Garden Crazy

Reading the blogs of gardeners from other areas of the country and the world, I am becoming aware of just how blessed we are to live in a climate suitable for growing something most of the year.  In appreciation of this, I've just joined The Growing Challenge to have a four season garden this year.  You can find them at: http://1greengeneration.elementsintime.com/?p=2570

I had made up a planting schedule for the whole year ahead of time this year with some help from Clemson University's website.  They had South Carolina divided up into specific regions, and gave great advice that has probably saved me time, money, and aggravation.  For instance, I was going to plant Collards with my early crops, but Clemson suggests waiting for a Fall crop.  They would grow fine, it seems, as an early season crop.  They would also be bitter and awful without that Fall frost required to make them worth eating.  Bless them for sparing me that disappointment!

I'm off to my SC garden tomorrow night and I'll be red-faced, sweaty and sore Saturday morning.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Ahhhhh, Ranger

Ranger has been growing - and eating - and eating - and committing crimes.


Crime #1.  Dumpster diving.

Ranger has developed the charming habit of excavating things from the recycling bin, chewing them to shreds, swallowing some of it and evenly distributing the rest all over the house.  One of these days I expect to have my vet tell me we'll have to surgically remove something from his gut.  I'll think about it.

Why don't we just move the recycling you ask?  Because his obsession with the recyclables means he isn't eating as many shoes, purses, hats, couches, etc.  That's why.

Crime #2.  Excavation #1

Our neighbors on the other side of the fence have a herd of dogs that makes ours look small.  One of those dogs is a vicious, dog killing, beautiful, intact blue Pit Bull.  Did I mention he's unusually large for a Pit?  He has killed some of their other dogs, including Snoopy, my favorite.  I don't like that damned dog and I'm always scared he will get into my yard and hurt my babies.  Ranger decided, for whatever reason, to dig under the fence and under the neighbor's shed.  He made a cave big enough to turn his 87 lb.self around in.  There can only be a few inches of dirt left between him and the evil dog over there.  Did I mention the killer dog's name is Danger?  Bren and I countered with this:

He uses these giant mitts to move all that dirt.

Crime #3.  Excavation #2

Ranger is the reason why I will never have any compost for my garden.  He digs under the compost bin, knocks the side door off, and eats every nasty, disgusting bit of rotting vegetation I put in there.  The few things he won't actually eat, like leek tops, he carries around the yard as trophies and toys.  Damn it.

 

Crime #4.  The front and back doors.

This is what he does when I'm out and he's in.  Or when I'm in and he's out.  Buy some stock in vinegar production, folks, 'cause I'm going to be doing a lot of windows.

Crime #5.  Beating his Mama up.

He didn't mean to.  He just forgets how big he is.  So while I was looking out the front door at the rain, a clap of thunder startled everyone.  I heard him coming down the hall like a thundering herd of wildebeest.  I turned just in time to catch 87 lbs. of terrified dog right in the gut.  I think he was attempting to jump into my arms.  I fell backward, striking the back of my head on the edge of the open door.  As I fell with my hip hitting the metal edge of the landing, Ranger fell with me, his front feet driving all of the breath from my body. Oof!  I was just down for the count for a minute there.  My ancient, terribly ill rat terrier Pip is very protective of his mama.  He was beside himself, so he decided the right thing to do was to launch himself at poor Ranger, who was scared and scrambling to regain his footing (still on my stomach, God help me.) Just picture it, if you will.  The hysterical small dog attacking the big, frightened dog and me trying to move so I could separate them before someone got hurt.  Ah, the joys of motherhood!

Why would we keep such a pain in the tuchas, you ask?

Well....he is really sweet.  And really, really lovey.  And it's almost cute when he forgets how big he is and sits on someone's lap.  But mostly we put up with his doofiness because we rescued him as a companion for Chewie and they are great together.

He makes Chewie happy and that makes us happy.

The Garden is Growing!

I've been spending a lot of time at the country house in South Carolina so I could get the garden started.  It is at my brother-in-law's house just down the road.  Here are some pics after he had plowed it.

Three weeks and some torrential rain later, it looks like this:

In the foreground are the peas and their trellising. Off to the far left you can just glimpse the end of the long line of cabbages. In between are beets, carrots, 3 kinds of lettuce, mustard, onions, turnips, and I can't remember what else.  The storms have washed little areas of seed out of the rows and into pools of mystery veggies.  Isn't gardening exciting?

I'm so geeked out about the garden, I should be embarrassed.  Really, though, I'm just excited and can't wait to get warm weather stuff in.  I have an extensive and perhaps unrealistic list.  One thing I will certainly be growing a lot of this year is tomatoes.  I'm fed up with tired of the stuff in cans at the store.  My own tastes so much better and I don't have to wonder what is in it.

This is my new favorite t-shirt I got from Tractor Supply Company:

Gotta love tractor humor.

My little, old, sick, beloved Rat Terrier goes with me most trips.  Although the three hour ride each way is hard on his old, achy bones, (Mine, too!) Pip loves his time in the country.  Here he is basking in the sun and then, well, you know how dogs are about squirrels right?

All in all, Pip and I are having a great time on our weekend trips to the sticks!

Urban Homesteading

Also Urban Homestead. So there!

Sticking my tongue out at people who let their egos get the better of them.

I'm embarrassed by their behavior and I really don't understand why they aren't?.

