The Caffeinated Penguin

Posted By matt on May 24, 2007

So, I'm back from Vegas without incident. Things have been a little busy since getting back, however.

The grass was long when we left and now it's positively a jungle out there, so I'm trying to get it mowed as quick as I can. The problem is that, in the tall grass, you can cut it faster than the bagger can bag it, so you must go really slowly. Couple that with the fact that I have to empty the bagger every 10 minutes (yes, it's that much grass) and you begin to understand why I've been at it for 6 hours and am still only about half finished. However, the 54″ deck is definitely better than an 18″ walk behind mower.

I'm finally caught up on email, and will post pictures as soon as I can; probably tonight. I have some other things to do so I won't be mowing the lawn, which means I may have time for pictures. Meanwhile has some good ones. In fact, hers are probably better than mine, as I was in the wedding party and that means you're not always in a good spot for pictures.

The wedding was lovely, the resort was very nice, and Nevada is a beautiful place to visit. Vegas is a crazy overgrown frat party, and makes me very uncomfortable. Ironically, the most comfortable I was was when we were visiting the Harley Davidson cafe. This is probably because, as a general rule, bikers and rockers don't bother me that much; I can pigeonhole them and their behavior is fairly predictable. Random people on the street however, are unknown, so each one needs to be assessed individually. Given the ever-changing dynamic of the crowd, this leads to major sensory overload as you attempt to threat assess everyone you see.

Once you leave the city, Nevada is very nice. The mountains in the distance, rugged weathered landscapes, lake Mead and the Hoover dam. The difference between here and other places, like Alaska (still need to post pics), is that I could see moving to Alaska if it weren't so far away. However, the residents can keep Nevada – too hot, dry and sandy.

Unfortunately, Liz broke her camera on the trip. She dropped it and cracked the screen. However, she found another one with a working screen but a broken mechanism on eBay. She bid on it and won, so I will be fixing her camera in the near future.

In other news, Liz's interest combined with 's discussions on the subject and the desire for some amount of self-sufficiency have me very receptive to putting in a garden. To that end, Liz's Dad was generous enough to come over and bring his tiller (the large kind which attach to the PTO on a tractor), which is much better for breaking ground on fresh plots. He tilled up two new decently sized plots (one in full sun all day, one in about 3/4 sun) and re-tilled one smaller existing plot (which is also about 3/4 sun). The soil is seems good, having been fallow for quite awhile, though it is quite sandy. This will likely be good for drainage. We still need to get a small tiller for continued tilling, and it looks like a used Troy-Bilt (the old kind which last forever) will be about $500 or so.

We already have existing wild strawberries, blueberries, apple trees (of some variety, might be crabapple), and creeping thyme, and will encourage the growth of these (the thyme is good for erosion control). I am leaving the management of the garden to Liz – I am merely here for discussions and labor. So, she will decide what goes in, though I am insisting upon some herbs (and she agrees). I think she's talking about a decent amount of peas and tomatoes. The idea here is that, at harvest time, we will vacuum pack and freeze the peas (I have a packer already), and I will pick up a pressure cooker and some jars and jar the tomatoes. Next year, we can start plants in the greenhouse room, because by then it will be up and running.

Once this plays out, we will be getting a sizable portion of our food from the local ecosystem – our meat is mostly local deer (with some Montana elk and Idaho bear in there as well), and our vegetables will be from our garden. It won't be 100% of it, but it will be some. I will also attempt to get more from local farmers markets come harvest time.

Anyway, I must get to work.

Category: LJ Import
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