We didn't do a garden last year. I was fed up from previous years of no help weeding, planting, weeding, picking things out to order, weeding, seeding, weeding, harvesting, and weeding.
Did I mention weeding?
I did plant garlic in the one herb bed we have, and it was a sorry crop. Small. Tasty, but small. I didn't even plant garlic this fall, since technically I'm not allowed to really eat it anymore (but I do).
The garden was in rough shape. We had a lot of work to do to bring it up to speed. There was an overgrown butterfly bush in there, the tomato cages are still in place from 2 years ago, and removed an awful excuse for deer/rabbit fencing which was made more difficult due to the wild morning glory vines that were growing through it.
So. We also are working on doing some layered cardboard-and-hay beds for this year a la Ecologia. I'm hoping that will work out. We've gone to a couple of their tours, they are AWESOME and we hope to do more with the techniques they have taught us.
I am planning on using up seed I have from previous years, and I think the only thing I need to order this year is onion seedlings. Maybe some fruit plants/trees/bushes.
Two of the four raised beds are cleaned out now. Onions, spinach, and peas are planted in one with a couple artichokes thrown in for kicks and giggles to see what they do. The other bed also has peas and a mess of beets. So far, the peas and spinach are sprouting, but I think I only saw one beet.
We started tomato plants inside. The are tiny right now, but will be big strapping seedlings before too long.
I'm looking forward to having fresh veggies again. My health issues forced me to take a good, hard look at my diet and I can tell you, it hasn't been great. It used to be, but then I cut out a bunch of stuff because of the gastroparesis...things like raw bell peppers for lunch and strawberries and asparagus and salad. I'm inserting them back into my diet. I like them. I need them. They are back.
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Friday, March 16, 2012
Garden Grows
It has been very unseasonably warm here, in the 70s at least during the day, etc, so I am kicking myself for not starting my onions, cabbage, and lettuce seeds a month earlier than I actually did. Oh, well. No one is saying it will stay this warm, but still. The Magnolias are blooming.
I put my first round of peas and beets in the ground yesterday, and I'm hoping to get the rest in this weekend.
I bought a 50lb bag of Yukon Gold potatoes and 4lb of All Blues. They both do really well for us here.
My main thing this year will be getting the flower bed in better shape. I'm planning on getting a hosta grab bag for under the maple, then planting some flowering things with them. Also some bugleweed. I need to weed and mulch desperately in the sunny side.
I put my first round of peas and beets in the ground yesterday, and I'm hoping to get the rest in this weekend.
I bought a 50lb bag of Yukon Gold potatoes and 4lb of All Blues. They both do really well for us here.
My main thing this year will be getting the flower bed in better shape. I'm planning on getting a hosta grab bag for under the maple, then planting some flowering things with them. Also some bugleweed. I need to weed and mulch desperately in the sunny side.
Thursday, March 01, 2012
March the Oneth
My crocuses have been blooming for a week. The tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths are starting to come up. It’s supposed to be in the 60s today and tomorrow. I can’t believe it’s March already!
I’m exhausted, and I must look it today because the branch chief passed me in the hall on my way in and asked me if I was OK. I’ve gotten about 6-7 hours of sleep the past 3-4 nights. Mostly I’m getting to bed too late, but one night I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I spent a bit of time watching Max sleep, he was about half under Matthews pillow, which he’s never done before. Matt said he was like that most of the night. It was pretty cute.
I’m exhausted, and I must look it today because the branch chief passed me in the hall on my way in and asked me if I was OK. I’ve gotten about 6-7 hours of sleep the past 3-4 nights. Mostly I’m getting to bed too late, but one night I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I spent a bit of time watching Max sleep, he was about half under Matthews pillow, which he’s never done before. Matt said he was like that most of the night. It was pretty cute.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Gorgeous Weekend
It was a lovely, glorious weekend complete with junk, banks, trash-to-treasure, planting, wine and new people, and no homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream. Maybe next weekend we'll have time.
Saturday morning, we got up early and took a load of metal scrap to our local bulk recycling center. I always enjoy going there, it is a working farm but the barn closest to the house is only for weighing and storing bulk aluminum, copper, brass, etc. I would love to go scavenger hunting through there! But, no. We left with over $200, which is fantastic. Prices are up right now. Lovely.
From there, we went to our new bank and opened up another checking account. We had the most wonderful conversation with the lady who handles that, we must have sat there talking for over 2 hours! She told us about her time in the Air Force, she was in Germany when Libya was getting boisterous and we retaliated. BOY did we retaliate!
From there, we went to close our accounts at our old bank. They were feeing us to death. Goodbye!
Then, lunch. We headed home from there with full intentions of going over to help Matt’s mom, who is cleaning out his recently deceased uncle’s rental house. I believe the rent is paid up for another month or so, but I know they want to clean it out and be done with it. Well, we decided to wait and go over on Sunday instead.
Mid-afternoon, I went to a local greenhouse to get some replacement plants for things that didn’t make it. It turns out they were having quite a sale! Peppers and tomatoes were all $.50, and a lot of flowers were on sale, too. I came home with three peppers, a dill, four tomatillos, and a Forget-Me-Not for Matt. I also eyed up the yuccas. They were blooming, and I noticed one pot had two plants in it. That’s a little trick I do, look for pots that have more than one plant.
