Hello

Never in our lives have we been this busy. It's a good busy, but a time-suck nonetheless. We love ya guys and we will get back to it all at sometime. Until then, take care.

Fix this effing mess

This is our little patch of earth off the the front porch. I believe the dimensions are 4x5 and it faces east. As you can see, it's a mess. The reason for the mess is that we don't quite know what to do with it yet. We want to fill it with perennials. We're looking for flowers, something edible, and some height in the back. Our problem is that we are dealing with some serious partial sun. In the summer, the plot gets shaded by the house around 12:30-1:00. We really don't have the experience with perennials to even know where to start. Do you have any suggestions? Give us a list, and we'll give it a try.

We're sure you've seen enough

Even the littlest gardens are susceptible to blight. We could post the photos, but most of you have had it yourself, and need not see more.

Our Squash have also fallen victim to vine borers. We were on top of them for a good part of the season, but we over planted the beds and they eventually became so tight that we couldn't keep track of what was and was not done. By the end, none were done, and they all went to shit.

Last week Meg tore out all the summer squash and planted some late greens in their place. Today I removed the winter squash and all of the tomatoes. The garden is looking a little naked.

We did learn a lot from our first quick season. Our goal for next year is to go more vertical. The tomato trellis was a huge success (while the plants were living) and we believe that next year's squash should receive similar treatment. It should be pretty bad ass. But in the mean time, the beans are still doing well, our herb garden is bangin' it out, and the root veggies are looking quite strong.

Building Ingredients

Turnips are a great ingredient for broths. We planted this little batch with one thing in mind, soup for the winter. We're still waiting on a few more ingredients before the soup making begins; so our plan, while we wait, is to cube, blanch, and freeze these suckers until the time is right for cooking.

A bit more candid than usual

In the Spring of 2002 I had just finished my undergraduate work and to celebrate I took every penny I owned and my little brother for a summer tour of some of our National Parks. This is a photo of Derrek and I at Crater Lake. I was 26 and he was 16.

When he was an infant I took him out late at night to see Halley's Comet (he barfed on my shoulder). I changed his diapers, took him sled riding, bought him beer, and helped him bury his father. He was still pretty young when I left home, so our trip was actually the first time we really had a chance to hang out. I believe I can speak for us both in saying that, even though we had been close, this trip changed our relationship forever.

All I've ever wanted was for him to be happy and safe.



This past May I found out that he had decided to join the Marines. I believe in peace, but I also believe that unless we can address some major global issues, there will always be a need for a military. Every morning when I go for a run I see a car's bumper sticker with a quote from Einstein that says something like, "It is impossible to simultaneously prepare for and prevent war." Actually I think Billy Bragg said it best that "the only way to disarm is to disarm." Admittedly, when I first found out about his decision I was angry and terrified. I was angry because I was afraid for him, and I was terrified because I was afraid for me. No one wants to run the risk of losing someone as close as he is to me.

On Friday Meg and I took a trip to Parris Island for his graduation. It was pretty damn emotional and never I have I been so proud to be his brother.

Will work for food

Yesterday Meg and I spent the good part of the day picking green beans at Blue Blaze Farm. We met the grower, Eric, at the farmer's market and bartered our labor for some of his excess produce. Eric and his wife Melody's farm is certified naturally grown and is about 5 1/2 acres. Meg and I don't have any intentions of becoming market farmers, but we do want to grow food on a large scale. We figure that a couple years head start would eliminate some of the growing pains new farmers experience when they start with little to no knowledge of sustainable food production.

For those of you who are interested in this kind of cooperative farming, we should provide this little side note. Farmers obviously need to make money to keep their operation going, so I'm not too sure how open they would be to people flooding their stands and asking for food in exchange for labor. Rob from One Straw had a great post that kind of hits on this little dilemma. I think our case with Eric and Melody might be a little unique. They have a new baby and this is their first year growing full-time (this is their only source of income); their production needs have increased, but their ability to input labor has not. Perhaps when their baby becomes a little less time consuming (is that even possible?) they both can be out there together more often. Until that time comes, hopefully we can help them out on occasion.

From Born to be Nervous

Crazy. In our last post, which we just put up moments ago, we had talked about a community garden in our area. Shortly after I saw this little gem on Born to be Nervous. It's pretty cool; check it out.

Swing Bees

On our way back from a day at Musikfest we walked by a little community garden. Their space is along the fence of a neighborhood playground. The garden is about four feet deep and half a city block long. We hung out and talked with one of the volunteers and she said that the garden runs on a pretty lax policy of plant what you want, pick what you want. The whole set up is simple and kept up well, but what really got our attention were the number of honey bees and the incredible sound of a neighbor practicing the sax.

Roof's up

We finished the roof over the back deck today.


The panel material we chose lets in the light, but blocks UV rays and keeps things cool.

Next on the agenda will be to put up the railing. After that we will make the call for the final inspection and then it will be time for the rain harvester.

Musikfest

It's Musikfest here in Bethlehem. This is actually my first time experiencing the week long shindig and I must say that it is pretty damn awesome. In attendance at the festival they have some pretty big names playing at their larger venues, but the real gems are the not so big names with incredible talent who sometimes don't get a stage at all. The video below is a guy who's shtick is called Cast in Bronze. He made this four-ton contraption and I believe it's the only one of it's kind. Needles to say, I was impressed.



The real surprise of the performance came at the end of his gig and unfortunately we didn't get it on video. So this guy has this whole quite medieval thing going, like he's a monk or from Cirque du Soleil, but then he dropped the bomb and spoke. I kid you not, the cat sounds just like Comic Book Guy. The contradiction was so intense I almost started to drool from laughter.