I had to say it....

This afternoon, just after I finished grocery shopping and putting away groceries, I found 2 small pudding packs hidden in the fridge. I have to hide these items from my boyfriends son, who happens to be 16 and though he eats like a pig, is still built like a recent escapee from a concentration camp. I decided to share my pudding with him and offered him the 2nd pack.

As he pulled himself a spoon from the top drawer, I used my best "we walked a mile uphill in the snow to school" voice and said to him, "you know, when I was young, we didn't have little pudding packs like these. If we wanted pudding, we had to buy the pudding powder, get out the hand mixer and mix the powder with milk. Then we had to put it in the fridge and wait an hour for it to chill and thicken before we could have pudding. We didn't have any of these ready-made packs that you can keep for a year and eat whenever you wanted..."

"Wow," he replied with his sarcastic smile. "Look how much we've evolved."

Happy New Year!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The mornings are cold, the cars and rooftops frosty. The outside animals seek shelter inside.

My anti-social Fatty-Maow cat has suddenly fallen in love with me, because I provide her the necessary heat to sleep well. She and all her fatness comes to the living room each winter, puts her front paws on the couch and looks longingly at the space next to me. Is it because I cover myself with a blanket when lounging on the sofa? Apparently, yes. It only takes me lifting the blanket and she jumps right up, scoots under the blanket, gives my arm 2 quick flicks of her tongue, and settles in for a nap. It doesn't take much to keep her happy, does it?

The Christmas tree is lit and decorated. It's full of colorful lights and plenty of ornaments - both from my childhood and from recent years as my SO and I make new memories together. However, due to our cat population, the bottom of the tree is fairly nekkid, as-is the side of the tree that sits along the back of the couch where the kitties like to sit and stare at the tree. So far, they have behaved in that we haven't found any ornaments on the floor. So far...

I found a small rubber ball in the hall closet the other day. A real rubber ball, like the clear kind with swirls in the middle that you use to play jacks. I left it in the dining room for the cats since they play there on the wooden floors. The other night as I'm studying in the living room, I hear this noise, and one of the cats running around. It's Fatty-Maow, and she's batting the ball around. She had it going pretty good until it hit the wall and came back at her. Convinced she was under attack, she ducked her head, arched her back and tail, and took off running at mach 1 down the hallway. Kitties make Christmas time funny.

Flying south for the winter

When I lived 20 minutes north of here, there was a large lake nearby and the Canadian geese would constantly fly over, heading for the lake. Inside the house you could hear their loud honking as the formation came right over your roofs. I got so used to the sound that when talking outside on the phone, my friends would comment, "what's that noise?" "What noise?" I thought, then noticed the geese going by.

Thankfully I had my wits about me enough to cover my dwarf lemon tree and my brussell sprout & cabbage seedlings last night. This morning as I went out into the chilly air to remove the sheets and tarps, I heard it. It was quiet, but it was the one warning honk to let me know they were nearby. The air was crisp and the sky was blue as I looked up and said, "I hear you, where are you?" No answer. I watched, I listened, and then I heard the faintest, softest "wwwssshhhhhhhhh" as their fat bodies came over my roof and headed towards the neighbors. "honk honk"

Thanks for coming - Merry Christmas! I waved....
[truly, I'm sure my suburban neighbors think I'm the utmost bizarre]

I'm short...

.. on patience with the world lately. Whether it is people that don't know how to drive or follow the basic rules of the road (don't switch lanes if it's not safe - slow traffic, move to the right so others can pass - LOOK before you turn a corner and into my lane!) or CEO's who get millions of dollars in bonuses while asking the American people to fix their business mistakes, or politicians with power complexes looking to sell seats on the Senate (seriously, those are for sale?)

C.S. Lewis

Waaaaay back in 1979, I stayed up one night to watch an animated movie called "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." I absolutely fell in love with the story! Fast forward to 2005 and you'll find me sitting in a movie theatre, watching the trailers for upcoming movies. In true life and all it's glory, I watched in amazement to see they had made a full length film about my favorite childhood cartoon! I couldn't wait for it to come out - and even though I typically hate to see movies in the theatre (people truly are so rude nowadays) we went to see it on the big screen. It was fascinating and beautiful all over again.

This weekend we rented "The Chronicles of Narnia; Prince Caspian." Though it wasn't as great as "The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe," it was a good movie.

If you'd like to see the original animated variety, you can find it on Amazon. Keep in mind this is 1979 animation - you remember, when they used to do this by hand with ink? I now have the original version on DVD and I enjoy it just as much as I did way back when.


"We're in a horrible, repugnant place now where kids are told it's their right and due to be hugely famous. Not good at their job, not good at anything, just hugely famous. This is not sane. Little girls think they'll be famous if they have vast breast implants and might as well die if they don't." James McAvoy (aka Mr. Tumnus)

Along those same lines....

How did it get so late so soon?
It’s night before it’s afternoon!
December is here before it’s June!
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon.

**Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss

December already

Where has 2008 gone? November flew right by without so much as a wave or a spank, and December just slid right in, starting bright and early on a Monday morning.

I have less than 2 weeks left until my finals and this semester will be complete. I have a major test tomorrow, which I am stressing on right now. Unable to focus or absorb any more information, the 2 hour break I took to watch mindless tv and eat dinner did nothing for me. With only 20 minutes of reading under my belt, I turn, once again, to the internet for mental relief of what I should be studying. Back to the books, ole gal - get back to the books or you'll kick yourself tomorrow.

Access....DENIED!

A few years back I went to Dad's house to help him with his computer. I quietly giggled when it came time for him to login to some online system and he had to pull out his printed Word document that had a list of all his login names and passwords. "Daddy," I said to him, "if you just make all the names and passwords the same, you don't have to have new ones to keep track of." After all, I was in the IT field, and it worked for me for years.

Then, the systems started to change. They required my password to change every 90 days, and you can't use the same password twice. As I signup for new online systems, they require my login name to contain letters AND numbers, thereby throwing off my process as my old logins didn't have numbers. I have three logins for my work computer and all of them have different requirements for my usernames and passwords, and they all expire at different times. One of them requires that your password not contain any word in the English dictionary, so I had to use my old password and cut it in half with numbers.

Now I have a list of logins about 30-40 long that I have to keep updated and current, lest I have to click on the dreaded "Forgot your username/password?" link. And all I can do is sigh and update my list.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving; we'll be at the In-Law's. She is particular about her kitchen so I'll bring some of my homemade applesauce and my man is bringing a Harvest Pie from Coco's. That should be plenty as there is only 6 of us and I'm sure his mother will be cooking plenty in her kitchen.

I'm thankful for a warm bed, my health, the ability to work in the day and go to school at night and still get good grades, and the ability to save money. I'm thankful for my man and his love, and the Lord and his love.

What are you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Finished!

I finally finished the front strip by the street today! It took another 3 bags of manure and 3 bags of shredded redwood, and a little bit of time to hoe out the grass and weeds that were starting to grow - I just skimmed the hoe over the seedlings to kill them down and dislodge them from the ground. They'll decompose under the compost and feed the worms.

Women's Work Day - there are 3 women in my group. Each month, we trade our slave labor to one of the other women. We all go to her house and pull off whatever project it is that needs to be done. This may be painting, building, sanding, gardening, moving, weeding, pruning - pretty much anything goes. At my house, we've built lawn chairs, weeded, pruned, cleaned out the summer garden in the fall, planted summer gardens in the spring, and moved a lot of heavy lava rocks out of that front strip that is now full of manure and shredded redwood.

