Two Frog Home

Yesterday I went to a small county park on my lunch break where I was greeted by this path

The path led me to many beauties:

This week’s favorites in no particular order:

• I’m not a big fan of stringent baking rules, except for when the rule is Do what works
• I’m a huge fan of packed lunches and it makes sense on so many levels financial, health, etc.
• A tutorial for making a 2 person hammock, is exactly the kind of tutorial I need to keep around for the future, we have those two maple trees just the perfect distance apart for a hammock..
• I enjoy seeing how other folks tackle chores and avoid burnout, and sometimes just knowing what other folks tackle make me grateful for the little I tackle
• I love microcredit and the things it has accomplished for the impoverished in the world, seriously finding a job in microcredit would be a dream for me, though I wonder if I could base my office out of Montana and just travel alot, anyway… Foodshed Planet’s review Banker to the Poor just put that book on my reading list.

I’ve been asked a few times recently about my favorite gardening books and was asked again this morning so perhaps its time I address that topic.  Here are just a handful of my favorites:

Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long by Eliot Coleman - A great resource especially for those of us living in colder rather than warmer climates.

Organic Gardening in Cold Climatesby Sandra Perrin - A small volume with lots of great content and written by a rocky mountain Montana gardener, so its perfect for me, but if you live in a cold climate you’ll love this book.

All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew - While I don’t specifically follow the square foot method, I do find this book incredibly useful.

Rodale’s All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening: The Indispensable Resource for Every Gardener - Honestly any of the Rodale books are awesome resources to have around in my opinion.  You don’t have to buy the latest and greatest versions either, look for the dated volumes at yard sales and thrift stores.

I constantly pick up gardening books, much like cookbooks and books on canning, at library book sales, yard sales, and thrift stores.  I rarely pass one up, sometimes they’re worth keeping and sometimes not.  I’ve learned that I don’t have to read every word, but just having them on hand sometimes is a great thing.  Often times I get just a little tidbit of information from each book, but that tidbit is worth keeping the entire volume on my bookshelf. 

Please feel free to add your favorites in the comment section.

One of the reasons I first became interested in blogging was to fill the void I was feeling for community.  I felt like I was missing a big part of life in folks with common interests and goals.  Blogging has to some extent filled that void, in that I’ve met many people with common goals and interests and I read their blogs with interest and some people read my blog (hopefully with interest), I’ve also emailed and become friends with many bloggers, though long distance friendships in most cases.  Bloggers that I’ve met all seem to be very far away, but someday I’m confident that I’ll at least meet up with the folks in Idaho.

A few months ago, Robbyn had updated her blog read list and as I was surfing her list, I discovered Jessica’s blog, Practical Nourishment.  I read with interest and noted that she too was from Montana.  I left a comment and turns out not only is she from Montana but lives just 20 minutes away from me.  We’ve emailed and I immediately liked her, then the house came along and well any plans to actually meet up had to be put on hold.  On hold, that is, until last night when she attended my worm composting class.

I’ve read about bloggers meeting each other on other blogs and have always thought, oh wouldn’t that be cool.  You know what, it was cool.  Jessica is as sweet in person as she is in her writings.  I look forward to meeting up with her again in the near future, and perhaps building a little bit of community locally of like-minded folks.

So much has happened in the last week, meaning huge transformations around our future home.  These changes have been huge for us mentally, leaving us feeling more excited and anxious to move in and less overwhelmed by the large to-do list.

What’s been accomplished:

• Two spare bedrooms painted & carpets cleaned
• Master bedroom painted
• Bathtubs and shower surrounds installed
• New kitchen sink & faucet installed
• Holes in living room walls have been patched
• All the overgrown grass was hauled away (I didn’t save for compost because until we get everything lined out it was just easier to haul away)
• What I thought was a compost pile turned out to be a garbage pile covered with grass clippings was hauled away
• The woodshed was cleaned and wood stacked neatly (the seller left behind about 1 1/2 cords of wood) and the 7 wheelbarrow loads of bark was burned in the fire pit (we don’t use that for kindling).  We also hauled and stacked another 1 1/2 cords of wood that we picked up at a yard sale for no kidding, $40.
• New windows arrived
• Interior doors were ordered
• Baseboard & window trim ordered
• Most possessions except big furniture items and clothing are at the new house
• New dryer outlet installed
• New light switches in master bathroom installed
• Ceiling fans were balanced & cleaned

To be accomplished before we move in on July 4th:

• Master bedroom & living room carpets cleaned
• Windows installed
• Interior doors painted & installed
• Storm door installed
• Living room walls primed & painted
• Baseboard & window trim painted & installed
• A thorough cleaning

There’s a lot of things we’ll pick at and accomplish once we move in, but the items listed were important to us to have done prior to getting settled.  There’s a ton of garden work to be done, but that will be accomplished once we’re living there.

100 Things # 20 ) I Graduated from Lycoming College.

I went to Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.  I graduated with a B.A. in 1996.  I majored in History.  I enjoyed it tremendously for about the first 2 1/2 years, hated it and couldn’t wait to graduate for the last year and a half.  I hated it so much that I almost dropped out with one semester left to go.  My hatred had nothing to do with the school itself, but rather my own issues at the time and frankly, just wanting to be done with school.  It’s a great school and I’d highly recommend it to anyone, though it is quite expensive.  In hindsight, I’m not sure the “greatness” was worth the expense, a state school would have probably given me the same education (that I don’t use) for much less debt.  Expense aside, if a person could afford it, Lycoming College is a great small liberal arts college in the hometown of the Little League World Series.

