amtolle

On Mark, Set,….

I have shared my daughter is pregnant with triplets, spontaneous triplets. Most triplets are the results of infertility treatments. My daughter is not on any type of fertility treatments. Hence, spontaneous triplets. A triplet pregnancy is considered very high risk.

This morning I received a call that she was seeing the doctor. An unplanned doctor visit. I may have to pick my granddaughter up from pre-K. I assured her I would be there.

I live two hours away. Then I realized we are approaching the time when unplanned doctor visit are going to occur. In a few weeks she will have to stop working and get lots of rest, eventually bedrest.

With the call, I needed the booster seat in my truck. I needed clothes for staying overnight if that was needed.

We have been planning and doing to help their family be ready for triplets. But, I was not ready. No overnight bag, no prep for my husband if I am not home.

Today, I packed the overnight bag. I have some meals in the freezer. I will be making and freezing more meals. I did an inventory of the sheep feed and supplies. I made a food list of items to stock in the pantry for when I will not be home.

We, they and the whole family are truly excited about welcoming triplets into our family. I have spoken with the children, we have come up with a plan to assist with diapers and wipes (triplets use 18-20 a day). There are baby showers being planned. I will be staying with them once she is sent home, through the delivery and afterwards to help out with whatever needs done and for support.

As a family we realize it will take the whole family to raise the triplets and their sibling.

In our current times, I notice families not as close together as they once were. As a child I went to school with my cousins. Weekends were spent at someone’s home where each individual family gathered to eat and play games.

People have moved miles away from family, like ours, family is scattered to several states. Most of the moving away is for work or job positions as in my scenario of moving due to a job transfer for my husband. Children grow up, go to college, find jobs or serve in the military and move away from the area they called home. Away from parents, grandparents and relatives.

How can “scattered families” stay close and connected. Thanks to technology, there are video chats, and phone calls. Cell phones allow us to talk with the high expense of long distance calling that was standard when I was a child. I am thankful for unlimited minutes and data. I know I use my share in keeping in touch with the grandchildren and children.

Video chats have allowed us to share weddings with those who could not attend. A few birthday parties as well. I can watch my grandson learning to play the piano, see my granddaughter’s solo performance.

All of these tools are great. The key is to remember to use these tools available. I have learned how to do a screenshot of an item I wanted to purchase for my granddaughter’s birthday, wanting parent approval before purchasing. I have learned how to video chat and multiple person conversations. I have to keep learning so I can use the tools to stay connected.

Is it comfortable to ask a twelve year old how to do something with the cell phone? Not really. But is it worth it? Absolutely.

To stay connected I have to get out of my comfort zone. I have to learn to do more with my cell phone besides answer “Hello”. Learning to use technology to stay connected with my family has been a challenge. I have hung up on family trying to connect another person to the conversation. I struggled with connecting to the live video at a birthday party. Learning can be a struggle.

An unexpected reward is hearing my grandchildren tell me “you got it”.

Is our family ready for triplets? I do not know about the others, but the parents are. I am. I did not need to go today. But when I do, I am ready to be there.

amtolle

The Importance of “Poop”

I am currently a sheep farmer and have been for seven years. Prior to being a sheep farmer I raised and trained horses. I have decades of raising horses. My favorite thing to do is to breed horses and raise foals. I love baby horses.

A daily activity that has become so routine I do not realize I am doing it most of the time is to look at the poop. Yes, I look on the ground making sure the poop is the right color, size and texture of every animal. And on the occasion I see an animal releasing poop, I watch. Sounds a little perverted, but in truth it is very helpful to a person raising animals.

Animals can not verbally speak English or other languages spoken by humans. Animals can not tell me their tummy feels bad or they feel bloated, until the pain is so extreme the cause is life threatening.

When my grandson was three years old, he was living with us. I was raising horses, we had a few foals on the ground. I was walking around using a small stick to look at the horse poop on the ground.

He asked “Granny what are you doing? That is yucky.”

I told him I was checking for worms (parasites) in the horse poop, to see if our horses had worms. Worms make horses sick. So I look for worms to know if I need to give them medicine (dewormer) so they do not get really sick.

