Return to the Farm

Chicken Eggs
Originally uploaded by jessajune

The garden has been busy while I've been gone. So have the chickens, who started laying just before I left and are now putting out several eggs a day. Yesterday we had 5, which is the record so far (there are 6 chickens altogether).

Since I've been back I've eaten these eggs, Sungold cherry tomatoes, zucchini (oh yes, it is zucchini time), and green beans - all from the garden. I love summer.

Back from Maine!

Plank Bridge
Originally uploaded by jessajune

I am back from Maine! You didn't even know I was gone, did you? You thought this was my usual sort of not-posting-in-the-blog. But no! I had the excuse of being across the country, where it is both foggy and warm at the same time, which is pretty bizarre for we folks who hang out in San Francisco.

It was a great trip. Maine is beautiful. And very wet. They are apparently having an unusually cool/wet summer, which does not at all detract from the beauty, but does make tramping around the countryside sort of an adventure. Fortunately, I overpacked, so I had sufficient dry clothes for regular changing.

I've posted a boringly large set of photos to my Flickr: Maine Trip July 09.

Happy Things

So I've been pretty stressed out lately, for both personal and economic reasons. It's starting to manifest itself physically - kinked neck, soreness, etc. I'm sure it's manifesting in other ways too, that my friends and family can see.

A while back, Kristin linked to something called the Happiness Project, and it has me thinking. I'd like to keep better track of the things in life that I can be happy about. So I'm going to try to start posting regular "Happy Things" entries - the things may be big or small, the point is that I will stop and take a moment to recognize them.

And with that, here is today's list of happy things.

• The plumber was just here, and not only did he fix my shower, but he was pleasant, discouraged us from having more work done than was necessary, and was careful about not letting the cats out.
  
• The fixed shower meant that I could have a cool shower on a hot afternoon, and it felt pretty freakin' fantastic.
  
• My Dad planted some beans a few weeks ago, and somehow in the past 2 days without my noticing, tiny bean flowers have turned into almost full-length green beans. Nature is incredible.
  

And this one gets its own list, because it's huge:

• I got my diploma in the mail! It is really and truly official - I have a Master's degree in Library and Information Science. The Governator has signed it and everything.
  

Happy Fourth... err, Fifth of July!

I'm in LA, visitig my boyfriend's family - we're having a great holiday! I hope you are too.

(photo by Greg Borman)

Fire in China Camp

I'm glad we went to China Camp when we did. They just had a big fire over there yesterday. Fortunately no one was hurt. Apparently there has been a lot of Sudden Oak Death in that area, which lead to a lot of dried out trees in addition to the usual dry grass.

The weather has been hot this week and will continue through the weekend, which means fire danger around this area is pretty high. Be careful out there.

Saratoga Cemetery Public Meeting

In case any of my readers are in the Saratoga area - there is a public meeting next Tuesday at Oak Street Elementry School to discuss the future plans for development and expansion of the Madronia Cemetery. I'd encourage, nay entreat, anyone in the service area for the cemetery to go, hear the plans, and give feedback. The cemetery serves the community, but the community needs to participate in the process to make that work.

Details about the meeting can be found the Madronia Cemetery website. (If you can't attend, they have posted a form for comments as well.)

Fishy... I mean, suspicious.

Two guys in what could have been a refrigerated truck just pulled all the way up my driveway. The passenger got out, came to chat me up, not very effectively, and tried sell me some meat or fish, entirely unsuccessfully.

Now, the logo on the shirt did match the logo on the truck, and did involve a steer head. And it's possible they were making a delivery in the neighborhood, as they claimed, and saw me alllll the way back at the end of the driveway, where I was raking, and decided I looked like someone who might buy meat out of a truck, and came expressly to make me a customer.

But it seems pretty fishy to me. And not the kind that comes out of the back of a truck. He was anxious to know if I was a worker or an "owner", and the driver never left the vehicle. It's possible they were casing the house.

I made sure to let him know I wasn't working, and therefore home all the time. And you can bet I'll be watching for that truck around the neighborhood.