MUSTALLBEFED.COM

Our House II (Still Under Construction)

2010-03-06T02:50:00Z

                                                       March Madness...Spring in Da 'Burgh!
                                                            (Click links below to enter sites)





  Music Mondays            Timeless Tuesdays               It's Waah-Waah Wednesdays   Thankless Thursdays

                                                                                                                                LOL Movie Spoofs


FunkayFlashbackFridays       Say Whaaaat?           Uni-verses        SongsUPlayed2Def
                                             911 Fail               Fave Quotes            faves


    GardenintheRough                  Gardenspast (enter)

my new canvas 2b developed Our House Garden-under construction Remember When

                                                                                                                  U make me wanna Sprout 2010
MJ'sMediaPlayRoom                            Liberry
                                                                                                                                 Lil Sprout of Horror
New MJ stuff weekly             Leave me alone I'm reading...




                    Smokey Inc.                                       Growing Up Gotti                  What in tha? Ugliest Dog
The inc. stands for incarcerated                believed 2b reincarnated
Rescued Dog from School Kennel!
                Smokey 2 States
          Other People's Dog Pics
New pics by visitors of their dogs


       The King and I - Post Your Pet Pics         WordlessWednesday                   Dogs doing what they doo
          here mummy...for yooooou




UgliestShoes/FootSwagger     ShoesGeeks Would Luv                 TheRaven                         Flea Market Finds
Most PainfulShoes



MySpinOnThePeopleofWalmart                            EarthAlbum                                     Asleep on the Subway


                                                                          FunnyFarm Moving Day   Greetings From Da Burgh
                   Gas Prices                                                    Photo Celebration of Da Burgh!
      What is the true cost of fuel?





   More Hilarious on the Subway                    Other People's Gardens
                                                                                                                                                                              Fall Harvest




We Welcome You Great Pumpkin!                                Disco Days and Nites

             Funny Food Sculptures


          Reduce Recycle Reuse                                        I Can Has Swine Flu                     Play games Cat Bowling


                Attic

Web Visitor Counter

Fair Use Notice

Moving Day Goody-Goody Hip Hop Hurray or Home Ownership Blues

2009-12-07T13:49:00Z

Hark! What Light Thru Yon Window Breaketh? (Click: goto Garden in the Rough!)

The Pipes-The Pipes, They Are Callin'...(frozen)

Winter has come to da Burgh...and that has meant snow; it snowed before and after

Christmas and off and on ever since. We've only been in our house for about 4 weeks. Guess

we put the heaters in the wrong spot, cuz the pipes froze and we had to call the plumber. We

saved money because when they thawed we saw where the water first started shooting out

from and that was this socket by the sink. Thank goodness for this design fail! And we were

right. It was only a disconnect and not a burst pipe so no major repair was needed.

This gaping hole in the wall will soon transform into an access

panel. Til then we'll keep the heater on the pipes below the sink and not on the other side of

the wall where the bathroom is. Gotta get an electrician out here to move that outlet it's right

behind the shower where the leak occurred, design fail...not a good place for an outlet.

(Danger-danger! Will Robinson!)



Things We Saved In the Move...

These cabbages were the last items salvaged from our former garden. We bought

a house in a cul-de-sac with a small back yard. This is my new canvas. Oh yeah,

I salvaged the container grown carrots that sit center, gotta get some hay around them before the temps go

below 0 degrees. See if I can harvest thru the winter. Stay tuned.

Things We Lost in the Move...

Let's see... things we lost in the move, like my pots of blueberries!

AAAAUGH! It takes about 2 yrs before these bushes produce fruit. This set I got at home depot got some

berries on them, a cupful, but before I could enjoy them, the birds came and ate

them, this past summer. Onestagin... after our move we went back 2 days later to retrieve them, the

maintenance men had tossed them in this HUGE dumpster. No way could I retrieve them. They killed

it!



Moving Day...Thanksgiving Day Do Overs, Casualties of the Move...

Ain't noboday home cuz....we  moved! Yeah, goodbye rent; hello mortgage.

We packed up the   cats and

Smokey and headed off to our new house.

I wish my pets would get along like this. But in reality they act like   this,

instead.

