Well, the hoophouse almost kicked the bucket, again. Yesterday night we experienced 50 miles per hour gusts of wind that got through every crack and gap in the hoop house and almost lifted it up off the ground. Almost. When I woke up this morning after a pretty fitful sleep it was still there, but …
Author Archives: kaat
Of Calcium in the Soil and Plants – Part 8
You guessed it: it’s time for another episode in the Calcium in the Soil and Plant series! Take heart: we’re getting close to the end (maybe only one more part to go?). Actually, it took me so long to post on this again because this one took me a long time to figure out. If …
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Of Mice and Bees
Yesterday evening we had our second beekeeping class, after a two week hiatus due to bad weather predictions (you can parse that either way) and school vacation. Rick brought in a full hive and guided us through the components, discussing their uses, alternatives, advantages and disadvantages, and some beginners’ pitfalls. The magical moment, for me, …
A Gardener’s Spring
This time of year I get that lump in my throat. I see my seedlings come up in the basement. I do the rounds of blogs – mostly gardeners, homesteaders – and see their seedlings come up as well. It touches me deeply. It is a reawakening of a childlike feeling of wonder, that, with …
Mission Accomplished
Set 2 traps with peanut butter. Waited 1 night. Found 3 mice. Amie and I released them 1 mile away. ~ Resowed all the seeds (onion, celeriac, lettuces, spinaches and chards). Lovage, Common Mint and Pennyroyal are germinating well. The celery also escaped and I can now call them seedlings.
A Day at the MFA
Amie and I spent the whole day at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. They had special kids’ activities – crafting, a scavenger hunt, a Chinese lion dance demonstration – for the holiday week. We took our time, sauntering from one activity to the other, taking frequent snack breaks, only stopping at those art …
Winter Wonderland
Seedlings’s Early Demise
My growth chart now looks like this: Yes, that’s a x 7. Horrible, this early in the game! The spinaches, lettuces and chards that had germinated were eaten by a mouse! That sets us back by only (?) a week, but I must say it was quite upsetting to come into the basement and find …
Some Quick Notes Before I Dissapear for a Few Days
Friends are coming to visit for a couple of days, and I doubt I will have the time, or the inclination, to interrupt the fun we always have to post here. But before I go, a few notes: ~ Turns out that the bobcat I heard a couple of weeks ago was most likely a …
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First Letters from My Daughter
Amie has taken to writing me letters – she’s been watching My Neighbor Totoro, in which the oldest girl writes letters to her mother. I can’t come anywhere near her when she is writing. “Don’t look!” she says – not aware, perhaps, that I can hear her perfectly as she sounds out what she is …