My Brain Hurts!

I was walking the dog and came upon this crushed can.

Bud Light and Clamato together at last!

Time Sure Flies!

It has been almost a month since I wrote anything.  First I got sick with something flu like (maybe swine flu, who knows?).  Then we also built a bathroom upstairs.  The old one was a disaster area when we bought this place and had to be gutted just to get rid of the mold under the floor and shower.  Then I went to the Association of Moving Image Archivists in St. Louis, MO. Then we continued with the bathroom.  Then we finished painting the house and now it is raining.

Now I know this is not a home improvement blog, or at least I don't want it to be, but we tried to be on the eco-side by getting a watersense certified toilet.  This is an EPA related program that requires toilets to use 1.28 gallons per flush or less and clear out a certain amount of solid waste at the same time. I have seen estimates of 3-5 gallons per flush on older toilets and 1.6 gallons on newer ones.  A lot of those 1.6 gallon toilets were not very good and required multiple flushes to do the job.  Our new toilet is made by Toto and is very very good. One quick small quiet flush.

We also used a low flow shower head that uses 1.5 gallons per minute.  So far I am not totally thrilled with it.  Several months ago I went to the water department and they gave me a free cheapo shower head that uses 2 gallons per minute and has a "massage" setting.  It was free and even put less steam on the mirror than the head we got with our original faucet (theoretically you could save electricity if  you use an exhaust fan in the bathroom).  According to energysavers.gov shower heads from before 1992 shower heads used about 5.5 gpm and now Federal regulations require them to use no more than 2.5 gpm. I guess 1.5 is below average and that is what I am all about.

We are very happy to be able to do the same tasks with less water. Not only will it help reduce demand on a scarce resource, it will save money on our water bill.  We didn't realize it when we got the toilet, but you can get rebates toward a new toilet in many municipalities. We did manage to get a rebate when we bought a washing machine, for selecting an efficient model.

Next step is to start collecting rainwater.

First Spaghetti Squash

The first meal with spaghetti squash was made with this one that I scratched a heart into while it was still growing. Spaghetti squash is a nice starchy vegetable with a very mild flavor.  The way we made this batch was to cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and fill it with tomatoes, garlic, pesto, pine nuts and mozarrella cheese.  Then we baked it.  Then we ate it.

Petaluma Bee Ordinance Passed

There has been a lot of "buzz" on the Sonoma County Bee Keepers Association list serve about legalizing bees within Petaluma city limits and it looks like it finally happened. Along with feral cats and potbellied pigs, bees can live in town.

I remember reading animal regulations when we were thinking of moving there.  Pigs are legal in town for only 48 hours.  I was thinking of having joint custody of a pig with someone else and moving it every two days, but now I can just go out and get a potbellied pig. I am sure we have room for it somewhere.

I am not a member of the Beekeepers Association, but I may go to a meeting soon and we are thinking of getting a hive or two to help with all of our fruit trees and the garden, though I already see a lot of bees around. My friend Mark just gave me some honey from his bees in San Francisco and it is quite delicious (pictured here dripping from a spoon).  I need to make a "bee line" to his house and check out the hive, don'tcha know!

Chicken Theater- Chickens, Collards, Clay

When it rains, the clay gets sticky and forms little clay shoes on the chicken feet. Meanwhile, there is a drama concerning the collard greens.

Adventures in the Rhizosphere

I was digging up summer plants in order to plant winter plants and almost everywhere I dug I found these networks of mycorrhizal fungi. This was very exciting to me because I have been reading Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets and he was talking about the benefits of mycorrhizal fungi and mycelium in general.  Mycorrhizal fungi play an essential role in the soil by closely associating themselves with plant roots and helping to break down organic matter in the soil and transporting water and nutrients from other parts of the soil to the plant.  Plants are supposedly much happier when growing with these mycelia.  You can buy innoculants, but where did mine come from?  I think it came from my compost tea, but I am not sure.  While trying to figure it out, I stumbled upon this slide show about the rhizosphere, a universe of amoebas, bacteria, plant roots, fungi, mites, bugs and more.  Very happy to be building a thriving ecosystem in my dirt.

{Memo to self: Garlic is planted in rear garden, south western most section before the asparagus.  Facing south, left rows are Metechi (marbled purple stripe garlic) next rows to right are Early Italian Purple (artichoke garlic).  To the right of that is elephant garlic.  Facing west, the rear asparagus bed has shallots in the right hand section where the asparagus did not make it. Also, in the right hand side of the bed that had peppers and arugula in it, next to where the tomatoes were I planted  Korean Red garlic.}

Winter Squash

This is some of the winter squash we harvested.  Mostly spaghetti squash.  We still have not eaten that one yet.  We've eaten one of the very few kabocha squashes we got this year and it was quite delicious.

Recently when I was helping out at the Bounty Farm, Amy the farmer told me to go out and cut the peduncles and let the squash cure in the field. I ran home and cut my own peduncles and left the squashes out in "the field".  Now my squash is ready for eating  (I think).