laurenisms » done

We will arise from the bunkers

lauren — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:29:13 +0000

Today the chickens graduated from their 17-gallon galvanized washtub into the bottom half of a large dog crate. Now they have much more room in which to stand around all huddled together. They have been very busy growing new body parts, including combs on their heads, and shoulder feathers, and wing feathers, and, well, wings. Tall Chicken (“Necky”) can stretch her head up all the way to the top of the waterer, and they all like to run/hop and flap their new wings. They learned they could jump up on the edges of the bucket when we took off the lid (made of fencing) to clean, and so that is why they are graduated to a new taller house.

This weekend we:

made some fertilizer
built a trellis
planted peas on said trellis
bought lots of things at the farm store
made bread (me) — very successful, thanks to Mark Bittman and the rediscovery of my spray bottle, which makes a good crust
made butter (Garth)
made 102 newspaper pots with my newspaper pot maker from Path to Freedom’s online store
filled 102 newspaper pots with dirt
filled 102 endirtened newspaper pots with seeds, including:
- tomatoes (8 kinds)
- leeks
- artichokes
- lettuce (several varieties, including arugula, which is not a lettuce)
- kale (2 kinds)
- broccoli (3 kinds)
- brussels sprouts
- cabbage
- peppers (2 kinds — pepperoncini and anchos)
- eggplant
- watermelon
- chamomile
- spearmint
- sweet basil

If you have any interest in starts of any of these plants, and it’s a reasonable idea for me to get them to you, shoot me an email at firstname dot lastname at gmail, and I’ll put on some starts for you.

There is more to come, of course; corn, beans, peas, chard, carrots, beets are to be started outdoors, and asparagus comes in live plants. We will also be doing succession planting — that is, planting every few to several weeks, as we eat the existing plants — with the crops that can overwinter here, like kale, broccoli, lettuces, brussels sprouts, leeks, the root veggies, maybe cabbage.

I still owe a post about what I read in February (not much), and what I am up to lately in terms of media
consumption. But don’t sit here and wait for it; go make butter! It is easy and awesome and delicious!

(Song: “Sons and Daughters,” The Decemberists. I love this song.)

Drink it by the pitcher and not by the glass

lauren — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 07:10:11 +0000

I have just turned in my last paper of the summer — well, my last real paper — almost twenty minutes early! Woo!
I have also: been in Shelby’s wedding (cried); got in more arguments with my mother, who is not so good at rationality sometimes (did not cry); cried about a puppy I fell in love with online but who got adopted by someone else (cried); finally tried dirty martinis (rejoiced) and wondered why I have not been drinking them for years (regretted lost time); gotten fancy shiny new flipflops (rejoiced); had job interviews for two (!) different grown-up jobs (fretted, then was optimistic).

Upcoming: wait to hear about jobs; find another puppy; drink more dirty martinis.

(song: “Portland, Oregon,” Loretta Lynn & Jack White)

Snaking its way through the memory of

lauren — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 03:56:48 +0000

I don’t know why it always surprises me that I am most likely to run into folks I know when I’m at the library on campus …
I’ve been sad because of a lack of being on campus and randomly running into people — it’s weird that I got so used to being able to do that, when I couldn’t, here, for at least a year. But today I was in the library to pay my $19 fine (I am a bad person) when I encountered my two favorite Writing Center customers from last year, Adam and Reese. Reese had to run off but I was especially pleased to see Adam, because I learned that he is to be in my Class of Deathly Boredom, aka Management for Information Organizations. I like Adam so am glad we get a class together, but was extra special happy because that means he can take notes for me on the first day.
I have to miss the first day because I am too dumb to double-check my calendar and figure out when class starts before I buy non-refundable tickets to Madison. (Yay, a sixth state to check off! I am a wimpy US traveler.) The first half of the summer term, in which I had one class, ends this Wednesday, and for some reason I thought the second half, in which I have a different class, would start next Monday, but no, it starts on Thursday. And I am leaving for Wisconsin on Thursday afternoon. This is dumb. I am dumb.
But Adam will be there to take notes for me!

This weekend was surprisingly eventful!

Mom’s marriage:
L: “Do you two want to get married?” (It’s the only thing that Washington requires in the ceremony.)
Them: “Yep!”
L: “Yay! Then you’re married!”

Harry Potter:
Finished Saturday night. Interesting. Not sure what I think, actually.

