What happens when boys wrassle in the house

You wouldn't think that one of the 'boys' is nearly 38, would you? Notice the perfect shape of the 15 year olds head, shoulders, upper torso...

December 2007

Well we aren't allowed to say it anymore but who ever claimed that I was ever politically correct, or capable of following the rules?

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas is Jesus' birthday, and yet we, as humans, have turned it in to a day that is all about us. It has become a holiday that is all about me me me me me and the more gifts, costing more money, is supposed to mean that we are more loved, cared about, thought of, or revered than others. This year I'm working towards stopping the madness. If someone insists on buying me a present, the list I'm giving includes socks and wooden cooking utensils. Of course everyone looks at me like I'm crazy, and the comment I hear the most is, "You can buy your own socks," to which I reply, "Yes, I can buy anything I wanted myself, but this is my list." I ask only for things I need or can really use, no knick knacks or frivolous items that will then sit on my shelves, taking up space and waiting to be dusted. Or things that will be given away to Goodwill soon.

I'm trying to downsize and life live simpler, not complicate things. My outgoing gifts are care packages as opposed to purchased items. I picked and dehydrated apples and mint from my backyard, packing them in jars to be shipped out with a little card of love. Dig it!

Oh, and before I forget, Happy Birthday Jesus!

Last o the cotton updates...maybe

Here are pix of the 2 cotton bolls that have opened so far:

Still on the plant. You can see the sections they grow in, like oranges.

FINALLY!

I went outside this morning and found two of my cotton bolls are starting to open. Here is a picture of each bollopening. One is clear, one is fuzzy (darn camera would NOT focus correctly) but you'll "get the picture." wowwwwwww :D

House update

The oxalis is growing, aggressively, again but I got out yesterday and hoe'd the entire backyard so not one piece is left standing. Course I didn't pick each piece out of the dirt/mud but it's cut back and more under control than last year.
I also noticed my broccoli is sprouting new leaves, just like J thought. I'm pleasantly surprised and it caused me to ask our new housemate if he likes broccoli. Thankfully he does.
The cotton is the same as it was a month ago - no change and I wonder if it's too cold for the pods to pop open. I'll have to post to my forum and see what's doing. I'm curiuos what's inside those little hard pods....
I planted radishes yesterday and will plant brussel sprouts tonight or Wednesday. I just found my seeds last night.

It hit almost a week ago

A nice juicy earthquake hit this evening (October 30th) while I was sitting in Algebra class. It shook and rattled ,then a smooth undulation as the aftershocks rolled through. I could hear stuff in the school falling and the phonelines went dead shortly afterwards, from every one trying to call. A school official came in a few mintues later and sent everyone home.We're fine, the house is fine, all our stuff is fine so no worries. It was a 5.6 centered about 6-7 miles from our house.

Happy Day after Halloween!

The Marlin family 1911 Shirley, Arkansas

Pooh Peeks - Maow Thinks She Hides

Cotton update

This update is to say that there is no update. The cotton still looks the same as it did a month ago with this little ball waiting to blow open and show me the cotton. I wonder how much longer it will take?Meanwhile, we went to a local park for my bday and saw the lake was waaaaaay down. We found these old pilons where a dock used to exist and the turtles were sunning themselves.

hippo birdie two mi

Four days late and a buck fifty short - but hey, I been celebrating....

It's an Iowa thang

In California, you get your name engraved in a piece of wood and hang it above your front door. In Iowa, you get your name/initials engraved in to a granite boulder and place it at the end of the drive by the dirt road.

Garden Update - late September

Another month has quickly whizzed by and before I know it, the summer garden is waning and I have no time to plant seedlings for a winter garden this week. Perhaps this weekend I can spend some time at the potting bench, even though the lunar guide says it's not a great time for planting seeds. I best spend Friday picking out what seeds to plant.
Yesterday I ordered 1 1/2 lbs of organic garlic to plant, both softneck varieties from Seeds of Change; Inchelium Red and Transylvanian. I'll plant that out as soon as it arrives; I just have to come up with a garden plan and figure out where it can go for 10 months without interupting my spring/summer garden. I have taken to making my own garlic powder. Not only is the store bought stuff too expensive but the flavor of my own powder is far superior, if I do say so myself.
Saturday was the first day of Autumn and boy, did Mother Nature bring it in with style! She took that hot, dry, boring summer and burst it with a couple of really good downpours of rain mixed with a flash of lightening here and there. Mind you, Northern California doesn't get true lightening storms, we only get the imagery of a very large camera flashbulb going off. But the sentiment was there and it was much appreciated. Sunday afternoon it warmed up enough to bring the crickets back that evening and that is the sound I fell asleep to.

