gardening and my favorite summer dessert

well, we were late getting our spring garden together (very late) but we finally got some yellow, red, and habenero peppers, tomatoes, and herbs into the ground. we’re hoping to get some other things (okra, arugula, squash, more herbs). we used the square foot gardening method which is an above ground, no tilling, no row, [...]

the birthday and the egg

So the chickens (Sunny, Kiwi, and Olive) turned 20 weeks old yesterday. And today we were graced with….our first egg! We were thrilled of course–and it might be why the girls were so excited this morning at 7:15. They were cooing and squawking every 15 minutes on the dot until about 8:30 or so. I [...]

the bar and the brew

andy has just finished brewing three beers and a cider and they are ready for summer evening drinking. one is a sierra nevada clone, another is a strawberry ale (from fresh louisiana strawberries), an auburn ale, and an apple cider. we hung a large piece of chalkboard and drew labels for each. See the pictures [...]

our barred rocks…all grown up

the hens are only one month old and look how much they’ve grown! to compare, here’s one from a week ago:
chicks near the brooder
today was one of the first sunny days in a while. temperatures were in the 70s (yay!) and it was just what i needed to get over the horrible cold/flu that has had [...]

baby hens!

we finally got baby chicks. they’re barred plymouth rocks (barred is the color. it’s looks like herringbone when they get a little older). the barred rocks lay about 200 eggs a year, are very friendly and curious, and are so pretty. we got them when they were 3 days old. the picture in andy’s hand [...]

smoking ban and milky water

a couple of thoughts on the environmental situation in my neck of the woods.
on january 1st a smoking ban just went into effect for all of louisiana. smoking is now banned in all restaurants and some bars (those with a particular food/liquor license).  one thing that has really struck me since then is the smell. [...]

ecotexts class

i’m very excited about teaching an ecotexts class this spring. it’s a “literary themes” class at the 2000 level. i’m putting together the website for it right now and i’m also trying to put finishing touches on the syllabus. i decided to change the format of the class a little bit than what i [...]

it’s a new year and…

here are a holiday break’s worth of thoughts…
I had to watch the new TV show “identity” just to see if it was as horrible as I thought it would be. Yes. It is. I thought, surely they won’t just blatantly stereotype identities? Yes. They do. Beyond racial, gender, and class stereotypes though, it just boxes [...]

cycles of uprising

I’ve been meaning to write about the fantastic experience that was cycles of uprising. first of all, you have to check out this site for a little background info about some of the members. cycles of uprising describes themselves as “an interactive bicycle village, folk music show, circus, dance party, and adventure that celebrates historic [...]

almost full circle: the “reappearance” e.coli

Today’s news reveals that e.coli has made a dramatic encore on the media stage–this time emerging in ground beef. As many others and I’ve mentioned before, the “spinach scare” wasn’t really about spinach. It was/is about food preparation–about commercial agriculture–about our own food literacy. Unlike the spinach media coverage, a lot of the mainstream stories [...]