Spinach the Size of Rhubarb

I love spinach salad (especially with this dressing) but our growing season for spinach can be problematic. High-desert spring weather can go from freezing cold to wilting heat in the space of a day (and back again - snow in June isn't completely unheard of). It's a delicate balancing act to get spring-seeded spinach big enough to pick before it bolts and starts sending up a seed stalk.

So instead, I sow my little spinach patch in the late fall when I plant my garlic and shallots. I like Bloomsdale Long-Standing, both for its ability to withstand both heat and cold, and for the meaty, smooth, easy-to-clean leaves. With luck, the seeds lie dormant until late February, when the melting snows and lengthening days make the perfect conditions for germination. I've been eating spinach salads for weeks now. In the photo, one plant that was too close to the edge of the protecting wire cage is a bit bird-pecked, but the rest are still doing great. On down the soaker hose behind are garlic and then shallots. Following the hose around to the left are some of the spring-seeded peas, with onion plants further back.

Every week, I cut a plant or two down to a couple of inches. Washed in a sink full of cool water, picked through and stems removed, the leaves keep nicely for days, wrapped in a clean cotton dish towel and then tied up in a plastic grocery bag. This past week we've had cold and rainy weather, so the spinach has just gone crazy. I'm picking spinach leaves the size of rhubarb! Not only do I have enough for salads daily (one leaf can make a salad), but this year, even enough to freeze. I dunk the leaves into boiling water for just a minute to blanch them, then cool in a sinkful of cold water and drain. most of my spinach recipes call for half a 10-oz package of frozen spinach, so I pack a 1/2 cup measure heaping full, make that into a little spinach patty, and put them on a cookie sheet. Frozen on the sheet, each disk is then wrapped in plastic wrap and all stored in a gallon freezer bag. This way, I can easily pull out just enough for a recipe for the two of us all next winter.

Memorial Day

Thinking of the famous war poem, In Flanders Field, I took this picture of red poppies in bloom, with my flags flying from my deck railing in honor of Memorial Day. We used to have a little, tiny, deck outside the kitchen door, with uneven steps down and then up again to go around the east side of the house. Between the uneven walkway and the house were foundation plantings of overgrown juniper bushes - not really a very good idea in a dry area with the threat of wildfire always hanging over us. Junipers, with their natural resins, can go up like gasoline in a fire situation.

So, when we rebuilt the deck to connect across to the walkway, I was only too happy to pull out those junipers and put something else in there. I scattered some mixed spring bulbs over the area and planted each where it fell (ground squirrels LOVE tulip bulbs, but won't touch daffodils - so mixing the bulbs together means they haven't destroyed the tulips and hyacinths). Since the little garden patch was right outside my kitchen door, I moved some herb plants there too. But it looked a bit sparse after the bulbs died back, so I also threw a bunch of really old wildflower seeds into the area too. To keep the chickens out, a little white picket fence completed the scene.

It's now a beautiful, ever-changing little garden (seen in various other guises in earlier posts). The early-summer wildflowers - blue and white flax, red Icelandic poppies, purple chive blossoms, and something with a cloud of pink flowers - are now three feet tall. I'll use them, and the ones that will bloom later, as my seed supply for a meadow-like garden I'd like to seed outside our fence. I'm just hoping they don't completely crowd out my herbs. All summer long, I pinch bits and pieces as I need them for my cooking, but also cut entire bunches in late summer to hang and dry for winter recipes, teas, and medicinal uses. If it gets too crowded, I might have to move either herbs or wildflowers, but in the meantime I love sitting out on the deck any time of year.

Memorial Services

I'm home again, after a very emotional week in Colorado. My mom and two sisters had taken care of a lot of the arrangements before my two brothers and I made it home. Such a difference from when my in-laws passed. Aries' family is so different from mine - they observed no services, no family get-togethers, nothing.

My family is different. We all needed to be together. There were lots of hugs and tears but it was a healing experience too. One sister had a birthday that week, so we all went out to dinner to her favorite Mexican food place one night. Everybody got into a cribbage game or two, childhood friends dropped by, we took turns checking our email on one brother's laptop, cooked and ate family dinners together. I put together a couple of collage displays for the services from the photos Mom liked best. We three sisters went to a yoga class. We watched another brother's favorite DVD movie. Dad would have loved having the whole family together there (darn, now I'm making myself tear up again).

The memorial service was very nice. Dad was a Mason, so the Masonic Lodge did their formal ceremony. The man leading the opening prayer got so choked up he couldn't finish and I was afraid he was going to collapse on the spot, but another Lodge brother got up and took over. It was very touching. The funeral home had put together a nice video display, my sister's childhood friend sang, the pastor read the obituary my sister wrote, and afterwards there was a luncheon reception with food brought by all Mom's friends.

Dad was WWII Army veteran, having served in the 10th Mountain Division in Italy and the Aleutian Islands. After the service and reception, we had a family-only, full military honors ceremony at Fort Logan Cemetery. Taps was played, and the flag unfurled and refolded and presented to Mom. Half of Dad's ashes, wrapped in his Mason's apron, will be interred there.

