Cottage Magpie's April Giveaway

Since I was a dunce and missed Angela's (at Cottage Magpie [whom I met for the very first time last week]) March giveaway with the color theme of green, I had to remember to do April's, which is yellow. I have lots of yellow around here, so this was an easy one.

Let's start with my apron, which I wear all the time.

Bananas. A staple with most houses that have children, I would assume.

A utensil holder (a recent thank you gift from Angelina).

Salt and pepper shakers (also recent thank you gifts from Angelina).

Packing slips from a supplier that we purchase many supplies from. This stack adorns the top of my desk.

Moving outside, we will find the ropes on the girls' swing.

And the top of the little girls' play car.

A yellow sprinkler and kneeling pad, which I happened to find together. I didn't even put them that way today!

A dandelion flower. Because of the fantastic assortment of weeds in my backyard, you may look at the uppermost leaves and say, that those aren't dandelion leaves. You would be right, but rest assured, the dandelion leaves are nestled under those other weed and arum leaves.

My very fragrant lemon thyme.

The Growing Challenge #8 - A Pictorial

The comfrey with its protective ring of crushed eggshells.

Ruby Star echinacea, also surrounded by crushed eggshells.

One of the new lavenders in the lavender strip. You can see a tiny little bud hiding on the tall stem if you look closely.

An overview of my garden. That's a ball, not a freakishly round melon or squash, just in case you were wondering.

My overwintered Italian parsley.

Garlic. My first time planting it.

Overwintered chard, planted last spring. Still doing amazing well.

My little eggshell rings enclosing lettuce seeds. Unfortunately some of them blew away overnight, because there were six rings!

Oregano, which I started from seed last spring. It was still smallish in the fall, but is coming back strongly.

The Growing Challenge #8

I finally got some gardening in this weekend. We had great spring-like weather, so I got out there as much as possible. On Saturday, I mowed my whole front lawn (and edged a small part of it) and created some nice lawn clippings to mulch one of my vegetable beds.

On Sunday, I weeded some in the vegetable garden. This is the first winter after having started my version of "weedless gardening" and I still think it is mostly successful. I didn't even get all the beds mulched last fall and it is quite noticeable which didn't get mulched and which did, but there isn't even an abundance of weed seedling in the un-mulched beds, though there were more. The biggest "weed" problem I have is straw or hay grass that I accidentally introduced with a bale of straw. It has inundated one largish corner of my garden despite repeated removal. The rhizomes are very long and extensive and difficult to get out completely. The roots break up the soil really, really nicely, but they also hog the nutrients and crowd out everything else. So, we removed everything we could see/get and just have to keep that up and hope that our hard work will prevail eventually.

I got some outdoor planting done, finally! I planted lettuce, shelling peas, snap peas, two types of onions, radishes, spinach and cilantro (I was thinking about you, Angelina, when I planted it). I was going to plant some parsley, but the stand I planted last year is still going strong. It over-wintered beautifully.

I think my snail repellent, made from eggshells is working! My comfrey is growing so quickly, and it had been eaten quite a bit, but after surrounding it with the shells, the bites reduced very quickly. Also benefiting from the snail repellent is my echinacea, which didn't fare so well last year after the snails found it. When I planted the lettuce, I made a ring around each planting area to protect the delicious little lettuce seedlings that will pop out soon.

Photos to follow Tuesday or Wednesday.

Sunday's Word, Week #21

ekistics

–noun (used with a singular verb)

the scientific study of human settlements, drawing on diverse disciplines, including architecture, city planning, and behavioral science.

No Hanging with the Prez for Us

We didn't end up going today. A birthday party that we had previously planned on attending was scheduled for the same time frame. I was thinking it was earlier in the day, but the warm and beautiful spring weather pushed it back to the afternoon for a lovely party at the park. That was just as well, because look at all the people waiting in line!

We decided to make a short detour over to see the commotion at the high school before walking to our local toy store for a gift and then over to the park. When I saw the lines, I was glad that we hadn't planned on going. Maddy was on the lookout for Secret Service agents, though she was sorely disappointed to find out that they only wear regular suits and ties and not the uniform she had imagined, which was a black nylon body suit with the words Secret Service Agent emblazoned on the back.

