Daylight Savings Time

I HATE Daylight Savings Time! I hate my clocks being tinkered with twice a year!! I hate having jetlag w/o the vacation!!! My Grandfather Nelson, in his later years, refused to change his clocks, and the family just had to remember he was on his own time all the time. I plan to do that, too, but I'm not old enough yet to be THAT eccentric....or AM I??!!

Bids for Cici

http://www.bidsforCici.org/

Cici is a little Colorado girl who suffers from brain damage after a choking event at the age of 11 months. About three times a year, an auction is held by friends and supporters to help raise money for her alternative treatments (hyperbaric chamber, etc.). There are many very nice items there, so take a look. 100% of the money goes for Cici's treatments, and they are helping her make progress, a little at a time.

Busy Day

Tuesday is our day to work the afternoon shift at the Clothing Bank. Today, I was the only one in the workroom where we unpack and hang/fold clothes; usually there are four of us. Luckily, it was pretty "caught up" and so I was able to deal with the one large donation that arrived shortly after we opened. However, later more donations came in, so there will be plenty of work for the Wednesday crew--wouldn't want them to have nothing to do!!! Ha ha.



The clothing brought in today was VERY nice, clean, folded neatly, and in shopping bags--shopping bags are a bonus, as we can pass them on to the clients; they're so much nicer than our usual plastic grocery bags (but it's nice we have them and can recycle them). Such nice clothing is a pleasure to unpack and hang, knowing that it will be much appreciated. The clothing we give away most are tee shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, and pants--those are what I like the best, too, so it doesn't surprise me. We give out a lot of bedding and blankets, too.



The clothing bank has been gifted with an Apple computer, so now, I am researching software available that be could used to keep track of the clients and the clothes, etc. they each get each year. Right now, all this compiling is done the old fashioned way, by counting the sheets, number of items, number of children served, etc. at the end of each year. The only reason we keep this information is that it is required when we apply for grants. We have to pay utilities and heat the same as everyone else, so we need cash at times. We also buy new underwear and socks. It would be very nice to find a program that would keep track of all this information for us, but I'm not totally sure such a program exists; I'm hoping it's out there somewhere and have about four companies to check , info I got from a book at the library.



Today I also found an address (two actually) for the wife of one of our WA state Fallen Heroes. So I was able to send a card to confirm her address and the wonderful ladies who are making the Home of the Brave Quilt for her will be able to deliver it. I have been the WA Coordinator for Home of the Brave Quilt Project for over five years now; finding addresses of families is the hardest part. When my back is against the wall, I pay $1.95 for information to an online search place; that's what I did, today. It's worth it, to be able to mail or deliver a quilt. Sometimes I still don't find the address, but often I do, and when that happens, I'm a Happy Camper!!

Lovely Day in SW Coastal WA

What a great day outside: partly sunny and 53 degrees. Warm enough that if you have a long sleeve shirt on and are moving about, you don't need a jacket. The dogs and I spent an hour or so outside (time flies out there); they barked and ran around and I put the stuff waiting for the compost bin IN the compost bin and rolled the EcoComposter to a new location before it killed the grass under it.

We've had several rainy days and I have a sneaky way of dealing with stuff bound for the compost bin--I set it (in covered containers) outside on the roof over our basement steps--it's right by the backdoor and is SO HANDY for setting stuff there bound for the compost, recycle, or garbage containers when it's too nasty to go out in the yard. One must, however, be somewhat diligent about moving the stuff to its proper place when the weather is OK. It can pile up and that's not good.

I checked on the rhubarb (it looks good), looked for slugs in all the right places and doused them with ammonia/water, 50% of each. This time of year, there are lots of baby slugs out there, and if you get them now, you save yourself from the 30 babies each that they will each produce. Of course, you never get rid of them all, but at least you can cut down on the population and minimize the damage they do.

