It is a very serious & potent ginger beer, as you can tell from her expression on the label. It demands intellectual rigor, in addition to intestinal fortitude, and it will cure all that ails you.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Mr Pickles Famous Ginger Beer
Zoey, who is also widely known as Mr Pickles, as well as The Duke & Duchess of Pickles, has been very busy at Susie & Paul's, brewing her own ginger beer.
It is a very serious & potent ginger beer, as you can tell from her expression on the label. It demands intellectual rigor, in addition to intestinal fortitude, and it will cure all that ails you.
It is a very serious & potent ginger beer, as you can tell from her expression on the label. It demands intellectual rigor, in addition to intestinal fortitude, and it will cure all that ails you.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Fence Magnificent!
As promised, here are photos of the construction of our fancy new fence!
First, the before photos:
The Jungle overtaking the fence when we moved in.
After Adrienne cut back the overgrown ivy -- note how thick it is coming over the top.
The neighbors had a trellis attached to the back of the fence, with 200-300 pounds of vining plants on the trellis. Mr. Bunkport, our contractor, feels that this is the reason the fence failed, & that it failed before its time.
When we started working with the neighbors to replace the fence, they removed their trellis & cut back the plants from their side to get ready for Mr. Bunkport to work his magic. Here is the fence in May:
Mr. Bunkport & Company were on another job that went unexpectedly long, so it took them until this past week to get to us. Happily, the work went quickly!
The wood was so rotten, that it took one guy with a hammer & his bare hands just an hour to pull the whole thing down.
Fence gone! Trellis & vining plants remain!
Rotten retaining wall removed!
Remnants of vining plants that needed to be cleared for construction!
Ready to begin!
Then, two guys & a Jack Russell terrier came over, spent 4 hours in the yard, & voila! Fence!
Adrienne enjoying the extreme privacy afforded a 4'11" woman by a 6' fence.
The wood makes it smell wonderful out there. Having the work completed makes me excited to start planning the next backyard project. Maybe it will be reusing the random bricks & paving stones that we dug up out of yard to make a little patio area to break up the extensive dirt patch back there.
Lastly, in veg news, we dug up our first carrot:
It was delicious!
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Fence done! Meditate-a-Thon beginning!
Big news on Mars this week: the fence is finally finished! And it is gorgeous!
Photos are forthcoming. In the meantime, I wanted to mention something else that's happening for the next 30 days on Mars: I'm doing a sort of meditate-a-thon to both improve my own health & also raise money for a 30-year old LGBT community clinic called Lyon-Martin Health Services.
The clinic is based in SF, & provides critically needed care here, but it also runs very important national educational programs for healthcare providers on cultural sensitivity when working with the LGBT community. The kind of healthcare that LGBT people -- & transgendered people in particular -- get is a real travesty. A recent national study found a high rate of transgendered people having been turned away at emergency rooms, being verbally abused in doctors' offices, & just generally experiencing the kind of crappy, humiliating treatment that makes folks not seek healthcare at all, which obviously leads to abysmal health outcomes.
Every little bit helps & every little bit is hugely appreciated. If you, or anyone you know, would be interested in pitching in a few pennies, here's my fundraising page: https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/christinedarosa/30-days-of-health-2012
The site is secure, & the donation gets sent directly to Lyon-Martin. And Lyon-Martin is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, so all donations are tax-deductible when the tax man cometh.
Thanks for reading my pitch! Photos of the fence tomorrow!
Photos are forthcoming. In the meantime, I wanted to mention something else that's happening for the next 30 days on Mars: I'm doing a sort of meditate-a-thon to both improve my own health & also raise money for a 30-year old LGBT community clinic called Lyon-Martin Health Services.
