Beast of Burden

That's what I should name my wheelbarrow. It's one of those two wheeled triangle shaped plastic jobbies, very stable, holds plenty, easy to work with as long as the load is balanced right over the space between the wheels and the legs. I moved about six bales today, all by myself. I took them in pieces, didn't even Try to move one whole.
Actually I felt like a beast today, pulling that loaded little wagon behind me over the bumpy wet field to the truck. I gave my back a workout, again. I can't believe it was only two days ago I just did this kind of thing, I'm a glutton for punishment I guess. No wonder I feel so wiped out right now. I almost fell asleep on the couch.
I might go back for one more load, maybe Friday. Supposed to be all sunny this week, and it sure was today. Warmed up into the 40's I think. Another frosty night tonight.
I splurged on studded tires yesterday. I'm glad I did, with these icy roads. Even going out in the early morning would be risky without them, with frosty patches in the shade. Now with some chains I'll be going up the mountain all winter, to hike on my snowshoes or x-country skis up there.
After working like I have been lately, it would be like resting to go hiking! I've often felt this way, after having spent many days in a row doing home improvement, it's like being lazy to go hike a few miles or more.
Well, one more load of wet hay for the garden and I can let it just sit all winter and rot. Me too! haha jk.

Grain Day

Most of today I did hard physical work, and enjoyed every minute of it.
I put on my work clothes, the dirty ones from last week's trip, and went out to Edwin's place again to get more wet hay bales.
As I was driving out there in my dirty duds, I ate a homemade granola bar or two, and some of the oats and krispies fell onto my zipped jacket front. I looked down thinking I'd pick the crumbs up and eat them, but seeing them there on the fabric that was covered in hay bits from last week's work, I had to laugh, talk about "buy local, eat local"!! oats and hay, looking almost the same, golden brown bits... kinda pretty, but I held back my impulse to nibble at those crumbs, a little too earthy for me.
The bales were hay, not straw, as they're full of seeds, thus the 'grain' thing. A lot of those seeds are already sprouted, as the bales have been sitting in a wet meadow for a long time, so long that some of them we couldn't load up as the strings broke as soon as we tried lifting them. Heavy bales, making the truck's back end sink down and the front sway up, interesting driving on the highway home!
Anyway, my front yard is now totally covered with another layer of thick wet hay. Wonderful stuff. I saw quite a few woolly caterpillars tucked inside them as I broke them up to lay it out in books, paving the property. So now the east half is double thick hay books, and the west half is manure and coffee grounds with hay books too. The only part left in lawn is the 10' strip between the sidewalk and the street. (I'm thinking about how to change that too, as next year's project.)
The other grain of the day was when I was almost done unloading the truck at home, I cracked open a Guinness, 'liquid pork chop' beer, made of grains of some kind, at least it was a dark golden brown, pretty, like the wet bales.
Sitting on my front porch sipping, watching the red sun glowing in the hazy southwest sky, a good day done.

Difficult Neighbor (A Memory)

I'm glad this is all in the past. But I've been thinking a lot about it lately.

I was living at an apartment, an end unit in a row of six. There were six more in the other building on the other side of a grove of olive trees, a swimming pool, and a utility room. There was a new neighbor next door, on the other side of the shared wall from me, some guy who came and went at odd hours. He was a little rough around the edges, but not noisy.
So one Sunday afternoon, the boys (they were about 7 or 8 then) and I were playing around in the living room, laughing and having fun, but I guess being kinda loud. In the midst of our raucousness, a shadow formed over the screen doorway, and a booming voice filled the room: "Keep it Down!"
I was terrified, and I'm sure the boys were too. He went back to his apartment without saying more, and I don't remember if I said anything to him, maybe something like "hey, it's Sunday afternoon" or something like that.
I thought he was pretty scary and out of line, and I called the cops.
When they came I told them our story, and then he went next door to speak to my neighbor. Since the walls were thin, I tried to listen to what they were saying over there. I heard something about a DOC number. DOC. What the heck is that. OH MY GAWD. Department of Corrections. The guy is an ex-con. Jeezus. Now what have I done. Then I got Really Scared.
The cop came back and told me how it went, that the guy is a nurse and works odd shifts and had been trying to sleep. He didn't actually pass along an apology though, but it was an almost one. He said he knew he shouldn't have yelled into my doorway.
After that I vowed to buy a house, to move out of those apartments.
It turned out alright with that guy after that, though. About a week later I met up with him going to the mailbox, and we talked about the incident. Then later on I saw him out in his patio adjacent to mine, and we talked about the strawberry plants he was growing, and then another time he showed me the injured bird he was taking care of. A regular Birdman of Alcatraz right next door!
After moving to the house, I saw him a couple times in the neighborhood, and we were kinda friendly.
I never found out why he had been incarcerated.

