Warm Vanilla Milk

I couldn't sleep a few nights ago. I hate just lying there, wondering why I'm awake. Knowing I have to get up at a certain time. It was different during the years when I was a stay at home mom and had no set schedule.

I learned in my thirties that sometimes when I can't sleep it's because I'm hungry. Only I don't feel hungry at all. And in fact, the thought of putting food in my mouth is the last thing I'm interested in. I learned by trial and error if I just get up and eat something with protein: a hunk of cheese, a glass of milk, a couple of slices of ham or turkey, I'm able to go back to sleep. Even though food is the last thing on my mind, and even sounds repulsive. I believe I learned this because when I was a stay at home mom, I could be more flexible with my schedule. I could get up and read a book, wash dishes or get on the computer. And usually after being up for a couple of hours, finally, my stomach would start growling. Suddenly and voraciously.

One of my coworkers has diabetes and she says it can be a sign of low blood sugar to be hungry, but not feel hungry.

Anyway, the other night as I was lying there, unable to sleep, I reminded myself, "Self, you're probably hungry, you should get up and get something to snack on." Hot cocoa sounded good, and we had Ovaltine (I like to keep it on hand for a quick glass of cold chocolate goat's milk for breakfast). Only when I got up, I couldn't find the Ovaltine. It wasn't in the usual place, and wasn't in the pantry area either. That means it probably got left in the car. I'm not going out for Ovaltine at nearly midnight, so I thought of what else might sound appealing.

I decided on having what I will call Vanilla Milk. Here's the ingredients.

• 1 cup milk (obviously I used fresh goat's milk)
• 1 tsp. vanilla (homemade using vanilla beans and vodka)
• 1 tsp. butter
• 1 T. maple syrup

Heat until just warm.

If you like vanilla, you will love this.

Until next time.

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The New Garden Bed

My grand idea for the new bed seems to be a flop. The problem is I thought we could get by with using straight compost to fill the pallet, but it's too airy and isn't holding moisture well. I tell you, if it's not one thing, it's another.

The watering system is having trouble working due to the airiness. Normally the ground is dense enough that the water spreads evenly, but with the airy compost it is flowing downward, not outward.

Normally I mix the compost into the dirt already in the bed. In hindsight, that's what we should have done. We should have mixed equal parts compost with dirt before filling the pallet. But that would have been one more huge step.

It's imperative that the bed stay moist during the next few days so the seeds can germinate. Today it's possible for me to run out there every couple hours and spray the bed with the hose. Dh found an old spare hose that I can use for that purpose. We have lots of hoses around here, and most are in daily use for watering the critters.

I think I want raised beds. I can line the bottom with hardware cloth to keep out the gophers and make the sides 16 inches tall. I hope they can't jump or climb.

Here are some of the sites I found which show the type I want:

Sunset: The Perfect Raised Bed (We would of course use used material, not brand new. $178? No way.)

Here's another one from Sunset - five raised beds for $500. Sheesh.

Garden Girl builds raised beds. I just read at the last site, use treated wood or it will rot quickly. Garden Girl says not to... also, she is using 10" wide boards, while Sunset says they will warp easy or come apart at the sides.

Wet dirt is heavy.

About.com's How to Make a Raised Bed.

I've been Square Foot Gardening for over a decade.

Earth Easy says don't use treated wood until it's been proven safe. They suggest using cedar instead, and project the beds will last 10-20 years. They also suggest composite plastic lumber.

University of Illinois says raised beds stay warmer. Hmmm... it is plenty hot here in the summer time. Although I don't do a lot of gardening in the summer.

Heh, check out this idea for raised beds: Using flagstone to make low walls, which only costs $190 to $280 per ton, PLUS delivery. And each bed uses 3 tons. Funny.

University of Arizona Cooperative Extension says raised beds use LOTS of water in the summertime. Hmmm... well, I'll have to think more about this.

Until next time.

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Seeds Planted

Okay, the second bed is planted. It took me from 9:30am to 2:30pm to get the watering system set up, and the seeds planted. I took an hour break between noon and one.

It takes time, but it's worth it. Also, it wouldn't take so much time if I didn't have to worry about all the critters out here that want to eat my veggies.

Also, if I bought new watering system equipment it would have been quicker. I spent a good hour rummaging around looking for pieces so I could put the system together. I had to put ends on the hose that runs from the faucet to the bed, I shortened the length of the hose on the first bed. Just a lot of little things.

I also drew a map of where I would plant everything in the garden. Unfortunately I sketched the map wrong, so I thought I had more room than I did. But that's okay. I compromised. Hmmm... the BS in the first row there stands for Brussels Sprouts. Every once in a while I come across a word that I've spelled wrong all my life. Brussels Sprouts contains one of those words. I never realized Brussels had the "s" at the end.

