M is for Many

M is for too many choices! My alphabet list and all the brainstorming I did last month is making it really hard to choose a blogging topic. Let me give you some of my choices for M:

Mongolian - after discovering those terrific yurts yesterday, I found myself completely enthralled with the style and decorations of their clothing and furniture. Deserves more research.

Marco Polo - one of the first serious importers, and why we all enjoy things like spices, coffee, tea, olive oil, wine... and all kinds of other goodies locavores can't easily grow. I try to eat 80% of my foods from within a couple hundred miles of where I live, but the other 20% are Marco Polo foods that I love and refuse to do without. Like chocolate.

Merchant Mariners - people like my Prussian Opa who had a barge and traveled the Oder River importing goods from afar. I would love to know where he traveled and what treasures he brought home. I'd also like to know more about his eldest daughter, my aunt, who wanted to be a sailor herself. Rumor has it she absconded with the barge after my Grandfather died, but that is unverified. Still, it makes for a great story!

Money - because it's tax day and who couldn't use a few extra coins? Have you ever visited a numismatic museum? The story of coin design is quite fascinating. Here's a money magnet my husband created. It's available at CafePress.

Marketing - that's what the previous comment was about.

Manners - I could write a book about this topic! In fact, I have one half-finished.

Mosquitoes - they spray Malathion in my neck of the woods which is highly toxic to bees. With the issues of diminishing bee populations (and the resulting impact on worldwide food supplies), I wonder if the EPA will put a moratorium on that practice?

Millet - husband is thinking of trying to grow some this year.

Marigolds- I'm trying again even though the grasshoppers chomp them down before they ever set blooms.

More? Do you really want more?

Mulch - I'm using grass clippings instead of straw this year - the bales we got last year are full of kochia seed. Bleh! One of the more invasive weeds in my stretch of the middle.

Milk - I get raw milk from my neighbor and that deserves it's very own post, so watch for that!

Migas - one of my favorite breakfasts and I'll pass along a recipe at some point.

Mystery - my very favorite book genre. On my reading list is Susan Wittig Albert's newest China Bayles mystery, Widow's Tears. Have you read it? Click here to order and read the prologue. I love this series!

 
Mess - describes my mind, and I think this marvelous mish-mash of M-words proves it! Hey, it's a minor miracle I got this much written. Mercy! 

L is for Little

I confess that big houses give me the willies. I don't like visiting huge homes, and I especially don't like sleeping in them. I think this is because I was born in Germany and grew up there, and most of my family had normal German homes - that is to say, quite small. My Oma lived in two rooms for her entire retirement and shared a bathroom with two neighbors who were also elders. Nobody complained. Even in modern-day Germany, homes tend to be the size of what many Americans would call "efficiencies" or "starters". This scenario is the standard in most of Europe. Needless to say, the environmental footprint of those countries is much smaller than in the United States. Americans have few bragging rights when it comes to downsizing for the sake of the planet.

Just for fun, I thought I'd share some very creative and beautiful little homes that you might not think you can live in full-time, but could consider as small offices or studios. I'm more of a monk and would certainly live in one of these full-time, and maybe someday, you will consider it too:

A converted caboose

A yurt imported from Mongolia
This is my favorite and I was able to find more information online.
Google as authentic yurts are now on sale in the U.S. and Australia.

Under 500 s.f.

A posh interior

Victorian charm

Converted metal storage container

Only 312 s.f.

Very tiny

When the garden takes top honors

Are these clever, or what? There is truly a tiny style for everyone. You can find more listings at Tiny House Listings and on their Facebook page. All their homes are under 500 s.f. Most of the ones pictured here are 200-300 s.f.

And if you're now as yurt-obsessed as I am, click here. And here. And here. And here for the one above. We actually considered buying a yurt about ten years ago, but the selections weren't nearly as handsome as the real Mongolian yurts on these pages!

Have you ever considered downsizing your lifestyle by choosing a smaller home? How small do you think you could go? Please leave me a comment!

K is for Keyhole

Photo credit: afrigadget.com

Specifically, it's for keyhole garden beds (also known as African gardens). I've mentioned them before on this blog, after seeing the plans at the Texas Co-op site here. When I realized how much dry garden waste this arrangement used up, I knew it was for me. We have tons of brush and garden refuse to layer, and a plentiful supply of cardboard boxes from the local grocery store. The big dilemma was creative ways to build the structure because rock is at a premium around here, and so is decent soil for the top layers.We don't even have urbanite available after the county yard ground all their broken concrete into gravel.

So here is how we started:

First stakes were surrounded by chicken wire, that were then lined with cardboard including the ground. This was watered down well. Then a layer of coarse, dry brush was added and watered. That tube in the middle is for the "compost bucket" and where the arrangement is watered several times per week. I call it the "wormhole" because you know what's going to take up residence there soon, right?

Next, more layers of cardboard and garden waste, the coarser stuff toward the bottom, and watered between each layer.

Then some nice bags of leaves on top of the next layer of cardboard.

After watering, yet another layer and then newspapers. Getting bored yet? ;)

And finally, dirt, composted stable bedding from our neighbors, and bagged potting soil. It took a lot of that to get a 6-8 inch layer of planting surface.

