Itty bitty update! Still cute. Still nursing, but have just started licking the "gravy" from canned food, so they should be eating that soon. At least one of them has started using the litterbox, but we don't know who.

Buffy has an eye infection- you can see her left eye (your right) is cloudy in this pic:

So she gets antibiotic eye drops for that. Both of them still sneeze occasionally, so they're also on a different antibiotic for the respiratory infections (they were on a different one earlier that didn't clear it up). These darn kittens are going to breed a new race of superbacteria that will wipe out the human race, I just know it. But I won't hold it against them, since they're so cute!

MacGyver is really feisty and likes to attack and bite anything that moves (as well as plenty of things that don't move, too):


Look at the toe pads below! Eeek! The cute!

Boy did the weekend suck. Sniffles, the most sick of the kittens, died Friday. Cyclops, the other small kitten, looked like she was getting worse. She wasn't eating at all. I went to the shelter and they showed me how to feed her from a bottle. Ryan and I fed her as best we could all weekend, but her breathing got worse and interfered with feeding. She died early this morning. So my heart is broken times two.

Momma and the two bigger kittens are doing well, though. I decided to name the mom Isis (that's the name of Catwoman's cat). The boy is going to be MacGyver. I haven't decided on the girl's name yet. Here are some more pictures. I haven't got a good one of MacGyver yet because he is always eating or sleeping.


Any name suggestions for this cute little girl?

At this point in time there are 9 kitties in the house!
Last Saturday Ryan and I went to PetSmart to buy a new scratching post. As usual, we stopped by the kitties for adoption just to look. A woman from the animal shelter was there checking in and asked us if we could help. As she explained, due to the recession the shelter is severely overcrowded, with cages and pet carriers full of animals stacked in the hallways. She asked us to consider becoming foster parents to a cat.

Of course I thought it was THE MOST WONDERFUL IDEA IN THE WORLD! Ryan took more convincing, but I promised that I would give them back and not adopt them permanently. Later that day I dropped off a foster application to the shelter and on Tuesday I got the call that I was approved and could drop by that evening. The lady gave me the option of an adult or litter of kittens, and I jumped at the chance for some itty bitties. They are only 2-3 weeks old and still nursing, so momma came with me too!

Momma is kinda small, a little smaller than Stormy. She's a little wary but friendly. There are four babies. Two are dilute calicos (like Grem! but they are mostly gray), so those are definitely girls. One of the other two is gray with faint tabby stripes (like momma), and the other is gray with faint tabby stripes and white patches under the chin and on the belly (remniscent of Jib).

None of them were named by the shelter, so we get to name them! We are leaning toward a theme, such as characters from a TV show. For now, I'm calling them Momma, Pudgy (plump gray/white), Grem II (plump calico with more orange and white than the other), Sniffles (small all gray), and Cyclops (small calico with orange spot on the forehead).

The kittens are all on twice-daily antibiotics for respiratory infections, but most of them seem to be getting better (Sniffles is lagging behind, hence the name). I also have to rub their eyes with ointment twice daily so they don't get crusty and stick together. The shelter lady was really glad that I could take care of them because being getting away from all the other cats at the shelter will help them get healthy faster.

I will try to get some better pictures and videos later...my camera died in the middle of the last batch. Momma will be here until the babies are weaned, then she can be fixed and put up for adoption. The kittens are here until they are over 2 pounds, since that's when they can be fixed and then will be available for adoption. With all the overcrowding at the shelter, though, maybe they'll have to stay longer or maybe I'll have to take a different batch :)

Love is in the air. No, really. Tessa got engaged over the weekend...in a HOT AIR BALLOON! Congratulations, Missy.

And...today is me and Ryan's 6 year coupledom anniversary! Poor coupledom anniversary plays second fiddle to wedding anniversary, though. No special plans to celebrate.

Tomorrow I give my very first lecture. I've given seminars before and led sections of students before, but this is my first full-length lecture to an entire class. It's an 80 minute class. There are about 90 students. The prof is out of town and wanted me to share my research and perspective on grad school in general. Should go okay, I guess, since it's a topic I know well.

Over the weekend we got about 50 cans of soup for $2. And I'm going back for more. Just a little wheeling and dealing brag since I shut down that blog :)

Haven't been in much of a writing mood. Ryan and I went up to Maine over Labor Day weekend to do a final round of sampling. Went back to school this week. Everything else is pretty much same-old, same-old.

