Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Spring in Louisiana

Tax Season hasn't really been tax season this year. With many of my clients being charities the due date for returns is in May and the others don't have December year ends. Therefore I have spent the last few months working on large non-tax projects, playing gigs and working around the house. It has been wonderful. I would love to have a few more clients, but so far I can't complain.

I know the accounting stuff is boring so here goes on the yard stuff. I installed a clothesline and until my car turned yellow I was using it for all of my drying needs. Unfortunately I have year round allergies and when the pollen gets so bad that the cars turn yellow I just can't deal with drying my stuff outside. I also planted a huge garden. I've got kale, spinach, collards, bell peppers, banana peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, several varieties of beans, squash, cantaloupe, peppermint, lavender, rosemary, blueberries, blackberries, grapes and potatoes. The surprise so far is that potatoes have sprouted out of the compost pile I buried at the end of last year. I've used all the compost, but having a sense that those plants had grown out of the compost pile rather than just being weeds I made sure to leave them. Woohoo feral potatoes!!!!

The gardening thing is new to me. My parents gardened when I was little, but that was mostly me wandering around helping them pick the bounty instead of actually doing anything productive in the growing stages. It's been hard work, but just being able to eat the kale that survived my winter gardening attempt has been wonderful. I can't describe the taste of kale from my backyard as compared to the expensive store bought stuff. And I have more coming! My back and knees, however, aren't so excited.

I've also been doing a lot of knitting and sticking to my cold sheeping ways. It's so easy to do now that I've got my yarn somewhat organized and have a chest of drawer solely devoted to projects that should come next. Now if I can only get started on quilting and work that stash down.

My biggest failure over the past few months has been in keeping my house clean and making curtains for my backroom. I desperately need curtains back there and really need to make curtain liners for the other rooms. Summer is coming and we've already had many days over 80 degrees. It's Louisiana, therefore it will be hot. I purchased 3 shade trees for my house and hopefully that will help things next summer, but for this summer I need to focus on making my window coverings tight. When I ever get to it I will make sure to post pictures.

I  think my next big project is going to be learning to spin since my sister just acquired several angora bunnies and learning to make soap. My family has recently started working towards being more self-sufficient and not relying on grocery stores and electricity as much as we have in the past. It's not an easy road and we're making baby steps, but the biggest thing has been the gardens and recycling my business shred to the bunnies and the bunnied up papers into my garden. I feel like I've started my own little eco system in nowhere Lousiana.

What have you been doing to become more self sufficient? I'd love to have new ideas.

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