Daily Photo - Bagels 2.0

This time they taste, smell and look mostly right. I can't seem to make rings that don't fall apart, but otherwise they seem good. The raisin ones I tried didn't work out.

Daily Photo - Cleaning and De-cluttering

Since I very well may be moving to Minot around July I'm clearing out stuff I don't need, want, or ever use. (I also keep looking up tiny houses online.) I shredded a couple pounds of bank statements, credit card bills, phone bills and gas or electric bills today. The shredding was in addition to the other 10 lbs I just recycled. I have apparently been saving all my returned checks from when I first opened a checking account and all the statements from my bank before it was bought out which was a good number of years ago. I had payment coupons to a school loan that was refinanced and was no longer with that company (and I saw I was saving 60 bucks a month with that refinance.) I also really didn't need the photocopied readings from my art history class in college. When am I ever going to need any of those things? All they were doing was taking up space. I have over 250 science fiction or fantasy books I need to get gone ( I still have 350 or so I actually want.) They're all books I either read once and didn't really like, or the beginning of a series I found went south or even freaking brand new but I've owned them for going on 5 years and never had interest in opening them. If no one on craigslist bites I'm going to donate them to the Dedham library, which is apparently having a book sale in a few weeks and needs more books. They might even pick them up with the number I have. I'm also getting rather annoyed at how nothing holds it's value and even less increases with age anymore. Just about everything I own is mass produced junk. It is no longer just cars that halve in value as soon as it's bought... I have tons of stuff with next to zero resale value but I'm likely not going to be able to take it with me and I want to limit the stuff I leave behind. Right now I'm working on getting rid of the stuff that is just taking up space. That said anyone want some Jurassic Park Trading Cards? I have 3 complete sets and I am trying very hard to not do the math on how much it cost to make those sets that have a resale value of $5 in mint condition.

Daily Photo - Snowdrops

Another Sign of Spring.

Daily Photo - Skunk Cabbage

Spring has officially arrived the skunk cabbage is coming up. (At Moose Hill lots of it is underwater actually, the boardwalk is flooded.)

Daily Photo - Blue Bird

My first one of the year, not that I got very close to it...

Daily Photo - Clouds

from this morning.

Free Day 11

I think free time is bad for me. it leads me to take books out of the library with titles like Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day which leads me to things like trying to bake bagels... At least they look sort of like bagels but they don't smell much like bagels. I forgot my own cardinal rule of trying to bake new things. When in doubt follow the cinnamon raisin recipe then I'll at least eat the failures. The texture of them is definitely bagel though the taste isn't quite what I wanted, however unlike my first english muffins I will be eating them. I might have to find barley malt syrup which was the only ingredient I had to replace in the recipe. Just so everyone knows I didn't completely waste my day I did my taxes and lightly browsed jobs too.

Orchids

I have a bunch more, but this is all I'm going to upload.

Daily Photo - Pine Cone

From NYBG.

More Orchids

Three More.

Daily Photo - Western Conifer Seed Bug

These guys appear in my house every fall and every spring. I assume they're hibernating around here somewhere. I've seen three this week alone.

Free Day 7, 8 and 9

(Witch Hazel)

I went to New York for the weekend to visit that family I've been not visiting due to work. Saturday we went to the New York Botanical gardens in the Bronx. Not much is blooming outside yet, crocuses and violas mostly, but there is a huge Flowers of Cuba exhibit in the conservatory and it was mostly orchids. The wait in line was impressive due to the summer weather but it was well worth it.

I'll post more orchids a bit later. I still have tons of Phalaenopsis ones.

Night shots of the Hudson River. I didn't bring my tripod, so these shake a bit more than I would like. I'll certainly remember it next time. And last of all, my favorite sign in New York. There were cameras and signs for cameras everywhere but I really liked this one.

Daily Photo - Reticulated Iris

These guys put up their flower one day, then bloom the next, I find them kind of sneaky.

Daily Photo - Cinnamon Ferns...

After a ridiculous wait one of my flats of Cinnamon Fern spores has actually sprouted some ferns... See here for history

Free Day 6

It was another gorgeous day here in the land of the employment challenged. I spent some time microwaving potting soil so I could do early seed starting. I started some lettuce, peas, scallions, spinach and streptocarpus. I finished up clearing the patio and moved on to more leaves, though I learned our lawn waste dump isn't open till April first, so I stopped bagging it. No point in bagging leaves so i can store them in she shed so they don't get wet. They store just fine on the ground. Tomorrow I'm going to try to figure out why I ever stopped walking Toka. I'm sure there was a reason, I just can't remember it. Boomer is coming along wonderfully. I've walked him a few times during more active hours and so far no one has been jumped on and he hasn't managed to snap at any dogs.

Daily Photo - Stash

I found both of my leftover lawn refuse bags full of acorns. They were in the shed within feet of the birdseed, which was untouched.