I came home and found that Matt had delivered my squash mound dirt for me.
Around 5, we left for another Meetup event, this time with the Chambersburg Meetup Group. Hauser Estate Winery has an event every week this summer complete with a band and catered dinner. Admission is free, you have to pay for your food and drink, though. It turned out that only one other meetup person was coming. Ah, well.
I’ve been told that Hauser is very ‘young’ for a winery. They are new, yes, but they specialize in hard ciders and apple or peach wines. They are built in the middle of Apple Country here in PA, what else could they do? They put their building on a hill, it is a FANTASTIC view! Really incredible. They have outdoor tables with umbrellas and they sell sandwiches and things in a cooler. So, you could go up, get a bottle of your favorite wine or cider, a sandwich, and sit out on the patio or deck and take it all in.
Can you tell I’m really tickled with this place? I’m already trying to decide when Matt and I can get up there next for a nice, leisurely lunch.
Anyway, Matt and I had a mini-wine tasting. He really liked the Merlot, and I wound up really liking the Apple Wine, which is fantastic ice-cold. Their ciders were good, too, fairly light and beer-y. The band was a bit loud, but our meetup guy was nice, talkative, and above all – normal. I always worry about meeting people for the first time, especially if no one else you know is there, that they’re all going to be wackos. We wound up staying until almost 9.
Sunday, Matt went over to his uncle’s house with his parents to help work. I was planning on going, too, but I realized how much I had to do at home. So, I set off the dishwasher, raked out the squash mounds to get the weeds, rocks, and sticks out, then planted the squash. I also planted the 4 tomatillos I’d gotten, and I wound up going back over and getting a yucca, a Box Car Willie tomato to fill in a spot where one of my tomatoes died, and a watermelon. Not a vine, the melon itself. You know, to eat.
Matt called about mid-morning to tell me that the refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher at his uncles were ours if we wanted them for a combined price of about what we got for our scrap metal the previous day. I did the measurements and yeah, it seemed it would work out. So, looks like we’ll be storing some appliances in the garage for a bit. It’s a good deal, they’re fairly new. The stove is a glass (ceramic?) top and will go in the kitchen, while the current electric stove was destined for the garage, anyway, as that is where we’re planning on doing the canning. We also wound up with about a dozen and a half quart canning jars, with a pint and a half-gallon jar thrown in, and a mix of other things. Anything that doesn’t go to family will be going to a yard sale sometime this summer.
General clean-up commenced along with pea picking. We burned our paper trash, Max scared the bejezus out of a baby bird, and we watched the fireflies while having a drinky on the back porch.
Saturday morning, we got up early and took a load of metal scrap to our local bulk recycling center. I always enjoy going there, it is a working farm but the barn closest to the house is only for weighing and storing bulk aluminum, copper, brass, etc. I would love to go scavenger hunting through there! But, no. We left with over $200, which is fantastic. Prices are up right now. Lovely.
From there, we went to our new bank and opened up another checking account. We had the most wonderful conversation with the lady who handles that, we must have sat there talking for over 2 hours! She told us about her time in the Air Force, she was in Germany when Libya was getting boisterous and we retaliated. BOY did we retaliate!
From there, we went to close our accounts at our old bank. They were feeing us to death. Goodbye!
Then, lunch. We headed home from there with full intentions of going over to help Matt’s mom, who is cleaning out his recently deceased uncle’s rental house. I believe the rent is paid up for another month or so, but I know they want to clean it out and be done with it. Well, we decided to wait and go over on Sunday instead.
Mid-afternoon, I went to a local greenhouse to get some replacement plants for things that didn’t make it. It turns out they were having quite a sale! Peppers and tomatoes were all $.50, and a lot of flowers were on sale, too. I came home with three peppers, a dill, four tomatillos, and a Forget-Me-Not for Matt. I also eyed up the yuccas. They were blooming, and I noticed one pot had two plants in it. That’s a little trick I do, look for pots that have more than one plant.
I came home and found that Matt had delivered my squash mound dirt for me.
Around 5, we left for another Meetup event, this time with the Chambersburg Meetup Group. Hauser Estate Winery has an event every week this summer complete with a band and catered dinner. Admission is free, you have to pay for your food and drink, though. It turned out that only one other meetup person was coming. Ah, well.
I’ve been told that Hauser is very ‘young’ for a winery. They are new, yes, but they specialize in hard ciders and apple or peach wines. They are built in the middle of Apple Country here in PA, what else could they do? They put their building on a hill, it is a FANTASTIC view! Really incredible. They have outdoor tables with umbrellas and they sell sandwiches and things in a cooler. So, you could go up, get a bottle of your favorite wine or cider, a sandwich, and sit out on the patio or deck and take it all in.
Can you tell I’m really tickled with this place? I’m already trying to decide when Matt and I can get up there next for a nice, leisurely lunch.
Anyway, Matt and I had a mini-wine tasting. He really liked the Merlot, and I wound up really liking the Apple Wine, which is fantastic ice-cold. Their ciders were good, too, fairly light and beer-y. The band was a bit loud, but our meetup guy was nice, talkative, and above all – normal. I always worry about meeting people for the first time, especially if no one else you know is there, that they’re all going to be wackos. We wound up staying until almost 9.
