A proud member of the reality-based community
This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. Monday, August 30, 2004 Surfacing for air What a couple of weeks this has been! I think I've been home three nights out of 14. In the previous post I mentioned taking Clarence to the doctor in Christiansburg. On the way back, the radiator blew out its top seal and we ended up in a rental car--for the third time this month. The load of stuff I was supposed to take to storage is still in the back of the Jeep, because as soon as I got the car back, I had to hit the road to finish up the work that was due by the end of this past week. Meanwhile, all the things I needed to do at home are still undone. Boxes everywhere, weeds everywhere, Nick's room still not completely finished, junk that needs to be taken to the dump but can't be moved until I manage to get the back of the Jeep cleaned out.Saturday night, on the way back from Richmond, I was pulled over and told I had no tail lights--this well after dark. The deputy gave me a ticket, which I didn't think was quite fair--he couldn't possibly have thought I was deliberately driving without tail lights--but on the whole, I suppose I'd rather have been stopped and ticketed than rear-ended by some 18-wheeler going 75 mph on that lonely stretch of four-lane highway. It turned out to be just a fuse, but I had taken my toolbox out of the Jeep to make room for the things I was moving, and had neither meter with which to check the fuses, nor spare fuses to put in. So I ended up in a motel room. That was a damned expensive fuse, and I'm reasonably sure the whole incident was avoidable. I had taken the car in to get the loose steering wheel tightened up, and got it back with no tail lights and no horn. But the mechanic insists that the tail light circuit doesn't go through the steering column and that it couldn't have been his fault that the fuse was blown. Maybe not. All I know is that lately it seems as though every time I take the Jeep in to have one thing fixed, I get it back with two things broken.At any rate, we are now waiting for the rain to stop so we can continue to work on the yard. Enormous quantities of wildflowers sprang up while I was doing other things, and it's hard for me to cut them down. Nick isn't happy about it either, I'm glad to say, but his mother insists on lawngrass and properly contained cultivated flowers, so I suppose that's what I've got to have. The meter reader will probably be happier with it too. Somewhere on this property I'm going to clear an area and mow it about four times a year, to encourage wildflowers, and perhaps make a path through it with flagstones and set out a couple of chairs for butterfly watching.We do have plenty of butterflies, though there will be fewer once I've finished wiping out their habitat, and for the first time, a quantity of hummingbirds. I had a hummingbird feeder several years ago, but it was frequented only by the mud daubers (paper wasps) that are such a nuisance here, and I eventually tossed it. Now we're seeing ruby-throated hummingbirds all over the potted annuals I bought.The beans I planted against the back porch grew to seven feet high in a matter of weeks, and have been amazingly productive. Kentucky Wonders typically bear in about sixty days. These took barely 45 from initial planting to full production, partly because of the warm late summer soil and partly because of the abundant rain, and partly, probably, because I just threw them at the soil and left them alone. They were years old, to begin with. I had no assurance that they would even germinate. All I did was to loosen the soil, drop them on top, and step on them to tamp them down into the dirt. I went out one early morning, intending to see if anything was big enough to pick yet, and found quantities of 7-inch long beans. In fact, they were approaching the point where the plant was going to shut down production if they didn't get picked. So we've had beans for breakfast, lunch and supper, mostly raw. Nick hadn't eaten raw beans before, straight off the vines, and wasn't sure at first whether they were edible, but now snacks happily on the ones I bring in each morning.As soon as I have time to do it, we'll plant turnip seed and broccoli seedlings in a four by ten foot planting bed, and then I'll get busy building cold frames for winter lettuce and greens. The ones that I'd been using got scooped up by the front-end loader when the driveway was being built, the driver thinking they were just junk. I have to admit that they looked pretty junky--old window frames that I swiped from the dump, and the tag ends of old lumber left over from when the porch was built. They still worked just fine.I've been reading Solar Gardening, by Leandre and Gretchen Poisson, the long-standing bible of sun-assisted gardening, and lamenting the