HAPPY THANKSGIVING

It's hard to believe that it's been so long since I've posted. The above painting was done by Sarah in celebration of Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for but sometimes I need to remind myself of those things, so Thanksgiving meant a lot to me this year.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

SOMETIMES IT'S HARD TO GO TO WORK EVERYDAY

I always get annoyed when a celebrity claims that if you find a job you love then you won't feel like you are going to "work" everyday. They make it sound like people can spend their lives in constant happiness and work will just be pure bliss. What they don't say is that no job will make you happy everyday. That sometimes it's hard to make yourself get up and go to work even when most times you enjoy your job. There will always be those days that you are going to work purely for the paycheck. If we teach our kids that work should always be fun, then we are doing them a disservice. I teach my children that although they should enjoy their job overall, they have to also accept that they may be sick of it sometimes. This is not to say that I am teaching them to settle for a career that they don't ever enjoy. When they complain that they are sick of school I listen but I also point out the alternative....not being able to go to school....and they agree that school is mostly a positive thing but they are just sick of it for that time period (like the end of the year).

I do think that there are people who are happy with their jobs everyday but I think that it's more about their personality. Some people are just pure optimists. I consider myself an optimist...most times but not always. I think that most people in the world have their bad days, some more than others. One of the celebrities that I hear talking about "finding your bliss" has a name that starts with "O". I find it annoying that she acts like she just loves every day of her job but at the same time says that she is overweight because she eats out of unhappiness. If her job is truly pure bliss and she spends so much time working, why is she overweight....does all her unhappiness come as soon as she get's home? Maybe she should work more to keep her mind off her problems. My real point is that even "O" must have bad days and by acting like she doesn't she will make others feel as if something is wrong with their jobs because they are not in pure bliss. It would just be nice if she would emphasize the point that a person can sometimes complain about their job and still be happy.

Where would the world be if people only worked at jobs that made them happy everyday? I dare say that society would collapse. How many people love being cashiers, garbage men, sewage treatment facility workers and field workers? I'm not saying that these workers go to work unhappy everyday but that it's possible they could be happier in a job that wasn't so demanding. I think it was on the Jon Stewart show that I saw an activist that had started a "Take our jobs" program for the migrant workers. The basic premise was they would automatically offer a job to any American that wants to work in the fields. Although Americans fear that migrant workers are stealing American jobs, Americans don't want to do the work of a migrant worker! I guess we are just looking for that "job that we love". Maybe some of those migrant workers would much rather be working in an air conditioned office but then what would we all eat? Would we be happy growing our own food? I love to garden but I'd probably go hungry since I get too lazy to water and weed sometimes!

PITY PARTY

Well, a couple days ago, I had myself a pity party. Definitely not because of my life now, my life is great. I instead had a few thoughts about my childhood. I rarely think of the past anymore and I'm not sure why I did at this time. I think it may be because recently I have been given copies of some letters my grandmother wrote at the time when I was young. She lived with my family the entire time I was growing up. My siblings read them as well and I found all of our reactions interesting. She seemed to make an attempt at holding herself back from her negative feelings but since I lived with her longer than my other siblings, I knew they were there. I feel that some of my siblings read the letters with rose colored glasses on. I would not consider myself a pessimist, but rather a realist. I actually consider myself an optimist but then again I bet most people think that. She was not a bad person but she also was not the wonderful person that some may see. When I gave this kind of response to my siblings, I sort of got the impression that a couple of them looked down on me. Mind you, I did not go on and on about negative things, I just felt as if I jokingly pointed out a couple of things. To be honest, I was a bit annoyed at one sibling in particular. This sibling said that my grandmother was a very positive and kind person and insinuated I was not because I was not being nice when I talked about my experience with her in my childhood. The fact is, she was not really positive and she was not really kind. I'm very big on the philosophy "actions speak louder than words." You may write words that make you appear nice but how do you actually live your life? What's funny about the entire thing? I think she actually sort of liked me better than some. You would think that if anyone saw her with rose colored glasses it would be me.

For myself, it made me look at how I live my life. I think maybe my situation is the opposite. If someone read letters/emails that I've written they would think that I am not such a good person but knowing me personally they would see me as a nice person. In reality, I try to live my life in a positive way. I am acutely aware that my actions speak louder than my words. I try to raise my children in such a way that they will look back fondly and think that I was a good mother. I think that I often times show my love with my actions. I can never be sure, but I can hope that my kids will remember these things.

On the other hand, no one is perfectly happy all the time and sometimes my writings, words and actions reflect this. I thought about whether I would change myself and decided that I can not pretend to be anything other than myself. I've decided that instead of pretending I will try to follow the advice my mother liked to give, "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all." I will apply this to my emails to my siblings in particular. I will not always be successful but that is okay with me. That's why I have a category on my blog called "complaints." I'm much safer writing it here than sending it out to relatives! I rarely look back on my childhood with fondness and when I do, it's never with a fondness for my relatives and I can't pretend things were different but I can keep my mouth shut.....like I most often do with a few occasional slips here and there! It's much better for my mental health to not dwell on the past. That is good advice to follow...

