i found this article on msn today and thought it was very interesting. i don't think i will be growing carrots again next year - they really are harder to grow (imo). i will also be planting lettuce now - time to get over my leafy vegetable phobia!
my ceyenne peppers aren't doing so good. i need to replace them with the leeks but i've been lazy. i also need to plant those damn sweet potatoes....
well, the fence didn't last long as an effective barrier. the chickens have decided that the grass is far better on the other side. B and i must have chased the chickens from going into the street 3 times. once they were actually all hanging out right in the front lawn! the chickens can literally walk right through the fence. so a new project for this weekend will be reinforcing the chicken barrier.
we also realized that 9 chickens should not go through 40 lbs. of feed in one week. they are getting really big fast and eating a LOT. i'm afraid jerky is going to be sunday roast pretty soon. i liked the little guy - he follows me around the most. maybe we'll eat one of the smaller ones instead...
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| From SPRING 2008 |
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| From SPRING 2008 |
my friend at work just gave me a link to this site. if you have an addiction to bubble-wrap like i do, you have to check this out:
http://www.funmansion.com/games/bubble_wrap_pop.html
**warning, this content may not be suitable for the squeamish** (no chickens were involved)
oh, it was an eventful weekend. well, eventful for me - other "normal" people might consider it boring.... anyways, things were going great once friday was over. it was a long weekend ahead of us and everyone was happy. we decided to go visit dry pond for some fresh air and beautiful scenery and fishing. we wanted to spend the night but that didn't work out so we spent all of monday at dry pond and my mom's lake (unnamed so far...). we made it a priority this weekend to clean the house. in an effort to run a more effecient household, we have all agreed on setting some goals for the house, and ourselves. i obviously need help in this department cause it's hard for only one person to organize and keep up what's going on. so i started a fridge inventory to keep a running tab on its contents and monitor spending and waste. i will be coming up with a cleaning schedule to help keep my very messy house somewhat under control. and B and V and i are resolving to lose some weight with exercise and diet - all of us together. i really really hope it works. unfortunately, it may mean i have to wear a bathing suit. ugh.
anyways, back to bloody monday. i guess you could also call it... yesterday. i woke up around 6:45 and let the chickens out and fed and watered them. i let the dogs out and sat outside a little bit. nobody else was awake. so i went back to bed and must have fell asleep because i missed the commotion. when i woke back up about 9:30, B was in the kitchen cleaning. i was impressed that she woke up and cleaned and she informed me that the dogs caught a possum and ate it in the kitchen (or dining room, depending on what side of the fridge you are standing). she spared me the anguish of cleaning up blood and guts and threw what remained of the poor creature on the bramble pile to be picked up by refuse. i felt so bad for the thing - it was just eating my chicken feed! somehow it must have wandered into the backyard right into the waiting jaws of three large dogs. B was right, there's no way i could have cleaned up that mess without losing my cookies. 
then i remembered that earlier that morning i saw choco in the side yard carrying a rather large (dead) frog in his little mouth and eating it by the curb. i watched him chew off a leg and bite the frog several times. it didn't bother me, but when i went back to that spot i noticed the frog was still alive! and minus two back legs! it was a sad, sad, situation. i felt horrible for this pretty frog but i can hardly scold my cat for being a cat.
so, i made johnny move the frog from the curb over to my mother's backyard where hopefully some frog deity will have mercy on it and let him re-grow his legs. more than likely it will die, but i chose to believe there are frog deities. fairies, even. so that was bloody monday (morning). a lot more happened that day which i will probably have to continue in another post later. it was a beautiful weekend, hanging out with awesome people and animals. we put up a small wire fence to help keep the chickens from wandering onto the street. it's working so far. i am amazed that they seem to know where their home is. they stay close, so i let them roam all day. they mostly peck and scratch around or sit in the monkey grass or the straw pile. last night they even tucked themselves in bed! i was being lazy and didn't herd them into their coop and when i finally went out, they were already inside, sleeping! awesome!
i told you guys i was going to be the next georgia o'keefe! the magnolia tree in front of my porch is blooming! you can sit there and smell the scent of magnolia perfume the air - and enjoy the beautiful view as well!
our weekend was fun and productive! like i said, we resolved to gain control over the household so we busted ass and did a lot of cleaning. johnny did a lion's share of the landscaping, but look at the beautiousness of the porch now!!!