“Oh” he replies, “What do these worms look like?”

On a different day while helping my husband put grain in buckets to feed each horse, he saw my husband put corn oil in the buckets and mix it. “What is that for Grandpa?” he asked. My husband always being humorous, replied “It makes the horses poop straight. This is their poop straight medicine.” The truth reason for putting oil in the horse feed was to make their hair coat shine.

The next day, while doing feeding and watering the horses with me, he asks, “Granny, how do you know if a horse is pooping straight? All I see are piles.”

I asked where he heard “poop straight”. After being informed of his and Grandpa’s conversation. I showed him how horse poop should look. A couple of the foals had really loose poop, so I showed him what poop looks like with they were starting or had a tummy ache. These foals had some digestive stress as their mothers were in foal heat, and it is common for foals to get running poop.

Currently, I am caring for a lamb who I purchased that does not have a mommy to nurse from. This little lamb was not doing gaining weight well with the flock. I wanted to make sure it was eating enough. When I took the lamb out of the flock, it became more stressed. The next day, the poop was runny or scours, its urine and poop were the same consistency. It is not good for a lamb to have scours, they dehydrate very quickly. I treated the lamb. Every day I check the lamb. I have started cutting the top of grass to feed the lamb. Yesterday, the lamb’s poop was not as liquidy, but still runny. A sign that things might be getting better. Today, the lamb’s poop was solid, not shaped right, but definitely not runny, a good sign.

Looking at poop tells me how the digestive system is working in the animal and if the animal is sick or not doing well.

When we go to a doctor visit, are you ever asked “How are your bowel movements?”

Poop is important for animals and humans.

amtolle

Grandpa’s Garden

The enjoyment of gardening started when I was nine years old. My dad purchased twenty-four acres that was used as hay ground. He moved our mobile home or trailer house to the land. Along with us came my grandparents, my dad’s parents in a mobile home. That spring there was to be a garden.

My sister and I worked with my dad putting in an absolutely straight as an arrow fence. My dad was a perfectionist of sorts, when he did a job, he did it right. “Do a job right the first time, and you will only have to do it once” were words he often spoke to us. My dad used a surveyors transits to make sure the fenceline was straight.

My grandpa loved to garden. He was retired and liked to keep busy. A place was selected for the garden. Dad plowed the garden area to loosen up the soil and break the grass roots up so a rototiller would be able to work the soil. Then Grandpa spent two days going over the area with a rototiller. All day for two days, when he was done, the soil had a fine texture, no clumps and no grass.

Next was to set out the rows and irrigation ditches. The acreage was watered by flood irrigation. The garden would be watered using the same method. Dad and Grandpa made a tool using a level and lumber to determine the slope of the garden area, to find high spots and low spots. The low spots would collect water, not good for plants as the roots would rot. The high spots would not get enough water. After walking all over the garden area with the leveling tool, next was to grade or smooth the area getting rid of low and high spots.

For the grading, Dad and Grandpa made a drag from railroad ties, attached ropes to the ends and pulled this railroad tie leveler back and forth across the garden area. Then out would come the leveling tool to see find the high and low spots again. The process took a whole Saturday. As a kid, a whole Saturday doing one job, was a very long time. When they were done, the whole family gathered at the edge of the garden. With pride my dad said, “The garden is now ready for rows.”

Months before, my mom would spend hours with Grandpa, selecting seeds, and learning how to map out a garden. Different plants needed different width of rows for growing room. They drew a map for the rows and labeled each row with a name.

The string and stakes along with a tape measure came out, my Dad’s favorite tools as they were used for everything we did. Going my Grandpa’s carefully drawn map, they started putting in ditches. Marking the ditches with stakes and string, they cut the ditches into the soil using a hoe. The ditches were for the water. Us kids were told to stay out of the “garden” until all the ditches were done. They did not need us tromping all over messing with the strings and ditches. When all the ditches were in place, the water was diverted down the irrigation ditch into the garden ditch, and water flowed. Dad and Grandpa watched the water flow down every ditch, making sure the flow was even. The first flowing of the water was to settle the soil and put moisture back in. Two days later they had the water flow a second time, this was to mark where to put the seeds.

