Snow!

It's not often that we a substantial amount of snow here in north Arkansas, but we got lucky this week! Our immediate area had about a foot of the white stuff. Yeah, a lot of people gripe about it, which irritates me. Many Arkansas natives don't want to deal with snow, and the far-north yankee transplants puff out their chests and scoff that no amount of snow or ice could compare to what they had to deal with. I really enjoy snow, even if I am in the minority. I can see how living up north it would get old - the things that makes it so fun here is that #1) a good snowfall is fairly rare, #2) it stops life as we know it, causing a holiday-like atmosphere and a diversion from business-as-usual, #3) it makes me feel less guilty about spending the day curled up on the couch with a book, and #4) despite the fact that (as much as I hate to admit it) I'm in my mid-30's, it's fun to play in and breaks up the mundane blahs and blues of January.

I thought maybe the snow would stay around for a while, but the sun came out today (the day after the snowfall) and started making it stick. So, I took full advantage of abundant sticky snow. I REALLY wanted to take a sled to the top of the great big hill nearby, but unfortunately my mother made me promise "not to do anything stupid"...and sledding by myself, while hubby is stuck in Little Rock, out in the middle of nowhere possibly fits into that category.

Instead I decided to make a snowman...which when finished ended up being a trout.

And here's some snow pics from around the house:

Gettin' Folky

A few months ago my fiddle teacher, Violet, received a letter announcing she had been awarded the Mike Seeger Scholarship to attend the 2010 Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis in mid-February. Mike Seeger, who died last year, was not only a very well-known guy (in a well-known family) in the folk music world as a musician (just Google him), but he was also, in a nutshell, hugely responsible for the popularity and preservation of old-timey, traditional, and folk music. His scholarship fund furthers the cause of preserving and promoting traditional music. For Violet it provides for her and an escort the registration fee for the conference, as well as a hotel room and gas money to get there, as well as a performance in a special Showcase meant to honor her and her achievements.

http://www.folkalliance.org/

And who is the lucky escort? Yep, you guessed it. Going to a folk music conference probably isn't too high up on most people's lists, but for me, an old-time music geek, the chance to attend something like this has me dancing on the ceiling. Originally a member of Violet's family was going to take her, but it seems nobody can get away for several days during that time. I promised to take her in the event nobody else could...I couldn't let her miss this event. Long story short, Violet did some shrewd finagling with the conference organizer, who seemed to be willing to stand on his head to get her there, and he has now agreed she can have two escorts - me - as her student, and Sterling - her 17 year-old guitar-playing grandson. (He's now dancing on the ceiling, too)

At first I thought this conference was only for American old-time string band front porch-type music, but I was mistaken. I've since discovered that "folk" actually encompasses a LOT of different music, played by a lot of "different" people...not just old-timey string band, but everything from Celtic stuff played by musicians from Ireland, to acoustic blues, to hairy arm-pitted women singing "If I Had a Hammer", to coffee-house beatnik style whatever-you-call-that, to fruity-acting guys playing flutes. And all taking up what seems to be the whole Mariott in downtown Memphis. In my youtube searches for this conference I've seen all kinds of instruments - ones you expect to see, like fiddles, guitars, banjos, dobros, base fiddles, etc, to the ones you don't expect - pan flutes, accordions, tubas (seriously), tambourines, bongo drums...you name it. In addition, this conference is a full round-the-clock experience, with people staying up all night, going from room to room, band to band, jam session after jam session. The whole conference is a celebration of folkish music by some of the best musicians in the world, as well as a way for musicians to find bands, and bands to find musicians.

The conference organizer asked if we'd like to be on the "quiet floor" or the "jamming floor." After seeing some of these videos, I think we made the wise choice of the "quiet floor", if only for my benefit. I think Violet could and would stay up all night jamming. He also warned me that it was pretty wild, and we'd better get used to walking down a hallway and have someone jump out and start playing an instrument at us without warning. I have a feeling I'm really going to feel totally out of my league and much like the complete fiddle novice I am.
.
In any case, I think this is going to be quite the experience. I'm don't exactly know what to expect, but I am definitely taking my camera.

