Kind of Over the Fence-ish...

I'm way busy...how 'bout y'all? I have been doing so many church things...getting done with all the Lent through Easter stuff and then we had our Annual Spring Sale event yesterday. I was in charge of the plant sale, which mostly meant digging and assembling lots and lots of plants. It's pretty cool: mostly folk just dig stuff out of their yards and sell the divisions. We raised a bunch of money, and now I've personally got a lot of plants to get dug in.

Had an old hen die last night. Actually TWO last week...one of our old Buffs just up and had a heart attack in front of Mr. S! Now he's ordering 3 dozen chicks this week. He finished the doors on the ram barn (hey, only 5 years after he built the barn...what's the hurry?). He made double dutch doors on opposite sides...looks great; way better than the blue tarps that I've nailed up over the doorways (for years!). So, we're going to put the chicks in the ram barn (may as well, as we don't have any rams to put in there anymore!

I've also been interviewing for a new job (stay tuned..the company that I'm trying to get on with is moving at sub-glacial speed...this has been going on for literally months!). Also, we're still working on the plans for the house in E. Washington...just got them out of engineering and now are ready to submit for permitting. Did you know that in Washington (like California), all plans have to be approved by an engineer before they can be built? It's the seismic thing. Anyway, it adds another couple grand to the house cost. Sheesh.

My corn in peat pots is about 2" tall. It's still cold at night, so I ferry them into the bunkhouse at dark. The vegetable garden is not moving along too well. I'm going to be focusing on the perennials (see plant sale notes above!).

Hope everyone is doin' fine. I just stopped by for a quick chat!

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2004

Answers

Nice to see you, Sheepish!

Well, me - Same Old Shit: work, work, work - I'm up at the ungodly hour of 4:45 am to get ready to go in and work dayshift. Kind of strange, isn't it, that 4:45 seems like such a terrible hour when you have to get up - even though I'm usually awake and at work at that time! Guess it's because it's normally almost quitting time, whereas today I know I've still got a whole shift to get through. I try to look for the silver lining and today there are two! First, I get to work with Jessie all day; and second, the weather is supposed to be decent today, so maybe I can sneak out to the perennial garden that is by our ER on my lunch break. Since I worked the weekend, I know all the patients already, so I will be able to whip through the assessments; and at least two of them are going home, so that's not too bad. Of course, we will probably get some admissions...

On the home fronts, we've just been busy puttering around the place, cleaning up stuff and getting the garden going. We hauled home a truckload of composted manure from the salebarn and I topped off all my garden beds except the asparagus ones - I'll get to them a bit later. Cover blew off my cold frame and I lost all my tomato plants that I had started, so I bought a few at the Red Barn (4 Early Girls for canning, 4 Mr. Stripeys for Hubs), and Pop came home with a few more (Big Boys). Hubs and I will be going over to Missouri to the Baker Creek Seed Co's Spring Planting Festival this coming weekend if the weather is fit, and I will pick up some heirloom plants there, then fill in with plants from the Red Barn or Rural King as needs be. I have several volunteers to come out and pick tomatoes for me if I will pay them in homemade salsa, so I am going heavy on the tomatoes this year!

I'm doing most of the garden in my 4x4 beds and out in the field this year, being determined to move the front garden over to herbs and perennial plants. I do have one 4x4 square planted to the walking onion sets from the ones John Leake sent me - hopefully, I'll have some to share if anyone wants any this fall. Other things that I've got planted so far: 16 broccoli and 9 red lettuce in bed 2;, a 4' row of peas, 8 chard, 12 spinach, 4 squares of beets and 2 each of lettuce and radishes in bed 3. Bed 4 has a 4' row of trellised peas and 4 EG tomatoes so far; the peas will be done about the time that the tomatoes need to start climbing; I still need to plant the front squares - possibly marigolds and dragon langerie bush beans. Bed 5 has 4 MS tomatoes, 4 cabbage and 8 plants of mesclun mix lettuces; I need to plant a quick strip of beets in between the tomatoes and cabbage. One bed is a designated compost area this year - the soil in it is very poor. Two other beds were taken up so that we could back the dump truck in with a load of composted manure for my big 8x8 bed - which will hopefully end up being the sweet potato plot this year! Let's see - that's 6 beds so far; hmmm... Two beds will be planted to pole lima beans - we set a post in the center and run strings down to the bed boards tee-pee style. One bed will be planted to a trio of green, purple and yellow romano type pole beans, two will have trellised tomatoes in the back squares and fresh eating crops in the front ones, one will be sweet corn followed by buckwheat.

The field garden has seven pole bean tee-pees set up in one 60' row, in the area between the two rows of fruit trees. That's not enough poles - I need more! Marigolds, zucchini and bush cukes will be planted under the pole bean tee-pees; and melons and pumpkins will be planted to each side of the fruit trees. Unc is getting ready to plant our normal overload of sweet corn further out in the field, but we are putting 4 rows of early stuff up in "my" part of the field garden. A row of the walking onions, a row of regular onions, a row of red potatoes, a row of "soup" bush beans, a row of yellow bush beans, a row of tomatoes and a couple rows of zinnias ought to fill out my space....unless I encroach on the field a little more!

