Ds2 found a praying mantis on the grapefruit tree today! He exclaimed to me, "Mama! I found a praying mantis!" :-) It was a beautiful green praying mantis. I have always loved praying mantis. When I was a child, my mom once had a "pet" praying mantis. We lived in a rental place and the owner would have a bug spraying service come by regularly to spray the property. My mom forgot about it and was crying and so sad that her praying mantis was probably killed. But then we found it and it was okay. It lived in some of the plants near our front porch.
I moved the praying mantis from the grapefruit tree to my garden. I love having beneficial insects in my garden. I had some ladybugs in there the other day? I think birds are eating my lettuce, but I have not had a chance to take care of that.
Until next time.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Praying Mantis
Labels: Gardening, Memory Lane
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Sick Goats
Labels: goats
Monday before last, which would have been the 13th, I noticed one of our baby doelings was feeling sickly. She was standing hunched over and just looked sad. Usually when they are hunched over like that, they are wormy, so the "cure" is to worm them. I wormed her and gave her some Probios. She was still looking poorly the next day, so I asked dh to give her a shot of B Complex and Vitamin C. The Vitamin C couldn't be found, so he gave her a shot of B. I then started thinking she had a cold.
But this week on Tuesday, I noticed the L's boy was acting like he was sick. I thought he just had a cold. The other little doeling was acting like she had gotten better. By Thursday, I had six sick goats. I still thought it was a cold. Everyone's fur was puffed up, they had snotty noses and were hunched over, just looking miserable. It warms up pretty good in the daytime, into the upper 80s, so once the morning chill is over, they seemed to be doing okay. I had looked in my goat books the previous evening, wondering if this could be pneumonia, which can happen with a change in weather. We have never had even one case of it in the 3.5 years we've had goats.
So on Thursday morning, we got out there and started giving immune boosters to everyone that was sick. I gave them all shots of Vitamin C, shots of B Complex, and drenched them with cod liver oil, molasses and garlic powder (herbal store organic).
On Friday... I woke up to find we had eight sick goats... By now I'm beginning to panic, as you can imagine. We have fifteen goats in all, and I was not looking forward to doctoring every last one of them.
I don't like to treat with antibiotics, but one of my goat mentors told me I should use them as pneumonia is 95% fatal. I got worried at that, but it wasn't until I got a few more letters of advice to use antibiotics that I decided to use them.
I actually panicked on Saturday morning when I saw that my favorite milker, L, had a snotty nose. One of the emails said to give 5mls per 100 pounds and a double dose on the first day. So I gave L 15mls. Which I found out afterwards that the dosage is actually 2.5ml per100 pounds. So I quadruple-dosed her. I do not know what the withdrawal time is for this antibiotic. Withdrawal time, as in the need to discard her milk in order to avoid ingesting antibiotic residue.
I ended up being able to talk to a lady that lives in a town about 2 hours from us, and she said I should check temperatures first before using antibiotics. So I used the guidelines if someone had a fever over 105°F, they were started on antibiotics. Luckily only three had temps over 105°F.
My mom came over yesterday to help us with doctoring everyone. I gave the ones without high fevers shots of C and B Complex, the garlic drench and cod liver oil (this is for the A and D vitamins).
My little doe that had been sick for so many days was not good at all yesterday. She was not even interested in THE GRAIN. Being she is her mother's daughter, she loves THE GRAIN. Since she was uninterested, that was quite worrisome. If a goat's rumen shuts down, they are in serious trouble and it is difficult to get the rumen started again, which of course means they could die. So that is always a concern when goats stop eating and drinking.
This morning she was still feeling poorly, so I gave her shots of C and B, and drenched her with an over-the-counter expectorant. I took her temp, which was 103 something, so I knew she was better. I offered her grain on the milking stand, and she nibbled at it. This was a great sign that she was feeling better. Not totally out of the woods yet.
But when we went out this afternoon to give shots to the three on antibiotics (since they now must have a dose for five days in a row), I observed her actually chewing her cud! This was a fantastic sign. She also seemed MUCH better.
