her able hands

Where the frack did that weekend go? My body is so bone tired I can hardly type right now and am thinking that the cup of coffee I have in front of me isn’t nearly strong enough.

We never had any of that predicted rain over the weekend, just a few sprinkles and then nothing but sunshine and warm breezes. I mostly stayed off of the computer and focused on work outside, balanced with a bit of laundry (hung out to dry), some salad assembly, and a bit of seedling transplanting. I haven’t once picked up my camera, so the promised photos don’t exist. Ah well. Here’s what I did knock down over the past two days:

• Raked out beds around the house and weeded out the overgrown alpine strawberries and heal-all that’s taking over (love my scuffle hoe). Visited the wood mulch pile from last year’s visit with the wood chipper about 50 times with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. The pile is about twenty times bigger than in the photo on that post, minus 50 loads. Oh, my aching body.

• Yoga class. Again, with the ow.

• Mowed and mulched lasagna beds with grass clippings, and started the new lasagna bed along the driveway that I’ll add a layer of topsoil to next month.

• That’s because I got $80 worth of manure dumped last night. One by the driveway for that bed (shared with neighbors) and the other by the gardens next door at the in-laws’ house. I shoveled a lot of that last night, too. Have I mentioned my sore torso? My aching shoulders? My hands that feel like they got stepped on?

• Raked out ivy along side of driveway (not all of it, just about 300′ of the 200′ bed) for more lasagna bed materials.

• Transplanted Bee Balm and Rudbeckia into a little bed I made a year ago with rabbit bedding, right behind the playground set.

• Dug out a bunch of overgrown bedding plants in the front, some of which became compost, and some transplanted to bare spots. This to make room for fruit trees, which I should order this week.

• Planted a dozen fingerling potatoes and thought about doing more, but the manure hadn’t been delivered yet and the beds next door really could use a good run with the rototiller (which I’ll have to borrow). Plus, I promised a friend I’d dry some violets for her, so I need to run over there and dig those up first.

It felt so good to see the property looking cared for after such a long winter, and to feel the earth under my feet, a shovel in my hands. The kids played and I shoveled and raked and dug. I let my thoughts wander but kept bringing them back to my body, to my breath.

I know I did more than that, but that’s all I have time for. Now I need to wake up the kids and get us all out the door. Tyler won’t be riding his bike this morning because it’s raining and cold. It’s meant to drop down to 31º and snow tonight. Hard to believe that when it was in the 80s on Friday, but okay. Spring in the Northeast/Midwest is never predictable.

Monday. Back to it, eh?

Tonight I play catchup on my freelance work.

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It’s definitely spring because Tyler has used half a box of tissues this weekend. Poor guy gets allergies like his father does, long and brutal. I feel mine cranking up too in the form of a headache that’s hung out in my skull for four days and an ever-so slightly scratchy throat.

What a spectacular weekend. We all spent at least eight hours outside both days and managed to get a whole lot of work done. The new wood playground is now in place with the swing beam and both slides attached. It took us four hours to put that blasted tube/spiral slide together and get it attached to the top platform. But it’s done and is already the neighborhood play zone—ten kids made wild fun on it after the birthday party next door.

Let’s see, what else? I’m not feeling particularly narrative this morning as I sip coffee in the dark and hope the headache will go away. I raked out half of the border beds and started a new lasagna bed along the back of the deck (more almost full sun). As I worked I thought about fruit tree placement around the property. I had originally planned to dig out the two ornamental shrubs on the south side of the house to plant the two pear trees as espaliers up against the house, but read in The Garden Primer that pears should not warm up too quickly in spring because of the risk of early buds and late frost damage. Apples might fare better in that spot. Thus the lasagna bed behind the deck. I can put four dwarf fruit trees along the back and espalier them, which will make a great living screen, but then, will also screen out the playground from the house, so maybe that’s not a great idea. Of course, it’ll be a few years before that’s fully filled in, so maybe it’s fine. It’s an ideal spot, facing east, plenty of sun, natural windbreak out of the northwest from the house, and in a dip in the property, so moist enough, but not too moist, it’s also very well drained.

I had intended to get some more seeds in the ground, but that didn’t happen. I’m going to leave work an hour early today and plant some radish, kale, collards, chard, turnips, rutebegas, spinach and arugala. The peas aren’t coming up yet, and I see that a bunch of the Fava beans got dug up by the squirrels. I really do need to fence.

