The Vegetable Garden

Last year Shawn and I made vegetable boxes. It was around this time last year, wait, no, it was in April last year that we build these vegetable boxes. Let's back track a bit. A few months before that I had read Terri Blackstock's book Last Light. In the book the main characters are forced to plant a garden using their front and back yards. So, it being the first year Shawn and I actually lived in our house with a backyard, we were encouraged to plant once again. Let's back track a bit more. A couple of years before that when we had first purchased out townhouse, I had my brother-in-law (Justin) get a garden together for me since he has the greenest thumb this side of the Mississippi. That was the year before Shawn and I were married - so it's been about 4 summers since then. Well, the following summer after Shawn and I were married, we continued to have a small garden in half wine barrels in the back of our tiny townhouse. We had tomatoes, lots and lots of tomatoes and some beans which never grew because they didn't get enough sun. Well, last year we had:
*Watermelons (we planted too late for these to flourish)
*Cantaloupe (the ones that didn't get horribly attacked by aphids came out great)
*Tomatoes (lots and lots of them thanks to the dear that kept eating the tips off of them to make the plants absolutely EXPLODE)
*Lettuce
*Broccoli
*Carrots (so many carrots that we finally had to let them just grow and grow over the winter - and just a few days ago picked so many that we had about 10-15 pounds of carrots)
*Zucchini (this should have been a no-brainer, but we think they got cross pollinated with another squash planted next to it, so those didn't turn out at all).

This year here is what we have planted so far:
*3 different types of tomatoes (I eat tomatoes by the handful - literally)
*4 Zucchini (gosh darn it, we will get it right this year)
*9 broccoli plants
*1 Yellow Bell Pepper (we haven't had much luck with these in the past in the Bay Area, so we will see how these do this year)
*1 Red Bell Pepper (same as above)
*2 rows Romaine Lettuce
*2 rows Radish
*2 rows Snow peas
*1 Artichoke plant
*2 rows Mesclun (which is a variety of baby lettuce)
*4 rows of corn (which we should have spaced out planting, but nope - did it all at once since we are lazy) If the corn does well this year, we will plant many more plants for the second planting in mid-summer since we have tons of seeds left.
*1 Basil plant

AND - this is the best part - we have a 'pond' in our backyard that is now filled with rock, dirt and large stones. This weekend we are going to empty it out and make it a VERY LARGE herb garden (half of it anyway). Additionally, we are going to plant more veggies in the other half of it. We will probably plant onions (in honor of my sister-in-law Sharon who ADORES onions), corn from seed, more carrots for the dog (yes, she is CRAZY about carrots) and a whole bunch of herbs like:
*Basil
*Rosemary
*Thyme
*Oregano
*Tarragon
*Sage
*Dill
*Chives
*Parsley
*Peppermint
*Marjoram

My love for planting goes back much much further than just a few years. When I was a kid, we would visit my Aunt Edythe at her house in Campbell, Ca. She grew EVERYTHING - and I mean everything. Her whole backyard was vegetable boxes, compost piles to use in the vegetable boxes, a HUGE avocado tree and everything else you could possibly think of. Now, Shawn and I are NOWHERE near as dedicated as my aunt, but she was the ultimate inspiration for us having a vegetable garden. I remember eating the BEST vegetables I have ever tasted at her home when we went over for dinner. And, every year she would can fruits and vegetables to keep for the entire year. She made the BEST homemade chunky applesauce. I asked her for the recipe once, and she said it was apples, sugar, water and cinnamon - no measurements. :) I still have no idea how to make it, but gosh darn it, eventually, I will figure it out.

Today I am satisfied with what was accomplished. I must give HUGE props to my AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL

husband. He has worked endlessly digging, planting, removing, harvesting etc..... so we can get the new vegetable garden planted (my back has been bothering me for a month and a half or so, so I can only help minimally right now - he has done about 99.9% of the work). A VERY BIG THANKS GOES OUT TO MY WONDERFUL HUSBAND. I DON'T KNOW ANYONE ELSE THAT WOULD BE ABLE TO PUT UP WITH ME. I LOVE YOU BABY - MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF.

Plans for the weekend

Cross stitching and planting veggies for summer. That's it - nothing more, nothing less.

The Paranormal

For some reason I am deeply infatuated with the paranormal. Not the "Jonathan Edwards" type weirdness - the bible speaks clearly about that (as it does some paranormal experience). But I am fascinated with the existence of it. I watch the show called "A Haunting" on the Discovery channel a couple of times a week (you will most definitely think about the things you are putting into your mind right?). This show is about people's experience with the paranormal. Haunted houses, demon's possessing people etc... It is fascinating. Do I believe that this stuff exists? Absolutely!!!! But I don't know to what extent. I have seen some pretty interesting stuff overseas - like an exorcism in a church we were staying at while on a mission trip - that was trippy to listen to. Our leaders did not want us in the room, and rightfully so. Our team had nothing to do with the exorcism. But we did get to hear everything that went on - scary scary stuff if you don't know Jesus. But, this show is very interesting. In almost all of the episodes they call in the Catholic Church to exorcise the house/person. They always bring in the bible, and of course always cast out whatever it is hanging around in the name of Jesus.

I find the paranormal very interesting. I think this is something my mom finds fascinating as well - generational??? Who knows! But, what I really want to know is what you think. Do you think ghosts exist? Coexist with us? Do you think they are demons parading around as ghosts? What is your opinion on this?

One of the reasons why I am asking is because every semester I teach I tell my students that we live right next to a grave yard. Inevitably, every semester my students freak out and think it's creepy (even though I tell them that there has never been anything out of the ordinary happening in our house or around our house). In fact, what I do tell them is that our neighbors are "very quiet" - lol. We do have actual neighbors on either side of us. But behind us is a graveyard (from the 1800's nonetheless) which I think is the coolest thing ever.

But, what's your opinion on the subject?

Haven't been....

I haven't really been in the mood for blogging....sorry. I will try to think of something this weekend.

Sucking the last M&M

When you get to the end of an M&M's bag, do you suck the last one?
OR
Is the first bit of pizza the best?
OR
When you are finishing a candy bar, do you make your last bites small to savor the flavor?

I just had pizza for dinner. The first bite for me is always the best. Sometimes I eat my pizza backwards because I want that little triangle for the last bite (although this doesn't work too well because in my mind it's not the same). Tonight, I peeled some of the toppings off and moved them over to the last bite - mmmmmm, the last bite was sooooooo good. Enough about me, what about you? What strange things do you do with your food?