Never On Sunday

Never On A Sunday

I am not one of those people who are able to sit and do nothing on a sunny Sunday. If the weather is relatively fine I will be found outside working on my garden of just putzing around in my yard. Those who are able to relax on their days off are very lucky.

I usually do my normal chores of laundry and general house-cleaning, but on a lovely Sunday I also tend to try to work in the yard as much as possible. For example:

This morning at 8AM, I built a table. Using the legs from an old table I got years ago from a friend and a pallet I got from a garage clean out.

Next, I weeded the garden pathways and laid down burlap coffee bags I found for free on Craigslist. (I tend to find quite a few things on Craigslist for free. I found a claw foot bathtub that the boyfriend and I are planning on turning into a love seat.)

In fact we dragged home this huge rabbit hutch, I found on CL, yesterday! It needs a good scrubbing and some of the chicken wire has rusted through, so they will need replacing, but otherwise in pretty good shape! Woo rabbit meat!

I worked on weeding the veggie and herb beds, 

then proceeded onto relocating a few plants. Crocosmia, Siberian Irises, Death Lilies and Ferns. I worked on clearing out the millions of hyacinth leaves and stems that are turning into mush under my cherry tree. I am not a fan of the hyacinths, but they came with the yard and refuse to leave. 

Then I got a hold of the chainsaw... I really need this thing taken away from me, but it is so freaking HANDY!

AND of course;

Chickens

An article in the Christian Science Monitor from when I was the City Chickens Coordinator at Seattle Tilth.

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/2008/1110/p17s01-lign.html

Let's Drink Some Wine and Curk a Tookey!!

I love to cook. When I was younger I had considered going to culinary school. How do you know when I am truly happy? I am in the kitchen. I am not a great cook, but I am a good cook. Nothing I cook will win the James Beard Award, but it will satisfy and make my friends and loved ones smile.

People are surprised when I tell them I can cook (they are also surprised when I build a fence or fix an oil leak in my car or start a campfire, but that is neither here nor there). When asked how I make something taste sooooooo good, I tell them I "put a little Love into it". Yes, I know that sounds all hippy dippy cliched and shit, but it is true. When you love doing something you put every ounce of yourself into doing it. That is when it turns out beautiful. That is when the magic happens and it becomes a shortcake instead of a plain old scone or turns Sunday night beef stew into boeuf bourguignon.

I love cook books, I have a few older ones from the 30s and 40s. The recipes all call for a pound of butter or a half cup of lard or heavy cream and I love recipes like that!! Don't get me wrong, I make my fair share of vegetarian and healthy food dishes, but when a recipe calls for bacon drippings, I start to salivate. I keep a pickle jar of bacon drippings for cooking. I also have a containing of duck fat, specifically for potatoes. You do not know joy until you have roasted potatoes in duck fat!

Occasionally, I can be a food snob. But I have also been known to stop at Popeye's Chicken, because they make an AWESOME spicy fried chicken. I also like Sonic Drive-Ins and have to stop there anytime I go on a road trip. I like little hole in the wall restaurants and I like those places where I must put on my best pair of Spanx. I like good food and I like when I find some weird little restaurant hidden in an alley as much as I like the fanciest roof-top restaurants.
But I mainly like to cook at home, I like feeling all the ingredients under my fingers and the scents mingling. I like how my house smells after baking bread or cookies or roasting a chicken. It smells like a home should smell.

I took an after school cooking class many years ago when I was a latch key kid. It was a way for my mother to have someone to watch over me for a few hours in the afternoons and it was a way for me to learn how to make hobo stew. It was probably the first thing I ever learned how to cook. After that I was on my way to being a home chef. The next item I cooked was zucchini bread, but forgot the oil and my mother kindly ate it and gently said... "I think you may have forgotten something in the recipe..." And I was on my way!

I tend to like cooking from scratch. I like real unprocessed ingredients, most of the time, although I am not above making brownies from the a mix when I am have a choco-attack. But you get a much better product that is healthier for you when you make it by scratch, you don't have the glut of preservatives and colouring or artificial flavours (what is chocolate-y flavour, anyways?!). I admit I have no problems with purchasing things to make my life easier, I do not believe I will try to make wonton wrappers by scratch anytime soon, but simple things like cookies and cakes do not need to come from a box. Trust me, a lemon chiffon cake made from scratch is one hundred times better than Betty Crocker's boxed stuff.

