Garden Update

Posted in food, sustainability, Uncategorized on July 16, 2008 by FiftyBogue

You know, we really don’t know what we’re doing. But despite ourselves, we’re going to have some food to harvest (fingers crossed).

Here’s the report:

Spinach - none
Lettuce - we ate some; it wasn’t very delicious, but it was OK. It’s gone now.
Radishes - didn’t get very big; the ones that were edible were very hot. Is the soil too clay-ey for root plants?
Carrots - still too little to tell, but the greens look good. Hope they can shove their way into the clay…
Lavender - drowned. Will it come back next year?
Tomatoes - some good, some not so good. Most have at least a wilted part, but I hear heirlooms are prone to wilt…? We have some baby tomatoes (fingers crossed).
Peppers - looking good. Some baby yellow banana peppers.
Cucumbers - we have one almost ready to harvest and all the vines look good.
Spaghetti Squash – might take over the backyard. Lots of blossoms.
Watermelon - only 5 out of 9 vines survived and aren’t growing as fast as I thought, but they’re hanging in there.
Red Poppies – no shows
Purple Coneflowers – no shows
Marigolds - regular ones blooming, French ones getting ready
Zinnias - blooming, mostly gold
Meadow flower packet – tall and lovely, mostly gold also

B. bought some native plants and put on the side of the house and they’re flourishing. Can’t wait to see the columbines bloom next year. The rose bed I rehabbed for his dad is looking a little peaky, but blooming. The pink impatiens his folks bought for the front terrace aren’t getting as big as I expected. The Alyssum seeds I planted out there washed away and never germinated (as B. predicted).

Here’s what I’m thinking for next year:

  1. No-till, square-foot beds.
  2. No more Seeds of Change seeds – we had too many that didn’t germinate.
  3. Plant raspberries and/or blackberries.
  4. Read lots of gardening books this winter.

And that’s it. We’re certainly not urban farmers yet.

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Gardening 101

Posted in food, sustainability on July 2, 2008 by FiftyBogue

Wow. Finally some time to post.

I need to tell y’all more about the garden. At B.’s house there’s a BIG back yard. In fact, when they were kids, B. and his brother had a pony. There’s still a small, red barn, now used as a storage shed, that bears witness to this fact. Anyway, back in the day, B.’s dad had quite a vegetable garden, way in the back there. As he’s gotten older, he’s been less able to take care of a big garden, and has settled for a few tomatoes and pepper plants. The last couple of year, B., who has never been all that interested in yard work, decided to help his dad out with the plants, and sort of got into it.

In the meantime, I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and was infected with the need to make changes to my food supply. This dovetailed nicely with my switching to the Weight Watcher’s CORE plan, which is more about whole foods, and interestingly enough, this book was the thing finally acted as a tipping point for this fat, old environmentalist to start buying more organic and local foods. At some point in there, I said something like, “Hey, B. – I’ll help you with the garden this year.” Little did I know…

The Garden at B.\'s houseSince, OF COURSE I’d want to do an organic garden, and OF COURSE, since I knew very little about vegetable gardening, I started reading up on it. I literally got Vegetable Gardening For Dummies and Organic Gardening For Dummies and set to reading them. I work with accomplished gardeners, so I started picking their brains. B. was also reading up a little bit. We decided to keep it simple and start out easy.

When it got warm enough to work the soil, B. went out and roto-tilled and also expanded the existing garden to 20×24 feet! When we each compiled our list of things we wanted to grow, it was pretty long, and we also realized that my fondness for salad would require a rabbit-proof fence to protect the lettuce and cabbage. Aaargh.

Well, I’ll cut to the chase. It’s been more work at every step of the way than I expected – and it’s only July! I did most of the planting and the early weeding, while B. worked on the fence (it’s really nice now). We’ve had some no-shows, most notably our spinach and, oddly enough, our purple coneflowers. Who can’t grow coneflowers?! I’ve got less time for sewing, reading, watching romantic comedies and hanging out at the pool. Cultivating kills my back and weeding kills my knees, even with my little pink kneeling pad. I get sunburned, hot, sweaty and mosquito-bit. B. and I disagree about lots of garden things – thinning (he really hates to thin the seedlings for some reason; I think it seems wasteful to him), where to plant stuff, how to build the fence, how to make the compost, etc., etc. Plus, we don’t have a lot to show for our efforts yet, beyond some lettuce, a few marigolds and some really lovely basil.

early lettucesAnd yet. Even though I don’t love it the way avid gardeners do, it’s oddly compelling and quite satisfying in its way. Every time I’m out there, I think of ways to do it better next year. I’m already piling up books to read in the fall and winter about no-till gardening, square foot gardening, “lazy” gardening. I’m talking to my gardening friends about planting raspberries. I’m really looking forward to our first tomatoes. It’s something B. and I are building together, and a continuation of his dad’s tradition. We have a log to sit on in the corner, and B. wants to build a bench to go there. It’s nice to sit there together, knees all pocked from the soil, drinking ice water and looking over our straggly little patch.

