It's May and I've turned from my winter schedule to my summer schedule. With the days so much warmer, I do my gardening in the morning now, when I still have a bit of shade and cooler temperatures. Afternoons are used for shade or indoor projects.  Planting the summer garden will be finished soon, so once plants are growing, I'll turn my attention to mulching. I'll have harvest preservation later in the summer, so until then, I'm plugging away on the front bedroom, working my way through sorting a second round of boxes. I need to get it at least semi-organized before I put something on t ..read more

It's May and summer temps are here. Even though it still gets comfortably cool at night, it's only a matter of time before that heats up too. And this is why I am pleased to share another product with you, one that I was happy to review and can wholeheartedly recommend, the Marchpower Gradient Cooling Comforter. Queen size Marchpower Cooling Comforter Is it really cooling? Yes! Through advanced textile technology (called "Arc-Chill"), jade nanoparticles are woven into the fabric. Somehow, this makes something amazing happen; heat and moisture are wicked away to produce a wonderf ..read more

April is tree leafing month Rainfall 3rd: 0.75" 9th: 0.58" 10th: 0.13" 11th: 0.28" 21st: 0.47" Total so far: 2.21  inches Temperature range of nighttime lows: 33 to 63°F (0.5 to 17°C) range of daytime highs: 59 to 87°F (15 to 30.5 °C) Weather Notes We've gotten a little bit of everything - except snow! We've had rain, scattered frost, and hot summery days. Typical April! We've had several days of drizzle with no accumulation. I didn't include these in my rain totals. My daily schedule has switched to summer mode: I work outside in the morning and inside during the ..read more

The rainwater system in the greenhouse is assembled and connected! Rain is imminent in the forecast, so we'll soon know how well it works. Ed (Riverbend Journal) was interested in this project, so I hope the photos explain it well! All the pieces are 4-inch PVC Dan removed the downspout from the gutter and replaced it with the set-up you see above. The clean-out plug will catch most of the initial debris washed off the roof and gutter when it starts to rain. It has a removable cap at the bottom for easy cleaning out.  Close up. Still to do - seal the gap around the PVC pipe ..read more

April is prep and planting month. Mostly, I've been busy outside, spot seeding pasture and doing final garden bed prep, but when we had a forecast for three days of rain, I reckoned it was a good time to work on one of my winter project goals, i.e. trying to make the front bedroom functional again. The motive for this is to begin setting up my Glimakra floor loom.  There have been a lot of steps to reclaim that room as living space. The first (and a biggy) was unpacking, sorting and purging things we simply don't need. Next is figuring out what to do with items we want to keep: mostly se ..read more

April is prep and planting month, so our other projects pretty much take a back seat. Even so, I have a couple of things in the greenhouse to show you. The first is progress on our rainwater collection tanks/thermal mass. They still need to be connected to the front porch gutter spout, and the overflow needs to be finished, but the big pieces are in place.  The second is a solar patio light.  I don't plan to work in the greenhouse at night, but it will be handy for fetching lettuce when winter dark comes early, or to check to see if any cats are out there. (I say that because Riley ..read more

I gave you a sneak peek of River's twins at the end of my March Gardening Notes post. They were born at lunchtime last Friday. The next day Ursa delivered triplets around dinnertime. I've finally sorted through the photos to show you the new additions. All went well and everybody is doing well.  River A little doe was first The second was a little buck Big sister Saluda was surprised at the appearance of her half-siblings. I took this 27 second video clip the next day. Ursa Ursa's doeling was born first One of Ursa's two bucklings.  ..read more

March is peach blossom month Rainfall 1st: 2.44" 6th: 1.65" 8th: 0.2" 9th: 1.48" 15th: 0.37" 22nd: 0.73" 23rd: 0.15" 26th: 0.77" Total: 7.79 inches Temperature range of nighttime lows: 27 to 55°F (-3 to 13°C) range of daytime highs: 40 to 79°F (4.4 to 26°C) Weather Notes We've had beautiful spring days with enough frosty mornings to not get too eager on spring planting. Garden Notes Weeds are thriving! Most of my time in the garden has been spent scraping grass and weeds from the aisles, and remulching them. I discovered some volunteer potatoes in last year's potato b ..read more

River and Ursa Anticipated dates are the first couple of days in April. In the meantime . . .  Waiting © March 2024 by Leigh at  http://www.5acresandadream.com ..read more

One of the items on my grid-down wish list has been a house fan. Even though we quit using air conditioning years ago, we rely heavily on fans to keep the house tolerable. But what to do if the power is out for an extended length of time? This is why I was extremely pleased to be asked to review the Marchpower 10-inch rechargeable, portable, folding fan. First impressions When I unboxed the components, I was pleased with their weight and sturdiness.  Fan, fold-able stand, remote control, USB charging cord, carabiner, and owners manual. The fan itself has a carrying strap ..read more