I couldn't stand the sheer ugliness of this, so we bought some snow fence, cut it in half to the proper height, then covered the soil with straw. This is the second one, where we had the brilliant idea to use old shag carpet from the barn as another barrier around the stakes. We think this will hold moisture better than the cardboard alone. Remember the idea here is to conserve water while offering a bio-intensive growing area for healthy plants like you see in the first picture.

Five of these keyhole gardens are placed in what will become a permaculture suntrap facing south. You can already see the small peach trees that are the start of an orchard. In a few months, I'll show you updated photos when we get more of the foundation in place for some of the other elements in this suntrap.

If you want to give this method a go, be forewarned. These six-foot diameter beds take a lot of energy and materials to build. Each one took two of us a half day of constant effort. We'll see if it pays off for us. I love the idea of having a good place to empty my compost bucket, and even more, not having to bend so far to plant and harvest. If it really does conserve a lot of water, so much the better. Water is cheap where I live, but that won't last forever in this drought, and I'd rather be prepared for water rationing. This will help a great deal.

Here's a video about this technique should you care to learn more. It takes a slightly different approach. I wish I'd watched this first - very inspiring and intriguing! I loved the upbeat music.



Here's the website to http://keyhole-gardens.com/ for more ideas. I'm hoping my keyhole gardens look this lush in a few months.

Have any of you tried this type of gardening? What kind of vegetable gardening do you do? Please leave me a comment!

J is for Jambalaya

Photo credit: deepsouthdish.com

It's still wicked cold in my stretch of the outback, and that always makes me crave spicy foods. I love all kinds of ethnic cooking including Indian, Mexican, and Jamaican. One of my favorite dishes is jambalaya, a Creole dish that includes celery, peppers, onions (known as the "trinity"), tomatoes, various meats, and often seafood all mixed into rice. The Cajun version is made without tomatoes. My favorite recipe is from an old Fannie Farmer cookbook and it goes like this:

Chicken Jambalaya

4-5 pound chicken, in quarters

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons bacon fat

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup diced ham

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

5 cups chicken broth

1/4 cup minced parsley

1 bay leaf

1 1/2 teaspoons thyme, crumbled

1 cup chopped canned or fresh tomatoes

2 cups rice

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Rinse the chicken pieces and wipe dry. Heat the oil and bacon fat in a large skillet.  Brown the chicken pieces and sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the ham, green pepper, celery, onion, and garlic to the pan and cook until the vegetables are soft. Add the chicken broth, parsley, bay leaf, and thyme; bring to a boil and cook uncovered until the broth is reduced to 4 cups. Remove the chicken meat from the bones in large pieces. Put the chicken meat, the unstrained broth, the tomatoes, and uncooked rice in a casserole. Stir, cover, and bake for 1 hour, checking every 20 minutes and adding more hot broth or water if it dries out. Remove the bay leaf before serving.

This recipe quite easily serves six people with the addition of a salad. For the two of us, it makes several generous meals. It also freezes very well since it doesn't have shrimp which tends to get rubbery when overcooked. We love this meal, and on cold days, the smell and warmth from the oven is so cozy and comforting!

What about you? What's your favorite meal on icy days like this? Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I is for IRS or is that IRiS?

Yesterday you saw a bit of our artwork. Since I'm scrambling to get tax paperwork together, I thought I'd do a little promotion to help pay the tax lady. This is Aunt IRiS, an original piece of art (using me as the model) my husband created a few years ago - based on the Uncle Sam Wants You posters from the WW2 era. Every year, sales from our CafePress account help us pay what's due. You can click here to buy a mug. They are lovely gifts for anyone with a personal accountant, or just to use yourself while you're suffering through the season. Especially satisfying if you have an irreverent sense of humor, and a stiff drink within. Ooh, and look! CafePress has the tee-shirt on sale in the "gifts for accountants" category.

It's wickedly cold and windy again, so my gardening plans are still on hold. I'm hoping that my irises, which have poked their green spikes out of the soil, will live to bloom. I have them all over the property. They are tough and seem to like the challenging conditions around here. They tend to be pale though - the soil is too lean to impart much color. I have lots of these:

What I covet are these:

A girl can dream, right? Now back to Aunt IRiS. Have you finished your tax return yet?

H is for Hoops

H is for my hoop, with

which I often play.

Sometimes it's very

naughty and tries

to run away.

This is a stained glass window based on an old Victorian woodcut that I built many years ago as a fundraising donation for a local charity. I'd thought to create a set using the entire alphabet, but never got back to it. It was quite large, roughly 30" x 40". Can you imagine it in a child's nursery?

I'd write more but it's been a bit hellish around here with extremely windy weather. I've had trouble with my ears and hearing all winter - third round of Meniere's Syndrome - and it's making me a little miserable. So enjoy a bit of my art instead of the usual writing.

Here's something by Hubbo related to Horses. The cover for my Princess Willy Be series (young chapter books). Cute, isn't it?

 I'm waiting for a few more drafts before I start playing with titles and fonts.

