Also, we've been looking for a chest freezer to go in the basement. We're big fans of Costco and will be buying a side of beef with some friends this year, so we'll need a ton of storage space. Here's the one we're getting:
GE Chest Freezer
It's 7.0 cubic feet, which is a pretty good size. The reviews are all really solid and I checked it out at Home Depot yesterday and it seems like it's really nice. The controls are on the outside so you won't accidentally turn it down pulling something out of it, and it has a power light so you can see that it's on. Apparently it's really quiet (which is awesome) so this is a great feature. We're going to put it in the utility room in the basement and the top of it should make for a pretty handy place to fold laundry. Hooray for multi-tasking!
Unfortunately, actually getting the thing is proving difficult. My friend told me to get it at Home Depot, so we tried. They had a floor model, but nothing in stock in the store. Or in any other stores. Or on order. Hurm. The guy who was helping us said he saw them at Sears, so we figured we'd try that. the Great Indoors is owned by Sears and they're closer, so we tried them. They didn't have anything in the store but they said they could look it up and order it for us. No dice. Sears didn't sell them either. We asked the lady to see if GE's website had a list of places that sell them and they suggested Ultimate Electronics, which is right across the street. We went over there and they had a display model, but again, none in the store. What the poop? Thankfully, they had more coming in, so I paid for it and it should be delivered this week sometime. Crazy how much effort it took to get a freakin' freezer, though.
Here are some other updates:
Well, unfortunately, that's all there is. I'm really going to push to try to improve something at least 3-4 times this week. I've had a good long break from it and I'm itching to do something again. Thanks for reading!
Re: seedlings.
ReplyDeleteYou've got a couple of options:
1. let them start in the full sun (water well and frequently--with little seeds and seedlings you'll want to start out with misters rather than watering cans until the seedlings get a little established)
2. if you start them inside, try to get them outside as quick as possible to prevent leggy-ness, and when you do put them out, they should only be in the sun for maybe 2 hours max, and you work your way up to full sun all the time. I think if you put them in a place that gets a slight draft, it also helps prevent leggy-ness since it gets the plant to start holding itself up.
3. whichever option you choose, make sure to water well. Especially if they're in the sun. when they're seedlings you'll have to water more frequently, it doesn't help to water deeply if your seedling only has water in the root zone one day out out 5.
the lettuce and spinach you can probably just direct sow outside where ever you're going to put them. Plus they can handle partial shade, so they should be easier to start. In Colorado, I would start the broccoli inside first, but it will get leggy quickly without adequate light.
other seeds that you can plant directly outside and they should sprout no problem: peas, beans, melons and squash (though you can buy these as transplants too), carrots, corn, radishes, and chard. as of right now, I think you might be able to still get peas, carrots, radishes, lettuces, spinach and chard before it gets too cold for them (you'll have to go for varieties with about a 60 day maturity period, but obviously the leafy ones you can pull out whenever.)
If you have the space, you should try doing garlic since Colorado is a big garlic state.
Awesome, thanks! I think our sprouts are all very "leggy" since we've been leaving them inside for so long. We'll have to start moving our current batch outside to get them used to it. The last batch just got blasted out by too much sun too quickly, so they all died. here's hoping we'll figure out the next batch!
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