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Busy in the Burbs

Busy in the Burbs

Category Archives: Home

Garden: When Things Don’t go to Plan

12 Thursday Sep 2019

Posted by Nora in Home

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As you saw last time, the pumpkin vines were starting to grow over the wall.

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Well, the cucumber did too.  This resulted in a cucumber trying to grow into the wall.  I pried it out gently and it tasted fine; it just didn’t look quite right.

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Then the bunnies found us.  They liked the carrot tops (though I don’t think this affected how many carrots we got).  Something ate many strawberries and tomatoes; I’ll need to protect those better next year.  They also liked the green bean plants, but we got plenty of green beans still so that wasn’t a problem.  The picture shows the damage to the parsley.

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I had thought it was chipmunks, but obviously bunnies were contributing. I’m not sure how we’re going to protect the garden better next year.  Chipmunks can get pretty much anywhere.  I may put a wire fence and the end of the ledge to stave off the bunnies.  I don’t think they’ll jump down.

Another option would be to move the cucumbers to the end.  Their spines seemed to make them rather un-passable once they grew in.  That said, I’d prefer to grown them up the trellis next year; that didn’t quite work out this year because the trellises weren’t strong enough.  Stronger trellises would also help keep the tomatoes farther from the ground.  Lessons learned and improvements to come.

Garden: The Pumpkin is Taking Over

22 Thursday Aug 2019

Posted by Nora in Home

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squarefootgarden

Not much to say.

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The little guy is very happy.

Garden: Everything is Coming in Nicely

15 Thursday Aug 2019

Posted by Nora in Home

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squarefootgarden

By the beginning of July things had come in impressively.  Just about all of the seeds had taken.  And, the pumpkin that came home from kindergarten had outgrown its box.  Since when do school plants actually grow!?

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We missed the June strawberry season.  There weren’t many berries and I think those that did form got eaten by chipmunks.

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We had a steady supply of green beans.

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I also set up a sprinkler because our amazingly wet, but not too wet, and cool, but not cold, spring had given way to summer heat.

The peas grew nicely up their trellis.  The carrots and pumpkin competed for space.  The pumpkin began its takeover down the wall.  And, the corn came in shockingly well.  It’s not Field of Dreams, but it’s an orderly square of corn stalks.

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Garden: And we’re off …

08 Thursday Aug 2019

Posted by Nora in Home

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By late May there were sprouts everywhere.

In the near box corn is sprouting from seed.  In the far box the strawberry plants took well.  We didn’t get very many strawberries though.  I don’t know if that’s because its the first year or because the chipmunks got them first.

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Apologies for the shadows; the glare wasn’t letting me take decent pictures away from the house in the other direction.

The near box has carrots sprouting.  The trellis is up for tomatoes to be added later.  It will later become clear that this trellis needs to be better supported or we need a different support plan altogether next year.

The far box shows a great deal of arugula, spinach,

and broccoli.  Peas are sprouting behind the broccoli and will eventually grow up that trellis.  While the trellis is strong enough to support peas, putting them behind the broccoli proved to be a poor decision.  Plantings will be moved around next year.

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Finally, the last two boxes have a similar look.

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The near box has a healthy dose of broccoli and parsley.  The swiss chard and lettuce are just getting started.  In the far box, beans are sprouting from seeds and there are some open spaces for peppers once it warms up.

Next year I think I’ll plan to put peppers in to replace the broccoli.  That will free up additional squares for greater productivity.  And, it turned out everything went on sale at the nursery at the start of June so there really wasn’t any benefit to buying warm weather plants earlier.  But, by then its too hot for broccoli.

Garden: The First Sprouts

02 Friday Aug 2019

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By the middle of May, seeds had started to sprout.  Everything looked so organized!

We had tiny carrot tops.

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The second box contains purchased cucumber (back left) and broccoli plants.  There is arugula grown from seed in the front right.  There are two boxes of spinach grown from seed.  The peas behind the broccoli were grown from seed too.  Being behind the broccoli would prove to be a problem later.

