Strawberry, I'm glad to see you! I've been thinking about you! I read a long ago post of yours regarding Ball potting soil and pine fines. I can't find Ball but I'm going to try the pine fines. Did you mulch with them or add to planting hole?
I second the challenge for Camp! And second the admiration of her writing abilities!
As for myself, taking care of the roses I have is all the challenge I need to keep myself off the couch. I challenge myself to be a more firm disciplinarian to my two daughters (I'm a single Mom) AND
I challenge myself to have well grown roses....ALL of them, not just my faves
*wink"

Hi Susan (poorbutroserich): Here's the info. on pine fines: University of Georgia College of Agriculture stated that "Pine bark have a pH between 4.0 and 5.0 ... with 13% water-retention when fresh, and 21% water-retention when decomposed."

It's best to mix pine fines INTO the soil to aerate and bring oxygen to the roots. You don't want to mulch with pine fines ... the acidic surface will encourage black-spots germination.

My kid prefers gentle encouragement, rather than force-discipline. Same here too. It's hard to be firm and nice at the same time.

I equate "challenge" with "chance". If I see "challenge" as a "chance" to do something, then it's easier. Camp may not be blessed with a house, but she is blessed with an incredible writing skill that's music to the reader's ears.

If I didn't take up the "chance", or "challenge" to walk up to that shy marathon runner on the college's track, I would never have married that guy! He was the fastest runner in that large running club, I was the chubbiest and slowest one. I was limping one mile a day, he was doing 10 miles a day. We have been married for 15 years, he's a good provider.

I'll have to give myself challenges, or chances to exercise everyday ... I give myself too many chances to get fat, so it's about time I give myself more chances to get in shape.

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Wed, Apr 3, 13 at 14:00

Strawberry, I agree with you completely on Camps, but how to make her follow our advice? She may not make as much as Patterson but I am sure she'll make a decent income in her spare time, writing in winter. I would definitely buy any of her output. There are much too few funny garden writers.

Yep, I would buy anything she wrote, too. Easy to read, funny, so human, not stuffy (for sure!).

C'mon Camp!

I'm still laughing over what Camp wrote when I ordered Paul Neyron rose:

"....the very worst, most ungraceful disease ridden rose I have ever seen in my life was a hatefully huge specimen of this horrid rose. Yes, I know there are many who love gigantic blowsy things but the rust, the BS, the mildew - this rose had them all. Ugly, ugly leaves, dismally floppy heads of a grim pink (with lots of brown curly bits). Ugh, feeling ill just recalling it. Strawberry - this rose ought to come with a health and sanity warning."

Well hey, what great encouragement, Strawbs. Mind, there is a world of difference between stream of consciousness waffling on my favourite plant forum and actually having the discipline (a very unfamiliar word) to maintain interest and consistency. I suspect writing is a vocation rather than a passing whim - those who do it (and do it well) could no more NOT write than not breathe. Even so, I do agree that a challenge, even if only a tiny personal daily chore, is always worth taking on. So, I dipped a tentative toe into the world of self-publishing and possible blogging (or at least looked at various websites). Although I haven't been terrified out of making an attempt (so far), I have been entertained by the legions of literary editors, wannabe authors and the cut-throat (and ever-so faintly delusional) nature of that whole bookish domain - considerably more predatory than the genteel world of horticulture - although I think the giant vegetable brigade are a tad more excitable (homicidal) than mere dilettantes such as most of us.

At any rate, I have found it both comforting and enlightening, sharing experiences here - not just regarding plants and planting,but as a way of crossing cultural and social barriers which may well have proved insurmountable in real life. Since I find I can ramble on interminably despite a totally humdrum existence - having something interesting, or at least different, to deal with could produce a tsunami of creativity - at the very least, I am not expecting to die of boredom any time soon.
Plus, I have a camera...and vaguely know how to use it....so I expect I will carry on as usual (with pics).

So, to rise to the challenge of seeing this as an adventure and not a disaster, please forgive if I slip into occasional venting mode. And, to keep me company in uncharted waters, who else is intending to step off the everyday path, however daintily (maybe an experimental garden plan, a diet, a renunciation or a promise - something which takes you a tiny bit out of your comfort zone)?

Speaking of being out of my comfort zone, we recently downsized and sold one vehicle (the one I mostly drove), and adjusting to being a one-truck couple was at least unsettling. Knowing that DH is not able to rescue me when I'm out is one aspect and that he's unable to go if he should need to while I'm out is another. Life changes drastically sometimes. At certain points in life, just maintaining equilibrium can be huge.

