Random Garden Pics

Well, the two weeks off work due to a periappendiceal abscess and appendectomy have given me way more free time than I really know what to do with. I'm not supposed to "work in the yard" while recovering. The JP drain sticking out of my old c-section scar for the past week has sucked the fun out of most activities anyways (as well as 150 cc's per day of infected fluid out of my abdominal cavity). This morning said buh-bye to the 2' of tubing and attached squeezie bottle and look out world! (I have my 5-year old convinced my JP drain is a special "juice box" the doctor wants me to keep attached to my belt).

It is so nice to have a garden to come home to:

Pencil-sized purple passion asparagus spear

Potatoes have been hilled up-Green Mountain on the right, and Tom Wagner's selections in the two left rows

Yacon from an ebay seller in California


Garlic, Shallots and Potato Onions 8 months after planting

2" tall okra seedlings seem to be struggling a bit. They were planted out about 2 weeks ago, just as all the cloudy rainy weather started. I suspect they will take off as soon as we get some clear hot dry days.

Finally the first strawberry flower! Time to break out the bird netting.

Lettuce looking cool and crisp in the east bed, which is up against the house in afternoon shadow.

Pole beans of various makes and models prepare to send their first tendrils skyward

Wall O'Peas. To date, all pods have been eaten in situ.

Baker Creek's Topaz

These tomatoes are grown from a seed I saved from a Yellow Pear tomato which I crossed with Cherokee Purple pollen last summer. I know the cross took, because the shape is definitely not pear-like, and the one is already much larger than its Yellow Pear parent. I was actually hoping for a small purple pear yielding the rich Cherokee Purple taste; looks like I may get a beefsteak type instead--keeping fingers crossed for taste genes inherited from pollen parent.

Do not adjust your color settings-yes Virginia, there is a Blue Tomato.
These are currently smaller than golf balls. Very excited to see how this one progresses.

More later. Right now, I have to get back to "not working in the yard".

Irony, the long version

The 18 year old boy was in his first accident a few weeks ago. His was the 4th car in a 4 car accident in front of the college he commutes to every day. He got a ticket of course for "failure to stop within an assured clear distance" and the car was in the shop for about a week, and nobody was hurt. We didnt have collision insurance, so this was a very expensive lesson. I looked it up on the website for the municipal courthouse- the ticket was for 3 points on his license and about $250 in fines, so a scheduling hearing in front of a judge seemed like it couln't hurt.

So here's the thing-while on the court website, getting general information about traffic fines and license points, I noticed on the sidebar a little link for a "job posting". I thought what the heck, I printed out my resume, rattled off a quick cover letter and sent it out in the afternoon mail. It was a routine so familiar to me lately that I do it in my sleep. The very next day I got an email from the Court Administrator to come for a clerical test the following Wednesday. I went to the clerical test, and did pretty well apparently, because I was called back for an interview 2 days later on Friday. 10 days after that interview, Monday November 2 they called me at 12:30pm and offered me the job. Did paperwork Tuesday and officially started Wednesday Nov. 4. Holy crap!

I was elated to say the least, after both of us being unemployed for so long. I couldn't believe it, because it is a full-time, union job with complete benefits. Not the highest salary in the world, but-did I mention benefits? Not really my chosen specialty, but- did I mention benefits? There was no question about taking it or not. Me-deputy court clerk.

So, here's the irony. There are about a dozen deputy clerks in the courthouse, each assigned a specialization from a wide variety of different tasks, such as cashiering, data entry, filing, scheduling, etc. Guess what the new girl's very first task on her very first day is? Entering new traffic tickets into the system. I kid you not.

So I guess in a weird way I got this job thanks to my son's lousy driving. I never would have found out about the job posting had I not had a reason to go on the court website that day. Everything happens for a reason, so they say. It's actually for the same city I worked for 3 years ago so I know I got a good reference from my previous supervisor. In fact, I went to see the gang at my old department the Tuesday before I started at the courthouse. Thanked my old supervisor for any reference he provided, and he let me know that the court administrator actually called him on Monday morning for one. I had been regularly checking that city website for job postings for months, but for some odd unknown reason this particular court job was not listed on the regular HR page with all other city jobs. Never would have seen it, except for the boy's traffic mishap.

It's alot less responsibility than what I did before. In fact, a college degree is not even a requirement for this position. But less responsibility translates into less job stress, which is actually a very nice thing. Did I mention the benefits?

For my regular readers, expect fewer posts, and fewer posts about gardening...at least for awhile while we all re-adjust our lives. Now spouse is still contemplating what this will mean for him...now that he's relieved of the sole responsibility of providing health benefits for the family...he is for the first time in 19 years allowing himself to enjoy the thought and possibility of pursuing types of jobs that more suit his interest and aptitude, like commission sales, part-time teaching, or ventures that require risk or have long dry stretches between windfalls. Novemeber is turning out to be an exciting time for all of us.

Garden Photos w/Commentary

Remember that Stupice tomato seedling that bloomed indoors on April 10? Well, it is NOT one of the plants that perished in the frost, thank you. Here it is 2 months after that first flower. We'll probably eat it later this week.

Potatoes were planted a bit late, but are beginning to pick up. Here is the row of Wagner's potato sampler.