The garden was ready to receive the seeds. I was eager to learn anything. My siblings and myself were not allowed to help with the garden prepping, but we would be allowed to plant seeds. My mother did not want us in the garden at all, but Grandma said we were old enough to learn. Grandpa and Dad agreed, and said us kids could work beside them. They would teach us how to plant.

Grandpa took me to teach me how to plant. We started with the corn. Taking out a tape measure, ( I think a tape measure was one of his favorite tools as well.) we walked to the area for the corn. I was told to hold the tape measure and seeds while he made the planting row with a hoe, just above the water line in the ditch. Grandpa taught me how to use the tape measure to measure 6 inches. Place a seed at the very beginning of the planting row, then measure 6 inches from the seed, and place another. I went down the rows, measuring 6 inches and placing seeds. Grandpa made the rest of the planting rows, while I planted. I felt so important as I was planting seeds on my own. When he finished the planting rows for all the corn, he came back to fill in the rows I had placed seeds. He told me I was doing a great job.

After the corn, we planted green beans. Green beans were 4 inches apart. Dad and my sister and brother planted the carrots, radishes, peas, black eyed peas and beets. Grandma was teaching mom how to transplant the 30 tomato plants that Grandma had started and grown in the house for a month.

Next Grandpa took me to the squash and cucumber area. There the rows were farther apart. He would take a step and mark with the hoe, take a step and mark. Then he came back to me and said “now let’s plant”. He showed me how to make a small mound, put a hole with my finger in the center and place three seeds next to each other. He would cut the water ditch to go around the mound. We planted the squash and cucumbers. When we looked up, the others had finished what they were planting.

Once again, we gathered at the edge of the garden. With pride we surveyed the work we had done. The garden was planted. Us kids were told to stay out of the garden unless we had an adult with us. They did not want us tromping on the new plants when they appeared.

Grandpa would water the garden several times a week. I watched the bare ground begin to turn green. Grandpa would take me through the garden teaching me how to water and identify the different plants that were sprouting. When the plants were four inches tall, we started pulling weeds and grass. Grandpa showed and guided me in using the hoe to get the weeds and grass on the top of the rows making weeding faster. I had to carefully pull weeds and grass near the plants so I would not damage or kill them.

I would watch for Grandpa to come out of his house, and head to the garden. Mom did not spend much time in the garden. But Grandpa and Grandma were there almost everyday. I worked beside them learning how to grow and care for the plants that provide food for the table. When they were ready, my grandparents showed me how to harvest the fruit of our labors.

Grandpa and Grandma only stayed two years with us in the twenty-four acres. Two years I learned to how to grow a garden.

amtolle

Tomatoes

I love vine ripened tomatoes. I planted some seeds in solo cups inside the house. I also purchased three plants from a nursery. In this post I will show you the progress of those I planted and the method I use for planting them outside in containers and the ground.

Above is a purchased tomato plant, grape tomato variety I am planting into a large pot. Tomatoes can grow in containers, but the container or pot needs to be at least three gallons or larger. The larger the fruit the plant will produce the larger the container needs to be. The plant requires a root system to draw sufficient nutrients from the soil to supply nutrients to the plant and fruit. Larger fruit, larger root system to support the plant and fruit, hence a larger pot or container.

I fill my pot or container 3/4 full with soil, or potting mix. I make an hole for plant, making sure the bottom of the planting hole is 4 inches above the bottom of the container. Next I add crushed egg shells to add calcium to aid in the prevention of blossom end rot, a nutrient deficient disease.

I will pinch off or use scissors to cut off the lower leaves of the plant. I do not want leaves below the soil. The stem in the soil will start growing roots. I then fill with soil, then water to remove all the air from around the roots.

Every tomato plant needs at least one, but preferably two marigold plants. Why do tomato plants need marigolds, to keep away the tomato cutworm. These worms true identity is a caterpillar. The caterpillar will strip away the leaves and eat the tomatoes ripe or green, leaving you with a dying plant and no tomatoes.