Sunday, Matt went over to his uncle’s house with his parents to help work. I was planning on going, too, but I realized how much I had to do at home. So, I set off the dishwasher, raked out the squash mounds to get the weeds, rocks, and sticks out, then planted the squash. I also planted the 4 tomatillos I’d gotten, and I wound up going back over and getting a yucca, a Box Car Willie tomato to fill in a spot where one of my tomatoes died, and a watermelon. Not a vine, the melon itself. You know, to eat.
Matt called about mid-morning to tell me that the refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher at his uncles were ours if we wanted them for a combined price of about what we got for our scrap metal the previous day. I did the measurements and yeah, it seemed it would work out. So, looks like we’ll be storing some appliances in the garage for a bit. It’s a good deal, they’re fairly new. The stove is a glass (ceramic?) top and will go in the kitchen, while the current electric stove was destined for the garage, anyway, as that is where we’re planning on doing the canning. We also wound up with about a dozen and a half quart canning jars, with a pint and a half-gallon jar thrown in, and a mix of other things. Anything that doesn’t go to family will be going to a yard sale sometime this summer.
General clean-up commenced along with pea picking. We burned our paper trash, Max scared the bejezus out of a baby bird, and we watched the fireflies while having a drinky on the back porch.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Virginia Trip Pics
Pictures from our most recent trip to visit our friend in the Lexington, VA, area. Captions below the pictures!
Fresh home-grown eggs! Done with Julia Child's recipe, along with bacon, strawberries, coffee, bread, and Pigwa jam....oh, I mean Quince. The cap says 'pigwa' because the woman that made it is Polish.
We went to the yarn store again. We were worried about the dog on the porch. Last time we were there he was possessed by demons. Barbara and I actually stopped when we saw the massive beast. You could feel the tension. He stared at us. We stared at him, expecting him at any minute to charge, the vile creature. But no. It was a different dog.
We went mushroom hunting (didn't find anything, WAY too dry). We asked permission at this house. The woman was telling us about her peach trees and the bushels and bushels of peaches she got from the trees, pictured above. They can't be more than 4-5' tall! I'd really love to know what variety it is...
Some of the plants I got at a nursery we visited (l-r) Rosy maiden hair fern, Strep. concord blue (I've been looking for this for a while), a caladium that I fell in love with, and a flower that I can't remember the name of right now (better picture below, can you blame me for getting it?)
A gorgeous honeysuckle Barb bought at WalMart. She said they were working hard at killing it until she came along.
Barb's Khaki Campbell ducklings.
Barb keeping Grace the doberman away from the Khaki Campbell ducklings.
Safe Khaki Campbell duckling silhouettes.
Grace trying on my crocs.
Bo the corgi at the front door.
The oxalis that we found carpeting the woods. I dug some mini bulbs up and potted them, then promptly forgot them at Barbara's. She's keeping them for me until I get there next.
The Russian Orloff rooster. He is very aggressive, and may soon be coq au vin.
We helped Barb put up higher deer fencing to keep the chickens out of the fenced in garden, and Bo got tangled. If you click on the picture you can see it better.
I've always loved this candle.
No wonder I bought this, huh? Looks great with the caladium behind it, too. Sunday, July 06, 2008
Accomplishments
I had off this week, and thank god because I had a lot of work around here to do. And I got almost everything done that I wanted to!
I did a lot of weeding in the veggie patch, it took me two mornings but I got it done. I also got newspaper and hay around the squash plants to keep the weeds at bay. Almost everything is blooming, except the pumpkins, and I have two little baby zuchs and a few tiny yellow squash. The winter squash vines are starting to run. I have no idea how long they'll get, but the time I grew pumpkins they must have run over 20'!
For more on the garden, visit my garden blog, I'll be updating it Monday or Tuesday.
We're still waiting on the greenhouse, it should be shipped tomorrow.
We also made our semi-annual pilgrimage to the local liquour store and, as usual, bought a lot of different stuff. It is interesting to me to just go in and look around a good liquour store because you never know what you're going to find. This is what we bought:
I did a lot of weeding in the veggie patch, it took me two mornings but I got it done. I also got newspaper and hay around the squash plants to keep the weeds at bay. Almost everything is blooming, except the pumpkins, and I have two little baby zuchs and a few tiny yellow squash. The winter squash vines are starting to run. I have no idea how long they'll get, but the time I grew pumpkins they must have run over 20'!
For more on the garden, visit my garden blog, I'll be updating it Monday or Tuesday.
We're still waiting on the greenhouse, it should be shipped tomorrow.
We also made our semi-annual pilgrimage to the local liquour store and, as usual, bought a lot of different stuff. It is interesting to me to just go in and look around a good liquour store because you never know what you're going to find. This is what we bought:
- Sweet & Sour mix and a bottle of Triple Sec for my favorite cocktail, the Sidecar.
- A bottle of cheap but good white wine.
- Matt got a bottle of single malt scotch, his drink of choice. He actually has a book of scotches that talks about all the distilleries in Scotland and what they produce. He's going to try to get one of everything in the book to try. Hey, everyone needs a hobby.