Wonderful Molly Batten

After moving thousands of miles away from someone who is over 100 yrs. old, one tends to lose touch. Phone calls don't do it, not when she knows so many many people... without a face attached to the voice, she can't place you. She sounds great, she sounds like she's smiling, happy to hear from you, will chat awhile, but there's something in her voice, acknowledgment is missing. I've missed her, but what can you do. I know she has family and lots of friends back there taking good care of her. I remember lots of times we spent together, most of the stories she told. She was a good storyteller, and had enthusiasm for life I admire. Sometimes she felt down, but she'd let it out (gently) and get over it. She was always polite, good with euphemisms!
There are many articles online about her from the local paper, about her unflagging support of the police department, and how she volunteered in the schools. I remember her telling me about how much she disliked the spoiled kids in the foothills, and truly loved those at the magnet schools on the south side. Mainly she was impressed by manners, being polite, even if not perfectly so. She loved please and thank you. And the stories! about coming to the US on a ship, weeks long journey, being seasick terribly, and the ship's doctor giving her some injections to help her feel better. Well, it worked, but when she got here, she got sick in a different way... the doctor had been giving her heroin! Oh, and the time she had a neighborhood watch meeting at her house, and a lady made a racist comment, and she told the woman to leave!
I wish someone had written her stories down, or better yet, recorded or videotaped her telling them, as she had a wonderful way of expressing herself, along with her delightful Irish accent.
I enjoyed her shortbread and brownies, which she always cooked ahead and stored in foil in her freezer, generously handing over the whole package for my enjoyment later. I'm glad she shared her recipe with me.
When my father died, she sent me a nice card, and had written that my father and her father are looking down on us both and are glad that we're friends. I still have that card in a safe place.
A couple of weeks ago I found an embroidery she made for me for my birthday. It has lots of blues and purples and greens, very pretty. It's framed, and I had it in a box, and put it back in the box.
Yesterday I got a letter from a friend who still lives in the same town, who sent me a clipping from the paper, Molly's obituary. She died at the end of October, a couple of weeks ago, at age 108.
I miss you, Molly. But I'm glad we're friends. Tell my dad I love him.

July 2, 2007

So yesterday's done list was to look back and see what I can do when I'm not out hiking. Usually on Sundays I go hiking with a group, but I've already been three times to where they went, so didn't need to go again, and what with strawberry season winding to a close, thought it best to go get some perfectly ripe ones, not those yellow rocks they sell for $5/quart at Haggen. Okay, they're not all yellow rocks, but enough of them to turn me off. I like em dark red and juicy, like an overripe peach. Run down your chin ripe.
So today I hid from the sun and heat (it's all relative) until about 7 when I went out to try to mow the lawn. Push mower, I'm the engine, mmmmph. Didn't quite finish, quit early to eat more snap peas off the vine. I just didn't have the energy, tomorrow is another day. Besides, hopefully it'll turn brown soon and I can slack off.
I'm proud of myself. Today I went to Costco and spent only about thirty bucks. A first. Of course I bought more than I went there to get (organic coffeebeans), but then I saw Glide floss, and now I have a lifetime supply, and also saw some liquid vitamins, I love liquid vitamins, and thought it would do me some good, so I got them. Yum. So I didn't get new towels, nor a case of snickers bars, not a shed, nor a flat television. I sure can do without all that stuff. Well, I could use a shed, but not the solid plastic job they had. Uuuugggg-ly! Costco, the (hundred) dollar store.