Raised Beds 101

I've yakked incessantly in the past couple of years about home gardening and my evolving attitude toward food-growing and local consumption, and have been asked more than a few times about my gardening methods. So, I decided to post more on the subject for anyone who'd like to start raised-bed gardening but is not sure where or how to start. And what better time - we're enjoying spring-like temps here in January, and spring fever is really starting to tickle my toes. Get ready for a real blab-fest.

My official disclaimer: I'm not by any means an expert, nor do I want to appear know-it-all or egotistical...I'm simply attempting to answer quite a few questions and also trying to further something I feel strongly about - that everyone who's interested can and should have a backyard garden...you don't HAVE to be an expert. And like most activities in this world, there are endless, sometimes extremely strong opinions considering proper methods and materials, especially when it comes to gardening. In other words - if you have a better way or better idea, since I'm still learning myself I'd be very interested and receptive to new or differing opinions.

When I was first thinking about building my raised-bed garden utopia, I made the mistake of immediately diving head first into a LOT of research from all kinds of sources - books, the Internet, magazines, the library, and word of mouth. I heard and read that raised bed gardening was "so easy", but couldn't figure out why all the information was making it seem so incredibly complicated. The biggest problem is the sheer volume of easily-accessible information and opinions out there that makes it difficult to sift through and process it all. It's easy to get overwhelmed and start questioning whether it's worth the effort, and if it just might not be better to stick to the conventional gardening that you know...or just buy produce from someone else or the store.

After much aggravation, I took a step back and put into perspective what I was trying to do. Raised-bed gardening is really nothing more than building or buying a box, throwing in some dirt, and planting seeds or plants. It really can be that simple. I calmed down and started out with an Internet search on the materials and dimensions for raised-bed gardening, as well as consulting my Mother Earth News magazines.

(Side note - I've since cancelled my subscription to Mother Earth News. While it's a good magazine with lots of excellent information, I found it harder and harder to put up with the increasingly extreme eco-centric attitude. After one too many condescending and preachy articles on how we're horrible beings who are all going to cause everyone to die a slow painful death and implode the planet if we don't immediately start using "energy-efficient" light bulbs, and how we should all live in yurts made from hay bales, live on a government-mandated $4000/year salary and never eat meat, I'd had enough. While I agree we can do better in many areas to be more responsible with our resources, I do think it can be taken WAAAY overboard and I sure don't want it shoved down my throat.)

The first thing I had to figure out was what size to make my beds. I found out that the most common dimensions for a raised garden bed are 4' x 8'. It needs to be narrow enough to be able to sit down on the side and reach across to weed or gather produce. As far as the length - deciding that will depend on available space, personal preference, and the materials used. There are differing opinions on depth, but the general consensus seems to be least 12" deep, though I added a couple of quickly-built beds last year that were only 8", and they seemed to do just fine.

Materials can be pretty much anything you can build a box out of...it depends heavily on how much money a person wants to spend and what may be readily available. I found widely varying opinions on this and got pretty frustrated trying to figure out what to build my beds out of without breaking the bank. One of my mom's friends stacked concrete blocks, and they are apparently very functional. Another benefit of concrete blocks I can see would be that the beds would be less permanent than other structures. The drawback for me would be that I happen to think concrete blocks are a bit on the ugly side. But, if I had access to a bunch of free ones, I could sacrifice some aesthetics for practicality.

My folks used 2x12 treated boards, and have had very good luck. This is also pretty economical, and the current method I'm considering for my new beds at our new place, though the practice of using treated boards is a bit controversial in the eco-friendly world. Some people prefer to use un-treated lumber and treat them with boiled linseed oil. From what I've heard this does offer some protection from the elements, but isn't a really long-term solution, and a person can spend a small fortune on linseed oil if there are many boards to treat.

Railroad ties are another option many people use, though I've read that the creosote is a problem and can be harmful to soil and veggies. I avoided RR ties for that reason.

Commercially made beds are available, though they are very expensive. However, most are made out of plastic and are pretty darn durable, and look very nice to boot. If time is short and a person doesn't mind spending the money, that's a route to consider.

