It’s Alive….!!!

So we finally planted our seeds this past weekend (even with our garden unfilled/finished). We thought we would go ahead because if we waited until the garden was finished all of our plants would be way behind on the growing curve. Here is a list of plants that we are planning on growing in (and around) our garden:


Oregano
Basil
Cilantro
Sage
Tomato (heirloom)
Zucchini
Cucumber (heirloom)
Squash
Sweet Peas
Green Beans
Bell Pepper (heirloom)
Serrano
Cayenne
Jalapeño (heirloom)
Green Onions (heirloom)
Leek
Carrots (heirloom)
Butter Crunch Lettuce (heirloom)
Brussels Sprouts
Cauliflower
Pumpkin
Watermelon
Corn
Potato (Purple)
Spring Mix/Mesclun Mix
Sunflower
Sweet Onion
Garlic
Sweet Potato
Blue Berries
Black Berries
Raspberries
Strawberries
Grapes

The heirloom seeds we got for free from a man named Ray who does Youtube videos about gardening (go and check him out he's pretty amusing and informing).


Here are a couple of pictures of our seeds in their little seed flats,







as you can see some of them have all ready sprouted. I am not sure which ones sprouted (we have a diagram but I didn’t have it with me), but quite a few did. We are growing the seedlings at my mother –in-law’s house because we don’t have the space or the sunlight in our house. So she graciously allowed us to grow them there (which I appreciate a lot!).

So we are still having problems getting soil for our garden, but it is coming together slowly. We got some soil from my mother-in-law, and some from one of my sisters-in-law. We will also go and pick up some more manure from our friends farm (ranch?) so we are getting there it is just taking more time than I thought it would.

On another note we joined an Etsy “Team” called Baha’is on Etsy, you all should go check it out. There are a lot of talented people from all over the country in that group (team?).

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Garden

So last Sunday Keturah went to a friend’s farm and picked up a truck load of manure for our garden (the truck (Shaniqua) was so loaded down it scared both of us). Although this was a lot of manure for the truck, the garden just seemed to absorb it. When I was done unloading it the level of the garden only grew by about an inch (I thought it would be a lot more). Seeing this I decide that a few more truck loads of compost (which would be free through the city) would help to fill it up. So I pack up and head over to the city compost center only to find out that they are completely out of compost, and won’t have any more until spring. I was devastated; I was really hoping to get the garden almost completely filled that Monday (I even bought a new wheel barrow for the job). The next day I wake up to find my garden completely filled


.... with snow.
This is what it looked like before (sans manure).

(Some of you might recognize the flywheel from a certain failed treadle wheel in the foreground.)

Flash forward to yesterday and I find out my in-laws know a man who has been letting people dump dirt on his property for the last ten years, and we can go and pick up as much as we want. It won’t be as good as the compost, but at least we can fill up the garden (and then amend it with compost and other sources of nutrients later). I’m excited to go and shovel a lot of dirt and some more manure (and then plant some plants (which reminds me that I need to get my seedlings started this week or next)). I’m now just waiting for all of this snow to melt, and a day off so that I can go and shovel some stuff.

Artistic Jealousy

So as I was sitting listening to (great) music, surfing the webs, and generally being bored enough to do some cleaning. I was really wishing I could do something artistic –my ideas ran from making pottery, printing tee shirts, video blogging, and printing books (one day soon). I was remembering a link our good friend Andy posted to his wonderful wife’s new photography project. The idea is that she will post a picture once each day for the next year. I am secretly jealous because I wish I could take pictures like her (because she is really an amazing artist/photographer) and thinking I could do something like that, right? But then realized I should probably just let the people who are good at it do it (instead of me doing it badly –similar to my wishing I could play the guitar… “Wish in one hand and pooh in the other and see which one gets full faster” my dad says). So I will promote her website (via this link here ---> Leah’s Cool Website) instead. Check it out, leave comments, and order a print or three.

Going. Going. Sold.

We sold our first (and second) piece of pottery on Etsy today, just about 4 hours ago. We were both so surprised and got really worked up. We then realized that we under priced on shipping and now have to pay half of it out of pocket. It’s not a big deal but we quickly went back through the rest of our Etsy products and changed the shipping on them. Some of them went up quite a bit because we could not fit them into those flat rate boxes, and shipping something as light as 4 pounds through the USPS cost about 36 dollars (we were both amazed at this, we thought it wouldn’t be much more than the flat rate boxes which can hold up to 20 pounds for about 10 dollars). Anyway, I’m headed to the post office first thing in the morning to send the pottery to Tennessee were they will live out the rest of their lives in blissful usefulness (hopefully). We will now have some more money so we can get to posting the rest of the hundreds of pieces of pottery we have in our office (thankfully most of it is on the smaller side so it doesn’t take up a lot of space, if it was the stuff I made for my MFA show we would be living in the garage while our house was stuffed with large spinning pottery).

Garden Party

We finally started work on our garden. We built it out of old railroad ties (only $5 apiece). As you can see we layered them two high, because the area we built it on was full of gravel and we needed enough space for soil. So next is to get dirt and plants. We will be getting manure from a friend, compost from the city (both for free), and top soil (from a store I guess). It only cost us $46 for the railroad ties, and shouldn't cost more than that for the soil. So only about $100 investment for fresh veggies. Next step is to learn how to preserve it all for the winter months.


This next photo is where we will be planting zucchini, squash, cucumbers, and melons. We will plant them next to the fence so that they climb up instead of out. We are also planning to grow sunflowers down father where the fence is higher.


On the pottery front, we’re selling our motorcycles so that we can really get our studio up and running the way we wanted. We figured that if we were really serious about doing it we wouldn’t let anything hold us back (i.e. Money), so we posted our bikes on Craigslist today. So hopefully we will sell them and can start buying pottery equipment (like a pottery wheel and clay).

Will Pot for Food

Finally, we put some pottery up on our Etsy Shop.

Beanie for Your Thoughts

It’s been awhile since the last post. Having non art related jobs will do that to a couple of artists. Anyway Keturah has made me a beanie out of fishermen’s wool (this wool still has the natural oil in it, so it is water resistant). She also knitted a nine pointed star into the top. Here are a couple of photos, you can also see the beard I have been working on (it seems to be the only semi artistic thing I have been able to do). We also have plans to get an electric potters wheel so I can start making work again in my spare time.