edge effect

Spring so far

2008-04-09T12:54:00.009-04:00

I suck. I know. I've been busy. Really, really busy for like three and a half months. Ok, not really. But it seemed like it. To me anyway. Okay, that isn't so true either. I just haven't felt like it. There. So here is what I've been up to:

I got four new chickens! One of my Plymouth Barred Rocks died in March. She molted late and just never really seemed to get her strength back. After a few days in chicken intensive care she gave up the ghost. I watched the other chickens for a few weeks for signs of disease and they were fine and healthy, so I got four more Barred Rocks. These little girls are about 4 weeks old now, they were two weeks old when I bought them. Hopefully no roosters in the bunch.

I lost thirty five pounds! I got sick in January and was on antibiotics for awhile. This particular antibiotic killed my appetite entirely and I literally had to remind myself to eat every day. So that resulted in about 15 pounds lost which is as good of a jump start as you get, and I've kept on going. Yay me!

I've developed rats. Sometime in February I noticed the chicken feed going faster than usual. And then one fateful night in late March I came face to face with a surprisingly large rat in the chicken house one night. It was reddish brown and not at all shy. So I bought some poison and shoved it down some holes that were chewed into the chicken house floor behind some flowerpots and waited. On Sunday, I strolled across the yard towards the chicken house and there sitting in the sun was that very large rat. Sort of struggling to breathe. I felt kind of bad. I know, its a rat. But still. So I went to get a stick to poke around at it a little, never having been that close to a rat. And when I returned my husband was standing there with a shovel poised over his head which then came down hard on the rat's head and rat was no more. I felt really bad. The next day I read on Wikipedia that rats are self-aware like humans and primates and that their favorite food is scrambled eggs. And I felt worse. I hope there aren't any more rats.

My tree is starting to bud out! A bit slower than the silver and red maples that we have, but that's okay! As long as it does.

My garlic has all sprouted!

Almost May?

2008-04-29T16:11:00.007-04:00

How is that possible?

My chickens still aren't on their own yet. Still in their comfy giant box in the garage. I tried. I really did. One whole day in the chicken house. And then at night they simply didn't know what to do and peeped sad and loud and long and I took them all back to the garage. I would be a terrible mother. I can't help but spoil.

The foofies know this and exploit my weakness shamelessly.

My flowers are speeding right along. The tulips are now over, daffodils are long gone. I had iris blooming yesterday. Yikes. Bleeding heart is probably my favorite plant. I wish it lasted all year. But then maybe I wouldn't like it so much.

Checking in

2008-09-03T09:59:00.007-04:00

So lately I've been feeling like my horizon has disappeared. And I'm somewhere in the horse latitudes. I feel adrift with no sense of if I'm moving forward or backward or standing completely still. Not necessarily panicked or anything, but a definite sense of "I'm not where I want to be at this point in my life". So I haven't been blogging. Just lots of taking stock and thinking.

But here is an "I'm okay" post and thanks for all the emails and comments of concern. I just got back from 2 weeks at the beach, which was totally awesome. And I pretty much know where I want to be now. I just have to work up the courage to make the trip from here to there.

For some reason I'm into lists lately. Well, that is a lie. I've always been into lists, they help keep me sane and organized. I mean lists for no reason.

Things that have been making me smile lately:

tomatoes - because who can really be glum when eating a bowl of tomatoes with fresh basil and thick balsamic and good olive oil and salty olives?
banana pudding - I had for the first time a sour cream banana pudding made by Connor's Market in Buxton, NC and it was one of those moments when you eat something and everything gets all shiny and tingly and I think I actually laughed out loud because it was that good. Hard to believe, but it was. Banana Pudding! With Nilla Wafers! They only had it one day out of the week and the nice lady behind the deli counter shared her recipe, so I'll try my hand at it soon.
The Republican Party imploding.
A sign on a conservation district building on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.....it said "Keepin' it rural since 1963." haha. keepin' it rural.
Little girls in kayaks that swore they would never, ever get in a kayak. Let alone check a crab trap or reach down into an underwater grass bed to pick up a scallop.

So I'll keep in touch. And thanks Pete, I had forgotten all about Mr. Hartman. I am power!

More field pictures

2008-09-17T10:15:00.004-04:00

More field pictures. These are from yesterday. We have a wetland mitigation sight next to a small goat farm in Northern Lancaster County. And the owners don't mind if we visit with the goats.

This goat was a little ominous. He just kept staring though the window.

