NEW JOB!

I got a new job!!! I wrote more about it here.

I hope to get to some pictures of the garden this weekend, right now I'm crackerdog with trying to catch up on stuff.

The blueberries are turning color.
The corn is starting to send up tassels.
Rabbits love my squash plants.
We haven't had rain since 1997, or so it seems. Everything is so dry.

More later!

Need Rain

It is so dry here now. We haven't had rain for at least 2.5 weeks. Trying to water every day but it isn't happening.

I was going to ask how you know if your tomatillos are ready to harvest, but I touched one yesterday to see if it was firm and it fell off into my hand. I assume that is how you know? LOL.

Everything else is growing, slowly. Some things are at least three weeks early, like the berries. Other things seem to be growing slowly because of the lack of rain and the extreme heat. It was almost 100* over the weekend. Fortunately, it is nice and cool today and it was 53* this morning, so I have the house opened up.

There is a lot going on here, personally, right now. I will update soon, but I don't want to talk about it until it is in stone. It's good, don't worry!!! I just don't want to jinx it.

Eau du Earthworm?

Yahoo recently ran a story about some strange perfumes and i wanted to share it here.

The article can be seen here.

The three perfumes I wanted to mention are from Demeterfragrance.com, which is not coming up for me. I wonder if it crashed due to all the traffic?

Demeter offers three scents that all us gardeners might be interested in: Beetroot, Earthworm, and Mildew.

As I said, their site is now down, but if you view the cached site you also come up with the following

Basil.
Beeswax.
Bonfire.
Celery
Clover.
Condensed Milk. (seriously)
Cucumber.
Dandelion.
Dregs. Not sure what exactly they might mean by this.
Firefly. Never smelled a firefly before.
Fresh Hay.
Frozen Pond.
Giant Sequoia.
Mesquite.
Ocean.
Tarnish.

The one I think I would actually consider purchasing is Heliotrope, which is one of my favorite scented flowers.

Mystery Plant, Take Two

I had posted pictures of a Mystery Plant we saw in Virginia the beginning of May. Thanks to a GardenWeb Forums website, it has been identified as Conopholis Americana, aka Squaw Root, Bear Root, or Cancer Root. It is parasitic and grows on Oak tree roots.

I have another mystery plant, though. This one is growing in the beds that I put the beans in this year. When we were putting in the poles, we found what we thought were 'puffball' type mushrooms. They were small, though, smaller than I've ever seen puffballs. About one inch across, maybe slightly more, shaped like potatoes. And they had roots, and they seemed to be all connected together. There were maybe 8 of them growing under the dead leaves, it was very moist there. They felt like Jello with a slight skin.I forgot about them. Then, this.

They still feel Jello-like. They look....well. You can see. The brown is mud, underneath they are the red-orange you can see below the mud.


When I saw them from a distance (above), I can honestly say my first thought was something was dead under the leaves with its legs sticking out. Then I thought Garden Gnome. They really are very strange looking.

Any ideas?

More Later

Uber-busy here guys. Hope to post later about plantings, etc, and some garage work. Also, visitations and events probably posted on the other blog. Stay tuned!!

Solar Lights

Matt picked up some solar lights and I must say they've been fun. Notice the light's brothers and sisters in the background, too.

Mystery Plant - Virginia

What the heck are these??
We found them growing either singly or in clumps on a hillside in heavy shade and heavy leaf litter. I think the tallest was about 10-12 inches. Click on any of the pics for a larger view.
You'll notice the nubbins on the side almost look like flowers.
In this picture, it very much looks like flowers that have bloomed and then died from the ground up. The top parts look like they are still in flower.

Food Security

A couple years ago, Angie and I went to an Earth Day event at the local agrihousing development/commune (or whatever you’d like to call it) Hundredfold Farm. It was a fun event, a little cold, but still. I attended several talks (including one at their greenhouse/wastewater treatment plant that was wonderful) but the most interesting one I sat in on was called ‘Food Security.’

Going in, I wasn’t sure what exactly they were going to be talking about, but being colored by my day job I thought it might be security of the nation’s food supply, as in national security.

