Weed Be Gone

Nobody likes weeding. Right? Well I have to admit that even though I dread weeding I do find it incredibly satisfying. There's something about rescuing your pretty plants from your ugly ones that makes the dirt under your fingernails worth while.

This tool makes it even better and a lot easier.


My neighbor in Cleveland had one similar and I always coveted it. Then Joel got me one for Spring Gardening Day this year. It's so easy to use and so cheap that every gardener should have one.
All you have to is hold onto the weed and run the lip of the tool down the stalk of the weed along the root then lift up on the weed and they just pop right out. Even Dandelions that have evolved over millenia to drop their leaves at the slightest pressure leaving the root intact come gliding out from between your phlox with ease.
Happy gardening everyone!

A Different Kind of Work

We all know I work outside the home. I love my job. It's a very rewarding job but I also very much enjoy my weekends off.

This weekend was not really a weekend off. This was the Mulder "Spring Planting Weekend." Recently expanded from the "Spring Planting Day" due to the amount of planting to be done. It was a very successful weekend and I feel very accomplished.

I feel as if I provided for my family in a different way this weekend. I have provided food for my family. Well, in a few months it will be food.

Take for example the tomatoes. With about ten dollars (seeds, peet pots and a handful of compost for each plant) I planted 44 tomato plants. Those tomato plants, on average, should yield 10-15 pounds each, which we will make into tomato sauce by the gallon, salsa by the jug and still have plenty fresh to eat on our burgers and roast for freezing.

And that's just the tomatoes. It doesn't include the peas, carrots, spinach, lettuce, beans, squash, pumpkins, zucchini, peppers, potatoes, asparagus, and corn. Not to mention the "experimental" broccoli, celery, fennel, tomatillos and black Japanese watermelon. They're experimental because we've never grown them before and we don't really know how to.

Then there's the herbs. With one packet of basil seeds I have more than 30 plants just growing along happily until they get turned into sauce.


On a more long term note the fruit plants I put in (blueberries, grapes, raspberries and cranberries) probably won't produce until Adeline starts grade school...


My point is that working with the earth, really getting on my hands and knees to nurse these little plants into organic, natural food for my family is incredibly rewarding. So despite the sunburn, the sand in my mouth and the blisters on my hands I feel like I had my most productive week(end) at work in a long time...

Tic, Tic, Woosh

Or Major Cheese Failure

It started out as a failure. It really did. Doomed from the start. A simple cheese recipe I had used a dozen times. Probably the oldest cheese recipe known to man. (Boil milk, add lemon juice, drain) All I did was double it and use a different pot.

I could blame the failure on the pot or the nebulous law of doubling a recipe but I prefer to blame it on the stove. It's one of those flat top jiggers that is "easy to clean" and provides "even heat".

Whatever. They suck. Don't ever buy one. Oh how I miss the Tic-Tic-Woosh of a gas stove lighting. I miss not burning the bottoms of my pans and whatever settles to the bottom of my pots. Including my ill fated cheese.

The worst part is that getting a gas stove would involve not just pulling a gas line to the kitchen but also pulling one to the house. We have no gas. Don't get me wrong. I love that we don't have a gas bill, I just miss cooking with gas.

Maybe I'll start making cheese on the grill.

Something Had To Give

And this time it was my running.

About 5 months ago, in the dead of winter, when this spring was a distant dream, I signed up for a 10k on May 29th. At the time I was running 3-6 miles at a time, 3-4 times a week on the treadmill. I could have run the race then. But the race wasn't then. The race is 3 weeks from now. And I haven't run in a week and a half.

It's not that I've been lazy. Far from it. I've had a very productive spring. As has Joel. It's just that I've had to make a series of choices that seemed to leave running out of the picture. I can't say that I regret any of those choices. I just wish I didn't have to make them.

These choices have included:
1) Clearing out an area for and building a herb garden behind the house out of pavers and 4 square yards of dirt I hauled up the hill from the garden one wheelbarrow full at a time. I'll try to post some pics. It turned out very well. I can't wait to plant my herbs in it next week.

2) planting and caring for a garden's work of plants from seed.

3) planting, watering, mulching, training 6 seedless grape vines and 12 raspberry bushes. The blueberries, cranberries and fruit trees are yet to arrive. Thankfully.

4) doing all of the above for 100 asparagus plants not to mention the potatoes, garlic, onions, shallots and other tubers I haven't had a chance to get to yet. (Anyone want any asparagus?)

5) chickens. Nuf said

6) Hops yard. Joel admittedly did most of the work here but every hour he spent working, I spent watching Dela and not running. I've thought about a jogging stroller for us, but our area is way too hilly to both push it up the hills and control it on the way down.

7) Painting the living room, bathrooms and guest room.

8) just relaxing for a moment and enjoying my daughter and Joel when all of the above is done.


Now that I've listed all of that out, I do feel pretty accomplished. I just wish I would have saved myself the entry fee on that stupid race...