Tuesday--
I am already irritated with the news. Between the coverage of the next national election (still nineteen months away, for goodness sake), the "coverage" of developments on other shows carried by the network (which I don't watch and which are not news) and the continuation of stories that are already so old they are starting to smell television news is becoming a major time-waster. The rain yesterday came in sporadic bursts so I didn't get anything done in the gardens. I will wait until the weather comes on to decide what and how much to do outside today. It is about ten degrees cooler (F) so far than this time yesterday. Temperatures are doing their usual springtime imitation of a roller coaster.
So someone has finally noticed that human beings do better with a regular "dose" of nature. Now all they have to do is define "dose." We have been so busy--and in some places still are--destroying our natural environment that there seems little of it left.
"Food Forager"--now that is an interesting job title!! It is what we do for our own benefit June through October when the farm market is open. Didn't know you could get paid for it.
Wednesday--
Nice weather yesterday. Dry, sunny and warm. I got some of my gardens set up and some cleaning up done. Temperature right now is mid 40s (F) with probable highs in the mid to high 60s. I have some plants I should transplant into bigger seedling pots and a couple of seeds I should start (or start more of.) I also got one of the beds cultivated to put a damper on a whole lot of sprouts where those messy birds dropped the seeds.
Ah, I do love to see this. The "testing regime" has grown into an ogre and needs to be killed. I don't mind real tests having taken many and constructed more than a few for the classes I taught but it was mainly to assess how I or my students were doing in the classes. The results didn't determine whether my teachers got their raises/bonuses or even kept their jobs. And most of the tests were not multiple guess. They required thought and a good mastery of the subject and an ability to organize the information to provide a coherent answer. The tests mandated by Common Core and such programs are usually multiple guess the answers to which are quickly and thoughtlessly memorized and just as quickly forgotten.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Monday, April 13, 2015
Saturday--
Looks like we have at least partly clear skies this morning. It is still dark but a bright half moon is hanging in our sky. If things dry out I will try to move a trellis I want in a different container. The soil in the containers should start warming up because they are getting more direct sun now for at least part of the day.
I have often said that modern people are much divorced from nature. We only notice events in nature only when we are inconvenienced by them like travelers facing delays and cancellations because of snow storms or thunderstorms. Or we are actually hurt physically or economically by an event like the recent tornadoes in northern Illinois where 2 people died and one small town was obliterated. This story confirms my conclusion but when economists and economic analysts put out studies that don't consider long term weather patterns (like drought) whether related to climate change or not, the phenomenon borders on the criminally insane. And an interesting thought on the notion of moving at risk populations: how many, where will they go, and who bears the cost?
Sunday--
I am not doing much today. I got all of the tomatoes transplanted into larger pots except for the Rosella which aren't as well developed as the others. I could transplant some of my other seedlings but they can wait. I moved a couple of my five gallon buckets outside the gate near the fence and filled a flower box that will ride between them on their rims. I will do the same on the other side with the two more gallon buckets and the last long flower box. I did move the trellis and got it anchored. Now the space for this year's tomatoes is clear.
Monday--
Rainy today. We have errands and grocery shopping today so I probably won't get much else done.
So Hillary Clinton has announced her run for the presidency. Surprise, Surprise!! Yeah, I'm underwhelmed. The only way she looks good is compared to the Repthuglican idiots running or likely running. And I am not at all sure that would be a sufficient reason to waste a vote on her.
Looks like we have at least partly clear skies this morning. It is still dark but a bright half moon is hanging in our sky. If things dry out I will try to move a trellis I want in a different container. The soil in the containers should start warming up because they are getting more direct sun now for at least part of the day.
I have often said that modern people are much divorced from nature. We only notice events in nature only when we are inconvenienced by them like travelers facing delays and cancellations because of snow storms or thunderstorms. Or we are actually hurt physically or economically by an event like the recent tornadoes in northern Illinois where 2 people died and one small town was obliterated. This story confirms my conclusion but when economists and economic analysts put out studies that don't consider long term weather patterns (like drought) whether related to climate change or not, the phenomenon borders on the criminally insane. And an interesting thought on the notion of moving at risk populations: how many, where will they go, and who bears the cost?
