chatter April

 -- Chatter -- 

Hey Everyone!  

Whew, busy time of year - isn't it? Year end business, my husband's late-father's estate, and all income taxes are finally done. 


While April in BC Canada is fairly warm, we still get freezing at night until around the end of May and right now,  the bulbs we planted last year are just starting to bloom. Some plants and newly sewn grass seed in the lawn are breaking ground, and there's a lot of room in our newest landscape beds for us to choose plants for this year. I've been harvesting leeks and carrots out of the garden the last couple weeks... they had overwintered from last fall.

Garden and yard spring clean up chores have been done and much of the trimming and shaping of the bushes and trees are done (little more to do). I brought out some of our garden trellis panels and have sprayed them clean with a hose, you can see them drying in the sun by the garden in one of these pics. 

We made some awesome headway on the 'pathway-around-the-place' project (cement pads placed on gravel bed, and held together with wood beams). 





This work led to us sorting through our wood pile and getting it stored (temporarily) so that we can access the materials quickly when we start our next few projects this spring... such as putting in a new cement pad for the garden shed to sit on. ...That pile of wood will be gone by summer if all goes well. 











We also started just a few veggies so far this year (couple types of cold crops that are ready to go out now, and several types of peppers that are just starting to sprout) and will have to start the tomato, tomatillo, ground cherry and melon seeds in a couple weeks. One compost bin's contents have been dispersed where needed; another compost bin is ready to go... but the area it is destined for is not! lol 

Other than yard duties - this is typically the time of year for me to clean out the pantry, wiping down the shelves and cans and jars and checking for expiry and spoilage, etc. I've also sorted through the frozen foods, and this time I made a list of what was in there so I can menu plan around that - using stuff up before I get harvests from the garden again. As such, I got about a laundry basket full of jars of older food items that were put in the compost - It happens, sometimes you just can't eat it all in time. Luckily, we seem to always make it thru the winter and still have about a dozen or more bags of leaves under a tarp by the compost bins for layering with such contributions and keeping the flies at bay.




I signed up for a food preservation course that I am taking now - and while I'm not new to this I have learned so much already and I'm only on the 2nd of 6 modules. Whew! It is intensive learning, but fun and inspiring too. I also signed up for another permaculture course (starting in May, but is only 4 weeks long - the first course I took on this topic was about a year long) and so I'll be in a great gardening mood for the upcoming season! 




My goals this week are many, but include getting the slug and earwig traps out in the garden and putting a plastic cover over a tunnel on one of our garden beds (for the early brassica crops)... and of course, catch up on some of the office work, getting the yard certified, and making headway in the course I'm taking at the moment. Whew! Oh and writing.... well, ya - Love to get to that ... but I don't see it in my life for a while yet other than this blog. A girl can only do so much. 😍

As such ... I'm going to slow down a bit on the frequency of posts on the blog for a few weeks. Perhaps every-other day instead of almost every day. I'd love to see some more content contributions... and I do have several interviews with a few inspiring folks that I'll be working on for my readers as well. Too much to do, so little energy ...and less time. ha ha