- Matt also got a good ($$) bottle of tequila and a matching ($$) bottle of coffee-flavored tequila. The coffee one is very very good, I can't drink but a tiny sip of it but the aftertaste is wonderful.
- I got a bottle of Chocolate Zinfindel white wine. I haven't tried it yet, I'm waiting for an appropriate occasion.
- I also found a bottle of Maple Cream liqueur, which I've already cracked open and found it wonderful over ice.
I think that was it. I'm not going to tell you how much all that cost.
I finally received my business cards, they look great. I also ordered some mini cards from Moo.com to use as hang tags for my jewerly. I purchased a gorgeous brown leather 3-ring binder to use as a portfolio to take into local shops and show my jewelry. I bought some stuff at AC Moore to finish the portolio pages up and some grommets to use with the mini cards, I'll try to take pictures and post it all sometime in the future.
I think that's about it. I took a nap while I was off, that was exciting. :)
Thursday, July 03, 2008
It's set in concrete now!
We recently purchased a 10'x12' greenhouse, which isn't here yet and is, of course, on back order. We don't know when it will get here because they keep pushing the date back, those silly people. But in order to have a nice home for it, we made a form and poured a concrete foundation.The same day, we got a guy we know to come up with his bobcat and do what is commonly called 'work' around the property to help us with some problem areas. We had some straight edges that needed smoothed out and our driveway badly BADLY needed straightened out. I will post pictures of the work Joe did for us later.
The picture above is the 'before' of the place where the greenhouse is going. The brown thing is our incinerator, where we burn our paper trash. The pile of rocks on the left is...well a pile of rocks we got from the local quarry. It was free! It is their junk rock (below), they can't do anything with it because of the quartz veins running through it, can you believe it? So we asked for it so we could build some nice rock walls with it in the future, and they were kind enough to just drop it off for us.
All this is in the big hole that was supposed to be the site for our new garage, but since that was dug out we decided to rebuild the garage where the current one is and do things a little differently. So this is a perfect place for a greenhouse or two, sheltered, flattened already.
The bank in the picture above, right also was to come out and get smoothed out (see below).
As for the foundation, we had a lot of big PVC drainpipe that Matt used for the foundation (see below). It worked out, this will easily drain water away from the greenhouse while making it so we didn't have to buy a lot of wood to use instead. A money-saving idea! We likes these, yes we does.
Matt estimted 5 yards of concrete and the truck was due for 8am on Saturday and lo! That's when they arrived. And they actually made it up the driveway! 
Will wonders never cease.
Will wonders never cease.Notice the drain sitting up in the middle of the floor. That's 'crush n run' that they are standing on, it makes a good base.
That's Matt and his dad, Ray, and the guy from the concrete company on the right there. I didn't catch his name, let's call him Magnus.
Magnus actually pitched in quite a bit, even though I don't have any pictures of it.
(Left) And here it comes!
(Left) And here it comes!
(Right) Making sure there's enough in the far corners.
(Left) Pulling it from the middle to the nearer corners. You can't see the drain, but it sits a few inches lower than the edge of the foundation. It was covered up with duct tape to keep the concrete from getting in, but they needed to make sure the floor sloped away from the drain so they had to keep pulling concrete from the middle to the edges.
(Right) Starting to skreet the floor. The skreet is resting on the drain in the middle and Matt is using it to flesh out the slope of the floor from the edges. Ray is still pulling concrete into the corners and to the edge.
(Left) Almost finished skreeting!
(Right) Pouring the ramp. Before the greenhouse will really be a greenhouse, we're going to be using it for a shed. We needed a place to empty our garage into, and this seemed like it would kill two birds with one stone. Now, we can empty the garage, tear it down and rebuild a new one AND then have a usable greenhouse afterwards instead of a shed that we'd have no future use for. A lot of the stuff in the garage will need to be moved using a dolly, hence the ramp.
(Left and below) Matt, smoothing out the already skreeted floor with a hand-held 'float' trowel.
(Left) Matt. Smoothing out the middle of the floor. Balancing on a 2x10. If he had lost his balance it would have been a MUCH better picture.
After this was finished, we all went next door where they were also pouring a floor in the basement.
We also purchases some concrete sealer to use on the floor. It is stained a nice rusty red color, we thought it would be a nice color.
Stay tuned, this weekend I will probably post pictures of the work Joe did to the driveway area.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Various and such
Work has been difficult lately, people are just morons. I don't want to go into too much detail (and besides I think I have only 2 readers so 50% of you have already heard all about this), but I'm working on an exit strategy to get out of here within 2 years via my jewelry business and our farmette, with a possible part time job on the side if necessary. Stay tuned.
The job search for the new fed in charge of our contract is apparently well under way, we had two people wander through yesterday casing the joint. It was interesting, we didn't know anything about it, but the woman who came through in the morning told us she was an applicant but failed to mention that she was invited up to take a look around. The gentleman who came through in the afternoon told us he was invited up to take a look around, but didn't tell us he was an applicant (by this point, though, Linda and I had figured it out because we're just too damn smart for them). Both were very nice and fairly young (40, give or take 5 years). We're not sure if this means interviews are taking place, but I doubt it. I think they're narrowing down the pool, our library is very small and a young up-and-comer who is looking for something larger may decide they're not interested after all and withdraw themselves from the running.
