Tag: farm

Life Changes and So Must We

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, House/dating/life, school/studying, training

Hi!!!!! I originally set this blog up to chronicle my journey hiking the PCT, AT and CDT but plans changed. While that is still a goal for me one day, my foreseeable plans have changed so I thought the blog needed a bit of an updated look.

My life is now about becoming a nurse, getting back into shape and turning our quarter acre plot of land into a little farm, or at least as much of a farm as he will let me hahahahaha!!!!

There will still be hiking, running and food posts plus so much more! I hope you will continue this journey with me!

My Garden is Growing

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, House/dating/life

Today’s post will be a series of videos

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The garden is doing amazing!!! Now when dinner time comes it is like ok, what do we have from the garden that we need to use!

Weeds and the organic garden

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, House/dating/life

This isn’t about weeds or a garden but I finally hung up a wind chime that I bought at some swap meet on a family camping trip…..14 years ago!!!! I kid you not, it was wrapped in a newspaper from 2004.

Peas !!!!! So excited to start eating some sugar snap peas!

Hanging basket from Costco, I’m pretty happy with it. It’s really pretty.

Ok so weeds, I let Brandon spray some of the yard when we started on the yard but not the majority of it. I didn’t want a bunch of pesticides in the ground right before we planted crops. And of course we aren’t spraying the plants now so we inevitably get weeds.

I let them get a little ahead of me in the beginning which i won’t do next year but now everyday when I water i spend about 15-20 minutes weeding one area of the garden. It’s not much time and I just pick out what I can see or easily get to. There are always still weeds left and sometimes I look back where I was just weeding and swear there is a weed in the exact spot I already pulled one but i also love those few quiet moments in the garden.

Basically if you dont use anything to kill the weeds there will always be weeds, don’t stress too much about it. Make sure your plants have room to grow and their roots have room to grow and don’t worry too much about the rest. Just do what you can.

Do you have a garden?

What are you growing?

Food, workouts and plants

by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

Joined Beach Body!!! Pretty stoked about it! I got all the workouts on demand for a year, all the accessories for the 2B mindset nutrition program and signed up for the monthly shakes.

Date night!!!! We saw avengers infinity war. It was really good in my opinion.

Another delicious breakfast curtosy of the BF

Upping my veggie intake

Taco salads were a major thing last week

As well as sandwiches.

More veggies!!!

I am obsessed with these lately!!!

I love Bulgogi!!!

Beach bodies energize is awesome!!! I don’t feel jittery or crazy or anything, I just have more energy

Fully on the shakology bandwagon

Been working out pretty consistently. Except for camping this weekend of course.

Love my sweet little girl

Our weights

My gardening partner

My fig bush is growing!!!

The peas are staring to climb super fast!

Still working on the yard little by little

It’s almost salad time!

Our first tomatoes!!!

My workout setup, 1 device to stream my workout, 1 device to watch amazing race hahahaha and my weights. And of course Artemis in the background

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I have sugarplum fairies dancing in my head

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, House/dating/life

or more factually correct I have images of fresh baked bread and delicious meals and gardens and chickens dancing in my head.

I cannot wait to break out my bread maker for some fresh amazing bread. Sandwiches our first week in the house on fresh baked bread…..yes!

Brandon already said he would build me a chicken coup from some repurposed wood. In Salem you can have up to 6 chickens without needing any permits. I think we will start with 3-4 this year and see how it goes. Then maybe add the other 2-3 next year. Spacing them out like that will be good for timing too. They don’t lay eggs for about 6 months then they produce for about 2 years then it will be harvesting time. So each year we will have to order 2-3 new chicks (after the first 2 years) and I I’ll need to learn how to butcher a chicken.

I have already placed an order to the Burpee seed company, I will have 6 heirloom tomato plants shipping to me around April 9th ready to be direct planted when they arrive. I think I will pick up 1-2 cherry tomato plants just from the grocery store, not heirloom but that is ok. That is perfect timing and should give us about 2-3 weeks in the house to get the yard ready for planning. I will continue ordering plants over the next few weeks.

