Gardening is an enjoyable chore!

The summer is winding down here in central North Carolina. (Boo! Hiss!) My poor little garden would have fared much better if I had planted a cactus bed instead of water-hogging squash and melons! LOL Alas, I managed to salvage two (count: 1, 2!) squash from my thirsty vine, and it looks like I may get two (again, t-w-o!) very small canteloupes. My carrots... well, let me tell you about planting carrots in Carolina clay!! First, I made a modified "square-foot" style garden: I raked out the alcove between the cement steps at the back porch and the cement stoop the HVAC sits on. Then I set a 2x6 plank to create a front edge and staked it so it wouldn't lean over. Next, I poured in prepared topsoil and organic humus (10 bags total), and used a shovel to dig it deep into the original surface... all that, LAST year!! Last year, I had a "cute" garden.

So, the carrots! Right! This year, after pulling out weeds and whatever, I sectioned off the square I'm planting carrots. I take a 10-inch screwdriver and stab it into the ground and wiggle it around to waller out a loose hole for the carrots to enjoy... I do this for every place I am planting a carrot (16 holes). Not only do I only get 1/3 germination from the carrots (I don't know what happens to seeds... I had to plant banana peppers THREE TIMES before even ONE came up!... happy for the one...), oh! Not only do I only get 5 carrots, but they are stumpy... like 'Thumbelina' variety! I am sure I planted Danvers Long, and created a nice deep space for them, and lightly set the seeds in the tops of these carefully prepared holes.... but this ol' Carolina clay pinched them off! ... OR, a second, less plausible explanation: I didn't water often enough during the drought, and while they survived, they never dug deep into the soil. AND... I am impatient and didn't want to wait another 6 weeks till the frost and see if they could fatten up (actually, girth is good, the length is lacking).

Okay, I admit I am impatient when it comes to gardening: my potato sacks are 1/4 (if that one is doing its magic. I haven't looked yet.), my radishes even bolted right out of the ground! Not a single bulb before flowering! Unbelievable! My tomatoes never sprouted, and my peppers/eggplants are MIA. BUT I DID GET: three dinners' worth of green beans!! and two dinners of spinach/mustard greens! And the greens are growing again now that the weather is cooling down!

Still, I am wondering... that was a lot of work this summer for 3 cans of green beans and a can of spinach! I will plant a bumper crop this week, but maybe... just maybe... I need a bigger garden?

Busy Busy Busy!

My summer went okay. I didn't get to move out West, but I'm okay with that. The week of exams, my grandmother had gone back into the hospital. When she came home, and my exams were over, there was a daily onslaught of tornados through the middle of the country... where I needed to drive, no thank you. Then, as if that wasn't enough to discourage me, Phoenix, Arizona was blanketed by a severe duststorm!! Okay, truth: duststorm was not enough to dissuade me without the terrifying weeklong drive through tornado alley at peak season! So, I settled in with my folks for a long summer.... and enrolled for fall classes here.

School started for me on a Wednesday. Two days later, my grandmother passed. I had been expecting her departure for a long time. Watching her ability to take care of herself steadily decline was hard. She is missed, but I have peace in my heart. Just hours after her graveside service, there was a great earthquake! ('Great' for this area is anything that people can actually detect!) I laughed, because I was musing that if that EQ had hit during the service, we might have been digging some more holes!! LOL (okay, sorry, that isn't funny to everybody... but I still crack myself up!) I happened to be in structural geology lab at the time of the event, and we momentarily got off topic, but that's another story!

Family, school starting back, Fall Break planning, deciding on graduate programs, whether to file for a second Bachelors (not a bad idea, as it solidifies concepts by having to complete more classes, but   it would add more than 2 semesters to plan), moving... stay with folks or move closer to school.... need a job... want relevant work experience (in geology), not cashier at grocery/retailer (not that there's anything wrong with those jobs, but I need experience on my resume!) OH! AND.... I've been adding to my etsy.com listings (www.etsy.com/people/andiroth) ... and eBay (and_ankhira)... so I am feeling very busy busy!

Preparedness...

