Mr. Loch Goes to Washington

The morning came very early today!  After the fun times waking the boys up at zero-dark-thirty and getting the zombies ready to roll, it was off to get Loch boarded on a bus headed for Washington D.C.! I am proud of myself, the only place my nervousness showed was his overpacked cooler of food and the ID tags hidden all over his backpack and pockets :)  I had to brief him on proper procedure "just one more time" on what to do if he gets separated from his group - his response was "I'll find some creepy guy in an ice cream truck and ask him for help" - it was his humor that let me know he can handle it, and he is definitely my kid, LOL!

Have I said lately how much I love the Math & Science Academy?  Fantastic program, teachers, and some bi#ch^n field trips!!  Public schools too, I must add!  I feel badly for parents and kids who don't have such great schools, but I feel that so many good schools and teachers bear the brunt of this "public school is awful" mentality.  Nope, I grew up in a great public school, and my kids have one too and I want to recognize those teachers for the devotion they have to the kids.  Don't get me wrong, our school board has some ridiculous stuff going on that I'll rant about another time, but the teachers are what make these kids, along with the parents supporting them and picking up the slack at home.  I'll stop now :)

Loch (in the red shirt):

These kids made me laugh trying to maneuver these coolers!

National Arboretum bound!  These buses hold the 3rd, 4th & 5th graders from the Math & Science Academy, Loch says they separate once there into grades, one going to Smithsonian, one to Arboretum, one to the National Zoo.  They will go each year so by the time 5th grade is here he will have seen all of those.  That's what I hear anyways, but that's coming from a 3rd grader LOL.

On to other happenings from the weekend:

A bolted cilantro plant in April?  Even when there's an early spring apparently the cilantro can't be timed with the tomatoes haha!

More vole-holes, they are everywhere this year, ugh - any bets on whether there will be any turnips attached to the foliage when it's time to pull LOL?

Seedlings are finally IN!!

Finnegan was my helper and planted most of the peppers.  The tomatoes got planted about a foot deep and were still tall!  I'm sooooooo glad that's over, now we wait...

I forgot to actually get a count of everything planted so I'll have to do that another day.

I also had the first day of the Ready, Set, Grow! program this year.  Yes, I'm still a Master Gardener - it was just me throwing an anxiety tantrum when I said I was going to quit because I was too busy, I'm back at it for another year :)  We had 2nd grade classes today at Finn's school, and Thursday will be another full day of classes at another school.  This month is our busy month for the program, as we have it coincide with the end of the kids' school based curriculum on Horticulture in science class.  

I'm exhausted.  I'm also wishing I was about 28 again, I had lots of energy then :)

I still have to manage to pick up Loch this evening when he gets back, I can't imagine how much fun he's having right now!

Well, BRRRRR!

The cold is back, and supposed to hang around until this weekend, but come Saturday it's game time for those seedlings, rain or shine, cold or hot! Lows should climb to the mid 50's on Saturday so I'm hoping won't have to worry about freezing those poor seedlings after tomorrow night.  

Speaking of, they are in bad need of planting, like two weeks ago!  I checked the calendars from years past and sure enough this is unseasonably cold at night right now, I usually have them in by April 6th.

I start them later every year, and note to self, I will not start them until March in 2013!

With the cold and wind, I have no real progress to blog about so here are some photos I shot yesterday of what is going on in the garden right now...

I don't remember planting these, but I must have LOL!

Lettuces and Turnips, with some tiny invisible Scallions growing in the middle of the bed...

Bad News of the day yesterday -NO PEAS this spring!!!  Below, this bed was packed with 4 rows of seedlings about 2 inches high last week and now all that is left are big "Vole Holes" and random Lamb's Quarter that has creeped in. The bright side is that now I don't have to anxiously wait until the pea vines stop producing to have the bed for summer squashes LOL... there's always fall to try again :(  Fair warning, I have NEVER seen so many voles in my life already this season, it's not going to be pretty this year...

