Greenhouse

Saturday my sweetheart turned 34.

Dean hates birthday's almost as much as he hates going to the Doctor. If he could he'd skip them both. Alas he married a girl who loves holidays & birthdays (Dr. visits, not so much) so I like to celebrate. He spent most of the day putting up the greenhouse. It's been on his list of things to do for a few weeks now. Just had to wait for the right weather. We have had some pretty crazy wind & rain with the occasional snow storms over the past month. Saturday started out warm & sunny & by the end of the day it was cold & windy. Dean had just enough time to get everything done that he needed. All he has to do is to hook up the water, electric, & to fill up the tank for the heater. This shed is amazing. What I didn't know was that Dean didn't even do work for this. I misunderstood. He has often traded his labor for materials on side jobs after work. This, I found out was a throw away from a man who bought a home up at Tahoe. Dusty (our family friend that you see helping Dean put the shed up) helped to clear out almost a whole hose of stuff that this man didn't want. He asked Dusty to throw the greenhouse away or give it to someone that would use it. He just didn't want it. This is a pretty common occurrence up at Lake Tahoe. Property is so expensive that often people will by a perfectly good home, knock it down or gut it & start over. Almost everyone wants new. So this greenhouse was free. FREE!!! We would have never in a million years have been able to afford something this nice. We are so grateful to Dusty for thinking of us & passing it our way.

Dean has already started quite a few of our seeds. We chose mostly heirloom seeds from two different catalogues. The first was Seed Savers Exchange the second was Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Both provided wonderful customer service & seeds were shipped quickly. Why did we decide to grow mostly heirloom seed? I'll be honest, we are new to gardening. However Dean really does his research & he liked the idea of growing a piece of the past. We are growing things that you can't find when shopping at the market these days. It's also fun to try new varieties. Some of these seed varieties date back to the early 1800's. We also like the idea of being able to save our seeds after a harvest so we can keep the cycle going. I know all of this isn't easy but both of us feel a real pull to get back to basics. Do any of you have garden plans this year? I'd love to hear what you plan on growing.


Next on our list of things to do for the back yard (I say our but Dean does most of the work ;) is to build the planter boxes & the chicken coop. The girls are so excited that we are getting chickens. I will admit that I'm kind of excited myself. We will start with 10 because you have to prepare to lose at least 3. Right now we're just deciding what breeds to get. 


Last but not least I'm halfway done with 2 illustrations & hoping to share a few finishes this week with you. I also have been working on a few projects that I can't tell you what they are yet, but as soon as I'm able I will share them with you. I've actually been pretty busy art wise, just haven't been able to spill the beans quite yet. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend & hope you have a wonderful week!