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The last box has more broccoli, celery, and parsley – all purchased.  Swiss chard seeds have sprouted in the front left.  Lettuce from seed is growing in the front right.

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Three boxes remain empty.  One has corn seeds, but there’s nothing to see.  The others will get strawberries and peppers/beans when it gets warmer.

 

Garden: First Round of Planting

26 Friday Jul 2019

Posted by Nora in Home

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I did a lot of reading and charting.  Everything indicated that I could start putting plants in the ground mid-March.  But, spring was cold so I waited.

I did have grand plans!

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I ended up starting to plant on April 10.  I started as much as I could from seeds outside.  In this first round that included arugula, carrots, lettuce, peas, spinach, and swiss chard.  I bought broccoli, parsley, and strawberry plants.  On April 11 (and a few more times) we had frost warnings so I covered the plants.  I figured the seeds would be fine.

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Clearly they were!  I used this picture before, but just a reminder that the garden is going gangbusters.  It’s gone way further since this was taken.

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Garden: The Build

18 Thursday Jul 2019

Posted by Nora in Home

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squarefootgarden

We had a small garden in our previous house.  It was an L-shaped raised bed into which we planted rather random things every year.  At some point I converted half of it to strawberries, but the rest was always random.  Frankly, beyond strawberries, the thing that had grown best there was celery.

After we moved, the kids started asking for a garden again.  It took three years, but it finally happened.  Each year I thought I knew where it should go and each year I reconsidered for one reason or another.  In the end it ended up on a ledge stepping from the front yard to the side of the house.  It gets truly full sun so I was a little worried about the plants getting burned from the heat reflecting off the rock wall, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue.

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This time I read Mel Bartholomew’s book All New Square Foot Gardening and made a plan.  It hasn’t all necessarily worked to plan, but the whole thing was definitely much more organized than previously.  The book recommends 4 ft by 4 ft boxes.  Those would have overlapped with the rocks so we went with 4 ft wide and 3 ft deep boxes.  Six boxes spaced nicely.

I spent $170.56 on 1″x6′ cedar boards that I had the lumber yard cut to 4′ and 3′ lengths.  These were screwed together using screws we already had to make eight six-inch boxes.  Two of these were stacked on top of other boxes to make two twelve-inch boxes using four joiners (two per box) that cost an additional $2.80.  That brought the total for the boxes themselves to $173.36.

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The ledge already had landscaping fabric and mulch.  So, after confirming the placement of the boxes, I moved them out of the way, scraped off the mulch, made some effort to level the area (not fully, but some places were rather sloped, and replaced the boxes.  Then I spread the extra mulch around the boxes.

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Mel recommends a mix of vermiculite, peat moss, and five types of compost.  The math worked out better for four types of soil/compost though, so that’s what I did.  Two blocks of peat moss cost $10.97 at Lowe’s while four our bags of vermiculite cost $83.88 at Home Depot.  The compost mix included six bags of Coop Poop for $57.00, four bags of cow manure for $19.92, four bags of top soil for $13.32, and four bags of organic bed soil for $39.92.  That brought the fill total to $130.16.  I also spent $7.77 on twisted mason line to divide the squares, bringing my total for box construction to $406.14.  Clearly one would need to maintain a garden for a few years for this to be a cost effective way of procuring food!  But, this was supposed to be more of a fun project for us; feeding us was not the primary goal.

I laid a tarp out on the grass above the boxes and mixed the fill in four batches.  This was by far the hardest part of the prep work.  I shoveled the mixed fill into five gallon buckets and dumped them over the edge into the boxes.  When I got to the very end, I enlisted some help to slide the tarp over and dump the remaining fill directly.

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I failed to take a picture of the filled boxes, but you can imagine.  Plus, we’ll get you a picture next week when we start seeing the planting process.  The build started in mid-March with the boxes filled on April 11.  But, it was another week before I planted anything and even then we fought some frost for yet another week.

We have a Garden

11 Thursday Jul 2019

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Home

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squarefootgarden

Tonight I harvested an entire salad – lettuce, celery, carrots, and cucumbers!  That, plus the peas that went into the main dish made for an interesting discussion at dinner.