I’ll let you know how the tomatoes taste…

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Dancing in the spring

Posted in contra dancing, life on May 30, 2008 by FiftyBogue

Besides allergy sufferers, who doesn’t love spring? I love spring, but given the importance of April – Earth Day Season – to my job, spring is hectic for me and I don’t get to savor it. I mean, I notice the weather changing, flowers and trees blooming and all that, but don’t get outside much until mid-May. So the thing that’s come to signal full-on spring and the beginning of summer to me is the Kimmswick dance weekend that I go to every year on or near Memorial Day weekend.

It’s held at Cuivre River State Park near Troy, Missouri, which is in a very beautiful, heavily wooded area. There are bunk houses that sleep eight (with bunk beds), grouped into “villages” of six cabins and a showerhouse. Some of us have taken to staying in the same cabin every year and we arrive early to clean and decorate it with twinkly lights, pinwheels and lawn flamingos.

However, my first visit to Kimmswick was traumatic. I came down with some friends and I believe I’ve never had more fun than I had that weekend. HOT dancing and lots of laughs. However, as we were eating breakfast on Monday morning and preparing to go home, I got called to the dining hall phone (I had uncharacteristically left this emergency number with my parents) and heard my dad’s choked-up voice telling me my mom had had a stroke and probably wasn’t going to make it. My friends got my stuff and me into the car and got me to the hospital in Independence in record time and took such good care of me. (My mom lived, wheelchair-bound for another five years, but that’s a story for another time…) I wasn’t sure I would ever feel as happy at Kimmswick again after that. But I did, and I do, every year.

I haven’t written much about contra dancing (yet – stay tuned for my next post), but let me tell you, there’s some great and abundant dancing at Kimmswick. (Here’s a video from 2007.) But for me, it’s as much about the visiting as the dancing.

The second year I came, I traveled alone, worried that I wouldn’t know many people there. That’s when I devised a brilliant strategy: I set up two extra lawn chairs next to me. I’d ensconce myself with a book and some sewing under the trees outside the dance hall. I’d dance a bit, and sit a bit. Every year, I’d sit and visit more and dance less (during the day, at least – I dance my ass off at night) and someone would alway join me. My friend D. always says I “hold court” there, but really, it’s just the extra chair trick. I could sit there all day, breathing in the fresh, spring air and listening to the bands play. Some times it’s the first real relaxing I’ve done in a while.

It’s almost always perfect and sunny. I’ve been going there for nine years (this was the 47th Kimmswick weekend – they used to have it twice a year, so I don’t know how many years that is) and there have been torrential rains, cold weather, hot weather, but more often than not, it’s been that perfect spring weather – sunny and 80 degrees in the afternoon, lovely and cool at night.

OK, it might be more perfect in my memory, but still…

This year, there were good friends who couldn’t go, but other folks I got to know better as a result. There was some hard rain, but some sunshine during the day. It was both hot and cold. Lots of ticks. We held our sewing circle in the dining hall to avoid the rain, and visited a quilt shop in town. B. and I got ice cream at a local joint called Krumbly Burger, in memory of a trip I took there my first year. The potlucks were wonderful and so was the company and the dancing.

(There was a weird little cloud over my head, though. I was NOT dancing well. I pride myself on being an accomplished contra dancer, but I was screwing up right and left. It was so frustrating at the last morning’s dance that I had a mini-meltdown and cried for a few minutes. This was the only time I can remember when I couldn’t just laugh off my mistakes – and everyone makes mistakes in this kind of dancing. But I was having brain farts of such massive proportions and I couldn’t seem to concentrate enough to overcome them. I don’t know if I was just sleep deprived or if I’m having some hormonal menopausal deal or if I’m really losing it. I’m going to go with sleep deprivation, but plan to keep an eye on myself…)

This is the place I’ve gotten to know people that are now very important to me. It’s the place where I can slip off my shoes and ease into summer. It’s the place where I can dance without restraint or sit still without guilt. Thanks, Kimmswick.

