Saturday, May 29, 2010

Foster Dog Dash

New foster dog... a few days ago I got an email from the shelter that said they had taken in 25 cats in 2.5 hours last Monday and the rest of the week wasn't much better... they were saying if they couldn't get animals moved out they were going to have to start euthanizing just for space reasons. So of course I go in and get a dog... Foster Dog Dash.




Dash is 5 months old and a cattle dog / russel terrier mix. He's a wild ball of energy. He's been at the shelter for 2 of his 5 months, and they were worried he was missing his critical socialization window.

He's not completely house trained. He bothers the cats. He has WICKED gas. It's okay, we like him. Hopefully he'll get a home soon. With someone who jogs or something, because he will not stop running through the house.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

odds and ends

Apologies for not posting recently. I'll try to catch you up to speed.

First, all the plants are out. Here are small tomato plants and a garlic plant. The garlic is planted in the fall and roots through the winter and continues to grow through mid summer. So these guys have a few months left to go. But it is nice to start the season with something already in the ground! As far as tomatoes go, we have several varieties... two yellow cherries, a roma, a 'big pink', something striped, and a purple I think. I actually can't really remember, when I bought them I didn't label them, so we'll just be surprised!


Also, in case you were interested, this is how we started seeds inside. Roger has a huge setup of florescent bulbs (industrial plant growing kind) that we lower over the plants and slowly raise as the plants grow. If the bulbs are too far from the seeds when they start they will bolt and get really thin and fall over.


Also, an update on our favorite neighbor, Neighbor Bill. Neighbor Bill is so awesome. He watches our place like a hawk and tells us everything that happened while we were gone. 'A chicken hawk was eyeing your chickens', 'I saw a woodchuck in your field', 'someone turned around in your driveway'... He invited us to go camping with him and his buddy... they go fishing a lot, and I guess they go to this place that's an hour away and fish all day and then 'camp'. And when he says 'camp', it turns out it means make dinner over a fire, then sleep in the car. We think it will be fun and we're going to try to go with them. We will be using a tent. Here is Neighbor Bill and his buddy grilling pork chops:



Also, I cut my hair. I donated it to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program
Beautiful Lengths I have a sister who is a cancer survivor, and it was important to me that my hair go to a place that makes wigs for adult women. Here is a kind-of picture of my new hair, plus me harvesting rhubarb. Yes, that is a rhubarb plant. The huge kind. In this picture it looks kind of boyish, but I think it works for me.

And lastly, here is a picture of my dear friend and coworker Sarah, holding a chicken for the first time.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Max catches a mole

Foster Dog Max really likes to dig and smell things. He likes to smell things and then 'point' at the source of the smell. Today he would not leave this one spot he was pointing at, and then suddenly shoved his face into the ground AND CAME OUT WITH A MOLE.


In other less interesting news, our rhubarb plants are finished growing. We have a variety of rhubarb that is mostly green. This is normal, it doesn't get totally red when it's ripe. I made a pie, and it was amazing. Pie recipe:

1 and 1/3 cup sugar
6 tablespoons flour
4 cubs chopped rhubarb

mix sugar and flour, put a heap on the bottom of a 9 in pie crust, then heap rhubarb, then cover with the rest of the sugar mix. Put a pie crust over the top. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, then 350 at 45 minutes. We put a pizza pan on the bottom rack to catches spilling juices.