22 May, 2012 13:49

One year ago today, my granddaughter Joie graced us with her presence. On her due date, no less, and she’s been a dream ever since.

Happy birthday, Jo-beans! Grammy loves you!

Gardens

Well, we’ve gotten a goodly portion of the garden planted. It went in in fits and starts, and much later than we’re used to but I’m sure we’ll still get plenty of the things we really enjoy eating and that’s really what my aim is this year. I don’t have time for "perfect" so I’m settling for "pretty darned good, despite everything."

As is my norm, I bought two heirloom tomato plants in hopes of finding that one perfect tomato. German Queen and some old fashioned Beefsteak one – we’ll see how that goes. It took months to wash away the memory of the wretched Brandywine – gawd awful (but really pretty) fruits that tasted as if they’d begun to rot. Ew.

I moved all the onions – they were beginning to get crowded after living in the same quarters for 3 summers so it was time. I dug them some nice, deep ground and I’m hoping to end up with at least a few big ‘uns this year. I’ve been pretty disappointed with how the yellows and reds turned out in the past, with disc-like shapes instead of orbs. Again, we’ll have to see if this year is more impressive or not.

The strawberries have begun to produce like crazy – they can’t keep up with my almost-one-year-old granddaughter’s demands, but they’re trying. Oh! And the raspberries have become quite a tangle – I don’t know why I like that so much, but I really do. They’ve taken over a larger portion of the garden than we planned initially, but we’ve decided to let them go crazy for a little bit longer. We tend to eat more raspberries than carrots/radishes anyhow. Priorities, my friends. Priorities.

We bought a couple grapevines to get into the ground (hopefully tonight) so maybe next summer there will be grapes. The peach trees donated by my grandpa have little fruits on them – I scaled them way back so the trees wouldn’t end up damaged, but surely no one can begrudge me 5-6 peaches, right? We’ve also reclaimed a large portion of the dogs’ area – they don’t spend much time outdoors and we could really benefit from the space, if we use it to grow more produce.

All in all, while this spring hasn’t gone anywhere near to plan, it’s been a good planting season.

Mother’s Day

Yesterday was such a lovely day – I mean, not necessarily in the weather sense because it was cloudy and chilly off and on, but as far as family, it was truly a gift. My sister and I planned a Mother’s Day brunch, complete with eggs from my feathered friends in the back yard, my nearly famous biscuits and my sister’s crazy chocolate peanut butter cupcakes for dessert. That wasn’t all we had, but those were the standouts.

Gypsy came over before work to visit for a short while, Skye wasn’t scheduled for work until 3 and my husband all but carried my mom downstairs so she could eat with the family. Even the 45 minutes spent getting my grandmother loaded into my car and then walked into my house couldn’t bring down the convivial spirit of the day! PS – they only live about 5 minutes from my house; her dementia makes it frightening to her to walk over cracks in the sidewalk or even to just take steps outside in the first place. But we got her inside and seated, where she proceeded to make faces at everything we tried to feed her (*giggle*). Sometimes I think how nice it would be to throw all manners to the wind and just say whatever’s on my mind as soon as I think it.

Anyway, after brunch Freddy Skye and Peyton cleaned up the kitchen while all the moms relaxed and chatted over the vase of slightly-too-tall-for-conversation flowers I picked up earlier that morning. I wasn’t even bummed out about not planting the garden (our typical Mother’s Day tradition) because really, how many more am I going to get with my mom and grandmother anyway? Planting will wait for tonight and tomorrow night.

Speaking of, I’m scaling back the garden. I’m upping the quantity of things we eat lots of (tomatoes, peppers, onions) and pretty much eliminating things we don’t use much (like carrots). I’ll grow corn, but really only for the hens and for shading the basement windows. With any luck, I’ll be home in plenty of time to get started!

Spring!

So….it’s that time of year again – the grass is greening up and the flowers are blooming and we are getting things planted in the cool, moist ground. I can’t even express the sense of satisfaction that is derived from planting seeds and starts and watching them grow to fruition. If you’ve never done it, you just won’t understand anyway. But oh, how sad I am for anyone who’s never eaten a tomato from the garden because those pale, tasteless, pithy creatures they sell at the grocery store simply cannot compare. Again, if you’ve never done it, you just won’t understand.

It’s springtime, everyone! Time for playing in dirt like a little kid and soaking up sunshine. It’s time to run in the rain (such as it is in Colorado) and splash in the puddles while wearing your rubber galoshes. Smell the flowers! Eat early greens straight from your yard! Walk to the local co-op and snuggle the new baby chicks!

