DDR Commercials, part 1

You know, I kind of miss the Cold War.

My favorite 2008 presidential election commercial.

Tim Russert, rest in peace

Stephen Colbert did my favorite wake of Tim Russert.

Garden underway

The garden is mostly in. I took out the two remaining stumps a few weeks back, and so far we have tomato plants, peas, beans, peppers, and corn planted. We have some squash seeds off past the tomatoes. There are also herb plants ready to go in and a solitary lemon cucumber.

The structure is something Nena made out of birch branches that I took down since they were in the roof danger zone. It will be supporting the beans when they grow, and will form a garden hiding spot for the kids.

The pile beyond is the compost.

The soil is really bouncing back after having been under a patio for some years. It's full of worms and, I would guess, a fair number of beneficial microbes, too. I haven't had it tested, but it has much more of the organic crumble to it than it even did last year.

Book recommendation for this post: Teaming with Microbes

Moving in, moving up!

Belle, Cleo, Duchess, and Queen of the Mash moved into their new digs last night.

It's an A frame plan. The lower portion is where they can hang out during the day when we're not around to protect them from neighbor cats or stray dogs or rabid racoons or whatever. At night, in theory anyway, they go up the chicken ladder to the upper portion, where we seal them in for the night. During the day they are free to circulate between levels.

So far they seem to be enjoying it. It's a great deal bigger than the Sterilite storage container they had been living in.

Adam

DUCKS!

This is a little belated, I know, but we recently (May 23) added two Cayugas to our household. They will grow up to be black ducks with a greenish tinge to them. They love playing in water and they love slurping down strings of spinach. They clack their bills against your fingers as they enthusiastically gobble the greenery.

Earth, Art, Ovens

Kiko Denzer has recently brought to my attention his blog, also on blogspot. I thoroughly recommend his book on earthen ovens. The latest edition has a quote about an earlier edition that I wrote to him.

I have to say for those who think this is goofy. These ovens are great. I went to a building party for a cob house out past Carver, Oregon, and for dinner we had pizzas cooked in an earthen oven. I took a few out to the oven and started walking away when the oven tender advised me to stay put, and gestured toward the oven. I looked inside and watched as the homemade pizza dough puffed up perfectly and then settled back down all in the space of about 90 seconds, and then he pulled them out and flopped them back on the sheets of cardboard I had used to carry them to the oven in the first place.

Anyway, go to kikidenzer.blogspot.com for more information.