Garden mystery

OK, you sleuthers. Here’s the challenge. I leave the house with a small bowl, heading towards the raspberry bushes. Time elapses, and there are raspberries in the bowl. I start walking towards the house, but by the time I reach the back door, the bowl is empty!

Is it fruit evaporation? Invisible fruit bats?

Resolutions for next year’s garden

Hill the potatoes. The potatoes, mid-season white Kennebecs, were in the old compost pile this year, and I think it was actually too well-drained. I need to mix in some regular old dirt. I’ve started this, but I need to do more. This past season I also tried the “build up as they grow” potato-growing method (some people use old tires – I just used chickenwire), but I didn’t try particularly hard and didn’t get a single potato out of that area.

Rotate the tomatoes out of the area where they’ve been for a few years already. Boo’s tomato plants outperformed mine because they were in a new patch. And sadly, I think I’m throwing in the towel for heritage tomatoes. They don’t produce enough for the space they use.

Try some new stuff. Soybeans, aka edamame. Beets. I just heard you can roast them on the grill. I love beets.

Grow both bush beans (we had a good year for them) and pole beans. Neighbors of ours have what they call “magic beans” and they promised us some seeds.

N says he’s going to change our biggest (12x12) raised plot into 3 sections with walkways in between. This will help with weeds and productivity.

Try eggplants again. Now that I’m flushed with the relative success of my green peppers, I should try eggplants again. I could never figure out when to harvest them when I last grew them.

Did I mention that we are ripping out ornamental trees and shrubs (purple plum, Bradford pear, golden privet) in the spring to plant our new honeycrisp apple, red rome apple, and some sort of self-pollinating pear tree? They are all semi-dwarf varieties. We have a lot more sun in the front yard, so that’s where they are going.

We simple womenfolk

I've had several men tell me that they actually know women who will vote McCain/Palin because they were Hillary supporters, and they still want to vote for a woman. Uh. Really? I hereby give you a belated IM conversation that I had during the Oct. 2 Biden/Palin debate.

Friend: Is it just me or does it bug you how she calls everyone by their first name.
Bluestem: everything she does bugs me. but wait! we have girlie bits! we have to vote for her!
Friend: I prefer to call them my lady parts
Bluestem: but do you vote with them?
Friend: It's hard to make them pull the lever, but I practice when my husband is out of town
Bluestem: har!
Friend: It will be difficult as Child #1 wants to come vote with me.
Bluestem: oh, awkward.
Friend: But Mommy, why do you have to wear a skirt to vote? Just wait honey, you'll see.
Bluestem: "it's part of the democratic process"

Seriously, I can't imagine a Hillary supporter saying that she would throw all her political beliefs into the shitter, just to continue to vote for a woman. How illogical.

The statue of liberty and machine guns

Perhaps I’m overly sensitive to these things, but I found it in very poor taste that these three machine-gun toting men were posing for photos with our Lady Liberty this past Monday.

Is it for some pathetic flag-waving rah rah calendar? Look for it in stores soon -- "2009 Calendar - Liberty means never having to say you're sorry"

Send word if you hear about this exciting new product.

Bluestem talks politics

Everyone else is talking about politics so much that I feel like I don't have to cover any of the chaos. However, baywatch twittered this McCain article, and it's a must-read.

Foreign Countries, here I come!

Just 13 days after mailing my passport renewal form, to my great surprise, I received my new one. Not even 13 business days. 13 average normal days. Knock me over with a feather, I tells ya. Glad I didn't pay to expedite it.

Especially since I don't actually have any plans to leave the country on Ye Olde Travel Agenda. But now I could, again, take off with nary a backwards glance. You know, except I have kids now. That sort of thing.

Still!

I could, you know. Take a little suitcase and go somewhere. With my cute little blue passport. If I wanted to.



I could.

First frost coming up pretty soon

Well, I brought in all the green tomatoes and put them in the basement. It’s always a little sad pulling the garden apart at the end of the season. Looks like we’ll be having the zucchini pancakes one more time tomorrow.

I need to start using up my butternut squash, too. Made chili the other day and totally forgot to add a few cups of cubed squash – it’s excellent in chili. Anyway, just surfed around a little for inspiration and found this gem. I love her style. She’s always that amusing. Great photos.