The next day, we drove up into the Rocky Mountains to one of Mom and Dad's favorite fishing and camping spots. We chose a high little point overlooking the lake, where a few early wildflowers were already in bloom and a couple of small butterflies flitted, even though a snowbank still lingered down by the road. There we scattered the rest of his ashes, along with some wildflower seeds and our silent goodbyes. Amazingly, a hummingbird perched on a nearby branch to watch. It was all sad and bittersweet and really a lot of planning and ritual, but then too brought a necessary and comforting sense of closure.

So now I'm home, sleeping once more in my own bed. I've got a garden to plant (although it snowed for a bit here yesterday), a campaign to plan, baby chicks out in the dog run, a new dog in the house (more on that later), and with the official Memorial Day start of the tourist season, work assignments starting to come in. Life goes on.

My Hat's in the Ring

I trusted my gut: saying to myself that I would run for office made me feel calm inside, saying I wouldn't just made me feel anxious. So, I went down to our county clerk's office, paid my $100 filing fee, signed lots of forms saying I'd run a positive campaign and report all my expenditures and that I really intended to see this through. I proved I was who I said I was, and that I lived in the right place to run for this office. They gave me a big packet of information on what I can and can't do and when to do it by, and now I'm an official candidate. Sometimes, if you want to live in a more sustainable, more aware, greener community, you have to work from within the system, and be one of those that makes the policies. Now I'm off to Colorado for my dad's memorial services and just to be with my family.

Albert was Right

A couple of months ago, I wrote about something outside frightening my cat, Albert, so badly that he wouldn't leave the house for weeks. Then, about a month ago, a mile across the valley from us, a rancher started finding his sheep dead with small holes in the neck. They looked like small-caliber bullet wounds perhaps, so he installed a video camera to find out who might be shooting his sheep. A couple of nights ago, with another dead ewe, he reviewed the tapes to see if he could catch the vandal in action. The story and video are here, from our local newspaper's website. At 2:16 on the first video, the powerful body and long tail of the culprit is instantly recognizable - a mountain lion! In the second video, it jumps over a fence, snatches a lamb, jumps back out with it and carries it away. With it now preying regularly on livestock, so close to town and not afraid of humans, the cougar was considered threat enough to be trapped and killed. It turned out to be a 130-pound male. Albert was smart to be scared.

This and That, and Some Sad News

This is just a quick little catch-up post. The six baby chicks have doubled in size, with wing and tail feathers over bodies and heads of baby fluff. I've been taking them outside to spend the day in the dog run lined with chicken wire. I'm using the cat carrier to transport them, putting it down in a little enclosed, shady spot with the door open. They hop in and out, exploring and scratching and dust bathing, and in the evening they've all gone back into it so I just close it up and bring them back into the house to the dog crate and their warming light for the night.

It was time to have our septic tank pumped out again, so Aries spent an evening digging up the lid and then I spent a morning waiting for the service truck to come. I'm still mulling over running for City Supervisor, but thinking I might as well throw my hat in the ring. It will be quite a learning experience. I transplanted my tomato, pepper, eggplant seedlings into individual little cups so they can be more easily moved to the garden at the end of the month, and have been hardening off the cabbages, broccoli, and kale plants out on the table on the deck.

And now for the sad news: my dad passed away in Colorado last night. I hope I can go as easily when my time comes - he was at my sister's cabin, along with her husband, my mom, and another sister. They'd gone there for the weekend, had just finished dinner, and he was still sitting at the table when he just put his head down and was gone. I'm making plans to fly out there later this week for the services next Thursday, so posts might be a bit sporadic for a while longer. Thank you in advance for your thoughts and your prayers.
~Sadge

Art, Music, and Culture - Free

Sorry I've been a bit MIA here lately - I took for a few days to visit my sister in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's always so nice to see her and her family there, and I love any chance I can get to just go somewhere, anywhere. But I had another reason for going down there this past weekend. We volunteer-ushered a concert Saturday night.

For us, both being big music fans, it's quality time together doing something we both enjoy. I know the bands we heard probably aren't even on the radar of my readers, but I wanted to mention this because it's the best way I know of to get to see and do cultural events, for free! We like live rock music, so we've found the venues that use volunteers for rock concerts, but this idea can work for just about any cultural event, or for museums, in your town too. Volunteering time instead of spending money is a very viable and affordable option to get out and about. Concert volunteers are usually "cut" early in the evening, so then they can just join the crowd and enjoy the rest of the event. Plus, once you get on the list for an organization, you'll also get invited to the year-end thank-you parties, or maybe get free tickets for another show.

