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Entry tags:
Materialistic
This week was pretty nice because it was short.
As has become my habit around the middle of the month, I took an extra day off. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Mine, all mine! MUAHAHA.
Literally nothing of interest happened at work whatsoever.
Sarah, my captionist whose husband died of cancer, is moving to New Hampshire to get a fresh start.
She has friends there who have offered to let her stay with them until she becomes grounded again.
What amazing people!
I helped by shuttling Sarah up to CapTel to return her work-from-home equipment. I'd return it myself but I'm not allowed, liability blah blah, which is understandable. But she doesn't have a car and she lives about an hour away, like me. It was only an extra 20 minutes out of my day to swing by and help her out.
It felt weird, though, to watch her walk away to catch a bus after dropping her stuff off. She's a good person going through too much, and I wish we could have been true friends. See you down the road, Sarah.
On the way to and from work this week, I picked up gardening equipment. Perlite, vermiculite, and lightweight potting soil since my goal this year is to get actual carrots and I sense they're not growing well partly due to compacted soil. 6-4-6 fertilizer for my Meyer lemon. 8-10-10 fertilizer for a SUPER SECRET plant I'm getting so DON'T TELL MY BOYFRIEND.
I finally got a haircut because I couldn't stand my ratty hair any more. I went to a chain place, but was surprised at what a good job they did. So here is a selfie. I'm trying to be more open to pictures of myself, but it's hard. I hate how I look. Sometimes, though, someone cuts your hair nicely and makes you look like you could belong to human society. And when that happens you should acknowledge it.
On top of all the fancy gifts I received for my birthday, I also still have an amazon gift card from Christmas, and the Burpee gift card that my parents got me. With gardening season coming up and some things not available in stores, I decided to continue the materialistic trend from last week and Buy More Stuff.
From Amazon I ordered a new pair of jeans (every single pair I have currently are from thrift stores, and only two of them fit me properly), a silicone baking mat to help with sizing and kneading dough, a matcha tea whisk for the tea Kayle got me, some extra banneton liners since I almost ruined the one Jameson got me already, some seaweed/fish micronutrient fertilizer, and some BT insecticide.
The Burpee gift card was a little harder to spend at first. I don't technically "need" anything, or so I thought. But actually, my gardening gloves are getting pretty ratty, so I got some nice goatskin ones. Then I figured why not add some beet seeds, I've always wanted to try growing beets as well as carrots. I've always wanted morning glories too, although I don't have high hopes for them in the Florida heat.
The two best finds, though, were a set of three roselle plants (I have seeds but it's dubious whether I can get them to germinate) and a Joe Pye weed, which has been impossible to find down here despite being a native plant and a highly recommended butterfly attractant.
By Tuesday, a lot of the most important gardening stuff had arrived including the BT and two of the fertilizers.
I woke up early, excited to start gardening!
I drove out to a Lowe's and picked up more potting soil, dowel rods, and jalapeno, tomato, and dill seedlings. There was also a pretty blue flower that I thought Jameson might like.
Then I went on my SUPER SECRET MISSION to get my SUPER SECRET PLANT.
It's a banana. Not just any banana. An "ice cream" banana.
Also known as "blue java".
Supposedly it tastes like vanilla ice cream. I don't know about that, but I do know it's exciting to try and grow new things! And living in a place where almost anything will grow generates a lot of temptation.
Anyway, I drove out to some random dude's house in the middle of farm country in St. Cloud.
It was nice to see the farmland, and goats and horses and chickens. Reminded me a little of home.
It was less fun to see all the Trump signage still standing in yards, and Trump flags waving proudly atop every other home. Ugh.
But whatever, dude had two small javas left and said I may as well have both, and I agreed.
We all drove home together and got to planting.
I had emptied my planters a few weeks ago, and now they were full of pollen and 2" of rain. I rinsed them, and sprayed each one with both BT and spinosad before filling each with lightweight potting soil. I added some perlite and vermiculite to lighten it even further, then mixed in some mild fertilizer dissolved in water along with a tiny bit of epsom salt and vinegar. See, I'm trying to learn from last year. If the soil is too heavy, it compresses the roots. Adding acid makes a lot of plants happy. Adding salt helps them stay hydrated in the FL heat.
At this point my fish/seaweed fertilizer hadn't arrived yet (I had wanted it for my seed germination but oh well) so I went ahead and started planting. The tomato and jalapeno each got their own big pot. I dropped a few basil seeds in with the tomato as well.