It is so exciting to me during the next week, waiting to see the brand new baby plants poking their heads up through the soil.

I am trying something completely different with this bed. I lined the bottom of a pallet with hardware cloth and chicken wire, with hopes of keeping the gophers out. I also lined the sides of the pallets along the edges so that they go up about one foot. I hope gophers can't climb. *crossing fingers* Dh filled the spaces in the pallets with composted goat manure/hay which is also mixed with dirt. The watering system didn't do a very good job at moistening the dirt, so I ended up using a hose with a sprinkler attachment. I think I will go out there at least once a day and water the entire area real well. Once the seeds have germinated, they will seek out water from the nearest source. But the seeds won't germinate unless they stay nice and wet.

It occurred to me as I was sketching out the map that I'd forgotten that it's important to plant vegetables together that do well side by side...

I am soaking my Sweet Pea flower seeds, and actually had to use that spot in the garden to plant the turnips and carrots! I will have to figure out what to do about the Sweet Pea seeds, and the celery seeds tomorrow. They are both soaking.

Well, it's time to milk now.

Until next time.

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November Gardening

The "official word" from the University of Arizona College Agriculture and Life Sciences - November.

As with last month, I'm going to bold the things I'm planting. Everything will be planted from seed.

S = Seed
T = Transplant

November 1st to November 15th:

• Asparagus T
• Beets ("Crosby" 45 days "Chioggia" 55 days Heirloom Varieties)
  
• Bok Choy ("Ching Chang" 45 days I've never planted Bok Choy before)
  
• Broccoli TS ("Early Dividend" 43 days F1 Hybrid)
  
• Brussels Sprouts T ("Bubbles" 88 days F1 Hybrid - whoops, only supposed to plant transplants! I'm only a few days past the end of October though, so I'm going for it anyway.)
  
• Cabbage TS ("Golden Acre" 55 days)
  
• Cabbage, Chinese TS
• Carrots ("Mokum" 54 days F1 Hybrid)
  
• Cauliflower TS ("Early Snowball" 55 days)
  
• Chard TS ("Bright Lights" 57 days Heirloom Variety)
  
• Collard Greens
• Endive
• Kale ("Konserva" 50 days Heirloom Variety)
  
• Kohlrabi TS
• Lettuce, Head TS
• Lettuce, Leaf TS ("Pinetree Lettuce Mix" 40 days and "Tom Thumb" 47 days Heirloom Varieties)
  
• Mustard
• Onions, Bulb
• Onions, Green
• Peas ("Knight Pea" 56 days Heirloom Variety)
  
• Radishes ("Cherry Belle" 21 days Heirloom Variety)
  
• Rutabagas
• Spinach ("Bloomsdale Long Standing" 42 days Heirloom Variety)
  
• Turnips ("Purple Top White Globe" 58 days Heirloom Variety)
  

Celery ("Utah" 100 days) is supposed to be planted by the end of October, but I'm going to try it anyway.

November 16th through 30th:

• Asparagus T
• Beets
• Bok Choy
• Broccoli TS
• Brussel Sprouts T
• Cabbage TS
• Cabbage, Chinese TS
• Carrots
• Cauliflower TS
• Chard TS
• Collard Greens
• Kale
• Kohlrabi TS
• Lettuce, Head TS
• Lettuce, Leaf TS
• Mustard
• Onions, Green
• Peas
• Radishes
• Rutabagas
• Spinach
• Turnips

And now I need to get out to my garden and get things started. The new bed is ready, since the gophers have taken over my garden we are trying a new technique which involves a pallet with the bottom lined with wire to hopefully keep the gophers out. I need to put the watering system together, and then I'll be able to plant the seeds.

Here's the current temp:

Until next time.

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View From My Garden

I feel like I spend most of my life rushing and running, constantly on the go with things to do every moment. I am trying to consciously take some time where I sit and reflect on the fact that I not having to rush at that moment.

I've been wanting to eat outside for some time, but of course for the last few months it has been too hot. Or too dusty. Or too windy. It was too chilly at breakfast this morning (dh made Pizza Eggs), but at lunch it was very mild out. There was a soft breeze. I washed the glass table that I've wanted to have in my garden area, and moved it into the garden. I brought my lunch out, sat and enjoyed the sunshine and the soft breeze and my lunch.

These are really expensive, so I only buy them once every few months: Benetino's Bistro Sensations: Sausage Chicken Habanero W/Monterey Jack Cheese Meat. I also had some sauerkraut and Zucchini Soup. How do you like my water glass? Yes, that's a quart size jar.

I'm planning to put a second garden bed in this weekend. Several different types of lettuce came up:

Red Velvet Lettuce

Freckles

And a few others, but I'm not sure which ones. I order the Pinetree Lettuce Mix which contains all the sweet looseleaf lettuces that Pinetree sells, plus more, so sometimes it is hard to identify what has come up. It makes for such a colorful salad, I just love the mixture they put together.