What's your solution for refrigeration, Suzy?

Your adventure is sounding better to me.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Camps, I think your move to the horsebox is fine place to start writing. Even if it is just to your computer for rewriting later.

My friend is 5 days from her book being published. I will let you know how she does.

But I think I might have a problem....judging her book from the cover, I am thinking she wrote a "romance" novel. No offence to those that enjoy that time of book, but it is not my thing and I sure hope she does not ask what I think of the book!

LIFE is outside my comfort zone: I need no further challenges!
On a less exclamatory note, about one's offspring, I think they do well with a kind of good-humored toughness on the part of the parent--very firm, not mean or angry, and ready to listen (and say no a lot). And abundant affection, not to mention adoration. My daughter's now fourteen and is a total sweetheart so, though I think we're in an unusually peaceful phase that will give way, possibly, to more stressful times, I believe DH and I have done a reasonable job. N.B. DD was also born sturdy and good-tempered, so her current delightfulness owes a good deal to genetic factors, not just to her upbringing.
Melissa

Campanula, is there a possibility for you to take a break from overhauling your whole life and doing a trial run RIGHT NOW for about a month? I mean actually go out there and camp - use the water that's there, do without electricity and plumbing, see how you cope on a daily basis with the relative isolation, being cut off from the city for good and bad?

You're a gardener and a nature lover, but I somehow got the impression you're very much a city person, and the place you're describing sounds like very raw country life.

Such an experiment would give you a better idea on whether you could live out this adventure when it stops being an adventure and fritters into humdrum daily routine. At this point the defiance and daring is intoxicating, and adventure does have a glamour about it, but when it turns into a moment by moment struggle it might end up looking and feeling different. When you have to go through tiresome lengthy sets of actions just to get what you get by pressing a button in ordinary circumstances - it might wear your patience in the not so long run.

I think such a trial run will give you a better perspective to decide what next. You might change your mind and come to the conclusion that even a skanky flat on the outkirts of town is better, or on the contrary you might emerge from the experiment even more determined to rough it out there because you'll have discovered that this is really what you had wanted all along.

Whatever you end up deciding - best of luck.

I agree with WinterCat. I read an article written by a guy who left the city on purpose to eke out on a farm ... no computer, no TV, no phone. It was boredom and hardship to the max. He brought along a harmonica to entertain his kid. He did that to write an article, but to him, it wasn't worth it. I think testing it out first is a great idea.

Thank you, Melissa, for what you wrote: "good-humored toughness on the part of the parent--very firm, not mean or angry, and ready to listen (and say no a lot). And abundant affection, not to mention adoration."

That's so true, I don't regret any of the "no" I said to my kid, but I regret saying "yes" to her indulgence in video games.

Thank you, Camp, for more "gourmet writing". You are right that "... those who do it (and do it well) could no more NOT write than not breathe". James Patterson made millions not because he's the best writer, but because he writes the most.

It's like McDonald, they make the most money NOT because they make the best food, but because they mass-produce hamburgers. It has to do with how many chances we take.

Before Chicken-Soup-for-the-Soul series was mass-produced (over 100 million copies) ... the authors were rejected by over 140 publishers. Thanks to self-publishing on-line, authors don't face much rejection.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chicken Soup's 64 principles of success

Hey Wintercat - you are so right - it could be a terrible experiment. I guess we were committed once we bought the land - it was a funny amount of money - about as much as a really nice car or we could have invested it in some other sort of business enterprise (apart from the tiny fact that we have proved to be worse than useless at money-making). It would have paid our rent for a few years. The bit which bothers me least is the actual daily grind of living without various amenities (Sherry, we have a little gas fridge) such as hot water and electricity whereas my anxiety stems from a much more familiar place - the fear of change after living in a house for over 27 years, bringing up children - all those memories and stuff - loads of stuff which somehow has to be sorted, given away, stored.......
Much depends on the local inhabitants of the nearby village too - Norfolk is a bit hill-billyish and not very wealthy - (appalachians maybe?) so we really must not come over as second-home townies (although this problem is more prevalent in the more picturesque counties in the UK - driving up house prices for locals - happens in the US too, no?). Still, I don't think we are likely to be mistaken for metropolitan sophisticates, somehow.