Stinkin' bloodsuckers

Oy. First mosquito.

I spent this morning getting some of the summer garden in, pre- rainy weekend. One thing I hadn't considered was that last year I had no spring garden. Now that I do, three of the containers I use for overflow tomatoes are taken up with carrots, beets, and (Thank you, Trace) turnips.



So this morning I managed 5 tomatoes, seven pepper plants, and three eggplants. Planning this year will be hodgepodge, but I'm still psyched. On Maria's advice, I'll plant once I harvest. That means I'll have beans in the containers I used for tomatoes last year. Good rotation.

For the record:
Tomatoes-- Sungold, German Beauty Queen, Better Boy, Pink Beefsteak, Brandywine.
Peppers-- Yellow Bell (x 3), and 4 mystery peppers that could be green, red, yellow or purple.
Eggplants-- Black Beauty x 3



I have a new bed that I'm not sure what to do with, and I've identified another portion along the south side of the house that, though skinny, would make a perfect place for more tomatoes. I think I need to go get some more rubbermaid tubs and cut or drill some holes in them to put along the house there. In the new bed I'm thinking that we'll see some cantaloupes and other squash-like sprawlers.

The favas have flowers, and so do the peas! Whee!



Time to go feed the worms. I'm going to try to get them to migrate over to the side of the bin without castings so that I can harvest soon.

And all that jazz...

I scheduled a haircut/pedi for Saturday a.m.

My mom canceled one of the landlines at her house. I'm surprised to be mourning it. It had been the family line since about 1982. She kept the number she'd been using for the past 10 years or so for her business. I never learned that number.

I keep wounding myself in my sleep. Last night I drew blood with a scratch under my chin. I also have a scratch on my left hand (crook of the thumb). My nails are not long.

Yesterday, in front of all the staff at work, I managed to smoke out the entire second floor of our office building with a cookie-in-microwave incident. It was way worse than the burned-est popcorn you've ever seen. Billows. BILLOWS! Despite my greatest fears, no sprinklers went off, nor was the fire department involved.

I continue frequent, near daily, communication with Former Crush. It's nice.

My new crochet project has begun. It involves plastic grocery bags cut into yarn. The yarn-making process needs to be refined. I may need to look up how to on a website.

I'm juggling all sorts of different crafty/homey projects these days. My guess is that few will be finished.

I've made no progress whatsoever on the knitting. I keep ripping it out because I can't seem to make even stitches.

An appeal to our neighborhood association listserv has resulted in more bagged leaves for compost than I'll (hopefully) ever need.

If you'd asked me in 1987 if I'd ever have a compost pile, especially if the question came while I was turning ours, I'd have said "Hell NO!" Now I'm envious remembering the quality of that compost.

Planting this weekend will include: radishes, carrots and beets. I'll be monitoring the weather and using a clear plastic tarp and chicken wire setup to fake a greenhouse if necessary.

That's it.

Saturday morning

Just a few things.

First, it's gorgeous out today. I slept in, because I stayed up until 1:30 (!!) last night, had a chat with the roommate about radio voices, and then headed outside to work on the garden.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned my new bed. Wait. I have talked about it, but not in a long while. It's been a work in progress since last February, when I began to rip out sod. On about half of the plot, I planted zinnias there this summer, a few sunflowers (that didn't do so well), and a raspberry bush that a neighbor gave me. The other half spent the summer covered with a big blue tarp, to kill off the grass.

A while ago I laid (lay?) cardboard boxes over the whole area, and dumped some sawdust that I'd been using as mulch on my veggie garden. Then it just stayed like that. For weeks. And weeks.

Today I finally lasagna'd it. Spread out the sawdust. Then a layer of dried grass clippings. Then a layer of non-decomposed leaves. Then a layer of partially decomposed leaves that had somehow retained moisture in them from god knows then. To top it off, I shoveled the entire pile of well-cooked, well-cured compost over the whole thing. The I took about 7 buckets full of water from my shower, the roomie's and our kitchen sink and got the whole thing wet.

I can't wait to plant it all up this spring!

I fed the worms, too. The roommate worked alongside me while I did all this, cutting the front lawn. I had to show him how, because somehow he'd gotten to this age without every having used a lawnmower. So cute.

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Yesterday I took my passing angst to AskMetafilter, so that I could see if anyone over there had any ideas what I could do about my boy situation (lack thereof). Interesting responses. If y'all have any commentary on it, feel free to drop it off here.

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Somehow I've lost 10 lbs or so. I thought my jeans were a little saggy in the ass last night. Sure enough!

Whee!

