Garden 06.18.2012

MOVING

We are finally getting out of the hot box called Houston. Closing is 06.20.2012 in the early morning then we head due North with a very brief stop in KS to visit Hubs family en-route to the Portland area.  

Monday morning David goes to work and I report to my new school.  I have a few pre-req's to complete because with every move a few courses are lost or not quite right.  We loosely decided if I didn't get into the courses I needed for application in September to nursing school then I'd use my current degree(s) to get a job.  I was wait-listed but for them but two out of three cleared and the prof for the third said show up he'd get me in (finally a 4.0 pays off for something cause no on in real life cares) so school it is.  I like love school. I'm good at it, I like the challenge and the dead lines and that A's at the end of a tough semester.  Thankfully Hubs just wants me to be happy. I suspect I'll always be in school.  Collecting degrees as most collect promotions and raises. :)

Portland is very food allergy friendly. We are looking forward to being able to occasionally eat out together.  The weather is much more compatible with our love for outside adventures. Camping, fishing, hiking...

Photos by Brooke

Latest garden pictures.  My garden is growing crazy.  Today I pulled the sweet peas.  They were still slowly producing but they were blocking the sunlight from other plants and they were encouraging the squirrels...  Those buggers were splitting the pods open on the vine and leaving them empty...  And since my garden is so creature friendly they were constantly burying things in the mulch pathways.  I'm not sure that squirrels have any benefit to the garden.

I also trimmed up my broccoli that had gone to seed.  It's from over a year ago and it just went to seed in February?  Something like that.  The bees and butterfly's love the tiny yellow flowers and so I leave it for them.  My broccoli planted in January is still producing.  Tomatoes are getting huge and they all have flowers and small firm green  tomatoes the size of my thumb.  Onions are growing well.  All herbs doing fantastic.  Pulled the last of my beets today and still have a few carrots.  They aren't really growing but they aren't bolting either so I am leaving them in the ground.  I think I water everything deeply enough that it helps prevent bolting of the carrots and broccoli.  I'm still getting strawberries but the birds typically beat me to them.  It's okay, the birds also help keep down any hint of a pest  problem.

I've had a bit of a slug issue.  Which is surprising.  They are tiny little things but they love the leaves on my broccoli and marigolds (I didn't know ANYTHING ate marigolds).  Favorite pesticide is cups of Miller Beer.  Miller cause it's the least expensive but it's embarrassing to purchase.  I trot through the grocery with my buggy of organic whole foods items and gluten free oats and my Miller.  Oh yea.

I bury my little cups an inch or two in the ground and fill 'em up.  Every day or so I dump out all the dead slugs and refill.  Fresh beer is best, even with slugs.  It's amazing how quickly my beer cups fill up in the shady spots.  If they are left for more than a couple of days a slimy film forms over the top. Somehow this makes it more disgusting.  Oh and as a bonus I sometimes find floating cockroaches also.....  Only in the front flower bed though where it is the most shady and has only marigolds - thankfully nothing I eat.

Seven Years

Whew! We made it. Today is day one of year eight. Seven years ago today we said "I do." We've seen lots of the U.S., parts of Mexico, Aruba, the British Virgin Islands and more together. Together we experienced the addition of family members through marriage and birth and faced the loss of a grandparent. We acquired two dogs and lost one quite unexpectedly. Purchasing our first home, doing home repair projects and many many semesters of school also filled our seven years. Discovering crazy different food allergies and learning to cook in news ways was an adventure.

Sweet Potato Month??

According to Whole Foods it is National Sweet Potato Month. What do you know. One of our favorite meals is sweet potato curry so I'm going to make that tonight. It was on the menu anyway....

The garden is growing super fast. We've had lots of much needed rain and the garden prefers it to the tap water from the garden hose.

Scratch is still lonely but we take three walks a day and sometimes pick up canine or human friends along the way that walk with us and help ease his (and my) loneliness over missing Sunny girl.

David and I had a quiet night at home for Valentines Day. Frozen pizzas (gluten free for me, corn/soy free for him - no one had to cook!), red wine. No studying. No computer use. No company. No talk of anything serious. No cell phones. No radio. It was very calm, quiet and relaxing. We talked of how we want to celebrate our seven year anniversary, coming up in a couple of weeks. We went to bed early. It was perfect.


