Freakonomics blog often provides me with smart funny and informative pieces on a whole variety of things. Today I saw this article on Barter village, which may be of interest to those people interested in urban homesteading/ simple living.
[there are two link the first is to freakonomics blog, the second to the barter village "about us" page]

garlic yr 2

Bill was a good husband and harvested the garlic yesterday -in the dark, after visiting me all weekend.

gardening in the rain

So first - I talked about my internship a few weeks ago when I got it, though I didn't mention the name of the place. I will be working for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Washington DC for the summer

Next - all week I have looked forward to getting some seeds planted for a spring garden. Before I would let myself enjoy some garden time I had some tasks to do and some homework to finish. By the time I got outside I was able to gather my tools and start raking when it started drizzling on me. I worked in the steady drizzle for a half hour before I gave up. No seeds were planted, but I will be ready when the weather is ready to cooperate

Rain rain

actually I don't mind you you don't need to go away... you are much better than the freezing weather and snow!

BBQ left overs for lunch and lots of homework to do. Mondays yay!

I am starting to think about my garden. Not knowing if I will have an internship in town or now I don't know what to do. Should I get seeds? wait and not do heirloom versions of plants? don't worry about this and focus on finding my internship?

leaf be gone

So this year Bill and I tried the one and done tactic with the fall chores. This lead to 5 hours of raking, mowing, gutter cleaning, garden clearing, garage sweeping and other fun chores. I am not sure if this is the best tactic, but it worked (though I still have some tulip bulbs to plant and some weeds that look like shrubs in the back yard).

This weekend was the costume party that ended my leadership program. The theme was heroes and villains and Bill and I went as the Joker and Harley Quinn [i was trying to add pictures but it is getting late and i have tried 3 times now sorry :(]

Yesterday I ordered the turkey for thanksgiving. I have a lot of work to do on my house between now and then. You would think I would have all this time as a student to keep house and what not. anyway, here's the menu so far:

Turkey

Sausage and chestnut dressing

Pomegranate-Cranberry Sauce (and canned cran for Bobby)

Mashed potatoes

Sweet potatoes (not sure mashed or maple ginger)

Lily's making

green bean casserole

corn chowder

croissants

Bill's mom is bringing

honey baked ham

There will be pies but the who and what are nebulous right now. there will also be rice, great lakes Christmas ale, cranberry sparkling water, and lots of people.

any suggestions on what i am forgetting or your fav thanksgiving recipe?

bad blogger

So, it's another friday and I haven't have time to myself all week. School work is kicking my rear. I did get a chance to cook a little this week: Sunday I made a mushroom sauce with noodles and meatballs (half Swedish meatball half stroganoff all yum). Monday I made brownies. Wednesday I made something called "Serbian potato casserole" Basically it was a ground beef and potato casserole, but with a lot of paprika, a bit of cayenne, and some cinnamon and clove.

Sunday, I also planted my garlic as we were having a beautiful weekend, and those will soon be far and few between. I cleaned up my asparagus patch, but didn't have time to take down the rest of my garden.

So lemme tell you all about the reason I am never online. I am on campus usually Monday through Thursday 8:30-5:30. I have four classes, all with great professors, Accounting, Micro Econ, Regression, and Investments. For three of the classes I have mandatory group work, so some of my extra time is trying to do group projects and homework. I also have my own homework and reading to finish. Then I have career services (literally a 3 hour class time every week) and a lot of work to do in getting ready to find an internship. Then there are lunch and learns, club meetings and sometimes a social hour (free cookies and hot chocolate wednesday at 4:30 - thanks Dean Kole!!!)

I keep telling Bill that while school is really only 4 3 hour classes a week, I am more worn out and harder worked than when I was working full time. I think the hardest thing is just getting used to learning that much again.

I am keeping up on other's blogs even if I don't comment as much these days. - Miss you guys!

Brr

So in the past week I have experienced highs near 90 and lows close to 45.

I got my garlic this past week and I will need to get it in the ground soon. I will also have to clean up my garden for the season. I picked 3 semi ripe tomatoes this week in anticipation of the dropping temps. There are a few green ones still out there but I have to face the depressing facts: summer is over and winter is on its way.

I dislike this part of the growing season (trying to not say hate). The funny thing is I love fall, but the death of my garden is hard to handle. So I will probably sulk for the next week until the rain stops and I actually start taking down my garden.

the weekend is here

YAY!!!

We have a busy weekend ahead of us and it includes celebrating my birthday! yay! This also means i need to wish Alana a happy birthday (along with my aunt Erin). My birthday isn't until Tuesday, but we have tickets to see billy elliot and I am super excited for it.

I am still fighting this cold, though sleeping in today has help tremendously (that of the cold had run its course).

Yesterday Bill went with me to my semi-formal event. He got to meet a bunch of the people I have been talking able for the last week and a half. What was amazing though was how many people I didn't know at all. It feels like all I have been doing is meeting people every day, and still I know so few people in my class.

I am all signed up for classes, and have started looking for my books. Bill and I are taking two classes with the same books and I am taking a class he took last quarter so book wise I am hoping we can overlap a lot.

On the home front, I am awaiting my garlic (yay) and starting to think about taking apart my garden (boo) next year we will probably cut back (let the soil rest) so Bill and I have been discussing what worked and didn't.

