Box-o-perennials

So at work there are these three great flower beds filled with perennials. Some natives, some generic flower bed flowers. Regardless, they are beautiful beds, they just need some TLC.

Today, to my horror, I saw compost being dumped on the beds, still filled will flower! I get it, we are a farm, but WHY on earth wouldn't we take the time to remove the perennials, lay down cardboard to cover the weeds AND THEN put down the compost for our plants?! I asked a co-worked if I could dig some up to save, and after getting the "go-ahead" me and other co-worked started digging out any remaining flowers.

Here is what I brought home with me:
- Columbine or Granny's bonnet
- Lemon balm
- Tulips
- unknown plant

There are a number of places I want to plant flowers in our yard, so with this round of free plants I started working on the space between the house and walkway. It is hard to mow vegetation there, plus after a closer look there are already some cool flowers growing. 
The next step will be getting my hands on some woodchip!

Road trip: Green Bay, WI

This weekend the blue grass band that Jeremy is in played a barn raising party in Oneida, WI. Oneida is just southwest of Green Bay, so we decided to check out Green Bay with Kent and Ellie (Jeremy's bandmate and his wife) before the show.

Green Bay reminded me a lot of Erie. It has a bay. There are two brewaries. There are trains that run through each. The size is pretty much the same - around 100,000 people. And get this, both cities have a small amusement park with a cool wooden roller coaster.

Being from western PA and cheering for Steelers, we always get crap for now liking the Packers. So of course we stopped to point at Lambeau Field.  Jeremy got his picture taken while rambling on in Pittsburgheez about how we should have won the superbowl. It wasn't at all what we had expected, but it was very nice. Not nearly enough Packers stuff in peoples yards as I had anticipated, then again it is the off season.

After going to see Lambeau, Ellie lead us downtown to a cafe she used to work at call Kavarna. Kavarna is the Czech word for coffee shop! We had a delicious lunch there and picked up some even more delicious peanutbutter ricecrispy bricks before heading over to one of the local breweries. It is clear that the downtown does well, as there where shops or cafes in every window.

Green Bay is home to two breweries: Hinterland and Titletown. Hinterland is sold in Milwaukee, so we decided to try Titletown. Jeremy has their Pilsner and gave it too thumbs up.

Our last stop before heading to the blue grass show was Bay Beach, which is Green Bay's amusement park. This was my favorite part of our trip. Jeremy and Kent went on the Zippen Pippen, which just so happened to be Elvis' favorite roller coaster. Build in 1912, it was relocated to Green Bay in 2010 from Memphis, TN. Cool.

Garden update: We have soil!

This past week our down stairs neighbors must have though we had become some weird hoarder people with all the random stuff that was accumulating in our back yard: pots, wood, cardboard, a tarp. But it all came together on Saturday!

We got our soil/compost on Thursday, which we had to move quickly so we could park behind our house again. We built another raised bed and with the help of a friend we were able to get woodchip to mulch around our two bed. I think if we stay in Milwaukee I would like to add atleast one more bed.

On Saturday we also planted our peas, beans and carrots. Today I think I am going to start transplanting our peppers and onions. The bed needs more soil still, but we have plenty of containers that would work for now.

Road trip: Pictured Rocks National Shoreline

First harvest of the season

Today we had our first harvest! Yay! Sadly, the next one won't be for awhile. With the cold weather, and lack of soil,we haven't put much in the ground. Our lettuce and spinach also fell prey to the mighty lawn bunny or squirrel. I can saw which, but they were definitely a fan of red velvet. Oh well, such is life. I threw down some more seed in the bed, so there will be more soon enough!

The Delphines: Hush

Words cannot describe how excited I (Jamie) am that this album in finally done and there is a physical copy playing in my car while I drive to work!
It officially comes out May 27th, but it is available for pre-order (www.thedelphines.com).  If you are over at our house I might let you take a peak at it before then.
Upcoming shows:
May 31st - Public House in MKE
June 3rd - WMSE Live at 8 (radio)

Summer adventure: Nigeria

Most of our friends and family know that Jeremy will be going to Nigeria this summer. For those of you who don't, well, Jeremy is going to Nigeria this summer! He was asked by a professor from Marquette to join him for a month in southern Nigeria. He will be  teaching at the school that is run by his professor. Pretty incredible.