(picture is Scratch with a canine friend we picked up along a walk one morning - this little female dog gets out from her yard frequently and Scratch had such a fun time playing with her)

Grief

Such a little word for so many emotions. I was in kind of a fog for several days. Today I finally got up the muster to wipe the final physical reminders of my Sunshine. She left permanent paw prints on my heart and in my life and many. many muddy paw prints on my floors.... She also left smudges on the windows at nose height. I couldn't bear to clean them up until today. And it was difficult. Usually I can't stand the sight of the mess and my "un-natural fastidious" (a friend once described me as such and it has stuck) kicks in immediately to at least spot mop or window wash. This week though, looking at the paw prints of two different sized dogs made my throat tight and my body tired. I tackled the job today. While I can't say I'll miss all the mopping, I am missing that joyful crazy dog that left all those marks.

Scratch isn't showing signs of depression or being very mopey but he is lonely. He always snuggled with Sunny-girl on the futon and argued over toys (we have two of almost everything) and raced around the house, skidding to a sliding stop that usually tumbled one or both of them. He doesn't play very much with humans. He'll sometimes chase a ball or toy but doesn't return it very well. Sunny loved the game "find it" - where the human hid a toy in the house and she'd have to sit and wait until we gave the command "find it" and she'd sniff about the house until it was discovered. Scratch would bound after her but doesn't understand to play it without her.

I have been trying to take Scratch for a couple of short walks every day (with Sunshine we'd go for one walk in the early morning hours, usually before the sun rose and we still do that walk but he's so lonely I've been trying to do more) so that he has some exercise to replace his romps with Sunshine and to keep him from getting bored. Bored dogs can be very destructive, something we have thankfully never had an issue with but with 110 pound dog, I hope to never have a problem with.

Moving forward is still difficult. The back yard, Sunny's Queen-dom, still causes my breath to catch in my throat and tears sting my eyes but I am thankful that my high energy dog, so filled with life didn't seem to have suffered. She was still in her prime. I have always said I'd like to die before I'm so old I can't live the way I want to. Even in death Sunny was my dog. In the last six months she was starting to slow down a little. Be in the house a little more (our dogs don't have a doggie door but they have always had a choice to be in the house or in the yard and Sunshine nearly always preferred the yard). Nap more frequently. She would have been five in a few weeks so we thought after nearly five years of being a puppy she was settling down a little. Maybe she was aging. We'll never know. I'm thankful I didn't have to watch her diminish and make decisions about euthanizing her.

But I still miss her.

We don't own a TV which is what is the background noise of most homes. Sunshine was our background noise. She was so vocal. She'd have lengthy "conversations" with us yipping and whining when we asked "Should we just feed Scratch tonight?" *whine* "I don't know it looks like we only have enough food for one dog - we'll feed Scratch" *whine whine yip!* An exchange like this could go on for a while. About anything. Walks, food, David coming home, vacuuming, "yucks", toys and so on. She'd lecture her own body parts and anything else that made her upset. Toys, Scratch, latched doors, a delay in going out back, the squirrel that would tease her (oddly I haven't seen him since Sunny has gone).

(Top picture: "Sunshine - go check if David's home yet" - she'd race to the window that gave her a view of the drive way and give me a full report.
Bottom picture: Sunny and Scratch catch a snooze on their futon - Sunny usually had her head dangling all the way off the futon but I don't have a picture of it.)

Farewell Sunny Girl

We experienced the sudden loss of our dog, Sunshine over the weekend. She was just a couple of months shy of five years old. Sunny had a normal week and weekend. Nothing was amiss. She ate her dinner with the usual gusto. She played and wanted to stay outside as usual. Scratch was with her in the yard and he is fine. Her body seemed at peace. There was no evidence of an external source or cause of death. She just looked like she sprawled out on the porch as usual to survey her domain (she was the queen of the back yard just ask Scratch, the squirrels, the birds and all the little "yucks") and didn't wake up.


On January 6, 2009 I thought I was going to loose her but we got an extra three years for which I am grateful. But it wasn't enough.


She was an energetic, playful, outgoing pup. She adored her early morning runs with David, she liked to lay her head on a knee for absentminded petting. Her favorite place at home was the back yard. Her favorite place in the house was on the futon with her head dangling off at odd angles (how I wish I had a picture of that). I loved holding her face in my hands and feeling the softness of her ears. She always let me hug her and bury my face in her doggy fur. And, unless she'd found something less than fresh to roll in, she always smelled like musty outside puppy-ness. I loved it.


It's been almost 48 hours. I still can't believe it. She was so healthy, so full of life. I'm writing and looking at pictures and thinking I'm going to go squish those soft ears... but no.