Yesterday I went to Janet's for Women's Work Day and we completed her front courtyard. She'd had her landscapers come in and move all of her plants to the left so they could tile the right. Then they moved all the plants to the right so they could tile the left. Now that the tile is completed and sealed, and the landscapers gone, it was time to move the plants all back and organize them in a visually pleasing fashion. Printing before pictures of the courtyard, so we can refer to where everything was, we had to clean out the many weeks of leaves and debris that had collected in the pots. Then we had to dolly the heavy pieces, move them, place them, and put ceramic pot feets under them. A few times we made progress and then decided some pots needed to be exchanged for other so transplanting was in order. By the end of the day, all of the pots were cleaned of leaves, all of the big pots were moved and situated in their old permanent homes, and there were only 10-15 small pots still in the middle of the courtyard that needed placement at later date. It was a big relief for Janet to have her courtyard back to it's old organized self, and we got treated to a fabulous homemade lunch of smoked salmon, salad and a special mushroom dish. I'm blessed to have these friends that I enjoy spending time with, exchanging work with, and improving our homes and lives.

Pow-wow in the Fall

November is National Native American Heritage Month and as part of our diversity awareness at work, we arranged for a mini-pow-wow during lunchtime. We had drummers and singers (a group of 4) and three dancers that each had their own style. It was a pleasure to see them engaged in keeping their heritage alive.It made me wonder what, if anything, do I do to keep my own heritage alive.

The woman in the blue dress is wearing a "Jingle Dress" and the purpose of the Jingle dance is for healing.

The woman in the buckskin dress said it took 5 years to put her regalia together. She carries a feather fan, porcupine quill designed beadwork in the front and on the back of her belt, which you cannot see, she carries 3 pouches - one pouch carries medicine, another carries tobacco, and she confessed that the third pouch carries a small sewing kit for emergencies. She also carried a knife whose blade was buffalo bone and painted red. It was gifted to her by a mentor and she considered it a treasured piece.

The man is carrying a healing stick in one hand and a tobacco pouch. He had alot of beadwork including a long piece that went down his back.

The drummers/singers were a powerful group. Their drumsticks were leather straps wrapped around the end of a stick and they each used 1 quadrant of the same drum. The singing was equally shared as was much of the drumming, however the leader handled the more powerful and stirring beats.

Sunflowers

Recently my coworker was ill, so we sent her flowers. Her favorite flowers are sunflowers and thankfully, that is just the type I happened to pick out, not knowing that they were her favorites. On her return to the office, she commented that the red sunflowers were dyed, of course, to which I replied, "not the ones that grew in my backyard!"

If you haven't explored the different colors of sunflowers, click here to see some of my favorites, which range from a buttery yellow to rich burgundy.

This red sunflower is one of the deep colors that is a personal favorite, and happened to grow in my backyard in the 2007 garden.

Most all my life I've lived in this area and heard my elders say many times, "this area is hard as a rock - it's nothing but clay and it takes a pickax to get through the dirt." And that's what I have always believed... until I heard rumors that this area used to have the most fertile ground seen in it's day, and was huge on agriculture. Walnuts, almonds, citrus, prunes, vineyards and cherries grew abundant. It wasn't til World War II that our product shifted from agriculture to industrial, but what happened to our soil?

As I continue to work the postage stamp sized plot where I'm currently living (renting), I compost what I have and with what I don't have, I have purchased at the local hardware store. Between the many bags of manure and shredded compost I've brought in, the texture and life of my soil has dramatically changed in just two years. I find it teeming with worms and crawlie critters and soft enough to sink into. I imagine if you try to replenish the earth with chemicals, as my elders have done, the clay soil remains clay soil. But replenish it with the right stuff, as nature would do it, it becomes alive once again.

Winnie-the-Pooh says it's a very blustery day today. My BF got up early, walked around the house, came back to the bedroom and poked his fingers between the blinds. Squinting through very sleepy, very tired eyes I asked, "what!?"

"There's a lot of wind out there," he says. And there was indeed. Two hours later, on my way to work, the wind showed her face. She was in the dried leaves that flew around in mini-twisters, like crazy drunk fairies flying about. She was in the trash from the side of the freeway that made it's way into lanes of traffic - old Starbucks coffee cups, a broken down cardboard box. I felt like the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy looks out of the house from the tornado and sees everything flying about. Just as I passed the 18-wheeler, another piece of trash blew around it and followed the path of wind as it grazed the top of my hood and before it hit my windshield, flew up and over the top of my car - just as I yelled, "hey!"

It is undeniably a blustery day, Pooh.

Here comes da rain

Late Friday saw rain. My coworkers saw gray skies, wet windows and they frowned in disappointment. Covered in rain slickers and hiding under umbrellas, they move quickly from their offices to their cars in the parking lot, only to shiver and shake in attempts to wiggle off what little rain that has caught them.
Meanwhile, I saw gray skies, wet windows and I giggle in anticipation. I opened my window and take a deep breath of that scent of clean outside. I leave my warm, dry house and go out to the yard, arms open, face up to the sky, barefeet wet in the grass and I welcome the rain completely. I only wish there was enough to create a puddle worthy of jumping in.
Come Monday morning, I stop at the store on my way to work and the cashier asks, "Did you have a nice weekend, in spite of the rain?" to which I answered, "I had a nice weekend BECAUSE of the rain." My newly planted seedlings have been appropriately watered as has my recently planted garlic, and I'm sure my worms are happier for it all. Silly humans, afraid of the rain.

Local wildlife

One would not imagine that the capital of Silicon Valley would have any wildlife, other than rice-rocket-racers that speed on our freeways or late night taggers that grafitti the houses on the hill. But working in a wildlife sanctuary, I'm able to see firsthand our honest to goodness Silicon Wildlife as they are.

The wild pigs have returned to the hills. There was an overabundance last spring, so many were captured and relocated, or the meat donated to local charities. Monday I watched a group of our wild turkeys as they flew straight up and over a fence, then across the street in front of me as I came in to work. And this morning, more pigs on the hillside and a coyote crossed the street in front of me as well. These are beautiful creatures and I'm blessed to see them so up-close on a regular basis. It's another reason I favor this cooler weather as they are out more often.

Happy Veterans Day to all of those who risk their lives to keep mine safe

In to November

Saturday I worked my tail off. I spent hours pulling bermuda grass seedlings, digging in the earth and hunting down the roots. I was diligent and hopefully it will pay off. When we stripped this small plot - you know, the useless one between the sidewalk and the street - the earth was dead underneath. Years of weed fabric and lava rocks with no rain has rendered it useless and there was no easy way to get a tool into the dirt. Fast forward 2 months, 8 bags of cow manure and 8 bags of shredded redwood later and we have worms! Yes, worms and soil so soft that it's like walking in a bag of flour. Ah!

Once that was complete, I used my new/used pitchfork (thanks Daryl!) to load the old tomato plants that I pulled the weekend before onto the spare tarp. The skies were threatening rain and there's no room in front of the truck in the street, so I moved the tarp to the side of the house, made sure it was all covered and left it for now. I've always heard it's not good to compost tomato plants or they may carry diseases in your compost, so I throw those out.

My workday moved to the inside of the house, cleaning the kitchen and doing laundry. Without homework to do, I cannot sit still and I going all day long til my body gives out. I need an alternative use of this energy, like building my own house somewhere. hmmm...

