I am a full time teacher during the school year Mid August through Late May. I am a full time market gardener Late May- Mid August and the rest of the time I am a Full time teacher and Market Gardener! We garden intensively on about 1.25 acre. We live on 4.5 acres. We also have close to 7,000 square feet of growing space under high tunnels, in a year. We grow/harvest year around now. The hardest part about working full time and market gardening is managing the high tunnels. In the spring and fall they need to be opened and closed almost daily. Then comes storms. I can handle winter storms, it is the severe weather that hurts. If you do go with high tunnels, make sure you have a plan for this. I am married, have 4 kids and my wife is in school for another year. The garden/micro-farm allows her to stay at home in the summer and allows us to take trips, pay for winter propane, and all those things you never have money for. It is our living savings account. We also eat good too! Check out our blog, you will see what we do. Here is a link that might be useful: Jay's Jellies

Maire, you can go to all my biking stories via that link. Just find my name in blue, aka, clickable, and all my journals come up. Yes, those were biking buddies. We were riding the Oklahoma FreeWheel, a bike ride across our beautiful state. Esther and I are Braums lovers, and go there for a carton of ice cream ever so often. Did so yesterday in honor of the day. LOL Moni Here is a link to all my online biking journals. Here is a link that might be useful: Moni's biking journals

Newcastle, I'm embarrased to say that, while I THOUGHT my quartz was going to be installed last Monday, the email from my fabricator clearly said Monday, 10/4 -- next Monday. (Whoops. Guess I got a little excited). That said, I got a call from them today saying that the slabs are ready ahead of schedule and ready to be installed! I set an appointment for first thing tomorrow morning. Whee! I am excited! But, are you ready to hear my drama? After putting up with months and months...and months! of B.S. and delays from my contractor, I pushed hard for a final, drop-dead, done-done-shiny-done completion date, not letting him wiggle out of the question like he has been doing for months. Really, there's just a bunch of little stuff to do! There's no reason he shouldn't be able to knock it out in a single day (you know, a full working day -- not that he ever worked one of those during the ENTIRE project). Anyway, he started to be really mean and bully me. DH asked me later that day whether I finally got a completion date and I told him what happened. He then called our contractor who WENT OFF on DH (about nothing, really -- "I injured my f*ckin' shoulder and couldn't work because you MADE me install the f*ckin' fridge! It took me 87 hours to paint 3 f*ckin' walls because I was doing a really really good job! You didn't f*ckin' pick out cabinet pulls when I told you to so I couldn't get anything else done around here while I was waiting for you to pick out cabinet pulls! You're unlawfully holding back a retainage! I'm gonna f*ckin' sue you and put a f*ckin' lien on your house!" -- he was just bullying to try to deflect attention from the real issues) and...that was a mistake. DH fired him on the spot. (D'oh! Don't bite the hand that feeds you, buddy!) Things had been tense between us for quite some time, but I really had hoped that we could all just keep it together until the end of the project. Oh well. So...sigh. Although the countertops are going in tomorrow, I will be left with a bunch of finish work and no one left to do it. Guess DH and I should get ready to put on our overalls and tool belts again! I'll probably end up finishing AFTER you, breezy, and athomesewing!

Hi Sophia, I can give little input on repetition. I don't pay attention to that here in non-winter land. Poor Abraham Darby got suckers from his Dr. Huey root stock after 4 yrs. and I thought they were the octopus canes I'd read about. By the time I figured it out they had taken over. I battle them every year (difficult access). Poor Abe is now only 3 feet high but in my climate grows easily to 6 feet +. Dr Huey is stealing nutrients and water. Large petal packed wafting uber fragrant blooms. Some blackspot in a non-spray garden. Evelyn is in the path of the wind. She has a lovely spring flush (no winds) and sporadic bloom thereafter (regular winds). No blackspot this year on either as yet. Disease wise I'd say they're equal here (very little). Evelyn's blooms are probably the same diameter as Abe's but not as deep. I keep her under 5 feet with pruning. A 7 ft. arching cane appeared after 6 or 8 years. Colors - Abe is usually a pink fully infused with peach-yellow-mango. Full bodied oomphy color. Lasts no more than 3 days in a bouquet. In Sept. mine changes to a warm medium pink, not as peachy as spring but never bluey-pink. A boring everyday color. In Nov. it is back to a prettier peachy pink. Evelyn, ah Evelyn. The pink dawn touched by sunlight? Not pink, not peach, but a sophisticated blend on gossamer satin petals. I think it is the delicate iridescence that captivates. If I could only have one rose bloom a year it would be her. So you see I am terribly prejudiced and pay little attention to the bush.