The dill went in the planter, if it grows large I'll take it out and see if it will keep in the pollinator garden (swallowtails love dill).
I planted two carrots, two radishes, one lettuce, and two chives. Remember that my planter is fairly small so I have to be careful not to crowd the plants. The dill looks ridiculous all by itself.
That done, I watered everyone and started on the bananas.
I had cleared a little circle of sand for my banana, and now I dug a deep hole there and backfilled it with 50% natural sand and 50% old soil from last year's planter just because it was sitting right there where I had dumped it. I worked some 8-10-10 fertilizer into the soil around the base of the plant, watered it, and mulched it a little with some of the dead dried grasses left over from winter. I did the same with the second banana, although that one was a little more work as I hadn't planned on him and had to clear more land for him.
While I was in the area I checked on the pollinator garden.
The milkweed looks very good, all with new growth at the base.
The pentas look like crap but they'll come back, so will the bulbine.
The Dutchman's pipevine looks half-dead and frostburnt, but it does have new growth.
The passion vine is cracked at the trunk, so I'm concerned about whether it will make it. But it has LOTS of new growth, so if worst comes to worst I can always try to take a cutting or two. I was also surprised to find more zebra longwing eggs on the new growth! Let's hope the predators don't eat all of these before they have a chance to hatch.
The vanilla orchid looks terrible. We had 3-4 nights of frost this year, so I'm very unsure whether it will survive. I'll do my best to continue caring for it, but maybe it wasn't meant to be.
The meyer lemon looks "ok", for some reason it has dropped a lot of leaves but it's also exhibiting a lot of new growth and flowers. I checked it's soil carefully and did find an armyworm cocoon, which I removed and then sprayed the plant and pot with BT and spinosad. I gave my two strawberry plants and the mint plant a heavy trim and refreshed their soil a bit, but mostly kept them the same.
My potted plants and houseplants are generally doing well.
The thyme plant actually looks fantastic so I'm afraid to touch it in case I ruin it.
The teaberry is a slow grower so I'm kind of just making sure it gets some weekly sun for now.
The venus flytrap and sundew look like crap but they're supposed to when it's cold, and i can see new growth on them already.
The butterwort actually looks fantastic, it has a lot of new growth. I may give it a bigger pot.
The trumpet pitchers...I don't know what to do about them. I've treated them just the same as the other carnivores, but they've just dried out and failed to thrive. A mystery.
Other additions to the garden will include more milkweed, the Joe Pye weed, and the roselle when they arrive. I'll try to plant the morning glories but again, no expectations on that.
Setting up the garden took several hours; by the time I was done it was about 4pm. We ordered dinner since I was too tired to cook, then I had steno class while Jameson planed The Room in VR. Class went ok, but it hurt me that I gardened instead of practicing today. Oh well. Life is short.
On Wednesday I had less to do, which was nice. I enjoyed a slow breakfast, then got some groceries and worked on listing some stuff I don't use any more online. A leather backpack and a textbook I thought I'd need but never used (don't we all have one of those? Sigh.) I should have practiced steno but didn't, instead cleaning the shower and wiping down our metal appliances and placing bets on my niece's birth stats (date, time, weight, height, sex, etc).
For dinner I made a Spaghetti O's copycat recipe. Why? WHY THE HELL NOT.
Paired with bacon and candied jalapeno grilled cheese, it was fine dining indeed.
Really, the most unhealthy part of this was the grilled cheese. We used wheat bread but also Kraft singles. The candied jalapenos were FANTASTIC with the salty cheese. Highly recommend.
The pasta I had ordered special, and it was the same shape although I think real Spaghetti O's are a bit smaller. I made the sauce by pureeing a bunch of steamed roma tomatoes, along with chopped onions and garlic that I had browned in a little bacon fat. Then I simmered it on the stove for 20 minutes with a big wad of basil until it reduced, at which point I added a little milk and stirred in the pasta. And I made a salad so we could pretend to be healthy.
After dinner I got unreasonably obsessed with black sapote trees. I mean come on...a fruit that tastes like chocolate pudding??
But it seems to be kind of 50/50 whether it does actually taste that way or not. Also it takes several years to fruit.
Also there's a guy who sells them about 30 minutes away. Sigh.
Before heading to bed I put together the dough for a 12-hour no-knead bread, which is the 3rd loaf in my Baking Bread for Beginners book. I skipped the 2nd loaf because it's exactly the same only with an 8-hour proof.
