THE GARDEN IS COMING, THE GARDEN IS COMING!

Well, at least the seed catalogs are here.  They've been coming since the end of November, which i find humorous because that's about the time you're really putting the garden to bed (haha, get it? bed?) for the winter and then they have to start tempting you with next year! I am a firm believer in that you have to be gone to be missed, and that's why i need down time from things.  This is why i will always need a change of seasons and could never really live in a totally warm climate.  Warmer would be nice, though......

So i have had the down time now from the garden and took out the pile of seed catalogs i had been collecting for the last couple of months.

This is the pergola Bob built for me because
 I had this brilliant idea that i was gonna hang my
tomato plants upside down to
 save some room in the beds.
Lesson learned: tomatoes don't grow upside down!

 And oh boy!  It was getting me all excited about this year's garden!  Last year we put 8 new raised beds out there because my thought process was to plant enough to have some for farmer's market and enough for us too.

,

The front 10 beds were the ones we put in a couple years ago, the other  8,
including the ones on stilts, we put in this last spring. 

The garden in full bloom in late May. See the tomato plants hangin' upside down?

 I had never tried to sell produce at the market because everyone had it, and when you have just a little bit on your table, no one looks at it.  I did alright selling some produce this year but have decided that this summer the garden will be just for our consumption.  I want to really plant enough to freeze a bunch, now that we finally got the chest freezer, thanks to our friend Justin. He's always finding us free stuff! And i really want to focus more on our sustainability, to live off this land as much as possible. More then we have anyway.

The garden at the end of the season, warn and weathered.

and one lonely squash.

Now i must go through all the seed i had left from last year, plan a garden, make a plan for rotation of the crops, plan for a three sister's garden again the right way (not plant bush beans like i did last year, silly - they are supposed to climb up the corn stalks!), and figure out the best way to get the most out of our limited space. Well, i guess its not really limited, it is pretty big.  But this is all pretty much new to me, Everett did all the planting in the first years here, i just did the harvesting. Last year was the first time i totally took over, knowing very little, but learning a lot! And now that Everett has passed, i really have no one to ask advice from on how to do it all.  I will miss that.

12/2004 CHRISTMAS LETTER

I found it!  Had to scan it so its a little off... but looks good!
Scroll down, had to make it that way so you could read it!

CHRISTMAS 2005

Taken from The Sanborn Sanctuary Christmas Letter dated 12/14/05:






December 14, 2005





Dear Friend,

Bob and Dawn have been very busy again this year. Bob has been head of the Honors program and we had the pleasure of attending a couple of conferences, one in St. Louis and the other in Des Moines, IA. He also has a new class that he introduced to RCTC, Native American Studies. He also taught the Nobel class again this year, this time it was on Einstein! He also added a porch onto G’pa’s house, replaced a wall in the horse barn, added a tack room, & replaced the stairs to the loft. There has to be a lot more but we can’t remember it all because he does so much! We’ve made new friends and they get together almost weekly to play music. They might have to be our opening act at the barn (more info to follow on that)! He was big helper at the market this year. Plus he was the great Dad again and helped deliver the children to their many horse activities!

Dawn’s business has hit an all time high. Doing the downtown market this year has added to the customer base, allowing for winter delivery of her breads. She also has been supplying breads to 2 local coffee stops here in town as well as LaCrosse. Plans are for next year to build a bakery in the big barn! There’ll be a store, and we’ll also have live music a couple times a month. We’ll only use local farmer’s and artisan’s products so we can call it a year round farmer’s market. Plans are under way, but we’ll have to see what the city says we can do….. Dawn also got on the horse lovers wagon and purchased an old paint. She is beautiful but a little snotty! All the better to teach her with! She’s been studying natural horsemanship and Anne is getting a little better with the attitude problem. Speaking of teaching, home schooling is going well, it has it’s ups and downs but has been so rewarding to spend such great times with her daughters. And speaking of schooling, she is now going to take equine science classes at the college starting this spring. Oh, and how can we forget the most important pet she got this year, Esmerelda, our goat! We bought her in the spring and she’s now pregnant so the milk will be available come April, and hopefully she’ll have a least two kids. Dawn is her mama and even calls her that! Maa! Maaa!

