2011 Garden in Close-up View

Our 2011 garden continues where 2010 left off.

The first image shows Sorrel growing well, even in cold Southern California weather. Sorrel is a popular green and practically a staple food over in Eastern Europe. My dad grew up in Poland eating sorrel soup, as did Anna in Ukraine.

The second image is of our peppers. We have several varieties planted last spring and they continue to grow and produce. If there was ever an easy vegetable to grow, I would think peppers are top of the list. ive grown them in pots before, flower boxes by the window, etc but in a raised bed they have flourished.

The third image is of our easy peel seedless clementine mandarins :) This is our first yield (what about 15 of them) and they have a lot more flavor than the store bought ones. Im so glad we tracked this particular mandarin down. Many of them are loaded with seeds and hard to peel.

Fourth photo is of our broccoli which is a first time planting from seed I believe purchased from Freedom Seeds.They are growing very strong! I have no idea how to harvest them, so will  have to do some research :)

Last photo is an ode to all the rain here lately.

Home Prices & Home Value Websites

 
Real jobs are looking bleak here in America (save for the common retail job). Stores like Home Depot, Lowes, and Wal-mart only sell Chinese products which dont help. Helping the country can begin right here at home. Purchasing items from bloggers such as myself (Stickley Font) and great handmade tinctures and tonics from Miranda of 'An Austin Homestead' on her site The Relic Jar are simple ways to boost local economy. We love to go to our local farmers markets and buy food and items. We also try to purchase items as local as possible to help our local economy we live in. I foresee bartering as commonplace soon as the economy gets worse. Heck, its something I already do. Unfortunately, I dont think this is going to get us out of the situation the country is in right now. Taxing every American 100% would not even solve this mess.

Our "vintage charmer" bungalow has dropped in value by a whopping 40%. This terrible "Great Recession" economy we are in has finally arrived to my city, which has held out pretty long. I used several websites to come up with my home value (see below). If your house is not upside down and you have equity, now might be a great time for a refinance to lock in historic low rates. I know I would if I could :) Its also a great time if you are looking to purchase a home.


CyberHomes...
http://www.cyberhomes.com/


Eppraisal...
http://www.eppraisal.com/


Zillow...
http://www.zillow.com/


Redfin...
http://www.redfin.com/


Homegain...
http://www.homegain.com/homevalues/


Trulia...
http://www.trulia.com/


Real Estate ABC...
http://www.realestateabc.com/home-values/


Yahoo Real Estate...
http://realestate.yahoo.com/Homevalues/

With those links above I have made a bunch of phone calls and from my experiences, loan appraisers will appraise your home close to the CyberHomes value, while mortgage companies like to lowball their numbers and go for values similar to the Yahoo Real Estate page (which is basically a mix of zillow and eppraisal).

Hopefully, if you are interested in checking out home prices, those links above will help you. Do you barter and try to help your local economy? Do you see more and more people staying home because there arent any jobs out there these days? Is your house upside down? What will you do? Are you going to bunker down? Start a home garden? An urban homestead? Whats your plan?

Would love to hear from all out there reading. You can sound off, cry, laugh and share a joke, whatever you want right here in the comments.

200 Pounds of Produce!

Well, we FINALLY reached our 2010 goal of 200 pounds of produce. And we cut it close too. I thought we would easily blow passed this number since I had planted lots cabbage, but Im guessing all the rains we've had sort of put the cabbage in a mid winters sleep. They still seem OK, just not ready to be picked any time soon.

Our pumpkins never did materialise this year, although we planted a lot of seeds. Im guessing either old seeds or poor placement :) And our garlic never developed in early 2010, but I notice they are coming up again many many many months later. What a nice surprise!

Im glad we made it passed our 2009 totals of 141 pounds and now hope to hit 300 pounds for the 2011 calendar year. Lofty goals I know :) This years garden was more fun than anything made easy thanks to drip irrigation. Im going to have to be more organised if I want to hit 300#. Its doable. I'll be planting more potatoes now that I feel I know what Im doing, I'll find a better place for pumpkins, and try my luck with hanging tomatoes too.

I know, time to start planning already! I will keep a better log of the garden so I know what works and what doesnt for each month making future years easier and easier. My own farmers almanac if you will.

Within the next few days I'll come up with our 2011 goals list so look for it if you are snowed in and bored!  :p

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a safe New Years!

We Did It! 500 Blog Posts!

Thank You Everyone! It's been a fun ride so far!

 

Still Raining Here in California!

Yup! It is still raining out here... coming to almost a week straight now of rain. While I dont remember that type of rain in recent years, when I was growing up I remembered lots of rain and thunderstorms back in the 70s and 80s. I dont feel this is really out of the norm.

You can see our garden is getting really soggy and waterlogged. I havent even wanted to go outside to help preserve anything. We've had a lot of severe downpours with us being so close to the mountains.Im sure we are picking up more rain than the Los Angeles basin.

I love photos of water drops on leaves and flowers!

I dont even remember what Im growing! Its broccoli or brussels sprouts I think. 

The water in the bucket doesnt look like much, but just over night I collected 7 inches of water. So does that make for an accurate rain gauge?

And the Winner Is!

And the winner is!

All three people who posted! Alexa, Byron and Ben! Congrats and thats going to close our giveaways for the Christmas season. Thanks everyone :)

They each have their own blogs too so give 'em some love...

Alexa - Bungalow 718 Revision
Byron - Cincinnati Bungalow
Ben - The Sky Is Big In Pasadena

And now back to regular programming here... :)

Second to the Last Giveaway!

The year is coming down to an end and our Holiday giveaway is almost over too. It sooooo simple to enter the contest! Just comment on this blog post for a chance to win! We'll use random.org to pick a winner as always. Thanks for such a fun time! Good luck to whomever wins! (we'll pick a winner late tonight) The prize is a gift certificate to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds!!!