It took 2 years, but I finally grew a ripe watermelon. 16.6 pounds and very tasty!

Cattens are still cute.

I'm back home for almost good! Ryan will be going with me to Maine over Labor Day weekend to do my last round of sampling.

I'll get to the garden pics, etc later...I'm super tired. But first I wanted to share my next obsession: Jesus Christ Superstar. I know, totally random, right?

This is the video that started it...prepare to have your mind blown. It starts a little slow, but a couple minutes in you'll have chills, I guarantee it.

A recap of the last two weeks:

Week one I went back to Maine and compressed two weeks worth of work into one week. It was seriously exhausting, hearkening back to when I used to work 13 hour days at the field station and the Lobster. That was only possible because it was the one week per month where there are two very low tides during daylight hours, so I don't plan on making a habit of it.

Week two Ryan came to visit me! Here are the highlights:

I picked up Ryan at the airport Wednesday morning and immediately we went all Legolas:
We are totally badass! At the LL Bean flagship store there are $15 per person "Walk on Adventures," one of which is archery (other LL Bean stores have kayaking and sometimes fly casting, find one near you here). It's an hour-long lesson. Turns out I'm a natural...

Two reds and a blue. I had the best aim out of the entire group! Okay, so there were only four of us, but still... Later I got a bulls-eye! Okay, so it only nicked the outer edge of the yellow, but according to the rules it still counts. I want to buy a bow and arrows sometime so we can shoot targets out on our future acreage.

So the archery was actually the highlight of the whole week, which was kinda poorly placed since it was the first thing we did...nothing else was quite as good. Most of the other highlights involved eating! The lowlights: lots of rain while camping, boredom in between photo opportunities.

My first ever mushroom-hunting bounty! I successfully collected all these chanterelles and ate them. I'm still alive, yay! I did get an A+ in the mushroom course...it would be a PR nightmare if I died after misidentifying. (I was 100% certain about the ID, of course)

Three pounder! We bought him at the local seafood co-op and shared him. I cut my finger trying to crack open the claw; it was a very thick shell with big spines. Next time we'll get two smaller ones!

There, that's better! We ate out a bunch during the trip (like as much as the whole rest of the year combined!) and there was a $15.99 lobster dinner; awesome deal and just as tasty as the big guy! Nice bib, eh?

Out of three nights camping it was only dry enough for a good campfire once. Marshmallows:
Heating chili (yeah, we're naughty, we had the marshmallows before the chili)

Let's see...we also went to a u-pick raspberry farm (no good pics). We went to the observatory at the top of this bridge:

The view looking down the length of the bridge:
And to round things out, a lighthouse. Nothing is wrong with the camera; it was really foggy.
Now it's back to work for the next two weeks, then I get to go home and snorgle meh kittehs.

Word from Ryan is that there is an 8-inch honeydew melon in the garden! I won't get to eat it, but it still makes me happy to know that it grew.

It was a very domestic Cat weekend! On Friday I played Hostess with the Mostess and had Jen and Ariel over for dinner. We had mojitos, cornbread, four bean salad, teriyaki beef and chicken kabobs, and ice cream from the ice cream truck for dessert.

Saturday Ryan and I went for a drive in the country, in particular, the area of the country that's close to his work and a prime candidate for our next house. More and more I'm thinking that I would like to settle down in this area and will take whatever job is nearby rather than searching far and wide for jobs prior to relocating. Moreover, it seems that we would be able to afford a nice house with 2-5 acres of garden/farm space. Ryan's commute would be the same distance but less trafficky than it is now. The roads would be perfect for Ryan's biking, and I'd probably join him sometimes since the main reason I don't now is the traffic and crazy drivers. Plus it's only a little bit out in the country, so there's still a CVS, Walgreens, Shoprite, and Superfresh within 15 minutes. We are thinking that we want to pay off the mortgage here first, though. I think we could do it in five years without much change in lifestyle, possibly four years if we really put our minds to it.

Where was I? Oh, we went for a drive in the country. The main point of the drive was to go blueberry picking. NJ is the source for most of the east coast's blueberries. They are only $1.60/lb to U-pick, and of course I'm itching for more farming, so it was a perfect way to spend a Caturday morning.
It's me!

