Tag: DIY

Parents stopped by. Dropped off one of my old hobbies/talents…

The last time I touched any of this stuff was more than a decade ago...

My parents came through Fourth of July weekend on the way up to Wyoming for their summer vacation. They brought up with them the last of my belongings that were at my childhood home. It was mostly art supplies. I don’t consider myself that creative and I certainly don’t think I have much talent. But, in my family I was always the creative one, the one with the wild ideas and the ability to convey those ideas through word or image. I took art classes through middle and high school and might have taken a quarter of figure drawing at one point in community college. Since then? I haven’t done any sort of creative work outside of the occasional writing and photography.

pencils, inks, erasers, etc...

Sadly, the one thing that my parents forgot was my old portfolio that has all the work I did in high school/college in it. That is still sitting in a closet somewhere in the desert. At least it isn’t outside where the extreme weathers would surely ruin the paper, chalks, oils, etc…

Black and white crayons, brushes, calligraphy pen, ink...

I don’t why I didn’t pursue art further. I had time in college to take classes. I must have thought that it wasn’t worth the time to practice at something I never considered myself very good at and so couldn’t do anything with later on in life. Yes, I realize how stupid that sounds coming from someone who got their BA in Classical Civilizations. I think another reason might be that I never had any interest in pursuing the craft through digital means… I like getting my hands dirty and feeling the paper beneath my fingers; and my parents didn’t have the money or processing power (this was the mid/late 90s) to get a drawing tablet or the software then in use. So, I sunk my time into other things: poetry and photography. I miss it sometimes. Now that I have all this stuff just sitting around maybe I’ll pick it up again… Who knows?

More pencils and graphites. Those might be water colors on the right?
This is a surprising amount of spray paints and sealers...

If you would like to see some of my old creative work and new stuff as well you can check out my other blog: Fictive Funk. I’ll be posting up old sketches all this week and next!

My First Pickling

I'm going to call them gourmet pickled cucumbers

I don’t know what it is about hot weather that makes me think about pickles. Maybe it’s all the barbequing or the desire for food that doesn’t have to be cooked over the food or the need for a chilled snack? Maybe all of these. Whatever it is when the temperature starts climbing into the high 80s, low 90s my mind turns to pickles. The local food co-op sells these locally made New York deli pickles that are wonderful and I’ve been hitting them all summer to satisfy my craving… Until a few weeks back when I decided that I should make my own pickles. The internet is full of recipes, easy ones, an pickling by itself is not difficult at all. Also, pickling cucumbers had just started showing up on grocery shelves. I mentioned this to D and last weekend she came back from the store with two pounds of pickling cucumbers and a bag full of spices. She even found a recipe that looked promising…

So, I made some pickles!

First, you need to find some pickles these are kirbys
half or quarter them...
Cram them vertically into a sanitized jar of some sort
Add your spice/pickling mix
Get your brine boiling
Pour the boiling brine into the jar with the cucumbers

Seal the jar, let it cool until it’s room temperature and then throw into the fridge for 24 hours.

This is the part where you eat them!
It's generally at this point I wish I had a better camera and some photography skills...

Thanks to Punk Domestics for providing the recipe it worked perfectly! I did change it by omitting the garlic, onions, and dill (in the future I’ll put those back in.) Though, in the future I think I will use white vinegar instead of apple cider which is a little too strong for my tastes…

 

Berry Picking Patch 2011

Boysenberries

D and I went to the local u-pick berry picking patch this weekend, Impossible Acres (I love that name if I had a farm I’d name it that too). Turns out it was a great time to go too! Both the raspberry and boysenberry bushes were heavy with delicious berries and they hadn’t been picked over dozens of times (we normally go later in the year and have to really work through the bushes and thorns to get a decent amount).  Berries aren’t  the only thing available at the picking patch. They also have multiple varieties of cherries, peaches, apricots, tomatoes, apples and pumpkins (those last two are not currently in season. You knew that, right?)

Rows of berry bushes, to the left are stone fruit trees

Most of what we got has already been used up in the making of smoothies, cakes, and for snacks. D and I are definitely heading back to Impossible Acres before the end of the season, I don’t know how many times. It’s just enjoyable to spend an early afternoon walking through a garden with D picking fruit as we go along. The amazing things we do with them once we get home aren’t bad either. Below are some more pictures from the excursion.

We made smoothies with all the boysenberries. Oh! and cake too

 

D picking some boysenberries (stop staring at my wife's ass!)

 

Bing cherries? What do I know? I'm no fruitologist

 

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Who's that dashing, good-looking fellow picking cherries?

 

This cherry tree was literally being pulled down by the amount of fruit on its branches

 

Fresh peaches

 

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All of this for less than $11?!

How My Garden Grows: Spring 2011

Bumping? Can gardens be bumping? 'Cause mine is

Now that all the weird weather seems to have come to an end (really, hail in June? That’s uncalled for!) The garden has really started to spring into action. The tomatoes and zucchinis are blooming, the beans and cucumbers are sending out creepers. I imagine in two or so weeks we can start harvesting veggies from it.  I can’t wait to make bread salad using only vegetables I’ve grown and bread I’ve baked. D and I are hoping that we’ll get enough tomatoes this year to do some canning as well.

Zucchini blossoms

 

Green beans. By the time their done those creeping vines will be all over the place...
Tomato blossoms

So far, there hasn’t been much of a problem with pests. I don’t know if it’s because of the beer traps or the heavy doses of Sluggo I used early on.  Not pictured are the cucumbers, eggplants, basil, and spinach (that last one was inadvertent, it was in the winter garden and must have seeded at some point.) The cucumbers are at the very back of the box next to the fence and we’ve hung some netting between the garden box and the fence so they have something to climb. If the beans get out of control we’ll also direct them towards the netting…

Here’s a tip for those of you gardening from home as well, don’t get your blossoms wet. This has a tendency to insure they never fertilize or bear fruit. We lost out on have a season of tomatoes because of this last year. Also, don’t let your tomatoes bloom too much. All that flowering will take energy away from making nice big fruits. So once you’ve got some tomatoes on the vine cut back some of your blossoms…

If you’re lucky enough to be growing some of your own produce I’d love to see some of your pictures or hear any tips you’ve come across! Share them with me in the comments.

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