Category: green

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mrs greenjeans

I had Compacty weekend, but I had it all on Sunday since I spent Saturday with my dear funny friend Lisa M and my parents.

We shoveled mulch and wheelbarrowed it around, and got through about half the giant pile. This was free mulch from when our neighbors shredded all their trees a few weeks ago. Free, delivered to our side yard, and it smells good. My favorite things! We definitely miss the trees, as it’s much brighter, louder and exposed than it used to be here, facing the Estuary. Free mulch = very good.

We weeded a lot and added dirt from recently delivered batch, and got a number of seeds planted in 4-inch pots that I owned already (a good job for the Boy– got him to fill them with dirt, poke holes, plant seeds, and label each with a Sharpie). He also planted a fence plot for beans — twice the amount of beans we had last year, and they won’t pull down the trellis or corn or anything growing nearby, since they can grow up the fence. He planted yellow wax beans and green beans mixed together. Just because. Made it exciting for an 11 yr old. He’ll have some ownership about the veggies since he planted them.

We moved a bunch of the raised beds around for better sunlight and put a nice layer of our own compost in, on top of dead leaves that mulched for the winter, then more new dirt on top. Last year’s dirt had compacted down to about 4 inches deep, so we’re back at 1 foot or deeper in the various beds. It was a dirty, dirty job. Very. There are lots of new wriggling worms that came in with the fresh compost. Wormy!

The cats, however, think this is the grooviest thing since Meow Mix. Thus, I have laid an assortment of screens, tomato cages and other odds and ends around the backyard, junkyard fashion, to keep cats out of the fresh clean dirt. They are plotting something, and I think I know what. Fresh dirt = too good not to poop in.

I had to harvest all our mustard greens, broccoli and lettuce to make way for the new dirt, so we have an abundance of all just now. I’ve gifted several friends with greens, we’re eating the rest; it was nice not to have to buy lettuce this week. My basil sprouted, in the pot in the sunny patio area. I’m feeling even more hopeful, as I’ve never gotten basil to even sprout before.

Mr. Husband, while driving around the Island, found a stack of green plastic garden chairs and a bunch of tiki lights. FREE.

I got my first mild sunburn, despite protection, big hat, etc. I know some of y’all have snow and rain. I’m wishing you warm thoughts and sprouting seedlings and gentle rains instead of Nor’easters.

Happy Baseball Season opener last night; our team, Oakland A’s, did not win, but oh well. Mr. Husband is very very very happy to see baseball on TV again. And baseball stadium dinner (hot dogs, nachos, Cracker Jack, sodas and beer, Drumstix, peanuts, popcorn) were de-lish.

Planned for the garden (planted in 4-inch pots):
pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, butternut squash, acorn squash, yellow longneck squash, loofah gourds, birdhouse gourds, red tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, French breakfast radishes, cilantro, feverfew, several types of peppers, and I think that’s it. Plus the beans along the fence.

We have five fruit trees now: orange, lemon, lime, plum and apricot. Two grapevines leafing out. Two raspberry bushes and a blueberry bush, just planted. A strawberry patch. Four artichokes plants. Sunflowers and hollyhocks mixed in with the strawberries. Carrots, chard and arugula still growing. Peas maybe coming up but they are very slow and stubborn. An onion patch, with garlic nearby. Mint, rosemary, thyme, sage, lemon balm and parsley.

There are wild blackberries out here on the base, and in the Beltline (old railroad tracks). My neighbors have an apple tree. If we get the chickens, we should be just about set. As in, semi-sustainable for feeding the crew.

I like it.

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vintage me

Daughter #4 is going to the junior prom Saturday night. She has been earning her own money and has paid for the limo (yay, they’re commuting in a carpool! No drunk driving, either.) She bought her own ticket. She has an appt for nails at my trade salon and is doing her own hairdo. I’m paying for the boutonniere ($10).

But the dress…she wanted something vintage and wanted to go to Berkeley, which is fun and fabu but I just did not want to get on the freeway and drive there and deal with impossible parking, shopping, etc. I am a recovering consumer and it gives me the jeebies. And I’m old and tired besides.

I said just humor me and let’s look in my closet.

Uh, right, Stupid, I mean Mom, she implied with one quirk of her lip.

No, seriously. I hauled out about 8 dresses, all ravishingly beautiful and she picked the one that is way too young for me anyway (BCBG silk lime green polka dots) and said maybe. I have never worn it, or maybe once on honeymoon weekend. She thought it was OK.