I am feeling more optimistic that we won't lose anyone. I went to a thrift store on Friday morning where I was able to buy 10 sweatshirts/sweaters for the goats to wear, and they only cost me fifty cents each. It is a lot easier for them to hold in their heat if they have a covering.
We also ordered our first "squeeze" load of hay yesterday. $10.25/bale plus $10 delivery charge. Total came to $727.50. Seventy bales. We anticipate this should last for 7 weeks.
I'm so glad the sick goats are better, and that no more have gotten sick. Thank God.
Until next time.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Radish Slaw
Labels: recipes
Blogger is not letting me upload pictures. Oh wait. It's only in "Edit Html" mode... hmmm... now what does the code look like... that "div" "/div" thing seems to have stopped!!
I have all these radishes in my garden and I can only eat so many by themselves. So I decided to look on the Internet and see if there were any radish recipes. There were lots of hits for "grated radish" but it didn't seem any of the recipes used more than a tablespoon or two or three of radish.
So I decided to create my own radish slaw. Here is what I put in it:
- 7-8 radishes, grated
- 1 small clove garlic, crushed
- 2 Tablespoons sour cream
- salt to taste
- few shakes pepper
It was very tasty!
Until next time.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Baby, It's Cold Outside!
Labels: LJ
Last night, my little LJ was outside until about 8:00pm. He usually comes in much earlier. His ears were very cold and he curled up in a tight ball on his place on the couch. I snuggled two towels around him. He was asleep within moments. Such a sweetie pie.
Until next time.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Thanksgiving
Labels: blah blah blah
Last year we raised our own turkeys. We overgrew them actually... here is a hen and a tom. This tom ended up weighing 70 pounds and took EIGHT HOURS to pluck. I'm serious. My dh spent four hours immediately, but wearied of the process, so once I got home we both tackled the thing and sat there two hours plucking pinfeathers. He was a dark feathered bird. We learned that white feathered birds are much easier to process.
We had hoped to raise Bourbon Red turkeys this year. Our hen sat on eggs two or three times, but she had little success. We ended up taking some of her eggs and managed to hatch out two. One perished when it was only a few weeks old, and the other one managed to thrive. So now we have two toms and one hen but we don't want to have only one tom, in case it happens to die.
So that left us with a store bought bird this year.
Until next time.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Did I Get a Good Deal or Not?
Labels: Bargain Hunting, Musing
When we got satellite Internet, I cancelled our second phone line. Our home land line ranged from $42 to $50 with long distance at $0.05/minute from $10 to $25/month.
So about $52-$75/month.
When I cancelled the second phone line... I think the bill was going to be about $15 less, but it would still bounce around. So it would have been from $45 on up.
I decided last night that I wanted to have Call Waiting ($3) and so I went to the website to order. While there, I decided Caller ID ($5.85) would also be nice to have, so I ordered that as well. I anticipated the bill to go up by nearly ten dollars. So now we were up to $55/month+ again.
I didn't know that ordering these services was going to be like a shopping cart, so I got to a certain point and thought I was done. I left the computer for over an hour, came back to discover that I still had to hit one last button. I did that, but the "thank you for ordering" page didn't show that I'd ordered anything.
So I called this morning to double check and make sure my order had gone through. It had not. The guy I talked to was very chipper and nice and suggested a "bundle" where I could get three services -- the Call Waiting, Caller ID and one more. I choice the Voice Messaging. I always loved having Voice Messaging instead of having to fuss with an answering machine. So then the guy tells me that they have another thing they can add to this bundle. He says for $40.99/month, I can get these three services, plus free long distance to anywhere in the US, including in-state long distance. That is where the bulk of our long distance occurs, within our home state. As we live in the country, in a different area code, whilst most of our family and friends, my job, etc., live in an area code which makes our calls to them long distance. In-state long distance is free within our state on our *CELL* phones, but they sometimes don't get the best reception while inside the house.
Anyway... I will be curious to see just what the phone bill is each month. The guy made it sound like that's it, period, $40.99. But I bet there will be taxes and surcharges and all kinds of other things like that.
I won't know if I got a good deal for sure until I receive two phone bills. The next one will have a credit amount on it, for cancelling the second phone line. I mean, I guess I could just call and ask them, but I'm not THAT curious.
