Quick update...

- March 13, 2021

Wow, it’s been 3 months since any kind of update from me. I’m totally slacking at this blog thing and I apologize! Unfortunately, nothing hugely exciting has happened in those months, much to our dismay.

A quick rundown, in no particular order -

1. After 70ish days my orange hat tomato plants that I’ve been growing indoors have their first tomatoes!

2. We have a new builder manager working on our houses with the Red Door Company. He’s from our county, knows the ins and outs of the building industry here, and seems to be fighting for us to get stuff moving! He’s gotten more done in the two weeks since he’s been on the ground than they had since October.

3. In reference to number 2 above...They delivered a porta potty - the first REAL sign that SOMETHING is finally happening. That arrived March 3rd. Five months after we signed the contract.....

4. I’ve planted a lot of seeds here at the house, trying to get some seedlings ready to go in the ground after the last expected frost date. That should be the end of March. Currently I have multiple kinds of tomatoes, onions, strawberries, peppers, and lavender sprouted. I changed up the fertilizer this go round and they don’t seem to like it as much. I’ll have to go back to the original dirt and fertilizer I used when I started the orange hat tomatoes.

5. We now have a temporary driveway! That arrived on March 11th.

6. We planted a majority of the clearance fruit trees I purchased last year. Still have a couple plum trees and the peach tree left to plant. They had already come out of dormancy this month so we have to wait until frost has passed to plant them.

7. Tilled a garden and planted some onion, strawberry and lettuce seeds.

8. Purchased a burn barrel, and another barrel that we turned into a rain barrel. Andy has been taking five gallon buckets of water after work full of water and filling it up just so we can water the new seeds and the trees until it rains again. Naturally we got the rain barrel AFTER the monsoon season we had, lol.

9. A lot of the bulbs I planted in December have come up! It’s nice to have a pop of color in the back. We’ve kept everything in the back to avoid being in the way come time to build the houses.

10. Princess A will turn 15 in a couple of months and we finally convinced her to drive one of our trucks around in the field. She’s had zero desire to drive. Now that she’s done it, she doesn’t want to stop!

11. I’ve been collecting windows and doors to make a greenhouse! I found 25 windows on Facebook marketplace from a 1950s farmhouse for $100! The following day 8 more windows, slightly larger showed up for sale nearby. This week I picked up a vintage exterior solid wood door from a beach house in Oak Island, NC. Can’t wait to see it come together!