Grapefruit, straw bales, and spirited dogs.

Posted On March 9, 2012

My love of breakfast is serious. Nothing beats perfectly cooked eggs, crispy bacon, a buttery piece of toast, warm coffee, fruit, a drizzle of maple syrup, crispy potatoes… I could go on and on. This day was picture worthy. It was so simple, but I guess it was the combination of the grapefruit (which I rarely get to eat, but it is one of my all-time favorites), the perfectly soft-boiled eggs, the hot coffee, and no squealing kids trying to eat my food off my fork… I just thought, "I love breakfast. I'm going to take a picture now." It's the small things.

Hoop greens out at my work. So tasty. Every time I go out there I munch like a little rabbit and then hit myself for not planting all the same greens at my house. This year I'm determined to find a better balance between my work gardens and my home gardens. I think this will happen by just doing the same thing at home and then doing it there. My home site tends to be a good test ground, anyway, so it'll work out. I do think I need to quit facebook, for the most part. What the heck is it about that thing? Dangerous, I tell you. It's a complete time-suck. I think maybe every time I think about getting on it for the next week I'll do something garden-related instead… I am afraid to see how productive I might be. It's March, so it's a good time for me to cut out the excess and focus on what I really want to do. 

Strange winter. I appreciated the snow on this day. We all drank tea and soaked up what's left of the winter.

Leftovers-turned-frittata with aioli, sauerkraut, and microgreens. Winter food with color!

Baby lettuce growing in my basement. Soon we're going to be moving the bedroom upstairs and we'll turn the current bedroom into my office/growing/sewing room. As much as I love a little sleeping-pod, I'm afraid we're outgrowing it. Two adults, two kids (cuz Vera almost always wanders in during the wee-hours), and two dogs on the floor is just a tad crowded. Plus I'm itching to transition little Asa into a toddler bed for part of the night. So, up we go. It's such a great space up there, too, I'm excited to see it all come together. And it will be nice not to have to do all the growing in the tight space that is the chilly laundry room.

We pulled up the last of our parsnips. First of all, digging for root vegetables is so fun for me. It's like buried treasure. Parsnips were particularly gratifying considering that it's been winter for the past few months and to push away the dirt to see just a fleck of white, then loosening the soil to pull up that deep tap root… so refreshing. Also, it's true that they get way sweeter after it frosts. Baked parsnip fries are just sweet wintry perfection.

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Ever wonder what 90 bales of straw looks like? With a Vera on top? 

Occasionally I wonder what our neighbors think of us. I'll post back later about what we're doing with all this…

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Pippin is doing well. We just had some dominance struggles with him over the past two days. They left me feeling a little discouraged and hurt, a little nervous about him. But, I've pushed through, watched a couple of episodes of "Dog Whisperer", and got right back in there with a renewed confidence. Today, he's been very submissive (like, roll-on-his-back submissive!). I'm feeling like he's just a 7-month old pup who is very smart and didn't get the training he needed at first. Still very trainable. I'm also glad that we are the family that got him. I think we get him in ways that another family might not.

Maya got her surgery on Monday. She's doing very well, and I'm really hopeful that she'll be able to be as active as she ever was in a month or two. I have to force feed her pills, though, and that's been a bit stressful. Good pup. She and Pippin have been getting along better than normal, surprisingly. Although Jeff and I correcting the dominance issues should only help. We just have to accept that we don't have dogs that just wag and accept treats as motivation. They are willful and very smart and in need of lots of leadership. I am up for it. Made me think a bit about my parenting, too, and seeing similarities. Like, the relationship between my stress level and their sensitivity to it. There's a lot that's different when it comes to dog and human psychology, but one common thread is that we respond to a loving calm confident leader. Working on trusting myself more, and being more selfless in these jobs.

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My yard is just bursting with possibility.