As for our concert this weekend, it was the Progressive Nation Tour - with four bands: Three, Between the Buried and Me, Opeth, and Dream Theater (see, you probably never heard of them). The first three bands were a bit too "metal" for me, but I really liked Dream Theater. And I really love working this venue. The Paramount Theater in Oakland, California is a restored Art Deco Depression-era movie theater - a splendid example of ornate, rococo, gaudy, let's-go-nuts-in-public decorative art, fully and lovingly restored and ornamental as all get-out. In order to work there, volunteers have to go through the tour. It was amazing hearing about how the enormous decorative panels forming the theater walls and the proscenium arch were made and then erected, about the pipe organ still in place, the tunnels and crawl spaces above and below, the myriad little decorative touches everywhere - even the restrooms are amazing! When I don't care for the artists performing, I love spending my time just walking around the place, and I really love the interaction with all the people. Figure out what you'd like to see or do, start asking questions - get yourself on the upcoming events list for the places you'd like to spend some time (instead of money) - and ask who to talk to about volunteering.

Chicks in the Spare Room

Missy, a little brown leghorn we took in years ago, would hide a nest each year, then disappear and three weeks later, return with a new clutch of just-hatched chicks. She was a good mother hen, but is now getting too old to lay anymore (at least, I think so - she's been back in the coop every night so far this year). Anyway, we now have quite a few brown half-breed chickens, that still have the urge to set, and to fly. But a hen that's gone broody isn't laying any eggs, and I'm really getting tired of having ones that can fly over the garden fences digging up my plantings. I want some colorful, pure-bred chickens again.

I got one of our broody hens, Baldy, moved from a nest box to the dog run-turned-brooding pen a few nights ago - just scooped her up, along with her golf balls, on a dark night and she seemed content to stay. I think I could have slipped the new feed-store pure-bred chicks under her ok. But we like having the chickens as pets, ones that will come up and eat from our hands. Chicks raised by a mother hen aren't as friendly. So, on the way home from the feed store, we decided to raise the new babies inside like we used to do. When I got home, I took the golf balls away from Baldy (and BlackFluff too) and made them get out into the sunshine again - time to get back into egg production, ladies.

Chick Central, until they get enough feathers to withstand the cold nights outside, is in my guest room/home office/sewing room. The brood pen is a dog crate, set on my sewing/craft table that just spans across the end of the guest bed. I've flipped the crate upside-down, so that the windows are down at their level and slid a stick across through the bars for a low-level perch. For the time being, they're small enough to go back and forth underneath the perch, but eventually they'll want to use it. Since these chicks are already pretty good-sized and have strong legs, I've put newspapers down on the bottom for easily changed "diapers" (for just hatched babies, newspapers are too slick and could possibly lead to leg problems - add straw or sawdust on top of the paper).

I already had the chick-starter feed, a small feeder, and a small ceramic plant saucer for a water dish - small enough that they can't drown, heavy enough that they won't tip it over. Last item is their heat source - a nightlight fixture with a small vanity bulb (we've also used the big, outdoor, Christmas lightbulbs), plugged into an extension cord threaded through the window bars and taped to the ceiling so that it hangs down close enough for them to snuggle under and around. So, dear readers, meet the new girls - four Rhode Island Reds and two Plymouth Barred Rocks - heavier non-flying, good-laying breeds - chirping quietly and scratching about in there as I type.

This isn't Simple at All

The weather is warming up, the garden and rest of the yard are calling my name, Ciara has tagged me for a meme that I want to answer, and Rhonda Jean has asked her readers to tell their stories about how they live. I really want to get to all of these, and will, eventually, but I've had some busy events outside the home lately.

By watching our expenses and eliminating all debts, we can now afford for me to not work full-time. I love it because it allows me to be a very active volunteer in my community. I've been a member of my local Soroptimist International club for years, and for the past 1½ years have also been Treasurer. I love the chance to meet and work with lots of great women, and the funds we raise really make a difference for a lot of underserved women and children in our area. Our entire Sierra Nevada Region, 59 clubs throughout California and Nevada, is meeting for an annual conference in Reno all weekend, and I'm participating in those meetings.

Besides Soroptimists, I've also been quite visible in various other community efforts around town for the last 20+ years - most of them working towards a cleaner and greener community. I chaired our local Shade Tree Council, an advisory board to the City Board of Supervisors, for years. I'm on the Board of Directors of Muscle Powered, a local non-profit advocating for a pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly town and local trails system. I help a local political group with their Adopt-A-Highway cleanups, and am often out there whenever some other community effort needs help. I chaired my precinct's Presidential caucus earlier this year. When our city started a year-long Leadership Class, my employer at the time sponsored me to attend. I also have a B.S. degree, earned on the 25-year plan, in Human Ecology, with a focus on Community Services Administration; I did my internship with the City Parks & Recreation Department. So maybe it's not quite so surprising what's currently happening.

