Posts tagged ‘Living Green’

Bwahahahaha….
And I didn’t even make another pot of coffee. Dayum! What’s up with that? I love the night. I am, (it’s true) a creature of the night. I really need to get my sleeping habits turned around a lil, though. Spring is on its way and that is the time of year that I love mornings!
It has been a productive evening.
I sent 7 letters of inquiry along with my resume and stuffs out.
*sigh
It’s true. You know times are hard when Thorni is looking for a JOB!
I know. It makes me want to cry.
Just kidding.
Kinda.
I can work if I absolutely must! I mean, like work for someone else. I work all the time. For myself. I just… er… don’t really work and play well with others.
Well, that’s not entirely true. I can usually (well, at least I could about 12 years ago which was the last time I worked for someone else) manage about a year. Well, maybe not a whole year. I think 8 months is my record.
It isn’t that I don’t deal well with authority, it’s just that- well… I’m so much smarter than anyone I’ve ever worked for! Bwahahaha! Oh, fuck. I’m not really kidding. Only a lil. maybe. Give me 6 months and I’ll tell you exactly how you should be running things. LMFAO
It’s just that I get so bored. I mean, once I’ve learned the job I want to learn something else. Like my supervisor’s job. Hee hee. Which doesn’t usually go over too well.
It’s okay though. Seriously. I only applied for 1 job that’s not a telecommuting position. If the money is right it could be fun. It’s for a blueprint place. They want a general art/design/layout and copywriter.
Then a bunch of freelance writing bids.
I know. You’d never guess it from the style of my blog, but I really can write well. Haha. And professionally if I must. Human interest, promotional, reviews. Journalistic, folksy, pretentious. LOL Whatever it takes.
I needs money. The hell with the mortgage, it’s time to buy seeds for the garden! And I buy the good kind. Heirloom varieties that haven’t been genetically modified.
You know, you can’t buy seeds from any of the mainstream suppliers anymore. Jackson & Perkins, Burpee. They’re all the same company owned by some plastic manufacturer like Dow or something. I could look it up and tell you the whole deal, but I’m a lil worn out after all those job apps.
Poison seeds, my friends. Insect genes spliced into your food. “Round-Up ready” vegetables. You know what that means? It means they’ve genetically altered the plant to be immune to the exfolient that they want you to spray on your so- called “weeds”. Round Up. Can you say “Agent Orange”?? That is an exfoliant, too.
LOL. You can all thank Adam over at Twilight Earth for my little seed tangent. Check out what they wanna do now. So sick.
I’m so allergic to corn already. It sucks too, because I love it. Imagine… read his post. Then imagine all the corn contaminated. The corn they feed chickens and beef and of course people. Your chips and salsa! OMG! Hehe. It’s so not funny.
Speaking of funny, I was looking through my old posts for something suitable to edit and use a a writing sample and damn, I was funny!
I won’t pause to wonder what happened to me; we all know.
I sure do swear a lot, too.
I wan’t to be funny and charming and stimulating again.
Hmmm…
Okay. Enough. (I’m getting maudlin- it must be bedtime)
Peace, out!

Thirteen Things about Thorne’s World

So in all my activist allegories, political pontifications and environmental urgings (okay, I know “urgings doesn’t start with an “e” but it works, eh?? WTF!? LOL) I haven’t actually shared a whole lot of my own real life with you all, have I? I mean, you all know I’m a queer witch artist who does tattoos. Many of you know I live on 40 acres of scrub in the Mojave Desert, that I read, write and garden. But do you really know what an eco freak I am? That I am as green as that witch from The Wizard of Oz (See, Shelly?? I told you they are MY flying monkeys! *wink). It’s true. I am a bonafied tree hugger. As a result I’m also a pack rat extrordinaire. I save EVERYTHING! Now, I know. I have 40 acres. What can you city folk do? Well, inspired by Adam at Twilight Earth and by Shelly at This Eclectic Life’s post Rethinking Recycling I finally decided to get off my sleepy holiday crafting ass and do a TT on this topic. I’m gonna mix it up a bit. I’ll tell you a bit of what I do and a bit of easy what “you” can do. If some of what I do seems a bit over the top, or overwhelming for you, give a sec to thinking of how you may be able to modify your consumption just a tiny bit. And don’t worry, I won’t tell you not to shop. Proimise.

1) Make gift tags from last year’s Holiday cards or use scraps of old wrapping paper.

