Sleepy in Alabama

Well I really did it this time. We picked it up, packed it in, and moved it. To Huntsville, Alabama. My husband has family here and his mom has been trying to get us down here for years. I had a good job so it just wasn't in the cards. Now that my job has moved away and the job after it couldn't support us, we decided now is as good a time as any. We made it right before the new school year started here and we're adjusting. Most of my garden was mobile so it wasn't much of a sad day to leave the few plants behind that we couldn't bring with us. The neighbors will tend to them and harvest. I actually harvested our first batch of potatoes today and we'll be eating those with dinner tomorrow.

The one big unfortunate thing is that our dog died June 26th. Majere will be missed terribly and the entire family was inconsolable for more than two weeks. The kids look forward to when we will have another dog but they are following my line of thinking: right now just isn't the time. We've scarcely broken the habits that we built with him and even now as I write this, my heart hurts.

Moving on (before I start crying). I haven't posted in a good long while due to the massive hours I had to work and full time school and family. I'm looking for work but still working hard at school. We are optimistic and things seem to be going our way at the moment which is more than I can say for a lot of folks at the moment. My husband's grandmother has some land and was very enthusiastic when she learned that I garden. We're planning some big things for next year. There is a lot of work to be done before we're ready to start any type of garden on her two acres and we're 30 minutes away. We're headed down there this weekend to spend some time.

With this move, we have a renewed sense of purpose. Our goals are laid out and we know exactly what we want to do. More importantly, we know we will be able to make it happen here. We've been checking into local gardeners, suppliers of rabbits, chickens, and quail and it all looks a lot better than it was in Tennessee. There seems to be more resources here and more like minded folks closer to us. The only hump is the job. We just have to get them. My husband has already had one interview and the man had already hired his nephew so it wasn't a turn down because of anything but that one little fact.

So with that, my update is complete. We're alive, we're living in Alabama, and we're looking forward to making all of our dreams come true.

Whew!

Did I mention being unemployed can really give you a lot of time to work on those projects you didn't have time for before? I have been working on my garden, disheartening as it may be that I don't have a job at the moment, but I've been working on it. We put up the gazebo, built a raised bed, I've done a lot of container gardening, too. I've done a lot of herbs and they are doing so well. My main problem has been pest management because, again, it rains for three days and then we have three days of nice skies, then it rains for three days again. I've been really on top of getting the DE on the plants and keeping it on them. But I'm still seeing the signs of my leaves being eaten. Worse, slugs and snails have moved in. I've been battling that.

But we're counter balancing. I put the bird feeders near the garden and I'm seeing a sharp decrease in insects. The ground squirrels are entertaining as they forage through the little existing bed the bird feeder sits in. The bed is very old but the soil in it is actually pretty good.  I've got some things planted but I don't think they are going to do anything. There is a huge tree shading that spot so I'm going to be getting some shade loving flowers instead.

I've been doing a lot of research into aquaculture the past three weeks and this guy:



is amazing.  He has built a system in a greenhouse, wrote software to monitor it and has it almost completely automated.  Wow.

I'd love to build one.  But for now, I'm going to keep on with my cucumbers and onions with broccoli and herbs.  My cat is evil as she destroyed the okra, cauliflower, and tomato.  Ahh well, there is always next year and indoor gardening.