* Stringham high: Mike has job leads! Manual labor, to be sure, but better than the nothing that was facing him.
* Stringham low: Mike's unemployment funds ran out today.
* Stringham super-high: The sun in shining, the weather is above freezing, and choruses of birds are singing! Not just crows, but birds! Songbirds! Spring! SPRING!
I thought we'd start with all that stuff this time, as it's so important. The Divine has been good, providing for us this week, answering my very scared prayers, sending job leads and apparent immediate openings, once you jump through the appropriate hoops.
We have seeds, we just got more gardening books today, and we're ready to plant. We just need warm weather. M's planning to begin tilling this weekend so we can start planting potatoes when they arrive. Soon, we'll be starting seeds inside, too! Who knows, maybe I'll get my vision completely restored for an Easter/Ostara miracle and we'll have another Stringham on the way before the year is out! (Guess that spring breeze blowing in, bringing the smell of warm earth with it is really good for my outlook!) Okay, I'm not completely crazy. I think my vision's more likely to sneak up on me slowly, in a slow-acting miracle culminating around Samhain/Halloween! I'm not picky. A bit in a hurry, sure, but not picky. :D
In all seriousness, I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to take a moment to pause, look around, and enjoy the world that's around you. Really, REALLY stop and indulge in all of your 5 senses for just 10 minutes. Honestly, you never know when ANY one of those senses can be taken away. Just a few months ago, I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to see the world this brightly (literally or figuratively) again, and I'm not about to take it for granted again. Neither should you.
Also, it's not the "season" of Thanksgiving any longer, but I'd like to thank all of you who have expressed your concern and given assistance or support in any way over the past few months, including recently, as I've continued to recover, especially emotionally and spiritually. Thank you for all being so understanding and helpful and gracious. Thanksgiving is always in season, and that's something I'm also trying to remember and practice. My heart goes out to all of you, and I remember you all in my prayers.
And now, as Monty Python would say, for something completely different: A link to a blog of a very good, very funny author who is offering some insight today (March 4, 2010) on the publishing industry: http://www.maxbarry.com/2010/03/04/news.html
(Oh, and remember, if you go to my actual blog page, the titles usually link to YouTube videos or other fun sites.)
Showing posts with label plant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plant. Show all posts
Friday, March 5, 2010
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Wish List
I couldn't force myself to be productive, per se, after we got back from our errands today, so I started in on performing MY bit of expertise. M's decided that planning the garden is his thing, so he's learning about what to plant where, how to plant certain plants next to each other, how to prevent pests, etc. So what was my expertise to be? Planning time, of course. With the planner I purchased two weeks ago specially for the occasion, I lay on the floor and grabbed one of our books from Christmas.
Three hours later, not a thing was pencilled in to our planner, and I had read only one chapter of that book, but I've added to our shopping list, added to the list of things we need for our emergency kit, and created a wish list. We decided last spring that our anniversary, because of its timing, is a perfect way to help the earth by planting something. No fancy dinners, no flowers, no cards...just me, M, a trowel or shovel, a bucket of water, and some gardening gloves.
And with all of this focus on building a home that can sustain us, we've decided that we really would prefer that people get us useful things. Not that we don't want fun things, but we're finding more and more that the useful things ARE the fun things. So we've created a little wish list, sort of like a bridal or baby registry. But this is our life registry. The perfect gifts for any occasion, in no particular order:
Three hours later, not a thing was pencilled in to our planner, and I had read only one chapter of that book, but I've added to our shopping list, added to the list of things we need for our emergency kit, and created a wish list. We decided last spring that our anniversary, because of its timing, is a perfect way to help the earth by planting something. No fancy dinners, no flowers, no cards...just me, M, a trowel or shovel, a bucket of water, and some gardening gloves.
And with all of this focus on building a home that can sustain us, we've decided that we really would prefer that people get us useful things. Not that we don't want fun things, but we're finding more and more that the useful things ARE the fun things. So we've created a little wish list, sort of like a bridal or baby registry. But this is our life registry. The perfect gifts for any occasion, in no particular order:
Books
How to Live on Almost Nothing and Have Plenty by Janet Chadwick
Managing Your Personal Food Supply: How to Eat Better for Less by Taking an Active Role in Producing, Processing, and Preparing Your Food, edited by Ray Wolf
Practical Skills: A Revival of Forgotten Crafts, Techniques, and Traditions by Gene Logsdon
The Self-Sufficient Gardener: A Complete Guide to Growing and Preserving All Your Own Food by John Seymour
Storey’s Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance edited by Deborah Burns
When Technology Fails: A Manual of Self-Reliance & Planetary Survival by Mathew Stein
Primitive Wilderness Living & Survival Skills, by John and Geri McPherson
Diaper Changes: The Complete Diapering Book and Resource Guide by Theresa Rodriguez Farrisi
Heart & Hands: A Midwife’s Guide to Pregnancy and Birth by Elizabeth Davis
Emergency Childbirth Handbook by Barbara Anderson and Pamela Shapiro
Childbirth Without Fear
Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin
Small-Scale Food Processing by Emma Judge and others
How to Make $100,000 from a 25-Acre Farm by Dr. Booker T. Whatley
The Legal Guide for Direct Farm Marketing by Neil Hamilton
How to Direct Market Farm Products on the Internet
Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook by David Werner, Carol Thurman, and Jane Maxwell
Medicine for Mountaineering & Other Wilderness Activities by James A. Wilderson, M.D., editor
Ditch Medicine: Advanced Field Procedures for Emergencies by Hugh L. Coffee
Deck of Edible Plants
Deck of Poisonous Plants
Tools
Battery- or crank-powered weather radio
Supplies
Emergency First-Aid Kit
Knots “cheat sheet”—an 8 ½ x 11 laminated card with instructions for several key knots on each side
Old clothes or blankets that can be recycled into quilts or patches
“Umbrella” style clothes dryer or posts for clothesline
Canning supplies—especially jars (new or used) and lids, pots, cooking racks, cooling racks
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Arctic Chill and Working Mice
Apparently, we have mice that work outside the home. After the rash of mouse victims last weekend, despite 3 new electrocuting traps (each of which can take out 3 mice without being reset), no victims. Not, that is, until Friday evening. After the snow we got Wednesday, M saw tracks leading to and from the garage, the garden, the driveway, etc. So it's my theory that our mice apparently work hard during the week and come in to party in our kitchen on the weekends...this little guy was the scout to find all the happenin' places.