what I did today (July 1, 2007)

took shower
had coffee, read email, news
cooked chocolate malt-o-meal for breakfast
made yogurt
ate blueberries with yogurt for second breakfast
did wash, hung up socks & towels, put shirts in dryer
watered garden, dug up a few new potatoes
put away stuff from gleaning yesterday
repaired garden hoses
loaded bins & shovel into truck
made pizza for lunch
took shirts out of dryer, dumped onto bed
drove out to the county to pick strawberries
picked up manure and old coffee grounds on the way back
dumped and mixed above in pile at corner of garden
ate ripest strawberries with vanilla ice cream
went to fill the truck with gas, stopped at two stores on the way back
picked sugar snap peas
took laundry off clothesline, dumped onto bed
pizza & wine for dinner
cleaned, hulled, sliced & sugared strawberries, put into fridge
cleaned and blanched snap peas, bagged & froze them
changed aquarium water
put yogurt in fridge
folded & put laundry away
read book, ate jalapeno pringles

that's enough. tomorrow I'll mow the lawn.

age, beauty, smiles, wrinkles

I had a little exchange with my haircut lady today. After massaging my neck and upper back after the haircut (??? yea, I thought it was kinda odd too...) she suggested I buy some anti-wrinkle cream from her. Well, that explains the massage right away, trying to make a sale. I said no, I earned these wrinkles, they're smile lines, don't take them away from me! she said if I stay the way I am for thirty years I'll look great then (does that mean that now I look like an 80 year old???) and that's what the cream will do, stop new ones from forming. I said as long as I'm smiling I'll look alright, that anyone who is smiling is beautiful. She had an image in her mind, apparently, of the worsely wrinkled old folks in the world, and disagreed with me, asked if I'd seen some old people? with really deep and plentiful wrinkles? even when smiling, she said she thought they were not beautiful.
I paid for my haircut and did not buy any wrinkle cream.
And I will find another haircutter.

June 9, 2007

Today I hiked in the forest in the rain, and saw a deer, and some teeny birds, and some spiderwebs that mimicked the fungus shapes that they were built among, and even though the rain got heavy at times the trail was mostly under very dense forest so it didn't matter. Discovered a new side trail not yet marked, that connects the main loop trail with a nearby neighborhood on the far side of the woods. Enjoyed the Pond loop trail again. It's all very pretty, so green this time of year it almost glows. Some of the tree leaves reminded me of the patterns of exploding fireworks, frozen in time, Vine Maple I think. While hiking I thought about seasons, and how they're pretty subtle in Arizona, in the low desert anyway, that you have to pay attention to notice them there. It's analogous to discovering the personality of a cat, you have to really observe, pay close attention. [Or have a vivid imagination, or project your own personality onto them, or interpret their selfish behavior as something fancifully creative. They're beautiful creatures, and maybe smarter than us (I suspect most other living beings are) but I find them very dirty disease carriers and so I have lost my ability to be much charmed by them, except to watch them hunting. Some of them are very good at that. There's one hunter cat in the neighborhood that is fascinating to watch, and I take every opportunity to watch it when it's hunting. As long as they all stay out of my vegetable garden!]

So anyway, I'm sometimes overwhelmed by the seasonal changes here in the far northwest. Even though I grew up and spent my first two dozen years in New England, with seasons aplenty, during the 22 years in Arizona I got out of practice in witnessing the extremes. It sometimes snowed in town, but it usually melted the same day, and of course the summers were intense and very long. Not much spring or fall. Lots of little sub-seasons, very localized, but it's spring that I have always really liked. The forest was the best place to experience spring, but down there I had to drive more than an hour into the mountains to get there, which I did as often as I could, until most of it burned away, just before I moved up here.
Meanwhile, it's still spring here, which I think started back in February, and now it's the second week of June. We had a few days of "summer" last week, but it didn't last long. I shut the furnace off the middle of last month, and have been using solar heat since then (the enclosed south facing porch gets toasty by midday.)
It's almost 9:30 pm, after a day of mostly solid rain, and there's the most richly colored coral and lavender sunset out there right now! What a lovely place!

Seasonal Extremes

Most people up here tolerate, endure the winter, the dark time. Not most people, we all do. But then the spring comes, and it's mostly really nice, and spring lasts a real long time. I love spring. This is when most people are hankering for real summer, they can't wait to go swimming, to sit out in the sun in their shorts and t-shirts. Not me. I had too much summer in the southwest; long sunny days, no clouds for months, too much UV and sunburns and spots in the skin that are scary. So when summer comes here, with the long days and clear skies, I kinda cringe, want to keep my long sleeves, where's my hat, did I put suncreen on this morning, should I put more on this afternoon... when the sun rises around 5 and sets around 10, it's a long day.
So I find myself tolerating and enduring the core of winter, the darkest days of December and January. And tolerating and enduring the core of summer, the long bright days of July. Why only one month? Because in June we have some clouds and a little rain, that breaks it up a bit. And by August the days are getting noticeably shorter, so even though they're bright and sunny, they're not so long and that gives me hope. July, though, is full of sunshine, guaranteed, every day. So out of 12 months, only 3 are not fully enjoyed by me, considering the weather.
I love it cool and cloudy, so I can wear my comfort uniform of a long sleeve shirt and a sweater. Soft fuzzy warm clothes, and breathing cool fresh air - that's my idea of heaven.

