How Nature Confuses Me

My garden is doing fairly well, I would say. I wish some things were bigger (there are supposed to be some carrots in the waaaay back), and some things are certainly bigger than I expected (note the 3u1/2 foot tall peas in the foreground), but all in all, I think I've learned the best way to care for a garden is not to care for it. Excluding weeding and the occasional nudge to a pea plant towards a twine support, it seems like things grow the most when you don't bother them at all.

Then there's just weird stuff that happens. Sometimes plants won't grow for a few weeks at a time before experiencing growth spurts. Okay, this happens frequently. Sometimes they complain of too much water for weeks and then... when I still don't water them... keep complaining. Some plants that are supposed to require 8 hours of sunlight grow better in the shade than their comrades in a greenhouse.

Oh, and my personal favorite: "I'm going to grow from underneath the seed, so everything gets jammed inside and doesn't get any sunlight. And then I'm going to die."

All in all, nature is weird. That's the moral here. Fun, rewarding, and occasionally delicious... but weird.

Trap Snack

After a clementine and apple let us down, a georgia peach finally wooed the groundhog into the trap! We did it! It's all about the choice of trap snack, obviously.

"Peaches," as we now call her, is safely on the north side of the river. Hopefully she has reunited with Mr. Garden Thief but, eitherway, she won't be snacking on my produce any longer.



Now, how long until a new one moves in?

Garden wars

Last year, the produce from my garden was savored every single day. Tomatoes, just about to turn a vibrant red, were plucked from the vine and devoured whole. The chard and kale produced tender leaves for snacking. No cooking or seasoning needed; these veggies were consumed right in the back yard under the warm sun.

There was only one problem. I wasn't the one eating my veggies. The neighborhood groundhog thought my garden was his all-you-can-eat buffet, and he didn't leave much for me!

When we decided to garden again this year, I knew something had to be done. We got a trap and baited it with some pear... to our surprise, it caught Mr. Garden Thief the very first day! He was relocated to the north side of the river, and my little plants grew in peace.

That was, until this week. Prime real estate doesn't go uninhabited for long. A new groundhog has moved in, and my collard greens, sunflowers, and tomato plants are all being snacked on again.

We have set the trap again, but this one seems to know the drill. Plums and slices of orange were ignored. Today, we bought apples, so we'll find out soon if that was appealing or not. Maybe pears have a special place in little groundhog hearts?

Either way, my garden will be defended. But I don't have a dog, you can't use firearms in city limits, and our plastic owl don't even scare the birds.

...any ideas???

The Great Book Sort

I had one full book self in my room and six file boxes of books in the attic. My mom has told me again and again to get them out and, needing something to do on a rainy afternoon, I decided to tackle the project.

I have spent two nights on my floor surrounded by piles - sorting, reading, and treasure hunting - and am happy to report that I have exactly 250 books (not counting several old lab manuals and physics text books). Of these I will donate or sell at least 143 and I will definitely keep 37. And the remaining 70... I will spend the next several days with them trying to make up my mind.

In my adventure through the book pile, I found several treasures! I have...

- a flattened tangle of string,

- several book marks,

- two and a half boarding passes,

- a copied passage from a Midsummer Nights Dream (not found in said book),

- a silly printed out quiz about sex,

- a silly printed out quiz about religion,

- 3 doodles (and many more on the pages of books),

- a packing slip,

- two Polaroids of windmills,

- a black and white photo I took of myself,

- two goofy pictures of Laura and I after we put a face on her boat,

- a 2007 ticket stub from the Sears Tower Skydeck (where I am pretty sure I have never been),

- an awkward picture of Sam Begich and I going to our first high school dance,

- a packing slip,

- a really silly journal entry from 1999 about my big crush on Tom Rodda,

- a Peanut's cartoon,

- and a post card with a badly drawn volcano that says, "Don't touch the volcano -it's hot."

My conclusion, after 2 days of this... I am in love with my books and find it heart breaking to get rid of them. I love how they smell, how they feel in my hands, and how the older ones that I've read over and over feel so familiar. But, hopefully this will give some other people the opportunity to read some great books and give my books a chance to get some real love instead of being loved from afar as they sit in a box.

Now to tackle the maybe stacks!

Ouch.

I had to get 5 stitches today after my morning trail run. I was the first one on the trail, which is a very bad idea. It means I ate about 40 spiderwebs because no nice mountain bikers chewed them up with their tires first. I blame the spiders for my crash.

I wish my sister Jenna was here to stitch me up, but our local urgent care did a fine job.

