Starting the garden 2010 - Part 2 - Wildflowers, rhubarb and carrots

Well, last week, when the sun came out, we went to the yard an worked on another step to getting a nice full garden this season.  It started with planting the rhubarb bulb in the new large raised bed....I put it in the NW corner of the bed and watered it well.  I wanted to plant the carrots right then too, but after reading the directions of the seed package I realized that I needed to soak the seeds over night first...so, they'd go in the next day.

A while back we cleared the two dirt patches on either side of the front porch steps of all weeds, added some soil and treated it with a little Humtea.  And last week we finally added our Black Forest Calla and Emily McKenzie Crococmia bulbs to one side and wildflower mix to the other.  The mix came from several different sources - promotional shwag from Umpqua and Edward Jones, a b-day card from American Spirits made with paper infused with wildflower seeds, commemorative gifts (forget-me-nots) and wedding party favors, and we mixed them all together and sprinkled a bunch in one bed, a few in the other and rest went  onto our little hill.  One day that hill will be landscaped into more garden beds, but for now, I'll be happy with being able to go pick wildflowers out of my yard.


Our little starts in the egg crates started out great...see that's broccoli, winter squash, pumpkin, tomato, basil, peas and beans....after 10-14 days.  The starts that were left inside on the window sill and treated to the heater vent did much better than the starts in the makeshift greenhouse which was left outside.



I don't win very many contests...but a few weeks ago I won a drawing they did at Pierson's Building Center...I won a flowering cherry tree!!  I'm very excited.  Here is Jillian standing next to our newly planted tree.

Starting the garden 2010

This past winter the neighbor across the street from my work put a pile of 'scrap' wood out with a Free sign on it.  My good friend and co-worker Mo, who knew I was looking for some wood to build a new raised bed in my front yard, alerted me to the stash.  I drove around to load up my car and was happy to find out that it was all old beautiful Redwood, and nice long pieces too.    A few days later I rented a circular saw from Don's and and we made this great 10' x 4.5' box on the West side of the house and filled it with soil.  I had a couple of strawberry plants that had outgrown their pots so I transplanted them and waited out the winter.

Here's a picture of Bacon hanging out in the sun next to the new bed.

Finally, Spring is here!!  Well, today is the 1st day and we already have seeds going. A few weeks ago I went to the store and bought some seed.  I decided to try to buy all heirloom, but ended up with some organics and few Squirrel's Choice, which aren't organic, or heirloom from what I can tell,  but are varieties that are suppose to grow well in the West.  I got a few flowers, nasturtium and sweet peas, to plant along the fence and have to for bouquets for the house along with a bunch of vegies for the bed.

Heirloom

Melting Sugar Peas (Chinese)

Early Snowball Cauliflower

Genovese Basil

Fairytale Pumpkin

De Cicco Broccoli

Black Valentine Bush Beans

Bloomingdale Long Standing Spinach

Organic

Sweetie Tomotoes (cherry)

Squirrel's Choice

Sweet Meat Winter Squash

Bush Peas

Italian Flat Parsley

Cilantro

Lettuce Mix

He-Shi-Ko Green Onions

Davers Half Long Carrots

And we got a few bulbs too - a Black Forest Calla, Emily McKenzie Crococmia and some rhubarb.

I used some recycled egg crates and starting mix for the seed starts.

I lined the separated tops with plastic grocery bags and used them as liners for the bottom.  They also doubled as mini green houses once the seeds were planted and I covered the crates with the bags.

I got the bright idea, from something I read on the internet, I'm sure, to use the bed-in-a-bag bag as a greenhouse for some of the starts.



Jillian was a great help for the whole project!  It was a nice sunny day so we sat in the sun and made labels for the starter trays.



So once we got seeds in the trays, watered and labeled we set some up in the window in the dining room where there are four big West facing windows and the other ones in my makeshift greenhouse we set on top of the bed that will soon be their permanent home.



It was a very satisfying day and we really enjoyed ourselves working together on our garden.
It's been a few weeks and we certainly have some growth to be excited about...reports and pictures to come!

Photos - road trip

So the other day we took advantage of the sunny weather and went for a drive.  There are so many beautiful places to see in Humboldt County, trying to decide where to go is always a challenge. I pulled up a map of Humboldt on google maps and took a look...Fruitland. map  Made me giggle a little, so that's where we headed.  I studied the map to find as many 'alternative' routes to our destination as I could.  Found a road on the map that turned off 101 at Stafford that looked good....and another one off the Avenue of the Giants  south of Berlington going into Weott.  The turn off to Fruitland is just south of there.  Truthfully, I really didn't have plans pasted Fruitland, I guess I thought we'd turn around.  I did study the surrounding area a bit on the map and printed out what I thought we'd need, since I was pretty sure the cell phone, and therefore my imap app wouldn't work out there.