I'm happy to have those three extra services on the home line. They are nice little things to have.
Until next time.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Who Watches This Stuff?
Labels: Musing
The family and I were sitting around the living room the other morning... someone was channel surfing, don't know if it was dh or ds2 (since they both have a remote, haha!) but we came across this show called _You're Not Getting A Dime_. We watched the last half of it. I couldn't believe how stupid it was. It was a pilot show, I hope no one picks it up.
As far as I could tell, the father wasn't sick or dying, he was just rewriting his will. His four sons were supposed to help him figure out who to leave the house (worth $1 million), his collection of antique cars, and $50,000 cash.
So one son was "not getting a dime."
Ugh.
Until next time.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Cat and Mouse
Here's what happens in our house between cats and mice...
This is Tiger. We think he's visually impaired since he's so clumsy. This is a baby mouse, and the only interest Tiger has in it, is watching it run 'round my tub.
Now here it comes, running toward him. Obviously no fear from the mouse...
And here's the tub later. Sans cat. One lone mouse.
I discovered by chance that the mice were hiding down inside the drain... so I have started to leave the plug engaged. Now I'm finding that the mice (at least the babies) cannot leap high enough to leave the tub.
Even the pitbull, who is supposed to have terrier in his genetics, and according to societal perception, a desire to kill everything, isn't interested in catching my bathtub-trapped mice.
I ask dh or ds2 to do the deed, or on occasion I have slain them myself. Trust me. Removing them gently outdoors does no good at all. They will simply come right back in. Worst case scenario they chew holes in the underside of our manufactured home, big enough to tempt snakes to come inside. No, no, no, no, no!! I would rather slay a mouse or two than deal with a rattlesnake in my bedroom!
Until next time.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Pruning Bushes and Visiting the Dump
Labels: Memory Lane, work
I blogged previously about chopping the poor bougainvillea bushes down to nothing. Yesterday was the day we were scheduled to chop down the other four. As you can see, they are quite full and beautiful. If you click on the photo, I uploaded a large one so you can have a closer look.
It was almost painful to chop these down to nothing. As I said in my aforementioned previous entry, this is what my FIL requested.
So that's the before picture, and now here's the after picture.
I guess it's not so shocking. Again, it's just that I've never seen this type of bush butchered down to nothing, ever before.
The back of our pickup was loaded, as well as our trailer. We brought along some other things to throw away while visiting the dump. The cost was only ten dollars, which is quite inexpensive! Out where we live, it costs $25 just to drive onto the site and dump anything. Then you pay a per pound price. This dump is a long ways from where we live, so it wouldn't really be economical, even though it's cheaper. Once you figure in gasoline at $2.15/gallon and the vehicle only gets 12-15 miles to the gallon... it's cheaper to just pay the $25 to the locals.
I know you will probably never hear anyone else say this, but going to the dump makes me feel sad inside. The thing that makes me feel sad, is to see all the things that people throw away, which are perfectly usable!!!! When we throw things away, they are totally trash and no longer fit to be anywhere, but in the dump! Note the arrows pointing down to the old mattress and two box springs. They are ripped and torn apart and no one could use them for anything. We throw our old mattresses and box springs out for the dogs to sleep on. They play on them and sleep on them, and rip them apart... so they need to be thrown away.But while we were at the dump, I saw truck after truck, after truck with men throwing away perfectly good things. One man, I imagined that he was a landlord who had evicted some tenants. He was driving a rental trailer, and he had trouble getting it backed in properly. He kept jack-knifing it and having to pull forward, and try again. He threw away a propane fueled barbeque, not the best one you can buy, but it looked like it was in perfectly usable condition. He also threw away a wooden desk, just a little one that you might sit at and write notes. Not a big office desk. He threw away a desk chair and a la-z-boy type chair. Plus a bunch of other things that looked like something you shouldn't be throwing away!
Another man threw away two big wooden gate looking things, plus a bunch of big pieces of plywood. The gate things looked really neat and I'm sure would have made some really good shades for the goats.