Nope. It was security of your personal food supply. Specifically he was discussing the problem that is Global Agribusiness, GMOs, and the rise and fall of oil prices and what it will do to the grocery store. He was calling us all to protect ourselves and our families against the downfall of the current ‘cheap food’ method of eating. It was very interesting and funny, believe it or not, and I wish I had a tape of it.

So….fast forward to Spring 2010. Two years since that talk. Since then I have expanded my garden. I don’t think we’re headed for a world war. I don’t think we’re headed for communism (or OMG Socialism!!!) or anything like that. I do think we are headed for some serious economic problems that will affect how we live (and I’m a bleeding-heart liberal, by the way). I don’t think cheap food is going to be cheap forever. It can’t sustain itself.

Since the talk, the economy has tanked, a lot of people are out of jobs….and a lot more people are keeping chickens and tending home gardens, etc. Hm.

Last fall, I was worried about my job due to our contract being up. Matt and I talked and were very happy that….we had our garden’s bounty preserved in the basement. We were happy that…..he knew how to hunt. It turned out to be ok, I’m still working. But there it is. It was very interesting to realize this.

This spring, rumor was flying of layoffs at Matt’s workplace. We were coming out of heating season, it was the time to do it. So, we sat and talked again. And you know what? We were both glad that I had already ordered and received the seeds for this year’s garden (in addition to the saved/traded seeds from last year), and several tomato plants were on order and paid for. It was already planned. It was taken care of. We would, just barely, be ok if he lost his job.

We dodged a bullet. Two other people were let go at his workplace and Matt’s job is secure.

For now.

The talk I saw 2 years ago hit home. After the first panicked “What will happen?” went away, the first thing we both found ourselves thinking was…..thank goodness we canned all those veggies.

Craig's List is Made for You and Me!

With apologies to Woody Guthrie

Matt was perusing old local listings

Huge Fisher woodstove! His eyes were misting.

I heard him typing with great ambition

Craig’s List was made for you and me!

Chorus

Craig’s List is your list, Craig’s List is my list

Used Kenmore dryers, electric golf carts

Ikea futon, a set of lawn chairs

Craig’s List was made for you and me!

He emailed Gerry, who wrote back shortly

That the stove was still there, and getting dusty.

Did we want it? …DID WE WANT IT!!!

Craig’s List was made for you and me!!

Chorus

Craig’s List is your list, Craig’s List is my list

New vendors needed out near Glen Burnie

Property available for a hunting group lease

Craig’s List was made for you and me!

We took the truck down (it’s an F-150)

To downtown Baltimore. Yup, in the city!

We did get lost once, but the stove would call us:

Craig’s List was made for you and me!

Chorus

Craig’s List is your list, Craig’s List is my list

Tea candle holders, asking $15

Bill Jenkins pro stock Camero pictures

Craig’s List was made for you and me!

We met two ladies, they took our money

Two-hundred fifty! This stove’s a honey.

Now…how to load it? This part was funny.

Craig’s List was made for you and me!!

Chorus

Craig’s List is your list, Craig’s List is my list

Crystal bowl with etching, total body pillows,

1977 Gottlieb Vulcan Pinball????

Craig’s List was made for you and me!

We set a ramp up, and tried to winch it (didn't work)

So, Matt pulled it up himself! Nothin' to it!

The two ladies looked on with both their jaws dropped!

Craig’s List was made for you and me!

Chorus

Craig’s List is your list, Craig’s List is my list

From used recliners to ‘Vette transmissions

Goats need debudding? Wanna sell some chickens?

Craig’s List was made for you and me

How to Caption Pictures

I have a poll over on the right side of the screen. I'm curious what people's feelings are on photo captions: below or above? Please let me know, thanks!!

Lovely Farm Artwork from Etsy

Lookee who I found:
Isn't he darling? I love hairy cows like that. How about this one?

Cute, too. I found these on Etsy accidentally at RozArt's shop. She also does pets, landscapes, there is a great wheat field painting, and a bunch of chickens, too:

And bees. I love bees! I can see a future purchase for the walls of my jewelry studio...

Spring cleaning up and planting is happening, stay tuned for an update. Oh, and the garage, too!

Blog Post Wish List

Here is my wishlist for blog posts to finish this week, if I get time:

1) Harvest in January!
2) Flooding in January! Maybe even with pictures!!!
3) Garage work from January!

