They're Growing on Me

So those seeds I started? It didn't all go as beautifully as I'd planned. Had it gone as I imagined I'd have squash vines twining around me feet and small green tomatoes hanging heavy next to an abundance of beans. As it is, I am pleased that we had something to transplant to the greenhouse. We did that last week and everything seems to be pretty perky. Always a good sign. We have beans coming on the plants. I'd been pinching them off the seedlings for weeks already but I'd say they are adjusting to the new digs. And the tomatoes and squash are putting out new leaves. I'm still hopeful if guarded about getting something edible out of this venture yet.


For instant gratification, we have a new geranium. This one is supposed to be showing my poor, old wintered-over geraniums how to look. This one is a real beauty. Not featured in the pics, two pots of morning glories that I started from seed. They throw out about one bloom each day so far. Beautiful little plants, though. And my favorite old tea kettle is planted with cosmos and morning glory. I'm also trying my hand at square foot yardening. I love to recycle so I used an old porcelain coated drawer from my potting bench area and planted Kentucky fescue grass all around two mystery flowers. I started them from seeds but I no longer remember what they may be. So I will enjoy my square foot yard and cut my grass with scissors. Clearly I've been on this mountain too long.

Laundry Day - Old School

So it was snowy on Sunday, rainy on Monday, and beautiful today. I had to do some laundry. I can't turn down a sunny, lightly breezy day that will perfectly dry my clothes and linens.

While I washed several loads inside the house, I also used my "outdoor washing machine" to do a couple more. Of course, this isn't the complete washing machine you see here, because I'm not in the picture.


Here we can see that the extra capacity tub can easily handle an extra large comfortor with room to spare.


Here the advanced design of the agitator can be seen. Actually, this is a really cool tool. It fits inside a 5 gallon bucket or a 50 gallon "bucket". The plunger is designed to actually push water through the fibers on the downward thrust and then suction it back up through on the lift. I provided the "motor". I used my usual homemade laundry soap and some baking soda in the wash cycle and then some vinegar and essential grapefruit oil in the rinse cycle.


And of course you need a dryer that can handle this big stuff. Fortunately, that's not a problem. I have a high capacy dryer as well!


And of course it's always a pleasure hanging out laundry with such a beautiful view!




So, no, I'm not a complete freak. I got the washing agitator for the very specific reason that huge comfortors and heavy blankets don't really wash well or come out super clean in my home washer and I don't like hanging out at laundromats to uses the mega capacity washers that everyone uses for their nastiest jobs. This really fits the bill, gets me some exercise, and makes all the heavy bedding look and smell wonderful.

A New Season

I have not recently hit my head. I did not awaken in a place I did not recognize. Yet, when I got up this morning, I realized that I'm not exactly sure who I am. At the moment it is interesting, not frightening. After 20-some years of "doing the right thing", "doing what needs done", and "being practical", I'm stepping out into the uncertain and impractical country of Possibility. Friday, September 4th, was my last day of work and I am now ready to uncover the new me. After years and years in offices and administrative work, I feel a bit uneasy about leaving my groove. I'm an INFJ. I admit that I like things to be orderly. So I just stepped onto this little floating dock and I haven't quite got my sea legs yet.

If I take an inventory of my skills and gifts as evidenced by this morning, I am proficient at re-heating Pad Thai, making excellent French press coffee, and whipping up a canine feast. Cats adore me, dogs respect me, and I'm married to Kent, a kind and considerate man. Clearly this qualifies me to create a blog.

Having the opportunity to re-invent oneself is too significant not to celebrate or commemorate in some way. I don't ever want to forget this adventure (though I do not suffer from amnesia, I know my memory is faulty) and I know I stink at journaling. At least in journaling as I've attempted it in the past. So here's to fresh starts and new beginnings [The clinking of coffee cups] and a blog.

I hope to use this blog to share things that excite me, keep a humorous perspective on change, and motivate me to stop and think about this wild ride we are on. In the future I would love to talk about cooking, frugal living, art, writing, friendship, and... fill-in-the-blank. As Kent has pointed out, although I have many interests that I finally can have the time to pursue, there are likely still others I haven't discovered.

So what might the future hold? Kent and I have taken the plunge to commit me full-time to our home, lives and interests and I've left my job (the most recent having been 11 years in a consulting firm for veterinarians). Kent works a special schedule of 3 very long days, allowing him 4 days each week to pursue his passions of sculpting and creating. And I foresee that my new persona will include promoting art, making our home even more of a warm haven, gourmet cooking adventures, improved frugality and self-sufficiency, weaving-knitting-designing my own textile creations, discovering new depths of friendship and usefulness to others and writing. And hopefully cultivating an openness to new adventures.

I expected much opposition to our decision to become a one-income household in the pursuit of interests and values less quantifiable than money. I was sure we'd hear about the economy and the uncertanties, the dire possible consequences and "have you really thought about this". And while there were a few of those comments as folks learned of our plans, the overwhelming responses were more along the lines of: "Yay!", "It's time!", "I'm envious", and "You'll never regret taking the chance."

While the motivating factors may be different and there are as many hoped for outcomes as there are people, I find it is a common desire to break out of the known and follow your heart. Maybe something I post here will help someone else find what they need to help them move in that direction as well.

We haven't hit the lottery, we aren't independently wealthy. It is not beyond the bounds of reason to live on one ordinary income. Dreams don't have to always be somewhere ten or fifteen years in the future. We haven't been promised unlimited time. I could continue to work hard at a job like I have and still have no guarantee that we'd actually be closer to where we want to go.

So, enough for now. Maybe in my next post I'll take a look at what we've done and the groundwork that has helped us reach this point.

Hey, this is exciting!