Garden is IN!

I am learning as I age that I cannot do it all. Well, at least not in 1 weekend like I used to. This year I made a conscious effort to limit the plant sales I went to and the new treasures I brought home to put in my yard / garden. I started a bunch of seeds inside and that was my main experiment this year. It took about 5 weeks to transition plants from their winter windows to outside for the summer, research, purchase and plant new friends, move old friends to new places in the yard, and change my mind about all of the above choices. But I think we are all set for 2019!

Keep it simple. Keep it fun. Now keep it watered.

garden stuff
End of planting carnage.
Trays and plastic pots that will be stored for next year’s experiments or regifting transplants, watering can that is everywhere during spring and summer, and of course, the seed cemetery.
By |2019-11-30T16:31:52-05:00June 13th, 2019|Environmental Surroundings|0 Comments
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More on Book Abandonment

Friends, you will remember that we have discussed the fact that I am a quitter. I have no shame in quitting a book that is not resonating with me. This is not to say that I want to ride unicorns and poop rainbows about all of the books I read. I may have a visceral reaction to a character or a theme or plot device – I am looking at you, We Need to Talk About Kevin. But sometimes that is the author’s purpose – to have that visceral response. To FEEL something. To REACT to something. Not to just passively read words and move onto the next.

I have recently starting reading a book by SARK, an author with the tag line: Creating a Beacon of Hope in a Chaotic World. And I believe books are that as well! They are our beacon of hope, but they do not all need to be finished. Some need to be beautiful and sit on our shelves and make us happy. Some may need to be finished, but not by us. Some need to be finished by us in another chapter of our lives – the book just got to us too soon.

I want to declare that books do not need to be finished to be of value. You can dip into this book, gobble it up, do all the things it suggests, explore every resource, game, and invention, or just lie quietly, smiling at the cover.

It will smile back.

S.A.R.K.
By |2019-12-12T19:06:02-05:00June 12th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Seed Cemetery

Plant some seeds, they said. It is EASY, they said. Pa made it seem so easy on Little House on the Prairie (well, once they found the professor who bought corn in Mankato in the ditch where he crashed, the planting part was easy)! Friends, it is not. Well, not for me it wasn’t.

I took a seed starting class at Guilford Garden Center in February. I am almost hesitant to put a link to their site in this post because my results are so terrible. But alas, I have some things I will try next year, and Christina at the Garden Center talks a lot about gardening being about learning. Boy did I learn!

In the class, we were given the trays, sterile soil, a few seed packets, and plant markers. We watered the soil and between the 10 of us in the class, we took turns introducing our seeds and teaching our classmates about the seeds. What this means in reality is we poured seeds from the packets Christina gave us onto paper plates for our classmates to share, then read seed packet information out loud for everyone. It was a great way to learn how to read said seed packet and understand how to translate the information into practice. Plus we were able to leave with 17 different kinds of vegetables and flowers planted in rows of our 2 trays! All for only $25.

We watered, covered with the plastic lids and watched. And watered and watched. I got heat mats, watered, and watched. And watered and watched. I added lamps, then watered and watched. And watered and watched.

It was really neat to see the progress, and I started making lists and diagrams about where in the yard I was going to put all the new plants I was growing. Then there was some sort of mass suicide in my trays and everyone shriveled up and died.

seed cemetery
Where my seeds go to die. At least until Lucille thinks she sees her ball under one of the trays.

From what I understand, there is a chance a seed or two is still viable. Joe Lamp’l (aka Joe Gardener) recommends just set the trays out and let Nature take her course. So that is what I have done. Part shade because I don’t know what is where – note the plant tags that have all slid around.

Key learnings for next year:

1 – Take the lid off as soon as first shoots come through. I think the death was more related to dampening off than purple capes and Koolaid.

2 – Get brighter bulbs for lamps. I used regular lamps, not grow lights so I will see what kind of stronger bulb I can find next year. Hanging grow lights are not an option for me at this point.

By |2019-11-30T16:32:53-05:00June 11th, 2019|Environmental Surroundings, Mental Well-being|1 Comment
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Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone – Brene Brown

Rating: 5 stars

Cliff Notes: A must read for everyone. THIS is a book that should be required reading in all schools (instead of The Hunger Games, perhaps?) and board rooms (I cannot believe we are not done with Who Moved My Cheese yet). This book outlines 4 lessons we all need in order to be gentler with each other and ourselves.

Full Summary: Everything Prophet Brene writes is golden and this book is no different. How do we disagree civilly? What does it mean when we are dehumanizing others in our arguments or requiring either / or thinking?

Brene Brown breaks down sociological constructs and concepts for easy understanding through her storytelling, examples from her research, and the writings of others. I highlighted and flagged so many pages in this book that I know I need to digest and write future blog posts about. I hope you will keep coming back to read those as well as going out to get all of her books.