More on this a little later!

Worm bin experiment

Worm bins are great. You can get rid of your veggie waste AND the castings are the perfect fertilizer. Plus you have tons of worms doing their thing: eating, pooping, reproducing - baby worms are super cute!

We check our bin daily to make sure everything is doing alright, and every so offer I'll find something growing. First it was potatoes and more recently peppers. This got me wondering, couldn't I start plants in our worm bin? It's warm, humid and dark, sounds perfect for seed germimation.

So this morning I filled a container with some castings, added some tomato seeds and plopped it back into our bin. I guess we will see what happens. The container will make it easy to remove the seedlings from the bin, since they will need sunlight once they sprout.

Jackie

I love animals. ALL of them. But I can safely say that cats are way high up on my favorite list. We adopted Jackie six months ago and she had been a wonderful addition to our little family.

She is just the cat we needed. We can be home and she will hangout with us. Jackie is an excellent lap-sitter. She likes ours friends, and wants to be where the people are always. If someone new comes over she doesn't hide, but rather greats them by stuffing her face in their shoes once they have removed them. Loves to play with string and the red dot. Will sit by the front window for hours watching birds and the world outside.  We can leave her home and she lovingly greets us when we return, unless she passed out under our comforter. If she is home alone with me and hears a strange nose, becomes protective of her human.

She can get a little moody, but doesn't everyone? She will meow to
get fed. Claw my desk to get played with. Gives us the stink-eye then we don't give her what she wants. Gives us a little nibble to let us know she doesn't like something. But at the end of the day all she wants is to curl up next to us.

Best. Cat. Ever.

Garden update

Today gives me hope that warm weather is finally on the way. The nights are still cool, however today there is a warm breeze and temperatures are predicted to get as high as 72. This all being said, this morning I took the cover off our little greenhouse box so our greens will have a full day uncovered. Fear not, I have been uncovering them for an hour or two a day so they should be hardened up.

The other day we met with Jay, who will be gardening in our yard this year. He has some big plans, so it will be fun to see how things turn out. I hope our landlord knows what he got himself into with giving us the o.k. to garden!

Things we still need/need to do:
- soil/compost
- water meter for hose
- newspaper for bottom of bed
- work on compost bin
- cleanup yard
- native plant seeds from UEC
- window greenhouse

So we have our work cut out for us, but this is going to be an exciting summer!

With a great yard comes great responsibility

It's true, our yard is awesome. We basically have an empty lot as a yard, which we can do whatever we want with.  But with this yard comes the need to have a lawn mower. There is a gas-powered push mover in the basement, but we decided to purchase a foot-powered push mower second-hand.   Sure, it takes longer, and the grass doesn't always get cut evenly, but there is a great sense of accomplishment after every use.  And lets be honest, our yard is big, but not big enough to require anything more. Happy mowing!

May 1st: still waiting on spring

It's May 1st and a high of 51 degrees today in Milwaukee. Brrr. Almost everyone we meet has at least one complaint about this year's "unseasonably" cold spring. Which made me ponder, what that the temperature last year? High of 85. Ugh. Year before last? High of 61. Egh, that is still ten whole degrees higher than today. But as I went back year after year I noticed that since 2000 most May 1sts where right around the same temperature at today.  Please note the graph I made. This finding shouldn't surprise me. This IS Wisconsin. We are next to a giant body of fresh water that accumulates quite a bit of ice over the winter.  Heck, the image on the back every seed packet have Wisconsin as dark blue meaning don't plant anything outside until June.  I think after this winter and the polar vortax everyone in Milwaukee, and the upper mid-west, are more than ready for some warm weather. So here's hoping for some sun. Happy May Day.