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Another task…?

Posted in life on May 15, 2008 by FiftyBogue

I would imagine that many new bloggers struggle to find the balance between the blog being a joy or a task on the to-do list. This blog hasn’t become an automatic part of my day yet. It gets added to the list of pleasurable activities that I have trouble getting to. But I won’t expend energy writing about the ubiquitous time crunch – there are blogs dedicated to fitting more life into our lives and they speak more eloquently than I.

There’s always a “hump” to get over before you get to the fun stuff, right?

Suffice to say that I enjoy posting here and am trying to do more. I like to think a few of you read this and care. I’m always yearning for time at this keyboard, the same way I yearn to work on quilts, travel with B., exercise more and have a cleaner house. Instead I work late, shop for groceries, drop things at Kinko’s, return printers to Best Buy and go to meetings. Well, and fun stuff too – dancing and quilt shows and the like. It’s not bleak or anything. Just busy.

I keep making lists of things I want to blog about, so there’s no shortage of material. So more, soon. In the meantime, I’m trying not to blow all the house money on new Keens.

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house & home

Posted in life on April 28, 2008 by FiftyBogue

Our house sale closed on Friday. We still have a couple of hoops to jump through to get the money – nerve wracking, since my sister leaves on vacation in the morning. I hope the new owners aren’t complaining too bitterly about all the layers of wallpaper and are settling in comfortably.

I pick up my check from the title company later today, but I’ve already been shopping unrestrainedly all weekend. Don’t worry – I’m not going to blow all the money. I’m going to invest most of it wisely. But first, I’m going to invest some in clothes. And electronics. And a cute little rug for my kitchen. And maybe a pair of shoes. New teeth. A bike. Jeez. I’m really shallow.

Last Thursday, I put together a memory book for the new owners – a brief history of my family in that house, along with a dozen pictures. That afternoon, I went there and left it and my keys, and stood in our home for the last time. I’m too sentimental sometimes. I’ll think, “Remember this! Remember everything!” But there’s only so much you can absorb when you’re trying to feel everything. I can never soak up all up – I’m only human. And I have to walk away in the end anyway.

So, I expected to be stressed when I was there (for THE. LAST. TIME.) but it was actually peaceful and relaxing. Lots of visual memories floated through my mind – my rocking horse in the basement, playing dress up in the fruit cellar, swinging on the swing. The last dreg I slurped was this: as I was locking up the garage, I simultaneously saw the handle on the door frame that my dad installed after my mom started having trouble with the steps, and the piece of black electrical tape on the garage wall that he put up to help him park the Bonneville so the garage door would close. Beautiful.

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So much going on…

Posted in life on April 20, 2008 by FiftyBogue

…yet I’m doing nothing today, thank god. And today, nothing = bliss.

I flatter myself that some of you kind folks may have bookmarked this site and check in on me once in a while. And I hate to disappoint my readers, even if they’re only imaginary, so I apologize for not having posted for two weeks.

As my friends and loved ones know, April is the cruelest month* for me, due to Earth Day. Yesterday was the big event, so I’m ready to kick back a little. Or a lot. But I mean to clean the kitchen and take out the trash. In a minute. Really. In a minute.

So I’m just going to hit the highs and low of the last two rather exhausting weeks here, and offer more detail in future posts.

HIGH/LOW:
The Earth Day event was good; very tiring as usual. We also launched two new campaigns at ED, so that’s made my workload more intense than it’s been for a long time. Earth Day IS every day, but you wouldn’t know it by the requests we get at work… So I’ve worked many long days, some 12 hours or more, doing my little part for the planet.

HIGH:
I’ve been helping B. with his vegetable garden, as time permits. He’s been doing a lot on his own lately, obviously, putting in rabbit-proof fencing to keep the future lettuce safe. (Or should I say “lettuce futures?” We’ve invested in lettuce futures…?) It’s been too wet to get all the early stuff planted, so I’ll probably go over there in a while too. Really. In a while.

LOW:
There’s a snag in our house sale. I’m not worrying about it yet, mostly because I’ve been too busy, and I’m letting Super Realtor handle it. Haven’t even talked to my sister, who is busy with Passover and getting ready to go to Hawaii. And who has already signed and returned the closing papers, I might add. So, if you’re reading this, LG, don’t worry, yet. If not these buyers, then others… I’ll call tomorrow. Really. Tomorrow.

