flaming freezing!

Moon Report: 25% of full. waning crescent.


Man, oh man, is it buggardly cold! We have been hovering close to 0 degrees all day--the upside: it was sunny. But now that it is dark we are sitting somewhere around -4 degrees at about seven. Don't believe me, have a gander: http://www.wsbt.com/weather

The SW Michigan counties are even under blizzard warnings and have been asked to stay off the roads. Luckily for us we haven't seen any snow although the local meteorologists keep swearing we'll be landed with 3-7" by morning. I think it is far too cold to get snow at this point.

So what is to be done on such a terrible day? Why watch all the Brit mystery shows I can, of course! I'm sucked into Poirot and Midsomer Murders while knitting my sweater. However, I do have to point out that being absorbed by the murder mysteries is not so good for following a knitting pattern. I have a forty stitch goof in the ribbing on the bottom of my sweater! Oh well, I guess that really makes it handmade.

Garden Planning Time

Moon Report: Waning Gibbous, 92% of full

Yes. It is December. The big late winter seed catalog won't be here before February. However, I'm planning for the new garden like mad. All the descriptions offered in seed catalogs and online are very tempting--why choose one when ten sound great?

My goal: to can, freeze, store enough food to cut the grocery bill more than half. It will also be much cheaper to grow my own fresh veggies than paying for them at the store. Although one reason to do so is to know exactly where my food is from, my primary reason is that half the veggies at the grocery stores around here are less than in their prime state. Sometimes they have been picked over or sometimes they just don't look that appetizing.

I am looking for open pollinated plants--something that I can save seed from to reproduce plants the following year.

Helpful Seed Places

Seed Savers Exchange http://www.seedsavers.org/
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds http://rareseeds.com/seeds/
Heirloom Seeds http://www.heirloomseeds.com/

What I am planning on at the moment:

1. Garlic--German Extra Hardy (already in the ground)
2. Onions--this is one I have yet to decide on.
3. Spinach--Monnopa
4. Lettuce--Amish Deer Tongue, Cracoviensis, Green Oakleaf, and Slobolt
5. Peas--Shelling: Alderman, Green Arrow; Snap: Amish Snap, Sugar Daddy
6. Cucumber--Mexican Sour Gherkin
7. Winter Squash--Thelma Sanders' Sweet Potato (acorn-type), Musquee de Provence, and either Amish Pie or Blue Hubbard.
8. Carrots--St. Valery and Dragon
9. Celery--Tendercrisp
10. Beets--Chioggia
11. Beans--Pole: Mayflower, Good Mother Stallard, Lazy Housewife, and Rattlesnake Snap; Bush: Empress, Hutterite, and White Marrowfat
12. Soybeans--Shirofumi
13. Peppers--Sweet: Bull Nose Bell, Quadrato d'Asti Giallo, Quadrato d'Asti Rosso, Chervena Chushka, and Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Italian Frying Pepper; Hot(ish): Black Hungarian, and Hinkelhatz
14. Tomatoes--Brandywine, Ananas Noire, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Blondkopfchen, Black Krim, Marmande, and Great White

I'm still looking into maybe growing mustard and okra and asparagus...

middle of a book

Moon Report: waxing crescent. 3% full.

Book Note

Ok. I am in the middle of a book called The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman by Louis de Bernieres. This is a very well written book and one I think is interesting and should be great if I ever finish it. My problem--I think my attention span is shrinking. I have now checked it out of the library for the third time to see if I can manage through. There is absolutely no excuse for my lazy reading.

I originally checked this out of the library because I thought the title was amusing. After beginning I am glad I checked it out--it's magic realism/surrealism [I adore it.] But now I find that this is the middle book of a trilogy and I am wondering if I shouldn't stop and read the first one.
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Crochet v. Knit

I am ambidexterously-challenged. I can't knit to save my life. There is something about having to use a stick in each hand to knot a bunch of yarn together that is impossible. The giant problem: knitting has so many cool stitch patterns.

My sis, who writes lefty but is ambidexterous otherwise, can knit. She's not bad either when she learns a pattern. [I'm jealous].

All I can do is crochet. I am about to attempt my first afghan. I decided a good granny afghan would be nice and "homey" for this winter. I just bought a ton of very bright yarns--canary yellow, peackock turquoise, fire engine red, and spring grass green. They will make up the granny squares and then I'll crochet it all together in black. My goal is to be finished by mid-January. Luckily the granny square is very simple to do while watching TV and doesn't require too much concentration.

Black Friday and Turkey

Moon Report: Waxing Crescent 1%

We got a fresh turkey. A just butchered turkey--we even had to tweeze a few pin feathers from the tail end. Ick. I truly am glad I don't have to do the icky stuff like kill it or gut it. I couldn't handle it--squeamish as I am.

But it made a gorgeous dinner. A lovely bronze turkey (or it could have been a bourbon red).

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Today is Black Friday. I am staying home for the most part. My only excursion today was to the library to pick up a few books they held for me. Traffic was terrible...even the trains are running like mad. Glad I have no shopping plans...

Obama!

Wow.

Now let us ALL strive to be a better nation.