Art and the other white meat

We took a break from the backyard today to honor an invite from my good friend Andy. Our destination was the Manayunk (pronounced Man-ee-unk) Arts Festival. The folks in this area, and all of Philadelphia for that matter, know and fully support the arts. We are very fortunate to have all of this available to us and mass trans accessible to boot.

The day was gorgeous and the booths were plenty. There was a small mid-afternoon shower,


which made time for beers.

After the rain let up we commenced our walk down Main Street and laughed for a good while at this:



The festival had its very own pork tour with all sorts of pork propaganda. I can't explain why, but it just felt out of place. Now I love pork just as much as the next pork eating person, but if it's not handled right, things can go real bad real quick. A quick assessment of the staff told me today was not a good day to toy with my health.


Lord knows I don't want to end up like this guy. Although he does look rather jolly.

The only other not-art related entertainment was...


these guys. Where I went to college, the hired help still rode horses.

I Suck at Tag

So, it seems that Ali and Our Friend Ben have tagged us for the Six Random Things meme.

Six Random Things...

hmmm...

Six Random Things...

Okay here we go:

1. We got married first and told the ‘rents later.

2. I readily adopt accents although my Pittsburghese is predominant. Over the past couple of years Meg’s accent (she’s not from the ‘Burgh) has been raising some suspicion.

3. We weren’t even dating when we moved in together. We foolishly thought we would just be roommates.

4. We do not own a microwave.

5. We’re both hopelessly devoted to our Nalgene bottles, and say to hell with leeching carcinogens.

6. Before people meet us, we’re quite often mistaken to be lesbians because my name is Kelly. But we like that, because we like to challenge people’s assumptions about gender norms.

A lot of people have done this one, I think, so if you haven't done it yet and want to play, consider yourselves tagged. If you dare to accept this challenge, the rules are as follows:

Link to the person who tagged you.

Post the rules on the blog.

Write six random things about yourself.

Tag six people at the end of your post.

Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Enjoy & Cheers

Flyover

About 20 minutes ago I heard an incredibly loud woosh-ing sound coming from outside. I looked out the window and saw the basket of a hot air balloon about two inches from my face. I could plainly see the people inside, though they were looking the other way. I'm sure they were admiring our garden.

I took this photo after they had flown over the house and started to lift a bit. They were so low over the backyard that I'm surprised they didn't snag the flag pole.

Too Much

Too hot.

Too green.

An Unfortunate Disturbance

It was effing hot today. Our greens weren't to happy about it so we brought out the shade cloth to kind of ease the pain. For convenience we keep the cloth balled up in the lower shed. I carried the wadded mass into the garden and when I unfurled it I saw a large mouse fall to the ground and scurry through the fence.

As I started cursing out the little bastard for chewing a hole in the sheet, I heard a little squeak that instantly made me feel remorse. I knew what it was and a short scan of the ground revealed what I feared. The little bastard that ate a hole in our sheet was nesting with a pair of her own little bastards.

When I showed the tots to Meg, she asked if I was going to kill them. I answered no, even though I knew I already had. I set them down where I saw their mother retreat (hopeful), but when I checked back a few hours later they were still there, just kind of squirming a bit.

I don't know why I felt sad, they really are bastards. I think perhaps it's because they never had the chance to live and really piss me off. Oh well. Little bastards.

Click to Enlarge

Meg has a fantastic eye for photography. She pulled this shot off with our little Canon point and shoot (I can't wait to see what she does with a real camera). When I get to see the pics at the end of the day it completely changes how I see the composition of our garden. It really is pretty cool and I am so grateful for it.

By the way, this photo is taken through the bean lines on our new trellis and the object in the background is the flag pole. Oh yeah, we got a new pirate flag (two years of flight shredded the last one). I think it looks like the mast of a ship.

Good fences make good neighbors, and all that.

This is a long one.

Our neighbor is crazy. And I'm not using that word in the colloquial sense, as when you sometimes describe a person as "crazy," when what you really mean is that the person is emotional, or passionate, or eccentric. No, our neighbor is crazy.

We have numerous stories to back this up, but one has been particularly enduring. Last summer, before the craziness had fully presented itself, she came to talk to us while we were working outside. She mentioned the pine trees that are on her property—but right up against our garden—and she asked if they blocked out our sun too much. They didn't block the sun much, but they did hang way over the garden and drop pine cones and crap all the time. She said she'd get her husband to cut them back so we didn't have to—but we could if we wanted to.