The back yard is no longer animated with her joyful whines and barks when we step out to play. Her favorite toy is still and I haven't heard her paw on the door to come in. Her favorite peep hole into the neighbors yard (she was so nosy!!) still bears the marks of her face and the fence has a line of paw marks where she'd try and get the squirrel that always teased her.


I expected her to live at least ten years unless she broke her neck flying full throttle into the back fence after some lizard.


Life is short. Sunshine was a good example of living it up to the last minute. And she never missed a meal. She managed to pass on after dinner. And probably timed it just right so she could have a second dinner upon arrival in heaven. And yes, I think dogs do go to Heaven. Why not? Every creature worships Him, not just humans. There is comfort in thinking about her trotting around showing the other dogs who's boss. I'm sure she picked out the baddest looking doggie up there and promptly humped him. She loved showing Scratch who was the boss. Poor guy would "woof" from the back porch and we'd holler "Sunny quit humping Scratch". And she'd give us her most haughty look and move away. She could be such a turd.


She was a lover though too. Most dogs are. So happy to see me or David come through the door. When David was running late from work she'd pace between the garage door and the front door waiting on him to stride through, set down his things and greet her with a pat. Eager to play and crazy excited to take walks.

When we brought Scratch home in December 2007 Sunshine was about 6 months old and already a spitfire. She taught Scratch the ropes about being in a family and not being afraid of anything. She helped him learn to be friends with other dogs and showed him how fantastic walks were and to expect treats at all times and how to train a human. She infused him with life and energy and helped transform him from a scared dog that would only hover in corners and didn't know how to enjoy life to a crazy lover boy that doesn't meet a stranger and has expensive taste in treats.


There is a tangible void in our lives right now. No, she wasn't human but she was a huge part of our family. And the thing about dogs is that they never hurt your feelings. They aren't mean or impatient or rude to you. They don't put anyone over you or make you feel bad about anything. All they want to do is play and love and, for Sunshine, be tucked in at night in her crate with a pat on the head and a cookie. (Occasionally David would forget the cookie and she would tell me about it oh my word so I'd give her a cookie and she'd turn around a few times and tuck herself in tight for the night.) She was so animated and vocal. It was crazy.

Mostly though she was mine. She was my dog and wow do I miss her.

Dogs 01.28.2012

I got out the camera to take pictures of my garden and the dogs were all over it. They love getting their picture taken. The sound of the camera being switched "on" is like calling the dogs by name.

GARDEN 01.28.2012


Last night we had fish and brown rice for dinner so I cut about a pound of broccoli florets and David steamed 'em for dinner. Well what was left after I tasted several...

I left some that are bolting (flowering and going to seed) so I can gather seeds from these plants. They were super hardy during the drought and I'd like to be able to plant them again.

The lettuce is ready to be cut again - I see Chicken Cesar Salads in our near future. Lunch probably since we have left over chicken in the fridge. The barrier is doing it's job and the mint and strawberry have been corralled. The cilantro is growing like crazy too. It's going to bolt soon. I've been pulling up the cilantro one by one, washing them and drying them for use. I don't really want it to bolt because the seed will end up everywhere and I'll end up with massive amounts. I hate pulling good plants, even to make space for new seeds. By keeping it from bolting I can prevent the need for pulling seedlings.

The baby garden loved all the rain and has doubled or more in size since the last photo two weeks ago.

I put garlic in the ground in the herb box two weeks ago and have sprouts on all three. Yea!

Our composts have been switched. The green compost from two weeks ago is being stirred regularly and will be used in the next bed. I'm relocating the mature compost from the pics two weeks ago, so I can squeeze in one more bed. It'll then be the green compost.

We have a little green frog living in the broccoli plant. I've been hearing toads from the garden at night too. I want to get a toad house and a frog house for the garden to encourage them to hang out permanently. David's building a birdhouse too. I plant the empty bed next weekend but don't have my final plans ready. I am going to put flowers between sections of veggies to encourage bees, butterflies and birds.

We got lots of rain last week. I was really happy that all my beds drained well. Too much water, not enough drainage, encourages grub worms, which are happy to be in Texas anyway. In my original 4*4 I lined the bed and when I tore it out to build a bigger bed, there were lots of grub worms. (I've learned so much since then...) I squished the ones I ran into and treated the soil with organic granulated sugar. When I turn the new, empty bed now I don't find any grub worms. Just happy fat earth worms. Yea!

My strawberry transplant from two weeks ago is doing well too. It's growing and seems happy in it's pot.

Gardening
Soothes the soul and feeds the belly... Also I really like it. Thus we've built several. I went to get soil for the one bed but it was less to get a pick up truck load than a few bags... so then we had to build a few more. And sweet potato has a was of taking over the world if one lets it.


