Life throws some whopper curveballs sometimes.

Unfortunately after being with my husband for 12 years, I recently learned he’s not the person anyone thought him to be. I try not to post personal stuff on this blog (being a gardening blog and whatnot, plus I have facebook and a personal blog and other places to talk about that kind of stuff), but many of my readers like to know what’s going on with me (you guys are weird, I’m tellin’ ya)… anyway, he’s locked away, hopefully for the rest of his life, and I’m a solo gardener again. Well, except for my little helpers =)

I think I’m holding up relatively well, considering this is the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through, and I’m starting college at Chemeketa Community College next term (starts in Jan 2010). The program is Visual Communications – basically I’ll be getting a degree for what I’ve been doing for years and improving on the areas I’m lacking, particularly print design. Between the grants and loans and the bit of work I’ll still be doing, we’ll be able to get bills paid and even do a small garden this spring. We’ll be just fine, better actually, without him!

Thinking ahead to my garden, I’ll make it very kid friendly and small. I know I want to grow potatoes and corn and maybe strawberries. Nothing that required a lot of extra labor cause I am not going to have the time…no stakes or trellising or cages. Things the kids can help with but that my picky eaters will eat too, and that doesn’t cost a lot. Maybe sunflowers, the younger boys really wanted some when they saw the neighbor’s growing. Any other ideas?

From the world of the internet, I bring you (might want to hide small children):

Meat(loaf) Hand

From not martha

From Not Quite Nigella

From A bit of this and A bit of that

From Courtney’s Cakes flickr

From pbjoachim’s flickr

…or are just too busy, the International Space Station will be visible for the next few nights to the naked eye.

Visit this site and find out where and when to look!

I’m the queen of craptastic titles, I know.

It’s been hot, not as hot as say, Double Danger (they have a whole “hot as hell” category, you could not pay me enough to live in Texas), but it’s getting 90-95F with high humidity and no a/c, and if you’ve missed my whining on Twitter, you should know that means it’s been 86-87F inside my house. So there’s the whole heat induced migraine going on and I have an a/c in my garage and I’m really temped to say screw being able to pay the power bill and install the damn thing. To add insult to injury, it was 60 for most of last week and just awesome. The garden isn’t so fond of this heat either, but I have managed to water enough to keep it all from dying, what I haven’t already killed anyway. Lots of green tomatoes, I hope to see some red soon. We’re munching on cucumbers, there’s not enough pickling kind to pickle, so they’re snack fodder, and good.

I’ve become obsessed with Squidoo (see my list over to the right?) and really, you should too. If you know anything about anything, make a lens (what they call a page) about it. These pages are supposed to be constant works in progress, often updated and added to, so you don’t have to spend a ton of time making your first few. Make ‘em, publish ‘em and come back to ‘em later to add on. You might just make a few bucks for yourself or charity (and you can pick the charity). Go, make one! I want to see it, so come back and leave a comment!

I’ve been very bad about keeping up in the garden blog world. I’m afraid I’m a bit over extended these days and just starting to get each thing I’m working on fit into it’s own niche so I’m not running around like a crazed maniac on crack. I’ve been busy with work, both doing web design and now professional organizing, plus schooling my monsters, err kids, and the garden of course, and a million other things. Being self employed is so awesome in many ways, but the hours for the income sucks butt to start. It’ll be worth it though. But I still need to get back to the garden blog rounds, I miss reading about what’s going on with everyone.

Here’s the link!

It’s written kind of cheesy, but I’m glad it’s published.

“It’s silliness,” says Terri Frohnmayer, a commercial real-estate broker who is co-chairwoman of one of Salem’s 19 neighborhood associations and lives outside town next to a farm that has chickens. “Eggs aren’t even that expensive anyway. What’s next? Goats? Llamas?” Her advice to hen-loving neighbors: “Get a farm.”

Ignorant much?

