Posted in Women farmers, tagged Women farming on June 30, 2010| 2 Comments »
Following the emailed newsletter link from Roots of Change titled “Women are Essential to the Food Revolution,” I click on the link to Temra Costa’s new book, Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat, which leads to farmerjane.org, a page filled with profiles of the women farmers in her book, complete with website hyperlinks.
Go check them out. I am renewed and inspired, and have added a couple of new links to my links list and favorite blogs list to follow.
Posted in Bear and Thistle West, tagged gardening on June 26, 2010| 4 Comments »
baby butternut squash
I didn’t make it to the Fair last week, sorry to say. There’s just too much to do at the squadron these days as we prepare for our upcoming inspections, getting all the aircraft maintenance programs fixed that have never been set up quite right since they transitioned to the C-40A five years ago. I’m spending long, long hours there, heading in around 6 am and usually not leaving until 7 pm. Grueling schedule, for sure, but temporary.
This manic pace started about a month ago, as we got to the point of self-assessment where we realized just how many critical processes were off-track, and how many different things needed to be re-done, re-written, and re-trained on. The list of projects that I own, as a program manager, have stacked up like dirty plates towering above my head waiting to be washed; an afternoon of oogling farm animals and admiring craft displays just couldn’t be justified.
Ah, well. There will be other years and other county fairs to go see.
On the home front, I’m obviously not getting much done in the few short hours I’m actually here, which is driving me a little crazy. There’s only just enough time for making dinner and tending the garden at the end of the day, so weekends, once devoted to landscaping projects, are filled with all the household maintenance that I used to be able to chip away at throughout the week: clutter, dirty laundry, mail and junk stacked on the dining room table, grimy bathrooms, gritty floors. It is what it is. You can only let that stuff go so long before it sucks your will to live, so I’m just holding ground, keeping my nostrils above the lapping waves.
It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve resigned myself to the situation and am consoled by the fact that once the big August inspection is over, my work schedule and my life will (hopefully) return to normal.
On a very different and bright note, the new garden bed planted back at the beginning of May is now filled with happy, vigorous plants, and has started feeding us some of the tastiest, freshest vegetables money can’t buy.
We’ve already eaten the first sweet, tender beets; kale and beet greens, turnips, zuchinni and green beans – all delicious – and there’s lots more food to come out of this 25-foot deep-dug bed. Two kinds of winter squash (acorn and butternut, thanks Jo!) and potatoes, onions, and carrots will be awhile in the making, but they’re worth the work, and they’ll be worth the wait. Homegrown, organic food is definitely worth waiting for.
Posted in Bear and Thistle West, tagged County Fair, piggie races on June 19, 2010| 2 Comments »
To understand the colored blankets on the racing piggies, it helps to either be from San Diego, with our Del Mar racetrack culture, or Louisville, Kentucky, home of the Kentucky Derby. Piggies don’t normally wear racing colors while chasing each other around, but they do love to run and it helps keep your bets straight.
I’m hoping to break free from work on Tuesday afternoon and go see a bit of the San Diego County Fair with a girlfriend. Lots of great livestock, horses, and exhibits; I’m hoping I can swing it.
Posted in Bear and Thistle West on June 8, 2010| 1 Comment »
Today was my Sunday, the weekend reprieve from work having shifted to the right two days, postponed by a monthly event I am beginning to really despise, Drill Weekend for the Reservists assigned to the squadron.
I won’t harp on it here, but let me just say that it is exhausting. And it is for them as well, as they work all week then come in and drill over the weekend, and go right on back to their civilian jobs on Monday. At least we full-time folks can take a couple of days off afterward to recuperate.
Not sure why anyone would subject themselves to such torture. The money can’t be that good. Maybe it’s the retirement points.
Anyway, I made it through another long working weekend, putting Bear on a Delta flight to Jacksonville early Sunday morning for a week of travel with his job, and now have the house and yard to myself for a few days.
And so, without the evening TV routine, or a slumbering person on the couch in the morning, I’m able to get some long-overdue spring cleaning done. Amazing how grungy a home can get with only two people in it.
I’ve gotten late starts these past two mornings, and have had some difficulty getting going on what are really very simple tasks, but progress has been made and the house is not so much a wreck anymore, which boosts my motivation level considerably. Tonight my dear friend Liz is stopping by with her 16-year-old daughter, Cecilie, to bring a belated birthday gift and share a meal with me here at Bear and Thistle West.
We’ll have spaghetti made with home-canned sauce from last summer’s tomatoes, braised garden greens just picked from the garden going wild, and garlic-toasted sourdough bread, baked last week. I look forward to the company and companionship.
Thistledog's Farm 