Signs of spring...

Here's how you know when the temps are rising and spring is in the air...

Veggie seedlings start moving from the basement out to the deck, but for their first trip they're only out for a couple hours and they're seriously sheltered. Left to right are various lettuces, leeks and bunching onions. The lettuce look really wilty here. Their tray wasn't TOTALLY dry so I figured they could go another day without water - THEN I took them outside. The fresh air instantly wilted them. A quick watering and they perked up in no time!


I've decided to try growing Imperial Star artichokes this year..growing artichokes is a first for me, and I might've reconsidered if I realized how much of a pain they can be to start. These guys want 80-85F for 8 hrs a day, and then something like 62-75F for the remaining 16 hrs. THAT'S what it's going to take to convince them to bud this year (and if you don't know, the artichokes we eat are the very thistle-like flower buds). We'll see how this goes...no promises.


Another "high risk" plant I'm trying is this 2-N-1 plum tree I got from Stark Bros last fall. The risk is that they're Japanese plums, like what you'd buy in the grocery store for snacking. Japanese plums aren't as winter hardy as the European plums (think prunes). So we'll see how this goes....it COULD be in a few years I'll be loaded with Shiro and Redheart plums, ooooor it could be a big flop, with the flowers always being killed off with a late frost.


The raspberries I planted last year are starting off great. I thought it'd be a few years before they really started to spread.


Wow, I couldn't have been more wrong! Of the sprouts you see in the picture below, I don't think any of them are coming up from the base of one of the canes I planted last year. Instead they're coming up from the runners underground - yay!


Another risky item was this 5-N-1 apple tree I got off eBay last spring. Yes, I bought a tree off eBay... I wanted a multi-variety grafted apple that included Gala, and that's SERIOUSLY hard to find. Now this picture's not the greatest, but what happened is one of the grafts died off last year. Nuts. It'll be years before I know if that was the Gala that died off... As you can see, the other varieties (only some of which are visible here) are doing just fine.


The daffodils are blooming - definitely a sign of spring! I have to wonder if there wouldn't be more this spring if this bed wasn't riddled with vole-holes. I'm going to have to start being a tough guy about this...


One thing I'm really looking forward to this year is the dappled willow...it's just starting to leaf out now:


Hm....anyone got willow allergies? This'll certainly set 'em off!


Before too much longer, all the new leaf growth will be pink, and then will turn to off-white and light-green. I can't wait!


Yay - spring is here!

Dear Martha...

Why yes, I'd LOVE to find some vintage wooden cupboard that someone's just thrown out so I that I could repurpose it into the coolest ever mini-potting shed on the back deck. Now, um, where on earth do you think I'll find one of these?

I don't want to have to PAY for it...or if I do, it needs to be super cheap - otherwise I might as well be out there buying some over-priced, built-for-this-purpose potting table/storage area, right?

Unfortunately, I can pretty much guarantee you that I've never ever seen anything like this anywhere near where I've lived. Hell, they even have the annual "dump anything you possibly want to get rid of out on your curb" day, and trust me, it's junk. Sure, the scavangers probably get out there before the crack of dawn, whereas I'm just passing through on the way to work or whatever, but again, I doubt anything close to this is put out on the lawns in the Portage/Summit counties area!

Thanks Martha - once again you have me wanting something I can never possibly have. I love ya, but you suck.

It's war!

Many of you got to hear me griping awhile back about finding a mouse had been snacking on my spinach and parsley seedlings in the basement. Brett, wanting me to take a gentler approach, had me use a humane trap - one that doesn't kill.

Funny, that didn't work. I never caught a mouse. But at the same time, I stopped finding signs that anyone was snacking on my seedlings - so maybe the mouse moved on, or maybe one of the cats found it. H'yeah, right.

Yesterday I noticed many of my eggplant, tomato and pepper seedlings have now had their tops nibbled off. They hadn't even started forming their "true leaves" yet - so I doubt they'll recover. More than likely I'm going to be doing some reseeding real soon.

