Weekenderies

Tonight ends one of the best at-home weekends I've had in a long time. 


My dad came up from Pocatello to address some issues with the house my parents still own in Bozeman. He and Harlow played endless games of fetch. And my dad, who's always says he hates dogs, said things like "dog, you're the best," and "Harlow I love you." 

It was beautiful on Saturday; I gardened in shorts and a tank top when it wasn't raining. I transplanted the broccoli and lettuce I'd started inside. 

Yeah, I'm not so sure about the broccoli either. We'll see. 

On the left, 12 Walla Walla onions per square (2 squares), on the right, 4 lettuces per square and below that one broccoli per square. 

I bought and planted onion sets; red onion and Walla Walla onions. MMMMmmmm. 

I made on the fly adjustments to the "Farming 2011" spreadsheet, specifically the part where I don't have as much room as I thought I did. 

I sewed 3/4 of the new curtain panels for the dining room and kitchen. I really like these. Yes, they're cream/ white, but they have a checkerboard pattern so I think that counts as a victory of sorts. Did I mention the fabric was on clearance for $6? And then on sale for another 50% off? I paid $3/ yard for 12 yards of this stuff, and have exactly one foot left over. 

Don't lie. You roll out large stretches of curtain on your floor for measurement too. 

I also found the huge round compass thingy to hang between the windows. No, it's not art. No, it's not red. Yes, I got it at Pier One. But you know what, I'm satisfied (If only the arrows were going in the right direction. Can I hang it upside down to coincide with the true direction? Despite what the compass says, east is to the left in this photo, west is to the right.) 

I also "inherited" three very nice hanging baskets from the former renters of my parent's house. I bought lime green sweet potato vine, pink and purple wave petunias, a purple potato vine and a white lobelia which will hopefully do okay in full sun. They're sitting on the front porch as I type this, but I'll probably transfer them to the garage for the night. 

I'll be taking on gardening the flower bed at my parents house, as they get ready to put it on the market for sale for the fourth summer in a row. I've got a budget of $150 and plans for soil pep and perennials like daylilly, lupine, coneflower, autumn joy sedum, decorative grasses and asters which will add color in the fall. I'll also put in a lot of annuals for instant pop.  

Overall, a very satisfactory weekend. How was yours?

The biggest personality in the house

I've found talking about Harlow's antics to be a good small talk topic. I can usually relate a story about her and make people laugh. It was fun describing her to my grandparents last weekend. 

I mean, she likes to hang out with her wang out:

To sleep under the bed (she was stuck on Thursday morning!):

Though she doesn't really understand  why DJ would sleep on her bed:

 She loves to cuddle. She'll lean against me when I sit in the office at the desk in the morning. Usually she'll put all 70lbs into it; to the point that she pushes you off of your chair. 

Because she demands to be petted. 

And really, how could you resist?

She has a few toys she loves to death. Her blankie (which has tears, rips and string pulled out):

She'll also curl up in a ball wherever she can find sunlight to do so. 

I mean, really, wouldn't you?

May 6 Friday Farming

Happy MAY!!!! 

May is one of my favorite months in Montana. I love the long days and drama of the weather. Thunderstorms! Snow! Sunshine! Rain! Hail! ThunderRainSnowHail!

I think we're in a bit of a quiet period for Farming. Just waiting for the seeds I planted 2-3 weeks ago to sprout. Now I know many of you are thinking that if seeds were going to germinate, they'd have done so by now. I think the four snowstorms which deposited two to six inches of snow on the ground probably slowed germination. I'll wait another week before re seeding. 

What's going on around the farm?

Bulbs are coming to life. Clockwise in this photo are Alium, Iris, Hyacinth and Daffodil. 

My Hyacinth only bloomed on half of the flower this year. I added bulb fertilizer on Tuesday night, so hopefully the bulbs will have an opportunity to recharge for 2012. Anyone have an idea what gives though?

 The spinach I planted in one of the pepper pots on the south side of the house is finally coming alive. 

