To The Surbiton Manor Born

This is the sky that I was shaking my fist at last weekend. While they don't show up in the phot, little snowflakes were falling (no accumulation).  All of the leaves are now gathered. At least those that I gathered. There's a school of thought that says "leave the leaves." I pick up the leaves for the most part, because I don't think that letting them get matted on the lawn will be helpful. But the last bits I mulch so there's a light leaf cover.  Today marked the day when I was planning to bring the leaves to the leaf dump. Showed up 10 minutes after they opened. On a Sunday. Bad move.  There was a line a mile long, and Kiki & I abandoned it. The van is sitting in the garage, stuffed to the gills, and ready to go tomorrow when it will hopefully be possible to approach the leaf dump. Not Plan A.  Another little piece of learning: It turns out that you want to clean your solar panels periodically. There's a miracle solution that is specifically designe...

  There's a time for writing in your web log, and there's a time when things badly need to get done. We've pretty much arrived at the latter.  The wood arrived. Four cords. It is a good feeling having a winter's worth of warmth stacked in the back yard. Sadly...Actually, I should say "happily" most of it will need to be split again. Our little wood stove is clearly not what the folks at the wood yard have in mind when they say "split." Still, the price was right. Moving it was a little difficult. Four cords is a lot. Just Kiki and me and two wheelbarrows this year. But things are shutting down. The second marathon in the year is finally run. (Not too bad. 4th best when age-graded. A 4:24.) The leaves are picked up in the front yard. Though most of them have yet to fall from the trees in the back. Well, maybe half.  The patio furniture needs to be covered up for the year. The table umbrella is safely stashed in the garage.  We did get a couple of edib...

This, above, is the kind of harvest we are getting every other day here at Steepmeadow. It is challenging to keep up with processing it, eating it, freeing it, giving away. I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but we've had to invest in a freezer. We've discovered techniques of blanching, using the vacuum sealer, trying to extend the remarkably short life of this veg. Today was also the last really long run training for the Mill City Marathon in scenic Dundas, MN. 22 miles of running doesn't exactly prep you for more work. While processing vegetables and preparing for a marathon, I've been using the all-important month of September to rip out weeds and plant the "poor man's bee lawn mix" in the front yard, for all to see.  The thing is that we have something to prove. I want to show, by example, that you don't need to use a bunch of poison on your lawn in order to have a nice one that is insect friendly. It is sort of intended as a demonstrati...

It is an exceptional year for garden productivity. I'm currently reading William Alexander's Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World , and learned that some in Renaissance Europe would refer to the reviled tomato as "Galen's wolf peach," a poisonous fruit described by Galen of Pergemon [the second century AD doctor who expounded on Hippocrates' theory of "humors" and human disease] as a lost, poisonous fruit...possessing strong smelling yellow juice. Tomatoes are a much loved food here. But we now have so many of them, that we were forced to buy a deep freezer to process them. As soon as you get one batch processed, another one comes in. In spite of eating tomato sandwiches, tomatoes as snacks, tomatoes with mozzarella cheese, more just keep on coming, like hordes of orcs at the siege of Helm's Deep, only much more delicious. Same thing with zucchini. And beans. And banana peppers... No more time to write. Time to harvest.  

  Toho's Mechagodzilla While the cluster of technologies captured under the marketing term “ artificial intelligence ” has positive, legitimate uses, it is vitally important that we also consider its limitations and the - in many cases - unacceptable consequences of its proliferation into every aspect of our lives. Today, “AI” is in desperate need of regulation to contain its toxic effects on the environment - including energy use, carbon emissions and water use - the spread of misinformation, its vulnerability to censorship, and the ways in which it damages human intelligence (which are just now coming to light). This is not a Luddite tract claiming that the technology needs to be completely eliminated. It is an argument for getting beyond the hype about its supposed capabilities, and for creating reasonable rules around its use. Terminology: “Artificial Intelligence” is an umbrella term for a series of technologies that automate decision making, classification, recommendation, t...

It is harvest time. One thing the illustration above does not show is the large number of football-sized zucchini that are making their appearance. While I love a purple pole bean, I won't exactly be heartbroken when they slow down. This week's harvest newcomers are tomatoes. We've just pulled in the first few. The vines are laden with many more to come.  This has necessitated some innovations on the "how will we eat all of this" front. Made a double batch of zucchini bread yesterday. Made more refrigerator pickles. Gave away more cucumbers. Vacuum-sealed more pole beans and tossed them in the freezer. It is time consuming. But this is what it is all about. All that work raising the seedlings, the planting, the weeding. Time to reap what was sown. And we are getting some delicious stuff. The weather has been wet, hot, and humid. Over the past few days we've had about three inches of rain, and more storms are on their way tonight. It doesn't really rain, so...