It's Ryan! This picture really shows off how loaded with berries the bushes were. Hopefully my future blueberry bushes will be just as successful. I asked the lady working the place if she knew how old the bushes were...she said from the 1950's! Ideally mine would live as long but still produce plenty of berries in their younger years.

5.5 lbs of blueberries.

Blueberry cobbler, using Ryan's grandma's recipe. NOM! That used 8 cups of berries.

Sunday, with another 8 cups of berries, I performed my first canning ever! Canning is fairly particular since you have to follow instructions precisely in order to not get botulism. It was quite stressful, with me not used to the routine and all the boiling liquids, so Ryan helped a lot. My jars formed a an airtight seal, though, so I think we're good. These are blueberry syrup. I got the idea because we had waffles the other morning and I used the liquid from the bottom of the cobbler as syrup. Very tasty. So I looked up an actual recipe for canned blueberry syrup and followed that. Now we can enjoy New Jersey farm goodness in the middle of winter.

There's still one cup of berries left, so tonight I'll be making blueberry muffins. Then tomorrow morning I go back to Maine :( But Ryan will be coming up after about a week for his vacation.

There are a few noticeable changes in the garden since last week:

First honeydew melon of the year! It's kind of flat on one side. Sometimes that means that only part of the flower was pollinated, so not all the seeds were fertilized and the unfertilized part of the fruit doesn't develop as large as the rest. We'll see...well, Ryan will, because I'll be away :(


Potatoes have sprouted en masse. These are the "Yellow Finn" variety, which are supposed to be similar to Yukon Gold. In the back you can see I ordered more seed potatoes than we had room for, so I'm growing some in old Tidy Cat buckets. You plant them with the bucket half full, let them sprout a bit, then fill the bucket to the top. That elongates the underground stem from which they put out the new potatoes, increasing the yield dramatically.

On the left, a Yellow Finn sprout. On the right, a Mountain Rose potato sprout. They have pink skin and flesh, and apparently pink tinges on the leaves, too! Hmm, come to think of it the inner parts of the Yellow Finn leaves DO look kinda yellow...

I also planted "Purple Majesty" blue potatoes for fun. Apparently they have blue-purple-tinged leaves. I'm detecting a pattern!

The kitchen is being overrun with squash and pumpkins!

The squash factory, with four more in production!

I have not been this happy in a loooooong time. It feels so good to be at home. Home is where I belong!

Grem with the first homegrown carrots of the year. The carrots, like Grem, are not that long but are plump and juicy.

Watering the carrots (you can see the new grass around the shed, and a little of the trellis peeking about from behind my head):


It's hard to tell from the picture, but the squash plants on the left are waist high. The pumpkin plants on the right are about 10 feet long.

The crookneck squash and mini pumpkins are crazy fast growing (crooknecks in place of zucchini this year). This is after we had two squash with dinner and gave one to our neighbor.

This was supposed to be a full-size pumpkin plant...I think it cross-pollinated with a honeydew melon and yielded this 10-inch-long yellow/green speckled weirdo:

The other garden stuff isn't as interesting to look at right now. 3/4 of one big bed looks empty but there should be carrot seedlings and potato plants emerging any day now. Note to self: planted spinach today in back square bed (Ferry Morse "Teton Hybrid"). Planted a billion containers today, too: pickling cukes, nasturtiums, catnip, and pole beans.

Three days until I go home for a week!

I'm still voraciously planning my farm. I decided that I want to raise chickens and pigs for meat, in addition to the turkeys. The chickens I would process myself, but the pigs would go to the professionals and come back in neatly wrapped packages. Pigs only take 6 months to grow from piglet size to 250+ pounds! Hence the expressions, "pigging out," "eats like a pig," etc.

You know where this is going, right? My "yearly food challenge" ten years or so from now will be to grow all of our fruit, veggies, poultry, and pork for a year. For the two of us, a year's supply of the meat would be roughly one pig, ten turkeys, and eighty chickens. Yes, I said eighty chickens, but don't freak out yet. Chickens only take three months to reach eating size, so we could maintain a flock of 20ish birds, with the itty bitties replacing the ones sent to freezer camp.

