I’m still working away on some amazing projects that are keeping me beyond busy.  I’ll be back soon!!

In the meantime, I’ve been interviewed by BizyMoms as one of their Top Home and Garden Bloggers of 2010.  So cool!  I’m honored to be in the midst of  Ronda Hetzel and Susan Harris, both wonderful bloggers I admire.  Here’s what they’ve said about us:

Meet some of the world’s most exclusive bloggers on Home and Garden issues

Bizymoms has chosen some of the world’s top-notch bloggers who are maintaining hugely popular blogs to discuss everything related to home and garden. Bizymoms recognizes these wonderful men and women for their great endeavor to reach out to humanity using the extraordinary power of blogging in such a positive way. This is an exceptional series of interviews with these bloggers to get an insight into their bright minds, and to understand what they stand for when it comes to home and garden. This series comes exclusively from Bizymoms for its reader community. Check it out and learn something new and unique from each of these world-class bloggers.

It’s awesome to me that they’ve included a representative that writes about sustainability in their Home and Garden top blogs.  I do believe that is a bit of redefining normal, don’t you think??!

Anyway, please go check out my interview!  And if you wouldn’t mind, leave a comment there so they know you visited!  I’d love to hear what you think.

Day 15 finds me in the back closet, hallway and the bathroom storage area.

The back closet has been getting mini-mms as I tackled certain projects.  But there was still plenty in there to go through.  The camping stuff is still neatly stored on the first two shelves.  The second shelf now holds all our games.  The third shelf has pool equipment, pet supplies, and the boxes of pictures.  The floor of the closet is still a mess.  It has a heat reclaimer (for the wood stove), beer making supplies, tile laying supplies, surplus floor tiles of all colors, shapes, and materials.  I ran out of juice before I ran out of closet!

The bathroom storage area is a mixed bag.  The bottom shelf has photo albums, CK’s computer notebooks, the next door up is towels and washcloths, the top door hides pet grooming supplies.

The back hallway is now clear and clean.

And I am beat!  Tired!  Finished for the day!  Oh, Oh!!  I just realized, I am done for the week!!

Whoohoo!!

I’m asking because starting seeds is one of those things I do really well – I love doing it and it comes easily, and it occurred to me that I might add to my plans to sell bedding plants at farmers markets a CST (Community Supported Transplants …or something), in which people could hire me to do custom seed starting (from a list of funky varieties probably not available at their local nursery), and/or pre-reserve varieties that I would start for them.    I’m thinking of offering groupings as well like “Herb garden in a box” or “Custom pizza topping garden.”  I could offer fall gardening transplants as well, since I know a lot of serious gardeners have a hard time getting that late crop in.

What do you think?  I know many of you probably do your own, but would it work in your area?  I’m going to have to accumulate customers in Albany/Schenectady, I suspect, but that’s ok.

Sharon

We want it sturdier, more wind and snow-proof, more airtight, with more ventilation possibilities, and a sturdy tight door (or two). We’d like heavier, more durable and more transparent poly (this one looks good but it’s expensive).

To get all this, the new design will involve some wooden and metal parts (where at present the whole thing is pvc). And because we still want it to be movable in the sense of pick-up-able (so as to avoid soil and pest problems), we will have to make it modular. It will be made of pieces, fit together, that can be taken apart and moved and refitted by 2-4 people in the span of a couple of hours.

We are copying some ideas from this design (which is not movable).

So here is the first draft:

• 20′ pvc pipes for the ribs, so they will be 1 piece across, so no breaking connectors (definitely the weak points in our first design).
  Rebars are pounded into the ground and the ribs are fitted over them so they are tensed in an arc.
• Along each long side of the house a wooden baseboard (of no less than 1 foot high, to guide sliding snow away from the base) is  attached to these “rebarred” ribs by brackets. This will prevent these 2 long baseboards from warping and will anchor the whole structure to the ground.

• To these 2 long baseboards are fixed (in a removable manner) (*) to the end walls.
• These end walls are made of plywood. They will probably be the heaviest components. In each are cut two holes, for a door and a window.
• These windows are opened either by automated arms or are fitted with fans that vent when it gets too hot inside.
• The doors can be homemade of light wooden frames with poly stretched over it, or freecycled doors, preferably with glass in it, and frames, in which case they need to be easily removable by lifting them off their hinges.
• The cross brace on top is 1 piece of rigid metal or pvc (probably pvc as that would be lighter). The apexes (apices?) of the ribs are fixed to this bar by ties.
• Also this cross brace is fixed (again in a removable manner) (*) on either side to the end walls by brackets.
• The poly is 2 big sheets bonded or glued (still have figure this one out) so it makes 1 seamless sheet.
• The poly is stapled (permanently) to 1 of the wooden baseboards (call it A). On the other side, it is (permanently) stapled to a long wooden piece that gets screwed to (and can be unscrewed from) the other baseboard (call it B).
• Along the end walls the poly is stretched over and around and fastened to the end ribs with the pvc clips we have at present (they’re pretty sturdy and handy). These end ribs are then fastened to the end walls with removable brackets.