Anywho, I get to the closing and notice that the stove and fridge that were part of the deal were missing and

the seller's agent and my agent started shushing me when I brought up this point. Ya see, the house was

being rented prior to sale and the renter took the appliances with her, remind you now, this was NOT a

foreclosure, ~~too bad she didn't blow herself up~~...I mean, she could have blown herself up in the

process. So the owner gave me cash to buy new appliances. Scratch and dent here we come! Then, the

waiting game. It is the waiting for the hook ups that mess up a well planned schedule. In the meantime I

rented this big a#! moving van from Penske's cuz it was Thanksgiving Eve and U-haul said they closed at

1:30p. Really the truck was more like the size of a Port Authority bus. (At least I know

that if facing a layoff, I know what my new career might be.) The side streets in the 'Burgh are narrow with

parking on both sides. My knees were shaking after the first load and I promptly turned the truck back in

at 6 o'clock in the morning! I threw the keys through the slot and hubby drove me home.

So when the ~~wench,~~ former tenant, took out the gas stove it caused a leak, so that when the gas man arrived

to turn on the gas, he couldn't! Honey, we got tagged! Soooo...we were sitting in the cold, huddled

around a space heater. The temps that nite were in the low 30's B-r-r-r-r-r...more waiting for

the hook ups. I SEE COLD PEOPLE!

Thanksgiving Day Do overs! (Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Day Do over, NOT leftovers)

Remember Charlie Brown had the first meal that he, Linus and Snoopy cooked, then he

called his grandmother and they all got to go there for the real meal...this was a do over...and

I say that from here on out, if you encounter an occasion that doesn't turn out right or meets

your expectations, there is nothing wrong with a do over.

Because we had to cook dinner at the former residence, and then bring it to our new residence, where we sat

down to dinner in a cold house,the food cooled off faster, so we kept having to micro-wave stuff over and

over. Needless to say, I didn't enjoy myself. So with everything that went wrong...I decided to have a do

over. The kids cooked the dinner over the following week and we have been enjoying leftovers since the

do over.

                                                                (BACK TO HOME PAGE)

Garden In The Rough

2009-11-30T03:20:00Z

So this is how I envisioned our new home. We would sit out on the back porch which overlooks a ~~creek~~ or a ~~lake~~,okay-okay a pond. We would have a huge garden, where bees would frolic and butterflies would play. We would even have a deer crossed back lawn.

(Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts)
                portal

We would have a vineyard and a small fruit

orchard...wine year round (sigh...) The following is a wish-list of fruits trees that I would like in my urban orchard:

1. Apple
2. peach
3. mulberry
4. pear
5. cherry
Other fruit...
grapes both red and thompson
blueberries
raspberries

My home would be an energy efficient, zero energy building.

Upon waking from my daydream...However, I'm back living in the city, da Burgh in a cul-de-sac and THIS (below)... is my new canvas! Composter in the corner and some carrots from our old house. Our house sits on a hill. It will cost $300 to get a surveyor out here to set property limits.

                    Snowpocalypse 2010

SNOW PLOW MAAAAN...Schools close, roads disappear, grown men weep...
The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it
and wrong too often for us to rely on it. ~Patrick Young
-----------------------
Hark! What light through yon window breaketh?
Yes, t'is the sun and it is warming the house. This house hath plenty of potential for energy savings.
Those solar energy and engineering classes will come in handy in our new place.

                                Click on picture for an early Spring!

To be continued...

                                                                            BACK TO HOME PAGE

Fall Harvest

2009-10-10T23:10:00Z

It's the Fall Harvest, we got a little bit of everything. It would make a big pot of soup or a lot of side dishes. We got potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, collards and more collards, eggplant, brussels, greenbeans and cabbage.

Off The Beaten Garden Path: Too Late We Grow Smart

2009-09-02T00:40:20Z

I've always been rather fond of this Pensylvania Dutch Amish proverb: Too soon we grow oldt and too late schmardt. I read it as a child off of a wall pocket, shaped like a tea kettle, that hung above the stove in my great grandmother's kitchen.

More recently, it calls to mind a comment that a fellow student in my solar panel installation class made one night, after a flurry of discussions on the still relatively high cost of solar panels and installation even with government tax incentives; especially since this technology has been around for decades, with a peaked interest in the late 70's after the first gas crisis. I mean, even accounting for supply and demand, the price is still extremely high and unaffordable to the common folk. He asked, "If gas was still $2, would we even be having this discussion?" Another queried in kind, if we would even be taking this class. We all chuckled in agreement.

It made me think, though. Why does it take a national or personal crisis that forces us to confront bad habits that we have developed over the years, before we start to practice or go back to practicing those good habits such as thrift and conservation that may have contributed to us having a nice little savings account; or by doing so may have helped us buy a nice home; and we probably had a smaller carbon foot print, then too. For instance, instead of packing lunches, we now buy overpriced ones when at work because of the convenience, when we know that packing a lunch is far less expensive. Instead of buying bus passes we now drive the car to work, paying for gas and parking. I believe we used to read more on those bus trips. How long ago was it that you were able to read a book? Buying lunch and driving to work might be time savers perhaps, but budget busters, money wasters, and environmentally destructive, as well.