Ahhhh about 5.5 weeks at the most!!!!!

 

 

……………..Well we got a call and that 5 or 6 weeks we had until we got to move in just went down to 3! We just got notice that the tenets are moving out early! Which is amazing and moves our timetable up about 2-3 weeks.

We are hoping to start moving things in over presidents day weekend. Brandon gets that Monday off and he would like to refinish the tub that day so it has the rest of the week to “cure” and we could start using it the next weekend. The bottom of the tub is wearing off and pealing away a little bit, so Brandon bought a refinishing kit. This is much cheaper than buying a new tub (which one day we will do, hello claw foot soaking tub!!!! one day lol) Having the tomato plants delivering in early April means we have that as a deadline to get the backyard ready for planting. Spring is also when baby chicks are born and delivered so a chicken coup will be near the top of the list too.

It is going to be a busy but amazing few months as we move it, get everything up and running and settle in!

 

Here we come a-wassailing…..

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle

As I have mentioned once or twice (hahahaha) a farm (or a city girls version of a farm) is one of my end goals for my future so I love to look back at old traditions and think about what I would want to do on my farm. I do plan on having some fruit trees so Wassailing will be a thing in my life. You may have heard the Christmas carol but do you know the story behind it?

According to Wikipedia there are 2 types of wassailing, one that is basically caroling though you would take a big bowl of wassail around to your neighbors and sing for them and offer them a cup of wassail. The 2nd type, and one I want to do, is to drink to the health of the trees on Twelfth night. You make a big pot of basically spiced cider and add pieces of toast to it, then you head out while singing and banging pots and pans (if you wish) out to the orchard and stick pieces of this wassail soaked toast on the branches of the orchard trees and pour a little wassail at the base and toast to the health of the trees. This is supposed to appease the universe and help ensure you have a plentiful harvest the next year. There are still many places in England that carry on this tradition and I read a book about a farm on the East coast side of the US that does and I just love it. It sounds so fun and I am all about embracing old traditions like this. So hopefully in a few years at most you will see some awesome posts about us Wassailing our fruit trees!!!!

 

Day on the farm!

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle

Brandon and I headed out to his grandparents small farm in northern Oregon to hang out for half a day and had such a great time! It was so relaxing and wonderful.

From the moment we got there Brandon was in front of the blueberry bushes snacking away while we talked to his grandfather. Artemis enjoyed the flavor of the pigs trough water hahahaha. This is the only pig they have left and it is much more of a pet than something intended for a meal. It is getting old and grumpy though. It likes having its belly rubbed hahahaha!!!!! It was a little wary of Artemis but surprisingly she was not afraid of it!

I spent some time talking to his grandfather about their Israel trip which sounded amazing. Then we all went out to lunch and a teriyaki burger hit the spot.

When we got back from lunch Brandon, Artemis, the grandparents dog and I all set off to explore the property. 1/4 of their property is basically a little forest area that is super beautiful, the cows graze down there in the heat and there are blackberry bushes going wild. We wandered down there and explored and snacked on blackberries hahaha. Definitely getting our fruit quota for the day. Have you ever had a yellow raspberry? Now I have! they are pretty amazing right off the vine and according to his grandfather that is how you have to eat them because by the time you have them in the house they are starting to go bad.



At this point we were both super hot as it was the hottest part of the day so we headed back instead to talk some more and look at pictures and cool down.

Around 5:30-6 as the sun was starting to move toward the horizon and a lovely breeze started we headed out to feed the cows!! Got some hay from the barn and some treats for the cows and they slowly wandered over. We fed them some treats as well, their tounge feels like sandpaper like a cat! Again it took a minute but Artemis wasn’t afraid! Though they were a little wary of her hahaha.




Once the cows were chomping away happily we headed back down to the wood area and spent about an hour picking blackberries! 



We went home with probably a good 8lbs of blackberries! I am so making a blackberry balsamic reduction to freeze to put on some amazing stuff this winter (that post to come). At that point the temperature was perfect, I could have stayed out there for hours, and the space and joy of the country was just everything. It was such a great peaceful day. I can’t wait to go back!

