Getting Ready to Plant!

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Marcia Stehouwer

I don’t remember starting this post, but I do remember doing all of these things – probably in February.

I had intentions of starting some onions in the winter, but that did not happen. Maybe next year.

It is now April and spring is in full swing at our rented homestead. The reused Epsom salt jugs are functioning as greenhouses for my tomato seeds. So far I have 5 types seeded and still more seeds to plant. We do LOVE our tomatoes.

Organizing my seeds into baggies has also been helpful as I go out to plant. I just take the bag I need or the seeds I need and start to plant. Somehow I misplaced the book I was using for my journal but I wrote a lot of planting information on my calendar. We are moving forward!

Our seeds have come from the following sources:

Heritage Harvest Seeds: https://www.heritageharvestseed.com/index.html

Saturday Seed Company: https://www.saturdayseedco.ca/

Vesey’s Seeds: https://www.veseys.com/

William Dam Seeds: https://www.damseeds.com/

I am looking forward to sharing more of our gardening experiences this year!

Marcia

PS: I watched a series of Youtube videos from VINO Farms on growing tomatoes. I now have a heating pad under my plants. We also follow his beekeeping videos. Stay tuned for more about that on Monday!

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Extending Grace…

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Marcia Stehouwer

You never know (and I haven’t figured out how to change it) how a group of pictures is going to arrange itself. Then I noticed that one of the pictures I was using (scrounged from Facebook) had a name on it. I replaced it.1

It is Wednesday of Spring break. I have been to the dentist, added another layer to my debt snowball, and bought a new pair of hiking shoes. I have hung up a load of laundry, done my workout and enjoyed my breakfast.

So where does grace come into all of this? It comes in the form of the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It comes in my workout from Pahla B Fitness, which is designed to help with moodiness. It had a lot to do with grace.

I have not done some things that I had planned to do. I have done other things, but not those things. I am not thrilled with my scale numbers and I had anticipated being somewhere else. I have not been consistent with the tasks that will help me reach my goal. I give myself grace.

Grace looks at that and moves on, recognizing that today is a different day and different things can happen. Grace says, “You can have various outcomes that do not mirror the past. You can make changes to your future.”

So today, I embrace grace and go forward.

If you are struggling with anything, if life feels a tad funky, GRACE has something to offer.

We live in challenging times.

Hugs,

Marcia

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SPRING BREAK Begins!

Posted on April 11, 2021 by Marcia Stehouwer

Spring break in Ontario was delayed and we are finally enjoying a week of R and R. And thanks to increasing Covid numbers, a stay at home order. I have been staying at home.

I could have planted my tomatoes 2 weeks ago, but I finally got 10 seeds into a container today. They are Chocolate Sprinkle grape sized tomatoes – and I love chocolate sprinkle sandwiches. I also transplanted some strawberries that were endangered by the rototiller.

The mint that we had in the pot is coming back – a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t sure if it would. The garlic is coming up in most of the squares, but two are completely empty. Something else will be joining them.

I finally got brave enough to try my hand with this massive tool. It was a short lived adventure. We had too much tension on the main belt and it burnt through. We will be getting two more tomorrow. Always have a back up plan!

To add to the day’s adventure, I also drove our mini-tractor for the first time. I figured it was time, since my grand-daughter is brave enough to do it, too. And that was tense, but I got from the garage to the garden without tipping over. (That’s what I was afraid of!)

Growing Things, April 2021

The chickens are enjoying the feed that is hiding in their manure pile. (Tuesday’s job). My compost bins are moving very slowly (in my opinion), but I’ve been visiting them and moving things around.

The bees are very busy. They have a very good supply of pollen and arrive home with baskets full. Eric started a new hive NUC, hoping that the bees will make their own queen. The new hive is named after our family dog, Baxter, who left us this week.

Our next challenge is to cut some planks. We have a set-up but we need to figure out how it works. Once that is done, we will experiment with deadfall, before cutting the good stuff.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s news.

Marcia

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I’m Learning to Cha-Cha!

Posted on March 16, 2021 by Marcia Stehouwer

So I’m not the first person to use this quote from Robert Brault, who blogs at http://rbrault.blogspot.com/ and I know I won’t be the last. Today this showed up at work and I want to do some sharing about it.

At the beginning of 2020, I joined the Killer Bee Hive on Facebook and also started exercising moderately. I also began, slowly but steadily to lose weight. And then I hit a wall.

