Bugs Be Gone

A few months ago, if you will remember, Mr. Cob and his dad screened in our side porch.  And I finally have the pictures to prove it!  They did an AMAZING job!  The porch has now become one of our favorite places to eat dinner, read a book or chat on the phone.  It will be the perfect place to have a glass of wine and relax after a long day of work...once I can have wine again...for now its a great place to drink a virgin bloody mary!

The table and chairs are from Ikea.  The table opens up to seat 4-6 people.  The rug was a birthday present from my dad!

The couch was a hand-me-down from my brother and Ana Lisa - thanks guys!  We've gotten a lot of use out of it!

Didn't they do a great job with their handywork?!  It looks professionally finished!

Wrigley is also a fan of the porch...

Luckily the fan was already installed when we bought the house.

And now some pictrues looking at the house from the street.

I was so happy that Mr. Cob and his dad were able to create a screened-in-look that matched the style of the house.  It looks like its always been there.

And we finally finished re-mulching the beds in the front yard!

 
It feels great to have this big project crossed off our list!  Later today I'll share pictures of the final prodcut from our painting extraveganza this past weekend!

A Legal Post...seeing as I am a Lawyer

It's not too often that I get behind political issues or involve myself in state legislation.  But this morning I recieved an email from a fellow lawyer/good friend urging me to write my state representatives to voice my support of HB 842.  And now I'm here urging you to write your state reps (if you live in GA) in support of this bill.

So what is HB 842?  What bill would get me to actually write to my state reps?  Well a chicken bill.  Yes, chicken. 

Lauren has 5 hens in her backyard and they lay eggs (duh!) and well, the french toast and egg casserole I've eaten made from these eggs were some of the best I've ever had.  So I'd like Lauren to be able to keep her hens.  And any other Georgians who want to keep backyard animals, should have that right.  So here's to the "Chicken Coop" Bill.  Voice your support!

Here was the email:
From: Lauren
Sent: Monday, February 08, 2010 11:06 AM
To: [names withheld to protect the innocent]


Subject: If you've got a minute...

Hey all. If you've got a minute, read the below and offer whatever support you can. I don't think I've ever asked anyone to do anything like this, but don't feel like you've got to respond. This is something that is important to me. And you, if you ever want to taste my eggs!
Lauren


Hey Backyard Poultry Buffs,

I received a telephone call this morning from State Representative Bobby Franklin and HB 842, Georgia's Right to Grow, or "Chicken Coop" bill will receive its first hearing. This is a subcommittee hearing, but is the first step toward getting this bill to the floor of the house, and ultimately, into the hands of the Governor.

I specifically asked Representative Franklin the one question that we all want to know, "If this bill passes and is signed into law, will it supersede any local laws, and/or ordinances?" The answer is YES!

Here is what YOU can do to help get this bill passed...

Please send an e-mail to the following State Representatives that sit on this committee...

lee.anderson@house.ga.gov, blackellis@bellsouth.net, jon.burns@house.ga.gov, pat.dooley@house.ga.gov, winfred.dukes@house.ga.gov, carl.epps@house.ga.gov, bharden@planttel.net, michael@voteharden.com, penny.houston@house.ga.gov, lynmore.james@house.ga.gov, kevinlevitas@bellsouth.net, billy.maddox@house.ga.gov, dubose.porter@house.ga.gov, jay.roberts@house.ga.gov, reptonysellier136@msn.com, tommy.smith@house.ga.gov

You can also find YOUR representative by going to the SOS poll locator and entering your address, then call him or her RIGHT THEN and ask them to JOIN Chairman McCall in support of this bill!


http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/polllocator/

This bill is not only about keeping backyard chickens, but also includes other food producing animals and backyard gardens as well, so make sure you mention these in your email. Call everyone you know and ask them to do the same!

I have been invited to speak at the sub-committee hearing on Thursday, February 11th and look forward to doing so. I will also be broadcasting "LIVE" from the State Capital on Wednesday, February 17th, which is Farm Bureau Day. I hope to interview the three State Representatives that are sponsoring HB 842.

As promised, I will keep you up to date on all the details as they become available
 
And a summary of the bill:
A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 1 of Title 2 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to general provisions relative to agriculture, so as to preempt certain local ordinances relating to production of agricultural or farm products; to protect the right to grow food crops and raise small animals on private property so long as such crops and animals are used for human consumption by the occupants, gardeners, or raisers and their households and not for commercial purposes; to define a term; to provide for effect on certain private agreements and causes of action; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

Ingredients for VEGGIES: Seeds & Fertilizer & Water & Sun

Growing your own vegetables really can be for beginners.