By |2019-12-12T19:31:23-05:00June 9th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Salem Falls – Jodi Picoult

Rating: 5 stars

Cliff Notes: Besides Addy being a worthless ding dong, I loved this book.

Full Summary: I kept waiting for the twist (and brashly called it incorrectly about halfway through this book). When the twist I anticipated did not happen, I was satisfied with the twist we were given. And by “satisfied” I simply mean from an entertainment point of view. The new twist was disgusting from a human being point of view.

I am so angry at teenage girls who are manipulative and brutal to peers and “friends.” You know how mean girls are made – by watching women be mean to each other. And mean girls grow up to be mean women. Ladies – WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS!

I am so angry at false reports of rape. It makes it so hard for the truly injured girls and women. It makes it so hard for truly caring adults to interact with youth because of suspicion founded on lies. One false report out of a hundred actual rapes turns the tide of public opinion that “most reports are false.”

Then to adults who actually ARE predators. Take them out back.

By |2019-12-12T19:31:53-05:00June 8th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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My Old True Love – Sheila Kay Adams

Rating: 4 stars

Cliff Notes: Some of the passages in this book just took my breath away. It was a short book, but I slowed down to not miss them so it took me a little longer to read it. I also loved the dialect and phrases and these cannot be read on Sue Speed.

“I went right back to bathing Sylvaney. Sometimes you have to set grief down and not carry it right then, but do not fret. It will squat right there and wait for you to pick it back up.”

Arty Norton

Full Summary: Like life, this book was a trudging of daily hardships at times. It would just outline this happened and that happened, then this happened so that happened. But then there was a flurry of joy or tragedy and the processing of it all. These parts of the story are what kept me engaged in the read. One of my favorite parts was around the deaths that occurred. Stay with me – it is not morbid.

At one point in the novel when Arty is grieving a death of a loved one, she refers to something she was taught. That you actually are born twice – once to the world and once to Heaven. I find this so comforting, like a way that death is a beginning, not an ending.

By |2019-12-12T19:32:25-05:00June 7th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Gone – James Patterson

Rating: 3 stars (3.5 in my head but Goodreads won’t let me do half stars).

Cliff Notes: Sometimes you just need a sure thing.

Full Summary: Sometimes you just need a sure thing. That is when I turn to authors like James Patterson. Some people complain it is cookie cutter and like junk food. BUT I LOVE JUNK FOOD. Junk food never lets me down – it takes me away from nonsense of daily life, keeps a fast pace through its unfolding drama in a setting that I am not very likely to encounter. I think it is always good to try to new authors and genres, but there is a reason that he has written and sold a gillion different books.

Anyway, I liked the story and the pacing. This book was well researched in a way that was interesting, but didn’t get bogged down in details about the weapons or planes and other stuff I didn’t care about. I want to go back to read some of the other books in this series to find out how they ended up with 10 kids.

By |2019-12-12T19:32:42-05:00June 6th, 2019|Mental Well-being|0 Comments
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Dangerous Wildlife

We live “out in the county” as is said (translation: outside of the city limits), and we do see some interesting wildlife. There is a weekly update on coyote sightings on our Nextdoor app, we already talked about the deer that eat all my flowers, plus snakes and birds, and of course, Lucille. What I did not realize is that the most dangerous wildlife I needed to be aware of was Bixby. Yes, my husband.

Bixby and Lucille looking harmless
Yeah, they look harmless, don’t they!?

There are certain tools around the house that I am not allowed to use. The chain saw, for example. I am not the swiftest of foot so to add heavy machinery to that is not always our best yes (translation: I don’t want to get hurt, and Bixby does not want to have to take me to the ER). He was suspiciously panicked when he came home while I was working on the irrigation project carrying around a drill whilst wearing safety glasses. The weed eater falls into the caution category – I am not totally grounded from it, but if it is all humanly possible, Bixby does it. The problem is that I am not quite as particular with how low I am taking down the edges, often leaving dirt. I am sorry to Dean, who ran the landscaping company I worked for during a short break from college. I am a terrible edger.

So I put in my work request to have Bixby take down the creeping phlox after it bloomed. It takes the dead flowers off and helps promote growth, plus it looks better. So the next time he mowed, he knocked it out. I verbalized my gratitude to provide positive reinforcement as all pet husband training manuals say to do. Then when I went to get the mail one day I saw this carnage:

mowed down gladiolas
The photo is about the missing half of the gladiola, not about the crappy grass / dirt patch and exposed drainage pipe. Don’t judge.

Apparently he got carried away with the phlox – note THERE IS NO PHLOX IN THIS WHOLE PHOTO – and took out half the glad before he realized what was happening. Then to top it off – he did not tell me AND left the leaf carcasses to rot. For better or worse, friends. Better or worse.

By |2019-11-30T16:33:52-05:00June 5th, 2019|Mental Well-being|1 Comment
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