Even when I was supposed to be studying for my sedimentology & stratigraphy exam, I was worrying about my lack of preparedness for regional or global disasters. My first thoughts were: Do I know how to find water? How do I make it safe to drink? So, I immediately abandoned my study and Google-d my new quest. Oh, I DO know how to find water, and apparently, boiling water for at least two minutes will destroy any ill-seeking pathogens in the water. Boiling longer than two minutes is a waste of water unless you are capturing the steam. The water needs to be at a full rolling boil... need to get temperature above 185* F, and I did not remember that water boils at lower temps at lower air pressure (higher elevations)... thermal dynamics was not my favorite subject.

Ah-hah! okay! but on the way to learning how to make "wild water" potable, I also learned how to make sandals from truck tires and how to sort and prepare acorns. I furthermore stumbled upon several websites (mainly blogs) about being prepared because "it could happen tomorrow." Okay, I thought about the many to-do lists... do I have a first aid kit? how complete is it? do I know where it is? Do I have food for 3 months if I suddenly had no way to get any more? (well, no... ). Do I keep my gas tank filled on my car? ummm... not really,so  in case you were hoping to take my car in an emergency, it will likely be low on gas, and if you need it tomorrow, the tires are worn and my mechanic tells me I need brakes all around!

Clothes, boots, food, WATER... the heaviest of all necessities! even heavier than the essential cast iron frying pan! which is why (you/I) would need to be able to find a reliable water source.... food... after awhile, (I/we) may have to forage for food. I can't kill an animal even for my own survival. I will dig for roots and berries and suck on tree bark before I kill something to eat! ... However, if I was lucky enough to have a hunter as a post-apocolypse partner.... LOL

So, now I have found some Y2K preparedness manuals and magazine articles... remember when the world was going to end at the end of 1999?... like asteroids, comets, Messiah, etc give a hoot about how we crazy folks have numbered our years? LOL still makes me laugh.... but what's NOT funny is political unrest and widespread economic crises keep me up at night worrying about water...and health...and nutrition..and foraging skills... and physical fitness... and sturdy shoes.... and bandaids... and... and... and...

another blogger "Ferfal" has a preparedness blog I stumbled on today http://ferfal.blogspot.com/

I accidentally found it while seeking the answer to: where's the (corned) beef? It used to come from Argentina and Brazil... Argentina overhauled agriculture and is no longer a major exporter of corned beef to the USA, and Brazil was drugging the cows and has been banned from shipping to the USA (as of a year ago)... somehow, I have only just now been affected by the shortage! :(

I need a cross-country itinerary to Arizona

I want to move out west. I have been planning this for a year already. I know I definitely want to study geology among those gorgeous outcrops in Arizona! If I knew anything about networking, I would know a few key persons out there and maybe even some intern prospects. However, I am plodding through the hard way. I know I need to complete some remedial courses in Geology to make up the difference between my undergraduate degree and the pre-reqs for graduate school. I have started taking those here, but have a few still to go... I also need to take the GRE and actually APPLY to grad schools!

On the practical side, I have decided that driving to Arizona is my best travel plan, since I have a car, and I will need one once I get there. How to navigate that distance is my issue. Okay, Interstate 40 goes directly from my house to Flagstaff, Arizona.... a whopping 2,025 miles away! I've read that a solo driver should not aim for more than 500 miles per day... so, there's a minimum 4 days on the road. I have been searching online all morning for websites that would help me plan the trip and all the details like 200 mile breaks, 500-600 mile stopovers, where to eat, etc. I need to stay on a shoestring budget, and still be safe. Plus, I until I can get a GPS unit, I don't want to stray too far off the interstate... I am easily lost trying to find my way out of a paper bag! LOL... also, I am concerned about current flooding in the Mississippi Valley because I will have to cross the Ol' Mississip at Memphis.

I am interested in finding a surrogate church family. I love my church here in NC, and I expect to find a "home away from home" out there...Next order of business is a JOB!!  I will need a place to stay and a way to pay for it, and plus, I want to take advantage of IN-STATE tuition at Arizona universities... I have a couple in mind, but I was first attracted to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff because of their relationship with the USGS Astrogeology Science Center (also in Flagstaff). I hear that Flagstaff gets cold and snowy in the winter.... not my favorite season... and a desert cat like myself might enjoy the more temperate Phoenix area. I was impressed with the Mesa, AZ, area when I took a class trip out to Usery Mountain Regional Park last fall. Four days was NOT enough! I wish we could've stayed a whole semester (or longer!)... coyotes, tarantulas, Bagdad Copper Mine, Superstition Mountains, ... awesome, awesome time!