Today

Average temp was 71 degrees and sunny. Tomorrow is scheduled to start with sun and end up with rain, followed by more rain Sunday morning before clearing that night & more rain again on Tuesday. I'm good with that - we desperately need it. This area is like a dessert nowadays.

I stuck to my "diet" and walked 1.5 miles around the building today. I've been noticing the tiniest bits of green and grass poking up through the ground since the temperatures got cooler. Soon the cows down the hill will have fresh green nummies to eat.

We're trying couscous again tonight. Instead of the couscous you buy in a box with spices included, we bought a big jar of plain couscous and are trying out different recipes til we find something comparable that we like. Tonight we're using chicken stock, butter, garlic and parsley.

I was diagnosed with trochanteric bursitis yesterday and given a cortisone shot in attempts to cure it. The pain is 95% subsided. The lingering effects may be in my head, may be not. Only time will tell.

Recently, Proposition 2 in California passed with 63% of the votes. This statute will limit the confinement of calves raised for veal, chickens for eggs and pigs in gestation crates. This proposition requires that these animals be able to stand up, lay down and fully extend their limbs. The fact that these requirements have to be specified and made law is appalling. Mind you, I'm not a member of PETA or anything, but you'd think if an animal is providing you with life-sustaining food, you'd treat them with some care and respect and give them a little room to live while they're on this planet. But no - we're humans. And the scare mongers pulled every trick in the book to try and get Prop 2 to fail. They claimed that Big Ag will have to leave California to financially survive and that our food would come from Mexico. I've seen claims that free-range eggs are at a higher risk for salmonella than eggs from caged up birds. And they claim the costs of our food will skyrocket & drive the small farmers out of business. Ludicrous - all of it.

My BF and I buy our eggs at a local chicken ranch because he's against me raising our own chickens, for fear he will get attached and not be able to eat them or their eggs. The eggs we buy are clean, fresh, reasonably priced and have beautiful yolks inside! When I got home on election day, BF said to me, "How did you vote on prop 2? It passed you know. I hope our egg ranch doesn't go out of business now, because of this." So we started to debate the pros and cons. In the end, I looked at him with empathy and seriousness as I ended the discussion by saying, "Honey, I understand what you're saying. I'll start building our chicken coop in the morning, so we can have our own eggs." I don't think he liked that answer... ;)

ELECTION DAY!

"The lines will be long tomorrow," says my coworker. "If you aren't there before 5:30am to wait in line, you'll be there for hours."

I woke at 5:40am, showered and ran out of the house by 6. It should take 30 minutes to get to my polling place since I hadn't re-registered in my new address; I would have to vote in my old district. I already told my boss I'd be late since voting didn't open til 7 and I'd still be waiting in line at that time. When I pulled into the fire station parking lot where I was scheduled to vote, there were several cars already parked outside. I figured I would be 8th or 9th in the waiting line. I grabbed my chemistry book to pass the time and headed for the door. Imagine my surprise when, at 6:20am, I walked in the door and the only people there were those setting up. No one else was in sight. {sigh} I had 40 minutes to wait til the polls opened, but at least I was first in line.

Our polling place leader was very adamant about what time we could and could not vote. When a younger gentleman came in with his absentee votes to drop off, they refused to accept them until 7am. He'd have to find another place to drop off his votes on his way out of town, after the 7am opening began.

I watched the newbie volunteers setup, listening to all the instructions, and every once in a while the elder black lady would add her 2 cents, "at the training they said that if abc happened, we were supposed to xyz." She was right every time and it made me smile to know she had taken such care in her training and was prepared to volunteer in my polling place today.

At 6:45 I saw my first sign of the other pollers. They started to gather behind me, surprised that they could not get in to vote until 7am. I'm not sure why they were surprised, but they were. The volunteers started to get excited as the line grew longer and the time til opening grew shorter. At 7am, I heard a woman's voice over the loudspeaker of the firestation. "Good morning firefighters. It's now 7am. beep Beep BEEp BEEEEEP. Oy vey, it was EAR PIERCING! Just as I said, 'That's a pleasant noise," the stations captain walked by and said, "it's our wake up call. Every morning at 7am it goes off and in 2 minutes, it will go off again, only louder." greaaatt....

Just seconds later the poll place leader called, "The polls are open! Come on in!" I went forward, gave my name, signed my roster, gave my address, gathered my ballots and went to my covered private table. I was surprised the voting was paper ballots where you use a pen to connect the arrows. Four years ago in this same district, we used electronic voting. I think I like paper better, as long as the boxes with the votes actually get delivered and counted, not found floating in a body of water somewhere.

It took me 20 minutes to vote and I have 2 pet peeves:
1. The sample ballot I grabbed from the table ended up being in Spanish. How very nerving that in voting in America for the United States President that the sample ballot explaining all of the propositions was not in the language that 82% of the people speak.
2. I had a very difficult time deciding who to vote for when it came to the presidency. Like most Americans, my thoughts were to vote for the lesser of 2 evils since I'm not fond of Obama or McCain. Each of them vote completely opposite of what I do on some very, very important issues. Then 3 weeks ago, I found a website where I entered in my opinions on the issues to see if I should vote Democrat or Republican. I was shocked to find that my opinions were not like either party! Instead, I was linked to a 3rd party candidate whose voting style was more aligned to my own beliefs. Hallalujeh! Someone running for president that thinks more like I do - what a relief! Now before you say, "voting for a 3rd party is like voting for the major party you dislike the most," hear me out.

How many people vote for the "lesser of 2 evils" because they believe that a 3rd party candidate won't win? With the dissatisfaction that Americans currently have with our government, I would say millions. If all those millions truly voted according whose policies are more aligned with their own instead of which is a Republican or which is a Democrat, I think we may finally get the change that Americans are truly looking for.

Currently, the big interest in 3rd party is younger individuals because they are not "wedded" to the 2 party system like their parents and grandparents (let's not be wedded, folks - think with an open mind). If critics say "3rd parties are taking votes from the main parties" then the answer is the main parties deserve it. They do little to improve the lives of American citizens. If you want a wasted vote, vote for Republican or Democrat because they are the ones who make the gov't what it is today. Voting Dem or Rep guarantees that nothing of substance will change. The only way to really make a change and take back from the government is to vote 3rd party.

To prove my point, I sent 4 of my friends to fill out their opinions and tell me who they were aligned with. All 5 of us came up with 3rd party candidates, even those that are STRONG Republican supporters. I know, my experiment was a very small number of individuals, but I was really was surprised to find 100% were aligned more with a 3rd party candidate than one of the 2 majors. Now you may be one of those critics that say my vote takes away from a main party, but at least with my vote, I can sleep at night knowing that I voted for someone I truly believed in, and not someone just because they are associated with a particular party.

Get out and vote today!

Cornbread recipe

My family has been using this recipe since I was little. Let's just say that it's been over 30 years. Last week I made the batter and put it in my VERY lightly greased black cast iron skillet (I use bacon grease) and popped it in the oven. It's just as delicious as I remember when my mother made cornbread with beans and ham hocks. Slab a little butter on some hot breat and enjoy!

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 8-inch square baking panCombine corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Combine milk, oil, and egg in small bowl; mix well. Add milk mixture to flour mixture; stir til just blended. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center commes out clean. Serve warm.

Recipe may be doubled. Use greased 13x9 inch baking pan; bake as above.

For muffins:Spoon batter into 10-12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups filling 2/3 full. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Picture updates

I haven't downloaded any pictures from my camera since, well, since forever so I took care of that today and will put them up to show what I, and the lazy cats, have been doing round the house.

