These Two Hands

This is completely and utterly and sadly true. If it is not the whole reason I quit grad school, it is certainly the biggest and most depressing part.

I dunno if she knew what she was doing, but I think it should go on record that ButterBean’s first two-word construction was “more meat”. The McFadden genes are strong with this one.

The choice has been made! Thanks to a handy tip from a paint-savvy friend of mine (wink wink, Alex), the online Benjamin Moore color tool, and my local paint-guru-guy at the local Benjamin Moore store, the redressing of my craft room may now proceed. No longer will I craft in a sea of blah eggshell […]

J and I took a trip down to our local EMS store a couple weeks ago to get him a special belay device he needed for a climbing trip with a buddy of his. I didn’t have the best of times. The outlandish prices of the clothing sold in those stores just make me so […]

We just tried on ButterBean’s Halloween costume for the first time today. I was putting it off because I was sure it would go wrong; I made up the design with such a mismatch of pattern pieces, old clothing of hers, freehand design and misplaced optimism, that I really don’t have any clue why it […]

Novella Carpenter, author of the newest must-read for any aspiring urban farmer, gives a video interview on chow.com. She touches on many of the topics she covered in Farm City, except now she has goats and fruit trees, and in the video you get a mini-tour of her abandoned-lot garden (which is actually much smaller […]

WARNING: This post is basically a compilation of images of dresses that I like. So if you’re not into that, well… uh…. maybe I’ll have more posts on chickens or something tomorrow. I’ve started to think about the annual Christmas party. Usually this entails nothing more than me figuring out how to remake my usual […]

Another online discovery this week: chickens are not cost-effective (a wonderful MetaFilter thread full of anecdotal, hands-on experience with backyard chickens). According to the posters on that thread, in the first year or so your home-grown chicken eggs cost about $4.50 each. This is due to a) people spending upwards of $600 ($800 is par […]

Lookie what I found online – a chicken tool that calculates which breeds are right for you. You can select by laying frequency and color, disposition and broodiness. I told it I needed the chickens to be friendly (so they won’t peck ButterBean), winter-hardy (because I’m not into providing a heater for chickens), prolific egg […]