So, last October, I cut back the branches that were coming into the garden.

That was fine until one day in March when I went outside to feed the chickens and heard her screaming at our landlord, "This is all I have, Christopher! This. Is. ALL. I. HAAAAAAAVE!!" She was talking about the trees, of course, which she had just noticed. Needless to say, I got the hell out of there.

A few weeks later her husband cut back the trees even more than I did, and she came over while we were outside to shout, "Hey! You call that bein' a neighbor? 'Cause I call that NOT BEIN' a neighbor!" Oh, well then. Ever since, we've been privy to dirty looks and shouted conversations of, "Hey! When's that fence guy comin'?" Yesterday she stood on her porch in her pajamas and stared at me through a gap in the trees for ten minutes. It's been fun.

Today, though, the fence guys came. They were very nice and they loved our garden, but most importantly they put up a 7-foot tall privacy fence (which necessitated cutting back the trees even more, incidentally). Sadly, the fence obstructs our view of the old trampoline, the plastic tarp stuck up in a tree, the trash cans in the middle of the yard, and the neighbor sunbathing on the driveway. But that's the price we'll have to pay. For, you know, not bein' neighbors. At least we'll have the memories.

Off Saving Hyrule

You may have noticed that our blog has been a bit lacking lately. That's because a week ago I cajoled my brother into giving me our old Nintendo 64, and Kelly and I have been trying to defeat Zelda ever since.
Luckily for us, this latest obsession has coincided with lots of crazy rain and wind, so it hasn't been detracting from the garden too much.

Thinking Way Ahead

In the world of "What ifs," Meg and I have contemplated the possibility of renting for another year or two and what that would mean for the garden. The idea we are tossing around is joining the herb garden with the vegetable garden to create what would be a 3,000 square foot backyard market.

I took this photo from the far edge of the herb garden furthest away from the vegetable garden. If you look to the far right of the photo you can see a little concrete pillar (it's a stand for the birdbath), that marks where the herb garden ends. (I know it doesn't look like much of an herb garden now, but Meg, myself, and Steveo have big plans for it's rejuvenation later this month.) The grass area from the concrete pillar to the garden fence would be double dug and fenced in. It would be a shit load of work for someone else's property, so I hope we can get out of here before it gets to that. Like I said, it's a "What if."

Earth Day Cop-Out

We didn't do anything notable for Earth Day. We had organic, shade-grown coffee and took the train to work, but we do that every day and it's definitely not worth a blog post. So, I will re-direct you all to Katie's very nice Earth Day post, where she talks about organic ketchup, biking to work, and other green things.

Flower Show

It's fun to watch and wait for trees to flower. One of my favorites on our property is the magnolia. Does my affinity have anything to do with the Grateful Dead's Sugar Magnolia? Maybe. Or, they're just big meaty flowers and I love them.

The next tree on my list of wait-fors is the dogwood. All year round the dogwood puts on a very unique display of color and form. But for now we can wait, because the magnolias are out and they deserve their turn.

Chores and Chickens

Last year we extended the garden, tilled, and double dug all of our raised beds. Thankfully all of our hard work paid off, because the only planting prep work we've had to do is pull weeds. What's especially fantastic is that the number of beds that actually need to be weeded are few. Last year this was our potato bed and it is now lined up for green beans, which will be planted in about a month.


The chickens, the nosy ladies they are, sought a suitable spot for inspection.

Some Blog World Activities

Well, we were hoping to get in another solid day in the garden today, but no such luck. The weather was just a little too miserable for yard work. Our next outside hurrah will be to plant our brassicas in their respective beds and erect the new bamboo flagpole. Hopefully we can get to it on Friday.

In the meantime, there are a few blog activities I wanted to give a shout for.

The first is actually long overdue. Kelly at Her Able Hands is putting together a project involving photos of your hands and a narrative to go along with it. I don't remember end result she is looking for when she has collected the submissions, but what ever it is, we gardeners have a very special relationship with our hands and I thought it would be cool to see those stories collected in some fashion. Meg and I are trying to get our submission together, but midterm grading and job searches have rudely gotten in the way. I don't think she has a time frame for any kind of deadline, but I'm sure she doesn't want to sit on it indefinitely. Kelly, if it's not too late we will get one out soon.

