Coffee Beans

Well, my coffee plant is very very happy living at the studio. I just noticed this morning that the beans are ripening. Aren't they pretty? It's a gorgeous color. At this rate, I might be able to make at least a tablespoon or so. Even my salvaged impatiens is doing well... I dug it up before the first hard frost because I couldn't stand to let them all die. I trimmed it way back, and now it has all new growth on it and even has some buds. Small victories.

So, as I was reading more about the chicken thing last night, they raised a good point. Even if you're not raising them for meat, you do have to accept the fact that you have to be willing to kill them if necessary. For example, if you get the errant rooster chick, or if one is sick or injured. They also raised the point that you really have to guard them from dogs and raccoons, (and where we live, hawks too) so they have really can't have some sort of half assed contraption to live in. It's going to require a significant investment at first. besides, if I am ever going to convince Marc, it's going to have to be one exceptionally attractive chicken coop.

You have to raise the chicks yourself if you want them to be friendly and tame, and that can take 6-8 weeks of indoor care. I am thinking that this might be a good project a little further down the road when Olive is older and she can help out with them. (See? I'll raise my own farm hands.) It would be a good learning experience for her; a long term science project if you will. At least that's what I keep telling myself, but she may just end up hating me for it. ("MOM. Seriously. I am the ONLY third grader whose Mom has CHICKENS.") The people who wrote this book say that they just let their chickens out during the day to roam the garden; my question is, don't they fly? How do you catch them again? In Key West, they are in the trees all the time. I know they instinctively go back into their roosts at night when it gets dark. I think Marc hasn't completely nixed the idea of having chickens ever, he just doesn't think we should have them in our current house. I think we could handle three with no problem.

At least I can have all the tomatoes I want...

Seedlets!!!

How unbelievably cute are these?! Look at them. So adorable. My little tomato babies. I don't think I'd make it through January without them. Got some more gardening books from the library last night. The more big, glossy color photos the better. Green keeps the winter depression at bay.

So, I am reading a fascinating book called Urban Homesteading. It has a lot of information, probably more than I will ever need (or want) such as how to make flour from acorns. (?!) But on a less extreme level, it has a lot of good information. I'm still kicking around the chicken idea. I think I could handle three. I think we'd have enough space for three, realistically. That would get us two eggs a day on average. Not bad. I've got to do some more reading. Marc is far from sold on the idea. and I hardly have the money right now to be building a chicken coop. That, and they say the best way to do it is to raise the chicks yourself, so they are used to you and are calm around people. However, I think my cats might be a problem. As they said in the book, Chicks make the best cat toys ever! (Squeaky! Fluffy! Tasty!)

So, my boss ordered me some bees for this spring! He has a small orchard, and gets bees every spring to pollinate the trees. These are different from honeybees, they are solitary, so they don't have a queen. Each female lays her own eggs. And on a fascinating side note, the females can choose wether the eggs will be male or female. If they get sperm, which the female can save separately and use at her own will, they will be female. If she chooses not to add sperm, they will end up male. Apparently, they make girls first and boys later. They only live as adult bees for 8 weeks, but they lay eggs and grow in cocoons for the rest of the year. Again, starting small, but I think I can handle it. I am ordering a little house that has paper tubes under a little roof for the females to lay their eggs in. It should be interesting if nothing else.

Tomato seedlings a growin'

So, the tomato seedlings are up! Faster than I thought, actually. I have discovered the seedling heat mat is absolutely KEY to starting anything inside. It has made a huge, huge difference. I balked at the cost of it at first, but now I'd never go without it. The only problem with starting these tomatoes so early is that now I'll have to pot them up into bigger pots before they can go outside, which takes up a lot of room. I borrowed a fluorescent light from work which I now have hanging over the seedling tray on the dining room table. I am proud of myself, I have been keeping meticulous records so I know exactly which tomatoes are which, when I planted them, etc. If I lost track, it would be disastrous. I am definitely looking forward to starting some kale and some peas in a few weeks.

I've been looking around on Etsy, and I think I may try and sell some of my fish mosaic projects. They are just sitting in the basement right now, and I could use the cash. It's one of those things that when you're just learning to do something, as you get better and look back on stuff you've already done, all you notice is the things you'd change if you could do it again. That's kind of where I am with the mosaics in the basement. They look great, I'm happy with them, but I know I'd just fixate on problems if I put them up. Now that I have the hammer and hardie and the smalti, I don't think I can go back to the old way I was doing things. Smalti just allows you so much more freedom with detail and texture, and you can work on a smaller scale. A plus for space as well as cost of materials.

I am still working my way through The Omnivore's Dilemma. It is really amazing to learn about this stuff; the whole industrialized food system is just so awful. It really isn't good for anyone except for corporate executives. It really does make me want to be more conscious of what I eat, and where it comes from. I was at Giant yesterday, and I almost bought a mango; I was looking at it, and it had a sticker on it that said "product of Peru." It's just incredible to me to think that this piece of fruit has traveled thousands of miles to be in this store right now. Not only is it picked when it's green and rock hard, how much fossil fuel has been expended to get it to me? It's crazy when you start to think about it all.

Gray Sunday

Ugh, so gray today. Olive seems to be recovering from her stomach flu, so we decided to get out of the house and go for a walk, which did everyone some good I think. The tomato seeds still aren't up, but I check them about every twenty minutes or so for any new signs of life. I'm just curious to see what this upcoming week will bring... it will be rather pivotal. We'll see.

The sauerkraut in the basement seems to be doing OK... it definitely stinks, so I assume I'm on the right track. :) I don't think it's quite there though. It's weird, it hasn't had any mold on it... neither did the last batch of pickles. I'm not sure why that is, but I guess it's a good thing.

