where have you been???
Fingers are just warming up to the keyboard again, but in reality; Head down and butt in the air, been a month!
Blasted back from Boston and hit the taxes. I hate tax season; it's not the mountains of receipts or piles of papers or even the forms. It's the shear fact I live by the seat of my pants and really cannot figure out how I keep the lights on or the kilns going. I am calling this the potters miracle, right up there with fishes and loaves. Coming home from West Palm when Mr Mad Potter piped off: Wow, I don't know anybody who works harder and has a harder time paying bills. Well thanks big guy, you can get out on the side of the road now. By April 7th there will be pencil stubs shoved behind my ears, glasses perched on the end of my nose, empty aspirin bottle on the desk and I will be in my dark place. I pencil in a week of moping, eating ice cream and laying on the floor next to the dog. Mope week always concludes with a me writhing on the bed trying to figure out why I can't get my jeans buttoned. Blowing the dust off my garden books, walking around the yard, hunting for tools and gloves, I slap myself around and roll up my sleeves. There's that Welgarian gene again (Welsh/Hungarian)....... work harder, it will be fine. By the time you get to the end of the blog you will realize and understand the Welgarian philosophy.
Here's the rundown:
April 2nd - 8th: sales tax, federal taxes, jury applications and off to buy a big fat eraser complimented with giant drum of aspirin.
April 9th - 14th: Mope, eat bad things and screw myself into the floor, just like the dog........
April 16th: gather the electric fence winding over the yard due to over zealous snow blowing (all 2 times last winter) by Mr Mad Potter. Prep the patio bed to get the cool weather crops in; peas, lettuce, radishes, chard and carrots. High garden satisfaction!
April 19th: Attend the opening at the Wooster Functional Ceramics Workshop. Had a great time seeing everybody! and more eating bad things...... but if one is laughing and enjoying the company it doesn't count....... right?
April 20th: Sod busting begins in the way back........ no rain for weeks now, the shovel is not a pogo stick! On my way back to the garden I notice the solomon seal blooming, natures way of cheering me on, it's a standing ovation in my book.
April 20th: Attend Earth Day at the Cleveland Zoo! Amazing and rallied to go home and keep sod-busting....... and build a chicken coop, order a mini cow, build a hoop house, start up aqua-ponics, get off the grid and grow so much of my own food I will never go to the grocery again!
April 21st - 22th: sod busting continues and I am feeling my many years of walking erect.
April 23rd: So much for walking erect......... First groundhog sighting. Drop everything and run down to the farm store and get another charger for the electric fence. Get another Hav-a Heart trap too.
April 24th: Celebrate 30 year anniversary; neither one of us could figure out how we got to 30 years. We did the math and agreed 20 years for sure but then how did we get a kid 28 years old and another 21?
30 years really? How the hell did this happen but we high five'd and had a great dinner!
April 25th: still no rain and sod busting goes on.......
April 27th: After a day on my knees I looked up to see the groundhog drooling, my arch enemy and in fact all underground rodents are now on my hit list, pick one. Moles, Voles, Groundhogs; yard rats.
April 27th PM: Head down to Little Mountain Brewing Company and make 10 gallons of Rampant Lion Beer. (to be bottled May 11th; 1- 5 gallon keg and 24 bomber bottles)
April 28th: Head down to Cleveland to tour Urban Gardens and Rid-All or the Green Ghetto project. Came home ready to sell the house and move to Cleveland.
April 29th: Back to my favorite store in the whole wide world; Home Depot and buy 16 - 8' fence posts, concrete and enough fence to wrap the neighborhood. Butch went to the boat....... and that is how we endured 30 blissful years of marriage.
April 30th: Rain....... sweet, sweet, sweet rain! It has been a month and our river was about dry. It rained all day and into the night. Should have gone to the studio but instead got my bread game on, greek yogurt and granola too. Should be good for a month!
The Patio garden planted, Yippee!
Solomon Seal and Pink Tulips, Spring rocks!
Part one of sodbusting. Paths are in too!
Starting the Berlin Wall....... stand by for sniper towers....
During the Urban garden tour, imagine my surprise at walking into the Galleria downtown Cleveland and what used to be Banana Republic is now home to a flock of chickens! LOVE!
Also in the Galleria, a chicken coop modeled after the Rock Hall of Fame, cute but so not practical.
growing kale and basil for the one restaurant left in the Galleria.
The Rid-All Tilapia tanks. Love the watercress filtration system.
Dinner!
Check out the size of that kale and chard!!
Watering system with reused malt containers from the brewery.
Best composting system ever!
A rainy day = 4 loaves of bread, a pan of rolls, 2 1/2 pints greek yogurt, 1 qt. whey and vat of granola.
Bread and yogurt day!
One vat of granola.
My fantastically expensive yogurt incubator; crockpot in insulated travel container, old bath towel and free styrofoam packing container. ( that a very expensive shipped woven vase broke in)
Chickens arrive in two weeks....... back to the Depot :)
Summing up a month of the crazies I am hoping to balance out pots, gardens, canning, chickens and daughter #2 moving home in a week. Time to light a candle and tap the keg....... gonna be a summer here on my half acre!