Late yesterday, while all of the birthday party kids played on the swing set, and the parents hung out chatting, we moved the chickens to a new spot. I forked up the top layer of soil and dumped it on top of the cardboard for the new bed first so they had plenty of bugs. I need to get out there and take some pictures (have been so camera lazy lately). We have a huge new mattress of straw/manure bedding to work with—my next weekend project is to assemble a couple of quick and dirty compost bins with garden stakes and fencing. I want to be ready for the first lawn mowing when I’ll have some green to add to the layers of leaves and bedding and finally, finally get some real composting happening on the property. Instead of these random piles I have everywhere that seldom, if ever, get turned.

The chicken wire had rotted and we didn’t notice. When I went out across the back yard to bring some Sesame Noodles to the neighbors who recently had a new baby, I heard an incredible volume of rustling coming from the chicken tractor. They had busted out and were blissfully scratching in the dried leaves on the other side of the cage. Luckily they were so engrossed in their freedom, they didn’t really notice us corralling them and when we tipped up the bottom of the tractor, they all went right under. Chris cut new wire and attached it and now they’re on new ground with a fresh layer of straw and oats, some cracked corn the kids sprinkled for them, and I’m hoping they’ll start laying in earnest. This one egg every three days is just not going to cut it.

In other news, I had a conversation with a neighbor who happens to have worked for OSU extension up in Cuyohoga County, organizing community gardens in Cleveland. She offered to give me a hand if I need to do any grant writing. That same day we got another certified letter from the city about the senior village development. There will be another meeting the following week about an easement for the Residential 3 zoning, which calls for 30% open space with any building project. They’re looking to cut that in half to 15%. This could be a real opportunity for the city to put some sustainable building practices in place—to work on a model for land ownership, housing and community relationship building. My job this week is going to be to talk to everyone I can think of who might want to make this a pet project. I need to act fast because the first meeting is next Tuesday. People assure me that things in town move very slowly, but I don’t trust that.

We’re also talking to the homeowner who works for the housing developer who started this project five years ago. There are two lots still standing empty on the cul-de-sac and there has been zero interest in them for two years. He has made a proposal to the builder to put a playground/park on one lot to make up for the fact that the development will not be finished and the people who bought in with the promise of a community center and playground now have to drive to a park if they want to play like that (the yards are really too small). The other could be an excellent neighborhood garden. It’s wide open, graded, has water and electric. It would just need a shed and a faucet.

Of course, I also did a lot of thinking this weekend about the fact that most of these ideas I have will entail me being in a volunteer position. I really need to learn how to parlay this into for-profit work. I don’t need to get rich doing it, but I need to replace the paycheck I currently collect for my time in the cube farm.

More to say, but out of time. Must wake up the children and get ready for the day. Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

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More cupcake awesomeness happening over here.

I wanted to do something yummy for St. Patrick’s day to bring to work. Corned Beef and Cabbage? Not cubicle friendly by any stretch of the gastroimagination. Beer might help, but is probably not allowed. Sweets are always appreciated. Then I saw this post and knew I had to try stout and chocolate together.

Oh, my.

Oh my, oh my, oh my.

I used this recipe from Dave Lieberman with Droste chocolate and a Guinness stout. The cake came out so spongy and moist (a tiny bit chewy due to about one minute of over mixing) with perfect little puffy domes.

I didn’t follow his recipe for Cream Cheese Frosting exactly. I prefer it with equal parts butter and cream cheese. It’s an incredibly wet frosting, the butter and cheese creamed until fluffy and then whipping cream added and beat until frothy. Then you add your sugar and vanilla. I used vanilla bean paste and too bloody much cream, so had to use more sugar than I wanted to in order to get it to some kind of spreading consistency. I piped it on with a giant round tip and then dusted them with cocoa.

I’m thinking I’ll just go ahead and put them out at breakfast tomorrow, because otherwise I’ll be eating them all day. I had one tonight after supper and I think I’m in love. The frosting is so soft and creamy, with a mild sour, but sweet vanilla intensity and just the perfect texture to go along with the dense, moist cake that’s almost black. The frosting looks like the foamy head on the top of a glass of Guinness.

Bottom’s Up!

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People, this was such an easy recipe and so absolutely scrumptious. It’s from Martha Stewart’s Original Classics Cookbook via Serious Eats. Oh, my. I’m in a bit of pain today from eating two. It seems my wheat sensitivity is building up again, so time to do a cleanse and lay off for a while. What a glorious way to say goodbye!

The dough was quite sticky and soft when I scraped it out of the bowl and onto the counter to knead after its ten minutes in the KitchenAid with the dough hook.

Five minutes under hand turned it into a springy, silky soft ball of dough that took close to two hours to double in size, even in a warmed oven. But it was only 17º out yesterday, so it had its work cut out for it.

