Looking at the coming year...

We just had Dewey home for far too few days here...Wednesday through this morning. I would have rather he stayed home instead of heading back to the job, but alas, there is a plan in motion here and we want that accomplished as well. Just wish it didn't have to be either one or the other :o( Time to really kick the bill paying into gear and put the income taxes totally toward it as well. We want Dad home for good.

We talked about what we might ultimately build out here, and where on our land it would be. Kris, I have to tell you that I might well borrow your basic/simple design for our own home :o) I definitely want the open spaces as much as possible. Dewey is looking at doing a partial basement...about 4-5 ft below grade with 3-4 ft above grade....bedrooms would be down there for cooling in the summer, and he wants to make it easy to get out of if the need arises. The storage area would be at one end, and through there, access to the storm shelter below grade. Upstairs, living space, bathroom/shower, laundry area and such.

I'm no artist, or I'd share a sort of idea. LOL...look at Kris' house plan, add another bedroom to it, turn it into 2 floors (for Dewey's basement area) and a loft, and you'll have a good idea what's rolling around in my head :o) And I'm not good with sizing things...I'm far too visual for that. I sort of drew up what I'm thinking, but Dewey will have to fine-tune the idea so it will actually work.

We have near 800 cinder blocks, and have been picking up miscellaneous materials as we find them at a good price...I have a pallet and half of sheet rock/fiber board, 8 double hung windows,3 sections of counter top, etc. so we have a pretty good start to something.

I am starting (late, perhaps?) to look into the garden for the coming spring. I want to enclose this front porch for now with those light panels and create a sort of greenhouse to start my seeds in. It won't be a true greenhouse unless I pull off the tin roof and place some light panels up there as well, but I think it will get me by. I just need more space for starting seeds mainly.

What seed catalogs has everyone gotten in so far? What are your favorite seed sources? So far, all I have here is Jungs...not exactly what I need for ordering heirloom seed saving sorts of veggies.

The feed store folks were telling me that the old timers around here buy cotton seed meal to help build up their garden. We have clay...a good 2 foot of it, then at least 4 feet of more clay, only this time it's a sloppy, gloopy gray muck blend. I don't know what to do to help get better soil short of hauling the trailer up north and emptying my mother's yard of that nice, black and rich northern Illinois soil I'm used to :o) I don't know a thing about cotton seed meal -- I guess I need to look into it.


Just took a break from writing here to bury the kitten. Seems it got too close to one of the dogs runs and Daisy has a habit of playing with things, most often too rough for survival. Jennifer is upset -- there is only one kitten left now, and she wants to bring him inside the house. I rather like not having an animal in the house actually, but this last kitten is special. He was the last to be born, totally hairless, totally the runt of the litter. We kept him inside for 3 days, feeding him supplemental feedings and allowing him freedom to nurse to his hearts content with momma when we brought her in. He was just too small and was easily pushed aside with the other kittens. I know, I know...natural culling of the cat population...what can I say? I'm a softie.

We are off to listen to some downloaded sermons from Michael Bunker. With the internet card I can finally download the audio sermons without pulling my hair out on dial-up. How nice! And so fast!