Around and About

Obviously I've been hanging around this blog a little bit recently...not that there is actually anyone still hanging out and reading this blog, since it has been almost 7 months since my last post. I have no idea what that means, if anything. I may actually get around to posting something once in a while over the winter. Of course, the issue usually is not that I lack for brilliant ideas of things to write about. The issue is that I either don't have the time to write when I think of a brilliant post or that by the time I do have time, the inclination has passed. Anyway, enough excuses!

Weed or Not a Weed, that is the Question

The craziness of spring classes is almost done, but the number of questions we get during the day will increase drastically. The questions that are the most frustrating are the weed id/random plant id ones. Now, common weeds and plants - not a problem. What is a challenge is when someone brings in a few leaves, usually mostly wilted, and wants to know what it is and what to do with it.

These occurrences can usually be categorized in two ways: Unknown Plants in the Lawn and Unknown Plants in the Flower Bed. Each has its own problems, pitfalls, and headaches. To be fair, 7 or 8 out of 10 samples are easy and straightforward to identify and deal with. I have a whole novel in my head about this. However, I don't feel that it is really a good idea to spew that all out onto the Internet, at least while I am still gainfully employed at my current job. Sometime in the future, do ask me about it, and I'd be happy to spew.

Adventures in Shade Gardening, Part 1

I toyed with titling this post, and potential series of posts, Adventures in Shade Vegetable Gardening. However, that is much too clunky and not nearly as romantic or exciting. In fact, it sounds downright pitiful, hopeless, and semi-delusional. The reason for that is that anyone who knows vegetable gardening knows that shade and vegetables don't mix.

The view from the sliding glass door in our apartment, over the patio. Living on a lake might seem romantic, but in this case it really isn't very much so.

Our apartment faces north, and is angled slightly toward the east. Right now our patio gets about 3 hours of afternoon sun. Here's our sad little container "garden" as it is right now.

Most of the containers are herbs, which will do okay, even in shade. The strawberry pot has thyme, one pot has basil, others have chives, parsley, cutting celery, oregano, etc. The two long tan pots are planted to lettuce mix and mesclun mix. The greens should also do fine in the shade, especially as the weather gets hot this summer. Steven's two sad spider plants have also been relegated to the patio, on the theory that they will get more sun and more water out there than in here. Maybe they will even look healthy by the time fall comes and they need to come in!

At this point you would be justified in wondering why I consider our attempt at shade vegetable gardening semi-delusional. That would be because of this:
Yes, those are tomato plants. The tall one is 'Chocolate Cherry,' and the short one is 'First Light.' Chocolate cherry is a brown/purple indeterminate vine cherry tomato. 'First Light' is a very new variety of red slicing tomato (also indeterminate) that is supposed to have excellent flavor. The recommendation is to harvest it when the bottom half of the fruit is red and the shoulders are still green. The two plants are in a 13 gallon pot, which is technically large enough to hold both of them. I'll probably prune them to keep them under control, but we'll see. The real challenge is the sunlight issue. Tomatoes need 6-8 hours of full sun. Presently we get maybe 3. I'm hopeful that by mid-June the sun will be far enough north in the sky that our poor patio will perhaps get 5-6 hours of sun. If not...well....we'll have really beautiful plants with no tomatoes!

The Easter Coconut Cake

This is the Coconut Cake I made for Easter. Pretty, isn't it? However, when I filed the recipe, I dubbed it the "Not Coconut Cake" because the only reason it is really coconut cake is because there is a handful of coconut in the batter and the frosting is covered with coconut. The cake and frosting are really more almond flavored. Tasty, just not coconut.

The Leaning Tower of Pita

Hi again. Long time, no post. Did you really expect anything different? No, I didn't think so. It's been pretty busy and work and so on, but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel...sort of. At any rate, things should be slowing down somewhat for the summer.

I took Friday off, because 1) I have the time available, and 2) because I needed a nice long weekend. (Yes, I know Memorial Day is coming up, but that isn't a "lazy" weekend, what with family things.) So we got the apartment somewhat cleaned up, restacked everything in the second bedroom, went shopping for a few things, had a meeting with our insurance agent, and generally got to where we feel somewhat in control of the apartment for the moment. (If we didn't need to eat, it would be far easier to keep things clean!)

Saturday we ran around and went to the Farmers Market, grocery shopping, etc as is the norm for Saturday morning. I also checked on the "kids" in the Demo Garden. We planted tomatoes last week, and I was afraid that the ridiculous wind (80+ mph straight-line) from early Friday morning might have broken the stems or knocked the plants over.

Saturday night we didn't want a big dinner, but we'd been craving pita bread and hummus. So Steven went through The Bread Bible to find the pita bread recipe and looked through the Mediterranean cookbook to find an acceptable hummus recipe. (For the uninitiated, hummus is basically chickpea/garbanzo bean puree seasoned with other things.)