Obviously, Fatty Maow and Pooh have been sleeping... and getting fatter.

And I made cornbread, for the first time, in my cast iron skillet. A bit crumbly, but delicious.

It's cotton-pickin' time! I've already picked enough cotton to make a 4th cat and the plants are only 1/2 way done. Maybe I'll actually spin the cotton this year instead of letting it sit in a jar.

Oy vey...

2 weeks ago I traveled an hour south to look at a used car for sale. While my SO drove the car to make sure it was mechanically sound, I stayed behind with the owner, a 25+ something and her mother. I noticed that on their small hillside property they had a growth of corn - nothing in rows but more a few kernels were scattered and grew in a 10x10 area. The crop was obviously underwatered and when they mentioned that the kernels seemed puny, I explained how the corn should be planted for best pollination and that each tassle pollinated a separate kernel. The mother, obviously impressed, beamed as she asked me, "Wow! Are you from the midwest?"

"No ma'am, I'm just a gardener..."

Weekend happenings

Ah, it was a busy and productive weekend...

I unwrapped my new tarp and laid it next to the overstuffed compost bin. Lifting the bin off, I took everything that was still decomposing and moved it to the tarp. With the compost now free, I shoveled it into a plastic bin and in a couple of loads, had it transported to the garden. There were more than a few ticked off ants and spiders galore, but they'll relocate temporarily and settle down. Well, except for the giant brown garden spider we relocated from the wood pile to the rock by the front street. I didn't want to reach my hand in the firewood and get bit by a girl that big!

With my compost in the garden, I put the compost bin back and shoveled the new stuff back in. With 5 more loads, I transported the fallen rotting apples from under the tree to the compost bin and covered it with a layer of dried, mowed grass. From there I unlocked and opened the back gate, a feat in and off itself, and got ready to move the stuff that isn't good for my compost pile out to the street. Things that aren't good for my compost pile are sticks too big to compost and mowed grass with WAY too many weed seeds. It took me 2 tarp loads to get that out to the street.

It was about time for me to clean up when I noticed how cramped my mint and lemon balm were. Here I had all this room on the side of the house with nothing planted and my herbs were all crammed together! I dug two holes further down on the fence and uprooted my lemon balm to move it over. Next I went to the other side of the yard and dug out my greek oregano which was taking over the area that was supposed to be a cute little herb garden... til they all got outta control! The hole I dug for the oregano was dead on what I needed to plop my oregano in and it settled in the next day without so much as a lost leaf. Then there was trimming of the sage, the tomatoes and the lavender, trimming of the geraniums up front and shoving the cuttings in the empty spots out back to fill in. I removed the spent sunflower plants and cleaned up the old dry grass clippings full of seeds that Jr's been tossing in that corner - no more of that - I can't spend my free days cleaning up after his laziness.

Sunday I slept in a bit and once we got up and had breakfast, we headed to the nearby Pick N Pull to see if we could get a couple of interior pieces for my new car. The last owner had it all ghetto'd up so we removed all the junk and took out the broken heater vent to replace with another. We found all the pieces we were looking for except for the shift boot. And the clips we got to fit over the end pieces of the passenger handle turned out to be gray instead of taupe so we are off on one side. Everything else came together really well, even if it did take 3 trips in all.

The rest of my time I spent trying to make my own bbq sauce. I'm not a fan of corn syrup and especially not high fructose corn syrup, which is nearly the main ingredient in catsups, bbq sauces and most other condiments you'll find in your fridge. I found several recipes and took a little from each to construct my sauce. By the end of the day I have a sauce that I would rate as a 7 perhaps - but have yet to try it out on the meat so I'll wait a bit longer before I give it a final grade. From here we can add or remove and continue to tweak it until we get something that we really like. I'm definitely going to need liquid smoke to get that smoky flavor we love in a bbq sauce that we can dip in after cooking in. Here begins my bbq'ing adventures!

Welcome to Autumn!

My favorite season of the year ! Everything is starting to settle down from the heat of the summer. The brown grasses are finally laying over and will give way to green shoots that come up with the fall rain. Ah, rain...

October 4th 2008

The weatherman claimed that it would rain on Friday & Saturday. That usually means the north bay will get rain and we will get gray clouds, if anything at all. Friday after work I saw the fog rolling over the west hills but figured that would be the extent of our moisture. Imagine my utmost pleasant surprise when I woke up Saturday morning to find that the outside had experienced a fine drenching! The ground was sufficiently wet and only started to truly dry up late Sunday afternoon. Though we didn't get any more rain, the temperatures were cool on Saturday.

Let the raining season BEGIN!

It's September

Already, it's September 11th. Fall is trying to make a comeback with darker evenings, but the 90-100 degree days of summer are pushing back. We finally had some relief over the past 3 days and I hope it continues to get cooler and cooler, inviting the rain as much as possible. How I long for cool days and nights combined with cleansing rains!! This area of California just doesn't have the rainfall we really need and with the traffic and human congestion, I feel like I'm constantly living in dirty air. Not to mention my disdain for concrete. blech!

School started last week and once again, I'm in the swing of working by day and classes by night. I'm currently 1 week AHEAD on my chemistry homework, which was the bane of my existence last spring semester. Now if I can get caught up on my political science and economics reading, I'm in like Flynn baby. Flynn...

Camper Chronicles cont'd

today is day... 18 in the camper. I know how to connect & disconnect, start and blowout everything. I have a truck to pull it with and enjoy it just as much nearly 3 weeks later as I did the first nite. Actually, I enjoy it more so now that I know how everything works and I'm confident in what I'm doing. It's elating, freeing, lovely indeed. independence and learning definitely has it's strong points in my life.

Camper Chronicles day 4

In all fairness, I'll make the correction now. Those who are regularly in travel trailers don't call them campers, as that assumes you are only camping. And they don't call them trailers cause, well, that leads people to consider the term "trailer trash." It's called a rig. So there...

Day's 2 and 3 were fairly uneventful in my rig. Crickets sang all night again, others in my camping area came and went during the night keeping me awake, and I had chinese food for dinner both nights (leftovers on day 3).

On day 3, while eating my leftovers, I was reading a magazine that was 2 years old and one article spoke about making light over little accomplishments. If we only enjoy the big goals, we may wait a long time to celebrate and that would make it seem the little goals don't matter - but they do. And they matter a lot, so be proud of your little goals! I had 2 little goals to celebrate last night. I had never started a charcoal fire and I was able to do that without a starter or any fluid. It took a while, I thought I had failed at one point, but in the end dinner for 2 days was completed and I was proud. My dinner included a chicken breast on the bone, some grilled onions and cous cous from the microwave.

My other goal was to disconnect my propane tanks and take them in to swap them for refills. I was able to shut off the tanks, disconnect them and pull them off the rig only to find that they both still had propane in the bottom. I reconnected them both, turned one of them back on and went inside to cook some bacon for my morning breakfast. This may seem VERY minor to some, but it was major accomplishements for me. Little goals, big successes, big big happy!

Oh, and my biggest happy was about 3 or 4 this morning. Another night of tossing and turning, I had just fallen back to sleep when I heard it RIGHT outside my rig. Ow Ow Owwwwwwwww I grabbed my phone, set it to record sound, and got a full minute of that coyote on the ridge right behind me howling like crazy. S/he stayed and sang for only a few minutes and I got two 30 second recordings. Note to self: Get a good digital recorder for the wonderful sounds I hear at night as cell phone recordings don't do it justice.

