Volunteer Plant

I started out with 3 banana plants about 4 months ago... They are in very large pots on my front patio at home. For some reason, first one died, then another. The third is going strong growing from that tiny little 4" plant to close to 3' tall now! Strangely enough, right after one of the plants died, about a week later I found a thick stemmed plant shooting up. It seemed to grow out of no-where!

Now, being the inquisitive person that I am, I wanted to know what it was, so I let it be. Didn't water it. Didn't touch it. Nothing. I found the 3" seedling just under a month ago. The leaves did look familiar, and today I confirmed my suspicions. It is a Tomatillo plant!

I attempted to grow 25 of these buggars in the back garden last spring. For some reason, they flowered but never fruited. This single plant out front, it loaded with husks!!! YAY!!!

I found this little guy climbing all over the plant. No clue what it is, but I figured I'd leave it alone as well.

Sitting at my desk, I glanced out my window to see the water droplets shimmering in the early morning sun on the remaining banana plant and just had to snap a picture. Enjoy!

Tomorrow is the BIG day!

Tomorrow morning my kids hop on the bus at 7:07am to take them to high school. NiNi's in 10th grade and Tif's in 11th.Then after a brief intermission of peace and quiet of back to school first morning hecticness, it's time for me to get myself ready for my first day of back to school!

Yes, I'm off to college. Again.

While in high school I was in dual enrollment and went for cosmetology (that I never did anything with). A few years after graduating from high school, I went for an AA in accounting (that I did very little with ~ but hey ~ I now do lots of peoples taxes! lol). Now, I'm going again. This time for Computer Programming and Analysis. Lucky for me I get to take 4 classes from home online, which works out great for things for me to do while I'm sitting here at home having a quiet work day. I do have to go to campus for one class though because it is not offered online. Unfortunately, the campus is about an hour drive each way from home and I have to go twice a week.

Is anyone in your family going back to school this year? Share with us!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Things have been a bit hectic here between getting ready for school for the kids (both in high school) and myself, as well as work and trying to get things going on the property.

What has been done on the property? Hmmmm, the lawn was mowed... Yep, that's it! lol It actually took one of those small tractors and close to 5 hours to finish the yard. The weeds and grass was almost 2' deep! It was just a tad overgrown.

I had to go to the college financial aid the other day to ensure that everything was fine and I am good to go... Well, no one in that office ever answers the phone. Nor do they respond to emails. Nor do they make appointments... I was in that office for close to 4 hours to speak with them for less than 5 minutes. Yep, that seems reasonable to me. UGGG I wanted to pull my hair out! But, at least everything is straightened out and I'm good to go and my financial aid has been applied to my bill. :)

Today, after I work this morning, I have to race the kids over to the high school for open house, which seems like it's going to be an all day event. NiNi's grade level, 10th, has open house from 10:30am-noon and Tif's grade level, 11th, is from 1:30-2:30pm. I guess in between we'll go and get some nasty fast food lunch or something. Yuck! Hmmm, I wonder if I can pull off a picnic at this late time with no time to get anything ready. I really have no desire to spend around $20 for fast food.

Enjoy your day everyone!

Endless Possibilities...

Now comes the task of planning out all that space! While it is going to be a difficult task, it is one that I am looking forward to. Time spent pouring over my extensive seed collection to figure out what I have to plant. More time spent pouring over all the seed catalogs that get mailed to my home. And lots and lots of graph paper for the planning of the layout of the land and where I want everything to go.

These things I am definitely going to have: a couple of chicken tractors for meat chickens, a chicken coop for egg laying chickens, some ducks or guinea to free range on the entire property to help with the bug population, 8 or 10 bee hives, and a couple of goats will wrap up the animals. Although I'm still considering meat rabbits...

In regards to the garden, I'm pondering how much space to give to specialty garlic varieties. After I get the spacing figured out, I can decide how many different varieties to plant. Also, I wonder how much space I would need for an asparagus patch that is big enough to keep us in asparagus for dinner at least one night a week...

Hopefully, I'll figure out a very inexpensive way to get a shallow 8-10" pond in the ground somewhere. I would like to grow water chestnuts to sell fresh to specialty markets. Not to mention, enough to can for myself. I sure do enjoy spinach dip! Yum!

Of course I wouldn't forget the "typical" stuff like heirloom tomatoes, specialty hot peppers and hard to find fruits. All organic, all local.

On a side note, I'm also considering starting a nursery on part of the property to sell edible plants directly to consumers. We'll see about that though. That idea still needs a lot of thought and planning if it is going to become a reality.

The Blank Canvas

Photos of the property as the old renters left it... Dead trees, vines growing up and into the siding of the mobile home, grass and weeds waist high, yep, lots of fun!

The view down the "driveway" to the road.

The view to the right of the driveway.

The front of the mobile home.

View to the right of the mobile home.

View to the left of the mobile home.

View to the far left of the mobile home. Look at all that green grass!

View around the left side of the mobile home and of the shed in the distance. Look at how high the grass and weeds are!!! The weeds near the window of the mobile home are close to 3' high, if not taller!!!

And boy, are those weeds thick!!! Yikes!

Beyond the shed. The fence line is approximately 20' past the tree line in the background.

Another view of the back complete with the dead tree right next to the shed that we have to remove.

Yes, it is quite a task on our hands to get the place to a starting point for our adventure. I hope you stick around for the ride! It looks like it will be an interesting one.