So you get the idea. When we move the house, we

1. detach the end ribs from the end walls (unscrew)
2. detach the poly from the end ribs (undo the clips)
3. detach the poly from baseboard B and move it over the ribs, setting it aside next to baseboard A to which it is still attached.
4. detach the top cross brace from the ribs (cut the ties) and from the end walls (unscrew the brackets) and move it aside.
5. detach the ribs from the baseboards (pull ‘em out of their brackets and off the rebars).
6. pull the rebars out of the ground.
7. detach the baseboards from the end walls and move the end walls aside (possibly remove the doors first).
8. move the baseboards (poly still attached to one) to the new position.
9. reverse process.

We’ll be playing around with this. We also need to figure out how to make the 6 crucial structural attachments - (*) of baseboards to end walls and of top cross bar to end walls. A simply click system would be great, or some kind of bolting system. All removable screws and bolts need to be durable enough to stand up to repeated bolting and unbolting.

We still want this thing to be inexpensive, but we know that, with a better poly, the venting system, the wood and the hardware, we’ll be looking at something twice the price of what we have now. What we have now cost us about $200 - and we’ll reuse it as a shelter for our woodpiles.

Let me know what you think!

~

I’m also playing with some potting shed designs…

Now all I have to do is finish writing it….

But we are moving slowly towards goals.  The first, of course, is that I get my life back, but I’ve got seeds started and the buck in the barn with the does, and all sorts of good things going on.  I’m ready to get started on a whole host of new projects!  I can’t do them yet, but I keep dreaming.

So I thought I’d ask – what are your projects for spring?  What are your goals?

Sharon

Last night it rained. This morning, almost magically, everything looks so much greener outside. The lawn (even though it is still covered with leaves and gumballs) looks green, the iris and daylilies have joined the daffodils popping through the earth toward the sun. Even the mum plants are producing little green leaves.

The sky is a beautiful blue and it is another incredible day outside… and I am hoping to be able to enjoy a little of it later today.

Everywhere it is GREEN – and I love it.

The weather has been so beautiful, sunny and warm, that I decided to get out my tote of summer clothes.

I piled the clothes high on the coffee table and got down to business.

• Sorted by type: t-shirt, tank top, Sunday shirt, shorts, capris, and skirts.
• Set aside anything that is ripped, soiled, or just plain ugly.
• Then I tried everything on.  That was fun and not fun at the same time.  Fun because I could see the progress I’ve made on my health even from last summer.  Fun watching HM’s face as she helped assess the item.  NOT fun, because very few my clothes fit.   Those are clothes that I had to buy last summer because I lost so much weight.

I filled 2 garbage sacks for charity, tossed a few shirts that were really yucky, and put the ones I am keeping in the washer.

I ended up with:  3 pair of shorts, 2 nice t-shirts, 3 at home only t-shirts, 2 skirts, 2 Sunday shirts, 2 tank tops, and a swim suit.  Hmm . . .  I’m definitely going to need some capris, more t-shirts, another skirt, and some nicer summer shirts.

Summer shoes:  my LL Bean mocs still fit, my teva’s are too big (in fact, I’ve been wearing them around the house this winter with thick wool socks.), my hiking boots are just a bit big (not terrible, but not good for long hikes), and my Clarks’ fit decently well.  So I need 1 pair of Tevas and a new pair of hiking shoes.

I brought home the hive yesterday. Amie is so excited about it; it is finally becoming real, as in, not just Mama talking. She’s going to help me paint it, though she’s not happy about it having to be white or something close to that.

Having just purchased all the stuff necessary for begin a hive, I can break down some of the costs for you.

• Beepackage: $88

1. 3 lbs of bees
2. 1 Italian queen (marked)

• Hive kit: $209

1. bottom board
2. two deep supers with 20 one-piece Pierco frames
3. metal queen excluder
4. two medium supers with 20 one-piece Pierco frames
5. inner cover
6. outer cover

• Accessories and clothing: $119

1. one standard hive tool
2. one hook end hive tool
3. one 4×7 in stainless steel smoker
4. one bee brush
5. one protective veil (hat and veil)
6. one set of goat skin gloves

• Medication and feed: I’ll know more about this next week, but my informed estimate is about $40.

• Others: entrance reducer, open bottom board, mouse excluders, etc.: next week, but about $30. Add around $35 for extra set of veil and gloves, for DH, perhaps.

• Honey extraction: Professional beekeepers and beekeeping clubs rent equipment for honey extraction. One harvest costs about $20.

Total: $541