The new year is almost 3 weeks old, the time when most good intentions disappear into the closet.

What about you?

Most good intentions are;

  • Losing weight
  • Move more
  • More in being outdoors
  • Saving money
  • Meeting with family and friends

For myself, I add; more time for myself!

The latter seems to have become increasingly scarce in recent years, so starting this year I’m really really really trying to keep Wednesday afternoons free. No appointments (unless there really is no other way) and hup, out and about!

Since we moved to the farm I also have a dream of a garden, last year it still looked like a big lawn and slowly but surely I am transforming it, (with spit and shovel help from Sytze) into a flower and vegetable garden.

This year I gave myself a very big challenge… Enthusiastically, I started with the idea of eating from the garden all year round. Sytze was somewhat less enthusiastic and declared me crazy! Fortunately, he always lets me indulge in my wild ideas; he knows by now that there is nothing to talk to. In addition to herbs, flowers and vegetables, there will also be chickens! I have a very nice spot in the (vegetable) garden that could perfectly accommodate a chicken hop with run. It is in the hottest part of the day in the shade and the chickens can help me fight the snail infestation. Chicken happy and me happy! But first there is work to be done on the chicken villa, through Marketplace a beautiful coop was snapped up for a few pennies. It still needs some refurbishing but we can manage that. I have started painting the chicken coop black and it will have red roof tiles on it. It will soon fit right into the rural setting!

Butja…. You can’t have a real vegetable garden without a greenhouse 😉 So after a long long long search on Marketplace, I finally came across the greenhouse I was looking for. Not too big to start with and not too expensive either.

So there we went again on Saturday morning in the pouring rain…. Horse trailer behind the car and enough muscle along to lift the greenhouse. On second thought, it was still better to take it apart and rebuild it at home. Soaking wet, but with greenhouse, we returned home. Quickly a cup of coffee and then towards the barn,well then you see a thousand parts lying around mixed up and have no idea anymore how it was even done….

Together we unloaded everything and reassembled what seemed logical to us, usually we get into arguments with these kinds of jobs because some know it better than others. This time it wasn’t too bad, though perhaps it was because I had resolved beforehand not to interfere too much.

As far as I am concerned, spring cannot start early enough, the best seeds have been ordered and in a few weeks the pre-sowing can begin.

Some more borders are going up and some more borders will be added to make more room for the picking garden. I think a lot of good intentions can go back into the refrigerator, but a few I’m going to achieve regardless:

 

  • Being outside more
  • Food from your own garden
  • And plenty of exercise