Seeds so many seeds

I went nuts and bought a ton of seeds.

I technically don't have the yard space for all the seeds that I got but they were really good prices. All the heirloom seeds that I was thinking of getting.

The List o'Doom:
Tom Thumb Garden Pea
Oyster Leaf
Basil - Blue Spice
Flat of Italy Onion
Riesentraube Tomato
Mammoth Grey - Sunflower
Ishikura Onion
Hokkaido Black - Soya Bean
Bridal Silk Poppy
Minibel Tomato
Black Peony - Poppy
Russian Black Seeded Sunflower
Garlic Chives
German Chamomile
Yellow onions
White Lisbon Onion
Walla Walla Sweet Onion
Black Pansy
Johnny Jump-Up Viola
Rocky Mountain Blue Columbine
Blue Butterfly Peas
Blue Lilly/Lotus


This... is a lot of seeds for a house that has no land. XD I also got a pair of tiny Fig trees, a tiny Bay Leaf tree and a tiny Sweet Olive tree. I am so allergic to the Sweet Olive.

A Lemon tree would be last tree that I would get, but they are a bit pricey if I want a good one. I also live in the middle of gods country so that hikes the price up also.

I know I can grow most all of this in containers. I have a lot from when I lived with my parents and I am going to test some reusable cloth pots. I also need to get at least one more seed starting tray. It's not that compacted pellet one. I can't stand them. This is one that you put soil in. I also got a few of the tiny bio pots to see if I like them.

The Blue Lilly/Lotus was an impulse buy. I have no pond nor space for a pond. I am really hoping that they would like being in an aquarium. Assuming I can get any to grow. Did I mention that I am realy bad at getting things to grow from seeds? Yeah...

I might have gone a bit overboard. Oh well. I have a high plant kill rate and I can save seeds for next year.

National Center for Home Food Preservation

http://nchfp.uga.edu/

This? This right here? Is going to keep me busy.

The site is for National Center for Home Food Preservation. It's not too fleshed out but it gets you going.

I also have to put this very firmly in the End of Summer part of my to do list. 

Fencing Ideas

I am far, far too cheep to pay for fences around the land I plan to look for. There is the whole upkeep bit as well.

Plus I'm lazy.

I did see a post about an elven spite fence. Long story short, they planted a row of fruit trees and flowers to piss off a neighbor. Useful, pretty and awesome.

I am thinking of just planing a row of poplars and willow around my property. Both plants grow very fast in my area. Poplars seem to grow any place and willows are great for wet areas. I wouldn't even need to spend money to start them because I can gather poplar seedlings at home and get willow cuttings while fishing.

They would also be good crafting supplies for me. This could save me money in the long run.

The only draw back is I consider poplars weeds because of how fast they spread. Willows have a shallow root system and rot fast. I don't know if they make good mulch but I will probably find out.

For a mid-high plant/bush I'm not sure what I would do.

I am rally leaning to letting a climbing rose grow free around the trees. Maybe in the front area I will. Then I think for the back areas I'll try to get wild grape vines going.

I might even set up a few fake bee hives to keep people away... And maybe I'll get lucky and bees will move in also.  :3

Star Plate Barn

I have been reading some other blog posts on star plate barns and I think I will be putting a few up. Or rather, I will be buying a few of the plates to make some and see how many others I put up after I build the first barn.

This is purely an aesthetics thing.

Moving beyond that, they will have some good and practical uses also. Mainly storage. Moving twice across the country while growing up was a good learning experience that storage is always needed. After one move from a smaller to larger house we still couldn't figure out how we had stored so much stuff in the prior one.

I know I will need the outdoor storage. Garage space has always been prime in my family and if I have barns then I can have my car in the garage. Assuming I don't end up using the garage as a work studio so I can stay in pajamas longer.

I also would like to see about adding solar panels to them. But I am not sure how far from the main house they can be before it's not worth it.

Secondary to this is if i can use one as a sudo guest house, it might be worth it to have an off the grid setup for family when they stay. Solar for light would be great and I might be able to get away with a portable thing as it would be more like a low budget cabin. But the restroom would be a problem. Plumbing is too expensive and I don't want to deal with outhouses.

Storage and space seem to be my big needs right now. So I will get at least one built.

House Hunt part 1

Ok so.... I might have found a house.