The pita bread was very simple. (We actually made the dough Friday night and refrigerated it. Not necessary, but handy.) Homemade pita bread is far tastier than what you can buy, and very cheap! The only moderately scary part of the process (other than the extremely sticky dough to start with) was slapping the discs of dough straight on the baking stone (you can use a cookie sheet if you lack a stone), closing the oven for 3 minutes, and opening it with the expectation that the bread is done! Surprise! It worked!Mmm...tasty looking pita bread in all shapes and sizes!

Steven did up the hummus, and then topped it off with paprika, pine nuts, and the Kangaroo Paw Lemon-Myrtle Infused Olive Oil. (Yes, it would have been cheaper to go to a local Mediterranean restaurant and get an order of hummus by the time it was all said and done. So?)We sliced up some tomatoes we got at the Farmers Market to finish off the meal. Yes, we got fresh, Kansas-grown tomatoes. We bought one from a grower who grows hydroponic tomatoes in a greenhouse, and the others from a grower that grows in a greenhouse, but uses bags of soil for growing the plants. We intended to do a taste test. The hydroponic tomatoes were larger, but the soil-grown tomatoes were much tastier. I wasn't extremely surprised by that outcome.

The leftover pita bread became the Leaning Tower of Pita.
Yes, this entire long post was written with the sole purpose of giving me a good reason to post the "Leaning Tower of Pita" picture, and thus to allow using the same as the title of this post.

WOOHOO!!!

The Thank You Notes are DONE!!!!

Well...they are all written. There are 5 for which I still need to find the appropriate addresses, and 1 which needs a couple other items to go with it. Otherwise, they are all written, addressed, stamped, and ready to go in the mailbox. FINALLY!

15 Questions for Heavy Readers

15 Questions For Heavy Readers

Go ahead, include up to 3 answers each if you like. If you’re religious, consider The Bible or other religious texts a gimme, particularly for question #15. I have to admit that I don't read near as much now as I did in pretty much any prior stage of my life, so this isn't quite as exciting as it might be. Someday soon I may need to write a post ranting about technology and its effect on modern society and specifically my life.

1. Most treasured childhood book(s)?
- Little House on the Prairie series
- Janette Oke animal books
- A Little Princess

2. Classic(s) you are embarrassed to admit you’ve never read?
- Classics? What are those? I have a modern public school education. We aren't supposed to read classics.
- Okay. Seriously? Anything by Tolstoy or Dostoevsky (except Crime & Punishment)
- Wuthering Heights

3. Classics you read, but hated?
- Out of Africa
- The Grapes of Wrath - oh wait...I didn't actually have to read it. We only watched the movie in 9th grade English.
- Of Mice and Men

4. Favorite genre(s)?
- Mystery
- Fantacy/sci fi
- Historical fiction

5. Favorite light reading?
- J.D. Robb
- Various mysteries - Perry Mason, Nero Wolfe, etc.
- Cookbooks

6. Favorite heavy reading?
- Anything on modern agriculture/food system, etc.
- Religion/theology
- Jane Austen? Does that count as heavy reading?

7. Last book(s) you finished?
- The Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara

8. Last book(s) you bailed on?
- Hmm...bailed on? Not sure...I've been working on The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila for over a year now...I'm not bailing though! I'm not!

9. Three (only three!) books on your nightstand?
- The End of Food by Paul Roberts (I really recommend it, even though it is slightly apocalyptic.)
- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Yeah...I'm probably not going to actually crack this one open before it's due back at the library...)

10. Book(s) you’ve read more than once?
- Little House on the Prairie
- Perry Mason, all of them
- David Eddings books

11. The book(s) that meant the most to you when you were younger (ie, college/young adult)?
- Umm....I think I still am young adult? Although the library defines that as teenagers...I'm confused.
- N.T. Wright books
- Lots of stuff John Woodward gave me to read.

12. Book(s) that changed the way you looked at life?
- N.T. Wright books
- The Catholic Passion by David Scott
- The Politics of the Cross by Craig A Carter

13. Favorite books
- The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
- Lots of others...

14. Favorite author(s)
- I think I've mentioned most of them already.

15. Desert Island Book
- I really have no clue how to answer this question.

BONUS!
Desert Island Book for Your Worst Enemy
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (I actually liked this book, but I know it drives most people crazy.)

Web Safari - The Short Version

I wasn't going to do a Web Safari this weekend, but these three links are good enough that I had to share them.

1. David Brooks shares his experiences and viewpoint on Afghanistan. It's one of the most hopeful editorials I've read in quite awhile.

2. A very...unique blog post about democracy.

3. The Barna Group releases a survey about differences in how liberals and conservatives view religion. What it doesn't delve into is the cause-effect relationship of the results, which I think would be the most interesting.

Web Safari

Some random, or not-so-random, links that you might enjoy.

Desmond Lachman has worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a number of years, and has seen numerous financial crises in "emerging markets." What is making him nervous, though, is how the U.S. is making the same mistakes they always counseled other countries to avoid.

The Anchoress points to a YouTube video from the U.K. Parliament. If only more people would say this and everyone would listen.

Here's an interesting editorial from the Wall Street Journal that starts out considering the sometimes fine line between witchcraft and religion in Africa, and ends up looking at the differences between a superstitious veiwpoint and a religious viewpoint.