I don't see us ever raising beef or dairy cows, though. Even though filet mignon is tasty, 1000+ pounds of beef would take us years to get through. We don't use all that much dairy, so it would be a waste to have a milk cow. Plus both are more long-term animals (as opposed to 6 months or less), so veterinary care would be an added cost.

Ryan thinks I'm nuts. He was fine with the idea of 3 chickens for eggs, but he is greatly overestimating the amount of work and expense that the other animals will require. After all, people have been raising livestock for centuries. I've done my research. Maybe he's forgetting how tasty bacon is...I'll have to buy some while I'm down and persuade him that way.

So, as you might know, I tend to get FIXATED on things. OBSESSED, you might say. In May I was totally enthralled with American Idol (yeah, yeah, I know). In June I got sucked into Lost and watched all 5 seasons online. But now I'm at the end and have to wait until 2010 for the last season to come out. My July obsession has turned out to be...

Our next house.

I seriously cannot stop thinking about it and planning the garden/grounds. Let's see, I thought of even more stuff I'd like to grow: an olive tree (indoor/greenhouse), mushrooms (in the basement using a kit), and Christmas greenery/trees (which I sort of am now, but they're small and in pots).

Now a greenhouse like this would be nice (and affordable, about $800):

But why settle for a "nice" greenhouse when such a MAGNIFICENT CONSERVATORY exists? Drool...
Couldn't find a price, but I'm guessing $10-25K range. At least it would add significant value to the house since it's additional living space.

I also decided that I want to raise turkeys (and potentially chickens later on, depending on the turkey success) for meat. I think I could handle "processing" them, and it would make our homegrown meals all the more home grown. Turkeys are way more meat per slaughter, which sounds appealing to me, since I'm sure hell would freeze over before Ryan would help me out with the killing and plucking and whatnot. Plus turkey is Jib's favorite meat. Ryan says, "Uh, let's just start with the egg-laying chickens and see how it goes."

"Gobble, gobble."

With all the agriculture and poultry and whatnot, it seems like my Mazda is not going to cut it as the cargo-carrying vehicle. We may need *gasp* a truck. Maybe a small used pickup. Nothing fancy or expensive, just something to haul big stuff in.

I draw the line at a tractor. Maybe a riding lawnmower with a cart behind it, but no tractors! I do not think tractors are sexy.

So, who's up for Thanksgiving dinner 2015 or so? Homegrown turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, carrots, corn, apple pie, and pumpkin pie. The cranberry sauce will have to be store-bought...I don't think a cranberry bog would be too practical for the number of cranberries we eat.

For those of you that don't follow my grocery challenge blog, it's worth mentioning that the mid-year bottom line is $705.13. That puts me on track to come in well under the yearly limit of $1600, although that excess may be spent on lobster dinners when Ryan comes to visit in August.

Supposedly Ryan stopped at the store the other night and as he was getting out of his car someone said, "Whoa, I really like your car; it's like a mini-Batmobile!"

I'm getting more excited about the idea of getting chickens at our next house. Chickens are magical animals that eat bugs and turn it into fertilizer. Here's a link to the breed I'm interested in. I would want a similar coop setup, maybe a little smaller with only 3 birds.

Oh, and I thought of a few more things I want to grow: grapefruit, avocados, kiwis, walnuts, apricots, and blackberries. Grapefruit and avocados would have to be inside the greenhouse.

The weather here in Maine sucks big time. Today was nonstop rain/fog. Everyone is constantly talking about how unusually wet this year is :( Hopefully July will be better.

Right now I have a pretty good idea of what my realistically ideal life would be like... {enter hazy dream sequence here}

First I need to finish this darn PhD-thingy.

Then there's a minor fork in the road: any of these paths will get me to my final goal, although some are obviously preferable to others. In order of descending desirability:

1. Get a permanent teaching job that's in close proximity to a L0ckheed that's in gardening zone 6 or higher. Yay, I win at life.

2. Get a permanent teaching job that's in close proximity to a L0ckheed that's in gardening zone 5. Okay, a little chillier than I'd like, but I'll deal. We'll take tropical vacations in the winter and I'll get a big greenhouse.

3. Get a short-term/interim teaching position in the Philly/NJ area. That will give me a little something for the resume. And we can stay in our current house for a little longer. Then apply for jobs as seen in 1 and 2.

