Summer Garden, Goals, and Ideas

Well, it's summer here in my part of the world. With the exception of the last week or so, it's been relatively mild and comfortable, hanging in the 70's but the humidity can't seem to make up it's mind. But all this means is my garden is THRIVING!

Small orange rose bush rescued from the mint

Acorn Squash

K and I have now planted carrots, onions, tomatoes, basil, eggplant, acorn squash, green beans, corn, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, beets, radishes, green peppers, spicy peppers, zucchini, cucumber, spaghetti squash, and ambrosia melon. The carrots are just about ready to be pulled, and I'm impatiently waiting. We've got garlic growing all over the yard, and also waiting to harvest it. As well as mint....tons and tons of mint growing wild through my roses. So much, that I think I'll have enough to do everything from HappySimpleLiving's blog, and still have plenty left for a Mojito or two (*ahem* dozen) over the course of the summer.

Corn and green beans reaching for the sky!

I've read a lot that things like cabbage, and broccoli don't do too well with warm summer sun on them, so K and I strung up some string and cheesecloth to make a bit of a sun shade for our cold loving veggie bed, and it seems to be working OK. I just have to be careful when watering, and make sure to check it after a rain to make sure the cheesecloth isn't trying to push the plants back into the ground.

Happy Tomatoes and basil

Surprise! Apparently tomatoes will grow just about anywhere.

K and I planted about five tomatoes when we started seeds this spring. Now we have 25 plants. When the big garden was tilled by our husbands, apparently a tomato or two got tilled in, and they sprouted. We also found a volunteer growing out of a barrel where we dumped all the tiny rocks from the onion and carrot patch. So we now have a few varieties of what appear to be heirloom, beefsteak, roma, cherry, and a few unidentified tomatoes.

We also found a few pepper plants that popped up in the tilled ground, so those got transplanted as well.

The Ambrosia Melon we are growing is an experiment. Not sure how it's going to turn out, but since the plant cost me like $2 I'm not complaining. It looks like it's something like a cantaloupe, but it is supposed to be super sweet.

This past week we had a bit of a heat wave, getting up into the upper 80's but with high humidity it felt more like 90's. Our air conditioning is out, so we ended up spending about a week at my mother-in-law's house, taking advantage of her cool air. During this time, I ended up teaching her how to knit a dish cloth. She had one she loved that has just about reached the end of its useful life, so it was time for a new one. I ended up picking some thread for a few wash cloths for myself (I just can't bring myself to use such pretty things on dirty dishes) and worked right along side her while she made her first dish cloth. I must say, for her first time knitting in several years, she got right back into the swing of things very quickly. She picked a skein of red/blue/grey mix that when I looked at it on the shelf, I wasn't too much of a fan, but after she started knitting with it, it pulled a transformer on me and ended up looking pretty kick-ass! Enough that I'm planning on making a few out of the same stuff. 

A nice bright and cheery wash cloth!

I am now into my second batch of home made laundry soap, and I am loving it! Some stains that I thought were there for good have magically disappeared, and it rinses out so well there isn't anything left to irritate sensitive skin. Bonus - It works beautifully in my H.E. front loading washer. Next time I make a batch, I'll have to put up a tutorial on it. 

While reading around online for something...I think ideas for more wash cloths since I get bored pretty quickly, I stumbled across something I haven't thought about in a few years. Hot Process Soap.....but in a crock pot! Sign. Me. Up!

I love homemade soap, especially the kind with herbs and flowers in it. I stumbled across the blog Little House in the Suburbs and have been browsing through the wonderful entries there, getting my creative ideas flowing. So of course now I'm reading up on making soap in a crock pot, and the ratios, and what to do if it doesn't work, and how to tell if it's not working before waiting for it to set up. 

I'm hoping to have my first batch of crock pot soap in the next few weeks, (seriously, not standing over a hot pot of soap stirring away in summer, umm yes please), now I just have to decide if I'm going to make plain old soap, or if I'm going to do something fancy, like oatmeal and honey, or lavender chamomile, or even a mint and lemon. This is especially exciting for me, because I'm always looking to find ways to pamper myself, without spending all the extra money at the store. Also because this year I'm really trying to cut back on our seeming dependence on store bought items, and be more proactive incorporating nature into our lives. What more wonderfully pampering way to incorporate some of our summer garden into our winter lives than including some of the herbs and flowers in the soap we will use all winter? Add to that the scrumptious wash cloths, maybe some homemade candles, and hey, who needs the spa?

Well, that's all for now folks. Need to get off of here before I get any more ideas and try to do too much at once!

