What I've been up to...

Not much especially. I've been reading blogs, Orchid forums (yep, got swept up in learning again!) and generally enjoying life.

Fall has finally arrived here in Maryland, and I'm getting the garden shut down. I've been wanting to mulch in the whole place, but have been waiting for the leaves to fall. Did I mention that I've been waiting for the leaves to fall? Some have due to the warm weather and the drought Maryland has had this summer. But the majority of the leaves are still up on the trees, green and quite well attached! How am I supposed to mulch them under all the straw if they are still on the trees? Wait and do it next month. You know, holiday time. Times when I will have a slightly more busy schedule to deal with.

I found a new grocery store today. I like to cook Asian style food, and this store had "Asian Grocery" on the sign, so I was expecting Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc. But no! INDIAN! I found a place to buy basmati rice close to home, lentils, and all the spices that I used to make a special trip about 45 minutes out of my way to acquire. I really try to keep those trips to a minimum, but now that I know that the store is there, I will definitely do my staple shopping there! They have tons of vegetarian ingredients that are difficult to find in the big grocery stores. A good source of curry leaves is worth a celebration anyway. Tamarind sauce, many varieties of chutneys, papadams, paratha bread, and on and on and on. Anyway, I chatted with the owner of the store, who was also manning the register, and he told me he is from Nepal, and they eat a very similar diet to the Northern Indians. Wow! I'm psyched!

I scored some more "free wood" from the wood flooring manufacturing place on Tuesday. They leave rejects out on a big palette for anyone who wants it. It never stays long. I just happened to get there just ahead of a fellow with a pick-up truck who took all of what I couldn't fit in the trunk of my car. I had to pick up the Wonder Twins from school so I didn't get all that my car could hold. Anyway, I stacked it up out back with the rest of the wood. This stuff is red oak, maple, and some pine, but sawn, cured and cut to about 3 foot lengths. There is some really bad looking stuff, and that gets cut for firewood, the rest waits for various projects that I will undertake in my spare time.
Right now I have a solar wax melter to build, a honey comb press and a Sockinator (My name for a device used to hang socks and other small pieces of clothing on the clothesline easily.)

The new glasses have worked out really well. I am not getting headaches from them anymore, and I think I've got the trick down to being able to see using them. So I think I'll survive with them even better now! I love modern technology and learning! Now if we can use that technology for the forces of good, and feed the world, cool the place off a little, and generally help each other up, the Human race might actually win!

Short arms...

So I've been complaining that my arms are getting shorter, that words are getting fuzzy up close, and all that. Well, I made an appointment to get my eyes examined. The great news is that I'm relatively normal. No glaucoma signs, which is good. The doctor did say that I have a slightly greater than normal loss of epiphilial cells on my cornea than someone my age should have, but nothing to really do about that. And the good news, I need new glasses! Bifocals! I haven't gone to the glasses store yet, but will soon. I'm not looking forward to adjusting for them, but I am looking forward to being able to see print without having to stretch out my arms.

Beehives Done!

Well, almost. I still need to put the beeswax line on each top bar, but that can be done anytime. Here are several pictures of the painted and finished hives. I only painted the tops and socks on the feet and legs, the rest of the bodies are finished with linseed oil and beeswax melted together. Smells wonderful!

Here is another picture with some of the top bars in, and the follower board. This is how much space the initial package of bees will use. The rest of the space is for later in the season, when they need more room to put honey.


And here is a picture with all the top bars in, and after that, with the roof on.!

I would consider that Columbus day this year was very productive! I got the beehives finished, and installed in their new locations, to weather out the winter and wait for the new neighbors to move in next spring!

I also made a house number sign for the front yard. We used to have the numbers up on the house, but took them down when we had the house repainted. Oh, 2 years ago? We also had the number painted on the curb, but that has faded away. And we still have the number on the mailbox, but the clematis has grown so well, that the number is completely covered up! So, I used one of the extra follower boards, sanded it down nicely. I also used some of the scrap oak that I got from the flooring manufacturer near my job, and made a nice sign post. I wanted to use some of the chain I had left over from hanging the lights on Mary's plant-light shelves, but I could not find that chain to save my life. So I made some out of heavy gage wire. It should hold, but if it doesn't, I'll go buy some, I guess, even though that isn't the frugal way to do it! I still have to put the finish on the sign, but I can't do that until the glue dries. So, maybe tomorrow I'll get that bit done. And here is an almost finished picture of that sign, the numbers are just resting on it for now, and you can see the clamps on it too.

Orchid Show!

Ok, so I have a green thumb. I inherited it from my grandmother who could make rocks grow! Example to the right...
But I digress. The orchid show started today at the National Arboretum (just inside Washington D.C.) If you've never been to a flower show, they are absolutely stunning! I was amazed at the displays and the fragrance of the flowers.

It didn't help that while I was in Florida last June, I went to an orchid grower's greenhouse and was bowled over by the plants then, but didn't want to get more orchids that I would have to baby all the way home. So I didn't get any then. I have been surfing the web, shopping, learning and generally looking at hundreds of pictures of orchids, trying to narrow down ones that I would like to have of my own. I knew that the National Capital Orchid Society was having their show in October, so I had to wait until then. Well today was the day. I managed to only take home 4 orchids. Two of them are miniatures, growing on cork-bark, and the other two are Dendrobiums growing in their own little pots. The big orchids have yellowish blooms with a dark maroon lip. Stunning.

Anyway, that was my highlight of the day.

The take home lesson for me is that I waited for over 4 months to get my orchids, and spent only $80. Not especially frugal, but lots of delayed gratification on that front.

Blog award Nomination... I'd like to thank the academy...

Chile, was nominated for the "Change Begins At Home" blog award by Melanie, who searches for the good life in Cheshire over at Bean Sprouts. Melanie created the "Change begins at home" award to recognize bloggers who live what they preach, making the changes in their own lives that they would like to see in the world. Thanks for reading!

Chile nominated me in turn.

Here are the rules for this award:

1. Nominate three bloggers who epitomize "Change begins at home"

2. Link back to the person who nominated you, and link back to this post

3. When you receive the award, you may display the "Change begins at home" button on your blog.

I'd like to nominate three blogs I read for this award. They inspire and educate me on a regular, if not daily, basis:

1: Simple Living

2: Frugal Veggie Mamma

and not least, but last in this list... Liz at Pocket Farm

All great blogs, and all inspire with energy (even when they get overwhelmed) and action. I like the action part.

This seems like it will make a huge community of bloggers eventually, who are all doing positive things in their lives to make a difference for themselves, their families, their communities, their nations, and OUR planet.

As I replied back to Chile, I didn't even realize that there were people out there reading my blog, other than my few loyal family members.

Thanks for the nomination!

International Space Station transit!

I had heard on the radio today that the ISS was going to be transiting Maryland at 7:55 pm, and I mentioned this to Mary as we went out for our evening walk. It was amazing that a meteorologist actually talked about the night sky as well as the weather! Mary got excited and we scouted out a good place to have some night sky view in our neighborhood. That isn't easy, since we have so many trees. Anyway, we walked around, and wound up passing the house again, and Mary stuck her head in to ask if the Twins would like to view it. Samuel took her up on it. We walked up to the empty area, and started looking up. It came out of the southwest sky and move northeasterly. It appeared very bright, brighter than Jupiter, and moved across the sky in about 3 1/2 minutes. Wow. A fitting celebration for the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik I.