One of the top houses on my list was the dream tiny farm property in a pretty quiet place. It needed two things done to it. the power cable to the house and... something else that wasn't too bad. But it's an 1800's house and it felt like it. There had been a lot of updates to it but none in atleast the last twenty years.

There is a room that I have dubbed the Red Room. It looks like it should be the wall paper in a bordello. I kid thee not.

There is a root cellar with labels going back at least as far as 1965. you have to duck down to walk around in it. there are parts of the root cellar that are made to be just the right storage humidity. There is a curing room for onions and garlic and squash. There is a second kitchen that is actually a prep room for canning with a second massive sink and an old stove to die for.

This is when my agent really understood just how much I had been researching about all of this. It wasn't shocking but I think it made my wild selections easier to understand.

This is not the house I am putting a bid on.

I love it but there are glaring problems that will take a lot of time to fix. The walls appear to be a booby-trap of layers on layers of paint and wallpaper. There is carpet in both bathrooms and in both kitchens.

The foundation is crumbling to a point that looked worry-some.

But the yard is to die for.

I am keeping it in mind. If it was $10k or $15k less then I would jump on it. So for now it's on my list but it's not the one at the top.

And this kills me. It has every thing that I would do to it but... for now it's just on my list.

The art of second hand

Once upon a time I thougt about selling second hand finds online. It didn't work out so I made a lot of donations. I also ended up finding a lot of neat and useful to me stuff.

I have all the dishes I could possibly want and Could probably go a month with out having to reuse the same dish. Yes I am going to weed stuff out. I have a lot of china but I also have a lot of chipped and 'other' things.

Most of the plates and glasses I got for $0.10 each.

After all that I can't really get myself to spend money of new store bought stuff unless there is either a real need or it fills a set. That doesn't mean I don't by knickknacks, but my impulse is a little bit more controllable out-side of a garage sale.

I will point out that I have been collecting things from garage sales since I was little.

Most of my very early finds were glasses, the odd one that would catch my attention. Next was canld holders, the weirder the better. Over ten years ago I found two large glass bowls while garage sale-ing with my aunt. It took almost ten years to find two more in my home state. These are one of the best finds (and I might have a custody battle with my parents for them).

This isn't to say I am not missing things that I wouldn't mind having. I just happen to have the majority of the basics, plus a few (of a ton) of fun stuff.

Dream Land

Yes, dream land. The house is important but so is the land it is on.

Needs:
-as large as possible
-a Barn
-water of some kind
-working driveway
-???

Wants:
-River
-Barns
-Pond
-Established orchard
-raised flower beds
-sewer connection
-???
-???
-???
-???
-???

Ok, so my list needs a lot more work. I have... some time left?

Meep.

Cover crops

If I am going to start with a lazy first and second year farm/garden I will have to start with some cover crops to kill off the weeds. The most important part is that is must die in the winter. If not, then it just becomes another weed.

The first problem is figuring out what zone my possible house will be in.

I... am looking at the whole of NYS right now for a potential home. I have no problems looking for a new job when the time to move hits. And while my family wants me as close to NYC as possible, I would prefer closer to Sarratoga. Or, ya know, were ever my dream house is.

Oats for wet ground and oats for the bees. There is mention of oilseed radishes also. And since Clover is a traditional thing, I'll probably have that as well.

Oh yeah, and sunflowers.

If I recall, most of New York was in zone 7. But I heard something a few years (in 2012) ago about the zones being changed or expanded? After looking at this map I am way wrong. NYS is a mix of 6-4. Well crap.

Yeah, I have a lot of research to do.

Micro Farm Equipment

Every garden or farm needs tools. The one I will have will be no different. Unlike some people, I will be dropping cash on some things. While I preffer to get older tools and wood working machines, for the farm I will be aiming to buy new.

First will be a wood chipper.

My dad went in on one with some neighbors many, many years ago. the thing was small, nosy and worked well. I plan on growing trees that will need yearly pruning and why wasted the branches that I can't find another use for? Wood chips would be great in mulch and as a ground cover. A win win.

The next will be a small tiller-thing.

Oh I can hear the screaming already. There are many people that prefer no till methods. While I would like to eventualy get to that point, I'm going to be realistic with my own ambitions. I don't have the patience to do that for the first or second year. perhaps if the land isn't all that bad, I might try. But for me, getting a small tiller-thing would make the initial bed making started. Plus I could also used it to break up the ground for installing french drains.