Caterpillars are the young of butterflies and moths. The tomato caterpillar is the young of a moth, and the moths do not like Marigold and the scent marigold put off. If you do see little black feces on the leaves of your tomato plants, there is probably tomato cutworms. These worms camouflage very well with the tomato plant. But at night with a black light, they show up gloriously. I do not spray my tomato plants with insecticide, I find the cutworms and pick them off.

Happy gardening.

amtolle

Easter

I love spring, the beginning of the year for me. When everything comes out of the winter hibernation and shows their bright new colors, flowers, trees, grass, and the animals. The animals get a winter coat, when they shed off the winter hair, their color is brighter, cleaner.

Before Easter, there is spring cleaning. The house looks and smells great after a week of deep cleaning. Removing the old to let the new in.

All these things cause a renewing of my inner being, soul and spirit, much as it was intended by our Creator. Easter the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. Resurrection of what was dead to new life displayed each spring and celebrated.

I always dream of having all the children, their spouses and the grandchildren in one place for Easter. As yet, the dream has not happened. Each child has their lives and their children to celebrate. Not to mention the hundreds of miles that separate all of us.

This year my husband has to work. I will go to church alone, which happens a lot since he works most weekends, a crazy schedule 7 on 2 off 8 on and 3 off. Crazy schedule. For some strange reason I have yet to learn the basis of, I still spring clean the house, decorate two weeks before the celebration. A day or two before Easter, I will dye or color eggs, I enjoy the colored eggs that become deviled eggs or potato salad later. I will prepare a meal for Easter, even if the meal is only for two.

I will not let the fact my children and grandchildren will not be present to celebrate, keep me from celebrating and having joy for the Easter. A friend decided not to decorate any longer for Christmas or fix a special meal, it was too much work, there was no one but the two of them. Their children grown with families, and distance prevented them from being with my friend and her husband. They stopped celebrating Christmas, and Christmas became a depressing time of the year for them. I refuse to let that happen to me.

Time changes the way we celebrate occasions as children grow up, have families, people move. Change does not mean to stop celebrating, only to celebrate differently. My children call, I talk with the grandchildren. I am sent videos of the funny or cute things that happen that day. I am always sent pictures of the egg hunts and activities.

We may not be in the same location, but in our hearts we are celebrating together.

Happy Easter. Happy Resurrection Day.

amtolle

The Journey

I love horses. I enjoy riding and working with my horses. I have learned many things from the horses through the many years I have been around them. About ten years ago, I learned of a horseman, Chris Cox. I enjoy watching Chris work with the horse. Chris Cox states that being a horseman is a journey of the horse. The destination is to be a better horseman or horsewoman than you were yesterday. His words rang so true to my life and journey with the horse.

Recently, the words of journey with the horse has crossed over to the other things I do in my life. Daily working with the sheep, I am on a journey with my sheep. Learning each one and methods to working with them better, with less stress on the sheep. I also work with herding dogs. The dogs are used daily in gathering and moving the sheep. One reason, one of my rams (male sheep) is very aggressive to people. This ram likes to charge at you. A 400 pound animal hitting you with his head is dangerous. We take the precaution of always working him with a dog. The ram respects the dog, and does as the dog directs him. Working with the very intelligent Border Collies dogs has been a journey.

Today, I realized I am on another journey of writing. I am in the process of writing my first book. I have written term thesis for college, countless essays and letters. But never a book. To write a book takes time just like my 156 page college thesis took time. First the idea or subject, then some research, characters, place and time. Writing a book is a journey you determine where the story goes, who you interact with and location of the action. I am on a journey of creating a journey to share with others if they choose to read.

Our everyday existence is a journey. There are many turns and twists in our lives. Some created by our own decisions and some by situation or others choices. We can accept our journey where we are, or change our journey to a different path. Mostly we should be enjoying this journey we are on.

