For a Better Tomorrow

I'm crabby today.  I woke up too early again and stuff from last week is carrying into this week.  For some reason the Man's Ruin stuff I found on YouTube today wasn't bringing me off the ledge so I tried this instead.  The image reminds me of home a little bit:

The weather's been so nice that I did some gardening yesterday.  The planter by my front door needs to get prettied up for spring.  It's just about empty now except for the two little flowers that were growing in it, plus a garden gnome and a lot of large black ants.  I did some trimming in the back yard too but that area needs serious surgery.  My grass is nearly gone and dandelions have already taken over.  But, the roses, lilacs and honeysuckle vines are still alive.

I'm waiting for season 3 of Rectify to come out on DVD.  The internet is being cagey about when this might happen.

E-Z Rock School of Agriculture

 The garden box has a joyous mix of dirt, compost and topsoil and I've already got some strawberries and tomatoes planted.  So what is the problem?

I know that Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock aren't exactly expressing frustration at the current Portland weather patterns here, but I thought the chorus reflects the mercurial nature of our sun and precipitation each day.

I'm the headliner of this show
And you're just a kid and you need to grow

Dirt Life

I'm going to need to bring the hose inside and spray down everything because my planting and building is bringing a lot of mess into the kitchen.  I'm trying to sprout some starts so there is potting soil everywhere.  I tracked in some mud from the backyard while making the garden box.  I've been filling it with dirt all week and it still needs more.  I've supplemented it with compost, including all the stuff I've been brewing in my Earth Machine.  The chickens from next door sure love my compost.  I'm hoping they'll add a little fertilizer of their own to my little garden.  I'm ready for more serious labor this weekend.  Aaaaaannnndddd...some real planting of real seeds and shoots in the place I've been preparing for them all this time!

I'll get a newer pic with dirt and stuff real soon.

 I'll be at the Twilight Rummage sale again tomorrow night.  Won't you visit?  All monies that I earn go towards some important shit.  Like more plants!  And paint!

The Scavenged Garden

Let's go outside for a moment and ponder the garden I've been planning.  I've been getting new plants and seeds, but also a few other necessaries to bring my vision together.  Here's some stuff I got FOR freaking FREE everybody!

• little plastic pots
• one of those sifters you use to get the weeds and pebbles out of your soil
• about half a dozen tomato cages
• a trowel (somebody left this in my yard last year, but I'm throwing it in the list for posterity)
• soil, abundant soil - my neighbor is terracing his front yard and said I could have the dirt.  I just have to haul it up to my yard in a bucket.  My back yard, for reasons known only to the builders of this neighborhood, is far higher than street level.  No wheelbarrow is going to work.
• I pulled up a tree sprout out of somebody's curbside plantation.  It had sprung up from a normal size tree and was still tiny so I have it in its own little planter at home until it gets big enough to go outside.  

I got my plants on the cheap, mostly.  There are a lot of seed sales going on now, and I got a few starters and sedums at Grocery Outlet.  I already have a couple rose bushes planted in the back yard, and a baby birch tree I got at Walgreens, of all places.  I'll be hitting up the farmer's markets for more plants, but in the meantime these little discount shrubs and things have to go into the ground sometime, right?  Oh yeah, I also took advantage of a Chinook Book coupon a friend gifted me, and got a mini magnolia tree and some herbs.  I just wish it would stop raining so I can plant more stuff!

Rosebush Negligent Homicide III

I attacked the weeds in my garden today and pulled out a million, I even got some of their roots.  The chickens next door came over to feast on all the scurrying critters that I unearthed.  When I was almost ready to call it a night, I found a surprise waiting for me amongst the last of the weeds.  The nubs of the rosebush!  From the way it was mangled, it looked like it got hit with the mower.  But, there were some tiny hopeful leaves near the base.  I put some fertilizer pellets near the roots and cleaned up the stems with the rose nipper.  Roses have a way of coming back from the dead so maybe it will thrive in time.

I have a feeling I'll be paying for my labor tomorrow in muscle aches.  I put my all into gardening today.  I got an especially stubborn woody pest of a plant that had really deep roots.  There's some bizarre treelike thing growing near my compost bin.  I keep watering it to see what it will turn into, but I think I'm going to regret it.

I'm going down to the basement to make a shelf space for all the things I want to store up for the next Twilight Rummage Sale.  I won't be able to attend until next month, so I'm getting a little too obsessed with it.  I've even made colorful signs for the different things I'm bringing. 

Deadlines and Broomsticks

The rosebush was not found, and my landlord didn't return my call, so I guess I better get on with my life.  It's not a big deal. I just thought it would be a new little project.  That's what I get for neglecting my plants for years and now trying to be a good horticulturalist.  I'm like Tommy Lee Jones in The Missing, and the plants are my Cate Blanchetts. 

I set myself the goal of getting my rearranging of my living quarters done by bedtime this Wednesday.  I'm having some family time in a week so I want to have it out of the way.  That means:

• setting up my new bookcase in the studio, and putting my books and craft supplies in it
• moving the old bookcase downstairs 
• moving the boxes of comics into a closet in the studio
• setting up some shelves in the closet to hold the comics

I have a couple bookcases that I'm having a friend look at this week to see if she wants them, but if not I'll have to give them away.  I've also got to move my records and other art supplies from the basement, as well as some of the artwork that I want on the walls!!

I'm displeased to report that Far West Fibers has updated its policies on what they will and won't accept.  Gone are the bins for plastic film and bags.  They only accept plastic items with a recycling number on the bottom, and not all of them at that.  Also, they don't take as many old appliances as they used to.  I'm hoping that another place will start collecting the other kinds of plastic.  I'm still a fan of FWF though. 

Outdoor Sports

I expanded my mission to encompass reaches outside of the house.  It's important to take advantage of the stretches of un-rainy weather where you can find them here.  I weeded out the planter next to my front doorstep and trimmed down the plants that were intended to stay there.  I had had a lush little rainforest flourishing there for a while, but now it's fully cleared out.  In my usual way, once I get started on such a project I want to keep on for a while, so I swept the front walk and steps.  I threw away the doormat, which was so enfeebled that it was growing happy green weeds.  I swept right down to the sidewalk!  I'm sure that the chickens next door are going to scatter bark and poop all over in a matter of days but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

The next day I took car of the car interior, vacuuming and wiping it down with those Clorox things.  It really needed it, what a disaster.  As I was taking garbage out from the far reaches under seats, it hit me more and more how I'd been driving around and unwittingly adding to the mess, and my friends who occasionally ride with me have to put up with it!  It's not perfect but it's a far cry from what it was 36 hours ago.  What I really need is a way to get pennies unstuck from the bottoms of the cup holders.

Tonight I'm turning my attentions to the inside of the house so I don't feel guilty about the times my neighbor walks through our shared backyard and sees into my kitchen.  I know she knows I haven't been throwing any parties lately so the mess that's there is obviously a result of my solo slovenly ways.

My big housekeeping goal for the week is to move the furniture around in the office so I can have a printer/scanner table next to the desk.  I really hoped I didn't have to move the file cabinet so soon but it has to be.