Other materials I've seen used include landscape timbers, landscaping blocks, stacked rocks - even logs put together log-cabin style. My point is - the possibilities are only limited by what works and imagination.

For my first beds here I got lucky when it came to building materials. While I was agonizing over the decision on what to make my beds out of, Marden was offered a whole truckload of free rough-cut cedar boards. Cedar is great because it's naturally rot-resistant. However, they turned out to be extremely difficult to build with because I had loads of boards with varying widths, thicknesses, and lengths - even in a single board. In addition, the wood split and cracked horribly, and I had to pre-drill every hole and use outdoor-quality screws. And, while I THOUGHT I was in a level area, I wasn't. To get the beds fairly level meant digging down into the ground and burying one side several inches, or just building one side higher.

As for looks...they turned out a little more redneck than I envisioned, but they work.

...

When you're in the middle of all this hard labor, an aspiring gardener starts to wonder if the benefits are going to outweigh the effort. I say a big, fat YES. Benefits of raised beds over regular ground-level gardening are almost endless, but I'll name a few.

Dirt Management: It's much easier to manage your dirt by adding composted material, fertilizers, sand, etc, and have them stay put even in a flooding rain deluge. After a real toad-strangler it's terribly disheartening to see all your nice dirt end up at the neighbor's, or down the hill, which happens in conventional gardening more than you'd think.

Good Drainage: After one of those all-night gully-washers the carefully-tended plants aren't sitting in puddles, since drainage is so much improved from ground-level gardening.

No Rocks! If you live here in the Ozarks, like some other areas of the country, you're going to engage constantly in the Battle of the Rocks. No matter how many you pick up out of the ground, there are fifty for every rock removed. Unless you use rock-picking as a punishment for your children (as mine did...often...), not having rocks to pick out saves literally days and days of irritation.

Better yields. I had to see this to believe it, but it's definitely true. Plants are not only more productive when grown in managed raised garden beds, but grow bigger and fuller.

.

They look pretty. This may be a moot point for many ultra-practical folks, but I like a nice-looking, neat and tidy garden. Even my redneck beds have a nice, ordered look to them, even in the summer months when gardens tend to get out of hand.

Best of all...Less work and more convenience - Building raised beds and filling them with dirt is a lot of work at first, but once the garden is established the work drops off dramatically. Say goodbye to back-aching crawling around on the ground and wallering in the dirt. No more "drive-by mouth lickings" from the dog while you are bent over at ground level weeding or planting. Weeds are more easily managed, and can be dealt with by simply sitting on the side of the garden bed.

While I feel I started my garden out pretty simple, every year I add something to my gardening goals to research and try. This year or the next I hope to improve my composting, devise a gravity-fed soaker system from a rain barrel, start a worm farm (yes, a worm farm), and build a hot box for cold-season crops out of an old sliding glass door I saved. I also want to start doing some research on beneficial veggie relationships - instead of planting a single veggie in one box, you can plant different certain plants together that mutually benefit each other. Finally, somewhere down the road I'd like a full-blown greenhouse, which will complete my green-thumb nerddom.

So in a very large nutshell, gardening decisions are going to rely heavily on personal preference, what's available, and where you live. Just don't stress out and remember, there are no Gardening Police going to come smack you upside the head with a fine if you decide to deviate from the "norm" or "gardening gospel." Fancy or simple, many or few beds - it really is your choice. And if I can do it...ANYBODY can.

Cause for Cautious Optimism

Unless you reside in a cave, you know that as of last night for the first time since 1972 a Republican, Scott Brown, has been elected to a senate seat in uber-liberal Massachusetts...not just any senate seat...the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy. I'm not sure everyone gets how monumental this event is, and how loudly it screams at our other politicians. People are just plain sick of being ignored by their elected officials...which has evolved from being ignored by some to being treated with utter disdain by others.

While I've always disagreed wholeheartedly with the Obama administration's policies from the get-go, he did make some pretty smart promises. He promised transparency, open debate, to reach across the aisle to shrink the divide between parties, and most importantly - to listen to the people. Even though I disagree with his party's policies, I was hopeful that he would do what he promised. Instead we've seen the practice of bullying and childish ridiculing of anyone who doesn't float along with extreme leftist policies, and a continuation of everything he promised to stop.

