Strawberry Patch

I discovered that I have some strawberries growing along the fence line. They are almost ready. The heat yesterday was almost unbearable in my house. Today promises to be even hotter. I may have to abandon ship and seek air conditioning. But not before I water all my upcoming baby plants! Thanks DD for planting the time capsules along the fence. Everyday something new pops its pretty little head up out of the ground.

Memorial Day Reflection

I mean no disrespect to those men and women who have and are serving our country. I am just against war, so it is hard for me to "celebrate" this holiday.

Does Your Husband Take You Hunting?

I am fond of wearing camouflaged clothing for many reasons. It is usually more durable and lasts much longer than other clothing. Most often camo is made here in the USA. I can always find my size at an Army Surplus store without spending hours trying clothes on. I have always liked to visit the woods and just enjoy nature when I can. So camo and camo combos have become a part of my everyday wardrobe (along with red hats).
Recently I was in the local CVS picking up my prescription and the woman at the checkout was trying to be friendly making conversation asked me
"Does Your Husband Take You Hunting?". I had no idea why she would out of the blue ask me something so strange until I got to the truck and realized I had a pair of camo cargo pants on. My truck is pink, so it must really be a strange sight when I go someplace in camouflage. People are really strange in how they think, and their assumptions about what they see. Camouflage in the city has quite the opposite effect than it does in the woods I am understanding. If I had a husband, he would probably take me hunting:) I try to dress really different when I visit that CVS store these days.

PS you did notice that this pose is like Venus reclining....right?

I Am Still Sad

I am sad about so many things in this life of mine. But mostly I am sad about betrayal. Last May I went with two of my
friends and lover to see the Avett Brothers only to almost get arrested searching for my partner after the concert. She was in the parking lot with this guy while I was searching for her worrying that she was hurt or incapacitated. One of my friends offered to take us home and come back after her later (she must have known about the guy in the parking lot). As if I would ever leave without her! Of course my other friend is also cheating on another woman with the woman's husband. I can't expect a cheater to be sympathetic about my feelings about being cheated on. I imagine all three of these women will go to the Avett concert tonight with each other (betrayers that they are) as if nothing happened last year. I won't be among them this year. I am still sad, and I feel even more betrayed than I did last year by all three of them. I can almost not bear to listen to The Avett Brothers. I used to look forward to seeing them, but now it just makes me want to hang my head and cry.

Red Hatters!

I am joining The Red Hat Society this summer. There are advantages to being a woman and turning 50. I consider being a red hatter to be one of those rites of passage! Let the games begin.

Number Eleven

Welcome John L. my eleventh follower to this blog. I follow Johns blog also. Check out Johns new YouTube. It makes me want to "come on to my kitchen cause its got to be raining outdoors...or something to that effect.


You'd better come on in my kitchen
babe it going to be rainin outdoors
Ah the woman I love
took from my best friend
Some joker got lucky
stole her back again
You'd better come on in my kitchen
babe it going to be rainin outdoors
Oh-ah she's gone
I know she won't come back again
I've taken the last nickel
out of her nation sack
You'd better come on in my kitchen
babe it going to be rainin outdoors
When a woman gets in trouble
everybody throws her down
Lookin for her good friend
none can be found
You'd better come on in my kitchen
babe it going to be rainin outdoors
Winter time's comin
its gonna be slow
You can't make the winter babe
thats dry long so
You'd better come on in my kitchen
babe it going to be rainin outdoors

Drainage Ditch

Last weekend workmen dug a ditch from my studio area to the lower flower bed and laid a new pipe for drainage. This involved two days work. The very next day it poured down rain. Imagine my surprise when I went to the basement and discovered water! My gutters have all been cleaned out and water is flowing freely into my rain barrels. But it is a puzzle as to why there is still so much water coming in under the door. I am hoping to dry out the basement today before the next storm comes through...due tonight!

But Tuesdays Just As Bad

"They call it stormy Monday...but Tuesdays just as bad." Anyone know the rest of the words?

I am bracing myself for more of the same!

Higher Ground

I am blogging from the library today. Even though I am on a hill, my basement is flooding. I am gonna do my darnedest to try to find a safe place to store my machines and tools till my landlord can get this situation corrected. I bought them (tools, and equipment) with 2 inheritances. The system doesn't recognize my hobby, and the system has the disabled do what they call a "spend down" when there is inheritance. So basically I lost the longer I held onto my inheritance. I was penalized for saving it. I had to spend it as quickly as I could so as not to interrupt the services that I had to work so hard to get in the first place. As you might imagine, I would never have moved my most valuable possessions into jeopardy if I didn't have the landlords word that I would have a dry basement for my workshop.