Daily I work to take joy in my journey of life. I look for the humor in a situation instead of succumbing to frustration. Today, I was deworming and trimming feet on a breeding group of ewes with a ram, the aggressive ram. I use a manufactured alley which is made of metal panels forming a pathway the sheep have to travel in single file to get into the chute I use to trim their feet. I had done three ewes and the ram was in the alley, only he stopped. I pushed, I hit him on the rump with my hand (honestly, ask the kids and my husband, I do not hit very hard, not heart in me to hit hard.), I could not get him to move. He was physically stuck in the alley way. I bent down and trimmed his feet while he was standing in the alley and he did not move. I touched him in various placed and he did not move. I tried to remove a side of the alley to let him free, only there was so much pressure on the sides, alone I could not remove the pins and open the side.

What to do now? Sit back and breathe, call the husband and laugh on the phone. Ask him when he is coming home to help me free the ram.

While I am on the phone with my husband, standing away from alley and chute. The ram does some major pushing accompanied with groans and moans to finally free himself from the alley and go through the chute to freedom and the girls.

Six months back when I purchased this ram, he could fit in the alley, but he was also very underweight. Now, he is in good condition for a ram, and he does not fit. My new, younger ram is bigger than this ram. We made the decision not to put the rams through the alley or the chute. I will have to put sheep panels together to trim his feet, deworm and vaccinate the rams.

On our journey of life and the journeys within our lives, we can get mad or frustrated when something does not go our way. Example of a job that should have taken me a couple of hours, took all day. Or we can laugh at the obstacle, not be afraid to ask for help from someone or God, and figure out a way to overcome the obstacle and get unstuck from the situation.

Our journey of life is short. Enjoy the journey. Find joy in your journey. Do not let obstacles steal your happiness, as obstacles are only temporary.

amtolle

P.S. I should have taken a picture of my ram stuck, before I called my husband.

Weekend Gardening

I love gardening. This past weekend I was able to spend some time getting my garden in the ground.

Radishes have started to appear. I planted radish seeds in the long planters. These planters have been used four years to grow radishes. I plant the seeds in two rows. Water. Wait. Soon little green leaves appear.

In about two weeks I will have fresh radishes to add to meals and snacks.

This past weekend I also replanted a bell pepper plant. I had started these plants from seeds using solo cups. I later potted them in a small planter where they grew, and produced a few peppers. Now to let them grow.

Potted plants grow and become root bound. Repotting this pepper into a larger pot I will get more fruit production. I have decided to repot this pepper plant into a larger container outside.

Removing the plant from the planter, you can see the roots and how tightly intertwined the roots have grown. Repotting into a larger container will allow the roots to stretch out and grow. In the bottom of the hole for the plant, I will add crushed eggshells. Eggshells help in the prevention of blossom rot on the fruit of peppers, eggplants and tomatoes. Blossom rot is caused by a calcium/phosphorus deficiency.

This pepper plant has a new home. I used a small trellis to support the plant. This pepper plant has spent the entire life in the house away from the wind. I am using the trellis until the pepper grows a stronger stem to support the plant in the wind.

Watering during repotting and after repotting is important to remove the air from around the roots. Air causes roots to die, eventually causing the plant to die. Although this potting mix was wet due to recent rains, I still watered to remove the air pockets in the potting mix.

amtolle

Weekend Workings

Change requires new ways of doing something, sometimes new plans and occasionally new location. The closure of the sheep and goat auction I have attended the past 5 years is a major change. Learning I am going to be a grandmother to triplets is a major change.

I am a sheep farmer, my income comes from the profit I make after paying expenses for selling the sheep I raise. Basic business plan is to keep expenses low in order to have more profit. The sheep auction was close to my farm. With the closure I had to determine where I am going to haul my market lambs in order to sell. I decided to sell the market lambs directly to the processor located three hour drive one way. The processor is honest and will give me a market price for the lambs. This processor purchased my market lambs at the sheep auction, I was saved the expense of transporting the market lambs the additional 2-3 hours farther.

My breeding sheep that I sell does not change. I have always sold the breeding stock directly off the farm. No change there. I will lose the opportunity to make contacts for those wanting breeding stock. I will have to go to social media to sell.

The one problem that took some time to work a plan on was where to sell the cull sheep. The cull sheep are ewes who have lived past 8 years of age or have problems delivering lambs. I have found a sheep auction located 3 hours drive from where I live, in the opposite direction of the processor to sell the cull ewes.

