Off to NYC and thinking thoughts for my dog.

It's that time of year again where my mom and I escape to New York for a weekend of art food and ballet. We are on the train now sitting in Albany I love to train ride especially the part where you ride along the Hudson truly beautiful and I love the Hudson it's my favorite river.  Unfortunately my mom chose seats behind three chatting women so I might not make it to NYC with my mind intact they are showing each other videos of their dogs and talking on their phones now while we wait. Seriously someone might not make it out of here alive. I like to think I am a patient person but secretley I am not. Shhhh.  I don't mean to begrudge the ladies a good time but it's early why don't we have some quiet time instead I am willing to bribe you seriously I am. Apparently they have planned my nightmare NYC trip a broadway show the nbc studios etc etc but again who am I to judge?  I am sure there are many who would rather take a bullet then go to museums and see ballet three nights in a row.

I swear booker was depressed this morning this is the third time this month the suitcase has come out and he was very subdued and not his normal maniac self or maybe it was something he ate. I try not to put human type feelings on my pets but sometimes you just can't help yourself can you? He is normally a bit of a nut in the morning (ok always) but today he just sat in my lap looking sad while I played with my iPad waiting to go. But again lord knows what was going through his head I can't even teach him to shake so the chances of this dog being capable of deep thought is probably slim.

I brought dog treats with me for the homeless people with pets not sure if I will have the balls to hand them out or not I can be strange like that I can have all the best intentions and at the last minute fail to deliver I like to think its part of my charm but honestly it's just annoying.

Cheers for now more to follow.

Remembrances of office buildings past and off to NYC for some fun.

Strange the things i find interesting. The hotel we stayed at this weekend just happened to look out on a few of the office buildings I had worked in when I lived in CT. Don't know why  I found these pictures so poignant it was almost like looking at an old family album. I looked at each building and remembered the jobs I had had the people i had worked with. It was almost like looking out at old friends those buildings of glass and steel. What a different life I led then to the one I lead now neither one better than the other just a person in a different place at a different time. Still work in an office but now the office building is on top of a paper mill talk about Yankee ingenuity in good old upstate NY why build a separate building right?

Also fell in love with the crosses on the church next door. I was reading a murder mystery set in medieval England at the time maybe that's why I kept fixating on them or maybe I finally found god in Stamford, CT. I jest.

Last day home today before my Mom and I take our annual trip to NYC to eat good food go to museums and spend our nights at the Ballet. I am truly looking forward to it I need a break right now bad and a weekend in NYC with my fabulous mother is just the ticket. I am sitting in bed with the dogs and the cat while its crappy rainy and wet out writing when I should be out finishing up what I have to do before I leave farm wise. But its cold and damp and bed and writing seems like a better idea. But there is no rest for the wicked so I better go re-mulch the garlic and see if its too wet out to take another pass with the tiller. I have to keep reminding myself that what ever I get done now I dont have to do when I get back.

A visit to my old hometown putting to rest a great lady and the road to Inverness.

On the way to the cemetery this part of my home town is largely huge houses behind huge walls.

This past weekend my parents and I drove down to our old home town in CT to meet up with the rest of the family to bury my grandmother Dorothy's ashes who died last December at the great age of 102. As timing had it we actually buried her on her 103rd birthday kismet i think. I have a strange relationship with death I don't always think its a bad thing or maybe even often think its a good thing. My grandmother was ready to go and took the matter into her own hands and stopped eating she had made her mind up and god bless her for it. I think the notion of keeping people alive when they want to die is a form of torture people should be given a way out when they need one I know I know there must be religious and cultural reasons this isn't the way things are but I don't have that burden I am an atheist. Why would any God want us to suffer oh scratch that what a loaded question and I don't have the strength, time or knowledge to argue comparative religion right now.