Then I went into the attic and got into the “pink thing,” which is the wardrobe-hanging closet thing where baptismal gowns and First Communion dresses and old cheerleader uniforms go to die. What else goes there to die? Wedding dresses. I have 4. (And that’s not even counting the gorgeous white one with the bustle and train that I already consigned.)

I pulled those out as well, and you know what? They are vintage. And she liked them. Not the Victorian-Laura Ashley-style granny lace but the white satin sheath that went underneath. She took the champagne silk cummerbund with red satin roses from another wedding outfit and put them all together. She has shoes from last year and consented to wear them! I might even have some opera gloves somewhere.

I will hem the white under-sheath (which has a poofy skirt and a bustier type bodice, in white satin, aged to slightly off white) to her length, and voila — cheapest prom dress ever.

Now I can finally say that it was worth it to get married 3 times. I’ll be sewing if you need me.

Sweetest words ever: “You were right, Mom.”

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Saving the planet, and my soul

OK, just kidding about the soul. I know just where it is, and it’s doing fine. But the planet…In other words, how I Compacted this weekend —-

Picked up CSA box. Supporting local farmers, local produce stand, yeah! 100-mile diet, yeah! Vegetarianism, yeah!

Made cat food in the Crockpot. Cats eat healthy product, yeah!

Cooked pinto beans in another Crockpot (a broken one that I got from Freecycle — the crock handle is broken at the edge but it works just fine, no leaks, just hard to grab when it’s very hot).Beans for Monday’s dinner, and to take to work. Yeah!

Boiled CSA potatoes for vegetarian daughter to eat. She uses potatoes or rice or tortillas as a base and adds a strange assortment of cheeses, peppers, veggies, sauces, etc. on top. No two meals are the same. But she loved the potatoes I cooked last week. Pre-cooked meals — yeah!

Found 4 black bananas in the freezer (the best kind for baking) and made a double batch of banana muffins. Half went into the freezer, 1/4 got eaten Saturday night by voracious cloud of locust-like teens, and the rest are for breakfast this week.

Crumbled a bunch of leftover stale cookies and toasted the crumbs, saved in the freezer for making parfait, sprinkling onto ice cream, etc. No food waste: yeah!

Made a couple of gallons of sun tea in various gallon jars, various flavors. Two teabags per gallon costs, hmm, hardly nothing, and no sugar added means this is a healthful drink at very low cost per gallon or per glass. Yeah!

And outside of the kitchen, I…

Did cold-water wash and hung out 4 loads to dry. Yeah!

Changed 3 more lightbulbs to CFLs. (Thought I had done them all, but nope!) Yeah!

Sent out some PR info for an upcoming event via Facebook: no paper waste, no trees died, no cost: yeah!

Did some yardwork to prep for early spring planting in the garden: free veggies? yeah!

Smashed a bunch of cans that I’m saving to get me to my $10K savings challenge. I think I have almost $1 worth. And cleaned up the street! Yeah!

Found 21 cents: Yeah!

Printed out The Boy’s birthday invites for next Saturday’s 11th bday party: 11 pieces of paper, very little per-page cost, and no money spent on printed invites. The party will include a bunch of young boys shooting each other with Nerf guns for 5 hours, so I am going to visit my mom and talk about quilts for the day next Saturday. Quality time with Mom, no Nerf headaches = no ibuprofin, simple fun at party and NO goodie bags either. Yeah!

Grocery shopping today with own bags (yeah), didn’t buy any crap (yeah), bought several bulk foods, got prepped for the week, and got bacon made from happy pigs for the carnivores of the family, from the butcher, wrapped in paper, no plastic. Yeah!

Worked on my knitting projects while Mr Husband entertained a dozen of his close friends with the Superbowl… All of this Compacting maybe possibly makes up for the fact that Mr Husband put a TV in every room, including the bathroom and on top of the stove, so that his friends wouldn’t miss a single second of the game. A friend brought a leftover-keg of beer that we enjoyed (reusable cups! No bottle waste! No cans! returnable keg! No beer waste! Yeah!) but the food was generally not-good-4-U. Like, pass the KFC and no thanks on your homemade pickles. Oh, well.

As Scarlett O’Hara said, tomorrow is another day.

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Coolio

Barack is da bomb. How cool is he? Super cool.

I couldn’t be happier. I’m sure not everyone feels this way. But as for me and my house, we will celebrate.

