Back to work

Over the weekend, Matt was able to finish clearing out the vegetable bed area, so I just need to set up the beds. I did have this big elaborate plan with raised beds and everything, but I thought that I had better just take it easy. I am just going to even out the soil and make my little planting areas. Later, if this is successful, I can make my own raised beds.

I have been out of town for the last few days at a library retreat, so I am ready to get back to the garden. I went out at lunch today and picked up several packets of seeds. I am going to have to find out our last frost date so that I don't kill the seedlings before the rabbits have a chance to eat them. Luckily, I don't have to wait too long since I have lettuce. That can go in the ground today after I clean up the bed. Of course, I will need to make little protection covers out of whatever I have laying around the garden shed. I have some old wire fencing from when Goliath was little and could get through the wood slats, but I need to find some heavy plastic. That will be my project for the night.

On another note, my nephew Cole came to work with me today for Bring Your Child to Work Day. I don't know if he has had any fun, but it was nice having him around. He told me his mother asked him if he was going to do any work over the Summer and I let him know about our projects. I told him that I would expect him to put in the work, but I would pay him and feed him for cleaning up flower beds and helping to scrape the deck. I can use all the help that I can get.

Finally

When I woke up this morning, I was expecting another wet one. But I was delighted when I walked out back to see a perfect gardening day.


Of course, I had take care of someone before I got started, so we took Goliath for a long 2 mile walk. He proceeded to get good and messy by running through every puddle and trying to jump into a creek. He is always so happy when he his muddy. Once we got back to the house, Matt picked him up only to have him drip about a half-cup of water down his front. Much to Goliath's dismay, Matt immediately gave him a bath.

After everyone was clean and dry, I went outside to take some measurements for the vegetable bed and Matt got ready to go on a 50 mile bike ride. Since I cannot dig out plants without his help since my back is still a little sore, I was able to catch up on some reading while I waited for him to return.

I was able to help by pulling out what should be the state plant of Ohio: wild onions. They are all over this part of the yard. I think that is because we haven't done much with this area for almost three years. I have been trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it and just let nature take over. She wasted no time. But, I have to say, the soil is fantastic, loamy, and dark in this section. Our yard is composed of typical central Ohio clay soil, so this was a welcome surprise. Even though, I am going to have to create raised beds for the vegetables since this area has a significant slope. By the time we quit for the evening, I think about one-third of the bed was cleared out.

Currently, Matt and Goliath have fallen asleep while watching a hockey playoff game. I guess they both put in a full day. Too bad for them that we will have to repeat the same thing tomorrow.

Rain delay

The day started out beautiful as I walked into work this morning, but by the time I left it had started raining and it has not let up. If it was just a slight drizzle, it would be great for pulling out weeds, but it is a steady stream and knowing my luck I would wind up with a cold. The bright side is when I came home I found our crabapple beginning to bloom, so I cannot complain too
much about the rain. By the middle of July, I will be begging for it.

I am procrastinating working on the living room table, yet I will force myself to finish it tonight. But in the meantime, I was thinking of something today that I had talked about with my mother.

I love words.

I like to read the dictionary for fun and I have been this way since I was a child. Ironically, I am not the best speller. Maybe that is why I spend so much time looking in the dictionary. I even keep one on my bedside table so that I can assuage my curiosity at any time. I finally took the time to count how many dictionaries I have. I was surprised to see that I own six. Being a librarian, people would think our house is filled with books. Not so. That is why we have a public library, so that I don't have to keep them at my house! The less that makes it past the front door, the better.


But, I digress...


Unfortunately, I do find that I can be a word snob if I am not careful. I can be listening to a conversation and if I hear something that does not sound quite right, I will become fixated on it until I write it down so that I can get it out of my head. Poor Matt has had to take more than his fair share of my grammar attention. He is one of the few people I feel comfortable correcting. It's just like I am one of the few people that he can "accidentally" hit with various balls and it's funny because he "could not do it again if he tried." It is a fair exchange: I get hit in the head with a wet tennis ball, he is told that "anyways" is not a real word. My pain lasts a few minutes, his goes on as long as I can retain the power of speech. Ah, life at the Butterworth's.


But now I must get back to the task of cleaning up the living room table. I know I'll feel better when it is done, yet part of me just wants to toss everything in the recycle bin. I keep thinking of what some investigator would think if they had to process my house for clues; that I was an information junkie.

I watch way too many episodes of CSI and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Agony, Agony!