A local "progressive" political action group has recently formed because they figure the best way to get a cleaner and greener community is to get champions for that mindset into local political office. They've approached me because they think I might be a good candidate to run for one of the local positions open in this fall election. I live in the right Ward, they think I have the name recognition and the "street cred" to be a viable candidate, I've got the time to devote to running for office. So, now I'm talking things through in my head - I know I could do a good job; do I really want to do this? Can I handle the rejection if I don't win; can I handle the politics if I do? Do I really want to be in the spotlight like that? Am I totally crazy for even considering getting into the political arena in this downward-spiraling economic climate? I wouldn't be doing it for the power or glory - but our town is on the cusp of some really big changes and it would be nice to have an effect on those decisions. This is a really scary, big decision. I've got until mid-May, the filing deadline, to decide.

Under Pressure - Beans in a Pressure Cooker

I grew up in Denver, Colorado, the mile-high city. One of our standard junior high science class experiments was measuring the temperature of boiling water. The higher in altitude, the lower the temperature at which water boils. So, when I grew up, I knew that things would take longer to cook than stated in recipes written for sea-level cooks. Then, I moved to Leadville, Colorado.

Leadville, at 10,250 feet, is the highest city in the U.S. - essentially two miles high. I had to learn to cook all over again. Quartered potatoes needed to boil for an hour! But there was a time-saving solution - with a pressure cooker, altitude ceases to be an issue. I could have tender potatoes, soups, or stews in less than 15 minutes time. That alone was worth learning to use this scary-sounding device.

My cooker is the type with a rocker-type weighted control with three different size holes for the differing pressures. It will hold 4 narrow-mouth pint canning jars, so can also be used for small-batch pressure canning. When it reaches pressure, regulated by which side of the pressure control is down, it rocks the weight and rattles and hisses as the steam escapes. I lower the heat until the hissing spurts are 1-2 times per minute. I can then set the timer and go about my business around the house, knowing to come check if the sound stops.

Where pressure cookers really shine is cooking beans. Dry beans are so economical, but the time involved in preparation leads a lot of busy women to buy canned beans instead. I'll sometimes soak my beans overnight if I'm making a crockpot recipe the next day, or I've also used the speed-soak method of bringing them to a boil for 10 minutes and letting them sit for an hour if I've got the time to then cook them for 3-4 hours. But with a pressure cooker I can make a soup or chili, from dry beans and scratch ingredients, in less than a hour (pre-soaking, if you have the extra hour, helps keep pressure-cooked beans intact as they cook).

Pick over and rinse your dry beans, then put them in the pressure cooker, without the inside rack, with 3-4 times as much water. In my pressure cooker, 2 cups beans and 6 cups water works out right. I just add water until it's at least an inch above the beans - as long as you fill the cooker only half-full. Seal the cooker, and bring to 15 pounds pressure. Most beans - pinto, red, white, black, and soy - take 30 minutes once the cooker is up to pressure (garbanzos take 45 minutes; do NOT cook split peas or pea soup in a pressure cooker - they can foam up and block the steam valve). When the time is up, cool the cooker under cold running water until the pressure drops, open it, and you've got cooked beans ready to eat, as is, or to add to the soup/chili ingredients you've prepared in the meantime. Tonight, I started some white beans in the cooker; cut up, then simmered butternut squash, carrots, and onions; and pureed them just in time to add the beans. Home-cooked bean soup for dinner in less than an hour.

Oh, Brrrrr!

Well, that cold front definitely came through. Night before last, it snowed a bit and temps went down to 27º. The fruit trees were looking pretty ragged. Then, last night's low was 22º so that's probably enough to do in most everything currently in bloom. I'm afraid to go look. The cold was too much for Spots, our old Barred Rock hen, too - we found her dead in one of the nest boxes this morning. We don't butcher our hens, they're our pets as well as egg factories. We keep them around as "boarders" as long as they live. I'm not sure, but think Spots was about 12 years old. She was slowing down quite a bit, but would still come up to eat out of my hand, and even laid an egg a couple of weeks ago.

So that leaves us with 9 hens and a rooster (plus 3 guineas - 2 hens and a cock) in the chicken house. Of the ten chickens, six are Missy's offspring - including Ivan, our rooster. Baldy is still wanting to set, so I'm still thinking of trying to get her to foster some feed-store chicks. I want to get her moved from a nest box to the brooding pen I've made out of the dog run. I'm thinking about moving her in the dark of night, after this full moon wanes, so she won't try to go back to the coop. Plus, the weather is supposed to warm up again in a few more days, so if she does reject the chicks they'll have a better chance of surviving until I can get them inside and under a light for warmth. I'm new to fostering out chicks - we've raised chicks inside until feathered out, and just kept the ones that Missy brought in. Missy's been acting squawky and sneaky, but is back in the coop every night - I think she's getting too old to lay any more. She might foster a brood, but I'm also afraid she'd know they weren't hers and kill them.

There is good news around here too. I saw four bees out on the grape hyacinths, so at least I know there's still a surviving hive around here somewhere nearby. And the asparagus is starting to come up. The first sprouts are all flopped over from the freezing weather, but at least I know the roots are still ok. I repaired the fence around that plot, added some compost, and fixed up a new section of soaker hose. Now that the weather is supposed to warm up again, I hope to be eating fresh asparagus soon. I also added compost to the strawberry patch. The first blooms there are black in the center, so they froze too. But that means I'll get a better harvest later of lots of medium-sized berries instead of the one big one with lots of little ones (barring many more 20º nights, that is).