The clinic is based in SF, & provides critically needed care here, but it also runs very important national educational programs for healthcare providers on cultural sensitivity when working with the LGBT community. The kind of healthcare that LGBT people -- & transgendered people in particular -- get is a real travesty. A recent national study found a high rate of transgendered people having been turned away at emergency rooms, being verbally abused in doctors' offices, & just generally experiencing the kind of crappy, humiliating treatment that makes folks not seek healthcare at all, which obviously leads to abysmal health outcomes.
Every little bit helps & every little bit is hugely appreciated. If you, or anyone you know, would be interested in pitching in a few pennies, here's my fundraising page: https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/christinedarosa/30-days-of-health-2012
The site is secure, & the donation gets sent directly to Lyon-Martin. And Lyon-Martin is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, so all donations are tax-deductible when the tax man cometh.
Thanks for reading my pitch! Photos of the fence tomorrow!
Monday, July 2, 2012
Little Doings
Lots of little doings around Mars this week.
New rug for the dining room:
Favas & lettuce coming up nicely:
Getting ready for fireworks on July 4, we tried out drugging the dog (under a vet's supervision, of course):
We expect she will do just fine on Wednesday.
New rug for the dining room:
Favas & lettuce coming up nicely:
Getting ready for fireworks on July 4, we tried out drugging the dog (under a vet's supervision, of course):
We expect she will do just fine on Wednesday.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Successes All Over The Place
What a weekend it's been here on Mars. I somehow found a giant burst of energy & got all this accomplished:
Saturday -- Beer!
First brew on Mars: a Belgian Saison that I'm planning to bring with us on vacation in July.
We don't have a tub here like we did at the apartment, so some of the steps got a little dicey, but overall there is just so much more space here that it's much, much easier to brew overall. Success!
While the beer was boiling away happily, I tried making a heated bed for Zoey, using the bed warmer we put on our mattress when it gets chilly (i.e. 11 out of 12 months). She gets so relaxed in the sun & loves being under a blanket so much, that we thought we would experiment & see if she would choose a heated bed over her regular bed for the evening. She is from the desert, after all.
Sunday -- Peas & Paint!
The planters in the back porch from a couple weeks ago are almost ready to move outdoors. That means the Pea Tangle, with its contagious Powdery Mildew, must go.
A last look at the pea plants:
Two paper grocery store bags later, this is what remains:
Most of the pods are too blighted to eat, so I shelled as many as there were ready for shelling:
Here's the kitchen, after:
Here is a "before" photo, for comparison:
There is a large gap between the wall & the set of cabinets that I thought would be even more obvious once the wall were painted white:
Meanwhile, Adrienne had a wonderful time rampaging throughout the city's Pride festivities with friends, enjoying a gorgeous San Francisco weekend. Very well-deserved rest & recuperation after a long week of being stuck at home with the dog, patiently training her through her nervousness about being left alone, & playing Florence Nightingale, trying to get drops in the dog's ear for a worrisome ear infection that seemed to come out of nowhere on Wednesday.
Lastly, one more success for this weekend: we've been waiting for a clean bill of health from the vet on Zoey's knees before we let her up on the couch with us. I mean, she tries & tries when we're there, & she sneaks up on there when we're in another room, but strictly speaking, it's still off limits. We got the greenlight from the vet a few weeks ago, but then out of the blue (please, dog, no more surprises) the following week, she started limping around from some mystery injury, so we put it off. Finally, she seems to be in good shape, so much to her surprise (seriously, she didn't respond to the invitation right away -- I'm not sure she believed her eyes at first), today was the day that she was finally allowed up for evening snuggling.
An excellent weekend was had by all!
Saturday -- Beer!
First brew on Mars: a Belgian Saison that I'm planning to bring with us on vacation in July.
3 kinds of malt + 3 kinds of hops + a sock full of crushed grains = hooray!
We don't have a tub here like we did at the apartment, so some of the steps got a little dicey, but overall there is just so much more space here that it's much, much easier to brew overall. Success!