cost of the special fiberglass panels they recommended. One of their "Solar Pods" would cost about $200 to construct, for example. But then I realized that the large cache of windows I stashed under the trailer about ten years ago is exactly what is needed for permanent solar beds. So that will be the next large project. They won't be as portable as the fiberglass covered pods, but they can be taken apart to be moved, if needed.Politics has not been far from my mind, but the critical needs of the moment have made it impossible to do the kind of research and thinking that would allow me to write about it. I will quote Garrison Keillor, however, whose thinking and writing skills far surpass mine anyway.Our beloved land has been fogged with fear—fear, the greatest political strategy ever. An ominous silence, distant sirens, a drumbeat of whispered warnings and alarms to keep the public uneasy and silence the opposition. And in a time of vague fear, you can appoint bullet-brained judges, strip the bark off the Constitution, eviscerate federal regulatory agencies, bring public education to a standstill, stupefy the press, lavish gorgeous tax breaks on the rich.Here is the link to the rest of the article. Go read it, and spread the word. posted by Liz @ 11:52 AM | The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email toliz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3 KNITTING BLOGS Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits FINISHED PROJECTS -------FINISHED IN 2006------- Peruvian Cap Tutti-Frutti Socks Shelley's Socks Carol's Socks -------FINISHED IN 2007------- Chain Link Socks Baby Surprise Jacket Valerie & Friend Baby Bonnet Rainbow Baby Socks Girls Pixie Hood Mitred Square Heart Red & White Socks Coffee Cup Pot Holder Nubbins Dishcloth Garterlac Dishcloth Suede Booties Kate's Socks Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap Half Thumbless Mittens Red Mittens for Akkol -------FINISHED IN 2008------- SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE -- Blogs and websites -- Causubon's Book Club Orlov Food Storage Made Easy From the Wilderness In the Wake Listening to Katrina Survival Topics The Modern Homestead The Oil Drum Notes from a Hillside Farm -- Mailing Lists -- 12vdc Power Living on the Land Rainwater Refrigeration Alternatives Old Ways of Living POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES The political sites have moved BOOKS I'M READING How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising ARCHIVES February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 Feedjit Live Blog Stats
What a couple of weeks this has been! I think I've been home three nights out of 14. In the previous post I mentioned taking Clarence to the doctor in Christiansburg. On the way back, the radiator blew out its top seal and we ended up in a rental car--for the third time this month. The load of stuff I was supposed to take to storage is still in the back of the Jeep, because as soon as I got the car back, I had to hit the road to finish up the work that was due by the end of this past week. Meanwhile, all the things I needed to do at home are still undone. Boxes everywhere, weeds everywhere, Nick's room still not completely finished, junk that needs to be taken to the dump but can't be moved until I manage to get the back of the Jeep cleaned out.Saturday night, on the way back from Richmond, I was pulled over and told I had no tail lights--this well after dark. The deputy gave me a ticket, which I didn't think was quite fair--he couldn't possibly have thought I was deliberately driving without tail lights--but on the whole, I suppose I'd rather have been stopped and ticketed than rear-ended by some 18-wheeler going 75 mph on that lonely stretch of four-lane highway. It turned out to be just a fuse, but I had taken my toolbox out of the Jeep to make room for the things I was moving, and had neither meter with which to check the fuses, nor spare fuses to put in. So I ended up in a motel room. That was a damned expensive fuse, and I'm reasonably sure the whole incident was avoidable. I had taken the car in to get the loose steering wheel tightened up, and got it back with no tail lights and no horn. But the mechanic insists that the tail light circuit doesn't go through the steering column and that it couldn't have been his fault that the fuse was blown. Maybe not. All I know is that lately it seems as though every time I take the Jeep in to have one thing fixed, I get it back with two things broken.At any rate, we are now waiting for the rain to stop so we can continue to work on the yard. Enormous quantities of wildflowers sprang up while I was doing other things, and it's hard for me to cut them down. Nick isn't happy about it either, I'm glad to say, but his mother insists on lawngrass and properly contained cultivated flowers, so I suppose