Garden is moving along. Matt and I stopped by to see David and Junko over the weekend, they are hurting for fresh veggies because the weather has been so cool for the past few months. Farmers just don't have much available, the only produce they had to sell at their stand was strawberries and spring onions. But he has veggie plants for sale this year, and I can supply him with some of those next year, we're selling them potatoes and garlic this year, and possibly sugar snap peas and berries.
We're seriously kicking around getting a greenhouse. It would be about $800. In addition to being a greenhouse it would also be a perfect storage spot for all the stuff we have in the garage because we need to tear down the garage sometime this summer. I was just in there and the walls are bowing even more than they were before. Scary. We cleaned out an old stove, an old heating unit, and an old grill (we took them to the scrap yard and got $58 for it all), but we still have all the garden implements of destruction, lawn mower and weed wacker, et cetera.
The job search for the new fed in charge of our contract is apparently well under way, we had two people wander through yesterday casing the joint. It was interesting, we didn't know anything about it, but the woman who came through in the morning told us she was an applicant but failed to mention that she was invited up to take a look around. The gentleman who came through in the afternoon told us he was invited up to take a look around, but didn't tell us he was an applicant (by this point, though, Linda and I had figured it out because we're just too damn smart for them). Both were very nice and fairly young (40, give or take 5 years). We're not sure if this means interviews are taking place, but I doubt it. I think they're narrowing down the pool, our library is very small and a young up-and-comer who is looking for something larger may decide they're not interested after all and withdraw themselves from the running.
Garden is moving along. Matt and I stopped by to see David and Junko over the weekend, they are hurting for fresh veggies because the weather has been so cool for the past few months. Farmers just don't have much available, the only produce they had to sell at their stand was strawberries and spring onions. But he has veggie plants for sale this year, and I can supply him with some of those next year, we're selling them potatoes and garlic this year, and possibly sugar snap peas and berries.
We're seriously kicking around getting a greenhouse. It would be about $800. In addition to being a greenhouse it would also be a perfect storage spot for all the stuff we have in the garage because we need to tear down the garage sometime this summer. I was just in there and the walls are bowing even more than they were before. Scary. We cleaned out an old stove, an old heating unit, and an old grill (we took them to the scrap yard and got $58 for it all), but we still have all the garden implements of destruction, lawn mower and weed wacker, et cetera.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Rain Rain Go AWAY, dammit!
We had ANOTHER 4 inches of rain last night. This is a total of around 12 inches in the past month. The potatoes we have in the lower part of the field aren’t coming up, and at this point I really don’t expect them to, I’m sure they’ve rotted. So. Well. At least the rest seem to be ok, but we still have 200lb to plant. Please check out other gardening-related news in my new gardening blog.
I also will be talking about this in my garden blog, but I went to an event this weekend and Hundredfold Farm in Cashtown, PA. It was really nice, I met Angie at my parent’s house in Gettysburg, then we drove over together. The event was fairly well attended, had house tours, a greenhouse/wastewater plant tour, and many vendors and speakers.
Hundredfold Farm refers to itself as an ‘Intentional Community.’ There was a Christmas tree farm for sale and a group of people bought it out from under a housing developer. They are keeping the Christmas tree farm going, while building sustainable housing (limit of 14 houses) on part of the property. The houses are modular (NOT mobile; one of the young men on my tour was really snotty and referred to it as a ‘glorified mobile home’ and the homeowner icily set him straight), they have solar arrays on the south-facing part of the roof, and all the wastewater from the houses goes to a greenhouse system where it gets broken down by an artificial marsh into usable water, which they then reuse to flush their toilets and they hope in the future to use it for irrigation as well.
I went to three speakers:
The first one was a Penn State professor who talked about the need for solar power, the state of the energy crisis we’re in the beginning of, and was very interesting. He made a good point: as much as we’re complaining about gas prices, we’ve been spoiled by cheap energy for way WAY too long, and he said that the majority of the country would find 30 miles of driving to be worth $6 (as opposed to the alternative, which is not going wherever it is you want/need to go). I also had a great time watching a 4-year-old playing in a mud bog.
The second speaker I went to was Thom Marti from Broad Valley Orchard, a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm north of Gettysburg. He talked on Food Security, which working where I do I immediately thought he was going to talk about the security of our massive food supply. But no, he talked about the security of our micro food supply, as in do you know where your lettuce comes from and how it’s grown? I will talk more about this in my garden blog; he was veeeery interesting.
The third speaker was my coworker’s husband Jim talking about electricity conservation. This was basic stuff I’ve heard before: turn off lights, buy EnergyStar appliances, etc.
My coworker also went to the Sustainable Eating workshop, which I wanted to go to but went to the last house/greenhouse tour of the day instead. I’ll probably get the Sustainable Eating scoop and write about it in the garden blog later. Stay tuned.
Angie and I went to dinner at the Appalachian Brewing Company in Gettysburg. We each had a nice beer (her: Stout, me: Maibock), and some good food. We gabbed a lot, tried to solve the world’s problems, talked about parents, and had a nice time.
I went home and tried to crash but wound up only getting 4 hours sleep.
And on to the Busiest Day of My Life So Far…ok, not really but it was the busiest day I’ve had recently...Mother’s Day.