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| From SPRING 2008 |
my mother is the original green thumb in the family. she's a hardcore landscaper. her expertise is ponds, and she has many of them. her koi fish breed like rabbits. some of her most notable achievements are: building a lake (yes, a LAKE), building a driving range, installing several, several koi and non-fish ponds complete with waterfalls and fountains, building an outdoor wedding venue and outdoor kitchen (Dry Pond Garden), installing a fruit and nut orchard, and remodeling several homes. it may sound like she's a rich developer, but she actually did all of this with her own two hands. her garden at archwood (next door to my house) has been in gradual deterioration since she moved downtown a couple years ago, but it still looks lush and pretty. my dad is nowhere near as good a gardener as my mom, who can grown ANYTHING. she can pick a branch off of any plant and re-root it anywhere. she has quite a diverse collection of plants in all her gardens, some of them older than me! i made a huge slideshow of her archwood garden (and some of my chickens, of course), see if you can identify some of these plants! many of them are edible. i call archwood the secret garden, like the book... anyways see for yourself....
that pretty much sums it up. i die of boredom a little bit each day. i try not to gripe about my life too much cause i know nobody wants to hear it and pessimism is unhealthy. but seriously. i have it good compared to a great many people and i am fortunate. i am actually more happy overall now than i think i have ever been in my life. my only hang-up is i mourn the past too much. i dwell on how things should have been, and instead of focusing on how to change things, i get stuck. it's really quite frustrating and seeing as i don't have a god i can trust to just fix everything for me, i get pretty bummed about things i don't think the average person gets bummed about. this is something i've done for a very long time, as far back as i can remember! i have some ways of coping, but generally i do not handle stress very well. well, it may seem like i do but actually i don't. i perform relatively well under pressure but it takes a toll on me physically and mentally. then i get to marinate in resentment for a little while and that takes a further toll on me. see? it's a vicious cycle. so how do people deal with their stress, i wonder? how is it that they have a lot of the same issues i have (nobody is unique anymore, in terms of "problems") but they seem to deal with it and move on with life, as healthy and happy as before. is there something i am missing? a chemical? a technique learned in childhood?
boredom is my ultimate enemy. it causes me to ruminate too much. it causes me to mindlessly snack, or wander around the internet. it makes me want to sleep. it makes me want to do anything but what i am supposed to be doing. i am constantly bored at work. is that normal? it's tortuous for me cause i have to sit here and think about all the other stuff i could be doing at home, or in my life in general. i've realized that i am not the ambitious person my mother wants me to be - i am more of a homemaker, a teacher, a gardener, a caretaker, a nurse, a woman. i imagine all the feminists of the 60's would be highly disappointed in me, seeing as i spent 8 years to get a master's degree in architecture only to dream of being a housewife. i'm almost ashamed of it, but should i be? is it somehow demeaning cause it seems to be looked down on. i don't understand why women are expected to have a career and a family now, it just seems like there can't be both. one or the other. it's hard for me to make those kind of difficult decisions - take my licensing exam, or have children before my ovaries dry up? get LEED certified or save money for a baby? try to move up my position or spend more time preparing myself for having a family? how does one make a decision this tough? i can't even imagine what it would be like to be a single working mom, i just can't. it's a shame our country doesn't take care of it's women and children a little better. at least take good care fo the children so the women can worry less.
sorry to leave you hangin' but i will talk about this post title later. first, i have to post some pics i've taken in the last couple weeks. i'm behind only because spring is beautiful and there's been so much going on and that means an endless and vicious cycle of snapping photos. i have to backtrack a bit and show off this gorgeous azalea i have growing next to my carport. i didn't even know this was there!! and below we have a baby tomato on my cherry tomato bush on the patio. it's so cute! but, unfortunately some bug or something decided he was allowed to eat a little hole into my tomato!