See the giant spider? Sort of in the middle of the picture? It is hard to tell without something for scale, but it was enormous. Yuck. Some kind of fishing spider but there was no way I getting closer to tell which kind. The thing had to be close to 4 inches across. My co-worker thinks I am dramatic and am overestimating the size. It sure seemed huge though. And it freaked me out that it was that high up in a plant that I easily could have brushed past. Usually they are around rocks in the stream bed. I don't like spiders at all.

Field Photos

2008-09-15T11:09:00.004-04:00

Last week I had a lot of field work to do for my job. Tiring but good. Here are some photos.

The first two are from Fairmount Park in Philadelphia.

I am 38 years old and I never noticed that the inside of a black walnut looks like a heart. Now I see them everywhere.

An orange shelf fungi. You could see this from a mile away, it was so vibrant.

A giant piece of conglomerate. Conglomerate is a sedimentary rock and you don't often see pieces this size. I think it is part of the Pottsville Formation found in the Anthracite regions in Eastern Pennsylvania. Zoom in for a closer look. That is my field book for scale.

Much better

2008-06-04T09:54:00.005-04:00

Yay June!

April and May were soap-opera-ish months and I am weary of drama for awhile. I'm going to put my nose in the dirt for a few months. Actually, until frost.

Thanks for all your kind words. Last week was a bit weird but I think I'm all better now. I'm still sad that things turned out the way they did, but there really isn't anything I could have done to change that. Nothing is gained by me dwelling. It is what it is (I say this so much lately).

And while it does annoy me that there was no spectacular, thoughtful birthday gift from the husband, the lack of did enable me to purchase a new dress and two pairs of spectacular platform sandals which I will show as soon as the come in the mail. God I love these new free-shipping mail order shoe places.

Behold my volunteer foxglove. I love foxgloves. I want a whole big sweep of them. I have wasted I don't know how much money buying foxgloves and planting them only to have them grow about a foot tall and die. So two years ago I stopped trying. I gave up. Foxgloves just did not like me. I had one remaining foxglove that limped along that summer. It dropped seed and last year I had several volunteers pop up. They were healthy all summer but had no blooms. I left them alone. This year this beauty suprised me. It has to be at least 3 feet tall. So I try not to look at it too hard or fuss with it too much. One of the other ones also had sent up a spire but that one succumbed to a fat yellow hen that was too lazy to walk around it and instead walked over it. You just can't have nice flower beds with chickens.

And my newest friend. This toad has decided to live in one of the flower pots on the front porch. He is there every day and then climbs out (the top of the pot is adjacent to a step) and is on the flagstones every evening. This pot has pansies and johnny-jump-ups in it so I'm not sure what he'll do when I change over to something a little more heat tolerant. I will keep his needs in mind though. Something to shade him during the day and keep him cool. Perhaps some big leafy sun coleus?

ves

C'mon June 1st!

2008-05-28T11:37:00.008-04:00

Boy am I glad May is almost over. I have not really enjoyed this month. Memorial Day weekend was busy. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more and then planted and planted and planted some more. And I'm still not done. But at least all of my tomatoes and peppers are in and lots of seeds are planted and there is basil to brush past and strawberries to ripen in the sun.

Late Memorial Day afternoon I finally got to sit on my clean front porch and have a beer and know that I got a ton of stuff done.

Monday was also my birthday. I turned 38. I didn't really want to, but apparently you don't get a choice. I am not enjoying getting older. Not at all. And I don't really enjoy birthdays anymore either. It doesn't help when you don't get any gifts from your husband and the only card from him makes a sarcastic comment about your housekeeping skills. Thanks. I know. I am whining. I can whine if I want. The only saving grace was that I bought myself two huge ferns and found the first homegrown strawberries of the season. So my pity party happened while I was also eating awesome strawberries over the kitchen sink.

I was kind of glad to get to work on Tuesday morning. And then I opened an email from my cousin that let me know my father had died over the weekend. Somewhat surreal sitting at work and opening an email that tells you your dad passed away. Now this dad hadn't wanted anything to do with me for the last 20 years and I wasn't really expecting to feel sad or really feel anything when the time came. But I did. I was a little overwhelmed. Stunned and sad and angry. Angry that I never got a chance to tell him what I thought of him. Angry that I never got that dramatic phone call at the end saying "sorry I was such a shitty dad and will you accept my apology?" Sad that somebody that shared my first 18 years of life had decided that I wasn't worth knowing anymore and never bothered to see how I turned out.

So dad, sorry it turned out this way.

And in case you were ever interested, I turned out okay.

Actually, despite you and my crazy mother's best efforts to make it otherwise, I turned out awesome. I am smart and I'm funny and I'm interesting and I am strong. I provide for myself because I learned early on (thanks again) that most people could not be depended on for much and you are better off never expecting help. Valuable lessons those.

