Support for Jamie-O

Apologies to my Facebook and Twitter followers, since I’ve hawked this over there already.

Why do I support Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution?  Here’s why:

My kids have always taken their own lunch, but this year, both of them asked if they could go through the lunch line.  I said OK, and volunteered to help the younger kids in the first weeks of school get the hang of it.  There was a breaded chicken sandwich, tater tots, peas and carrots and fresh fruit OR fruit juice.

I naturally started serving up both peas and carrots and tater tots on each plate until I was told that they have a CHOICE of ONE vegetable.  Me: “Are you telling me that tater tots are considered a vegetable?!”  and the lunch director sighed in an exasperated way and said “I know, it’s not right, but yes.”  NO WAY.  I gave the kids both ANYWAY and she didn’t rat me out.

I won’t go on about how fresh fruit and fruit juice are NOT EVEN CLOSE to equal choices.

Our family has been watching the show together, and the statistics on our health as a nation are staggering.

If you don’t have kids, you can support it for the sake of our nation’s health care system, and our life span.  We have the first generation expected to have shorter life spans than their parents.  Who will support the aged if the youth die prematurely from poor health?

He needs one million supporters to take it to Washington DC, and as of this posting, we are not even halfway there.  Please consider?  Click the badge below to sign the petition…and thanks for reading my rant.

Friday Flea

Well, today was the busiest Friday I’ve seen at the market since I started my new flea schedule.  Heaving I tell ya.  Get thee to the flea this weekend if you can…busiest weekend besides the October market according to my buddy at the gate.  I’m posting this as quick as I can, so if you read this today…you might be able to go today…because everyone here knows it’s “callin’ for rain” tomorrow.  Apparently there is a pretty nasty storm coming through tomorrow, but in middle Tennessee, it “calls for rain” whereas in west Tennessee it’s “fixin’ to rain.”

It’s going to rain people.  Go today if you can.

Everyone was in a good mood today…good vibes, good weather…I even had a vendor ask to be in my photo….HE was fun.

This fabulous thing below haunts me EVERY MONTH.  I wanted it so bad when I first saw it and didn’t even know what it was.  Then Morgan at The Brick House found one for a song…and this one has not budged in price all these many months….ONE DAY.

These below are a good deal…$40 for the pair, but the pleather is torn.  I’d have bought them for the booth, but my garage can’t handle another project right now.

There were some cool plants too, but I need a LOT of them and I’m still trawling around town to see what deals I can find.

In the end, despite the froog’s fantasy I saw today, I was good and saved my budget for the plant extravaganza….and only came home with ONE thing.

$10 shroom stool!

Do we think this mushroom thing is becoming a problem?  I’m taking suggestions on what should replace the poo colored velour….

To Do: Treehouse

The Minors have been very patient.  We thought we could get this going last summer, but the siding took so much longer than planned, and then the rains came, and came…..and next thing we knew, that window of opportunity had closed.

No worries though. The delay actually worked out well, because we saved all the good lumber when we rebuilt the front steps and back deck, so now we have a nice cache of salvaged materials to recycle.

We’ve been sketching out ideas for a year now…and we keep changing our minds/design!

We like the open feel of this house (think MUCH simpler) and the horizontal slats would tie in nicely with the new slats going in the front.

Photos via Inhabitat

Which will look much more like this budget version….

Photo via a Prefab Project

But, because it will be built on a slope, we plan to have 2 levels on the ground like this…but screened in with a roof, like above.

Photos by Laurie Stubbs via Dwell

My dad built me a treehouse when I was a kid…and spending the night out there with my friends, in our sleeping bags, with popcorn and flashlights was a seriously wonderful thing.  I want that for them!

The roof/screening aspect is important for being able to hang out for sleepovers.  The bugs here are too plentiful to sleep out in the open. (Remember Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever?!)

We (currently) think the best spot is to the left of the trail we made last year.

The bottom level will be accessible from the bottom of the trail, and the top level will be entered at the top of the trail.

So now, we just need to finish with all that staining, dirt and gravel so we can get started. Phew.

Cool Stuff

Instead of attending to your entertainment needs, we’ve been moving loads and loads of dirt (yes, STILL)! So, I thought I’d share this loveliness with you…fave blog of the week alert.

I’m in a garden state of mind these days, and fabulous Domino alum Stephen Orr’s blog What Were the Skies Like is simply divine.  I am really jazzed by his recent discovery of Amano Takashi. (Or Takashi Amano..seen it both ways!)  How beautiful are these?!

All photos via Takashi Amano

Captivating.

Off  to resume digging, deck staining and carpenter bee battling…….

Getting Closer

The weather has been cooperating lately, so we’ve started filling the beds with dirt, staining the new front steps with the hog panels, and installing a bit of drama in the way of landscape lighting.  I told you we’ve been busy!

We plan to build a separate fenced (deer proof) vegetable/herb garden later on, but for this year, I’m using the new side beds for edibles.  I’m playin’ it fast and loose…livin’ on the edge…risking their very lives.  I HAD to…you see, I haven’t had a garden of any sort other than this for TWO YEARS.

You either get this affliction or you are baffled by it.  Digging in the dirt and growing stuff is something I pschycologically need.  Once you’re addicted, these little pots of methadone don’t cut it.  AT ALL.   My whole lettuce crop in this pot is wiped out by a single salad for 4.

I planted many basic herbs and scattered a few seeds to get things rolling…..IF they survive.  It’s been almost a week and the deer have not bothered them, YET.  I’m planning an elaborate redneck screening device involving bird netting and thick wire in case things go as the CC predicts.  Dill, cilantro and lettuces need the cool of early spring so I HAD to go ahead and plant..out in the open….dain-jah, DAIN-JAH!!

OK…I know I sound like a crazy person, but it is, what it is.  In addition to dangling my herbs out in plain view of the local fauna, I discovered a very welcome surprise in the yard.

Hiding in the scraggled, neglected vinca minor, dead leaves and bare clay…

Is this.  Hint…3 leaves and NOT poison ivy!

Prairie Trillium.  Wahooo!  How could I have missed this last year?!  It’s a pest to some…NOT HERE.  I won’t go on, except that finding something salvageable, let alone exquisite, in THIS yard has been a rarity.  Amongst the miles of poison ivy and dead trees, we have a few of these gems scattered in the forest.  THANK YOU plant fairies.

My horsetail has been ordered for the front bed and should arrive any day, but I was afraid the dogwood will have leafed out by then, and it needed a moment.  So, until a bigger tah-dah is available for the front, I give you a mini-tah-dah sneak peek on the lighting featuring said dogwood.  More to come, I promise.