While the beer was boiling away happily, I tried making a heated bed for Zoey, using the bed warmer we put on our mattress when it gets chilly (i.e. 11 out of 12 months). She gets so relaxed in the sun & loves being under a blanket so much, that we thought we would experiment & see if she would choose a heated bed over her regular bed for the evening. She is from the desert, after all.
Sleeping dog! Success!
Feeling ambitious, I thought it was high time to bottle the Oud Bruin I brewed last May & have been letting age quietly in a corner all this time.
So old! So sour!
This is a six gallon glass jar. I kind of can't believe that it survived the move.
After all was said & done, it was around 11pm. Adrienne came home with Amanda in tow a little earlier, & they celebrated the historic bottling with me. Meanwhile, Zoey patiently waited for me to finish & stop making such a racket.
"I will punish you later by barking at 3am."
The planters in the back porch from a couple weeks ago are almost ready to move outdoors. That means the Pea Tangle, with its contagious Powdery Mildew, must go.
A last look at the pea plants:
We will all miss you...
A view of how big they are, compared to me:
I wasn't sure how I was going to harvest the peas 3 feet above my head anyway.
Most of the pods are too blighted to eat, so I shelled as many as there were ready for shelling:
This is about 2 cups. Success!
Then I set to painting the wood paneling in the hallway, dining room, & kitchen! A long day's labor, but at 7pm, this is what I had to show for it:
Much brighter! Success!
I mentioned the other day that the walls in the bathroom were off-white. Well, next to the mauve trim, they definitely look like a dirty, old off-white. Next to the white trim I just painted, however, you can see that they actually are a lemony butter cream kind of color. The yellow tiles, yellow walls, & white trim make me feel like I'm standing in the middle of a lemon cake. The white walls & mauve trim in the dining room & hallway now make me feel like I'm standing in the middle of a strawberry cake. Adrienne said the same thing to me when I finished.
I'm glad I don't have much of a sweet tooth.
A "before" photo, for comparison:
The painted-over wood paneling reminds me of New England beach cottages I've been in. Now I know that that's not a quaint New England style -- it just means the owners of these cottages didn't want to pay to renovate.
I'm beginning to doubt whether the mauve trim is Jackie's doing, by the way. It just seems too fresh a coat of paint. I suspect the listing agent had some painters come in to "spruce up" the place, & he just told them to put on whatever was cheap. Or, he likes mauve.
Success!
Here is a "before" photo, for comparison:
No trees were harmed in the construction of this kitchen.
There is a large gap between the wall & the set of cabinets that I thought would be even more obvious once the wall were painted white:
On a windy day, you can feel the breeze blow through here.
Well, it so happens that while I was cleaning out the Haunted Garden Shed, I found a length of the plastic faux-wood trim that is capping the wood paneling in the kitchen.
Voila!
Success!
Meanwhile, Adrienne had a wonderful time rampaging throughout the city's Pride festivities with friends, enjoying a gorgeous San Francisco weekend. Very well-deserved rest & recuperation after a long week of being stuck at home with the dog, patiently training her through her nervousness about being left alone, & playing Florence Nightingale, trying to get drops in the dog's ear for a worrisome ear infection that seemed to come out of nowhere on Wednesday.
Lastly, one more success for this weekend: we've been waiting for a clean bill of health from the vet on Zoey's knees before we let her up on the couch with us. I mean, she tries & tries when we're there, & she sneaks up on there when we're in another room, but strictly speaking, it's still off limits. We got the greenlight from the vet a few weeks ago, but then out of the blue (please, dog, no more surprises) the following week, she started limping around from some mystery injury, so we put it off. Finally, she seems to be in good shape, so much to her surprise (seriously, she didn't respond to the invitation right away -- I'm not sure she believed her eyes at first), today was the day that she was finally allowed up for evening snuggling.
An excellent weekend was had by all!
Thursday, June 21, 2012
One White Door
We're not really ready to sort out what colors we want to paint the rooms, but we know we're ready for the wood paneling & mauve trim to go, so we bought a bunch of white paint recently.