The next morning I finished the process by letting it have its second proof, then baking it. It turned out "ok", but I definitely underproofed it. Which is amazing to me because after 12 hours followed by a 1.5 hour proof, it seems like anything would be fully fermented. But whatevs. It's still edible, so definitely not a total loss.
The next loaf in the book is a regular pan loaf, so I should do better at that. This no-knead stuff freaks me out :P
Oh also, when I took this loaf out to cool it made loud crackling noises that were pretty surprising! I guess that's normal...
After that I did my morning meal prep, then checked on the garden. I've pulled half the vanilla orchid off the tree and let it dangle, to see if that will encourage it to bloom (although like I said it doesn't look very healthy right now so my hopes are not high).
Back inside I worked on putting together the Rick and Morty chia pet that Jameson got me for Christmas. While that was setting up I make some iced tea and procrastinated on practicing steno before starting on dinner. Dinner was sticky honey ginger pork over brown rice (Jameson) or soba (me) with roasted brussels.
After dinner, surprisingly, the Joe Pye weed I had ordered showed up! I never received any tracking for it. Getting it at 6pm kind of threw me for a loop because I really don't have anywhere to put it, plus it was not an actual plant but only a root ball and crown which makes me wonder if it'll even grow at all. Well...for now I watered it thoroughly and set it outside to get used to Florida.
Had steno class, which was a little stressful as our teacher wanted us to do tests and frankly I am nowhere near the speed I'm supposed to be right now. I still enjoy steno, but to be honest I'm extremely discouraged about making any progress. I need to practice more, no question.
After class it was hard to relax because I felt like there were a million things to do. I wanted to pack lunch for work but my lunchbox hasn't been washed. I need to ship my steno book that someone purchased, but I don't have a box. I need to figure out what to do with the Joe Pye weed so it doesn't die. Kayle could have her baby any time. The toilet in the master bathroom is breaking. Raven's birthday is coming up. I need to establish a fertilizing schedule for the banana plants. There's a huge box of stuff that needs to go to the thrift store. I badly need new bras. I promised my coworkers caramels this month, but haven't made them yet. Etc etc.
I'm sure you all feel the same way, like no matter how much you do you're never caught up. I thought I had a productive weekend but it feels like I'm always behind on every aspect of my life.
Well, at least the plants are happy.
As has become my habit around the middle of the month, I took an extra day off. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Mine, all mine! MUAHAHA.
Literally nothing of interest happened at work whatsoever.
Sarah, my captionist whose husband died of cancer, is moving to New Hampshire to get a fresh start.
She has friends there who have offered to let her stay with them until she becomes grounded again.
What amazing people!
I helped by shuttling Sarah up to CapTel to return her work-from-home equipment. I'd return it myself but I'm not allowed, liability blah blah, which is understandable. But she doesn't have a car and she lives about an hour away, like me. It was only an extra 20 minutes out of my day to swing by and help her out.
It felt weird, though, to watch her walk away to catch a bus after dropping her stuff off. She's a good person going through too much, and I wish we could have been true friends. See you down the road, Sarah.
On the way to and from work this week, I picked up gardening equipment. Perlite, vermiculite, and lightweight potting soil since my goal this year is to get actual carrots and I sense they're not growing well partly due to compacted soil. 6-4-6 fertilizer for my Meyer lemon. 8-10-10 fertilizer for a SUPER SECRET plant I'm getting so DON'T TELL MY BOYFRIEND.
I finally got a haircut because I couldn't stand my ratty hair any more. I went to a chain place, but was surprised at what a good job they did. So here is a selfie. I'm trying to be more open to pictures of myself, but it's hard. I hate how I look. Sometimes, though, someone cuts your hair nicely and makes you look like you could belong to human society. And when that happens you should acknowledge it.
On top of all the fancy gifts I received for my birthday, I also still have an amazon gift card from Christmas, and the Burpee gift card that my parents got me. With gardening season coming up and some things not available in stores, I decided to continue the materialistic trend from last week and Buy More Stuff.
From Amazon I ordered a new pair of jeans (every single pair I have currently are from thrift stores, and only two of them fit me properly), a silicone baking mat to help with sizing and kneading dough, a matcha tea whisk for the tea Kayle got me, some extra banneton liners since I almost ruined the one Jameson got me already, some seaweed/fish micronutrient fertilizer, and some BT insecticide.