So, not getting to know me was very much your loss.

Thanks for the dimples though. They've always made my smile stand out.

(I don't look 38, do I?)

How am I behind already?

2008-04-24T13:11:00.004-04:00

Spring so quickly becomes overwhelming. Or is it just me? You wait and wait to be able to go out and get dirty and then it just seems like you can't keep up. There are so many things I have to plant yet!

And as usual, I panicked and bought my tomatoes too early, so afraid that the ones I wanted wouldn't be available if I waited. So I dutifully haul those in and out of the garage every day. I'll wait until the beginning of May, but even that is two weeks early based on out last frost date of May 15th. But at least I am set for San Marzanos again for 2008.

But I suppose it is good to be busy. I spent entirely too much time the last few months thinking about things and it is good for me to have a distraction. Even politics has failed to draw much of my attention. Can you believe it? I did work the polls on primary day this last Tuesday. And while Obama lost Pennsylvania, he did win in my precinct (the only Obama precinct in my district) and I like to think it was because of my smiling face and my "Lancaster for Obama" pin wishing everyone a good day.

My trout lily (Erythronium americanum) bloomed for the first time. Actually, they aren't my trout lillies, I didn't plant them. I've noted the foliage every year that we've had the house, but never seen a bloom. There were three this spring, although I was unable to get a shot of any of them fully open. The leaves really do look like a speckled trout's back.

mah new tree

2008-01-07T12:48:00.000-05:00

During the summer of 2007 you may remember that we had to have a tree cut down. This huge silver maple, over 100-years old, was exhibiting signs of decay. And since it was such a large tree, we were really concerned about the damage it could do should it come down in a storm. It sat at the corner of our driveway and the street, blocking the driveway and the garage part of the house from the morning sun. When it was gone, the void that was created was immense. We really felt exposed and it just looked awful to have nothing there anymore.

So in September we went and picked out a new tree to be planted in that space. We purchased an Autumn Blaze Maple, a red maple-silver maple hybrid that is a moderately fast grower but without the weakness of a full silver maple. And we wanted a good-sized tree, something that will have immediate presence. It will have awesome fall color and it has good salt and drought tolerance.

And then we waited. They said they plant big trees in December, so all through the holidays I was hoping we would have a tree planting. But nothing. And then this morning, as I was getting ready to leave for work, I saw a tree pull up outside. Yay!

I cannot wait to watch this tree blossom and leaf out in spring and shade our driveway in the summer and give color to our home in the fall. The Autumn Blaze gets approximately 50 feet tall with a 40 foot spread. I'm so excited about a tree!

Moving on

2007-12-26T11:24:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Mine was nice but I'm sort of glad it's all over. Every year just seems a little more rushed and hectic than the last. Or maybe that is just me. I almost want to just celebrate Solstice instead because that makes the biggest difference in my life. The mood elevation from just knowing that daylight will increase gradually each and every day for the next six months is amazing. I still like New Years though. No gifts, not much craziness (we don't even stay up for it anymore). Just a sense of a clean slate and a new beginning. What will 2008 be like? What do I want it to be? Things to ponder in the waning days of '07.

cold

2007-12-17T10:42:00.000-05:00

A few years ago I spent a lot of money on a pair of neoprene waders. And even though I only have cause to wear them a few times a year, there are times when they are worth their weight in gold. Seriously. Especially last week. A few days in Pike County Pennsylvania doing stream work in water that was 1.4 degrees C. That is 34 degrees F. Really, reallllllly cold. But I stayed warm for the most part. Except for when we have to measure cobbles and boulders submerged in the stream to determine how fast that stream gets going during peak flows (the size of the material moved tells us that). I don't have elbow length neoprene gloves. Plunging your bare arm in water that is barely above freezing is like one million little knives stabbing your flesh and then you stop feeling anything. I feel cold just looking at these pictures again. But it was a pleasant experience overall. A stream in wintertime, especially with waterfalls and ice coating the bedrock walls is a calming thing. And a cleansing thing in a way. Cyndy, this is Saw Creek in Lehman Township, near Winona Falls. Is that near you?

Speaking of ice, we've had two ice storms in the last few days. No snow, but tons of ice and wind. There are lots of limbs and sticks to pick up and I think I lost about half of a very large butterfly bush. I really don't like ice and I have a feeling that we will be seeing a lot of it this winter season.

One week and counting and I still have a few gifts to buy but nothing terrible. This month went crazy fast, not helped I guess by being out of town for awhile. I'm looking forward to having off for a few days. Hopefully there won't be any ice.

first snow

2007-12-06T15:54:00.000-05:00

We had our first snow yesterday. Only a few inches but enough to cause a normally 30 minute commute into nearly an hour and a half. But I guess that always happens the first few snows of the season. People have to get a little refresher before things run smoothly.