Camper Chronicles day 1

My camper and I arrived at the county park last night at 7:30. As I drove in first, I saw a coyote in the grass 200 feet from my campsite. We unhitched, without too many hitches, and I had PL my truck friend leave the park before they closed the gates at 8pm. I had little food in the camper; just a pack of corn tortillas, some strawberry lemonade and grape jelly. Oh yes, and I had my leftovers from my weekend trip to LA which consisted of a small (very small) bag of garlic pistachios, 3 bananas and 1/8 a bag of Maui onion potato chips. PL says "I'm leaving you here alone, by yourself? I can bring food back to the park gate if you like..." but I only needed clean water, so she left me 2 bottles of water and was on her way. Suddenly, it was quiet. Very quiet.

That's when I realized I needed a shopping list. Lubricant for squeaking parts on the camper (the levels, the jack, parts of the hitch) and toilet paper. I'd forgotten tp! I drove down to the main campground bathrooms and realized that the small ball field was FULL of deer. It was just after sunset and I could only see black shadows against the gray background of the campsite. I saw the buck and his big rack, excused myself to head for the bathrooms, and went inside to use their facilities. In the dark. There are no electric lites. Flashlight - I need to bring my flashlight home from work. It's a windup kind so needs no batteries. Back up to my campsite, I heard a new noise I don't ever recall hearing 'live and in person,' a hooting owl. He hooted and hooted for a good hour or so.

For dinner I had about 20 pistachios and some water. I wasn't very hungry, mostly thirsty as I was quite dehydrated from the weekend. While I sat at my dinette, I read some of my trailer manuals and found that the little vented brown thing under the stove that kept kicking off and on seemed to be an electric converter. I believe it's the cooling fan that I hear since it expresses a bit of slightly warm air at the same time. I'll look into it further this afternoon.

Once the tent campers shut off their radio at 10pm, I was able to fall asleep easily and stay asleep most of the night. That is until the sun started to come up and then I heard noises around my camper. I couldn't see anything out the windows - it was probably birds. A scrub jay kept flying back and forth making the worst noises. If it was my place, I would pick him off with a nice little .22.

Home Sweet Home

How else can someone afford a home in California?

sigh...

It was more than 15 years ago that I first succumbed to what I had been told most of my life - I am my mother's child. Her face, her arms and her big, big legs - they haunt me. But this morning I realized that it didn't end there.

Yesterday I left work and was long gone before I remembered that I had some corn in the fridge at the office that was beyond saving - I needed to throw it out, like yesterday. I dialed my office number and left a message for myself. This morning I came in and saw the message on my phone but had forgotten what it was. Imagine my surprise when I heard my mothers voice yell at me "throw that corn away now!" egads, it's frightening.

Mystery squash

I thought that once my mystery squash started to produce, I could tell what kind it was. Initially I believed that this plant was a pumpkin, but now that the fruit of the plant is starting to grow, I'm baffled. This is about the size of a childs fist, light green and elongated. I didn't grow nor eat any of these last year however the seeds came from my compost pile and were volunteers. The plants themselves are quite large and leafy, some have dark green leaves with light green veins/markings and another one is just a medium green with no markings - they are all producing the same fruit though.

It's been a long time since my last post....

If it wasn't for Mother Nature, I'd have no garden to speak of. Out of the numerous volunteer plants that have popped up, only a few have been identified. We have a roma tomato under the office window, in the garden we have a pumpkin plant, a pear tomato and 2 tomatillo plants (which are going GANGBUSTERS!) and in the back bed we have at least 1 yellow crookneck squash. That leaves about 6 squash plants and 3-4 tomato plants still unidentified.

My cotton plants are doing well. One of them, again Gangbusters, has sprouted numerous blooms and I'm excited while I wait for them to actually flower.

Summer classes are winding down. I completed Public Speaking on Thursday and this Thursday I'll finalize Psych class. That gives me until the end of August to somewhat relax in preparation for Fall classes.

Guess which class I'm taking this summer?

The class before mine was streaming out through the door as I approached from down the hall. I entered the class with 5 other students and as I passed over the threshold, the smell was overwhelming. It was scent of nervousness and fear mixed into one foul odor and there was no mistaking it. It was the first telltale sign of the night, signifying our speeches were due in public speaking class.

migrating geese

Friday night after work I stood in my garden, barefoot, watering my seedlings and encouraging them to grow. From overhead I heard the familiar honking I used to hear in my old home, which was in the flight path of migrating geese. How I miss hearing them call to each other from overhead! I looked up in time to see two V's of migrating geese flying over, veering as is they especially wanted to go over my yard. I smiled and laffed, put my hands in the air and waved, calling back "hello - thank you for coming by to visit!"

It's the day before Friday...

...and already I wish it were Saturday. This sure has been a long week for a 4day work week.

Today, I ain't got much to say, know what I'm sayin'? Just wanted to note that it is now safe for the veggies and other plants at my house again, and Go Go Gopher Killer! Yes, I finally killed the gopher in my yard, left the trap in case there was a 2nd and when I figured no one was left, I removed the trap and watered the yard thoroughly. My tomato plant, whose roots that varmint ate last week, is doing very well in a jar of water on my windowsill and has finally developed several roots. She'll go back in the ground tonight, planted inside an anti-gopher chicken wire cage. The cages from last year took some time to locate as they sunk in the ground. I dug them out and lifted them up, then filled in some dirt, shredded newspaper and leaves, and let them settle back in. We'll see how that works out.

We be jammin'

Last year D, who is part of my Women's Workday Group, kindly shared some of her strawberry plants with me. We dug up 2 plants and one of them gave up the ghost at the end of last summer. Here is my sole survivor - doesn't he look fabulous? You can't see in this picture but I have two strawberry blossoms. Not enough for jam, mind you, but enough for 1 bite and the pleasure of knowing that the little bit of sweetness came from my own yard.

Here are 2 of my original volunteer tomato plants. I discovered last night that the 3rd one, the smallest one, is not doing well. I found him limp and sprawled out on the floor, I suspect that damn gopher has been chewing his roots. Will have to find and use the gopher cages that should still be in the ground from last year, to accommodate the rest of my volunteers and such that I will be planting.






















Last but not least, my newest little corner of the world. Taking inspiration from J's courtyard (my other cohort in Women's Work Days) I placed pots of canna (donated from J's canna thinning last year) in this bare back corner of the bed in the back. Then I used donations from D around the bottom edges to soften things up. It will all fill in and, hopefully, keep the cats from this corner that they tend to use to make the great backyard escape.

My weekend finds

I had a volunteer Odoriko growing in the garden however it was stuck behind the garlic so was... puny and sad. I replanted it yesterday, moving it over to it's own sunny spot. I also took 3 more volunteer toms out of the lemon tree pot and put them in 4" pots to give to coworkers. While I was working my around the lemon pot, I noticed a yellow flower. At first I thought a tomato bloom, but it didn't look right. Since it was tall and gangly and growing up between the thorns of the lemon tree, I couldn't see it well. I call over BF and he got on the other side of the pot. "It's a tomatillo," he declared, and I do declare he was right! It was more than a foot tall and two blossoms on it. I punched them off, dug it out and repotted it. Once it recovers and the weather cools a bit, I'll put it in the ground. So far all 5 of the plants I replanted yesterday (3 toms from the lemon pot, 1 tomatillo from the lemon pot, and 1 tom from behind the garlic) are all standing tall and happy today.)

