So I am feeling like a very acomplished little Hippie Witch today. I baked a loaf of bread, did dishes and laundry with home made soap, and will be doing a blessing for my friends son tonight!
BTW, I tried the thing with the 2 liter soda bottles but it got in the 20s one night and...epic fail! I still had the cut off bottoms of the bottles so I turned them into mini greenhouses and put some seedlings which were too tall for the hot boxes. Counting down to May Day, gonna transfer seedlings outside then based on last frost date and the moon phases. Might put lettuce/spinach out before but not sure yet. I need to built cold frames for next spring! HW

Waiting for Spring...

I am not a paitient person. This is just a fact, and a fact anyone who knows me even a little bit will agree with. I am at this time practically counting the hours until the last frost date so that I can start putting my seedlings in the dirt. Next to waiting for my baby to be born, it is the thing I am most obsessed with in life right now. Garden planning and preparation have replaced nesting with this pregnancy, and my house is messy but my garden just about ready to go! I went against Drs orders and shovled compost out of the bin and into my containers Sunday, I am still sore! A few more containers, which I will have to buy either peat or compost for because I am just about out of my own, and I will have a spot for everything I am planning to put in. The beds are ready, unless I change my mind again and do stawberries in a bed instead of getting a strawberry jar, and one bed needs the rock border. I will wait and let my husband do the rocks, they are way over my 10lb weight limit! I am even worse now that the weather is so nice. It is tempting to put out seedlings, but the nights are still getting really low temps and I do not want to tempt fate to snow on us one more time here in Central Indiana. I saw an article about using plastic bottles with the bottoms cut off as little mini greenhouses and since I have so many tomato seedlings I am tempted to put out one or two like that and see if they do well. I will keep you posted if I decide to possibly sacrifice one of my little tomatoes to this experiment. Off to Google to research! HW

Death to ants!

We had a few beautiful, warm days here in Indiana, and while I enjoyed them greatly, they seemed to have woken up the ants! Therefore, when it became cold again, the ants all came in to live at my house. I found a few homemade ant killers/repellants and have put my death to ants campaign into motion. They have seemed to set up camp in my daughters bathroom, which she will now not use caus ethe ants creep her out so they have to go. So far I am wiping things down every day with equal parts vinegar and water, because it disrupts the scent trail, and I sprinkled cinnamon behind the sink and toilet because it repels them. I have seen recepies for Borax and syrup to kill them, but I know the dogs would be in it, and possibley my daughter as well so I am going to just try to keep on it so I can have my own bathroom back!

Can't wait for spring!

I have seedlings started and am chomping at the bit for that last frost date to get them into the ground and into containers! I have them in little greenhouse boxes, but a few, tomatos, broccoli, and kohlrabi, are so tall already I had to move them into a round "bedpan" and cover then with cling wrap. I have my seeds all organized by start time to go into the peat plugs in the boxes and everyday I have to stop myself from putting them in too early! I have twice as much going in this year and still will not be using a quarter of our property! In 5 years I am hoping that the only grass in the yard will be walkways between areas of the garden! We are doing a lot of containers this year because I am expecting and due in June, so weeding is not going to be at the top of my list. I am supposed to go later today and pick up 5 and 10 gallon buckets from a friends bakery to plant single plants like tomatos and peppers in. I just need it to be time to send my little baby plants outside so I can stop obsessing about plans and layouts, soil mixes and compost! A nesting mother with one more thing to plan, yay!

Welcome to Hippie Witch!

Hello out there! I am a 34 yr old Pagan, mother, wife, and beginner urban homesteader. I am little by little turning my life into living with earth, not just on it. I am just getting rolling, changing things I and my family are doing to create habits and lifestyles that are more sustainable and ecomomical, while living more gently with the earth. Join me, let me know what you are doing and come learn from me and others who will join me as we relearn how to live like those of past generations hand in hand with moving forward to a better life!