Cascade Hops are growing inches a day it seems since they popped out of the ground - 

Look at these mounds of mums already!  Looks like I'm going to have to cut them back in June to prevent them from budding too soon.  My "Ditch Lilies" are self spreading pretty well in this area under the Crepe Myrtle trees.  I'm sure I'll regret putting them there some day but for now I'm just hoping they will help choke out the other weeds :)

Speaking of weeds... couldn't grow these Johnny Jump-Ups worth a darn in the pots I planted them in last year, but whaddaya know, they seemed to have migrated here by themselves - these little rogue "weeds" I will let stay!

Unbelieveable... I had petunias winter over in this pot?!

Just plain P.A.T.H.E.T.I.C.  -

Using up the last jar of 2011's dried tomatoes in hummus -

The exciting event of the day is...

Bubbles!

The starter is ALIVE!  Sourdough soon hopefully :)

Getting My Act Together!

After Friday's excitement, the relatively boring weekend was very welcome.  I'm sure you have heard, but not only was there no deaths from the jet crash, there were only about 6 MINOR injuries, and all but one of them were treated and released from the hospital the same day.  I spoke of the friends that live in the immediate area of the crash, I sat with them in church on Sunday and couldn't help but steal sideways glances at them and their little baby throughout the service and think of what a miracle we all witnessed on Friday.  As an almost humorous side note, one of the pilots told a lady at the crash scene as he was being tended to by the neighbors who found him "Sorry I ruined your home...".  I'm sure he was in shock, but the absolute horror of the scene around him was also such a contrast to the unbelievable lack of loss of life - that comment kind of sums up the whole strangeness of the day.  Feeling very thankful, for sure.

No Easter Baskets this year, I guess I'm a bad mom :)  We did however, have the annual Peep Shoot!

Purple Peeps die this year...

The weather has been so off lately, I know lots of you in the Northeast are having it too.  I couldn't really get started on any garden projects since we were supposed to have winds turn from the north today and bring some lows in the 30's and the wind was a constant 35 mph most of the day.  I had to do something though, to get "ready for spring"!  

As far as "Getting My Act Together" as the post title suggests, it involved getting my kitchen in order for the jam season to come and remembering forgotten things... like food in the bottom of the freezer and how to bake bread :)

Yes, I cleaned the freezers.  And the fridge.  Threw away some of last year's produce that had a lot of frost in it but luckily most of it was sealed with the FoodSaver and that stuff looks just like it did when I harvested it.  Guess the cost of those bags is worth it, grumble...

Just so you know I was not exaggerating about seeming to not get anything done over the winter, I present you with this:

Neglected Sourdough starter that hasn't been fed since October!

Never fear though, just pour off some of that "hooch" on top and smell...

If it smells alcohol"y", strong and yeasty - that's okay, you would know it if it's "off" because you would keel over as if you had smelled rotten milk.  Finn volunteered to give it the sniff test, he's my bread guy.

There's the "hooch", or alcohol type liquid on top - looks gross, but remember that the type of organisms that cause illness cannot live in this yeast/alcohol/beneficial bacteria environment!  If your starter was in the fridge and just forgotten it would most likely just be dead, or as is the case with most - just in a coma and needs a little love.

Don't be afraid!  Don't look away...just feed it!

After pouring off some hooch (but I know some people don't pour it off), I put it into a clean jar and fed it, will leave it out tonight and feed it again tomorrow and see what happens.  We will know if can be revived if we see the starter bubbling away tonight :)

Last summer and fall, when I wasn't being lazy, I had a constant supply of hummus and made it every few days.  After the winter months of laziness, I again have the chickpeas a soakin' tonight, and will be back in business tomorrow of having something healthy to snack on when we get hungry.

For the BIG news... the lettuces are getting big enough for a harvest...

2012's harvesting has officially begun!

Ignore the crummy out of season tomato on there, but the greens were put to immediate use this evening for a kinder, healthier junk food dinner :)

Black Bean Burgers and garlicky olive oil oven fries...  was good, but will be even better when those tomatoes start rolling in!

The winds are really starting blow out there and have changed directions... what the heck are you Northeasterners sending me?  You keep those flurries for yourselves!!!  Time for the waist high seedlings to come in for the night, I don't think they are ever going to be planted this year...

