One of the best pieces of advice I ever took, and it may have come from this forum, was to take some time and plan out your growing year on a spreadsheet, day by day, and almost hour to hour. The first year I did this, my profit showed a significant improvement. For instance, I know the day in February that I need to seed onions, how many to seed, the day I will transplant them, and where I will transplant them. I also know when I expect to harvest them. I do this for each crop, and from this plan, I know what and how much I will have to sell at each week's market. And since I have a pretty good idea of how much I am going to ask for each crop, I have a pretty good idea of what my projected revenues will be, if sales are good. Also I keep a spreadsheet for each market day, what and how much of each crop I brought, how much sold, and what I priced it at. This is invaluable when it comes to doing the next year's planning. It drives me crazy to actually plan this all out, all the details, flipping the calendar back and forth, etc, but it is so worth it! Two years ago, I got the Quickbooks computer program. I wish I had done this years before. Once you get the hang of it, it is easy to keep up with the data imput, and at a click I can see what our expenses for the year are running, what our sales are, and what our profit and loss statement looks like. Are you doing this mostly by yourself? And are you also responsible for child care and meals, and laundry etc? Put that stuff into your planning because it will tell you what is doable and what is not.For instance, I have Monday mornings blocked out for errands- the shopping, banking, etc. And my day ends at 5 because I am the cook in the family. Over time we have come to know what grows well for us, and where on the property it does the best. Don't rule out flowers as a money maker. We have planted peonies (they don't need rabbit or deer fencing) and I sell them to florists as well to our usual customers. I sold daffodil straight bunches this week, and I hope to do well on them next week as they look so nice on Easter tables. Think about perennial crops that can do well. As we have aged, we have decreased the amount of annual cropping that we do as many of them require weekly seeding, transplanting, and harvesting. We have expanded rhubarb, and blueberries. I would do asparagus if our soil wasn't so rocky. We also do hardneck garlic (once you pay for the first seed garlic, your own garlic can be self-perpetuating), and onions (plant once and don't need rabbit and deer fencing.) Read all you can. I got so much out of Eliot Coleman's The New Organic Grower, and we have had a subscription to Growing for Market since day one. We never did well with raspberries as we only had a once a week market, and they just spoiled. Same situation with strawberries. I think that organic fruit trees in the Northeast is very tough. We have never gone there. Good luck with whatever you decide. Market gardening is a tough way to make money, so only do it if you love it. But it has its advantages. You can be home, you are your own boss, you can involve your kids if they are at all so inclined, and, as several previous posters have noted, you can eat like royalty. We could never afford to eat like we do if we didn't grow it ourselves. Last year I grew melons.....oh my!

Long day. Its finally stopped about 11PM. 12" here, and probably very close to that at National Airport. Still lots of wind and blowing and drifting, but the skies are now clear. Yesterday, up until about 4am it was a "warm storm" with temps around 32. Its been below 20F since about 8am here. The snow held and held and held on for longer than expected. This was definitely the storm of a lifetime, EVEN IF we had not had the 2 feet here last weekend, just the sheer conditions this storm produced, especially the whiteouts, and the near hurricane force winds along with 4-6 foot drifts, countless downed trees...etc. etc. etc. was a once in a lifetime event here in the Mid Atlantic. However, since we did have 2 feet on the ground already, it was just all the more historic. TZ7, Be safe! I hope you guys dont get it as bad as we did here, especially in terms of the winds. Many of our streets look like the photos you posted, and some were with downed traffic signals. Post more pics if you can! Suffice it to say, all of my palms, including the large trachy in the pot wrapped in plactic and xmas lights, are buried. The in ground palms were buried as of last saturday, and now they are under 3 feet. My smaller trachy unfortunately had spear pull, although that may be more attributed to the fact I left the xmas lights on it one day when we hit 49, and the palm cooked to well over 100F im sure. It somewhat dessicated after that, and has not looked good since. I think these storms just pushed it over the edge. Well see if I cant get it to come back. Ok Im going to bed. Ill post more photos tomorrow. Night all! Be safe.

Wow, 55 posts - hope I'm not posting on the wrong thread again. I like the QOD's. For clothes, I don't have much now. I have one leopard-print top that I've worn to shreds. I don't feel stronger or faster, but I feel safe in it for some reason, like I can face people easier. When I was young and still had a good body, I had a few things that I felt great in. I had a matching raincoat and umbrella that was a fall print with leaves. I felt perfect in it, like everything was okay. I had some jackets that I felt safe and good in - one was purple velvet and one was a plaid beach jacket with big pockets. For shoes, I rarely have more than three wearable pair. Right now I have a pair of moccasins, a pair of black sandals, and a pair of those Hawaiian clogs, but most of the time I go barefoot, lol. For childhood cereals, my favorites were cream of wheat with brown sugar and cheerios, either dry or with milk and sugar. I liked sugar crisp, too, when it came out and back in the days when it was still okay to call something sugar crisp. For cartoons, my first attachment was to Mighty Mouse. I loved the way he was a puny little mouse, but could get strong and save people in trouble. Then I think I liked all the hero ones - The Lone Ranger, Superman, etc. I've been saying for awhile that I'd put up pictures of Second Life, the virtual reality world I'm playing in. I have a few on my blog now. It's at wwwjoy.agelessserenity.org, and I'll add the link below for anyone who might be curious. I'm permanently low-carbing now, though not as low as I probably should be. It is better for my fibromyalgia as well as for my weight. I recently got that new power chair I've been working on getting for a couple of years now, so I can get to the post office and the mini mall again, though I haven't tried it yet. Heather is still fine and as good and sweet as always. My son and granddaughters are planning to come and visit this summer. My son recently started working with a game company who makes a product called Realmcrafters. Seems like we are all into the virtual reality scene. Seems like people here are doing okay over all, and I'm glad for that. I know I miss a lot, but at least I come by and catch up. I'm into the Oprah presentations of Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth." Anyone here have ideas on that, and on the expectation that we are in a process of catalytic evolution? I had more, but lost it. At least I saved to this point, fortunately, as I couldn't write it all over, lol. I'm glad to see so many staying with it and new people coming on board, too. Take care and eat healthy! Amy Here is a link that might be useful: My blog

alicia, the turbo chef website can explain it better than i ever could: http://www.turbochef.com/ rmkitchen: we just about finished with the framing. the cabinet maker is coming over monday to do a walk through and go over everything. we have a meeting with the GC next week as well since there are some walls and door jams that need to be tweaked. after that he will slap a roof on and continue. i am told we will be in for thanksgiving dinner. fingers crossed, please!