Snapshots from Stay at Home, Save Lives

  

              The greenhouse is packed. It’s always pretty full this time of year, when tomatoes have been bumped up, some summer greens are waiting to go out, and the vines have just been planted in the four inch pots. But, this year, it is also holding all of my classroom plants, with some hanging from the ceiling because there was no room on the shelves, as well as a napping cat, and my work computer on sunny mornings. Add in a sweater or other piece of clothing needing some sun, a used mug or two, and a folding chair so that we can both eat lunch in the steaming warmth of plant growth, and it is packed.

                The shed has been cleaned out. Much like the cozy room closet, I was looking for some wood stored in the open loft and discovered a mess.   

This time, it was hazelnut shells that the squirrels had feasted on as well as rodent droppings and some leaves that had blown in. I was handing down boards to Mark when I spotted the nests so he climbed up the ladder and sighed. “I guess we’d better haul everything out from below,” he observed. “It’ll only be worse if we don’t.” We exploded the shed, pulling everything, including the shelves, out. While Mark swept inside, I cleaned up the piles—corralling the bird netting back into its tub, putting remay into a tin so that it could not become a nest, sorting out stuff we no longer needed. After we were done, we tucked everything back in. And there was more space.

          

      I have succumbed to the sourdough trend. After the Yeast Panic early this week, I began a starter. I’ve always wondered about the wild yeasties floating around my kitchen and now they are cheerfully bubbling away on the top of my fridge. We had our first batch of sourdough pancakes for breakfast on Sunday morning.  I miss the library—figuring this out would be much easier if I could sit on the floor, surrounded by various cookbooks, because there are so many variations on this theme. MY book was written by a homesteading woman who spends her entire day in the kitchen and garden, raising five kids. Her system is pretty labor intensive and productive. I don’t need that much starter! So I will be experimenting, sorting out systems that work for us when life becomes more scheduled once again.