One more cup of coffee 'fore I go... to the valley below

A lovely photograph from Miss Allie Learn (click for better res) taken at dinner at the D St house. Elizabeth on the left and Matthew on the right. Classy.

Here are some pictures from the yard. Hope that you enjoy them. I hope they give you kind of an idea of how the garden is progressing, ie, very slowly. We are so poor it is hard to find money for expensive things like plant starts and also Kyle works a lot and Matt goes to school a lot, plus we are super popular so it is hard to find time. But it's comin'. See:The greenhouse! Still needs plastic. More on that in a minute...

This is where we chop the firewood, because we're hella mountain men.


Here is our lovely patio! Look how pretty the flags look in the sunlight. Please ignore the coffeecups and overflowing ashtrays.
Some beautiful flowers growing out back.
And here are some irises that popped up the other day! What a suprise! We thought that was just a random shrub!
What will be the tea garden, and on the right, part of the crown of an oak tree that Fenderson rescued from certain destruction. It is beautiful and complex. We don't quite know what to do with it, to tell you the truth. Something will come up, I'm sure.

This is going to be the main vegetable bed. This is kind of an "action shot" meaning that we didn't finish what we were in the middle of because we got distracted, so you, lucky reader, get to observe the process of turning shitty old lawn grass into sexy funky dirt to grow things in. This is largely done with sticks with pointed ends and compost.
Speaking of compost- here's the inside of the compost bin! I had to brave some stinky smells to take this picture but we are pretty proud of how much kitchen scraps we have been able to throw in here. We have been very disciplined about it. Peelings, gross leftovers, stale bread, anything. We are not cooking the eggshells before we throw them in because we are lazy but we are pretty sure it will work either way. We shall see .
These are only a few of the many compost bins. This whole fence you see behind them will be covered in beans, peas and scarlet runners. Maybe even hops!
Some of the flowers, cut and inside on the piano. Also here you can see a globe which has the USSR on it and a Japanese float from a fishing net. Yes.

Right before dinner was served the other night. Forgot to take pictures of people but doesn't the table look attractive?





Here are the seeds we bought at the store the other day:
Collards
Kale
Beets
Carrots, long and skinny
Beets, cylindrical? Do these taste different from regular beets?
Chamomile (yum, tea garden!)
Leeks
Kale- earlier
Mixed Salad Greens
Cucumbers, normal
Sugar Snap Peas
Lemon Cucumber
"Early Wonder" Beets (these are round)
Sweet Basil
Zucchini Squash (don't worry, just one package of these!)
Summer Crookneck Squash
Carrots
Different Basil (what is it called if not sweet? just basil? spicy basil? savory basil?)
Italian Striped Zucchini (oh, I lied)
Cilanto/ Coriander
Pole Beans




About the greenhouse: where can you get plastic for a greenhouse? Well, according to Mark Wigg, you can get it from Agri-Plas in Brooks. I intend to do just that. Yet again, Living Culture turns out to be insanely helpful and relevant.

The other night I was over at Casa Rafn, birthplace of Living Culture, and I discovered two things. One, they linked to this blog on their site! Haha yay our first link!
And two, I met Chris and Elizabeth, who are Minto Island Growers. They're awfully sweet people, very funny and charming, and I'd like to get to know them better and possibly go see their farm! Here is a link to their website.

Dinner this Saturday is a private pizza party in a closed restaurant. Top secret and very delightful, my friends are so wonderful.

Anyway this will probably be the last post for a little while, as Elizabeth is off to Costa Rica on Sunday and she very much doubts that Matt or Kyle will remember to blog it up. It's possible, keep checking back, and if nothing else, we'll see you on March 26th!

