Besina_Sartor

Still have those pesky two beds to finish filling, hoeing and planting, but in the meantime I’m weeding (again) and mulching (finally!). It sure makes them look a lot better with the weeds gone and some nice dark mulch in. Some of the peas and cucumbers are starting to come in.

Of course, listening to a gardening bit on NPR’s ‘Talk of the Nation’ yesterday, I found out that raised beds can be two feet tall (my gardening book said go for 6”, so that’s what we did—two feet would be soo much easier on my back!) and that if you want to protect from moles digging up under your plants, you can put a reinforced wire down under the beds (would have been nice to know before we did all this!) Soo, those things are now on next year’s gardening to-do list. My poor hubby (he gets to split the heavy work with me). :P Still, it’ll be nice when it’s all done.

A friend bought me a couple of poi spinning tutorial videos and they arrived a couple of days ago. I so far have only gotten to check out one, but it’s called “Poi Groove Basics” and I must say, I’m very impressed with it—tons of moves, slow mo option and you can loop one move over and over automatically, which is cool if you’re trying to master a move. If you’re looking to learn, definitely give this one a shot. The other one which came is called “Poi Spinning for Beginners”, as I haven’t yet popped that one in the player I’ll have to save the review for later. Anyway, w00t! :)

I got some spinning time in over the holiday, some of the first pics I ever got taken when spinning at night. My moves are still limited, but it was a lot of fun.

I’ve gotten a lot better at giving hugs, now I’m just waiting for other people to get comfortable enough to initiate them too. I don’t think anyone is freaked out by me giving them anymore, but getting one without being the one to initiate them all the time would feel especially nice.

Got three more of the raised beds leveled and planted, and two more almost ready to be planted. Hopefully I can get something going in all of them before the planting season is over here.

I managed to finish off four more of these, so I’ll just starting on number 25 this weekend.

I got some good practice in over the weekend—a couple hours playing with friends. It’s been a while since we’ve had a decent number of us playing together so that was fun, even if we weren’t very good. We managed to get up to 8 hacks, so it’s progress. I’m hoping over the summer we can get the same folks together again to play some more.

On a related note, I learned that you don’t actually need kevlar anything to play hacky with a fire footbag—you just need clothes (most importantly, shoes) that are made from natural rather than synthetic fabrics. So hey, a step closer.

I’m not much of a cook, so when I stumbled upon a cookbook for vegetarian recipes for slow cookers, I grabbed it up! Many of the ingredients can be used for multiple dishes and of course, you just do a little prep work then let it sit—so much more like my cooking style! I’m giving it a try this week to see how I like it.

Yay! The practice poi I ordered have arrived! I’ve been practicing some very basic moves and I have to say it’s very frustrating. I know I’ll get better with time and I’m not going to give up based on a little frustration, but I sort of hoped I’d catch on quicker than this.

We went to Menards today to price out all the different options we’ve got for paths. It looks like it’s going to be pricey. We’ve got two 30’x2’ paths, one 30’x4’ path, six 4’x8’ paths, and four 4’x 3’ paths. We’ve got to buy the paving stones, sand, base, and rent a tamper. I figure we’ll do it one bit at a time.

I’ve managed to get comfortable enough giving hugs to people I know now to take this one off the list. I’ve just got to remember to keep doing it.

Got all the beds constructed, all but three moved into place and filled with dirt, and four of them actually planted. We have a very few already sprouting. We should be able to finish up this goal fairly soon.

..is getting easier with the weather getting warmer. During the winter, when I’m not sweating my butt off, it’s harder to remember. So summer is a big plus for getting adequate hydration for me.

Yes, I jumped ahead of the game (last Xmas) and got a couple of LED type poi poi to practice with. Not a good idea. They’re hard and they really hurt when they thwack into your leg, hand or head while you’re trying to learn a move. Soooo I asked my husband for some practice poi for my birthday. Hopefully he’ll get them for me then I can practice without turning myself lovely shades of purple.

I joined a veggie recipies group on LiveJournal. I’m hoping this will give me some good ideas for easy to cook, healthy stuff.

The good weather helps a lot, and I’ve backed down on how much time I spend on the computer. Actually got a ton of stuff done outside today, so I’m pretty proud of me.

We got all ten of the raised garden beds nailed together and positioned, then found we actually had space for two more, so we ran out got the supplies for those and finished them today.

Next comes the leveling out of the soil. The area we want the garden to go in is on a bit of a slope, so we have to even that all out. I’m not sure if we’re going to try to make it stepped or just flatten the ground out directly underneath where the beds go. Anyway, it’s going to be evilly hard work.

Almost forgot to mention that I recently found some concrete form molds that let you pour concrete to look like pavers. That should save a lot of bucks, especially now that I’ve got 4’ walkways between the beds (we doubled the planned size so that it would be easier to get a wheelbarrow thru them).

Thought I got all of these the first time I went thru and sprayed for them, but apparently there are some which are immune or possibly just plain stubborn. I’m going to have to go buy more weed killer.

It’s slow going in the back yard. I’ve gone thru and sprayed the poison ivy once, but it doesn’t seem to have gotten all of it, so I’ll be going thru again tomorrow to re-apply the stuff. I still have 2/3rds of a yard to pick up sticks, leftover garbage that people dumped back there and the remainder of the vines. I’m proud I got at least the first 1/3rd done and seeded, just a little worn out when I consider how much more I’ve got to go.

Sprayed a bunch of poison ivy in the back yard today—it’s supposed to be completely dead (down to the roots) within 2 weeks. Seems a long time to wait.

Tomorrow I’m getting the leaf blower going, blowing the rest of the leaves out of the yard, picking up whatever other junk is back there and spreading the grass seed.