Monday, December 7, 2009

Bad joints and christmas decorating- the Weekly Challenge Update


Kind of a bad week- My mom went in for knee surgery, so have been doing double duty here and at her home- taking care of her cat and putting up christmas decorations; prepping the apartment for when she gets home (hand held shower head, buying frozen food she can just pop into the microwave, etc.) so not a lot of play time for me. Mom got a total knee replacement- or as my uncle said "What's a joint like you doing in a lady like this?" (See where the sick sense of humor comes from?

Sharon's Independence Days Challenge- Year two, week 32
1. Plant something: nope
2. Harvest something: Some sprouts
3. Preserve something: Apple cider jelly
4. Reduce Waste (recycle, reuse, reduce, repair or compost something): Put 4 resin patio chairs and a student desk out by the curb for “Free- Cycling” the chairs went the first day- the desk is still there, but will be donated to goodwill or maybe I have another use for it- we'll see
5. Preparation and Storage: mope
6. Build Community Food Systems: Went to a meeting with fellow SUBU members on starting a garden for the residents of Burien Heights, a low income apartment complex nearby- they have around 2500 people living there, and lots of space for a community garden!We are going to work with the boxes they have, and give them four of ours from the BIAS. The other four are destined for the High School (the one I dropped out of!) We will be doing all this on the 12th.
7. Eat the Food (cook or eat something new): some stuffed french toast stuffed with homemade apple cider jelly, some sprouts in salad, pumpkin puree in pumpkin soup

Melinda’s Growing Challenge: LAST REPORT OF THE YEAR! I got tomato seeds saved- Window Box Romas,Tumbler and Robin’s Egg, worked particularly well for me, so I am hoping their offspring do well next year. Other seeds saved- Acorn squash, summer squash, sugar pie pumpkin and banana squash- also saved a variety of ghourd seeds. This year I learned to not to fear the Heirloom tomatoes, growing a number of them not from seed, but as plant starts. For next year I am excited to try amaranth (your influence there Melinda!) I also had one prolific Hungarian wax pepper plant- Have been enjoying pickled peppers (this one plant gave me 5 quarts of pickled peppers- nice peppers with just a hint of heat) and was producing peppers until the end of October! Yes I saved some seeds from those peppers! I also have “Jurassic Kale” seeds given to me from a friends garden.


Meat Free Mondays: Big fail this week. Mom made lunch Steak potatoes and carrots- She said she forgot it was Monday so I ate the tasty lunch she made. Other than that I had a Vegan brownie for breakfast, and pasta and tomato sauce for dinner

2 comments:

The 4 Bushel Farmgal said...

Kudos for the results of your seed saving! I'm impressed. I'm very interested in the Jurrasic Kale! Hope that goes well, too.

Best wishes for your mother, for a speedy recovery!

Robj98168 said...

I am kind of excited by the jurassic kale myself! I don't know what type kale it is or what variety- they just call it Jurassic cause it looks like it came from the dinosaur era!