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This was year one.  So, over the next few Thursdays I’ll go back to the beginning and bring you up to speed as to where we are now including costs, space, and plantings.

In the meantime, I have learned a few things so far:

  • Do not plant peas and broccoli next to each other.  When I pulled out the spent broccoli plants, I lost a few pea plants that had hooked onto them.
  • Celery doesn’t like this space.  We had a smaller garden at a previous house that celery did very well in.  But, this space is much sunnier.
  • The chipmunks like our strawberries.  We’ve gotten next to none to reach edible stage intact.  Interestingly, they haven’t touched anything else.
  • I need brackets for the vertical supports.  That’s probably obvious from the picture.  My first pass didn’t quite work, but I have a new plan (most likely for the fall when we have better access).
  • The pumpkin plant is taking over.  The above pictures were taken a week ago.  It’s gone way further since then.  Pumpkin was not in my original plan, but our kindergartner brought one home from school and the carrots hadn’t taken in one square so I threw it in.  Thankfully its not taking over anything really important.
  • I gave up on watering one square at a time as needed.  Hence, the sprinkler in the picture.

So, there’s a sneak peak.  We’re getting way more produce than I thought we would when we started.  Some things we will plant less of next year; some things we’ll plant more.

I read Mel Bartholomew’s book and took square foot gardening rather literally.  We have six boxes that are 4′ by 3′.  Honestly, I think this is plenty for us even though his book states this should only cover the adults.  Either way it fits the space well so I’m not feeling the need to expand any time soon.

The Week in Review: Week 45, 2018

15 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by Nora in Accomplishments, Family, Home

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It was an interesting week with some school holidays and the end of the fall soccer season.

The public school kids didn’t have school on Tuesday, but preschool was open.  On Thursday though they were back at school and preschool was closed for conferences.  So, I had someone home every day.  There was also no school on Monday for Veteran’s Day.

We had the crossing of the seasons in sports:

  • The first week of baseball winter workouts thankfully didn’t conflict with the last week of soccer.
  • Our oldest had three baseball practices, one soccer practice, and two soccer games.
  • Between the next few we had two more soccer practices and three soccer games.  It was rainy and cold for the last Soccer Saturday.  The older ones finished out their seasons on Sunday which was colder, but not rainy.
  • Our youngest went to gymnastics class.
  • The middle four went to swimming lessons.

Most other things were standard events for us:

  • We had another math night (there is one per grade per year).
  • The twins went to math morning (weekly).

I’m slowly finishing up those things I postponed until preschool started.  This week it meant I got a haircut for the first time since March!

I also took some of the boys to use their birthday gift cards, which had the added bonus of giving me Christmas ideas.

I continued cleaning out. Look at all these WikiStix creations!

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On the downside, the dishwasher sprang a leak (photo at top).  They came out once to assess and are scheduled to be back today with the part to make the repair.  Hopefully now the wood floors underneath will dry out and re-flatten.

What Protein do we Have on Hand?

01 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Home

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This post contains affiliate links.  However, I chose to try the meat share and paid for it myself after hearing about it from friends.  If you live in the greater (like an hour+) Boston or New York City area, you can give them a try and get $10 off your first order.

Our first Walden Local delivery arrived on October 16.  This is a meat share program.  You sign up for the level of the program – everything from grind only to custom, types of meat you want to receive (beef, pork, chicken, and lamb), any dietary restrictions, the number of pounds per week (roughly 5-30), and the number of people you are feeding.

We went with a 20 lb custom mix of beef and pork for six people.  As it turns out six is the maximum you can sign up for on their website, but we eat like 5-6 adults currently so that works for now.  Custom still doesn’t mean we get to choose exactly what we get.  We choose the categories we would be happy to receive and they send a mix of those things.  I’m told they are very responsive to emails and other specific info.

So, what was in our first delivery?

They sent a cardboard sheet with some guidelines, a small notebook, and two recipe cards.  Apparently they send 1-2 recipes per month that go with your meats.  We tried and liked both.  It’s all packed in a large reusable cube with two interior liners and dry ice.  The cube, liners, and guidelines get returned for future use at the next delivery.