But it's illegal to take anything with you from the dump nowadays. When I was growing up... we rarely had a vehicle to go to the dump with, but when we did, it was okay to take anything there that we might have been able to use. But now people throw away perfectly good things, and smash, into the refuse pile it goes. At least at this dump.
We have been to another dump that does a good amount of recycling and has areas cordoned off for things like bicycles and parts, mattresses and box springs, furniture, etc. But I think they take it someplace and refurbish and then sell it. Or maybe sell it to someone. I know it's probably grossing you out to think of reusing someone's old mattress... but I have never bought a brand new bed in my entire life. The only ones I could allow myself to buy would be such cheap pieces of crap that they would wear out in a year's time.
Until next time.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Two Bread Things I Learned Today
Labels: Nourishing Traditions
First off, I decided to try converting my favorite banana bread recipe... I have always known that quick breads should be made with pastry flour, and I just received my food coop order which included pastry wheat berries. Only as usual, when the idea struck me, it was night already and I don't like to grind flour indoors due to the flour dust and noise. And I don't want to grind outside once it's night. Just too noisy.
Anyway, I took out my cook book, La Leche League's _Whole Foods for the Whole Family_ and noticed that I had made a note to myself (years and years ago) to not use pastry flour because the bread came out too soggy. Nowadays I'd just add less liquids to fix that. At any rate, when I saw that I'd made a note to myself years ago to use regular flour vs. pastry, I thought I'd just go ahead and try it.
Bad idea. I did wonder how I was going to mix the bananas, maple syrup, oil, etc., into the glutenous ball of soaked flour... but I figured it would eventually mix in. It wouldn't. I put it in my KitchenAid on high speed using the whisk... all that did was break the soaked flour down into little globs. I ended up fishing through the batter with my fingers, feeling each little bit and pulling out all the flour globs. I put all the globs into my blender and blended them. I didn't want to pour the entire batter into the blender, because I like to leave my bananas mashed and in little clumps.
I also decided to add an extra 1/2 teaspoon baking soda since the batter had been mixed so much. I always try to mix my banana bread quickly and only as much as needed to thoroughly mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients, then pop it into the oven. Obviously soaking the flour first changes that.
The banana bread actually turned out, but I want to try making it with pastry flour next time.
Second thing I learned. This is regarding yeast bread. I have been soaking my flour overnight, using 1 cup water and 4 tablespoons kefir. I decided to soak this batch for 24 hours. This loaf was extremely sour. So I will probably refrain from soaking more than 12 hours. This loaf was a flop. The only saving grace is it will work excellently for Zucchini Custard Casserole. I could also soak it with kefir for the chickens. They always love kefir-soaked failed loaves of bread. :-)
I have renewed my interest in trying to avoid phytates. There is a book coming out in spring of 2007 called Rebuild from Depression and the author has put an excerpt from her chapter on phytic acid on her website. It is a very convincing excerpt, and although I've read about the problems with phytic acid, it never really sank in all that well. Basically, whole wheat flour/grains, etc., contain phytic acid. Phytic acid binds to minerals while in your intestines, moving them out of your body so that your body cannot use these minerals, especially zinc and magnesium. The very first part of her excerpt mentions the vegetarian diet and believes the absorption of these minerals could be doubled by following the soaking methods.
Until next time.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Books I've Read in 2006
Labels: books
Thursday, November 16, 2006
My Accent
Wow. This thing is pretty accurate.
| What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta. | |
| North Central | |
| The Midland | |
| Boston | |
| The South | |
| The Inland North | |
| Philadelphia | |
| The Northeast | |
| What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes | |
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Fall 2006 Seed Order and Lotsa Radishes
Labels: Gardening
Radishes from yesterday's thinning and there are still more to go! There's a couple dozen here, I'd say, and there is a good 3-4 dozen more out there. LOL. I was hoping to encourage myself with the growth of SOMETHING, anything! Radishes grow so fast, I knew they would be encouraging. The varieties in the photo above are Purple Plum and French Breakfast.
I did order seeds from my favorite seed company, and was surprised at the shipping cost. Apparently they finally decided to raise their seed shipping price. I suppose it is due to the Internet shopping cart. They used to take the order, then compute the shipping costs later, and charge your credit card later. But now they charge a flat rate, based on how much you buy.