Benefit Concert For Japan

Here is the song Eric Paton taught The Columbus Womens Drum Chorus a few years ago. It is just a snippet and not great quality recording. There is a benefit for Japan today at Capital University. It starts at 8PM and is in the Mezzanine. I ran into Eric a week ago and he told me about it, but didn't have the flier. I don't know the campus very well, but I am going to try to find the concert. I hope to see you there!

Neighborhood Farm

There is something so satisfying and peaceful about living next to a micro farm. My neighbors are off selling eggs and chicken at the Clintonville Farmers Market this morning. They provide the community with alternatives to big agriculture. Their children will grow up with knowledge about how to grow their own food. Our culture has all but forgotten this lost art. My grandparents were millionaires and chose to farm the abandoned family garden. I can remember being puzzled by their behavior. They chose to drive 40 miles 3 times a week to garden on my mothers property. They freely shared the fruits of their labor. The rest of us sat around drinking beer and watching them. I totally get it now. I miss them. I wish I could take back time and work alongside of them. As luck has it, for a grand total of $5 I am renting a community garden plot. If someone would have told me 10 years ago that I would be acquiring garden tools and growing vegetables I would not have believed them!

Got Rain 2011

I have been busy sprucing up the place this spring. I have matching rain barrels this year. For those of you who have followed this blog, you may not know that I have a budding rain barrel business. Lori and I started this 3 years ago and managed to get a pretty good system going. My neighbor at Frijolito Farm thinks the time might be ripe to advertise, and try to capitalize on all this rain and the downsized economy. More and more folks are doing backyard gardening to try to shore up their home budgets. Backyard gardens require lots of watering. For now mother nature is providing that, but I expect drought to be the next phase. Water can be very expensive. So consider installing a couple rain barrels if your gutter system is flowing as it should be. And consider purchasing them from me of course. I deliver to the Columbus area.

Self Portrait By Default

I went to a workshop the other night at Summit on 16th, the church we performed at on Winter Solstice night. There is a wonderful program in that building called FreeGeek. This is the place that disabled or obsolete computers can be donated, refurbished, and repaired, keeping them out of the landfills. Free Geek teaches volunteers about computers. If you volunteer 20 hours of your time, you get to bring home one of the computers that come in during that 20 hours of volunteer time. As I understand the program, one of the very first things a volunteer learns is to remove "destroy" a hard drive. Many of my friends have told me that they are worried about their information getting compromised when they discard their old computer. This is the solution to that fear. Even if you don't volunteer at FreeGeek, it is the best place to safely get rid of your old computer. One of these days, I am going to begin this program. I snapped a photo of the flier on the door, because I have a hard time remembering when their operating hours are. When I saw the picture, I realized I had taken my self portrait in the reflection of the window. Tuesday hours have been changed to 5pm-8pm. Hope to see you there!

Moving On

My bat house and bird house are now safely over on Deming. Sometimes it is hard to know when it is time to move on or hold your ground. I am at that fork in the path. This has been a great transition place for me. Many thanks to everyone who has helped me get through this very harsh winter.

Ta Da!

My good neighbor gave me one of his stumps from his property. He leveled off the stump with a zaw saw (or is it a saw zaw?). So now I can FINALLY mount my anvil to the stump. That takes me one step closer to being able to do some blacksmithing! I got this anvil last summer before I moved here. I have helped other people get stumps for their studios and anvils. And now it is my turn!

Happy Friday The 13th

It's bound to be a lucky day!

got garlic?

That didn't take long (3 days?). Wonder what is next? I will be careful to document the process of growing heirloom garlic from seed since the internet does not have this information. It must be the librarian in me that notices the discrepancies in what an article claims to explain, and what it actually explains! You might be wondering why this would be important when it is so easy to separate cloves from the bulbs etc. How would you know whether or not you were getting a genetically modified plant? How would you send garlic through the mail? My dear friend Eve gave me this seed which came from her garden. Its got to be good!

Something Old, Something New

I have tried to stop once a week at the ReStore to check for basic gardening tools. I got this spade a few weeks ago and it has already earned it's $5 price tag. My big shovel from last summers auction is being repaired hopefully. This little spade is a nice compromise. I use it almost every day. It is so old that I can't even find a makers mark on it. But it is not as old as the maple tree I used as a backdrop to photograph it. It is supposed to be nice tomorrow. I can't wait to have a whole day that I can poke around in my yard!

