Category Archives: Random Thoughts

Memorial Day and the backyard

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Ah, Memorial Day. Ceremonies, parades, and somber reminiscence.

And maple seeds. The helicopters have arrived! Chuck saw me picking up a handful and announced, “The Next Season of the Compostermom: Maple Seeds!” and well, he isn’t wrong.

I love the idea that there’s free food in the backyard. I cooked burdock roots a few weeks ago, just to say I did it. The smaller roots were more tender and tasty, so I’ll remember that in the future.

Now that the seeds are falling, I’ll pick up as much as my knees can handle, and I’ll roast them. These roasted seeds can go in anything that might call for sunflower kernels or pepitas or similar yummies. Trail mix, bread, cookies, you name it.

They don’t last forever. Maple seeds are seasonal, at best. I’ll roast as much as I can handle during the next few weeks, and we’ll be set for most of summer.

The Next Season of Compostermom? Probably weeding season. If I want tomatoes (and more!), I need to weed.

Say, readers, do you have a backyard in which to forage? What do you find there?

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The Garden Begins!

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My knees hurt.

Why do my knees hurt? We had a couple of really nice days – warm, dry, sunny days – and I knew there would be rain and cold on the weekend. I pushed myself to work outside as much as possible, and now I’m really achy and sore. It’s a good kind of achy, though. It’s the kind that makes me say to myself, “Hey, self, you’ve really accomplished a lot. You’ve earned a rest.” A rest, and a little ibuprofen, and coffee, and peanut m&ms. Right? Right.

During those two nice days I got outside and dumped compost on several sections of garden. I pulled up a lot of creeping ivy (Jenny or Charlie? Don’t know, don’t care), and spread the compost where the ivy had been.

The barrel near the garden edge is planted with spinach now. This barrel, scavenged from my old office before it could hit the dumpster, has grown kale, parsley, and more. This year it’s spinach. Lettuce is ready to grow in a long and thin planter that hangs off the deck railing. That’s an easy location; we can step outside and gather a little for a salad or sandwich any time we want it. Fresh lettuce: yum!

I have some larger pots ready to host peppers (jalapeno, mainly) and cherry tomatoes. The weather isn’t consistent enough to put them out yet, but when it warms up mid-May, I’ll be ready.

Meanwhile, I’ve left Earth Month recommendations behind, but I’m practicing what I preach by preparing to be a little more sustainable every day. Hey, readers, have you started playing in the dirt yet? What are you doing outside?

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And more Earth Month! Go, Green Freaks!

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From Earth Month Challenge: 30 Easy Actions:  

Day 14:  Read the Directions on Products

By reading the directions, you can avoid overuse. For example, you probably don’t need as much detergent in the laundry as you think you need.

But I’m not focused on reading packages (or manuals) right now. We are having a rare streak of warm, very warm days, and I’m getting outside every chance I get to do yard work and garden prep. So far today, I’ve loaded up a few large containers (five gallon ceramic crocks, for example) with yard waste and compost. This fills each one about half way. The rest will be potting soil, and I will transplant pepper plants and cherry tomatoes into these containers so they’re easily accessible for cooking and salad-making.

On that note, I wish I could find the manual for the worm farm set-up sitting in my garage. It’s a perfect example of good intentions being the way to you know where. In a handbasket, no doubt.

Stay tuned for more eco-friendly actions throughout April – or go to Treehugger yourself!

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Earth Month – Day 8

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From Earth Month Challenge: 30 Easy Actions:  

Yesterday was laundry day, so I jumped into Day 10: Air Drying Laundry. Meanwhile, let’s go high/low tech for Day 9: Resist Double Spaces Between Sentences. According to Treehugger, the extra spaces in a published book really, really add up.

I learned about single spaces when I completed my graduate degree in Curriculum and Instruction. I was typing the old-fashioned way, the way we did in the 1970s and 1980s, when typewriters were the tool. It took me a while to adjust to the updated requirements (dang muscle memory!), but I’ve adjusted.

In terms of computer use, email, and text communications, that double or single space may not be as critical. However, if you’re in a position where emails and newsletters get printed, the single space could save pages and pages of papers.

If you’re still typing the Baby Boomer way (dare I call it Mid Century Modern?) with two spaces between sentences, make the effort to cut down to one. You’ll be glad you did.

Stay tuned for more eco-friendly actions throughout April – or go to Treehugger yourself!

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Earth Month, All Month: Day 4

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From Earth Month Challenge: 30 Easy Actions:  

Here’s another action that many are already doing. It reminds me of the energy crisis of the 1970s. Yeah, I was around then, people. I’m old enough to know better. Suggested action for April 4 is this lower the thermostat (while the heat is on) by one degree. One simple degree Fahrenheit, folks. It’s an almost undetectable difference for us humans, but it makes a significant difference in the amount of fuel used to heat an entire home.