Sunday--
I am not doing much today. I got all of the tomatoes transplanted into larger pots except for the Rosella which aren't as well developed as the others. I could transplant some of my other seedlings but they can wait. I moved a couple of my five gallon buckets outside the gate near the fence and filled a flower box that will ride between them on their rims. I will do the same on the other side with the two more gallon buckets and the last long flower box. I did move the trellis and got it anchored. Now the space for this year's tomatoes is clear.
Monday--
Rainy today. We have errands and grocery shopping today so I probably won't get much else done.
So Hillary Clinton has announced her run for the presidency. Surprise, Surprise!! Yeah, I'm underwhelmed. The only way she looks good is compared to the Repthuglican idiots running or likely running. And I am not at all sure that would be a sufficient reason to waste a vote on her.
Friday, April 10, 2015
Wednesday--
Foggy this morning with possible rain/thunderstorms predicted.
We didn't watch CNN much before we reduced our cable service and we don't watch it at all now. But this illustrates a pet peeve I have had for sometime with the U.S. media. They can't handle controversial issues in any manner but the "he said/she said) fashion and they can't bother to get facts straight.
Thursday--
Fog again and thunderstorms predicted. It dried out yesterday so I was able to set a wire shoe rack (rescued from a neighbor's trash last fall) as a trellis. Also pulled out a bunch of 3in pots so I can transplant some seedlings that are rapidly out growing their starter pots.
War on the Rocks has some comments on U.S. foreign policy that parallel my own. Our government has engaged in what I call "cowboy" diplomacy (swagger, bluster, and send in the troops) for as long as I can remember. That policy has wasted a lot of lives (mostly non-American), wasted a lot of money and equipment (economic stimulus, perhaps???), and justifiably earned us a lot of enmity while weakening our ties to once strong allies (now lukewarm friends??). Maybe our "leaders" should read Sun Tzu. Although that assumes they can read, can absorb the information, and will see the significance of it--which is a debatable assumption.
Friday--
Watching the news this morning and thankful we didn't get any tornado like what hit west of Chicago. We got some rain yesterday with mild enough temperatures we were able to open the doors for a large part of the day closing the one facing the direction of the wind only when the rains fell. I think I saw some new leaf buds on the rose and most of the stems are green. I have hopes for the season. But then I have hopes every season--that is what spring is for. Just finished transplanting eight tomato seedlings into 3 inch pots. Plant to do ten others tomorrow. Four are looking a little slow so I put them back on the heating mat for a while. As cool as it is and as chancy as the weather conditions are none are going out in the garden for at least another month.
Foggy this morning with possible rain/thunderstorms predicted.
We didn't watch CNN much before we reduced our cable service and we don't watch it at all now. But this illustrates a pet peeve I have had for sometime with the U.S. media. They can't handle controversial issues in any manner but the "he said/she said) fashion and they can't bother to get facts straight.
Thursday--
Fog again and thunderstorms predicted. It dried out yesterday so I was able to set a wire shoe rack (rescued from a neighbor's trash last fall) as a trellis. Also pulled out a bunch of 3in pots so I can transplant some seedlings that are rapidly out growing their starter pots.
War on the Rocks has some comments on U.S. foreign policy that parallel my own. Our government has engaged in what I call "cowboy" diplomacy (swagger, bluster, and send in the troops) for as long as I can remember. That policy has wasted a lot of lives (mostly non-American), wasted a lot of money and equipment (economic stimulus, perhaps???), and justifiably earned us a lot of enmity while weakening our ties to once strong allies (now lukewarm friends??). Maybe our "leaders" should read Sun Tzu. Although that assumes they can read, can absorb the information, and will see the significance of it--which is a debatable assumption.