Faith, spirit, and nature

Some days, things just fall into place. You feel whole, connected. Your body seems to hum with an energy that is but isn't there. Something so beautiful and perfect you feel your eyes tear up, your heart swells, and an overwhelming sense of peace settles around your shoulders like a favorite warm blanket. 

Yesterday, the air reminded me of Scotland, humid, but cool and breezy. Scotland was the first place I truly felt this overwhelming surety of who I am, and what it means to be me. To the point my soul cried "This is home, I am home!". The sense that my spirit, my body, and my mind were in sync, and for a brief moment, even the stars and time could move nothing unless I willed it. I felt what I have long believed, in so profound of a moment, that it no longer was a belief, but became a soul deep knowledge. 

Yesterday, I had a similar feeling, not as strong, but an echo of what I had felt before. Even if we hadn't already planned it, I would have found myself outside and in the garden, or the woods. Barefoot, bare hands, sinking into the damp ground, with the breeze a gentle brush against the face. 

K came over, and we got the side bed weeded and planted. We were able to put corn, green beans, acorn squash, tomatoes, basil, carrots and onions in the ground. We will be putting some eggplant in as well in the side garden. The carrots, tomatoes, and basil are all showing, but nothing else will sprout for a while yet. I am looking forward to dinners made with freshly picked food, shared with loved ones. 

Some people may wonder why go through the trouble of doing all this when you can just buy it. Well, there's many reasons, but only a few are very important to me.

The most important is that for me, working in the garden is very spiritual. Some people pray, some people meditate, some dance, or use rhythm and find that solace the soul is looking for. Gardens, nearby woodlands, and rivers have always been my solace. There is a sense of wonder, a sense of peace when in nature. It's where we came from, before there were cities, before there were modern conveniences, we lived in and with nature. There is a harmony that I have not found elsewhere. When you let nature set the pace of life, life is more full. There's less stress, and it's easier to accept that what will happen will happen, and we can't control everything, as much as some of us may want to. 

Part of the spiritual aspect is all of the sensory input, that when I focus on it, or simply sit surrounded by it creates a very humbling feeling. As humans, we tend to forget how important the earth around us is and that in one way or another we all depend on nature. Getting my hands into the soil, knowing that what I have my hands in provides life to the plants that will be put there, and thus to me. The scent of the plants is to me the scent of life. The sound of the breeze, and the air around me that carries the sound of leaves rustling, or birds singing, lifts my spirit. 

Another reason this is so special to me, is that working with the earth reminds me of loved ones, and cherished memories. Memories that come bursting through the misty reaches of my mind to stand bold, front and center when I'm in nature. Remembering my mother, and my grandmother taking walks and pointing out different plants, with my mother sometimes explaining a medicinal use of the plant if she knew it. Memories of my grandfather carefully saving and cataloging seeds from his favorite plants, or taking the time and care to paint leaves of prized plants one at a time to protect them from some pest, or blight. Friends that I remember talking to their plants, encouraging them grow, and thrive, and the excited phone calls when a bloom appeared. 

http://tattoos-and-doodles.blogspot.com/2012/01/triskel-plant.html

Another is it fills a special part in my heart. My faith. My belief that life is sacred, and deserving of reverence. As a Druid, there is so much more than simply having a spiritual connection, there is an underlying, fundamental belief, in love, wisdom, and creativity, all of which I find in the garden. The proof that our lives are more connected than they appear on the surface. The peace that is present when all is in harmony. In my experience, some of the most wonderful moments of freeing the soul have been found setting roots into the soil.

All of this sums up to the fact that I do this because it's who I am. 

Gardening, Family, Life, and Feeding the birds

OK, so this post has been in the works for over two months now, so it'll be a long one. Some info and pictures are at least two months old, but still worth adding.

In one of my earlier posts "Reflections, A New Year, and New Experiments, I mentioned something about goals I had for the year. One of those was growing and canning more of our own food. To that end, we have been working on getting some vegetable beds ready to grow yummy tomatoes, and corn, and squash, and green beans among many other things.

Since our lives are fairly busy right now, and we have friends who want to grow their own veggies too, we've been sharing the work. K and her daughter have been coming over and helping clear out rocks....lots and lots of rocks, and plant seedlings, all while teaching her adorable little lady bug about playing in the dirt, playing in the water from the hose, and splashing in the puddles made by the hose.

Dirty bottom, and playing in the hose water :)

One of the delays in working in the garden was the cracking, and spewing forth of water from our 75 gallon fish tank on April 26th. Probably about 45 minutes or so after my husband left for work, and after I had been asleep about 4 hours. Thinking back now, it was rather comical. To my sleeping brain, the first crack sounded like the linen cupboard door being closed, so I just rolled over and went back to sleep. Some time later, probably about 5 or 10 minutes, I heard another crack, groaned and rolled over wondering what on earth he was getting in the cupboard for again, then I heard the sound of liquid running and splashing....and it didn't stop. I yelled out "Please tell me that's you going to the bathroom?!" silence....well (random string of expletives).