Hillary Grasping at Straws?

Has it become so bad and so close that Bill Clinton is drumming up support for Hillary in our small burg? Apparently so. He will be in town tomorrow at the high school, mere blocks from our house. We are anticipating lots of activity around here with police, Secret Service, media and spectators. We got to see a helicopter land two blocks ago today. I certainly don't support Clinton, but I'm torn about going to the event. I think it would be great for the girls, especially Maddy, to see as much of the political process first hand, as possible. I'm sure it will be packed though and I might get kicked out if I were to wear a Ron Paul button on my shirt. It could be a bit of Saturday fun.

I Would Only Use My Powers for Good

Courtesy of Angeleen, here is a little quiz for your amusement.

Your Superpower Should Be Manipulating Electricity

You're highly reactive, energetic, and super charged. If the occasion calls for it, you can go from 0 to 60 in a split second. But you don't harness your energy unless you truly need to. And because of this, people are often surprised by what you are capable of. Why you would be a good superhero: You have the stamina to fight enemies for days Your biggest problem as a superhero: As with your normal life, people would continue to underestimate you

What Should Your Superpower Be?

The Growing Challenge Non-Update

I have nothing to update really. We are one month into spring and it snowed last week and was freezy and windy today. I lack gardening motivation because it feels like we are at the end of winter not in spring. I hope spring shows up because I need that gardening bug back!

Happy Earth Day!

What are some things that you have changed in the past year to help the environment, or alternately, what are some things you would like to change in the coming year?

Gimme Some A Them French Fried Potaters, Mmm Hmm*

I could sure eat some french fries or oven fries right about now. It would go really well with my homemade ketchup; potatoes being almost the only thing I eat ketchup with. Just saying, in case anybody wanted to drop some by for me.

*Bonus points to whoever knows which movie this line is from. (Okay, there are no bonus points, I'll just think you're really nifty.)

Sunday's Word Week #20

Today's word is courtesy of April. She played it in our current Scrabulous game and I just had to look it up and find out what the heck it was.

Zerk.

Function: noun
Etymology: Oscar U. Zerk died 1968 American (Austrian-born) inventor
Date: 1926
: a grease fitting

Weird and Wacky Spring Weather

Remember I said they were forecasting the possibility of snow? Well, we got some today. It didn't stick, but it came down for awhile. The pictures aren't that great, but I tried to capture our mid-April snow as good as I could. We also got a brief bout of hail before the snow.

See, it stuck on my porch at least!

Then after it stopped snowing, the sun came out and the heat on the cold moisture created these strange clouds of mist. The mist was enveloping the park.

My New Apron

My first internet swap is complete and look at the beautiful apron I got from Paula. I love the fabric and the style, Paula. It's great! You can get one of these for your very own at Paula's Etsy store.

I was attempting to show how well it coordinated with my shoes, but the light wasn't so great, apparently.

The Growing Challenge #7, In Pictures

As promised:

About a month ago, my comfrey was finally planted from the gallon nursery container that housed it since last summer into the ground in my front medicinal herb garden. It was dormant then and I had my doubts that it would make it, but it's growing quickly and has minimal snail bites.

Here's the lemon bee balm that I added to the lavender strip. They seem to have weathered the transplant very well. Some are looking perky and vibrant, while a couple looked like they are recovering, but still very strong.

My Ruby Star echinacea is looking so shiny and healthy. This particular plant, which I planted last year, never got a chance to bloom because it suffered so much snail damage. The ground eggshells seem to be working effectively because it has little snail damage this year. You can see a snail curled up there, but I removed it and threw it into the street, because I can't bear to squash them myself.

A Sargent cherry tree which was planted in my median last year; you can't plant fruiting trees there, so we have a flowering cherry. Both of the Sargent cherries are flowering and I'm excited to see this because they didn't flower last year and the set of trees before these didn't live their first year.

This is my medicinal herb garden. It has filled out nicely is the past (almost) year. The following photo is how it looked last year when I first planted the mint, chamomile seeds, lemon balm, rosemary, echinacea and santolina.

My how it's filled out!