We used to do these things before...you know, before we got that 'GOOD JOB' that appeared to pay the bills and afforded some perks like cable tv, cell phones and ipod downloads.

We used to plant gardens and make meals from the harvests. We even used to share the excess, such as zuchinni, squash, tomatoes and green beans with our neighbors and co-workers. We used to can and preserve and give as gifts, jams and jellies.

It doesn't cost much to make a garden. Many of the items can be gotten for free. Supermarkets and stores throw away wooden pallets. These can be reused and repurposed. They can be made into square foot garden beds. Until the recent housing crisis, you could even get dirt for free.

So, I have returned to that curious labor of summers long past, that Thoreau, spoke of, gardening. The picture above is one of the harvests from my urban garden with the Penn Dutch Amish proverb that I loved, as child, lovingly placed among the 'first fruits'...Too soon we grow oldt, too late schmardt.

Here is picture of my harvest with the 'little green sprout' smiling over the bounty.

Best Buys: Latest Garden Purchases

2009-08-07T10:39:00Z

I adored my compost bin made up of free pallets that I had begged off of a local electrical supply store. However, I could not resist bumping up to the sweet little deal on the right. I got this best buy at Lowes. This compost bin was less than $60 and don't you think it looks a lot better than the pallets. I'm sure the neighbors think so too, although I tried to place it out of sight. I have had several best buys over the year. For example, the black plastic pots beside the compost bin were only $3 each at Family Dollar. Family Dollar has plenty of best buys too, it has a nice seasonal gardening section where one can purchase garden supplies throughout the gardening season at extremely reasonable prices.

Lil Sprout of Horror

2009-07-05T03:34:00Z

Welcome to Lil Sprouts of Horror Workshop....more to come...under construction


            Sprout harvest with pigpen                                                        Ah say...chicken hawks like sprouts


Sunflower sprouts, lettuce, grow light, mmmm...                                Lil Sprout of Horror

Container Gardening: June Month of Projects and Experiments

2009-06-29T01:42:00Z

The month of June has proven to be the Grand Project Month. First the Potato Project. I chitted potatoes
from regular store bought, cut two eyes per potato, planted them a-a-and !Voila! Photo 1 is April, photo
2 May



Photo 3 end of May had to add an extension and photo 4 is June's potato progress, new extension, looks like
the Fawlty Towers. Next time I will buy a cheap tall garbage can, but for now this will do. Will have to see the
return on investment.



Pig-Pen is my mascot for this month, with the dirt of ancient civilations this child of the earth oversees my
Great Pumpkin Project. I know...Linus was the one waiting for the Great Pumpkin, maybe we will see him
later in 'Pumpkin's Progress.



The pumpkin patch consists of just two hills. The project is to grow a pumpkin weighing over 300 lbs.
I plan to transplant the seedlings to the hills as soon as they get their 2nd set of leaves. I hope to reveal
the results of both experiments on youtube.

June gas prices continued to rise and more motorbikes started piling up in the alley behind the bank. Gas
prices rose to 2.75 but went down a few days later, resting now at 2.63. Maybe I'll get another post in before
the end of the month. I had another project, a tomato one, my own version of tops-turvy...end trans

Happy Mother's Day and....A Blow Pop... Is An All Day Sucker

2009-05-13T11:51:00Z

Happy Mother's Day! And $2.29, is what I was greeted with on my way to see 'Star Trek, the Prequel',( by the way, the movie was G-r-r-r-reat!) Anywho, the gas price on the 8th was $2.25, before that it had been moving up and down between $2.09 and $2.11, then $2.19 and up-up and away-hey...They're at it again. Greed the reality show. Speculators driving up gas prices again...a plot and a plan with a purpose! It's my understanding that it's $2.75 by this summer, in time to ruin summer vacation again for folks. This doesn't just affect summer vacationers; it's more far reaching than that. How about, it affects the prices that you will pay for heat this winter, if you still use gas and oil. The utility companies purchase gas and oil at certain times of the year for the coming year. Do you think the speculators don't know this? Yeah they know, a plot and a plan with a purpose. So it's not only going to affect the summer vacationers, but the folks who depend on gas and oil this winter for heating and cooking purposes even if the prices go back down.