Friday--
Watching the news this morning and thankful we didn't get any tornado like what hit west of Chicago. We got some rain yesterday with mild enough temperatures we were able to open the doors for a large part of the day closing the one facing the direction of the wind only when the rains fell. I think I saw some new leaf buds on the rose and most of the stems are green. I have hopes for the season. But then I have hopes every season--that is what spring is for. Just finished transplanting eight tomato seedlings into 3 inch pots. Plant to do ten others tomorrow. Four are looking a little slow so I put them back on the heating mat for a while. As cool as it is and as chancy as the weather conditions are none are going out in the garden for at least another month.
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Tuesday--
Rainy and dreary today though the temps are mild (40s now with highs predicted to hit low 60s). I used one of my handy-dandy meters to check the fertility and pH of several of my containers. I won't have to add much fertilizer and the pH of everything I checked were very good. Only one of my five-gallon buckets needs some fertilizer. I think it is time to put some of the tomatoes into larger pots and move them onto the plant table by the south window. That will open up some space for the seeds I want to start in about a week.
To continue in a similar vein--another report debunks the hype over GMO seeds: they don't increase productivity over traditionally produced seeds.
It has taken nearly five years but at last this scumbag family is getting some punishment for their crimes. Not nearly enough but some is better than none. The DeCosters represent the worst of industrial agriculture and food production.
Interesting post from Robert Reich this morning. Money has always spoken very loudly but perhaps not so loudly as now. I am remembering a segment of Neil deGrasse Tyson's Cosmos in which he talks about Clair Cameron Patterson, the scientist who determined the age of the earth. Patterson's work also demonstrated the pervasive presence of toxic lead in our environment thanks to the addition of tetraethyl lead in gasoline. The petroleum industry and the chemical industry offered him lucrative research grants so long as he ceased his investigation of lead pollution. As the Wizard of Id said years ago: The Golden Rule is "He who has gold rules!"
Rainy and dreary today though the temps are mild (40s now with highs predicted to hit low 60s). I used one of my handy-dandy meters to check the fertility and pH of several of my containers. I won't have to add much fertilizer and the pH of everything I checked were very good. Only one of my five-gallon buckets needs some fertilizer. I think it is time to put some of the tomatoes into larger pots and move them onto the plant table by the south window. That will open up some space for the seeds I want to start in about a week.
To continue in a similar vein--another report debunks the hype over GMO seeds: they don't increase productivity over traditionally produced seeds.
It has taken nearly five years but at last this scumbag family is getting some punishment for their crimes. Not nearly enough but some is better than none. The DeCosters represent the worst of industrial agriculture and food production.
Interesting post from Robert Reich this morning. Money has always spoken very loudly but perhaps not so loudly as now. I am remembering a segment of Neil deGrasse Tyson's Cosmos in which he talks about Clair Cameron Patterson, the scientist who determined the age of the earth. Patterson's work also demonstrated the pervasive presence of toxic lead in our environment thanks to the addition of tetraethyl lead in gasoline. The petroleum industry and the chemical industry offered him lucrative research grants so long as he ceased his investigation of lead pollution. As the Wizard of Id said years ago: The Golden Rule is "He who has gold rules!"
Monday, April 6, 2015
Friday--
Not much to say today. Out most of it with errands and doctor's appointments.
Saturday--
Frosty this morning. Cold enough to remind us that it is early April and winter isn't all that long gone. The afternoon temps should be much warmer. All the greens (orach, mizuno, and tong ho) are up and vigorous. I may have to transfer some of my other seedlings into larger pots soon but for now I am resisting. We are only a month-and-a-half away from our average last frost date.
Some interesting and disturbing photos.
Sunday--
Happy Easter for those who celebrate the holiday.
Ain't it the truth!!! A corollary: Not all who learn from history learn the same lessons and the lessons they do learn are contradictory.
Monday--
We had a lovely sunny and warm Easter with family. I was too lazy to do much reading--as you can probably tell. Let's see what I get done today. I did go out and check the gardens. They are defrosted to at least 10 inches so I figure I can start working out there on dry, warm days. I got the cover on the mini-greenhouse. Took a bit of work but once the plastic relaxed it was fine. I may pick up a new cover for next year or the year after depending on how this one weathers the conditions.
Charles Hugh Smith has a good post on the question "Who Would Jesus Shun?: It is unfortunate we have so few true Christians spouting off for the media these days.