I got up early (thanks a lot, Max) and drove over to New Oxford to visit Matt’s grandma Mary V. She’d ordered some tomato plants through me and I needed to drop them off. We visited, she’d made coffee cake (of course) and I had that with her wonderful coffee. She makes the best coffee on earth. Matt’s uncle Bobby came by with his two golden retrievers. Bobby is in the middle of a quiet divorce, so he was very scattered.
After a couple hours there, I drove back to Gettysburg to pick up my mom for our annual trip to Isabella’s in Frederick. We just barely made our reservations and had a nice lunch. They’ve taken a few things off the menu and added some new dishes (ATTENTION TIM!!!). The old standby’s we had were marinated eggplant salad, sautéed spinach with pine nuts and golden raisins, melon with prosciutto, French fried asparagus, (I’m starting to drool just writing this), meatballs in tomato sauce. New dishes included a really spicy shrimp with garlic and onions, and my personal new favorite stuffed dates wrapped in bacon then breaded with Panko bread crumbs and fried served with a goat cheese cream sauce. OMFG, they were really good. I think we had a couple others, but I can’t remember right now.
We drove back to my house so I could show mom the veggie garden and pick up Max, then headed back to Gettysburg. Mom did her online registration for our August cruise, Max and I went grocery shopping, then….finally….home. Matt called, I watched TV and had a baked potato for dinner, followed by some vanilla ice cream and a homemade strawberry-rhubarb sauce and a Tylenol PM. I had a good nights sleep last night, much needed.
I also will be talking about this in my garden blog, but I went to an event this weekend and Hundredfold Farm in Cashtown, PA. It was really nice, I met Angie at my parent’s house in Gettysburg, then we drove over together. The event was fairly well attended, had house tours, a greenhouse/wastewater plant tour, and many vendors and speakers.
Hundredfold Farm refers to itself as an ‘Intentional Community.’ There was a Christmas tree farm for sale and a group of people bought it out from under a housing developer. They are keeping the Christmas tree farm going, while building sustainable housing (limit of 14 houses) on part of the property. The houses are modular (NOT mobile; one of the young men on my tour was really snotty and referred to it as a ‘glorified mobile home’ and the homeowner icily set him straight), they have solar arrays on the south-facing part of the roof, and all the wastewater from the houses goes to a greenhouse system where it gets broken down by an artificial marsh into usable water, which they then reuse to flush their toilets and they hope in the future to use it for irrigation as well.
I went to three speakers:
The first one was a Penn State professor who talked about the need for solar power, the state of the energy crisis we’re in the beginning of, and was very interesting. He made a good point: as much as we’re complaining about gas prices, we’ve been spoiled by cheap energy for way WAY too long, and he said that the majority of the country would find 30 miles of driving to be worth $6 (as opposed to the alternative, which is not going wherever it is you want/need to go). I also had a great time watching a 4-year-old playing in a mud bog.
The second speaker I went to was Thom Marti from Broad Valley Orchard, a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm north of Gettysburg. He talked on Food Security, which working where I do I immediately thought he was going to talk about the security of our massive food supply. But no, he talked about the security of our micro food supply, as in do you know where your lettuce comes from and how it’s grown? I will talk more about this in my garden blog; he was veeeery interesting.
The third speaker was my coworker’s husband Jim talking about electricity conservation. This was basic stuff I’ve heard before: turn off lights, buy EnergyStar appliances, etc.
My coworker also went to the Sustainable Eating workshop, which I wanted to go to but went to the last house/greenhouse tour of the day instead. I’ll probably get the Sustainable Eating scoop and write about it in the garden blog later. Stay tuned.
Angie and I went to dinner at the Appalachian Brewing Company in Gettysburg. We each had a nice beer (her: Stout, me: Maibock), and some good food. We gabbed a lot, tried to solve the world’s problems, talked about parents, and had a nice time.
I went home and tried to crash but wound up only getting 4 hours sleep.
And on to the Busiest Day of My Life So Far…ok, not really but it was the busiest day I’ve had recently...Mother’s Day.
I got up early (thanks a lot, Max) and drove over to New Oxford to visit Matt’s grandma Mary V. She’d ordered some tomato plants through me and I needed to drop them off. We visited, she’d made coffee cake (of course) and I had that with her wonderful coffee. She makes the best coffee on earth. Matt’s uncle Bobby came by with his two golden retrievers. Bobby is in the middle of a quiet divorce, so he was very scattered.
After a couple hours there, I drove back to Gettysburg to pick up my mom for our annual trip to Isabella’s in Frederick. We just barely made our reservations and had a nice lunch. They’ve taken a few things off the menu and added some new dishes (ATTENTION TIM!!!). The old standby’s we had were marinated eggplant salad, sautéed spinach with pine nuts and golden raisins, melon with prosciutto, French fried asparagus, (I’m starting to drool just writing this), meatballs in tomato sauce. New dishes included a really spicy shrimp with garlic and onions, and my personal new favorite stuffed dates wrapped in bacon then breaded with Panko bread crumbs and fried served with a goat cheese cream sauce. OMFG, they were really good. I think we had a couple others, but I can’t remember right now.
