Update on Mars' Flora & Fauna

Lots happening among the flora & fauna of Mars this week.

First, more harvesting (by me) & cooking (by Adrienne) of delicious, homegrown veg!

Roasted chicken thigh & carrots, with a homegrown butter lettuce salad topped with pistachios, and pan-fried beets & goat cheese nibbles. 

Slow-cooked pork over rice, with tomatoes, bell pepper & homegrown snap peas!

Dinner served in our new dining room layout -- trying something different with the dog kennel thing. 

The hydrangeas on the table are courtesy of Jackie, the previous owner, who I like to think of as a third grandmother.

In other news, a kitchen garden has been planted! Here is a new bed of sage, summer savory, oregano, & basil, nestled in between yellow roses & the thicket of Jackie's mint:

Some dill, sage, & more basil in the office window:

Some marjoram, chives, parsley, cilantro & yet more basil in the back porch:

Marjoram & parsley are in the egg container, & are destined for the outdoors bed. 

Why so much basil, you ask? Just because we want to be able to make pesto. Why both indoors & outdoors, you ask? I've read that you can get good ongoing harvests by having a couple sets of indoor pots that you rotate outside, while also growing the plants in your outdoor beds. Seems like it's worth a try!

As for the status of the other plants in the established garden, the brussels sprouts plants are growing furiously, the front porch planters are sprouting lettuce already, & most of the collards are doing very well. This one, however, not so much:

Is there a variety called Lace Collards?

Some of the other plants are getting nibbled by bugs, but none are as bad, or as wimpy as this one. It  was in what I like to call my 'Failure To Thrive' bed -- much too shady for most veg, as it turns out. I just put a ton of cilantro in that same bed yesterday -- that apparently does well in shady conditions, so I'm hoping for the best.

As for the fauna, the little dog has been enjoying the stuffed toys she received as a gift in the mail. Looks like I have a sewing project this week:

Haunted Garden Shed Clean-Out & First Peas Dinner!

After fortifying myself with a delicious brunch with Amanda, Matt, & Adrienne, today I tackled the cleaning out of the Haunted Garden Shed (the slightly creepy room under the final back extension/porch-sunroom-thing that is full of weird stuff & random junk left behind by previous owners, & that we don't ever go in).

As it turns out, there is a hole in the wall, under the floor, that goes to the open area under the neighbors' deck -- a very nice way for urban nighttime critters (raccoons, possums, & yes, rats) to get in & out. When Mr. Bunkport comes to replace the fence this month, he is also going to cut back the floor of the Haunted Garden Shed & block up that hole, so I wanted to clear space for him to do that. No critters allowed on Mars. Unless they are willing to pay rent.

Here's the a photo from when we moved in:

And here it is, after two hours:

I took out two large, black trash bags of junk, found some gardening stuff we can use, & also set aside some other neat electrical fixtures & old jars that might be fun to decorate this space with, when it someday becomes our indoor/outdoor hybrid patio area (!).

Most of the gardening stuff belonged to Jackie, the previous owner, & was in the half of the room nearest the door. The back half of the room had much older stuff in it -- lots of wires, old lamp parts, jars full of nuts & bolts, & electrical bits & bobs. Clearly this had been someone's place to tinker.

Back in that older area, I also found interesting clues about the history of the house: a set of bank statements & cancelled checks from 1950 and some receipts from the early 50s belonging to Mr. John E. Davila, & two tickets to a long-closed amusement park on the ocean, called Whitney's Playland on the Beach:

Also, I found this old binder where Mr. Davila kept his monthly expenses for the latter half of 1950:

The neighbors told us that Jackie had a husband who died shortly after they moved in -- despite the last name difference, I think it must be Mr. Davila, but then again, I think that 1950 is too early for Jackie Duenas & her husband's purchase of the house. Such mysteries!

I also found this cat collar. The tag says the cat belonged to the people next door (not the current owners). Weird & Creepy.

Lastly, I found lots & lots & lots of raccoon poop. Especially under the workbench in the corner. Lots. The bad news about raccoons is that they choose a location for a 'latrine' & use that same location over a period of time. The good news about this particular latrine is that it doesn't seem like it's been used recently. I was wearing a lead-rated dust mask & heavy work gloves throughout this little project, but still, I thought it was best to leave it alone.

Inspired to learn more about the people who lived here before us, I finally sat down to take a look at the newly indexed 1940 census. I found that a family of 5 lived here then: Mr. Arthur Velvet, his wife Marie, & their three children, Joe (16), Marie (13), & Joaquin (12). Mr. Velvet was born in California, but, interestingly, Mrs. Velvet was born in Portugal. Also an interesting coincidence, Jackie's given name is actually Joaquina. I'll try to find out more about Mr. Davila next, & maybe try to find the house in the 1930 census.

