shannonehlers.com » hobbies

Winter Means Gardening

adminuser — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 07:35:12 +0000

My current favorite winter reading material

What do you do in the winter time? Maybe you go hunting, perhaps a cross country ski weekend, or a day of snow shoeing. It could be that you take saunas, you spend your days baking, or you enjoy a friendly visit to neighbors for coffee. One of my favorite winter activities, when the evenings are long and days are short, is gardening. You read that right – I said “gardening”.

Obviously I don’t spend much time working the soil when our high temp is well below freezing, but what I choose to do instead, is plan the garden and pick through the seed catalogs that start arriving mid-winter. I think that this is just a naturally cathartic activity on cold, dreary days. What could feel better than to think about warm spring days planting or hot summer days eating tomatoes or strawberries fresh from the garden?

This is something I remember so well from my childhood – my great grandma first showed me the Gurney seed catalog when I was probably about four years old. She would tell me about peas and beans, how they grew on trellises; she would talk about cucumbers and ask if I remembered making pickles with her, trying to explain to me why we made pickles; she’d ask me about different fruits and then she’d describe the orchard in her back yard; finally she’d ask me to circle the pictures of vegetables I’d like to grow and eat. Lots of time was spent talking, thinking, and hoping for good crops. My great grandma was a superb gardener and could make plants grow almost by her wish.

This wintertime activity always helped chase away the cabin fever if you’d been shut in by bad weather for a few days. One thing I noticed, though, as I got older is that you can sometimes order seeds just to stave off cabin fever. More than one time, I have done this and then found out that while it worked to cure the cabin fever, I now have much more seed than I could ever hope to grow in my garden spot. I won’t be surprised this year if that happens.

Above, in the picture, you see the catalog of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds – a Missouri company dedicated to help preserve long, lost varieties of food crops. I am not compensated in any way to tell you that this has become one of my favorite seed catalogs simply for the wide variety of foods you can now grow for yourself. You really have to see it to believe it – and you can see it at their website (link).

Winter Means Gardening is a post from: shannonehlers.com

In With the Old, In With the New

adminuser — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:35:39 +0000

While cleaning my den recently I came across this old wood plane, purchased for a pittance on a tool auction years ago, and now used in my den as a decoration. Looking at it, I wondered how many previous owners had also handled this tool? How had they used it? Had it also been a decoration for them, or was it a tool used every day? Had it been used in a cabinetmaker’s shop? In a coffin maker’s shop? Had it been a trusted tool handed down from father to an apprenticing son? Had it been replaced by a shiny new power tool? If so, did technology trump artistic and aesthetic form?

This last question stuck in my head. It seems that everything is now faster, more instant, electronic. Everything now has powder coating, plastic handles, and power cords. We don’t stop, though, at electric power alone. Some tools now even come with lasers to aid in sighting the cut line.

Living in an analog world is now frowned upon. We see it in so many ways.

For instance, my family is preparing several of my grandmother’s possessions for sale at auction, as she downsizes from a five bedroom home to a small apartment. One of the numerous intriguing items I’ve come across is an old Victrola record player, which must be cranked before the music is played from the thick, waxy records. As I look at it and the records, I wonder if any of these songs are available in my favorite online music store? Will the next generation of music lovers ever know these songs or the somewhat tinny sound of the giant conical speaker when they plug in their “ear buds”? With my mp3 player and the hundreds of songs it holds and plays at my demand, I wonder how high would a stack of old 45s be if I had all of those songs in that format?

Looking through a different lens, I’m a chemist by trade and training. For over seven years I’ve had the privilege of working for a small company dedicated to preserving Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), an holistic system of medicine at risk of becoming a lost art, were it not for a few dedicated souls working diligently to preserve it, not the least of which is my boss. We utilize high technology in our laboratory to determine the quality of our raw materials and finished products, and we also utilize arguably low-tech manufacturing practices, in order to replicate the traditional processing techniques used for generations in the Chinese medicine system. All of this stands in stark contrast to our modern western system of medicine, where we typically seek instant relief of our symptoms but sometimes forget to treat the cause. It all forms an interesting mix of centuries-old tradition and appropriate technology, and the whole thing is run by a guy I like and respect.