After the service at the cemetery we all got into our cars and made our way to my Brother Dave's restaurant Cafe Mirage and had lunch together. As sad as saying farewell to my Grandmother (who last time I saw her on her 100th bday came over to me and patted me on my end and said you were also such a good girl) it was so nice to spend time and catch up with my extended family which of course in the modern world we live in I do not get to see very often. We enjoyed the beautiful food my brother had prepared had a few drinks and told great stories making us laugh out loud and wipe our eyes at the same time. A fitting tribute to be sure  she was a great lady.

the great grand kids

I will share my favorite Dot story. About 15 years ago or so some of the family decided we would rent a house in Scotland for a small family reunion. One day we decided we would take Dot up to Inverness where her father was born so my parents, dot and I get into the rental car and make our way North. Not very far into our trip the traffic comes to a halt due to a horrific car accident and we are stuck for hours in non moving traffic. My dad has little to no patience when it comes to things like this and the tension was running high. Thankfully my Grandmother by this point in her life was pretty deaf so my dad's mumblings and swearings under his breath were lost on her. My mother promptly found a xanax in her purse took it and looked at me and said i love you daughter but there are limits. Finally traffic eases and we make our way to Inverness after what felt like an epic battle. Nobody had the foresight to research things to do in Inverness so we found a pub and had a great lunch my father commented to his mother well at least you have now seen Inverness in which she replied oh I have been here before. Yes I thought my dads head would explode.

Grandma Dot on her 100th bday,

Just one of those days and taking the seedlings for a bit of a ride.

We all have them those days where you say why did I bother waking up what was I thinking I was so much better off under the covers with the hubby the two dogs and fat albert the cat curled up beside me. But alas we must get up and go to work so I jump in the shower and for some reason I grab a fistful of shampoo I mean a fistful and I lather up my hair into an afro of hair and shampoo. At the same time I notice that the once plentiful water coming out of the shower is now a trickle yes a trickle. Now granted I am not really awake and my problem solving at 6:45 am is not legendary so I stand there like an idiot with a slow trickle of water not making much progress on the huge amount of shampoo in my hair. So I pop the hand held thingy out of main shower head and try that I make a little progress then I figure out if I turn the shower off then on the pressure comes back on and I was able to finish my shower. Honestly I envisioned myself being late to work standing there for hours trying to get the shampoo out of my hair. Just one of those mornings.

I finish getting ready put the dogs back in the bedroom with Tommy give them kisses and wish like hell I could join them but go to work like a good girl instead. Dash out of the house check the chickens who are still in lockdown and still pissed about it. Give them grain and water and jump in the car and start my drive to work. About 5 miles down the road (too far for me to turn back) I remember that I grabbed trays of seedlings last night from my parents house (their basement is ideal for starting seedlings my house is too cold because I am too cheap to turn the heat up) after we had dinner so I could start hardening them off and get them in the ground in the next week and yes people they were still in the back of my car. I left them in the car last night to protect them a bit from the nighttime temps and I had planned to pull them out this morning put them in a shady protected spot but again I am not very awake at that time in the morning and yes I did take my seedlings to work with me.

I figured I would roll with it and show them a grand time and stop at dunkin donuts what seedling doesn't like donuts but alas the line was too long and no coffee for me and no donuts for them. Stupid lines. So now the seedlings (a good chunk of my growing season future) sit in my car in the shade in Cohoes NY. Hopefully it wont get too hot for them fingers crossed they will be okay. Just one of those days.

The fruitlessness of chasing chickens and always being a rookie.

planting beds

Finally it seems we have shaken off winters long and grueling grip and its that time of year to start putting the food in the ground. Its a overwhelming time as well as a beautiful one my list of things to get done is always longer than my energy is and its something  I always struggle with. But thankfully we got to till last week and till till till we did and now things are going in the ground easier than ever before. Thank you fancy Italian tiller. I have nicknamed it the beast. The garden beds look better than ever lets just hope we catch some breaks and things grow as well as they can. 