This is what I ordered:
SP3. MUNG BEANS 4 Oz. 1.95 These are the beans used to make bean sprouts that are found in the store. We have a hard time finding fresh bean sprouts. They don't seem to last too long once we get them home. So we know we have to use them that night or the next night at latest. I'd like to try growing them.
- 51. BUBBLES Brussels Sprouts (F1 Hybrid 88 days) 1.50
- 53. FALSTAFF Brussels Sprouts (95 days) 1.50
- 32. EARLY WONDER Beets (50 days) 0.80
- 36. ACTION Beets (F1 Hybrid 50 Days) 0.95
- 45. DIA GREEN Broccoli (F1 Hybrid 43 days) 1.25
- 6101 GONZALES MINI Cabbage (F1 hybrid 55 days) 1.25
- 64 KRAUTMAN Cabbage (F1 hybrid 73 days) 1.50
- 73 LITTLE FINGER Carrots (60 days) 0.75
- 74 RED CORED CHANTENAY Carrots (75 days) 0.75
- 78 HEALTHMASTER Carrots (80 days) 0.95
- 82 SILVER CUP 40 Cauliflower (F1 hybrid 40 days) 1.25
- 84 GRAFFITI Cauliflower (Purple!) (F1 hybrid 75 days) 1.75
- 8402. CHEDDAR Cauliflower (Orange!) (F1 Hybrid 58 days) 1.75
- 94. BRIGHT LIGHTS Chard (F1 hybrid) 0.95
- 152 ICHIBAN IMP Eggplant (F1 hybrid 57 days) 1.25
- 158 LAVENDER TOUCH Eggplant (F1 hybrid 66 days) 1.25
- 19101 KONSERVA Kale (50 days) 0.95
- 203 PINETREE LETTUCE MIX 0.95
- 213 TOM THUMB Lettuce (47 days) 0.75
- 257 MR BIG Peas 1.50
- 280 CAYENNE-LONG Pepper (70 days) 0.75
- 301 CHERRY BELLE Radishes (21 days) 0.75
- 332 SPACE Spinach (F1 hybrid 41 days) 0.95
- 406 SUNGOLD Tomatoes (F1 hybrid 60 days) 1.50
- 395 CLUSTER GRANDE Tomatoes (F1 hybrid 63 days) 1.25
- 409 TIP TOP Tomatoes (74 days) 0.95
- W239 CHIOGGIA Beets (55 days) 0.95
- W321 VERTE A CARDE BLANCHE Chard (54 days) 0.95
- W467 EVERGREEN BUNCHING HESHIKO Green Onions (65 days) 0.95
- W468 BUNCHING CRIMSON FOREST Green Onions (60 days) 0.95
Subtotal $35.45
Shipping Calculated 5.25
GRAND TOTAL $40.70
Until next time.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Blogger is Driving Me Mad
Labels: geek-stuff
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
Labels: recipes
I have a hankering for chocolate chip cookies, and thought it would be fun to make them giant-sized. So I went looking on the Internet and found Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies from the All Recipes site.
I actually managed to follow the recipe exactly. Except my recipe only made 9 giant cookies, instead of one dozen.
Until next time.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
My 9 Month Old Pooch
Labels: LJ
I shot this picture of him yesterday. He's gotten SOOOO big!! We weighed him a couple of weeks ago, and he weighed 69 pounds. Not an ounce of fat on him, he's pure muscle. He loves playing fetch and is learning to herd the basketball outside. He still rolls around on his back with toys, pawing the air and chomping the toy.
He outgrew his crate several weeks ago; he could still get in and snuggle into a tightly curled ball, but he couldn't stretch out at all and it just didn't feel right to expect him to sleep that way. One night he had an accident in his crate and it was taken outside for cleaning but never got brought back in.
The first few nights, I didn't feel comfortable allowing him to sleep by himself in the livingroom, so I called him to sleep with us in bed. He was so excited to get to sleep with us. Around that time, my asthma started acting up, and I started to wonder if it was because I had a dog sleeping in my bed... after all, I did test positive as being allergic to dogs. Also because he is so big, I was sleeping on the very edge of my side and dh was getting his back scratched every night due to the pooch stretching out.