I know! Three (3) blog posts! When will I ever find the time? How will I ever get home tonight after the 4 inches of rain have closed all the roads!?!?!? Will the house be there or will it have washed away? Exciting? Maybe. I hope not, though. I don't really need any more excitement today.

Dad Update

OK. So. We went to see dad yesterday. They had transferred him to York hospital because they have the cath lab there and a stellar cardio group.

The good news is that 1) this thing that has been happening (for 3-4 years!!) isn't life-threatening, it is fairly common and treatable. Dad is coming home today. Mom is going to get him.

The bad news is that the procedure they had scheduled for yesterday (called an EPS, similar to a cardio cath) they had him all prepped and were into it about an hour before the doc decided he wasn't going to proceed because 1) dad's heart rate and breathing slowed down enough to be dangerous, and 2) the doc just didn't realize how large dad was until he saw him on the table. The combination of these two things made it too dangerous to proceed without an anesthesiologist there, so the doc called it off.

SO. Dad is being sent home with a 2-4 month monitor and instructions to loose weight.

I do not envy my mom.

That was an outcome that probably was obvious, but I wasn't expecting. I WAS expecting them to do this proceedure and find all kinds of blockages in his arteries and we would be told he needed a sixteen-tupple bypass surgery.

MIA Again

Hi, I'm back. Still hoping to get some new pictures/posts up, but something came up. Dad is in the hospital, nothing serious (or so we've been led to believe), but still.

The story is typical-male. Apparently for some time now his heart will start racing and (this is the typical male part) he'll pound himself in the chest and it'll stop. He hadn't told anyone about it, of course. So, last night it happened and he (in his words) didn't pound himself in the chest fast enough and got very lightheaded and they went to the hospital.

The doctors said there are two things it could be, so tests are in order today and we'll know something. I'm guessing pacemaker.

Anyway. I'm guessing he didn't pound himself in the chest fast enough because mom was there and he didn't want her to see it. Probably he was hoping it would just stop on its own and he wouldn't have to. And then she wouldn't know about it.

Here I am!

Sorry I've been so MIA lately, I've been spending a lot of time working on the application package for the job I'm applying for, due tomorrow.

I hope to have new garage pics up this week, as well as some pictures of my most recent garden harvest. Seriously, I harvested some fresh veggies, and I scared the bejezus out of a coworker with one of them. It is a great story, stay tuned!

White House Garden Update

Great article here about the first year of the White House potager.

I love that they have hoop houses!!!

I love that our First Lady and Big Bird talked seeds on Seasame Street!!!!

I love that they harvested honey from their own hives!!!

Our Trash

I’ve been listing more stuff on Etsy lately, you can take a look here. Several of my listings have pictures of jewelry laying on or hanging from ice-encrusted trees, shrubs, rocks, and leaves. I love these pictures. Most people I talk to love these pictures.

I’ve gotten some flack, though, from some people on Etsy about them because the ice may be dirty. These are people who are clean-freaks, I’m sure you’ve met them. They don’t want to wear jewelry that other people may have worn. They think it is icky to put jewelry on ice. Because. Ew.

The ice may be dirty.

I’ve been on the fence about changing the pictures. I keep wondering if it is keeping people from buying from me. I’m not afraid of dirt, I think exposure to germs makes me healthier and so far I’ve been proven right with a cold every 3 years, a stomach thing every few years, no flu to speak of ever, etc etc, while other people drop to cold and flu left and right despite their extreme hand washing and use of antibacterial everything.

Anyway, I was talking about this with a friend recently who, I believe, likened the complainers to morons and told me not to ever change the pictures, they were gorgeous.

So, I’m making a proclamation today that I will not change the pictures and will actually TAKE MORE ICE PICTURES as soon as I can, because they’re lovely. So there. And if you don’t like it, go find some boiled jewelry somewhere else.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After that intro, I’d like to talk about our trash. When we moved into this house, we opted not to have trash service. We do not pay for someone to haul away our garbage. Our township recently switched trash services and we got a bill in the mail for $53/quarter. We're not going to sign up.

We’ve worked our garbage into 5 categories. I will talk about them here, briefly, after which I will relate a short story about our first 2 weeks living here. It is a great story.