We are OK!

My phone is dead and I know I've had a few voicemails, so this will have to suffice for now...


You may have heard about our jet crash at 12:15 today, I know it's national news now.  We are ok.  Terrified for sure for a few moments, but ok.  It was close, but not close enough to affect us.  A little less than half a mile from our house, it's a fear we push to the back of our minds because if we didn't we could never live here.  The really sad news is that the jet went down into the middle of an apartment complex.  The area is so built up there I have the feeling the news will be terrible.  We happened to be on the road near the site on our way home when it happened, the ground shook like an earthquake and then explosions and dark smoke from the jet fuel.  I have lived here long enough to see this happen 3 times now, but the other two were ditched in an unpopulated area right near the airfield (even closer actually with fuselage on our street!), this one is horrifying because of where it went down.  Of course my phone was almost dead in the car and from where we were stuck in traffic it looked like the smoke was coming straight from the apt complex where a friend of mine lives, and I knew she would be home with her baby.  I texted her and prayed like I never have before I think and within a few minutes she called me - it was the complex right across the street from her, only about 50 yards or so but she was safe!!!  That's when I went from sheer panic to crying, which probably spooked the boys in the back seat who didn't realize that I was worried about anyone other than the pilots - ah, to be that young and have your parents do all your worrying for you!


Here's some photos:

that's the tail end of the F-18, it did not land in the parking lot as you might gather from the photo, there was an apartment block under it that completely disintegrated, and the front half of the jet is also disintegrated

This is what we were greeted with as we made our way to our exit...

plumes of smoke this color over our house area is never a good thing to see, since it indicates JP-5 (jet fuel) and we are right in crash zone 1, there was about an hour of tense gridlock while the freeways were shut down

an aerial photo of the complex shows how bad it was, looks actually like several buildings now that the flames have been put out

you can see how populated this area is in these photo:

The pilots are from hubby's old squadron, he wouldn't tell me over the phone who it was but I can say VFA-106 now since it's already all over the news.  This is a training squadron, where pilots come to learn the F/A-18 after they have already completed flight school and have earned their wings.  This squadron is where they go to learn how to actually land and take off on aircraft carriers.  No word on the whys or hows of the accident, although it does appear from their angle that they tried a last second effort to avoid the populated area, something that is foremost in every pilot's mind.  As of right now we are hearing that both pilots ejected, both have been recovered but we don't know anymore about where they are or their condition.  Right now everyone is focused on anyone in those apartments, and prayers are needed!  Authorities are just now being able to go door to door in the apartment area since the flames were too much earlier.  I'm worried about hubby when he gets home tonight, if he comes home... I have a feeling this will be a long day for him.  As a jet mechanic and a supervisor, he will be lost in his own head today I think, even though he had no hands on this particular aircraft, you can imagine how that might be if that was your profession.  Well, I'm off to listen to more news and try and find out if hubby will be home for dinner or not.  It's eerily quiet out there now without the constant scream of jets, air operations have obviously been shut down for the day, all we hear and see is the helicopters now.  What an emotionally exhausting day so far...

All work and no play...

That's what it's been like around here.  I'm going to do a favor for all of you and make you feel better about your own gardens, go ahead - take a good look:

Hey, you can't accuse me of never showing "the real deal"!

Doesn't that make you feel better knowing however bad your garden might look, mine is worse?!

The mess finally got cleared out this past weekend though, that's Sailor/Farmer/Husband and Finnegan spreading the mulch out that will hopefully slow the weeds down a bit.  Hubby spent the past two weekends pulling weeds and using the stirrup hoe in this area so I agreed to splurge for some mulch so his hard work might last a bit this time :)  Luckily, not too much Bermudagrass here, yet.

Finn scored big points this past weekend!  And LOOK... that's one of the artichokes in the foreground that were uncovered, woohoo!  Finally, I have successfully established the darn things.  Only 3 of them came back this year but whatever LOL.

