Did you all hear the news?  Punxsutawney Phil, the famous forbearer of Spring, did not see his shadow this February 2nd.  I will take that as a win.  Speaking of groundhogs….by coincidence while homeschooling my daughter this month we found out that a groundhog is the same thing as a woodchuck, thanks to the living book by Thornton Burgess Burgess Animal Book we have been using to study the animal kingdom.  I learn a lot from homeschooling too.  Not just facts and information, but mostly about patience, flexibility, and perseverance.

This spring I am hoping to put some of those qualities to good use on our little urban homestead.  For the first year ever we are starting (almost) all of our own seeds to grow in our garden.  Last year Chad put up my adorable little greenhouse that was a mothers day present a couple years ago.  He also built me the perfect tray table inside, to fit four “72s” which you guessed it, have space to start 72 little plants.  So add it all up and we are looking at 288 of our very own little sprouts to transplant out when the time is just right.   With all the seeds ordered and arrived mid month, we were able to whip up our first official crop plan spreadsheet and along with a little map of our annual vegetable beds we determined how much of each and where they would go.  This is exciting stuff for garden nerds like me.  Just this past weekend we took the first big step of the year and seeded out those 288 wishes.  Now only time will tell, and of course a little help from me remembering to open the door/vents each morning and shutting them again before the day cools off in into the dark of night.  We have taken a couple extra steps to insure these starts thrive.  We set up three 5 gallon buckets, spray painted black and filled with water, right under the tray table to collect heat and be used as passive solar heat to keep the greenhouse warm at night.  While it is still pretty cool out at night and we are learning the ropes, we also have set up a small space heater that we will use as needed.

We also had to rip out or strawberry patch and install a third 12 foot raised bed….I ordered too many seeds oops!  Well I think we will be growing plenty this year and will be sharing the extra bounty. It may not be spring yet for another month, but I think we are feeling the spring energy in our bones already.  Either that or we are just all still feeling the high of getting our very our vintage camping trailer project underway.  Yep, we just up and decided one night to drop everything and drive to Eugene Oregon to pick up this Craigslist diamond in the rough.  Avery named her Peaches.  She is parked on the side of our house and every time I drive up and see her I can’t help but smile.  Watch for more updates each month as we get her ready for many adventures this summer. The girls are finally starting to lay again. Its a little wet in our backyard. Garlic is looking good! Hoping this little Italian prune does well this year, I see rhubarb and chives already popping up all around it. Bad bad news.  We stored our hammock, a wedding present to ourselves from our honeymoon in Costa Rica, overwinter in the garage.  Well it seems a little creature liked it too, and decided to make it into a chew toy.  I guess we will be in the market for a new one.  Anyone planning a trip to Costa Rica? We made it to Stewardship Squad twice this month, and Avery learned how to make live stakes from Indian Plum.  Of course she came home and made her own from a bush in wood behind us, and planted it right in the middle of the garden.  Something new for me, I resisted my controlling tendencies and left it there 🙂 There she is, Peaches, our 1974 17′ vintage Prowler camping trailer.  She is a little rough around the edges, but I have a feeling we will have her looking pretty in no time.

So that is what is happening around the Brundage Homestead this February. Does your family have a camping trailer? I would love to hear about it in the comments, give us your best tips since this is our first one.

Thanks for joining me again this month for an update on our life and adventures around the Brundage Homestead. Catch up on what has been happening the past few months here.