Anyhow, I got fed up, found our lethal mouse traps (which I like to tell myself are humane in that it should be an incredibly quick death), and set them up - one in the middle of the seed trays/salad bar, and the other on the floor underneath the table.

In less than two hours I thought I head noises in the basement, went down, and found Simon walking away from the growy area (licking his lips perhaps?). I found the trap on the floor had been tripped, but there was no mouse in it. I wonder if Simon went after the peanut butter and got lucky that it didn't snap him on the nose or paw?

The trap between the seed trays? Well, let's just say there's one less seedling-snacker!

I re-set the traps, making sure to stash them a little better in the hopes a cat won't set them off - and now we wait. Either there was one mouse and the seedlings are safe, OR there's more than one, and we'll have to see if they get any smarter...



I hope not!

Yesterday's Gardening Presentation

Mary and I had a blast with yesterday's gardening presentation that we were asked to host at work for staff development. I've posted a follow up with a link to the album of photos taken at the presentation, and here's a teaser pic...

Boy did we get a lot of snow last nite!

So it was about 6:20 and I had just checked weather.com and the forecast said we could be getting snow by 7:00pm. Riiiiight. It'd been raining (heavily!) all afternoon - what were the odds we were going to get snow.

I was emailing Sharon in response to something, mentioned the forecast, and quite confidently said "yeah, there's no way we'll be getting snow in the next 40 minutes" - it was still something like 43F outside!!

Within 20 minutes Brett and I saw the heavy rain switch over to heeeeavy clumps of snow falling from the sky! And it just kept going! By bedtime, there was a good dusting covering everything.

And this morning?






Ok, that might be a wee bit of a lie. Those pics were taken back in February after the big snow storm. But I would guess we got maybe a 1/2" of snow? Maybe a little more? And the streets out in our neighborhood were SLICK....all the rain and melting snow on the roads made for some slippery ice patches this morning.

Good thing I covered up the little sprouts growing out in the garden yesterday!

Market foods!

The weekend after my birthday, we got together with Brett's folks for quite a fun adventure at the West Side Market in Cleveland. I'll go ahead and intersperse some of the pics I took of food we got from the market with the rest of this entry....

Here's some andouille I got from one of the butchers. This was way cheaper than what we'd gotten in Akron, and tasted great! Along with chicken and frozen okra, I added it to a gumbo soup mix - yummo!

We hadn't been to the market in probably a couple years, then went sometime in February, and we had so much fun, and got such great foods, that I asked if we could go for my birthday, and to take Brett's folks along as part of the fun. They're a lot of fun to hang out with, and definitely appreciated seeing all the fun vendors and buying great food and ingredients. As part of my birthday gift, their bday card for me included cash to spend at the market - SWEEEEET!!! Less guilt with all the shopping I would do! ;-)

Mmmm - these blackberries and kiwis may not have been in season locally, but they sure tasted like summer!

Unfortunately I didn't take a camera to get pictures of our fun. Plus there are SO many people there that I'm sure someone would frown on being in the background of a picture, and it's so crowded that it'd probably be difficult to get a picture anyhow.

There's not much left of this chocolate cigar I got from one of the bakeries in the market. I'm guessing it's original length was about 6"? It's like a puff pastry rolled with a very tasty dark chocolate, and then after that's all rolled and baked, it's dusted with powdered sugar. I'd love to know what the chocolate is inside!

I'd guess we spent at least an hour in the market. Afterwards, the follow up event was a surprise. They knew I really wanted to try Melt quite awhile back, but when we went with the guys it was a 2hr wait and they don't take reservations. As we pulled up to Melt for lunch time I was all excited. This was it - we were going to get to try this place that was supposed to be so good. Only, when we got inside, we found there was a 2 1/4 hr wait. For LUNCH! WTH!?!?

I've never bought artichokes before, but since I'm thinking of growing them this year, I figured I'd give 'em a try. I hadn't had artichoke since I was a kid (other than canned/jarred ones incorporated into recipes). Yum - good stuff! Steamed, and then the leaves are torn off and dipped in a mix of mayo, lemon juice and garlic salt. Oh, and the heart of the artichoke? YUUUUM!