Tis the reddest red I ever did red

Baby ladybugs morphed in our yard the other day. No spots nor markings; just the shiniest, redest, tiniest, beautifully simple creatures I've ever seen.

What shall I do with my leftover olive oil tins?

Meow says the weather is getting cooler

Meow is crafty and conniving. When we went to the living room, this blanket was neatly place on the bed. Apparently it needed ruffling, after Meow put it on the floor.

How many kitties do you see?

Look what's in the punkin' patch

Pot O' Bubblin' Love

Tomato sauce, made from my garden tomatoes.

Best friends share the prettiest flowers

Do you see what I see?

Cotton update 09-05-07

Cotton flower about to bloom

Blooming complete - this "fruit" is what comes next.

Another image of the blooming fruit. :)

Click here for the July 6th entry and see the cotton seedlings (at the bottom).

Click here for the July 30th update

Click here for the August 17th update (bloomin' cotton!)

Laundry day at Meow's house

I swear this isn't a set up photo. She burrows all on her own, which is not surprising in the cool weather months, but considering it has been in the 90's for the last week I was a little surprised to find her buried under bf's work pants on laundry day...

Friday musings

This past week has been tiring. The weather is crazy - we were headed in to an early Autumn when Summer decided to take a fierce swipe at the Bay Area. Temps have been in the high 90's and have been threatening to leap into the 100's. Plus the fact that we had a lunar eclipse this week (yes, I did get up at 4:30am to see it), I came back to work after a week long vacation, and I had to start evening classes again 3 nights a week. With the weird moon pattern and the heat, I haven't slept much. Plus with the bf's daugher out of the house, their cat thinks it's ok to cry in the middle of the night without good reason. Oh, did I mention that one of my nostrils is ill? Typically you get sinus problems in both nostrils but this time, for at least 3 weeks, only one side of my nose is sick. It truly is the strangest thing.

Garden rememberings....

Things I should remember for next years garden:

Tomatoes: The bamboo stakes and figure-8'ing the twine worked really well but you need to keep twining up the entire season. You also need to use a different stake, perhaps rebar, as the plants get heavy late in the season when loaded with fruit and cause even the most sturdy of bamboo to snap under the weight.
Brainstorm with bf to establish a planting pattern so we can get to the toms at the back and the bottoms of the plants. Don't plant pear tomatoes because none of us will eat them. The Genovese Costoluto's are nice but not producing much. The Amish Paste did well as did the Sausage and the Japanese tomatoes. The Brandywines are doing ok as a plant, but the production on them is quite poor. If you allow them to ripen on the vine, they rot right away.

Squash: Don't plant anywhere that gets shaded in any way, shape, or fashion. They just don't grow well no matter how little shade they get. Also, don't water the leaves at all, unless in the morning when the water can burn off. It's causing mildew this season and that sucks. The zuchinni's were planted out late this season and died after I left one zuke on the vine for seed. Save a zuke late in the season for seed so you get more the rest of the season. Plant only one summer squash because bf gets sick of them quick.

Peas: Same as squash - no water on the leaves at all. These mildewed as well and died shortly after. It was those couple of days in July when we had foggy mornings and sprinkles (who'd have thunk it would rain in California in the summer?)

Luffa: It didn't bloom until this week, very late in the season and quite a small plant. At the time of planting, it was the same size as the cucumber, however the cuke didn't do anything until July and then it sprouted like crazy and now shades the luffa too much.

Sunflower: My beautiful red sunflower did quite well, but it's too bad the seeds I planted around it never sprouted. Start this plant indoors and transplant it out later.

to be continued...

Pictures of the day

Blackberries in the morning sun

One of my last sunflowers

A weeks worth of update

I was on vacation last week so other than take some pictures, I was enjoying my time alone.

Meow, trying to help (not!) in the garden...

Cotton flower about to bloom

Cotton flower blooming

Previously the plants were blooming pink flowers, but the newer flowers are blooming white - same plant.