Hanging Out Day

I mean laundry, not loitering. Project Laundry List designates April 19th as our National Hanging Out Day, to draw attention to both energy consumption (electric clothes dryers use 5 - 10 per cent of the residential electricity in the U.S.) and local ordinances prohibiting clotheslines (The Right to Dry campaign).

Other than this post, I couldn't participate. One of the first things to consider if hanging clothes out to dry is the weather. Now while that might mean rain in most parts of the country, here wind is the big decider - sandblasting clean clothes is not a good idea. Today the barometer really dropped - a cold front was coming through, so I knew it wouldn't be a good day to hang clothes out. The photos are from a couple of days ago. We're on both a well and a septic system so, not wanting to overtax either, I'll only do one load of laundry a day. One retractable clothesline for the big stuff, combined with a collapsible wooden rack (that will also fit inside the bathtub, or can be placed in front of the woodstove in the winter) for the little things, fit my solar drying needs perfectly (in the photo, that's also our down comforter draped over a table and chairs to solarize before being stored away for the summer).

A few things to think about when hanging clothes outside to dry: 1.don't put your clotheslines under trees - birds hang out in trees. 2.turn dark clothes inside out if you're worried about them fading. 3.hang your clothes from the part closest to your waist when worn - shirts from the hem, pants from the waist (unless you want a crease down the pant leg, then hang them already creased - Mom had metal framework stretchers that she'd slide inside the legs of my Dad's dress pants) 4.cotton stretches when wet - leave a bit of a gap when hanging knit cotton T-shirts so they won't dry stretched out. 5.if your clothes are too stiff, go ahead and throw them in the dryer for just a little bit when you bring them in, just to soften them. 6.line-dried clothes last longer - that lint in your dryer used to be part of the material, you know. And the best for last: 7.line-dried cotton sheets just smell so good!

Pizza! Pizza!

Friday night - I wanted pizza. Making your own pizza crust takes a couple of hours of advance planning, to give the dough time to rise, but it's really not very difficult (this recipe will also work in a bread machine on the dough setting). And it's a great way to put a whole new face on just about any kind of leftovers.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (makes 2 12" pizzas)

2¼ teaspoons (or 1 pkt) dry yeast
1 cup very warm water
3 cups flour (I use half whole wheat and half unbleached flour)
1 teaspoon salt

Sprinkle yeast over warm water, let set a couple of minutes to dissolve. Mix salt into 2 cups flour and stir into yeast mixture. Add third cup of flour, stir in as much as possible, then dump dough and excess flour onto cutting board and knead for 10 minutes (to knead dough: flatten and push the dough away from you with the heels of both hands, pull the farthest part to double it back over on itself, and spin the dough a quarter-turn; continue in a push/pull rocking motion), adding up to ¼ cup more flour until dough is smooth and doesn't stick to your hands or the board. Pour a few drops of oil into a clean bowl, use the ball of dough to spread it around the entire inside, and then turn the dough so the oiled side is up and cover with a clean cloth. Let rise 45-60 minutes, punch down (punch your fist into the ball of dough, and when it collapses push the edges into the center, dump it out and shape it back into a ball). Add a few more drops of oil to the bowl, smear it around and flip the dough ball oiled side up again and let rise another 45-60 minutes.

Preheat oven to 475º. Prepare your toppings - chop or slice veggies, pre-cook meat, shred cheese. Lightly oil your pizza pan(s), and dust lightly with cornmeal. Divide dough in half. If you'd like to freeze half, roll it into a cylinder, place it in an oiled 1-pint freezer bag and press all air out before freezing (later, thaw in refrigerator without opening bag until ready to use). Let the dough rest 10 minutes before shaping, by rolling and pulling, to fit 12" pan. Add toppings (we like lots of home-canned tomato sauce, a sprinkle of oregano, shredded mozzarella cheese, and then whatever leftovers, bits and pieces I find in the refrigerator or pantry). Bake on lowest rack 15 - 20 minutes.

Tips: My oven isn't big enough to fit two pizzas on the bottom rack, so I cook them one at a time when making two. For some insight into tossing your pizza crust, practice the throwing and spinning motions with your dish cloth - it's an art.