My seed order included a $2 off coupon, if I order by the end of the year. I am going to try to remember to get my tomato and eggplant seeds ordered.

I think I'll harvest some lettuce and make a salad to go with tonight's dinner. After I milk. We changed to afternoon milking a couple of weeks ago.

Until next time.

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Swiss Chard from my Garden

Tonight I decided it was time to harvest some Swiss Chard from my garden. Isn't it beautiful?!! Only a few seeds germinated, so I had to wait to harvest until there was enough to make at least a small portion for each of us.

I like to plant Bright Lights, as you can see the stems are very bright and beautiful. A yellow plant came up, as did a pink, and a red. No orange.

We are working on a new bed and I will be planting more Swiss Chard. And some other yummy things. I also picked radishes tonight. Lettuce also came up, and one lettuce plant actually started to bolt! I have been pulling weeds every couple of days, just a few at a time when I go to look at the garden. It's clearing out nicely.

I hope to get the watering system set up and more seeds planted this coming weekend.

We had the Swiss Chard steamed with dinner: chili and cornbread. Disaster was narrowly averted when Kev remembered the last pound of butter was on the table. We usually keep butter in stock in the freezer, but we are out! We try to only buy it on sale, and the sales have been far and few between.

Until next time.

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My Favorite Things

Welcome the "My Favorite Things" tag. Things that make me happy. Things I like. Things that are my favorites.

Occasionally I'll have this favorite from Wendy's:

A small fry and small frosty. Frosty's used to only come in chocolate but they came out with vanilla a few years ago. I still prefer the chocolate.

These items used to also be on the 99 cent Value Menu, but the price has gone up to $1.39 and $1.19. What used to cost me $2.16 tonight cost me $2.79.

I know this is not nutritious food. It's a choice I opt for occasionally. Once every 4-6 months.

Until next time.

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Migas Pioneer Woman Style

Kev made breakfast for us this morning. I was at IHOP yesterday for lunch with one of my coworkers and IHOP had Migas on the menu. It sounded so good, yet it would have never caught my eye had it not been for P-Dub's Migas recipe. I was very hungry when trying to decide what to have for lunch and finally decided on the Philly cheesesteak sandwich.

After I got home from work, dh and I went to pick up shred at the two credit unions so I could least have today off. I need at least one day at home to recuperate from the previous week and prepare for the coming week. Some people seem to thrive on being away from their home, but I have never been like that. We did a little bit of grocery shopping and I thought about the Migas again, and bought some of the ingredients I could remember.

I told Kev about it when we got home, and he looked up P-Dub's recipe, thought it sounded good enough to try for breakfast. I even bought black beans (they were on discount) and I didn't even remember those were part of P-Dub's recipe. I bought chorizo which was part of the IHOP ingredients.

Anyway, Kev did get up early and made us breakfast. He used P-Dub's recipe, but slightly altered.

Pioneer Woman's Migas
4 5 corn tortillas
Canola oil, coconut oil to fry tortillas
10 to 12 large farm fresh eggs of varying sizes
1/4 cup half & half heavy cream
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 red yellow bell pepper, roughly chopped
1 green bell pepper, roughly chopped
4 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped 1 can diced tomatoes
1 large to 2 pickled jalapeno, seeded and finely diced (leave white membranes if you like things spicy)
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, depending on your taste
1 cup grated Monterey Jack or Cotija cheese

Check PW's site for the rest of the cooking instructions.

This was a delicious breakfast. Kev says be sure to use some black pepper and salt.

Until next time.

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Winter 2008 Seed Order

At 2am I had a sneezing fit which woke me up and I couldn't sleep any longer. Thank God I don't have to drive in to work today. I was also hungry, which will cause me to stay awake for hours unless I get something to eat.

I decided to get something else off my TO DO list. Ordering fresh seeds for my garden. I'm already feeling discouraged because I have a gopher residing in my garden. I tell you it's not easy gardening out here. The entire garden area is fenced top and sides, but we didn't go so far as to dig out 12" of soil from the entire area and lay down hardware cloth, which would have taken both hours and hours of time, not to mention the money.

I decided to go ahead and order anyway, and hope we can manage the gopher problem. At least 95% of the birds can't get in, rabbits and squirrels and chipmunks are blocked by the outer fencing. Ants are easy to control with AMDRO.

This time I'm leaning toward choosing heirlooms (they're cheaper and the seeds produce exactly what you grew originally, unlike hybrids which don't replicate perfectly), as well as seeds with the least days to harvest. The days estimated are what Pinetree experienced in their test gardens in Maine, so it might be different for us here. Still, I'd rather grow something that could be ready to harvest in 45 days as opposed to 75 days.

