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Raleigh Snow Day with the Family

DCIM100GOPROIt snowed all day in Raleigh on February 24, 2015. Merri Beth and I were wakened at 6:30 am with a call from Wake County Public Schools announcing a two hour school delay—later to be followed up with canceling of school for the entire day.

Merri Beth left with Coco to head to daycare, but was back after a short while because they were closing for the day as well. Zander and I headed to Red Hat Tower for the day. We left the house around 9:30 am and were in the office in about 15 minutes with snowy conditions. There wasn’t much traffic in our direction and we made good time in slushy and icy conditions with steady snow coming down. Continue reading

2014 Salsa Garden is Taking Root

ramsgate_garden_01The salsa garden has been planted and is ready for the 2014 growing season here in North Carolina. I planted the garden in late April. I usually do it on Good Friday, but I’d been traveling a lot and the winter was pretty hard. Luckily, I had been preparing my soil a few weeks ahead of time (tilling, fertilizing, weeding, etc.) so it was easy to get the plants in the ground.

I got my plants from Logan’s Trading Company in Downtown Raleigh. Zander went with me to help select the plants. Actually, we made a pit stop at Wise Recycling to cash in our aluminium cans and made $53.00 before going to Logan’s. The plants looked great. Zander wanted to try some pink girl tomatoes, so we’ll see what those are like this year. Unfortunately, they were out of red and orange peppers so we went with more golden peppers instead.

We had a boys-out lunch at Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar before heading back home. After we got home, I did some final garden preparations and got the plants in the ground by the end of the weekend. That was the last weekend in April, so let’s fast forward to mid-May.

Garden update May 17-18

The salsa garden was well-hydrated earlier this week. A cold front came through on Wednesday/Thursday and left us with 5 ½ inches of rain. After that, lots of sunshine and cooler temperatures. I decided that it was time to cage all of the plants and worked in the garden.

I tried a new strategy when planting the garden rows this year. Instead of organizing the plants east to west like I’ve done in years past, I decided to try north to south and group them in rows of two. You’ll see how it looks in the pictures below, but the theory is that it will provide more access to my plants.

ramsgate_garden_03I also planted less plants this year to help with spacing them out and will be experimenting with a few other things as well. Here’s what the line-up looks like:

  • Tomatoes:
    • Better Boy (3)
    • Big Boy (4)
    • Celebrity (6)
    • Early Girls (8)
    • Large Cherry (4)
    • Patio (8 in pots)
    • Pink Girls (2 in the garden / 2 in pots)
    • Roma (4 in the garden / 4 in pots)
    • Rutgers (4)
  • Peppers:
    • Big Bertha (8)
    • Camelot (8)
    • Golden Peppers (6)
    • Jalapeños (3 in pots)

One of my experiments is with the Roma’s. I’ve got half of them in pots and the other half in the garden. I also reduced the amount of cherry tomatoes this year. I had over 1,000 last season which was a lot to deal with. I reduced the amount of plants by half and moved them to the edge of the garden in case they get ginormous again.

I’ve already got a few blossoms on the plants, and most tomatoes are already knee high. Hopefully it will be another great year for the salsa garden.

Our Snow Day in Raleigh #boom

Coco and Merri Beth enjoy the snow

Coco and Merri Beth enjoy the snow

The snow started to fall at our house around 7:00 pm on January 28. Wake Counties schools were closed on Tuesday and eventually decided to close on Wednesday. I usually work from home on Wednesdays, so I enjoyed the extra company. But there was a fresh two to three inches of snow to go play in! Continue reading

Life After Our 10 Day Reboot

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Cherry Berry Apple Cinnamon Bake

We made it! Merri Beth and I completed our 10-day reboot with Joe the Juicer. It was a great experience, we tried lots of new, fresh foods, and we were pretty disciplined the entire time. We minimized substitutions and stuck to the plan as close as possible.

We spent a lot of time in the kitchen. The prep work going into getting all the fruits and vegetables ready for meals was lot of work. But our bodies are worth it. And I really enjoyed a lot of the soups, even though I’m not a big soup person. The soups we had were fresh, nutrient-packed, and delicious. Continue reading

10-day Reboot Update: Day 7

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Purple passion juice: grapes, blueberries, mint. Sporty Spice juice: beets, carrots, celery, lemon, oranges, basil.

We are over the hump and heading steady to the finish line of our 10-day reboot. I’m loving the juice and food hybrid approach to eating healthier. I’m glad we didn’t start with a three day, juice-only cleanse. Day three was the hardest for Merri Beth. Day five was tough for me because it was all smoothies, juices, and soup. I said screw it, I’m having a salad too. Continue reading

Garden Report for 2013: Over 2000 Tomatoes and Peppers

garden_03It was a good year for salsa at Ramsgate Manor. It was also the first year for my garden in full sun. Last fall, we had a 70+ year old Oak tree removed that was struggling with a disease. We decided it was best to remove it rather that spend the money to repair it. And the garden reaped the benefits. Here’s the breakdown of the tomatoes and peppers from the 2013 growing season. Continue reading

3 Years of Solar Power (PV) Generation

solar_0021On July 2, 2010, the photo voltaic system installed on our roof by Southern Energy Management that included 18 solar panels was turned on. We finally started generating renewable energy. I looked at the project as a long-term investment, not a quick way to make money. But overall, the right thing to do for the environment.

I was inspired by Thomas S. Friedman’s Hot Flat and Crowded. In the book, he says that there should be solar panels on every rooftop in America. So we found a great company to partner with and we did our part. Not quite an early adopter, but jumping on the  bandwagon.

I get a lot of questions about how much the system costs and how it works. It seems like a good time to share this information (as I’ve been meaning to for a long time). Plus, I saw a post that June was solar energy month in NC and decided to share our story. Continue reading

Today, we celebrate Dot

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Spoiler alert, you may need a tissue or two for this post. Just sayin.

Life is short folks, and we take so many little things for granted everyday. When I come home from work, I have four, happy, energetic Border Collies greeting me. Whether I’ve had a great day, a super busy day, or a not-so-great day, tails are wagging and Dot, Nat, Sox, and Rex are excited to see me. When I come home today, our oldest Border Collie, Dot, won’t be there to say hello. Continue reading

2012 Garden Results and Notes

The garden this year started in mid April with a variety of tomatoes and peppers. I kept track of the incoming crop, took notes along the way, and tallied up the totals.

I planted a bunch of different tomatoes: Early Girl, Patio, Large Red Cherry, Better Boy, Big Boy, Roma, and Super Fantastic. I also planted seven different kinds of peppers: Big Bertha, Camelot, Golden Yellow, Orange, Red, Jalapeño, and Serrano.

The results are in. Here is what I brought in this season: Continue reading