Tag: hobby

Winter Gardens: It grows, I do nothing

 

It has been months since I mentioned the winter garden hasn’t it?  That probably has something to do with the fact that, at least here, a winter garden is a hands-off process.  I don’t have to water the garden as it either rains or dew it sufficient to keep the plants happy, I don’t have to tend to the plants very often seeing as their not giant bushes overwhelming nearby plants (like zucchini and tomatoes.)  We planted it and promptly forgot about it until we need something like spinach, bok choy, or celery.

Oh, there was one pest… one that has somehow managed to survive the below freezing temperatures:

Beer traps don’t seem to work as well in the winter and either did nightly pick-ups.  We finally broke down and picked up some iron pellets which make them stop eating, but that doesn’t put an end to the breeding these pests do.  Who know slugs were so big on sex?  The only real victim of the slugs has been the lettuce and cauliflower.  Their leaves have been chewed all up and slug slime covers what is left, which means what cauliflower I have is tiny and, so far, inedible.

Appealing?
too small

So far we’ve eaten spinach, bok choy, celery, arugula, and some lettuce from the garden.  The carrots are still too small as are the onions.  Despite the lack of lettuce I’m still calling this season’s garden a success

Things I found at my parent’s house: TMNT part 1

I spent the winter holidays at my parent’s house.  This is the house I grew up in and it still has quite a few of my things lying around; stowed away in boxes piled up in closets and the garage.

Every time I visit I go through a little more of it.  In 2009 I went through about ten boxes of books and ended up giving away more than half of them.  Last year I finished going through the books and “culled the herd” down to about a box of them.  (Which will be highlighted in future post, maybe?)  I also went through some of the toys from my youth that had managed to stick around this long and I found quite a few Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I believe all of these are first runs of the toys, though I’m not sure.  I never was too concerned about the collectibility or resale value of my toys.  I got them to play with them!  Beyond these figures I’m pretty sure there is still a box or so out in my parents garage that has the Blimp and the Party wagon in it.

Wow, you can really notice the dust with the flash on.  These things have been in boxes for over 15 years or so, I think.  They’re all in remarkably good condition though!  All the limbs are movable and the accessories still seem to be in good condition.  I thought with the heat int he desert they would have dried out and crumbled a little more.  Strangest thing I’ve noticed so far?  Several of the toys have a sticky residue from when they were covered in ooze?!

Next time:  Vidja Games!

How My Garden Grows: Winter 2010

It has been about a month since we put in the winter garden and things are finally starting to grow, as you can see.  The bok choy and lettuce are coming in the fastest but everything seems to be moving along nicely.  So far, the biggest problem has been slugs, much more so now than they were in the summer.  I’ll be putting in new, and perhaps additional, beer traps but am considering using coffee grounds as well.  The acidity of the grounds prevents the slugs from crawling over them, it can also burn your plants too though.  I suppose I could purchase a pesticide of some sort but we’re trying for an organic garden and I don’t want to see it come to that.

notice the holes in the leaves? slugs!

D thinks we can start harvesting lettuce from the garden now… I still think the heads are a little too small and Id like to give them a few more weeks.  The arugula and carrots both seem to be doing fine.  We didn’t lose much seed to birds or other granivores and it looks as if we’ll have plenty of both by harvest time:

arugula
carrots

I didn’t take any pictures of the celery or onions but they seem to be doing fine, especially because it appears the slugs are uninterested in them.  Not enough leafy greens I suppose.  The only other plant we have growing is cauliflower and while they seem to be doing fine they’re a long way off from harvesting.  Seeing as they have to flower first and then be germinated and then… Well, you (should) know how plant sex works.

In general, despite the pest problem, the winter garden seems to be progressing well.  As long as these plants don’t stall on us like the tomatoes and zucchini did in the summer garden and we don’t have a cold snap this season should be a success!

It Came and soon I will Brew

 

Will this be awesome? It will... It might also be smelly...

 

I don’t know when I first thought about brewing my own beer…  I’ve known for a long time that brewing it wasn’t that difficult and that humans had been doing it for thousands of years.  The history of brewing is, like all histories, fascinating and worth your time even if you don’t drink.  One thing that struck me about its history that struck me though was how domestic the industry was, by that I mean people brewed their own beer for their own consumption.  Perhaps I don’t write about it much here but I’ve been holding an extended discussion with one of my dear friends about self-sufficiency and moving from consumption to production.  I think this is a direction that our nation as a whole needs to move in order to get its economic house in order but, right now I can’t do anything to direct national policy what I can do is learn a useful skill and try to pass it on to others, and hope that it inspires them to take action in their own life to consume less and make more.

This isn’t a post about my own philosophy, it’s a post about beer brewing.  I purchased the one-gallon brewing kit pictured above from the Brooklyn Brew Shop who also sell five gallon kits, several recipes packs, and other brewing accessories.  Obviously, I haven’t had much business with them but its been good so far and they came highly recommended by friends.  They have a several mixes and seeing as I’d never tried one I went with the one that sounded most delicious:  Apple Crisp Ale.

I’m currently scheduling the actual brew next weekend.  I was initially worried that I’d have to muck through this alone, but it turns out that not only is the internet full of resources (google: beer brewing), but my local community has numerous resources:  a restaurant that lets you brew your own beer; a local brewery with a its own brewers group that meets monthly to discuss all things brew; and, my Fraternity also has a Zymurgy committee.  With all that help at my fingertips I’m hoping my first batch isn’t a dud.

Of course, I’ll be blogging more about this as I move forward, as well as other projects I’m undertaking to shift from consumption to production.

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