Homemakerdom:
Pulled lots and lots of weeds; did the dishes and cleaned the counter in preparation for a mini party on Sunday night.

Mini party:
Gins&tonic, bourbon, Oban (grâce à Chelle, thanks!!!); delicious guacamole (made-up recipe to be posted on Kitchenisms when I get it transferred); Simpsons, Firefly. Chelle and Tom and John & Laura. Good group!

This week: write a paper; laundry; pack; cash checks; figure out how I can get out of going to the first day of class.

(song: “The New Face of Zero and One,” the New Pornographers. A trail of sisters through New York.)

of late, i’ve had some thought

lauren — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 01:05:01 +0000

FINISHED, half-assedly: XML and JavaScript.

FINISHED, about three-quarters-assedly: PHP and MySQL.

ATTENDED: Spring Fling, complete with hay bales, face painting, and bluegrass music. And beer, but not enough.

FINALLY DRAGGED SHAN TO: Christy McWilson show

TO DRESS FOR: Heath’s fancy party tonight, of which I can only stay for an hour.

TO ~~START~~ I mean FINISH because of course I’ve started it,
haha, yes, I have!!: 10-15 page paper about archival cataloging and classification!

TO PACK: Everything I own.

(song: “Valentine,” Old 97s. Murry should sing more.)

from where you think you’ll end up

lauren — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 17:43:42 +0000

i had a very pleasant weekend of playing homemaker/subsistence farmer. friday and saturday i started cutting and pinning for my pal skip’s curtains, but i didn’t do much else. yesterday, though, i made crock-pot apple butter (crock pots are fun! you just leave it overnight!), bread that did not actuallly rise and so did not turn out at all, though it looked pretty, and salmon for dinner with shannon. i also dug up the weeds in an already raised bed in the yard, killed some rogue blackberry plants in the part i want to garden in, raked up all the pinecones and branches, and talked to the nice neighbor man who works at home depot about renting a rototiller so i can take up the grass/moss/weeds. then i planted some basils in a pot and then i sewed.
i like making stuff!
this morning i started listening to the dracula audiobook i have been putting on ipod. i have decided i adore audiobooks! i have never listened to one before but this is super fun. i think it’s also a good one to listen to – it’s properly creepifying, like stories read aloud should be.
i am planning to spend valentine’s day writing database queries. i am looking forward to this.

(song: “st. robinson in his cadillac dream,” counting crows)

nobody knows her own heart

lauren — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 03:25:08 +0000

ew, ew ew EW.
so sho and i went to gorditos burritos in greenwood, and it was so good. not quite the same as yum salty molï¿½ at burrito boy, but different is good too, and anyway burrito boy doesn’t have spinach burritos! anyway it was a huge (yuge!) burrito and we both had leftovers, which we ate for second dinner the next night. yum happily munching away and then i took a bite that TASTED LIKE SEMI-SPOILED MEAT! very traumatic! i spit it out immediately and investigated it — i think it was pork or maybe beef? — and was disturbed to realize that it wasn’t rotting, that is just what meat tastes like. i wonder why i never noticed it before, when i ate it regularly. anyway i was also pleased to find that after that i don’t want to try it anymore!
(despite that, it was really good and i will definitely go back there.)
when i was at mom’s over winter break, i spent a lot of time doing nothing, which led to me sitting around planning how the house will look when i move into it. there will be an office and knitting/sewing room and maybe a library. and the biggest vegetable garden ever. she is going to move out in two years and i am going to try to work it out to move in there then. and grow corn and tomatoes and peas and cucumbers and lettuce and carrots. and other things. i should find out if i can have chickens …
other things i did in portland: fell off a curb and skinned my knee. yes, i am eight years old. saw that zombie movie and had nightmares about zombies and aliens. did not, surprisingly, want to shoot myself in the head to make my allergies stop. played with sweet stella puppy. stella looks kind of like this. she is the nicest friendliest best dog ever. everyone should adopt a greyhound!
otherwise, i mostly sat around and did nothing. sho was sick so we didn’t really do much. which was nice. i had enough of doing stuff at the end of last term, but at least it paid off — we got a 4.0 on the giant project! now i am finally convinced that i did not doom us by forgetting that page.
now i am strangely obsessed with cleaning and organizing and getting rid of stuff. it’s kind of fun. yay!

(song: “the el,” rhett miller)