It was pretty, but I'll be glad when it is gone. I am really not a snow person. The chickens are really not that happy about it either. All the girls have moulted and regrown their feathers except for one. Violet started moulting over the weekend and this will be a cold few weeks for her. Poor chook.

Next week I get to go away for a few days to far northeastern PA and do stream characterization. Stream work in December is fun. Getting your hands wet when it is in the 30's isn't something I look forward to.

I haven't started Christmas shopping. I bought Christmas cards but they are still sitting where I put them in the middle of November. I have this awful feeling that the next few weeks are going to go really, really fast.

Sorry

2007-11-26T12:23:00.000-05:00

so, so, sorry to have turned my back and let this place go for almost two months. I am terrible. Everything just got so busy all of a sudden....all of the things to do outside before cold weather set in, things for work, just so much stuff. So now everything is put to bed outside. Things that needed to get in the ground before freezing temps set have been comfy now for awhile. Seeds were saved (although some San Marzano seeds still have to be mailed), pots and birdbaths and patio furniture were put away, plants brought inside....everything on the list has been crossed off.

And then Thanksgiving. Oy. I hope everyone had a nice one. Mine was nice. A lot of work for people I'm not quite convinced appreciate it, but nice. And the neices helped me put up the tree and all the decorations last Friday. So I"m all ready to go for the holidays and it isn't even December yet!

Indian Summer

2007-10-05T14:57:00.001-04:00

I guess it's Indian Summer anyway. 80 plus degrees today and high 80s over the weekend and into at least the middle of next week. Overnight lows in the high 50s to low 60s. I always though Indian Summer came later though, cause this is just still....well....summer. Whatever, I'm not complaining. I wish it could be like this until Thanksgiving.

Not in my garden

2007-10-01T11:07:00.000-04:00

Awhile ago, Kim at Blackswamp Girl did a post on things in other people's gardens that you can appreciate, but that you would never want to have in your own garden. Well, I've been thinking about it for a few weeks, and on Saturday I went shopping with a friend to Waterloo Gardens in Exton (super plant selection and a clearance section to.die.for) and was able to further flesh out my list. I bought a bunch of stuff too and will post about that later this week. And be forewarned that I sometimes cross the line into things that, if I were Queen, would never be in anybody's garden. Here is my list.

1. Boxwood. They are pretty. I can appreciate them. I know that they are finicky and to have a substantial boxwood hedge takes patience and a substantial green thumb. They are an investment and I've even heard that they smell like money. Ummmmm.....no. They smell like cat pee. Actually reek of cat pee. And for that reason, will never plant one in my yard.

2. Hibiscus. The fact that they are so tropical looking bothers me for some reason. This isn't Bali Hai, this is South Central Pennsylvania. They look fake somehow. Just wrong in this area. Florida? Texas? Southern California? Okay. But really not for mid-Atlantic gardens.

3. A television, mini-fridge, dishwasher, or other appliance that should be inside. I look at a lot of gardening magazines, shows, blogs, etc. This trend of making 'outdoor kitchen rooms' is ridiculous. A grill is fine. A little wine refrigerator and a flat screen television that rises out of a cleverly concealed chest is insane and basically indicates that the individual is not worth knowing.

4. Sweet Woodruff. Something that is in my garden that I desperately want not to be. Oh how I wish that I had never met this plant. And I fear I will never get rid of it. I had this lovely area of Hostas at the front of my house. All different shapes and sizes and colors. A great study in green. Some were then when we moved in 5 years ago and I added some as well. IN the beginning there was a tiny little area of Sweet Woodruff under these hostas. How pretty in the spring, with the bright green of the Woodruff and the new, shiny hosta leaves unfolding. And it has that lovely scent when stepped on. So I transplanted it, spreading it out more evenly among the Hostas. And it looked pretty for two or three more years. This year it went haywire. Forming a dense mat that some of the hostas couldn't even get through. And the hostas that could get through were apparently robbed of any and all moisture. This lovely blue-leaved specimen is no more. This plant should be on the invasive list!

5. David Austin Roses. I love them. They are beautiful and they smell lovely. But you know how when you are dating, and you realize that certain people are simply out of your league? Well these roses are out of my league. I feel like I wouldn't treat them right, and to have something that beautiful die by my hands is just not something I could stand. So I admire them from afar and know that those roses are simply too good for me.

6. Topiary. Again, something I absolutely admire. When you see a formal home and there are these beautifully maintained, clean, sharp shrubs trimmed in a myriad of shapes, it is truly something to behold. But I am not disciplined enough to keep up with something that high maintenance and I don't live in a formal looking house. So no topiaries for me.

