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Kitchen Window Birding
This past week there was no school from Tuesday – Friday. This wasn’t part of my plan. I had work to do – a lot of it. I’m teaching four distance classes currently, and letting a couple days go by without continuous input of effort means a massive brain pile-up on the freeway keeping materials and students and discussion posts sorted out. Three inches of snow somehow brought the county to a grinding halt, so we were home a lot. Since I work from home, you’d think not having to drive the kids to and from school would enable me to get more done. Let me ask you this – have…
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Framing
This post may come across as rather obnoxious, but I don’t intend it to do so. It’s not a #firstworldproblems bit and it’s not a “just think of the starving children” bit. It’s a post about letting gratitude frame my experiences and frustrations. It’s not about being grateful since other people have it so much worse. It’s about counting my blessings before letting the frustrations tear me down. I’m not sure how many times a day I ask my oldest to speak a little quieter, or how many times I beg the youngest to get down off the (fill in the blank), or how many times I sit on pee…
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Is it time already?
Today it was a balmy 63 degrees outside, and never mind that schools have been cancelled due to some coming snow tomorrow, it’s the time of year to start planning the spring garden. Some seeds can be started 12 weeks ahead of the last frost date, so although it feels ridiculous to be getting ready now, Piedmont NC’s traditional planting date is Good Friday, at least according to my neighbor who’s garden teams with growth every year. In the past, I’ve created detailed schematics which I only muddle up by overplanting due to my inability to thin out crops and that constant urge to squeeze in just one more plant. This year,…
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Six Years
Yesterday my first baby turned six. Joe and I will celebrate 10 years of marriage this July, and this guy has been a part of our family much longer now than he hasn’t. Yesterday when I commented that it was his sixth birthday, he corrected me that it was actually his seventh if you count the day he was born. That’s my oldest, always seeking accurate facts and never shy about correcting an adult. His current favorites are math, transformers, wii, and soccer, and every single day he expresses his desire to have a computer or begs to watch science videos on my iPad. His drive to learn amazes me. His…
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Rainwater Cistern Update
With the temperature plummeting to 9 degrees Fahrenheit this morning, I was a little concerned about the submersible pump in the bottom of our cistern. Thanks to recent rains, the cistern was full, and thanks to it being black and located on the east side of the house, there was no ice buildup at all. So to refresh, we have a 500 gallon rainwater cistern that collects runoff from about 440 square feet of roof surface and a submersible pump, installed as a demonstration for an NCSU BAE class. A 2″ rainfall would more than fill the tank. 2in x 1ft/12in 440sqft x x 7.48gal/cuft = 572 gallons. Over the…
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2014
While I’d love to get all reflective about 2013 and wax eloquent on the coming year, my brain just isn’t going there. Here goes the Engineer’s version of the first blog post of the year. Engineers like lists and bullet points. Changes ahead this year: Adding a new class to my spring semester schedule Scaling back on the pottery hobby due to time constraints and other commitments The “baby” no longer naps Started a Facebook group for Raleigh growers to share gardening dialogue Moved the greenhouse to outside the garden fence to make better use of space in the garden and considering growing some plants for the entire season in…