As the poet e.e. cummings put it, 'the greedy the people if needs must be... I laugh in retrospect when I recall that the financial analysts earlier last year were referring to their supply and demand models, looking for answers to the gas crisis...They were WRONG! Some were even blaming the Chinese because of their so called 'veracious appetite' for cars and that demand was driving up gas prices...WRONG, AGAIN!...It t'weren't the Chinese...The word for today is Blow Pop! The word on the street is that a blow pop is an all day sucker. So, SUCKER-R-R-R-R-R!

MSNBC busted them, cracked the code that eluded the analysts tenaciously clinging to their crusty models and so did Sixty Minutes. It was speculators moving the gas market, NOT supply and demand.

As the President said before taking office, that just because the gas prices had gone down, that we as consumers, after breathing a sigh of relief couldn't go back to our old habits and allow ourselves to get suckered back in to buying gas guzzling cars and not demanding and supporting new 'green' technology. So on the following Monday I noticed the bikes are starting to pile up again in the alley behind the bank. I showed you from a previous article there were as many as eight bikes then.



The economy has always been part of homeland security, every country's security. Speculators could care less. Neither do the car companies, they keep pushing the same cars and technology on ya with a few new bells and whistles added. They tease you with new technology but the price is so high that the savings and return on investment is laughable. If you fall for the marketing, instead of putting your mortgage payment in your gas tank, your monthly car payment and car insurance payment become the new mortgage payment.

And...How about those realestate taxes, in the amounts of another mortgage payment (another story, not only that after paying your home off, that you can be taxed out of it...as well as causing the housing market to recover wa-a-a-y slower. For instance, there have been plenty of houses in my neighborhood in the Da 'Burgh that potential buyers have looked at and the price was right until they fielded down to the tax part and discovered a second mortgage payment that doesn't go away but usually grows with each new assessment. Meanwhile, back at the homestead in West Virginia, land developers and realestate developers serving on the assessment boards and committees (a conflict of interest) want that land that grandma has been sitting on that has been in the family for umpty-nine years, have driven up the land prices and taxes).

So...it's back to the garden, my food fight, my Victory Garden. I've also increased my indoor sprout production. Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice shame on me. Next, paying off existing debt, building an emergency fund and living debt free.


                                                Collards, Cabbage, Brussel sprouts and Marigolds

Growing Sprouts: Sprout It All Out! Indoor Farming for Those Who Just Can't Wait!

2009-04-22T13:31:00Z

Remember this l'il fellow? He's the L'il Green Sprout from the valley of the Green Giant (ho-ho-ho). He is simply beaming over his first harvest of sprouts. So am I. This was my first attempt at sprouting. This uses a form of hydroponics, soil-less growing, with only water and little light to green 'em up a bit. I started with what I had in the house, after going onto youtube.com to view some examples of how to do it. I started with some lentils and some veggie seeds left over from last year.

I am so geeked about my sprouts. I have these babies on bagels with hummus, in soups, in salads and just about anything else I like. I have even started to make up names for sandwiches and stuff. For example, I am making 'Harry Potter 'sandwiches for a work associate's baseball team. The sprouts kinda look like hair so I threw some on some potted ham sandwiches now I have 'Hairy Potted' sandwiches. LOL!

Now for the health benefits. All that sprout goodness is chock full of antioxidants, riboflavins, vitamins A, B, C, E, iron and calcium, yes calcium from the lentil sprouts and more. Shown in the photo are lentil sprouts, broccoli sprouts and spicy radish sprouts. The radish sprouts taste just like tiny l'il radishes and are just as potent, so I mix 'em with the gentler tasting lentils. As I've gotten older, out of my teens and twenties, I stopped drinking milk on a regular basis. Milk is a major source of calcium for building strong bones and teeth. And, as one gets older, one needs calcium to stave off osteoperosis and bone loss. Also, during the birthing years, calcium is needed so you don't lose your teeth during and after pregnancy. Now I have found a flavorful substitute.

I went to the local food co-op and bought wheat, clover, mung beans and sunflower seeds for future sprouting. The co-op had the sprouting jars and lids, as well, but I chose to sprout mine the way my Grumma showed me a long time ago, and that was in an old mayo jar with some cheese cloth. I'm getting tired of the cheese cloth, so I'll implement another method that she used, and that was by putting nail holes in a jar lid, the water drains out just as well and seeds stay in. (Works for me!) It's great for the environment because I reduce waste to the landfill through the reuse of the jar.

Til next time...Happy sproutin' in Da 'Burgh!

Westward Ho! Of Hoop Houses and Other Adventures in Urban Homesteading

2009-04-13T19:55:00Z

Remember these?

