cici at home

a worthy read

If you're interested in wrapping your brain about this political fiasco.  And if you are not interested in the partisan finger pointing surrounding it.  And if you have a few minutes to read - really read and understand.

You should take a look at this blog: Market-Ticker

I should warn you that there is some profanity from time to time.  Mr. Denninger does a good job at outlining how we got here and why spending more isn't going to help - especially when we are throwing money at an outright scam (?) in the form of AIG...

His other post from today is equally informative it is a 1st quarter (2009) market recapp.  It's a good, meaty read.

at least it counts as homeschool science

I purchased this soil testing kit when I bought my blueberry bushes the other day.

I think its supposed to tell me what to do with my soil for best results. It's too much work, though, and detail.  And I can't convince myself that the Ingall's did this.  I'm sure they just grew a garden, no? A basic knowledge of plants and the conditions they like to grow, but I'm not convinced all the extra is  necessary. I'm hoping the small bag of sulfur I bought to make the soil more acidic will be enough.

Now to start measuring off the garden this year.  I've been following a few non-tinfoil-hat financial blogs lately and I'm not sure I wanted to be that educated on what has been (since Clinton), was going on (during Bush), and is continuing (Obama) in the financial markets: bond and credit mostly.  Our politicians are brilliant. I mean, really, we've got the best of the best and brightest working for us up there.

Oh - and that garden - let's just hope its not inadvertantly affected by H.R. 875. These guys wouldn't just pass any ole' legislation without reading it, and looking at the broad unintended consequences ala CPSIA. (Senate version here: S. 425).  Naa. Really. It's the best and brightest and most thorough group of people ever.

make a newspaper seed pot

I was searching on-line for one of those wooden thingies to make seed-pots for the dream garden I'm working on - dream as in I hope I have the stamina come July and August sweltering heat to keep up with it kind of dream.  Not loveliness Secret Garden kind of dream.  Not yet.

Anyway, I stumbled on a couple of make your own seed-pot ideas but they didn't work for me.  Too big. I wanted something smaller than a glass cup, or aluminum can.  Ha! Then roll it up without any tools and voila!  See below.

I used just one sheet of newspaper. And I only used one side of the vertical fold.  Fold it in half along the long side of the newspaper.

Do it again.

Now roll it up.  You can make the roll as wide, or narrow as you choose.

The bottom of the pot will be the side with the folds. Pinch it towards the inside.  Don't try to skip this step - its what helps keep your little seed-pot from unrolling when you let go.

Now turn it back up.  Separate a sheet of newspaper or two - and push it down.Wiggle it around a bit to make it sit as flat as possible - but don't obsess. It's a newspaper seed-pot, not a work of art and we're not going for perfection.

Voila! Seed-pots

I label mine with a sharpie. These are ready for lettuce.

my life is a secret garden

The radio has been off. The TV has been off.  No news.  It's been great. Refreshing - even if naively so.

We have been listening to "The Secret Garden" and I find myself thinking in a thick, Yorkshire accent and whistling to our little robin redbreasts. A robin has yet to hop about on my laundry basket, chirping with me and keeping me company.

I can't find snowdrops. I didn't even know what snowdrops were until The Secret Garden, but now our garden needs them.  I didn't plant bulbs last fall.  But I found these little pots with tulips and hydrangeas already started. Our garden isn't secret, but Mistress Mary has definite plans on where to put the young spring heralds.

Dickon has been playing with the wind.

And Collin has taken que and kicked off his shoes at even a hint of 70 degrees.

Yes, he's barefoot with pants, gardening gloves, and a pajama top (not shown - garden shovel). He liked it that way this morning - and we all now how prone to hysterics our little Collin can be.

blink, and i miss it

Maple sugaring. I took my daughter to a local park to see how this is done several years ago.  Since then, we've missed it. This year, we remembered just in the nick of time and were able to visit a maple sugaring demonstration this last weekend - the last weekend of any maple sugaring goings-on around here.

Did you know that when the leaves begin to bud, the maple sap turns bitter? They taste each bucket of maple before it is poured into the larger buckets to be boiled down.  It only takes a smidgen of the bad stuff to render the entire batch useless. This is the kind of worthless trivia that sticks with me forever.

How'd ya like to stand over this and stir (assuming there is a fire beneath it) until your maple has boiled down?

Here is today's vat, heating up. Boiling down.

My kids prefer Mrs. Butterworth.

why i'm not here

Its been too much work, lately. I have lots to say. Believe me, if you came over for coffee (I mean, I could serve you tea if you absolutely insisted...) I'd have no problems talking your ear off.

I'm not sure you'll want to read these musings of mine, though.  And this isn't humbleness speaking - it's politics.

So I've kept my mouth shut and my fingers away from the keyboard.

And its only making things worse.

I'm de-niching myself. And I'm going to tell you that I don't believe in man made global warming. And that I don't believe in embryonic stem cell research.  I believe science is on my side here, but you can disagree with me - and I won't hate you, or call you names, or yell, or throw things at you, or tell you the debate is over.  You'll find that I'd rather live through a bit of a depression now than have our government use one credit card to pay the balance on another - and live through a greater depression later.  I don't believe you have to kill capitalism to save it.

I watch TV (24 and The Office are my favorite, if you really want to know). My kids watch TV, too, although not as much as me. Sometimes, I yell at my children (I'm not proud here, I'm just sayin'). My laundry is, generally speaking, caught up.  My dusting is not.

I'm not going to blog incessently about these things - heck, I can't even spell incessently - but I need to get the monkey off my back.  I need to make it okay for me to say these things.

Phew. I feel better.

Thank you.