Here's what I ordered:

• 81803 OLD SPICE MIX SWEET PEA $1.10
• 94 BRIGHT LIGHTS CHARD (50 days) $1.30
• 80 EARLY SNOWBALL CAULIFLOWER (55 days) $0.75
• 69 MOKUM CARROT (F1 hybrid 54 days) $1.30
• 63 GOLDEN ACRE CABBAGE (55 days) $0.95
• 51 BUBBLES BRUSSELS SPROUTS (F1 hybrid 88 days) $1.60
• 48 EARLY DIVIDEND SG BROCCOLI (F1 hybrid 43 days) $1.30
• 258 KNIGHT PEA (56 days) $1.30
• 330 BLOOMSDALE LONG STANDING SPINACH (42 days) $0.85
• 33 CROSBY EGYPTIAN BEET (45 days) $0.95
• 301 CHERRY BELLE RADISH (21 days) $0.80
• 86 UTAH 52-70 CELERY (100 days) $0.95
• W239 CHIOGGIA BEET (55 days) $1.10
• 82909 CHING CHANG BOK CHOY $1.25
• 19101 KONSERVA KALE (50 days) $1.10
• 203 PINETREE LETTUCE MIX $1.10
• 213 TOM THUMB LETTUCE (47 days) $0.85
• 430-PURPLE TOP WHITE GLOBE TURNIPS (58 days) $0.65
  

SHIPPING $3.25
TOTAL $22.70

I can't decide whether to go out and milk, or go back to bed for a couple hours.

Until next time.

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October Gardening

Winter is the main planting season in the desert! It's finally starting to cool down so it's easier to get out there and work in the garden. I would love to plant every thing on the list I'm including below, but I know from past experience it's best to pick a few things and be successful, than to try to plant everything and become overwhelmed. In case you'd like more of an authority on the topic, check out the University of Arizona College Agriculture and Life Sciences. This link goes directly to October.

I'm going to bold the vegetables I will definitely be planting. I'm going to make the ones I'd like to plant green bold.

October 1 through 15:

• Beets
• Bok Choy
• Broccoli TS
• Brussels Sprouts TS
• Cabbage TS
• Cabbage, Chinese TS
• Carrots
• Cauliflower TS
• Celery TS
• Chard TS
• Collard Greens
• Endive
• Garlic
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Lettuce, Head TS
• Lettuce, Leaf TS
• Leek
• Mustard
• Onions, Bulb
• Onions, Green
• Parsnips
• Peas
• Radishes
• Rutabagas
• Spinach
• Turnips
  

October 16 through 31:

• Beets
• Bok Choy
• Broccoli TS
• Brussels Sprouts TS
• Cabbage TS
• Cabbage, Chinese TS
• Carrots
• Cauliflower TS
• Celery TS
• Chard TS
• Collard Greens
• Endive
• Garlic
• Kale
• Kohlrabi TS
• Lettuce, Head TS
• Lettuce, Leaf TS
• Mustard
• Onions, Bulb
• Onions, Green
• Parsnips
• Peas
• Radishes
• Rutabagas
• Spinach
• Turnips
  

My favorite place to order seeds is Pinetree Seeds. I like their prices (they are inexpensive in comparison to other seed companies) and their shipping is reasonable, too.

I am a little discouraged as I discovered there is a gopher hole in my garden, right in the middle of it.

I am planning to make another pot of Weed Soup tomorrow. The last of it was finished off today. I will use more purslane as it was really delicious in the soup, thankfully there is plenty in my garden.

There is one more weed in my garden that I have not yet positively identified. I think it could be Lambs Quarters, but I'm not sure. Weeds of the West is my favorite book to help me identify weeds. I bought it several years ago to help identify which weeds on our property can be safely eaten by our goats, and which are toxic. It is helpful to look through the book to see if I can find the weed I am looking for - there are photos of the plant in various stages. After I think I know what the weed is, I search the Internet for more information. I will not eat the weed unless I am positive of its identification. Here is a site that can help determine whether a weed is safe to eat.



One thing that is really interesting to me is there are some weeds I have known about since I was a child. It has been really neat to learn their names.

Until next time.

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Weed Soup

I planted my garden about a month ago but most of my seeds didn't germinate. What did germinate was a lot of weeds. I started wondering if they were edible. I nonchalantly toss them to the chickens which attack them with gusto. I've written about Malva in my garden before and I know it is edible. And the other weed was one that I've seen at the local grocery stores that cater to the Hispanic population. I finally figured out it is purslane. I had a hard time finding photos of the variety of purslane that is in my garden so I decided to take a bunch in all stages of growth and put them onto my Flickr account.

And then tonight, I made Weed Soup. I looked at a few recipes today that call for purslane, but here's what I came up with on my own. I am very pleased with this combination of ingredients, although the green chili will make the soup have "heat" to it.