2) Wrap your gifts in fabric! Old lovely dresses, T-shirts that may be too worn to wear but still have great silk screened designs or embroidery on them, elegant linen tablecloths that don’t get enough use, lace or heirloom crocheted doilies. Buy the fabric for that quilt or skirt you want to make and use it to fold and wrap first!! Wrap a bathroom gift set in a bath towel! Kitchen utensils or appliances in tea towels! If you want to get really fancy, here’s a link I snagged from the comments at Shelly’s place on Japanese Gift Wrapping How To

3) Re-Gift! Yep, you heard me right! Let me say it again: RE-GIFT! I’m not talking about passing on the ugly vase you got from Aunt Zelda to someone else who will think it as awful as you do… I’m talking considerate and sincere re-gifting. Even if I absolutely HATE the collection of miniature porcelain teacup and saucers that someone gave me some years ago, I do have a friend who would abso-fucking-lutely LOVE it! True! Why in the world should that (awful) lovely set (be hidden) sit in the upper reaches of my closet in perfect condition, gathering dust, when I know someone who would be thrilled to have it?

4) Make artful gifts out of junk mail. Check these out: Schimmel Junk Mail Mosaics, Altered Books

5) Make Quilts, Lap Throws Snuggles and even Clothing from previously worn items. If you don’t sew, shop! There are people making and selling these items! Try to support people instead of corporations (especially people using post consumer waste to make cool stuff!) Here’s an article about one of them: Dolly Rocker

6) Okay. I do some of those things myself. I also make Bowling Ball (The big one is an old cardboard globe coated in plaster of paris before tiling) yard art from broken tile and pottery and china. (I also tiled my kitchen counters this way, but that’s a story for another day)

7) Go check out Freecycle.org and join up with your local group. This is a great thing year round, but this time of year it could be so extra special both to the giver and receiver. Now, I know you are all busy this time of year, but if you’re anything like me, you also came across at least 3 or 10 things that are in great shape but you will NEVER use them again, when you were digging out the holiday decorations. Go to freecycle. Offer those items for FREE to someone who needs them. Simple. Cool. Green.

8) Pillows for teens, artists and other ne-er-do-wells. Old band T-shirts or other favorites sewn or tied into pillow covers. Click the pic for instructions.

9) Got outdoor plants?? Lil green things getting cold in this winter weather?? There are so many rockin’ things to do with plastic bottles. Not just plastic water bottles, but your cooking oil, your laundry detergent and other plastic bottles. They make great plant warmers, for one. A rivet gun and glue make for fun crafting with them, too (Look; it’s GREEN!)

10) And as for glass bottles! 10)Oh my! There are so many cool and s
uper easy things to do with glass bottles. Here’s an example of some super classy upcycling, but there are so many other great uses for them! Pick up some corks at a local craft shop, sterilize the bottles and then drop in a couple of sprigs of rosemary, some chile peppers, sun dried tomatoes, basil; pick your poison. Cover with vinegar or olive oil, cork it and tie a ribbon around the neck and Voila!!! Herbed olive oil or vinegar and home made by lil ol’ you! And let’s not forget that tried and true legend of Roadside Attraction fame that is rapidly picking up steam as contemporary yard art; the bottle tree.
Or for all you “Joe 6-packs” out there: Festive, ain’t it? Hahaha!

11) Cans. Sheesh! I can go crazy with cans! We don’t use a lot of canned goods, actually, so I jealously guard the ones I can get my hands on. They make all kinds of cool artsy and practical stuff. Cover them in fabric, paper, glass or tile mosaic for pencil holders and desk sets, punch them full of holes in cool patterns, add a few twists of wire to hold a tea light candle and hang. Instant fairy lights or cool garden lanterns. If you’ve seen my desert gardening post, you may remember my favorite use for cans. I cut both ends out and use them as collars to protect young plants. I suppose you could make them pretty if you wanted to, but I just use them as is. I think my garden is pretty when it’s looking lush and yummy.

12) Egg Cartons. I desperately covet the cardboard ones. I use them to germinate frigid plants. You know? The ones who wither and die if you disturb their roots the tiniest bit? Their idea of foreplay is screaming “don’t touch me! Where’s my vitamin B??” So I germinate in the egg holders (I cut them apart and sit them in the lid of the carton first, so the little buggers won’t faint if I jiggle them when I plant them) and then plant them cardboard and all when it’s time for them to go into the ground. The cardboard mulches away as the roots grow right through it into the garden soil. But here’s a link for a whole shitload of kids crafts using them for you city folk. If you can’t use them yourself, maybe call your local community center and see if they want them??

13) Okay. Finally. I really need to put my laptop away. The Girlyboi is shivering. I made her take the pic before she got in so I could finish my TT. A Laptop in the bathtub is one thing, but a Laptop, a camera and two lesbians? In a hot tub maybe, but this bathtub is too damned small.

She does look awful cute standing there, though.

“Honey, gimme the camera. Lemme take a pic of you for my blog.
No?”
Ooohhh, she’s so cute when she’s mad… and naked… and cold.

Ok then. Let’s get this show on the road. So yeah. Number THIRTEEN?
Bathe with a friend.

Happy TT and Happy Holidays to all!!