So I get up and check the bathroom and nothing, head out to living room and as I'm walking down the hall I realize my cat is sitting on the arm of the couch staring raptly at the fish tank. As I walk past the tank I feel cold, wet, squishy carpet, and look down to see 5 streams of water coming out of the bottom back of the tank! Hence the comical running around trying to figure out what to do save the water, the fish and the floor, which at this point splashed when I stepped on it, since about 1/4 of the water was on the floor.

The crack going from bottom right to the top of the tank. Still have the pretty backing on.

I managed to grab one of those 5 gallon buckets and catch one stream of water that was wicking around and out the side, but I had to figure out a way to channel the water that was still pouring out the back, right towards the power outlets. First thing I saw...was a gallon ziplock bag....don't know why I thought that would work, but after standing there for about a minute trying to figure out how to get it to stay, I decided that was BS. I went to the kitchen and grabbed our small cutting board and managed to wedge that between the tank and the wall and redirect the water into the bucket, which was filling up really fast. So while that was filling I called the hubby to get him to come home. Then called K and the conversation went something like this...

K: Hi (cautiously because I normally don't call that early)
Me: Do you have towels (Duh...they wouldn't)
K: Yeah, I have a lot of towels. Why?
Me: My fish tank sprung a leak....
K: What!? Ok I'll grab my towels, and I have this little green that I can grab and suck water out of the floor
Me: That sounds great...

So our day that Friday revolved around sucking fish water out of the tank, and the floor. Well, at least the floor got a good scrubbing, courtesy of A bringing a brand spankin new carpet cleaner over, and the  fish tank got a thorough cleaning. We got a new tank, and actually got pretty lucky. We got a new 75 gallon tank, stand, lid and light for about $500.00 from a local pet store. Still a hefty chunk to have to drop like that, but we had to put the fish somewhere, and the tub wasn't an option!

New tank, still a little cloudy after transferring all the fish and decorations over. The guy below is our bottom feeder....aptly named Moby in the old tank. Yes, he takes up over half of the 23 inches of the tank from top to bottom. Probably closer to 20 when you count the pebbles on the bottom.

We've managed to chisel and scrounge out two beds. A small one between our driveway and a larger one at the back of our house. We realized that the one at the back of the house actually ends up in the shade by about 2:30 right now. Our neighbor's trees are hugely tall, and without the leaves, we didn't notice how far the shadows are thrown.  I'm confident that as we get further into summer, and the sun shifts, it'll be more in the sun.

So, we got both beds tilled, fertilized, and some peat moss turned in to the soil in an effort to break up the clay, and add some nutrients. The side bed is going to be home to some corn, and tomatoes, and green beans, and squash. The back bed pictured above is going to be home to lots of stuff, including zucchini, cucumbers, herbs, onions, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, spaghetti squash, and more that I can't think of at the moment.

Fast forward about a month, life continues to throw curve balls our way, including finding out we need to completely replace our AC unit (which if you notice is in the middle of the vegetable bed against the house.....yeah anyone else see tender young plants getting squashed by the workmen? Not intentionally of course!

Of course during all of this, I had a wish granted, and in the manner of wishes, not in a way I expected. Mid March I ended up taking over watching A's boys while she was at work. Not a week or so before I was thinking, "I'd really love to spend more time with A and her two kids". Yea...be careful what you wish for!

One week, we went to a local park and fed the birds! Both the boys and I ended up with little birds on our hands pecking seeds up! It was one of those rare, magical moments that just resonates with a hidden place in your soul. 

For as much as those kids push, and try to get what they want (what kid doesn't?) I love them. There were definitely the 'Aww' moments, sporadic at first, but with increasing frequency towards the end. Last Monday, the youngest practically marched up to me and said "We (his brother and himself) should do the chores so you guys can rest". Mom's voice popped into my head "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" (What does that really mean any way??) so I jumped on the chance. They came up with a list of chores they could do. This listed included:

Run the vacuum

Clean the cat liter box

Clean off table after dinner

Take out trash/recyclables

Help with laundry

Water the plants

Pick up and organize the shoes by the front door

Help with dishes

Set the table

sweep the kitchen

pick up trash

pick  up toys

read a book

pick up and put back pillows and blankets on couch

Well I added the read the book one ;). What we did was make a chore cup, printed out the chores and cut them up. Then the boys would each pull a chore out of the cup, do it, and race to see who got done first, then pull the next one out until they were all done! I also made little lucky stars for them to transfer, along with the completed chore to the completed cup. The rule was that if they did all their chores, all week, and without complaining, they would be allowed to play video games on the weekend. We did this all week and it worked wonderfully. A is continuing this even though I'm not watching them anymore. 