Garlic From Seed

Recently I was given some heirloom garlic seeds. I have not been able to find out anything worth while on the internet about planting garlic from seed. There are plenty of internet hits, but most sites scold you for trying and don't bother to follow through with any information on how to grow it. Instead, they skip merrily on to how you cultivate from garlic bulbs and cloves. I kid you not, search it for yourself. The internet hits take you to sites that professes to tell you, only to drop the ball completely. I guess I will just rely on my common sense and stop wasting my time with the internet on this subject. I am finding that the internet is not the solution to every problem, particularly things having to do with nature. The beautiful flower pot in this picture is vintage California pottery from a local thrift store.

Radio Flyer

I have an old Radio Flyer wagon that I use everyday as I do not have a wheel barrow YET! It is a wicked good wagon, "as they say in Maine"! This stump weighs a lot and I threw my right arm out of it's socket getting it up my hill. But I needed the truck for another project so it had to come out....for the good of all. I am getting ready to make this stump into something wonderful that I have been trying to get going for years. I will keep you faithful 10 followers informed, as well as my shadow followers.

10 Blog Followers

Yesterday I noticed I have a new follower. Welcome Megadoom! I have followed Megadooms writing since hurricane Katrina and more recently the BP disaster. I appreciate all you do Megadoom and I am a shadow follower of your adventures and your blog. I am honored that you would check in here. Check out Megadooms blog Dust In The Wind.
Megadoom walks the walk, and his writing is superb!

The Vegitarian Myth

I am reading Lierre Keith's book The Vegetarian Myth this month as I plant and plan for my garden. It is my hopes to eat far more vegetables and less meat this year, but I am not going to kid myself into thinking that I will give up meat altogether.

Code Name Geronimo

"Geronimo bravely and heroically defended his homeland and his people, eventually surrendering and living out the rest of his days peacefully, if in captivity, passing away at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1909. To compare him to Osama Bin Laden is illogical and insulting. The name Geronimo is arguably the most recognized Native American name in the world, and this comparison only serves to perpetuate negative stereotypes about our peoples. The U.S. military leadership should have known better".

I got this from a blog called Newspaper Rock. where Native America meets pop culture.

Because I wear six feathers around my neck I am often mistaken for a Native American these days. Even at the polling place I was mistakenly noted and asked about my heritage. I had a comment on the huichol art on my Facebook page from an actual Native American which led me to bluecorn comics and Newspaper Rock. It is worth looking at the comments on that blog.

We Passed Both Our Levys

I am pleased to announce that both Mifflin Township levy's passed tonight (last night). I was not pleased at how far I had to drive to get to my polling place. It is hard for me to imagine poor people driving that far to vote. In all fairness the local police offered to give me a ride to my polling place. But I had the gas, so I didn't need to take them up on it. According to mapquest my polling place was 14 miles from here. I voted in Gahana even though I live here in Mifflin. You have to wonder what sort of mastermind is behind choosing a polling place 14 miles away. I suspect some sort of gerrymandering. They were also reluctant to accept my drivers license as my ID because the address was my old Clintonville address. I carefully explained to the woman that it costs $24 to change an address on a drivers license and that I can not afford that. She must have been a republican to not understand that poor people can not shell out $24 for an address change. Had she not honored my drivers license, I was prepared to drive the 14 miles home and back for the right to cast my ballot. I wonder how many other people had trouble exercising their right to vote this time. Certainly people in my neighborhood are grateful for the police presence. I wonder how many last minute yes votes they got because of the shooting last Saturday.

Cats Go Crazy

I finally found some cat grass seed packs at my local grocery store. Like the rest of the seed display the seeds are from a local seed company called Livingston Seed Company. These cats are the luckiest cats in Columbus Ohio

Celebrating 9

I now have 9 public followers to my blog. The numbers of yesterdays execution of Osama Bin Laden are interesting, in that Hitler was also shot in the head on May 1st 1945. I guess it was just too risky to try to take him alive. Where would you put him? Certainly not Guantanamo Bay! Now maybe we can get our troupes home and downsize the military machine a little bit. That should help the budget deficit. Better yet, maybe now that Osama Bin Laden is dead we can seize his money and property and put that towards the huge debt and cost of the war on terror. I think I remember reading that it costs 9 Billion dollars a day to fuel the military machine.

Burdock

I was out digging up burdock and dandelions this morning (April 30th) when I heard gun shots. It is not that unusual in my Linden neighborhood to hear gun shots, but not before noon! What followed was even more unusual. I must have counted 15 to 20 cruisers before I decided that it must be really bad to have that many cops instantly coming from all directions, and not one ambulance. I had to wait till the 11 o' clock news to find out that 3 cops were shot, and the suspect had already murdered a family in Adams county before driving to Columbus to end his rampage in my neighborhood. This guy had been a featured wanted criminal in January and again in April. Perhaps the family that allowed him to stay with them should have weeded him out like I am with my burdock.