I have a plan for the back bed this year in order to be able to utilize it more since it has a very steep slope which makes it hard to retain water. But the wheels in my head are spinning and I want to try to use the 1/3 circle red clay borders (which I typically think look tacky) to level the soil in certain places, using the borders to design out a fish scale sort of outline. I'll buy a few at OSH and see how it goes before I go crazy. I'm just tired of watching the dirt and all my water run down the hill while my plants thirst.

5 cookies. ah ah ah aaaahh

Ok fine, this isn't Sesame Street and the Count didn't count 5 cookies. But this IS my backyard and I did count 5 squash seedlings this morning. 2 more came up yesterday during the beginning of our heatwave. We are now in day 2 of the heatwave - everyone (meaning my garden) survived day 1 beautifully but today promised to be hotter, longer. So I put a lawn chair over the top of one of my tomato seedlings that looks the worse, to avoid that direct sunlight. The other two look strong so I left them to fend for themselves. We'll see how it goes when I get home this evening.

Meanwhile something is chewing on my squash seedlings, my cotton and my basil. I've found some little spider webs but nothing else in site, so I'm not sure what it is. Ants?

Garden update for May 14th

I have 3 tomato seeds that have sprouted and 3 squash seeds as well. These were purposely planted, not volunteers this time. ;) However they are calling for near 100 degrees today so I put my tender ones under the apple tree. They can stay outside without having to worry about triple digit direct sunlight to fry their tender skins. Everyone was well watered this morning, including what I believe to be volunteer sunflower seedlings. I find this only somewhat entertaining, as the sunflower seeds I planted in starter pots have yet to lift their heads after more than 2 weeks. Thank God for Mother Nature taking care of my garden as I had not had time to, and I would have nearly nothing if the Father and the Mother were not looking out for me.

And while I'm at it, an update on my blackberry bush. You may recall last year I took several cuttings from a creek on the property at work and successfully got it to root in a 1 gallon pot at home. I got some late, bitter berries last year but was satisfied that my experiment had worked. About 4 months into said experiment, I tried to move the pot and found that the roots had come through the bottom and were now firmly in the ground. After a year, we decided to plant to bush in the ground so I had to cut the roots, lift the pot and transplanted the bush 10 feet to the left. It was unhappy, then happy, then unhappy and now I think it's happy again. However, as I walked by the old location 10 feet to the right, I saw the most beautifully tender young blackberry plant growing from the roots I had left. Looks like that side of the house will be filled with blackberries!!

Gardens & TV's

Turkey Vultures, that is. Friday night I was in such a hurry to get to class that I left my wallet at work. I went back Saturday morning to pick it up and found a big ole turkey vulture in the parking lot, cleaning up some pitifully flat squirrel. The TV's are skittish, if a car is coming within 75 feet that is too close and they start to move along. I zoomed in as much as I could and got off a couple of shots. On the way back out of the lot, I saw a 2nd TV had joined the first and got a few more photos - you can see how nervous they are knowing I am there, in my car, watching them.

I have 2 squash plants sprouting. I know not if they are punkin, zucchini nor yellow squash, but they are sprouting and that's all I care about at the moment. I also have Odoriko tomato growing - it's the only tomato to sprout so far. I currently have 3 growing plants in the garden area, compared to 20 I had last season. BF looked at my measly garden this year and said, "is that ALL the tomatoes you are growing?" Little did he know I have 12 starter pots of seeds and I was liberal with the seeding so we'll see what comes out and what goes in the garden. My garlic is fabulous & happy, I really should have planted more but in October, there aren't many sunny places that I can give up for almost an entire year. My sole 'year-round sunny spots' are usually reserved for the maters.

Adventures in salve making

Last year I started calendula seeds because these beautiful flowers have wonderful healing properties and I wanted to make a salve for my eczema. I've suffered for 20 years with the painful affliction and very few pharms that I've tried help. Yesterday I finally got some beeswax and started my adventure.

First let's start off by saying I should have used olive oil. I went to the store to get food for dinner and forgot my olive oil. My Back to Eden book said I could use vegetable oil and I had a full bottle in the pantry so off I went. I added 3 cups of dried calendula petals and enough vegetable oil to cover them (which took about 1/2 the bottle) and turned my crock pot on low. I left it for just about 3 hours and sifted out all the petals. I used an old tshirt to strain out the rest of the petals that my spoon couldn't get and returned the oil to the crock pot.

I started off using 2 ounces of beeswax but I was nervous about the amount of oil I had used so I added another 2 ounces once the first pieces had melted. I stirred it all about and set my spoon to the side, wondering "how will I know there is enough beeswax if it's all liquified?" Then I saw my spoon where the salve was solidifying and realized I could take a cool sample from there to ensure my oil/beeswax balance was right. And it was, right on the money. I ladeled out the oil into 1 cup glass bowls and let it harded overnight. There is a faint scent of veggie oil that I'd rather not have, but I'll know better next time.

Now what to do with FOUR cups of salve!?!

Productivity

Taking 3 full classes and working full-time takes up most all of my spare time. I have sooo many things that have gone neglected around my house, so yesterday I made a list of things to do. I didn't have class and even though I had homework to do, as usual, I put the homework aside while the sun was out to hammer out a few things. I finally feel like I've been productive for the first time this year.

Done:
Trim blackberry plant (I transplanted it last weekend and the ends curled up and died)
Check on garlic plants on the back row (nothing growing as of 4/29)
Apple trimmings to the street (we never used the apple wood so I'm letting the recycle guy take it)
Trim tree in front (it's some inedible fruit bearing specimen covered in aphids - my ladybugs are FAT)
Weed/weedwhack front sidewalk area
Empty clippings in yellow bins

Still on the list To-Do:
Move seedlings to bedroom side of the yard
Process lemons (thanks CI for a bagfull of meyers!)
Do something with the red rocks in the strip in front of the house, plant something less ugly there
Move rose bushes from front window to somewhere else, replace with something else

You can see that I finally got some seeds started over the weekend. It was quickly done, haphazard. I opened my toolbox that holds all my seeds, looked at each packet, thought "this sounds good" and scattered seeds in my little seedling starter pots. I didn't label, or make maps. I planted zuchinni, yellow squash, japanese tomatoes, dill, lots and lots of basil (I never had enough last year,) and a few other items I can't think of at the moment. Yes, it was fairly disorganized but it was all the time I had and I figured disorganized was better than nothing at all. So, as the ever-witty ML says, "ch-ch-chill."

we were swarmin'

A few weeks back I returned from a vacation in Texas and realized I didn't have my keys. Everyone with a key was at school or work and I was tired and in need of a hot shower and a nap. Because we keep the back gates locked I had to creatively scale the back fence and then find an open window to slide through. While I was in the backyard, I heard this high-pitched humming. We are not far from the freeway and frequently hear freeway noise. Since it was 3pm, I figured rush hour traffic was starting. And yet, it sounded different. Maybe some rice-rockets were racing around? Or is that a remote control car/airplane I hear? I brushed it off, slid through my window successfully and went around to the back door to retrieve my purse and suitcase.

As I came out the back door, I heard he humming again. We have carpenter bees in our overhang but this was slightly different. I saw a smaller bee fly by, then another, and then another. I looked around and saw thousands of bees in my neighbors yard - one house over and one house behind. I guess this is what they mean when bees swarm. I had never seen anything like this in my life and though I'm not afraid of bees, it was a bit intimidating. They were buzzing everywhere and in a frenzy so I quickly picked up my gear and got back in the house. By the time I got out of the shower and peeked out the back window, they were completely gone. Very strange indeed.

