Less time in a day--making do

 Even as much as I wish that I could live in a perfect world, I just can't seem to find time (and money) to adhere to the values I would like to adhere to.  I wish I could go to the farmer's market every Saturday morning, prepare beautiful natural meals, and live a simple, more natural life. Instead, I must be content with the efforts that I do make. We are buying 1/2 a grassfed bull in the springtime. I joined a CSA that actually delivers vegetables to my door. I still get fresh milk and eggs, when available, from a farm. Meanwhile, my business is doing well and providing a nice income to help pay for it all.
 The CSA started this session last week. I received greenhouse cherry and medium sized tomatoes...which primarily went into salads and sandwiches. Red potatoes made au gratin potatoes. Green onions, beets, and basil rounded out the delivery. That is pretty awesome for a bone-cold February. Tomorrow will be my next delivery.
 There was snow last week. I haven't seen so much snow stick in about twenty years...global warming, yeah, okay. I was grateful not to land my truck in a ditch. I slid a bit, my brakes got too wet and failed some, but I ran a short day and got home alright.

Cold sets in

As we have had a few mild frosts, I am protecting my tomato plants in main bed with a frost blanket. I wonder if I will get any tomatoes before it is too late... I'm thinking that the ones in the greenhouse may be much safer. I may need to pick my eggplants out because the weather is supposed to get colder still.
The snap peas have made a couple of little pods and I got one snow pea yesterday. There will be hundreds of them soon. I guess I better get busy thinking of stir-fry possibilities.
I'm gearing up for Thanksgiving. I managed to get a turkey from the Cranks last weekend, it was beautiful. I got sweet potatoes from a roadside seller in Hempstead, an old black guy who barely had a voice, but he seemed sweet. I have a small pack of cranberries that Vicki got on her trip to New England. I have a couple of butternut squashes from Vicki, a few onions and peppers from Alysha and Vicki. I have some herbs in the garden and a shopping list for tomorrow's Farmer's Market. I don't know if I will get oranges in time to make fruit salad, but I still have apples from http://www.organicfujis.com/ so, I guess I have a good beginning. Hopefully I can acquire green beans, broccoli, potatoes, more onions, sage, carrots, and eggs tomorrow. We'll see, I have too many stops to make on my route, but I'll do my best.

Update

I'm not sure if I can keep everything alive...I have a bit of a pest problem in the garden. The tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, carrots, herbs, snow peas, snap peas, beets, radishes, garlic, etc. seem fine, but all of the cruciferous vegetables are hit pretty badly. I may try some conventional stuff to kill the worms or perhaps some pyrethum(sp?). Vicky had beautiful broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage--so I know it must be possible. My broccoli starts in the greenhouse are not affected. I may keep them in there. The kumquats are ripening, I have tomatoes forming in the greenhouse and in the garden. I bought a frost blanket to try to keep them going in case of frost. The lettuce needs a replant, as does the spinach to keep it going. I may start over with some of the plants...the cabbage at least because the leafing is compromised. Anyway, I guess that is what happens when you work more than fulltime and try to keep a garden...but it is in my heart to continue in spite of this set-back.

More new stuff

New pansies arrived at the garden center...tiny violas and two toned pansies. They are so beautiful...I picked up several and planted them yesterday, along with a large flat of petunias that are streaky purple colored.
Yesterday, I dug some soil in the covered bed into small rows and planted nine more broccoli plants and some purple hull peas(I'm not sure if purple hulls will survive the winter, but I decided to plant them because I had not yet eaten them, they had been in the frig for a couple of weeks).
The covered garden was repaired by Jerry this week. He took off the greenhouse panels that had broken during the hurricane and replaced them all with shadecloth. My hope is that rain can get in, making plantings more viable. Watering with city water is not nearly the same as nature's water from the sky...
My hubby asked what I wanted for our anniversary, 18 years on the 25th of October, and I told him that I already have it. I have him and the kids, pretty flowers growing in front and gardens to take my mind off of a hard day's work at the end of every stress-filled day. I consider myself to be quite fortunate, truly.

New stuff in garden

I saw pansies in the garden center for the first time this year...so I had to get a couple. I planted pansies, mums, and some other flowers in the flower beds yesterday. Clearing the beds was much easier than I thought it would be. I put the lantana into the bed between the flowers and the cherry bushes and put some hyacinth bulbs under the flowers(annuals).
I bought some compost and big pots to do potatoes since the potato order from Ronnigers is coming today. I'm going to do the garlic in a pot, too, I think. If I have to sprout the potatoes, this may take a week or so, but we'll see.
Speaking of sprouts, I think I like alfalfa sprouts better than mixes because my current mix is trying to go mold, yuck...the alfalfa did so much better.
The side bed now has snow peas coming up all over, beets and cabbage are all beginning to germinate. The small bed has snap peas, radishes, and turnip greens all coming up. My whiskey barrels boast lettuce that can be cut soon, oregano, basil, and cilantro that are ready for small cuts and some eggplants beginning to form with many purple blooms.
I'm amazed daily by my nice garden. I suppose that this new obsession with gardening has taken the place of some bad habits I seriously needed to be rid of. I always had a knack for gardening, but now my heart feels the need to experience gardening daily, at least in some small way.

Yesterday-side garden

Yesterday, I managed to work the side bed of the main garden enough to get it into shape for planting...this wasn't easy without a tiller. I did it shovel and rake style. I put down some organic garden soil and planted snow peas, cabbage and beets in the "new" bed. If anything doesn't come up, I'll put in some more snow peas probably... my cabbage seeds are a couple of years old, so I'm not holding my breath that they will germinate. I already have a few cabbage plants in my small bed, along with broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, tomatoes, and cucumbers(all plants). I added some radishes, turnips, cauliflower, and snap peas in seed form yesterday there.
I noticed spinach, lettuce, cilantro, carrots, and basil are coming up in various containers on the patio. The onion sets look alright, the eggplant are blooming profusely. Of course, the oregano and garlic chives look fine, as does the old-timer, rosemary.
I have two more beds I can play with if I get time for more veggies, but they will be a lot of work without a tiller. I still need to get my flowerbed in order and clean up the pots around the house. The flowerbed will be full of pansies and violas later...the pansies haven't started showing up at the nurseries yet, anyway. The bright colors always make me feel better on cool winter days. I think my favorite part is choosing the colors to plant.
Today is Farmer's Market day. I hope to find plenty of veggies to put me in the mood for more garden work. I want the best fall garden ever, perhaps it will come.

Neglect

I've neglected my garden because I've been working on getting bread in stores every spare moment. Hopefully it will be fine, I only missed watering yesterday and now today because there is a 100% chance of rain early tomorrow morning. Hurricane Ike is on its way and now, I am as prepared as I am going to be. I didn't need anything really since I am a grocery pack-rat. I should've gotten milk, but I didn't have time to get to the farm(I'm not out anyway).
I sincerely doubt that there will be a Farmer's Market. That is sad, but everything will be okay, I might need to go to the Farm Patch to pick up the good stuff to fill in.
It has been a very long day. Good night.