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108 Despite mosquitoes and rain
Despite rain and mosquitoes, Pepper and I get a lot done in the garden. After checking on what my husband did the day before, we harvest some currants, string-trellis some tomatoes, cook a delicious dinner from volunteer potatoes, and return the next day to continue a new bed. My husband asked to be picked up…
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106 Harvesting the garlic + Strawberry jam
Almost every day brings fresh rain around here at the moment. Many days, we are forced to work around the weather–and take breaks when it rains. Or we ignore the weather and go to the garden anyway. On a rainy day, we made strawberry jam, then rescued the garlic from the non-stop rain by harvesting…
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105 Everything needs planting
The garden was weeks behind, so I spent every free minute catching up. Every gap in the weather was spent in and around my beds. Everything was a rescue mission against clocks set by weather and wind. When it rained, I turned the tops of the onion I’d harvested into green onion pesto and planted…
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097 A rhubarb BBQ
When I got a chance to harvest a lot of free rhubarb, I ignored both my injury and the vacation preparations to make a rhubarb BBQ sauce, some rhubarb syrup, and a sweet treat. While I share it all, I ramble on about the myth of the Tragedy of the Commons. Note: The video version…
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088 I have a greenhouse now
With my husband back at work, I set out to finish the greenhouse alone. I had to get it done before the wind got too strong–and didn’t like the time pressure at all. The next day, with more time pressure, I put up the rain collection system. We couldn’t quite finish the greenhouse as planned.…
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086 Building a storage bench
It’s time to tackle that indoor list. Our living room has been an absolute mess, so I’m building a storage bench for the hallway. I also deal with about 50 eggs from the garden neighbor, and use the egg cartons for my potatoes. There are a lot of sunflowers growing on my balcony. The birds…
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081 Spring? Dirt and trash!
Spring is still playing tug-o-war with the remnants of winter here. But the occasional warmer days have me preparing for warmer days to come soon. I clean up our balcony, drive off more trash from the overgrown plot, and make very simple grilled-cheese sandwiches. Debris from the roof falls onto our balcony. Over winter, this…
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079 Trying to bake German cheesecake
With the outside world still wet and gray, I get a lot done indoors while dreaming about garden work. As I’d been craving some cheesecake, I decided to bake some from scratch–something that I hadn’t done in over a decade. It did not quite go as planned. The temperatures are slowly creeping up, but most…
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078 This does not feel like spring
The outside world is cold, gray, and wet. But inside, I am preparing for spring. With false spring come and gone, I am taking advantage of some indoor days to get some seeds started, bake bread and make some home-made pizza from scratch. Just a couple of days ago, I was in the garden in…