My Bit of Earth

The Antithesis of Pretty Gardening Books

Ahhh, this is better--much more my style . . . .

On Gardening Books

There is a certain type of gardening book that I just shouldn't read.

I'm speaking of the kind with the big glossy pictures of English cottages covered with roses, herb gardens inside little stone walls, gorgeous green lawns with crisp edges. Or the kind with perfect, jewel-like courtyards tucked up on city balconies, eclectic potted gardens on rooftops--in short, wonderful.

Why should I avoid these, you ask? Well, because they're very inspiring. They give me all kinds of ideas about what to plant and how to structure things. And then I step outside . . . and realize that I have neither a tumbling down English cottage, nor an eclectic little rooftop terrace. I have two untidy forsythia bushes, one of which seems to be dying; some scraggedy, raggedy, patchy grass; a view that looks straight into our neighbors living room; and six beautiful, bountiful tomato plants. With the exception of the tomatoes, it's a little disheartening, and looking at other people's perfect gardens only makes it more so.

And we're always saying, "Oh, we don't want to do too much--we'll be moving next year," but we're getting ready to start our third year at this house with no end in sight. Even setting that limitation aside, there's still always a fine line between the garden I'd like to have, leaving enough space for the dogs to romp, and not pissing off the lawn mowing guys by having too much for them to mow around.

But after reading pretty gardening books into the wee smalls last night, and then stewing about it all day at work, this evening I just had to do something--anything to improve my little plot. So I pulled out our little weed-eater and edged the grass. Then I started thinking about Sunflowers.

I planted some Sunflowers this year, but the mowing guys accidentally killed them before they got much past the seedling stage. I meant to replant them, but just couldn't think of a good way to protect them. By the time I thought of it again, at the first of June, it seemed like it was too late.

Today though, I was on a mission. I decided that, even if they're just hitting their growth spurt in October, I wanted Sunflowers. So I dug out a little bed close to the woodpile, outlining the edges with wood to hopefully mark it out well for the mower guys. It took almost 20 minutes to chop out a little 2x2 bed in the weedy grass. I gathered up all the Sunflower seeds I had left and evenly spaced them, thinking that way I'd definitely get more than I need and could thin later. Satisfied that I had at least made things a little better, I went to pick up some tools.

When I came back the Wee Welshman was happily sniffing out the seeds, carefully picking them up out of the dirt with his teeth, and crunching them straight down his fuzzy little throat.

There is a certain type of gardening book that I just shouldn't read.

Bottling Day (Homebrew Day 8)

Last night Sweet Husband took a final hydrometer reading on the beer and decided it was time to bottle the beer. The hydrometer measures the specific gravity of the beer, allowing you to figure out the alcohol content. When the reading is the same for several days in a row it means it's time to bottle. This is what the beer looked like when we began. The beer is syphoned into a bucket for bottling to avoid getting the scummy sediment from the big bottle in the final beer. The beer flowed into the bucket fairly quickly. The nutrient rich gook in the bottom of the big bottle went into my garden. Meanwhile Sweet Husband and Best Man Friend started syphoning the beer into bottles. We've been collecting bottles for a few weeks, but we still ended up having to buy a few. The bottling was a two person job. Best Man Friend kept the bottles coming while Sweet Husband controlled the hose. I ran the capper, and Best Man Friend's Nice Girlfriend packed the bottles into waiting boxes. All told we ended up with 47 bottles--they'll be ready to drink in about 3 weeks!

Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew....

It was a nice evening. Sweet Husband and Best Man Friend were out doing some car work, and I wanted something to do outside as well. The vines had almost completely died back, so I decided it was time to dig up my potatoes.

After a long week at work, running my hands through the crumbley, warm, black dirt looking for potatoes was very soothing. There were 23 (counting the one I had for lunch the other day). Some are a little small still, but, as Best Man Friend said, they are going to be some very good eats.

Bottom (Homebrew Day 5)

In case you ever wondered what the bottom of beer looks like....It's stopped bubbling as much, but it's slowly turning a darker color.

It's the First Day of Summer....

...and I searched all day for some appropriate snippet to post. But, wouldn't you know it, it was just waiting for me--I FOUND THE FIRST RIPE TOMATO TODAY!!!
It was one of my pretty little yellow pears!

