WHEW!!!!! May is Almost GONE!

Wow!

It seems I just posted a few days ago!

With so much activity we have been scurrying around in circles.

The Family Allotment Garden, The Church Community Garden, the Squirrely Acres Balcony Farm....not mention the 101 OTHER projects it seems fill every day this sweet spring month.

Flurry flurry scurry scurry! 

VERY apt words for Squirrely Acres right now!

This poem may just well enough explain to you what our labors have been at for the past fortnight:

Thistle, Thistle!

You make me whistle!

Because you attacked me at the church garden

And there is a security camera that will pick up

My condemnation of your utter existence!

Isaiah 6:5

“Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; 

because I am a man of unclean lips…”

Thistle, Thistle!

You make me whistle!

How clever is God

That he planted you right

Where you would do his work where I cannot!

He makes me work feverishly

To rid my life of not you

You, hated of all herbs!

But rid my life of

My unclean lips!

For now I have taken more and more

To Calling out

Thistle! Thistle!

Followed by

Whistle! Whistle!

Instead of the unclean projections

That once blasted from these lips!

So afraid I am of being found out

Of this heinous infraction

That I have finally

Turned to more colorful of botanical names

Instead of naming the pedigrees

Of various livestock animals!

Thistle! Thistle!

Whistle! Whistle!

Now I need a Healing Salve such as He…

I am thinking this may very well be one of my most frequented of websites in the next few weeks.

Sigh...

Stay Squirrely folks!

Tucking in the Young Ones!

Today I ran over to the Family Allotment again.

I put in some red onions (that I purchased Wednesday from Whitetail Acres in Brookville, IN), tucked them and the potatoes in with nice fresh grass clippings, watered everything thoroughly, put all the tools away, and came home ready for a shower and a bout of house keeping before a long read in bed tonight!

I, at the last minute, decided to rearrange my evening to get in a few last hours of the day at my brother's place and I was rewarded!

Well, we both were rewarded.

He likes the fact that there aren't these piles of dead grass laying all over the vast lawn and I love to rake them up and use them.

I like the fact that although he is not ready to use them yet he likes to support what I am doing in my allotment. 

We both like that we are willing to help out, but we understand it is hands off each other's allotment too.  

Already we are learning so much from each other and it is that hard to explain part of gardening to someone that has not experienced it before. 

We both view it as play time too.

It helps that as siblings we were both raised to make work as enjoyable as you can because work must be done in life, there is just no two ways about it.

So we choose to do this and share the experience and have fun. 

In a day or two I want to document my making of compost tea an show it here for you all. 

This little bit of heaven for your garden can be made from kitchen scraps. 

Well, I need to head to the shower and than do that house cleaning I was talking about.

Stay Squirrely!  

REALISM

One of the things you always hear me talk about is: 

TRUTH. REALISM. HARD COLD FACTS.

Well, the hard cold fact is this year I am behind. 

Blame it on the late lasting winter, blame it on lack of time, blame it on Game of Thrones streaming on Megashare for a time......

But mostly, blame it on me just not getting things done for whatever reasons.

This is where I have my most deepest love affair with plants and gardening/farming.

Most things work out by the time you need them to if you know how to work with the circumstances you are in. 

My circumstances are as such: 

I have little time.

I have too many commitments.

I want to grow grow grow more than just about anything.

I have little extra cash.

I have great creativity and a bit of know how.

I am not particularly concerned with how "pretty" things look. 

I know that gardening creates its own world to live in.

I have a clean slate as far as where the Squirrely Acres Balcony Farm is located.

I have many containers...and they need lots of cleaning.

I have many people that welcome all my Squirrely Acres endeavors. 

My downstairs neighbor does not mind a bit of dirt sifting down through the balcony decking boards as long as I come down and clean up the mess.

With all this said, I wanted to post some photos of what things look like here this morning and then get on with the work of ....well, WORK!

Dirty containers waiting for attention.

FINALLY! One decorative element at the Balcony Farm - a pretty little butterfly wind chime from Easter.

Some interesting angles, corners, and high places with which to work.

 Much needed green space for the Lil Squirrel to run and play, have tea parties, and read to stuffed animals and tired Mommies under shady trees.

 Downstairs neighbor wants to see if I can make (and if landlord will allow) a small attractive garden space under their kitchen window.

 Bird feeders, toad houses, and opportunities to place more wildlife attractants (such as moth houses, humming bird feeder or whatever we can dream up that landlord will allow.)

A wonderful year round fun spot in the yard. Watched Fireworks last 4th of July, chased fire flies, rolled down grass all summer and fall to get stains and itches all over, sledding and snow angels during the winter and pitter pattering raindrops to watch among the needles of the trees all spring.

Ever the procrastinator I will be starting my potato slips in just a day or two. 

Here is a good little clip to watch on how to do that:

Go outside today, have fun, and stay Squirrely! 

Scenes From the Past Few Weeks

Signs of spring at a friend's house.