Sheep farm problems solved, at least for now.

Every week I receive information in the mail and phone calls of realtors stating they have a person interested in buying my home. The real estate market is very “hot” in my location. There are more people wanting to move into this area, than there are home available. Majority of real estate listings do not stay on the market past 30 days before being under contract of purchase. Quick sells are the norm for my location.

I received such a notice in the mail this past week, saying they were looking for a home for themselves. I decided to give them a call. They came out Saturday. People tell so many lies. They were not looking for themselves but was “fishing” for a listing in my area, for a quick sale and money in their pocket.

We have entertained the idea of selling our property with the desire to move closer to my daughter who is pregnant with triplets. I know that for the next several years a helping hand will be appreciated, or more a “taxi”. My daughter’s family wants their children to be around animals and see farm life. But with the size of their soon to be family, that is monetarily out of the picture. They will have to visit Granny’s and PawPaw’s place to see and experience farm life.

We will eventually move closer, but not today and not this year.

The other activity was planting the flower and vegetable garden area. I love working in the dirt. One of my favorite places to go shopping and even window shopping is a garden center or nursery. I love looking at plants. My husband took me to the local nursery. I was able to find some plants to add to my garden area.

I also discovered Chronicles Bells. They make the most lovely sounding windchimes. The soft, harmonious sound of the windchimes was relaxing and soothing to my busy mind. The drawback was the price, the windchimes I desired were $240.00 USD. More than my budget would allow at this time. They are on the waiting list, maybe Christmas gift list. If you have the opportunity to listen to these windchimes, they are worth the effort, and the money.

I planted and transplanted vegetables and flower in the garden area. I also had to do some clean up from the winter in order to plant. I took pictures and will have future posts on what and how I place plants in my garden area and containers.

We also did the regular activities of feeding animals, buying grain and dog food, groceries. There is always something that needs to be done on the farm. I enjoy what I do.

amtolle

Change and Comfort Zone

I do not like change very much. I like to stay in my comfort zone that I worked so hard to get to. I am very uncomfortable meeting new people, being in a crowd of people I do not know. I have trust issues, I do not trust people.

Today, I learned a big change took place. The sheep and goat auction where I sell my market lambs and ewes that are getting old, is closed. For a reason unknown to me, the placed was forced to close for an undetermined amount of time.

It took me about four years to get comfortable with the main crowd of people who attend that sheep and goat auction twice a month. I have developed a couple of friends there. Now, I have to find a place to take my sheep for sale.

Some suggest to sell the sheep online. I tried that once. There are so many people who scam. I was sent “bank checks” that were not from the bank institution on the check. I had people copy my pictures and try to sell my animals as their own. Plus, people coming to the place is not a comfortable activity for me. The dishonest people I have been involved with when I was selling dogs, I just do not want to go that route.

Today, I did research on livestock auction places. I looked at the reviews, how long they have been in business, how many animals that are sold there and what the prices are. I have found a couple who were in lawsuits concerning the animals representation at the time sold-I will not sell at those places. I did find one livestock auction a couple of hours away I am planning on visiting. I have two months to find a place to sell my sheep, I have time to research and ask questions.

I will be uncomfortable for awhile until I learn how people show their emotions and react to things. Although it will be stressful and tiring for me to go, the upside is I will meet new people and maybe get more contacts to sell breeding sheep.

The closure of the sheep and goat auction near me will effect a lot of people. I have already received texts and calls from small butcher shops that slaughter and market the meat near where I live. The big buyers at the auction are no longer able to purchase because the is closed, so their clients are looking for sheep. There are even more people looking for a place to buy sheep for pets, to raise for income and to sell their sheep. I am not alone in this situation. I am sure I will see a few familiar faces as I look for a place to sell my sheep.

The next two months will be interesting, frustrating and something that I have to do.

amtolle

Starting My Garden

I enjoy gardening. Although my schedule is full with raising sheep and taking care of our place. I still make time to have a small modest garden. My garden consists of vegetables and flowers.

I should start the tomato and sweet pepper plants inside during February, but I always seem to be late. I was determined this year to have me seeds planted indoors in February. Once again I am late with planting them in March.