Not much to say today. Out most of it with errands and doctor's appointments.
Saturday--
Frosty this morning. Cold enough to remind us that it is early April and winter isn't all that long gone. The afternoon temps should be much warmer. All the greens (orach, mizuno, and tong ho) are up and vigorous. I may have to transfer some of my other seedlings into larger pots soon but for now I am resisting. We are only a month-and-a-half away from our average last frost date.
Some interesting and disturbing photos.
Sunday--
Happy Easter for those who celebrate the holiday.
Ain't it the truth!!! A corollary: Not all who learn from history learn the same lessons and the lessons they do learn are contradictory.
Monday--
We had a lovely sunny and warm Easter with family. I was too lazy to do much reading--as you can probably tell. Let's see what I get done today. I did go out and check the gardens. They are defrosted to at least 10 inches so I figure I can start working out there on dry, warm days. I got the cover on the mini-greenhouse. Took a bit of work but once the plastic relaxed it was fine. I may pick up a new cover for next year or the year after depending on how this one weathers the conditions.
Charles Hugh Smith has a good post on the question "Who Would Jesus Shun?: It is unfortunate we have so few true Christians spouting off for the media these days.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Thursday--
Thunderstorms rolled through early this morning--just as we were waking a bit before 5am. The temperature though is mild in the upper 50s. The rains and mild temps should speed the thawing of the last patches of frozen soil. The seedlings are coming along nicely. I think I saw orach and mizuno popping up. They are greens I am trying in place of the lettuce and spinach that seems to bolt almost as soon as they come up in my gardens. I changed out our door wreath yesterday switching the winter wreath for the spring. Wednesday was wonderfully springlike so we opened both doors and raised the storm windows so we can open the windows when it gets warmer.
Mark Morford has a good piece on Amazon's new "dash buttons." The wi-fi enabled devices that allow you to reorder your name-brand products directly from Amazon were featured on one or another news story a couple of days ago. Most of what I thought as I watched was best left unsaid and what I did say was best not repeated. Objections: a lot of what we buy are not name brand; we haven't bought anything from Amazon in years; we still know how to apply pen to paper to generate a shopping list (archaic, yes, but it serves well); we don't mind a weekly (more or less) shopping trip which gets us out of the house; we actually like schmoozing with our favorite clerks.
So the grocery stores are losing us and are desperately trying to win us back. Unfortunately nothing the author listed is likely to bring me back. We broadened our shopping some time ago. First, we became totally unimpressed with the meats--didn't like the quality, the taste or the additives. So we found a little local meat market that gets their stock from local sources as much as possible. Most of those sources supply free range, hormone free and antibiotic free meats. We haven't had a disappointing cut of meat (you know, the kind that has large amounts of inedible gristle or that cooks tough while losing a lot of water and other filler) since making that switch. Though their meat is a bit more expensive we find we have less waste so our bill for meat has actually gone down. We go to Panera for bread--better taste, fewer additives. We go to the farm market in season for produce and freeze as much as we can for winter use. Our local grocery has gotten smart and they get as much of their product as they can from local growers. Restaurants in the store?? Not interested. Delivery?? Not needed. Smaller store?? Depends on what they carry not on how big the store is. If it doesn't have what we want we aren't going. And the notion of appealing to millennials? We ain't.
Thunderstorms rolled through early this morning--just as we were waking a bit before 5am. The temperature though is mild in the upper 50s. The rains and mild temps should speed the thawing of the last patches of frozen soil. The seedlings are coming along nicely. I think I saw orach and mizuno popping up. They are greens I am trying in place of the lettuce and spinach that seems to bolt almost as soon as they come up in my gardens. I changed out our door wreath yesterday switching the winter wreath for the spring. Wednesday was wonderfully springlike so we opened both doors and raised the storm windows so we can open the windows when it gets warmer.