The bright side: I don't have to get another tetanus shot for 10 years, right?

The Artishroom Bowl

Artichokes are horrendously expensive, but when cooked right, they can be absolutely delicious.

Matt and I came up with this delicacy sometime last year. We started with artichoke leaves boiled in water with garlic, lemon juice, butter, and a touch of white wine. After arranging them in a bowl shape, we roasted portabello caps, sliced them pizza-wise, and put those on top. Finally, we added sauteed peppers, some almonds, cranberries, and finely grated mozzarella cheese. Because the mushrooms were cut pizza-wise you could eat it... well, like a pizza. Just pick up an artichoke leaf, scrape off all the good stuff with your teeth, and... delicious.

Hat Band

Sometimes you see that item at the store and it's... well, it's not quite perfect. It's almost perfect. Now you have a couple options. You can whine and complain which doesn't get anybody anywhere. You can light the store on fire which gets you a free ride in a police car (and police cars are fricking AWESOME). You can buy it anyways and live with something almost perfect. Or, you can buy it and perfect it yourself.

In most cases this is somewhat difficult. Repainting a car, taking in the back of a suit (which means you have to take in everything else, too), finding an extra leg for that bed frame... but occasionally you find something easy to perfect. Something that only requires a caster wheel, a safety pin, or perhaps a simple slipstitch.

On that note I present to you: The hat I used to perfect my slipstitch.

iPod Headphones: Improved

Following my recent purchase of an iPod Shuffle (did you know they are only $50 nowadays?) I had to do something about the included headphones. Everybody knows they are practically ear magnets -- that is, they are repelled by ears. That is, they fall out. A lot. There's nothing I can do about the sound quality, but since I bought my Shuffle for use while exercising, I figured I wouldn't notice a lack of crispness about any drums or symbols while halfway up the mountain that is Tacoma.

Thus they became around-the-ear headphones. I already have a pair of these, but I'm too much of a stickler for sustainability to throw away a pair of perfectly good headphones, so now I have two pairs. I started by bending a short piece of mechanics' wire around my ear, and then putting headphone-size loops on the end by my eardrum. After that all I had to do was insert the headphones and wrap the contraption in electrical tape. Ta-da!

The mechanics' wire means they are a little stiffer than your typical soft-plastic wrap-arounds, and I haven't decided yet if that's a good thing or a bad thing. It definitely means they require more stress to fall out, which is nice if you are doing something with high volatility like riding a bike or going for a jog. They aren't quite as comfortable at first, but that effect goes away very quickly, and I think it's worth the sacrifice to not have to stop and lose your momentum to put them in again.

Winter Coat... with tails

Sometimes, inspiration just hits. What can I say? I wanted tails, and I wanted them practical. Thus became: The Blue Coat. I could even make a new nickname for myself -- "Blue Coat." I could make more and we could be a clan. Not that I think calling the British "Red Coats" was supposed to be a compliment.

The coat started out, as many of my designs do, on a sheet of paper. It was even a COLORED sheet of paper. I ended up using a pattern for a nightgown as an aid, though next time I make something this complicated I think it would be fun to try and pattern it myself. The "nightgown" I finished needed to be tailored like crazy so it didn't look like I was wearing, well, a nightgown. Then I added tails.

Features:
- Elbow X's (I thought X's would go better with the stripes than O's)
- Welted back pockets
- Two pockets inside the coat, one under either arm
- Stripes
- Passants (which I actually use for the strap of my bag)
- Hidden button rack (in the photo it's out, since the coat is... buttoned... but the button rack snaps inside the coat so it's not flapping everywhere if you're not using it)
- Water-resistant nylon shell
- Fleece lining
- Awesomeness

I finished it in two weekends.

Sifting Machine

So last year, I had this garden. This garden turned green, and things in it grew. "This garden can grow more," I said, "but how this to do?"

That wasn't very poetic. I apologize.

In any case, I made this sifter. My garden is currently full of rocks, and they need to be gone! So I shall shift them out! Muahahahaha!!! The compost shall be sent to the wire as well.

"Sent to the wire:" Sent through the wire of the sifting machine; ie, sifted.

The sifter is in two pieces. The bottom piece stays in place over wheelbarrow, while the top piece (think of it as a sled if you like) is pushed and pulled over it. This rocking motion sifts the dirt and smaller rocks through the chicken wire and into the wheelbarrow. Larger items are left behind.

For this sifter I modified these plans to fit my landlord's wheelbarrow.
(http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/public_works/compost_screens.asp)

Now I just have to wait for the soil to dry, and I can get to work!