4. Kill time with non-career type job (substitute teaching, etc) for a year or two until well-situated short-term or permanent job is attained. Resume doesn't get as padded, but I have plenty of time for gardening and kitties.

5. Get a short-term/interim teaching position that's outside of commuting distance from Ryan. Also a resume-padder, but based on how much I miss Ryan just being away for the summer, I don't know if I could handle it. Get a cheap apartment, pay my dues, then reapply for better-situated jobs.

Okay, at any rate, eventually Ryan will still be working for L0ckheed and will have advanced a few pay grades (associate manager?) while I have permanent teaching job at a small (i.e. non-research) college. I don't want to do research...too much time is spent on grant applications and manuscripts that get rejected. I enjoy teaching, and at the right school I could just teach and have a light load in the summer, which leaves more time for gardening.

If and when we find this ideal employment locale, it will be time for a new house (unless it happens to be right where we are now, in which case we can stay put for a couple more years, then upgrade). Based on the effort/time it takes to start a new garden of epic proportions, we'll probably live in that house for our whole working life (and possibly retirement too, if we still enjoy it). So...we'd better make it a good one! I really like our current house, but the things that would be big improvements are more land, larger rooms, and a separate dining room.

Ideal second house:

• 3-4 bedrooms
• 2.5 bath
• large kitchen
  
• master suite with walk-in closet and room for king-sized bed
  
• separate living, dining, and family room or den
• finished/finishable basement (bat cave)
  
• 1+ acres of non-wooded land (additional woods okay)
• super bonus: pond

We should be fine affording this unless my teaching job lands us in California, in which case we'd have to commute farther and scale back the lot and house size. But the climate there would allow year-round gardening, so maybe the reduced lot wouldn't be so tragic.

After living in this house for a few years we should have enough money to pimp our roof with solar panels...and if we live in the house for 30 years they should more than pay for themselves. Totally random, I know, but something I've always wanted to do. Oh yeah, I want Lasik too, so I'm not so blind.

What am I going to do with all that land? Epic garden! I'd like to grow more than enough food for both of us (give away extras to friends, donate to food bank, etc). We'll get a chest freezer and food dehydrator to help keep my bounty sustaining us through the winter. I'll have sufficient quantities to can stuff, too. And for the holidays everyone will be delighted to get baskets of homegrown jams, jellies, dried fruit, nuts, etc (score! no more racking my brain for gift ideas!).

With all my land and large greenhouse, I would grow:

• Apple, peach, pear, cherry, apricot, hazelnut, plum, lemon, lime trees (2 each)
• Everything that's in my garden now, but in much larger quantities so there's enough to preserve
• Blueberries
• Asparagus
  
• Leeks
• Celery
• Cucumbers
• Beans (additional types)
  
• Peanuts
• Sweet potatoes
• Tomatoes (for homemade tomato sauce)
• Rhubarb
• Grapes
• Chickens! Just a few hens for eggs.
• Corn (extra to feed to chickens)
• Flowers (just a few, for decorations)
  

So pretty much a farm/orchard. Hopefully after a couple years teaching the same courses it doesn't take too much work so I'll have plenty of time to garden.

We will fence in a large part of the yard with a very tall, attractive fence so that the cats can play outside without worry of getting lost or hit by a car. Maybe if they're good they'll even get a kitty door to the outside.

That's "all" I want. A mini farm, nice house, and 4-5 cats. I don't really, really want a job but should probably do something with my degree. A tropical vacation each winter would be nice but otherwise I'm not too big on traveling. I'm happy with the type/quality of cars we have now...maybe in the future I might splurge on leather seats as an option in my next small Japanese sedan but don't aspire to drive a BMW/Mercedes/etc. Don't want kids. What else do people spend money on? Guess we'll have to start making large donations to charity with all the money we will have to burn!

Addendum: What does Ryan want? He doesn't really know. A year ago he might have said a big-screen TV, but we got one. He's very career-oriented so all his future plans are about advancing there. I'm sure he'd like more open roads to go biking. So a farm in the country works for both of us.

I broke my promise; I am back in Maine and didn't take any garden pics while I was home. Here is the verbal description of how things are growing (probably more for my future reference than your enjoyment, unless you are a garden stalker).

Strawberries are pretty much done for the year. If it weren't for all the excessive rain there would've been at least twice as many. Note to self: move downspout before next spring and be sure to re-mulch and remove old leaves before they rot.