In a month or 2 their trees will be hanging low with Apples!!! Can’t wait to make some apple desserts and some great slow cooker meals with apples!

Blue Apron day 2 and studying

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle

Happy Hump day!!! The week is now more than half over, woot woot!!

This morning I got the call that i wasn’t needed for package delivery today…….HALLELUJAH!!!!!! My right forearm and right butt cheek have noce bruises on them from a good fall yesterday.  

I got to relax and sort of sleep in this morning then make myself a delicious breakfast sandwich. 

After that came studying. I was actually really looking forward to studying today hahahaha. 

I got through one module then took a break and did the reading on a second module. I got up to cook my Blue Apron meal.

There are short lecture videos and activities that come with studying so I did a little multitasking 

Yep, I had videos playing while I cooked. 

I got through 2 entire modules and a practice midterm today. 

Here is the finished food product 

In the PM I started to read one of my mom’s presents to me

I am so excited to garden this year. It will be a noce break between working and studying. 

And I am soooo looking forward to all the amazing meals I will be able to cook with fresh food. The amazing boyfriend has agreed to help me with the garden as well 🙂 added bonus. 

Have you ever had straight off the vine/branch/stem/out of the ground food? 

Blue Apron, planting and reading

by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

Happy Wednesday! More than halfway to the weekend! Today was my first full day back at work this week. I’m not 100% better but I’m like 85-90% better. When i got home i took Artemis for a short walk since she’s been cooped up since our run on Saturday due to me not feeling good.

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She still knows she’s spoiled though hahaha.

I made my last Blue Apron meal from my box last week. Enchiladas. Sorry i failed to take prep and cooking photos.

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This has a fair amount of mushrooms in it and i dont quite love the taste if mushrooms in most things except ravioli and marinated and grilled button mushrooms but the flavor of the enchiladas totally masked the mushrooms which was perfect for me, i get the healthy benefits without having to taste them.

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These are some seriously full enchiladas. I brought 2 for lunch and ended up eating half for lunch and half for dinner.

I went to target on my lunch to get some planting stuff and found some great oatmeal on sale for practically nothing.

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This box has 8 instant oatmeals in it for $2.58!!! I got apple cinnamon and maple brown sugar. For $5 i now have lunch at work for the next 3 weeks. I can throw some fruit or nuts in to spice it up if necessary. Sometimes i LOVE target.
For planting

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I planted 3 more potatoes in the white containers

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I transplanted my first tomato and pepper start. I figure ill transfer 1-2/week and see how they fair.

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My peas and corn are still growing!!!!

Now off to bed so i can go to spin class in the AM. Goodnight!!!

How was your day?
Are you planting any food this year?

Random Saturday stuff

by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

It is 7:45pm and i am exhausted. I am sitting in my room tearing up while watching the wedding in Breaking Dawn part 1. Don’t judge lol. Exhaustion makes people more emotional. I’ve always loved the wedding in this movie and ibwas watching Charlie walk Bella down the isle him totally tearing up and i just got that sad I’ll never have that moment. For those that don’t know my dad died almost 8 years ago some days it still hurts like it was yesterday.

Ok enough with the depressing.

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Another 7+ hour day working at the tulip farm. It was a beautiful day so the festival was PACKED. Today was the busiest day they have had in the 32ish years they have been doing this.

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My trying to take the  picture and smile while squinting in the sun and not run into anyone.
As soon as i got home i changed into workout clothes because if i sit down i am not getting back up.

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Artemis and i got out and ran 2.5 miles in the beautiful day.

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My right foot really hates it when i stand on it for 7+ hours then run over 1.5 miles on it.

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Yay!!!!! My peas and corn are starting to sprout!! Not much action from the onions and potatos yet though. Fingers crossed.

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Easiest healthy dinner. You saute whatever veggies you have in the fridge then pour some bottled pasta sauce over it.

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Add a little basil and cheese and shovel in mouth because you are starving and starting to crash.

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Then pass out from exhaustion.

How was your Saturday?
Good night.