Mark Morford has a good piece on Amazon's new "dash buttons." The wi-fi enabled devices that allow you to reorder your name-brand products directly from Amazon were featured on one or another news story a couple of days ago. Most of what I thought as I watched was best left unsaid and what I did say was best not repeated. Objections: a lot of what we buy are not name brand; we haven't bought anything from Amazon in years; we still know how to apply pen to paper to generate a shopping list (archaic, yes, but it serves well); we don't mind a weekly (more or less) shopping trip which gets us out of the house; we actually like schmoozing with our favorite clerks.
So the grocery stores are losing us and are desperately trying to win us back. Unfortunately nothing the author listed is likely to bring me back. We broadened our shopping some time ago. First, we became totally unimpressed with the meats--didn't like the quality, the taste or the additives. So we found a little local meat market that gets their stock from local sources as much as possible. Most of those sources supply free range, hormone free and antibiotic free meats. We haven't had a disappointing cut of meat (you know, the kind that has large amounts of inedible gristle or that cooks tough while losing a lot of water and other filler) since making that switch. Though their meat is a bit more expensive we find we have less waste so our bill for meat has actually gone down. We go to Panera for bread--better taste, fewer additives. We go to the farm market in season for produce and freeze as much as we can for winter use. Our local grocery has gotten smart and they get as much of their product as they can from local growers. Restaurants in the store?? Not interested. Delivery?? Not needed. Smaller store?? Depends on what they carry not on how big the store is. If it doesn't have what we want we aren't going. And the notion of appealing to millennials? We ain't.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Wednesday--
Welcome to April. Damn but the year has flown by. It seems like only a day or so ago I welcomed you all to 2015. The year is already one-quarter gone. I checked the gardens with my garden fork yesterday to see if it was thawed enough to work but the fork just bounce off the soil. Nope--not ready. The seedlings are doing well and I have another variety of my peppers peeping through the soil. Still too early for the other flat to show anything. The rose has some green on some of the stems so I have hopes for it. I just went out and swept up most of the patio. I am always amazed by how much blows in each winter. I also checked the soil again and several of the containers have nearly thawed out completely. The largest containers have a couple of frozen sections but it is warm enough that I opened the doors so they should get a lot of melting done. Most of the week should have temps above freezing.
Ursula Le Guin expresses so well my long-held assessment of the religious bigots (for lack of a better word) who think they have the right to be assholes for Christ. We have seen way too many of those here in Indiana (and other states). As well as in history.
The Colorado River basin is nearly bone dry. We read the statistic which says the basin has been in drought 11 of the last 14 years. About 14 yeas ago we started commenting each year on how weird the weather has been. The California "rainy season" is over and what storms came through did little to alleviate the drought there and they won't get much out of the snow pack which was less than 20% normal (what ever the hell that is anymore.)
I saw a snippet of this on another site earlier. Goes to show that the Supreme Court isn't wrong all the time on everything.
Welcome to April. Damn but the year has flown by. It seems like only a day or so ago I welcomed you all to 2015. The year is already one-quarter gone. I checked the gardens with my garden fork yesterday to see if it was thawed enough to work but the fork just bounce off the soil. Nope--not ready. The seedlings are doing well and I have another variety of my peppers peeping through the soil. Still too early for the other flat to show anything. The rose has some green on some of the stems so I have hopes for it. I just went out and swept up most of the patio. I am always amazed by how much blows in each winter. I also checked the soil again and several of the containers have nearly thawed out completely. The largest containers have a couple of frozen sections but it is warm enough that I opened the doors so they should get a lot of melting done. Most of the week should have temps above freezing.
Ursula Le Guin expresses so well my long-held assessment of the religious bigots (for lack of a better word) who think they have the right to be assholes for Christ. We have seen way too many of those here in Indiana (and other states). As well as in history.
The Colorado River basin is nearly bone dry. We read the statistic which says the basin has been in drought 11 of the last 14 years. About 14 yeas ago we started commenting each year on how weird the weather has been. The California "rainy season" is over and what storms came through did little to alleviate the drought there and they won't get much out of the snow pack which was less than 20% normal (what ever the hell that is anymore.)
I saw a snippet of this on another site earlier. Goes to show that the Supreme Court isn't wrong all the time on everything.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)