What's been developing at the church community garden. (Photos as of Wednesday April 30th.)

Getting things indoors going.

Letting Mother Nature have her way with the elements...moping around trying to find things to do indoors.

BUSY! BUSY! BUSY!

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/f8/d9/19/f8d9194897c4e3823d110d01d9620535.jpg

Every gardener is busy at this time of year.

It is no different for us at Squirrely Acres even though right now we are head quartered at our "balcony farm."

We have started urban gardening at our apartment balcony, along with helping a few others start the same. 

We are helping to direct a church community garden in the area.

Our family has begun The Johnson Family Allotment Garden at my brother's acreage. 

I have a few friends that have called on my services to help get their lawns and gardens up and going this year already. 

The Lil' Squirrel is learning how to start her own agriculture based business that will hopefully grow as she does. 

Lil Squirrel prepared seeds before planting.

Today I finally took the time I should have way back in January to actually inventory the seed stock Squirrely Acres has left after last year's move from a different town and from acreage to an urban apartment gardening experience.

As with any move, one expects to lose a few items. 

I expected to have lost quite a bit of actual seed stock. 

Surprisingly, we lost very few items!

Equipment can be replaced; books, notes, journals, etc can be recreated or started once again, but once heirloom seed stock is lost it is lost forever. 

Even those seeds that were not heirloom were very important to have on hand. 

We feel rich indeed to have such jewels in our treasure trove of a garden box.

I went the other day to Kroger and purchased some seed potatoes.

Boy did that bring out some closet gardeners when I could not find the seed potato listing on the item look up at the self checkout and had to ask for assistance. 

A few cashiers came over and started showing photos on their cell phones of their gardens from last year. 

It was quite funny really. 

But probably not to the other shoppers behind me in line.... 

Prepping seed potatoes (Red Pontiac) for planting in a day or so.

Well, it is time for me to finish up a few small chores before the Lil Squirrel comes home from school.

Stay Squirrely!

Fairy Garden Adventure

You may have thought we ladies at Squirrely Acres had totally abandoned this blog, but that is not the case!

We have been very busy building gardens with friends and neighbors so that we have many adventures to tell about.

This afternoon we had the chance to journey on an adventure right here at the Squirrely Acres Balcony Farm! 

(As Jenna Woginrich of Cold Antler Farm has said so many times before - just because you do not have the acreage you desire currently does not mean you cannot operate your farming venture in your current circumstances.)

The Little Squirrel decided it was time to create this year's Fairy Garden on the balcony. 

Here are some scenes from that project:

We decided to make it into a wicking bed of sorts. (We have yet to install the drain hole and the water fill spout - that will come tomorrow, not the best way, but hey! It's all an experiment right?!)

First we flipped some berry containers with holes in the bottoms upside down to create the water reservoir and secured those with a few rocks.

Next we poured in a gallon of water. (I was just winging it here, not sure how much exactly to add...)

Then we added 12 quarts of potting soil to this container.

The Little Squirrel planned out the placement of all the plants, characters, and features she wanted to include in her Fairy Garden.

The Little Squirrel then planted the flowers, added the figurines, and laid out the colorful gnome path and black cobblestones for her Fairy Garden according to her plan.

The wonderful thing about this Fairy Garden is that it is The Little Squirrel's. She can come out here when she wants and recreate this little world every day, or leave it as it is and enjoy that too.

Here is her run down on all the steps:

Stay Squirrely!

SPRING! SPRING! SPRING!

Coming up in March 20th, 2014 there will be big changes for my blogs. 

Right now I have three public blogs going. When I first started this foray into blogging I only wrote one. It slowly evolved into three public ones and several private blogs. 

I love the Blogger format and its ease of use, so I decided to stay with it instead of hunting for alternatives. This will remain. 

On Thursday March 20th, 2014 I will merge the three public blogs (Whitewater Valley Adventures, Squirrely Acres, and Whitewater Valley Historic Research) into one comprehensive blog. 

Everything I post from that date forward will go onto the Whitewater Valley Adventures blog. All my previous posts will remain on the original Blogspot blogs instead of being lumped into an archive on the new consolidated blog. 

As I create each post I will head each one with a designation of : Whitewater Valley Adventures, Squirrely Acres, or Historic Research. Many of my current readers enjoy all three blogs, whereas many do not even know that I write THREE blogs for public viewing.

This new direction will provide ease of use for my readership as well as increase the viewing of ALL my postings across the board. 

I have found though, that my Facebook followers still like the three separate pages. I will keep that as it is for now. Just as a reminder here is how you can connect with those there: Whitewater Valley Adventures, Squirrely Acres, Whitewater Valley Historic Research.

As we all know social media can become overwhelming and that was NEVER my intentions with any of this. So with that in mind, my new direction in the organization of writing for you all I wanted to give you a more complete look at goings on in the Whitewater Valley and also a more enjoyable reading experience. (While making my life infinitely more sane! We all know I need that!)

Please, please please! Comment, discuss, and suggest all things you like, don't like, or would like to see here in the future.