Is it more important to eat "organic" foods or to eat "healthy" foods. I think this is something to consider, especially if you lean toward buying organic. As one line in this editorial states, "organic junk food is still junk food." One of my ag professors in college said that it is best to shop on the perimeters of the grocery store - both in terms of health and expense. I always try to buy the least amount of processed foods and ingredients possible. Everyone should eat more fruits and vegetables! Keep my job recession-proof!

An inspiring blog by a mother enjoying what short lifetime she knows her daughter will have.

If you like Mike Rowe and the show Dirty Jobs, you have to go watch this video of a talk he's giving to a group in the Silicon Valley. There's an awesome story about castrating sheep at the beginning, that turns into some good reflections on the value of work. (Okay. Get over the castrating sheep already and just go watch it!)

For some more of Mike Rowe, here's what he has to say about the AIG bonuses.

I've seen some people really up in arms about this bill (HR 1388) that has recently been passed. It is a bill largely requiring national service by anyone receiving educational grants from the federal government. No, I didn't read the entire text of the bill, and it does seem to be quite a jumble. However, I don't think it is going to be as big a deal as people make it out to be. The only thing that immediately pops to mind is that as someone who received a lot of federal grants to pay for college, I don't know when I would have found the time to fulfill the service requirements that are now going to be attached to those grants. I don't think the sentiment behind the bill is totally wrong-headed, but the execution may be.

Snapshots

~~~1~~~

So I have made it to my sole "free weekend" in the middle of the spring craziness. (To be fair, two weeks from now, Easter Weekend, I technically am free, but...it's Easter. Not quite the same as "totally free with nothing to do." Although, I guess using that definition this is not a "free weekend" because there's lots to do! Well - except that inactivity is being forced by the weather. But more on that later.) Anyway, next weekend is our Tree Festival/Vegetable Gardening Workshop/I'm speaking in the afternoon at the Harvey County Garden Show in Newon, KS. Then Easter, then April 18th I'm teaching a lawn care class for 3 hours in the morning. The next weekend I conned Steven into going to Topeka with me, since I'm speaking a vegetable workshop there. Then we have Herb Day, which is the day before my birthday. Then...I think...other than the Farmers' Market, my weekends may be gloriously free for...well...awhile anyway.

~~~2~~~

So speaking of the weather, we are currently in a Blizzard Warning. Sounds delightful, right? Well, this is the first "blizzard" I've been in that doesn't involve snow. Grr... Actually, it has been throwing freezing rain, or something like that I had to drive across town at noon for one of the local TV news shows, and after that I decided that I would rather take a half day of annual leave rather than drive back to the office and then back home in the evening. After I made that decision, the roads seem to improve a little bit. But I really need a break, so the 4 hours off is worth it! On the other hand, I'd really appreciate it if some of these other cities in Kansas would stop hogging all the snow. Some of them have 7, 10, or 15 inches of snow. We have none! Just nasty accumulating frozen pellets of gunk. The purple splotch on the radar just keeps staying on top of us.

~~~3~~~

During our trip to St. Louis a couple weeks ago, I read Rise to Rebellion, a novel by Jeff Shaara about the Revolutionary War. I have always loved reading about that period of history, both from a "daily life" standpoint and from the political/army standpoint. Now I'm working my way through The Glorious Cause, the sequel novel. So far, I think I like the first one better, just because it covers more of the politics and perspectives of events leading up to the war. What I think is the most amazing, that you often don't think about or realize, is how long the Revolutionary War was. We all know the dates from 1775, 1776....Lexington & Concord, the Declaration of Independence, etc... and Valley Forge (1777-8). Yorktown, 1781. The final treaty was signed in September 1783. 1776-1783. That's 7 years. 7 years of fighting back and forth, forming an army from whoever would volunteer, constantly retreating and reforming, trying merely to survive to fight another day toward independence.

~~~4~~~

Since I had some free time this afternoon, I took the opportunity to get the kitchen totally clean for the first time in...weeks, I think. And then I promptly turned around and started getting it dirty by starting some bread and then making dinner. But after dinner I mostly cleaned it up again. Hopefully we'll be able to keep it in better shape. Now for the rest of the apartment...

~~~5~~~

Other things on the to-do list for this weekend (just in case you actually care about all the tedious detials of my life): clean the apartment, grocery shopping, finish taxes (KS income, and Steven's), shopping at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and.....you know, I think there was more on this list, but I can't remember anything else. That doesn't actually seem like a terrible list. (At least it doesn't as long as you can't see the apartment!) Oh yeah. Buying and writing and mailing Thank You notes. We have a few left from the wedding, and then a whole bunch from last weekend in Wisconsin.

~~~6~~~

Maybe we will soak our shiitake mushroom block again this weekend to encourage it to put on its second flush of mushrooms! Did I ever post pictures of it the first time around? I don't think I did. Here's one from when the first mushrooms were just starting to develop.

~~~7~~~

And, if you're interested, here's a couple pictures from the display garden we did at the Wichita Garden Show.