I learned of a low cost method of starting seeds inside from Next Level Gardening on youtube. From this youtube channel I learned to plant my seeds in solo cups. My method is a little different as I do not have trays for the water to drain into, so I use an additional solo cup with a small rock to capture the water than runs through the soil, containing the excess water.

To start, I get a solo or any plastic cup. Since I like to repurpose items instead of throwing them away, I use togo cups from restaurants and fast-food places, or food containers such as sour cream containers. I drill or poke holes in the bottom of the plastic containers, three or four small holes are sufficient. The holes need to be large enough to let water out, but not let the soil out, 1/8 of an inch works good.

For nightshade plants, these include tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, I only put soil in 1/3 of the cup. As the seedling grows I will had more soil. The stem covered with the soil will form roots. Also, these vegetable plants can be grown indoors as they do not need bees and insects to pollinate. When the plant has blooms, gently shake the plant and it will self pollinate.

After I put in the soil, I plant the seeds at the depth stated on the package. I always put in three seeds, do not really know why, just what I do. Then I place the plastic up inside the cup I have put a small rock in the bottom. The rock in the bottom allows for space to collect the excess water. Then I water the surface of the soil a little at a time, letting the water hit the edge of the cup to prevent disturbing the seeds. I use this method of watering with the seedlings first sprout through the soil as to not injure the young tender plant.

If I am planting herb seeds or other vegetables that are not nightshade plants, I will fill the cup with soil, leaving 1/2 an inch from the top for watering. I place the cup in another cup with a rock just like before.

The plastic cups can be used over and over. The cups in the pictures I have used for three years. When the plants are ready for transplanting into a container or spot in the garden, gently squeeze the outside of the cup, and the soil, roots and plant easily come out, ready for planting.

This sweet pepper plant did not get planted outside or into a container last year. The plant has produced several small pepper that I used to season food. The peppers are small as the roots are constricted in the cup. I do have a sweet pepper plant in a small flower pot that I have inside the house. This spring I will be planting that plant outside.

Below is my apple tree. I was making an apple salad, when I noticed the seeds in the apple core had sprouted a root. I placed the apple core in the soil in a small plant container and gently watered it. This little tree has started to grow. I will need to get another apple tree, as apples and most fruit trees will not self pollinate, they will only pollinate when the pollen if from another tree.

Yesterday, I planted radishes outside. Radishes are tasty both raw and cooked. Radishes sprout and grow fast, usually 21 – 25 days after planting the seeds you have fresh radishes on the table. So I plant radishes every two weeks, providing a consistent supply of the fresh vegetable. Radishes can be grown inside as they do not need any pollination.

These faded orange window box type containers are perfect for radishes. I get two rows of radishes in each container. These containers used to sit on the rails of our deck. But since I removed the deck, I have placed them on the ground in the front yard. I have also grown onions in these two containers. Although they are faded for six or seven years of use, I keep using them as they work well with growing ground vegetables like onions, radishes and beets, all I have grown in these two containers. If a water tray is placed underneath, these containers would work well in the house or on a balcony.

Decide where you want to place your little container garden. Make sure there is light or provide a light for them to grow. Then think “outside the box” for items to use as containers in the space you have. I have used small flower pots, whipped topping containers, and even large metal cans covered with wallpaper for plant containers inside and outside the house.

You say you do not have a “green thumb”, people can learn to have a “green thumb”. Most often the difficulty in growing plants in watering. Some water too much and others water too little. Test the soil before adding water. Put your finger in one inch or up to the first joint, if the soil is dry on top, but damp or wet at the tip of your finger, do not water. If the soil is dry all the way to the tip of your finger, give the plant a drink.

Enjoy growing things in your home, balcony, or yard. If the plant dies, start over again. I used to kill my gardens for years, I would by plants, put them in the ground I had spent days preparing, only to have them die due to lack of wate r or too much water. Today, I still will have a plant die, usually I get in a hurry and over water without checking the soil first.

Each time you plant you gain experience, and soon you will have a rainforest to relax in.

amtolle