Salem County is rich in farms and the earth is important to the people here. The county has a website for the Improvement Authority with some tidbits of information to help citizens practice green habits and they even offer compost bins at a very attractive price. Here's a link to the site, in case you have a hankering to see how even a small and financially strapped community can reach out to help folks live a greener life. http://www.scianj.com/
Now, the Earth Machine, which is the composter of choice for the county, retails for almost a hundred dollars- so the county price(which WAS 22.50- but is now 26.50) is very enticing!
La Principessa and I put aside a few dollars every month until we had enough to buy an Earth Machine for Cape Coop.
And, here it is- ladies and gentleman, allow me to introduce to you Billy, Cape Coop's compost bin!
We bought him a few weeks ago, but once we got him home it was apparent that we are not bin builders- he had one tiny piece that we could not insert into the proper tab, no matter how we maneuvered and wrangled- so frustrating! The composter sat in our tiny living room, forlorn and bereft of the tidbits we had eagerly been saving up to feed it. We had saved scraps for over 2 months, in happy anticipation of Billy's arrival-and we were sorely put out when we realized that we would not be filling the composter immediately.
I admit that Mommy actually kicked Billy a few times, in frustration, as Billy lolled on the rug in the tiny living room, waiting to be fixed in a place of sun, OUTSIDE.
Somehow everything always works out, though, don't you notice? Last week I sold some fabric on Craigslist, and the man who bought the fabric was kind enough to finish the bin building for us when he came to pick up his super bargaintastic bolt of gray velvet.
Woohoo, yipppee- we have a composter in our yard now!
La Principessa and I placed Billy in the furthest South West corner of the property- right where we will someday, we hope, put up a back fence. If you look carefully you can see the posts which are already thoughtfully in place- Cape Coop is just waiting for that rear fence!
Isn't our composter adorable? Even with our 2 months plus worth of scraps AND many shovels full of dried leaves, we have only a few inches of material in the tummy of the bin- and I can't imagine that we will ever fill the thing, for he IS a behemoth of a composter and there are just the two of us, after all, but we have our very own composter for the first time in almost a decade, and that's a great feeling. I can really feel the beginning of a garden for our dear Cape Coop now. Having Billy is the first small step!
I have a reason to order gardening catalogues now! Oh, how I've missed my gardening and planning and such! I hope that La Principessa has lots of energy and patience this coming spring, for I have lots of plans for her muscles, and for the barren spots that are Cape Coop's lack of landscaping!
We are going to have a mostly edible garden- I hope for some blueberry bushes to please La Principessa, and a tiny plot for vegetables and fruits, as well as some bulbs to decorate the front yard- I just have to decide on a c0lor scheme, don't I? We don't truly have room for a tree, but I am sorely tempted to acquire one of those adorable dwarf varieties(something with fruit, of course!) and perhaps I can plant it in the swale... we'll see!
I am going to have to add another envelope to the budget now, aren't I? "GARDEN" it will be named, and tools, soil, seeds, plants, hoses and a shed will all be forthcoming- I'm sure!
I've already got sugar pumpkin seeds all ready to trade- send us a note if you're interested!
Cape Coop will soon be stuffed to the roof with boxes, paintings, books, art, art supplies and MORE art- all the minutiae of an artist's life, including a 17 year old red head named Kietzsche( the vet just informed us of her REAL age, but we'll never let her know!). We're on a trip right now, packing up my partner's estate in Miami Florida, to stuff into an 18 foot truck and drive back home to Cape Coop. We have NO idea how this will all work out, send us good thoughts!
SNOW! Doesn't this photograph of Cape Coop look like a vintage postcard? Our little Cape Coop is so sweet, in every season!
Today I ripped at the dining room carpet a little bit, to see WHAT WE ARE FACING.
The dining area is Cape Coop's North front room.
In the rear it is the kitchen, which has cloud gray vinyl stick-em-down tiles. I suppose that the flooring will be a double room job now. Bleagh. (Pay no mind to the odd placement of the refrigerator- PLEASE. And, don't get excited over the five feet of cabinets- they are in scary disrepair.
UNFORTUNATELY, the floor beneath the carpet is NOT lovely- but isn't this photo close up of the disaster gorgeous? I can't discern even if this is wood, or some other odd sort of surface material that is something like cardboard. The hidden surface is covered in swirls of old flooring glue, dusty and dark brown. I imagine that I can pull up the carpeting and either recover the floor in some stick-em down tiles (we're not enjoying carpet in the dining/kitchen area!) or, even, just clean up what's there now, if it turns out to be something usable (I fear not!). I'm not inclined for now, because my secret hope is to eventually do a remodel of the entire area, turning the dining 'room' and the kitchen into one large, more cohesive area- an eat in kitchen/family room sort of idea is in my mind. An old fashioned kitchen similar to the main rooms of colonial times- although NOT in a colonial theme. SO, I would like to cover both floors with ONE material, returning them to their original singular state- because I do believe that the chicken house did not have multiple flooring surfaces, unless the lady of the main house liked decorating that much? Or thought to inspire the chickens to a happy mood with a variety of decor choices? I can imagine a woman thinking to herself whilst choosing floor coverings "Ah, THIS vinyl will be the perfect accent for the West side, and THIS lovely wood for the East!"
ALSO, FORTUNATELY, we had these sweet whole wheat biscuits for lunch, while my cake offering for dinner baked in the oven, warming the kitchen up to a toasty 52 degrees Fahrenheit!
