Mary, Mary

Today we were gifted this 20 lb carp. Our neighbor's son, Dean, brought it as a contribution to the ever-expanding garden. This gift came after a conversation with Dean in which he reavealed that his (now-80+ dad) used to have the best tomatoes around. We asked what his secret was and Dean said "nothing." Then he thought for a moment and said "well, he did used to plant a carp underneath each of his tomato plants."

We have already planted our tomatoes for the summer, so there is no chance of putting this guy under any of our plants. However, they are in 4x4 square beds (four plants to a bed) so Rhonda bravely butchered the fish and I dug holes in four of our beds. Here's hoping.

No carp? I've heard that placenta also works!

Hard Worker

Accomplished today:

Scrubbed the kitchen floor
Scrubbed the rust stains off of the shower curtain
Built four more boxes to frame garden beds
Made lunch: eggplant, avocado, cucumber sandwiches
with fresh lettuce from the garden
Prepared a new bed for planting in the front yard
Hauled three wheel barrow's full of dirt from the woods to the front
Hung several loads of laundry
Took a load of garbage and recycling to the dump
Drank beer with friends who dropped by
Cleared and cleaned the 3-season room
Watched a bird take its very first flight
Knit a sock (well, just part of it)
Folded laundry


My friend Natalie's reply is too good not to post...

Accomplished today:

Bought an overpriced head of lettuce from the deli.
Stepped in chewing gum on the way home from the post office.
Stared at the orchid which is no longer an orchid, but rather, a stick in a pot with two leaves on it.
Ate two donuts in record-breaking time.
Stubbed my toe while taking out the trash.
Wrote about drag queens.
Made a glass of instant diet iced tea.
Read Keepin' It Rural instead of opening the electric bill.

rhubarb!

We have at least three patches of rhurbarb on our property. They were all surprise finds and are all growing in very different places. One is in the garden plot proper (the same plot where Glen and Donna had their garden), one is in the woods near an old compost pile, and the third is at the edge of our yard where there is a mound of grasses and other wildness. I have been pillaging these stashes at different times (sorry Dan!) and have made two different rhubarb crisps.

This is the first stage of my strawberry rhubarb crisp made yesterday.

the other side

Classes are now over -- hooray! I survived my first year of teaching! Finals and graduation are this week, and by the 27th (when my mom and dad arrive) I will be done for the summer. I am looking forward to spending even more time outside with all of the stuff that is growing. There is something to be said for the ability of a long, hard, snowy winter to make you appreciate every moment of the spring and summer.

I have been rather delinquent in posting much about the domestic projects. There is a brand-new master bedroom (pictures to come) and - TA DA - a garden. The latter has been taking up much of our time these days. Rhonda is wonderfully maniacal about the whole thing, and can usually be found reading Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening , tending her many seedlings, or devising ways to build things we need from stuff we have. We have a group of co-gardeners who are lending expertise, muscle and enthusiasm. It has been fun and exhausting. We have dirt under our fingernails, the start of some serious farmer's tans, and the tendency to fall asleep before nine pm.

Here are some of the pics of what we have been making/crafting/ growing of late (more can be found through the link to my flikr page).



Rhonda made a compost bin out of wooden pallettes and chicken wire (all salvaged).














Our garden is 25 feet wide and 50 feet in length. We built a fence around the perimeter (to keep out deer and rabbits) and made it out of buckthorn and maple. The buckthorn is an invasive species that we want to get out of our woods, and the maples were already fallen due to erosion (facilitated by the buckthorn). Dan was our master fence builder, having toiled many a summer day on his family farm in New Hampshire.



We are gardening in a series of 4x4 boxes. There are complex mathematical calculations that determine how many of each kind of plant can live in a square foot, and in the sixteen square feet of the box. Rhonda is in charge of the analysis. I dig holes and make the frames for the boxes (grunt).

These are our first sets of lettuce and arrugula (which we grew from seed).


The lemon cucumber are also from seed. They are going to go in the ground soon. (but not today -- there is a frost warning tonight!) We will also be planting a set of heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers recently obtained through the UWGB plant sale, along with a whole batch of starts that Jane has at home.

thick plots and things that grow

The garden is tilled, the lettuce is sitting in the cold frame having its day in the sun. (Putting plants out for the day and bringing them in at night reminds me a bit of Dr. Spock's c. 1950 advisement that mothers put their infant outside in the pram for a good hour of sun and airing every day!)

The sun is out, and, the semester is nearing its end.

It is hard to believe that we have been here a full nine months. Perhaps because of the connection to birth that nine months seems significant. We have now experienced all four seasons, and all but two months. The sweetest of months, in my book, are yet to come.

I am eagerly anticipating summer. Thrilled to actually have one. A real one. Sure, I will be doing things like planning a Women's Studies course (exciting!), and revising my chapter that is appearing in a forthcoming book, but most of the summer will be spent working in the garden, spending more time with friends, and reading for fun. We are not planning on going anywhere -- sorry mom and grandma. Instead we are going to stay on our little seven acre plot and watch things grow. I am heartily looking forward to the laziness of hot days, the boredom of midsummer, and that delicious feeling -- usually experienced in early August -- of the anticipation of starting the cycle all over again.

the season

it now stays light until almost 8pm. Today was 66 degrees, and things are growing. We are still a bit behind most of the lower-48 in blooms and such, but what we do have is much appreciated and - in our case - significantly documented. All photos were taken within the last hour.


Lemon Cucumber Seedlings



Lilac Buds



Buds on Unknown Tree (Do you know?)