Freedom Day 5

^because unemployed was getting depressing for a title. Today after getting a tooth filled (I'm catching up with not having cavities in my teens) I ventured outside. (I was less productive today as I tend to pretend getting a tooth filled might lay me up all day, so don't plan on doing much else.) It was freaking lovely out. When I let the dogs out this morning I had noticed the crocus blooms were up. When I went back out around noon they had all opened. They really are this butter yellow color. Normally I don't pick yellow flowers to plant, but after months of brown yellow looks awesome. These are Crocus - Golden Yellow. I even kept that in mind and grouped them in a few places.

I also got a cheap assortment so lots of purple and white.

I even saw some bees, not really closely though.

Most of the crocuses were up. My 4 Pickwicks look like maybe tomorrow or Saturday even will be when they bloom. I also have a bunch of purple ones on the other side of the yard that take longer since they don't get as much sun. Hopefully this year I'll get around to moving them when they're done blooming. I think they're purple striped but maybe I'm remembering wrong. I started on getting the patio usable and raked out some of the garden beds. A few things aren't coming up yet, but almost all of my potted stuff is coming up. The Siberian irises I got of eBay last year look great, though one had a chunk of grass in it I didn't notice wasn't iris until I looked a little closer. I should only go to HD with a chaperone, as earlier in the week I came back with more Siberian irises just in case the ones I had didn't come back. So I now have 6 more pots of them. At least they're different kinds. On my walk today I saw a yard with crocus inter planted and I really love the effect. It would never work in my back yard but I might be able to pull it off in the front yard. I'm going to try to get a picture of it tomorrow. Edit: I just dug through my photos from last year. The crocuses didn't bloom until April...I thought it was being unseasonably warm.

Daily Photo - Fall Digging Paid Off

The crocuses started blooming today...

Unemployed Day 4

It finally stopped raining. I caulked the bulkhead and maybe next time it rains at least half the basement won't leak. Last night I decided on a new purpose for some more of the reptile cage. I've had this half-built screen cage for a while. I got it on clearance and didn't notice the back and top were missing. After I put it together it got shuffled around my house repeatedly. I created a back from plastic I had, and made the top from plywood. The hole is for a heat lamp if I decide to use one, I smeared a strip of wood glue over any exposed ends of the wire it keep any critters safer. I used 90% stuff that was already in the house. I had to buy screws and some 3/8" x 3/8" square dowels to make a frame for the plastic and top. I also painted the whole thing with 4-5 coats of black gloss paint otherwise the plywood wouldn't have a chance against water. I'm going to have to leave it running with a light bulb in it until the paint smell goes away, paint fumes aren't any better for lizards than they are for us.

Daily Photo - I Saw The Sun Today...

That is all.

Unemployed Day 3

I really need it to stop raining so I can start patching the basement leaks we have. Our bulkhead has sort of had it and is leaking from all sides. I need to caulk around it and in the cracks on the sides, and hopefully that will stop the biggest leak. The other leak will be harder because it's really being caused by a lack of gutters, and not having a slope away from the foundation, in addition to that hole I can see daylight through. But it has to stop raining first, technically I think the concrete has to dry a bit too. I emptied out my 90 gallon tank and put it up for sale along with a 29 gallon. Some old scratched iso tanks got picked up this afternoon, as did some other assorted junk. As soon as it stops raining I'm gonna stick some stuff outside on a free table to try to get rid of it without arranging pickup. Normally I'd put it out with the trash, but with all this rain it will just get ruined. I'm a little bummed out by the rain, I'll admit that. I did finish one odd little project. I'm trying to re-purpose all the bits of a reptile vivarium I started building but never finished. I took the door off and changed my TV stand a bit to make the space under the DVD burner and DVR usable. It just filled up with dust and dog hair so I couldn't put anything in it. I put the glass door on the front and covered the back with wood so it shouldn't get as dusty as fast anymore. I'm in the middle of fixing up a screened reptile cage that I got on clearance at least a year ago. The back and top were missing, as were all the assembly screws. I'm taking the plexiglass from the back of my failed vivarium and using it for the back of this cage. I will have to buy some 1/2" x 1/2" boards to make a frame for that and the top, but I should have it finished rather quickly. Then one of my crested geckos can move up from a 10 gallon to it.

Daily Photo - Bed Lump

My bed is breathing. And my cat snores...

Unemployed Day 2

I know this daily thing is going to get old mighty fast. All the inhabited fish tanks got their water changes. The kitchen is now clean, as is the living room. The vacuum dried out so all that's done as well. I'm starting to run out of house to clean and it's still freaking raining. I do have plenty of empty fish tanks to scrub out though. I got rid of any of my dying or sickly plants for free on craigslist. All the ones that remain have been lightly tended to but are going to need re-potting soonish (I've still got 30 some odd plants.) I'm also listing all the other clutter causing junk I don't want but can't bear to throw away. Some is for sale, but most I just want gone and prefer someone else use it. Who knew a tub of dirty Legos would get me 15 e-mails in less than an hour.