Catalpa Leaves

Fixing the Fence

Bunny squeezed through, ate many beans and peas.

Ick

Today I spent a half hour cleaning the woods of poison ivy. I picked up a deer tick for my trouble. I wish I knew which plants they tend to climb on. But I suppose if they are anything like the wood tick Gabe is looking at above, on our screen door, they'll climb whatever they find themselves at the foot of.



Really? The screen door? The inside of the screen door? You are one dumb bug.




I guess I've lost my energy for getting all squeamy when encountering ticks. The best I could muster was a tired sigh. I fetched a wood chip to carry the critter, and learned something new: playing with wood ticks is rather fun.

What amused me so was transferring the tick back and forth between the screen and wood chip. How easily the tick rolls from one surface to another! The way they grab on is somewhat like a monkey crossed with Velcro.

I'll be getting a poison ivy rash on my elbow in a few days, no doubt, since I let a vine smack me there. But I think it will be worth it. The infestation back there diminishes every year. Now if only I could say the same for the ticks.

Snow and Cooking

Well, the amazing snow this year has formally introduced Chris and I to the idea that ice dams are nasty, and a well-insulated attic has more uses than just saving on money and fossil fuels. Like everyone else in New England, we put in a few dozen phone calls to ice dam removal services when water came dribbling in two of our windows. Thankfully, the only company available wanted to charge us an introductory price of $1800, so we reassessed the situation and found it to be Not All That Bad.

And lo, when rain came, and a night and day of snow-melting warmth, the water defied my expectations by ceasing its infiltration into the house.

I now look back at the heart-wrenching decision to remove the dangerous old oak tree and breathe a sigh of relief, because we could have easily been dealing with that through our roof. A little cosmetic water damage above the kitchen window? I can live with that.

Work on the cookbook has slowed a little because I have largely run out of recipes that I can recite from memory. Now I'm into new territory, cooking old dishes for the first time with a measuring cup, and trying entirely new things. This evening I cooked rice on the stove top for the first time in almost a decade, and I cooked cabbage, plain and simple, for perhaps only the second time in my life.

Some memorable out-takes: I tried a recipe for parsnip-peanut-butter French fries that was a total flop; somewhere in that combination is a tasty dish, but my version turned out so very unlike the promised results that I won't be tinkering with it. But the bonus is that I know now that parsnips are delicious. Forget the cooking, I'll take 'em raw.

And not for the cookbook but for me: I made pot stickers from scratch. The filling was tofu, minced cabbage, and some Chinese sauce from a jar. The wrappers came in a package; I filled 'em, closed 'em, and cooked 'em. I absolutely nailed the fry/steam technique that a Chinese friend told me about a few years back, causing none of the pot stickers to stick to the pan, and they were beyond delicious. And, of course, the picky toddler rejected them. I think the purple filling was just too scary. I'll have to try again with a meat filling, or something else less colorful.

For the time being, I am giving up on photographing the cookbook foods. I just have too much else to do if I want to complete this project.

Speaking of which, I need to go write down what I learned this evening. . .

Quinoa

I need to give quinoa another chance. The last time I tried cooking it, picking out the pebbles was a pain, and the cooking time was lengthy. But it's far more nutritious than I realized, and I'm jumping at every opportunity right now to get nutrition into my picky toddler, for whom I have devolved into hiding sweet potato in meatballs, hiding kale with ketchup, and flying spoonfulls of food over the dinner table like airplanes.

I wonder if I can cook quinoa in my rice cooker? Wikipedia says yes!

Getting Ready

In preparation for the tree coming down, it made sense to mow part of the backyard meadow. We will need the space to store the massive quantity branches, wood, and mulch. The arborists could haul it off for us, but what's the point? We're always needing supplies for this project or that. We will be making some unusual requests of the cutting team when they do the deed.

I had already forgotten how noisy and stinky gas-powered mowers are. Grasshoppers fled the mower in droves. This isn't the ideal time of year to be mowing, since so many species are still living among the plants, but the tree needs to come down in a hurry.




Oops! What's that? Chris is chasing something.




More evidence that my overgrown lawn provides animal habitat!




Gabe had a serious look on his face, but he was fascinated by the snake. (And don't worry: we were sure to wash his hands afterwards, since reptiles can be carriers of salmonella.)

Franklin State Forest, Easement

My heart melts when I see these giant power easements. The ugly, looming power lines guarantee that even in the heart of suburbia there is a strip of wild meadow. I grew up with one of these endless tracks of wilderness as my back yard.

This one is a part of the Franklin State Forest. The entrance is directly across from the YMCA. Motorcyclists share the path with cyclists and pedestrians.




The meadow is covered in goldenrod right now.




Absolutely covered.




So many kinds of goldenrod!




So much goldenrod!




Oh. Heh. That's not goldenrod. That's ragweed.




This, not goldenrod, is what makes people sneeze. Goldenrod pollen is evolved to be big and sticky, to be carried by insects. Ragweed pollen is evolved to float about in the air.

Ragweed isn't a native plant, by the way. Wouldn't it be nice if it had stayed in South America?




Is this barren strawberry, or am I just being optimistic?




This weed's common name is "Gabe". He doesn't cause allergies.




Oh nuts, I had found the name of this humble flower once before, but I've lost it. It's common something-or-other, a meadow native.




No idea what this is!




