She's The Kind Of Girl

Things I'm going to need to do for the various plant varieties I'm growing this year. A basic thing I'm probably going to have to do across the board is bite the bullet and invest in some organic fertilizer. With container gardening, the soil doesn't hold nutrients the way it should.

Pole Beans/Runner Beans
Build supports. Try using this: ( http://www.sunset.com/garden/tipi-trellis-project-00400000038477/ ) with fallen branches found out back. It needs to be strong, unrotted wood, as beans can get heavy when full of fruit. Both of these are beans that will be left to dry on the vine.

Thai Bottle Gourd
So this thing gets huge. I didn't anticipate that it would get as huge as this thread: ( http://www.idigmygarden.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-10315.html ) says they will. I may not be able to grow these on my patio, but we'll see. Try building the tipi shown above, but as large as I can possibly get. Start the seeds as soon as I get them, since they need a long growing season to produce large amounts of fruit. Dried vines are good for weaving. Probably try to get this one in as big a container as I can afford. Harvest at four to six inches.

Aji Colorado Peppers
Sounds like these little dudes will be fine as long as they don't get over watered. I may want to get a larger container.

Chinese Five Color Pepper
Fruit is bright red when fully mature. Should be fine in a medium container. Like most peppers, pretty low maintenance. Bears tons of fruit apparently, so I might want to learn how to pickle them sooner or later.

Red Wonder Strawberry
Berry (*shot*) delicate. Try starting in paper towels first, then transplant when the seed has established a 1/2 inch root. Seems very touchy. Do not place in direct sun, which is good for me because Flag gets little sun. May want to delay fruit production until the second year, but time will tell on that one. There's an interesting thread about it here: http://www.idigmygarden.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-31234.html Fruit very touchy, don't harvest too early or too late, and the window can be very small.

Tomatillo
*NEED AT LEAST TWO PLANTS!* -- Tomatillos are not self pollinating, they need a companion plant. Three or four plants would be ideal, but two will do. Start the seeds as soon as they get here, they need a long growing season. Needs a lot of water. 5 gallon pots are suggested...tomatillos may not work for me if this is the case, but we'll see. Ready to harvest when the husk starts splitting.

Oregon Sugar Pod Beans
This is a bush bean variety, so it will not need support. Pick when the pods are fat with peas, and try not to overheat the plant as it grows.

Kale
Pretty low maintenance. Keep well moistened, don't ever let the soil go dry as this will cause the plant to go bitter. Tastes better after a freeze, and generally likes cold weather. Use roughly a sixteen inch space between plants. Usually not good fresh, they need to be cooked.

Okra
Needs lots of light and heat. May not survive here. Soak seeds overnight and then plant. When harvesting pods, it is best to not leave them too long. Harvest from the plants at least every other day. Do not let the pods reach more than 4 inches long or they become woody.

So I just made the greatest salad in the universe. I'm writing down the ingredients so that I can make it again.

-One head of lettuce (preferably extremely fresh -- like the whole heads from the hydroponic farms they sell, or one grown in my own garden)
-Spinach
-Mushrooms
-Green Onions
-Canned Kidney Beans
-Snow Peas
-Radish
-Roma Tomatoes
-Avocado
-Feta Cheese
-Roast Beef

I'm about to attempt gardening in Flagstaff, AZ, which has pretty much the toughest environment to grow anything in ever.

***

ZONE 1
COLD MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS
(ELEVATION 6,000-8,000 FEET)
At the high elevations, winters bring snow, subzero
temperatures and frozen soils. The growing season for
plants varies from 90 to 120 days. Precipitation
averages 20 to 25 inches per year, sometimes more. The
last killing frost in spring generally occurs in late May,
but below-freezing temperatures have been recorded
as late as mid-June.
Typical Zone 1 landscape plants include Crabapple
(Malus species), Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia),
Spruce (Picea species), Firethorn (orange-berried
Pyracantha species), Pfitzer juniper, Flowering quince
(Chaenomeles species) and Lilac (Syringa species).
Point of reference towns: Flagstaff, Window Rock,
Greer.

I'll be posting the pertinent excerpts from "The Production of Vinegar from Honey" by Gerard W. Bancks over here for easy accessibility.

( Honey Vinegar )

Sometimes I really wonder what's going on with the girls back in Virginia.

