Square Foot Gardening

My parents introduced me to square foot gardening last year and I thought it was a great idea because I have a distinctly black thumb when it comes to growing plants. Later in the year they sent me the book All New Square Foot Gardening. Now this method is nearly fool proof if you follow it, or so the book says. I am all for fool-proof gardening. From what the book tells me about traditional gardening, I would not have been a very successful row gardener. I don't want to till my soil or pH test it or any of that stuff. And I certainly would not get around to weeding it as often as would be required. Fortunately with the SFG method, none of these things are necessary. The website has all the information you need to start your own, so I won't go into any of that here. I just wanted to show off my fancy new garden. I only have a few things planted right now and I am waiting a week to buy another bag of vermiculite to fill my second box. We are starting small this year with only two 4'x4' boxes and the 2'x2' box I made last fall. I would love to plant more but I think that I would like to "get the hang of it" before going all out. Besides, with just my husband, the baby and myself, we don't need a ton of produce. I am still figuring out what to plant and when to start the seeds and everything. I am hoping to place the 2' box on top of the corner of my second 4' box and grow corn in it. I love corn. Really. I can eat it like candy. Or like graham crackers, in my son's case. I plan to post updates every few weeks so you, too, can see how my garden grows.

Kissing

I suppose that when a second or third child comes along in one's family each of their new accomplishments is overshadowed by a "been there, done that" sentiment from seeing the first child do those same things. Fortunately, I still only have one child so every new thing that he does is amazing and noteworthy. For instance, yesterday was the first time Joseph ever kissed me. Often when I pick him up I kiss his nose and declare, "kiss!" Yesterday, when I picked him up, he leaned in, touched his lips to my nose and, as he was leaning back, clicked his tongue, his closest approximation to the kiss sound. Michael was the happy recipient of Joseph's kisses today.

It is fun and interesting to watch Joseph learn and study things. He has recently started carrying his toy phone around, jabbering into it for fifteen minutes at a time. Today as I was working on my garden fence, he lounged in his camp chair with a sippy cup in one hand and the phone held firmly to the side of his head with the other hand. He jabbered loudly while waving his sippy cup around. At least until I started drilling holes. The drill was a temptation too much to withstand. I did not accomplish much at that time.

For anyone who looked at my menu, I am happy to say that the meals listed on that menu have lasted us two weeks. This is a good thing because the grocery bill for that menu was large. But if that much food lasts us two weeks, then the bill was quite reasonable. Most of the items on the menu were new to me, and we have enjoyed most of them. Some of them we will not eat again, although they were not bad. Some of them are definite keepers. The last rendition of 15 bean soup turned out particularly well and I wish I had written down everything that I put in it. The spaghetti (on the menu from a previous week) turned out better than expected since we substituted whole grain pasta for the normal pasta and we replaced our usual hamburger meat with diced extra firm tofu. We also added a number of vegetables to the sauce. Next time I hope to have extra mushrooms on hand to add, too.

Foster's Holly

In our backyard we have four holly plants that look like the plants pictured here. The other day I left Joseph outside playing alone for a minute to come in and do something. When I came back out I was rather horrified to see a crushed red berry in his hand and a big grin on his face. Snatching his face in my hand I swept my finger through his mouth and found nothing. This did not reassure me as the berries are small enough he could have swallowed them already. Much to his displeasure I carried him inside and called poison control from my cell phone which has an 801 number. I was connected to poison control. In Utah. They happily informed me that there are no poisonous red berries that grow. In Utah. So I went back to searching the internet and discovered what kind of bushes I have and that the berries cause barfing and diarrhea. Small child showed no signs of either and I presume from that that he never swallowed any or enough to cause a problem.