I love to experiment with foods and although I have a shit-ton of cookbooks, I tend to use those as reference books and then take the long way round to see if a pinch of this or a dash of that will make it even better. I have had my fair share of failures. The strata I did not allow to sit long enough to soak up the egg mixture that became a hockey puck. Or the chocolate pudding that wouldn't set no matter what I tried. Or even the chunky creme brulee (still gives me the shivers...).But I keep trying, Julia Child did not learn to cook until she was in her 30s.

I love to cook for my boyfriend and he is a very good eater. He also has no qualms about telling me when something is not quite right, which is the only way to truly figure out if a dish is amazing or just, eh. You need the feedback, I do not like to hear that something is always good as you don't grow as a cook if you do not know if something needs to be tweaked. And when you finally get a recipe correct it is as though you have finally summited a mountain! Ok, maybe not that cool,,, but it is still pretty darn awesome!

All I know is that food brings friends together, heck it brings strangers together. Food makes people smile when shared and good food makes people smile even more. It encourages community and good conversation and laughter and drinking. Good food shared brings joy and everyone likes a bit of joy whereever they can get it.  The best bit of advice I ever got from my mother was "Never say no to a free meal". She was right.

Good Fences

The boyfriend and I spent most of the day working on the fence between my front and back yard. It is now chihuahua proof!

Well, I would like to believe it is, but my boyfriend's dog is a bit of an escape artist and small so she can fit through things I would never have thought of. It is also nice to have a bit of privacy from the prying eyes of the world.

I have an anxiety disorder. So I get panic attacks on occasion. It makes it hard to leave the yard, let alone the house. So it might be nice to have a bit more privacy in my yard so I can wander through it and work in my garden when I feel like the sky is about to fall on my head.

It isn't that I don't like my neighbors, because I actually do. They are awesome, and give me booze and talk philosophy with me and play music. So yes, I do like my neighbors. But when the panic comes on, I just want to hide and try to get my mind out of the worry loop that it gets in. Working on my little farm also puts me at ease, but I admit, I can not/ do not want to interact with people when I am having an attack.

So a fence was partly to keep the chihuahua from running rampant in the vegetable patch and partly to help me feel safe in my own personal space.

The giant metal part on top is the beginning of my boyfriend's arbor. He has big plans and at this point I just smile and nod.

Also, today I have learned that I should never, under any circumstances be left alone with a chainsaw. My lilacs look like they have been ambushed and the odd branch on the fir was taken down in one swift cut. OK, it really isn't as bad as all that. They definitely could use a pruning and they will be much happier in the long run, but it was very hard to stop once I started. I kept thinking about the Bad Pruning pictures on the Plant Amnesty website.

The boyfriend fixed the new lawnmower, we got for free from the neighbor down the alley, right before he broke it. Another neighbor has several lawn mowers in their garage that do not run so we will try to Frankenstein a working lawnmower together. But the backyard got a bit of a haircut.

I volunteered at the Seattle Tilth's Edible Plant Sale On May 5th and got my pickling cucumbers and paste tomatoes in the process. I could have spent a whole lot more money there, but I only took $20.00 to avoid spending a bunch. Some plant sales are dangerous. Seattle Tilth had an amazing selection of things and it is inevitable that I go for three items and leave with fifteen. MY GARDEN IS NOT THAT BIG!

My brain constantly reminds me of this fact, but my heart and soul scream for romanesco broccoli and every tomato under the sun!  My pocket book ends up being the decider in these cases and if I limit it to what is in my pocket then I am limited to what I actually need.

I know you can barely see it, but I have carrots, lettuce and cucumbers. Radishes, scarlet runner beans and yardlong beans. That pile of weeds in the back are actually flowers so "Nyah". There are beets in there as well, but they are sad and will most likely be replaced with chard.

Because, I am also prone to throwing out my back I have but two loves in my life; the boyfriend and

SALONPAS-HOT!

Capsicum Patch!

(the boyfriend and I have an understanding). There are other fancy patches out there that get icy or get hot. Salonpas is just glorious spicy pain, but the good kind. Although I have learned to never put it on directly after a shower... And never accidentally touch sensitive bits after touching the sticky part. Just a warning... do not stick a finger up your nose, in your eyes or on other um.. delicate bits.

