The great outdoors

The weather this weekend was so wonderful! We spent a lot of time outside and did some things to get ready for our garden this summer. I cleared away some vines and plants that were growing along the fence where we are going to plant. We are going to use the Square Foot gardening method and thus some plants will be growing up the fence.

This is the composting area. The left side is dedicated to yard waste and the right side is from our bokashi system! I can't say enough good things about the bokashi method of composting. It uses bacteria to ferment waste products. After a two week period in an air tight bucket it goes into the "ground" (now our compost zone, previously we put it in pots and covered it with dirt) for an additional two weeks and presto-chango you have wonderful compost to use in the garden.

When I was a little girl, I tried to make a solar oven (with a overturned metal pot and clay pot) to make my mom a birthday cake. This was not a bad idea as we lived in California and the sun was very strong, but California also has many ants which were soon drowning in my flour, egg and of all things maple syrup batter. Recently Hubs has purchased a "Sun Oven!" So we decided to test it out. This thing became very hot very fast (within a 1/2 hour) and reached temps as high as 325 F! I was quite impressed as this was a sunny but cool winter day. I can only wait for summer when it's much hotter and the sun is much stronger. Our potatoes were not entirely cooked after 2 hours, but they were cooked.

After my last post I decided I had to finish the yarns. Some are here on Hub's head. He's really too cute isn't he?


Also I received some Jacob's Wool from Hub's (and I guess now my) friend Michelle. I hope that I can repay her generosity soon! (And visit her farmlette.) (Oh and p.s., I cast on for the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts this weekend too! More on that to come.)