So last night I dreamed that I left him outside playing and when I went out he had a mouth full of black berries (the red ones from the bush had turned black later in the year in my dream. On the real plant they don't do that I am pretty sure). Not a reassuring dream to have. So today I will be purchasing plant clippers and trimming all the pretty, enticing berries within child's reach from the bushes. While I intend to keep my eyes on the wily child, I know that I will not keep my eyes on him every second that we am out there. Furthermore, he is still too young to understand from discipline that he should not do something. So I think the safest solution, like outlet covers and keeping sharp things out of his reach, is to keep the berries out of his reach. My bushes may look funny for awhile, but better that than an evening in the ER. If anyone has ideas on how to keep small fingers from exploring forbidden berries, I would love to hear them!

Success

I am in charge of activities at the church I attend. This position is not necessarily complicated. In fact, among positions to have, it is a reasonably easy one. That does not mean that I did not spend half the night awake last night worrying about what might go wrong tonight during the first activity for which I was in charge. My main worry was that no one would show up. Then I had to worry about whether anyone would be there to help set up. Then I worried about having to clean up all by myself. Of course, with a congregation as awesome as the one I attend, none of these worries were even remotely possible.

Within one minute of my arrival at the building another car pulled in. And then another. Mind you, I was more than 30 minutes early. Less than ten minutes later we were inside setting up. The activities committee had charged each organization with assignments for presenting information about being prepared for emergencies and long-term unemployment or other difficulties. While I was bringing in bread rolls and plastic-ware, each group had already chosen the room in which they would present their information. Whew! One worry off my mind. Before I had finished brining in my crockpot, someone was inquiring as to how many tables and what kind I wanted set up. Wow! A second worry crossed right off my list in less than five minutes.

Then more people showed up! And they brought food to the potluck. Woohoo! People and food to feed them with! Everything was going so well! And I did not have to do a thing! But then I had to worry about if the Red Cross speaker would show up while we were still all eating. Fortunately, someone was kind enough to say the opening prayer, the rotations through the information booths did not descend into mass chaos, and, just as everyone finished their last rotation, lo and behold, the Red Cross speaker arrived! She gave an excellent presentation to which everyone listened quietly, even the children were well behaved and quiet. There was enough food for everyone and even a few rolls left over for me to take home. Oh, and did I mention that we had homemade root beer? It was excellent! I particularly enjoyed the floods of "smoke" that issued forth when the dry ice was added.

Fortunately, I had the forethought to save a plate of food for our speaker because by the time she finished, there was hardly a morsel left, except the bread rolls. While she ate I chatted with her and kept her company. She is a very nice lady and very well educated. We were fortunate to have her come speak to us. By the time I wished our guest good night everything was cleaned up and put away. All I had to do was dry a handful of dishes, collect my things (and the used table clothes) and wander into the night. What a great success! And I owe it entirely to all those who participated and helped and attended. Thank you!

Shopping list for yesterday's menu

This shopping list includes ingredients for everything on yesterday's menu. The recipes provide at least enough food for two adults and a 14 month old child. Most of the recipes are actually enough for four adults, ensuring plenty of leftovers. While I usually plan12 meals (lunch and dinner) each week we usually only need 8-10 of those meals. This means that we will be stocking up for food storage or for when there is more than two weeks between paychecks, etc. This menu is all vegetarian.

Menu for a week

I will add links to the recipes that are already on the web and a shopping list tomorrow. I hope.

New Car!

We have bought a new car. Well, new to us. It is a 2008 Mazda5. An excellent minivan. On the small side of minivans, in fact, it is likely the smallest minivan out there. I believe it was built on the chassis of a Mazda6, so it has the car engine and gas mileage (25-28 mpg highway) and it has the handling of a car. However, it has dual sliding doors and seats that all fold down. It does not have as much cargo space as regular minivans, you almost have to have the back seats folded flat to carry anything, but that is working fine for us. Our particular car came with a 6-CD changer and a sunroof. Awesome. One of the other features that I have wanted and it has is that you set the temperature and the car automatically keeps it there, just like your thermostat at home. Lovely. It is a pretty red color and has a few scratches and bumps, but nothing noticeable from any distance. Joseph slept all the way home from Atlanta in it and enjoys when he is allowed free reign in the car.