Pop is doing some better now that spring is here, tho the last two days of temps in the mid 80's, with lots of dust and pollen in the air have taken a toll. He is determined to keep mowing the lawn however; and is waging war against dandylions today - since I won't be home to see the sacrilige of chemicals on my lawn. He's old and in poor health - if it makes him happy to poison the dandylions, so be it. (But I still don't want to watch!)

Hubs has one more day to work at his hospital job; then he is done there unless they can find him different hours; something that doesn't include EVERY weekend. He doesn't want to take a salary from the shop yet, so he thinks he needs some sort of part time job to pay for his bills - cable TV, motorcycle, etc... The shop is doing well for just starting up - getting word out to the community has been the challenge as newspaper advertising is outrageously priced. He has been passing out cards everywhere he goes, so once the race season gears up I expect more business. It has been so hard for me (type A personality!) to step back and acknowledge that this is HIS business! I want to show him how to streamline his bookkeeping and a better way to do his receipts and etc... Nope, not mine, hands off, don't get involved....AAARRGGH!! Like I have time for another project!

Well, the clock is ticking and I still have to do a couple of things before I leave for work - better get off my fanny and get at it!

Take care,

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2004

Sheepish, your 'sub-glacial speed' reminds me of the rate at which I get responses from stores I'm trying to get my muffins in! Geez, they take forever!

Was 90* here yesterday; too weird. Course in the evening we had a round of severe weather, but no tornadoes turned up,and a cold front brought down today's temp nearer 'normal' at about 58*.

Last Friday the most exciting thing happened to me. The day before I had faxed a coffee order up to the White Earth Res. They work in conjunction with fair trade/organic farmers in central america, roast it in northern MN. I've been buying our personal coffee from them for years. So Friday I stayed way later than I usually do, catching up on paperwork, and someone rings the buzzer outside. I open the door and standing there are two Native American women ( not really unusual in my neighborhood), both of whom are holding two 5 pound bags of coffee beans.

My jaw drops cuz the older one looks an awful lot like Winona LaDuke herself (she began many of the businesses now helping support the people on the White Earth Res), but although I've seen her speak many times, especially when she and Ralph were running for Pres, but I'd never seen her up this close, so I wasn't completely sure.

Well,she could read my face, took the pressure off by sticking out her hand beneath the coffee bags and saying, "Hi, I'm Winona LaDuke." She says she often delivers orders for Native Harvest when she's coming to the Cities for other reasons,liking teaching classes at the University. I showed her around,gave her some muffins, and we had a wonderful chat! We talked horses a lot (she owns the Percherons they use for the maple syrup business), starting small businesses, sustainable ag, environmental stuff.

Now I'm not much for being impressed by 'famous' people, but after she left I found I was as giddy and giggly as a schoolgirl! I had to call everyone I could think of! Fact is, I can think of no one who could land on my doorstep that would make me feel more honored; a few who could equal this, but none to surpass it, so I guess I look at it as a good omen, and I am filled with gratitude. She is one of the people I admire most in the world, who, after growing up in California and then graduating from Harvard, returned to her father's people in northern MN, to dedicate her life to helping her people find success and recover the land stolen from them by mine. She is a hero to me, and I feel truly blessed to have met her.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2004

Wow, EM, that must have been a powerful meeting for you!! Isn't it strange when you meet someone like that? I remember when I was 18, walking through the airport in Nice, France, and running smack into Frank Zappa (who was my total hero at the time). My girlfriend and I talked to him for a few minutes, and I thought it was divine! Then I ran into him in London a few weeks later, and he *remembered* me! Sheesh....I thought my brain was going to fly out of the top of my head...Anyway, I'm sure seeing Winona was a much more significant event, considering the circumstances! Cool.

Polly, you guys sound busy, busy, busy. Does your shift change around much? I think working different hours would be tough (at least for me). I did shift work in my late teens/early 20s. I think I had the stamina then; not sure now! How do you do it?

One of our duck hens died yesterday...!!! I think the drakes attacked her too hard. Looked like her neck was broken. I'm tellin' ya, it's getting tough for birds around here.

I wish it would warm up. It was almost 80 here on Easter. Now it's lucky to hit 55 during the day. Was in the low 40s here last night. Good sleeping weather, but not much else. Good perennial transplant weather, I guess!

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2004

Wow, EM, that must have been a powerful meeting for you!! Isn't it strange when you meet someone like that? I remember when I was 18, walking through the airport in Nice, France, and running smack into Frank Zappa (who was my total hero at the time). My girlfriend and I talked to him for a few minutes, and I thought it was divine! Then I ran into him in London a few weeks later, and he *remembered* me! Sheesh....I thought my brain was going to fly out of the top of my head...Anyway, I'm sure seeing Winona was a much more significant event, considering the circumstances! Cool.

Polly, you guys sound busy, busy, busy. Does your shift change around much? I think working different hours would be tough (at least for me). I did shift work in my late teens/early 20s. I think I had the stamina then; not sure now! How do you do it?