Sorry this took so long to get up, but here it is in all it's un-edited glory! I'll be working on another post shortly about the garden, and how it's progressing.

Dreams are one of the driving factors of life. Dreams of the future, unfulfilled dreams, even nightmares, all drive us in one direction or another. It's up to us to choose which dreams to chase, and which need to be left behind. 

Experience Life Firsthand

I'm here today to 'beat a dead horse'. Many other blogs, articles, news casts etc have covered this same topic many times, which much more research, but I read something today that just tipped me over boiling. I started to type out a status on Facebook, and realized it was going to be just too long, so I moved over here.

WARNING: Expletives NOT deleted (for those sensitive enough to be offended), and opinions that could be offensive to some are expressed.


Vent/Rant:
I almost got sucked into a debate about which is better, paying for cable or internet+Hulu/Netflix. Both sides were vicious. How about instead of spending hours watching TV every day, and arguing over the most convenient/cheapest way, we boot our asses off the couch, go learn something new, make something, better our lives, and our children's in the process? In general...use our bodies and brains in the manner they were intended to be used.

How long has mankind lived without TV? Thousands of years. How long has man kind lived fully? Thousands of years. How long has TV (broadcasts) been around? Less than 100 years. I think it wasn't until the 50's that TV became commercialized. Now, how many of you hear yourself saying "I can't live without TV"? I ask you, why not? Because you need to know what happens next? Make it up for yourself, I promise you'll love the ending a hell of a lot better. Because you would be bored without it? Fuck that! You know all those things you say you want to do but never have time to? Well no TV means you'll have a lot more time to do things you want to do. Because you want to live vicariously through the TV because they have what you can't? Quit whining, quit being selfish, and go grab life and mold it to what you want it to be instead of wishing it were better. Because you don't think you can come up with stuff to do? Well here's a few ideas to get you started. Talk a walk in the woods, check out a local farmers market, play tag with the kids, plant a garden, read a book, make up a story in a round robin style, learn a new hobby, pick up a hobby you set aside, solve a puzzle, invite people over for dinner and TALK, feed the birds, go fishing, go explore your town, try a new recipe, volunteer somewhere, take up yoga, make home improvements, go to the library, the list can go on and on.

Now, I know that it's easier to plop kids down in front of the TV, or video games, and let them do their thing, especially when you just really need to get something done, and I think that's ok in moderation, but as someone who has little ones in her life, and loves them, how can you stand that blank, glassy eyed expression when they tune in and zone out? All of us, but kids especially, have absorbent minds. Some how, even if we can't recall everything, the things we see sink in to those minds. What do you want sinking in the little ones in your life minds, into your mind? Yes, there's some damn good programming out there for learning, for all ages. However I firmly believe that the best learning is done when experienced first hand. Yes, use TV, the internet, and smart phones to enhance your life. I use mine frequently to look up how to do something, or I'll stumble across an article that shows me something I'd never thought of before, or to help me figure out what something I've never experienced before is. Then walk away from them and go learn for yourself.

I think one of the big things about opting to watch someone else do things on TV, instead of opting to do it yourself, is that it removes the fear of failure, or the feelings of insecurity when we don't measure up to some of those awful societal standards of perfection. Can't really fail or be bad at anything if you just watch from the sidelines. But how will you know if you'll be good at it? You won't. Point blank, plain and simple, end of discussion. Unless you try. Unless you try many times, and fail. Then LEARN from your failures, grow from your experiences. YOU experienced them, and no one else can take that experience away.

Instead of living our lives through a box that flashes and makes all manner of sounds (yes I realize the irony as I'm currently in front of a computer), how about we actually get OUT there and live our lives? Yes, I love watching sci-fi, yes I like playing video games, and there are times when all I want to do is veg out, but damn it all I'm not plugged in to the things. Meet up with friends, play with the kids in your life (four legged and hairy included), and spend time EXPERIENCING life for yourself. Experience a scene of nature so beautiful and perfect you actually tear up. Experience what it's like to have a wild bird land on your hand. Experience new sounds, smells, and tastes at an ethnic restaurant. Experience the pride in completing something you've never done before. Experience the frustration when something doesn't work, and revel in it, because you are living.

Instead of asking, "What should I watch?", ask instead "How should I experience life today?" Let life inspire you. Who knows, you just might inspire someone else.