Nevermind - we drove around and found a pub that Marty and Linda had eaten at before - The Merry Arts - and found that their lunch food was VERY good. Sure, the place was dead at lunch time, but it was well worth the side trip - my panini and homemade chips were great. Sorry Melt - it looks like we'll have to try some other time!

These asparagus are a little early for what'd be grown locally, but they sure were good. I wonder how many I'll get from my garden this year...

Even with the disappointment with the Melt plans, we all had a great day - thanks Marty and Linda for a super fun birthday adventure!

I need to get more adventurous with fish. I know Brett won't touch it unless it comes in stick-shape, breaded and frozen. I was talking with another customer at the fish monger, and she recommended the red snapper, which she was buying herself. When I first met this fish, it was lying on a bed of ice, and still had the entire body, tail, head and eyes attached. I forget what it cost per pound - but these two fillets cost me $9.75 - ouchie! But it was really good and I got three meals out of it, so not too bad!

Oh, and it turns out the next weekend Linda called to say they're ready to go back again sometime! I'd LOVE to! Only, considering it's nearly an hour drive (meaning we always need to remember to pack a cooler with ice!), and I buy a lot of stuff when we go up there, I think we need to wait a little longer for a return trip... ;-)

The first meal with the fish - lightly breaded and fried, along with the asparagus and artichoke. Tasty!

For lunch the next day, I tore up cold, breaded fish, and made fish tacos...along with more artichoke. I have to say I really liked the fish tacos! I don't expect they were "authentic" by California standards, but they tasted really good to me!

Thanks to Peter and Conrad!

Still catching up with the thank-yous for birthday fun! This time, I'm spotlighting the kick-ass package I got from Peter & Conrad... Peter always sends exciting boxes! (Not to mention uses me to clear out his stash of recycled bags apparently! LOL)


Check out all that loot. He knew I'd been having a hard time tracking down dried currants so I could try them in a scone recipe he's always making, so those were included with some other dried fruits. There's also chocolates, crisps, a book that looks like it'll be a very interesting read, and....check out that tin in the upper right corner!


The tin is where it's at. When Peter sends a tin of home baked goods, it's like Christmas morning! Who knows what you'll find inside!?!? Whatever it is, it's gonna be good! This time the top layer consisted of some unusually-thin chocolate chocolate chip cookies that were so good and chewy-crisp, loaded which chunky chocolate chips. They didn't look like much at first, but boy oh boy did they taste good!!!


And on the bottom layer? Jackpot! Peter knows how much I love his (actually his mom's recipe) ginger cookies. These are my favorites!!! They've got a great chew to them, and a terrific ginger flavor.

I'm a little embarrassed to say that this entire tin of cookies was polished off in under three days. So, um, Peter? Thanks for the birthday pounds! ;-) AND for all the good stuff!!

Thanks Sharon and Andy!

Man, I seriously got behind on blog postings here. I've got pics from about a month ago that were supposed to get posted, but never did. Here's where I start trying to make up for that!

So I turned 41 this year. Blah.

But boy oh boy did it feel like there was a lot of celebrating! The weekend before my birthday we got together with Sharon and Andy for some fun. We started off by meeting Sharon at a restaurant supply store in Akron - this is something we'd talked about doing for over a year, and finally decided it was time to make it happen. Andy was still at work, so Sharon met us at the store, where we had fun perusing the shelves and buying things we probably didn't need, including a deep dish pizza pan, replacement serving spoons since the old dishwasher stripped the finish off our old spoons (so, yeah, we needed these), a 3/4 sheet pan, and more.

After that we went back to Sharon and Andy's house, met up with Andy, I got to open presents (which I already posted about awhile back), and then we went out to lunch. After lunch we drove to Menards to check out the amazing home improvement store we always hear about. I know I would've spent way more money if we'd gone a month or two later - it was still early in the season, and most of the yard/garden stuff wasn't out. (In fact, I think I'll be heading back out there with one of our neighbors in the next few weeks...)