TORN MENISCUS

I really believed that if anyone would be unable to hike Mt. Washington it would be me. So far so good, I seem to be holding up pretty well but I don't want to jinx myself by talking too much about it. Unfortunately, Tom is the one who may be unable to accomplish this feat. On our "get in shape for Mt. Washington" hikes he has been having knee pain, especially on the downhill portions. I told him that if there was any hope that he'd be able to make Mt. Washington he needed to go see our friendly orthopedist. After poking, prodding and bending Tom's knee, the doctor declared that he thought it was a torn meniscus (hence the title to this post). He needs to follow up with an MRI to confirm but we trust the talent of diagnosis of our doctor. He agreed to give him a cortisone shot right before we climb the mountain and eventually he will need surgery....sigh. We've decided that he can climb up but will take a van down the mountain and hopefully keep from damaging it further.

ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?

I realized right from the moment I considered climbing Mt. Washington with the family that it was going to take a lot of work to get into shape. After all, I've spent the last couple of years working very hard at getting out of shape. All that laying around watching TV was quite a job! I've been impressed with how long the family has been willing to put up with my constant suggestions for various hikes. Until recently, they agreed without much objection. Now however, they groan every time I say "we need to go on a hike!"

When we went to Knoebel's for a few days this week I was nice enough to let Erin and Sarah forgo the hike that Thomas and I had planned. They happily pranced off to the amusement park while Thomas and I went zipping in the the van over hill and dale. We arrived at Nescopeck State Park about 45 minutes later. Leaving the parking lot, we looked for the entrance to the "Mountain Loop" trail. We should have known that things would not go well when we spied it off through a tangle of prickers! About half of our hike was through gawd awful, leg grabbing weeds, bushes and more prickers! Looking on the bright side, we found a few wild raspberries that tasted good and we hiked an incline that Thomas said was similar to a portion of Mt. Washington (pant, pant, huff, puff). We won't mention the fact that the raspberries were right beside the parking lot and we didn't really need to go on the hike to find them.... Not surprisingly, the incline was not located on the Mountain Loop but instead it was on the Oak Trail. The Oak Trail had very few oaks. A good portion of our time I complained about the upkeep of the trails. "They have that big beautiful visitor center.....THAT ISN'T OPEN!!" "All they would have to do is drive an ATV over these trails a few times and it would take care of all these bushes!" "Did the people who named these trails even hike them??" Even Thomas chimed in with "How hard is it to paint a few colored squares on the trees?!"

(Pause to get ice and ibuprofen for Thomas's finger that he slammed down while tripping on the stairs - broken or not broken that is the question of the day...)

We emerged from the undergrowth battered and bleeding and wondering if any ticks had reached our underwear. Well, at least I was bleeding, Thomas was unscathed. After Thomas made a trip to the well appointed porta potty (meaning it had plenty of toilet paper) we collapsed into the comfort of the van's air conditioning. In regards to our hike I said "I'm glad I did that!", without any sarcasm. I guess I am a glutton for punishment.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT ME...

Yesterday I went to an appointment at the Jefferson Headache Center. It wasn't a bad visit but it wasn't really good either. Other than to say it was sort of weird I won't say anything more. It was just a follow-up, they've helped me tremendously and nothing needed to be changed so none of it matters.

What I really want to say is that I met a "girl" who is 28 years old. She has had a continuous migraine since she was 16 years old! She started getting occasional migraines at the age of two! Many times when I go to the center, I meet people like this who are worse off than me. She was a positive person who has learned to live with her problem. She went to college and now works full time. She down plays her migraine problem with her work colleagues because she doesn't want them to treat her differently. She is married but has no kids because she realizes that at this time she may not have the stamina to raise them the way she would want. Her philosophy in life is to accept how things are for her and at the same time, keep hope that things will get better and possibly even be migraine free one day. She has a sister who is 31 who recently had an increase in migraines and now gets them everyday. She is having trouble accepting this new life. The woman I was talking to told me that she thinks it was easier for her to accept than her sister because she was so young when it all started. I talked about my acceptance of my new life and told her that I never thought that it's possible that it might be more difficult for me because I was in my 40's when it all hit the fan.

Now for the part where I like something about myself. She told me that it was nice to be able to talk to someone about what she goes through. She says that she doesn't just kick up conversations in the waiting room and doesn't get a chance to talk to people about it. I've always said that I can find someone to talk to anywhere. I think part of my success comes from the fact that I am truly interested in what others have to say. I really do listen as well as talk myself. I like this about myself and felt happy that she said what she did. I could tell that I was a bright spot in her day.

STRIATION DISTURBATION

Our library recently had a book sale. My daughter, Erin, went with a friend and because she is so generous, she purchased a gardening book for me. The book is about intensive gardening and getting the most out of your garden. I have been reading some of it and skipping around a bit. I saw a section on double digging and decided to read it over since I've been doing my version of double digging this year.

As I began to read, I had no problem when they started off by saying that removing the sod was one of the most difficult parts of digging. I ignored the fact that I would be happy to have sod to remove instead of the weird bushy roots we have. We only have sod in places that we've fertilized heavily. I pushed to the back of my mind that sod removal would have been the easiest part for me. I brushed over my observation that they didn't have any real photographs and the diagrams didn't show a single rock being dug out. Then I was even okay when the book said that you must dig down two feet. I told myself that it was alright because I had dug down at least a foot and in one bed it was probably a foot and a half.

What came next in no way resembled what I had done in my garden. In my garden, after digging a huge hole, I added a thick layer of semi decayed wood chips. The thickness of the wood chips varied depending on how deep the hole was. Then I began to add a combination of the original soil, peat moss and cow manure. I threw in a bit of pellet fertilizer as well. I alternated materials and mixed and fluffed and mixed and fluffed some more until I was sweating like a pig. (Sweating is a new thing for me that has developed now that I'm in my forties) In the end I had a bed of the best soil I've ever had.