So often we’re bombarded with images of the folks that “do it all,” as a woman I know I see the superwoman fallacy in many images in today’s society.  Let me just say I am not one such superwoman, and that has been driven home several times lately.

It seems working full time and remodeling our new home is about all I can tackle at one time.  Everything else beyond laundry and doing the dishes has been put on hold.  I’ve quit making bread and started buying some at the grocery store, which may not sound like a big deal but for us its huge.  I don’t think I’ve bought bread at the store for 6 years prior to this.  I don’t really like buying it, I hate packing our lunches with bread I didn’t make and overpriced bread at that.  It’s not as good, either.  We’ve been eating out a lot and not healthy food either, my stomach is starting to revolt.  Stopping to make a healthy meal isn’t a priority right now, and I was embarrassed last week when a friend dropped by the house while I was making a frozen meal from a bag for dinner.  He was helping us work on the house and gladly shared in the packaged, over-processed meal, but I was horrified to serve that to Jeff and I let alone a guest.

I chatted with a woman recently who asked me how I did it all.  I told her simply, that I don’t.  I do what I can and do my best to be happy about that, sometimes I fail miserably at the acceptance of what I can’t do, but I’m a work in progress.  I do my best to pick my battles and priorities and work within that framework, sometimes I’m better at that then others.  I am at a place in my life right now, where I realize that I can’t be superwoman, but I can be a super person in my relationships and lead a super life without doing it all.

—-

PS: I apologize for the not so well written post, I’m a bit tired but needed to write the above down.

Oh, how I love Freecyle!  Remember, that garden fence I said I wanted to tear out, well its gone.  Yesterday morning a gal posted on my local freecycle chapter that she wanted some garden fencing to keep her pets out of her garden.  I emailed her a photo and she came last night and took it away.  We didn’t have to do anything.  The swingset we didn’t want, someone also came and got that with no assistance from us.  It’s free labor and reusing unwanted items rolled into one and that is indeed a marvelous thing.

The back portion of our property is now ready to have newspaper put down and topped with some compost and manure to get ready for next summer’s garden!  We are going to install some deer netting, because I can see where the buggers were bedding down in the grass before we trimmed it and I’m not about to lose my garden to them.  I’m hoping to start working on the newspaper laying this weekend, but we’ll see what else happens first.

This week’s favorites in no particular order:

• Not having a garden this summer is very hard for me, and I’m just oh so jealous of fellow bloggers’ harvests
• A recipe, I’ll be trying as soon as we’re settled: Sprouted Wheat Sourdough with Fruit & Nuts
• Weekly Awww factor can be found in Little Miss Chirper
• I Need to have beautiful trellises in my garden next year just like the ones over at Future House Farm
• Fresh Ricotta & Red Onion Pizza, just sounds too yummy.

I’m a dreamer.  No, really.  Its a blessing and a curse.  I spend a lot of time thinking and dreaming.  I’m also a little slightly on the verge of needing medicated, OCD at times. It’s an odd combination that must make people close to me feel like I’ve a bit of a split personality.  It’s a blessing in that I rarely feel limited, its a curse in that sometimes I spend so much time dreaming, planning, etc. that I forget to act.  It also means that I dream up way more than I have time to act on.  I have a feeling I’m not alone in that.

Join me, in some recent variations of old dreams, won’t you?

Part of my goals of self-sufficiency include working for myself.  For a while now, I’ve done little bits and pieces on the side.  Currently, its a nice extra but certainly not a level where I’m willing to quit working completely, especially given a new mortgage payment.  One of the little side gigs, for the last year or so has been teaching continuing education classes at the local community college.  Next week, I’m teaching a worm composting class, I have a canning class for beginner’s in August, which is already full so I added another in September.  I also have a jams/jellies class and a meat/stock canning class in October - those two by request of the college and I’m assuming continuing education students.  I added a “Your Money or Your Life” study group this fall semester as well.  I look forward to each class, who knew I’d enjoy teaching so much? 

Last night Jeff and I were talking about the worm class and necessary preparations (I give away worms and a bin to one student by drawing for names).  Jeff wondered if we could start offering classes on our property in the future.  That was all I needed to hear to get the dreams flowing…

There’s a room at the back of the garage that we had wired for a stove, and I could easily set it up in a class room style to teach canning, worm composting, and much more… We’d have to insulate it for fall/winter classes but it is doable.  The house is an un-zoned portion of the county so there’d be no problem with me doing it there, no permits needed, etc.  The benefit of teaching through the college is that they do all the advertising and registrations and they are quite trusted.  However, my teaching at the college has been well-received (I get great evaluations by the students), and many students recommend me to future students and I can use that to get me started.  Obviously, this is something to think about more, but it is an exciting idea.

I’ve always wished that I lived close to the Dervaes’ so that I could attend some of their events, potlucks, screenings, etc.  Maybe just maybe, I could start doing that on my own here… what a wonderful thing that could be.  Assuming I could get enough folks interested.  Obviously my population base is much smaller than that of Pasadena, but I’ve met several folks recently who’d probably be up for this kind of thing… I may just yet build the community I’ve been longing for.

See, dreaming is so easy because it’s neat and tidy and the work doesn’t seem as large as it is in reality.  The thing I’m trying to remember is that it doesn’t have to be immediate, and I’m going to take these dreams slowly and see what happens.