Well, it finally happened — the layoff genie landed on my shoulder last Thursday. It wasn’t entirely unexpected, however, it was quite a shock to log in for that meeting and see an unfamiliar name on the call — an HR person. Nine years I’ve been at that job, and frankly, the past several have been pretty unpleasant. But it was a good job in a bad economy, and so I stuck it out until they decided that they don’t need editors any more, or they don’t like remote workers, or whatever corporate algebra goes into deciding who to vote…
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Last night after putting up these 12 pints of rhubarb-ginger-orange preserves (9 pounds rhubarb, 6 pounds sugar, zest and juice of 4 oranges, one thumb of ginger chopped very fine) I settled in on the couch and flipped open my laptop and found this slightly annoying article over on Salon: Can It. The tag line reads: “I leapt on the new pickling and preserving. Is it a money saver in a busted economy, or a luxury craft?” I was annoyed because the author makes the somewhat specious argument that because she made very expensive jam with fruit from the greenmarket,…
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Looks like another hen managed to escape via the compost heap this morning, because when I went out to see if there were any new eggs, there were feathers in the yard. Raymond had gotten another one — and had her hidden between the tall iris and the rhubarb. It’s my fault really, I didn’t insist on building an enclosed chicken run like I thought we probably should because a) Chuck was being nice enough to build it for me in the first place and b) we had the recycled chain link, and I hoped it would work. But it…
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The two surviving hens are laying eggs. On Saturday, Chuck put in the fence for the chicken yard (which is great — photos to come) and he was rewarded by finding the very first egg. Since then, they’ve each been laying one a day — little eggs, about half the size of a commercial egg, but then again, they’re still sort of little hens. Here’s a photo of an egg in the nesting box. It’s like a prize every time I find one — very cool. We also let them wander around the yard, which seemed to entertain them mightily.…
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So my beloved stepmother Susan had a patch of boulevard below her house in Seattle that she didn’t know what to do with — she hated mowing it and it was boring. She also wanted a veggie garden but didn’t have enough sunshine anywhere in her yard. La voila! She and her dad built these swanky raised beds in the boulevard, and her mother (gardener extraordinaire) helped with the planting . The cool part is that she’s met a lot of her neighbors. People stop by and comment. She discovered that the guy across the street hunts ducks, and traded…
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Well, it finally happened — the little red hen went over the fence this morning, and before I could get my robe on and get out there, Raymond (bad dog!) had done her in. I sort of figured I’d lose one to dogs before it was all over, but frankly, why couldn’t it have been the problematic rooster (who could also have given him a run for his money)? Ray’s in the doghouse — no breakfast, bark collar turned to high, not looking at him, locked in the front yard where he can’t even go look at the chickens or…
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Well, not a tub exactly, but the top half of a composter that didn’t work very well. Since I’m dating a man who doesn’t eat vegetables, except for, as he puts it “the noble root crop” I’m growing spuds this year. I tried them once before and they didn’t work particularly well — mostly because I don’t think I watered them enough. Also, they take up a lot of space — so this year I thought I’d try containment spuds — the bottom of this thing is open, so perhaps they’re rooting their way down into the stony ground (this…
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Thanks folks for all the camera advice both here and on Facebook. I wound up with a Canon Powershot SD890 for just under $200. It’s so tiny! I like it a lot, and you all saved me much angst. I hate choosing things like this. So back to life on the backyard farm. The chicken coop and enclosure wound up in the same corner of the yard as the compost heap, which is working out really well. They like taking dust baths in the more composted bin, and I’ve taken to throwing them buckets of weeds to let them pre-compost…
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My ancient Olympus digital point-and-shoot finally died. It was seven or eight years old, one of the things I wound up with after Patrick died, which is part of the issue. I hate hate hate shopping for things like digital cameras. There are so many, and the variations are so small, and I don’t really want to spend the money, and there are so many models and who can tell them apart? So here’s where I need you dear readers — do you have a digital camera that you like? I’m looking for a reasonably-inexpensive camera that takes decent photos…
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I’ve got a few new projects in the works, but this transitional period has gotten so busy that I have been neglecting not only the blog, but the garden, and my housecleaning. I’ll be back as soon as I can dig my way to freedom — keep your fingers crossed that it’s soon!