Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Independence Day Week 2 & Green Fest

1. Plant Something- tomatoes. Can you believe that I still do NOT have my potatoes in the ground? (I am hanging my head in absolute shame!!)

2. Harvest something – 5 morels from our wooded acreage in Wisc. Otherwise, ditto from last week. [We continue to eat salads several times a week with greens from the Chicago yard: lovage, lemon balm, sorrel, beet berry.]

3. Preserve something- nope

4. Reduce waste- Same as usual. I've been taking my lunch to work at least 3 to 4 times per week. I hung up a sign in our breakroom at work asking co-workers to bring their own coffee mug and water glasses instead of using the paper ones (anonymously, of course, because I'm a chicken.)

5. Prep and storage- nope

6. Community food systems- Worked a table at the Green Festival for Urban Worm Girl. Attended a meeting of my food coop and worked the breakdown of the grocery truck.

7. Eat the food- I can't remember. Is that lame or what?!? Its been a crazy week.


The Green Festival is awesome. If one comes near you, please take the time to attend. Lots of interesting speakers on the environment and social justice and local foodsheds (Amy Goodman, Alice Waters, Laura Flanders, Jim Hightower). And they have volunteers at the garbage stations making sure that every piece of waste is properly sorted into glass/plastic, paper and compost. As usual there was lots of interest in our vermicomposting.

I bought a cool new garden tool. Made in Wisconsin, USA!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Independence Day Challenge

I'm late to the party, but I'm going to join this challenge a few weeks after it has begun.

1. Plant Something- lots. Onions, tomatoes, raspberry canes (that I dug up from my grandmother’s raspberry bed), basil, chard, squash (delicata), cilantro.
2. Harvest something – We continue to eat salads several times a week with greens from the Chicago yard: lovage, lemon balm, sorrel, beet berry
3. Preserve something- nope
4. Reduce waste- the worms in the worm bin is really rocking now so I am able to put almost all of our kitchen scraps in the bin.
5. Prep and storage- nope
6. Community food systems- In my role as an Urban Worm Girl, I attended a fundraiser for wefarmamerica and worked an organic seedling sale at Prairie Crossing continuing to inform folks about the beauty of composting with worms!
7. Eat the food- Continue to eat down the freezer and pantry stores: local ground pork, canned salsa, canned tomatoes are gone, a bag of Wisc cranberries in a cranberry crisp.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Weekend work

The frogs are bellowing to beat the band. Here is a photo of their eggs in the seasonal creek that is now actually a seasonal pond. I couldn't get a picture of the frogs because they are just too quick.


I continued to take down the small summer kitchen board by board on Saturday. This is when I started. Note that there is a back wall.



This shows the terrible condition of the roof rafters. I don't stand inside much because as I take down boards, it becomes looser and more precarious.



This was the end of the afternoon. Not as much back wall as the beginning of the day.










When we drove up on Saturday morning, there were two adult turkeys at our lot line. They ran up the hill behind the house. We have never actually seen turkeys there before - we've seen evidence of them, but never the real thing (on our property).


No sign of any of the cats. Some of the cat food was gone, but we saw a large woodchuck duck in and out of the barn; so we are suspicious that is the one eating the cat food.