also on the patio, hanging in baskets, are two strawberry plants that had sprouted some cute little white flowers and now these baby berries have appeared! it's raining today, can you tell?
this is the big magnolia tree right in front of my porch and it is covered with buds! we are going to have a gorgeous magnolia here shortly. i love magnolias so much, it just reminds me of georgia. kind of like palms remind me of savannah and ginkgos remind me of korea. oh, i just can't wait until this baby blooms! i'm going to be the next virtual asian georgia o'keefe! by the way, people; don't ever plant english ivy. anywhere. ever.
ok, so i admit i'm a little behind. i had no clue what blog tagging was until a few months ago when bloggers that i liked to read got tagged and shared whatever information was requested and then tagged other bloggers. it's kind of like the popular kid's game, internet version. i never got tagged, didn't know the "rules" of tagging, didn't know anything, basically. but then i saw more and more of it and thought to myself, man this is kind of dumb. i get the concept - you know, share random bits of info about yourself to total strangers so you feel like you're "getting to know each other". but what i wonder is, why can't there be sharing useful information tagging going on? well, maybe there is, i just don't know about it. see, in reality, i'm just a dork trying to play with the big kids. so instead of waiting for someone to have pity on me and tag me i am going to make up my own tag and invite my own friends to play so :P!
in case you're like me and haven't the foggiest idea of how to play, here are (my) rules: if i mention your name and link to your blog in this post, you have to answer the question and tag another 5 people by naming them in your post. don't forget to alert them by commenting on their blog and let them know you tagged them. my tag is going to have a farm-y theme (naturally) and it goes something like this:
1. Name one of your favorite flowering plants and any info you may have off the top of your head about it.
2. Name one of your favorite farm animals or pets and explain why.
3. Name one of your favorite vegetable/fruit/nut plant/tree to grow and show picture(s) of it.
4. Name a plant or animal that you want to grow/raise in the near future.
5. Name a home remedy that you use for whatever ailment and share the recipe/technique.
that's it! wouldn't it be interesting to see what other people have to say about that? i think so! so, the people i am going to tag are:
1. my bff Vanessa, who just started her own blog and will hopefully grace us with a link to it in the comments.
2. Ellen, my first internet buddy :) http://everydaycraftygoodness.wordpress.com/
3. Amy @ http://www.magicalmuse.typepad.com/
4. sister bluebird, a new aquaintance @ http://sisterbluebirdgardener.blogspot.com/
5. Tammie @ http://unusuallyunusualfarmchick.blogspot.com/
i think it would be interesting and valuable information from these folks, and i am excited to see what they have to say. i'll answer the questions, too :)
1. one of my favorite flowering plants is the TEA OLIVE tree. i just love the way the flowers smell when it's in bloom. it smells kind of like a cross between honeysuckle and tuberose.
2. my favorite animal (besides dogs, of course) is goats. i've never had one, but i have been around goats, watched videos, and read a lot of stuff about them. i think they are absolutely adorable as babies and it's so cute how they like to bounce around, head-butting. i think it's endearing that they'll eat anything and they all have personality. i love goats!
3. my favorite crop to grow is peas. because they grow so fast and without fail, and they are fun to watch with the tendrils grabbing whatever they can. plus, they build up the soil with nitrogen and who doesn't love to eat peas? i don't have a picture of mine right now, but i'll come back and post it later :)
4. something i would like to grow in the future - well, there are actually many things. i'd like to grow leafy vegetables. for some reason, spinach and lettuce and rhubarb and all things leafy intimidate me as a gardener. i'm admittedly inexperienced but i've tried to grow leafy things and it never works! they just sprout and then die.