Compostables: We compost what we can. We have a seal-top bin on the counter that we line with a compostable ‘plastic’ bag made of corn starch. When it is full we throw it in the compost bin, bag and all. I have also been known to compost other things, like an old wool sweater, cotton balls, and a mostly decomposed dead owl I found in the lawn once. Yum!

Meat/fat/cheese: Most of the meat and fat we toss at the top of the yard for whatever animals will eat it, usually some of the gazillion feral cats we have here thanks to our neighbor the crazy cat lady my mother in law.

Burnables: all paper and cardboard goes into one of the trash cans we have in the kitchen, which we take once a week or so to our burning barrel to burn.

Recyclables: All recyo-babbles get bagged up and taken to the local Refuse Transfer Station (dump) about 5 miles away. We can deposit all recyclables for free.

Everything Else: Whatever doesn’t fall into the above categories gets bagged up and taken to the dump about every other month (um, more often in hot weather). This is usually plastic or metal that can’t be recycled, Styrofoam, sometimes bones, foamfill from torn-apart dog toys, other miscellaneous items.

The last trip we made to the ‘dump’ was this weekend. We threw out 60lb of trash that we’d accumulated for well over a month, and it cost us $3.00. Sometimes it is $2.50, sometimes $4.

So, for a year it costs us less than $3/month for a grand total of less than $36/year. Plus, with our sorting we really don’t throw out as much.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Now, for a trash story:

The elderly woman who lived in the house before we did had been bullied by the landlord of the house next to us to allow his tenants to use her driveway. By proxy, they also got away with not paying for her to have the driveway cleaned off in the winter and they used her trash service. The trash was put at the end of the driveway and they could just add a bag or two to her bag. Hey, an old lady doesn’t accumulate much trash in a week, right? It was never noticed by the collectors.

Then we moved in and didn’t renew the garbage contract.

(We also sent the landlord a letter via our lawyer saying they could no longer use the driveway because they had roadfrontage and didn’t, legally, have a right to use it, and almost got into a physical fight with the man over it. It was a fun time for everyone! The story I’m relaying here happened before the letter, though).

So, Tuesday the week after we moved in the woman who rented next door dragged her bag of trash to the end of the driveway.

Wednesday morning, it was still there.
Thursday morning it was still there.
Friday morning (shock) it was still there. She dragged it back.

The next Tuesday she dragged TWO bags of trash to the end of our driveway.
Wednesday morning, it was still there. Are we seeing a pattern here?

Thursday morning, it was still there. She dragged it back to her rental house. (Quick. The woman is quick).

I’m not sure what happened between she and her landlord, but she didn’t do it a third week. I also can’t remember if they wound up having trash pick-up at the end of their driveway when they eventually were, ah, forced to put one in (right over the sewer box, I might add). If they did I’m sure she ended up paying for it and not the landlord. We had new neighbors by the end of the year.

The Only Thing The Garage Is Good For

Is playing ball with Max....





I dowanna give it to you:

MIA

Sorry I've been a bit MIA. Busy, tired. Sick recently (stomach thing, ick). Posts on garage work, broccoli, and the jewelry class I took coming either here or on GemlikeFlame. Stay tuned!

A Roundup

A few things I've read lately on other blogs that I like:

• A funny story about having a homestead with no running water (thanks for the laugh, Mamma Pea!)
• A great blog post about growing your own food...I feel this, I've been asked a bunch this year why we're growing so much food and if we actually think we're going to eat all this!
• The US isn't the only country losing its farming herritige. France is also having problems. Have a look at this great blog post about local farms and CSAs in France, which garnered this wonderful line: "...[food] that's so good I want to marry the person who made it and dedicate my life to somehow returning the favor." I've had food like that, haven't you?
• Just a reminder that I'm doing a book giveaway here, and I have a list of seeds I would LOVE to send you here.
• A post from the daughter of a coworker who is with the Peace Corps in the Ukraine right now. She is in the 'immersion' part of the program right now, staying with a family that speaks no English. She is very proud of herself: She cooked tea!

Tomorrow, I will post about what I've been cooking and/or making recently. With PICTURES! Stay tuned.