7. Barberry. Pretty. Great color. I had a guinea pig named Bear as a child and sometimes I would bring him outside to get some air. And he would escape whatever enclosure I had him in and go straight for the barberry hedge in between our house and the house next door. And I would spend the next hour reaching around the barberry searching for Bear, getting cut up from the thorns. No Barberry for me.

8. Trumpet Vine. Another thing I have that I sincerely wish I didn't. Our front porch is partially covered with lattice. When we moved in, it was entirely covered with Trumpet Vine. It was splitting the wooden lattice everywhere and growing up the roof and covering the satellite and was just a mess. And it never bloomed. In three years, never a bloom. A former homeowner even admitted that the vine had never bloomed. So we replaced the lattice and cut that vine down. I posioned the stump hoping to never see that vine again. It won't die. It comes up all over the flower bed, in the lawn, even at the base of a tree 30 feet away. Evil nasty plant. Yet when I see it happily climbing a fence, abloom with fiery red tubular flowers, I appreciate it.

9. Stella D'oro Daylilies. One of the things that I would ban from anyone's yard were I queen. Totally overused and abused by landscaper, both residential and commercial, in our area.

10. Vinca and myrtle. At some point, someone must have had pots with these plants in the or planted myrtle as a groundcover now long gone. Both of these have escaped and now every year am constantly pulling them out of random spots. I can't kill them. They won't die. Yet a bed of myrtle carpeting the base of a tree is pretty. I'm not sure that I can ever appreciate vinca though. And the same goes with Pachysandra. Sometimes it looks pretty. But it is waaaayyyy overdone and hard to extirpate once established.

serendipitous

2007-09-28T13:59:00.000-04:00

Show me some color!

This is a volunteer Grandpa Ott morning glory and some sweet potato vine. I have a planter between the garage doors in which I planted the sweet potato vine and some orange french marigolds. Well, the marigolds didn't do too well and were puny and stick like by mid-July (not enough sun apparently) but the vine was doing very well. So it looked like a wire work trough with giant chartreuse ears.

Enter the morning glories from seed in the gravel of the driveway. The vined themselves up and over that planter and we came home from vacation we were treated to this lovely mound of foliage:

I don't think I'll ever have to buy seed for GrandPa Otts' again. I like morning glories, but they are frustrating plants to grow. They never grow well where you plant them, only seeming to do well from escaped seed. And they never get started until at least the middle of August here in the mid-Atlantic.

And here is a shot of orange just because. I went to Cabela's this week (it was on the way home from a jobsite) and bought a whole bunch of orange things seeing as how it is almost orange season here in PA. Ha. I got a fuzzy fleece hat and a pair of those mitten where the ends fold back and there are fingerless gloves underneath, and a long sleeve t-shirt, and a fleece jacket. There was a really cool hooded fleece winter coat that was this nubby fleece that sort of reminded you of an orange Cookie Monster and I loved it. But it was really expensive for a fleece coat and I just couldn't justify it. And it was very very orange. Almost as orange as this Tithonia here.

And something else I am realllyyyyyy excited about: In 1992 or 1993, my ex-boyfriend and I had a subscription to Outside Magazine and in it, we read an article by John Krakauer about a hiker named Chris McCandless who, after forsaking all matieral things and turning his back on society, crossed the country, headed into Alaska and atempted to live on his own. He ended up starving to death, but his story was still really inspiring. Krakauer turned the article into a book called Into the Wild in 1995, which I have read many times, and gave to my husband when we first started dating. Now it is a movie, directed by Sean Penn and it opens Oct. 5. Here is sort of a trailer. I cannot wait to see this movie. And the soundtrack is awesome as well. Entirely done by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. I love the entire thing. So go read the book! Listen to the music! You'll love it.

Autumnal Equinox

2007-09-21T11:00:00.000-04:00

So summer ends this weekend. The frost warning earlier in the week has thankfully given way to overnight temps in the low 50s and every morning is thick with fog. The grain elevator at the farm behind us is going 24-7 and some mornings with the fog, it makes it sound as if it is in the backyard. Fog does funny things with sound. The farmer started taking the corn down last night, so our days of having a wind block are numbered. But I do like how the landscape opens up again.

This morning there were dew-covered spider webs everywhere and Emmett was barking at all the big ones for some reason. I wonder what he thought they were. I'm sort of getting into the fall spirit, but am also very sad to see another summer end. The next one always seems so far away.