LOW:
Avid, my 13-year-old cat, is no more. She’d been getting pretty thin of late, and last week started getting very weak. It turned out there were too many things wrong with her to fix – liver, kidneys, thyroid – and when they started talking about force-feeding her, I balked. So I chose eternal rest over prolonged discomfort, and she went to sleep for the last time on Tuesday. She was persnickety to the end, but is sorely missed by Grace and myself. Grace took Avid’s usual place in the bathtub Tuesday night in memoriam.

LOW:
This is embarrassing to admit, but I got another speeding ticket last week. I got it at exactly the same spot I got the first one in March when I was going 42 in a 30 MPH zone. This time, I actually had my cruise control set to 30 MPH (I’m not kidding!) and was totally thinking what a smart and prudent a driver I was! That’s when he stopped be for going 30 in a 20 MPH school zone. How did I miss the flashing light? I’ll never know. I threw money at the problem this time, paying a lawyer to fix it for me. What a deadbeat I’ve become.

LOW:
I’ve got a cold AGAIN. I think it’s the other half of the cold I had a month ago, which was entirely in my head (in my nose and sinuses, I mean; not imaginary). This one is entirely in my throat and chest. I don’t get sick very often, but NEVER this often, damn it. Too much work + stress + a virus = coughing, I think. Which is why…

HIGH (hopefully):
I plan to take some time off this week. And I really don’t want to take it as sick time. I want to take it as shopping and pedicure time. Cleaning the house time. Reading books and drinking lattes time. Posting to my blog time. You get the picture. Cough. Cough.

HIGH:
I’m still scheming/dreaming about things I want to do once the house sale goes through. Besides taking a trip, I think I’m going to buy a new, more comfy bike. B. just got a beautiful new bike and I have visions of us riding the trails together this summer (him waaay ahead of me, but still…). My old bike makes my carpel tunnel kick up, and my hand goes numb after about 5 minutes, which is no fun whatsoever. So I’m looking at a “comfort” bike, where you sit very upright on a big, cushy seat (for my big, cushy seat…).

I’ll close with a movie review, to reflect my day. I just watched Possession with Gwenyth Paltrow and the exquisite Jennifer Ehle (best known for the BBC Pride and Prejudice). I tried to read this beloved book once, but found it too slow for my taste (although it has a rockin’ pre-Raphaelite cover). My friend KR, with whom I share my love for all things Jane Austen (a rather plebian obsession these days), told me that parts of this movie are a little like watching Darcy and Lizzie’s wedding night. And she’s right: it’s a little like that.

* I’ve always loved this line. I first came across it as a reference in a Woody Allen essay, of all places. My more literary friends will already know that this is from T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. And no, I haven’t read the whole thing, but I sure like how it begins:

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

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No Remediation Necessary

Posted in life on April 4, 2008 by FiftyBogue

The house-selling saga continues. We have interested buyers! Yay! The guy who did their mechanical inspection thought that the south wall of our foundation had settled. I seriously doubted it, since I had 2 rounds of foundation work done in 01 and 03, and have had a dry and beautiful basement ever since. I think the guy saw the patched cracks and got worried. However, those cracks were where the foundation had been pressure-grouted with epoxy. (Just wanted to slip in the phrase “pressure-grouted.”) That room also has 5 huge metal braces on the walls. So I was skeptical.

I called a guy my realtor recommended, a semi-retired structural engineer, who looked at the basement and chuckled over the inspector’s assessment. He said, “I don’t mean to laugh, but he thinks this basement has settled? How the hell would he know?” After an hour of measuring, he pronounced, “No foundation remediation is currently necessary here.” His wise council for the new owners: provide proper foundation maintenance – the house isn’t getting any younger. Hey, good advice for all of us, right?

So, I guess we’re back in the game with these buyers, as soon as we get the written report, at least.

The engineer was a guy about my dad’s age who quite possibly served in the same Army Air Corp regiment with my dad – they’d been at the same places at the same times, at least, and he said that “the 9th” was the only one in Normandy at that time. I’ll have to check my dad’s papers. I had a great conversation with this guy, however brief. I’m increasingly drawn to the men of “the greatest generation” and their war stories – when they deign to tell them. Most of them just keep quiet about it. I wish I’d appreciated my dad’s stories better when he could still tell them.

Something interesting always happens when I spend time at the house. Just a couple more times left, I’m thinking…

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