We've plunged deeper into debt than we've ever been, seen constant closed-door meetings with special interest groups, continued corruption, and been told we're getting health care reform whether we want it or not because we're not smart enough to decide for ourselves, as if we lived in western Europe. Everything proposed so far has been bigger government that dictates to us, more control, loss of personal rights, and a huge increase in taxes and entitlement programs. The increasing downward spiral reminds me of a massive toilet bowl that started flushing years ago.

While I'm no longer a Republican, I do believe that this new senator gets it. I'm waiting for others to get it, Democrats as well as Republicans, and live in a country where WE THE PEOPLE are listened to by our elected representatives as designed by the founders. People are waking up - no longer content to let the government do what it does, and no longer content to say, "Nothing I can do about it."

I remain cautiously optimistic.

I'm Dreaming of a Green Garden...

Dang, it's still January. January has always been my least favorite month. The excitement of the holidays are over, the Chiefs are usually not in the playoffs, and spring is still so distant and the world so dreary it seems impossible that things will ever be green again. I don't usually mind winter, but this year I'm dreaming of spring earlier than ever. I'm chomping at the bit to get settled in our new place in Little Rock, and paranoid I'll be too busy during the most important gardening time to get anything done. Every time I open the freezer I smile at the heirloom seeds sleeping in there, thinking of their potential...but now worry that we'll be in the middle of transition when they need to be in the ground, doing their thing.

Right now is when I should be building raised beds, and the fact that I can't just yet is making me extremely antsy. I'm totally addicted to raised-bed gardening, and the thought of going back to conventional gardening isn't appealing at all. My only other alternative, if I'm not able to get beds built in time and filled with decent dirt, is to improvise with what's available. Container gardening can be productive. I've also considered planting veggies in the existing flower beds. Likely if I'm going to have a garden this year, I'll be resorting to all three - maybe build a couple of beds, plant in containers, and utilize the flower beds.

Even after moving to the city, I still plan on continuing our quest to eat/preserve more of what we grow ourselves, as well as trying to eat more locally grown items. And actually, this might even be easier with better access to larger farmer's markets as well as small grocery stores that carry locally grown items. My chicken flock was decimated by a marauding raccoon this fall, so I'll be starting all over on that front, too.

The bottom line is that I won't have my dream garden this year. Even though I'm basically starting from scratch again, I can look at the bright side - my experiences in the last couple of years here have taught me what works and what doesn't, and that the process is where the enjoyment is...and until spring, I'll keep dreaming of something that looks like this:

Happy New Year! Yeah I know...that was a week ago. We've now jumped fully into 2010...here's hoping this year is a drastic improvement over the one we just muddled through. I haven't made any New Year's Resolutions because like most people I never stick to them...but I will try to blog more than I have lately.

This year I'm hoping get us, our pets, and possessions quickly moved to Little Rock, our house successfully sold, and put an end to the back troubles I've been fighting. Not such a tall order, I should think, though I'm not sure yet how it's all going to pan out. We seem to do everything the most difficult way possible, but I'm cautiously optimistic about this year.

And to those of you who don't know, we have found a destination for us and our stuff in Little Rock. We decided to take advantage of an opportunity to live on the base. And here it is:

Yup...it's a double wide, which is all that on-base housing offers. Still, we feel strongly that the benefits and security of living on post will outweigh any negatives. The current tenants are supposed to get the moss off the siding. They make some trailers pretty nice these days, but I can't seem to get the Sammy Kershaw song "Queen of my Double-Wide Trailer" out of my head. I hate to say good-bye to the Mountain Home area, but we must follow the job security. And, there are much worse places we could live. Just ask my brother and sister-in-law.

That's pretty much all I've got today...maybe if we get out of the deep freeze I'll be more inspired.

Here's to new adventures at a new Homestead in 2010!

"This is the queen of my double-wide trailer with the polyester curtains and the redwood deck..."