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Monthly Archives: March 2011

Typewriters: A new symbol of cool

Back in November when I had my IBM Selectric III reconditioned, I speculated that there ought to be clubs for typewriter enthusiasts. As I posted at the time, “I’ve been thinking that there ought to be typewriter clubs these days — for people who still have and use typewriters and who send each other typewritten […]

Radiation report

I am measuring slightly elevated background radiation today. There is a random factor that makes short-term measurements unreliable. A more reliable reading would average radiation levels over, say, an hour or so, and I’m not equipped to do that. But it does appear to me that background levels are trending more toward .03 and .04 […]

A late snow

Pansies I was not pleased to see snow falling this morning. However, it won’t last long, and the temperature is 34 and rising, so I don’t think the cabbage or any of the budding things will be harmed. Cabbage

Cabbage report

Ken with our organic cabbage. The seeds were started 49 days ago, and the plants have been in the ground for 11 days. The cabbages were transplanted outdoors on March 15 and have now been in the ground for 11 days. They are doing really well. It was hard going at first. When we planted […]

A Chinook helicopter

I’ve commented before on how much helicopter traffic there is in the sky above Acorn Abbey. Usually these helicopters are Huey-size military-looking helicopters, dark gray. Yesterday while Ken and I were working in the yard, there were three Chinook helicopters. We were not able to get a photograph. This morning, though, I heard a helicopter […]

Getting ready for the asparagus

We ordered 3-year-old asparagus crowns online from AsparagusGardener.com in Tennessee. They should arrive any day now. Ken is digging a bed for the asparagus and amending the soil with compost, sand, and organic fertilizers. Asparagus is a perennial and will come back year after year, but there’ll be no asparagus to eat until next spring […]

On thinking ahead

I bet that some of you who live in California are feeling a little paranoid right now. Can you trust the authorities to tell you what the radiation levels are? And maybe you went looking for iodine supplements and couldn’t find any because it had sold out. You’ve got to think ahead, folks. Several years […]

What's blooming and budding at the abbey

Daffodils Spring officially begins later today. Here in the Blue Ridge foothills, we’re still weeks away from the full riot of High Spring. But the spring blooming and budding have started, and we’re gathering momentum. Blooms on a young peach tree Wild redbud at the edge of the woods Blackberry shoots on the edge of […]

Microsoft Hohm and energy consumption

In June 2009, using analytics software licensed from Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and statistical data from the Department of Energy, Microsoft launched a web site permitting homeowners to enter data about their homes and energy use and compare their energy use to that of other homes. The web site is www.microsoft-hohm.com. Microsoft launched this web […]

The cabbages are in the ground

Today we put almost a hundred young plants into the ground. These are the plants that we started indoors five weeks ago from seed — cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts. We also have eight small celery plants. I think the odds are low that we’ll be able to grow celery here, but I wanted […]