I will probably break down and buy pumpkins over the weekend and lots of apples. The chickens will appreciate the banged up ones. I should also probably make chicken corn soup before the last of the sweet corn is gone, which will be any day now. And order garlic to plant. My garlic harvest wasn't that great and I hesitate to plant mediocre bulbs for next year. I don't think I'm going to plant any flower bulbs. I suspect many of mine were the victims of underground marauders earlier this summer so I need to see what I have left before I add more. I still have a few plants and shrubs to get into the ground. Isn't that awful? I was stressing about potatoes and lima beans but was happy to receive advice that both can be left until later and will be fine.

career change

2007-09-19T13:32:00.001-04:00

I've become a fireman. Firewoman? Well, no not really. I was doing haz-waste work at a fire station in Philadelphia yesterday and they were kind enough to let me play dress up in their duds. I didn't don the pants or the boots though. I was paranoid that the alarm would go off and I wouldn't be able to get them off in time. Really interesting to be around a fire station with paid firemen instead of the volunteer fire companies I grew up with. I also went home with a load of Wissahickon Schist, a stone native to the Philadelphia area and used in the foundation of the original firehouse (built in the 1800s) which we unearthed in the course of our hazwaste investigation. Fun day.

Garden Neglect

2007-09-17T11:31:00.000-04:00

I've been avoiding my garden. Ever since we got back from vacation I barely even walk in there. I just kind of cast sideways glances at it as I walk by, afraid to see the waste amidst the weeds. It was a little weedy when I left but when I got back....well, it was a jungle. A jungle littered with overripe, half eaten tomatoes. And some really huge grasshoppers.

Oh the tomato carnage......so many, many tomatoes wasted. I started picking some last evening just before dark, but there were just too many. Cherry tomatoes and Sungolds as far as the eye could see. Honestly, I'm kind of sick of tomatoes. We were supposed to get a frost last night, and even though I am horrified at the thought of frost in the middle of September, I was almost hopeful that I would wake up to brown, limp tomato plants. See, out of my hands. An act of God. I didn't have time to save them. That isn't what happened. There were all still there, shining happily in the sunshine this morning as I let the chickens out. Undoubtedly ripening more tomatoes.

The most guilt inducing are the San Marzanos. For most of August I was processing a flat every few days. My freezer is full of sauce made with just San Marzanos and basil. Absolutely the best paste tomato I've ever grown. And I'll grow it every year from now on. Just prolific as heck and super vigorous plants. And it is still producing and I feel horribly guilty for each and every fruit that drops off into the mulch below. The tomato Gods will punish me next year with a terrible tomato crop I'm sure.

Something of a rant

2007-09-13T09:47:00.000-04:00

I am 37 years old. I don't think that is that old, yet I feel old. Why do I feel old? It has nothing to do with joint pain or gray hair (although those are appearing with greater frequency). I feel old because I am just not understanding people anymore. Not like hearing wise, but why people do what they do.

What do I mean?

Okay, I've been going to the 'beach' for vacation all of my life pretty much. When I was a little kid, my aunt and uncle lived in Stone Harbor, NJ. My parents and I went frequently to visit. I don't remember much about those days, but I do remember lots of beach going, taking walks, cooking seafood, and just hanging out. As an older child, we went to beaches at the southern end of North Carolina. There were three kids, my parents, and usually my grandfather. We swam, we fished, we rode rafts (there were no boogie boards then), built sand castles, etc. In the evening, we played cards or other games or walked on the beach with a flashlight to find ghost crabs, scaring the crap out of my brother by finding really big ones and then turning off the light. We didn't watch television, although there always was one in the living room. These were fun times. The houses we stayed in had modest bedrooms, a big living area, a functional kitchen. The things we most cared about were the view, decks, and screened porches. We wanted to be outside as much as possible.

So, fast forward to about ten or twelve years ago when I started going to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My husband and I pretty much do the same. Swim, kayak, sit on the beach, read, cook lots of seafood, maybe fish or crab or dig for clams. We don't need much. The first year we went together we stayed in a little two-bedroom beach cottage on Pamlico Sound in Ocracoke. It was perfect. There was a screened porch you could ballroom dance in. But someone bought it and made it private so we had to find a new house. Since then, there are no more two bedroom cottages. People buy them and tear them down and build monstrosities. We rattle around in a four bedroom place simply because that is the smallest there is with a great location that accepts dogs. But four bedrooms is fine, because that is what most people need. Location is, to us, the most important thing. And privacy. The house we've been renting was perfect for both location and privacy.

Until this year. The photo is of a house under construction next to where we stay. It will have 8 master suites and 10 bathrooms (all on septic I might add) and sleep 16-20 people (also a bunk room for the children). The little building next to it is an auxillary cooking and eating area. That's right. A separate kitchen and eating BUILDING!