I don't think I will be getting any outdoor gardening tasks done this weekend. They are forecasting a strong possibility of snow (no joke!!) Friday and Saturday nights! Crazy weather. Snow in the Willamette Valley in mid-April??

If You Can't Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen

Because my oven is back in business! It's a great feeling to repair one's own appliances. Not only is it cheaper, but you get a sense of accomplishment in making something work on your own and it's much better for the environment than replacing the appliance. In this case, it is a four inch bake igniter that is being replaced rather than a whole oven and range.

This is the part that caused all the problems. A part that we replaced about three or four years ago. (Lawrence would die if he knew that I posted this picture with my dirty stove cook top in it, but hey, it's reality. That's how my cook top looks almost every day. I cook on it more than once per day, I cook a lot and a large variety of things and I have better things to be doing than cleaning it once or twice per day. A good scrubbing every once in a while suffices.)

The Growing Challenge #7

This will be a short update. My seedlings are progressing as I had expected. Still no chives or eggplants. I've given up on them. Good thing neither is something I can't live without. Eggplant can be had very inexpensively at our local farmers market. I need to start another round of brassicas this week.

My flowering cherries are blooming for the very first time; they were planted last year. I got some lemon bee balms planted in between the lavender that I planted earlier this spring. My comfrey is flourishing and my echinacea is just starting to break through the soil.

Nothing has gotten into the ground in the vegetable garden yet.

Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures posted this week.

Stresses Winding Down...I Hope

I finally got our taxes back from our accountant. That big unknown was weighing heavily on my mind. The good news is that we made a profit last year and the taxes aren't quite as bad as I was fearing. The bad news is that we owe a couple grand and some extra to our various tax institutions. Now that I know what we are dealing with I can make a plan. Why did I wait so long to do our taxes, many people have asked? Well, you have to have money to pay the tax preparer! They certainly aren't cheap.

The other thing that getting my taxes back will allow me to do is submit the application for a reduced hospital bill since we are uninsured. Then we will wait and see about that.

Now that these burdens have been lifted, I feel like I can get on with things that need to be done. I'm really feeling the need to do some form of spring cleaning and get rid of things we don't need/use and clean the cobwebs from the corners. I also still need to get out in the dirt and plant the things I have been saying might get planted in the next week for the past month!

Two Aprons, The Beacons of Light in a Rough Few Weeks

I haven't had all bad things happen in the past few weeks. I scored a vintage gingham half apron on Ebay for $2.99. It's purple with this cute, simple embroidery on the bottom.

Another good thing is that I did my part on my very first swap with an internet acquaintance. I traded a kombucha scoby and soap with Paula for a retro-styled apron. I can't wait to get it!

I love my aprons. I have to credit Angelina for turning me onto the world of aprons at the end of 2006. The first aprons that I owned were made by her, excepting some vintages ones that my mom sent me a few years back that didn't really fit and/or were falling apart. There is one in near mint condition that she sent, a full coverage apron with blue paisley on a red background with blue binding that I hope to fit into someday, because it's a great one.

What Else Will Go Wrong?

These have been a rocky few weeks. We've had so much stuff going on from broken van locks to falls from ladders to mysterious rashes and appendicitis. The most recent two things are: waking up yesterday and whipping up Juliana's birthday cake, putting into the preheated oven and finding the oven cold. I use my oven all the time. I hate for it to be broken. I'm going to order the part later today, but it won't be in for a few days. Then last night my throat started hurting and I woke up with a head cold. Yuck. The weather was beautiful yesterday for Juliana's birthday and it's even nicer today, so those are two good things.

Here She Is!

I finished her about 1:00 this morning. She turned out quite nicely, I think, considering it's been more than three years since I did the first two and it was by memory, looking at the other dolls, and have the body and bodice patterns. I can't wait for the birthday girl to wake up and see her!

This is her feline alter ego.

Racing To the Finish Line

I'm almost done with this topsy turvy doll. I had hoped that I would be finished and posting pictures this evening. That didn't happen, but I am really close. Tomorrow you can see her finished!