Once again, my tomato staking method failed. I'm satisfied with it for the most part, but once the plants become heavy, especially top heavy, my wooden stakes snap and the system starts to fail. This year I put in bamboo stakes, one stake every two plants. I then start low on the stake and figure 8 garden twine from one stake to the next, enclosing my plants on both sides in the end. As the plants grow taller, I start a new line of twine across and around and this essentially keeps my plants upright and fairly contained. No problem until the production gets heavy and the stakes start to break. Next year I need more substantial product and I think it will all work. Maybe rebar. Anyhow, I removed the overbearing plants that were on the end that caused the problem to begin with. In my opinion, those tomatoes weren't all that tasty nor worth growing so it wasn't a big lost. I harvested what was ripe and cut the rest of the plant down, pulling the vines out. I then had to re-hammer my stake in, using two at a time instead of one this time, trimming my heavy Sausage Tomato plant (I lost less than 10 tomatoes) and then uprighting the plant and tieing it back up. Click the photos to enlarge.

BF found this siamese Summer squash

My ginger roots are sprouting and my transplant canna (thanks Janet!) has a bloom coming on.

Cotton update...

Today I was cleaning the windows (how I hate dirty windows and these have needed a good scrubbing since we moved here in December) and I noticed that my cotton plant had bloomed. Once again, the green cotton wins out and bloomed first. The brown cotton plant probably won't bloom until next weekend. Oddly, the green cotton bloomed pink flowers. How about that?

Here are pictures of both of my new flowers.

Anna's Hummingbird

Actually, he's MY hummingbird, and my name isn't Anna. But alas, that is the type of hummingbird he is. I finally got some nice shots of him so let me introduce you to BadBoy, my resident Anna's hummingbird. I learned over the weekend that the males find the sweetest flower, with the highest sugar content, and then they defend that flower aggressively. BadBoy has found that in my hummingbird feeder and it's now his, lock, stock and barrel. If others come near his feeder, he dive bombs them. He has a perfect view of the feeder from my apple tree, the neighbors plum tree, or my other neighbors Japanese Maple. If he hears that telltale buzzing of hummer wings, in he dives chirping and cursing in his little hummer voice. It's the same cursing that I hear when the feeder is empty. I shout out the window at him, "I know, I know! I can hear you and your feeder is low. I'll get to it when I'm ready," and he settles down, but only for a bit. Then the cursing continues.

Lately BadBoy has been getting brave. He sits in a low branch on the apple tree and I stood right under him, our faces no more than 6 feet apart. He twitched his head sideways to get a goooood look at me and I eyeballed him and told him how naughty he was to chase the other birds off. He was so comfortable with me that I went inside and grabbed the camera and he posed while I took these shots. Oh, he feigned as if he was frightened and flitted away but he was back within a short 10-15 seconds so I wasn't buying it. We sat and chatted, he turned so I could get a good shot of his green feathers, and then he thought a nice action photo would be nice so he hopped over to the feeder for this last image. Ham, I tell you - he's just a big ham.

Being home all weekend, we usually let the cats roam the backyard if we are out so BadBoy was a little more nervous over the weekend. He'd flit off every time the sliding screen door opened but he'd come right back once he saw the felines were still in the house. I guess underneath, he really is a woosy.

A month ago we had a small female stop by and she wasn't afraid of BadBoy at all. She sat in the flower vines that grow up my patio overhang and hid from him. When the cats came out, she would fly and hover in their faces - I couldn't tell whether she was brave or stupid but she was entertaining, if nothing else. I miss her.

Someday...

Someday I'll get out of here. If not out of California all together, then at least out of the Bay Area. I'm stifled by concrete, bad drivers, inconsiderate members of the human race bombarding me from every direction. The lack of inner peace is overwhelming and at times unbearable causing me to consider decisions I know I will later regret. The amount of restraint it takes for me not to follow through is amazing, tiring, exhausting.

When I eventually get out of here, there are few things I will miss.
* I will miss the cool "autumn is coming" mornings when the fog starts to come back and you roll down your window on the way to work to inhale that powerful scent of fresh garlic that has wafted through the night from Gilroy, 20 miles south.
* I will miss, again in the foggy mornings, seeing the local coyote as they hunt on the hillside. They've been gone since the end of spring, no doubt much more cautious about showing themselves during the hot summer as they raise a small coyote litter. Once the mornings cool and the fog is light, I drive in the hills in the early morning and think, "it's a coyote kind of a day." Sure enough, on the ridge next to the lone oak tree, near the little valley where I see them hunting the most, I catch the shadow of her head, her ears and the very top of her back at the top of the hill. Two days ago, I saw a scrawny young coyote 5 feet from the parking lot of my work, panting, under the pitiful shade of a small tree, in the middle of a fairly warm day. I watched her for nearly 2 minutes before she dashed down the hill and disappeared from my view.
* I will miss the distinct violet-beige color of the grassy hills when the rain stops and the world here changes color.

