Keep Your Eyes OPEN!

Have you looked closely at the last picture I posted?

I neglected to mention it--other things on my mind, I guess, like freezing nighttime temperatures. But if you click on the picture, and then look up at the very top, you see...

Green wire, leaning against the fence.

Yeah? So what?

It's a tomato cage.

I found it.

I was walking Sadie through the commons area between two condominium associations, and stepped over this, laying flat on the ground. About 20 feet later, my brain registered what my eyes had seen, so I went back to look at it.

It was half-buried under last autumn's leaves, so it had been there awhile. But I had NEVER noticed it before.

I left it there one more day, thinking that the owner might have deliberately(?) buried it in the leaves? Then I brought it home.

I feel like Calvin: "There's Treasure EVERYWHERE!"

A Square Foot Garden

I'm taking my inspiration for my garden from two books: "Crockett's Victory Garden", by Jim Crockett, and "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. I picked up both used, one at Goodwill for $1 or so, and the other over the Internet for $9.


Funny thing, both books are companion volumes to classic PBS series.

In the seven squares nearest the bottom of the picture are:

Little Marvel peas
Sugar Snap peas
Spinach
Turnips
Cornsalad
and Spring Onions.

I'm starting to pay more attention to things like nighttime temperatures. The problem is, Tuesday night was supposed to drop into the low 40s in Crofton--but we had frost on some of the cars. Last night was supposed to be in the mid 30s--but it never got out of the low 40s. I think my garden will be OK--the soil didn't feel too cold after Tuesday night--but I decided I'd better find some way to cover it for the next several nights: 32, 29, 31 degrees are expected lows. So I went up in my attic looking for some tarps I have used camping, and found the leftovers of a torn sun shade I cut up to make a ground cloth. The area I need to cover is just over 3x9; the strip I found was 4x11. It's like it was MADE for this.

Sometimes, it's GOOD to be a packrat.

I have been dropping in on my garden in the morning as I take Sadie out for her walk. I guess I'll have to do it as I head out the door instead, to minimize the exposure to the low temperatures.

And I STILL need some more soil, and some containers, to start seeds inside--and I'm s'posed to be planting more on Saturday! Busy, busy, busy!

I figure you can expect to see some review of "SFG" and "THMP" in the near future. At least THESE books I don't have to return to the library!

UPDATE: OOPS! That's "Square Foot Gardening" (SFG) and "The Have-More Plan" (THMP). I forgot I hadn't mentioned THMP in the post, only in my reading list...

Gardening in Small Spaces

Last weekend, I pulled up a bunch of the paving blocks in my backyard. Underneath, I found sand, plastic, and clay. I can't grow anything in that! It's been dead and buried for 30 years.

So, I've started building raised beds. Instead of fighting to grow veggies in fill dirt that requires major remediation, I left it alone, and raked a base of fallen leaves into the hole. Then I bought bags of garden soil to go on top.


YES, I know I'm supposed to take the dirt OUT of the bags!

Then it snowed. We got more snow than we've had since 2006.

Now that it has all melted, and it's 70+ degrees out, I have put down the soil in the bed, and I broke up and turned the soil all along the fence. Plus, the bin in the corner (used to hold the dog food, but the latch is broken) has a large square cut out of the bottom and is 1/2 filled with leaves and some dirt. It's the start of my compost.


Baby steps...

Homegrown Evolution

I've just found a blog that I'm really excited about:

http://www.homegrownevolution.com/

You probably already know it.

The authors are living out urban homesteading in Los Angeles. I've already been reminded that some of the solutions for problems on the homestead are the same solutions used by backpackers for years.

Their "pirate" garden in the parkway, the narrow green strip between the sidewalk and the road, is inspiring!

Dog Walking Prohibited at Nantucket Elementary?

I was out walking Sadie, and suddenly was confronted with a sign: Dog Walking Prohibited On School Grounds, or something similar. I'm on the warpath!

"To whom it may concern,

I am writing to inquire as to the justification for the complete prohibition of dogs on the public grounds of Nantucket Elementary in Crofton. Before there was a school, I walked my dog through the woods and wetlands the school has eliminated. The construction of the school made some of our favorite walks impossible. And after the school was completed, and even since it has opened, the school provided at least one benefit to me, even though I have no children who will ever attend it: it completed a walking route that I could follow from MD-450 to St. Stephen's Church Road, without ever having to walk ALONG any road with a speed limit that exceeds 25MPH.

I began using this path long before there was a Nantucket Elementary; now, suddenly, I am PROHIBITED. My only walking choices are along MD-3, which I consider extremely dangerous, or along Riedel Rd., where the sidewalk is not separated from the roadway by any barrier. And once I reach an endpoint, my only choice is to go back the way I came, or follow the other hazardous roadway back.

What is the county's justification for this prohibition? Is it to prevent the accumulation of dog waste? I can assure you that will never be a problem with me! I take my responsibilities as a dog owner very seriously--I even clean up after OTHER dogs. Aren't the existing "pooper-scooper" regulations strict enough?

Is it distraction to the students? Then prohibit access during school hours! But aren't there already regulations restricting access to the grounds of a school while school is in session?

