Little Townhouse on the Prairie Part 3 - Photographical Update

My Garden, Sunday, May 29, 2016 thru Friday, June 10, 2016

Friday, June 3, 2016

Pea Sprouts. Little mini pea sprouts

Half of the Garden

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Pea sprouts trying to inch their way out

Monday, June 6, 2016

Yes I am focusing on the sugar snap peas...

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Bean Sprouts! What?? How'd that happen?

Tomato plant wants some attention...

Little Townhouse on the Prairie Part 2 - Sprouts and Signals, Ahoy Ahoy

In which we awake to discover sprouts!!! At the time of this writing 10 days have passed since I planted my seeds in the hopes of starting an urban farming adventure. I now have little sprouts of everything. Inch high sunflowers complete with two leaves, two inch high pea sprouts all in a haphazard row, and 3 inch high bean sprouts that seemed to just pop up overnight. I'm told by a very knowledgeable source that peas like the cooler weather which we have had lately, and abundant rain the last week to foster the growth.

How much rain you might ask? Well the truth is I don't know, because I don't have a rain gauge. Something Aaron says is important to have for a garden to know how much rain your crops are getting. Avoid over or under watering and all that. It's on my list along with shepherd's hooks to hang garden goodies on. 

In other news, we are doing the adult thing and sending out change of address cards, complete with our new phone number. Our home phone number. That's right we have opted to get a home phone line through Basic Talk, a Walmart-esque offering of Vonage. So if the power goes out I'm still screwed. But you can't argue with $10 a month. Not to mention I was afforded a numberphile's dream of basically picking my phone number out of all the possible area codes (except of course for new ones including but not limited to Wisconsin's new 534 area code). So I dated to be different and I have a 262 area code. And the best part - the exchange adds up to 15, and the last 4 also add up to 15. It's a cribbage playing numberphile's dream! You can laugh now.

In other other news, yesterday I bought an indoor HD antenna in an effort to keep from having to worship the copper wire cable gods by offering them the oh so low free will gift of $1500 a year. Excitedly I hooked it up to my TV, which first disappointed me by the remote not working and yes. Yes I did put fresh batteries in. Anyhoobastank, so I hooked up the antenna and did a search for channels. Three times. And each of those times got nothing. Irritated, I moved the position of the antenna to a high point in the room between two windows. Did several channel scans and received now anywhere from 1 to a dozen channels. So okay, I thought. Better than nothing. I look to see what channels are afforded me. The result was a frozen WFRV CBS 5 out of Green Bay. A pixelated WBAY TV2 ABC out of Green Bay. Followed by three different PBS's from Green Bay, and a handful of Spanish speaking channels. Now I'm no Donald Trump supporter here with a vendetta against my Hispanic friends, and I can speak Spanish mind you, but not that fast. And I certainly can't comprehend what is being said with as fast as fluent speakers speak it. The last time I watched Spanish TV was in 2004 when I watched Telemundo's telenovela "Gitanas" (who if translates to Gypsies) I will admit that I did enjoy the theatrics of the show but 12 years of being removed from that one time viewing, I mean whatever happened to the characters? So now, it's going to be a combination of Netflix and Hulu plus or Amazon Prime for this household. I don't need super premium yum yum TV from cable with 900 channels of I will never watch this. It's like putting me in front of a football field size dessert table. I'll never eat it all even though there's a bunch of fun things to eat. And I definitely don't want to pay upwards of $150 a month to be afforded access to said desserts. It's just too much on all accounts. Plus I have a Roku box which gives me access to among other things, Netflix. Yes I'll take the card table sized dessert table access for $25 a month. Considering I already have the hardware, why not? Alas, it's back to Target to return the antenna. Thank God for the 29 day return policy. Why 29 days though? What kind of arbitrary number is that? Overthinking is one of my strong suits.

So I was going to include pictures in this entry but I think what I will do is make a separate entry just for them. That way I can publish this now, and let you all read it.

Little Townhouse on the Prairie Part 1 - Urban Farming

So this past Sunday I put seeds into the ground in my first attempt at what my very dear Christian brother calls "Urban Farming". He himself owns and operates a farm an hour away from here and is currently in the process of becoming an organic farm.

Now the back story. When I lived at home, my parents had a garden. I found it enjoyable. But then I moved out and of all the six places I've lived since then, only two have been in locations suitable for gardening, unless I wanted to take the risk of an apartment deck style garden. Money played a huge factor in that not happening. So now here I am, I have a townhouse that I'm renting, where the only real full sun spot is alongside the house. But this is where theatric is happening. Well, provided Francis and Philip don't eat my crops or they fail...bit more on that later.

