2008...finished, 2009 Here we come!!

So we're nearly done with another year... how did it go?

List of 2008 years goals.
• My goal for personal health this year is to get to 190 lbs consistently. I want to get to this goal by June 1st. At this time I want to begin exercising more vigorously to increase my muscle tone.Well, this one went well to begin with but finished off pretty weak. I made a good point in the beginning of the year to get on the stationary bike and got myself in good shape to ride to work, which I did. Late in the summer, though I had a few things get in the way, and had a long cold that kept me from riding and from there it pretty well went down the tubes. I'm still lighter that I had started at, but not at my goal of 190.

• I want to start phasing out more meat in my diet. I am not planning on going fully vegetarian, I love meat too much, but I have over the last year realized that I feel more healthy and full of energy when I eat a mostly vegetable diet. I'd like to get to a point where all the meats that I do eat, either come from local producers, or that are meat or fish that I harvest myself. I think I will be much happier and healthier, eating really good meat once in a while rather than poor quality meat regularly.I think I did pretty well on this. I do still eat meat regularly, but we've really integrated a lot of different things like TVP, grains and such. Still have work to do on it, but progress has been made.

• For my garden this year, I want to really get a head start on it. I want to prepare early and get a good start so that I am able to get a good early season crop. I also want to make an effort to plant things that I can over winter, such as potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, squash and onions. I made available a good bit of space in the yard this fall and I want to make sure that I use it.Did really well on this I think! I was able to get a lot of early cool season crops of lettuces, peas and cabbages in and added a few new ones like kohlrabi

• I want to begin moving my garden towards having more open pollinated and heirloom varieties and to begin a seed bank for myself to save seed from one year to the next..Once again, I feel pretty good about this one. I managed to save seed from four tomato varieties, radishes, coriander, basil and carrots. It's a start and I'm happy with it so far.

• Another thing that I want to start doing is recycling. I know I know, I should be already, but it's not readily available to us, and we haven't been making the effort other than when we have a bunch of cardboard..This has made a huge difference in our home. We set up a small pale in the kitchen that we collected all of our recyclable materials in and I regularly dropped them off at my office. A welcome side effect of this, that should have been expected, was that our trash can was rarely full through the year. There was a noticeable difference in our waste stream; a welcome site!

Food production totals for 2008:
This year A~ and I set ourselves a goal that, although we didn't advertise it, was to reach 500 lbs of food grown in our garden. I'm very proud to say that that goal was exceeded! Our final, end of year total for homegrown produce was........drum roll please...... 521 pounds!! And that's not counting the eggs. Even though our girls didn't start producing until July 12th, they blessed us with 771 eggs through today's collection. It still amazed me how fast they add up. I forgot to mention so I'll add it now, but I did a little experiment from Nov 12 - Dec 13th. I didn't mean for it to end up as exactly one month, rather to test how long one bag of our feed would last through the winter when the chooks are eating a lot and it is primarily feed based. I wanted to see what kind of egg production I got with little to no additional lighting and during the short daylight hours. The result was 135 eggs in 31 days. That translates to 11.25dozen or approx. $33.75 (based on $3.00/doz) to a $13.00 bag of feed. Good return for a slow production period, but I digress...

So then, what to do for 2009? I have a lot of things that I want to do, some reruns from 2008 and some new goals for 2009. Let's run 'em down...

List of 2009 goals.
•I want to basically redo my personal health goal for this year. I got close and, honestly, I think I can do better.
•A~ and I have a lot of garden goals for this year. We have already added quite a few feet of new garden area in the form of the lasagna beds this fall and we want to add another whole section to the front side yard as well. All in all we're hoping to be able to triple our harvest this year and shoot for 1500 pounds.
•What to do with 1500 pounds of food? Well, we hope to also increase again the amount of food that we put up and preserve throughout the season. We're also hoping to be able to participate in our local farmers market, to at least a small degree, and met a woman from a local women's shelter that would be more than happy to take any extras that we have throughout the season. We both agree that finding ways that we can give back to our community is a goal worth making!
•Finally, as I mentioned in a previous posting, I will be participating in the Master Gardeners course this year. Besides that being the realization of a longstanding goal of mine, I want to parlay that into even more community activity. This year I want to again host a beginning gardening course, but even more than that, I want to begin laying the foundations for a community garden in my home town of Syracuse UT. There will be more to come on this so stay tuned.

Another thing, although not really a goal per se, is with regard to blogging and writing in general. I was able to realize this year that when I put my mind to it, I'm a pretty good writer. I've been honored to be invited to write for a couple of other venues and look forward to doing that this year. Perhaps I'll even have the opportunity to make a small income from it this year as well. I also have some ideas that I'm working toward for this blog. Nothing concrete yet, so again...stay tuned for more.