Of course, nowhere is the change from manual to power, analog to digital, more evident than in the field of photography. There are entire companies built on the digital photography industry, and entire companies shifting from film to digital. Likewise, entire industries are now needing to retool if they are to survive this transition. Kodachrome film, for instance, is being phased out, prompting many who celebrate film photography to remove their hat and pay their respects to a film widely recognized for its superiority, but soon to be a nostalgic touch point from a bygone era as we move to digital image acquisition, processing and display. Even the image at the top of this post, my old wood plane, has never seen print, going directly from an electronic image sensor to solid state memory to a server and now to your monitor.

And speaking of that wood plane in the image, has it been replaced with a shiny new power tool? How has woodworking changed? In many ways it has changed greatly, and in other ways, not at all. In the era of CNC lathes and power drills, there are still folks like Robby Pedersen, who runs a working museum that builds furniture using techniques from the 1800s. My mother, a tour guide, told me about him after one of her contacts in the tourism industry presented her with some literature. And then there is Roy Underhill, who just published a new book on woodworking, starting from the beginning, in the forest felling a tree. For more on planes, especially hand planes, made the old fashioned way, check out Philly Planes, a british maker of planes that seem more like art pieces than tools.

All of these examples demonstrate someone exerting a resistive force, standing up for something of value against a rising tide of change. In most of these cases, we see a blending of new and old techniques, while many around us would urge abandoning the latter. Do you know of something worth preserving, something worth standing up for against a rising tide of change? Click the comments link, under the post title, to the right, and tell it!

In With the Old, In With the New is a post from: shannonehlers.com

Lovely Links courtesy of LinkedInians

adminuser — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:09:50 +0000

In a previous post, I summarized the terrific response I got to my nostalgic computing question. Several of the people responding actually generously contributed links to anachronistic computing resources.

I have compiled a list of these links here (most links are self explanatory, but if you submitted the link and you think it needs more explanation, please just add your info in the comments!):

Lovely Links courtesy of LinkedInians is a post from: shannonehlers.com

My SFG (Square Foot Garden)

adminuser — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:40:30 +0000

This year in addition to my over-the-top tomato project, I also established a square foot garden (made popular by the PBS gardening program and the books by Mel Bartholomew, with a recent revision). I wanted to try the extreme case of gardening on my concrete driveway. So I lost a parking space in exchange for a source of fresh veggies and salad greens. Seems fair.

In the photos below, you can see the SFG with plants just emerging from the soil mix and then again about a month later. What a difference a month makes!

Note to the very observant & somewhat curious: yes, I have moved the mower since taking the first picture. I’ve actually mowed three times.

Anybody else doing the SFG thing? Tell me how it goes for you in the comments!

My SFG (Square Foot Garden) is a post from: shannonehlers.com

Summer’s Coming

adminuser — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:40:41 +0000

Summer is on its way, despite recent freezing temperatures here in the midsection of the country.

So far, my summer reading list has only one book on it. I am hoping you can suggest a few books for me to read this summer. Please consider dropping a comment based on what you know about me – if you know me only from what you’ve read here, that’s fine, just suggest three or four books you think I might enjoy. If this is your first encounter with “The Midnight Blogger” just let me know what you’re reading right now and maybe I’ll pick it up too.

Thanks!

Summer’s Coming is a post from: shannonehlers.com

More on the plants’ progress

adminuser — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 07:37:51 +0000

I enjoy growing vegetables. I’m not particularly good at it, and certainly not an expert. As a matter of fact, last year, I lost nearly all the plants I started in a series of unfortunate incidents including a rogue frost, a hot and dry summer, an amazingly invasive weed, hungry insects (including aphids, squash bugs, and cut worms) and even an accident involving my trusty Taurus (backed over a pepper plant, causing irreparable damages). But I still like the act of going out each year and putting plants into the soil, watching them grow, and (when I’m lucky) harvesting an edible reward.

Along with the discouraging results from last year, the fact that I rarely eat a tomato is enough to make you wonder why I bother. Certainly I could probably get by without growing as many plants as I have going in my south window but still, I find it fun.

The pictures above include the tomatoes at left, just beginning to show their first true leaves. These will soon be transferred to pots. More pictures of that process will be posted, too. The picture to the right is not too clear, but you can see the first pepper plant to poke through the soil. This one is a serrano type (hot) pepper. I have started several hot varieties and a few sweet peppers, too this year.

I will share a few photos of the final growing locations of some of these plants when they are in the ground, as well as an update on how many actually survived and how they harvest goes. So far it is looking very good with all but six plants germinating. These six were all of one variety – a yellow tomato called “Pink Grapefruit”. Maybe I’ll re-try, but probably not.