Heck, if you’re lucky enough to have a programmable or Smart thermostat, set it to a lower temperature when you’re gone to work and turn it up just before you arrive home. Make sense? Of course it does. It made sense in the 1970s, too.

Stay tuned for more eco-friendly actions throughout April – or go to Treehugger yourself!

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Earth Month: Day 3

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From Earth Month Challenge: 30 Easy Actions:  

Today’s action is easy: turn off the tap when brushing your teeth. Fellow green-conscious types probably already do this. Folks who brush their teeth twice a day can save up to eight gallons of water this way.

Handle the challenge the way you might if you were camping. Grab your cup full of bottled or boiled water, and use that to rinse after brushing. Task accomplished – without wasting treated water down the drain unnecessarily.

Try it, folks. We can make a difference.

Stay tuned for more eco-friendly actions throughout April – or go to Treehugger yourself!

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Earth Month Action – April 2

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From Earth Month Challenge: 30 Easy Actions:  

Put a politician on speed dial.

What? How can this be considered an environmental action for Earth Month? Frankly, it can. Those in office have a great deal of power and influence by making laws that take care of the world in which we live. By having your Senators and Representatives in your contact list, you can quickly call and leave a message with your position on environmental policies and bills. Whether or not you influence the vote, the people in office will have a collection of data showing how their constituents feel about the issues facing them.

 

Stay tuned for more eco-friendly actions throughout April – or go to Treehugger yourself!

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Blizzard – Thoughts on the Closings

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La Petite is grown up now, but I’ll always remember the time I pushed to get her out of bed saying, “Schools are open! Let’s go!” and she countered with, “Moooom, did you check ALL the channels?!”

We’re just watching the evening news followed by Jeopardy, and the crawl at the bottom of the screen keeps going, and going, and going. And even though the closings on the list no longer matter to us, we can’t help but watch.

How is a television news crawl supposed to spell cancelled — or is it canceled? We saw both, on the same station.

Then there were multiple postings for the various branches of the County Library – all ten of them. This could have been consolidated into one post saying All County Library Branches are Closed.

The channel we were watching had a long stream in alphabetical order. I looked down at my phone briefly and missed our school district. The next time it came by – I’m not making this up – was 12 minutes later.

The vintage mall in which we have a booth closed early today and will remain closed tomorrow. This was not on the crawl, thankfully, but on social media. We did coast through a few odd posts such as the Small Town Hypnosis Center closure. Really? Could they not call the affected clients and keep this off the endless list on television?

Meanwhile, we’re grateful to be home, wrapped up in our blankets, sipping our hot beverages, and making decisions like whether to snowblow tonight or wait until the snow ends tomorrow.

Readers, I hope you’re safe and warm, wherever you may be. And always remember to check all the channels.

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Whether the Weather

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Whatever the weather, we’ll weather the weather, whether we like it or not.

That’s the last line of a song we used to sing at Girl Scout camp. It sure fits this week – whatever the weather, indeed. Last night we had a surprise thunderstorm just before midnight. It kept me up – not the thunder and lightning, but the “oh, no, what if” feeling that came with it. What if the temperature was perfect for freezing rain? Would the driveway be slick as an ice rink? Could we lose power? None of that happened, fortunately.

Today my car’s thermometer read 40 degrees Fahrenheit, so I got in line at the car wash near Petunia’s home and got my mid-winter exterior wash. The interior needs cleaning, too, but I’ll get to that. Eventually, I’ll get to that.

There’s a snowstorm in the forecast that promises to be more slush-storm than anything. Roads will be a mess, and my just-washed vehicle will again be a mess. Oh, well, that’s the weather in Wisconsin.

After the snow and slush another bitter cold stretch moves in. Good thing I washed sweaters today!

As the saying goes, if you don’t like Wisconsin weather, wait a day. I’m ready for tomorrow. And the next day, and the next. Whatever the weather, we’ll weather the weather, whether we like it or not!

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Daisy is grumpy.

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It’s cold outside. Not just cold, but bitter cold. Below zero cold. Nasty wind chill cold. The kind of cold that attracted a hawk to take shelter next to our French doors and eat the sparrow that was its lunch. Well, this happened a few years ago, but it was that kind of cold.

I’m privileged enough to be able to stay home and wrap up in a blanket and wear fingerless gloves to keep my hands warm. The cold weather shouldn’t make me grumpy, but it does. If I wanted to go anywhere, I’d be miserable.

With grumpy comes impatient. Amigo and Chuck are pushing my buttons constantly. I am normally a patient person, but I’m running out of patience. Have some courtesy, guys! We’re stuck inside and can’t leave each other alone, so be nice, alright? Okay?

I’ve decided that a gin and tonic along with cheese and crackers might help. And I might go hide in a corner of the bedroom and look for old episodes of Homestead Rescue.

The other option is to go down the basement and start a few seedlings. No, that won’t work because it requires going out to the garage to get potting soil and small pots. It’s cold, very cold, outside.

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