I want to take the opportunity to say thank you to everyone that's stuck with me this year, and wish a very warm welcome to those who've just found me. I look forward to a great new year with all of you, building community, sharing information and finding all the possibilities in life.

Happy new year all, and God bless.
Peace...
P~

A wonderful Christmas

Hi everyone...remember me? It was a wonderful Christmas for our family, I hope all of yours was as well.

I was able to get home a little early from work on Thursday the 24th and put a few finishing touches on the boys gifts. Yeah, I said gifts, plural. I was feeling pretty ambitious this year so instead of just the rubber band guns, that came out really well I might add, I also made some glass wine bottle guitar slides for them to play on their guitars with as well as some wall mounts to hold them, and for my little "drummer boy" a practice pad for him to pound on in his room. (The walls and his bed frame need a break please!) As I mentioned previously, I also made A~'s gift this year. I couldn't give it away last week, but I can now. It was a only a picture frame, but a very special one. It's made out of a couple of pieces of wood from a beaver dam that we hiked up to last summer in the Uinta mountains here in UT.I think she was really happy with it! And speaking of our handmade gifts, she managed to surprise me too. That hat that I showed off last week, the cool knitted one with the ear flaps... that was for me and I didn't even know it. The sneaky woman had me try it on to see how it would fit our oldest son and it was really for me. I didn't see it coming.

Another great part of this particular Christmas was that it was one of the few truly "white Christmas's" in a long time. Truly, because it snowed all day and then we got a good old fashion blowing and drifting snowstorm that night. Take a peak why don't ya... I took a pretty good video of it, but blogger seems to not like letting me put up videos for some reason?

I've been managing to spend a whole lot of time doing a whole lot of nothing this weekend, so although my post have been lacking severely, you're really not missing anything. I've started really formulating what my goals are going to be for next year, and am getting ready to really kick into gear for 2009. Have you been thinking about it yourself? got any big ideas? I'd love to hear em.
All the best everyone!
P~

Checking in~

I'm off running around checking in a commenting on a lot of blogs that I enjoy reading. Sometimes I get so caught up with my goals or what I'm up to that I get off track with showing my support to the many other wonderful bloggers out there. If I don't get to yours tonight, I promise to drop in more often. I do read many of your blogs on a daily basis, it's just getting the time to get out of reader and leave comments that escapes me.

I so appreciate all the comments I get here, and honestly have been feeling a bit guilty that I haven't been reciprocating as often. Forgive me please...

Catch you all tomorrow.
P~

This and That

Ever been so busy that you don't know if you'll have time to finish anything, and yet when you try to talk (read blog) about it, you really don't have much to say. Well that's me lately.

I spent most of this weekend in the garage working on finishing up the gifts for my boys and also managed to get one built for A~. We decided this year that we wouldn't buy anything for each other but instead would go all home made as far as the two of us. I have to say, I did really good and I think she'll be really happy Christmas morning when she opens it and finds the....well, she does read this blog everyday, I'll have to wait until the 26th to tell you about it.

While I was out checking the chickens yesterday I saw this beautifully delicate little frost-lace on a piece of glass and ran in to take a picture of it.
Life is about stopping to enjoy the miracles after all... what better way that a fleeting piece of natural beauty right?

This little guy (sorry for the blurry photo) was perched on our porch on Friday evening when I got home from work. No too sure he was getting the beauty of it all, but he's more than welcome to keep hiding out on our covered porch as long as he'd like.
A~'s been busy too, check this stuff out! The boys have been asking for that kind of hat for a while so she popped into the store, studied the way the hats were put together and came back and replicated them. I'm telling you they are sooo well made! The kids will love em. (I'm hoping for one too...Hint hint:-)I do have one really awesome piece of news though, and it has to do with the letter below.
That's a letter from out local University extension office announcing the starting date for this years Master Gardener Course. We, A~ and I that is, put our name on the list to be notified when the class was being put together and now we've sent our registration. Starting on the 21st of January we'll be taking the course together twice a week.

This is one of those things that we've both talked about wanting to do for the last five or six years but never had things line up just right. We decided that like most things that are important, if you don't MAKE it a priority, it just never happens. This is a step that we're taking in order to help us get to the next level, both in out own garden, but also in our community. It will help me to offer better information when I teach classes locally, and may lend a little more credibility to other projects that I have in mind as well. More on those to come in the future.

