A Picture Post Of The Community Spring Sale

It's getting late and I have to be up early to be at Costco by seven ( working for Darvonda during the spring season) but I wanted to post something a little more cheerful than the last few posts. . .

So without further ado I give you the Spring Sale Ev and I did in our community a little over a week ago. . .

It took me until four in the morning to get everything done!

I love how it looked on the offcut paper I got from a printing company several years back

Adding a little bling

Ev and I shared a table

Ev's side

My side

Ev and her daughters Laura and Alice

How cute is this fabric? Ev found it at Goodwill.

I love this milk bottle! Not sure I want to sell it. . . so. . . I priced it accordingly. . .

Come on out to the plant sale!

Disaster!

Just before I left for school early  this afternoon, to help out with supper for the kids in the mass band concert, I checked on the greenhouse, as I was going to be gone all afternoon and into the evening.

Growing plants in a greenhouse isn't a simple case of put them in there, turn a heater on at night if it gets cold and leave it at that.

Plants that have been grown indoors under lights can't deal with full sun for the first little while and so need to be shaded. Not a problem on a cloudy day but the minute the sun comes out you've got to be out there putting the shade cover up. Of course you could just leave the shade cover on all the time, but it robs the plants of the opportunity to acclimatize.

Then there's ventilation.

That's a biggie.

You would hardly believe how fast a smaller greenhouse can heat up on a sunny day, even when the temperatures are still on the low side.

 Ventilation is the answer.

So you open windows. And vents. Often the door is propped open. Perhaps you turn on a fan.

Then the clouds roll in.

And you rush out to close the windows, doors and vents. And you turn off the fan.

Then the sky clears.

And you rush out to open things again.

It's an intricate dance.

Wind adds a little excitement to that dance.

A bit of a breeze is welcomed, keeping the air moving around the plants and sturdying up the stems as well as cooling an overheated heated greenhouse.
A strong wind on the other hand, sets open doors banging , tosses shade cloths around the yard and causes window vent flaps to slide right out of place.

So, getting ready to leave the greenhouse alone, I secured things as best I could, preparing for any type of weather (this is Alberta after all!), watched the dark clouds rolling in and headed off to school,.

I got home just after seven and Henry greeted me at the back gate.

"Why do you have one of my temperature sensors in you hand??"

"There's been a bit of a disaster while you were gone. . ."

"What?!"


"It's not a total disaster, thankfully I came home at lunch and was able to save your greenhouse from flying down the back alley. . . I bent back the one pole as best I could. . ."

"Arghhhh. . ."


Remember the new portable greenhouse Jesse put up?

He was supposed to screw the poles down to the plywood floor but the battery on the drill was dead,  so we plugged it in to charge and I told him I would do it myself.

And then I forgot!


Sigh. . .


Thankfully there were no plants in it yet and Henry figures he can straighten it out a bit more tomorrow.

After we turn the whole thing a bit so the wind doesn't hit it straight on.


And bolt it to the floor!


There's never a dull moment at my house.

And for those of you wondering what happened to the pictures. . .

I thought a cup of tea would cheer me up a bit so I put the water on , sat in my chair to wait for it to boil and woke up nearly three hours later. (don't worry, Henry turned the kettle off.)

I'll have to wait for the sun to come up tomorrow.

I'm pretty sure I won't be leaving the house much for the next little while. . .

Blood Chemistry

It's been pretty quiet here lately even though I have post ideas (and pictures!) up the wazoo.

I just couldn't figure it out. . .

I'd wake up in the morning rested and raring to go.

Blog posts, garden chores and business ideas would jostle for attention as I would plan my day.
I'd get up, have breakfast, empty the dishwasher, get the bread started, run downstairs to water the plants and then head out with Jada for a walk.

I'd come home, feed her breakfast and have a cup of tea.
Tea done, it was time to get started for the day. . .

Only. . .  I couldn't.

I was tired!


Some days I was exhausted.