What the author had written was that I should have been carefully removing the soil as to not disturb the natural layers...they may have used the word striations and I think that means layers but the more I think about it, I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that I was not careful and I knew I must have messed up those "striations", whatever they may be. As a matter of fact, since I was adding so much cow manure, peat moss and wood chips, I removed the worst clumps of clay, threw them into a wheel barrow and dumped it as far away from the hole as possible! If that didn't mess up those striations, I don't know what would!

Then, I'm not sure but I don't think they even mentioned anything about adding material to the bottom of the hole! Again, I guess that would disturb those striations. After all, soil doesn't randomly have a layer of wood chips a foot below the surface! I planted carrots in the first bed I prepared and now I'm thinking there could be problems. What if the carrots grow down and suddenly come to those wood chips? Will they panic and scream out "where are the striations?" On the other hand, if they make it that far, they would be three times as long as any carrots that I've ever grown and I wouldn't really care if they stopped growing. In fact, they may think "this is different; I love the quirkiness of that woman."

So, as I was reading what I should have done, my eyes began to glaze over. Erin walked by, pleased that I was reading the book she gave me, and asked "do you like it?" I replied that it was a bit complicated but I still enjoyed reading it. She said that she had noticed that it seemed complicated. What I said is true and although I like to read all gardening books, I always find that my version of doing things never matches what I should be doing. Maybe that's why I have so many failures...

HIKING

During the past four years, I've slowly turned into a big marshmallow. Mind you, I've been a marshmallow for many years but now I am a big marshmallow! I used to be in pretty good shape as far as my muscles were concerned but then all my health issues started. First my thyroid went kaput. Then my brain decided migraines were a good thing. My iron became depleted. Physical activity made me feel worse, much worse. So I sat, and sat and sometimes laid down to rest. I've gotten really out of shape and can no longer do the things I've always loved to do. Well, at least not as much as I've always done. It's hard for a person to get older and realize that each year your body slows down but for me the slow down from my health issues was fast and drastic. It's taken me a long time to get my health back on track. I'm still not totally there because I just had to change the dose of my thyroid medication in December (2009), I still sometimes get migraines and I constantly have to be careful to keep my iron level up. I know I am feeling better but to some degree, I've learned to ignore the side effects of these health issues. I've been able to increase my activity level. I had planned to do it slowly but sometimes I've tended to overdo it.

Besides gardening, one of the things that I've missed is hiking. I think my whole family has missed hiking since I was always the one who got us in the car to go explore a new trail. In February and March I started by getting back to my walks around the community. We have some moderate hills where I would get out of breath and feel my heart pounding. I wondered if my iron level had dropped but I kept it up. After awhile I saw some improvement. "The Knob" that overlooks the town of Milford is accessed by a rather short but steep hike. I've always wanted to hike it but have never gotten around to it. That was my new goal. At the beginning of April, just before Easter we went on the hike but got sidetracked and I never went to the overlook. The perfect reason for hiking it again the following week! Although I had never made it to the overlook on the first hike, something even more important to me happened. I got back my hope that I really would get back into shape. I began to form an idea. I want to hike Mt. Washington in the White Mountains of New Hampshire!

Quite a few years ago I had made the statement that one day when the kids were older we would hike up Mt. Washington. I'm guessing that was at least six years ago. Thomas will be 18 years old in September so he would have been 11 or 12 back then. Old enough to be excited and looking forward to the hike. It's been a long wait but now Sarah is 13 years old and old enough to make it....I think. So we've started to get in shape for a trip to NH towards the end of July. What I've discovered is that Sarah is in much better shape than I thought and I'm in much worse shape than I thought!

I'm in the worst shape of the family and although Tom is much, much better than me, he is next in line. It's hard to say if Erin is better than Sarah or vice versa because they are pretty much the same. Thomas, of course, is the best. He could hike the mountain tomorrow without a problem. Actually, everyone could hike the mountain tomorrow except for me! I think everyone except for Thomas would really be hurting if they hiked tomorrow but they could at least make it. Yesterday, Thomas told me that he thinks I would be able to make it right now also, but I have my doubts.

Since April, when I told everyone that I wanted to hike Mt. Washington, we have been trying to hike every weekend. Thomas and I have gone on a couple extra hikes - me to catch up to everyone and him for encouragement! He can be quite an inspirational motivator! I also think my new found gardening energy has helped me build some muscles. I've joked with everyone that I'm not sure how heavy everyone is breathing because I can't hear them over my own gasping!

Our goal as a family is to get strong enough for everyone to be able to make it without being in agony. We know it's still going to be tough but if everyone were in agony we would more than likely turn back. I think my individual goal may be slightly different than everyone else. I would like to be able to just make it, agony or not. What a satisfied feeling I would have! Unfortunately, I know that there is always the possibility that I won't be able to do it. Sad but always a chance. I cannot control certain things in my life and my health is one of them. I do know that barring a major setback, I can at least start the hike with everyone. It's important to me to face my reality because acceptance of these facts helps me move on. I guess I'm trying to live in the moment.

So, we've (I've) made some major strides. Pun intended. Yesterday we hiked around 4.5 miles through the steep inclines of our area. We took a rather long route to end up at Dingman's Falls. We had been surprised to discover that it was a back route to the falls. We hadn't known that is where we would come out and had walked about 2.5 miles to get there. We had quite a laugh to discover that when we followed the creek back to our car on a more direct route, it was only about a half mile away! Ha ha ha! The entire 4.5 miles took us about 2 hours. The distance is about the same as the hike up Mt. Washington but the elevation change is not the same. The hike up Mt. Washington should take between 3 and 4 hours one way so that can give you an idea how steep it will be! It's hard to get a hike that is near the equivalent.