And this... I'm over it!  They are all hardened off and spend the whole day outside, I'm having to water twice daily since they are getting dry out there, but I can't plant since the past 2 nights were down to 38º.  Today was 82º but severe thunderstorms, wind and hail expected the rest of the afternoon and evening.  They need to go out!

Speaking of being out, I am happy to report that Gordon Gecko is back from his 2 day walkabout.  We were all but sure Sprocket had gotten him but as I walked into the kitchen this morning to pack the kids' lunches there he was in the middle of the kitchen floor.  Looking at me as if saying "hey it's a big scary world out there and I'm tiny and I'm hungry, you can put me back now".

Back into the enclosure he goes (actually a she LOL)... mom it's safe to come visit again :)

Here comes the lighting, time to power down!

Things that make you go hmmm....

Nope, still not Armageddon...

...it's Trader Joe's!  Ouch, I bet this guy had a good sob when he walked out from the store!  

It's a RANGE ROVER, gulp!

The other day a new Volkswagen actually caught fire in the parking lot and a total of 5 cars burned, but this one was the only one left for several days, because the tires had melted into the pavement, yikes!

Spotted at pet supply store...what do we have here?

I'm not sure if people are feeding these to their reptiles or if they are growing them to the moth stage, but all I could think of was that this would be a nice revenge idea for the neighbor gardener that calls the police on your illegal chickens.  For $10.49 you could literally let loose a can of whoop-a$$ on their tomato garden, bahahahaha!

Now on to the serious stuff...

Have you seen this lizard?

MISSING:  1 Leopard Gecko Lizard named Gordon Gecko (any 80's Wall Street fans out there?)

*LAST SEEN sporting a CamelBak with an iPad tucked under his arm making a break for freedom Sunday night

 Seriously... there is a gecko running loose somewhere in my house - mom, do you want to come visit now?

I set up a "trap" consisting of a heat lamp on the floor and a cookie sheet decorated like Arizona, keep your fingers crossed!  I also had to "feed" the mealworms to make them appetizing and wiggly to lure the guy out of hiding, first time for me doing this, enjoy...

ewwwwww!

Strangely, I'm okay with the possibility of waking up with a 4 inch gecko next to me, who 'da thunk it? This is obviously the reason I was only given boys to raise :)

See the crazy stuff that keeps me from blogging with any regularity lately?!

I know it's not Dec 21st yet...

I'm still here :)

I've been M.I.A. for about a week now and it isn't because I didn't want to sit down and blog, I've just been crazy busy here!  Kids, school activities, church activities, after school activities, plants.....arrrrrrgh!  I've also decided to join Judy of My Freezer is Full and get zombie-ready by exercising more often.  Lucky for me zombies look to be pretty slow :)  So far the exercising has consisted of long walks with the dogs and closet cleaning.

I'm still running like crazy, Finn has a school play this evening I have to get ready for, but here's a brief look at my past week in photos:

The girls at the start of our walk:

We've been walking several miles every morning down at the beach.  We have to get our dog time in here before they are banned because of tourist season.  Stupid laws :(

I spy, with my little eye...

an egret!

The neurotic dog thinks this bridge is okay, no gaps to see the water through LOL

Our turnaround point:

HA!  Take that you ankle chasers... 3-4 miles looks like a good stopping point for a herding dog, they were down for the rest of the day!

Finn had a birthday party down the street the past weekend, a little girl in his class.  I let him go by himself, Mr. Independent :)  (Of course I could see him the whole way though!)

Now the jungle... I need an intervention as usual.

Peppers... 

Spilling onto the floor...

Check out this bargain - $20 and came with the plastic cover!

Of course it promptly fell over in the wind yesterday and smashed some of my tomatoes.

Lesson learned, I tied it to the deck railing today :)

We have had a pretty cold week, night temps in the 30's and days in the 50's curbed my hardening off for a few days, but I'm back at it again today.  I just wish the 35 mph winds would relax for awhile, but it's always so windy here.

During the cold spell I decided to clean closets and proceeded to empty them all out into a pretty good replica of Devil's Tower - then it got nice out and I didn't want to work in the house anymore.  Ugh... I need to finish that asap!

Another random post to come soon!