Trailing the blonde

Hi! Obviously it has been a hot minute since I posted. More like almost a hot year. I needed to take a step back because I honestly had no idea what this blog was becoming. I started it as a journal of my hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, I didnt finish the trail, in fact I barely started which turned out ok but I learned what I needed to learn (dont get me wrong I still love to hike and backpack). Then it became about gardening on our small plot of land and becoming a nurse. I am still all about growing as much of our food as we can and I’m super excited to see where this year takes us. I also still want to be a nurse but I am looking at different programs and figuring out my time line. I didnt get into last years program and this year the school I was aiming for changed all their prerequisites throwing a snag in my plans so i am re-evaluating. I didnt blog for awhile because I wasnt sure where I wanted this to go. I got it in my head that I needed followers and to be one of those people who makes money from their blog and social media platforms but honestly that is not why I started this and it isnt really what I want. I just want someplace where I can maybe have a little community and to basically have a journal of my life. So that is what this is going to be. No guarantee on how often I will post or content. It will just be my life from now on and whatever that entails.

The last few months of my life have been all about school and work and while my life is still about that the switch to summer has stayed to take hold. The days are warming up, there are longer breaks in the rain and my mind is consumed with vegetable starts, direct sow seeds and the food that will come from it.

This is our second summer in the house and I am getting my act together. I made myself a Google docs spreadsheet to keep track of what I am planting and what is is producing so each year I can do more and more, add new things and reduce what we had too much of or increase what we had too little of.

Here is what we have planted so far:

A red, green and orange bell pepper plant on one end and 2 hot pepper plants on the other end of the garden, my husband wasnt happy about the mixing of peppers last year so this year we are separating them. In case you didn’t know peppers cross pollinate so if you have mild and hot peppers close to each other you could end up with spicy bell peppers and mild jalapenos, last year everything ended up pretty mild so this year they are at opposite ends of the bed.

We planted 2 different kinds of cantaloupes, last year I did pumpkins.

2 zucchini plants to last years 3. 2 cucumber plants to last years 3.

5 tomato plants, 4 romaine, 6 iceburg and 3 red lettuces.

All the herbs that should have survived the winter did and are flourishing. We had to replant basil and cilantro. Our fig bush has doubled in size but isnt producing yet. The pear tree is doing great.

I still have onion starts to plant. Carrot and spinach seeds to plant. I just ordered radish and turnip seeds and need to pick up a kale plant.

We didn’t get chickens this year. I let school get away from me and was overwhelmed but I am focusing back in on life.
Getting back to my roots……hahahaha sorry the pun was there for the taking.

I want to get through school as fast as possible but I also need to take a step back and live life. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed and I want to enjoy today.

I didn’t make this falls nursing program and I am starting to think that is a blessing. I need to get my life out of school squared away. That is my goal for the next 9 months (until the next round of applications) still focus on school and get done what I need to get done but also enjoying my life, my marriage, my family and my friends.

I am am going to thoroughly enjoy this summer, stay tuned.

I am already really enjoying this class. I may only be dipping my toes in the world if healthcare so far but I am loving it!!! We worked on transfers and vital signs and and the beginning of patient care and I cant wait for more!!! Stay tuned!!