This picture in no way reflects the hard work it took to plant all that
We tore the Spring garden out three weeks ago and put in the winter garden last week. That week in between where the plot had nothing in it? That was a bad idea… Why? Well, because the soil dried out and before we could sow any seeds or transplant seedlings we had to water, and water and water. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. We went to Ace hardware to pick up seedlings in the morning only to find that much of their vegetable stock had already been sold. The only seedlings they had that we wanted were bok choy and cabbage so we picked those up and two bags of steer manure.
This is the good shitThis picture is more exciting than it looks
After we spread the manure we turned the hose on and sat there for fifteen minutes or so, it might have been longer. The soil had really dried out and in order to turn it over and incorporate the manure we needed a lot of water.
I work too, it's just that D doesn't take pictures of me...
After the ground was thoroughly saturated we planted the seedlings and sowed the chard, kale, arugula and spinach:
One of the joys of gardening: getting your hands dirty
After everything was planted, we sprinkled sluggo pellets down and we were done.
Just the other day the arugula and spinach broke through the surface. We’re still keeping our fingers crossed with the chard.
Last week my bicycle was stolen from my workplace’s parking lot. It was locked to a bike rack with four or five other bicycles. The other bicycles had u-locks mine had a combination cable lock on it. At the end of the day their bikes were still there and mine was gone. Luckily, the bike that was stolen my wife picked up for $20 at a garage sale in Santa Cruz so, it wasn’t a large financial loss. It was a nice bike though and its theft meant I’d have to find a replacement, during my work’s busiest time of the year, because I use the bike to commute to and from work.
I did some looking on Craigslist and made some calls but nothing really clicked. So, last weekend I went to a local bike shop that had some sales. The bicycle pictured above, aMarin Hamiltion 29er, was on sale and I didn’t want to spend all day or weekend looking for other/better deals so I sprang and made the purchase. While there I also picked up a new lock:
square chainlink wrapped in kevlar
I’m told bolt cutters will not work on this at all. I’m hoping this is a big enough deterrent to keep opportunistic criminals from the bike. I’m not taking any chances though when it comes to leaving the bike out for multiple hours with no eyes on it. So, for now I’ll be taking the bike up to the office with me until I can get a spot in the bike cage over at the Capitol that has camera monitoring (there’s a waiting list…) Hopefully, this way the bike won’t be stolen for many years to come after I’ve wrung all the value out of it.
Now, for some more gratuitous shots of my new bicycle (GO, GO, Go Consumerism!)
Single gear, not a "fixie" (though I do have that option...)
This picture offers contributes nothing. I took it though, and by God I'm going to use it in this post
Maybe, I’ll have time over the coming weekend to write (I really want to tell you about my upcoming Let’s Play and other stuff.)
Since last I chronicled the progress of the garden the pole beans have overgrown the fence and have proceeded to begin colonization of the front yard, I’ve lost an overgrown zucchini plant that spilled out of the box and then broke underneath its own weight, and some sort of animal has begun poaching all of my tomatoes! We’ve also been eating a lot of cucumbers (the regular and lemon varieties), zucchini, and green beans. We’ve been collecting so many of them in fact that almost every meal that is prepared now has one, or more of those three things in it. Bread salad is always a popular choice (seeing as it requires fresh basil and we have plenty of that as well)
The beans migrate into my neighbors yard...Pole beans and cucumbers scale the growth screen and the fence...
That first picture is of the beans growing over one of the support ties for the tomato plants. The beans infiltrated into the tomato plants and then co-opted their supports. Next time I’m just going to plant bush beans. I can get the same, if not higher, yield, and not have to worry about the plants overcoming everything else in the garden. The second picture shows both beans and cucumber plants growing up their growth screen and over the wall. One of the bushes in the front yard, planted to screen view of the electric meter and the fence has already been reached by a bean creeper and, I’m sure, will soon succumb to the pole beans. The funny thing is people said the soil in the garden was spent and nothing would grow! We’ve had a higher yield this year and more robust plants!
A cucumber blossomBean blossomA cuke!
No picture of the harvest today. We’ve been going over the garden every day or so and so we pick a little produce everyday as opposed to a large pile of it on the weekends… This way we can incorporate the fruit into food throughout the week and have it at its freshest!
You can see previous entries in this series here, here, and here.
Sometimes procrastinating isn't as obvious as this
I’ve recently fallen prey to such “productivity” sites as: Lifehacker, Zen Habits and 43 Folders. These sites all offer useful types and links to a variety of content (soft and hard) that is supposed to streamline the and facilitate the creative process and act. These sites do a good job of finding content, that exists to help people create, across the internet and providing it to their readers in short blurbs and easy links. Lifehacker is full of information on websites, programs, apps, etc. that will help those who use them “create.” Except they don’t. Instead you get caught up in getting ready to create. The focus of these sites, even when they tell you to stop reading and create, is not for you to create but to keep getting ready to create with the help of this app or that program.
I’ve been diligently reading all three recently and I want to show you some things:
It might be a little hard to see but go ahead and click on the two pictures above. The folders circled in red are productivity software, they’re there to help me create better digital images, better code, better digital audio, better notes for future projects, better computer management, better command line interface, easier scripting, etc… etc… My computer is full of the stuff. My cell phone is clogged with it as well. Now I’m going to show you my ‘documents’ folder where all the now easy to do creative works are stored:
Not much to show here...
That’s the entirety of my creative output for the year of 2011. Nine 200 word book reviews, one 500 word writing challenge, and two incomplete book reviews. I haven’t taken any pictures, let alone manipulate them. I haven’t written any code. I haven’t recorded or edited any audio. The extent of my idea capturing notes? Two entries; links to websites I wouldn’t to further explore later. What does this mean? It means the idea of greater productivity has effectively made me non-productive. I’ve spent all this time optimizing, optimizing, optimizing for when I’ll have the perfect creativity system. That’s great, I suppose, when do I sit down and create though?
All this pursuit of productivity is great for Lifehacker and friends they’re getting millions of eyeballs on their webpage, millions of clicks to their adds, and making millions of dollars. It isn’t helping me, or you, create anything though! For the creators and makers all this productivity is just another excuse, another form of procrastination. It’s one more thing we can do to keep us from the difficult task of creation.
So, close your browser. Set down the cue card system. Pick up your pen, pencil, camera, keyboard, etc. and let’s start going about the hard work of creating. If you lose a few minutes, or hours, because however you create isn’t optimized, who cares? Worry about that after the creating is done!