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Let’s start at the beginning. It’s all about poop. Manure. Dookey. Composted fertilizer. Here in our lovely desert we have super sandy soil, slightly alkaline. Great drainage, but really needs organic material to grow food or non indigenous plants. The amounts of manure/fertilizer we need is really cost prohibitive for us. We’re pretty much organic. I only say pretty much because I can’t be positive that the horses are shitting organic, since their food might not be. Other than that, we add no chemical fertilizers or other treatments and absolutely no pesticides. Anyway, the point is that organic fertilizer/compost that you buy is really pricey (and considering that a lot of it is gathered from the floors of old growth forests, I’m not to thrilled at the idea of supporting that kind of destruction of an ecosystem, so….). We have a friend about 10 miles out of town who has and boards horses. The GirlyBoi is my poop loader, filling up the truck or trailer 3 or 4 times a season. (We use ALOT of poop!!)

We like the horse poop better than the cow poop for 2 reasons. There’s lot’s more of it available and it isn’t as “hot”. Sometimes we get rabbit Poop from our local feed store, which is also great manure. We stay away from chicken and duck poop because it is waaaay too hot until it has aged for 6 months to a year, and it smells bad. (ThornesNose is a sensitive organ)

These are our version of plant warmers. Bottles, bottles and more bottles. Filled with water and circled around the plants, they’ll absorb heat from the sun in the daylight hours, and radiate heat to keep the plants warm as the nights begin to cool in the fall. We’ll use them again in the spring to get a jump on the garden. You can also see the corrugated tin we use to surround the garden. It’s absolutely necessary to keep the cottontails, jackrabbits, ground-squirrels, pack rats and mice out. We still have trouble with mice, but I have learned many devious ways to trap and kill them. Too bad they’re not edible. And those tiny furs… Hmmm…..

This is what our garden looked like after using manure that wasn’t composted sufficiently. Bermuda Grass; aka: Crabgrass, aka devilgrass. This totally sux. The roots loved our double dug, fertile beds. The roots go down about 2 feet deep in a web that is mighty!

This is our 3 year old asparagus bed (planted with 2 year old crowns), gone to fern. The ferns feed the roots so that next year we’ll have lots more yummy asparagus. Home grown asparagus is freaking amazing!!! You know how when you buy it at the grocers, you look for the tiny, pencil thin spears if you want them tender? Our asparagus is tender all the way down even when the spears are 12″ tall and as thick as a broomstick.

This is the 1 year old asparagus bed that was taken over by the baaaaad Bermuda Grass. We dug the top 8 inches up, tossed as much grass and roots as we could get out, and are now covering it with plastic and hoping that the rest of the root will die by spring so we can plant more asparagus here. We have 6 more beds that have to be dug up and smothered. *whew*

These are the winter lettuce/greens beds. In the left pic with the black pots we planted for heads, and a couple rows of spinach. The pots have the bottoms cut off to make collars to protect the baby plants from critters and insects. The bed pictured on the right is scattered with a mixture of greens that we’ll be harvesting daily, (before heads have formed when the leaves are young and tender), in a couple of weeks. (In the background there you can see Solon, our 9 year old chow/shepherd mix. He’s a honey bear! Here’s a better pic.

This is the carrot bed. It’s been sifted through diamond hardware cloth to a depth of 18″ to remove all but the tiniest pebbles. Even a small rock will split and deform the carrots. It’s not just for cosmetic reasons that we don’t want the carrots to split. They develop a thicker core and are a bit bitter when they get deformed. The carrots are also scatter seeded. We’ll thin them as they grow, feeding the thinnings to the parrots or putting them in soups and stews where it’s not as imperative that they are sweet and full flavored. The carrots will stay in the ground until they have enjoyed a few good frosts. Frost makes carrots sweet!

These last couple of pics are pretty good examples of intensive gardening.
The “V” shaped fence section in the first image will act as a trellis for the snow and pod peas that are planted on the inside and outside edges of it, and along the fence. Inside the collars are alternating rows of broccoli and cabbage. This arrangement allows us to pack the greatest number of plants in the small bed, and takes advantage of the different root depths for feeding and watering.

This bed has alternating, staggered rows of broccoli and cabbage, with turnips planted between and all around. The PVC arches will be the frame for a sort of cold frame that we’ll add using heavy plastic as the weather gets colder to extend our growing season.

Ummm… let’s see; what else? Oh! Watering. We only top water (by hand) during germination for the winter garden, and during the hottest part of the summer. (Not during the heat of the day, though- mornings and evenings) Otherwise we use soaker hose that’s buried. We have our own well and with such great drainage I feel pretty good about the low environmental impact our garden makes. We don’t lose too much water to evaporation this way, and what’s not making it into the plants is returning through the ground to the water table.

Well. That was prolly more than ya’ll wanted to know about gardening in the desert, but alot of the techniques I use are adaptable to other climates, too. I hope you enjoyed reading it half as much as I enjoyed writing about it. This kind of blogging is happy for my heart and healing to my spirit.
Peace, out!