The second activity involves the Mouse & Trowel award, which Path to Freedom reminded us about on their journal. Meg and I are having great fun with the challenge of posting every day and we have had even more getting to know all of you. So, if you feel like giving a shout to some of your must-read blogs, this would be a wonderful way to do it. I usually don't believe in awards, I'm a mild socialist, but Path to Freedom has been a positive force for us in the garden blog world and any award they feel fit to promote is alright by me.

The Benefit of Communal Living

I know we don't mention them much, but we have neighbors who live on the floor below us. They started out pretty active in the yard when they moved here about a year ago, but they have been kind of keeping to themselves indoors for a while. This place can be rather deflating if you allow it to get to you. It's nice because we sort of have the yard to ourselves, but it's not cool if it's because folks aren't happy.

Well they were out and about yesterday and whoa boy did they do something sweet. What you are looking at is the brand new, house fire pit. I think the inside diameter is about two and a half feet.

What I'm really looking forward to is roasting my hot peppers over some coals before I zap them into sauce. I am curious though, is there a particular wood that I should use, or will any old log do? Hmm.

Langhorne Slim at Johnny Brenda's

Last night Meg and I and some of our friends made the trek into Philadelphia to see Langhorne Slim at Johnny Brenda's. I got hooked on Langhorne Slim about a year ago when he showed up on one of my Pandora stations. The entire experience, although not planned this way, was truly a locavore's delight.



It turns out that Langhorne slim is from Langhorne, Pennsylvania, in Bucks County, which is a high-speed-hour northeast of Downingtown. And Johnny Brenda's turned out to be a real gem. They only serve locally brewed beer and their entire menu is made with ingredients from small scale local farmers. Hell, we just wanted to go see a show, but we ended up getting a case of the feel-goods too.

Laziness Alert!

We've been kinda busy and neither the chickens or the seedlings have done anything interesting lately, so tonight we're going with that old blogger standard, the link post.

Here are three pretty cool blogs we've come across lately. Check them out!

Our Friend Ben is a relatively new blogger (and fellow Pennsylvanian!) who writes about sustainability, rural life, and how the half & half and 1% milk offered at coffee shops reflect the growing split in society.

Another new blogger, CeeCee, outsmarts her young chickens with pie plates and Playdoh.

Twinville at Laughing Orca Ranch has a chicken that routinely lays double yolk eggs and recently made one with three yolks. Exciting! She lives on a great little farm in New Mexico and has a load of other animals.

What's for Dinner?

Kelly bagged us a groundhog on Easter. Ali, who is from a rural area that's appreciative of the self-sufficient, sustainable lifestyle that we strive for, suggested a few recipes that we might enjoy.

She posted about them here

Delicious! Plus, these recipes are versatile and you can make substitutions and adjustment to fit your lifestyle. Take the Venison or Moose Casserole, for example. How often are you out of venison and you just don't feel like running out to the store right before dinner? With most cookbooks, you'd need to scrap that whole recipe and make tater tot casserole or something. That's not the case here! This recipe is for Venison or Moose, so just pull that extra moose meat out of the freezer, and voila! Dinner is served! Thanks, Mrs. Clara Miller, Crescent Beach, Maine!

Night School

On Mondays and Wednesdays, from 6-9, I teach an amazing group of students who are prepping for their GED test. Tonight was the last class of a ten week session and a few of us left with teary eyes. I can't guarantee they'll all pass, but I know that they will all give it their best. Their resiliency is amazing and their character is inspiring. Cheers to second chances.

In Every Home

I have a little exercise for you all to try out. I want you to go into your refrigerator, grab a bottle of beer (or soda), and search your entire kitchen for a piece of furniture or cabinet hardware with which you can open the bottle. There is one in every home and a majority of the time it's in the kitchen.



We lucked out with the cap catching drawer. In the last place I lived, the opener was a hinge on the refrigerator and the handle on the screen door. I don't believe this knowledge will reduce our carbon emissions, nor is it a measurable forward step towards self sustainability; but I can guarantee that you will gain a few cool points with at least a handful of your friends. Cheers.

Want a free compost spinner thing?

Hanna at This Garden Is Illegal got offered a free compost tumbler that she's not going to use, so she's holding a contest to give it away. You can enter once a day until the end of the month, and I guess the company that makes the thing will ship it to you. It's shaped kind of like a cannon, which makes me think it would look pretty sweet with our pirate flag, but alas, we have ten thousand compost schemes going already and really don't have a need for a tumbler. We make the chickens turn our compost, anyway.

And, hey, since we're not entering the contest your chances of winning are that much greater. Go for it!