Even though I started my plants so late this year they are growing strong and will soon be able to be set out in the garden. Every year I dry seeds from plants that produced good fruit. I just lay the seeds on a paper towel on the window sill for a few days and then store them separately in glass baby food jars. Here is my tray of broccoli plants.

Above are some of my tomoato plants.  As the tomoato plants grow I fill in more dirt to help their stems grow straight. I learned this from my neighbor.  I started cabbage, tomoatoes, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, green peppers, and hot peppers insode this year.  It would be great to get ideas from others on how they save seeds and start plants.

After al the spading I actually planted 54 hills of potatoes. I plant in rows about one foot apart. I had small potatoes left over from last year's garden to plant. All the potaoes I planted today were stored in the kitchen and they kept unitl now.  It got too late and I'll have to wait to get more in the ground.

The above picture shows all the hard work completed for this portion of the garden.

Finally a beautiful day to be outside!  Being an Urban Farmer one of my goals is to not have to buy and vegetables from the store for the year. Last year the drought made gardening difficult  but I'm hopeful for this season.

This is the 5th year I have gardened this plot. Prior to that is was grass. Lots of clay so we built up the soil by adding tons of leaves in the fall and compostable kitchen scraps like vegetable leftovers and eggshells. We've always had the garden tilled but this year I decided to spade it all instead.  I got half of the garden spaded today.  Sore muscles but it's a good tired!

This is what I'm starting with.  You can see all the leaves. This is the potato section so it's very hilly from digging potatoes last year.  The picture below shows the same area as above after I spaded it. Not bad!

Hi everyone,

 During the rainy days, which thankfully seem to
be behind us, I did some thinking on how to keep exercising around the house.  By exercising, I mean keeping on your feet and defeating the impulse to just sit and wait it out….which means delaying exercise and making it even more difficult to begin a good routine. Here are some of the things I do.  Hopefully you find this helpful and
that it sparks some of your own ideas that you can share as well.

 1. First, I live in a house that has 2 full flights of stairs. I make sure I go up and down them at least 10 times per day.  I pay attention to my posture when I’m on the stairs to maximize the correct muscle toning.  Another thing I find really makes me feel good are wall push ups, especially if you use a corner instead of a flat wall.

 2. If you don’t own hand weights, look in your pantry or cupboard for a can of something that fits your hand grip to do arm and back exercises.

3. I make a deal with myself, anytime I feel like watching TV or a movie I use it as an opportunity to go through my ab and leg routine while the show is just getting started. A complete cycle only takes about 15 minutes.  Keeping it simple and doing it multiple times a day seems a good fit for me.   

I have never been one to go to a gym. I like to be outside and
I’m very impulsive, which means if I have to drive somewhere to exercise….the impulse will pass before I can find my car keysJShare what you do to keep motivated and what works for you.

Keep movin' 

Grrrrr....I hate rain.  So much for getting outside and exercising.  Keeping up with the indoor routine however.  Went shopping tonight and stocked up on fresh fruits and veggies.  I also made bread this week...substituting homemade non sweetened apple sauce for oils and honey for sugar.  It was great! 

A new initiative!  Well, actually an old initiative restarted.  I have now lived in my present home for almost 6 years.  Within the first year of moving in I fell down the basement stairs (a full flight) and landed on the concrete basement floor managing to hit the limestone basement wall as a final stop.  Yes, I deserved to fall as I was carrying a full laundry basket and was wearing slick bottomed flip flops. Anyway, what ensued was so much pain I thought I had broken lots of bones.  With 5 kids, mostly teenagers, sleeping in the house you would think I would have had a ton of help. But no amount of yelling was working to raise anyone from their bed. So, I crawled up the said flight of stairs, through the kitchen to the bottom of the main stairs and yelled some more. Finally my stepson, Austin heard me and raised the alarm.

Thankfully nothing was broken but I have never had such horrible pain as I worked with my chiropractor to repair things.  Up until that fall I was enjoying a great exercise routine. Now 5 years later I have gained weight, feel achy in my joints and just not as sharp.

So, yesterday was the big day...I started power walking again. I walked about 3/4 mile to start.  I have also been rediscovering my whole floor exercise routine which includes legs, thighs, and upper and lower abs.  We'll see how it goes.