Backwoods Babble

I am writing this with my foot propped up, wrapped and currently being iced. I biffed it big time jumping out of the truck this last weekend as we were over in Death Valley. Yes, very, very graceful. As a friend of mine would say.... "you look like a champion...." Sadly, that is a mockery of how cool I looked falling into a hole. But, I think it was worth every ounce of discomfort I have right now. The wildflowers, they are blooming like crazy on the drive in to Badwater. I mean like the best I've ever seen. Granted, I haven't been here all that long, and I missed the big bloom from a few years ago when the roads washed out on the one side of the valley, but this was fabulous! The route we took was from Pahrump, down highway 372 a right at Shoshone (which is literally the end of 372, you can either go left or right); then up the road about 5 minutes past the end of Shoshone and a left at the first sign (it's really the first real road you come to after Shos...

I have been attempting to start some of my seeds in the house before planting and I've come to the following conclusion. Not everything benefits from this arrangement. It would appear that my broccoli, beets and the lettuce would have preferred that I did anything else besides what I have done, since both rounds of seedlings have not performed well once outside. I think they would have been happier to have been started from seeds, which may still happen in a couple of days if things don't improve in their parts of the garden. We changed up the water system, it didn't look like it would be able to cover the whole space once things started getting larger. I think it also looks aesthetically more pleasing. I say this alot about things, but I try also to think in terms of function as well. I love to look at the little seedlings in their starter box and am sad now that many of them may not make it. I believe I'm not getting the whole idea of thinning, which is likely an...

Have you been watching that new show... Who Do You Think You Are? on NBC? My mom and I are in love with it. If you haven't here's a quick premise. Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe from Friends) is one of the executive producers and basically it's celebrities finding out about their genealogy. Things they didn't know before. So far Sarah Jessica Parker has discovered she was descended from an accused Salem Witch. Emmett Smith found about his slave heritage. Lisa Kudrow found a relative her family had thought had passed away and about her Holocaust heritage. And tonight Matthew Broderick found out about his grandfather and great grandfather. It's really a very well-done show, check out the recaps on nbc.com... What touched me was the first episode with Sarah Jessica Parker. She was talking about not feeling wholly American even though she was born here. Her family, she thought, had not been around very well. They were all immigrants and recent ones at that. Discoveri...

There is some progress on my little bit of dirt. Two days ago my mom and I hand churned all the dirt with a couple of bags of this compost, humus stuff that was recommended by our local nursery. They have always been very helpful and since it was on saaaaaaaaaaale, we bought a bunch. Next we added a little chicken wire fence. The plot grew from the planned 5 ft x 5ft to a now 6ft x 14ft which is actually better since if half of what I plant grows, it's going to need the space. The fence took most of yesterday, so I didn't add anything back in until today. Today we added a water system, since water and too much sun is likely to be the biggest factors in the success of this little venture. The water system involves cutting hose, attaching elbows, t corners, etc and then punching (manually) all the little holes for the actual units that will do the spraying. In my case, not much of a spray, more of a energetic bubbling, but it will do the trick once we figure out how much a...

For those of you who are not aware, the stuff we have here in the desert is not what you would call high quality dirt. It's either hard pack clay or what everyone around here calls poof-dirt (which honestly for all I know is the same thing). I've decided on either 4x4 or 5x5 to start with. I am thinking it will be plenty and since it's likely going to take a bit for things to get going then I'm dealing with a huuuuuuuuge area. Regardless, things do not typically thrive here without help. I have picked out the spot for the garden. Over there is a picture of the before of what I'll be playing with. It does get a little shade mid-day (which is the nastiest part of the day) and as I mentioned the swiss chard loves it. My mom and I wandered over to the local nursery and came back with a few big ol bags of compost humus stuff that they recommended. They've been great so far, so I'm trusting them. They also recommended a decent looking fertilizer called ...

I decided to start a little gardening blog after all for all the craziness this summer. You can check it out over HERE .... Working on a new post over there right now... Happy Blogging!

I have no green thumb. I can keep some things alive, but mostly they survive on luck. So, why am I attempting to create a garden in the Southwest? Well... actually, I'm not so sure except that it sounded like a great idea. Last year, freakishly some swiss chard took hold in a funky little spot in the backyard and there was tons to be had all summer and well into the fall. AND, it was delicious. This eating something that JUST came out of the ground, is pretty new to me. I grew up on an island in Alaska. We didn't really have much in the way of gardening there, though people definitely were able to. The vegetables came on barges or sometimes the airlines. They were not very tasty. I do have memories of visiting my grandma and helping her in her amazing garden. Mostly I chased lizards and ate the snap peas off the vines, but oh the flavors. Maybe it's that I lost my grandma not too many years ago. In gardening I could perhaps find a continuing connection to her. M...

Well, I might be. I have thought about doing this for awhile. I mean it does make sense. There is a spot to have a little garden in the backyard. I love, love, loved the swiss chard from last summer (which incidentally has decided it's time to sprout again all by itself). AND, well I love fresh food. So, here is a list of what I am going to attempt this summer. I may start a blog specifically for this "experiment in crazy" but, again maybe not. Right now, there is swiss chard a growing on its very own. I started some seeds of broccoli, cucumber, beets and snap peas. There is also a seed of lettuce mix with the following: oak leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, arugula, cress, endive, radicchio and green-leaf lettuce. And a a couple of plants... leeks, eggplant and acorn squash. I know that people have grown all these things locally. Whether I will be able to is another story altogether. Tomorrow my mom and I will be preparing the dirt for the (hopefully) little plan...

WOW! I cannot believe I lost FEBRUARY completely! It has been busy at school - it seems all my professors this semester have decided to make up for all the "easy times" they've given us in previous semesters. Everything seems to take so much longer these days - why is that!?! I haven't even really had the time to take pictures!?! Now, THAT must change, because that is my sanity maintenance. My poor knitting needles have been trying to get my attention - but all the homework and studying have taken over my life! I'm in the process of changing schools as well. After alot of thought and some scary budget problems here in Nevada that could have resulted in the closure of the campus here, I decided it was time to go to the "big city over the hill" (aka Las Vegas); bite the bullet and finish my degree at UNLV. This will also mean that I will look a little more competitive when I start applying for jobs out of state. There are many advantages to this new...