Matt says: Hurdy gurdy progress! I have boards that have been cut. A few. Not many, but a few.
Kyle says: We moved a greenhouse over. We tried to do it with manforce but we had to use fossil fuels and Elizabeth Rescue Squad force. I built it myself at my old house which is nearby. It is to the left of the shed. I am going to start some seeds, I'm going to grow some lemon grass (or in the ground). We're going to grow salad greens and maybe some pees, sucka. The greenhouse has a roof made out of salvaged storm windows and the rest is two by three construction. That's it!
Here are some pictures of the epic greenhouse move-


Taking off the glass
Putting some 2 by 4s and some rods through it to make a framework to carry it with
Crossing Center st! Right after this picture was taken, our friend Preston came screaming around the corner, delivering a pizza in his beat-up old car with a Doors sticker on the fender, and almost ran into Kyle and Matt. Of all the people in Salem to almost run them over, it WOULD be Preston. He rolled down his window and yelled, "You motherfuckers almost made me get in an accident!" and then sped away. He is our worst friend but he is still one of my favorite people in the world. So it goes.
They only got about another two blocks before realizing that it would take all night to carry the greenhouse all the way (1o more blocks?) to our house, so I had to go back and pick them up in the truck. Then we all went back to the house and got some tacos! I learned from my cousin Trask recently that in order for these tortillas to be delicious-
YOU HAVE TO FRY THEM!!! YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO FRY THEM!!! First you heat some oil in a frying pan, then you throw a tortilla in. Let it sizzle for a bit, then flip that shit over. Then, once both sides are fried, use some tongs or something to kind of bend one side up and hold it for a minute so it forms into a taco shape. Then fill it with refried beans, spinach, chopped tomato, plain yogurt/sour cream, shredded cheese, and sliced avocado as quick as you can while it's still hot. This makes the tortillas crunchy. I realize that probably a lot of people already knew that but it was news to me and I was delighted by the prospect of never eating another nasty bland, cold, mealy tortilla ever agian in my life.
And here are some other pictures.

Here is a delicious rainbow cake that I made! I got the recipe from this excellent site . This cake offered undeniable proof that our oven runs much too hot. The top edges of the cake were black before it was done in the center. I had to chip off the burnt bits before frosting. My friend Zach Bendt is modeling this cake for me. I also made a batch of cupcakes with the leftover batter, two of each colour. Using Sprite instead of eggs, oil and water in cake recipes works like a damn charm.


Here is a piece of pizza made by Kyle, who used to work at a certain very fancy pizza joint in Portland, with a birthday candle on top to celebrate Elizabeth's birthday! It was wonderful. Next time we're going to make the pesto fresh, though. Speaking of pizza, if you have never been to Christo's pizza in Salem, SHAME ON YOU. It is delicious. Go tonight.

And here is a bruise on Elizabeth's knee which was from falling off of Kyle's bike trailer, drunk in the middle of the night, as he went around a corner. The thing to remember about bike trailers is that even if Sarah Killion or Brooke Pukerson can fit onto them safely- Elizabeth is much larger than Sarah or Brooke! Probably larger than Sarah+Brooke! Thus the late-night tumble resulting in a headache, a boo-boo on her knee and injured pride. Aside from that she is uninjured.

My God, look at all of this firewood! This is from cutting down an entire fucking orchard. This isn't even probably 1/5 of all of the firewood. Elizabeth was in charge of using the long pruning shears to turn a brancy-ass tree into a bunch of logs, and then Elizabeth's dad was in charge of taking it down into component pieces with the chainsaw. From there, Kyle hacked the logs to bits with a chopping maul and loaded it into the truck. Matthew Moore and our new friend Logan Dunn were waiting at the house to unload the wood upon our return. It worked out very nicely. Some of the wood is still too green to really consider burning anytime soon but some of it had just been laying around for a while already, so we had a nice fire last night, most of the wood I think was cherry but there's some elm too.

Kyle put some toast in the toaster oven and forgot about it and burnt it so black it set off the smoke alarm and filled the whole house with smoke and it still smells like burnt-ass toast in here. He also learned that it is almost impossible to cook the cheap-ass flounder from WinCo into anything edible. He tried twice. Elizabeth discovered that the chocolate-covered pomegranate candy in the bins is SO GOOD that she had to hide the candy dish in the coat closet and only put it out when company is over or else she'd weigh 5,000 lbs.

