going to mush in my fridge.  It’s particularly hard for me - as far as planning goes - because my husband doesn’t have a 9 - 5 job.  He owns his own construction business, so he gets home at varying times.  This makes it difficult to know when to have the food ready.  I also don’t seem to have a repertoire of go-to meals when dinner needs to be fairly simple.

I love food.  Good food.  Quality food.  I love to read cookbooks and collect recipes.  I love the thought of homeade meals.  Cooking for my familiy.  Gathering at the table.  I love all the aspects of cooking, and I enjoy cooking itsself.  So what is the hold up?  Why do I continue to let myself down?  I don’t know, this post seems to be tending towards rattling off some scatterbrained thoughts.  I hope you’re getting a semi-clear picture of my roadblocks to consistent homemade meals.  Please, offer up any advice that works for you - I really want to be successful at this.  It’s important to me.   

© Rock Creek Farm 2008

Despite the fact that I’m having a ‘to grow or not to grow’ conundrum (see, I’ve used it twice now!), it seems that my soil was determined to sprout something.  It is, I believe, garlic.  At one point, before we got Bruce, I had a lovely heaping pile of compost in this area.  Bruce decided to drag everything out of it, then proceeded to did a big hole by it.  Dogs.  So anyway, this must have sprouted from some tossed out garlic clove.  Wow, you really have to admire the will plants have.  Unfortunately, it’s not fit for consumption since it seems to be surrounded by dog mess.  I did tear a leaf off and inhaled that garlicky goodness.  Mmmmm.  I just love garlic!

This all reminds me of the time Chase’s dad spit some watermelon seeds towards the flower bed winding around the front of our last house.  Soon after, we had two very large watermelon plants spreading across our lawn and up the concrete towards our front door.  It had quite a few watermelons too, one we picked too early though, and another we picked too late.  Ah well.  It was quite fun, really!

So, if you ever get tired of starting those many seedlings, there’s always the option of throwing them among the compost or spitting them out at the ground.  Whatever works, eh?

© Rock Creek Farm 2008

 

See that shine! 

There’s been quite a long span in between posts.  Things have been up in the air around here.  Last week, Collin and I stayed at my mom’s for four days while Chase refinished the wood floors and did some painting in our house.  She is sans Internet access for the time being, so no blogging there.  Then, we celebrated Collin’s 2nd birthday on Saturday (see the bunny I made him).  Now things are a bit back to normal, but there’s still a lot going on.  Here’s the thing, I’m having a bit of a conundrum (fun word dontcha think?).  See, we are in the process of trying to move out of this house and as of last Monday, our house is now on the market!  That’s some very, extremely exciting bit of news, but it leaves me wondering what I’m going to do as far as growing some veggies.  I mean, I wouldn’t want to start them here and have to leave them.  I can’t even do seed starts here because oh what a mess that would make for potential buyers as they take a look through the house.  The thing is, it’s possible that we could be here the entire growing season (Oh man I hope not!).  It could take that long to sell the house (please, no!).  So, I’m left in limbo - not sure exactly what I should do.  Ideally, we’ll sell this house super fast, get into the next one, and then I could do all my planting as planned (yes!).  I don’t know, spring is here and I’m so anxious to get things going with gardening, but I mostly just want to get this house sold.  We’ve already been in it longer that we had originally thought and I have no idea how long it’ll take to sell.  (I hate not knowing.)  I’m just so ready to move on to the next stage - I’ve only been daydreaming about it forever now!  I don’t know…what do you think?

© Rock Creek Farm 2008

Hello everyone and welcome to the new home for my blog!  I’m excited about switching over and hope the fresh look will be a motivation for more regular blog posts!

Can’t wait to get posting on here.  Spring is coming and that’s a splendid thing! 

(Can click on all pics for closer view.)

OK, so I haven’t even finished the book A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold and I’m using a play on the words for my title. A co-worker on the B.U.R.P team I worked on in the summer of 2005 for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality gave it to me; and what I did read of it, was wonderful…beautiful. (I hope to start it again and finish it this year, though I haven’t been reading as many books I’d like to lately. I’m currently - finally - reading Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv which has been sitting on my shelf for quite some time.) I started my own Almanac in March of 2005, and after reading that bit of Leopold’s, I was inspired to fill up my little notebook with all my observations on weather, plants, gardening, bird sightings, and the like from my natural surroundings. But, if you know me, you could probably guess that my entries were sporadic and rare. Nonetheless, I continue to scribble in it now and then.

One of my favorite uses for this spiral-bound book is writing down the bird sightings I see around my home. (I have a separate field journal for nature seen outside of my home range). I especially love when these bird sightings occur with my little boy at my side. He enjoys watching birds perching on branches or flying through the air; and I have no doubt he’ll enjoy all the aspects gardening has to offer.

Currently, I am using my notebook to write down my findings on growing vegetables, crop rotations, green manures, and all that wonderful play-in-the-dirt gardening goodness. I’ve also been making lists of the veggies I’m hoping to plant - and that has been all sorts of mouth-watering fun. I plan to include all of my successes (and undoubtedly failures) of this seasons growing adventures in there as well. Such a handy little book of white.

Another favorite thing for me is to look at the previous year (granted I wrote anything) and compare it to the current year and season. This is interesting for bulb appearances, buds on tree branches, the arrival of certain birds, when it was sunny, and what the temps were.

I love lists. I love to write. I love to fill up the blank pages of notebooks.

What notebooks are you filling up with the moments of your life?

© Rock Creek Farm 2008

Picture taken in FL: December 2006

Looks like I’ll be leaving for Gainesville, Florida tomorrow! Just decided today, bought the tickets, and away we go! I’m very excited, a bit anxiety ridden, and can’t wait to be in the warm Florida sun! Will post when I return next week.