We drove back to my house so I could show mom the veggie garden and pick up Max, then headed back to Gettysburg. Mom did her online registration for our August cruise, Max and I went grocery shopping, then….finally….home. Matt called, I watched TV and had a baked potato for dinner, followed by some vanilla ice cream and a homemade strawberry-rhubarb sauce and a Tylenol PM. I had a good nights sleep last night, much needed.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Just stuff
Recent events and such:
Matt's grandma Mary V. went in for her cochlear implant surgery last Thursday and is doing well. She said she had a plastic thing around her head and ear, so Matt and I joked that she had an elizabethan collar on to keep her from licking her stitches. She won't actually get the hearing aid part of the implant for a month.
Still have heard nothing about the fed job, except that they got my application. This is normal, it sometimes takes weeks or longer.
I went up to Ashcombes greenhouses on Saturday to reconoiter and get a few things, including 3 bags of mushroom soil and a pot of white grape hyacinths for Mary V. They smell wonderful. I had a bill over $100 so I know I got more but I can't remember what. Oh, three packs of seeds and 5 peanut butter orgasm cookies. And a quiche. And a fern. And a pot that biodegrades after 5 years. And two bags of coarse sand. And other stuff.
Then I went home and took a glorious 3-hour nap. It was a great, dead to the world nap. Then Matt got called out on a leak call and I got to go with him. It was interesting, nothing really exciting except we got the chance to talk a bit. He's looking for another job, too. Again.
I'm bummed that Hillary did so well in the primaries last night, but I still think Obama's going to take it. I really thought Obama would take Texas.
I have seeds started inside: the romaine and butterhead lettuces, a tomato, some kale, moonflowers and marigolds. Middle of the month I start the broccoli inside and the sugar snap peas outside. I still have a lot of work to do outside before that happens, and I'm hoping for a couple nice weekends and a nice Wednesday morning next week so I can get some of this done. If not, I may take a day off the next nice day to do the work.
My arm stick is doing well, I have no twinges of pain or anything. I also haven't had any of the in-between spotting they warned me about. I also haven't had my monthly cycle at all, which does not thrill me like it would other women. Women are supposed to have periods.
Max is well, he's in sore need of a haircut and I'll do it after I get the peas in. We got the first tick of the season off him this weekend.
And that's about it!
Matt's grandma Mary V. went in for her cochlear implant surgery last Thursday and is doing well. She said she had a plastic thing around her head and ear, so Matt and I joked that she had an elizabethan collar on to keep her from licking her stitches. She won't actually get the hearing aid part of the implant for a month.
Still have heard nothing about the fed job, except that they got my application. This is normal, it sometimes takes weeks or longer.
I went up to Ashcombes greenhouses on Saturday to reconoiter and get a few things, including 3 bags of mushroom soil and a pot of white grape hyacinths for Mary V. They smell wonderful. I had a bill over $100 so I know I got more but I can't remember what. Oh, three packs of seeds and 5 peanut butter orgasm cookies. And a quiche. And a fern. And a pot that biodegrades after 5 years. And two bags of coarse sand. And other stuff.
Then I went home and took a glorious 3-hour nap. It was a great, dead to the world nap. Then Matt got called out on a leak call and I got to go with him. It was interesting, nothing really exciting except we got the chance to talk a bit. He's looking for another job, too. Again.
I'm bummed that Hillary did so well in the primaries last night, but I still think Obama's going to take it. I really thought Obama would take Texas.
I have seeds started inside: the romaine and butterhead lettuces, a tomato, some kale, moonflowers and marigolds. Middle of the month I start the broccoli inside and the sugar snap peas outside. I still have a lot of work to do outside before that happens, and I'm hoping for a couple nice weekends and a nice Wednesday morning next week so I can get some of this done. If not, I may take a day off the next nice day to do the work.
My arm stick is doing well, I have no twinges of pain or anything. I also haven't had any of the in-between spotting they warned me about. I also haven't had my monthly cycle at all, which does not thrill me like it would other women. Women are supposed to have periods.
Max is well, he's in sore need of a haircut and I'll do it after I get the peas in. We got the first tick of the season off him this weekend.
And that's about it!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
General Life Update
Mom called this morning, my cousin Helen passed away yesterday. She lives in Hagerstown, she was in her early 80s and had recently had complications from a hip replacement, etc etc. Funeral is on Saturday, so I’ll be going to that.
The Lasagna Garden veggie patch project is going well, I have the newspaper almost all down where I want it with a thin layer of peat moss on it. You haven't lived until you've spread wet newspaper around during 40 degree weather. Matt’n’I layered it with some hay and watered it down, then I added some dead leaves, and am in the process of adding some dead grass clippings on that. I don’t know what’s next, mushroom soil? More peat moss? I’m hesitant to use so much peat moss, it is a non-renewable resource. I’m not sure what to use instead. I’ll have to check Ashcombe’s when my mother and I head up there the beginning of December.
I also put down the cardboard (for the pathways), and hay and a couple large stepping stones on that. I found two garden snakes while moving the rocks. I collected long-needle pine and put them around the blueberry bush, they like acidic soil. Matt and I then pruned the blueberry bush. It didn’t produce nearly as well this past summer as previous summers (when we were swamped with blueberries). I’m not sure if it is the lack of rain or the lack of bees.