5. haha - i almost forgot this one myself! a favorite home remedy of mine is cranberry juice. frequent bladder infections (and UTI's) plague the women in my family and if you've never had one, consider yourself lucky. unfortunately, i hate all things cranberry. especially the juice. but, miraculously cranberry juice has worked every single time. i will happily chug a gallon of the stuff to make a bladder infection go away. i did find a cheat, though - cranberry pills! yes, you can get then in a little tablet, and i take a few of those if i feel a UTI coming on. but for a full on bladder infection, chug a gallon of cranberry juice!
sorry no pictures as of right now but i wanted to say more about the chickens, who are nameless still. i daresay chickens are stupid. last night was the second night i had to manually place each chicken into their henhouse. they figured out how to get out of it in the morning but don't remember how to get back in at night. so i had to pick up each one and place them together in their house. which is kind of fun, but a pain in the ass, too. i hope they figure out how to get inside at night soon.
but they have figured out that i am the source of food and fresh hay. when i go up to their pen clucking like a dumbass, they all poke their heads up and watch me coming, instead of running away. and when i open the door they come up to me! this morning they were even trying to eat the feed out of my cup before i could put it down. it's kinda cute. they all crowd around me, peeping.
yesterday i let them out of their pen for a few minutes to see what they would do. they all came out and started scratching and pecking. i had a bamboo stick to herd them if they started flying all over the place but they didn't go far from the pen. i got them back inside with no problems. a couple of my neighbors were walking past my house when i was herding the chickens back into the pen with my bamboo stick. i'm sure they think i am nuts.
did i mention that B bought me a harmonica the other day? it's a cheap plastic translucent pink one, but i love it and wanted one for a while. now, i come home and practice my harmonica on the front porch. i watch my chickens and garden grow. all i need now is a straw hat and some overalls. i wanted to start a bluegrass band that covers 80's pop but i'm having a hard time recruiting a banjo player and fiddler...
we have fowl! my mom came by with 20 chickens! i told her several times we only need 4!! she just came over and kept throwing in one chicken after another in the pen and now we have 9 chickens. they are the typical chicken farm chicken and about 6-8 weeks old (we're guessing). we don't know if they are all females or not. they have sparse feathering and kinda stink. but they still make those cute chickie peeping noises.
this morning i was awake at 7:30 a.m. and excited. in a couple hours, i'll have my chickens. i tried to wake the household up, but nobody even budged. i laid in bed and snapped pictures of my sleeping beauty (bibi, not johnny...). i realize she is just a dog, but i love her to death. she is such an awesome dog, so laid back.
i love this picture - it pretty much shows how much she gets loved on. she's used to it, too. when i kiss her, i sneak in a little nibble and when i come home from work, she pins me down and licks my face and sneaks in her own little nibbles.
my mother and i want to start raising bees in our backyards. i think we will start off with one hive. i'm in charge of research and she'll probably be the funds manager. johnny isn't enthusiastic about keeping bees but i am! there's a lot of news lately about bees disappearing and it's quite alarming, considering how much we rely on them to pollinate our food! did you know every thrid bite of food was brought to us by bees? burt's bees was giving away seeds but they have run out. you can still plant bee-attracting plants in your yard, though. check out these resources:
http://pollinator.org/
http://organicgardening.com/
http://www.burtsbees.com
i almost totally forgot about going to the lakes and rivers around here during this time. it seems like i've been absorbed in gardening and home improvement this year. but yesterday afternoon we (i) decided to take the dogs to lake erin, right around the corner from our neighborhood. the dogs freakin' love that place. bibi starts whining as soon as we pull into the park and once we are out, she takes off into the water. as you may remember, last year louie tried to swim. he didn't get much opportunity to practice but he seemed a little more confident this year. it was still hilarious.
pictured above: cherry tomato bush in big red pot, peppermint in small wooden planter, lavender in white ceramic pot, pineapple sage in tall white ceramic pot behind post. on the steps are two stoneware pots with bulb flowers that i do not remember the name of. in the big pot with the hay, cuttings from the remains of a dying fig tree than i am hoping will take root (using rooting hormone) but i am not very hopeful that it will work....
in the background, under the hay is a row of various asiatic lilies and caladuims, just sprouting. on the deck is a lemon thyme plant, citronella candle, cinnamon basil, sweet basil, leeks, some kind of ground cover plants, and a lemon balm plant in the terracotta. also, a waiting to be planted jasmine bush - smells awesome! oh, and a pair of dirty socks.
i realize i may be the only person in the world fascinated with watching bamboo growing, but damn, look at those shoots! those are 4 days old! louie has been a good boy and not knocked any more of them over.
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