Since July, I have been bouncing, rollercoastering, switchbacking, stalling, resting and I don’t know what other analogies I found for being in the 250 pound range. It is now March and those are still the numbers. But the analogy has changed.

I am not a dancer. I don’t have a partner to dance with, but I am going to look at this as a dance.

I am also seeing a counsellor. The shadows beckon. I must go back to find the reason why. Those are the steps back. The steps forward will be the release of old thoughts that keep me bound to this number.

I am here for a reason, but I don’t want to go back and I want to cha-cha my way forward!

Can you dance on a rollercoaster?

Marcia

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It is MARCH!

Posted on March 14, 2021 by Marcia Stehouwer

The wind is blowing and the snow is melting. The clouds are scudding across the sky and I am thinking that I have a few posts to write if I want to catch up on my goals!

Today I will talk a bit about our bees. Last year we bought a beehive, and another. Then I plunked some money down on a hive of my own. This year we have a few NUCs on order and we hope to split the hives we currently have.

Winter 2021

Whenever it was warm enough, Eric would walk down and listen – checking to see if there were any signs of life and counting the days till spring! Fast forward to this past week – the 11th to be precise.

I was at work when the urgent call came through – come home. Do not stop at any stores. We need help. Turns out that the creek had flooded and the bees stood in danger of being drowned in ice cold water. The water was so high it was over my boots.

This is our beeyard on March 11 2021, just after 3:30 pm.

There was not much we could do about the water. Fortunately we had a few 2×6’s that were nearby. Together we tilted the hives and raised them about 2 inches above the water level. I prayed it would be enough. We went home and finished our day.

In the morning, Eric’s first errand was to check on the bees. He was certain we would lose them all. The snow was still melting upstream, after all. This is what we came to….

By Saturday the water had retreated and we could relax.

LESSON to be learned: We were pretty confident that our bees were safe. They weren’t. Life is full of unplanned events. I don’t have back up plans for everything – including this. One thing I did know – we were still going forward with this part of our plan. New queens are coming in May. Our goal is still to have 10 healthy hives by the end of this season.

Follow me here, on Facebook and my Youtube channel, or #ajourneyoftenyears and I will keep you posted!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6gIIvxC68dMkCBXXGb0QlQ

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FINISHING! (And Progress!)

Posted on January 31, 2021 by Marcia Stehouwer

It is the end of the month. Lots of things are finished or almost finished!

This morning I completed the final video in the Walk Off Weight Series playlist! It is wonderful and so very doable. I did the workout each day in January and will continue in February with the series from last year!

Yarn Projects, January 2021

This month saw the completion of a few projects. The hats were completed. The sweater had its underarm seams grafted. (This particular sweater had a lot of procrastination issues! Two-ton has spend a lot of time on my bed, and in my crafting pictures. You can see him with some of the squares I’ve made in Ravelry’s 2021 BAMCAL.

The cowl is a work in progress. The black ball is something I have had for more than 10 years, if you can believe it. And it was expensive then! I was gifted a pattern from a BC designer, WeeSandy on Ravelry.

The crazy WIP is a shawl that uses mitered squares in unusual ways. It is helping me to use up yarn that has been in my stash since I came back from China in 2017.

January was also a month of beginnings – and I surprised myself by starting a You-tube Channel! There isn’t much there, yet. Still, I’m looking forward to what it will grow into! And how my videos will change over time. You can check it out at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6gIIvxC68dMkCBXXGb0QlQ and enjoy the journey with me!

Here’s to a wonderful February!

What are you starting or finishing? Please share in the comments!

Cheers,

Marcia

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I Have Promises to Keep

Posted on January 30, 2021 by Marcia Stehouwer

Today I am keeping a promise I made yesterday and failed to keep.

During my workout on Wednesday morning, Pahla talked about keeping promises that you make to yourself. It’s on Day 27 of the Walk Off Weight series. You can check it out here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qce_s-eEBHE

That made me think of the things I keep putting off. These things nag at me when I should be thinking about other things. I see their unfinished state and start getting down on myself. Or the growing pile of banana peels in the freezer that needed to be dealt with!

I wrote my list before 7 am. on Wednesday. By 9 am the dehydrator was on the kitchen counter, the bananas were laid out on the trays and they were ready to dry. Before I went to bed, the underarms of the sweater were grafted together and I discovered a few threads that needed to be sewn in. I still went to bed.