Chiropracticality

If someone is having an emergency back problem, they should go ahead and apply their pressure, open up the nerves that are getting pinched... but mostly I think they should work with the patient on having them get their back in position, little by little, on a daily basis, with maybe a little adjustment now and then. Maybe. They should do house and/or office calls, helping the patient get their sleeping and sitting positions corrected, getting their mattress/neck/lumbar support set up.

I had a couple vertebrae in my neck that were out of alignment last November. My left arm was basically numb (when not excruciatingly painful) and fast becoming a dead weight. It was very scary, and the MD thought it was my 5/6th cervical vertebrae causing the problem. He recommended a physical therapist, but I went to a chiropractor instead. After three visits in one week he got it fixed to the point where I could use it again, but for a long time I still had pain and some numbness, especially when I moved it up high at all.
After getting a new mattress, sleeping on my back every night, and using a rolled up towel under my neck, it's gotten so I hardly ever notice or think about it. Almost 100% healed. It's been many months, but I haven't been back to the chiropractor. It took a lot of experimentation to get the right thickness with the towel, keeping it in the right position... and getting used to staying on my back all night. But I feel so good when I get up in the morning, I don't mind it at all anymore. No way would I consider rolling onto my side again! I had tried it, after about a month or so, but I immediately started having the symptoms again, so stopped it promptly.
The reason I so diligently dedicated myself to getting healed, without more chiropractic adjustments, is that a friend told me that sometimes people end up having a stroke and getting paralyzed after certain chiropractic neck adjustments. The one I went to tended to stay away from my neck, but on the last of the three visits that week in November he did do a small "tweak" on my neck that made me nervous. I'm glad it turned out okay.

So I think since we get out of alignment little by little, that should also be the way we get back into it. Changing our mattress and sleeping and sitting position is where it's at.

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Rainy spring day

We've been getting rain every day for a week, and since I started preparing the garden, and the broccoli starts are ready to go in, I'm ready for it to stop coming down for a couple of days so I can dig out there, or at least rake up some rows so I can put the babies in so their roots can start exploring the rich earth out there. But no, it's still coming down.
It being a Saturday, there were plenty of other rain dogs out in it today. Right after lunch I went for a walk, a couple miles in the neighborhood, and met up with a dozen or more bicyclists, and as many or more walkers, some with dogs, some with kids. At the park, both playgrounds were well occupied with families, even while the sky kept pouring it on! Not heavily, mind you, but not just a drizzle either. A good steady rain, definitely rain, where it was good to have something on one's head to keep from getting too soggy. It didn't stop us from getting out and enjoying the day.
The best part was just at the end of the afternoon, out in the west over the bay the clouds broke up, and the peachy golden sunlight streaked through the drops still falling, and lit up an intense double rainbow on the other side. Awesome.

