Update of sorts June 30, 2009

So life’s been busy and chaotic.  Mufasa wigged out on Friday.  Started growling, when I shushed him, he totally lost it.  Bit the hell out of my arms.  We rolled him down and held him until he calmed down.  Hasn’t done anything like it since.  I’m not totally sure what happened.  Combination of friends over, he had his bone? I don’t know.  It really struck me that you just don’t know what you’re getting into when you adopt.  We’re going to stick with it and he will become a well mannered dog. 

 He’s training is coming along.  Mostly knows sit.  And somehow he got it in his head that come means ‘go to the family room’.  We’re working on that. 

Had a gorgeous day at the lake Saturday.  My sister and her boyfriend came out with us.  Mufasa was a perfect gentleman, nice with the other dogs, good with the people.  A little freaked by the water but gods was he funny when he decided to drink from the lake (”hey! why are there waves in my water bowl?”)  We all bought masks and snorkels.  Matt was in heaven, swam all over the place looking at craw daddys and bringing back beads and such.  Jon and I had a tough time with the snorkels.  It’s definitely a skill not to panic in them.  Meme’s face mask wouldn’t seal so it didn’t work for her.  Still pretty much perfect.  We’re thinking about doing it again Saturday but I just realized that’s the fourth.  It’d be a mad house. 

Well, that’s most of it.  Work has been crazy, end of year sillyness and loads of new clients.  My garden isn’t doing too well.  Just feels like everything is supper slow this year.  I need to go weed too.   But at least it’s warming up:)

Update June 18, 2009

It’s nice to see the sun again.  It just doesn’t feel like it could possibly be the 18th of June already.  My garden is growing,  just feels like it’s going  really slowly this year.   But I think I may say that most years around this time:).

Matt’s company cut everyone to part time.  It sucks.  I know it could be worse but we were already struggling with how much his hours have been cut.  He’s out looking for a second job and we’ll do what needs to be done.  Send good hiring wishes please.

We’re doing a bbq this weekend.  My Papa and Maryann are coming over.  And Meme and Jon.  Matt will make his killer burgers plus bocaburgers for Meme.  We’ll probably have fruit and some sort of a salad too.  Should be a blast.  Sunday I will go up to the lake and go swimming (with Matt of course)

Mufasa is doing pretty well.  Matt took him to the vet Monday.  Turns out the sunburn isn’t.  It’s a massive skin infection.  He had to be sedated for the exam, tried to bite the vet.  Fortunately he’s not an aggressive dog, just in a lot of pain.  He’s on massive antibiotics and anti inflammatory.  And he’s doing better.  He’s starting to learn that his name is Mufasa:)   We’re planning on heading to the farmers market today.

Meet Mufasa June 15, 2009

This is our new boy.  He came home from the Humane Society on Friday.  He’s a chow that was picked up as a stray.  They had to shave him because his fur was so matted and he was so badly sunburned.  He’s a chow and most of the time is really sweet.  Couple of times so far he’s thrown a temper tantrum and tried to pull the male chow dominance stuff.  We definitely have a lot of training to do with this guy but he sure is a lover.

The slow return of normalacy June 10, 2009

So it was great having my Mum stay with us.  Really good to see her again but everytime someone stays for a long stretch of time I’m reminded why I don’t have roomates.  I’m around people pretty much all the time, but not people I can talk with for the most part, and my work is pretty much always chaos so by the time I get home I want quiet and organized.  Doesn’t work when there are other people in the house.  But still, it was really good to see my Mum.

The garden is doing well.  Spinach and lettuce and rocket and those cool weather plants have just been exploding with the raining coolness lately.  Some of the spinach leaves are as big as my head!  And tasty too .  The peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, and some of the warm loving plants are being so with the cool weather.  They’re mostly just pouting until they get some heat. 

I made the mistake of wandering at Moana nursery last weekend.  Well, I know I’d end up buying something.  Found stevia plants and catmint.   I’ve never started mint from seed before but I’ve been trying with the catmint for a couple of months now and no luck.  Unfortunately the neighborhood strays found one of the plants.  Mauled it pretty bad. I’m going to have to come up with a better plan until they’re bigger and established. 