The last time I spoke with Vic was shortly after I moved in with David. That would be in April, I believe. She said she would call me back, and never did. That's my fault, though. I was the one who blew her off first. I wonder how her bakery business is going. I wonder how Christina is doing in college. I wonder what Catie is up to these days. I wonder how Chrissy and Mary are doing, and if Vic still talks with them. I miss every last one of them.

I wish I wasn't so much of a coward. Maybe I'll call Vic tomorrow. Maybe I'll still be too terrified to do so. And here I am, posting on this site that all of the girls abandoned three years ago.

Life's funny, ain't it? You run into amazing people out of nowhere and just as quickly, they're gone from your life, and you're gone from theirs. I've always hated that. This world is too flighty, too transient. Nothing is certain. I hope that I will get to see them again. I guess I'll have to since I need to go back and pick up my stuff from their house eventually.

I will call Vic tomorrow. This is a definite. It's been too long since we've talked.

You know it's Christmas time when they're superimposing snow and holly onto the Taxmasters commercial.

"Are you in debt? Trust me, I'm in a snow storm! It's Christmas!"

***

Season's Greetings is offically the worst way of bsing out of saying "Merry Christmas" in the universe. It's like saying "Hello, it's Winter!" At least with "Happy Holidays" you have the whole "holy day" root word going, whether people realize it or not.

***

The sales keep rolling in on Etsy. If I can keep this momentum going then maybe -- maybe -- one day I'll be able to ditch this shitty job and work from home. That would be nice.

***

Today is the feast of Mary's Immaculate Conception. What a beautiful day. Last night when we went to Mass, Father Victor was already giving a homily about respecting women, and how both sexes need the other in order to be complete. Beautiful. I can't wait for tonight's Mass.

You know, I'm realizing that I have never truly experienced the Christmas season the way it should be experienced before. In the Catholic Church, this is the season of Advent. You celebrate the coming of Christ, and prepare yourself for it through acts of penance, charity, cleansing, humility, and joy. It's a time of celebration and solemnity. I love it.

We're coming up on the 3rd Sunday of Advent here at the end of the week. Almost there! ♥

***

I'm reworking one of my old stories. It's the one that features Naida, Bade, and all the rest with the conflict between the Barools, Khotos, and Calri. I'll be updating it, making it better, completely revamping the story and characters, and generally tearing it apart from the ground up to make it better. As it was, I never got anywhere with it due to the story being crappy and rather murky, and the characterization based on stereotypes at best and cardboard characitures at worst. Let's hope that it turns out better this time.

Tomorrow's treasury theme: Exploration/Discovery!

Love you David, even though neither you nor any other living soul reads this blog, thank god.

__

List the rattlesnake tonight!

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Make an Etsy community on IJ?

Sunday and Monday: Days off
Tuesday - Saturday: Work from 7am to 3pm

~Devote at least two hours a day to studying.

~List at least one item per day to Etsy shop until backstock is exhausted.

~Curate one treasury per day on Etsy.

~Spare time may be spent promoting Etsy shop, doing further studying (if that wasn't my free activity the night before), making new items, spending time with David, or exercising.

~Severely limit outside spending. Buy food only when necessary. Cook in bulk. No more trips to any nearby cafes. Stop buying energy drinks.

~If you start getting burnt out on Etsy again, throw all of your energy into the creative side rather than the business side for a few days.

~Do not neglect studying either. Press on even when it's boring and insipid.

Watch it slip through your fingers
a thought, an ideal
a velvet ribbon unneeded
you dress your hair with the crown of disillusionment now.

Grandpa is 83 today. I called my grandparents for the first time in months. Grandpa was really happy to hear from me. He sounded kind of confused, but he knew who I was right away. He told me about how it used to be foggy out in LA in the 40s by the beach, how they would say that "on days like that, even the birds walked". I miss my grandpa so much.

Grandma yelled at him half the time I was on the phone with him and generally treated him like shit.

I want to see my grandpa again. I'm so worried about him, he thought that it had been years since he'd talked to me in the Grand Canyon. I talked to him some time shortly after New Year's.

I wish David were here right now. I need somebody to talk to. It probably doesn't matter though. Everyone's alone in moments like these.

I can't stop crying. Why is my family so fucked up? I hate this.

There's never enough time.

Not for you family, not for you friends, should you be lucky enough to have them. Not for your hobbies, your chores, your pets, your lover.

Life keeps running along the same tracks at a breakneck pace, while you stay right where you are.