Errands galore

I spent the rainy morning out doing errands, and got a lot done. Let's see, where did I go first? Oh yea, to the post office to pick up mail, and send off a box to my d.i.l., a little nice necklace to celebrate her getting out of the Air Force. What a relief! not so much that she didn't like her work, which is enough, but mainly so that she won't get sent "over there", which when you're working on fixing planes, was a distinct possibility all this time.
From there I went up to the ReStore to see what they had. No new doors, but I did find a tool handle for my cultivator head that fell out of its old handle, and for 50 cents you can't beat it. Also a huge plastic tub that I can use when picking up manure for the garden to keep the truck clean.
Then... up to Big Lots for a bed frame, to replace the oversized one I've been struggling to stay out of the way of, but after a week realize it's too big for the little room. So their cheap metal frames were thirty bucks, too much. Across the street to the Salvation Army, got one for only ten. Such a deal. Had a little rust on one end, so treated it with phosphoric acid when I got home, and now it's as good as new. Better life with chemicals.
Down the road to the Farm Store, checked out their soil supplements, got bone meal. Almost got potatoes but thought I might check out varieties first, or use some cheapass ones from the grocery store, or something. It being St. Patrick's Day it's supposed to be the day to plant potatoes around here, but I'm not irish, so...
Back toward town, where next? stopped at the Chinese market for red jasmine rice, sweet bean paste, and ginger powder. Yum.
Into town, to the other Farm Store, no potatoes at all there.
Next intersection, Starbucks, nailed two large bags of used grounds for the garden! Wow!
Around the corner, to the Co-op, got an empty 5 gallon bucket for my garden from their free-stuff corner.
Down the hill to the grocery store. Found a deal on a box of 48 mini creme brulee tarts in the frozen section. And potatoes! The bin of loose ones down by the floor, mixed colors, yellow, red and bakers. Half of them sprouting already, and green! How wonderful, to find them today! 6 for a dollar! Normally I'd scorn them, but when it's planting time, they're perfect! How exciting!
Back up the other hill toward home, but stopped at the garden shop first, and checked out their grapes. It would be good to plant a grapevine right by the front steps to take the place of a handrail there, and to grow up over the windows to shade the porch during the summer... they had a few kinds, one I remember checking out online, Canadice. A nice variety, red seedless, very tasty, hardy to cold, should do very well here.
That's it! Home for a nice Saturday to listen to the radio and putter around the house, gardening, etc for a relaxed but productive day.
Nice!

mom

Mom would have been 90 tomorrow.
I turned 50 last fall.
It's like there were two generations between us in age. I grew up with a white haired mother, literally. Oh, except later on when she was my age now, she got her driver's license and went out and got some dye and colored it hazel and other brown tones.
If she were still here, I'd get her some pink roses, her favorite flower color. A whole dozen. Plus some miniature live rose bushes too. And something good to eat. I'd take her to a performance of music or something at the high school. She'd get all teary eyed, and I would too. She'd be so happy to see young people get up and do something like that, perform a song, or act in a play.
We would have started the day going for a walk, seeing all the flowering trees, she'd love it here.
I guess since her ashes are in the Pacific, and the waters of the Pacific are less than two miles from here, maybe she is enjoying it here.
Happy birthday mom, I love you.

Ides of March 2007

Wonderful Day

I'm feeling better than I have in a loooooooonnng time, physically, spiritually, mentally, in all ways. Walked downtown this morning to work at the museum, looked closely at wonderful art all day, went out with friends at lunchtime to a fine meal, and better dessert, along with sharing birthday goodies, gave a fun wooden toy, got a gorgeous glass ring the color of a glacial tarn... and thoughtful conversation and observations... later walked home in spring warmth past blooming crocuses, crabapples, forsythia... at home, changed clothes, popped a beer and slid into the boots to dig some more sod up and spread more goat poo/straw over the bared ground while watching a fine sunset in the cooling breeze. Nachos for dinner, read the weekly papers, read some email including one from my youngest son... Heaven on earth, peace in one little corner of it. Finally, at last, health, happiness and peace. Savoring every moment, thankful for every little bit of it.

from a warm hike last summer

Summer haze in the forest:

sunlight traveling down, through, between branches, fingers of leaves,
glancing off levitated particles, airborne dust, circling gnats,
glowing in the space up there, golden halo around needles & cones.

Nearby shade is clear as water, deeptoned, rich, dark as dusk,
trunks soaking moisture, still absorbing more from aromatic soil, fungusfull, lifefull.

Brightness of sky transmitted to earth:
circles of sunlight patterning the litter,
overlapping lenses blazing the needles, shadows' edges crisp alongside,
cutting shapes that drift and morph with the wind's gentle gestures.

Poem "Desert Skin" (final version) @2007 Carol Lavoie

This is a poem I wrote for a local Rain Festival's poetry contest a couple of years ago. I've been very much affected by having lived for over 20 years in the desert, the last few years of which were drought conditions; instead of the usual 12 inches of rain, only about 6 - 9 inches. I'm relieved to be living in a land of moisture now. Hope it strikes a chord with someone out there:

Desert Skin
@Carol Lavoie 2005

Cracking and peeling, flakes fall,
drift down to dry earth.
Blazing rays blast,
incessantly desiccating.
Sweet respite gained only at dusk.

Dawn again. Again, another search
for shelter, shade, moisture mostly.
Flakes of skin, shells of cells
broken, empty, hollow.
Air where water belongs.