I have taken a lot of time of in May to be able to plant and this weekend I made a three day weekend by taking today off. Friday started off well I transplanted 2 beautiful rows of broccoli and they looked great. But I noticed as I was planting that the chickens kept coming over and taking bites out of the transplants. Now I don't know if you have chickens or not but the silliest enterprise ever has got to be trying to chase them. Just time wasted they always win they always go the exact opposite way you think they will they always go just where you don't need them to go with their dinosaur feet. I finally after making an ass out of myself got them out of the garden and back to other areas of interest and I thought I was good to go. I even put out lots of chicken crack aka scratch to keep their collective chicken mind off the tender broccoli and I thought I thought I succeeded...but rookie mistake (I think I will always be a rookie) I left the house to make a quick trip to the grocery store and I came back thinking all was good i spied no chickens near the broccoli but I decided I would face my fate and go look and low and behold the broccoli was still there but still there with not many leaves left.

So now the chickens are on lock down until things are big enough that they can withstand a few or many chicken nibbles. The ladies are NOT happy with me but too damn bad. The good news they do have a little run off their coop so nobody please accuse me of chicken cruelty they can still go outside they just cant wreck havoc for now.  

Home again after a short trip to Chicago and feeling like myself again.

chicago had my first latte with goat milk!

Last Sunday I flew to Chicago for work for a few days and I got to say it was nice to travel again I actually like to fly and I love love love hotels. My work has recently upgraded us from customer service to inside sales so to reinforce the change they have decided to send us out on the road to shadow our sales guys in the field. I was a bit nervous about it to be honest I figured hey I am inside sales for a reason but shocker I was actually pretty damn good at the ole firm handshake look them in the eyes and sell them paper routine. It's not something I would ever want to do full time but I could see getting out in the field once a year or so to be a good thing it sure built my confidence up and I guess I needed that because after that small trip I feel more like myself than I have in ages. It's good to be back. Not sure where I have been but I have definitely not been very present the past days weeks months maybe years in my own life. I'm back baby I'm back hope I didn't miss too much while my mind was elsewhere.

So with a much more whole sense of myself I returned home last Wednesday to embark once again on my hybrid life of full time worker slave to the man inhabitor of the salt mines and part time vegetable farmer. But like I said that trip did me good seems to have put things in a perspective again something I have been seriously a bit shy on.  So my day job is going well when I returned to the office I was met with what you always want to hear.....how on earth do you do your job it's impossible....I wanted to say maybe for you he he he. Again confidence building to say the least. On to my part time existence as a grower of vegetables....

I feel like I am behind schedule (as usual) but I think I should be okay I have 5 weeks until the first market and fingers crossed I will show up with more than one bag of lettuce. We had to drill a new well and since they had the big man toys out Tom (my parents house wizard) decided to dig up the septic so it easily good be pumped but also graded the lawn around the new well got rid of the hideous weed that was eating our garage but also cleared out the junk trees that were behind the garage leaving me with a few new grass free zones which I am going to turn into veggie beds. I wasn't going to cut any new beds this year figuring we are going to sell but I figured what the hell the hard work had already been done so now I have a great spot for the potatoes! Always a silver lining right? Damn straight I am a big believer of silver linings and can find one just about anywhere.

i tilled all that yep i did garlic growing nicely in foreground.

Also good news is the new fancy Italian tiller is actually easy to use and I no longer have to relay on Tommy to get the tilling done.  I even filled it with gas and started it all by myself today man I felt like Joan of Arc, Madame Currie and Gloria Steinham rolled all into one. Take that lazy husband take that! Ha I will till when I want to and nobody can stop me! Till till till till! I did feel good though nonsensical writing aside.  I hate having to rely on others and now I really feel like the destiny of my little micro farm is truly in my own hands and that feels pretty freaking awesome. So you know they warning signs they put on things to try and stop stupid people from doing stupid things? So on the tiller there is a big warning don't touch engine engine hot sign and what did I do yep I reached out and put my whole palm flat on it after I ran out of gas I guess I just needed proof that yep it was hot very hot. What am I five? I needed empirical knowledge of that I couldn't just trust the stupid picture and my own 44 years worth of experience. Nope I guess not.

future in seedlings.

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