Weekend Agenda

It’s supposed to snow this weekend! I’m not sure what it’s like where you live, but springtime in Colorado is a freaky sort of time. We get unbelievably warm days, followed by snow. Then we’ll get some rain, only to be followed by weeks/months long dry spells. But we sure to get more than our share of sunshine and that’s why I’ll never leave.

I’m heading east tonight, which should be no surprise. With gas prices increasing the way they have been, I feel like I’m going to need to change from a weekly to a bi-weekly trip. This strategy isn’t merely to save money; it’s based on principle. I figure if they’re going to gouge prices, the smartest thing for me to do is to use less gas. It’s my way of stickin’ it to tha man. And while I realize my use is a drop in the bucket of all that oil, my use is the only amount I can control. So, take that corporate oil companies!

Wow, am I easily side tracked or what? (steps down off soapbox)

Anyway, my trip to the country this weekend will serve a few purposes.

• Make sure everything is in order so my cats will be well cared for for three weeks instead of just two. I always try to make sure they have more than what they need because there are times when I can’t make it out there and it isn’t like they’ve learned to open the fridge. Can’t have my lil’ fat boys starving, ya know?
• Sew another yoga mat bag since I still have one yoga mat who is running around naked. And really, who needs to see that?
• I’d like to finish the Hunger Games books. I’m done with book one and halfway through book two and I just have to know what happens with Katniss and Peeta and whether District 13 is really gone.
• Spring cleaning – there really isn’t much need to say more, is there? But I really wish it wasn’t going to be cold because I have GOT to sweep out the chimney and that’s not going to happen until I can get a relatively wind-free day where I’m not going to freeze if I’m standing outside. Like last weekend. Oops. Lesson learned here: take advantage of opportunities whenever they arise because you might miss your chance.
• Escape. That’s really almost always the name of the game, though, right?

Have a fantastic Friday the 13th, dear friends, and I will talk to you sometime next week when I can show you my super cool plans for a potato planting bin! Woo!

12 April, 2012 11:53

I’m a firm believer in celebrating life’s little victories. If I can get all the laundry done in a single day, that’s worth throwing a party for – and now with every single line on the clothesline threaded, I have the capacity to do that! Woo! I’ve mentioned before that the newly landscaped clothesline area has created a veritable oven underneath all the hanging clothes, hastening the drying process by nearly half! Woo again!

Tuesday and Wednesday were days I requested away from work, "just because." I wanted to catch up on some house cleaning and since everyone has a job, it’s easiest to do that during the week when the house is empty. Granted, I didn’t put on a halo and wings – the house isn’t immaculate, but it sure feels more like a place I want to live. And, with any luck, it should last all of a day before it’s in sad disarray and I’m stuck cleaning up after the lot of ‘em again.

*sigh*

When I grow up, all I want is to live in a house all by my lonesome self, maybe with goats and chickens in the yard. Oh and an endless supply of crafting gear so I can make my living by selling bohemian-hippy-chic nonsense to passersby who feel sorry for the old hermit lady with all the chickens and goats in the yard…

News

Last night I spent 50 bucks on 12 gallons of low-grade fuel for my little car. Is anyone but me kind of wigging out over the cost of gas and the relatively small amount of media attention the sudden and large increases are getting? Since a 20 cent rise in gas cost usually makes the front page of my internet based news carrier, why is the more-than-a-dollar increase being met with so much quiet?

Granted, it’s not exactly silent at the pump, where people are investing their retirement and/or their kids’ college funds in fuel for their vehicles. There, there is noise. Grumblings. Out and out grousing. I even heard a rumor about a "gas strike" on April 15, but riddle me this – what good will that do if people are only refusing to purchase fuel for one day? Surely they will either buy gas the day before or the day after or whenever they’re normally scheduled to feed their cars. But unless we give up gas for real, or decrease our use of it substantially by walking or riding bikes, we aren’t exactly hurting the major oil companies, are we? And since most of us work significant distances from our homes, many times active transportation isn’t a smart or logical option.

What is the answer here? I dunno. Cut back fuel consumption? Well, DUH. That’s a no brainer, right? But for many, the question is, "How?" Sure we can spend more time at home and less time traveling for fun. Sure we can consolidate trips around town. Sure, we can buy groceries which aren’t being driven in from remote portions of the galaxy. And all of these things would help, except that most Americans aren’t being told about the consumption/cost ratio and how one impacts the other. While it should seem like an obvious sort of thing, it’s one of those educational tidbits that is deliberately un-taught to citizens. Add to the lack of information dissemination the fact that walking in these busy times is an awful lot like playing a game of Frogger for real.

Strange times we’re all living in, when the BIG news is the 640 million dollar lottery which MOST of us will never win, rather than the increases in living expenses which ALL of us are going to pay.