So it's nice to have a new and exciting goal and especially exciting for it to be a goal involving physical activity!

RECYCLING TAKE TWO

I've recently learned that the recycling program in our county has made some significant improvements.

First let me explain what it used to be like. We have to drive to a recycling drop off point. It used to be that they only took plastics and glass. I would save all my items and when I got enough I would travel around 7 miles to the drop off point. Many times I would find the bins full and have to bring my stuff home. After I had been putting all sorts of plastic containers into the bins I saw a public service announcement on television that announced that I was not supposed to be putting plastic "containers" into the bins. They did not mention which numbers were allowed so I was left to guess what was okay and what was not okay. The final nail in the coffin of my recycling efforts was the fact that they said that it was a crime to make what I saw as mistakes at the recycling center and that there were video cameras watching me! Since it already was a pain in the neck to have to save the stuff, I finally just gave up. It was causing me way too much stress.

Last weekend my daughter was with a friend who was running some errands with her mother. They ended up going to the recycling center and she came home and told me that they had made some positive changes. You can now save magazines, cardboard, food boxes, junk mail etc. They now list plastics #1-7. You no longer have to separate anything except plastic bags. So I decided to see for myself and brought a small bag of recyclables to the center. Sure enough things were definitely better. I had rinsed out everything but didn't get the peanut butter container clean. I read a memo inconspicuously taped onto the side of the bag bin that was quite pointed about cleaning the containers. They specifically mentioned peanut butter jars and said that if I couldn't get it clean that I should just throw it out at home. They warned me that I "shouldn't ruin it for everyone!"

So, although they seem to still be a bit nasty about the whole affair, I plan to make a second attempt at recycling. However, I will not let myself become stressed about the process.

YES VIRGINIA, YOU CAN KILL RHUBARB

Rhubarb is one of those things that is supposed to be extremely easy to grow. I think this is why I find it so depressing to have so much trouble growing it. When I google information on growing rhubarb, I find tons of people who tell stories of their rampant rhubarb. They take years to kill it off in areas where they no longer want it to grow. They describe ways that they abuse it and it still refuses to die. Even my own mother told me that my nephew who owns a landscaping business had brought some rhubarb home that he had dug up from someone's yard. It was unwanted rhubarb so he threw it in a pile. My mother came along and "felt sorry for it" so she turned it over. It flourished in that spot. When I was visiting she helped me dig some up to bring home. That was two years ago. It's no longer doing so well. Last year I figured that I would have to give it a year to recover. This year I kept thinking, maybe it needs a little more time. Now, I am plotting ways to "help" it. The word "help" can be freely interchanged with "kill". This is the sort of story I can tell regardless of what plant I am talking about. I can seemingly do things exactly how other people do them with far different results. I'm thinking of one day writing a book titled "The Brown Thumb Guide to Gardening" with a subtitle of "How To Kill Off Most Any Plant". I'm not sure if I should include photographs or hire my daughter Sarah to draw pictures, or maybe a combination of both.

RASPBERRIES

I received six raspberry plants from Gurney on Tuesday and planted them Wednesday. They pretty much look like I gathered some sticks from the woods and jammed them down into the soil. The roots looked a bit dried out but I am hopeful that they are still alive because all but one had at least some sort of living growth sprouting off. The written info that came with them said not to worry, that they were "dormant" although they looked almost dead. I am thinking that Gurney says this so that people don't immediately ask for new ones knowing that if people wait to ensure that they are dead, most people will not bother to contact them for replacements. I however will contact them because I only bought the 6 and it ended up costing me $20 on sale. Being a ULTRA cheapo, I rarely spend $20 on anything. I prefer to get things free from others. I am totally willing to give away my extras like the strawberry plants that I dug up to make a spot for the raspberries. So, although I am hopeful that they are not dead, the few times that I've ordered plants through the mail, if they looked dead, they were dead!

HOPING FOR MIRACLES

I will be using this watering can a lot this year. I'm hoping the Miracle Gro will actually work some miracles!

After taking this picture, I realized that it sort of looks like the watering can is floating in the air but actually it's just hanging on a skinny fence post.

CONCRETE?

Not concrete. It's the clay laden garden soil I keep complaining about! This is soil from my garden that dried into clumps. It's worse outside the garden where I haven't added organic matter. At least I could break up these clumps!

MEET DOROTHY

Scarecrow compliments of Erin and Sarah. I love the grass ponytails! Last year they made Dr. Phil.

IS THIS APRIL FOOLS OR MOTHER'S DAY?

I thought Tom was trying to play a belated April Fool's joke on me this morning when he told me it was snowing! It's just spitting a bit of snow but still...geesh! It's so windy, that with the wind chill factor, it probably feels like winter out there!

Anyway, Happy Mother's Day!

GOOD GARDENING MAKES UP FOR CRUMMY FIDDLE HEADS!!

The fiddle heads that I finally collected tasted awful. I hated them! Tom and Erin liked the first few and Thomas actually ate quite a few before he realized they weren't that great! I don't know why they tasted so good when I was a kid????