A Green "Room" for the Picnic Table

Nice, quiet day today. I got out for a walk with Boris, our pound hound, this morning. We checked out the new strip mall under construction below us, and where they've torn up our street for the gas lines being replaced. A few days ago, when they were working closer to our house, and it was so cold, they came to the door to tell me that they were going to turn off our gas but attach a little pony bottle to the meter that would be just enough to keep our pilot lights lit, but not enough for the furnace. I told him even that wouldn't be necessary, because the only pilot light is the one for the on-demand water heater and I can turn that on and off manually. The gas guy couldn't believe that we didn't have a furnace in the house, and had never seen a water heater that didn't have a tank. He couldn't believe our bill is only $25 a month either :-)

The rest of the afternoon, I just puttered around in the yard. I pruned a Virginia Creeper vine that drapes over our fence. I moved a lilac and trimmed out a couple of dead branches on another. I'm making a lilac hedge around three sides of an old picnic table. That table has an interesting story. We got it when a neighbor moved to Oregon. He'd lived and had a business here in Carson City since the 1930's, and also had some property up on the east shore of Lake Tahoe. A long time ago, a couple of days after a big rain storm with lots of wind, he found the table washed up on his beach. The thing is huge - the legs are 6" X 6" posts, the tabletop and attached benches are 4" X 12" planks. It looks like something from a Forest Service campground, but there aren't any on that side of the lake. He figured some campers across the lake moved the table down near the water, and then it washed away during the storm and took a couple of days to float the 12 miles across the lake.

The fence for the vegetable garden is on the fourth side of the table. I seeded some sunflowers and morning glories along that stretch, protected that area from the birds with some wire, and then laid a soaker hose down all the way around. Of course, the chickens were right there underfoot the whole time, clucking and murmuring about, just in case I turned up something interesting. Under the lilacs is one of their favorite places to hang out.

Big Batch of Meatballs

I eat meat, but can just as easily do without it. I think of meat as a condiment to a meal - it adds flavor but it's not the main attraction. But Aries is an avowed carnivore. He'd make a meal of meat and bread if left to his own devices. He won't eat salads either, so I sneak veggies into his meals by making lots of soups and stews in the winter (out of the veggies stored in the cellar), and stir-fries in the summer (right out of the garden). I'll rarely buy meat when I make my twice-monthly trip to the market, unless it's some turkey ham to flavor a pot of beans.

But we also have a grocery store a block down the hill. Aries will walk down there a couple of times a week - because his bank is inside, or for me if we're out of milk, or to rent a DVD when there's nothing on TV (we never see movies in the theater - even newly released DVD's are only $1.50 for a 1-day rental). Usually, he'll check out the meat section for the must-sell-today specials. Yesterday, he came home with two pounds of country sausage, reduced to 99¢. When someone hands you that much ground meat, it's time to make meatballs. I had a pound of ground round in the freezer (also bought on sale, $2) - taken out to thaw yesterday, I made a big batch of meatballs today.

Big Batch of Meatballs (makes 75 1" meatballs)

3 pounds ground meat (I usually use a combination of beef and pork)
1½ cups fine bread crumbs
1½ cups finely chopped onion
3 eggs
2 tablespoons worchestershire sauce
¼ cup ketchup
salt & pepper

Mix everything together. Spray a broiler pan with non-stick spray. Roll mixture into 1" meatballs (the easiest way I've found to make equal portions is to dump the mixture out on my cutting board, shape it into a 1" high rectangle, and cut it into 1" cubes). Bake 400º 20-25 minutes (I'll usually take them out of the oven after 15 minutes, and using a fork, flip the meatballs over so they'll brown on the other side too, putting them back into the oven for another 5-10 minutes).

This recipe makes just enough to fill my broiler pan. After the meatballs have cooled, I move them to a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer. After they're frozen hard, I transfer them to a gallon freezer bag to use as needed. Classically, I'll add them to a tomato and veggie sauce to serve over pasta, but they're also good in a brown sauce with mushrooms and yogurt as a meatball stroganoff, tucked in a pita pocket with lots of cucumber slices and a bit of ranch dressing, or Aries will sometimes make himself a meatball sandwich with cheese and barbecue sauce.

For a normal meal, Aries will have 4-5 meatballs as a serving, and I'll have maybe 3, so this $3 of meat will make 9-10 meals for the two of us. Today, I only had 1 tablespoon of worchestershire sauce, so I used 1 tablespoon soy sauce too, and didn't add any salt or pepper (also, because the sausage had seasoning already added). They turned out just fine.

Other notes: Sunday, we had 80º weather, yesterday 60 mph winds(!), and then it snowed for a while this morning. Also, Reno (25 miles away) had about 20 little 3.something earthquakes this morning. I didn't feel any of them.

On his motorcycle ride Sunday, Aries went with a buddy over Monitor Pass nearby. The road was dry, but snowbanks still lined both sides on top. Just as he was at the top of the pass, a long straight level stretch, he saw some roadkill in the road ahead. As he came up to it, he looked up and there was a golden eagle, flying head-on right at him, headed for the carrion. Aries laid on the brakes and the horn simultaneously, and it flew up right over him. He said the wingspan was wider than the travel lane, and he was close enough to see the wide-stretched talons glinting. Living in Nevada is so much fun!

Blogging - New Window or Back Button?