My evening will be spent, relaxing as best I can, on my back. But at least I feel as though I accomplished something today.

Tomorrow will be a full solar eclipse in our region but it looks like the weather is coming in and we will not be enjoying feeling infinitely small in the vast universe. Although, working my little plot of land always helps keep my ego in check. I believe I control some of the aspects in my yard, in truth, it controls me.

Day Dreaming in a Cubicle - Mid Life Ramblings

I work in a cubicle. I have, for many years, worked in cubicles all over Seattle. I do not like the term "cubicle farm" because if this is a farm then this is a form of H E Double Hockey sticks.

I am currently AT work, mind you it is break-time, but I am here. Was this what I had hoped to do with my life during my youth? Nah.

I had hoped to homestead in the wilds of Alaska, the back country of Montana or the plains of Oklahoma, my closest neighbors a canoe ride and a days hike down river. Living off the land and my wits... (I feel like I should burst into the Monty Python's Lumberjack Song right about now.) But I never did, I still live off the land, my tiny .25 acre of a yard, and wits, I am pretty darn charming. But my days of homesteading in secluded locations may no longer be viable.

So instead, I sit behind this desk attempting to make ends meet and live a somewhat contented life, Some days I am happy and productive. Some days I feel unfulfilled and trapped. I do not have the luxury of leaving everything behind me and living a life unencumbered. And maybe I really do not want to, many people have done more with less and gone onto live their dream lives.

Consider if the life you lead was the life you expected to have as a child... I remember riding the bus home and looking at all the suits heading into work in the morning thinking "I'm never gonna be like that, man!" Now I am. I am still eccentric enough to not be a pure suit, but I am a suit none-the-less.

I have always been one of those people who like to see things progress. Meaning, I like to watch as things grow or get clean or turn into jam or a lawn turn into a garden bed. Working as a public servant, I do not get to enjoy the joys of seeing something progress very often. In fact, I talk to the same people with the same problem every day. Sometime I work hard to fix the issue just to have the same people call back with the exact same problem a month later. It can be frustrating.

Do not get me wrong, I enjoy my job. It isn't my dream job, but I have had worse jobs and when I did have my dream job I could barely survive. But I am always impressed with those who make a living doing what they truly enjoy. There is something very satisfying about working hard, playing hard and going to bed tired.

I am still relatively young. I am sure that I will have my country life. I just wish it would come a little faster.

A Day In The Life

This last weekend, I helped my friend clear out her mother's garage. It was cluttered and disgusting and there was rat poop everywhere. A lot of the items in there just needed to go to the dump and there were quite a few items that needed to go to Goodwill and there were quite a few items that could still be used but weren't being that they were stored in a rat infested garage. 

My friend and her mother were kind enough to let me have any canning jars I could find and there were a good 20-30 usable canning jars; including a bunch of vintage baling wire glass topped ones.

 Now, I know it is silly to get all gushy about old canning jars, but they are gorgeous! Most a lovely blue and most without chips on the rim.  I see them very overpriced in antique stores on a regular basis and it always makes my bits hurt that they are considered collector's items and not used, like they should be.

I found sizes from half pints to half gallons and all will come in handy as harvest season comes up on us. I still have a few that need to be washed in a strong bleach/soap solution, but the rest are all clean and fit perfectly in paper ream boxes from work.  I am not one of those people that keep what I do not use, so they will all come in handy.

The vintage mason jars use a food safe rubber gasket to seal whatever is inside and you do have to be more diligent about getting the seal just right, but they work as well. The newer jars stack better, seal more consistently and are not as neat to look at, in my opinion.  But it is good to have a mix of bother kinds so that you have a couple of pretty jars in the front and the rest stored behind it in the newer jars.

My beans are coming up gang busters. I planted Scarlet Runners, Dow Gauk Chinese Yard Long Beans and a Burgundy Bush bean that I cannot remember the name to, but it has burgundy in it somewhere...

Carrots are popping up, French Breakfast radishes, I planted some spinach seeds I have had for a couple of years to see if any were still viable and some seem to be sprouting so I did a second sowing to stagger them. The purple broccoli my friend, Sandy, from Urban Land Army gave me are coming back from an attack by the chickens. 

