Garden Updates, Greenhouse, Flower Planting, and a Pantry Challenge

Hey everyone!

How is your new year going so far? We’ve been busy as usual and trying to get as much done as we can before the summer comes… although these lower-than-normal temperatures have been making that a little difficult.

Our gardens are still going and we are so thankful for that as we have really been enjoying the food that we are getting from them. Up until a week ago we still had tomatoes and green beans… the tomatoes don’t look too happy at the moment and the green beans are a little sad too but I think they might pull through when we get past these crazy temps.

Our papayas got a little cold as well. I had to move them to a spot closer to the pond so they could be a little more protected from those cold northern winds. We also covered them with some old feed sacks.

We moved the chickens from one end of the garden to the other so they could work their magic again. They did a good job on the lower end and we now have that ready to plant… when the weather warms up a little.

I also ordered a greenhouse last month and it came in on a semi-truck… the kids were super excited to see that as we don’t get many big trucks back here. We had to carry the box through the gates though as he didn’t have any way to move it out of the driveway… that was a bit of a challenge but the kids and I managed to get it done. Now to get it assembled!

I’m still not sure exactly where I want to put it but I need to make up my mind pretty quickly as my window sills and counters can’t really hold many more plants in the house… lol.

Last month I also ordered a few… my definition of ‘a few’ may be different than others... and they are piling in pretty quickly. I also picked up a few new plants that had already been started and they have been living under the goat shelter in the garden.

In November of last year, we had ordered some trees and flower bulbs to plant but the flowers were delayed, then lost, in all the Christmas hustle and bustle. The company was great and sent out some replacements but some of them had already been sold out. Well, we got the replacement package of bulbs and then the lost package arrived! Some of the older ones had already begun to sprout so we really needed to get them all out ASAP. (I did let the company know that we ended up with both packages.)

I had decision fatigue again and just decided to dump them all in a container and mix them up. We then walked around and planted them in random groupings around the house and garden… it’ll be so neat to see what pops up and where because the kids each got to take a few bulbs and put them wherever they chose.

Unfortunately, I seem to be allergic to some of the bulbs and had a slight reaction to handling them… I’m not sure which ones it was as I mixed them all up but I’ll try to narrow it down when they bloom. Once everything pops up and blooms we may end up moving things around a bit but for now they are in the ground so that they can get ready for Spring… I can’t wait!

We have also been discussing our plans for the house. Our master bathroom definitely needs to be next on the list as we have some soft spots in the floor now. Once that happens then my pantry can happen as we plan to relocate the master closets to the bathroom and turn the closet area into a large pantry… I am also trying to convince Mr. Awesome that we NEED a butler’s pantry off the kitchen but for now, he isn’t convinced.

We recently signed up with Starlink Internet Service as our previous service was not great at all. I really like the new internet but Mr. Awesome hasn’t been impressed yet. We do need to get it mounted to the house so there aren’t any obstructions so I think that will help a lot.

I can tell you that I have been able to upload pics and download files so much faster and our homeschooling hasn’t been delayed a bit because of spotty service… the only time we have any issues seems to be when multiple items are online and people are streaming movies.

If you’d like to sign up or check them out you can use our referral code to get a FREE month and that would give us a FREE month as well at no extra cost to you. CLICK HERE for a FREE month of STARLINK.

**They even advertise that you can return it for a FULL REFUND if you aren’t satisfied.

I know I’ve seen several people talking about ‘No Spend January’ and we haven’t been entirely NO SPEND but we haven’t gone overboard either. I have really been trying to use up some of our pantry items and one way I’ve done that is to make up a lot of our own spice mixes. One day I hope to be able to grow enough herbs to make some of our spices but that’s for another day.

We now have a new supply of:

I still need to mix up: (recipes should be posted soon)

Pepper Gravy
Taco Seasoning

What other homemade mixes do you make? If you have a favorite mix then please share the recipe in the comments. I also plan to can some more dried beans soon as we have been using them a lot lately. It is so much cheaper than buying canned beans and we know they aren’t full of extra preservatives and such.

I’ve also seen a lot more people talking about rotating meal schedules… we have updated some of our Perpetual Meal Plans if you want to check them out. They also include blank pages for making your own meal plans.

Perpetual Meal Plans

I’ve got to go for now but we hope you all are doing well and making some progress towards any goals you have set… you can share your goals in the comments below.

God Bless!

We did publish a short video to YouTube on our Pollywog’s Place channel… we will be trying to put up more videos in the future.