More driving - back to Sharon and Andy's, where we had birthday ice cream cake that Sharon made - YUM!


And we got to play Five Crowns, which Sharon and Andy have me hooked on! Here you'll see I have a winning hand very early in the game...


Brett's distracting himself with beer and ice cream cake....what a winning combination.


I believe this was the first time Sharon beat me at Five Crowns. I chalk all my other wins up to beginners luck (only because I'm being polite).


Now things are getting more complicated. As the game progresses, you add one more card to your hand each round. If I remember right, you start with three cards, and by the time the game is over you have something like 13 cards in your hand? Definitely makes for a fun challenge! In the round you see below, 9s were the wild card (plus Jokers, which are always wild).


Thanks for a great birthday celebration Sharon and Andy!

What's making life so rough lately?

Many of us have been complaining about really bad allergies lately, and yet we're not seeing much more than crocuses blooming so far. So do you want to know what's making your life hell right now?



A friend suggested to me a number of years back that maybe it was stuff like maple trees I was having allergic reactions to this early in the spring. I'm thinking they were on to something. There's other trees in bloom right now, so we can't blame JUST the maples. I know both the red maple AND the pussy willows in my back yard are in bloom, even though there isn't a leaf to be seen on them yet!

Happy spring!

Sleepy time!

You know yawns are contagious, right?


Ok, sorry, couldn't resist including that picture. Brett was taking pics of me and the dog, and I could tell he was about to yawn... ;-)

Kitties are better known for their power naps than dogs are I think...


Um, Doogie, I think it's best to let sleeping cats lie... Just resist the temptation. (You KNOW he's thinking of messing with Tucker's sleepy time, right?)


Sometimes I think Tucker dreams he's Super Cat, flying through the air after birds.

Doogie loves getting mail!

Doogie's torn through a number of his West Paw Design Zogoflex toys since my parents got him hooked on them last year. I don't blame the toys - they're SERIOUSLY tough. It's just that Doogie really gets a kick out of chewing on them, or for the frisbee-shaped ones, wrapping them around OTHER toys like a pita bread.

Unfortunately, some of the toys didn't survive.

The good news? West Paw Design backs up their toys with a one-time replacement - reminding you that many of the toys are meant to be enjoyed with supervision so, um, your dog doesn't demolish them.

So a week or so ago I returned Doogie's first Hurley and his Zisc, and look what showed up in the mail today!


Seriously, is there ANYTHING cuter than a dog walking around with his own mail in his mouth!?!?


He was SO happy to get mail with his name on it - he didn't even know what was inside!!!


And, of course, when something's THIS cute you have to post all sorts of pics (apologies!).

Anyhow, my folks have gotten him a number of the NEARLY indestructible toys, and we've gotten him some. He definitely preferred the damaged Hurley over the non-damaged one. He LOVES the Zisc - it's a great frisbee that flies a lot better than some of the other tough, rubbery frisbees you can buy. We probably wouldn't even get to settle down to dinner if it weren't for the Tux. When we have dinner, he gets a Tux with a small smear of peanut butter and some treats pressed down inside - that keeps him busy for awhile! He's not too fond of the Huck - unfortunately it just seems a bit too big and heavy for his smaller frame.


And what did I have them replace his original Hurley with (since we'd already bought a replacement)? A Bumi! This thing is a lot of fun - it's great for tug-o-war (and definitely tough enough), plus it's fun to throw across the yard. The nice thing about it is it's got enough bend and give to it - if your dog is one of those that sometimes intercepts an airborne toy but isn't quite ready to catch it, it's soft and bendy enough that you're not actually going to knock the dog unconscious. It just flops to the ground, the dog grabs it, and then they come running right back for either another toss, or some more "if you chase me I MIGHT drop it for you. Maybe."

Seriously, if your dog loves to trash their softer, gentler toys, check out West Paw Design's line of products (no, I'm not getting anything out of this). The toys are super tough, and even if your dog manages to destroy one, West Paw clearly honors their one time replacement policy! And as you can see from these photos, that makes dogs happy!