I've got some renewed excitement going on here at the ranch. I've got the a.m. off today to make up for the crazy ride I've been on, and I'm taking good advantage of it. Ran some errands this a.m. and then went to my favorite place for breakfast around. Picked up some goodies there, too, and then on my way home stopped at Barnes Supply for some brown crowder peas (At less than 1/2 the price than that website, by the by).

This fucking drought has left me avoiding the garden as much as I can. Yesterday I noticed my swiss chard, prized specimen it was, is now flattened to the soil, wilted.

New Roommate and I continue to conserve water, and I toss whatever graywater we collect on various parts of the garden. But DAMN. I have so many things I want to do now that water would really help with. It's a pain in the ass to lug water from my bathroom out to the yard. (My veggies are ZESTFULLY clean!)

For instance, I'm revamping the zinnia/raspberry bed from last year. I've got a layer of cardboard down, and I would LOVE to start layering it up. I suppose I could do that without water, but those crowder peas would really be cute there.

And I need to get the garlic in. I'm not to sure where to put it.

Hm. Garden planning must happen.

Productivity and the Beast

This morning I got up nice and early, having spent the night in. I hauled ass outside and did some long-overdue yard maintenance. Mowed, ripped out the zinnias, weeded the zinnia bed, moved the tarp off of the as-yet-unplanted bed, put cardboard down over all of that, and moved some compost to where it should be. It had been deposited in the wrong pile, see.

Oh, btw? I have a "secret" blog now. It's password protected, and it is going to be the place where I pour out my sturm und drang more privately. I'm the only one with the password. That's how it's going to stay.

Meanwhile, I'm taking suggestions on how to get a delicious, sweet hard shell, such as one finds on an M&M or Smartie. I want to custom order a full-body suit made out of that material. I considered Kevlar, but I don't want to be *that* closed off. Not yet.

Various and sundry items of interest (not!)

I was outside for 12 minutes this evening. I came in with 15 new mosquito bites. I've got dual treatment going on: hydrocortisone topically, and loretadine down the hatch.

Big Lots, which I've mentioned before as a favorite shopping excursion, provided me with a semi-permanent eyelash tint that is as disturbing as it is fascinating. I thought it would be kind of like hair dye, but it more resembles mascara. Clumpy, if you're not careful. But I'll be damned if it doesn't just stay on for a week or more. No flaking, no raccoon eyes...it's just there. Pretty damned cool. Of course once I run out, I doubt I'll be able to find more. Eh, that's the breaks.

I've been eating about 75% local, which surprises me. It's so much easier when you don't have the lack-of-income issue and it's summer. The biggest change, by far, though, is the garden. It's SO convenient. I'm a little pissy that I don't have more tomatoes though. I've been eating about .5 to .75 lbs a day, but could easily double that. I'm supplementing with farmer's market tomatoes. I've got my pink beefsteaks ripening, and other than that I'm practically tomato-less. GAH!

My compost is looking more like dirt with every flip. Rowr.

A day of, well, nothing!

My body told me to sleep today, so I did. I got up at 7, went back to sleep around 8, slept until 10:30 and went over to pick up a few bags of leaves from a Freecycler for my compost pile.

Stopped off at the Food Feline on the way back, and scored 4/$10 DC. My main purchase though was some of those local peanuts I mentioned yesterday. Last summer at Nemoid's, I had some kick-ass bolled peanuts that I believe her husband had made. I figured I'd try them today.

I came back from the land of cheap D.C. and local green legumes, and did I don't know what. Then I realized I was supremely exhausted, so I went to nap. And I did. For four HOURS.

Anyhoo, I'm still tired. I had weird dreams that involved hidden relations with mafia-like men, tight quarters in a very cold and precarious aluminum clamshell disk flying above the land, unidentifiable birds, and navigations through the underbelly of a discount store.

I made pizza for dinner. Sauce: olive oil and garlic. Toppings: swiss chard and mozz. Tasty.

The peanuts are in brine in the crockpot.

Yawn!

Lab Write up

Abstract:
Limited computer usage corresponds with a higher level of accomplishment, after one day. Multiple regression analysis showed an increase in chores outcome was significant (p=.00143). Minimizing access to the World Wide Web did negatively affect subject's (n=1) ability to access necessary information(1), however. Subject's reported anxiety levels fluctuated from none to major. Net mean of anxiety level was below standard. Chores outcome measured by number of loads of laundry put away (two), number of kitchens entirely clean (one), number of dishes washed (14), number of wastebaskets emptied (three), number of lawns mowed (one) and number of new compost heaps created (one). Subject reported no positive social interaction, however.

Further studies will address long-term sustainability of the project.

(1) A Betty Crocker Cookbook, ca. 1989 substituted for an online database to find a suitable pound cake recipe. Subject then added almond paste, almond extract (pure), and chocolate chips. No appropriate recipe was able to be found for acelgas.