Friday, May 18, 2007

Wheels on the Bike Go Round and Round


Just a quick note to remind everyone that today is National Bike to Work Day. In honor of the event, I did! This is the second time I've managed it in a month, but I'll be making an effort to get off my duff and do this more. The trip takes about 12 minutes from our garage door to the gate of my office building. Considering that it takes me 6-8 minutes to drive, that's kind of amazing. Of course, it's going to get mighty hot and rainy here soon, but I'll do it as long as I can stand it in the hopes that some meager bike commuting habit gets established by the time it cools off again.

Happy biking!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Going Green!


This time I mean "going green" quite literally! Through a team effort we have finally accomplished something I have long wanted to do, build a raised garden box to compensate for the truly terrible quality of our sandy soil. Jeff and Jared built the 3' x 8' box using spare wood that has been up in the garage loft since before I bought the house. We filled it with a mix of Miracle Gro's new organic garden soil and some mercifully unsmelly cow poop. I laid down a string grid to create 24 foot-square boxes to organize the planting, then in went the seedlings that Jared and I had planted weeks ago from some Seeds of Change seeds (there's a link to the left over there). As a result, we are now growing heirloom sweet corn, watermelons, bush beans, chili peppers, carrots and cucumbers. Two of the five bean seedlings have since died (I think squirrels sat on them), so I'm going to replace them with Italian white eggplants. I also replanted all of my sadly neglected herb pots. We are now swimming in basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, marjoram, two types of parsley and cilantro. This is all just experimenting, really, as I know very little about gardening except that I'm starting about two months late for Florida's growing zone. But what they hey! It's worth a try, especially since our farm co-op is shutting down for the summer. We will keep you posted on the progress, including photos.

In other news, we are heading down to visit Valerie and her family this weekend. This is our last weekend with Jared before we get him for summer break at the end of June. In addition to two weeks of fun in Indiana (which Jeff and I will also be enjoying for a week), we have Jared signed up for a week at each of four different camps--a soccer camp, a traditional summer camp called Camp Frontier, an outdoor "sea scientist" program at the Pier Aquarium, and Busch Gardens for animals and fun. Hopefully, Jeff and I can get in some diving on those free weekends in June. We haven't suited up since November! So very sad.

Hope everyone is spectacularly well. Eat your veggies!