2013 Gardening and 2014 plans

The growing season has come and gone. My container gardening has once again proved to be aggravating to say the least. I arranged everything so that I could maximize the sunlight, but still it wasn't enough to get a good crop. We did pull some things off of it, they were quite tasty. What we didn't eat was seeded and the seeds are stored away for next year's testing phase. As long as they reproduce, I'll keep pulling seeds so that we have a reliable seed cache.
The most exciting thing is our plans and projects. The first of 2 major projects is a simple 10x10 raised bed garden. Its low key, but has the ability to produce a large quantity of fruit. I would very much like to push tomatoes on our first season. I want to make all kind of things to store. After designing and deciding on a solid design I priced it and we're at a $98 dollar build. A hundred bucks is a big chunk and I understand but I think that if we produce enough fruit then we can make that back simply on saving on grocery bills later. Also, this gives us time to learn to can properly. It'll be a great learning experience and a great team work experience.
I feel like since I got married I lost a lot friends. There are a handful of friends that didn't go anywhere and I feel like the bonds between us are getting stronger and stronger. I really can't explain how good it feels to know that I have these people in my life. 
Anyway, the first project is a 10x10 garden. The second project (likely slated for spring of 2015) is a 10x20 shed/greenhouse which would attach to the 10x10 garden and a 3x10 garden for raspberries. The design I have drawn up looks really neat. The price of that project however, its not $98. That might cover the plywood and 2x4s we'll need. but there is way more than that to the whole thing. It looks so badass though. I wish there was a grant out there for folks trying to grow their own groceries. I just want 1 square acre that I could farm on.
Like I said, I would like to push for heavy tomato crops in the first season so that we can make and can our own tomato sauce, tomato paste, ketchup, sun dried tomatoes and basil, and all kind of other things. I get giddy just thinking about it. I can't wait to get through winter so we can get dirty and learn. When the opportunity comes up, I'll post a picture of the full design of the greenhouse/shed/garden. I'll be coming up with recipes and reviewing the uses of all possible vegetables in the garden. I'm too excited.

I can't wait to get dirty, build things, and then harvest what we've worked hard to produce. 

I think that moment when stand there looking at a good harvest or maybe after we've filled our shelves with freshly canned goodness is the moment when the four of us will realize that we really are capable to doing amazing things and that the time and energy we put into this was completely worth it. I can't wait. 

26 November 2013

Its been several months since my last post. Not much has changed actually. The growing season has come and gone, winter is upon us, and we're doing pretty good.
I really want to talk about the gardening situation, but I have so much to talk about that I'm afraid it will dominate this post. I'll post another shortly.
I've done some gear upgrades. I was originally using a Taigear tactical vest as my molle platform, but (for my wedding anniversary) I got a Condor Defender Vest. I think I'm going to end up writing up a quick review of it this week. I trimmed some of my other gear too. At this point, I'm far more focused on food storage.
That leads me into my next topic. The prep room is coming along. We decided that the bed in the bedroom was kind of useless and taking up valuable room. So we actually stripped the room completely, cleaned the carpets, and took some time to decide what was important. I'm actually typing this at my desk in there. It has a nice, warm war room feel. We're working on decorations. It feels kind of sterile right now, almost like a dorm room of a lunatic. It will come around and be a great room in the house that the wife and I can both enjoy. I'd like to make it a reading room with a classic Border's feel. Where was I was going was our food storage is coming along because of the added room and area to focus on what we can keep and stock without losing track of it. I'm actually really confident in our abilities.
The wife as really come along. I still think she was pretty hesitant when I started to get into this. However, after a vacation trip to Virginia she came home with books and determination to use knowledge she got from Williamsburg tours and books she picked up. She picked up some herbs at Lowes on clearance and got things growing. She even has a crab apple planted. I can't be more proud of her.
We've added some new books to our collection. The next is going to be The Prepper's Cookbook. Once we have that I believe I'm going to be doing a review of it. All the new stuff is basically based around herbs and their uses. Its outside of my grasp of understanding, but I'll work on it.
The winter season has started. I have the house winterized, which is what prompted me to start looking at a redesign of the prep room/war room. We're going to be testing some of our stuff like our stove here soon to make sure it works properly, and so we can get a little practice on it incase something should actually happen.
A quick side note, both my wife and I are medicated now which I think has spawned a thirst of knowledge and more drive and determination. I know that that is especially true for me.
In sad news however, after finding a dealer right near by sells great equipment, I made a list of all the things I wanted and then this happened.
http://shipnc.com/articles/2013/11/12/news/doc5282372d46076656827649.txt
Yup. NCIS shut them down because they were thieves. It like having your favorite family member that has been there for you your whole life turn out to be a pedophile. Its uncomfortable and now I don't know how much I can trust dealers like that. It makes me angry, but most of all it disappoints me that people would so happily buy stolen Marine's property. Thats our guys that you're taking from. Its disappointing from where I stand. I have a grocery list of things they had. I want to go and steal from them so they can never see a cent of profit. I don't care what the reasoning was, I don't want a sob story from them.
The rest of wants going on is based around gardening and upcoming projects. So for now I'll end it here. I want to get all my gardening stuff out.

Last quick side note, I think I'm going to start learning about writing. I do enjoy it, but I feel like everything I write is disjointed and hard to follow. It seems to be a stream of consciousness, and thats not always fun to read.