Water in the air,
collecting in clouds.
Skin so crusted it cannot feel
the Change in the weather,
doesn't remember.

Cells that still function
(inside the shelter,
behind the facade)
detect the scent of rain
like the skin in the nose
of a starving dog
discovering a hint
of a morsel of meat -

Awakening, alert, all
senses focused forward,
Rain is in the air.

ides of February 2007

Wind and rain and "cold" for here anyway, a good day to enjoy a second cup of coffee, do a lot of reading, and remember the many less iffy days of hiking and enjoying this beautiful corner of the planet.

Garden: The tomato seedlings come inside at night, spending their days soaking up whatever they can of the light coming in the porch windows, of which there's plenty. The new peas that started on same porch, have doubled in length out near the fence by the grapevine, along with the baby broccoli alongside them. So far so good. Goat poo is strewn about the new plot, as well as the old, with the coming rain leaching the wonders into the soil below, enhancing the growth of the kale, chard and garlic.

Art: Heading back out to the studio soon, to see what comes of a sketch of the hands of a five year old. Yesterday he showed me his strong grippers, and the image is still on my retinas.

Health: Back is changing, getting "better" though still strange. Lately the numbness that was on the left side has abated - yay! - only to show up in a lesser way on the right. Something going on with the cervicals. Discovered while awakening today that there's a strange hump in the center of the mattress, probably the support post in the center doing something there. Need to replace the whole bed, mattress and frame. It has an unpleasant history anyway. Get a twin, no need of a full. That means replacing all the bedding, including the wonderful electric heating pad, so it'll probably be mucho bucks. Maybe next year. See "financial" paragraph. Meanwhile I'll stay slightly to one side of center.

Financial: Spending still on hold, true essentials only. Taxes taking a big chunk soon, so need to get that gathered in the next two months. Monthly bills still too high, but I really should keep health insurance, shouldn't I? Good thing I like beans.

Happiness: Good balance of social and quiet time. Helping others has become my hobby, whether with the gleaners or the neighborhood association or just a helpful hand in passing. No desire to get more involved in anything else, especially if there are humans involved.

myopia

What I see...
over the years
focus on my family
my parents & siblings
classmates, friends,
then on my husband
then on my boys
then on my partner
and studying and working
keeping up with my art

now don't want
to see the news
prefer to gaze
at mountains & trees
into waters deep
up at the sky
straight ahead
to where I'm going
where am I going
just right here
not traveling more
my smaller world
full yet space filled
ahead is what
here and now
growing in one place
it's all here now.

from Feb. 26, 2007

Started digging the sod out of the newest garden bed, bed #3.
Bed #1 has been growing in size for almost 4 years, very slowly though. Bed #2 has been sitting idle under cardboard, mulch and manure for a year, ready to plant now. The newest one, to be carved out of a section of lawn, just got delineated a few days ago. I'd been debating whether to do the idle thing with it, burying it under cardboard and straw, or to dig it up and get it going sooner. Late this afternoon I made the decision to get it going. I dug four rows of sod out with the newly sharpened shovel, what a difference a sharp tool makes!
I had removed the hydrangea bush over the weekend, which was next to the front steps, and now that it's gone I realize I must have a railing there, it's dangerous. Another project, but a necessity, not a "want." It would be nice to have one that matched the wrought iron one on the other side, but whatever happens soonest and cheapest that will be sturdy will prevail.
Meanwhile I'm very enthused about all the garden space. Now I can really grow stuff, not squeeze plants into a crowded space with no room for a footprint between. I can even see having a fourth plot of straw mulch next to plot #3 for squash and pumpkins to sprawl across, reaching all the way to the sidewalk!
It'll be very very nice to have less lawn to mow, too!
Dig it!

(this is interesting to read, now it's November, and about a month ago I had sixty straw bales delivered, and finished covering the rest of the front lawn. Earlier this fall/late summer, I covered the lower part of the west half with cardboard and have been regularly adding old coffee grounds from Starbucks and horse manure from a neighbor. It's all covered now, and has a layer of winter peas sprouting over it! What a transition. Fun to see, and also fun to read what I wrote about 9 months ago...)

Blog moving weekend

I'm transferring some blog entries from Yahoo360, as they're going to totally change their site. So I'm going over them and bringing some here. It's going to look like I'm writing a lot over the weekend, but it's just stuff from last spring mostly.