The Greenhouse Party on Saturday was lots of fun. Despite the fact that it was snowing and cold out, we stayed warm in the greenhouse. For now, we are using a kerosine heater, but my husband plans to have a solar-powered contraption of some kind set up before long.
We drank wine and planted seeds all afternoon. We found out that starting seeds is much more fun when you drink wine with good friends and family
. But keep the wine away from your seed stash (we had one glass get dropped in my seed bucket, which meant I had to spread all of the seeds out that got wet so they could dry).
We've got tons of roma tomatoes and beefsteak tomatoes started, as well as different varieties of squash and pumpkins. I am going to try a new crop this year: peanuts. Hopefully they'll do okay here
The kids started their seeds earlier in the day. They are very excited about having their own gardens this year. They are also going to make a "sunflower room" once it warms up. We're going to plant a large square outline with sunflower seeds, leaving an opening for a "door." Once the sunflowers grow up, they will form the walls of their room. It should make a great play spot for them this summer.
I also made some homemade toilet bowl cleaner this weekend. We have been gradually weaning ourselves off store-bought cleaners, and the toilet cleaner ran out, so I made my own. I saved the store-bought container to put it in. This is the recipe that I used:
1 2/3 cups baking soda
1/2 cup liquid soap
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons vinegar
Mix all ingredients and pour into squeeze bottle. Shake before each use. I make my own liquid soap by grating some of my bar soap and heating it with water (1 part soap to 2 parts water) until the soap dissolves.
I found this recipe in the Reader's Digest book called "Homemade." It's got lots of good recipes for making your own cleaners in it.