I ate one of the persimmon muffins for breakfast. What did it taste like? Pumpkin, sort of. A fruity spice cake. It was good. It was fine. Yum.

I’ve been bringing my lunch almost every day since the star of the new year. I was doing that before, but not on days we have trade-lunches at work. We used to have a trade for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We still have Tuesday and Thursday but I’m not eating the Thursday lunch which is pizza. I’m not even that thrilled with the Tuesday lunch which is a deli whose staff have surly attitudes. They always forget part of someone’s meal, and are snotty about it when we try to double-check. But I digress. My point is that I’m enjoying leftovers, eating more veggies, eating a healthful meal with no food waste, am able to take home the peels and cores for the compost, use my own cloth napkin, silverware, etc. One trouble spot: my lunch bag is wearing out. These vinyl affairs are just not made to last. One of these days I’m going to make some new reusable lunchbags. I have some cute fabric that would make for fun lunches. Just have to put it into the queue.

It’s raining today. Praise Jah — we need the rain. I don’t want to walk or drive in it (have to drive to Livermore tomorrow) but we need it so I can just deal. *It’s not about me.*

Life is good. Busy, overwhelming, stressful, but good. I’m finishing up my poetry manuscript for publication later this year — end of Feb or begining of March, I hope. That means PR, a release party, a couple of signings and readings, and I hope some returns. I’m ordering more copies of the novel to have available for sale at the events. Call that another dream come true — I’ve been waiting and pushing to publish poetry for 20+ years.

Can’t wait to see it — Amaryllis: Collected Poems is coming soon.

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reposting an old post

This is from 2 weeks ago that didn’t post properly. Geez.

We did a lot of baking yesterday. I had a bagful of persimmons (the Fuyu variety, which are firm and can be eaten like an apple) but they were starting to get softer. I also had some apples that were getting a bit wrinkly. I cut up the apples and the firm persimmons and made a crumble, with oatmeal and cinnamon on top. Had some last night with vanilla ice cream on top (Dreyer’s Grand, locally made — AKA Edy’s Grand in other parts of the country).

With the softer persimmons, I pureed them and made a batch of muffins (now in the freezer) — used a banana bread recipe, added raisins and grated some orange peel into the batter — yum. Then I made a cake with the rest of the batter, using a “Prune Spice Cake” recipe from my gma’s old cookbook. I wrapped that and may take it to the fire station tomorrow. Otherwise we’ll just eat it.

I cooked up dried black beans and boiled a bunch of potatoes, cooking ahead for the week (for black bean tostadas, salade nicoise). I also pulled some of our own green beans out of the freezer and rinsed them, tossing them in a vinaigrette with shallots. The potatoes, shallots and garlic were from the farmers’ market, courtesy of Foster Daughter. I’m talking about 3-4 varieties of thin-skinned potatoes — some purple, some yellow, some red, some white, boiled with a couple of cloves of garlic. Smelled so good!

Mr Husband wanted to cook dinner, which generally means slabs of dead animal flesh, and he got a bit fancy on us and whipped up a mango-papaya salsa to go on top of the grilled flank steak. None of that was local or organic but at least I didn’t have to cook it. However, he pooped out on side dishes, so I quickly “smashed” some of the boiled potatoes in a fry pan with some butter, salt, pepper and my dried sage, and put the marinated green beans on the table. That and the crumble dessert fed 7 of us last night. Good stuff. Leftover steak and potatoes made a good breakfast for the rest of the crew this morning.

Daughter #2 made cookies for the week, I hung out laundry, finished my scrap-yarn afghan that I’ve been crocheting (it’s a large granny square and very groovy indeed). Then I went back to work on the bed-socks/booties that Daughter #4 wanted that didn’t get finished before Christmas. These are hideously purple and green, her color picks, and then her sisters and assorted boyfriends chimed in and now everyone wants a pair. I said they could have the yarn choices I already have in the basket or bring me their own yarn/colors. If they bring the yarn, no problem.

I also spent a little time working on the practice sock I’m knitting (w/ tutorial from about.com) to learn how to make socks. May I just say, four needle are a lot to handle at any one time. And that’s all I’m sayin. I’m just sayin.

Last of all, Compact-wise, I took a bike ride around the neighborhood and over to the nursery to check out prices of lemon trees and other bare roots — I eschewed the bareroots at Costco, and instead will sell one of my children to pay for a lemon tree at the local nursery.

If I can get that much for a used kid.