Spring

I planted a bunch of garlick bulbs last November. I got them from territorial. Fireball and music are the types. The Fireball sprouted quickly, similarly to my first (unsuccessful) attempt at growing garlick.




There they are today. The bigger green clumps.

The Music didn't sprout right away and I thought was going to be unsuccessful again. Well last week I looked and they're coming up!!







Looks like they're gonna be huge.

This week I need to get the cabbage seed started so that this fall I can make fresh sauerkraut from what we grow.

-- Post From Remote Control

Bread

Made a loaf of whole wheat bread with a bit of rye and some whole grains



Here's the dough in my rising bowl.


This is my coppertop work table



Post first rise


I love my stone loaf pan



Sharp knives are helpful



While waiting for the bread to bake it's fungo chase doggies around and try to take a picture.




And it's pretty!!



With a nice crumb. The hippie chick says it tastes good too!
-- Post From Remote Control

Working in the garden

I spent a couple of hours digging the beds today. This year I'm making a concerted effort to get rid of the crabgrass, which slows the process down immensely. Also, I'm triple digging to loosen the soil deeply. Almost done with the lower bed though.

The chickens came to help me





They really like the worms! And we have slot and some are monsters.


She just found one


For some reason pirate chicken stayed away from the worm feast. Hopefully eggs tomorrow. We have been getting between 1 and 2 eggs every day lately with a couple 3 egg days.

Planting peas starting Sunday a row a week for three weeks I think
-- Post From My iPhone

Christmas crazinesses

It's been far too long since I've mentioned anything around here. Worky work and holiday busynesses have abounded. Now that it's mostly over it's time to relax, well at least until next weekend when I get to go up on the roof and take down the lights, and put everything away. Fun times.

So, my Mom has collected these ceramic village houses for years. They had to move to a much smaller place, so I inherited a bunch of them. So far I have received 3 bigass boxes of houses. We got to display some of them this year on the mantel in the living room.


Here's an overview of them with the lights on. We set it up so from right to left we go from the skating pond to the farm, bad side of town, town hall, good side of town and finally to the harbor with lighthouse.Here we can see the town hall with the carolers. To the right is the "good" Post Office, to the left you can see the "bad" side of the tracks Post Office. It's connected to the fabric store.

In the foreground is the Smoke house and in the background is the Ironworks.

This is the long view from the farmhouse end.

During the day, you can see the lighthouse, and the dock. To the left is the Navigational Charts and Maps store, and then the B&B




Next to the B&B is the "good" part of town Post Office, on the hill is the town hall. To the left of town hall is the "bad" side of town Post Office and fabric store combo.

To the left of the P.O./fabric store combo is the General store, then the bell caster.

On top of the small hill is the Ironworks, and you can see Sinterklaus on his horse. To the left is the Smokehouse.

Finall we see the woodshop on the small hill behind the farmhouse. To the left is the ice cutters working away next to the skating pond.

And here's a view from the wharfside of town.

Pretty freakin' cool, eh? It's actually kind of fun to put up and get organized. Apparently there's another 3 bigass boxes of houses coming my way.


So, we also decided to make a gingerbread house from scratch this year. We made several batches of gingerbread and glued together with icing. Putting the first two walls together is a total pain in the ass. After that it gets rather easy. Putting all the junk on is alot of fun.

Here's a front view of the house. Awesome aint it?

And a closeup. Notice the lack of back wall.

Side view. Notice the icicles.

Right side of the house. Look at lower right corner.

And a closeup. Damn dog got to the house when we were out. Ate half the back wall and chewed up the corner.

Here's the Christmas devil herself. Not only chewed on the house, but was looking behind the tree for foodbits and knocked it over!! Fortunately only one ornament was broken.

This is a view of the backyard showing the snow covered bird house and feeders.

Here's our garden buddha.



And it's been far, far too long for pirate chicken. Here she is in all her glory. Notice the good compost heat on the edge of the nest box. About the only thing these damn chickens are good for is making chicken shit for the compost heap.


All pictures taken with my Xmas present to myself, my new Apple iPhone telephonic device that is keeping me from paying any attention to the hippie chick. She's now an iPhone widow.

I'm back

It's been a long summer, including lots of garden work. The garden was nicely productive, with the tomatoes very very tasterific right now.

Another trial today. Not Guilty on the felony count, guilty on the misdemeanor counts. Right where I anticipated it landing, and better than the State's offer.

Bang your head, Metal health will drive you mad, OR maybe I AM getting old

I'm watching VH-1's classic rock. Which reminded me of an incident at camp. Teenage girl (15) asks me if I like "classic" rock. I ask her what she means, and she responds, "Oh, you know, Cindi Lauper, Motley Crue, the Bangles." I was thinking (hoping) that maybe she was meaning Chuck Berry, or possibly Jimi. Nope.

I laughed and said yes. So, apparently it takes 20-25 years for a song or band to become "classic".

And therefore, maybe I AM really getting old.

Recap

Man, has it been crazy lately. Lot's of stuff done, with lot's of stuff to do, and more coming down the pike.

Took three weeks vaca. First week was Camp. I worked with the teen boys again, they are alot of fun. We had a very successful year, no real problems. Only some minor blowups that went away rather quickly.

The hippie chick and I went to Breitenbush Hotsprings for a couple of nights after that. Restful as all hell. Lot's of soaking and lot's of sauna. Their food is amazing, though I was jonesin' for some bacon by the end. All veggie food there. I likes me my meat!!

After that I spent some days building up a new chicken coop. The actual coop is done, door, walls and roof. Built a snazzy ass nest box. All looks great. This weekend I get to make the chicken yard. Gotta put 3 posts in the ground, pound them in nicely and string up some chicken wire. Ideally I'll get it all done tomorrow and then take some pictures.

I've been in trial regularly for awhile now. 3 straight wins against the same DA!! One was car theft that my guy would have merely served 10 days if he'd pled out. He sat for 60 and got a Not Guilty from the jury. AWESOME. Had a trial last week with that DA, Assault case. Step Dad was trying to provide discipline to unruly child. Not Guilty. Awesome part to that, my client was African American in a predominately white area and a prior Rape conviction. They believed my client!! Yesterday it was another assault case. Big huge fracas at a restaurant. DA didn't ask questions of alleged victim regarding pain or injury. Judge granted a Judgment of Acquittal. Basically saying, "Hey, DA, you didn't do your job" Three wins, 2 within 2 weeks of each other.

Two trials next week, ideally I'll stay on my roll. Not getting my hopes up. But, I am keeping on the fight.

I really do love my job, but I really do not like sex abuse cases. No matter the outcome everyone loses. Families are irreparably damaged, lives are inalterably changed and a huge stigma is attached to all. I'll take an assault case any day over a sex case.