One of our duck hens died yesterday...!!! I think the drakes attacked her too hard. Looked like her neck was broken. I'm tellin' ya, it's getting tough for birds around here.

I wish it would warm up. It was almost 80 here on Easter. Now it's lucky to hit 55 during the day. Was in the low 40s here last night. Good sleeping weather, but not much else. Good perennial transplant weather, I guess!

(Interesting side note: I've been trying to submit this and keep getting bounced. I just realized that it's 8 a.m. and the entire Pacific Time Zone is trying to log on at work!).

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2004

"Ya know, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well."...Department of Redundancy Department.

"Repetition is the spice of life."...Mr. S.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2004

I always heard "If it's nice, do it twice!"

My set shift is 7 pm to 7:30 am, Thu/Fri/Sat; but I do occasionally get asked to switch if coverage is needed on another shift - vacations, death in the family, illness, etc... Overtime is anytime I'm willing to work it! Both of the RNs working day shift yesterday were actually night shift staff; luckily we had worked together on night shift in the past and knew each other's work habits so everything got done in an efficient manner.

As far as how I handle it - I just listen to my body. If I'm tired, I go to sleep - and I'm nearly always tired after a 12 hour shift. If I wake up, I get up - I can find something to do at 3am! I try to take a nap somewhere in the noon to 5pm hours on my days off, to help keep my body acclimated to sleeping during the day. It works for me; but remember, I've worked night shift most of the time since 1976 - my body doesn't know any better!

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2004

Still just doing as much of it as I can without using an alarm clock for anything more than to remind me that its time to take my old stanley work thermos out to the swing in the front yard and read for an hour while all the rat racers do what they do so well :>)

Aftermy morning ritual, I water, feed worms , daytrade and recently I have been setting up my own small scale clayworks to provide walkway tile and brick for myself.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2004

Sheepish, Frank Zappa in Europe! Too funny! What a great story!

I have a little Zappa story too........Bren's certifiable sister apparently used to hang around him and his band back in HS. I never could imagine it, knowing what a pris she is, and definitely uncool, but that's always been their story, and they're stickin to it!

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2004

EM, Suzy Creamcheese?

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2004

LOL!!

-- Anonymous, April 23, 2004

I've been so tired lately. Last Wednesday, Gary needed sneakers, so we went to Sports Authority. Since we were out, we ate out at Ruby Tuesday. Because we didn't find sneakers, we went to the mall and again ate out in the food court (we like the food court) Friday, after work, Gary and I drove down to Atlantic City for a Pet show convention. My boss bought us dinner (all you can eat buffet) The next day we spent at the convention, then drove 3 hours home, eating bought food on the way. Sunday morning I had to work all day at the pet store, so I picked up rotissie chicken on the way home. Next morning Glenn woke me up at 4:30 to tell me more babies were born (he went down to fix the baby monitor. I was dead to the world, didn't hear a thing) Worked the day, then had in-laws and brother-in- law over for Gary's Confermation. Took them out to dinner. Yes, this was the 6th day of eating dinner out and my stomach finally said enough. Coincidentally, another goat decided to have her kids at 11:30 that night. I thought she only had the one so I gave her one of the triplets (covered in brithing fluid) from the morning birth. Then she popped out another one. Rotton of her. Now I'm bottle feeding another kid. Sigh

I finally caught up with my sleep on Tuesday. Slept till noon. I don't know how you do it Polly.

Yesterday I emptied my pond. It was full of leaves, no wonder I lost all my qoi. The cheap goldfish lived though. I tried to fix my waterfall that I tore apart last year and never got to finish. You know, those rocks get heavy after a while. Scraped up my fingers good.

My daffodils and pansies are out with some tulips coming up. Is really starting to look nice on those levels I finally finished.

I'll have to dig up that garden next. Still cold here by the way, other then the 90 degrees from last week.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2004

Dee, sheesh...no wonder you're tired. You are really busy. How are things today? Nothing like little surprise babies, either...

Looks like I'm getting a new job. I'm so excited. Going in to meet the new folks tomorrow to do the hand-shake thing. I got the offer last Friday (on the phone). More money, closer to home...whoopeee. Unfortunately, I have a cold and not much energy. I'll rally, though.

Off to cut millions of tent caterpillars and their nests off my dwarf apple trees...then on to the (old) office. Weather was almost 80 here yesterday, but back to normal (cloudy, cool, drizzly) today. Feel like sleeping all day...

-- Anonymous, April 27, 2004

Geez, Dee, you need someone to take care of you when you are feeling so overwhelmed. Or get more practice nurturing yourself, eh? Hugs from here.........

Sheepish, what great news for you! I sure hope you love your new job. I'm delivering to a new store today..........I've been talking to them for about two months. I guess I naively never thought I'd have to work this hard for every sale. We're being featured at one of the stores during May; they tell us the muffins are selling well. I've also gotten a few brush offs this month (we just don't have the space; call again next week, next month), and so it goes........

-- Anonymous, April 27, 2004