 

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Our delivery totaled 21.5 lbs (yes, the bag is marked):

  • Boneless pork belly – I’ve never cooked this so it will be an adventure.  I’m not sure we’ve ever eaten it either, but maybe at a restaurant.
  • Two boneless pork shoulder roasts, about 1.5 lbs each – This seems small for us.  I’m not yet sure whether I’ll cook what we got and hope I’m wrong or break it down and braise it with some loin chunks I have on hand as I would usually do with pork shoulder (normally without the loin chunks though).
  • Three beef flat iron steaks – This is another cut we don’t have at home.  But, I can see fajitas calling to me here.  Ideally we’d grill them outside, but we’ll have to see how the weather goes.
  • Eight blueberry breakfast sausages – We weren’t sure what to make of these, though apparently they are very popular.  We tried them last weekend and were pleasantly surprised.  I wouldn’t order extra, but I’m not going to put them on my not deliver list either.
  • Three hot Italian sausage – We could grill these or cook them inside.  Given the time of year, my leading idea is to make a Sunday pasta sauce with meatballs and sausage.
  • Three “pastrami”-style beef sausage – The options are similar to the Italian sausages.  If we cook them inside it will be two separate meals so I can keep track of them.  Not everyone in our house likes spicy.
  • Six pork chops – We don’t often have pork chops at home because they are dry.  These were thicker and nicer than typical grocery store options.  We cooked them using the recipe card and they came out quite nice.
  • Two beef chuck roasts, about 3 pounds each – These screamed pot roast, which we do from time to time in the winter.  I used the recipe card (except Instant Pot instead of slow cooker) and it was very tasty.  We did have some leftovers which I used for sandwiches for the kids later in the week.

All in all, it was a good variety.  We wouldn’t normally eat this much sausage so I’m going to have to see how that is going forward and likely come up with some new things to do with them.  But, what we’ve tried so far was indeed tastier than similar products bought at the grocery store.

Now, for better or worse our freezer was already pretty full when the Walden Local delivery arrived because the fall meat sales have started.  So, this needs to be eaten down also and not lost among the new goodies.  I’m not going to go through all the proteins as I buy them each month, but until this comes down a bit I’ll let you know everything we have on hand each time a Walden Local delivery arrives.

 

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First, we had chicken nuggets and meatballs.  We will continue to have these available, though I hope our chicken nugget consumption will go down shortly when soccer season comes to an end.

Breakfast:

  • 2½ boxes of breakfast sausage
  • One box of bacon = two meals for us

Beef:

  • Two 2-lb bags of browned 80% ground beef
  • Eight NY strip steaks
  • Beef bones; one stock set
  • 8-10 hamburgers worth of 80% ground beef (not shaped)
  • One package of bone-in beef shanks

Pork:

  • Leftover pulled pork; enough for one meal for the kids
  • Four pounds of pork loin chunks
  • Eight sweet Italian sausages
  • Three half pork loin roasts

Chicken/poultry:

  • Four packages of chicken thighs with bones and skin; one package = one meal for us
  • Four 1.33-lb packages of ground turkey; two packages = one meal for us
  • Six packs of thin-sliced chicken breast; 4-5 packs = one meal for us
  • Four packs of boneless/skinless chicken thighs; 4 packs = one meal for us

Seafood:

  • Some salmon filets
  • Some tilapia filets
  • One bag of shrimp; 1 bag = one kids meal

 

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About Me

Welcome! I’m Nora. We have 5 boys and 1 girl. I write about the practical stuff that we call life – managing school, sports, and all things suburban. I get everyone where they need to be, with their stuff, when they need to be there and write about how that all gets done.

Recent Posts

  • October 2019 Grocery Review November 25, 2019
  • September 2019 Grocery Review November 18, 2019
  • Grocery Update – Week 36, 2019 September 24, 2019
  • Grocery Update – Week 35, 2019 September 23, 2019
  • August 2019 Grocery Review September 17, 2019

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