RIP Ming : 1989 - 2010

Mom emailed to say Ming passed away this afternoon at 1:45pm. Here's a picture of Ming in dad's arm at Christmas time back in 2008.

Would you believe this cat was over 20 yrs old? We got her mom, Murphy, when we were moving back to the Mainland from Hawaii. We'd landed in California, and then were driving cross-country to Ohio, where the military had stationed my dad. We stopped in Kansas for a visit for awhile, since that's where all our family is.

Uncle Dennis had a litter of kittens on the farm - someone had dropped a pregnant cat (I forget if she was Siamese?) on the farm, and there was at least one Siamese in the litter. Murphy, or "Frown Face" as Uncle Dennis called her, came to Ohio with us, where she had three litters of kittens. There were six kittens in the first litter, which if I remember right were born in my closet? (One of her litters was birthed in a suitcase in my brother's closet) We kept Ming.

It wasn't too many years later before she got bit on the head by something - perhaps a spider? She swelled up, had an infection, and had a large leathery scab formed. It took a looong time for that scab to come off, and she was pretty bald there for the rest of her life.

Some years ago she had a seizure, but survived. She's been having kidney failure for the last few years, so every two days dad give her an injection of fluid, which sits under her skin around her shoulders at first, and then slowly works its way down and sags under her chest a little bit as her body absorbs it. Seems gross to me, but mom and dad were plenty used to it, and they had the neighbors trained in giving Ming her "juice" for when mom and dad were out of town.

Ming's been a seriously tough cat. She would have been 20 yrs and 6 months old come April 10th...but she didn't quite make it. They think she might've had a stroke yesterday - her eyes were really dilated, and she was walking around the house aimlessly, sometimes walking in circles, sometimes walking into a corner and just standing there. She got herself trapped behind the dryer at one point and mom had to rescue her. I guess Andy and Kelli were there some of yesterday and saw what she was going through as well.

Mom says she held Ming in front of the fireplace (one of her favorite spots) for a long while this morning. And then this afternoon Ming's been sleeping on dad... There were a number of times they thought Ming had passed away, but then she'd gasp and keep going. I guess she finally just drifted off to a more permanent nap...

You lived a long life Ming...Rest In Peace.

Flash Mob!

Loved this scene from Season 5 of Weeds. Sure, it really didn't have anything to do with the story, other than to lighten up an otherwise really dark and intense season of the show, but I liked it! It felt more like it was included as filler, and to say "hey, look what's really popular right now, even though it has nothing to do with the plot", but that was ok! When oh when are we gonna get to witness one of these in person!?



And for the Facebookers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fm0LhJVPNI

Just so we're all clear...

There's quite a bit of enthusiasm about the warmer, sunnier weather...

For example, the small critters are on the move - like this little one I found nesting in our grill. I chased him/her out, making sure there were no babies in the nest before I removed it. Then I let the grill run on extra high for about 15 min before I even THOUGHT about putting food on it - no sense in us getting the hantavirus or something like that!


The Canadian geese are moving through the area again... I think I've only ever seen them land in the pond once before!


In both the last picture and this next one you can see the fishing line I have surrounding the yard. Gee, I wonder what I could POSSIBLY be hoping to keep out of the yard with that?!?! (The fishing line is on this side of the pond, and the two critters below are on the far side of the pond)


These were the first crocuses to start blooming - yay!!! Spring IS here! There's a whole bunch in the front yard, with a variety of colors, that opened up after I took this picture - I need to go take their picture as well.


I was a bit surprised to see this sprout... The asparagus bed still looks dead - I'm guessing the ground's too cold for the asparagus to start sprouting yet. However, right next door is the raspberry bed, put in fresh last summer. And there are little green sprouts popping up all over - and they're not all at the base of the canes that I cut last fall, so that means the raspberries have been spreading underground - yay!


And now we return to the true signs of spring happiness:





Since yesterday's picture was so popular, I could resist posting more. And here you can see Tucker taking in a deeeeeeep inhale of fresh, spring air. What a goofy face!