Welcome to Gaia! ::

I reached my 30-mile milestone while riding my bike today! biggrin

My garden is coming along really well, today was a big day for it.

The first ripe strawberry was picked and then consumed without mercy, I tried a little nibble before handing it to my boyfriend and decided that maybe strawberries aren't as bad as I though.

I cut a small leaf from each of my lettuces and made a cute sandwich with them, got a surprised claim of "It tastes like lettuce" from my clueless boyfriend who somehow thinks grocery store food doesn't come from the dirt or something?

I tapped on my biggest tomato plant again a bit today since I don't know how much I have to do to get it to pollinate itself, so I'm pretty much shaking it every day razz

Transferred my second-biggest tomato plant into a now solo container, super glad to see the ones I started myself are actually succeeding.


I also read a bunch about gardening and got back into the habit of vending on Gaia to keep me occupied.

My jerk jerkity jerk-jerk boss today said he was going to get us some Weed n Feed for tomorrow. Even though it's against bylaw and, in his words: "doesn't do no sh*t anyways". Durka, durka, so I'm going to haggle my employees into using an environmentally detrimental product that is against municipal bylaw to use even though it doesn't work!

I advised him that maybe if he stopped screwing around with the soil (aerating it to death so it's basically sand with exposed roots) and maybe, um, you know, like put compost and this new thing called mulch, or, you know, maybe let the trees keep their natural mulch, you wouldn't have "weeds" over running your "pretty" gardens? What I get is a very condescending answer that the previous horticulturist "should of" put lime down. Is that the same horticulturist that butchered those dogwoods?

Anyways, I advised my co-workers of the legality of weed n feed as well why I'm so uncomfortable using it (weed killing and fertilizing don't coincide, it lasts a long time in the environment, it's unhealthy for everything around it) and the consensus was that if we're given weed n feed that we'll put it some place and not use it. Ha!

November can't come soon enough!

In less woe is me news - I got compost for my plants and mixed up soil on the weekend and repotted my "weed" freebie plants. The amount of awesome plants I have is just... amazing. I got a whole whack of lamium that I dug out of a walkway today. It's beautiful. Almost all of them have taken the transplant (which includes hours in a yogurt cup in the work truck before I get home) beautifully. I think all my pots of humming bird mix have sprouted. Whee!

Yay congrates on your first strawberry, my plants have been over run with aphids and farming ants. D: An your boyfriend is funny! Wait until he gets a taste of other fruits and leaves from your garden!

Generally you don't have to worry too much about your tomato plants, they've been bred to self pollinate. The shaking is just to loosen the pollen for them to get pollinated but even a nice blow of wind is enough. Don't shake it everyday, otherwise you'll stress the plant. Tomatoes produce a secondary metabolite, and if you keep shaking it will sense the need to up its defense system, thus taking energy away from fruiting.

If you still want that "shaking" need, just use your fingers and gently flick or tap each flower instead of shaking the plant.

Was going through junk in the garage and found that i still have an extra starter motor and an extra alternator for my truck (junkyard variety that the previous owner left in the back of the truck when i bought it) Kind of half tempted to go pick up a broken lawnmower off of craigslist and build a miniature generator to see if i can do it. I figure i can mount it on an old skateboard i've got and set the motor up so it spins the alternator...have it wired to 2 car batteries (junkyard variety for free on craigslist) and run that through a cigarette plug adapter thinger (you know the kind where you plug it into your cars cigarette lighter to power a portable dvd player or a mini fridge) i think it would work.

In other news i've been working nights lately so my sleep schedule is once again jacked up. Time to go buy some sleeping pills again because from the looks of it i'm going to be taking sleeping pills until i can get a new job where my schedule isn't flip flopped every week.

Oh i've also got 3 big electric motors and a couple of pounds worth of copper that i need to turn in for scrap. Wondering what i can do with the motors i've got...i could build a lathe...but i don't need one so i might sell them all.

might i recommend you try melatonin supplements? little dissolvable cherry flavored wafers "for a restful sleep".. a lot kinder on the bod and brain than sleeping pills wink although they don't work for everyone.. whooo knows.

Today, I did a bunch of things. When I finally got up and running around, my mom and I went to visit a store called Pak In Pink to look at wigs, scarves, and hats (I was diagnosed with Hogdkins Lymphoma the 15th and we want to get an idea of things before I lose my hair, if I do). While there, I learned that I might not even lose my hair during chemo treatments. After that my mom and I went to Micheals to get ribbon and barrel clasps for my new craft obsession: pop tab bracelets. xp Then we went home because it started storming. But once the storms calmed down we went to Dollar General and I got more coloring books. whee Another one of my silly obsessions. I love to color. Now, this old pervert is at my house so I'm distracting myself on the computer. But I've had a pretty eventful day, don'tyathink? 3nodding