The Burpee gift card was a little harder to spend at first. I don't technically "need" anything, or so I thought. But actually, my gardening gloves are getting pretty ratty, so I got some nice goatskin ones. Then I figured why not add some beet seeds, I've always wanted to try growing beets as well as carrots. I've always wanted morning glories too, although I don't have high hopes for them in the Florida heat.
The two best finds, though, were a set of three roselle plants (I have seeds but it's dubious whether I can get them to germinate) and a Joe Pye weed, which has been impossible to find down here despite being a native plant and a highly recommended butterfly attractant.
By Tuesday, a lot of the most important gardening stuff had arrived including the BT and two of the fertilizers.
I woke up early, excited to start gardening!
I drove out to a Lowe's and picked up more potting soil, dowel rods, and jalapeno, tomato, and dill seedlings. There was also a pretty blue flower that I thought Jameson might like.
Then I went on my SUPER SECRET MISSION to get my SUPER SECRET PLANT.
It's a banana. Not just any banana. An "ice cream" banana.
Also known as "blue java".
Supposedly it tastes like vanilla ice cream. I don't know about that, but I do know it's exciting to try and grow new things! And living in a place where almost anything will grow generates a lot of temptation.
Anyway, I drove out to some random dude's house in the middle of farm country in St. Cloud.
It was nice to see the farmland, and goats and horses and chickens. Reminded me a little of home.
It was less fun to see all the Trump signage still standing in yards, and Trump flags waving proudly atop every other home. Ugh.
But whatever, dude had two small javas left and said I may as well have both, and I agreed.
We all drove home together and got to planting.
I had emptied my planters a few weeks ago, and now they were full of pollen and 2" of rain. I rinsed them, and sprayed each one with both BT and spinosad before filling each with lightweight potting soil. I added some perlite and vermiculite to lighten it even further, then mixed in some mild fertilizer dissolved in water along with a tiny bit of epsom salt and vinegar. See, I'm trying to learn from last year. If the soil is too heavy, it compresses the roots. Adding acid makes a lot of plants happy. Adding salt helps them stay hydrated in the FL heat.
At this point my fish/seaweed fertilizer hadn't arrived yet (I had wanted it for my seed germination but oh well) so I went ahead and started planting. The tomato and jalapeno each got their own big pot. I dropped a few basil seeds in with the tomato as well.
The dill went in the planter, if it grows large I'll take it out and see if it will keep in the pollinator garden (swallowtails love dill).
I planted two carrots, two radishes, one lettuce, and two chives. Remember that my planter is fairly small so I have to be careful not to crowd the plants. The dill looks ridiculous all by itself.
That done, I watered everyone and started on the bananas.
I had cleared a little circle of sand for my banana, and now I dug a deep hole there and backfilled it with 50% natural sand and 50% old soil from last year's planter just because it was sitting right there where I had dumped it. I worked some 8-10-10 fertilizer into the soil around the base of the plant, watered it, and mulched it a little with some of the dead dried grasses left over from winter. I did the same with the second banana, although that one was a little more work as I hadn't planned on him and had to clear more land for him.
While I was in the area I checked on the pollinator garden.
The milkweed looks very good, all with new growth at the base.
The pentas look like crap but they'll come back, so will the bulbine.
The Dutchman's pipevine looks half-dead and frostburnt, but it does have new growth.
The passion vine is cracked at the trunk, so I'm concerned about whether it will make it. But it has LOTS of new growth, so if worst comes to worst I can always try to take a cutting or two. I was also surprised to find more zebra longwing eggs on the new growth! Let's hope the predators don't eat all of these before they have a chance to hatch.
The vanilla orchid looks terrible. We had 3-4 nights of frost this year, so I'm very unsure whether it will survive. I'll do my best to continue caring for it, but maybe it wasn't meant to be.
The meyer lemon looks "ok", for some reason it has dropped a lot of leaves but it's also exhibiting a lot of new growth and flowers. I checked it's soil carefully and did find an armyworm cocoon, which I removed and then sprayed the plant and pot with BT and spinosad. I gave my two strawberry plants and the mint plant a heavy trim and refreshed their soil a bit, but mostly kept them the same.
My potted plants and houseplants are generally doing well.
The thyme plant actually looks fantastic so I'm afraid to touch it in case I ruin it.
The teaberry is a slow grower so I'm kind of just making sure it gets some weekly sun for now.
The venus flytrap and sundew look like crap but they're supposed to when it's cold, and i can see new growth on them already.
The butterwort actually looks fantastic, it has a lot of new growth. I may give it a bigger pot.
