Spring 2011

Spring has sprung possibly right into Summer! We have had over 70 degree weather here for the last week, not complaining just worried this will cause a falsehood for our plants here. Regardless, i have started the garden rather early for this area but have high hopes for a successful garden. Planted tomatoes, beets, peppers, onions, potatoes, beans, peas, garden huckleberries, mini cantaloupes, acorn squash, zucchini, crooked neck squash, cucumbers, dill and so much more in a 16 x 24 garden. Also this year have and am planting tons of flowers, spruce up this dirt hill. The grass we planted last year is coming in beautifully!! Love to see the green! We did lose a lot of our young road front pines due to the beetle, but I have planted willows to fill in the gaps hopefully the will sprout and grow nice and tall to block the dust from the road.
So much is happening, let see...just finished my spring term for school onto the summer starting Monday. Tom is in the planning stage of getting the septic in for our house we want to build hopefully the dirt work will be done real soon. Next we are putting in a water system to take care of all water needs here, which means putting a 1500 gal tank on the hill and pushing the water up the hill to fill it, then having a drip system put in to water all the trees and such. Fencing is next so we can move the horses here so maybe this year we can take some pack trips and rides up in the hills. Then hopefully we can get started on his shop as well this year. This is well needed!!!
It is canning season here in Montana at least for Barb and I....LOL.....we have found it cheaper to buy our potatoes from costco (like sams club) and then can them. We also bought our oranges and lemons and frozen strawberries at costco and made orange marmalade and strawberry jam, this worked great for us. Our season here if we are lucky is 3 months so we have to take advantage as much as we can of the fresh goods.

Love this time of year.........
An idea we are thinking on the home front here is another alternative energy is a wind turbine for residential homes. It would not take much to incorporate it into our system. Seems we are having more wind than former years made us think why not? It would create triple watts than the solar panels we have and we wouldn't have to run the generator so much. With gas prices the way the are , we are trying to find more cost effective ways to have energy and stay off the grid. Will keep you updated on that idea.
Well from our family to yours happy spring....will return soon!