This isn't an anomaly though. There are several under construction up and down the Buxton area. And this is just the next step in what has been going on for the last several years. The constant construction of these giant vacation homes. Realty ads down there now picture 4 or 5 bedroom homes for sale and mention that you could buy it and tear down cause the lot is permitted for up to 9 bedrooms.

So we won't rent the house we love anymore because I really don't want to be next door to this. I just imagine a lot of noise, and lights, and cars and not a very relaxing vacation. And I am confused. Maybe it is just me, but I really don't consider going on vacation with up to 19 other people relaxing. I just don't understand these huge homes. And then I pick up a little informational package for homeowners that rent their homes, prepared by out realty agency. It provided a list of what today's vacation home renter wants and needs. It mentioned a pool (almost every oceanfront and soundfront home now has a pool), foosball table or pool table, Xbox or Wii system, flatscreen and DVD IN EVERY ROOM, wireless internet and some kind of computer, multiple kitchen appliances (like two refrigerators, two dishwashers, etc.), a hot tub, DVD library, etc. There are even multiple beachfront homes with private, stadium style movie theaters in the house. Am I alone in thinking this is crazy?

The house we stayed in was situated at the end of a dead end road with two other rentals. One of these rentals is an outrageously equipped home like I just described. It is on the sound and comes with canoes and kayaks and has a great dock. We rarely saw the people staying there the first week of out vacation. They simply never came outside. On the day they left, there were children getting into cars that I had never seen before. Because they had never come outside. What the hell has happened in the last 10 or 15 years? I feel like an 80 year-old railing against push-button phones. I seriously don't get it.

I'm back!

2007-09-12T12:45:00.000-04:00

Well, bless your hearts. I am so sorry to have worried anyone. You are all such dears for worrying about me. I am fine and all is well. I was vacationing on Hatteras for two weeks and before that, a fellow coworker was leaving after 15 years and bestowing me with mucho work and instruction, and then I just got back from a few days in Connecticut for work. So, whew! Two thirds of the east coast in a short amount of time.

But I am back and fully recharged and ready to accept that it is pretty nearly fall and summer is over and I'm okay with that, honest I am. Okay, not really. When I saw what appeared to be trees with leaves that WERE CHANGING!!!!.........along I-95 in Connecticut, I really wanted to believe that they were diseased or something instead, because, heh, it is entirely too early for that stuff yet. I'm still getting used to the absence of haze and the odd crystal clear quality of the light and the fact that I can no longer pull weeds at 9 p.m., or 8p.m., or really even 7p.m. anymore for that matter. And people, it is so NOT TIME FOR PUMPKINS YET!!!!!!

So now I have to go back and read several weeks of y'alls blogs (see, two weeks down south does that to a person) and catch up. And I do have much to say and lots of pictures to share and I swear I will be better about posting.

One Local Summer: Week 7

2007-08-10T10:52:00.001-04:00

We had thunderstorms all day yesterday and most of the evening, dropping the temperature roughly 20 degrees, making this meal possible. No way I'm boiling pasta when it's so hot I'm sweating in the house.

So I only make this a few times a year, because it isn't exactly healthy. But oh my is it good. My sheepnose pimientoes (those little red pepper looking things) are coming in pretty fast now, along with another kind of pimiento (the short, oblong to the left), and I think some Relleno chiles which are very sweet and mild. I combine these with a Pennsylvania Simply Sweet Onion (grown in PA but I don't know where), my garlic, my basil, and cook down until soft. Then it gets pureed and added to......cream (from Shady Acres in Etown). Served over pasta (not local ingred., but made and distributed by New World Pasta in Harrisburg, PA). And the freshly grated, aged Parmesan wasn't local either, but there just isn't a decent source. The Naughty Marietta red wine was local though, with the vineyard less than 5 miles from me.

Very, very, very good.

Special thanks to a former co-worker of mine whose wife is Italian and supplied me with some splendid recipes for ripe, red peppers several years ago. This is easily one of my favorite summer meals, and it just doesn't taste right the rest of the year.

Killer tomato

2007-08-08T14:41:00.000-04:00

Dudes, check this out! Monster tomato, with a quarter for scale. And it was a suprise. I hadn't seen it growing. It was way, way inside a Constoluto Genovese plant. And I was reaching around in there and grabbing ahold of whatever looked ripe and pulled this thing out! Ha. It will be dinner tonight. I am picking serious tomatoes. In the last three days, 34 quarts and 4 pints. I have some serious canning to do with my deluge of San Marzanos. And I am making nice money with the tomato stand.