So we decided to let him sleep in the living room. He is house broken, but I was worried that he might not be able to make it overnight. His being housebroken is such a HUGE thing for dh and I. When I was growing up, I remember when I was 6 years old and we had a dog that we could never get housebroken. Well duh, we were gone many hours a day. We dealt with that problem in later years by having outside only dogs. We used to babysit this one dog, a Golden Retriever named Dukie but he was housebroken by his owners. When dh and I were first married, our first Christmas, he bought me a miniature black poodle. I named her Mistletoe and we called her Missy. We could never get her housebroken. We finally gave her to one of our neighbors that wanted her. Our other dogs were already housebroken since we got them as adults. We couldn't get our sister puppies, Tess and Penny, housebroken. We just didn't know how to do it, duh!! We would let them out by themselves and then call them back in and they would wait until they came back in to potty!!!!
With LJ, I took him outside and stayed with him and told him to "go potty" and praised him when he went. He figured out what we wanted him to do.
Early Thursday morning, around 2am, I heard whining at our bedroom door. I got up because I figured LJ had to go potty. He was so happy to see me, his tail wagging hard but he was also slowly walking toward the front door, where he rang the bell.
We've trained him to not bark in the house, and this works out really wonderfully as he will look up and listen when he's inside, but mostly sleeps through hearing our other dogs barking.
I figured he had to go to the bathroom since he usually sleeps through the night. I stood on the front steps outside the front door, listening to the night sounds. Hannah, our dog pack leader was moving things around by the garden, probably after a lizard or some crawling critter. The moon was shining brightly and I could hear one of our milkers, Miss L. calling questioningly, wondering if it was time for milking yet, and what was going on over there with all that racket? One of our other dogs, Tess, ran over to see LJ. Through all this, he did his business and came running back to come indoors and continue his night's sleep. I have let him stay outside two or three nights and it is so funny because the next day he's exhausted since he's been on high alert all night long. Anyway, that was a huge breakthrough, as to me it says he is fully housetrained and he also respects that this is our territory and not to be soiled.
I was realizing the other day that he never bothers the trash. I mentioned that to dh this morning and he said that LJ did show some interest in the trash a few days ago, but he corrected him and that's that. He is so intelligent.
Oh, the latest thing he's learning is to carry the flashlight. He is so proud and excited about his light. The past week when I leave for work it's dark - that's normal since I leave at 5:30am, but I've been home late every single night and it is also dark once I arrive home (close to 7pm). LJ carries the flashlight proudly every morning and evening. There is a little rope with a ball hanging on the flashlight. Sometimes he carries it by the rope, but sometimes he carries the whole flashlight in his mouth. Backwards. So the light is shining into his throat, LOL!! He is so proud. He prances around happily, with his ears back and shoves the light into the other dogs' faces trying to show them how special he is.
I'm excited about it, because he is learning to carry something, and now he'll understand to carry other things.
He is usually anxious to go outdoors in the early morning and help with chores (cleaning the milk strip cup, mainly), but since it's been colder in the morning he has been staying indoors where it is warm and snuggly. I have a pattern for a dog sweater, I am really tempted to buy one for him from Walmart, they are only ten dollars. But I want to make him one, so I keep crocheting along on the baby sweater.
Tess and he love to play fight.
I practice a lot with him, ordering him to stop when he's very excited about something. For example, I have heard for years that you should never play tug-of-war with your dog. But then I learned that you can play tug, it's just important to follow some rules to make sure you don't end up with any problems. Interestingly enough none of the dogs will play tug with LJ. They must have figured out long ago that he can hold on longer and is stronger, so they don't even bother to play with him. He will pick up a toy to play tug with and shove it into their faces, trying to coax them into playing with him. They won't, so I do. We play tug for a few minutes at a time, then I tell him "DROP!" and he lets go of the toy right away. I have him sit, then tell him "Catch!" and toss the toy directly to him. He is getting better at catching, especially if the tug toy is floppy.
He was so mouthy for the longest time, but he has grown past that stage as well. I worked with him on bite inhibition, so he understands that he must be gentle with hands.