 

G is for Gardening

I'm a bit late this morning after returning from a very long day trip to Denver. One of the highlights of Sunday was a trip to the Denver Botanic Gardens where things are still looking pretty brown, with just a few hardy bulb flowers peeking their heads through the cold ground. Still it was a lovely day and there were loads of people out walking the paths. I came away with numerous ideas for my own gardens. Also a real appreciation for water features, hard-scaping, and architectural features like pergolas. Here are some photos of images that inspired me and might translate to my own efforts here at home:

Water feature with simple sculpture

A smaller pool that would work in my yard

A flagstone rock garden with native plants

Brick hard-scaping with a covered path to the right

An evergreen mound adds a mass of green

I don't think I would have noticed these features during the summer when the gardens are a riot of color. I got a lot more ideas from the barren gardens than I thought I would. It's all about getting the "bones" down right. That's true with anything, I guess,  whether building a house or writing a novel. Get a solid foundation first, and all the embellishments tend to enhance the picture.

Speaking of novels, maybe I'll make some headway in the next few days. It doesn't look like I'll be gardening much.

By "damaging thunderstorms" they mean high winds, hail, rain turning to snow, and a possible tornado. Nope. Definitely won't be gardening. How's the weather where you live?

F is for Flowers

F is for flowers, which I adore! There is rarely a time, winter or summer, that flowers do not adorn my home. Here's what is gracing my dining room table now:

I've even thought of creating a series of paintings using my favorite blue vase, because I've taken so many photos of it over the years with different arrangements:

My garden is a riot of color every year too - well as much color as you can expect on a prairie:

My favorite place to write when it's cool and not too windy:

How about you - what's your favorite flower? Leave me a comment!

E is for Earth Day

Earth Day is an annual day on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It's observed on April 22 each year and is now celebrated in 192 countries. I remember the first Earth Day in 1970 when I was still in high school. Who knew that the Earth Day Network would grow to this size? And yet we really haven't come far enough or done enough to reverse the environmental degradation of the 20th century. I think Bill McKibben in his book Eaarth has a better handle on what we have yet to face.

Twenty years ago, with The End of Nature, Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about global warming. Those warnings went mostly unheeded; now, he insists, we need to acknowledge that we've waited too long, and that massive change is not only unavoidable but already under way. Our old familiar globe is suddenly melting, drying, acidifying, flooding, and burning in ways that no human has ever seen. We've created, in very short order, a new planet, still recognizable but fundamentally different. We may as well call it Eaarth.

That new planet is filled with new binds and traps. A changing world costs large sums to defend—think of the money that went to repair New Orleans, or the trillions it will take to transform our energy systems. But the endless economic growth that could underwrite such largesse depends on the stable planet we've managed to damage and degrade. We can't rely on old habits any longer.

Our hope depends, McKibben argues, on scaling back—on building the kind of societies and economies that can hunker down, concentrate on essentials, and create the type of community (in the neighborhood, but also on the Internet) that will allow us to weather trouble on an unprecedented scale. Change—fundamental change—is our best hope on a planet suddenly and violently out of balance.

Pay close attention to that last paragraph. Can you see our society willingly scaling back and hunkering down? I'm doing it by choice and have reduced my lifestyle for several decades. I have a long way to go, but no one else in my family is even willing to do this. We live in a narcissistic society where everyone's idea of success is to make more money and have more stuff. Because we deserve it, right? Reducing is mostly lip service. Americans really don't want to live small. It's easier to go to an Earth Day festival and feel good about it. How about refusing to buy anything wrapped in plastics? Inconvenient if not impossible. Live in a small house? Own only one car... or no car? Add "refuse" to the reduce/reuse/recycle paradigm? Doing without is what it will take if we want an Earth to celebrate.

What are you doing to reduce your environmental footprint? Is Earth Day every day for you, like it is at my house? 

D is for Dreams

And I'm dreaming of dirt, as in garden dirt. High on my list of priorities this year is improving my soil, in large part so it holds moisture better. My raised beds look pretty good:

It's not black Minnesota soil, but it's a lot better than the anemic prairie dust in other places around the property. It's also free of pesticides and herbicides. All that improvement came from clean top soil, compost, and poop from local cows and chickens.

I worry about what I'll be able to grow around here as the weather heats up. We're still in a major drought area and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. Water is plentiful and cheap in my town, a situation that says more about bad leadership than reality. Conservation will have to start soon or we'll simply run out of water like the next town over. My planning includes all kinds of sustainable gardening methods from all over the world, like my own keyhole gardens - I'll talk about those in subsequent posts. But this map hints at what is in store for a large section of the U.S. this year.

Dreams - I hope there will be more to my gardening efforts than that. I'd like to be able to grow and put up most of my vegetables for the next year. I've never succeeded in that, but I think it's a worthy goal. Have you ever tried it?

Speaking of dreams, here's a terrific book by a city gal who met her true love and took a completely different career and life path into The Dirty Life.

Kristen Kimball now works a draft-horse powered farm with her husband. I loved this book, and her blog is a fair treat too. Be sure to bookmark it and visit often. Look at the dirt in her seed flats!