That's about all I've got today. With any luck I can catch up with some of my other writing obligations soon as well.
Till later then...
P~

Solstice garden mapping

A little while back I mentioned in a post about my chickens egg laying habits and mentioned a site that could help you determine your daylight lengths. It's also great for learning your local sunrise and sunset times and angle of the sun to the earth at solar noon. (You can find the site here)

This weekend on the 21st, at least in the northern hemisphere, is the winter solstice. That means it will be the shortest day of the year for us. Take a look at this chart and you'll see what I mean: So what's the big deal? Nothing tremendous, but it does offer an opportunity to do something that I've been thinking about for some time. Begin my backyard garden solar mapping. Now solar mapping is the term that I've decided to give this process, so googling it may not return anything about it, but I think it is an apt name for what I hope to accomplish.

Being that the Winter solstice is the lowest that the sun will sit in our horizon for the entire year and that it will provide us with the least opportunity for solar gain in the garden, what I am planning to do is to take some measurements, some pictures and some notes that I can then add to my garden journal binder as a point of reference for the future. I've learned that the more information that I have about the particular micro climates that I have in my garden and when and where the sun hits the earth, the better decision I can make about what kind of plants that I can plant in that part of the yard at different parts of the year.
Another great tool that I have found was on wundergound.com where, after a little clicking and searching by zip code, I was able to find the calendar shown above. It shows the weather for a full month at a glance. You can view on one page what the actual temperature is in a particular city in the US as well as information about what the weather was like for the year before.

This is another great tool for the home gardener to have at their disposal and I'll be printing and including this calendar in my garden journal as well for quick reference throughout next year.

The weather may not be letting me plant and prepare, but after a month of no growing I'm starting to feel that itch that hits me at the beginning of the year to start thinking about next year. I guess I will manage to hold it off for another couple of weeks. Hope the holidays are coming together well for you all.

All the best!
P~

Traditions

Who doesn't love a good Holiday tradition? Somehow they just sort of grow on us don't they? I've always gotten a laugh every year as the boys decorated our Christmas tree. Every year we've been able to track their growth by the band of decorations that appeared spontaneously. Years ago, we had a very bottom heavy tree as the boys were only 3 or 4 feet tall. A couple more years and the strip of decorations moved up a little bit at a time as they grew.

Look at them now...reaching almost to the top!
And that, is another tradition. As the Dad of the house, or at least because for a couple of more years at least, (months more likely.) I am the tallest in the house and have the honor of placing this beauty on the tree. I say beauty in the most sarcastic tone available to the writen word, but truth be told...she's grown on me.
A~'s had this angel since she was a littl girl and it made it's way to our family. It's part of the tradition, the things that are constant from year to year. The things we look forward to.
And when we speak of looking forward to things, can you say Christmas cookies??? Oh yeah...I can! These are one of those special, delicate, tasty treats that I only get for the holidays. Just once a year. I mean we own the iron that makes them, and the recipe is pretty simple from what I've seen, but still only once a year. And THAT is what makes them soooo special. And of course more than anything else, time. We try to not wait until the holidays to make it a point to spend time together, but we all know how easy it can be to let life sneak up on us. What better excuse can you think of to spend time together in the cold, with hot chocolate and a camera than lights and Christmas displays.

A neighboring town has this beautiful display that, although we haven't made it there in a couple of years, we all really enjoyed it and will be coming back again for sure.
So there you go, a peek into our traditions, at least a couple of them. They do seem to sneak up and cling to us, and in doing so somehow help to define us. They are what we remember, what our kids will look back to as they define their own traditions in the future, and what we'll get to pass on to our grandkids one day. But those things are a ways down the road, for now, I think I'll just take another look at that middle heavy tree, snack on a cookie and have a great Christmas 2008. I hope you do too!

Being that it's going to be a busy season for everyone, us included, I thought I'd give you the heads up that I may be a bit sporadic through the rest of the month. I have a lot of projects and such that I need to wrap up before the new year, and there's only so many hours. All the best, till next time.
P~

It's a wonderful life...now live it!

I've seen this entry on a couple of the blogs I read, and thought it was pretty interesting. There are a few things that i think I'd add to it, but it's a pretty good list if you ask me.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (Not really at sea, but out in the Pacific sitting on a surfboard...pretty close I'd say!)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language I taught myself a little arabic before my second deployment there.)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book - One Day!!!
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible - Working on it...
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake - ugh...I put my foot in...That's close enough for me...it stinks!!
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Now, if I'm counting right, I've done 60 of these 99 things. Not too darn shabby I'd say. A lot of them I have to give credit to my parents for. They made it a point to make sure that my sister and I were able to get out and see the world.

I think that bigger point of looking at a list like this is that we really have a lot of opportunities in this life. Take every chance you can to embrace them fully.
Have a great weekend.
P~