You know how sometimes you have a nice romantic dinner with your partner and you languidly discuss the topics of the day? And then sometimes you both set your calendar in front of you and you shovel spaghetti into your mouth while coordinating your To Do lists and appointments? Yeah, this post is the blog…
Archives for May 2014
The Rhubarb 75
It’s not quite strawberry season, cherries look like small, hard green marbles and peaches are just a fuzzy dream. But there is rhubarb. Rhubarb is a strange edible. Not really a fruit but typically used as one, poisonous except for the stalk, tart and astringent and stringy when raw. Who was the first brave gatherer that…
How To Beat Stress Naturally (When You’re Ready To Scream!)
As my regular readers know, last week was kinda icky around here. My son was sick and super cranky (but without losing any of his trademark energy of course), there was a backlog of laundry, a sick kid crawling into bed every night meant sleep was a rare luxury, and nearly every surface of the…
{Giveaway} Mother Earth News Fair Weekend Tickets
I’m heading to the Mother Earth News Fair in a few weeks. This is a four-year-long tradition now – I think I’ve attended every Seattle-area Mother Earth News Fair since it started. I always come away from the Fair re-energized and re-inspired about what we’re trying to do here on our own one-third acre. I…
Things I've Said In The Past Week
Hello darling readers, I just wanted to check in and let you know I’m calling a mulligan on this entire week. We will get back to our regularly scheduled programming on Monday. Until then, here’s a few actual things I’ve said this past week that will give you a sense of how I’ve been spending…
Chocolate Mint Mojito
Mint isn’t just mint. There’s peppermint, spearmint, ginger mint, apple mint, pineapple mint, chocolate mint, lime mint and on and on. (Anyone ever seen Best in Show? Yeah, varieties of mint are kinda like the “I can name all the nuts” scene.) Different mints have different levels of super potent compounds that give them their…
Does Solar In Seattle Work? {Reader FAQs}
In early April, after about five years of deliberation, we had solar panels installed on the south and west facing portions of our roof. On April 15th our panels “went live” and since then we’ve had a chance to evaluate what it means to be solar powered in Seattle. We’ve been sharing moments of our…
To Do In The Northwest Edible Garden: May 2014
May is a month of promise – amnesia about last year’s failures has taken hold and it’s easy to convince ourselves that this will be the year everything goes right. Weeds will never germinate, pests and diseases will not visit us, perfectly ripe produce will leaps forth like Athena from the forehead of Zeus and…
Dos and Don’ts for Cheapskates
I recently heard about a show called Extreme Cheapskates that sounded like it might be full of interesting money saving tips. I watched a few episodes on Netflix while I was washing dishes. Man, some of the folks profiled on that show aren’t just frugal – they’re nuts! They are stealing from restaurants, embarrassing people,…