Are there concerns about safety? Aren't the leash laws adequate?

If the existing regulations aren't enforceable, how do you expect to enforce THIS one? And if it is NOT enforceable, how do you expect it to help? It will only encourage the general contempt for arbitrary regulations that already clearly exists on the highways of Maryland.

Please enlighten me. Do those of us who own dogs have no rights of passage across _public_ property? I think that the common law which forms the foundation of our system of jurisprudence would argue otherwise!

Further, the prohibition is extended solely to dogs. What if I wished to walk my cat, or my pot-bellied pig, or my minature pony? What if I wished to ride my horse through? (I own none of these animals.) Why is the restriction _solely_ aimed at dogs?

The prohibition of access to the grounds of Nantucket Elementary to those of us, citizens, voters, and taxpayers, who wish to continue walking our dogs in a place we have frequented for many years, is unfair, unjust, and unsafe.

Please explain your reasoning.

Sincerely..."

I'll post their reply!

UPDATE: I've sent a "letter to the editor" at the Annapolis Capital-Gazette, which also publishes the Crofton News-Crier. If you see it, you'll recognize this entry, with its lyric prose butchered for space requirements ;-)

It's A New Day...

It has been a HECTIC month+.

If we go back to a day or two before my last post, I went to a local production of "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum".

This was followed by my actual birthday, and the annual Christmas Revels production of the Washington Revels: "A French-Canadian Christmas".

There were SCA events in Ponte Alto, Dun Carraig, Stierbach, and Bright Hills.

There was a Messiah sing-along at Goucher College.

There were the THREE Christmas services for my church, on the Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday prior to Christmas.

My sister-in-law released her new cross-cultural CD, "Land of the Midnight Son: Norwegian Christmas in America" with Norwegian Pianist Ola Gjeilo (www.OlaGjeilo.com) and Brian Priebe, Trombone and Alphorn, celebrating Norwegian-American Christmas traditions. I played alto recorder for one number in her release concert! Buy it at lindapriebe.com or arrivimarketing.com.

There were Christmas parties with family. My cousin/housemate had both her daughter and father visiting, from Taiwan and Minnesota respectively.

There were New Year's parties with friends from PAGE.

There was the whole Inauguration thing, which tied KNOTS in traffic all around Washington, DC.

All of this, in addition to the usual business of living, meant that I had NO time to blog.

On the whole, I'm glad it's all over!

Return of the Instrument Junkie

My friends have done it to me again.

The good folks in the Performing Arts Guild, Extraordinaire (PAGE) celebrated my recent birthday with ice cream and apple cobbler (and candles! just not as many as necessary, thank you!). Then they handed me a gift.

They weren't supposed to do that.

I unwrapped it and found a Yamaha Tenor Recorder. I was nearly speechless, and I wasn't putting together complete sentences.

I have a hard time with gifts.

Part of my problem is that I'm not good at accepting gifts, and I HATE feeling indebted. I'm also bad at giving thoughtful, meaningful gifts: the more time I have spent on deciding what to give, and the more effort I have invested in procuring a gift, and the more certain I am that the gift is PERFECT--

The more likely I'm going to see that "What were you thinking?!?" look.

(This is why gift baskets with floral soaps, bath oils, and the like are NEVER the right gift. Somehow, the message received is, "You stink. Take a bath.")

So, receiving gifts, especially really good gifts, puts me under real pressure. I want to reciprocate, and I know I can't.

Also, when it comes to gifting, I tend to be a cheapskate. I'll buy dinners, and movie tickets, and fill gas tanks, and never notice or care. But I hear what other people spend on gifts for birthdays and Christmas, and I can't even IMAGINE what they spend it on.

My ideal of gifting is to give someone something useful that they wouldn't buy themselves. I mean, if it's not USEFUL, then it's USELESS, and who would want a useless gift? ("The Ronco Turnip Twaddler! Similar items sold in stores for up to $150.00, yours for just three easy payments of $59.99!") But if it would be useful, you've probably already bought it, or it's too expensive, or it's so utilitarian that no one else would even THINK of buying one of THOSE as a gift.

(This is why vacuum cleaners are ALWAYS the wrong gift, even if your wife ASKED for one. It's too utilitarian, no matter how practical or expensive.)

And once you have a reputation, it can backfire.

(This is why a string of pearls can STILL be the wrong gift. It's so extravagant that they MUST not be real, and so non-utilitarian that they couldn't be from him...)

In other words, I have NEVER been able to give the right gift. I have been told, "Oh, I don't want anything!", and then I am castigated for giving nothing. I have been told, "Oh, anything is fine," but it isn't. I have given exactly what was requested, and been told I should have been more original. And I have tried to be original, or extravagant, and been told, "What were you thinking?"

So, if I seem ungrateful, or overwhelmed, or surprised, or confused, or WHATEVER, it's because I KNOW that I can never be as good to my friends as you are to me. My gifts to you will be well-intentioned; they are unlikely to be good, original, clever, or terribly expensive. Or even on time. It just doesn't work. My experience tells me so.

Thanks for the recorder, PAGE. I love you all.