Yesterday when Matt and Elizabeth were on their way to Christo's for DATE NIGHT they ran across a pile of freecycle! On 14th St across from North Salem High School someone had put out an ironing board, an old mini charcoal grill and a mirror! We didn't take any of it since we already have all of those things, but it was wonderful to see someone putting use-able items out on the sidewalk for others to take, instead of straight into the trash.

Which brings me to dumpster diving.
I (Elizabeth) have never done this. But I'm going to.
I've got a flashlight, a pair of gloves, some superglue, and an unquenchable thirst for free cool shit. Also a guilty conscience from living in this wasteful society, in a thing so wasteful as a house in a city.
I've been mentally taking notes about places I'd like to hit up, and here are a few of them-
Florist
Bakery
Toy store
Natural foods store
College campus (behind the art building and behind the science building)
Bookstore
etc etc etc! Any other ideas?
AND THUS
Stay tuned. Maybe tonight or the next fine warm night we've got I'll go out and see what I can find. Of course I'll put it on the internet because what good is free cool shit if I can't brag about it? Also I intend to recycle all the recyclables I can find. I read that for every seven pounds of recyclables you can pull out of the garbage and recycle you save one gallon of gasoline, or, you know, prevent/offset one gallon of gasoline being burned and put into the atmosphere, or whatever. SEVEN. that's the important part. SEVEN.

Leaving for Costa Rica in... 14 days!

Chickens and pitas

The dinner came out great
However, last night's dinner- not so great
I put WAY too much baking soda in the biscuits and they were vile, salty and hard as rocks
That is too bad
Kyle's onion soup was delicious, as usual, as were Heather's oatmeal scones
I'm still not so sure about squash


GREYWATER
What do you know about greywater?
I got a book about it at Powell's the other day but it is a pretty complex technical manual. So I don't really feel like reading it yet. I have a cold.
What if we just ran a hose from the back of the washing machine out of the basement-level window right above it, around the side of the house and into a barrel? In the barrel we could have some healthy pond-scum-loving-water-filtering plantsl, and then a tap at the bottom. The tap connects to another hose which is perforated to form a rudimentary drip-irrigation system through the tomato beds! If we were very careful about using only PH balanced, cholorine-free detergent (which we do anyway) it seems pretty simple and easy to me! Obviously I know where the water-out-of-washer valve is, as that is what caused the flooding (see earlier)

Anyway I think I'll try that. Thoughts?

CHICKENS
Why can't we have stupid ol' chickens here in Salem? I want some chickens. Hens specifically- little tiny buff banty ones. Here are some reasons:
They are cute
They lay eggs, which are good to eat
They eat lots of bugs in the yard and they poop out fertilizer
If one dies, you can eat it
They are quiet (different from roosters)
I know how to build one of those move-able coops, it's pretty easy
Here is why the city of Salem thinks I cannot have a chicken:
They are noisy
No they are not! Chickens are almost totally silent! Have you ever hung out with a chicken, city of Salem? They are very docile compared to say, turkeys, or dogs, both of which you can have in Salem. Also you can have pigs and goats. What the hell?
As it says on this very excellent blog Salem is currently allowing a for-profit to run a private helicopter school complete with landing pad within Salem city limits. How is this not noisier than a fucking chicken?
I was talking to the Rafns about this recently and they promised to put me in contact with people who are interesting in guerilla chicken-ing and chicken activism.


Pretty soon Kyle is going to get his greenhouse! It is just over on 14th and Chemeketa which is let's see about 10 blocks away. It is too big to fit in the back of my baby pickup truck but he and Matt think they can just stand inside of it and carry it over here. He built it himself. The top part is glass and the sides are plastic. We think it will fit along the back of the garage, next to the big vegetable bed. It is one foot shy of requiring a permit. Pictures of this greenhouse will surely be uploaded. Yes.