Hopefully the strays wont be much of an issue for too much longer.  Matt and I are looking to get a dog!  Supper stoked.  Definitely going to adopt.  I really want a corgi but we’ll see who we meet and fall in love with =)

Back at the grind May 26, 2009

So I’m getting back to work and am totally lost.  Lol.  After having an extra long weekend I can’t seem to focus properly.  But it was a very nice weekend.  Planted out a bunch of our peppers.  Still need to finish seeding the garden bed out back, plant the tomatoes, eggplants, and others.  I feel like I’m getting a slow start this year but I suppose it’s better than freezing my poor plantlings like I did last year.  

Matt’s truck is working beautifully with the new engine.  It’s good to have the truck back but paying it off it’s going to be fun.  Mums in town visiting.  It’s nice to have her.  A little odd to have someone else in the house again but it’s still good.  I’m thinking I might make black bean tacos for dinner tonight and lunches this week.  Supper easy.

Black bean and Potato tacos.

2 or 3 potatoes

1 or 2 cans of black beans (not drained)

1/2 to 1 onion, chopped

1 to 2 packets of taco seasoning

A few cups of prepared brown rice

Tortilla’s or taco shells

Cheese, Sour cream, Tomatoes, hot sauce, what ever toppings you like.

Microwave the potatoes until they’re just soft.  Let them cool abit and cut into small cubes.

Add a little oil to a pan, saute chopped onions until translucent, add cubed potato and let brown a bit.

Add black beans and taco seasoning.  Adjust the amount of liquid from the beans.  I recommend starting small and adding to get the consistency you want.

Simmer for maybe 5 min to let the flavors come together.

Serve on a hot tortilla or taco shell with a layer of rice, then taco mix, then add cheese and fixings. 

These are really easy and between the beans and rice you have a complete vegetable protein.  And it’s cheap

Wonderful weekend and a visit May 12, 2009

I am so excited!  My Mum is flying down to visit and the end of the month!!!! Mum moved up to Washington to be closer to her family, parents, siblings, cousins are all up there.  But it kind of sucks for us because it’s pretty hard to get up there to see her and none of us have alot of spare cash (understatement).  My little sis and I have been talking about trying to bring her down for a visit for while and it came together this last week.  Mom has 2 weeks off from her job.  Meme is going to be flying Mum down and she’s staying with Matt and I for 2 weeks.  It may be a bit long to have a house guest but we might not have another opportunity to see her for who knows how long.  I’m seriously looking forward to seeing her.

The weekend was lovely too.  On Sunday Matt and I took a picnic and a couple of books out to the mill pond in GrayEgeal.  Still a little too cold for swimming but it was a beautiful day.  The hay bales are starting to decompose well.  One of them had an internal temp of 120!  So they should be ready for planting before long.

Experiments in garden and a dish cloth May 7, 2009

So I’m attempting a gardening method called straw bale gardening.  Basically I’ve hunted down some cheap hay bale and I’m doing to be using them as a growing medium.  The bales are placed on cardboard to keep the weeds down.  Then you water them to encourage decomposition.  Once they’ve cooled off you plant your transplants directly in the bales and grow them there.  The benefits are sort of like with a raised bed, good drainage, easy to reach, not alot of weeds (tho if the bales have seeds they’ll grow and you have to trim them back).  So far I have 13 bales.  I’ve gotten cardboard under several of them.  I’m bringing home some boxes from work today and my little sister works in recycling so she brought me some yesterday.  Once the cardboard is under them I start watering (don’t want them to get too heavy and then add the cardboard).  Since nitrogen speeds up the process I’ve added some fresh horse manure to the tops of the bales and watered that in.  So I guess we’ll see how it does:)

A couple of months ago Matt and I stopped buying paper towels.  Mainly we did it to cut out an expense but so far I only miss them when I’m working on a craft project or when  I want a napkin.  I had some left over cotton thread so this last week I’ve crocetted up some napkin/wipe up towels.  This was the pattern for the one I liked the best.

Chain 22, Turn and single stitch in one back (would be the 21st chain). 

Single stitch all 21 back to end

Chain one to turn. Single stitch in one, chain and skip the next stitch, single stitch in 3, ch skip, single in 5, ch skip, single in 7, ch skip, single in 9, ch skip, single in 11, continue to end of row. 

Chain one turn and repeat on rows until you have the lenght you want.  Then Single stitch 21. 