We really liked the garlic. most of the work is done the fall before and I am loving my yummy garlic in stir fry and tomato sauce, in soups and basically everywhere else

The Swiss chard that i planted by seed was super easy and resilient. I literally sewed the seeds and we have been picking leaves and enjoying them all summer.

I really have liked the Cherokee purple and Hungarian hear tomatoes, but i think from now on I will pass on cherry tomatoes.

My peppers were a bust this year along with my cuckes I thing that was more the weather than anything, so I would probably just do less of them and hope for greatness.

The lettuce always seems like a better idea at the beginning of the summer. we did eat a bunch of the red leaf ice burg that i planted in the garden and in the early summer i enjoyed some of the lose leaf mix. I still have seeds and will try them again, but i am not buying any new ones.

the beans and beets are probably passes. for the amount that we eat beans it is easier to buy then at the market, and we really only consume the beet greens and they are so similar to chard that i don't see a point in both.

Basil is a must every year as is parsley. My perennial herb area got out of control too early in the season and I gave up on maintaining it.

I also have my asparagus bed which is a tangle of ferns and weeds at the moment, but I hope to be able to eat some next spring.

Over all, I think that I am still very dependent on my local farmers markets, but given my time and interests in the cooking and preserving parts of the process I don't have the space to grow enough for the two of us. I like the process of a garden. I love looking out at it and tracking the growth, and that satisfaction is worth all the juicy tomatoes in the world.

This post has ran way too long so I'll sign off. have a great weekend!!

so tired

Hi everyone!

Wisconsin was great. I played tons of icebreaker games with my 578 other classmates. We climbed rope courses and did team building exercises. Both evenings they had games and dancing. My favorite part was the 3 hours we spent with people from improv olympics (another improv group like second city). They had us do a bunch of improv games which were silly and fun.

Unfortunately, both nights up there were very late, and we had to be at group things at 8am every day. Friday I was back in Hyde Park from 8:30 to 5pm and the long days, stress and copious amounts of talking have left me a bit sick (very sad sore throat).

Hopefully, tomorrow i will be able to get back into the swing of things.

ps while i was gone Bill was able to harvest 3 new tomatoes and some peppers. Lets hope the weather stays good enough for me to get a second bounty.

yum oh !

Oh July you have never ended so tasty!

Tomatoes on a rail

Sadly one is worse for wear and due to that won't make it through dinner time.

tasting heaven

I had a bit of heaven last night with my farmers market bacon and my home grown lettuce and tomato.

and then just to make sure i had my quota of bacon grease, I sauteed some of my Swiss chard in the bacon pan.

Really how can you be bummed about CFA test results when you have such a simply delicious dinner.

Oh and dessert... peaches and ginger ice cream.

Beans from garden

Home grown goodness

A daily bounty

Yum!

Garlic from garden

For home made hummus.

Garlic harvest

First year of growing garlic. Yum!

Love/ Hate

Those two words summarize all my feelings towards my garden right now. Inspired by this post and the amount of weeds popping up, I decided to put on my jeans and a long sleeved shirt and go work in my garden. On the plus side, my garden has substantially less weeds than before, but on the minus I have substantially more bug bites (they bit through my shirt and gloves!). On the positive side my swiss chard is really coming out nicely, as are most of my plants, on the negative I scraped my arm along a fence post this time and am now wearing a super huge band aid (again). On the up side I did get a good amount of sleep last night, on the downside it was because I was having a full body reaction to all the bites and took Benadryl.

Anyway, I love my garden I love pulling the weeds and munching on green beans as I go, but more than once this summer people at work have asked me is it worth it. I think despite the bite, bruises, cuts, scrapes and muscle aches it is. I get such a sense of peace... ...until I convince myself there is a spider on me and I freak out. :)

---

ps to those who know him... Brian got some bite while fishing in Canada and is now in the hospital because the bite got infected. I just talked to him and he seems fine, but I am glad he went in. Here he is with a pike he caught:

it is wednesday already?!

We had such a wonderful weekend. C I am so sorry we didn't see you, but I will see you soon.

The long weekend contained family and baseball, water balloons and horseback riding, hiking and swimming, wine and yours truly. We had such a great time and maybe I'll get the photos off my camera some time soon.

I continue to devour books. I still have two more lent books from co workers after the one I am on, and I am re reading Harry Potter 7 in anticipation of the movie.

My garden is coming along and we had a nice side of fresh picked green beans for dinner on Monday.

Hope you all had a nice holiday weekend.

oh wow

This summer is just steam rolling ahead. I can't believe we have already hit the end of June.

Bill and I have been super busy.... this weekend alone: bowling, Lady A& Tim McGraw concert, agility class, market, rinse and repeat.

The garden is growing nicely, though I had to toss my fist pepper as it had holes in it (maybe because it was laying on the ground. The broccoli has been eaten up pretty bad. not sure exactly what it was, because the last year we didn't have this problem at all. I have a few green tomatoes and my green beans should be coming in soon.

Winnie has had 4 weeks of agility now (half way through) and she will have the next two weeks off, and then we will pick up again after the 4th and an agility trial on the 12-13.


Not much else shaken around here. I am slowly making my way through a back log of books that my dear friend lent to me (along with some from coworkers). I am averaging a book every 2 days with is pretty good. I always feel so parched for new fiction after I finish my CFA exam. Anyway... If any of you have a good book that you would like to recommend I will be done with this collection in the next two weeks I think.

Hope you are all enjoying the summer.