I am back home from my Florida/keynote speech trip. It was a miserable return trip with delayed flights and a looooooong layover in Baltimore. My son is graduating from college in April. I want to see the ceremony but I am determined not to fly again so I have some things to figure out.
Orlando is a different kind of place. From my hotel room I could see scores of hotels and shops and eateries but not much else. I saw a lot of families and, for people who were in what is touted as the happiest place on Earth, there was an awful lot of whining going on. Everyone in the airport looked cranky and exhausted. I couldn’t help but wonder how much of the stuff in the bags they were hauling around would actually give them real pleasure when they returned home and how much would just turn to clutter, then tag sale wares, then come to rest in a landfill without ever fulfilling any useful purpose.
Bruce and I have a good day planned. We are mapping out the new beds for the strawberries and blueberries as well as harvesting the last of the mushrooms. I got an order of seeds for sprouting and I have to get those packaged. I also found a source for raw milk so I’m going to make cheese today too. I have asked DH to look for plans to build me a cheese press. I like hard cheese and with a good milk supply, I will finally be able to work on that process.
I need to spend sometime in the house. I have been so busy getting my presentations done that other things have fallen by the wayside. I have a lot to do before the holidays to prepare for all my company.
One other thing Bruce and I are doing is updating our plot plan. We don’t have a huge piece of property and we need to make every square foot work for us, either in producing food, supporting wildlife including pollinators or surrounding us with beauty. It’s time to order new trees and bushes. I want a permanent plan before I do this. We can see that our blueberries are not doing well in their current location. We’re moving them which will leave us with an empty space for something else. I would love to grow sassafras. I think I’m going to give it a shot.
November 15, 2010 at 9:36 am
Orlando can be fun. “It is fun to have fun, but you have to know how!” (Dr. Seuss) It can also be free and cheap (except for hotels)
The Disney hotels and resorts can be toured. You just say you are looking around and going to the store at the guard gate. You can also get to any resort by going to the bus area at any park or at Down Town Disney. Get on board and have a blast.
The Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge are fantastic! You can get real African food at the AK Lodge. The Grand Floridian Marina(you will have to pay for parking) is the best place to see the Fireworks, and the buildings and grounds are Fantastic.
During December the resorts have a contest on the best gingerbread “house”. This is unbelievable.
If one must buy stuff, there are Disney outlets all over, and the prices are much better.
For the gardener, Animal Kingdom is worth the price, as is Epcot.
November 15, 2010 at 9:53 am
My blueberries are not doing as well as I hoped, but the soil is right. This means that I have to take care of the surrounding area and trim out some brush that may be blocking the sun too much. I tried to put them at the edge of a scrubby brush area, like they would be naturally, but I may have been to enthusiastic with that idea. lol
A plot plan is a great thing to have, it helps so much each year with planning.
Glad you made it home ok.
November 15, 2010 at 11:31 am
My red raspberries are flourishing in the backyard, but my blueberries aren’t doing well either.At the MEN fair I bought Lewis Hill’s ” Fruits and Berries . . . ” On the cover it says it’s “The Best Book on the Subject.” I’m making it one of my winter reads and hope to learn a few things.
Glad you’re back!
November 15, 2010 at 8:03 pm
“I want a permanent plan before I do this.”
LOL, I’ve had at least a half dozen ‘permanent’ plans.
November 16, 2010 at 12:41 am
We just got back from Florida too but didn’t go to Orlando. The planes down were quite empty – we flew on a Sunday morning. We picked up a car and drove back north so didn’t have to deal with airports again. Lots of signs of the recession with boarded up buildings and for sale signs everywhere. I admit we did buy our son a joke gift of a plaster ostrich carryig two carpet bags in a dollar store – this was right for his sense of humor; otherwise no tourist puchases for us – we have too much to declutter around here!
Your plot plans sound good – it is a reminder that we need to clear out our raspberry beds and hope for a beter season next year.
November 21, 2010 at 1:06 am
Do you have a good source for sassafras and other culinary and medicinal plants? My blueberries didn’t do well this year. But, I plan to try again in the spring.
February 5, 2011 at 9:51 pm
I have stumbled upon your blog and now I am absolutely hooked, I should have been in bed 2 hours ago! You mentioned that your blueberries aren’t doing too well, have you tried mulching them with pine needles? It helps with the soil acidity that they require. Also I read somewhere that you should grow blueberry bushes together (can’t remember the reasoning behind this though)
In your post about shopping sanitary items come up, have you come across Moon Cups? I have one and they are fantastic, I’ve saved myself a lot of money since I started using this.
You have given me so many ideas, now I just have to decide where to start. Thank you so much, Nicki