Soap Nuts

I've heard of Soap Nuts before, but didn't want to spend money on a whole box plus shipping if I didn't know they worked. Then I made a stop at our smaller health food store, which I hadn't visited in a long while. They were carrying Soap Nuts, along with many other products they didn't use to stock. So, I bought the sample size that they have and I will report on how they work. In a nutshell (harharhar), they are berries or nuts of the soapberry tree, which contains natural saponins thus they can be used in laundry or soaked to make a stain remover or general purpose cleaner. Soapberry trees were being cut down in their native lands and sold as firewood and lumber by the poor farmers, but selling the nuts allows them to make a living and allow the trees to live as well.

The Growing Challenge #6

My seedlings haven't suffered much since last week. Most are growing well, my newly seeded brassicas are germinating and a few of my replanted tomatoes have also germinated.

My eggshell snail repellent seems to be working well. I still haven't gotten anything into the ground outside, but maybe, maybe sometime this week.

Not gardening news: Despite hubby's emergency appendectomy, I still got two batches of soap (bay lime and ginger lime if you were wondering), and batches of ketchup, yogurt and kombucha made in the past several days. Not done with the doll yet, but the faces are embroidered and all pieces cut out except for two.

From Patient to Convalescent

My dear husband is now home recovering. He was released late this afternoon and is doing pretty well.

Now the next part, which will be painful in a different way than surgery, is tackling the huge bill that I know will be coming our way. Not having insurance isn't so bad until you find out that insurance companies pay doctors and hospitals far less than the uninsured get charged, because they are able to negotiate it down with their huge amount of power while we uninsured people really have no bargaining power. I keep feeling deep inside that I shouldn't worry, because it will be okay, things will fall into place and it won't be as bad as I fear. And generally things work out that way, but still it's so hard to release that worry.

An interesting thing happened yesterday when I was in the waiting room during Lawrence's surgery. I grabbed a Woman's Day magazine and as I sat down I saw a copy of The Bible on the table. I closed my eyes and opened it up feeling that I would be directed to where I needed to read. I opened to the page where the book of Job ends and Psalms begins, so I read both the first chapter of Psalms and the last book of Job. The last book of Job says that Job had three daughters and after all the hardships that he endured he was blessed many times over. (He also had seven sons, if I remember correctly.)

We were blessed to have so many kind nurses and staff that we dealt with over the past day. Lawrence's anesthesiologist was the father of one of our CSA farmers and Lawrence had actually met him before, so it was nice to have that connection in a stressful time. He also got an excellent surgeon. The best at the hospital we were told. We are thankful for all the prayers and well wishes we've received and so grateful that we have such caring friends and family.

Sp, I will conclude this update that ended up becoming much more than the few sentences I planned on writing.

The Smell of Antiseptic

That smell weirds me out at hospitals. My house doesn't smell so chemically, nor do the other places I frequent. This is something I pondered as I sat in the emergency exam room waiting for my husband to come back from radiology this afternoon. We aren't regular partakers of Western medicine, so hanging out at a hospital was kind of a perverse adventure. It turned out that Lawrence needed an appendectomy; the doctor on call thanked us for coming in when we did so that he didn't have to get out of bed at 2:00am, which is why appendixes were created in his opinion. Then he was prepped for surgery. A scary thing since I've never had surgery nor has Lawrence, with the exception of getting his tonsils removed when he was wee boy. The nurse assured us that a tonsillectomy wasn't a real surgery like this would be.

My dear hubby is recovering at the hospital and I am recovering from the stress of the man I love going under general anesthesia and worrying that my children weren't behaving well for my dear friend Angelina. Angelina deserves a huge thank you for spending her afternoon and evening watching the girls so that I could be at the hospital. I'm sure she had other things she would rather have done on a Sunday, but she came over quickly after I called pleading for her help and she offered to stay as long as necessary. Thank you, so much! Good friends are worth their weight in gold. That's saying a lot if you've looked at gold prices recently.

Now, hopefully my husband can get home quickly, heal quickly and get back to work soon to pay off that large (but completely worth it) bill we just incurred today.

