Saturday, July 23, 2011

Every Day is a New Lightbulb

Each day has brought new ideas and realizations as we move towards a more environmentally friendly, self-sustaining household.  Keep in mind that Dean and I are children of the 80's.  We grew up on video games, fast cars and fast food.  This isn't easy and there are things that just aren't going to change.  I'm a sucker for convenience and Queen Slacker.  Hell, we have a housekeeping service that comes over once a week so I can forget about vacuuming and dusting.  At some point though, I will probably be providing them with a different set of cleaning products, replacing the 409.

While doing the dishes today, I thought about our water usage and how lucky we are that we're on the city grid with potable water readily available.  I spent a few years off the grid with well water, but the only time source was ever an issue was when our generator died and therefore our well pump died.  Now that we're beginning this whole garden thing, I was thinking about our "waste" water.  There's so much that goes down our kitchen sink that's not really bad.  I wasn't using soap today, I was just scrubbing off the crusted on stuff.  It was all organic matter that went down the drain.  Is there anything wrong with me using this for our gardens?  I don't really see a down side so long as its not say.. chicken water or chemical water.

RRR
 Reduce, reuse, recycle!  Wasn't that the motto we grew up with? I was super gung-ho about it in elementary school, especially when it came to ocean conservation.  As I grew up and the ocean became further away in my imagination, conservation ideals went with it.  Now we come back to our roots and as I'm staring at the dishwater I'm wondering what all I can do with it.  Right now it just went out to water the lawn, but that's better than down the drain I hope.


 

Small things that we can do right now in our home to feel better about our waste, consumption, and foootprint:
  • Using non-chemical waste water for plant watering, concrete mixing, etc.
  • Bringing my own containers for the bulk section at HEB
  • Be better about using our single-stream recycling container
  • Consider composting.  It is something I'd like to do at some point, and some point soon, its just an intimidating thought!  In the next couple weeks I'll look at easily accessible and easily accomplished suburban composting options
Dirty potato water!




My new sink water catching method, full of kind of dirty leftover potato-boiling water (used for boiling potatoes for sexy potato salad crafting time!)

Friday, July 22, 2011

Kale Chips

 Super simple, super crunchy, and super easy to flavor to taste.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Dirty feet, Dirty hands!

After the letdown trying to purchase seeds and gardening products a few days ago, I had a mucho large success yesterday.  Going to a feed store should have been an obvious answer but it took my lovely dirty hippie co-worker saying something for it to click.  We packed up her old dog and hit the road, driving to King Feed and Hardware in Wimberly, Texas.  It was a short jaunt, but a lovely drive, incredibly productive on the purchasing side and in exchange for the ride, Savannah bought me one of the best snow-cones I've ever had in my life.

Relaxation was short lived though!  Upon returning home, Dean and I went to with the yard work, getting the rest of the post holes finally finished and half of the posts actually set in concrete!  The plan is to finish that today but I sincerely doubt that's happening.  There's some polo ponies I've long neglected to visit and a silly pop show in Austin we're going to tonight.
All the starter stuff!
I think I've got everything I need to get started.

The day's not lost though!  Following the advice at SproutRobot, I did get my cabbage seeds planted two days ago, and bright and early this morning I put the broccoli to seed.  It seems to not be an exact science as it was strongly recommended to me yesterday to wait and plant the broccoli.  I think there may have been some miscommunication though, as I intend to start from seed and I think he thought I wanted little sprout-lings.  If I end  up with broccoli this year, awesome!  If not, no worries!  I've got a notebook with planting dates for everything I've put in pots so hopefully I'll learn from my successes and mistakes.
Seeds close up
Broccoli, Parsnip, Cantaloupe, Green Onions, and Chives


Planting seems relatively easy thus far.  I'm using 2" starter pots, Miracle Gro's Seeding Mix, and clothes pins to keep my planting trays labeled.  I don't have any spot in the house that gets more than an hour or two of sunlight a day so they are being set outside.  Hopefully it won't be too hot out there.

I worry that perhaps I got a little bit carried away though!  Two days ago I put the cabbage in.  Today was for broccoli, cantalope (I love that melon far too much to not try, too late in the season or no!), parsnips, and green onions.  I've got some sweet basil (hopefully) growing and I'll start a small set of chives, but the herbs I'm not worried about, those get easily moved indoors, out front, across the yard.. or wherever really.
The beginning stages, all finished
All done!

Great breakfast!
Great breakfast!
There we are!  All set, for now at least, including the four tomato seedlings I picked up also.  Tim at King Feed suggested it was too late to start tomatoes by seed but buying starter tomatoes would be the way to go.  Its a nice prompt to get the garden boxes all finished, as (in theory) I've only got a couple of weeks before things start getting moved!


And now.. back to our breakfast of peaches and reading.. mmm!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Oh, those were the days!

 
 
 Found this picture on Tumblr the other day and it brings me back to good times.  I miss it.  Deep down inside I love the lazy, slacker, bitchfest that was my gaming career.  Waking up late, grabbing a Coke, sitting down and pulling the headphones on.  The real world didn't need to exist, I could go to where I was a badass and everyone liked me and I liked (almost) everyone else.  There used to be a sincere sense of loyalty and companionship, these were not just people I gamed with but they were my friends also.  These were folks I would log in to chat with if I had a shitty day.  These were folks that were there for me, and I was there for them.  Never mind the pack a day smoking, the case of soda and the glorious, tasty snack food..

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Seed Shopping Let Down!

Everyone has packed up their planting goods for the year!  I even went so far as to drive to Wal-Mart.  The dudes said once garden went on clearance, it was time to prep for Christmas.

I did find pouches of generic cabbage and a sweet basil pot for sale cheap cheap.  Should be good little things to get comfortable with until I'm ready to throw down with the big kids.

In the meantime, while I'm waiting for generic cabbage, I did find Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  They have a pretty slick variety of heirloom seeds, including Romanesca italia broccoli, something Frankie (over at frankiefightsfood.blogspot.com) will no doubt want planting.

Ciao for now!  Pictures of my scary planting to come soon!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Sprout Robot!

Sprout Robot!


Neat little site!  I'll definitely be checking dates from them as compared to the books I have coming in.  Being *super* new to the gardening thing, the instructions that SproutBot has is pretty fantastic.  Looks like I'll be starting a project this week provided I find the budget for it. =D

Broccoli first I guess!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

TLAC

Today was a drive out to Austin for no particular reason except to swing by Town Lake Animal Shelter.

I can walk out without an animal now and without a huge need to pack them all up and take them home.  There was one lady-cat though I wanted to steal.  Scary part? Tuesday's are Free Cat Day in July at TLAC!

July Adoption Specials!

Tabby Tuesdays: Ready to Go cats are free.

Fridays are $5 adoptions on Ready-To-Go animals.

Sunday's are free adoption on older (5+ years) animals.

Every other day is a $35 adoption fee.