I didn't understand in the beginning when he was biting so much all the time, that he was just being a puppy!! It's a normal part of being a puppy to bite everything all the time! He has absolutely no aggressive behavior with regards to food, even his beloved *bones* that he gets every day. We have been buying him beef back ribs and having the butcher cut them into 4 inch long pieces and he just loves them. I can take him bone right out of his mouth and pretend to nibble on it myself and he just watches me with curiosity.
He's an awesome dog.
Until next time.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Baby Garden Greens
Labels: Gardening
I need to spend more time in my garden! It's time I planted more seeds, and I have more weeding and thinning to do. I decided to take a trip out there earlier this evening, and I was delighted to find that I have lots of mature radishes, just ready for the picking! I am glad I decided to not buy any from the store while we were doing our grocery shopping today. The last ones I bought had a chemical taste to them anyway. I had a thick clump of lettuce growing together, so I transplanted about a dozen of them. I picked a few outer leaves. I also thinned out a few beets, but there are a lot more that need to be thinned and/or transplanted. I weeded out more Malva, but there is still a lot left! The radishes are growing like mad all over and I really need to thin them out as well.
I always order my seeds from Pinetree Seeds. They are my favorite seed company. I've been ordering seeds from them for over a decade. Here is what they say about their company, "While we sell a variety of items for the home gardener, we started out as a vegetable seed company and this remains our primary focus. We spend the majority of our time in our trials evaluating vegetable seed varieties and produce some of them here. Since we deal only with home gardeners, we don't worry about shipping or machine harvesting characteristics. What we do worry about is flavor, space efficiency, beauty, and uniqueness. If you can't find something you are looking for in the regular vegetable section, be sure to check the Vegetable Favorites from Around the World section that directly follows the standard vegetable section."
I love looking at their seed catalog, reading the descriptions and imagining all these lovely veggies growing in my garden. I'm so excited that so far my garden is not being ravaged by any pests! The gophers seem to be stumped by the chicken wire in the bottom of the bed, or maybe they've moved away?
My harvest consisted of: Purple Plum radishes, Oakleaf lettuce, Plato lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson lettuce, Fordhook Swiss chard, and baby beets. I really must take a look again at my catalog and order a few more packages of seeds. I am planning to grow kale for the first time, because it is a favorite of ds2. Pinetree Seeds is located in New Gloucester, Maine so the planting instructions are a bit different for our climate, but that's okay because I know what gets planted at this time of year. I like to order this lettuce mixture: 203. PINETREE LETTUCE MIX (begin harvesting in 40 days) We have been experimenting with various Mesclun Mixes from France and Italy and you will find these in the ethnic vegetable sections. We see a number of advantages to mixing greens: you get a variety of colors, textures, tastes and maturation times from the same planting. This mix has a uniquely American twist, however; they are all leaf lettuces and all sweet varieties. You won't get anything bitter or spicy. The mix will contain all the looseleaf varieties in the catalog and nearly a dozen others. Our reasoning must have struck the right note. This has become our best selling item and we continue to receive hundreds of compliments on it.
This package contains ~500 seeds and costs $0.95. That is a GREAT price!! I try to order seeds at least once or twice a year and shipping is only $1.95 each time when you order only seeds.
This is the list of things that can be planted this month (T = Transplants, S = Seeds, if no symbol assume Seeds):
- Asparagus T
- Beets*
- Bok Choy
- Broccoli TS
- Brussel Sprouts T
- Cabbage TS
- Cabbage, Chinese TS
- Carrots*
- Cauliflower TS
- Chard TS*
- Collard Greens
- Endive
- Kale
- Kohlrabi TS
- Lettuce, Head TS
- Lettuce, Leaf TS*
- Mustard
- Onions, Bulb
- Onions, Green
- Peas
- Radishes*
- Rutabagas
- Spinach
- Turnips
Tonight we will have a little salad to go along with our grilled Green Chili and Cheese burgers.
Until next time.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Crocheting On The Way Home
Labels: crocheting
I am sure I've mentioned time and again my lengthy drive home. On the way home on Tuesday evening, I turned my two skeins of yarn into balls, and I got started on the rib for the toque. I learned with the first skein that the yarn would become incredibly tangled if I just pulled the center piece. I ended up having to turn half a skein of tangled yarn into a ball. This was much easier. Took me about 20 minutes per ball.