A small mint plant was placed directly in the ground about ten months ago. A few feet away was a small strawberry plant. A foot or so from there, an oregano. All of them are vigorous spreading plants. Especially the strawberry and mint. So we dug a foot deep barricade and dropped a board in before my entire long garden became mint. I'm quite pleased it's doing so well and all but there's only so much mint a girl can use. I also dug up a strawberry runner and planted it in a large pot, hopefully we'll get loads of berries between the potted one and the garden.


Basically what I have now is three full beds.


One is my baby garden, planted just before Thanksgiving and carefully covered when the temps are supposed to drop below 40 degrees at night. It's quite the jerry-rigged affair these days as the plants are growing so quickly but thus far we've lost none of the babies to the freeze. I tucked an old bell pepper that might be a goner in the corner in hopes it'd come back. She didn't do so well in the first freeze.


Another garden, now partitioned to keep the mint and strawberry at bay, has two broccoli plants, a variety of lettuce and a couple cilantro. I haven't ever covered any of this but it's hardy and doing well none the less. I just picked back all the lettuce so they are a bit naked right now but I get a few salads a week from them. The broccoli was growing in another garden up against chicken wire so they look scraggly but they are still producing quite well in spite of the freezes, the transplant and the general abuse from chicken wire.



The third garden is basically a doubling of my first garden, which was a 4*4. We basically used the wood from that garden and some other scavenged wood to build a much bigger bed then transferred the soil from the original garden into the bigger, slightly rearranged bed. (It was up against the short fence on the right.) Because about 1/2 the soil had been planted for a full year this bed, built in November, won't be planted until early February, although the soil seems good as I can't keep the volunteer plants out of it.


The fence to the right in the first photo, we put up right before adding the beds. There was a chicken wire fan fare that, while mostly did its job of keeping the dogs out, was ugly and difficult to work around. I wanted something more workable and pleasant to look at and I think we got both with this semi-pre-fabricated fencing from Home Depot.


We have two composts. One is mature and I use it in the gardens. The other is immature and we add our (organic) scraps from the kitchen as well was tea and coffee grounds.


I have a box that's dug into the ground that I am planting herbs in. I have cilantro and dill already and there's three garlic bulbs planted that will hopefully be ready in June or so.


Lastly, I have a box that has a bottom on it in which I'll plant sweet potato. I planted last year and it took over the entire 4*4 and when I dug up the 4*4 in November, despite the lining that was down, I found sweet potatoes. They were the size of peas up to the size of a thumb but they were there despite the fact that I had dug up all the sweet potatoes and turned the soil really really well over a year ago. And so, I'm planting sweet 'taters in a box this time around lest my entire yard be taken over by sweet potato.

I'm working up the plan for my February planting - only 2.5 weeks away!! And then the long garden will rest until mid-March or so when I'll plant again... Lots of planning to do.

SEEDS!!

I ordered seeds for the first time from an online source. They came in today and I can't wait to plant....

Gifts that don't fit under a tree

Needing Christmas gift giving inspiration? Have a list of relatives that have to be shopped for but have NO IDEA what to get?? Consider the following options for a unique gift that requires no wrapping or shipping and provides so much more than the obligatory tie or sweater.


Animals for a family in impoverished areas:
http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=11080
85% of money goes directly towards helping other people

You can choose to give a family a range of gifts in the name of a friend or family member and have a nice card sent to said gifted to let them know of your Christmas wishes and gift. Gifts start at $16 for a bunny, so there is something to gift for every budget!



Adoption assistance:
http://www.showhope.org/
In 2010 79% of money went towards programs

Show Hope primarily provides financial assistance towards the expense of adoption and strives to utilize funds responsibly.




Transportation in rural areas:
http://worldbicyclerelief.org/
76.4% of money goes towards programs

A bike can make a three hour trek to school something more attainable for a family striving to move forward. WBR makes heavy duty, well constructed bikes and trains people to fix them providing a means of transportation and lively hood.




Help improve the lives of women and children in Ethiopia:
http://www.aglimmerofhope.org/
They promise 100% of donations will go to the field

Glimmer focuses on water, health, education, and microfinance in Ethiopia. We have a tender spot for Ethiopia as our dear friends brought home their babies from Ethiopia and asked us to take the role of and Uncle and Auntie. Our friends encourage their children to know about their birth country and we can't think of a better way to honor our nieces than to support their birth country to become self reliant and strong.


****Images taken from the websites of each of the organizations listed****