Grandpa (Dad) has been too busy too! He has been busy with all the daily tasks that have to be performed on the farm plus all the remodeling tasks that we do. Dad’s house this year had the new porch added, complete with fireplace! It’s quite amazing! The boys did a great job making it nice and cozy (it got a little cold out there last winter). He kept busy with the garden this summer that we ended up doubling in size. He also has been busy building rabbit hutches, horse fences and keeping the driveway free of snow.



Sam again had great success at the fair this year in 4H. Her and her new horse Dex (appendix quarter horse, half thorobred) got first place in 4 of the 5 classes they entered! They are our English riders. Her and Dex also competed in several open shows and a jumping show, yes, he’s a cross-country jumper, but she hasn’t got that far yet. She also won blue ribbons for her photography, a red ribbon for her canvas sport bag she sewed, and a blue ribbon for her board on her ferrets. She was historian in our saddle club this year and now a photographer for our 4H club. So, with her two ferrets, Snickers and Panda, along with the two cats: Fuzzy and Winky, and the 25 chickens, she keeps quite busy! The home schooling has gone well and she is ready to start high school next year, yes, believe it or not high school! She is also checking out colleges that have equine programs so she can bring her horse with her!

Once again our genius Madison‘s current Stanford test puts her in the 99th percentile of the entire country’s 6th grade students in every subject (except math, that’s only 6th grade)! She also was very successful at the county fair. Her and her beautiful horse Sunny placed in 6 of the 7 classes she competed in. She also tried the “Music in Motion” class this year, which is when you and your horse ride a routine to music. Maddie shoes James Brown’s I Feel Good. It was really cute to see her out there “dancing” to this song on her horse, both dressed in a bizarre outfit of every color under the sun! She also added to her collection of pets; Madison’s new career choice in life is to own a ranch, board horses and break them, so what better way to learn then hand’s on? She saved up her money and bought her dream horse: a palomino named Userfriendly Max! And he is definitely user friendly! He has just been loads of fun. Madison has done all the groundwork on him and we are getting him ready to be broke to ride in the spring. She also has her bunnies, yes, there are now 5, first there was Bunny Foo, then along came Little Foo (a show rabbit), then the stray Cinderella (left out in the cold by some evil no good person), then came Boomer (an angora, he was too cute to let stay in the pet shop), then came Teddy Bear (another show rabbit). We lost two parakeets and have replaced them with Joe, the cockatiel, and Cheeko, the parakeet.

Joe

Percy and Louie are just as lovable as always. Percy is head dog of this firm and Louie doesn’t seem to mind. Percy celebrated her 5th birthday this year while sitting at the kitchen table eating cake and opening presents. Louie turned 2 on Memorial Day and had a birthday party with her 3 dog friends. They played games, like bobbing for hotdogs and chase the cat. It was good fun!

We ended up keeping two of the kittens from our barn cat Special K, and they are Tony and Indigo. It sure has been worth it though; Tony has provided us with hours of entertainment! Louie raised the kittens like her own babies and now Tony thinks he’s a dog. He goes on walks with us and plays fetch. We worry about him sometimes… We still have Neptune the stray; ever since we had him fixed he just eats and sleeps in the barn all day. Emmy is still right at home in her basement dwelling, Sam’s cat Fuzzy likes her room only and Winky is still psycho!

The girls got a fish tank for Christmas last year (thanks Tim &Bri!) so then we had to get more fish; Leather and Pinky Tuscadaro, Sharky, Princess Sucksalot, and we still have Divey Crockett, the Beta.

So let’s see is there any I haven’t mentioned? Oh yeah, Maddie decided she wanted chickens too, so we got 11 more chickens, this time they are Araucanas, they lay blue/green eggs!

So let’s sum this up: 2 dogs, 7 cats, 4 horses, 1 goat (pregnant, which leads to more), 2 ferrets, 5 bunnies, 5 fish, 2 birds and 36 chickens. That gives us a grand total of 64! No wonder we’re broke!





The many animals on the farm want to wish you all a wonderful, happy holiday season with lots of food and lots of love! Percy, Louie, Sunny, Dex, Anne, Max, Esmerelda, Snickers, Panda, Lil’ Foo, Big Foo, Boomer, Cinderella, Teddy, Emmy, Winky, Fuzzy, Special K, Neptune, Tony, Indigo, Joe, Cheeko, Divey, Leather, Pinky, Sharky, Princess Sucksalot, 11 chickens (Maddie named them all but I won’t here) and Mr. Cuddles & his 24 ladies.

And all of us humans wish a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!



Bob, Dawn, Everett, Sam, & Maddie