Late with summer seeds

I'm late - really late - in planting seeds for my summer garden. I typically do this in March but because I'm taking 3 classes on top of my full time job and I haven't had the time nor the energy. I barely had time to put some compost in the pot of my lemon tree, since it needed some food, was looking sad, and there was no time to make compost tea. My compost worms were traumatized during the move so I added some shredded paper for them to hide under. Within three weeks, I noticed something growing from under the shredded paper and was pleased to find tomato plants! Now I can transplant these seedlings into pots until they can hold their own. Pray they are not the pear tomatoes I planted last year as they are the only breed I didn't like. I am also thankful that I saw some volunteers growing where my japanese tomotoes were last year. Keep my fingers crossed and my hands folded in prayer.

My garlic is growing in leaps and bounds. It's thick and strong and I'm quite pleased. I know it's, again, really really late, but I planted some more two weeks ago. They will just be smaller cloves and I can use the leaves for chives in soups or salads.

My cotton is doing well. I have lots of sprouts on the main branches and I plan on adding some compost soon to feed them.

April 22, 2008 - Earth Day!!

Welcome to Earth Day! A day in which we celebrate Mother Earth and all she has given to us. It's a time we should use to contemplate how we can give back to her, then put those ideas into action.

Small and easy lifestyle changes can make a big difference. Turn off the water while you brush your teeth, start a carpool, recycle your cans, bottles, plastics, glass, paper, and cardboard, turn off the tv and go outside to play, use a fabric grocery bag instead of their plastic bags (many stores give you 5cents off your bill which quickly pays for the measly $1 they charge you for it,) or compost your kitchen scraps.

Fat Maow was enjoying the outside just the other day. Here she is in my apple tree. The blossoms must be the most wonderful thing to smell!

Today's poetry

Written in the fall during my last English class:

"little yellow natives"
falling from the trees
dancing wildly to the silent songs of the wind
the only sound
a tac tac of the dance
spinning
dancing
gathering together
little yellow natives

RIP Double Trouble

There are goods n bads about visiting old friends that you haven't seen in a long time. One of the bads is catching up and learning that some people, who were at one time critical in your life, have since passed on. This was my experience this week as I visit an old friend I haven't talked to in 15 years.

Back in the mid 80's I had just graduated from high school and drove down south to visit my friend for the summer. As responsible as I was, a couple of hundred dollars still didn't last me long, and soon I was broke & out of food. Living alone in a house in the country while my roommate was working the oil rigs, I was unnerved when I saw some tall, lanky, dark haired stranger coming up my back walk. I watched him lean down to get a better look at me through the windows and I met him at the door in attempts to keep him outside, because we never locked our doors.
"Who are you?" I asked. He replied, "I'm more welcome here than you are." I highly doubted that, but since he was my roommates friend, I let him in after introductions. His name was Terry and I figure he was a little more than 10 years older than I was. I must have been a sight, sunburnt and hadn't eaten in two days, and he noticed it all. Since my kitten was crying, I told him my woes of being broke and hungry. He proceeded to take me to the local convenience store and buy me enough cat food to last a week. After feeding the cat, he took me for a long drive in his old black Peterbilt.
It was a beautiful truck, all black with chrome, shiny and loved, with a triple wide sleeper. It had the old-style square nose, before they turned ugly and started to round the noses. "I'll teach you how to drive if you want to." *Well, how many gears does this thing have?* "Eighteen," he answered. "15 going forward and 3 in reverse." I remember the seats bouncing as we drove, and he told me he had the best shocks on those seats; other trucks were worse.
That day we went to some cafe in the middle of nowhere and he promised me they had the best food around. After eating a very large breakfast, I started on Terry's fries, all the while his dark eyes smiling at me as I could see his thoughts, "this girl can EAT!" He paid for our food and as he helped me back up into the truck, he leaned in for a kiss but I pulled back and refused. He smiled again and said he was OK with that. After stopping at his friend’s house, where I promptly fell asleep happy and full in the sleeper cab, he drove me home and remained a perfect gentleman. He would come by at least once a week to check on me, make sure I had enough to eat and that my roommate and his friends were behaving and minding me with respect. It was always a treat to hear that truck pull up out back and that drawl yell out "Blondie, I'm back! Where are you?"

So when I recently saw my old childhood friend, I had to ask, "Remember Terry the trucker? What ever happened to him?" Nonchalantly she answered, "Oh, Terry G, he died. I think his body just wore out."

R.I.P. Double Trouble

The hills are alive...

...with millions of tiny purple flowers.

In attempts to shed this winter weight, I took up a combination of walking/hiking with a coworker of mine. We walk/hike during our hour lunch break with half of our time on blacktop and half of our time on the dirt trails. Recently we've been wow'd with the amazing transformation of the hills we work in, with the mustard in bloom and turning the hillsides into beautiful patches of golden bliss. Today my coworker was unable to walk so I took a more difficult route that I use to frequent. As I rounded a corner near the top of the hill, the scenery was breathtaking. Instead of the tall, bold, golden mustard, I saw what must amount to millions of tiny, low-to-the-ground purple flowers. It looked like a purple blanket across the hillside. Mother Nature is amazing this time of year {sigh}

Easter weekend

It's the first weekend of Spring. Seeds are sprouting, plants have plenty of new growth and what better way to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus than by celebrating life itself?

Saturday we went to a local park that has a small "lake" and rented some small kayaks to take around the lake for an hour. Since my strength is in my legs, I expected my arms to tire out fairly quickly. I was surpised that I experienced no fatigue and little soreness the next day.

Sunday we went to Big Basin, walked the loop around the Mother and Father of the forest and started to hike to the falls. We didn't make it - we were unprepared so we'll try again another time. But the point is that we got OUT and experienced something other than being in the house or on the couch. I hope you all had as good a weekend as I did!

Cotton Update 2008

Did you know that cotton plants are perennials? I sure didn't and was about to rip out my 4 plants from last year until someone on one of my forums gave me the 411. And as I mentioned in yesterdays post, I was thrilled to find new buds growing on my cottons yesterday as I thought they hadn't survived winter. After all, they are typically grown much farther south than where I live.

Cows... in Berkeley?

Yesterday was another successful run of Ladies Work Day. The skies and the weatherman threatened rain but my apple tree was starting to bud and my oxalis weeds were nearly out of control so I planned on the 3 of us getting my backyard in order. With J pruning the apple tree, much less than it needed last year, and D and I working the beds of oxalis, we got a good 60-90 minutes of work before the rain started to fall. It was a light rain and the hummingbirds were still out so I wasn't worried. D asked how long we'd stay out working in the rain, J replied she ain't so sweet she'd melt so we stayed outside. Myself, I love the rain so I had no qualms about working while the skies dripped. It was over in a few minutes, we were fine but J noticed more clouds coming, about 20 minutes out. Sure enough, 15-20 minutes later the rain came down in pelts. More worried about the tools than us, we put them under the eaves to stay dry and low n behold, I saw raindrops come down and bounce off the patio. Hmmm, them's not raindrops; them's hail! Hail... in California March? I went out to the lawn and bb size hail bounced all around me. I untied my hair and let the hail and the rain pelt me. I can't remember the last time it was nice enough to enjoy a good rain shower. D&J didn't have spare clothes though so they stayed under the eaves and took pictures of me with hail stuck all over. Another 10 minutes and it was done. We worked some more, lunched at Chalateco's where we had beer & pupusas, and returned to finish the work. The 2nd half of the day showed all blue skies and beautiful weather - truly not what you would expect in California since our cruddy days tend to stay cruddy and our pretty days tend to stay pretty.
We found that my potatoes are flowering, my cotton is budding, and the gopher has moved to the front yard. Well, 2 out of three ain't bad! Not to mention my apple tree is ready for spring and so are all of my planting beds. Now to just decide what veggies to plant in them. hmmmm...

