Tuesday, July 28, 2009

I'm enjoying a cool evening outside on my daughter's laptop while she takes her brothers for a game of wiffle ball. Of course I'm blogging rather than doing the dinner dishes but summer is about compromise and once the sky darkens, I promise to get those dirty dishes taken care of, really I do!

Is there anything blogworthy going on in my corner of the universe? Hmm, I guess that depends on your perspective. Here are a few things others might find interesting.

First of all, as Ruthie noted a while back, we didn't join a CSA this growing season. We just couldn't find one that fit into our unique schedule (summer in one place, spring & fall in another). I agonized over this decision but I couldn't justify the hour and fifteen minute drive that we had for 10 weekends in the fall to accomodate the entire CSA season.

The solution to this conundrum, because I really wanted to keep my produce local as much as possible, sprung up unexpectedly when a local family opened a produce stand in front of their home about a mile from my house. Can you get any more local than that without growing your own? There are still farmers markets I intend to check out to improve our variety but I am just thrilled with the way this has turned out.

I've been making progress on my sewing & knitting projects in the evenings while I listen to old radio shows like Dragnet, Sherlock Holmes & Tales of the Texas Rangers. I just love those old radio shows! Current projects include a denim quilt and a log cabin blanket to use up my yarn scraps.

Actually, the log cabin blanket brings me to another decision I recently made. Once I finish with my current stash of acrylic yarn, which is massive by the way, I plan to only knit with natural fibers. It just feels like the right decision to me.

Alas, the battery on the laptop is running low so I'll end for now. Happy summertime to all!

Friday, July 24, 2009

A Slug for the Slugs

You guys are so sweet for wondering if everything is ok. Thank you so much for being concerned. Everything is fine. I'm not even going to pretend that I have a legitimate reason for not updating my blog for so long. I just haven't gotten around to it. I've been busy enjoying summer vacation with my kids. I'm knitting a little, quilting a little, and gardening a little.

I don't know that I've done anything blog worthy except perhaps my ongoing battle with the slugs that are infesting my garden here in the Adirondacks. It's been rainy, really rainy. The slugs are just having a party. They're sliming over and eating just about everything I've planted, even the Jerusalem artichokes which usually aren't bothered by anything. In short, they really piss me off.

The weapon of choice when battling with slugs is beer, believe it or not. I'm catching slugs by the slimy cupful. It's disgusting yet gratifying. Today is marks the beginning of my third go round of putting out fresh beer for the little buggers. (The beer gets a white coating after about a week and seems to become less effective.)

Check out this link for more on using beer to get rid of slugs.