I tried companion planting chives and cilantro in these pots with my tomatoes last year. At first I thought these were spinach starts, but couldn't figure out why they were in the wrong pot. It's cilantro! I didn't know the seed would winter over! Maybe I should fall-plant cilantro seed this year?

The bee balm I transplanted from under the hammock to the utility box bed seems to have survived the move. 

And though the photo is blurry, you can see that I didn't kill the hydrangea. Hurray!

 The crocus under the tree is blooming. 

And lo and behold, the muscari is actually going to bloom this year. I'm so confused. These bulbs are usually the first guys up, but after growing all of their leaves last fall, they're slow to bloom for 2011. Weirdos. 

I have a mystery plant on my hands. See all that green stuff? I think it's either an aster or a chrysanthemum bush, which I planted last fall. You can see 2011's twigs at the center of the photo. After rooting around in the dirt I found that all of the green shoots tie back to those twigs. So until I'm told otherwise, I'm letting the green shoots go. Set me straight if this is a weed! I'll be planting a banana pepper and a jalepeno pepper in these pots eventually. 

The starts inside are doing okay. I'm trying to set them out on the front porch every day for some sunshine. The marigolds are about to put on their first set of real leaves:

In the photo below, from left to right, leeks, broccoli (round two), and eggplant seedlings. The broccoli is struggling, though I can't figure out why. It's almost burned for some reason. I'll be transplanting it this weekend. I'll probably also throw a new seed in the ground, just in case my starts fail. 

The Bibb and Romaine lettuce will also be transplanted outside this weekend. I also need to pick up onion starts to pop in the ground this weekend. I'll plant Walla Walla sweets and Red onions. 

I have a hard time photographing the purple basil. 

The cilantro is doing really well in it's little pot. I've had it on tacos all week. MMMMmmmm. 

 The rosemary sent up another surprise start! 

And the lavender seems to be growing okay. 

Remember the  broccoli I started inside in early March? It's seriously leggy from lack of adequate light. I told DJ that a grow-light is in our future. 

Poor plants!

At the end of last summer I was drinking a lot of mojitos. I ran into the grocery store and found mint plants instead of just leaves. Purchased, potted, and kept the plant over the winter. The plant itself was dried out when we went to Portland, and I assumed it was a goner. Then I found new growth yesterday! 

I sheared off the dead stuff, and will replant this outside once the chance of frost has passed. 

So far we've eaten chives and cilantro grown at home, albeit in small amounts. Which is kind of the point of growing that stuff at home. I don't need a bushel of chives for my baked potato; not even a handful. It's great to step out of the kitchen and grab what I need. Same goes for cilantro. 


Only the garlic is showing signs of life in the in-ground garden. Frustrating. Where is my asparagus, sugar snap peas, sweet peas and spinach and lettuce I seeded three weeks ago?


This weekend I'll transplant the broccoli, lettuces, and onion sets. I planted a few spaghetti-squash seeds outside on Tuesday. I'll also seed for indoor starting a couple of annual flowers: zinnias, cosmos and larkspur.

Hurry up and wait, right!

When is just doing it good enough?

My friend Alli and I email pretty frequently. Sometimes 2-3 emails a day, if we're both in a slow period at work. Conversation topics range from relationships to work to family to gardening to travel, etc. 


We often come back on a theme of "I need to do better at __________" or "I need to be better at ________" or "I really should make a a better effort to __________." Now not to get all Carrie Bradshaw on you, but when is just doing something, even if you're not doing it really well, enough?


For example: I would like to be better at communicating with my grandparents. Sporadic phone calls seem insufficient. I'd like to create pamphlets to mail them, with photos of the garden, the dog and things we've been up to. It seems like it'd be a nice way to communicate with them, especially if a picture is worth 1,000 words. 


But that takes time and effort and damn I just feel so pressed for time lately. 


Along those lines, I need to be better about watching my diet, especially during times of stress. I'm good at cooking (er, letting DJ cook for me) and eating pretty decently nutritious home-made meals usually. But when I get stressed and have to work late all nutrition goes to hell. 