Work around the edges as you want.  The pattern that I like to add to the edges is a simple ruffle.  Single stitch, chain three, single stitch in next place.  Shells are very nice too.

This pattern is really easy once you get it going and very quick to make.  It comes out looking a little lacy.  Something that really helps me keep the stitches in the right place is that after you’ve done the first row of single chain skips, the yarn of the single stitches will look sort of like a downward v.  Those downward V s are where you put the singles for the rest of the pattern.

New tree and a recipe May 4, 2009

I’ve been looking for a dwarf fruit tree for a while now.  I’ve been trying to be very logical and reasonable and pick my variety then buy.  Yah.  That fell apart on Saturday.  Matt and I were at Walmart and found a semi dwarf apricot tree for $20.  That little voice in my head said ‘this one’.  So I got it.  Turns out my little voice was right as usual.  It’s a Blenheim Apricot and apparently it’s fruit is wonderful.  I think it’s going to be in a pot for this year.  At least until I can get a spot prepared for it.  I’m planning on buying some gooseberry and current bushes too.  Planning on using them as a bit of a hedge. Have to make sure the nursery is still shipping them for this year.  Yay plants.

And now for something completely different-

Supper easy cobbler/dump cake-

2 cans of pineapple or fruit of your choice (I like 1 can of chunks and 1 of crushed pineapple)

1 box of cake mix (I’m very fond of french vanilla)

1 ish sticks of butter.

Heat oven to 350.  Pour canned fruit into a glass baking dish (maybe 8×12?  You want the fruit to be about an inch and a half to 2 inches deep).  Sprinkle the dry cake mix evenly over the top.  Don’t break up lumps or smooth it out.  Cover the top of the cake mix with thin slices of butter.  Place in oven and cook until the top is browned and the fruit very hot.

This turns out so good.  The pineapple gets caramelized, the topping gets beautifully browned and crisp and the section where cake meets fruit is fabulously soft.

Signs of life April 28, 2009

Even with the cold that we’ve had lately there are signs of life in the garden!  W00T!  The arugula is sprouting.  The lettuce and spinach is looking good.  Some of them got a little sunburn when it was really warm one day but they’re ok.  The lemon balm got a bit of that burn too but looks like its recovering nicely.  We have the first leaves of the potatoes popping up and the peas are starting to come out of hiding. 

We also planted out rainbow chard, more mustard and kale and some lettuce.  Sunday we stopped by Moana nursery to meander.  I know I shouldn’t do that but it’s so prettful there.  Anyway we ended up with a peppermint and catnip seeds.  Planted the mint in a pot for now.  I do have one bed where it cant escape that I may put it.  And Matt wanted to take over the catnip so he planted those in a window box and some in the escape proof bed.  The cats are going to love it.  The trick will be keeping the neighborhood cats from killing it

I planted some garlic that had sprouted in the fridge and it’s growing beautifully.  I have to say that green garlic (leaves) have to be one of the most under used and under talked about ingredients ever.  They are so good!  Very garlicky but with a sweet green bright kind of taste.  I don’t think I’m describing it very well but I recommend that everyone try planting some garlic and using the greens.  It’s also nice because you can plant them in spring (if like me you forgot last fall;)

Matt chatted with one of our neighbours last night while he was watering.  They live a couple houses down from us and have just put in a chicken coop.  They were supper impressed by the green garlic and want to do trades for produce once we get things growing.  Fresh veggies for fresh eggs.  Oh Yah!

Lonely in the garden April 21, 2009

Matt’s out of town for work again.  Sigh.  At least this time he was back for 2 whole weeks.  Lol.  For a while there it was one week on one week off.  Oh well.  I have to admit that I like California’s overtime laws alot better but it gets pretty lonely in the garden without someone to talk too.  

I fried some of my seedlings yesterday.  Was hardening off some lettuce, kale, and mustard and left them outside yesterday.  Oops.  I hadn’t realized how hot it was going to get and by the time I  made it home most of the seedlings were crispy critters.  This morning some of them were starting to perk up so we’ll see.  If they don’t I still have some seeds.  I’ll restart the mustard and the kale but may not have time to redo the lettuce before it gets too hot.

My first two tulips are blooming now.  One a satin pink and the other is serbert orange.  I think it’s called Daydreamer.

Happy spring!