Quote of the day...

"We're so focused on the wrong things. We're teaching young girls that this is what they should be focusing on: rich and famous girls who are rich and famous for nothing." Ellen Pompeo

I have no idea who this chick is other than what the news article reported but, nuff said.

Tuesday August 7th

Yesterday I came home and knew that I needed to harvest tomatoes again. They are quickly gathering in my freezer and will, maybe this weekend, become s'ghetti sauce and possibly ketchup if I'm feeling very adventurous. I'm hoping we still have enough fresh toms left on the vine come August 19 when the entire family of my bf comes over to the house for a birthday party - fresh salsa! I have these great japanese tomatoes, that is how they were listed when I found them at my local Cosentinos market. A delicious medium pink tomato, I soon found they were called odoriko. For us, they are perfect all around tomatoes - I can slice them for BLT's or hamburgers or I can dice them and add them to the pre-made s'ghetti sauce from the store as a fresh addition. Once we learned how much we loved this tomato, I scooped and saved seeds and they seem to come back true so far, two years now. I'll save seed from these 6 plants and see what I get with them next year. This is a picture of my harvest from those 6 plants plus one cucumber. I will harvest clean the other 12+ tomatoe plants this evening once I get home.

Last night I got to see another episode of Good Eats with Alton Brown. I've been watching him for years and I swear, the man just makes sense. I repeatedly tell my bf, I love Alton Brown. I mean, who else on national television would use a giant box fan and heater filters to dehydrate fruit and then ADMIT it, again on national tv? No one, that's who. He's smart, he's economical, and he's passionate about local food and homecooking/preserving. I was happy to catch his show on dehydrating food.

Hi ho the merry-o, a tilling we will go...

Between my driveway and the neighbors driveway is this undefined strip of.. nothing. When we first moved in it was virtually a dirt plot and we considered what we could put in there. Then the rains came and something that looked like grass grew so we thought it was nice and bf mowed it when he mowed the lawn. Then the seasons changed and so did our cute little grassy plot. The foxtails took over followed by the dandelions and finally, over the summer, some strange weed bombarded the entire lot. Last weekend I started on these strange weeds, pulling each by hand to ensure that I got the entire root system. After two hours in the blistering sun, I had completed a 4 inch strip along the right side. Saturday I began again, determined to complete the weed pulling by the end of the weekend. 45 minutes later, bf came out and said "you can't pull them all by hand - it will take you forever. Why don't we see if Dad still has his buddys rototiller?" Well honey, you have the phone number so start dialing!Within 3 hours the Jeep was at our house, rototiller in the back. It was a little difficult to start but eventually it fired up and his dad showed us how to use it. Next morning there I was, adjusting the idle and the choke and pulling the string. After 5 minutes and nothing, bf put a little carb cleaner in the chamber with the spark plug and she fired right up. 10 minutes later, our little plot was plowed!

So begins the cleanup. I raked the plot, pulling out all the uprooted weeds and pulling a few more by hand. Whatever remained was left up on the topside of the dirt to bake in the sun and dry up. Those determined weeds sure don't last that long that way. We only tilled about 4 inches down. After I cleaned up the lot, it looked pretty nice.

When the sun started to go down I went out and planted 8 lantana plants in a nice violet color. BF tells me he likes these everytime he sees them so I picked them up last weekend to prepare for this project. We laid them out, spacing them where we wanted them and I went out later with a pickax to dig holes (this ground is HARD) and planted out each of the plants, going around the PG&E box at the far end next to the sidewalk. Can you believe that when I was weeding last weekend, the neighbor whose driveway is next to this lot was trying to convince me to just pave it over or lay it with bricks, saying "you can even PARK YOUR CAR on it," like that was a good thing. No thanks! While we were tilling his wife came out and said "You can't plant anything there, too many weeds," and I replied "That's ok, we're taking care of that." Since I don't believe in applying chemicals, I will surround these plants with wetted down cardboard or newspaper, to block the sun and the weeds, and then put some shredded compost or fine bark on top to help feed the land once the cardboard breaks down. This method has worked VERY well in another bed I created at this house.

Horses

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going horseback riding for the first time in about 15 years. I learned to ride long ago, when I was 10 - my friends pony and her fathers big Appy. I consider myself quite a good rider even though my experiences were a while back. It's like riding a bike, I tell you, only now I ride in a saddle as opposed to bareback, or banana seat (haha). So I'm pleased to introduce you to Tony, the big black and white paint, Sahara, the arabian mother, and her son Wildfire who was 1 year old on this day.