I feel like I need to be a better wife to DJ sometimes. Don't get me wrong; it's my understanding that he's perfectly satisfied. But, I'd like to cook once and a while. Something new and fancy, out of the Bon Appetit magazine we get. That would require a Sunday afternoon where I can focus on prepping and executing. I'd rather be outside doing something. 


We need to do better about where we procure our food from too. I've mentioned before buying a freezer and purchasing half a beef or something. With all the information out there about American meat-handling practices, well, I'm really losing interest in steak pretty quickly. 


I need to be better about being patient at work. The monotony and ineffectiveness and sense of stagnation which comes along with working in government frustrates me to no end. I'm a results person, and I get crabby and short tempered when I feel ineffective for reasons outside of my control. And then I take it out on other people, which is unfair. I need to be better about that. 


Those are what, 5 paragraphs in which I emotionally punch myself for not being good enough at something? Shit that's a lot of baggage to hand myself. And I can guarantee you that my husband's list of things to be better at is pretty short. 


As women, why do we beat ourselves up about things we should be better at, while we don't celebrate the qualities we excel at? 


What am I good at?

Living/Dining Room and Kitchen updating

I'm struggling with a decorating issue. Our Living Room, Dining Room and Kitchen are all one big, plain, boring room. All the same tan/grey wall color with lots of white. 


I packed up our gold and crimson "winter" drapes which hung in the dining room and kitchen last weekend in a fit of "I-just-want-something-different rage." Too heavy for summer. Too wintry-colors.


Here's the view most visitors get when walking in our front door:

Bland. Boring. With all of the color below your belly-button. Seriously, can we get some visual interest in here?

View from the kitchen:

I'd like to get this space into a place where I can change out a few accessories every spring and fall and shift the room. That means any paint colors need to be neutral, but not boring. I'm open to adding color with curtains and accessories. The "winter" look for this room is currently the gold and red curtains and gold and red throw pillows.  


I think I've identified the issues I want to address. First, the space needs some damn color. It seems my go-to answer for introducing color to a room is paint and curtains. Two fairly cheap solutions, with low labor costs (I'm the laborer).


Second, we need summer curtains, probably sheers or cotton/ canvas in the dining room and kitchen for a bit of privacy. We also need to address some kind of temporary curtain in the windows in the dining room and living room; the late afternoon sun streams through them from the west, both heating the room and blinding anyone trying to eat at the dinner table between 4 and 7 pm. 

The high dining room windows give great light in the winter so I *think* I want these window coverings to be for summer use only. 

Lastly, I need to replace or find a few new furniture pieces and accessories. Specifically this media console has got to go. The TV used to sit on it, but now it goes above the fireplace. It's also too big for this space. See how the edge of it goes over the fireplace? And that you can't open the door on the left because of the window trim?

We're debating finishing the fireplace this summer. We put it off after tiling the entryway, and were supposed to do it last fall. But we can't seem to make up our minds about what tile to go with, and truth be told, I don't really like our mantel (which they built exactly from my design. oops). I'd like to take out the mantel and have bookshelves built on either side of the fireplace and then a smaller mantel above it built. But... that's a lot more expensive than just tiling around the fireplace. So in the interim, I'm not really pushing for anything. 

Right now the only accessories are framed photos in the entryway; I'd like to branch out into artwork or some kind of antiquey/ salvage thing. Also, lamps, although with the dimmer lights in the living room we really have no need for lamps.

Have I mentioned before my obsession with symmetry? I can't deal if something is "off"; it bothers me.

We need some kind of round artwork between the windows in the living room. Everything in that space is so square. A big round red plate would do, but I don't seem to have one handy. 

So what's my plan of attack? Well... hm. First I'm going to sew long curtains for the Dining Room and Kitchen. I'd prefer something with an interesting and colorful pattern in it, but I can't seem to find either curtain panels or fabric that I like. So they'll be a cream colored sheer in a checked pattern. Simple. Cheap at about $50.


