Another Year Together

Today marks our 17th wedding anniversary.  Some days it feels like just yesterday other days I can’t believe it isn’t longer.  

I love you!

Thank you for taking this ride with me.  You have been amazing through all our hills and valleys.  This last year had seen lots of changes and you have withstood pretty well.  Garden, chickens, homemade lotion and potions, homemade toothpaste.  What will I think of next? 

Thanks!

I love you!

Now lets see if we can still get it on  Winking smile.

Garden

When I started planning my early release from work I started calling around to the greenhouses in my area to see if anyone had any non-gmo plants.  Generally the answer was no.  Really?  How come their seeds are non-gmo but the plants are not?  My co-worker told me to call Bookcliff Gardens.  Thanks Cathy!  They are the best plants.  Big, beautiful and non-gmo.

 

garden

 

garden 2

Don’t you just love Spring?   After my eventful trip to the greenhouse I spent the afternoon planting my vegetables and playing in the dirt.  It was such a fun afternoon.  Anyone that knew me as a child would think I had lost my mind.  I hated to get dirty and despised pulling weeds FYI  I still hate pulling weeds but, I have found I love dirt.  It is therapeutic to make something grow or keep it alive.  Sometimes I have a hard time with the keeping it alive part.

I planted tomatoes about 6 different varieties, peppers bell, cayenne, jalapeno, and one habanero plant.   I also planted  chamomile and parsley and one cucumber plant.  I only got one cucumber plant because the greenhouse that I went to was out of cucumber plants except for just a couple of pickling cucumber plants..  I have a cucumber addiction so I will settle for any kind I can get and maybe I will learn to make pickles this year.

I want to be able to grow my own plants from seeds and have them flourish and prosper, however; I need help.  Either plant earlier, get a greenhouse, just give up the idea.  What do you think I should do?  The hubs wants a greenhouse, have you seen the prices? Or the construction?

Date Day

Yesterday  the hubs and I spent the day in Grand Junction.  We attended the Grand Valley Beer Festival.

beerfest

beerfest2

Isn’t that the coolest invention?

The hubs favorite beer was from Dirty Hippie from Palisade Brewing Company.

By the end of the day his favorite became the one in front of the bicycle.

Copper Club Brewing Company is a homebrew store and a microbrew.  They offer classes and great information.  The hubs favorite was F-Town Amber.  I must admit I also voted for them as it was a smooth non hoppy beer. 

My favorite was from 10th and Blake Beer Company  the Redd’s Apple Ale.  Yummy!

We spent a pleasant couple of hours there before heading to the movie theater to see

Great movie!  I loved the story and all the action. I feel the new cast does an amazing job at portraying the original characters.  Chris Pine as Captain Kirk is incredible.  His mannerism and affectations are so close to William Shatner.  Zachary Quinto as Spock does an impressive job at no human feelings and yet showing a  human side to him.  I say see the movie on the big screen.

How was your Saturday?  Do anything fun?

Wildlife

While driving this week I have seen antelope almost every day……alive not dead.   I had a fox run in front of the car on Monday, still alive also.

There is a white hawk circling the chickens.  I have seen it twice.  Beautiful bird hope it does not take a liking to my little dog or the chickens.

I have been trying to walk at least three days at week at work. During my walk I found this amazing    piece    of       art?

002

What do you think?  Interesting? Bet it makes for some interesting conversations for drunks at the neighboring apartments.

Do you regularly see wildlife?  or Art?

Chicken Feed

This week the chickens graduated to the big bird food.  I have lots of the chick food left if anyone needs it. 

On  Tuesday when I got home the chickens mobbed me.  Squawking and telling me all kinds of hungry stories.  When I checked on the food in their coop the bin was empty.  Poor little birds were starving.

I bet one or more of the culprits is small and furry.

Her                       007

or her                 008

or possibly him 005

My bet is on the middle one as she has an allergy to corn and bites at her paws to stop the itching and guess what?   That is all she has done this week.

Why do the dogs always want to eat other animals food?  Does it taste better?  Smell better? or is it just the matter of grass errr food is greener on the other side of the fence?

Poor chickens.

004As you can tell they do not eat the dogs food.  Nope.

The chickens have run of the yard all day so the dogs have run of the coop all day.  Darn those small furry creatures.  Any ideas on how to keep the dogs out of the chicken food?

Do you have chickens?  Do they graze or stay in a coop?

Houseplants

House plants are something that I was never going to have in my house.  Never say never, right?

About 15 years ago I went for allergy testing and one of my triggers is mold in dirt.  In my head I figured no houseplants would save me this trigger.   Fast forward to Cheri getting her life healthier and that includes the air quality in the house.

I read this post from Kitchen Stewardship about the ways to improve air quality in your house. 

Enter my house now and you will see

plant2This is a golden pothos, it needs to be repotted but that is for another day.  This plant is poisonous to pets and children. 

plamtBlurry pic of the English Ivy.  There is indoor and outdoor English ivy.  This plant can help with asthma and allergies. I need help with those areas so if this plant helps I may buy more.  This plant is tolerant  in low light and lazy watering.  perfect for this novice plant owner.

NASA performed an clean air study to prove that plants can improve air quality.

List of air-filtering plants

NASA recommends 15 – 18 good sized plants to filter an 1800 sq. ft. house.

Do you think your air quality is fine?  Do you have carpet? Mattress? Plastic? Paint? Varnish?Then you probably have at least one of these chemicals in your house benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, xylene and toluene and last is ammonia.

If plants can get these chemicals out of my air then I will be buying more, if the two I have live.  This is a test to see how they survive.

Do you have houseplants?