Life is BUSY when you're a mom to children with a few extra challenges thrown in, and our home is no exception ;-D. My main focus is our 4 children (3 still at home), and our daughter-in-law and 11 month old grandson, as well as my best friend and husband of 32 years and counting :-). Our children are all adopted, and are ages 21, 17, 14 and 8. I don't want to talk about them specifically in this forum, but we deal/dealt with challenges like RAD, vision and hearing impaired, severe Sensory Integration Dysfunction, PTSD, autism, ADHD, undiagnosed neurological issues, asthma, allergies, jaw deformation, vascular anomalies, IEP's and more! Keeping up with everyone, their therapies, doctors, specialists, equipment, and latest research results keeps me young ;-D.
I (Cindy) have been a gardener since my Dad got me involved at about age 5 in central Illinois. :-) I have now gardened in IL, ND, southern GA, and MT! Hubby, Phil, grew up on a wheat and cattle ranch in northern MT. The current gardens (two hoophouses and three 48 foot long beds included) were started in 1994. We did Farmer's Markets for many years... until it became more work than fun for our children. I now am about 90% wholesale... to the two Community Food Coops in Bozeman, MT. Our specialties have evolved over time, and currently include red and purple sweet peppers, basil, burpless cucumbers, winter squash, raspberries, aronia berries, shallots, gourmet beans, and floral bouquets. Our fertilizer sources are the compost made from the droppings of our 6 llamas and 3 mini horses, and "green" manure. The only pest controls needed in the 2012 growing season were for deer, and for aphids inside one hoophouse. The deer proved tough to convince... even teenage boy socks did not deter them for more than 2 days at a time ;-D. The aphids were fun to control! I released several hundred lady bugs, and within 2 days, I could not find anymore aphids :-). Outside of the help of the 2 younger boys, my right hand man in the gardens is Phil.
Twelve seed trays are already going indoors, despite the snow and nighttime temps in the teens lingering outside. I love this time of year! The intense work, outdoors, will begin mid-April. Our 2 non-heated hoophouses should be all planted by the end of May, and the first crops ready to harvest by late June :-). Growing in the foothills of the Bridger Mountains, our growing season is all-too-short, and challenging. But with creativity, watchfulness, and care in variety selection...the rewards can be great in good years :-).
My INTENTIONS with this blog are to cover hard-learned gardening tips, my journey experimenting with pure high quality therapeutic essential oils in various uses and homemade products, promote the adoptions of kiddos around the world with special needs, and whatever else seems worthwhile blogging (to me, LOL). Enjoy!