So, although this has been a week where I haven't felt so great, I've manage to still get a little gardening done. On the easy side I picked a few more beans from the plants on my window sill and now I'm up to 235 grams. I also thinned out my tomato and pepper seedlings that I started a couple weeks ago. I will still have to thin some more of the peppers and the impatiens when they get bigger. WOW, I just found out through spell check that I've always been wrong when I spelled it "impatients!" You learn something new everyday!

On the more difficult side, I was able to spend 2 or 3 hours working outside in my garden. I had dug a wide trench a week or so ago in order to do my pared down version of double digging. Yesterday I was able to add a couple of inches of decayed wood chips to the bottom and then made a good mix of peat moss, cow manure and the original soil to fill the rest in. I spent quite a bit of time mixing it all together. I plan to plant my carrots, beets and possibly swiss chard there and hope for the best. I have this nagging feeling that I will be extra disappointed when they don't grow well. Maybe reverse psychology will work. If I'm sure that nothing will grow maybe I'll be surprised when it's successful??? Reverse psychology seems to be working at least a bit when it comes to my migraines. Did I mention that I could be getting a migraine any minute now? If I keep saying that maybe I won't get one...oops that's being a bit too positive, maybe I should just say that I don't hold out much hope of this reverse psychology thing working! Well, at least if I'm a bit negative and skeptical of my new gardening bed, I won't be so disappointed if it fails to grow anything.

Anyhoo, I am quite proud of my new bed it's all fluffy and fertile looking! When I work so hard at something it gives me a very satisfied feeling. I hope to get out there today and work a bit more but it's supposed to be quite hot. Erin said it may get up to 80 degrees! EEK!

SARAH THE ARTIST

Sarah loves to take pictures and I get to see the world through her eyes. Anyone can take a picture of a beautiful flower but it takes a real artist to see beauty in what others perceive as ugly

SARAH'S BUGS

....and because one of Sarah's favorite photography subjects are bugs...

MORE FROM SARAH

This is a battle that Sarah captured on film. A spider and ant fighting over the body of a dead comrade. Eventually the ant gives up and lets the spider have his friend.

SO MUCH TO DO, SO LITTLE TIME...

I usually go on the computer first thing in the morning. If I feel the energy and the motivation I start to form a list of things that I want to do that day. At the end of the day it's nice to have that tired but satisfied feeling of a day filled with activity. I think now that I've had so many days where I don't feel well enough to do anything, I appreciate it all the more. I try to ignore the nagging feeling that I may never be able to do as much as I used to. I find sometimes I'm nagged by the fact that I don't have as much motivation anymore either. Sometimes this lack of motivation is due to not feeling well and sometimes it's due to being so out of shape compared to what I was.

So the funny aspect to all this is that I come up with this list that is a mile long, expecting that I will be able to do at least a half mile of it, only to accomplish an inch. It seems to be the story of our household. A story that we've learned to get a chuckle from. Just the other day we were laughing at the fact that we were discussing whether it took Tom two years or three to build the new closet in our bedroom. I figured in order to match that time frame, I would need to take my time at putting all our stuff back into the new closet! I'm not sure if it took me one or two months! It's not that we don't keep busy. Tom especially. He is a person who constantly needs to be doing something. I think it's really a function of our expectations. Once we had kids we didn't factor in the idea that we needed to spend time doing things with them. Of course we would not miss their childhood for anything. However, some where in the back of our minds we still think we can get as much done as in our pre child days. I think the reason that we are able to laugh about it is the fact that we still are able to get an incredible amount done. When I look at the "barn" (AKA shed) Tom built last year, as well as, the potting shed he helped Thomas build I am amazed that he was able to accomplish that along with the usual family vacations and just hanging out around here with the family. Oh yeah, and that little thing called a full time job! The amount that I accomplish is much less than Tom but I think I can give myself credit for the fact that I end up doing at least some things because it takes a lot of time to run a household...or at least in the way that I want to run it. I place a lot of value in being involved with my kids. I only have this time once. I know that we will all look back and be happy with how our lives went.

FIDDLE HEADS

Well, I think I'm going to do it! I'm going to harvest some fiddle heads this year! I used to pick and eat fiddle heads as a child and I'd love to have them again. Fiddle heads are unfurled ferns. They taste good boiled with a little bit of butter.

Unfortunately, there are some potentially toxic aspects.... I've done quite a bit of researching and also some plain old searching! When I was young someone else told me where to find fiddle heads and I always just went back to the same place to pick them. I knew what they looked like but as an adult I wasn't sure if there were similar looking fiddle heads that weren't edible.

What I've learned is that I'm looking for Ostrich Ferns. Some people eat other kinds, but the Ostrich Fern is the only one that is completely safe. They have some" distinctive" characteristics. I've learned that they come up in clusters, have a groove in their stem and have a brown papery covering on them. I can remember the brown papery covering very clearly from my childhood.

I've located a good source and have been checking them for the past two weekends. I hope that they taste as good as I remember and I hope that at least someone else in my family likes them too.

BOOK REVIEW OF THE WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BY EILEEN FLANAGAN

Eileen Flanagan is a Quaker that tries to live her religion. This book is for the religious person, as well as, the not so religious person like me. I never felt as if she was trying to judge me or make me follow her religion. She's truly written for everyone. For me it was a slow read only because it provoked me to really contemplate what she was writing. Every time I sat down to read I came away with a good feeling about life. It seemed as if each paragraph was filled with things that made me really think! A feel good book!

Click here for her blog.

