Gophers

Or Why I Love My Neighbor's Cat

It's been a while since I posted about my garden.  Which may or may not have something to do with the amount of time I've spent on it... A couple weeks ago, I had a little time and tossed some snap pea seeds in a line across back of the plot.  I watered occasionally, but with the sandy soil I didn't have high hopes for them sprouting. 

 I added a garden sign with a "Do Not Disturb" message since someone stole my long poles and pulled out my short ones.  Yet another reason to visit more often! 

 Despite my neglect, I have a row of peas!

 The Herb Corner

 This half of the garden is brought to you by my mother's fabulous seed starting abilities.  In the front: Kale.  In the back: Dinosaur Kale.  And in the middle and not visible: Swiss Chard.  The green ferny stuff: Poison Hemlock.

 The beautiful poisonous plant.

This is the reason I let poison hemlock grow in my garden. 

Gophers. 

This is also why I love my neighbor's cat.  I've affectionately nicknamed it Fluffy. Fluffy likes to bring home remnants of his gopher snacks for his human family.  

Go Fluffy! 

 Note the gopher super highway running through the middle of the plot.  The gophers have yet to enter the poison hemlock infested regions of my garden.  This is my non-scientific approach to natural pest control.  So far it seems to be working...

 Everyone's gardens are going to seed but one garden is filled with beautiful white blossoms.  

 I pulled some filaree.  Check out those taproots!  Pulling weeds always makes me think of sin. You have to  catch it small so it's easy to remove.  The longer it stays, the harder it is to remove.  Wait too long and you need special tools to remove it. 

 My new pet: Lotus berthelotii aka "parrot's beak!"

I've wanted one of these for years, and I found it at the farmers' market.  I just love the vibrant colors.

It hangs by my front door and makes me smile every time I come home.

Leap Day

I'm kind of failing at this blogging thing.  I want my posts to be regular, insightful, witty, and cohesive.   Instead you get the random ramblings of a college girl who just wants to find time in her day to cook a real meal and sleep for 8 hours.   My life is school and work with a dash of God time.  It seems like ages ago when I could tie work, and God time into the same package.  Don't get me wrong.  God is with me all the time and I'm doing the work that he has set out for me at this time.  It's just different.  Two years ago, the majority of my time was centered around church.  Now, the majority of my time is centered around school and work.  It's just a different perspective.  

My perspective on everything seems to be stretching and growing.  My mind spins with ideas on the best practices for classrooms.  What if I had a classroom with no desks so the kids were moving all the time?  Open classrooms, flipped classrooms, Montessori, Waldorf?   Teaching as social justice?   Experiential learning?  Literacy as a social justice issue?  Music, movement, rhythm, beat... Hope, roses, and concrete.

I type.
I write.
I think.

Wash, rinse, and repeat. 

Senior Trilogy: Part 2

Senior Trilogy sounds so much cooler than super senior.  Senior Trilogy evokes Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.  It also is appropriately nerdy. 

I worked during winter break but went skiing with a small group from the university.  I hadn't met any of the ski trip members before the event.  I enjoyed getting to know everyone as we attempted to ski and snowboard on what was basically ice with a little snow on it.  We laughed and joked.  We played games.  Four of the group members are foreign exchange students from Asia.  We had a funny night trying to teach them some English tongue twisters.  (Which also included trying to explain what a woodchuck is...) 

School started.  My schedule is unusual with my afternoons dedicated to work.  Mornings and evenings are classes.  Classes have been in session for a couple weeks and I am still trying to find a balance for study and work.  I ended up turning in math homework that was basically unfinished (every question had an answer but none were complete) because I underestimated the amount of time my total studies would take for the week with my current schedule.  Someone at work noticed that I'm a little off on getting a rhythm set for the term.  It's embarrassing. Hopefully, this week I'll have more of a rhythm and will be able to post more funny/cool/interesting things!

2011 in Numbers

32 Pages:  The most I've written in my college career.

1 New Job

13 Cousins Visiting

5 Knots:  The fastest day on a sailboat.





















2 Power Outages

1 Year in My New Home

40 Minute Presentation

1 Barn Built for 3 Goats.




















18 Units: The highest course load taken in my college career

4 Plants lost to gophers/rabbits/deer.

90 Years Celebrated: Grandma's Birthday

Countless Books: Read ;)

3 Elementary Classrooms

• 2nd grade (2xs)
• 1st grade

20 Socks Used in P.E.


6 Crochet Projects Started

1 Crochet Project Finished

25 Years Celebrated: Me

1/3 of my Senior Year Completed

1 Epic Family Vacation

38 Blog Posts


Numbers don't adequately reflect the human interactions, the relationships, friendships, experiences, heartache, joy, frustrations, blessings, and life that occurred in 2011.  Thanks for joining with me on the journey. 

Let's see what 2012 brings!

Top 11 Ways to Know You're a Geek

11. You get really excited about the fact that work is getting all new computers so you'll have to back up the old ones and set up the new ones

10. You also get really excited about updating the OS on faculty computers and iPads

9. You use the acronym OS as part of your everyday vocabulary

8. Someone tells you about a teacher's conference where the teachers were learning binary and you respond "Binary? Really?  I learned that in 7th grade."

7. Going to Fry's makes you giddy.

6. You set up the TV so it can connect to the internet

5. Why get a CAT5e patch cable when you can get a CAT 6 or 7? 

4. You take pictures of cables.

3. While at Fry's you stop and look at all the pretty towers. 

2. You know that Bonjour is not just hello in French.

1. You've built your own computer.
 

Details

Looking at the course calendar, I read:

Last Day of Frustration - December 9th

It actually says:

Last Day of Instruction - December 9th  

Of course we have assessment week after the last day of instruction so the official "Last Day of Frustration" for me will be December 16th.  Then, freedom!  Glorious freedom!  

Is this really me?

 Picture from North and South

I was looking over my blogger profile recently and I started laughing at what I had on there.  Who was I trying to impress?  I liked all the books and movies but really?  If you were trying to get to know me on the basis of the profile, I would be pretty girly girl with my period dramas and Jane Austen books.  I like my movies funny and semi-romantic but my tv shows?  That's a whole different genre...  I love mystery and action with a little science fiction.  Favorite TV shows: Castle, Rosemary and Thyme, Stargate SG1, Star Trek: The Next Generation, MacGyver, Remington Steele, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Walker Texas Ranger, NCIS, Covert Affairs, you get the picture. Not exactly what you'd expect from the period drama nut.