I spent some of the morning Sunday straining out the fruit vodka into a bottle to age. It's pretty good, this is the mixed fruit kind. It has undertones of the lemon I put in, not bad. I have another bottle started with an apple and some raspberries, to which I added yet another apple. Yesterday I infused the honey I bought with rosemary and also roasted the last of the tomatoes with some garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. They're in the fridge, I need put it through a sieve and freeze it for sauce for the winter. If I don’t just eat them.
We replaced the screen door. It cut down on wind and noise noticeably, I'm impressed.
I made applesauce and froze it, it was ok. I’ll try something else next time, different seasoning, peel the apples. Blend it more.
I have some craft projects in the works. I have herbs and things drying for an herb wreath. I have some cranberry spice scent that I mixed with water and soaked some pine cones, I'm waiting for them to dry. I have some Styrofoam balls that I hot glued with attractive herb leaves from the garden (golden sage, broad-leaf sage, etc). It didn’t work as well as I’d hoped, they turned black because of the heat of the glue. I’m going to have to use craft glue instead. I went and collected seed pods to add to a few grass-woven bird houses, too. I had to buy a new hot-glue gun, they don't make the sticks for the old one I had anymore. I also finished the wine cork corkboard last night, and I have a huge box of corks so I have to start several more. Anyone need a corkboard?
My Christmas shopping list is almost complete, I have some things already and some to buy. We’re not doing a big Christmas this year, mostly cookies supplemented with a few gifties. I’ve been having the most trouble with my niece-in-law Susanne in San Diego. She is 11, and if things are now as they were when we visited 3-4 years ago, I’m sure she gets everything she wants. I’ve gotten the suggestion of books (from her mother, who said she especially likes mysteries), and I’ve been making a list on Amazon of things I read at that age as well as some things that look interesting that I haven’t read. I’ll probably send her a mix of such.
I have off all next week. I’m going to be cleaning out the garage and making my seasonal cookies. I’m going to do the bourbon balls this week, but everything else next week. I made out the shopping list already. I was surprised that only one recipe called for milk, but I’ll be buying lots of unsalted butter this weekend.
Today I go to the small business class in Carlisle. Stay tuned!
The Lasagna Garden veggie patch project is going well, I have the newspaper almost all down where I want it with a thin layer of peat moss on it. You haven't lived until you've spread wet newspaper around during 40 degree weather. Matt’n’I layered it with some hay and watered it down, then I added some dead leaves, and am in the process of adding some dead grass clippings on that. I don’t know what’s next, mushroom soil? More peat moss? I’m hesitant to use so much peat moss, it is a non-renewable resource. I’m not sure what to use instead. I’ll have to check Ashcombe’s when my mother and I head up there the beginning of December.
I also put down the cardboard (for the pathways), and hay and a couple large stepping stones on that. I found two garden snakes while moving the rocks. I collected long-needle pine and put them around the blueberry bush, they like acidic soil. Matt and I then pruned the blueberry bush. It didn’t produce nearly as well this past summer as previous summers (when we were swamped with blueberries). I’m not sure if it is the lack of rain or the lack of bees.
I spent some of the morning Sunday straining out the fruit vodka into a bottle to age. It's pretty good, this is the mixed fruit kind. It has undertones of the lemon I put in, not bad. I have another bottle started with an apple and some raspberries, to which I added yet another apple. Yesterday I infused the honey I bought with rosemary and also roasted the last of the tomatoes with some garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. They're in the fridge, I need put it through a sieve and freeze it for sauce for the winter. If I don’t just eat them.
We replaced the screen door. It cut down on wind and noise noticeably, I'm impressed.
I made applesauce and froze it, it was ok. I’ll try something else next time, different seasoning, peel the apples. Blend it more.
I have some craft projects in the works. I have herbs and things drying for an herb wreath. I have some cranberry spice scent that I mixed with water and soaked some pine cones, I'm waiting for them to dry. I have some Styrofoam balls that I hot glued with attractive herb leaves from the garden (golden sage, broad-leaf sage, etc). It didn’t work as well as I’d hoped, they turned black because of the heat of the glue. I’m going to have to use craft glue instead. I went and collected seed pods to add to a few grass-woven bird houses, too. I had to buy a new hot-glue gun, they don't make the sticks for the old one I had anymore. I also finished the wine cork corkboard last night, and I have a huge box of corks so I have to start several more. Anyone need a corkboard?
My Christmas shopping list is almost complete, I have some things already and some to buy. We’re not doing a big Christmas this year, mostly cookies supplemented with a few gifties. I’ve been having the most trouble with my niece-in-law Susanne in San Diego. She is 11, and if things are now as they were when we visited 3-4 years ago, I’m sure she gets everything she wants. I’ve gotten the suggestion of books (from her mother, who said she especially likes mysteries), and I’ve been making a list on Amazon of things I read at that age as well as some things that look interesting that I haven’t read. I’ll probably send her a mix of such.
I have off all next week. I’m going to be cleaning out the garage and making my seasonal cookies. I’m going to do the bourbon balls this week, but everything else next week. I made out the shopping list already. I was surprised that only one recipe called for milk, but I’ll be buying lots of unsalted butter this weekend.
Today I go to the small business class in Carlisle. Stay tuned!
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