This idea really worked well, so I did it again on Thursday. The first promise was to deal with the banana peels and get the dehydrator off the counter. They were ground up in less than 10 minutes (thanks to our Vitamix). The thumb on the mittens were completed and those 3 threads woven into the sweater.

Reading and writing with the grands: This, sadly, is also something that tends to get left when life gets crazy. Putting it on the board as a promise, reminds me that it is important. Tonight I read Tomie DePaolo’s Cloud book to the boys!

Between this, that and the other thing, it is almost 9 pm and time for me to turn off the computer and tidy my desk.

Three promises a day! That’s all. I can do this and get things done!

Good night!

PS: I took a leap and made a You-tube Channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6gIIvxC68dMkCBXXGb0QlQ

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Seedy Saturday!

Posted on January 23, 2021 by Marcia Stehouwer

Well, it is Saturday and I am into the seed catalogues – both paper and online. I sorted our seeds into groups and started to create some more organized notes.

My first activity this morning was ordering seeds from the Saturday Seed Company. Not a lot, but they will be interesting. plus I like supporting local businesses. This is what happens when you check your Facebook before you do your workout!

That led me to a blog called The Rustic Elk and 8 Vegetables I should start indoors.

And then I started creating a planning calendar – rough, but workable and in the early stages of development. I do know what I will be doing the week of May 24th, though, and that is a comfort!

I’m having some trouble posting pictures, which is okay. This is still a learning curve. The big photo is of my seeds, organized by type. There’s two shots of the notebook, which I’m sure will get fuller as the year goes on.

The containers are being prepared for winter seeding, an idea I saw on Savvy Gardening and will share with the other links!

LINKS for TODAY:

The Saturday Seed Co I like the name, the slogan and the fact that he’s local. I ordered kale, leeks, lettuce, squash and onions.

My next stop was The Rustic Elk for their article on vegetables to start indoors. This was helpful for getting me to start the timeline for the next few months.

To do that well, I needed to know when the last frost day is for London-Middlesex and the London-Middlesex Master Gardeners helped me find that! (May 10th)

I’ll keep you posted with gardening news on Saturdays!

Still exercising, eating right and drinking my water!

Marcia

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Hindsight is 2020

Posted on January 2, 2021 by Marcia Stehouwer

New year, new you?

New year, new dreams?

New year, new resolutions?

Every year I join a crochet-along on Ravelry that has you making different blocks every month. I have never completed it. Instead I have a bunch of squares that need to be united into one blanket.

Every year I plan to finish this project.

Every year I start with the January square and today I am on the 11th round of 16. There is no question that I will finish the square, appropriately called HINDSIGHT. Where the challenge lies is getting everything located and put together. This is my goal for this year!

HINDSIGHT by Polly Plum

I will try to upload a collage of WIPs with their patterns as the weeks go on. Somehow there has to be accountability.

On the fitness side, I am enjoying the new Walk Off the Weight series from Pahla B Fitness! The playlist is embedded and I am truly enjoying the extra cooldown.

I also got information on a colouring calendar from Dr. Peggy Malone. I am using the calendar to give me a quick visual of how things are going. I colour in each day that I exercise, but I use different colours, depending on the number on the scale.

I didn’t make any weightloss goals – except to weigh 150 pounds. I will simply continue to do the 5 steps each day and make sure I am accurate in my calories!

I hope your 2021 started as nicely as mine did.

Blessings to you and your family!

Marcia

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Looking Ahead: Dec. 27, 2020

Posted on December 27, 2020 by Marcia Stehouwer

When I started this blog I had some ideas…and I still have them.

I still have a 5 colour Parachute – Red, Yellow, Green, Blue and White.

I also have some goals for each colour and I will share them with you over the next little while.

But here are the BIG goals! I am writing them as being already achieved by myself in the future.

  1. I weigh 150 pounds (or maybe less)
  2. I have an E2E badge for the Bruce Trail.
  3. I have a thriving new career path
  4. I have earned $1 million in one year.
  5. I co-own land that allows us to live sustainably as a family.

So there you have it!

Some of these goals are attainable but will occur over time. One of these is at least crazy – in that I just thought of it and decided to right it down. Can you guess which one it is?

Here’s to a good end to 2020!

Marcia

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