When I got home Friday, I saw that a glue trap on the counter (not one of the 2 or 3 quick-kill traps, oh no, we have ballsy mice) had captured one. I knew it was only a matter of time before it worked itself free, and I didn't want it to hurt itself. (I mean, if we're going to kill them for just doing what they do and what they are, we should just kill them quickly.) I called M to see if he would be home soon to "take care" of it or if I was going to have to finally take my first mousey life. (No answer. M must be on his way home.) I did all sorts of chores to avoid having to do the deed, killing time until M got home, all the while checking on the mouse to make sure it didn't get free. I contemplated putting the glue trap outside to give the mouse a chance--freeze to death or freeze itself. Some choice. What about putting the board on the floor and letting it take its chances--sure, another fine choice--free itself to be toyed with by the cats or be toyed with by the cats in the trap.
The more it struggled, the more I kvetched. My heart raced, the adrenaline pumped. I was going to do it! But then, oh, I had to get something out of the freezer. Then I wondered how I could kill it. It's not like a rabbit or a deer that I would kill to eat. This would just be slaughter.
It struggled to free itself. I sang to it to calm it. After all, it wouldn't do for it to free itself before M could eliminate it or before I grew a pair.
It was nearly free. But I had to pee.
Again, the distraction. But coming back from the bathroom, I see M walk past the front door to get the mail. Finally, my savior!
(And a good thing, too. The mouse had freed its front paws and was pulling his back paws free.) And then he was no more. Still, I reason, it's better than a tussle with the cats any day, right?
Stringham high: Even in -20 degree temps, our bedroom hovers around 55-60 degrees.
Stringham low: Our pipe draining the sump pump froze up, making the check valve come loose and spray water back in to our basement. (No damage, no flooding. M just turned things off to wait for warmer weather.)
Stringham super-high: Our furnace (which we're always surprised makes it through 20-degree weather) has performed admirably through our -2 degree (high) and -20 degree (low) weather. No room has gotten colder than 55 degrees!!!
Bonus super-high: We got a plant-and-seed catalog chock FULL of fruit trees and windbreak plants and vegetables and flowers and decorative grasses today. I was cheering and "ooh"ing and "aa"ing on ever page, like a kid in a candy store. I can't wait to start planting and cultivating again! (Yes, it's the little things that keep us going around here.)
When I got home Friday, I saw that a glue trap on the counter (not one of the 2 or 3 quick-kill traps, oh no, we have ballsy mice) had captured one. I knew it was only a matter of time before it worked itself free, and I didn't want it to hurt itself. (I mean, if we're going to kill them for just doing what they do and what they are, we should just kill them quickly.) I called M to see if he would be home soon to "take care" of it or if I was going to have to finally take my first mousey life. (No answer. M must be on his way home.) I did all sorts of chores to avoid having to do the deed, killing time until M got home, all the while checking on the mouse to make sure it didn't get free. I contemplated putting the glue trap outside to give the mouse a chance--freeze to death or freeze itself. Some choice. What about putting the board on the floor and letting it take its chances--sure, another fine choice--free itself to be toyed with by the cats or be toyed with by the cats in the trap.
The more it struggled, the more I kvetched. My heart raced, the adrenaline pumped. I was going to do it! But then, oh, I had to get something out of the freezer. Then I wondered how I could kill it. It's not like a rabbit or a deer that I would kill to eat. This would just be slaughter.
It struggled to free itself. I sang to it to calm it. After all, it wouldn't do for it to free itself before M could eliminate it or before I grew a pair.
It was nearly free. But I had to pee.
Again, the distraction. But coming back from the bathroom, I see M walk past the front door to get the mail. Finally, my savior!
(And a good thing, too. The mouse had freed its front paws and was pulling his back paws free.) And then he was no more. Still, I reason, it's better than a tussle with the cats any day, right?
Stringham high: Even in -20 degree temps, our bedroom hovers around 55-60 degrees.
Stringham low: Our pipe draining the sump pump froze up, making the check valve come loose and spray water back in to our basement. (No damage, no flooding. M just turned things off to wait for warmer weather.)
Stringham super-high: Our furnace (which we're always surprised makes it through 20-degree weather) has performed admirably through our -2 degree (high) and -20 degree (low) weather. No room has gotten colder than 55 degrees!!!
Bonus super-high: We got a plant-and-seed catalog chock FULL of fruit trees and windbreak plants and vegetables and flowers and decorative grasses today. I was cheering and "ooh"ing and "aa"ing on ever page, like a kid in a candy store. I can't wait to start planting and cultivating again! (Yes, it's the little things that keep us going around here.)
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