Month: April 2011

It felt like winning the lottery when I landed that consulting gig with NOAA last year. I kept a running total of hours and earnings, figuring out exactly when I’d “break even” with the inequity of a certain someone’s mean-spirited will.

I buy lottery tickets from time to time, hoping to break even with some other, smaller benchmark, like Ron’s moving expenses, for example.

That hasn’t happened either, but I still feel extremely lucky: I won, big time, last November 26. And it wasn’t about money.

Fertilized the lawn with Jonathan Green Step 1, turned the compost, dead-headed the violas.

While rearranging some cooking utensils the other day, I found just about everything needed to make sushi: a mat, paddles, wasabi powder, nori, rice.

I picked up some rice vinegar (after trying it today, I may use it for salads but didn’t care for it in sushi rice) and decided to use the steamer as a rice cooker for the first time.

I didn’t have many traditional fillings on hand so made do with carrots, sauteed mushrooms (I prefer the taste to raw) and cooked cod from last night.

The rice came out perfectly, at least, to my taste. One big advantage of cooking it in the steamer: it slid right out, no waste.

The result was quite satisfactory. Edible, in fact. Certainly far superior to the pre-packaged kind.

 

I have a fabulous sushi book that was probably a gift from Peter, so if I can find a source for the fillings, especially unagi, and if Ron likes my preparation, we may be eating home-made sushi more than store-bought.

 

 

 

 

 

You can disinfect town compost by putting it in heavy plastic bags and leaving it in the sun for several days. As long as it reaches 130 degrees or so, any mold, fungus or weeds will be killed off. Adding a shovelfull of soil will restore the “good” bacteria.

You can definitely grow potatoes from the store-bought kind so long as they sprout. Don’t need to buy seed potatoes from a garden center.

Compost should be damp enough to feel like a wrung-out sponge.

A slurry made of newspaper and water, spread around the roots of plants, will defeat cutworms.

Having planted pumpkins much too late last year to produce anything but flowers, I promised myself not to make the same mistake this season.

So, I bought some pumpkin seeds and earthbox renewal kits at Mahoney’s today (Wednesday, Senior Discount) and set up 2 earthboxes – one for pumpkins and one for tomatoes, whenever those arrive.

It was not much fun because the soil – basically only a growing medium like a wick – was hard and nasty, difficult to break up.

I did things right with the earth boxes for the first time, though – added dolomite to the growing medium, put in a furrow of fertilizer and covered them with the plastic top that looks like big shower cap.

I emptied one of the earth boxes completely and will set it up once I get more potting soil and peat moss.

I was thinking about getting jack-o-lantern type pumpkins, but Ron loves them so much that I wanted a kind that was good to eat as well as carve-able. So, I picked Botanical Interests’ “Sugar Pie”. These will be small, 6-7 inches in diameter, but carve-able for sure.

This is an on-hand pantry items recipe:

Saute one chicken breast cut up in small cubes in 1-2 tbl. butter until brown.
Saute a chopped onion and celery if you have it. Otherwise, use a seasoning like Mrs. Dash.
Add carrots and potatoes.
Add one can of vegetable broth.
Add about a cup of frozen corn kernels.
Bring everything to a boil. Simmer until potatoes are done.
It’s sweet and savory even without the onion and celery.
I like it “as is”, but you can add yogurt, cream or sour cream before serving if you wish.

It’s time to start pruning, a job which I like because if it’s done right, it can help plants tremendously.

It’s also a job that I hate because it can be physically challenging (forsythias because of the height, roses because of the thorns) but most especially because if it’s done wrong, you have to wait at least one and maybe two seasons for the plant to recover.

I started with the forsythias at Edgewater a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been working on the roses at Dixon for quite a while, and even though it’s early, think I’m about finished with them.

I trimmed the decoratives grasses at both houses some weeks ago. The big ones probably won’t start growing until May. The hibiscus also won’t be up until warmer weather.

I’ve been removing dead wood from the holly on the side and the bushes in the front: the little azaleas, which took an awful beating, and the inkberries, which fared quite well. They might need a heavier pruning, but not today because we had showers earlier and it’s still quite wet and raw.

Those plants are all pretty easy to figure out. Others are more difficult to judge, like the butterfly bushes. There seem to be different schools of thought on Montauk daisies. I may ask about those when I interview at Mahoney’s on Wednesday.

Hydrangeas are a conundrum as well, but I’m planning to meet someone at Highfield tomorrow to prune theirs, and hope to learn a trick or two for mine.

Got an email from Burpee today that the seeds purchased with Cara and Ed’s generous wedding gift have shipped. Time to get some more Earth boxes, I think.

Yesterday was about the nicest we’ve had so far this year, so I touched up the fence, scrubbed the screen door and painted the front door frame and kickplate.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, that means I now need to paint the front of the house, which looks lousy compared to the almost-good-as-new door.

I had another dream about being on a trip and losing, forgetting, failing to keep track of things, this time, pieces of paper with notes on them.

I woke up a young man by mistake and he shrieked at me.

Everyone hated me in this dream. It was clear that I was deeply resented because I was a nuisance. I was doing things out of order, failing to bring the important pieces of paper with me. I don’t remember what was on the papers, but it was something like an itinerary, information needed to continue my trip.

I wish I could have a flying dream instead.