This upcoming weekend, May 5th and 6th, is the Seattle Tilth Edible Plant Sale. There will be workshops and smart garden type peoples there to answer any questions you might have and I will be volunteering a few hours on Saturday morning so I hope to see you all there. Their Vegetable List is AWESOME this year, although it is always pretty awesome since they try for new varieties every year. 

This years I have the Calypso pickling cukes, Love Lies Bleeding Amaranth, Costata Romanesca Zucchini and the San Marzano Tomato on my list, although I am sure I will spend more than I intend. Like I do every year.

I have a very grumpy broody Welsumer chicken who is currently plotting her revenge against me. I keep kicking her out of her nesting box and stealing her eggs, so I am chicken enemy number one.  All the birds are laying consistently and I am getting anywhere from 50 to 56 eggs a week. They are DELICIOUS!

I better get them put away while I am thinking about them...

A Warm Weekend In The Pacific Northwest

 April 23, 2012

Springtime in Seattle

We don't have glorious days all the time, they are interspersed with days that are a lovely shade of grey. This is what makes Seattle, the Emerald City. There is so much green here because we have a nice weekend and then four days of grey and rain.

This weekend was glorious in all its sunshine-y awesomeness! We topped 70 degrees, and I understand that it is over a hundred in Texas, but 70 degrees is perfect here. Just warm enough to work out in the yard, not so warm that you peter out after an hour.  The rain will start on Tuesday.

It is beautiful in Seattle during the spring. Well, it is beautiful most of the time, just varying shade of beautiful. Spring and Autumn are my favourite times of year, although Summer is nice too, but it kinda bleeds into the end of one and the beginning of the other without too much notice.

I like Spring because you can plant things and I like Autumn because you can harvest things. Summer is when you have all the work and weeding and watering.

You stand out in the yard and stare as things ripen and hope.

For now, I work in the garden and yard, taking it close to my dream of a urban farm a little more every year. 

I spent Saturday building a fence that separates the front and back yard. The boyfriends has a chihuahua that loves bounding through my garden beds and I swear by the hairs on my chin-y chin chin I will cook that dog if I find her running over my carrot seeds one more time.

I also pulled up my green cone. It is currently in the way.  The space that it is in, will be the expansion of my backyard patio and so I need to move it someplace else and harvest all the lovely compost that has been sitting in it.

Green Cones

So, let's talk about green cones and food waste digesters. Both are ways to compost your food waste. They work on an anaerobic system to break down the food.

 Bacteria, soil life and insects help break down the waste into humus (No. Not the chick pea mash you eat at your local Mediterranean deli.) Basically it digests the food waste kinda like your stomach does.

When finished, it is black and rich and smells sweet like compost and is a great soil amendment to add to your soil.

But it is a slow process that can take months, it helps take food out of the garbage stream and lets you use it to grow more food. But it takes the time that you fill the digester and the time you let it sit and do its work.


So it can take a year and a half to two years before you get the black gold that some people talk about. 

Some things do not break down as well as you might like; egg shells, avocado pits and rinds. But I just smash up what I can with my hands and sift it through a screen if I can't handle too much texture in my compost, but truthfully, I don't mind a stray shell or pit here and there.

Sift it if it bothers you, don't if it doesn't. Dig a trench or two down the sides of your garden beds then, sprinkle a few inches of your food waste compost in to amend the soil and there you have it, you have now added your food back to your food!

HOW FREAKIN' NEAT IS THAT?!

This weekend I also took the time to start adding a retaining wall to my front beds. I've lived here for eleven years and have been talking about doing this the whole time. Procrastination and I are very close friends....

Anyways, my friend, Wendy, had a bag of gravel that I weaseled out of her and I had about forty retaining wall blocks that I had from a project never started and subsequently never finished. So, since one and one make two, I built a rocket!  No, just kidding, I built part of a retaining wall! Pretty thing ain't it?

Not the hardest thing in the world to build, but will all the work I did this weekend I feel like I have been beaten with a train. 

Hard Working Woman

So this weekend was busy and so will the remaining weekends from now until the end of November. But I look at the list of things I have done and I don't mind the aches and pains as much...

• Dug up and emptied food waste digester/green cone
• Dug up weeds
• Built fence
• Leveled out patio expansion location
• Built part of a retaining wall
• Bring home bacon
• Fry it up in a pan...

Pretty little bean plant.