Fruits of my labor

Below is a nice salad using the leaves from the Indian Broadleaf lettuce (home grown) mixed in with Red Lettuce from the store as well as some more cherry tomatoes from the garden.

3 eggplants were harvested last week...

1 eggplant going in my belly along with fresh basil and thyme from the garden.

I love being Farmer Johnson.

Progress...

...is incredible! I will post pictures hopefully by tomorrow. Things have been a bit hectic around the ranch, it always is when Cole is with his dad. I feel like I have to catch up on all of my errands and other obligations which leaves me virtually high and dry for taking pictures of the Garden of Eating and posting them.

To date, Leasa came over today and she, Cole and I got the Sunflowers in the ground. We also planted thyme, garlic, mint, strawberries and cilantro. Last weekend, Ron, AJ and I planted the eggplants, watermelon, cantaloup, corn and thinned the tomatoes. Have I mentioned the compost? I turned that sucker over today only to be greeted by the fresh aroma of earth and a nice heaping pile of dirt. It works! It really works! I figure in 2 weeks, I can spread the compost soil all over the garden.

As an important side note, I have to say that starting a compost was one of the best things I ever did. When I have to throw away old vegetables and fruits, I don't feel bad in the least, I just take it out back and let it turn into dirt and I don't feel like it is money down the drain. Did I mention that I think I'm a fucking genius? ok, ok, I didn't reinvent the wheel here, but oh my god, how much do I love making dirt!

Garden of Eating

This is before.

As you can see, I have a huge, dead backyard that needs a lot of love. We picked those children up at Home Depot. They were cheap. They work for hotdogs and ice cream bars.

This is after the weekend

Obviously a work in progress. However, we raked, weeded, tilled and watered. The hard part is done.

We are also growing herbs from seed. This excites me beyond belief. I can't wait to ask Cole to pick me some basil from the garden the next time I make spaghetti sauce.

Urban Herbs: Basil and mint sprucing up cement and a valve.

Alive...and wet

You're not really alive until you wake up at 6:00 am in the morning to water the vegetables in the garden and you attempt to the fix the nozzle on the hose without turning off the water.

Co-op!

We're planting a garden in the back yard with Ron and his kids! YEAH! We are going to have so much fresh veggies and herbs. The initial investment is going to be steep but I can't wait to eat home grown veggies from the sweat of my own brow (and that of Ron's and the kids). Plus we plan on getting all of our friends to help share in maintaining it so we can all share in the fruits of our labor.

To date, we have trimmed the huge tree, raked all the leaves and we plan on growing a compost and making beds for all of our differnt veggies. Will update with pictures soon. We have to go to home depot and get our supplies and rent a tiller to loosen up the soil. YEE-haw!! I have been dying to do this for a long time so one of my dreams is currently being realized.

Almost Spend free May

It's not completely spend free, as Cole and I just went to Walmart over the weekend because my 20 year old blow dryer decided that it had enough and we needed cat food and litter. Also, I made a promise to Cole that after spend free April, I would buy him whatever board game he wanted. He was such a super star participant of spend free April. He did not ask for anything and he went along with whatever we had to do and actually came up with some good ideas on how to save money.

So we are modifying the idea in May to necessity only May. We still have a crapload of food in the freezers and cabinets. We are going to continue along our frugal path until all of the food is gone, but will make trips to the store for necessary items, such as milk, eggs and fresh veggies.

I still love the concept of bartering, my neighbor brought me over a bag of fresh coffee because she is kicking the coffee habit for tea so I gave her all of my tea since I haven't drank tea in years. (why I had 4 boxes of tea in my pantry I'll never know)

Over in more ways than one

The Challenge is over and boy was it ever eye opening.

To begin, I learned that there is very little that we need that we don't already have. There is almost always a solution that doesn't require going to the store. I also learned that I used to spend half of my free time shopping for something, anything. Everytime I got bored at the house, I caught myself thinking, I should just go to the store...

The other thing that I found absolutely stunning is that I have so much food in my house even after a month of not bringing anything home. Towards the end of the last week, I started to notice a small dent in the pantry and in the freezers but not much of a dent. In fact, there is still so much food, Cole and I have agreed that we are going to continue our spend free month with a few exceptions. One is we will go to the grocery store for necessities such as milk, eggs and fresh fruit. But we are still going to try and refrain from solving all of our immediate problems with cash.

I really do want to get rid of the food in the pantry. I would love to use it all and then only purchase things that we really need and use frequently. Starting from scratch, a new beginning...

Speaking of new beginnings, the other result of the Challenge is that it put a spot light on the cracks in mine and Bill's relationship. I won't go so far as to say that the Challenge was the reason why we broke, I will however throw it out there that the Challenge illuminated the fundamental differences in our core values with respect to our individual relationship and attitude towards money and other important things.


If I had to do it all over again, would I? You bet I would.