Bins of sweet grass, lettuce and spinach planted the second week in March. Well, they've poked their l'il heads up out of the soil, after several weeks, off and on, of temps in the 50s and 60s. Also, notice the dents in the soil, curse those darn squirrels! Those are new boxes, ain't no nuts in there. I was so happy about the spinach since last years crop was planted too late and immediately bolted, went to seed.  In the bed in the back of the bins, I planted sweet peas. My dog ran through that and under one imprint I could see that the peas were growing. Since they were planted deep, it takes a while to come up. Unlike the carrots that I planted in one of the planters in the side yard. Maybe I got hold of a pack of bad seed.  Now I know that stuff grew in that very same planter last year, so what up wit' dat this year?



Got tired of tracking the weather to see if the nite temps would fall below freezing. The last frost date in the 'Burgh can be as late as May 15th. So I fashioned a hoop house to protect the l'il ones. All I need now is a set of wagon wheels and it's Westward Ho! I'll have to get a larger plastic covering and thicker one too.

Spring Has Sprung 2009

2009-03-18T17:44:00Z

It's spring again! My blog was in hibernation. I'll try to do better this year. I planted some sweet grass for the Smokester, some lettuce and spinach (great cool weather crops). Usually you see the crocus peaking up out of the snow. It was a 67 degree day in the Burgh and one of those days that you just had to get out into the garden.

He-e-e-eres, the Smokester! Two days before Spring and in the garden with Smokey. Smokey is of the Ole Yeller breed, she is a black mouth Cur. Boy does she love to tree those squirrels.

Another renegade squirrel with someone else's nut. STOP! THIEF!? Officer, over here!

You might recall a previous post regarding an incident involving some renegade neighborhood squirrels who thought that I had gathered some walnuts for their enjoyment and looted my pile without leaving a single nut.

Songs U Played To Def

2009-03-08T01:34:00Z

Songs U Played To Def...Not in any specific order

Carlos is playin' da hale outta does strangs...

Thong Song

Jodeci Lately

Other People's Gardens

2009-02-06T16:45:00Z

Living Vicariously Through Other People's Gardens

Fire escape gardens

simple balcony garden...beauty in its simplicity

unique balcony garden mix of plants

beautiful in its wildness poetic display of sunflowers

Food among the flowers or hedges

(BACK TO HOME PAGE)

Oh You Make Me Wanna Sprout! Throw My Hands Up and Sprout!

2009-01-31T03:11:00Z

Yeah, it's that time again. Too early to do any real planting outside...the weather makes me wanna sprout. Sherman and Peabody are helping me to start farming indoors...should be able to harvest in 3-4 days...however, the sunflower seeds

will take the longest because they will have to be planted in a shallow dish to produce micro greens.
Oh You make me wanna sprout! Kick my heals up and Sprout! Throw my hands up and Sprout!

I will be posting more pics as the sprouts progress. I'm sprouting cabbage seeds, radish, cress, and sunflower seeds. The sunflower seeds that will need to be planted in shallow dishes to produce micro greens will be added to salads and sandwiches etc. They taste just like the sunflower seed itself. They are delicious. In the meantime, enjoy my other articles on the nutritional benefits of growing sprouts, in Lil Sprout of Horror and Growing Sprouts.

I will also be doing an article on hydroponically growing indoor plants that improve the air quality by filtering the air.

Sprout goodness to go...as a woman gets older, calcium becomes more important each day. I was so pleased to hear that lentil sprouts provide a source of calcium. I hate taking supplements. I'm not a pill swallower all like that sooo...plus the vitamins you gain from eating is used by the body more efficiently than the vitamins you get in tablet form. I'll still do what the doctor recommends but I will be eating my sprouts too. Sooo...I went to the Witch Doctor and here is what he said...LOL

Let food be your medicine - Hippocrates


Spread moist seed starter soil over plate. Sprinkle the sunflower sprouts evenly over the surface


Cover the sprouts with thin layer of soil. Sprinkle top soil until evenly moist. Spritz daily until cutable. Tastes just like the sunflower seed itself. Should let them get a little bit taller then Lil Sprout of Horror and Growing Sprouts pics.

Bucky O'hare demo'ing different sprout methods

Either put seeds in jar, cover with water for 12 hours, drain and rinse twice a day or with the sprouter, thoroughly wet seeds by pouring water over seeds through the top several times until seeds are soaked. Repeat cycle, empty resevoir. Sprouts should be ready in 3-4 days.

What Would You Do?

2009-01-22T14:33:00Z

An Experiment: What would you do if you found a wallet with money in it? Click wallet for a real eye opener and laughs!