As a fitting cap to a Sunday on Mars, we took in our first real harvest of peas, & Adrienne made a delicious seafood & pea pasta dish for our friend, Mr. Jonathan P. Retsky, & me.

Thank you for the delicious dinner, Adrienne!

Also, Adrienne was hard at work this weekend repotting plants & preparing to do wonderful things in the Front Yard Patch. Stay tuned for more on that soon!

Pea-tastrophe!

There has been a pea-tastrophe!

After reaching a height of eight or nine feet, only the left-most plants could find something to hang on to (the neighbor's trees) -- the rest were blown over by the 20+ mph winds we've been having:

For scale, this is a six-foot fence.

I put some twine up to support them in their newly horizontal posture, in hopes that their pods will continue to fatten up & find their way into our bellies. So far, so good. That one on the far left is going to find its way into the neighbor's living room before too long, I fear.

In other gardening news, our friend & neighbor Jon has donated a beautiful 4-foot planter to our veg-producing efforts:

Today I planted it & the planter nearest the camera with fava beans & more lettuce. The far one will get peas this weekend. They should have an easy time climbing their way up the security gate.

After we get some more dirt this weekend (there is something that seems so backwards about paying money for dirt...), we will begin planting our soon-to-be-famous kitchen herb garden. There will be chives coming out our ears before too long. 

A Little Pseudo-Decorating

Finally getting around to a couple decorating projects. Well, the word 'decorating' might be a stretch -- maybe more like 'continuing to move in.'

When we first arrived, we talked about getting a plastic film to put over the bedroom window, to do something about the "view."

Finally got one this week, & got it up there last night!

In the front room, I have been wanting to put up some curtains for weeks & weeks, because when I work from home, the light in the morning is just a little much. Done!

I was sent two very nice framed pictures for the walls this week. Maybe that's what caused this flurry of activity, actually!

Here are nine vintage postcards of Historic Lowell, Massachusetts, on the left. (On the right is a hand screen-printed poster protesting Arizona's racial profiling law that I got at a protest.)

And here is a framed photo of the Boott Mills in Lowell, on the right:

On the left, that's a drawing of Jack Kerouac & a kitten, also a Lowell thing. Kerouac, not the kitten. And also sent several years ago by the same generous people!

We finally got a better shoes-off-household doorway solution, as well -- the pile of shoes & slippers inside the front room was a little out of control.

Lastly, we put Zoey's certificates up on the wall above her den:

And here she is, basking in her own glory:

Zoey And The Wobbler

Apologies first, for the dismal quality of the video -- my camera is very ancient. Still, you can get an idea of the fun that Zoey is having with her new kibble-dispensing toy, the Kong Wobbler, & how good she's already getting at it, after just a few days:

She's just learned how to get it away from a wall on her own.

Way more stimulating for her than slurping her entire dinner out of a bowl in 15 seconds. And way more entertaining for me.

Front Yard Patch Conquered...Again!

This weekend's big Mars work was conquering the front yard patch...again. It's shocking how quickly it gets out of hand. I forgot to get a 'before' photo, but this is more or less what it looked like:

After 3 hard hours, Adrienne had it cleaned up entirely:

The view from the front steps, highlighting mysterious bricks

She filled the 32 gallon compost bin, plus 4 paper grocery bags full of grass, vining stuff, and giant (five-six feet tall) Italian parsley that had gone to seed.

The view from the front

A close up, showing the bumper sticker I put in the window: My dog graduated with honors from Pawsitive Tails!

Afterwards, we took one of the Parsley Monsters over to Jon's, just to show off. Here's Adrienne, showing how tall it was before she lopped the top off:

It almost won...

Jon admired the Parsley Monster so much, that he put it in a vase in his living room:

I hope it doesn't wait until the middle of the night & steal his stereo.

Graduation Day

Today is a big day for Zoey: she graduated from dog class!

After living all her four years in the Mojave Desert, Zoey is having difficulty adjusting to all the noises of the city: FedEx trucks rumbling by, loud pedestrians, etc. She's fine in the house & the yard now, but going for walks on the street is still a scary experience for her, leading to a lot of pulling on-leash & barking.  To get some help, we enrolled her in a class for dogs who have trouble walking politely on-leash, called Drama Queens & Divas, at SF's Pawsitive Tails dog academy.

The trainers running the class, Lisa & Lauren, were incredible -- they're specialists in behavior modification for nervous and anxious dogs, so we have been in very capable hands, and we are very grateful for their help!

Here is the pup's diploma:

And here is the proud graduate, exhausted from all her hard work:

We typically take naps after dog class too, actually. The class is only an hour, but all that learning & concentration really takes it out of you!

Hooray Zoey! Onward & upward!