In other news, our Silver Maple was finally cut down on Monday. They didn't even give us any notice. So when I pulled out of the driveway Monday morning I had no idea it would be the last time I would see it. Our yard looks like it was bombed where that tree stood. And I feel very exposed. The sun really beats down in the morning and it just feels very open to the street. Husband is also freaked out about it and agreed to spend a good bit of money towards fall to have a substantial tree installed. It was for the best as almost all of the large limbs were hollow inside, but I seriously miss its leafy treeness.

Kitt tagged me for the seven random garden things meme and I am slowly compiling some items. Key word is slowly. It is 96 degrees here....feeling like 104. I break out in perspiration 5 minutes out of the shower. I don't like being sweaty. Still won't break down and get a.c. though husband is seriously tempted. It will be fall soon enough I'm afraid. I saw a garden center advertise mums on the way home. Good lord.

I'm still here

2007-07-31T14:12:00.000-04:00

I haven't disappeared. I just have been very busy with work and garden stuff and when I stop for a minute to catch my breath, I find I don't really have much to say.

I put the tomato stand up over the weekend. This is a photo from last year, but same stand....just different tomatoes. I've almost made enough that the tomatoes have paid for themselves, so that is nice.

I'm embarassed that I missed OLS again, but I keep waiting to make these wonderful meals, and it just isn't happening. I'm pretty much existing on the following: either cantelope (from Nissley farms, 5 miles) or blackberries (my yard) for breakfast, my own cucumbers in that Basic Su dressing I blogged about a while back and tomatoes and a peach (Masonic Homes) for lunch, and tomatoes with basil and fresh mozzarella and olive oily croutons with balsamic for dinner. We're talking almost every day. It doesn't make for good reading.

I seriously could eat a bucket of those cukes in that Su dressing. Really refreshing in the heat and humidity if they are really chilled. But at the rate I'm going I won't have any pickles to put up. Not that I have the time right now to do any canning anyway.

I can't believe it is august already. Summer is rapidly winding down and I think I'm also getting a little sad about that. Maybe that is why I don't have that much to say right now. Anyway, I'm still here and will read and comment on your blogs as I find time.

Catching up

2007-07-23T11:17:00.000-04:00

Oh, I missed OLS 4. I ate mostly local last week, but I kept thinking that later in the week I would make this really great meal of roasted veggies (from the garden) and friend polenta (with corn meal from Manheim, PA) and some fabulous fruit dessert......and well, that never happened. And I should have taken some pictures of our more plebian fare earlier in the week . Oh well.

Back to the mushrooms..through a business relationship, a coworker came in on Monday afternoon with some fresh baby portabella mushrooms for me from Kennett Square. I had discussed the whole chinese mushroom thing with him and he happened that day to be around an owner of a mushroom house, so he asked him about it. Turns out most canned mushrooms come from China. And China is allowed to use formaldehyde in its mushroom growing process. We aren't allowed to use it in the United States. China also uses human waste in the compost that they grown their mushrooms on....another thing that is a no-no in the United States. So check those labels and use fresh when possible, most of which are grown in the United States. I didn't use those canned mushrooms in a local meal, but now I'm tempted to throw them out and not use them ever. Formaldehyde? Human Waste? ewwww.

Those fresh mushrooms were grilled that evening in an aluminum foil packet with local butter and I ate them on one of those grass-fed burgers from Masonic Homes with a side of sweet corn and the best white peaches I have ever had in my entire life. Plebian maybe, and the pretty much the same as I meal I already used in OLS, but darn good all the same.

And on Saturday I hit a milestone. I have never been a tomato person. I hated them for years, only tolerating them cooked, or really diced up small in a salsa. Then after college, I started to get the gardening bug a little and planted a cherry tomato or two every summer. I ate them on salads and enjoyed them. But I still could not tolerate a giant slice of tomato on a sandwhich. Yuck. Since we've moved to our house, I've planted a lot of tomatoes every year. Too many. And I gradually started to enjoy bigger tomatoes, especailly in a caprese salad. Of course anything with mozarella cheese and basil will taste good I suppose. I'd look at a big old heirloom tomato and really, really want to enjoy just biting into it. But I just wasn't there yet. I mostly sold them or gave them away.

But Saturday I decided to make a BLT. I had goregeous garlic clove studded bread from Central Market and pepper bacon and lettuce left over from Masonic Homes the week before and my Brandywines had ripened (pictured unripe here cause I am lazy and didn't take a picture before I sliced into them). So I whipped up some homemade mayo, toasted that bread and stared into that sandwich with those big huge slices of tomato. And I took a bite. And I loved it. And all my tomatoes issues just disappeared.