Urban Hayseed

Garden Calendar Ideas for February

Rian — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:31:08 +0000

Since it’s on my own mind… and since Ted asked… here’s a few things I’d suggest doing in the garden this month:

Mason bees: If you haven’t done it already, clean out your mason bee houses. I just took all my tubes, unrolled them, washed the cocoons off in (very) mild bleach water (don’t worry, they [...]

More Death on the Farm

Rian — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:55:49 +0000

Washington hive, R.I.P.

Good night, girls.

Last week, we had some decent weather, and so I decided to go crack open the hives to see if they needed some sugar to supplement whatever honey they’d stashed. Seems that this is the time of year that they starve…

Well, as it turns out, Washington had… ceased to bee, [...]

Ethel: R.I.P.

Rian — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:52 +0000

I figure I should get some of the unpleasantries out of the way before I start posting sunny pictures of my perfect children eating fresh, organic produce.

Ethel the chicken has ceased to be.

Not totally sure about the birth and death dates. Pretty sure she's dead.

<irreverant, gross chicken story alert>

Ethel had, what we call in [...]

Let’s try this again…

Rian — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 10:58:38 +0000

Hey. What’s up?

Let me just catch you up since… about November. Firstly, I am feeling much better. I’ve been exercising a lot, eating moderately well, and generally trying to take better care of myself. Stress is a nasty, nasty thing on one’s mind and body. The other thing is that stress is a little like [...]

MMWS: The End– Wow, that was… something.

Rian — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:18:07 +0000

Hi. Remember me?

It has been an interesting couple of weeks. By ‘interesting’, I mostly mean ‘bad’. I don’t want to get into the whole thing out here in the public square, but things went a little haywire.

Oddly enough, I stuck to the deal, more or less. And, by the old clock on the wall, My [...]

MMWS: Day 11 – It’s Breaking a Rule, But Urban Hayseed’s Going on Hiatus

Rian — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:40:56 +0000

Readers of all shapes and sizes,

I know I said I’d blog every day about this experience, and I wish I could. But life throws those unexpected curveballs now and then, and my personal life has taken a bit of a turn to which I need to pay attention. For what it’s worth, I think I [...]

MMWS: Day 10 – Withdrawal?

Rian — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:20:17 +0000

This has to be short. I wonder, though, if any of my mood change (and not for the better) has anything to do with the sugar withdrawal. Seems that the jury is out on the physiological basis of it, but it makes sense to me that my body would have acclimated itself to [...]

MMWS: Day 9 – And with that, summer is officially, totally over.

Rian — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:32:17 +0000

If you’re looking at this live, you’ll see that the temperature in Portland is in the mid-to-low 40s. On top of that it’s windy and rainy. Any illusion of late, late summer is brought harshly to reality if you so much as look out a window. Tonight’s garbage (and yard debris) night, and I walked [...]

MMWS: Day 8 – And on the 8th day…

Rian — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:19:31 +0000

OK, I know I said I’d blog about the experiment every day, but… I had a special guest come to visit today and didn’t have a chance. Now I’m too tired.

Let’s see… sweets… sugar… corn syrup… um…

Didn’t really come up to be honest. Probably because I wasn’t incessantly shouting about it into people’s faces.

In any [...]

MMWS: Day 7 – No comment…

Rian — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:12:03 +0000

To be honest, I’m tired and a little depressed.

I don’t think any of it has to do with sugar or anything related to it… unless we count the effect of my research yesterday. I know… we’re all just here for no good reason or at God’s pleasure or whatever you choose to believe and eventually [...]