It was a great drive...even though we took neither of the 'alternative' routes, other than Avenue of the Giants - which was still great since Jillian hadn't even driven on it before.  The only thing that indicated Fruitland itself, was a sign for the volunteer fire department, I don't even think we saw a post office, but we did come to an intersection in the road and had to make a choice.  Turn around and go back the way we came, or keep going and hope the missing section of my printed out map did indeed connect the road that we were on with the one we wanted to be on to get home.  We bravely adventured ahead.  The condition of the road had gotten worse and worse the further off Avenue of the Giants we drove...and now it was dirt....perhaps we should have turned around?  Keep going, I told myself, still plenty of light and if we have to, we can still turn around and head back the way we came....the road, although dirt, wasn't too bad.  I sure did miss my Pathfinder though, with it's 4WD and all, would have made me feel just a little bit better/safer.  Eventual we came up on a sign that read Road Closed...bummer, guess we were turning around!  However, as we drove closer, we figured out that it was a sign for the road turning East off off the one we were traveling.  As I inched the car forward we looked down the road and Whoa!  We could see a road/bridge across the Eel River and it was all washed out, rather over, the river was flowing right over the road, no wonder there was a road closed sign. 

But it gave me the landmark I needed to find ourselves on the map again...we were at the turn off for McCann on the Dyerville Loop, sure felt good to 'know' where we were again, I love the adventure, but I really didn't want to get us lost.  

We kept driving and around the corner we saw a beautiful waterfall, two actually, coming off different sides of the hill and merging right there at the side of the road.  We stopped and took a few pictures, pretty isn't it?  I just love it here!

Warning - Rant

Ok so have to rant!!! I was going to write a nice blog about all the garden and yard work we did this weekend, but that will have to wait...I'm soooo fucking frustrated and annoyed!

Sometimes people think that as a Hostess I have some sort of authority or responsibility to fix their problems....and I so Fucking Don't!  

Here's the story, the other day someone posted the below emails to the Imps group.  I have removed all names and made one change in red:

"There are a lot of us on the Imps list.  In the last several weeks I have been mistaken a few times for one of the [ladies] that runs the Imps.  People on the list have contacted me thinking I was someone else.  That's ok.  Mistakes happen. I was just emailed by someone not on the Imps list from what I can tell who was given my email address by someone on this list.  That's less ok.  I've had people stalk me in my life and I am cautious about giving out my contact info.  This may in fact be someone I know, but even if it was I would still have preferred to be asked before my contact info was shared with anyone." Then this evening another email - again names removed and changes in red:   Thursday, I started this thread.  It's Sunday.  I've brought up genuine, valid concerns about a personal privacy issue.  And no one of any real authority or responsibility has bothered to say anything in response.  Xx sent me a letter, offering me sympathy and tendering an apology.  While I appreciate that, more than it could be imagined, this wasn't her responsibility.  Apologizing and addressing the situation so that it doesn't happen again was the Impresses responsibility. One of the great bylaws of this community, preached and talked about for hours on end, with great passion, is a law of privacy.  My privacy was violated, and I am a member of your community.  Shit happens.  Mistakes get made.  I understand that.  But to have someone's concerns ignored because it's inconvenient--or simply "not my problem"--sends  a clear message that that person isn't a valued member of that community.  And that message was sent to me. Another bylaw of this community is one of unilateral acceptance and tolerance.  Everyone is welcome.  And frankly, that hasn't been apparent, to a great many people.  People have commented, from the very beginning, that they felt slighted, dismissed, and ignored.  I have felt slighted, dismissed, and ignored.  I consider myself a member of this community, and this has made it incredibly apparent that I am the only one who does. I'm leaving this group.  I may, in the distant future, attend an event, and I may, in the distant future, rejoin this group.  But I will never consider myself a valued member of this community again.  As bad as making one person feel like this is, please don't compound your mistakes by repeating them.  Fix it.

This was my response to the Imps group:

As one of the other XXs and as one of the Hostesses, I'd like to apologize for not saying anything.  I'm sorry that your privacy was violated, that sucks.  I really wish people would remember not to give out information.  Asspaddle has again and again posted to the group not to give out personal information to people who are not in the group.  There seems to be no way of monitoring this behavior in others....and frankly, I do find it frustrating.