I am eager to make a three part compost bin I saw at the Master Gardeners' display at our local county fair last summer. It took 98 concrete blocks. Right now my compost containers consist of several garbage cans (with holes in the bottom and lids), a couple bins made of chicken wire and attached to the (cyclone)fence, a compact dome-like one sold by our county, and the ball-shaped EcoComposter I got last summer from Costco. I couldn't roll the EcoComposter on the stand they sent (free at that time) with it, except when it was empty. So right now that is laying up against the house while I try to decide what to do with it, and I just push the ball around the yard to turn it. Only problem with that is that if you leave it too long in one place, it will kill the grass. Of course, the compost will finish quicker if you roll it daily, but that just doesn' t happy in this rainy climate. I roll it when I can, not in downpours.

I don't know if I mentioned this earlier or not, but I rented two garden plots ($10 each) in the town adjacent to ours and I will grow my potatoes there this summer. I can ride my bike over there on sunny days, and on rainy days I won't need to water them, so that should work. My garden plot in my backyard is only about 15' square, and raspberries and thornless blackberries take up a lot of that room. I have blueberries, too, and they grow around the dogyard fence.

Everything in the backyard has been added since my kids grew up--before that, the backyard was theirs alone. I've got flowers on the shady part since most vegetables like sun, and it's nice to see flowers bloom. I've added them slowly, over time, as plants can be expensive.

I do a lot of rooting of sprigs of other people's and my own plants-use a brown bottle full of water and just stick them in and add water every day to keep the bottle full. I've also experimented with putting the same sprigs in damp perlite (sometimes I put rooting hormone on the tips). With both of these methods I've had successes and failures. I take what success I get and the failures, too. My husband says I'll get arrested for absconding with sprigs from yards I see, but I don't think so. Obviously, I wouldn't take a sprig from a struggling small plant--only from big established plants. Last week I took a sprig from a lovely groundcover plant at a church where we went to a rummage sale. I hope it roots as it has lovely lavendar flowers and was already blooming in early March. I like that; I'd like to have something always blooming, but I'm not there yet.

When we walk, I often carry a plastic bag with a wet paper towel inside, and a pair of small scissors, for the purpose of gleaning sprigs to root. It's an inexpensive way to get more plants; technically, I suppose you should ask before clipping, but I usually don't, unless someone is out working in their yard. Often, my friends give me plants--Carmen gave me a bunch of Peony roots in the fall, and I've planted them around my yard and put some in containers for Habitat homeowners. Like everything else, I always hope for the best and that everything will grow and nothing will eat it, dig it up, etc.

Weeding Out

A fellow FreeCycler wants fabric scraps and I'm going to use this opportunity to go through my fabric and give her what I don't need, don't have room to store, and don't have enough time to use. It's very hard for me to part with fabric, and I tend to keep any scrap bigger than 1" square or longer than 3/4" x 2". (There ARE projects that use scraps this size; google "garbage can quilt" and see.) But, I HAVE to pare down my collection, as I'm running out of room and my fabric is taking over the house.
I have until next Sunday to get together what I'm not going to keep. Wish me luck! I'll definitely NEED it!!

Recycled Project

I am big on recycling, in case you haven't noticed. Anyway, our doll club in Pierce county is doing a project using a styrofoam wig head. One of our members saw one at the FiberFest that had felt adhered to it, and she wanted to do one, too.

I had planned to use felt on mine, also, but when I went to find it, I found a felted sweater first (I look for them at thrift stores), so I used that instead of felt. I worked on it all day Saturday, until I was almost sick of it. I had planned to give her jewelry on Sunday, but got sidetracked with other things, so will try to get started on that today. I like her and now I want more of those styro heads to do more.

I am suggesting to the co-op art gallery that we have a show next fall featuring art using repurposed material--we might draw a totally different audience for that kind of a show.

More Good Things

Well, I must say I'm on a roll. Not only did I (1. )buy a new rhubarb plant and plant it (in an old tire, so it is above ground level and will drain well--I think my last one drowned), but (2. )I signed up for 2 garden plots at the Community Garden in our neighboring town. Ours doesn't have one, shame on our city government.
I am going to plant only potatoes in my two plots, an idea given me by a friend who did that last year (Thanks, Jenny!). As a non-res, I didn't know I could rent plots there, so I'm glad she told me that, too, and I'm glad I signed up and took that task off my Things I Mean to Do List--it's pretty long, and now it's a little shorter. Yay for me!!!