Procrastination Emerges Again

I made topsy turvy dolls for Maddy and Isabel Christmas 2004, when I was pregnant with Juliana. We even knew she was a girl. That's why I can't figure out why I didn't save the instructions and/or the name of the book that I got the pattern and instructions out of. You'd think it would have occurred to me that at some point in the future I would want to make a matching doll for the unnamed baby girl in my belly. Maybe I just didn't realize how dearly the other two would love their dolls, so I didn't even think to save that information. However I came to that decision, it was made and here I am with a third birthday coming up and a desire to make the same topsy-turvy doll. I've looked for that book since before Christmas and haven't been able to find it at the library, where I originally found it. I didn't find any other patterns that I really liked enough to buy, so I bit the bullet and decided to try to make it using only my memory and the copies of the pattern (without the instructions). I bought the fabric several weeks ago and have done a bit of work here and there, but the bulk of it is unfinished and the birthday is a mere handful of days away now. I better get busy in the next couple of days. I'm sure I will get it done on time, because I generally do, but I don't know why I always leave it til the minute. It can get a bit stressful.

The French Press is Back in Action

My new carafe arrived today! I'm so excited to get back to drinking better coffee with my French press. Another thing that I found out this week is that we use far less coffee to achieve the same amount and same strength of prepared coffee. The press uses the coffee more efficiently and therefore less coffee. One more thing to love about it.

The Demolition Across the Street

I'd like to know what the heck is going on across the street. We used to have tennis courts that were old, it's true, but they were fenced and it was a great place to let the girls loose to run and ride bikes and we could watch them from the porch without having to be right there.

I've had suspicions that something was going to go down soon. Construction type people kept coming to stand in the middle of the courts and write things down and talk on cell phones. An excavator appeared on the median the day before yesterday, then yesterday morning work people arrived with more machinery and started knocking down the fences, ripping up the asphalt and then chipping the cement tennis court pads.

Are they going to put in new tennis courts? Make it into a parking lot? What is going on? I wish I knew somebody in the know that I could ask. Whatever they do, I hope it doesn't exacerbate the heavy traffic from the high school nearby and leave an area that we can use for play.

Meanwhile, the girls had fun running in the grass and looking at the large machinery and also watching the work men. Here are a few photos from our site inspection (after the work had halted for the day, of course):

Juliana was too intimidated to go near the concrete chunks and equipment. That timidity is apparently the only side effect of a mysterious rash she suddenly broke out with today.

Dandelion Envy

Lately I've been thinking about edible plants that we usually consider weeds. Then the latest issue of Mother Earth News arrived in the mail and there was an article with dandelion recipes. To top that off, when I walk downtown I usually pass this house that has some impressive dandelion specimens in their yard. See? This one is at least 16" in diameter. It could make one or two dishes by itself. I have dandelion envy. I wish I hadn't gone so passionately about eradicating them from my yard for years, because now we have only a few puny ones here and there. I hope we aren't in for really hard times, because if we are, that blue house with the dandelions is first on my list of foraging possibilities.

The Growing Challenge #5

This week, there's good news and bad news.

The bad news is: most of my tomato seedlings keeled over, my chives haven't germinated, and only one of my eggplants has partially germinated. Let's start with the tomatoes. I've had this nearly happen before. What happens is this: when I grow them under a cover, they sprout and then before they get their true leaves, usually, the leaves start to stay wet and look like they are going to become slimy. When that happens I take the cover off permanently and they do fine. This year I let the cover stay on a little longer because I was worried that the room was a bit too chilly to remove it. I removed it yesterday when they weren't looking so good and crossed my fingers hoping they would recover, but alas, most of them didn't. I still have three alive, I think. The chives that haven't germinated, that might be seeds that are too old. The eggplants, I assume it's because it hasn't been warm enough, even with heat from below. Also, my cabbages aren't looking so hot, I think they will make it though.

My very sad tomato bin. I might put some seeds into the pots again and see what happens.

The good news is that all the other brassicas look good and most are forming their first set of true leaves, most of the peppers are sturdy and look great, the newspaper planting pots are holding up well and one of the surviving tomatoes is developing its first set of true leaves.

See those true leaves on this tomato!

This week we are supposed to have sunny and spring-like weather, finally. I'm hoping that I will finally get the chance to get out and get some direct sown seeds into the ground and the last of my beds prepared.