Turkey Day 2005

We have so much to be thankful for this year. It was great having family and friends around us this holiday weekend. Thursday we served 15! Everyone participated by bringing some food item to the meal and it was quite the spread. Thanks to Barbara and Elliot for their help in preparations and for giving us a couple of nights off afterwards. Happy Thanksgiving!

Rain...finally

Last weekend we had some friends in from New York City. We went to dinner Saturday night at Sante in downtown Matthews. The food was excellent - especially the braised cabbage salad. Matt and I went to the Jets vs. Panthers game on Sunday while the girls went shopping. We had a great time visiting!

This weekend, it was back to work. My sister went out of town for the weekend, so we kept her three children starting on Friday night. Saturday we went over to my Mother's house in Mt. Pleasant. My Mom gave Kristin and I the opportunity to escape for a bit and we went for a drive up in the northeast section of Cabarrus county.

We stumbled upon Gold Hill. Even crazier, I had just mentioned to Kristin, "Wouldn't it be nice to just round the corner and find a little town like Warner?" and VOILA! There it was. In 1989, the owners of the land in the area decided to begin restoring some of the former glory of this once bustling mining town. A restaurant and several gift shops have been opened along with a very scenic park. From there we drove around Pfieffer College and then back to my Mothers.

Sunday was a work day. Kristin worked the leaf blower most of the morning while I worked in the kitchen seemingly all weekend. I went out and did the Thanksgiving grocery shopping. We have a 20lb gobbler in the fridge. We both had nice naps in the afternoon.

The leaves have found a new home in the planting beds and in the new garden. Once the leaf season is nearly completed, we will wrap the leaves and get ready for composting.

It started misting yesterday afternoon after nearly a month without any significant rain. The most recent significant rain was from Tropical Storm Tammy in early October. The pace increased overnight and we are expecting a nice steady rain all day. Finally.

Babushka Say...

Hello and greetings to all de leetle cheeldren out dere. Babushka say to all comrades that life is good here in Charlotte!

Countryside Magazine

Might I recommend a magazine that Kris and I have been reading cover to cover (and several times at that). Countryside Magazine has interesting articles from people out trying to live by a different set of rules. It has opened our eyes to other possibilities.

http://www.countrysidemag.com/

We go through life with our destiny being shaped by circumstance and finance. The few times I can remember feeling really energized about life are when we made conscious decisions to make a change in our lives. For instance, when we decided to move from Tampa back to Charlotte. Circumstance and finance said "NO NO NO", but we were compelled to do it anyway. And we did and we have enjoyed the results.

There are few things that Kristin and I get on the same page about but the idea of simplier lifestyle has appeal to both of us. Our short term objective is to put it to practice right here at 232 Hillandale. Where we are compelled to go in the future is to be seen.

The magazine has been a joy to read. Check it out.

Urban Farm Preparation

We worked out in the yard most of the weekend cleaning up and organizing after the grading work we had done. Saturday afternoon I rented a tiller and started chopping the claypot we call our yard. Where the basketball court was, we had a load of topsoil placed - so that was not a big deal - nice and deep. However, in the 10x15 or so area that we added to round out the garden footprint, we had to dig through the clay. The tiller ran through two tanks of gas and we have about 6 inches of tilled up soil. I plan on adding a layer of topsoil to this area as well.

The leaves are beginning to fall. We are going to be mulching them and adding them to the garden area. Once we get a good collection of vegetative matter there, we will cover it with black plastic and let it cook over the winter - turning every other week or so.

I have some lime pellets and some general fertilizer that we are going to use to nourish the soil. I am also planning on getting some earthworms. My hope is that we get some bugs move in to the compost pile. The soil is going to need all the help it can get.

I am going to pickup a composter this week for our household composting. I want to keep the odor down in the garden area, so I am going to keep the kitchen wastes separate. The City of Charlotte has nice bins available at a very reasonable $40.

We have been discussing the possibility of chickens. We thought it would be neat to have some egg layers. I looked up the ordinances for the city and found that we had to file for a permit. I did to see if it would be permitted or not.

Kristin is calling herself a "farmess". At least we are having a good time ;)

Making way for Mother Nature

The first objective in our outside renovation project was to make sure that we still had a driveway after another year of rain. We put in a fairly extensive drainage system that captured run-off from the front lawn (which can be significant); the west side of the house downspout drain and the east side of the house downspout drain. We previously had a lot of water running across a mostly gravel driveway.

The concrete pad that was in place was over 40 years old and showing its age. It was also too narrow for us to comfortably park our two vehicles on. We tore it out completely and replaced with a gravel pad about 10 feet wider than the previous pad. This concrete removal also allows us to add some landscaping features to around this area.

We added about 30 yards of dirt to build up the pad area. We regraveled the entire driveway with a large gravel to set a good basis for when we can afford to asphalt the space (maybe next year). Now it will take some time and some rain to get it to all settle in.

The secondary project was the removal of the basketball court to make way for our new vegetable/herb/flower garden. Kris and I both have never really liked the B-Ball court. Olivia liked playing on it sometimes, but she will enjoy the garden just as much. We had a truckload of topsoil delivered that will provide the counterpart the the large number of leaves we are going to mulch in the space over the fall leaf collection. A little black plastic and voila! 1000 square feet of composted space.

We are planning on setting the plastic and initial leaves this weekend. There is also some general cleaning up to do.