3/13/2013

We have cherry tomatoes on our vines out in the greenhouse!!  They aren't ripe yet, but they are actual tomatoes!  We're still enjoying fresh salads with all the lettuce, spinach, carrots, cucumbers, and radishes right out of the greenhouse.  I have no clue how much money we've saved by growing it versus buying it, but we sure have been enjoying it.  :-)

2/28/2013

Winter salads have consisted of a mix of gourmet lettuce seeds called Rocky Top mix:

Rocky Top mix lettuce

Plus we've been able to throw in spinach, carrots, cucumbers, and snow peas.

Danvers half-long carrots

sugar snap edible pod snow peas

cucumbers and wandering Jew in hanging baskets

He also has some cherry tomatoes, green beans, and cabbage growing out there.

Cabbage plants

Chadwick cherry tomatoes

Of course, we have had to heat the greenhouse at night due to some of the warmer-weather plants out there.  Next winter, he says he'll try it with just cool-weather crops and see how that does.

2/24/2013

Our visit with our son and family was all too short (as always) but a good visit.  It's been a while since we had four kids in the house.  We've been getting cucumbers out of the greenhouse now, and they are wonderful!  He did pull all the kohlrabi, as they were starting to bolt.  This morning, he planted 2 rows of carrots and 2 rows of radishes in the spot where he pulled the kohlrabi.

It's really been wonderful to have all the produce out of the greenhouse this winter.  We've had fresh salad any time we wanted.  We've shared salad with all the family members here on the mountain and with the neighbor lady down the hill too.

He has been busy working up firewood also.  Hopefully, we'll only have another month of burning wood; that is, IF the groundhog was right.  LOL  So far, since Groundhog day, we seem to have gotten more winter weather.

We didn't get much for snow during the "big storm".  We got a light dusting of snow, then about 1 & 1/2 inches of sleet/ice on top of that.  It was melting by the following day (yesterday).  Today, it is 58 degrees out, and we've been hanging clothes on the clothesline both days.

We were prepared for a power outage, but we never had a glitch, even though there was tons of thunder and lightening to go with the sleet and freezing rain.  We thought it might be a good opportunity to test out the solar system, but it didn't hurt my feelings not to lose power.  We've been using the solar lights on a regular basis at night, plus the dining room television, the laptop, and the radio all run regularly on the solar array.  None of that really seems to affect the power stored unless we get a couple of cloudy days in a row.

2/16/2013

The salad from the greenhouse has been so wonderful to have this winter.  He planted a Rocky Top lettuce mix, and it's excellent.  We've had enough lettuce and spinach to share with family and friends.  We've also used lots of carrots, kohlrabi, and sugar snap peas from the greenhouse.

We went grocery shopping yesterday and saw sugar snap peas for $3.99 per lb at the Amish grocery store.  We've gone through probably $30 or $40 worth out of the greenhouse already.  Today, he picked the first two cucumbers from hanging baskets.  We put them in our salad keeper with lettuce, spinach, carrots, onions, tomatoes and radishes.  We're getting a few ripe strawberries every few days now too.

This weekend, we're enjoying a visit from our oldest son and his wife and four of their five kids.  They'll be here till Monday, and it's been a great visit.  <3

January 21, 2013

By now, we have eaten and shared a lot of salads from the greenhouse.  He even pulled a beautiful carrot out of the carrot bed the other morning and then proceeded to wash and eat it.  We cut up the first batch of snow peas into our salad bowl with the rest of the salad, and they were delicious.  He has cabbages beginning to head up, still picking radishes and lots of lettuce and spinach.  The green beans are getting blooms on them, and the basket cucumber has small cucumbers on the vines.  Our weather has been taking turns, warm snap, then a cold snap, and then another warm snap.  We still have to watch the temps in the greenhouse and run the indoor wood stove to provide heat for the greenhouse at night if it's too cold out.  The winter hasn't been too bad so far, but I hope we get some more rain or even snow before it's over.  I would hate to see the drought continue into next summer.

January 10, 2013

We have snow pea pods and little cucumbers on the vines in the greenhouse now!

I've spent a couple of days now at the hospital in West Plains, as our youngest son broke his ankle and had to have surgery on it yesterday.  He broke both the leg bones just above the ankle, dislocated the ankle, and broke some kind of hook bone that joins them all together at the ankle.  After installing a plate and at least 10 pins/screws, they let him come home in a boot cast.  Now he gets to spend his birthday at the orthopedic surgeon's office for his first follow-up appointment after surgery.  It's been a hectic week so far.  I can't believe it's already Thursday.

January 4, 2013

Happy New Year!   Before the end of last year, he did manage to get some more solar power installed, this time for our storm shelter.  He had some help from Isaiah, our great-nephew, who came to spend a week of his Christmas break with us.

Isaiah, happy helper.

Charge Controller for Storm Shelter

Install complete for lights & radio in the storm shelter

I'll be posting some updated photos of the greenhouse also.