Comatose.
Still.
Corroding.

But that's alright, because nobody else has any time for you either.

For a moment, the world seems to stop. The sunlight is staining the tree branches outside my window gold, a small breeze is playing across my arm, and silence falls over everything. Then somewhere inside of me, as a serenity I've never felt before calms me, I realize that everything has fallen into place.

I am exactly where I need to be. I have made the right choice.

I love sweet pickles.

They taste like Canada, like overcast days, like a small apartment with a grouchy old cat and an alcoholic hippie grandmother in it, and a patio filled with plants. They taste like a huge maple tree, that filled up almost the entire window. They taste like a small back garden with an odd assortment of vegetables that nobody ate in it. They taste like cigarette smoke and game shows. They taste like a childhood that I'm never going to get back, but maybe I'll give it to someone else one day.

I'M IN YELLOWSTONE RIGHT NOW, AND I HAVE ALL KINDS OF STUFF TO TELL YOU GUYS!

The flight out here was somewhat surprising. The first plane was far more fancy than any of the planes I was on while traveling between Virginia and Missouri, and was probably the best one I'd been on since I was really damn young. There was even a free TV thing included in the price of my ticket that I knew nothing about, so I got to watch Law and Order for three hours. DONK DONK.

The second plane ride wasn't as cool. I got seated next to a really chatty college professor, but that wasn't the bad part. It was a propeller plane, and the first one I've been on in my life, but that wasn't the bad part either. No, the bad part was the fact that the plane was FULL OF SMALL CHILDREN. SMALL CHILDREN WHO YELLED AND SCREAMED AND KICKED THE BACK OF MY SEAT THE ENTIRE. FUCKING. WAY.

And I had already not been feeling too great before that, so afterwards I was tired and had a massive headache and felt like I might puke everywhere. And then it took a minute for my family to find me because they couldn't recognize me with my haircut.

MORE DETAILS LATER!

Sometimes I think I'm losing my tenuous grasp on rationality and emotional balance.

But fuck it all, because I'm not going to let all of this shit in my life rule me and I'm not going to lose. Not to myself, and certainly not to life.

On a completely different note, I had a wonderful time over at Chrissy's! I'm looking forward to the next time I can hang out and veg with you, man.

Not going in until 11 tomorrow, so I get to stay up a bit later tonight. I think I might try some drawing.

MY IPOD IS IN IT'S DEATH THROES ;________________________;

GOT ACCEPTED AT YELLOWSTONE. STARTING WORK THERE JUNE 7TH. ADVENTURE!

Parental units causing me the average amount of headache. WORST EXCUSE FOR LAZINESS AWARD GOES TOOOOOOO:

"I dunno, why don't you call me tomorrow, things are kinda chaotic right now. I don't even have the room to write on this table."

CONGRATS, DAD!

P.S.: Family, I do not have an eating disorder. Stop acting like I do, it's highly disconcerting. D:

AND TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT ONCE AGAIN, OMG OMG OMG OMG OMFGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

GUESS
WHAT
IS
COMING
OUT
TOMORROW?




POKEMON MOTHERFUCKING HEART GOLD AND SOUL SILVER!!! GUESS WHO'S STOKED? IIIIII'M STOKED!

I'm going to see if I can get a ride to Gamestop, even if I'm probably not going to buy it. JUST TO LOOK AT THEM.

I spent the entire day watching season two of Darker Than Black because I'm a failure at life, but THAT IS NOT THE FOCUS OF TODAY'S POST.

NO, TODAY WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT HOW I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FEEL ABOUT WHAT I JUST WATCHED.

( Cut for MASSIVE SPOILERS as if anyone on my flist watches Darker Than Black derp derp )

OKAY NEVERMIND, I DO KNOW HOW TO FEEL. I FEEL PISSED OFF AND KIND OF SAD. ;_; FUCK YOU DTB SEASON 2, YOU SUCKED BALLS.

Nevermind guys, life is wonderful and beautiful and fuckin' awesome again!

Also, applying to work in Yellowstone for the summer! I'MMA MEET ME SOME *BEARS*.

And this isn't just because I have some sort of wild animal deathwish, it is also a financially sound decision since I'm going to be making a ton of money out there. Especially since I have had absolutely ZERO luck finding any sort of full time job out here. Plus, by the time I get back? All of the kids will be going back to school and the job market will be better.