Update: Growing Tators In Buckets

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     Growing Tators In Buckets was first published on December 29th. Just 2 days before I published Our Top 10 Posts of 2014. In just 2 short weeks, the post is now #3 on my top 10 views of all time. AMAZING! Thank you to everyone that has shared, commented, tweeted, pinned and loved our Tators post. However, it was not just the views that has grown at an alarming rate, the tators have as well! 

     Now if you remember, our potatoes started out like this. They were just in a box, under my kitchen cabinet, waiting to be planted in the spring. Or so I thought... I guess they had a different idea of when they should be planted. 

     January 8th was when we first noticed we were getting stems growing up. Previous to that, we would uncover the potatoes just to make sure they were still in there. It seemed to take forever for the little stems to show up. Then, they started to grow fast! 

     Due to weather and my job hours, we were unable to cover them up on. It was a few days later that we added 3 inches of compost soil. They were already starting to form leaves. I'm sure after we watered them, the depth was not still 3 inches, but they were still covered.  

That following Monday, we looked again. One side of the bucket was already growing from up out of the soil. The other side was still growing, just not as fast. We decided not to add any more soil to the lower side of the bucket. Zoey added 3 more inches of soil to the higher side. 

     Now here it is January 14th, and they have already grown out of the new soil. It is so amazing to watch them grow! The lower side is starting to catch up, but the high side still towers over them. Unfortunately, we have to wait till Saturday to cover them again. I work from sun up to sundown at my job, but just the 2 days a week. 

   Honestly, I did not think the potatoes plants would grow this big, this fast. I thought it would at least take until spring to get to the top of the bucket. At this rate, I think we are looking at another 2-3 weeks. That might be a problem. While I have said all along, plants under the soil only need the sun for warmth, once they get to the top, they will definitely need the suns rays to survive. It is the dead of winter and I do not think they will survive indoors. At this time, we do not have any indoor growing lights and I am afraid they will not grow well in the garage with just the florescent lights over head. I may need to invest in a grow light soon... Not really wanting to grow using electricity in winter, but man, this is so exciting! 

     Zoey has been keeping up with the growth in her Science Journal. Every few days she gets out her spiral notebook and draws what she sees in the bucket. Then, she writes a small paragraph about what it is doing, or what we have done. This brings science and writing together. (AND a bit of art! ;) ) If I had really thought about it, we could have created a little chart to keep up with how fast it has grown in so many days. Also, I think it would have been a really good idea to have written an inch line from the bottom of the bucket to the top of it in a Sharpie Marker or some other permanent marking tool. That would of been fantastic! I just was not expecting this to go this well! 

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So what do you think? 

Will they actually grow some spuds?   

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When I Grow Up: A Writing Assignment

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    In her writing class at the Co-op, my daughter was asked, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" This is her writing assignment paper....
                 I will wake up at 3 a.m. every morning. My husband will make me pancakes for breakfast with faces on them. I will have an off grid home in the mountains of Colorado. I will have 4 kids and I will homeschool them and teach them how to cook. My home will have 10 rooms and 2 bathrooms. My yard will be 400 acres. There will be a lake with fish in it. There will be a boat for me and my kids to fish in it. We will hunt for our meat and grow our own vegetables. My property will have 5 barns. The first barn will be for gardening and food. The second barn will be full of wood and solar panels to power my home. Me and my husband will cut down trees for the firewood.  The third barn will be for sewing and I will make my kids blankets and clothing. I will also make blankets to donate for people who do not have a home. The forth barn will be a play house for my kids with couches, a t.v. and lots of arts and crafts stuff. Animals will be in the 5th barn for when it is cold or rainy. We will have pigs, chickens, bunnies, deer, sheep, cows and horses. Our animals will have their own fenced in yards with gates. We will have a German Sheppard for our dog. My horse will be black and I will put blue stripes in my horses hair. I will have several freezers to put my food into. I will have a big diesel truck that is loaded with canned and freeze dried foods. They will be in alphabetical order so they are easy to find. I will cook all sorts of foods. My family will eat dinner together every night. My family will be prepared for all sorts of emergencies. If something bad were to happen, I would go get my Mom and Dad from Texas so they could be safe and live with us.  I will go to bed at 10 p.m. and pray to God every night. 

All I can say is..... <3