ALWAYS MORE GARDENING TALK

It seems that I never tire of gardening talk. Last weekend I managed to prepare the area where I wanted to plant my peas. Then I gave it a heavy dose of fertilizer. On Monday I was able to spend an hour planting the seeds just before it started to rain. I was so happy all week because I had been able to complete my goal! I think they will be slow to germinate because it's been somewhat cold ever since.

Yesterday I went to the store and bought a 3.8 cubic foot bag of peat moss, a 40 lb bag of pellet lime and ten 40 lb bags of cow manure. By the time I loaded it all onto my cart, I was huffing and puffing. I was sort of hoping that someone would take pity on me and help. I didn't feel like searching someone out to ask them for help. It all weight well over 500 lbs. I could barely push the cart up to the register. Again, I didn't fell like asking for help, I just hoped it would come my way. Nope. I pushed it out to the truck and loaded it in. One time my husband was loading stuff into the truck and two young guys thought they'd help the "old" guy with gray hair. Apparently, everyone figured I was young, healthy and rugged. I surprised myself when I was able to heft the bag of peat moss into the truck. Not only is it bulky, but I think it probably weighs 50 lbs. After driving home, the only thing I unloaded was the pellet lime in case it rained. Everything else is still out there waiting to be unloaded and carted up to the garden. On the way home I stopped at the local yard where you can buy wood chips, decorative rocks, topsoil, etc. I asked about the price for getting a half load of top soil in our truck and was told $15 so we will probably be getting two or three loads this year. As always we will also be buying at least a couple of full loads of wood chips for $25 each.

The green beans that I planted inside are doing great. They have a lot of 1 and 2 inch skinny little beans growing. It's so exciting but I will be happy when they are done. They have tons of little fruit flies or something similar flocking around them. I blame this on the fact that it was dirt that I had left in the pots out on the porch for months last summer/fall. They must have laid eggs in the soil and hatched out once they were inside. Now they are on their second hatching and it's just worse! Well, hopefully it will end up being worth it! Even if I don't get enough beans for a meal, the kids like to eat them raw.

It's much colder this weekend than last but hopefully I will still get out in the garden and get my hands dirty!

GEESE AND MORE GEESE

Last spring I noted that I hardly heard or saw any Canadian Geese flying north for the summer. I wondered where they all were. This year I realized I just wasn't in the right place at the right time. On March 15th I was driving towards Scranton when I saw some geese over head. THOUSANDS OF GEESE!! First I saw one huge flock, then another and another until I realized that the flocks stretched for farther than the eye could see! I only had a chance to look south and not north because I couldn't believe my eyes! Finally all I could make out were tiny black dots in the telltale V format. I'm sure if I had turned and looked north I would have seen the same. As Sarah always says "I love nature!" and "I love living in Pennsylvania!"

SUCH A GOOD DRIVER

Thursday we reached a new milestone. Thomas got his license! He passed with flying colors. Thomas like all teenagers was quite nervous. I hadn't been worried until I got out of the car and the tester got in. Thomas went to drive off and forgot to put it in drive. ROOOAAARRR! The tester's window was open so I tried not to laugh or say out loud "LORDY, this is NOT going to go well!" Thomas told me that he let out a "PHEW!" and calmed himself down and after that everything was perfect. He had been practicing parallel parking in a 22 foot space so he easily pulled into the 24 foot space they provided. I guess once he got it out of park the tester was impressed enough to tell me that Thomas seems to have a good head on his shoulders. The tester said he didn't even mark Thomas off for that his little mistake at the beginning.

So as for Thomas, he now can go anywhere he wants...if it wasn't for the fact that he'd rather stay home. As for me, in June Erin gets her permit and I will have to start all over again. Oh yeah, and soon I will be teaching Thomas to drive a stick shift since we plan to let him drive our pick up to school next year.

WARM THOUGHTS

I'm quite stiff from shoveling and playing in the snow but I'm trying to look on the bright side. This is my way of getting in shape for the gardening season! It actually feels good to be able to do enough to get stiff. I've been battling my thyroid - literally - since my body seems to be wanting to kill it off a little more and make me increase my medication dose! I've already increased it twice and I'm not sure if that will be enough so in the meantime my brain has rebelled! It has triggered an episode of frequent migraines. I've been fighting the brain fog associated with those crazy neurons firing out of control! My strategy during this increased physical activity time is to keep saying "I hope I don't get a migraine from all this exercise!" I've decided to do this since some of my migraines seem to come out of the blue. It's sort of like the theory that it won't rain if you carry your umbrella! If I keep talking about migraines I won't get one?

Anyway, back to my real reason for writing this post. Although I have admitted that I'm totally enjoying this snow, I am definitely thinking about gardening! Anyone who knows me, knows that this is the time of year that I start puffing myself up with grandiose plans! I have so many ideas that I would have to garden full time to carry them all out. I've been gardening on some level since I moved here in 1986. I have not been very successful but I never cease to amaze myself with my enthusiasm. Normally, in other areas of my life, failure sends me running but for some reason with gardening it just makes me dig in and try harder (pun intended). I'm sure that other people just find me annoying. However, my family as always, pulls through and listens with interest. My son, Thomas, seems to be just as oblivious to reality as I am. They even purchased an upright freezer for me in anticipation of all the vegetables I will grow and freeze! Fortunately, I like to buy things on sale and stock up, so right now it's filled with a supply of sale items.

So, keeping in mind that I will not be boring tons of readers with my current gardening plans I am going to write a little bit about what I want to do this spring and summer. Landismom, being the only outside reader, I warn you, you may want to escape now when you can! The following is sort of a record for myself of my insanity when it comes to gardening. It's quite long and drawn out!