The trumpet pitchers...I don't know what to do about them. I've treated them just the same as the other carnivores, but they've just dried out and failed to thrive. A mystery.
Other additions to the garden will include more milkweed, the Joe Pye weed, and the roselle when they arrive. I'll try to plant the morning glories but again, no expectations on that.
Setting up the garden took several hours; by the time I was done it was about 4pm. We ordered dinner since I was too tired to cook, then I had steno class while Jameson planed The Room in VR. Class went ok, but it hurt me that I gardened instead of practicing today. Oh well. Life is short.
On Wednesday I had less to do, which was nice. I enjoyed a slow breakfast, then got some groceries and worked on listing some stuff I don't use any more online. A leather backpack and a textbook I thought I'd need but never used (don't we all have one of those? Sigh.) I should have practiced steno but didn't, instead cleaning the shower and wiping down our metal appliances and placing bets on my niece's birth stats (date, time, weight, height, sex, etc).
For dinner I made a Spaghetti O's copycat recipe. Why? WHY THE HELL NOT.
Paired with bacon and candied jalapeno grilled cheese, it was fine dining indeed.
Really, the most unhealthy part of this was the grilled cheese. We used wheat bread but also Kraft singles. The candied jalapenos were FANTASTIC with the salty cheese. Highly recommend.
The pasta I had ordered special, and it was the same shape although I think real Spaghetti O's are a bit smaller. I made the sauce by pureeing a bunch of steamed roma tomatoes, along with chopped onions and garlic that I had browned in a little bacon fat. Then I simmered it on the stove for 20 minutes with a big wad of basil until it reduced, at which point I added a little milk and stirred in the pasta. And I made a salad so we could pretend to be healthy.
After dinner I got unreasonably obsessed with black sapote trees. I mean come on...a fruit that tastes like chocolate pudding??
But it seems to be kind of 50/50 whether it does actually taste that way or not. Also it takes several years to fruit.
Also there's a guy who sells them about 30 minutes away. Sigh.
Before heading to bed I put together the dough for a 12-hour no-knead bread, which is the 3rd loaf in my Baking Bread for Beginners book. I skipped the 2nd loaf because it's exactly the same only with an 8-hour proof.
The next morning I finished the process by letting it have its second proof, then baking it. It turned out "ok", but I definitely underproofed it. Which is amazing to me because after 12 hours followed by a 1.5 hour proof, it seems like anything would be fully fermented. But whatevs. It's still edible, so definitely not a total loss.
The next loaf in the book is a regular pan loaf, so I should do better at that. This no-knead stuff freaks me out :P
Oh also, when I took this loaf out to cool it made loud crackling noises that were pretty surprising! I guess that's normal...
https://instagram.com/p/CLcZ5ExArmG
After that I did my morning meal prep, then checked on the garden. I've pulled half the vanilla orchid off the tree and let it dangle, to see if that will encourage it to bloom (although like I said it doesn't look very healthy right now so my hopes are not high).
Back inside I worked on putting together the Rick and Morty chia pet that Jameson got me for Christmas. While that was setting up I make some iced tea and procrastinated on practicing steno before starting on dinner. Dinner was sticky honey ginger pork over brown rice (Jameson) or soba (me) with roasted brussels.
After dinner, surprisingly, the Joe Pye weed I had ordered showed up! I never received any tracking for it. Getting it at 6pm kind of threw me for a loop because I really don't have anywhere to put it, plus it was not an actual plant but only a root ball and crown which makes me wonder if it'll even grow at all. Well...for now I watered it thoroughly and set it outside to get used to Florida.
Had steno class, which was a little stressful as our teacher wanted us to do tests and frankly I am nowhere near the speed I'm supposed to be right now. I still enjoy steno, but to be honest I'm extremely discouraged about making any progress. I need to practice more, no question.
After class it was hard to relax because I felt like there were a million things to do. I wanted to pack lunch for work but my lunchbox hasn't been washed. I need to ship my steno book that someone purchased, but I don't have a box. I need to figure out what to do with the Joe Pye weed so it doesn't die. Kayle could have her baby any time. The toilet in the master bathroom is breaking. Raven's birthday is coming up. I need to establish a fertilizing schedule for the banana plants. There's a huge box of stuff that needs to go to the thrift store. I badly need new bras. I promised my coworkers caramels this month, but haven't made them yet. Etc etc.
I'm sure you all feel the same way, like no matter how much you do you're never caught up. I thought I had a productive weekend but it feels like I'm always behind on every aspect of my life.
Well, at least the plants are happy.