Weed Soup

1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon butter
3 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
1/4 cup barley
1/2 cup lentils
1 green chili pepper, diced
Hefty bunch of parslane, chopped

Saute the onion in butter until transparent. Pour in chicken broth, lentils, barley and green chili pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes. Add the chopped purslane and simmer for 10-15 minutes longer. Next time I'll chop the stems into shorter pieces. Also, I'll avoid using the stem closest to the root as some of the pieces of stem were a little tough, kind of like asparagus can be sometimes. I just chewed up the tougher pieces to get all the good out of them and then removed the fibrous pieces from my mouth. Into a napkin, of course.

Purslane is good for you, here's a quote: "It was one of the most important of the wild plant foods for the native peoples of the Southwest — Pueblo, Zuni, Navajo, Hopi, Tohono O'odom and others. The seed, ground and added to breads and stews, brought valuable protein to the diet. The leaves and stems are rich in nutrients. One cup of the leaves (100 grams) contains iron, vitamin A, calcium, vitamins C and E, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, manganese and silica."

According to this site purslane is packed with omega 3 fatty acids and one cup has only seven calories.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Until next time.

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Guest Post WENDS: Bring On The Games and Install Them

It's Kev of Winter Ends Too Soon, aka here as ds2, guest blogging for a post here. Happy birthday Kev. But I'm logged into my mom's account so don't get confused, humble fool. (Or, not-so-humble fool, I'm not sure how much subjection her readers are under.)



You know what it's time for? It's time for the installation of all of the games I had to uninstall! Do you remember why I had to uninstall them? It was because my 80 GB hard drive couldn't store them all. Each game ranges from 1.5-4.5 GB, and now that I've got a 250 GB HD, I should be able to comfortably install them all.


I know what you're thinking. I assure you, humble fool, I'm not a freak. Maybe I am, but I assure you I aren't. Anyway, I only use the computer for one kind of game: RTS. (And The Sims, but that's kind of pointless. Fun for about two hours...then pointless.)

RTS stands for Real Time Strategy. I won't go into details, but it's the kind of game where you make units and the enemy makes units and you go destroy their units, as opposed to a game where you are an individual and you go kill other individuals. Here are the games I am installing:



Command and Conquer: The First Decade
Which includes the "First Decade" of games:

• Command and Conquer
• C&C: Red Alert
• Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun
• C&C: Red Alert 2
• C&C: Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge expansion
• Command and Conquer Renegade
• C&C Generals
• C&C Generals Zero Hour expansion

Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Command and Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath expansion pack
Sins of a Solar Empire (space RTS)
The Sims


Yep, as you can tell, I'm a C&C fan. I have been since I was young, back when it was just Command and Conquer and C&C: Red Alert. Those are both old games...especially Command and Conquer. Alright, I just got The First Decade installed. If I were a fan of The Sims, I would purchase the Complete Collection which is kind of like The First Decade but with Sims.

Next up will be Tib wars and the expansion, then SINS, and I'm not sure when I'll install The Sims. I'll let you know when it is finished. Or at least I'll comment on this matter again at some future point in time. Now I'll go because Windows and The First Decade are both whining about needing a system restart...whine whine whine.



Note: This is the first post I made with ScribeFire, a Firefox add-on, so there might be some format issues. It looks like it might be useful, but you can never be sure of these things.

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93 Things Grandma Loved - #8 Egg Custard

Grandma used to make her own custard. I didn't really like it very much, because it was made from eggs, which I wasn't too fond of as a child. Well, actually I loved egg yolks, but egg whites made me gag. I could barely tolerate them in scrambled eggs, if the eggs were blended to remove any trace of white, and were softly scrambled - completely done, but not tough and browned.

I still don't care too much for egg whites, but I'm less phobic if a morsel of cooked egg white should happen to wind up in mouth - you know like I can actually eat potato salad with egg whites in it and not get grossed out.

Sorry, this was supposed to be a post about Grandma's egg custard! When we started having chickens and goats, the occasional abundance of eggs and milk prompted me to test out egg custard. Just to see if I could stand it at all. As it turns out, I actually like it quite a bit.

Thanks for introducing custard to me, Grandma, I finally love it!

Until next time.

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This is TOO creepy

I wish I'd made the blog post I intended to make last week, but you'll just have to believe me when I say I was looking on the Internet for Taco Flavored Doritos.

They were my favorite when I was growing up. My clearest memories of Taco Flavored Doritos were from 1970 when I was in the 2nd grade. Two boys had a crush on me. One boy was Hispanic and his name was Buddy. The other boy was Caucasian - I don't remember his name. The Caucasian boy would frequently buy me Doritos from the school cafeteria and give them to me. I remember one occasion he slid them across the floor to my desk. He gave me other gifts, like one time he gave me a man's wedding band, and another was a piece of woman's jewelry.

