our first cherry blossoms of 2012
As you were...
Things have been SO BEAUTIFUL out, that it has been difficult to focus on work.
It's now too hot for the chickens. They're being very demanding, and want to be out in the grass nearly all the time. But they continue to lay about 4 eggs a day, and we have way too many eggs now. All the plants are putting out their leaves. Our trellis is almost looking happy again! I tied the blackberry and raspberry canes in interesting shapes so they look less messy, and hopefully will be easier when it's time to pick berries. Hubby threw down a seed mixture he'd concocted after reading several examples of other people doing so, with mixed results. The plants are all clumped together, so I'm worried about over-crowding. So it's March! It has been pretty warm around here, and the chickens have been laying eggs like there's no tomorrow. We weren't expecting it, but are happy to report that Pepper has laid two brown eggs in the last 3 days! This means she wasn't totally broken by last summer's heat wave that ended her season prematurely! The Marans breed isn't the best for egg production, so it would've been fine with us if she never laid another one. But I am just so happy to have a couple brown eggs! 
Now we're in garden prep mode. Have been for a while. The beds are anxiously waiting the first seeds. Traditionally St Patty's Day is when you plant peas, and they're the first seeds we would be putting out. Except it has been so warm that we broadcast some white clover seeds in some bare spots around the yard already. The trick will be to keep the chickens away from them until they sprout. I was not expecting the birds to want such tiny seeds, but they do. sigh! This weekend is the annual borough St Patty's Day parade. It's a big deal 'round these parts. I had no idea bagpipes were SO popular! And there are also a lot of little girls involved in traditional Irish dance. (forgive me for not knowing what that's called and being too lazy to look it up!) Anyway, to celebrate we hope to have a new batch of mead done. We made a strawberry mead and also an apple mead. Hopefully one will be Irish enough for the holiday. (I could just dye the apple mead green...) Besides the St Patty's traditional pea planting and beer drinking, I've been very busy networking. Just the other day I met someone from the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture. This, less than a week after hearing this talk from the founder of Double Brook Farm, and our participation in the Plymouth Whitemarsh EcoFest later that night. It has been a great week for Green!! Oh! And this week I was featured on Eggzy's blog. They started a new series called Featured Flock Owner. Check it out! We're making a small addition to the Green Rascal Design list of services. Over the weekend we went around our little borough and plastered some fliers on power poles - strategically placed where 1) lots of people pass by or 2) some edible plants would be a nice addition to a yard. Yes, we're on a mission to help people in our neighborhood grow their own food.
Everyone always says they don't have time to garden and it's so much work. Even after we've gone through the calculations to show how worthwhile it is from a financial standpoint to garden, I still get this complaint. So today I'll try and provide some resources... Today my better half, Chris, decided he wanted to share some insights about how good of an investment fruits and vegetables are. I've already shared some of these ideas, but hubby's take on things is a bit more monetary and might appeal to you if you're one of those 'show me the money' peeps. A note on Chris; he's an IT nerd with a love for investing. With his brother he started and ran a small hedge fund for several years, investing money for their family and several friends and doing quite well until the market tanked in '08. Since then his more conservative investing has nearly made back all of what the hedge fund lost. So his understanding of ROIs is pretty good, I think. Without further adieu: A good return on your investment is usually between 10%-15%. Nature laughs at these returns. In the following paragraphs I will examine the kinds of returns on investment that investors in nature can expect these days.
I apologize for the horrible red-eye (and my unruly hair), but it's the only picture I have of me holding one of the giant squashes from under our butterfly bush. And you know if I just put up a picture of the squashes it wouldn't be nearly as impactful.
Granny Smiths
Yes, they are ugly, but we are lazy. We never sprayed or shielded these little babies from anything. These are probably the most organic apples I've ever eaten, and I grew up near an apple orchard. Last year we got a few apples, but we had covered them with little nylon stockings and they were prettier than these apples. But it doesn't matter what they look like when they're in pie! 