Some sort of aster.




Come back Gabe! Mommy is sorry for being so obsessed with plants!

Edamame Fresh from the Garden

I picked some of the soy beans just before lunch and decided to try making edamame for lunch. I figured Michelle and I would split some. Much to my surprise Gabe got into his chair and dove in.

It took him a couple attempts before he figured out how to get them open, but he learned quickly.

Nom Nom Nom goes Gabe.

Earlier this morning Gabe shelled a bunch of dried peas for me, so I'm wondering if that helped him out with the edamame. Though eventually he copied mom and dad and started popping the pods in his mouth to break them open.

Happy boy full of fresh organic edamame. If I ever doubted if all the time in the garden was worth it, watching Gabe happily eat GREEN things from the garden has dispelled that doubt.

Open Spaces

There is a park called "Open Spaces" in our town. I haven't fully explored it yet, but it seems quite sizable, overgrown (not that I'm complaining), and quite underused. There are small trails there circling a series of ponds. Last year some moron dumped a pile of televisions in the small parking lot, but I have yet to see another person actually visiting the park.



In 2007 the town was trying to figure out what to do with the park's deteriorating dams. It looks like they decided to do nothing for now. Not surprising, considering that the town is rather desperate for funds.



My little naturalist. I had to carry him past a good deal of poison ivy.



We spotted a beaver in the water, in addition to gnawed trees. Chipmunks kept scolding us while we walked.



Gratuitous tree shot.



High water.



More high water, and lots of pollen.



The water mush have washed a giant pile of acorns here. These are all oak seedlings.




Gratuitous snake.


One of two very large, multi-trunked trees that flank the entrance path. Multi-trunks result from regrowth from stumps. The size of these trees indicates that they may have been the only trees on the hillside at some point.

The critters are eating all the strawberries again. . .

Where can I buy toddler repellent?

Mouse at the Gate

After a ton of work, the veggie garden is really starting to take shape: I've got about two-thirds of it planted at this point. If the weather is good this weekend I hope to finish off most of what remains. One of the highlights, however, had to do with moving the boards out of the pile by the gate and into the garden. While doing so I scared a mouse out from its hiding place and up the garden gate.

I have no idea what that little mouse was thinking, but it stayed at the top of the gate for about an hour before I finally gently forced it off and back into hiding. He let me show him off to all sorts of people who were visiting for our garage sale, and he let me take some great pictures.

This one is my favorite. The way the sun made him seem to glow just worked out great.

Just a moment later clouds moved over the sun and made for much more diffuse lighting.

The ears and whiskers were crazy.

Now as a person who has trapped and killed a number of mice in the house it seems quite odd to let this little guy off scott free, but I figure if the hawks are lucky he'll make a nice meal. With the way he stayed out in the open I expect that day is not far away.

Strawberries!

I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but maybe, just maybe, the hawks will keep the critters from getting all of the strawberries this time.

Also, there is a new danger: now that he has a taste for them, Gabe enthusiastically yanks off the unripe strawberries.

Double Trouble

Eventually I'll have to get a wide-angle lens instead of being a cheapskate who patches together photos with the Gimp. But I have to admit, it's fun putting together a picture that has my son in it not once, but twice.



Not much is blooming in Gabe's Garden now. So far there were violets and strawberries. And dandelions. And one scrawny serviceberry bloom cluster. Rather disappointing, actually. But things are growing like mad, particularly things in the strawberry family and mint family. There is a strawberry-mint battle raging. The bee balm is the front runner, displaying amazing prowess as a garden thug. These plants aren't going to play nice with one-another. I will have to wield an iron hand to keep the warring plants in check. I am regretting some of my plant choices.

Gabe's garden fails in the most basic respect: Gabe doesn't like it. The wood chips are mean to his bare feet. The circle does not contain his curiosity. His balls and toy trucks roll downhill, toward the garage, so that is where Gabe ends up. The plants don't interest him. I would like to think the ripening strawberries will catch his attention, but the chipmunks ate them all last year. My only consolation is that Mr. Cooper, the hawk, has been spotted almost daily on a snag out back, eating. We have observed a distinct lack of bunnies and chipmunks lately.

There is one winner: Gabe likes the gravel pit. Now if only he would stop tasting the pebbles.

Charles River Watershed Cleanup

Yesterday was the yearly Charles River Watershed Cleanup Day. After meeting at the local Whole Foods, we went out to our designated location: a dirt road leading out to a dammed bit of the Charles.



You can see my friend Walt out there, just between the trees. He donned waders and bravely slogged out into the wetland to extract trash. Among the stuff he hauled out were a broken baseball batting practice device, part of a table, an entire sealed bag of garbage that someone else had dumped, and the ingredients of beer pong: beer bottles and ping-pong balls.



He also brought a turtle back to shore for Gabe to examine. A snapping turtle perhaps? Judging by the damage to its shell, the poor critter had led a rough life.



Kelly, Gabe and myself stuck to the shore. Of the three of us, Kelly did the most work. I bagged a measly half-bag in between keeping Gabe out of the poison ivy and ineffectively keeping the gnats from biting his neck. Gabe contributed a few sticks and leaves.



Walt and Gabe.



Here is Gabe scaling sand bags left over from the recent flooding. . .



. . .and playing with sticks.



And this is what we were cleaning up. Beautiful, isn't it?