I Still Have So Very Far To Go - Mea Culpa

I've been feeling pretty good about the way we've been recycling lately.  We've changed our system around a little and are producing mountains of recycling.  Factor in the composting, and I've found that we hardly have any garbage going to the landfill. Great, right?  Right?

Wrong!  Something is terribly wrong here.  Mountains of recycling???

That's right, mountains.  We fill all three of our huge, oversized recycling bins to overflowing every week, and we usually still have some left over.  I can't believe how long it took me to stop feeling proud of that and realize we have a problem. We have a couple of problems.  One is that we keep buying processed foods contained in insane amounts of packaging.  I've been aware of the evils of processed foods since I was old enough to think, yet I still buy them too often.  I have many reuseable grocery bags, I even have some specifically for produce, but how often do I actually remember to use them?  The answer is almost never.

I know that instant foods in plastic packing to be heated up in the microwave at work for lunch are just bad for me, and the earth, on any number of levels, but I still buy them sometimes.

And what about the water I waste preparing food containers for the recycling?  Good clean water lost.  Wasted.  I'm ashamed.

I have taken some baby steps to right some of these problems, but I need to get tough and try harder.  I need to stop rushing off to the grocery store in a panicky state and buy whatever I see.  I need to get better at planning out my meals and making sure that the food I buy is, whenever possible, better quality, local, organic, and more sustainable.  I certainly can't afford to shop at the mobile Farmer's Market again (Hey, thanks for the $26.00 whole chicken and the $9.00 teeny, tiny bag of collards.  You have to be kidding!), but I can learn to grow my own veggies and take advantage of people's offers for windfalls (like my cousin in law's apples and blueberries later this year.)

I also need to create some kind of gray water collection system in my home, to deal with wasteful water uses like rinsing recycling and prewashing dishes before using the dishwasher.

I have so far to go.  It's a little intimidating, but I'm on my way and determined to do better.  The proof will be there in front of my house on Friday mornings, in the amount of recycling waiting to be picked up.

January Spice Rack Challenge - Rosemary

I decided to join Mother's Kitchen's Spice Rack Challenge because I need a challenge to get me out of my spice rut.  I have a cupboard full of spices, but really only use 10 or so in my everyday cooking.  I'm looking forward to trying some new ones and to using familiar ones in different ways.

My recipe for this month is Roasted Whole Carrots with Rosemary.  I recently discovered that my husbian (Yes, she's the tomboyish one, lol) will eat carrots if I roast them.  What a nice and easy side dish they make!

The ingredients are:

1 bag whole carrots, NOT baby carrots
2 T olive oil - I used a lemon flavored olive oil and it was really good in this
2 T fresh Rosemary leaves, stripped from stems and lightly chopped
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Coarse Kosher salt to taste

Wash and lightly scrub the carrots.  I try to peel only the blemished spots.

Place the oil in an oven baking bag or on some aluminum foil;.  Add the carrots and the rosemary and roll around to coat.

Grind some pepper over this and add a little salt. 

Close the bag or the foil packet, place in a roasting pan and bake at 350 degrees until tender.  The time this takes will vary depending on the thickness of the carrots. 

I love this dish!  It's so pretty when you plate this up.  It smells heavenly and tastes fab.
 

I've got the spirit this year!

When we came back to the suburbs from our lovely Thanksgiving weekend in the country, it was to find that some kind soul had raked our yard rather thoroughly and even taken the leaves away.  I was immediately filled with gratitude and the Christmas Spirit!  I didn't expect to feel even a little bit Christmasy this year.  We are having terrible financial times, my nephew has discovered the horrible truth about who puts out all of those presents Christmas Eve (Hey, I still believe, Santa!), and my parents won't be joining us at Christmas for the first time since the niece and nephew were born.

Still, somehow, this year I have that old feeling back in a way I haven't for many years. I can't afford to buy presents this year so I'm having to make them.  I thought this would make me feel bad, but it doesn't.  I've got the car radios set to Christmas music and I'm going to bake a bunch of cookies tonight for the guys who work in the shop at my job.  I know who does the real work around here.

I'm going to can some spiced apples and give them away as presents.  Maybe I'll can some homemade cranberry sauce, too.  I'm going to sew some potholders and make catnip mice from old baby socks and I think everything is going to be ok this year.

When I think of what I have to be grateful for, the list is so long.  My cousin Beth is coming home from the hospital tomorrow.  She had a brain hemorrhage three months ago and her recovery is a testament to her amazing will and strength.  She and my 79 year old uncle will be taking care of each other for a while.  I think this is beautiful.  My marriage to Brenda remains strong in spite of our hard times, and I know we are together forever.  My best friend is finally taking steps to make his life better, and I am so grateful to watch him as he pulls his head out and pulls himself together.  My sister is facing difficult times with the end of her marriage, but she is handling it all with the grace and courage she displays always.  It is inspiring to watch those around me make progress with themselves, and helps me want to do the same.   

I've decided to somehow find some time to do some charity work.  I haven't done any volunteering in years and it's overdue.  There is a pet soup kitchen that started locally called Daffy's Pet Soup Kitchen.  The founder, Daffy, has recently passed away.  I'm planning to go to his funeral on Sunday and volunteer some time to their cause.  I know first-hand how tough it can be to find money to feed your pets and buy their medications during tough times. In the spirit of Christmas, I'm finding my own ways of making things a little better.

Happy Holidays!