Thursday did not go as I had planned.

It started off normal enough with going to work and my Basic Training class. It is wonderful to have fitness facilities on site, this way I do not have to go to the gym at 5:00 in the morning to be at work by 7:00. On this day, our dedicated little group was building up a sweat and I was happy to get my workout in early. One of our last exercises was a jump squat and on the last one I felt a muscle in my lower back rebel. Thankfully, we were finished and I did some stretches before taking a shower, but then reality set in. I could barely bend to dry my legs off and putting on my pants and shoes was a real adventure. I had an instant ice pack at my desk, so I was able to deal with the swelling right away as I lay on the floor to let my back rest.


Things just got worse, so I went home for the day to heal. Unfortunately, it was painful to sit and to lay down for any length of time, so I pattered around the house with an ice pack strapped to my back. Not being able to relax and read, I thought that I would tackle an easy project that has just been waiting for me to find the time. I decided the armoire in the living room needed to be cleaned out.


It had become a filing cabinet of sorts and something I always meant to take care of, but the doors are kept closed, so there was no rush. Since the mess was at torso level and paper is lightweight, this was perfect.


Goliath kept following me around the house as I would put things in thier proper place or the recycle container. But after a while, he got bored and decided to hang out in the bedroom to watch the neighborhood. Matt was concerned that I was doing too much, but since I was not re-arranging the furniture (another nervous habit of mine) he left me alone. He was impressed with the final results, but commented that I had moved almost everything from the armoire to our coffee table. I never said this was a perfect system and I am working on the project in stages. But I will win the war.


After finishing stage one, I took the rest of the night off to catch up on my television watching. Matt rewarded me by going to the store to get milk and bringing home one of my favorite guilty pleasures: Apple Jacks. It was a good day after all.

Beauty and the beast(s)

Our flower beds have exploded after the various rain showers and beautiful weather that we have been experiencing the last few days. At lunch today, I was pleased to see the brunnera has taken off and now has its little blue flowers.

Unfortunately, the dandelions and thistle have also come out of hiding to mock me.


Based on this, I have made a hit list of items in the yard that must go, chief among them is the mint that Matt seems to think needs to run free in our yard. I thought this would be a battle of wills between the two of us, but he told me that he had been working on it. Once he saw my list of things to pull, I think he felt a challenge to see how fast he could cross things off the list. Matt is always big on making a "to do" list to organize our weekends, so this is something he can deal with rather than me verbally telling him what I need help with. Something about crossing those items off gives him a real sense of accomplishment.

We got a later start on the yard because tonight was Youth Group with the kids at church. We only have a handful of meetings left, so the group is getting quite small. After dinner, they wanted to be able to sit outside, but the sun set a little too fast for me and I wound up snuggled in a blanket for warmth during the lesson.

Once we got home, we had enough daylight to tackle the intruders. Matt made quick work of cleaning up the mint while I took care of other weeds around the yard. Goliath, of course, stood guard to make sure no one attacked.

Hopefully tomorrow we will make some progress on either the vegetable bed or the deck. Now that the Blue Jackets have no more games, I will have more of Matt's attention for two days until the hockey playoffs start. He should bring the television out so he can watch the games while he scrapes paint off the deck. I'll have to work on that.

And so it begins...

After reading the book Julie and Julia by Julie Powell, I had become fascinated with the blog. Not having much to say, I had been content for three months to read other's postings on my favorite subjects. But then came Spring and the vegetable garden.

I wanted to create something completely different in my yard. Knowing what a challenge it would be, I thought it would be best to document the project. This way I could either look back and think what a wonderful experience it was, or (more likely) see why I became a raving lunatic because I could not get any eggplant to grow. I thought if I created a blog, I would be able to keep my extended family up-to-date on this project (and others that my husband and I undertake) without having to tell the same story 4 or 5 times. Plus it just sounds cool: "Want to see my latest project? You can check it out on my blog."

So here I am on my first posting, getting ready to clean out a flower bed so that I can become a suburban farmer. Yet, at the same time, I am helping my husband refinish a two level deck, so that we can create an outdoor "entertainment" area. This started out as my idea as well, but now he sees a location for watching movies under the stars and has dubbed it the "Butterworth Cinema". I do not know which project will be worse, but if they both succeed, it will be wonderful.

Now I have taken the prerequisite before photos in hopes that the after ones will have us saying, "Can you believe how different everything looks?" and have started to come up with vegetable plot designs. I even have my first veggie selected: baby carrots.