A weed whacker.

I wonder if they make these solar powered? this would be just to chop low level weeds down. I actually have a hand scythe. I would love to get a full size scythe but I'm not strong enough yet to wield it. XD

I won't be getting a mower unless my parents don't want theirs anymore. It's a good riding mower so it would be a help with everything. Oooh... I bet I could ninjs their wheel burrows also and my dads other yard tools... Suddenly, I think they need to move to an apartment after I get my house. :3

I would say a genorator but I'll probably get that from my parents as well.

I guess I won't be having as many machines as I was afraid. Things, of course, might change but this is a good spot.

Update Icon

This will be a thing here. I have a tumblr and a twitter. So... yeah. :3 I might do a more flowery thing later, but this works for now.

Edit:
Ok, testing this again. The first time didn't post right to twitter.

A New Book

I was poking around on amazon for books and stumbled upon a book called Homegrown Humus in my suggestions. Being curious I looked over the reviews first and they were all happy with the book. When I read the synopsys of it, there was a tone of information and i figured that was a good sign.

The authors name is Anna Hess and she also has a bit of a blog. I popped over there for a look and promptly fell in love with her writing style. I'm working my way from the start and loving it.

That led me to one of her other books, The Weekend Homesteader: A Twelve Month guide to Self-Sufficiency. It also comes as a paperback so I'm going to get it. Probably for Christmas though because my mom has requested I make a list of things I would like. I am the worlds worst person to get gifts for.

That being said, I can't wait to get my hands on this book. :3

Good as a post too

The dreaded About page.

First, you can call me Crazy Artist. It's not something that I try to hide. Legaly crazy? No. Just in the sence of anyone that has work the grindstone to the point that they are beyond most 'normal' terms and are just looking for the on that fits. Crazy Artist fits me.

I am an artist.

I also work a full time job doing other things. Most of which is getting stressed out at work with my other coworkers. We half joke that stress IS our full time job.

Once upon a time I wanted to move back to California. In 2016 I got a ruff estimate for the minimum weight cost of a cross country move from New York as $5,500. Back in 2010 it was $2,100. I can't do that because I know I have at least double the minimum weight and would need full value protection for insurance.

So I joined the first time home buyers thing here in New York. A train wreck unto its self. Many pots will be about this nightmare. But so far I think the additional $7,500 should be worth it. I hope.

I will also be toeing the line of the dooms day prepper.

Not anything extreme, just cherry picking the good rational personally doable things. While I would love a gun of some kind and I was on varsity rifle, I won't be getting one. Maybe an airsoft thing to pop deer on the bums if they try to eat my plant. If I live in the country.

Did I mention that haven't bought a house yet? Yeah, that process will also bet talked about here.


I have a:

Twitter for updates as CrzyArtist

Tumbler for updates and related things as CrzyArtist

Blogger for original posts as the-crazy-artist.blogspot.com

But there you have it. My about me page.

A new plan

So, what to do for a basic start-to-prep prep list?

1. check for free books for my e-reader.
I started doing this the moment I got it… 4 years ago? Not because of doom but because of oh hey, this book is free and looks interesting. I have a few hard bound book so I should be ok.

2. start house hunting the moment my first time home buyer thing says that I can.
This… This is the second hardest thing. my original list of needs is going to have to be reviewed and probably changed a little. land size will be more important then 100% move in ready. My price max will be dependent on how much i can afford for closing cost.

3. merge 401k’s.
assuming it hasn’t completely tanked. I will have to merge my other 401k to my current jobs one. not looking forward to mucking around with the paperwork but if i do, then i will be able to take out more as a loan to myself. the bonus is that i will have a better savings cushion in the long run.

4. Budget.
I have to re-do my budget. i am currently $2k less then were I should be. I cn track were it went so I know how I mucked up. I have 10 months to fix my spending habits to were I need them.

5. Art.
I need to do my art. I have so many projects sitting that I have gotten stuck on. I need to get them done because I need to start selling.

6. SBA
I have to bite the bullet and talk with these people again. This time with a much better list of things I need answers to. namely a good cheep accountant that can answer questions. like if i sell $400 in a year, how do i give social security my money? and quarterly & yearly taxes. if I get the info now I can start seriously selling stuff next year to make taxes easier.

This is what I have so far. not quite how i expected my first house blog to be. but live and learn.

*Originaly from my Tumblr.