Anyway, Taco Flavored Doritos were my favorite, but I haven't seen them in stores for years. During my search on the Internet I found there was a petition to bring them back, they are available for sale by the case on eBay and many, many people lament that they are no longer available; still others say they are available in limited areas.

I found a "recipe" from someone named raindog on this page for Taco Flavored Doritos.

Anyway, you can make something that sort of tastes like taco flavored Doritos by taking a bagful of Tostitos (or other oily unflavored tortilla chip), putting them in a baking dish, sticking them in the oven at 350 for a couple minutes, then dumping them into a bag in which you've placed some Old El Paso (or maybe Ortega, but not Taco Bell, it's all wrong - I mention Old El Paso because they sell theirs in a shaker now as if they know what we're doing with it) taco seasoning powder - add a little cheddar cheese powder or even the orange stuff from "EZ Mac" if you preferred the "Taco Bell" branded chips, shake vigorously, and then dump back into the Tostitos bag for eventual consumption.

Imagine my surprise when today I found these at Walmart:


I concur with others who have complained that this is not the original recipe for Taco Flavored Doritos. Others have said the collision packages that contain Zesty Taco tastes more like the original. I bought a bag of those last night, and I think they do taste more like the original flavor than the new bag I got today.

Notice the bag says at the bottom, "They're back by popular demand" which I think is code for "we're testing this area to see if Taco Flavored Doritos will sell here."

Until next time.

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Nine Eleven Two Thousand Eight

I was at work when it happened. We still lived in the city.

What I remember most of all is in the days following, the airport was shut down and it was so quiet. It was very obvious since we lived near the airport and could hear the planes warming up and taking off throughout the day and night.

I went to the zoo and took four photos with my company's camera (that is all the high resolution photos it could hold). I took them specifically so I could turn them into vision loss simulation photos to illustrate to others what different types of vision loss might look like.

I also remember in the days following that everyone put flags up everywhere.

I pray for the families that lost loved ones.

Until next time.

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Garden News!

There was a dust storm on the way home today, and to the west of us it was pouring rain. No rain for us though.

I went out to check the garden after I got home and discovered one bird flying around in there. I believe it was a Curve-Billed Thrasher.

Dh helped me rescue the poor thing. Bad news though, that means there is a way into the garden for birds. Also, one of our cats was in there, hunting the bird.

I also discovered some seeds have germinated! An edible weed, and radishes. I posted a similar post in October 2006! Check out this link on Little Mallow, with a few recipes for using it!

I'm anxious for the other seeds to begin germinating and poking their seed leaves above the ground. We need to carefully examine the garden and find out where the weak spots are to keep the birds out. It is a bit of a vicious cycle, since birds are attracted into the garden because of the baby plants, then the dogs get wind of the birds in the garden and begin racing around and around trying to catch the bird (or birds) which are flying back and forth inside. If the dogs get in, it can be bad, they have no respect for my garden beds and will trample everything. I hope it will be okay until I can get to it on the weekend.

Until next time.

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September Gardening!

First off, the list of vegetables we can plant right now:

September 1st to September 14th

• Beans, Snap
• Bok Choy
• Broccoli
• Brussel Sprouts TS
• Cabbage
• Cabbage, Chinese
• Carrots
• Cauliflower TS
• Celery
• Collard Greens
• Cucumbers
• Endive
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Lettuce, Head
• Lettuce, Leaf
• Leek
• Mustard
• Onions, Green
• Radishes
• Turnips

I am so proud of myself! I had planned to get my seeds planted yesterday, and as I was milking I started thinking about what needed to be done in order to succeed. I have a lot of seeds to plant but I didn't want to get myself overwhelmed with too much. I know I have a tendency to try to do too much and end up quitting because I get discouraged. So I told myself I could pick four types of seeds to plant. I decided on leaf lettuce, radishes, kale and Swiss Chard.

Then I realized I have to plant beets, too. Especially since they take a long time to mature into nice sized beets. Okay, even though they aren't on the list to plant NOW, they will be starting September 15th. So I'm just a few days early (I'm early on the spinach and chard, too). After I sat down and looked at my seeds, I realized I want to also plant bunching onions, and spinach.

My favorite place to buy seeds is from Pinetree Seeds. I just went to visit their site today and they have a brand new shopping cart, which is awesome and actually shows pictures of the vegetables! It used to be text only. I have been ordering from them for over a dozen years. They have good prices and the shipping is reasonable. Of course when I first started ordering from them, their seeds were fifty cents or sixty cents. They've gone up, like everything else.

You should go right now to Pinetree's site and request a catalog. I love when mine arrive and I can just spend hours looking at all the different vegetables and flowers they offer. Oh, and about ordering with them - they put the planting seasons on the packets for their area, which is Maine. So we have to plant our seeds when it's time for us. For example, we start planting things like lettuce now, but in Maine their gardens could be under snow by the time their lettuce was ready to harvest.