It looks like I'm starting to garner some readers here at Firesign Farm, and I like looking back at the blogs from people that comment or refer others here. There are a lot of really great efforts out there in what I think of as the conscientious consumer lifestyle. But I hate it when I find an interesting site with a link to something else interesting, and when I follow it I lose the original site. So I thought I'd tell everyone how to make a link (or a picture) on your site open up in a new window. Eventually, your reader can close everything else and be back to your site, which is what they really wanted to see in the first place.

I use Blogger, but I'm assuming most other blogging software sites have a similar set-up. When making your post, you can use either a "compose" wysiwyg (whizz-ee-wig: it means What You See Is What You Get) area, or see (and do) the same thing in an "edit Html" area, depending on which tab you choose. To make your link or photo open in a new window, we're just going to add a little bit of typing on the "Html" side.

After you've gotten your link or photo inserted, choose the Html tab. Find what you just added, including the website .com or photo .jpg with lots more stuff inside pointy little brackets. Put your cursor right after the .com or .jpg then type a space and then the following: target="_blank" just like that, all together, no spaces, using the quotes, equals and underscore keys. Then you can go back to finishing your post, and when you publish it, people won't be led away from your site if they want a closer look at a photo or want to see what you're referencing.

Added later: Maybe I'm in the minority here. After posting, I've been doing a bit of researching about this, and seeing where lots of people don't like having a post open in a new window automatically - preferring instead to right-click do-it-themselves. Should I stop having links open in new windows (high-jacking someone else's browser is the way a few people put it), and just let people use the "back" button? What do you think?

Spring Inspection Time

It's downright hot today. I had Aries put the shade up outside the big east-facing window this morning, so the living room is now a comfortably cool refuge. Then, he took off on a motorcycle ride with a buddy, so I did a little Spring inspection walk around the yard. The daffodils in the herb garden are fading (and will need to be deadheaded), but the first of the tulips and narcissus just opened up. The oregon grape is in bloom - a bright, cheery yellow.

The cellar is up to 50º, so later after it cools down outside, I'll have to get down there and start assessing what can still stay, what needs to be brought up to the refrigerator, what needs to be processed (frozen, dried, maybe canned), what needs to be on the menu this week, and what goes to the chickens. The two fig trees down there are starting to break dormancy. They'll need to be repotted and brought out to the sunshine, and then kept on the wagon to be moved in and out of the garage as the weather warrants. I know I need to get the Roots garden bed prepped, so I can get the seed potatoes stored from last year planted soon.

I've got a dead branch on the Italian prune tree, and it looks like another one on the seedling peach (a mature tree of unknown variety, so named because it just sprouted one year from under a woodpile - the seed probably buried there by a squirrel). The stresses from a drought winter last year and peach tree borer damages are showing up now, so I'll need to do some pruning. I've got one dead branch on a lilac, and I want to move a piece of another one over to fill in a hedge I'm making around a little picnic table. I think of my yard as the slowest form of artwork.

A little hawthorn tree doesn't look like it made it, but there's another sprout down by the vegetable garden that can be moved to take its place. The first strawberry blooms just opened, as did the pears. No asparagus yet - the chickens or rabbits have knocked down the fencing, so that needs to be redone - I hope they haven't destroyed the plants. The two artichoke plants survived the winter, but there's no sign of the rhubarb yet. It's Spring, today anyway, and there's work to be done.

Fruit - To Be or Not to Bee

"April is the cruellest month," said T.S. Eliot. That sure holds true for trying to grow fruit around here. The weather right now determines if I will get much of a crop this year. Last year, just as another wave of blossoms came along, so did the nasty weather. But nothing can compare to the taste of a tree-ripened apricot or peach, fresh-picked and eaten still warm from the sun, bending over right next to the tree to keep the juice from dripping down your shirt. So, even though I might only get a crop one year in every three or four, it's definitely worth the effort.

When we got married we eloped, combining two housefuls of things, so most of my extended family just sent money as a wedding present. We used all of it to buy little bare-root fruit trees, the hardiest ones with the highest chill requirements I could find. We now have quite the little mature orchard. We're situated nicely, comparatively for this area, to be able to grow fruit. We're a bit above the valley floor, so often the cold air will flow right past, sinking to the lowest point. The ground slopes down from the west so we get the first rays of the morning sun. We've had our problems - rabbits walking on top of a deep snowfall girdled quite a few trees one winter (but most sprouted back lower down where the snow had provided a protective cover, and now a wire cage protects each trunk), wind has broken a few branches, and often I have to festoon the trees with scare tape and salvaged CD's to keep the birds from getting everything.

Dare I say it? This year, things are looking pretty good. Both unopened buds and fruit already set can stand temperatures a bit colder than open blossoms. Plus, the apricot blossoms incrementally, the first blooms are withered and brown from the 25º nighttime lows the past week, but a few more opening every day just might make it. It's always the first to bloom, therefore the most likely to freeze, so apricots are the rarest fruit from my orchard. The plums are now in full bloom, and the first peach and nectarine flowers are starting to add a touch of pink. Asian, then regular pears, will follow, then the cherries, and finally the apples.

