I wish you much prosperity and fruition under your endeavors. SO many are picking up gardening and conglomerating online about it. I always love hearing from everyone even about some of the trivial things as it provides a wealth of information to fill the blank gaps in my head that come to mind when I am outside gardening (read: trying to figure out what to do next).

Congratulations!

bon

How exciting!!! What town are you close to?

Congratulations Kim! Sounds like you are getting off to a great start! Do you folks have a wedding date set?

George
Tahlequah, OK

Kim, This is NOT the wrong place. It is exactly the right place. We are a tight-knit group and we are thrilled to pieces each time a new person starts posting here and joins our group. Honestly, I think I speak for everyone here when I say we don't care if you live in Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia or Alaska (or anywhere else). Everyone is welcome here always. However, if you lived in Alaska, we likely all would be emailing you to tell you we're packing our bags and headed to Alaska to visit you for the whole month of August.

Congratulations to both you and your fiance' on your new place. I am happy and excited for you. Starting small always is the only way to go. Starting too big can be discouraging, so start farming/gardening at a smaller, more manageable level and work your way up and avoid the frustration of biting off more than you can chew. The important thing is that you will be starting.

I am just absolutely green with envy that you're buying a place with a well-amended and well-used garden plot. I am just jealous, jealous, and jealous. (I'm grinning as I say that.) I started with a cow pasture and red clay soil that would be perfect for making flower pots, but is not so great for gardening, which explains my envy for wonderful garden spot.

I look forward to hearing all about your experiences as you work to turn your place into the gardening paradise you want it to be. Remember that you're never alone because you have all of us here and there's likely not anything there that you will encounter that someone here hasn't already faced and dealt with.

I hope the rock you fiance uses to hold your down isn't too big and too heavy. We don't want you getting hurt while he tries to keep your feet on the ground. And, if I were you, I'd be floating around on Cloud Nine right now too.

Once again, congrats on the new place.

Dawn

Thanks all I have been reading here and of course from the library to get an idea of what to do when...
Due to dietary related health issues I have opted to grow my own food and this year has been fun, and alot of work.

I am Near Quitaque [kitty-kway] I have only been here a 18 months but love it and the people.

George we hope to get married at Christmas. I work at a school and he is in irrigation so that would be the off season.I am not getting any younger so no sense wasting too much time LOL.
Kim

Thanks Dawn. After chopping out 2 large gardens with a hoe I am thrilled also about this soil. I almost rolled in it I was so excited.
I will still live and garden in my current location because there will be alot of cleanup to do and we have to build a house or remodel a building. I think I am going to start a small fall garden and plant peas over the rest of it.
"somehow" I ended up with a massive amoutnt of peas to seed.
Kim

Kim, That 'somehow' is the beginning of a seed-acquiring addiction. You know that, right? I am speaking from experience, of course.

Quitaque. So that means you're not too far from the state park or from one of my all-time favorite cities (based on its name)--Turkey, Tx. You know how citizens of a town are referred to based on their name...like residents of Dallas are Dallasites or folks from Houston are Houstonians? I always wondered if folks from Turkey, TX, are known as Turkeys? Turkeyians Turkeyites? Some names do not work as well with this practice as say, New York's New Yorkers. Turkeyers? Oh, I'm having too much fun with this.

Are you zone 6 there or zone 5?

Dawn

don't know where your town is. still, welcome to the forum.

Thanks Jessaka. This forum is so friendly and helpful.
Dawn
I have been addicted to seeds since before I had dirt. Its almost out of hand but my fiance totally supports this addiction so I guess he is an enabler. He realizes at some point we have to get a second job to support the habit.

We ARE known as Turkeys here so have a great laugh I do all the time since I am a transplant.
at least we did not give in to the name change to Tofurkey at thanksgiving suggested by PETA.
I technically live between the two towns at Valley. The property we bought is at Quitaque. I love the state park 10 miles away. And of course Bob Wills is how I found this place to begin with. Great place to raise grandchildren. Best community attitude I have ever seen.
Kim

Kim,
Turkeys! Now I know.

To more or less quote Waylon Jennings I am proud to be from Texas where Bob Wills is still the king.

I hope PETA did not seriously suggest that. I am rolling on the floor laughing about that name change.

I love small towns as they usually do have a great sense of community. Ours is like that too. People here in our community will do anything to help anybody at any time. That's still pretty common in Oklahoma and Texas and other states in this area, but not necessarily in some other places.

Dawn

i like small towns too. it is nice to go downtown or to the grocery store and run into people you know and stop and visit.

what i miss is city shopping, but i don't like driving to a city to do any as i hate traffic. the thrift stores, antique, and a few other stores here are easier to get to and there is always the internet if i can't find what i want. would not trade places.

Yes Dawn,
PETA contacted the Turkey mayor about changing our name on thanksgiving to Tofurkey [ town signs and all]. We did not accept. It was a big deal in the news and everything. They were going to make us a completely vegan meal with tofu/turkey.
We are west tx and we eat meat ALL the time, but especially on holidays.
I will say I am in favor of treating our animals better but I probably will always eat them.

Bob Wills is still King here and you can see for yourself the last sat. in April when a town of 500 turns into several thousand. The locals usually hide.

Jessaka
I agree about missing the city but I get to visit family in denton enough that I totally get my fill of city shopping. I do dread driving an hour sometimes just to get produce, which is how I ended up here learning how to grow my own stuff.
Kim

Jessaka, I miss city shopping a little bit, but the longer I live here, the less I miss it. If I am having mall withdrawal, we just go to Lewisville or Grapevine and visit their malls and bookstores. I bet I don't go to a mall a total of 4 times a year now. When I lived in Fort Worth, I used to go to the mall all the time. To a certain extent, I couldn't help myself. There was a major mall halfway between my employer and my house, so it was just so simple to stop at the mall on the way home.

Kim, I grew up in Fort Worth, so my middle name ought to be "beef" and, next to chocolate and tomatoes, beef is my food of choice. If I had to choose only one of them, from a survival standpoint, I'd choose beef. My son is the same way, but from a health standpoint, they are trying to cook healthier at his fire station, so these days he is learning lots of fish, chicken, pork and seafood recipes. I've noticed, though, that when they are celebrating a special occasion at the station, they have beef. When it is a really special occasion, he drives from out house in Marietta to Muenster, TX, to the Fischer Meat Market at the grocery store there to get locally-raised beef that is simply out of this world. It is very good quality beef, and the beef you get someplace like Wal-Mart doesn't even compare. (I got him addicted to real, high-quality beef, for which I will not apologize.)

Of all the places for them to want to change the name from Turkey to Tofurkey. West Texas! Clearly they were wanting to be provocative and draw attention to themselves. I had Tofurkey once, and that was one time too many.

Ditto on growing the produce yourself instead of having to search high and low for good produce worth eating within a reasonable driving distance.

Dawn

What I really like is going to Eureka Springs, AR or Guthrie, but no one here wants to take the trip. I tend to like historial buildings with shopping and not malls.

I know people here that go to Fayetteville for organic groceries. I just don't like the drive.

I also miss all the ethnic restaurants, but hey, they just opened a Greek restaurant here, and then I learned that we have a very authenic Mexican restaurant, Jose's. It has been here for ages, but I didn't know it, and the food is just like Mexico--to die for.