I Finally Got My Order In!

Yesterday was a busy day here on the 'stead. Getting our ducks in order to be ready for Spring planting has kept us on the move. Now I can't wait to get the garden started.

This year we're trying to focus more on sustainability, so many of the things I ordered were for just that. The order I placed at Bountiful Gardens included as many perennial crops as I could find. Perennial alfalfa is what I'm probably most excited about. The rabbits need food and I'm hoping the plants live the 25+ years that was stated. That will save a ton over the years on feed PLUS the huge soil benefits that alfalfa provides.

It was so exciting to have my order placed at Seed Savers Exchange also. It was really hard to decide what to plant! There are so many interesting varieties and funny names that I wanted way more of them than I could afford. Names like "Lazy Housewife" and "Jacob's Cattle Gasless" beans, and "Bloody Butcher" corn. Who could pass up names like that?

My other goal this year was to plant as many open pollinated heirloom seeds as I could. I decided which varieties by their high yield and dependability. The thought of what this year's food prices could look like is kind of scary. I want to make sure that the food I plant will produce enough food for our family and others in need. PLUS, being able to share the seeds will help too.

And last but definitely not least(drum roll, please) I ordered my bees!! Yeah!! Now there's no turning back, hee-hee. I used Rossman Apiaries to order Italian bees...all 3 pounds of them plus the queen. How exciting! I'm now getting the hive set up and ready to go for the new tenants.

With the up and down, hot and cold weather we've had, I'll have to really watch the weather so I can get outside to work on the garden. It's been crazy here... 80 degrees one day, the wind picking up to 50+ mph then the temps dropping below freezing for a day or two with freezing rain. It has literally been on this cycle like clockwork. The poor animals! Here in the house, we're heating it one day and trying to cool it down the next. It heats up quickly here with most of our large windows facing directly south. That's good for passive solar heating in the winter, BUT not so good when it gets hot. I've melted a few Christmas wreaths on the front door in the winter here from the direct sun. Now I just need to work on a way to harness this solar energy to make it work for us. More planning!

4 comments:

  1. Ohhh I remember our first bee order, so very exciting! We are now in the 10th year of caring for bees and absolutely love it! Congrats!!! Kim

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  2. Girl, I hear you. I would love to have a solar panel to absorb some energy. I think that would be so neat. Good luck with your bees. I can't wait to read your posts on these guys.

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  3. Did your bees come in yet? I'm waiting to hear about it. I have no idea what that's like--we don't anything like that;( Our lifestyle isn't conducive to it...Oh Well...
    Keep us up to date on how that's going.

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  4. Thanks ya'll. The bees thankfully aren't coming until May. I was a little worried when I received an email from Rossmans about "processing" my order. I freaked out and emailed them back saying, "What do you mean by processing? I thought I would get them in the spring." Thankfully that is still the planned shipment. Because of my budget with the garden, I had planned on getting my veil and smoker for the bees next month and I am not ready! I kept thinking I was going to have to look through my fabric for some tulle netting to sew up if I was wrong, lol.

    Thanks for checking on me and I look forward to posting updates because it surely will be an adventure. :)

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