Lemon tree latest

And the end of summer, my friend found a great deal on Meyer lemon trees in 1 gallon pots. Knowing my love for lemons and how much I miss my last lemon tree, she bought one for me. I added the lemon tree into a 6 gallon pot, cleaned all of the water spots from her leaves and let her recoop. Even though she's produced some blossoms here and there, she hasn't produced any lemons so I've just let her be.

Between work, night-school, rainy days and semi-early dark evenings, I haven't spent much time in the backyard in months. But about 6 weeks ago I thought my lemon tree could use a good boost from my compost pile. No time to make compost tea, I opened the bottom of the compost bin, took 2-3 shovels full of goodness and put them around the tree. Then I got shredded paper from the office and put it all around so the wormies that came with the compost may have a reason to stick around. End of lemon tree care. Until yesterday.

I got home after work and took time to mosey through the backyard, clipping the broccoli, checking my spinach seedlings, and I stopped by to look at the lemon tree. I noticed some weeds growing out of the shredded paper and as my tired body bent over to pull them, my tired eyes noticed a familiar shape. I guess those shovels full of compost were full of tomato seeds cuz I have no less than about 20-25 volunteers all poking their heads up under the lemon tree... too bad I have no idea what kind they are!

67°F 40°F Clear and sunny all day

I miss winter already

Even though my winter here started with some really nice rain storms, it's petered out much too soon for my taste. The temps are already in the high 60's and yesterday they threatened 70's. The flowers are starting to bloom, the trees are budding and there are lots of new leaves. I'm hoping my apple tree will wait a little longer since I haven't had time to go prune it.

My spinach and mesculin mix seeds germinated well. I'll start more in 2 weeks so the crops overlap.

Yesterday I posted that my old hawk friend was spotted in my favorite lone oak tree on the hill. Here's a picture of each of them, taken on different days.

68°F 41°F - Mostly Cloudy: Wind N at 0 mph: Humidity: 76%

1st Monday of March

Currently: Sunny. High near 70. Wind NNW at 5 mph.

This morning my old hawk friend was sitting in my favorite lone oak tree on the hill. I saw 3 deer on the far hillside on the way up. I spotted a coyote hunting during my lunch walk with L.R. It was moving slow, took L.R. a while to spot it. I think it was that large coyote that I spotted the week before last when the rain clouds and the sun were feuding. A beautiful beast.

Why I don't post so much here anymore

Sometimes I wonder why I haven't yet become a hermit. The more I engage with people in my city and people at my work the more I realize how different I am than they are. I feel like no one understands me or who I am. Against my nature, I will have to begin keeping my comments and thoughts to myself because the comments and looks I get are seriously old. Perhaps one day I'll be one of those crazy ladies you see talking to herself on the streets. Perhaps I'm already her.

Snake skin

Last weekend I went to the retirement party of my BF's father. I was clear that we were to dress up and look our best, so I did something I hadn't done in more than a year... I got dressed up, put on makeup AND curled my hair! I was so uncomfortable, it was nearly unbearable. I felt like I was someone else; as if I were wearing an Edgar suit, and I wanted nothing more than to go home, get back in to my regular clothes, wash my face and scrub the mousse out of my hair. It's been 5 days and even with multiple scrubbings, I can still smell the hairspray. I've become quite sensitive to scents in the last 4 years and regular personal products and perfumes are my constant nemesis. I felt like a snake ready to shed it's skin and just needed a good sharp rock to scrub off the bad layers. Instead, I had a nice big glass of wine to take the edge off and tried to enjoy myself for the next 4 hours.

What I made last night...

Inspired by Farmgirl Fare's recent focaccia blog, I decided to take on the challenge and make Stephens Quick Rosemary Focaccia yesterday. Since I needed 4 Tablespoons of rosemary, I went to my small rosemary bush in the backyard but managed to only get about 3 Tablespoons, else I risked raping it of every last leaf. No worries, the rosemary is optional so I'll just lessen it a little bit.

The instructions were easy to follow but I did learn a few key things. I learned I should have 1/2'd the recipe as 3 people really don't need 2 whole focaccias. I also learned that my old garage-sale-find food processor could probably use some updating as it is small and had a hard time mixing all of the ingredients - but it did it's job in the end and I'm thankful. I also learned that you can't use a metal cookie sheet as a peel as the dough sticks to it, even with cornmeal. Or perhaps that lesson should have been to use more cornmeal? I'm not sure, I'll have to experiment more. I had read that if you are baking bread on a cold day you can let the dough rise in your oven with the light on and I did - it worked perfectly in my electric oven. While the oven and the baking stone were coming to temperature I needed warmth for the dough to rise a 2nd time. I put it on a cookie sheet in the microwave on top of a bowl of hot water. That did the trick for that quick 20 minutes 2nd rise.

Since my oven and baking stone are small, I had to cook each focaccia separately. Focaccia #1 : I forgot to eggwash and salt at the end. It had a great rosemary taste because rosemary was both inside the dough and on top during the final cooking, but it lacked shine and the crust was really hard in areas that were too thin. It almost seemed overcooked though I had it in the oven for the exact time called for. Focaccia #2 : I omitted the rosemary on top (remember I was short 1 Tbsp) but eggwashed and salted during the last two minutes and didn't keep it in as long. The crust is still solid but pliable, even today - not over-crunchy-hard like #1 was within an hour of it coming out of the oven. I think another error I made was making the rounds more like 10 inches instead of closer to the 8-9. I'm used to thin focaccias and thought this should be that way also. Next time, forget what I know ahead of time and just follow the recipe.

Today I'm enjoying focaccia #2 with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. No, I don't have any pictures because we had company, and how silly would I look taking a picture of focaccia before we devoured it? I just hope my rosemary grows back quickly so I can try this recipe again soon!

my thought for the day - do it without ipods, headphones, etc

walking alone is more spiritually healing

It's January 7th

and who here hates Mondays, raise your hand?

The 'storm' came through Friday and it was wonderful!! Lots of rain, a good amount of wind, just enough to blow down a few trees and create some little mudslides. With people at work still in Holiday mode, most were still on vacation so I took the opportunity to camp in an empty office with a window, so I could watch the action outside. When I got to work that morning, I got out of my car and was instantly pelted by fat raindrops. Being a life-long puddle stomper, I turned my face to the wind and enjoyed the rain on my skin. The storms caused lots of snowfall in the Sierra's and kept the roads damp over the entire weekend. Much needed and way overdue precipitation. I'm hoping for some more to roll in later this week. The dark clouds keep waving past but there is some blue skies and sun; no water falls from the sky today.

With the down trees comes loss of electricity. Today my coworker complained that because we live in California, modern technology should include no power outages. How dare PG&E not keep the pipes dry that house the electical lines and not have tree-proof power lines so that he is not inconvenienced. However, he went to his brothers house who had electricity, and is still alive, suffered no personal nor financial damage to his self nor his property and yet claims that the power outage for 36 hours was "a nightmare!" I suspect he has not a clue what a nightmare actually is. What he was, was simply minor inconvenience. I advised he be more prepared next time, with wood to burn for warmth and cooking, perhaps use some of the money he squeezes from each penny to put solar in his home and keep his batteries charged so he wouldn't have to experience this 'nightmare' again.