I've been reading Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening and have it all planned out for Spring. I'm going to see if I can find scrap wood leftover at the jobsite we're on so I don't have to buy too may materials. I liked his idea for making trellises with steel conduit and netting, I think I cna handle that. The book is a little gimmicky... I kind of feel like they are reinventing the wheel to a certain extent, but it does make some sense. It definitley has an air of "infomercial" about it.

I think I'm going to plant some tomatoes and squash at Marnie's this summer; it's close enough that I think I can actually get over there to maintain it. Marnie and I were going to get a garden going at her house and then do a bunch of jam and stuff this summer. Now that I have the pressure canner, I figured we could just get a group of people together and all make tomatoes or jam or whatever. It will be easier that way, and fun. I hope the strawberries are better this year than they were last year. The entire crop was basically ruined last year because of all the rain.

You know, it's tricky to find stuff to do when it's cold out and you don't want to spend any money.

Planted Tomatoes!!!

Yes, I know it's too early to plant tomatoes, but I did it anyway. I got my seedling mat out and they are incubating away on their toasty warm mat. Yay! They make me so happy. 8 varieties! I only did 3-4 of each kind, I know I will plant more in a few more weeks. This will be batch 1. I plan on providing several friends with plants this spring.

It's just my way of coping with the wretched week I am having at work. I needed to have some living green hope to look forward to.

It's been a tough week.

This week's small accomplishment

Well, I did manage to make a hat this week. I've been pretty down on myself lately for not being able to get anything done, so this was kind of nice thing for me. Hats are quick and easy, and you feel like you've really done something.

Work lately has just been grueling; I think more emotionally and mentally that physically for me anyway, so by the time the weekend comes around, I am so exhausted I spend the whole time recuperating. My boss is just crazy. Without getting into a rant, I just feel like besides the accounting/payroll/financial aspects of it, I do everything and I have no one to help me. It's just a huge responsibility, and I feel like when I come home I just can't shut my brain off. That's why the knitting is good, it's just busy work for your brain, and it's totally addictive.

I was also squealing like a little girl this week when my seeds arrived from Quebec. It made me sooooo happy, I can't wait to start them in a few weeks. I think I'm going to plant some stuff at Marnie's house too. We'll see. I want to build a raised bed once the MG is sold, which is hopefully happening soon. We're making progress... Marc has taken pictures of it so he can make a flyer about it. It will happen eventually. I must remain positive!

Another Sunday evening

Very tired of the cold. It's starting to piss me off. Cold = Depressing. I just keep flipping through seed catalogs, thinking of how long before I can start tomato seeds in the dining room. I can't quite explain the joy I feel when I see little seedlings emerging. It's like magic. One day you come home from work and they're just there. They are just so hopeful, I can't help but smile.

I had many grand plans to get lots of projects done this weekend and didn't get a single one of them done. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself about it. I have been thinking about a mosaic project I want to start. I want to sculpt a crow either out of clay or wood with a chicken wire frame. Then I'm going to coat it and use it as a base for smalti. Of course, I don't want this to be misconstrued as a "Raven" because I could not careless about football. (Although it did cross my mind that this might make it a more saleable item) It has nothing to do with that. I've just been looking around at the crows in the neighborhood lately. They are really smart and resourceful.

My other project for the weekend which I didn't manage to do was to make a batch of sauerkraut. I put all the pickles in jars in the fridge, and gave a bunch away. I bought the cabbage, and I even have the muddler and everything. (How many women ask for sauerkraut muddlers for Christmas?? Talk about low maintenance!) Maybe one night this week I can get it started. I have been having a hard time getting anything done in the evenings lately. I don't know what it is; I feel like Olive is going through a very whiny stage right now which really gets to me some times. I'm sure it will improve, but boy can it test your patience. Sometimes I just have to walk away for a few minutes and regroup a bit. It's all part of the experience, I'm just going with it. (what else can you do?)

The other day Marc was showing Olive a picture of a chickadee in a book. He asked, "What kind of bird is this Olive?" and she replied, "It's a GARBANZO!!" Oh this makes me laugh. Chick pea, chickadee, what's the difference?

Back from NY

Back from a freezing weekend in Ithaca, and it is no warmer here. We did have a nice tome visiting the family, and it was great for everyone to get to see Olive since she's growing so fast. We went sledding at the Cornell plantations on New Year's Day, which was great. What a fun way to start the year. I just can't believe how cold it is here!! It's not usually this cold. All I do now is gaze at my seed catalogs and dream of warm soil. I can't wait to start my tomato seeds... I have to discipline myself and not start them until after Feb. 1st though. I try to hold out for Valentine's day if I can. I am trying to get Marc's MG sold, since it is taking up prime tomato real estate in the driveway. It's hard to hide my real motivations.

I am thinking of trying a different type of zucchini this summer... Territorial seeds has a variety called Partenon, which is parthenocarpic, meaning self-pollinating, which is good, because I ran into problems with that last summer. Not enough bees around, and I ended up having to pollinate squach blossoms inteh mornigns with an artist brush. The catch is they are $8.40 for ten seeds, which seems outrageous to me, but I guess it's worth it, and really, it is only $8.40, in the grand scheme of things not so bad.

Our hot water heater had gone out at some point this weekend... I tooka tepid shower yesterday, but I thought it was just cold in the house. This morning Marc went to take a shower and there was no hot water, and when I checked it, it was out. I relit it and it's running now, I'm just glad we didn't have any carbon monoxide problems. We have a detector in our room, but still, that stuff is scary. Hopefully I can take a nice hot shower in a few minutes. In fact, I should probably go do that before Olive gets up.