Been busy couple weeks at work and coupled with the snow I just can't wait for Spring to come around.  I'll be picking up my seeds probably next week and within the next 2 weeks, start some seedlings indoors.  Visited the local nursery and they still hadn't put out the Veseys Seedsyet, but should be out next week I'm told.  I might just order them online...

I thought I would put some of my work conference call time to good use and draft up what our new raised garden beds would look like in Excel.  It's not pretty and things will not be planted as shown in the image, but setting it up this way will allow me to easily move things around.  Still have some reading to do an beneficial/companion planting and aligning to the sun.  Looking at the image, East is the top of the beds and West is the bottom.  The right side length of the beds will face South.  I have to confirm the number of seeds per square, per vegetable type as well as I only used one reference online but it didn't seem that accurate.  Once it's all put together proper, I should be able to calculate by function the number of total plants per type and benchmark yeild, etc... ya geeky, but it's a start ;o) 

I had to buy a few more training books for work so of course bought a treat.  I figure after toasting my brain on Windows 2008 Active Directoy Configuration (yes it's as exciting as it sounds), I thought I should reward myself with some good reading so included All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! in my order.   Talk about "one of these things are not like the other..." (if you ever watched Sesame Street you get that ;o)  I had the original edition from the library but had to bring it back before I was done since someone else had it on hold (good for you!!).

So the plan is to study, finalize selection of seeds, start seedlings indoors and complete the plan for the new raised garden beds, almost in that order.  I'll be pricing out the Hemlock that I'll use for the beds once I calculate how much I need.  Also have to start looking for my options on materials to create my own versions of Mels's Mix.  I won't have enough compost to do all the beds so have to find some alternatives.  I can get loam and peat moss perlite at good prices, but good compost in bulk might be hard to come by in the quantities I'll need to kick off all these beds at once.  Still researching at this point. 

So as this is posted it's another snow day here (30cm of the white stuff) and seems like Spring will never come, but it will and I can't wait!!

Picked up the second issue, Spring 2010, of Urban Farm magazine and it is chalk full of good useful articles!  I really do hope the magazine turns into a monthly issue and they start accepting subscriptions... all in good time I guess. 

One of my favorite articles is "Cinch by the Square Foot".  This article was great timing for me since I'm actually planning on converting our conventioanl row garden to raised beds and square foot gardening practices.  The article is written by Mel Bartholomew who is the author of Square Foot Gardening, which I am also actively reading. 

Another good article is "P is for Prosper".  The article goes through urban-farming pioneer Will Allen's  north Milwaukee urban aquaponic farm, Growing Power inc." and his seven P's for success and community building.  I stumbled on to Will Allen while researching aquaponics and was immediately interested in his processes.  I love that they are growing food where it is needed.  Here's a YouTube video as an introduction:

The entire magazine is good, but a few other articles I personally liked:

• "Permission to Play in the Dirt" - Different techniques on composting and compost bins
• "Power to the People" - Nice primer on renewable energy
• "Pushing City Limits" - Struggles of urban farmers vs city ordinances

There are many more great articles so go out and buy your copy today.  You should also go out to their website UrbanFarmOnline.com and submit a comment showing your support ;o)

It would seem that after the Holidays everything just went someplace in the basement... out of sight, out of mind.  I had about a 3ft path to bring the wood and knew this was something I need to tackle, just needed the courage ;o)

I took a couple of before and after pictures so I remember never to let it get to that state again.  Although I still have a bit more to go, I ended up bringing 3 bags of books for donation to the library, donated 3 bags of winter clothing for adults and kids, 2 garbage bags of junk, a list of items to sell on eBay/kijiji and some piece of mind. 

The first picture is from the landing looking to my left where we stack our wood.  On the right is a stack of shelves we built using strapping and old closet doors.  Have a better view of those in the after pictures.  These are great and sturdy shelves deep enough to store our camping gear, coolers, suite cases and even our rotational pantry.  It's amazing how neat everything is when packed properly on the shelves!

Basement After

Once I got started it wasn't so bad. Even my son pitched in and made a bag of toy donations, even though he played with them in the basement more then clean ;o)  It feels so good now to go downstairs and there is a place for the wood, recycled bottles and cans, tools, pantry is packed away, camping gear is packed away, Halloween and Christmas decorations packed away... just neat.

The lessons learned from this was one, we hold on to too much stuff and two, we have too much stuff.  What's hard is deciding what to part with and what to keep.  I'm one of those "I'm sure I could use that someday" guys and need to change that and stick to the necessities. 

We have some plans for the basement and the first step was to

Basement After2

declutter.  This summer we plan on putting in an egress window or a storm door so it's easier to bring in the wood in the fall.  I also have an ambitious plan of building a corner of the basement in to a root cellar so we have a good cold space for preserves and root crops.

In the last picture you can see a better picture of the closet door shelves.  Behind the wall on the right is another closed off section of the basement that was used as a wood working shop by the previous owner.  I didn't take any pictures of that room yet.  I just need to get my own tools to fill it up I guess ;o)

On to the next project for now...

I had both the pleasure and disgust of watching Food Inc. this weekend and it was an eye opener.  Although I was aware of most of what the film had to say, the message was really driven home as to how far removed we are from our food in our "modern society".

Filmmaker, Robert Kenner, "lifts the veil" on the American food industry exposing the industrialization of food production and the powerful companies that control it.  And when I mean control it, I mean through brute force and intimidation, they can keep farmers under their thumb and seem to be concerned only about profit, not the product or the people for which they supply.  A few scenes that bother me are the fact that farmers seem powerless to fight the large conglomerates that run the meat industry and the fact that the US Supreme Court allowed a company to patent seeds. 

I don't want to spoil it for anyone who has not watched it yet, but it is well worth the view and I would highly recommend it.  It is a bit graphic at some points and if you are tender at heart, you might shed a few tears.  One thing is for sure, you will "Never Look At Dinner The Same Way Again".  It certainly changed my points of view and we will make more changes in our choices.

For more information on the film check out the official movie website: www.foodincmovie.com

Food Inc. Movie Trailer