I've been reading some gardening blogs because I love to hear from people who have started out with lousy soil. Our soil has so much clay in it that it crusts over like concrete when it dries. It has so few nutrients that two of the three that I tested last year didn't even register as being there at all. There are so many rocks that when you dig them out you are left with a hole that must be filled with something. I love reading and seeing pictures of gardens that a person claims has started out as clay. It gives me hope and gives me ideas. I know about composting and adding organic material. In spots our garden at least looks and feels better. Last year was the first year that I finally tested the soil. I then started the season with a good dose of pellet fertilizer. It gave the garden a good boost to begin with but now I realize that all too soon the seedlings eat up all the goodies and this year I will be using side dressings of fertilizer as well as Miracle Grow. I doubt if I will over fertilize but if I do, I am used to failure and it won't dampen my spirits at all!

One garden blog I read talked about "double digging" and I plan to use my own version in my garden. The real version involves digging down greater than twelve inches and I won't be doing that! What I will do is dig down as deep as I can, add a layer of mulch in the form of semi decayed wood chips and call it a day. I will try to do it as much as I can but won't be able to do it in the entire garden. I read that it really helped with someone's carrots. I've never had much luck with carrots so I'm looking for all the help I can get. I will also add more organic matter and really loosen the soil. I think in the past I've been reluctant to thin my carrots enough to allow good growth. This year I will force myself to thin them to at least three inches apart....okay, I really should go with the four inches that is recommended! Can you see me with my ruler?!

I did have some luck with Swiss Chard last year and got two meals worth so that gives me encouragement to follow my dream of a good crop of spinach! I would love to get enough to freeze some since I've been finding that the store bought spinach now has a weird taste. I'm thinking it's some special wash to kill off any e. coli? Since it's a cool weather crop I can grow it (or not grow it) in the same spot that I plan to grow my green beans - a warm weather crop. The spinach will be harvested just in time to plant my beans...maybe.

I've always wanted to grow pumpkins and watermelon and I have enough room but I don't have enough of the garden prepared for planting. Preparing it means digging out those horrible rocks and adding organic matter and fertilizer. That last part is what has always held me back. I'm bound and determined to do it this year! I will dig out small spots where I will plant the seeds and let the vines ramble over the area that can barely grow weeds.

I have had luck in growing plenty of strawberries but the berries are so stunted and pinched looking that they never amounted to much. I've learned that it's probably from the tarnished plant bug and this year I will be spraying them before the start of the season and during times that the flowers aren't present. I will be using a pesticide with neem oil since I've never been too keen on spraying chemicals and its a natural pesticide. Since neem oil is pretty much non toxic I will spray it a couple of times in the rest of my garden as well. It would also be nice if I could find a spot to plant the numerous strawberry runners that seem to be taking over the strawberry patch!

I'm very good at saving kitchen scraps for composting but I fall short when it comes to turning the compost pile. Last year I had a method of dumping a bucket of scraps in an untilled area of the garden and covering it with a combination of shredded paper, newspaper and sawdust with the hopes that it will break down and form wonderful soil. With my luck I will only succeed in attracting all the worms in my garden to that area leaving the rest of my garden worm free! No matter, I plan to do another version of this and dig a hole (long, wide and about 6 inches deep). In this hole I will dump my kitchen scraps and then cover them with leaves and sawdust to keep down the smell. I will watch as hopefully I eventually have the hole filled with fertile soil. The only problem with this is those ROCKS! Two years ago was the last time I did that kind of digging and the area was only about two by three feet and that took me over two hours!

Since I have other plans for my compost, I will use my compost bin for something else this year. I'm going to try to use it to grow potatoes. This idea came from the old potato that sprouted there last year. Why not fill the top half with dirt (there's still compost in the bottom half) and throw in some organic potatoes from the store?

I plan to buy some two by fours to box off my planting areas. I have a tendency to step on top of areas that I just planted so hopefully this will keep me off those poor seeds. Thomas has also told me that I should get some pieces of scrap plywood to step on since he says he cringes when I compact the soil so much in between the plantings.

I'm scared of the blight that hit my tomatoes last year so this year along with the tomatoes I plant in my garden I will grow some cherry tomatoes in pots on my porch. My next door neighbor grew hers on her deck last year, protected them from the over abundance of rain and had no problems with blight. I will also grow most if not all of my peppers on the porch. Last year I had thrown the two "runts of the litter" (smallest pepper seedlings) into a pot on my porch and they were the only peppers that grew.

I always try new veggies in the garden so besides the spinach I will try cauliflower and possibly some corn. I would also like to try thyme but that's a perennial and would involve preparing a permanent spot....more rocks, sigh!

So I think that is enough to keep me busy for awhile and even if only a little gets accomplished I will be happy! The limiting factor seems to be my poor decrepit body!

GIANT SNOWBALL

We had fun playing in the snow yesterday. Thomas, Erin and I made this huge snow ball. It was actually more of a wheel but it tipped over. We spent about half an hour trying to get it back upright using boards but we finally gave up! We got about a foot of snow with more to come today. They are predicting at least a foot maybe even two!

This year I've decided that I will not agree with all the people who complain about the snow. I LOVE a huge snow storm and too often I just nod my head in agreement with all the people who complain. It's been sort of funny because people tend to give me a funny look when I say "to tell you the truth, I love the snow and I'm hoping for a big blizzard!"