And we have midgets as well--not ripe, but they will be soon enough.

Not to mention we're going to have a feast of edamame later this week.

And Sweet Husband pulled up our very first homegrown onion.

It was a good day....

Who Will Be the Next DADA Teacher?

The answer is, there is no answer. Not one that we will be able to figure out anyway.

In each of the first 5 books the DADA teacher was a previously unintroduced character. And even in book 6, the new teacher (who ended up teaching potions, as we all know) had not been introduced in any of the prior books. However, if Jo follows her initial pattern the DADA teacher/new teacher will be introduced before Harry meets him or her at Hogwarts.

For example....

• Harry first met Professor Quirrel at the Leaky Cauldron in Philosopher's Stone.
• Professor Lockhart was introduced at the book signing at Flourish and Blots in Chamber of Secrets.
• Lupin rode on the Hogwarts Express in Harry's train car in Prisoner of Azkaban.
• Mad-Eye Moody was introduced when Arthur Weasley had to go to his house in Goblet of Fire.
• Umbridge was present at Harry's trial in Phoenix.
• Professor Slughorn was introduced the night Harry and Dumbledore went to Slughorn to convince him to teach at Hogwarts.

So, small consolation though it is, if my theories on the publication date are correct we should know who the new teacher at Hogwarts is (DADA or otherwise) sometime early in the wee smalls of July 7, 2007.

Po-tay-toes

The leaves of my potato plants are beginning to yellow and wilt, so I decided it was time to check and see if there were potatoes forming. I rifled through one end of my earthbox quickly and pulled up these three potatoes. As you can see, one was nice and big, but two were pretty small still. I think I'm going to let them stay in the ground until next weekend to see if they'll get a little bigger.

Moe Speaks: Last Agility Class

Charm Your Own Cheese

(If you don't get the title, don't worry--it just means that you're less of a Harry Potter nerd than me.)

On our trip to the beer making store, I was inspired by the many books they had on making your own cheese. I've made labneh (yogurt) cheese before, but I decided it might be fun to try something just a little more complicated. I opted for this mascarpone recipe. It's simple in that it doesn't require a cheese press, but more difficult than labneh because of the warming step.

I began with some nice, locally gathered cream. I couldn't find "light cream" like the recipe called for, so I used heavy.

The next step was to heat the cream to 185 degrees in a double boiler.

It took a suprisingly long time, but eventually it got there.

Then I stirred in 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. After putting the lemon juice in, I kept the cream at 185 degrees for 5 more minutes, stirring every 30 seconds or so.

Next the cream went, pot and all, into my refridgerator for 12 hours.

This is what the cream looked like after about 6 hours.

And this is what it looked like the next morning, about 12 hours later.

After 12 hours I dumped the, now fairly solidified, cream onto a clean, white towel.

Then I hung it in the fridge over a bowl to let gravity drain out the rest of the whey.

24 hours later we had cheese! The texture was very nice, but the flavor was a little bland. A little salt helped though.

It's ALIVE! (Homebrew Day 2)

The beer has developed a funky, scumy looking stuff on top, and the cork that lets the air out is bubbling away.

Dragonfly

Look what posed ever-so-nicely for a picture on my garden fence the other day!

Homebrew

I'm not sure exactly when it began.

At some point over these past few months we became super devotees of Food Network mad scientist Alton Brown. I think it was largely just a matter of timing. His show is on at 5:30 right when we both get home from work and are in the mood to just sit mindlessly in front of the TV for half an hour. And I'm sure it also had a lot to do with content. The how-to appeals to me, and Sweet Husband enjoys the "science behind the food"--a good his/hers combination that can't be found in "Monster Garage" or "Surprise By Design".

Largely our relationship with Dear Alton has been very enlightening. He's lead us on several culinary escapades that we wouldn't have otherwise taken. We've tried fresh artichokes and collared greens; learned to make pie crusts and how to process all sorts of cuts of meat.

Apparently, on Monday when I skipped Alton to take the Wee Welshman to agility, Dear Alton made beer. This evidently set off fireworks for Sweet Husband. He was quickly on a knowledge quest for all-things-brewing-beer.