I should mention that we have the double-cell, top-down/ bottom-up blinds in the living room and staircase windows. You can't seem them in these photos because they're pulled all the way down. I don't really want to add any kind of valance above them, though I could be convinced... 


But what about curtains for the high dining room windows? Well... that's tricky. You see, I have a compulsion with symmetry. I'm afraid that if I add curtains to the dining room, I'll have to add them throughout the space, which continues up the stairs too. But that's a lot of windows, and I don't really like matchey-matchey. So I'm afraid to think of curtains for the space. I'm tempted to order and have installed more of the roller shades that we have in our bedroom; they "disappear" into the top of the window when rolled up. 


If not that, I'm leaning towards some kind of canvas Roman shade that I could sew. 

Source

Maybe white with a red pinstripe? Or white with red ribbon to reel it up with? I think I could figure out how to sew a Roman shade. 


I'm also inclined to paint the inset in the dining room. Just this one little wall as a way to add color to the entire space while not throwing the whole room off balance. Maybe a darker brown/ grey, which wouldn't clash with the existing paint but would make the book cases/ sideboard pop a little? Or a gold color which would play off the gold winter curtains while still adding color in the summer?

I could change out the lamp shades above the dining room table, into something colorful. 


I also considered painting the bookshelves too. Maybe a brick red, since red seems to be the color which will stay in the room throughout the seasons. But painting the bookshelves would only serve to keep the color on the lower half of the room. Boring. 


A tall and skinny lamp on either end of the book cases would help move your eye vertically up, and I could change out the lamp shades each season. They should have rounded shades too. Anything I can do to relieve the squareness of the room would be good. 


That said, I'm still pretty uncertain about the whole thing. I dislike starting a project without a completed vision. Have you seen a decorating idea that I should copy in this space? Are you nuts about symmetry like I am? Is your husband scared of color too?

Two sides of the coin

I drove back from Pullman yesterday. I'd taken through Tuesday off of work, but since my mom and grandma planned to work on Monday, and Gretchen had a final, I decided to head back and garden on Tuesday. I need a day at home to get a few things done and just settle in. 


It's a 7 hour drive from Pullman to Bozeman. I drove through Spokane both times, although that route is slightly longer. I wanted to see Whitman County as it comes out of winter and into spring. Green rolling hills, yellow daffodils and tractors crawling all over hills planting fall crops. 


I thought a lot about what other paths my life might have taken in the last decade. If we hadn't moved to Bozeman when I was a junior in high school, I probably would have gone to Washington State University. I would made different friends s and been exposed to other experiences. I had a pretty awesome experience at MSU and I'm not sure that WSU would have been even better; just different. I'm not sure where things would have gone from there; probably a different career field which would have lead me to a different job which would have not lead me to meeting my husband at work. 


Moving a decade ago altered the course of my life, for the better I think. Yet it didn't really change the course of Gretchen's since she insisted on going back to eastern Washington for college. She kind of got right back on that track. And she's rocking it; squeezing every experience possible out of college and making a ton of friends and dating a really great guy from central Washington. It's interesting how extensively one decision, like where to attend college, can alter the course of your life. 


I miss the area, for reasons I can't really explain. I miss the proximity to extended family. I miss the quality of life. I miss the landscape and accessibility to Seattle, Portland, and other locations. I miss having spring arrive before Memorial Day. 


I missed DJ too though, and the dog. I felt like I had so many stories to tell him, though not really much happened. It's a curious feeling to be torn between two versions of your family.


But with Gretchen planning on moving on from Pullman after graduation in 2012, and my parents moving to Pocatello for the foreseeable future, now certainly isn't the time to move back. The life I'm building with DJ in Bozeman is a good one, not for the things we are able to achieve but for the friends and lifestyle we have here. 


I'm not sure how to wrap this blog post up. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here. Maybe just a recognition that I'm damn lucky how things have turned out, but I do wonder what else could have happened.