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What Now Brown Cow
May. 31st, 2010 11:41 amIt seems like my mind is aflutter with a million ideas and a million small projects these days, half of them academically-oriented, a quarter of them food-oriented, and a quarter of them bicycling-oriented.
Snippets:
We installed the ghost bike Saturday morning. It was emotionally difficult, but necessary. I ended up hauling the trailer with the ghost bike on it. I'm not sure how I feel about my role, although Jay's family was really grateful for the support, so I feel like I was able to do as much good as anyone under the circumstances. I just think to myself, how would I feel if that sort of thing happened in my family? I think back to Zach's disappearance on Mt. Rainier - though I didn't know any of the rescuers who helped out, I'm grateful they were there for support, and that sort of event definitely makes a person aware of the shortcomings of the media.
After that,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scrottie and I ventured over to Goodwill and the grocery store. We had a lot of fun there, because it's moving-out season and people have offloaded a lot of junk for us to scavenge through. I managed to score a second bike trailer (fate currently undecided), a pair of shorts, and a giant plastic bin that I plan to use for storing mesquite bean pods until we get to turn them into flour.
The rest of the day was fairly lazy because we spent too much time in the sun.
Sunday morning, I took a bunch of friends on a bike ride, and then we had a huge waffle-fest at my house. Delicious and incredibly fun. I was especially glad to bring along my friend DM, who had a delightful time going up and down the hills. I think her bicycling philosophy and style are similar to mine, at heart (aside from my ridiculous mileage habit) - she likes to ride her bike just to ride her bike, doesn't care about going fast, and loves some good scenery and fun hills. Plus, she also has a basket on the front of her bike, allowing me to refer to us as the Basket Brigade.
Sunday afternoon, S and I attempted to get some work done. I'm still trying to finish up drawings for the Phoenix Bike Guide. I got one done yesterday. I need a kick in the butt to get that project out the door. It's overdue.
There was also some maintenance gardening in the midst of things. The tomato plants in the planter box are beginning to look like they've seen better days, but the tomato plants that have sprung up in various shady sections of the yard are still looking pretty happy.
The rhubarb plant is a goner. So is one zucchini plant, and a melon plant looks like it's close behind. Friends tell me that squashes are just too hard to grow in the desert.
In better news, I harvested a bunch of basil and made a batch of pesto from it. Delicious. The eggplants growing in the second planter box both have modest-sized fruits. The Swiss Chard patch is leafy and colorful, the pepper plants have plenty of fruits, and the herb bed is also doing quite nicely. And the tepary beans, loofah plants, and wee tomatillo plants are growing all right so far.
It's finally going to get Hot this week (106 forecasted for next Saturday), so it's time to hunker down for the summer and mostly just wait for the fall gardening season. We're hoping to keep a few tomato plants alive through the summer so as to have a fall tomato crop, and I need to figure out a system for the worm bin as well. The worms don't do well above 90 degrees, so I'll probably transfer some to a smaller, indoor bin. Meanwhile, several crops will need to be processed soon, including figs, mesquite bean pods, and prickly pear fruits (August). We won't be short on summer projects.
Also, I forgot to mention that the sun-drying rack worked quite well for drying banana chips. Quite well indeed. Mmm yes. Home-dried bananas are DELICIOUS and completely different from those nasty coconut-oil-fried storebought things. Finally, I can buy cheap overripe bananas and stockpile banana chips! I must confess this is the main reason I've wanted a food dehydrator. I'm so glad I can use the cheapest dehydrator of all, the sun. Maybe if I make enough I can send some to you.
Snippets:
We installed the ghost bike Saturday morning. It was emotionally difficult, but necessary. I ended up hauling the trailer with the ghost bike on it. I'm not sure how I feel about my role, although Jay's family was really grateful for the support, so I feel like I was able to do as much good as anyone under the circumstances. I just think to myself, how would I feel if that sort of thing happened in my family? I think back to Zach's disappearance on Mt. Rainier - though I didn't know any of the rescuers who helped out, I'm grateful they were there for support, and that sort of event definitely makes a person aware of the shortcomings of the media.
After that,
scrottie and I ventured over to Goodwill and the grocery store. We had a lot of fun there, because it's moving-out season and people have offloaded a lot of junk for us to scavenge through. I managed to score a second bike trailer (fate currently undecided), a pair of shorts, and a giant plastic bin that I plan to use for storing mesquite bean pods until we get to turn them into flour.The rest of the day was fairly lazy because we spent too much time in the sun.
Sunday morning, I took a bunch of friends on a bike ride, and then we had a huge waffle-fest at my house. Delicious and incredibly fun. I was especially glad to bring along my friend DM, who had a delightful time going up and down the hills. I think her bicycling philosophy and style are similar to mine, at heart (aside from my ridiculous mileage habit) - she likes to ride her bike just to ride her bike, doesn't care about going fast, and loves some good scenery and fun hills. Plus, she also has a basket on the front of her bike, allowing me to refer to us as the Basket Brigade.
Sunday afternoon, S and I attempted to get some work done. I'm still trying to finish up drawings for the Phoenix Bike Guide. I got one done yesterday. I need a kick in the butt to get that project out the door. It's overdue.
There was also some maintenance gardening in the midst of things. The tomato plants in the planter box are beginning to look like they've seen better days, but the tomato plants that have sprung up in various shady sections of the yard are still looking pretty happy.
The rhubarb plant is a goner. So is one zucchini plant, and a melon plant looks like it's close behind. Friends tell me that squashes are just too hard to grow in the desert.
In better news, I harvested a bunch of basil and made a batch of pesto from it. Delicious. The eggplants growing in the second planter box both have modest-sized fruits. The Swiss Chard patch is leafy and colorful, the pepper plants have plenty of fruits, and the herb bed is also doing quite nicely. And the tepary beans, loofah plants, and wee tomatillo plants are growing all right so far.
It's finally going to get Hot this week (106 forecasted for next Saturday), so it's time to hunker down for the summer and mostly just wait for the fall gardening season. We're hoping to keep a few tomato plants alive through the summer so as to have a fall tomato crop, and I need to figure out a system for the worm bin as well. The worms don't do well above 90 degrees, so I'll probably transfer some to a smaller, indoor bin. Meanwhile, several crops will need to be processed soon, including figs, mesquite bean pods, and prickly pear fruits (August). We won't be short on summer projects.
Also, I forgot to mention that the sun-drying rack worked quite well for drying banana chips. Quite well indeed. Mmm yes. Home-dried bananas are DELICIOUS and completely different from those nasty coconut-oil-fried storebought things. Finally, I can buy cheap overripe bananas and stockpile banana chips! I must confess this is the main reason I've wanted a food dehydrator. I'm so glad I can use the cheapest dehydrator of all, the sun. Maybe if I make enough I can send some to you.
