Spring in Greeley Around our House

Well, it is officially spring. I am so happy to be out of winter even though this winter was relatively mild and we were able to take a break from it by going to Puerto Rico. Part of the reason I am excited to live in Puerto Rico is because things grow year-round. I suppose it might be more monotonous in that you get used to seeing green life everywhere, but at the same time, I’ve always had to patiently get through the cold, dark winter in anticipation of spring.

We went to a comedy show last night in Westminster and the comedian was from California. He said he had never had so much pressure to ENJOY THE WEATHER as he has here in Colorado. He said that like 5 people came up to him on Thursday when we had a perfectly clear, warm and sunny day and told him that he better get out and enjoy the weather. It is so true because Colorado weather can turn on you in a matter of minutes.

crocus
Crocus -the first flowers of spring

Anyway, now that spring is here in Greeley, we’re gearing up for a variety of projects around the house. Britton just finished the fence so that the chicken doesn’t destroy our garden. We’ll let her run around in there from time to time to clean out the bugs, but we don’t want her eating the harvest. Britton is also still in the process of building a chicken coop. We would like to reclaim the greenhouse for plants, at least for the spring/summer. We are also planning on getting some more chickens to join her since her friend died unexpectantly.

easter-eggs in greenhouse
Where the chicken lays her eggs in the greenhouse, with decoys

fence-cat-and-chicken
Kitty and Chicken by the new fence

Also, for the poll, it looks like people wanted to see me in bangs, and Britton without a beard. I decided to cut my own bangs, but will probably have my mom cut my hair for me. Britton promised that with a better razor, he’ll shave off his beard again. Britton thinks I looks more “country” with these bangs. He also said I look like a Cabbage Patch Kid. Is that a compliment??

hair-bangs
With Side Bangs

bangs

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The Cigarette is Dead in Greeley

cigarette-is-dead

I work in the Tobacco Education Program at the Weld County Health Department and we have a new marketing campaign that we are promoting throughout the Greeley/Evans area. It’s called the Cigarette is Dead. I think it’s pretty cool. It has the edgy look of revolutionary change. Our team has been working with the billboard company, local businesses, UNC, Aims and others to get the message out. We also wrote press releases and are working with our coalition to get the word out.

It is great timing because the cigarette companies just announced an increase in the price of cigarettes by about 71 to 81 cents/pack, and the federal tobacco tax of 62 cents/pack will go into effect on March 31. So, to many people, the cigarette is dead, or at least dying. Better the cigarette dead, than you!

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing at work lately. I like the media/marketing aspect of it, although I am sure it is much different when you are trying to sell a product instead of trying to NOT sell a product…

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Gardening in Greeley Colorado

free-seeds
Our Seed starter setup

It is the start of the gardening season here in Colorado.  All the local stores start to stock seeds, compost, potting soil, pots, shovels, gloves and all the related items a person might need to grow some food or do some landscaping.  Cassie was lucky enough to score some free seeds at a local gardening workshop.  More seeds than we could possibly use.

We are going to plant a variety of peppers, tomatoes, melons, lettuce, strawberries and some flowers.

I got an early start last weekend but maybe I wore myself down to much.  I was sick the previous week and recently I’ve  had a fever of 102 for the last few days.    It really sucked, mainly kind of a chest cold.  It put me down for the count  and all I could do was sleep and try to keep warm.  Luckily today I am feeling better and I decided to resume light garden work and it was a beautiful day.

We’ve decided to move the chicken from the greenhouse (which was a temporary location) into a home built chicken coup that I am making so she wont eat all the seedlings.   More on the coop in coming days.

When I was expanding our vegetable garden I moved some rocks and landscaping fabric.  I found a whole lot of bindweed.  This stuff lives under any condition imaginable.  Its been under wraps for over 3 years and was just continuing to grow.   Why can’t food to grow this easily?

bindweed
Bindweed

Noodles?  No…Bindweed!

We bought some compost a week ago to amend the soil in our vegetable garden.  It was $1 a bag which I didn’t think was too bad.  But it is cow poop, so I dont think they could charge too much.  Their marketing spin on it was “Steer Manure”.   Makes it sound better.
garden-expansion
Chicken bug buffet

It is also time to cleanout the greenhouse where the chickens have been fertilizing all winter long.  We use an old cat feeder for the chicken food and Cassie’s mom Charlotte was kind enough to give us a chicken water dish.  She actually just happened upon it beside a trash can  one day while she was watching the chickens for us when we were in Puerto Rico! That is just plain lucky.
greenhouse-cleanup
Chickens old house

Due to the chicken needing to be restricted from growing plants we also have to build a section of fence.  We were finding parts today and some of them wouldn’t fit in the Honda so they went ON the Honda.

gate-on-car
Strapped to the roof

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Deleted Comments on Life TransPlanet

For those of you wondering what happened to your comments, sorry. We had a bunch of spam comments one day and so Britton went through and deleted them. Unfortunately he also deleted all our new comments as well. We were able to restore the blog to a recent back-up, but still lost some of them.   So, sorry about that, and keep the comments coming on Life TransPlanet! 🙂

the oops key
Britton pushed the “oops” key

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