Raspberries: half of the the plant I got at Lowe's this spring has tiny green berries on it and the other half turned brown and died. The plant that I planted in spring 2008 is lush and green and much larger than last year, but no berries.

Carrots: growing much faster than last year. The soil/sun exposure/Nitrogen-rich fertilizer in their new spot must have helped. They should be ready to harvest in July (as opposed to September last year). I'm going to have Ryan seed another round as soon as some other plants are out of the way.

Peas, peas, and more peas. The snow peas matured earliest (early June), but now seem to have a second wave that will be ripe at the very end of June. The snap peas started coming in mid-June, and are probably pretty much done by now. I ate a lot while I was home. Big success, and big plants- they were about 6 feet tall before falling over under their own weight. The shelled peas matured at the same time as the snap peas, but the pods only had 5-6 peas each. Not really worth the effort/space when frozen peas are so cheap at the store. So I won't be doing those next year.

Green beans: the easiest thing in the world to grow. I put them in the worst section of the garden (least sun, worst soil) and they're still doing great. The first mature beans arrived in mid-June and we had them with dinner a few nights while I was down.

Onions: they took off fast in May but look kinda whimpy now. They probably need more sun...hopefully there will be more sunny days as we move into July.

Broccoli: matured during the first two weeks in June. A bunch of caterpillars climbed up in the later-maturing heads...hard to get all of them out. Next year: cover broccoli with floating row cover as soon as heads start to form. But in general, another successful broccoli crop.

Soybeans: in place of the broccoli I put about 20 soybean plants. I started the seedlings on my trip home in early June, then transplanted them last weekend. I started another set of seedlings that Ryan will transplant for me once there's room. Edamame...yum!

Lettuce/spinach/mixed greens: they had a good run but are getting close to their expiration date. The spinach and most of the mixed greens have bolted (gone to seed). The lettuce are still okay for now. I told Ryan to eat most of the rest of it in the next week or two, then the new soybean seedlings will get transplanted to the old lettuce real estate.

Pumpkins/yellow squash: the plants are growing rapidly and there were some immature buds before I left. I expect mature squash starting in July and pumpkins starting in August. This year I planted carving-size pumpkins rather than the mini ones. Depending on how many we get, I may try making pumpkin pie from super-scratch (I have only used canned pumpkin before). Pumpkins keep for a long time under the proper conditions, so we'll use them for Halloween decorations.

Honeydew melons/watermelon: the plants are about a foot long now. Hopefully fruit in late July?

Phantom crop of the year (I didn't plant on purpose, but grew anyway): potatoes! I obviously missed a few while digging up last year's potatoes. I let them grow and they should be mature in a few weeks. Ryan will be planting additional potatoes where the snap and snow peas are right now.

Peaches: there are 6 peaches remaining on the tree out of the 20-ish that were there in May. 6 is probably a good number considering the size of the tree and the fact that I planted it last year and the catalog said it should fruit in 2-3 years.

Apple/hazelnut trees: no fruit/nuts this year, but that's to be expected...all the trees weren't supposed to fruit until 2-3 years. Guess I just have some prodigal peaches. The apple tree is very skinny and tall, whereas the hazelnuts are short and bushy. The peach tree is right in between, medium height and full-bodied.

Just for the hell of it, remember when Grem and Choco were ITTY-BITTIES?!?!!! Swoon.

It's boring up in Maine. I didn't go out sampling today because it's pouring rain. So what did I do instead? Make my first Blingees! Making these reminds me of the silliness of the infamous Cheshire Cat picture I drew late one night at a PSP party.





Speaking of killer Jib, the bad boy, he caught his second bird of the year yesterday.

I guess I never mentioned that I drove home last week Wednesday-Monday. I reached a convenient stopping point in my research, the tides weren't that great, and I missed my Ryan, kitties, and garden. Ryan and I went to NYC on Saturday and saw a matinee of the Broadway show Rock of Ages. It was good, but I was disappointed that both the male and female leads were being played by the understudies.

It has been super rainy in both Maine and NJ... a lot of the strawberries ended up getting mildewy because they never dried out in between rains. The ones that didn't rot tasted watery...too much water and not enough sunshine for intense sweet flavor.

I will be going back home again on Tuesday, but flying this time. I promise garden pics.