I don't know why I felt like painting at 7pm on a Thursday night was a good idea, but those cans of paint have just been calling out to me & I couldn't resist doing just one door.
I chose one of the bathroom doors because I think it will unlock a mystery: The tile on the bathroom walls is a pale yellow, & the tile on the floor is a sandy mauve sort of color. The mauve trim obviously really pulls out the mauve in the tile, so it's been tough to visualize what other colors the walls could be (currently off-white) when the mauve-on-mauve effect is so strong. I like white trim in a bathroom anyway, but I also figured that painting it would break the Total Mauve Effect & allow us to think up other ideas for the walls more easily.
Here's the door that hasn't been painted yet. There's the sink in the corner for color reference.
And here's the newly white door, against the floor & wall tiles.
I don't know why I felt like painting at 7pm on a Thursday night was a good idea, but those cans of paint have just been calling out to me & I couldn't resist doing just one door.
I chose one of the bathroom doors because I think it will unlock a mystery: The tile on the bathroom walls is a pale yellow, & the tile on the floor is a sandy mauve sort of color. The mauve trim obviously really pulls out the mauve in the tile, so it's been tough to visualize what other colors the walls could be (currently off-white) when the mauve-on-mauve effect is so strong. I like white trim in a bathroom anyway, but I also figured that painting it would break the Total Mauve Effect & allow us to think up other ideas for the walls more easily.
Here's the door that hasn't been painted yet. There's the sink in the corner for color reference.
And here's the newly white door, against the floor & wall tiles.
It's low odor paint, but it's still a little stinky. I didn't think of that. It's 10:20pm and Adrienne is out at a movie. I don't think she's going to be too satisfied with the smell when she gets home & tries to go to sleep in an hour. Oops! Sorry, Adrienne!
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Pestilence!
A pestilence has been visited upon the Mars Farm.
It has come in the form of depraved cabbage worms:
And the dreaded powdery mildew:
More collards (which have just come up today! 4 days!) & brussels sprouts in one, and peas & lettuce in the other two. I wanted to try out setting them in different places & see what works best for next year.
Next year I should also come up with a plan for successive sowings, because in about a month, there is going to be an awful lot of lettuce all at once.
It has come in the form of depraved cabbage worms:
I am devouring your collards and brussels sprouts right now!
And the dreaded powdery mildew:
We are sucking the life from your pea plants and there is nothing you can do about it!
It's true that there is nothing I can do about the pea plants because it's just too far along. I can see clearly today that the mildew is so advanced, in fact, that pea production is slowing to a crawl. Alas!
As for the collards & brussels sprouts, I have begun to combat the problem the old-fashioned way: picking the little bastards off the plants by hand. The plants are mature enough that most of them should withstand this initial attack, which was, by the way, brought on by delightfully warm weather & those cute little white butterflies I was formerly so fond of. The mustard greens I planted a couple weeks ago next to the brussels sprouts have come up -- as part of the same family as collards, brussels sprouts, & cabbage, they're in peril. I must be vigilant.
The flora of Mars will not be kept down, even in the face of mortal danger. The marjoram, basil, & oregano I planted inside a week ago have just come up, as has my first fava bean bush on the front porch.
I also have finished planting some 30-inch planters with more peas, more collards & brussels sprouts, and more lettuce. Here is how I got a 1.5 cubic foot bag of potting soil and a shovel on a flash one-day sale ($5! Just when I realized that I needed one!) up the hill on Friday after work:
No Dad, I didn't ride it like this.
Here is the finished product:
More collards (which have just come up today! 4 days!) & brussels sprouts in one, and peas & lettuce in the other two. I wanted to try out setting them in different places & see what works best for next year.
Next year I should also come up with a plan for successive sowings, because in about a month, there is going to be an awful lot of lettuce all at once.
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