that's what I've got to have. The meter reader will probably be happier with it too. Somewhere on this property I'm going to clear an area and mow it about four times a year, to encourage wildflowers, and perhaps make a path through it with flagstones and set out a couple of chairs for butterfly watching.We do have plenty of butterflies, though there will be fewer once I've finished wiping out their habitat, and for the first time, a quantity of hummingbirds. I had a hummingbird feeder several years ago, but it was frequented only by the mud daubers (paper wasps) that are such a nuisance here, and I eventually tossed it. Now we're seeing ruby-throated hummingbirds all over the potted annuals I bought.The beans I planted against the back porch grew to seven feet high in a matter of weeks, and have been amazingly productive. Kentucky Wonders typically bear in about sixty days. These took barely 45 from initial planting to full production, partly because of the warm late summer soil and partly because of the abundant rain, and partly, probably, because I just threw them at the soil and left them alone. They were years old, to begin with. I had no assurance that they would even germinate. All I did was to loosen the soil, drop them on top, and step on them to tamp them down into the dirt. I went out one early morning, intending to see if anything was big enough to pick yet, and found quantities of 7-inch long beans. In fact, they were approaching the point where the plant was going to shut down production if they didn't get picked. So we've had beans for breakfast, lunch and supper, mostly raw. Nick hadn't eaten raw beans before, straight off the vines, and wasn't sure at first whether they were edible, but now snacks happily on the ones I bring in each morning.As soon as I have time to do it, we'll plant turnip seed and broccoli seedlings in a four by ten foot planting bed, and then I'll get busy building cold frames for winter lettuce and greens. The ones that I'd been using got scooped up by the front-end loader when the driveway was being built, the driver thinking they were just junk. I have to admit that they looked pretty junky--old window frames that I swiped from the dump, and the tag ends of old lumber left over from when the porch was built. They still worked just fine.I've been reading Solar Gardening, by Leandre and Gretchen Poisson, the long-standing bible of sun-assisted gardening, and lamenting the cost of the special fiberglass panels they recommended. One of their "Solar Pods" would cost about $200 to construct, for example. But then I realized that the large cache of windows I stashed under the trailer about ten years ago is exactly what is needed for permanent solar beds. So that will be the next large project. They won't be as portable as the fiberglass covered pods, but they can be taken apart to be moved, if needed.Politics has not been far from my mind, but the critical needs of the moment have made it impossible to do the kind of research and thinking that would allow me to write about it. I will quote Garrison Keillor, however, whose thinking and writing skills far surpass mine anyway.Our beloved land has been fogged with fear—fear, the greatest political strategy ever. An ominous silence, distant sirens, a drumbeat of whispered warnings and alarms to keep the public uneasy and silence the opposition. And in a time of vague fear, you can appoint bullet-brained judges, strip the bark off the Constitution, eviscerate federal regulatory agencies, bring public education to a standstill, stupefy the press, lavish gorgeous tax breaks on the rich.Here is the link to the rest of the article. Go read it, and spread the word.
Our beloved land has been fogged with fear—fear, the greatest political strategy ever. An ominous silence, distant sirens, a drumbeat of whispered warnings and alarms to keep the public uneasy and silence the opposition. And in a time of vague fear, you can appoint bullet-brained judges, strip the bark off the Constitution, eviscerate federal regulatory agencies, bring public education to a standstill, stupefy the press, lavish gorgeous tax breaks on the rich.
The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section
RSS Feed
PERSONAL
WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'
"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.
THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME
Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3
KNITTING BLOGS
Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits
FINISHED PROJECTS
SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE
POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES
BOOKS I'M READING
How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising
ARCHIVES
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002
Powered by BLOGGER Template made possible by BLOGSKINS.