After the rise, I punched it down and rolled it out into a big rectangle and spread the caramelized onions all over. I cut down the onions by half because Chris has a hard time digesting too many onions. I also skipped the nutmeg and used dried thyme and cracked pepper because I wanted something more savory to go with the Butternut Soup (from Joy of Cooking).

The dough after the rise was even silkier, if that’s possible. This is by far the softest dough I’ve ever worked with and had success. When I rolled it up and cut the roll into thick slices, I had to finagle the pieces into the pan for the second rise without squishing them and losing the onions.

But it worked out and after an hour they puffed up beautifully. Thirty five minutes in the oven and they came out golden brown and filling the whole house with the most sweet and savory fragrance.

They were the perfect accompaniment to the soup, which has a bit of ginger and is mellow sweet, creamy and topped with chopped cilantro. Just the meal for a blizzardy night in Ohio. We rounded it off with a green salad and a glass of the grape while watching Michael Clayton (pretty good).

Half of the pan is left, and they’re staring at me from the kitchen counter this morning, just begging for a poached egg and some bacon, but I will not give in to the siren’s call.

My belly really does hurt.

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It was still only dusk when I felt a rumbling and heard Chris say, “What the heck?” More banging. I rolled over and asked him what was going on and he said “I thought it was a nuclear explosion! It’s thundering and lightening.” Um. Why nuclear explosion? What was he dreaming about? Then another huge flash and a long, slow rumble. He got out of bed and pulled the shade aside, revealing a near blizzard flying past the window.

It’s been snowing here since yesterday morning, and we’ve got about a foot out there now, with another 5-7″ predicted for today and overnight. I’m so glad we have no real plans for the weekend, other than tackling some cleaning, sorting, purging. I’ll make some soup today, and try out the recipe for these onion pull-apart rolls I saw online. It’s blowing sideways out there, so it’ll be an indoor play kind of day.

Lila can invite Fatou over to play in the kitchen, maybe they’ll help me peel potatoes and measure flour. Just outside the French doors, on the other side of the deck, the new swingset and playground awaits the spring thaw, but for today, its billowy white blanket continues to grow. Tyler hopes to get some friends together in the basement for a D & D day. Tomorrow, after the sideways wind blows out of town, we’ll all head over to the University for sled riding.

My beautiful Aunt Virginia made that beaded snowflake for Lila for Valentine’s Day and it shines in the window, catching the sunrise in its prisms (if we’re fortunate enough to have a morning without clouds and snow). We have several of these in other windows, and they make me so happy, to have little pieces of art that our loved ones have made with their able hands, bringing such whimsy and joy into our home.

The one big plan for the weekend is one I keep putting off, but can no longer afford to. I’m up against it now, and if I wait any longer, I won’t have decent broccoli, cabbage or brussels sprouts crops. It’s time. I wonder if it’s too late to start some leeks? I think I’ll do a tray, anyway.

My lettuce and bean seeds arrived, and I just loved the little snowman card that accompanied the Seed Savers Exchange order, appropriate, no? I’m excited to try the 3 lettuce varieties I picked up that I’ve never tried before: Yugoslavian Red, Forellenschuss and Reine Des Glaces. I’ll also do Arugula and maybe some mesclun if I still have seed leftover from last year (I think I do). But I’m determined to have head lettuce this year for the first time, ever. And while I’ve felt overwhelmed at the knowledge of how much work my garden will be on top of the full-time job, and have entertained thoughts of just taking this year off, I got a wonderful reminder of why I want to do it last night.

The fridge was pretty empty so we had to make a run to the local grocery store. I’ve always semi-enjoyed shopping there because it’s small and quiet and they have great prices on pantry items. The produce left much to be desired, but for basics, managed just fine. But they’re expanding and doing so while open for business. They pulled down the ceiling and so now it’s tall in there, like going to one of the big box stores. Music blares out of tinny speakers all over the place, set up very high, so it’s this constant mosquito whine of terrible pop music. Things are rearranged just enough to make shopping take twice as long, and I walked around with my list, feeling my consciousness being pulled up out of the top of my head and into the rafters and by the time we finished I felt like crying. Lila was bouncing off the walls. We’d only found half of what we needed, and the produce was abysmal, which means I’ll need to make another trip out Monday after work. And the prices had gone up. A lot. The biggest thing I came home with was a bad attitude and an even worse headache.

I can’t wait till I only need to run to the grocery store for things like dairy. As a matter of fact, in order to ensure that I can put a lot of good vegetables on my table and in my freezer for next winter, I think I’m willing to stay out well past dark all summer long. Seriously.

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