PIT BULL ATTACK!!

On Christmas Eve I realized that I was missing a few ingredients for my Christmas Day turkey dinner so I went to the grocery store along with many other grumpy shoppers. I was not grumpy but a man in the checkout line was grumpy! I stepped up to one of the self checkout registers only to hear "THE LINE STARTS BACK THERE!!!" I turned around to be confronted by a man that was less than happy with what he conceived as my blatant attempt at cutting in line. As he gave me a look that could kill his wife sarcastically said "wouldn't that be nice if we didn't have to wait in line". I tried to assure the man that I was not trying to cut and I sheepishly hid behind the last person in line. Which by the way, extended down a nearby aisle where the last person in line told me she had made the same mistake. I waited while thinking how one grumpy person can douse all your holiday spirit. I have not been feeling well (more migraine and thyroid troubles) so I've already been struggling to keep up my holiday spirit. I had been pretty successful until that point. I made my purchases and headed home.

After putting things away I decided to go for a relaxing walk through my neighborhood. I invited anyone in the family who wanted to come along. Thomas and Tom took me up on my offer. It was nice until we were headed up a particularly steep hill and Thomas sort of calmly said "Oh no". I had been looking down at the road as I worked my way up the hill. Since Thomas had been so calm I'm surprised that I immediately looked up. I was just in time to see a black Pit Bull charging down the hill barking and snarling as it came! I had no time to think but my immediate reaction was to bellow out "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!!??!!" As I did this I grabbed Tom's arm as if to pull him back out of harm's way and leaned toward the dog. My tone was that of a super authoritative parent yelling at a child that has been caught doing something bad. As I yelled this, it was only a few feet away from us, it stopped in it's tracks with a shocked look on its face. I think my face must have had a matching shocked look. It turned tail and slunk away with it's eyes nervously shifting back and forth to keep an eye on us. In only a couple of seconds I realized that it was working and I decided that I needed to follow up with an added "GIT HOME".

The owner came out to see what was going on and she gave us an unhappy stare. The only part of my reaction to the situation that I am unhappy with is that I told the owner I was sorry for being so loud but that we had been scared. She never said a word, never called the dog back.

We continued our walk on rubbery legs. After awhile, we began to laugh and we wished that we had a video tape of the incident. It really had a humorous side. Thomas shared the same view as the dog. He thought I was really scary and told me that actually I had scared him more than the dog!

I found my reaction quite interesting. When I was young we had a mean horse that would attack with his teeth bared if he caught you out in his field! My older sister had drilled into my head that if this happened that I should NEVER run! I should stand my ground and yell at him. It was always quite scary but it worked every time. I credit my sister's training and maybe one too many episodes of Dog Whisperer with my smart reaction. I was definitely "Alpha Dog"! I can't say that I would react the same way the next time but everyone is happy with what I did this time! I know I have a tendency to hold back in other situations when the owner is in view because I guess on some level I feel as if they should take care of the situation. However, I'm trying to drill into my head that I need to take care of business no matter who's around! Tom kept wondering "what kind of person has a dog like that?!" It's bad enough that they have a dog that is viscious but the fact that they seem not to care about protecting others is even worse. I've reported it to the community association and they notified them that next time the dog warden will be called. I just hope that next time someone doesn't get really hurt. That dog was out for blood and most people would NOT stand up to it! If you ran I'm sure it would continue it's attack! As for me, I guess I'm proud that I can stop a charging pitbull with just the sound of my voice!

NEW YEARS AT HARTMANN SQUARE

Thomas's Ball Dropping Tower. After Christmas I was looking for left over Christmas lights at 50% off and there on the shelf was this ball calling my name! One time years ago, Thomas had made his version of the New Year's Ball to lower using a Kinex tower. When I saw this ball I knew I had to ask him to make one this year! He tried to guess when to start it so it would hit the ground at exactly midnight and he was perfect! Thomas is 5 foot 6 inches (a giant in our family) and he made the tower to just fit in our 7 foot 6 inch ceilings. We toasted the New Year with Fake Champagne...as Sarah says...not to be confused with "Lake Champlain".

We enjoyed our usual Rumless Strawberry Dacquiris while waiting for midnight. We took out our "New Years Eve Predictions" book that we started in 2006. We read 2008's events and predictions. Then we made our entry for this year. We start by writing down the kids ages, heights and weights and then they make predictions for what their height and weight will be for next year. We then write all the events we can remember that happened in 2009. Although we did write down that Michael Jackson and Billy Mays died, mostly the events are things that happened in our family. From the exciting to the mundane. We don't pressure ourselves to remember everything and its definitely not in order. Then we make our predictions for what will happen in 2010. Thomas tends to make predictions involving numbers "they will find a 100,000,000 digit prime number" (the same prediction from last year since it wasn't done). Sarah tends to make silly ones like "George (her cat) will be even cuter". Erin jumps on that bandwagon and predicts "Derek (Thomas's cat) will have a puppy". Tom predicts things that he wants to do "I will finish the wood floor in our bedroom". I predict hopeful things "Our garden will produce 100.01 pounds of vegetables next year" (Thomas helped me with that one by coming up with the exact number - ha ha) We do actually predict some normal stuff too. We made it to midnight and we even heard my brother's fireworks - all the way from Georgia!

Today will be putting away our plastic champagne glasses that say "2000" on them and storing away the blender until next year. Other than that we will be making our traditional ginger bread houses...well actually house since we decided to duplicate our house if that's possible.