Update: The article is out!
Apparently the City of Salem is becoming a nationwide spectacle over this chicken mess. So much so that the Wall Street Journal is interested. I guess the mayor thinks it’s because they’re dragging it out so long, which I suppose could be part of it, but I think the other part of it is that chickens are even such an issue. It’s rediculous! We can have pot bellied pigs, and we don’t have a leash law (which makes me nervous…) but we can’t have chickens. Sigh. Priorities, people?

Happy Father’s Day

to all my daddy readers!

….that sounds weird. You know what I mean :p

After I posted this chicken smell post, I’ve gotten a lot of hits to the blog from it. Again, if it smells, throw it out. If it’s in date, take it back to the store for a refund.

Searches:

chicken that smells bad
bad chicken smell bad chicken bacteria
chicken fresh but smells a bit
chicken from store smelled bad returned
chicken in date smells
chicken in date smells bad
chicken is in date but smells
chicken looks good smells bad
chicken looks ok but smells
chicken smell bad
chicken smell food poisoning
chicken smells bad
chicken smells funny but still in date
chicken smells is it bad to eat
chicken that smells like skunk
chicken yard odors
if the chicken smells bad is it bad
is chicken bad if it smells
is chicken safe if it smells
my chicken smells bad
what if chicken smells bad
when chicken smells bad

Other “chicken searches” that turned up my blog:

bad smell from chicken coop
can i raise chickens in salem oregon
chicken in city limit of salem oregon
chicken noodle soup leftover chicken
chicken yard odors
neighbors chicken coop smells
salem chickens
salem oregon organic chicken
taco del mar chicken recipe

We’re in the process of trying to convince the Salem government to allow chickens. The whole thing is classist and rediculous. I’m ashamed to have such ignorant people running our city and I will never be voting for the 5 councilors who voted no for the chickens (information taken from the Salem chickens group):

Bennett – voted no (as did his neighborhood associations)
Rogers – voted no (despite the fact that his neighborhoods want chickens)
Clem – voted no (despite the fact that his neighborhood wants chickens and most of our supporters live in his ward).
Sullivan – voted no (will only support chickens if there is a $100 permit, registration, and annual inspection).
Cannon – This one’s interesting. He does not object to chickens. In fact, he thinks we should be able to do whatever we want on our own property without ANY restrictions. Of course, nobody is going to support this (I’m not even sure I would). But he will only support the proposal if it’s a “permitted pet issue” rather than a “land use issue”. The city attorney says this is not possible and even if it were, the city’s definition of livestock would first have to be changed (which is a land use issue). In other words, Cannon is standing in his own way, so to speak, because his refusal to support a land use change prevents us from having chickens, which he ultimately supports. He was the deciding vote. Go figure.

The 4 that did approve: Mayor, Nanke, Tesler, Dickey :thumb

What next? In two weeks the staff should come back with a resolution summarizing what happened at the advisory public hearing and officially referring it to the Planning Commission. The staff’s recommendation will be forwarded, as is, except Brad will try to allow for the possible definition of livestock change. If that change is not part of this original referral and they decide it is a necessary step later, it would require another 45-day waiting period, so it’s best to do it all at once. Once the livestock definition is changed, if the Planning Commission agrees, we will have the option of take this out of the land use arena, which is what Cannon wants. Thus, we could potentially win his vote down the road. I know, it’s complicated, but hopeful.

I’m having WAY too much fun with this.

Facebook (which I despise) has a game called Farm Town. Sign up for Facebook if you haven’t and add me as a friend and neighbor – amy_e_williams(at)hotmail(dot)com (replacing, of course, the (at) with @ and (dot) with .)

I’m addicted. My farm (right now) has Sunflowers, Corn, Grapes, Coffee, Potatoes and a variety of trees and animals. The crops grow fast – 4 hours to 3 days. It keeps sucking me in. I have enough money and am 1/2 a level away from buying a bigger farm plot and a house :lol