Here are the seeds I'm planting. Click on the link to see the information at Pinetree.

#332 Space Spinach
# W468 Bunching Forest Onion
#203 Pinetree Lettuce Mix (A collection of sweet leaf lettuces for continuous harvest)
#94 Bright Lights Swiss Chard
#W239 Chioggia Beets (Bright red exterior w/rings of pink & white inside)
#301 Cherry Belle Radish
#19101 Konserva Kale

After I made breakfast for myself, Kev and dh, I set out to get my garden ready. I showed you what it looked like a few days ago, so unfortunately it wasn't just a matter of going out and planting seeds.

I headed out just after 9am. I took the wheelbarrow over to the goat's pen and began shoveling from the outside of the fence. Hay and berries get kicked out of the yard onto the outside, and then that outside debris matures over time. It bakes in the sun, gets rained on and turns it into great composted material perfect for gardening. The goats of course had to have a look and see what I was doing, and make sure I didn't bring any yummy treats for them.

Here's the area where I was shoveling from.

And here's my beautiful compost.



I dumped it into the garden bed. Dh dug the ground up in the garden in one section about 6 feet square last weekend so I could at least get one bed started this weekend.

In a perfect world, I'd plant new seeds every two weeks. Some of the vegetables I'm planting will grow until next summer when it is too hot and they will die off, but other things have to be planted again and again to have a constant supply throughout the season.

For example, with Swiss Chard and leaf lettuce, you never harvest the entire plant. Instead you pick the outer leaves. You can pick all the leaves right down to leaving only the very center of the plant, and one or two small outer leaves. I've never planted kale before, but it's Kev's favorite green leafy vegetable, and I'm assuming it will be the same. Spinach can be harvested the same way.

In spite of the seed packet directions for planting the Swiss Chard, lettuce, kale and spinach, we planted each seed 2 to 4 inches apart (usually they tell you to plant 6 inches or a foot apart). This will be great for mature plants, but in the meantime we can be using that space to grow more plants. In a few weeks, we will "space" the seedlings to the correct distance. We can then have an awesome salad made of baby greens. Have you ever checked to see how much "baby greens" cost in the store? Upwards of six dollars a pound the times I've checked!

Radishes, being a root crop, need to be planted frequently in order to keep your supply constant. Radishes grow fast, so we'll probably be able to harvest our first crop within 30 days. Pinetree says they have harvested seeds by 21 days.

The beets, although the packages says 55 days, will probably not be ready for harvesting for at least three months.

BTW, in case you ever wondered, the number of days on the package means from the time the seed germinates. We planted the seeds on the 6th, and it will take 3-5 days for the beet cotyledons to emerge. So let's say the cotyledon emerges by the 11th. The 30th of October will be 56 days, and according to Pinetree they harvested beets starting on the 55th day. Well, I've never been able to get my beets to produce that early. I wonder if I'm missing something in my soil.

But my goodness, I digress! On with preparing the bed!

Here you might be able to see the color difference between the fresher compost, which is close to the goat pen, and compost from the "north forty" which has been aging out there for a few years. A nice hill of it, and it smells just like compost you buy from the store. Only it's free, all mine for the taking! I could never use all of it if I tried! :-)

After I got three wheelbarrow's full of compost mixed into the soil and got the bed somewhat level, I had to go inside for a while. I was burning up, I had to lay on the bed and let the fan blow on me. My feet were steaming hot inside my shoes, and they were killing me.

I think I was close to having heat exhaustion. Whew.

I stayed inside for about an hour, getting cooled off. Then Kev came out of his room and said he was able to come help me in the garden, so we went back out around 11:30.

Kev helped by repairing the garden in areas where the dogs had torn their way in a couple of years ago. It is hopefully safe now, since Hannah, the one that went the most psycho over birds in the garden passed away a couple of months ago.

I also hope the gophers have forgotten about my garden for a little while. They invaded two years ago, I hope they have moved on to greener pastures.

While Kev did the repairs to the outer fencing, I started getting the watering system in place. I had to check each soaker hose to make sure water was actually coming through the pinholes. I had to replace one. It is a tedious process, and sure I could have just popped them all off, thrown them away and used the new roll of soaker hose I have inside the house, (which I actually know where it's located!) but that's not how I roll. If the old Dig Laser Drilled Soaker Hose is still in working condition, then I'll use it.

The tedious process consisted of connecting each section of hose to the water source and examine carefully to see if water was dripping from each pinhole.

Kev helped me by putting the pieces together and taking them apart. You have to press the hose onto the connectors and it is sometimes hard to do.

Then it was time to plant! If you click on the photo you can see a larger image and you can see where we planted the different seeds.

Here's Kev for a garden photo after we were all finished.