Wind too, can wreak havoc with a fruit crop. If it's too windy, the bees and other pollinators can't fly. I've been watching for bees, and haven't seen too many - I hope we still have some around. I lost my two hives a few years ago - they just died off. That seems to be happening more and more all over the world, so I'm thinking I should try again to establish a colony or two. Carpenter bees, the big shiny black solitary bees, also make good pollinators. We usually have some that emerge from our woodpile each spring. I've started looking into raising them as well. That can be a topic for another post.

Patching Knees

This is another Grammaw-inspired lesson. She never really sat down and showed me how to patch the knees of my blue jeans, but I was quite the little tomboy growing up so I had ample opportunity to see how it was done from the patches she, and Mom, put on my own blue jeans. This method works great - repairing the hole and reinforcing the entire knee area. It feels good to wear, blends right in, and gets softer right along with the pants over time.

If a hole is in the seat or upper thigh of a pair of blue jeans, it can be reached, with a bit of maneuvering, to be patched on a sewing machine. I'll put the patch on the inside, and then just zig-zag stitch back and forth, up and down, until I've "quilted" the patch over the hole. But holes in the knee can't be fixed this way, unless you're willing to rip the leg seam and then sew it back up afterwards. Too much trouble - this way is easier and makes a long-lasting patch.

It's very handy to keep the legs from an old worn-out pair of blue jeans around as a patch supply (or pick up the biggest pair you can find at a thrift store). You can even match the amount of fading to the pants to be patched - taking the patch from down near the hem for darker pants, and using the faded upper thigh for lighter ones. First, cut a patch quite a bit bigger than the hole, rounding the corners.

Turn the pant leg inside out and pin the patch down so that both "wrong sides" are up. Hide your knot between patch and pant material and then, about a quarter-inch away from the edge, start stitching the patch down with a running stitch around the edge - four to five stitches to the inch. Continue around, and when you get back to your starting place, continue with another round, a quarter-inch to the inside. Two rounds is enough, but you can keep circling around until you run out of thread, and then fasten off.

Turn the pants leg right side out, and trim any long threads and end tufts from the hole. Keeping the pants leg as flat as possible to the patch (pin it if necessary), fold the ragged edges under and stitch with an overcast stitch, catching a bit of the patch material and then up through the edge of the fold. Tuck any loose threads under with the tip of your needle as you work your way around the rip. Fasten off, and you're done!

Broken Things

It's turning out to be quite the year for us. First the 25-year old waterbed, then the 20-year old microwave, and now the 15-year old television die - irreparably dead - all of them. And Aries is really good at fixing things (obviously, when you look at the age of most of our stuff). Looking on the bright side, the more big-ticket items that die and get replaced now, before we're retired, the less expense (I hope!) once our income level drops. So, we went TV shopping - checking prices at Best Buy and Wal-Mart, and then getting a friend with a CostCo card to take Aries over there. He came home with a Samsung flat screen that fits in our entertainment armoire. He's happy - the picture is so sharp and the colors so fine. I'm happy - I can still close the doors on that evil eye when I'm home.

We've had some pretty high winds lately. They're called Washoe zephyrs. The Washoe tribe are the native Americans indigenous to this area, and the winds are always out of the west. Being in the high desert, this time of year especially, we can get temperature swings of 50º between our below-freezing nights and sunny Spring days. Add to that the cold mountain air on the snow-covered slopes above us, rushing to the valley floors after sundown as the temperature drops, and we can get some pretty good winds in the afternoons and evenings. Then, there's the fact that our home is at the foot of a canyon, funneling those winds down, but above the calmer valley floor. It all adds up to some pretty good winds coming through here on occasion. A couple of days ago, one of our gateposts broke - the combination of high winds and dry rot in the wood just snapped it. So replacing that fence post was on the list of things to do too. Level and plumb, the gate now swings and closes perfectly again.

And then, when we were out doing errands in our "town car" yesterday, we had some problems too. Granted, it's over 35 years old, so things will break on occasion (and it can be awfully difficult to find parts anymore!). It's a 1972 Honda 600, inherited from Aries' dad. The engine is a 600cc motorcycle engine in a teeny little 2-door sedan, and it gets over 40 miles per gallon, in town. Besides, it's cute, and I love the looks and comments we get when we're out in it. It looks like it should have a wind-up key on the back, or maybe eight clowns jumping out when we stop. Just seeing it makes people smile. And then when Aries gets out - he's 6'5" - people do a double-take.

Anyway, coming back from town, it kept dying. We'd pull over to the side, wait a bit, and then get it started enough to get a few more blocks. We did manage to nurse it home, with occasional bouts of pushing too - at least it's not very heavy. Aries got a new fuel filter for it, but it looks like the fuel pump might be going out too, or maybe rust in the gas lines or tank. Hope we can fix it or find the parts needed. Gasoline is only going to get more and more expensive, I'm afraid.