I was pleased. Sweet Husband is one of those fortunate souls who loves what he does. Metal is his job and his fun. Which is great, but...well, it makes for a lot of metal. It makes it hard to buy him Christmas presents. So a new hobby is a good thing.

In pursuit of this new hobby, yesterday, we took a field trip to Bacchus and Barleycorn Winemaking and Brewing Supplies in Kansas City. If you've ever had any interest in making beer, wine, or cheese (more on that later) Bacchus is a good place to get inspired. They have all manner of supplies and information. The very Helpful Lady quickly set Sweet Husband up with a "Deluxe Brewer Starter Kit" and a "Wheat/Weizen ingredients Kit". This morning when we woke up, he was ready to make beer.

The kit ingredients assembled on our kitchen counter. A lot of this is actually used for the bottling as opposed to the brewing, but it was nice to have it all pre-collected.

This is the yeast. Inside of this bag was a little pouch full of liquid that Sweet Husband smashed to make the yeast start growing.

To begin with, everything had to be very well sterilized with a sterilizing solution.

It took a lot of water to clean this huge bottle . . .

. . . but we got there eventually!

All of the other equipment had to be sterilized as well.

In the meantime the biggest pot we own was coming to a boil on the stove. The instructions said to fill it with as much water as possible while leaving room for the other ingredients. The stuff Sweet Husband is pouring in is liquid malt.

Adding the dried malt.

Giving it a stir.

Adding the hops. These are pelletted hops--i.e. dried hops that have been crushed up and pressed out in order to make them keep better.

Irish Moss also went into the brew.

The mix had to boil for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile the yeast was growing.

After it had boiled for the required time, the "wort" went into a sink full of cold water to cool off.

While it was cooling Sweet Husband filled our jug with 4 gallons of water.

Next the wort went into the jug.

It looks kind of gross, but it actually had a very nice nutty smell.

Once the temperature was between 70 and 80 degrees it was time to add the yeast.

By that time it had ballooned up nicely.

If you like the smell of yeast, this stuff is for you. It was super concentrated.

A few sloshes to get things mixed around . . .

. . . and it was time to stop up the bottle. The special plug allows air to come out of the jug, but not go into it.

Last but not least--stored away! This whole process took about 3 hours. Now the beer has to ferment in a cool, dark place for 8-14 days before it will be ready for bottling. After that it has to sit in the bottles for a few weeks, so we should have drinkable beer by the end of July-ish. Updates on its progress will be forthcoming.

From the Bargain Bin

We nipped into Sunrise just before closing today so that I could grab a basil plant. The ones I started from seed weren't coming along fast enough, and since the tomatoes are going to be ready in a few weeks the situation was beginning to get critical.

We found a spry looking basil start (Sweet Basil, not Thai--because Sweet Husband doesn't like the licorice flavor) and then started admiring their pepper plants (which are much taller and more productive than ours, despite being in 3 inch pots). Next to the peppers were a hodge-podge of left over plants for 99 cents apiece. Our lettuce went to seed a few weeks ago and the watermelon I planted got washed away, so we had 2 square feet free. Nonetheless, I was stalwartly about to walk away when Nice Older Sunrise Lady came over and told me they were all half price.

That's 50 cents each, and, well, I've never really needed much encouragement to buy plants, now have I?

I picked a Tigger Melon and a Slicemaster Cucumber. They're both supposed to be grown in hills, but that just wasn't going to happen with our space limitations, so I trellised them. It will probably mean coming up with a creative support system at some point later this summer. But, hey, they were a buck!

Quick Quotes Quill Friday: Understatement?

"[T]here's something funny about the Potter kid, we all know that."

--Alastor "Mad Eye" Moody

How Are Things Growin'?

Glad you asked . . . .

Aunt Ruby's German Green Tomato

Yellow Pear Tomatoes

Hillbilly Tomatoes

Jimmy Nardello Pepper

Hidatsa Shield Figure Bean

Soybeans

Lemon Tree (much recovered from its winter inside!)

Onion

Hanging Basket (a reminder why I should quit buying these--no matter how tempting they are....)

Hens and Chicks (a reminder why carefree plants are the greatest....)