This yarn -- Bernat Baby Coordinates Sweet Stripes Yarn -- is the worst I've ever used. I am pretty sure the problem lies in the fact that I'm crocheting instead of knitting. The crochet hook manages to hook the little shiny thread that is wrapped around the yarn.
I'll be really glad when I'm done with this little outfit. I can't wait to move onto something to knit. 
Now on the way home today I got some more rows added to the rib of the toque. Actually I had an opportunity to crochet the rows that are white while I was doing the company banking. I happened to get in line with a new teller, being trained by another gal that I saw for the first time about two weeks ago. I was probably there for fifteen minutes. The training teller asked me what I was knitting. I explained to her that I was crocheting. A few minutes later, she needed "teller assistance" and a young man came over and asked me what I was sewing. ;-)
Then on the way home, I managed to crochet the blue rows.
Have I taken loss of my senses? Driving while crocheting?
No, dear reader. Here is the reason I was able to crochet on my way home on Tuesday evening:
There was apparently a fatality on the only highway that I can get home on. It is only two lanes going both directions. Traffic was held up on both sides for at least an hour.
I considered voting early in the morning (next time I will remember to vote by mail!) since the polling place was 4 miles away from home. But I had such a busy week ahead of me, that I decided to wait until after work. I left work late, and then ran into this huge parking lot on my way home. I had to go home first, (because I forgot my wallet at home!) and of course after sitting and driving for two hours, I had to use the little girl's room. So I got to the polling place at 6:40pm.
Today I don't know what was wrong on the freeway, all I know is it was backed up into a parking lot. So I thought I'd take the alternative route, (this is before I hit the highway which takes me home) which proved to be a lengthy wait, but gave me more time to crochet.
I finally got my asthma attack under control last night. I realized/decided what I was experiencing was an asthma attack. I started back on the Flovent and was taking a homeopathic remedy every thirty minutes which helped a lot. I am still needing to use my inhaler every 4 hours or so. I hope I can get this under control without needing to contact my doctor, who might want me to take prednisone. Although the last time he said I should take it, I told him straight out I wanted nothing to do with it, and he was okay with that. It causes some unearthly cravings and hunger. I am feeling pretty good about my eating and body right now, that's the last thing I need is to be on prednisone.
Until next time.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
200th Post
Labels: Musing
Too bad it's not something more exciting... I am not even going to blog about yesterday evening. I'm actually a bit worried about myself. Ever since the head cold, my breathing has not been right and I've had to use my inhaler much more often than I have for at least a year. I was using it maybe 5-15 times a month, and now suddenly I'm up to 4-5 times daily. It has been very dusty and the air quality has been poor in the city where I work.
Tonight my breathing got much much worse and I felt I needed to use Albuterol barely 1.5 hours after the last dose.
I decided I would start back on Flovent. I just saw my allergy/asthma specialist not two weeks ago and he was surprised that I had done so well during the head cold. He said most people end up having to take prednisone. I only had to start using the Albuterol again. So... he did tell me if I had to start using the Albuterol more than four times a day regularly, that I should go back on the Flovent.
I also dug out my Fenugreek, took some of that, and I have a homeopathic remedy for Asthma which says to take every half hour during the acute phase.
I have been to the emergency room with an asthma attack just a few weeks after I was diagnosed with asthma. They don't find it important at all. I sat wheezing and gasping for 8 hours. They finally put me into a room, gave me a breathing treatment and a shot of prednisone. I'm not going through that again. The physician who saw me said I could use the Albuterol as often as every two hours. I did not know that.
So I don't feel like being at the computer, and have rambled on much longer than I thought I would. I am going to take more of the homeopathic remedy and if I'm still having trouble breathing by 8:30pm I'm going to use my son's breathing machine to get a really good dose. He is prescribed a more pure form of Albuterol, too, so it might help more than mine.
Gasp. I'm actually feeling much less stressed about my breathing.
Maybe I'll take a nice hot bath...
Until next time.