I would like to point out something however, this is an all volunteer group.  And, although the three Hostesses are the VOLUNTEERS who have stepped up to organize other volunteers, we have no authority over anything or anyone.  It saddens me greatly that you think leaving the group is the answer.

But what I really wanted to say.....

Who the fuck do you think I am lady....fix it!?!?!?  Fix WHAT?  And how exactly am I suppose to do that?  My responsibililty as a Hostess to address it so it doesn't happen again and apologize?!?!  How the fuck am I suppose to do that?!  And really, it's not my fucking problem lady! I cannot control the actions of others, I therefore feel I should not be made responsible for apologizing for what they do!  I am truly sorry that you have been stalked in the past, that is scary, I'm sure.  However...how can you be sure that the person who gave out your information didn't get it from some source other than the Imps group?  Do you only know the giver though the Imps? Is this Imps group the only group you belong to? Do you have a job, go out and meet people, have a facebook page, myspace, in the phone book, ever been in the local paper?  It is amazing how easy it is to find contact information for someone these days. I'm not sure you can pin down how someone got your contact information...and again, what the fuck as I suppose to do about it?!?!?  If you don't want people to contact you or know you are a member of the Imps, them maybe you should stay in your cave.  A valued member of the community????  What have you done of value for the community?  Have you volunteered, have you given up hours and days of your life, for no pay, to produce elaborate parties, socials, workshops?  Have we met?!?!?!  Bylaws of the community??  Can I see those?  I didn't know we had bylaws, as a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure we don't!!  It amazes me that you think we could or should enforce these laws even if we had them.  I'm so fucking sick and tired of having to walk on eggshells around the subject of being a sexually active adult...what is the fucking big deal if 'others' find out that you like sex?!?!?!?  I just amazes me that people have to hide the fact, that the fear is so great, that the natural act of being a healthy adult has been twisted into something bad to be hidden and kept secret...get over it already people, who fucking cares that you're fucking?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I could say more, but I probably shouldn't


---

Never too late to start the day over!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0oIzCp8oQA

I really like this song....

And this one too!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehu3wy4WkHs

And here's something new (to me anyway!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t4-Yh9h8xI

Update - baby

I realized the other day when our friend asked if Jillian was pregnant or not, I hadn't updated the blog.  So no, she's not pregnant.....of course we're really sad and I think we've gone through a bit of a depression.  One of the things that was so hard to deal with was the fact that she was actually 9 days late....each day giving us a bit of hope.  She did a bit of research and found that many women get negative results on pee tests for as long as two to three weeks into pregnancy, we could hope.  But it was not to be.

The same day she started her period, we went to our friend's house to talk to them about an idea we had.  Previously when Jillian was visiting, G off handedly said he'd give us his sperm in a dixie cup if we wanted.  Now we were ready to talk about what he meant, what are our options?  Jillian and I talked about what we wanted and what we would need to make it work for us and what our fears are.  It was a big decision to switch from sperm bank to a known donor.  We would want the donor to sign away his parental rights, but at the same time it was important to us that he be willing to be present and maybe even known to the child.  I wanted to make sure that his parents, his mother, the baby's grandma, would not be an issue, would not have an issue with lesbian parents for her grandchild....but we also believe a big family is good, the more to love, the better.  

So with that in mind, we went to G's house to ask him a few questions, would he be willing to sign over parental rights?  Yes.  He views giving us his sperm as a gift.

How does his wife feel about it?  She loves the fact that her husband gets this opportunity to father a child.  She already has an adult child and doesn't want a baby herself.  She's excited to have another baby in the tribe.

What about his parents?  His parents want to be grandparents.  He believes they will be great grandparents and will accept and love us.

How involved would he want to be? Would love to be as big a part of the child's life as we would like and feel comfortable with.

How public about the arrangement would he be willing to be?  Yell it from the rooftops if we wish :)

Who makes the important decisions about the child's life?  Again, the child will be ours, we make all decisions for the child.

What about who lives where?  Although he'd be bummed to not see his child as often as he's like, he would make no trouble or issue with us if we have to move apart from one another.

Gosh, right now, it seems like a great decision and we are looking forward to moving forward with this new plan.  Now the big question...exactly how are we going to get the sperm from him to her?  Of course there is the 'traditional' way, but who knows?