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, [...]

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 [...]

luncheon on women and pregnancy in academia

Tomorrow is the luncheon on having children and/in academia. Inspired by my dear friend and colleague Jennifer, I started organizing this at the beginning of the semester and am a little nervous about it. At first, I really didn’t anticipate it being more than 20 people at most and now, we’re expecting at least 65 [...]

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 [...]

Healthcare and Graduate Students

Someone once said that revolutions only come about when people are physically impacted–physically uncomfortable–otherwise change is only talked about.
In May I started designing a university-wide graduate student survey about healthcare. At LSU (and at many (most?) universities) graduate students are offered the same healthcare plan as undergraduate students. Now, this is obviously problematic for many [...]

worst thing about being a grownup #1

not being on my parents’ health insurance anymore.
i’m on lsu’s health insurance which is a lot like being in a carnival fun house, blindfolded, with a timed exit before the whole thing explodes.
why is there no tutorial class for people about health insurance literacy skills? i cannot understand all these forms that *ARE NOT A [...]