Okay, that is a full enough post for today. On to other things... thanks for letting me vent! :)

American Idol Facebook fanbase

While searching for the actual vote tally, I checked out the FOX network's website for American Idol. From the Contestants page, I clicked through to each one's Facebook page. Here are the fanbase results as of 4:00am EDT (USA) for the remaining 8 contestants:

8. Haley Reinhart                 9,133
7. Jacob Lusk                       9,900
6. Stefano Langone             12,063
5. Lauren Alaina                 14,409*
4. Paul McDonald               17,034
3. Casey Abrams                 22,708
2. James Durbin                  25,131
1. Scotty McCreery          54,230
(* Lauren Alaina has multiple pages dedicated to her. Only the fan count on the contestants' pages linked to the official FOX site are used for comparison.)

There could be a trend here?

American Idol: show some respect!

I can't believe I have been sucked into the pop culture craze of Fox Television's "American Idol!" It's true, my home state has a Top 8 contender, but I usually don't take much notice of reality TV or game shows. My friends, however, are avid fans!

In this week's elimination, Pia Toscano was sent home. She didn't win this week's popularity contest... for whatever the reason(s). That is sad for Pia, because she is a gorgeous, talented young woman, and I believe she could have gone farther in the competition. In the end, though, someone had to get the least votes. Someone HAD to be at the bottom. Ryan Seacrest never fails each week to tell us which three contestants received the lowest number of votes (without actually telling us the number of votes received, which I find irritating, because I am a "numbers person").

Okay, so Pia got the short stick this week, and Stefano Langone is "safe." The crowd boo-ed loudly when the results were given. I agree, Pia sings well! What message does that convey to Stefano? He and Pia are standing waiting on the verdict, and he is "safe," and the crowd boos? Wow! I am glad I am not Stefano!

Forget Pia for a moment (sorry, sweetie)! There was a 50/50 shot here and the crowd vehemently cried out against the result. Do you think Stefano's release would have prompted a similar response? I wonder. I wonder what was going through his mind as he listened to the boos as he walked to greet his friends at the "safe couch?" Wow!

People, listen up! If it matters to you, then vote for your favorite. You don't have a favorite? Vote for the one(s) you think performed the best, and vote more than once! My friend and I stayed on the phone the whole two hours voting over and over for our favorites. Someone will come in last. With millions of votes nationwide, there is a greater chance a meteor will fall through your roof than there be a tie for the bottom of the heap on American Idol next week (8 contestants remaining).

Vote, and be considerate of the "runner up." Showing disappointment for Pia's leaving was expected, but you hurt Stefano in the process. Be considerate. Think about the other people involved and show some respect!

Why don't you participate?

I don't understand something: why won't people speak up? In particular, why don't students speak up in class? Oh, I understand the fear of giving an incorrect response in front of your snickering peers. Really, I do. You want to be certain of your answer so you aren't embarrassed. Sure!

I challenge you for a moment. Think of the instructor or speaker who has just asked for class participation and NO ONE responds. Not even with a wrong answer. The speaker wonders if anyone is listening or cares about the subject they are passionately trying to convey! It is interesting to me that small children are eager to share their thoughts and ideas when prompted, yet as we age, and are ridiculed by our peers, we become silent and passive learners; we are afraid of each other. Not much better, is the situation when one student voices an idea and others jump on the bandwagon with the pressure removed for them to formulate an idea of their own.

Now think of your classmates... the snickering ones, in particular... those who do not share thoughts and ideas, even the incorrect ones, with the class. You see, even an incorrect response to an open question is a teaching moment. If you offer an answer that is not 'spot on,' at least two things happen:
(1) A silent student supposed the same wrong response and would have gone home not knowing the right information if you had kept silent, and
(2) now the speaker (teacher) will correct you out loud, thereby teaching the whole group how to arrive at the correct answer. I would bet you are likely to remember the right answer when you are publicly corrected!

This is learning. We learn by making mistakes and finding out why our answer was not optimal, then fixing it. It is advantageous to make a mistake in the presence of a mentor or instructor (someone who can show us how to avoid the same mistake in the future). So, SPEAK UP EVEN IF YOU ARE UNSURE! Those who ridicule you are, IMHO, relieved that you spoke up with the wrong answer, because possibly they thought it, too, but were afraid of being wrong. Make the effort. Your instructors will appreciate your participation and attempt at showing interest in the subject matter.