Anyhoobastank, so I invested in a handheld tiller, a few bags of miracle grow soil and some seeds. This year I got a metric buttload of sugar snap peas (my favorite) bush beans (a close 2nd), squash, tomatoes, blackberries and strawberries. The first three of which are in the ground and at the mercy of Philip.

I should probably take a moment to tell you about Philip. Philip is a bunny, a rather ballsy bunny if you ask me. He will let you get within three feet of him before he hops away. Francis is the mouse who loves under my back stoop. He's not any harm yet so I don't see a reason to murder him. A little chicken wire fence around my side garden should curb Philip's temptation...and as far as Francis goes, well, he better just stay the hell away from inside my house. The back stoop is close enough. Even then though, I'll look for a humane way of taking care of him, as his namesake saint would have me do.

Admittedly, I have named my animal neighbors after St. Francis of Assisi, who as you know had a thing for animals. And Philip, after my patron saint, St. Philip Neri. The next animal friend I encounter will more than likely be named Pio, or something related to Padre Pio, as I've taken a recent liking to Padre Pio. I have a system. Get over it. :P

So, here I go, waiting for my seeds to sprout. In the back of the side plot, abutting the house, I planted individual "hills" of beans. So basically I dug a small hole, put 3-5 bean seeds in, and covered it up. Then, in front of it (there's about a foot space in between), I carved a row out, sprinkled my pea seeds (which to me look like just dried up peas, and the beans looked like un-gravy-ized baked beans), and folded the dirt over my row. In the corner towards the back I put my lone tomato plant, which at time of planting already had 2 tomatoes growing out of it. I have one more miniature plant I'll put next to it. And the squash? I'm not entirely sure where I'll put it yet, but I have to get it in quick! Same with the Blackberry Bush and the Strawberries. I am told that berries love acidic soil, and I've been working my coffee grounds into the garden. Planting near a pine tree will also do the job. Updates to come, obviously. I can't keep you in suspense waiting.

In other news, I've recently been reading the blogs of some pretty good theologians, one being Dr. Taylor Marshall. He suggests reading a chapter of Proverbs a day for a month, which works out because there's 31 chapters of Proverbs. And reading a Psalm a day and writing down one word that sticks out at you. I'm in process of that one, and will probably start the Proverbs challenge July 1 (June only has 30 days and I'm anal-retentive like that). I've also been checking out the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Ireneus, St. Augustine...all in an attempt to "be a Berean" and figure out for myself just where my growing attraction to the Catholic Church is coming from, above or below. My instinct (albeit untrustworthy) is telling me (and has told me for some time now), that it is above. "The truth is like a lion. You don't have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself." - St. Augustine. And I can't help but think that God would not be having me keep coming back to something that was detrimental to my faith and salvation. To put it in secular terms, I find for myself that I much more prefer the "Full Flavor" of the Catholic Church than the "Lights" of the Lutheran Church. Don't tell anybody I said that. (see it's funny, because if I truly meant that I wouldn't have posted it on a blog.) "We are the Easter People, and Alleluia is our song!" (Pope St. John Paul II)...and another favorite I've recently discovered, "I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world." (St. Teresa of Calcutta, better known as Blessed Mother Teresa)

As of tomorrow I will be working from home. I've already taken the liberty of ordering myself a manual ceramic burr coffee grinder, to prepare myself for countless French Presses to come. There is something satisfying about the idea of Self-Sustainability, planting seeds in the ground (get your mind out of the gutter), and waiting for nourishment to sprout. Making your own homemade crackers from scratch. Making your own baby food from fresh produce. Brewing your own beer...and soon, perhaps, roasting your own coffee?

Hoping not to "jinx myself with Bad Juju", I think it's safe to say I am greeting a new morning from the dark night of depression. I love being "busy", so to speak, and seeing things come to fruition, and things starting to fall into place. Just as I'm sure God intended it, and thanks be to Him who makes this all possible. I've been experiencing a Renaissance of creativity, figuratively speaking, in that I've been doing some DIY projects involving my son's old dresser I turned into a coffee bar for the kitchen (see a theme here...?), a bookshelf I turned into what is ending up as a display case...a refurbished writing desk, and a handful of canvases. It's amazing what the prospect of moving and having a new place instills in one for a sense of creativity. Juxtaposed with the ideas of self sustainability, it has the makings of a pretty wonderful summer ahead.

Oh, and the title of this entry? Thought of it whilst walking at noon. I have yet to cut the grass at the new place, and so with the grass as long as it is, and growing (due to rain which is also a hindrance to lawn mowing I might add), leads me to the christening of the place as the "Little Townhouse on the Prairie"...ha.

I'll continue to update. Also in said updates I will tie in some other blog posts about Urban Farming and Urban Agriculture. It's a thing! Stay tuned.