More on the plants’ progress is a post from: shannonehlers.com

What Have You Been Doing?

adminuser — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:46:13 +0000

Sometimes time flies, even when you aren’t really having much fun. The last part of February and the first part of March it seems I got very ill. I don’t know what it was for sure, but it did beat me down. But I got up again. And you’re never gonna keep me down. OK, no more song references in this post.

Anyway, I am back now and thought I’d update you on March activities.

First off, I started several tomato plants from seed. This is a yearly tradition in the spring, and I set many of them out myself, while giving many away to family and friends, too. This year I have about thirty varieties growing, including numerous low-acid types.

Picture: Tomato Plants

As evidenced in the picture linked above, I use my washer and drier as heat mats to aid in germination and growth. These seedlings will soon be moved into pots with soil where they will be grown to 8-12″ tall, then transplanted outdoors. The plants got a very fast start this year, and I am going to be a little ahead of myself if I guess right, so it could get interesting in May (hope we don’t have any late frosts!). To the left of the tomato flat is a muffin tin with peppers, which have yet to poke through.

Another March item has been the beginning of the end of Christmas. I have begun, finally, taking down all of the Christmas lights outside. I meant to get to this earlier during some unseasonably warm weather in January or February, but it seems like it never came. Then the above-referenced illness showed up and I didn’t get much done. No pictures, but you get the general idea.

Finally, I recently took in the annual Dunlap St. Patrick’s Day parade. Again, no pictures (I don’t know why but I forgot to take pics!).

So if you’ve been missing me and wondering what I’ve been up to, it is summed up as follows: very ill, starting seed, un-decorating, and St. Pat’s. There, you’re all caught up.

I’ll do my best to keep up to date through the rest of spring.

What Have You Been Doing? is a post from: shannonehlers.com

Lord I was born a ramblin’ man

adminuser — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:56:01 +0000

The alert among us know that this is the second song lyric I’ve used as a post title. This time I have no thought-provoking questions or reports on how I spent my time off over Christmas.

No, this time I just want to plug a long-time favorite band of mine, a group I grew up listening to. In the late 1970s I was about four feet tall and singing along with my cousin Tim a.k.a. Levi, on songs like “Clementine”, “The Old Double Diamond”, and “Buckskin Lady”. He performed with the cowboy group The Starlite Ramblers. The recordings were on 33 rpm records (I’m going to confuse the youngsters with this reference).

In the ’70s, Tim was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Thirty years later, he’s all of that still, and you can now get all the original music in digital versions, as well as some more up-to-date tunes as well.

At that time, they were providing the antidote to disco music. If you have an extra twelve bucks, and you’d like to hear legitimate western music, I cannot say it loudly enough – go to their web site, buy a CD and give it a listen. By the way, you can try before you buy – they have mp3 samples of most songs.

Lord I was born a ramblin’ man is a post from: shannonehlers.com

Casey Jones, drive the train

adminuser — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:33:16 +0000

I just dropped by to announce a new online location for some of my hobby related content: http://bvcentral.blogspot.com which is a quick little blog for my HO scale model railroad, the Boyer Valley Central.

Although currently mostly in the armchair mode, I do have some benchwork installed, some basic track laid out (not fastened), and a crude operating scheme in mind.

Find more at the train site, http://bvcentral.blogspot.com

Casey Jones, drive the train is a post from: shannonehlers.com

One Year Ends; Seed For the Next

adminuser — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:20:27 +0000

This is a wonderful time of year for me. While I take part in the Christmas rush every year, there are many other reasons why I love this season so much.

First, I love winter, and in particular I love so-called inclement weather. For some reason, I like it when it is cold and gray. I always have. Whether it is a snowy day or a rainy day, while others sit inside and wait for the sun to come out, I am usually outside, experiencing the weather. From the first onset of frost in the fall to the last blizzard of spring, I am in the cheeriest of moods. Don’t ask me to explain why, but for me what most call “inclement” is just fine.

Secondly, I’m a big fan of planning and reviewing and this is when I do my goal setting and progress checking. I have several new ventures to track in 2008, including the one you are reading now. So I’m thoroughly enjoying setting up tools and metrics to do just that.

Finally, I have a budding interest in gardening (pun totally intended) and I have just started receiving seed catalogs in the mail. So far my favorite is from a small company in Missouri called Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. It is run by a young man and his wife and is dedicated to purveying quality heirloom seeds. Web site address: http://www.rareseeds.com

What’s your favorite time of year?

One Year Ends; Seed For the Next is a post from: shannonehlers.com