Urban gardening, composting and other ways to upset the neighbors.

To solve the basement flooding problem, bring in an excavator and dig out a massive trench from the basement door to the end of the backyard.  Build retaining walls.

Get some local boards and make raised beds.

Level these beds with scrap wood/stone blocks left from previous projects.  Helps if you know a stone mason.

Throw in some sod clods or roots in the bottom.

 Fill raised beds with the dirt pile left from excavation (this will take several days).  The rest of the dirt for the compost beds will be delivered by truckload in the spring.

Don't forget to plant garlic in the fall!

Add some stone sculpture.

Fencing will happen later on.

Build a compost pile out of a branch you take down.  Line with burlap and cover with a weighted tarp.

Make pretty paths to the doors, but leave the extra stone piled up against the house.

Spread out whatever dirt is left around the back lawn in anticipation of tilling that area in the spring for another garden.  Add sculpture that looks suspiciously like a gravestone.

By now, the neighbors should be standing in their driveways shaking their heads and asking if you have a 'real job'!  Just wait until spring when planting begins.  I can't wait to see the looks on neighbors' faces when I'm out there, barefoot, talking to the plants.

I've been keeping busing working on projects and I am still processing things that I brought out of the garden before we moved.

Herb garden.

 Sugar beets, peeled and chopped into small pieces, to make into sugar beet molasses.  I also have been freezing the pulp to add to baked goods later on.

 Chicken stock.

Haven't even made it halfway through taking the sunflower seeds from their heads yet.  I think we will be set for a while.

I have also been working on Jon's sweater...again.  This time, I am designing the pattern myself (except for the cables).  This is the back.  Handspun wool, of course.

I also have a job at a farmstand.  Some days I work at the register, some days I am left alone in the bakery to make the day's breads, cookies, coffee cakes, doughnuts, and whatever else I think people will want to eat.  I am very happy.