I never knew that potatoes held such diversity. Shown are two of the 9 varieties in the sampler. The Skagit Valley Gold variety (top) has a very fine growth habit, with many thin stalks topped in bright green and nearly round leaves; contrasted with the Paint Jar variety, is probably the most vigorous of the selections, which has few but thick dark purple stems topped with almond-shaped leaves shaded with purple. The Paint Jar looks ready to mound up for the second time, while the other varieties have not yet had their first. Can't wait to see the diversity in the blossoms.

Chard is going strong, and lettuce is doing well, except I think a rabbit has been sneaking some. Time to put up that fence. I did not expect that homegrown chard would taste so salty.

Celeriac that has been kept trimmed by a suspected rabbit is being overtaken by some weeds that I thought to just let grow. Lambsquarter or goosefoot is supposed to be a good and very mild cooked green. In fact I will testify that raw, it tastes better than arugula. But then again so does just about everything. Its already about 8 inches tall, looks like it will be a good harvest, with plenty to share with my numerous neighbors who hail from the subcontinent, who call this weed "buthwa" and cook it as an ingredient in "saag". Apparently the "Eat the Weeds" guy has a similar idea.

And why do onions grown from sets always bolt on me? Why?

Looks pretty good if I do say so myself. That trash can is my homemade compost tumbler. It is now almost full of equal amounts of kitchen scraps and fruit flies. It is now banished from the patio. Pakman has forbidden any further composting activities effective immediately, and has promised to buy me as much bagged compost from the garden center as my heart desires. I think he has a fruit fly phobia.

Pray for an Epidemic

Apparently, the school board here has ordered the entire district closed Monday and Tuesday due to swine flu. However, according to the pre-recorded phone call this morning, my eldest will be thrilled to know that A.P. exams will continue on schedule, and students will be admitted "provided they are not showing any flu symptoms", whatever that means. Looks like the weather will cooperate for a lovely unexpected vacation for everyone else. My 10th-grader did for a fleeting moment feel genuine sorrow for the kid who got the flu who prompted this drastic district-wide measure, but don't worry, she quickly got over it.

On the garden front, this week I arranged and leveled all 21 raised beds, dug in170 linear ft. of plastic edging, laid landscape fabric, and spoke words of encouragement and adulation as Pakman and Junior Gardener went back and forth moving 5 yards of cypress mulch from driveway to garden. And tomorrow morning 8 yards of topsoil/compost is being delivered! That means I can have plants in the ground by tomorrow night! I am feeling a little light-headed....

My eldest has taken our only functioning digital camera with him to Anaheim on Tuesday, which is why I have no spectacular mulch photos to post. He is due back tonight, so get ready.

Finally!!!

The tooth that came out today has been loose for about a week. The weird part is, it's the other tooth on the left that's been wiggling and driving her nuts for the past 4 months. Guess it still will.

Been Busy...

It's been awhile since my last post....sometimes life is like that, you know, taking up ALL your time and everything....The kids had the whole week (23 thru 27) off, something called "midwinter break"--how inconvenient. Having them all home, all day, every day... was draining physically, mentally and emotionally. Anyways, I had a birthday on the 26th . The same day Pakman got me (2) brand new trash cans (not for my birthday, just on my birthday, mind you) which I made short work of thanks to these instructions for a home made compost tumbler, complete with a Youtube video demo. I just couldn't bear the thought of spending hundreds of $$'s for basically a plastic holding bin for organic waste, so this fit the bill nicely. I knew it was time to do something about my previous compost pile situation when a trail of eggshells and old bread suddenly appeared from the torn out corner of the badly weathered cardboard box I had been using since November. Here is the new compost bin collecting rainwater for the past 3 days. I just hope the chipmunks that left that trail o'refuse across the yard don't figure how to gnaw through the fiberglass screens covering the holes. Well, I'm pretty sure it's chipmunks because one of the kids told me they saw one running out of the box with a chunk of something the other day, and plus if it were something like a raccoon or possum or skunk the mess would have been a whole lot bigger and the box would have been more destroyed, that is my scientific opinion.

Since the kids were off school, we invited ourselves to my Dad's and then to my brother's Friday and Saturday. Grampa volunteers at the Michigan Historical Museum so I thought it was a good opportunity to indoctrinate the young'uns with some culture (plus they'd have something of substance to write about the following Monday in the requisite "What I did during my Vacation" essay, besides the usual "slept alot and watched TV"). There was pizza and another cake at my brother's house, after which we all totally embarrased ourselves playing the Wii American Idol Rewind. But the best was yet to come because Saturday they showed us Lansing's premier pet supply emporium where the kids got to touch a real live tortise and I saw an exact replica of my future backyard koi-pond.

But the fun just keeps comin' because March 2 was another important birthday at our house (No NOT Dr. Seuss), but the one I call Junior Gardener turned eleven. And I had to go to 3 different stores to find the DS game she wanted. Whew. But wait--Two more birthdays are coming at the end of March...hope I won't be too sick of cake....I sure didn't plan this right.

More stuff...that single shelf in the laundry room, of which I am immensely proud, is not nearly enough seedling space, so I dragged in the plastic shelf from the garage which was storing mainly empty pop cans and ancient half-empty jugs of (automotive?) mystery liquids, to it's new temporary home in the dining room, and purchased 4 more shoplites. I just got done yesterday sowing another flat of brassicas and herbs, and a few flowers. Main crop tomatoes will be sown next week...can hardly wait!! In case anyone is wondering, this is what damping-off looks like in a flat of celery (notice the bare patches; they were covered with green just days ago)

and this is what an extremely low germination rate looks like in a flat of long red Florence Onions: (there were 60+ seeds in each of those containers!!! bummer.)