I blamed my allergies.

I thought maybe I had a case of the blues along with my allergies.

 Every evening I would tell myself that I'd go to bed early and get started fresh the next day, when I would surely whittle my growing To Do list down to a more manageable size. (Thus the lack of blog posts as I tend to blog later in the evening. . .)

 I went to my doctor for a medical so I can  renew my driver's license in a couple of weeks.

"Did you know you have very low iron and B12 levels?" he asked.

Uh. . . . no.


"You'll have to start taking supplements for both right away, although it will take awhile before you"ll notice a difference. . ."

For crying out loud!


I started with Wii Fit because I thought  I needed more exercise to boost my energy levels and I ended up quitting after a week, because after I was done all I wanted to do was go back to bed!

I'm still getting things done, they are just happening a lot slower than I would like.

Of course if you're smart (like me) you'll rope others into doing some of the stuff on your To Do list.
Yesterday Jesse and I (okay, Jesse) put up the second greenhouse. This one is portable and will be used as a 'gazebo' the rest of the year with a different cover on the roof.

Now all I need are shelves and I can start bringing more plants outside!

Whoo Hoo!

It's on my To Do list. . . .

I'm thinking Henry might like to work on that one. . . .

Spent The Day In the Garden. . . . Outside!!!

I went out to the front garden this morning and noticed a few things coming up.
I looked around and decided I could spare a few hours to cleaning it up a bit.

No more than a few hours though. . .

Ev and I have a Spring sale on Saturday and my To Do list is a mile long!

Came up for air at noon when Jesse needed an emergency ride to work. (He slept in big time. Sometimes begging works.)
Had a little lunch and a quick nap.

Looked out the window as I heard the weather forecast. 30-50 cm of rain by tomorrow evening. . .
Hmmmm. . .

Nothing gets the spring garden growing like a good rain.  And if I cleaned up the whole front garden. . .
Think how fabulous it will look!
That would be excellent advertising for {growing} wisdom .
A much better use of my time than all those things on my To Do list. . . .

I finished up around six.

Now you know where my priorities are.


Grilled cheese sandwiches for supper.
Pictures tomorrow.
This middle aged woman is heading to bed.

Life is very good.

Stopped In My Tracks!

It's been creeping up on me over the past few weeks, quietly stealing a little more energy everyday.

You'd think I would recognize it by now. . . after all, it's been hanging around since I was in my thirties and grows more obnoxious every year.

Some how though, year after year, spring after spring, I'm taken by surprise when the snow melts and the wind begins to blow. . . and I start to cough.
And cough.
And cough and cough and cough.

Allergy season.

Spring's the worst, although windy fall days. . . stink too. . .

My allergies trigger my asthma, which triggers the coughing.

Not a lot of wheezing, just. . . coughing. . .and coughing.

This past week or so has been particularly bad as every time I'd get up to go to another room I'd start to cough. . . . and I couldn't stop. . .

I piled on the medication (prescription) and slowed right down.

I feel incredibly stupid that something like an allergy can confine me to my chair.

I mean. . . seriously . . . an allergy???


The thing is, in my mind, I am that big, sturdy, dutch woman my friend Ev's mom thought I was. . . before she met me. (She read my blog)

So it always throws me when I am forcibly reminded of my limits.
Of the fact that there's probably good reason why my prayers and pleas for a farm have been answered with a rather unmistakable no.

I like to think big. . . a trait that seems to run in my family. . .
The thing I'm slowly starting to learn, is that big doesn't necessarily mean better, or even that only big, sturdy, capable, (dutch) women are valuable.
If all I can do in a day is hang out in my chair reading a book and enjoying the company of my husband and kids. . . well then that was a good day.

And I was valuable.

I am valuable.

Luke 12:6-7

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. ⁷ Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

This Easter weekend we are ALL reminded of God's great love for us. . .

John 3:16

New International Version (NIV)

 ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

What more could I ask for?


Happy Easter.