We also have several crookneck squashes growing under,
in and on the butterfly bush... Things are way too busy around here right now. Well, I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, but it's been a long time since we've taken pictures of the garden or the birds or done a building project. First, I was at the annual CEDIA Expo in Indianapolis weekend before last for the other company I'm working for, High Def Zone. (shhhh! don't tell anyone!) Getting ready for and recouperating from a 4 day long business trip really took it out of me. And the fluffy chickens missed me a lot. So I spent some quality time with them for not only their sakes but mine too, because playing with the birds always puts me at ease. The squashes growing on the chicken cage have gotten enormous to the point of nearly ripping the fence down! There are also several large squash vines taking over our butterfly bush. I'm not sure if there are actual squashes on them, but it looks crazy anyway. Also on the chicken cage are overgrown Chinese yard beans. We will have tons of yard beans available for planting next year. If you want some, I'm sure hubby will be happy to share. I can't see how any one household could use that many beans! We basically haven't harvested any of them, prefering instead to give them to the chickens as treats. I don't know why, but the birdies LOVE those beans. Our tomatoes went absolutely crazy. They grew out of control all over the yard and over the sidewalk, making it interesting times getting to my car in heels and a pencil skirt. We haven't been picking many tomatoes lately as they are taking much longer to ripen with all the clouds and shorter days. The hardy kiwi vines, I'm happy to report, have made it to the TOP of the trellis finally. Now they are looking really awesome. The male vine actually needs to be trimmed back now! So hopefully next year we'll get to experience some of these little hardy kiwis. We let the raspberries and blackberries grow long and take root so that we can dig them up and give them to the farm. Henry Got Crops has been a great experience this year, and we're looking for more ways we can easily support them. I don't have time to work in the fields, so maybe a gift of 10 or 20 little plants will help. I was at FOUR evening networking events last week! One of which was a SARA PA board meeting on Tuesday. (love those guys!) A Women in Business Alliance event in Princeton Wednesday (where I was recognized for winning the logo contest). A King of Prussia Business Networking meetup Thursday which was HORRIBLY attended - NO offense to the 4 great guys who actually bothered to show up. And then there was the AEC Networking group first annual golf event on Friday... and I've never played golf before, but my team was amazing and I really need to follow up with a couple of them and schedule a lunch... This doesn't include the daytime stuff: CSA pickup on Tuesday, Women to Watch by the Biz Journal on Wednesday morning (at the ass-crack of dawn), and BNI on Thursday morning (also the ass-crack of dawn). Saturday after my weekly tai chi lesson I was dragged to the gun show in Valley Forge because of hubby's new hobby... yeah... tried to make it to my school's tai chi event in Phoenixville, but it just wasn't in the stars. Yesterday I had a coffee appointment (just after the ass-crack of dawn). Today I was scheduled for a Power Lunch with some people, but it was cancelled. I'll just go pick up my CSA stuff. Tonight is my BNI group's open networking event at 8 East... I have a showroom to visit as well as an architect to spam. Then Thursday I have BNI again (you know, the ass-crack of dawn)... and later is the 422 ARCH September happy hour in Pottstown - which we have been mercilessly promoting all over the place. Then Friday (BEFORE the ass-crack of dawn) morning I'm lucky to have been invited to the Business Clubs America breakfast down at the Union League. Then apparently there is a Power Lunch that I had thought was on a different day, but oh well... Then there is a Penn alumni event that I was HOPING to make it to at the Mission Grill... but I'll probably just collapse on the couch instead. So hopefully I'll have a few minutes one of these days to post pictures of the crazy squash and monster tomatoes. Until then, missing you! Cheers, H  yellow tomatoes, blackberries  cucumbers ready to pickle I have a few pictures of things we've picked and made over the last few weeks...
I had somebody calculate the total year to date Return on Investment for the strawberries and raspberries. Here is what they came up with:
Strawberries - Initial outlay $23 + $10 for soil amendments and compost: Water = Zero. Used dehumidifer water or other saved water sources.Income - 1st Year - About 2-4 large bowls of strawberries. Roughly $20 worth of berries. 2nd Year - 7 litres of jam. | Rascal Scratches
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