So the first thing we can expect to harvest, barring any catastrophes (birds finding a way in and eating all the cotyledons as soon as they emerge, gophers digging under the fence and eating all the new baby plants, the dogs breaking in because a bird got in and is flying around) will be baby leaf lettuce, baby beets, baby Swiss Chard and radishes.

I have a lot more seeds to plant, and I hope I can get another bed prepared by the 20th. I would like to get my crucifers planted within the month. Falstaff Brussels Sprouts, Bubbles Brussels Sprouts, Cheddar Cauliflower, Gonzales Mini Cabbage, Silver Cup 40 Cauliflower, Graffiti Cauliflower, Cabbage Krautman.

I like to try to plant some heirlooms along with the hybrids. If I were ambitious enough, and could find the time and energy, I would save my own seeds for the next year's crop. I still find it a very good price to pay $0.80 for a packet of 300 seeds. Imagine that. A small bunch of radishes in the store sell for $0.89 a bunch. But with a packet of seeds that cost than a dollar, I could grow 30 bunches. That is some kind of savings! I sure hope I can stay up with my garden this time, and keep it growing throughout the season.

Until next time.

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DS1 Wears Size 14 Shoes

Yesterday I mentioned DS1 wearing his daddy's big shoes... I haven't gotten my scanner hooked up, so I took some pictures of pictures:



I added a label cloud to my blog. Check it out.

Until next time.

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I Don't Really Wear Size 14's

I was just kidding the other day when I said I wear size 14 shoes.

When I was a child, I would find the biggest clodhoppers I could and wear them around the house and laugh so hard I almost peed my pants. I don't know why it was so funny to me, but just imagining my feet being THAT big would put me into a giggling fit that could continue for hours. My sisters would do the same thing.

My mom tells me that we used to parade in front of the window outside where she had her sewing machine, doing things to make her laugh.

Ds1 used to wear his daddy's shoes when he was a baby, which would totally crack me up.

Until next time.

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My Poor Garden

I am hoping to plant my garden soon.

I am feeling better physically! I have been taking the adrenal support supplements for almost one month, and the thyroid supplements for almost three weeks.

I am feeling like I have more energy, and want to get my garden going again. I am so hungry for fresh picked Swiss Chard. We have been eating more vegetables and they are so expensive, not to mention they are not organic and probably covered with pesticides. It would be so wonderful to grow nearly everything we need for a salad, and spinach, and kale, Swiss chard. Mmmm. I have also done pretty good at growing cauliflower and broccoli.

But my garden is in very desperate need of attention. I haven't gardened since 2006. I also bought $40 worth of seeds from my favorite seed supplier and never planted even one seed! Horrible!

As a result of not gardening for two years, desert weeds and shrubbery has taken over.




What's this? Let's have a closer look:


Bullhead stickers!!!

I first blogged about bullhead stickers here. And then I bragged here, and said we don't have them on our property because I watch carefully for them. Well, apparently I wasn't watching too carefully, because the day after I bragged about how we don't have them, we found a BUNCH of them. Dozens, if not hundreds, and they had already produced and dropped HUNDREDS of thorns. Luckily I devised a method for harvesting a good deal of them. Just use a pair of flip-flops. Dh and Kev and I got out there and worked for a couple of hours to get them picked up. I wore my slip on tennies, and would put one foot into a flip-flop, then walk over the area. Dozens of stickers would attach to the bottom of the flip-flop, then I'd take it off and put on another one, while Kev scraped the stickers into a garbage can. Dh was using the flip-flops on his hands, doing the same thing. It is amazing how many stickers one plant can produce. And horrifying!

Last Saturday, when I took a look at what it is going to take to get the garden whipped into shape, I found that two MATURE bullhead sticker plants had taken over one of the beds.

I don't need to fix the whole garden at the same time. I really just need one bed to start with. I have plenty of fertilizer and mulch, thanks to the goats!! And I need help from my guys to get the fencing repaired. The dogs have broken through in a few places. The entire garden is fenced top and sides, to keep the birds out. But sometimes a tiny bird will find it can squeeze in between the 1" chicken wire and then it will be fluttering around inside trying to find its way out. The dogs go nuts, running around and around, attacking the fencing, trying to get to it. I have had to rescue several little birds. They get worn out and hot, and out of breath. One time one was so worn out it was just hanging by its feet and I was able to catch it to release it.

I am really hoping Dh and Kev can find some time in the next week to help me get the garden started. I am also hoping and praying that I'll find my watering timer!! I looked around a little for it today, and I've seen it SOMEWHERE recently, but only God knows where!

I also had planned to put up a list of what can be planted for each month and haven't done that since May. Yikes!

Here is a picture of my seeds.

They are two years old. I hope, hope, hope that most of the seeds are still viable. You can see the list of seeds at this post.

Wish me luck. At the VERY least I'm planting Swiss Chard, kale and lettuce. And radishes.

Until next time.

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