On the Beach

On the Beach, by Neville Shute, is one of my very favorite books, and I keep thinking about re-reading it this summer. Like many of Shute's books, it's set in Australia.  The general premise is that there has been a nuclear war in the Northern hemisphere, and only people in the Southern hemisphere have survived.  But the winds are carrying radiation South, so the survivors know that it's only a matter of months before they will die of radiation sickness.  The story chronicles how an American Navyman, a twenty-something girl, a young couple with a baby, and a few others live and cope knowing humans are about to become extinct.

Sounds depressing, I know--and it is.  But Shute's characters are so real you could have a conversation with them.  There's a certain amount of, "We're going to be dead next month, so what do we have to lose."  But for the most part they stalwartly go on with their lives, and face death in a very courageous way.  I'm always crying by the end, but I'm always very proud of each of the characters as well--they are worthy representatives for the last of humankind.

I stumbled across this book in such an unremarkable way that I don't even remember where it came from.  After I read it, I couldn't believe Shute wasn't on a required reading list somewhere.  After I read a few more of his books I was even more surprised.  He is truly incredible, and very worth trying out sometime.

How Much Does Snape Know About the Horcruxes?

(Part of a many part series of posts called "Whose Side Is Snape On?")

Just before I drifted off to sleep last night, I had a thought about this.

It's quite probable (although definitely not a certainty) that Snape had a pretty good idea of what Dumbledore was doing horcrux-wise. He helped Dumbledore after Dumbledore removed the horcrux from Marvolo Gaunt's ring; he was the first person Dumbledore asked for after drinking the awful potion.

And we know Snape isn't stupid.

If Snape is evil, he would have (or shortly will) go straight to Voldemort with that information. If that happened Voldemort could easily retrieve his own horcruxes or stake out the places where they are, and prevent Harry from ever even having a chance to kill him. I don't know about you, but I never saw the books ending that way.

Yes, I think it's possible that Harry might die in the end, but don't think he'll die and Voldemort will win.  I think if Harry dies Voldemort must also die. If Harry doesn't get all the horcruxes before facing Voldemort that can't happen. In order for Harry to get a fair shot at Voldemort, Snape, at the minimum, must be working for himself alone. And given the emotions he displayed before and after Dumbledore's death it's more probable that he's still on Dumbledore's side.

Whose Side is Snape On?

This is a complicated question, because in order to answer it properly, many other questions much be answered, like....

• Why did Dumbledore trust Snape in the first place?
• What was happening under the surface when Snape made the Unbreakable Vow at Spinner's End?
• How much does Snape know about the horcruxes?
• What did Dumbledore mean when he said, "Severus, please" on the Lightening Struck Tower?
• Was Snape secretly (or not so secretly) in love with Lily Potter?

Each will be addressed here in turn, but you should know I'm biased. Dumbledore is one of my favorite characters in all of literature. With all of my heart I want him to be as infalliable as possible, and if Snape is evil that means that Dumbledore screwed up big time. Although I acknowledge it's possible, I don't want it to be true, so I tend to look for reasons to prove Snape good rather than evil.

Moe Speaks: The Fast and the Fearless

My second to last agility class for the summer was last night. I had a few good runs at the end, but I'm still giving Mom some trouble about being good while I wait for my turn and not trying to jump at other dogs.

We had a long talk in the car on the way home. Mom said that, once agility is over, we're going to have "obedience boot camp" for the rest of the summer.

I objected to that a bit--after all, I am pretty obedient at home.

But then Mom said that that's the problem. I'm pretty obedient at HOME, but when we're out getting the rats or doing agility I get so excited that all my obedience lessons just slip out of my head. She said that I'm fast and fearless.

Again I objected to that characterization a bit--yes, I am fast and fearless, but that's part of what makes me the wonderful dog that I am. I got through junior earthdog so fast because I wasn't afraid to go into the tunnel fast to get the rats. While other dogs are having to be coaxed over obstacles in agility, I take them full-tilt with no problems. That's just the dog that I am--quick, smart, and brave. I'm proud to be fast and fearless.

After having a chuckle at the size of my ego, Mom said that was true and it's part of why she loves me so much. However, she thinks we need to add one more description to my list of attributes--"under control".

Well friends, it looks like I'm in for a lot of work this summer....