The Rebel Gardener

Against the advice of the local nursery, I planted broccoli plants today. They told me not to plant before the last frost date of May 21. I think that's way too late and I'm really hoping to harvest some fresh veggies before I move. In order to protect my plants from the deer that visit in the dark of night, I installed a Scarecrow Motion-Activated Sprinkler. They cost $60 - $80 but this is the third year I'm using it and it still works great! When a deer walks in front of it they get sprayed with a jet of water. If you look in the lower right of this picture, you will see the Scarecrow.

Don't Tell Them About the Legwarmers

Although Ember said, "Don't tell them about the legwarmers," she also said, "Put me on your blog!" So, here are pics of Ember wearing the legwarmers that I made from the sleeves of a felted wool sweater.

Basically, you wash a 100% wool sweater in a top-loading washer with very hot water and dishsoap until it shrinks up and looks like felt. Then you can cut it any way you want. I prefer to make bags from the sweater body and I just had the brilliant idea to make legwarmers from the sleeves. The girls love 'em! Maybe Ember just doesn't want anyone to know that her crazy aunt puts sleeves on her legs.

Fishing for Garbage

Ember and I checked out the new sculptures at the local train depot. Since our town is on the Mississippi River, it is appropriate that they have a large sculpture made entirely of things fished out of the river.

Life in America

Do you know about the radio show called "This American Life?" It is produced by Chicago Public Radio and is quite possibly the best radio show ever. Okay, well, it is my favorite radio show at the present time but I don't listen to it on the radio. I listen in mp3 form on my tiny iPod Shuffle. You can download the weekly podcast for free at www.thislife.org or pay for archived shows. Check it out! Sometimes they are really funny and other times pretty sad, but they are all about the lives of real people which makes them fascinating.

A Day of Work and a Night of Music

Well, I spent another Saturday sorting through things for our garage sale. Although my parents may be alarmed by this, I am throwing away as many old bills and receipts as I can get my hands on. I figure that if I can figure out how to blog, I can figure out how to obtain any old financial info that I need either online or by calling the respective company. So, IT'S TIME TO PURGE! I currently have 3 filing cabinets and I am selling 2 of them at the garage sale.



Despite spending most of the day sorting through things, I spent the evening at the local theatre for a Wailin' Jennys concert. If you aren't familiar with The Wailin' Jennys, you must visit their website: http://www.thewailinjennys.com/ to see if they are coming to your area. Then, you must rush to your nearest library and beg them to order the Wailin' Jennys albums so you can check them out! The CD's are wonderful and they are spectacular in person.

Carrying a Pine Tree

Ember and I walked a long while on the Cannon Valley Trail this morning. One thing about Ember is that she can walk a long way without complaining, and I appreciate that. She likes to collect things along the way and wanted to bring home some sticks. When she found one that was at least 6 feet long I told her she already had enough sticks. She quickly said, "Auntie, this is NOT a stick. It is a pine tree." She carried it straight and tall for awhile to convince me. We saw a few turtles in the swamp but not as many as we'd hoped. I guess one warm day isn't enough to get them to come out and sun themselves on the logs.

Treasures

I've spent most of my weekend sorting through things for the 100 Mile Garage Sale. On the first weekend in May people "drive around the circle" which means they drive down one side of the Mississippi River, cross over somewhere along the way, and then drive back up the other side of the river. There are garage sales all along the route and in all the towns along the way. We may have up to 5 households bringing things over for our sale, so we are really hoping for good weather. While sorting, I found an old box under my bed with an assortment of things from the past including a tiny, round photo of me and my brother when we were little. We have the exact same haircut, which my nieces thought was HYSTERICAL.

I also found an audiocassette from the Wizard of Oz play that we did in 5th grade. I was Dorothy and I had to sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in front of everyone. Cheyanne and Ember thought that was pretty funny too.

I did manage to leave the house to go to my knitting group today.
I am working on a "Ribbed Shell." It is already getting tedious and I've only knit about 4 inches on the front. I thought I'd post a photo of what it is supposed to look like so I will be motivated to continue. I am knitting it in Butterfly Super-10 Mercerized Cotton in a dark purple color. I sure hope it fits someone when I'm through.

Life Gets In The Way of Blogging

Okay, so I have been so focused on the HUGE changes about to take place in my life that I haven't been doing 2 of my favorite things: knitting and blogging. I did start on a sleeveless top in a dark purple but it is slow going. I have this nagging fear that it will either be too big or too small or too holey for my taste but I'm continuing with the project.

As for the HUGE changes I mentioned, I'm probably going to be moving to the Chicago area in the next few months. Both of my jobs here in Minnesota are ending this summer so I need a new job and a new home. I'm focusing my house hunt on Homewood or Frankfort, IL or the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. I have a phone interview for a job next week and I'm really trying hard not to worry much about it since worrying doesn't help.

It snowed alot this week but nothing really stayed on the ground for long. Next week is supposed to be in the 50's, which is just the right temp as far as I am concerned. Ember and I have big plans to hunt for turtles on Monday at the Cannon River Turtle Preserve on the Cannon Valley Trail. If we see some, I'll try to post some pictures. I hope you are seeing signs of spring in your world!

Sweet Cornbread

Yesterday I made taco soup and cornbread for supper. The cornbread was so yummy I knew it must be my blog recipe this week. You may substitute plain yogurt or 2 cups buttermilk for the vanilla yogurt if you wish. You may also use 2 C. cornmeal and eliminate the whole wheat flour and flaxseed.

Cornbread
1/2 C. white flour
3/4 C. sugar (or Splenda)
1 1/3 C. cornmeal
1/3 C. whole wheat flour
1/3 C. ground flaxseed
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/3 C. vanilla low-fat yogurt
2/3 C. skim milk
4 TBSP butter, melted (I used 2 TBSP light butter + 2 TBSP butter)

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9 X 5 bread pan. Sift sugar, white flour, cornmeal, whole wheat flour, ground flaxseed and salt into a large bowl. In medium bowl, whisk baking soda, yogurt and milk and fold into flour mixture. Fold in the butter. Pour batter into pan and bake aboiut 40 - 45 minutes. Cool 15 minutes before inverting.

Wool Socks

I finally finished knitting my wool socks made from the Limbo Mexico yarn that I found in the bargain bin.

I'm now working on a rug that I'm making from 2 wool sweaters from Ireland that I bought at a thrift store and then felted in the washing machine. I also have a secret project using another wool sweater that I felted. It's a secret because it could either be a disaster or spectacular. Stay tuned...

The Women's Lambing Weekend at Heifer International was spectacular! We checked on the lambs at 6:15am Saturday morning and there were 13 new little lambs that were born overnight in the rainy pasture.

I highly recommend a visit to the Heifer International ranch in Perryville, Arkansas. They have a number of lodges available for volunteers or for family reunions. If you don't know anything about Heifer International, check out their website. The program fights hunger and poverty by providing animals to people around the world and it is amazing what a difference one animal can make to a family and a community. If you have trouble viewing the slideshow, refresh the page. Click on a photo for more information. Enjoy!

Flickr Slideshow