-Suzanna

Squirrely Acres on Facebook

Don't forget we have a Facebook page where you will find more photos and many items we like to share that pertain to our mission of self sufficiency and mindful living.

Stop by and please leave comments here on the blog, or on our Facebook page. We look forward to hearing from you all!

Stay Squirrely!

-Suzanna

Thawing Out From This Indiana Winter Ice Age?

THAT is the image of a thawing icicle water drop splatting the balcony of the current location of Squirrely Acres.....

Never mind that our present digs (pun intended) are not the ideal spot for an urban farm - unless you are an unflagging optimist like me!

No, really this winter served to take me right down to the bare optimism I had left to make it through.

Yes, I know it is not through yet, after all our last frost date is about mid- May here in East Central Indiana so....

But today's thawing served to remind us just WHY this seemingly long winter was weighing so heavily on us gals here: the snow had muffled ALL the sounds of nature.

The fluffy white blanket of snow became a death shroud of muffled sound, icy footing, two feet of snow, WEEKS of below zero temperatures and a general deadening atmosphere ensued.

On this morning of a two-hour delay from school THIS is what welcomed our day at about 9:30 a.m.

Good Morning Squirrely Acres!

Sigh....starting seeds is next on the list here for us gals.

Thinking just for fun, and some quick green foliage inside, we will start a sweet potato slip on top of the fridge tomorrow. 

Maybe even some nice little peas by the window so they can climb climb climb up and around the frame!

Stay Squirrely!

- Suzanna

http://lenscanvas.com/collection-national-geographic-best-photos-of-the-day/

This squirrel is a bit overwhelmed by obstacles at the moment. 

Yep, yep, I know those are the defining moments in life. 

Well, come spring time I should be well defined I am telling ya! 

Or dead. 

Yep, those make it or break it kind of defining moments.

Many of us are going through those moments as of late, maybe even for a few years now. 

The encourager needs to be encouraged. 

As a result, fate, or life, or... pushed me on a slightly tangent path from what I planned this winter. 

Its as though the harder I worked toward a goal the harder Mother Nature worked her magic to block my progress.

And she is still at it. 

STILL. 

I guess for now I take it in stride and learn some new (and needed) skills in patience. 

Do what I can for now and be ready for when I can do more in the future. 

The set backs of this past year - after so many strides that were made in the previous - have made me feel a bit raw and edgy. 

A bit of a chip on my shoulder too. 

These are life issues one must revisit every few years. 

I AM enjoying my foray into middle age much more than I thought I would be. 

It is so good to know yourself and be respected for that. 

The things I AM self assured about - in a healthy way - give me great joy. 

Those simple pleasures type of joy. 

I think this is one of those very important lessons that need to be learned on a continuing basis throughout life:

being self aware and knowing what to do with it. 

For me the knowing what to do about it requires space, peace, and quiet. 

A contemplation complete and true. 

So many things have been just ...

UP IN MY FACE.

Like a demanding two year old with a snotty nose and a sagging, rotting diaper. (Gratuitous mommy analogies are what I am all about. Its what I know best.)

I need a mental bubble bath. 

I need to get back to being squirrely, instead of bearish.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/alaska-hiker-survives-horrific-bear-attack-climbing-tree-escape-article-1.1094798

Stay squirrely my friends, stay squirrely - tomorrow is another day.

A Long Awaited Return!

A long awaited return to Squirrely blogging, and a return to growing things at my place!

It may be a simple, very insignificant start, but it is a start nonetheless.

Like the clippings taken earlier tonight from one of my mother's house plants (in above photo) - sometimes things have to be clipped off and started over to affect new miraculous growth.

The last six months have been a period of clipping and growing for us self sufficient ladies.

(We started the new Fayette County Fiber Artists to help others learn some lost arts and hopefully learn new ones ourselves! Attending IU East for the fall semester pushed the envelope of everything I had in me. Caroling at our local Winter Fest Celebration was a fun, and freezing, experience back in mid November. Adventures in sewing curtains for our new digs pushed the limits to my patience, but our windows are now insulated from the frigid air blasting them lately!)

We are back and ready to begin our adventures anew in this wonderful new year.

East Central Indiana has been heavy laden with snow and below zero temps off and on for several weeks now.

Today saw a high of 42 degrees that I could chart!

Flipping through colorful seed catalogs while thoughts of digging my seed stash out to plan a brand new start to Squirrely Acres this year have filled my days.

Memories of sweating in the blazing sun in a tank top and shorts with black loam shoved up under my ragged finger nails have lulled me to sleep under the layers upon layers of bedding in the dark Indiana winter that settled on us all too early this season.

The Little Squirrel and I are dedicated to bringing our ideas in urban gardening to new areas in the Whitewater Valley in this up coming year, and many years to come.

Changes in our operation and here on the blog will be evident soon.

Please come often and look for new updates on what's currently going on at the NEW Squirrely Acres.

Stay Squirrely, my friends!