Monday night, Chris and I finished putting in the Spring garden. We put in 160 square feet (ten four-by-four beds) of cooler-weather veggies over the last few weeks. Some of them are a litle late in the season, but if we don’t get an early heat wave, they’ll do OK. Here’s what we planted (going by memory): peas, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, rutabegas, a blend of a dozen lettuces, four types of carrots, parsnips, black radishes, pansies (great in salads), easter egg radishes, bulls-eye beets, yellow beets, turnips, kohlrabi, bok choi, spinach, four heirloom lettuces, mustard, and arugula. I may have left something out. Last year I had a hard time finding seedlings for the warm-weather plants I wanted to grow. Tomatoes were no problem, as were bell peppers and run-of-the-mill eggplants. But I like unusual heirloom varieties, and the eight years I spent in New Mexico turned me on to different chiles and tomatillos. So this year I started a buch of seeds indoors. I saw the first sprout last night. In my living room I’ve got growing three varieties of European eggplants, three Asian eggplants, two types of Anaheim chiles, poblano chile, tomatillos, fennel, and a few other things I’m forgetting. They’ll go outside at the end of the month. I started work on the remaining 18 beds last night by removing a fence that was in the way. I’ve got a lot of digging ahead of me in the next few weeks. I freely admit that it will be a ludicrously huge garden, but I’m not afraid. Everything will be grown organically, and I expect a bountiful harvest all year long. Come by for dinner some time. The chickens moved outside this weekend. They love the roomy expanse of their coop over the cramped brooder box they were in. They’ve been going nuts over the grubs I’ve been tossing in. I’m pretty sure now that one of the twelve is a rooster, as she’s growing a large comb and wattle and has started to crow. Since I ordered a grab-bag of rare breeds, I don’t have anything to compare her against. I have no idea what breed she is. I ordered all females, but the accuracy rate of sexing a chicken right from the egg is only 90% or so, even for experts. Chris and I used the fenceing I took town last night to reinforce the plastic chicken wire to prevent another disaster like two weeks ago, when a charging dog killed our only Rhode Island Red. We also tarped the roof and a wall to give them more protection from the Spring storms that have been rolling through. They’re much happier outside. So, now you know how I’ve been spending my free time the last few days.

Just the other day I was thinking back to that great TV show Bosom Buddies , starring Peter Scolari and Tom Hanks. I knew Peter went on to fame and fortune in The Bob Newhart Show , but I was wondering what ever happened to Tom Hanks. Timely as ever, The Brunching Shuttlecocks have the answer.

Happy Birthday to Poor Clio!

Globalization doesn’t just mean a McDonalds on every corner. It also means some plants and animals are being introduced to places they could have never reached on their own. Sometimes everything works out OK, but often new species throw everything out of whack, invading their new homes and driving native plants and animals to extinction. The government maintains an excellent web site documenting invasive species. How many do you have in your yard?

The Red Elvises will be in town Wednesday night, and you can bet that I’ll be there. I’ve been a big fan since even before I saw them in Six-String Samurai.

A year ago, I posted this picture of a flower I stumbled across in my yard while mowing (with my non-motorized push mower). It’s very small, less than an inch high, and I almost mowed right over it. I didn’t know what it was, but I liked it, so it stayed. I’ve since found that the little fellow was a Grape Hyacith, a woodsy wild flower native to these parts. When they find a spot they like, they multiply quickly. Last year there was one. This year there was sixteen. I’m hoping for several hundred next spring.

To help you better prepare your finances, I will now disclose that the Dow will continue to fall until it reaches the 7200 mark, will then level out, and will slowly climb back up again. The NASDAQ will do the same, levelling out at the 1200 mark. I’m not certain how long it will take to reach the low-water mark, but I expect it will be late next winter.

Eeeee ooooo eeeeee whoooo eeeeee oooooo eeeeeeeeeeee whooooo eeeeeeeee oooooooooooo eeeeeeee! (From Backup Brain)

Here’s an interesting weblog portal. I’m on there twice: an edge-on spiral galaxy near the lower right (the one with a bright red star just above it), and again as a single white point (either a star or a distant galaxy) just above and to the right of my other link. Unless your memorization skills are grand, this would be a good randon-weblog selector.

Call Me Trimtab. I adore R. Buckminster Fuller. He’s most famous (to the average person) for inventing the geodesic dome, but he was exactly the kind of person I try to be. His tombstone is inscribed with his guiding phrase, “Call me tribtab.” The trimtab is a small moving extention of a ship’s rudder. By moving the trimtab just a litlle bit, expending very little energy, the rudder is compelled to follow. And after the rudder, the ship. So changing something very small can change the course of something very large, like an aircraft carrier. Or society. Call me trimtab. A fellow has written a one man show about R. Buckminster Fuller, and it’s gotten rave reviews in California. I’d love to do it here sometime. I’ve finally gotten the contact information for the author, now I need to follow through.