Tuesday, March 19, 2013

The Start of Garden 2013

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I do miss parts of Spring. I mostly miss baking with local seasonal fruit. I yearn to pick buckets of strawberries & bake crunch bars. Speaking with local farmers about their harvests. Cooking breakfast with eggs from my friend's hen house! All of it!

Thankfully I don't have to wait much longer. This weekend I was able to start the process of getting this year's garden ready! We now have a few seeds on our hands.

If you're wondering why it looks like the seeds are wrapped in newspaper is because they are. Once these little guys are ready, I should be able to plot them into the ground with their biodegradable newspaper pot! I found the idea from this website. The instructions are super easy to follow. I didn't even need to use masking tape. They held together well enough with water & weight. It's now sitting in a warm, sunny spot in our attic.

So what are we growing this year? Well, I started some spinach, bell peppers, echinacea, lavender, sunflowers, Japanese irises, baby blue eyes, and columbine. 

Aren't they cute?!
I was able to plant a few more seeds outside of these little guys. We also have some basil and calendula in a few pots. I also brought out the pots that still contain last year's mint, chamomile & oregano so here's hoping those grow back. I found out today (of course) that we are actually expecting some snow later this week. I'm hoping the seeds are young enough to be protected in the ground. If not, I'll get to try all over again. At least it's a good weekend therapy! Have you started your garden yet?

Sunday, March 10, 2013

First Free Weekend In A Long Time

So after more than a month of uncertainty, things are beginning to calm down. First off, my Father is on a quick road to recovery. He's still in the hospital, but we are now focuses on recovering versus surviving. So I'm now allowed to be home more. It is still difficult being six hours away from my Dad, but I must admit it's nice to get back into the swing of things.

Don't get me wrong, it's been a refreshing adventure. I can't begin to estimate how many miles I've traveled in the past six weeks. And I have enjoyed some of it. Especially while Dad has been in a Chicago hospital. But I've learn that I'm a not city person. To help illustrate, I've developed a quick pro & con list based on my time spend in the Windy City.
Main Problems: Lotsa' People & Spending Lotsa' Money
Since 80% of my time in Chicago was spent in a hospital room, I'll admit we didn't see the "best" Chicago has to offer. There's something to say though when it comes to temporary living in the city compared to a vacation. We mostly knew the few blocks around the hospital (to find food), the friends' apartment we stayed at, and the bus we used to travel back and forth. That cursed "route 66 to Austin," haunts me in my sleep.

On another note, you can see I'm back at using photoshop for graphics. Ever since we got our new Mac (like a year & a half ago) I've been without photoshop. But now it's back & my old drawing tablet still works! So you could be seeing more of my crude drawings like this:
It's a happy Utahraptor.
A few weeks ago, this article by The one & only Oatmeal about a future dino hotel inspired my childhood love of dinosaurs. Add that to Netflix's instant cue with multiple shows of prehistoric animals (dinosaur or not) and you get a (most likely short) obsession. But can you really say that giant lizards like Utahraptors or fierce mammals like Sabertooths aren't awesome? Didn't think so. Dinosaurs is just one topic I've recently become obsessed with. I'm sure over time I'll add more on here.  Spring is also in the air so I'll be sure to throw in some growing posts once we start the garden back up. Until then, live long and prosper. Like the happy Utahraptor. Until it died. 2.5 million years ago. Most likely cause of environmental changes. There weren't any hippies or Al Gore back then to fight against massive air pollution & global temperature change from volcanoes.