mini update & Checkmate 10th anniversary!

[naadi]

Wow, I haven't posted since January! School has completely monopolized my time since then - and oh yes, there's also the raised bed garden project of doom that refuses to be finished. *rolls eyes* I have done almost no art at all during this time, which makes me sad, but I'm loving my studies. I'm not sure I've posted about it actually - but I

Comments

[naadi]

I'm so glad you were around just now! It's wonderful to hear from you! *hugs*

lol - I was initially puzzled when you said "other fic" and then it hit me! Oooooh! Right! That other fic!!! I'm thrilled you read them! ADFD is perfect for age 10 or so - that's one of the ones I'm thinking of illustrating for a book. And yes, no rush or anything, but if and when you have a chance, I would love to know your thoughts on them. Thank you!!

Thanks so much for the rec for Checkmate! Checkmate and I appreciate that very much! :DD

Massage therapy school has turned out to be far more work than I realized, but it's completely fascinating. I knew I'd love learning about it, but I've been really surprised at much I actually love doing it, too.

I'd love to know how and what you plant in your raised beds. :D We built raised beds about 12 years ago for our vegetable garden and the boards finally had pretty much rotted or fallen apart, so we took it all down back in March. Now we are building 7 replacement beds that are up on legs, which are much more complicated to build, so it seems it's taking forever to get them finished. I'm actually hoping we will have it mostly done by Monday though and I can finally get my vegetable plants out of the little trays. Poor things - they must think they've been sold to a very poor home. lol And I've been taking pictures so I can post about it on my other journal. ^.^

[etheriaelle]

We started with tomatoes then branched out into strawberries. Last year it went crazy. This year we have one zucchini plant that I have eaten from every day for two weeks and given away numerous squash from, a crookneck and a straight neck squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, leeks, green onions, eggplants, a few different herbs, yard-long beans (a 4 X 4 bed of these last year fed us a couple times a week or more, got given away and I froze several bags that we ate during the winter), okra (another thing that produced so much that we ate it all winter despite giving it away), mixed greens for salad and I am sure I have missed something. In the fall we plant several kind of greens that usually make it most of the winter unless we have a freak snow or ice storm early. We have also planted a row of grapes down one side and they are loaded. In another area we have blackberries and blueberries which have been loaded this year. Been eating strawberries for over a month now too. Ours aren't really raised the way I wanted them, but they are so much easier to grow things in and care for than row crops and a lot more fun than mowing. The kids have a blast helping and eating what they have planted. It's a nice little hobby and a good use for a wasted space that we never saw except to mow. It's a little bit dark right now, but I'll try to get a pic this weekend for you to see.

I must be ten mentally because I confess that I adored ADFD from beginning to end, most especially the end. It was so much fun discussing it with him after he read it. He was so enthusiastic when he was talking about the way it ended too. I wish you could have heard him. Eyes alight and a grin from ear to ear.

To tell you the truth I don't know if I can lay my hand on my notes in a timely manner. My husband decided that he was going to have a window put in the office so he started shoving things into boxes because the guy cutting the brick and the one installing the window could both show up instantly. Trouble is the guy building the bookcases needs time because we are on a waiting list, so everything is in boxes and I have no clue where since he had no rhyme or reason for how he boxed things and did not label. It'll probably be quicker to read them again.

[naadi]

Wow, you guys really have an extensive garden. That's awesome! I would love to see pictures. :D The area we have is small, so the raised beds work really well - especially since we're up on a steep hill and you can't dig more than two or three inches before hitting rocks. I just got some blueberry bushes and a raspberry and blackberry bush, so not enough to really have much fruit, but it's been good. I've never tried strawberries because I always thought the season was so short, but it sound's like you've had them producing for quite a while. Grapes would be great too!

Hehe - I must be 10 too, since ADFD is one of my favorites. *grin* Of course, it has a dragon in it, so that explains a lot of the favoritism. ;-) And thank you so much for telling me how your grandson reacted. That really was wonderful to know. It's got me all enthused again about illustrating it.

Oh, dear! Don't worry about trying to find those notes. (I'm actually amazed and impressed that you have notes! You are awesome!!). I am not in a hurry to work on those stories yet. ^.^

[etheriaelle]

No pictures today, because all my batteries were dead and had to be charged. Maybe tomorrow.Nah, not really extensive at all. It just grew by a few beds each year. We now have 9 4''X4 beds, the two strawberry beds (which are octagonal and have covers made out of PVC pipe and netting 'cause the birds won't let us have any otherwise), and a tomato box that is 2'X4'X 32' area. We have three kinds of strawberries, two of which just started producing, I got about 6 off it today, and will be finished in 4 to 6 weeks. Don't recommend. Lot of space and work for what you get out of them. The other is Everbearing and they started blooming in early March this year. We covered them with straw last year so it helped them stay warmer and bloom earlier. Last year we had berries all season into November on that one. I do recommend those. Just our little bed has gallons month after month. It should grow well there too. You are usually only about 10 days to 2 weeks behind us for beginning of season.

Next year your beds will be ready early in the year, especially if you clean them and put straw over them during the winter. You will be able to get things out earlier in the season too, especially if it is another warm spring like the last two. Course it helped that we didn't have a May flood this year (yet,*knock wood*).

Yes, I remember well the rocks under that 2-3 inches of dirt up that way. Not something we have to worry about here but raised beds are still an easier way to go. I wanted to do my Mom some on legs so she could sit in her chair and work it but she had a grandson or nephew or someone come plow her up a garden and plant it before we got there. I don't know how she plans on working it because she has a hard time getting around sometimes.

Oh, I am so excited that you are planning to illustrate ADFD! If you publish it I want to buy a copy for the boys (as well as myself).wait to see if the dragon looks at all like I imagined while I was reading based on your other art. I can hardly Of course I made notes as I read. Unless I told you right that minute what I thought I would have forgotten my reactions to different things as soon as I slept. You asked and I told you I'd let you know. I do know that I liked everything. I think there may be one, maybe two that I haven't gotten to yet. I won't even tell you how crazy it has been around here since just before Christmas. I was planning on writing in a BB too, but had to drop out because of all the crazy goings on here. Just no time for me.