Just follow these few easy steps. 1) Plant a seed in some soil. (I should add a caveat here: this step can be more difficult than it sounds. If you'll remember, we had to rent a big piece of machinery from our favorite DIY home store to tear up our grass and sow the soil. But once you get that done (easy, right?! I find that a big strong man helps), just plant your seeds). 2) Add some fertilizer. (Preferably organic fertilizer...you are going to eat what you are growing.) 3) Water on a somewhat regular basis. (Rain counts and is extremely helpful for those of us who forget to water manually; however, convincing Mother Nature to turn the sprinklers on can be a bit challenging - may I suggest a Rain Dance?!). 4) Get sunlight. (You should factor this step in when you are planning whereabouts to plant your garden...but if you figure out how to move the sun to meet your needs, by all means, and let me know the secret). 5) Give your seeds lots of love and hope for the best. And voila, you have veggies!!!

The proof is in the pictures - taken from La Garden des Swans.





Some additional tidbits I've learned from my first season as a "gardener":

A - You should weed your garden. It's a pain in the behind, BUT, very well worth it. Think about it - the little seeds you planted need to grow roots and get big. In order to do this, they need water (remember step 3 above!). If you have weeds, your little plants have to fight with the weeds for that water; but if you eliminate the weeds, your plants can soak up all the water you (and nature) give them.

B - Squirrels are evil. They are eating my tomatoes. We're going to try to fix this problem this weekend - we're still deciding between a fence around the garden or a scarecrow. Thoughts? Not sure yet which works better. Maybe we'll attack the squirrels with a double whammy - fence AND scarecrow! (Sidenote, I'm thinking we'll definitely put up a scarecrow...it's a fantastic way to rid Mr. Cob of some of the not-so-stylish clothes that occasionally pop up in his wardrobe. But shh, don't tell him my ulterior motives!)

C - When a package of seeds tell you they are best grown in the fall/winter, you should heed this warning/advice. Broccoli and Brussel Sprouts really don't like hot weather. Or maybe we just killed them. Actually, I'm going to blame the squirrels. Yea, the little critters are responsible for those too.

Peppers and Flowers and Limbs, OH MY

As promised, pictures!

The lone pepper -






And a close up of our little guy!




Our tomatoes (minus the suicidal ones):



The view of our "big" garden from the deck.



Our BEANS! (don't you think they're pole beans???!!!!)



One of our many squash plants - we're going to have so much summer squash if these bloom.


Our "small" garden - a big storm last week caused the tree limb to break off our neighbor's' tree and land on our garden :( I think we may have lost one cant elope or squash plant.



The wildflower garden!



I snipped a few flowers from my garden to brighten up the inside of the house too!

Bloomin Pepper

Wells folks, I can now add "successful gardener" to my already extensive list of credentials. (The others for those who are wondering are: wife, daughter, aunt, sister, bond lawyer, half marathon runner, aspiring pianist, yard-sale shopper, shopper in general, baker -speaking of which, I have an incredible recipe to share with you, martini-lover, cat enthusiast, among many others...my list goes on and on, though it gets less glamorous as we go - wait, that would imply that something on my list is currently "glamorous", hum...must be that lawyering thing...). Back to the point - our garden has a PEPPER! Yes, it is only one, single, solitary, lone pepper, but its a pepper nonetheless and it's a-growin! I am pretty sure its a jalapeno and I'm hopeful he'll have some brothers and cousins soon, but for the moment he's our one shining star. Everything else (aside from two tomato plants which died of heat stroke) are looking good, or at least looking promising). I do need to take care of (and by that I mean kill) the grass that has decided to start growing in the garden and we need to string the beans because they are looking a lot more like pole beans than bush beans, oops. (Although in reality this is a good thing because I read that bush beans produce beans all at once so you need to keep planting thtem like every 2 weeks to have beans all season, but pole beans continuously produce beans, which is a plus). I have pics of the garden and the pepper at home that I'll post tonight!

This Sunday was Father's Day (along with the 1st day of Summer) and my mom had the whole fam up for brunch. My uncle brought my 91 year old grandpa up from LaGrange and it was my brother's first father's day as well, a father. So it was special to have everyone together - I especially cherish any time I get to spend with my grandparents since they're getting up there in age and you just don't know what the future holds. Grandpa's joke of the day was, at least I think its a joke, is what's the difference between a donkey and a jackass? Anyone know the answer???? We spent the morning playing tennis with my dad and the afternoon relaxing - it was a wonderful day all around! I was assigned the task of bringing dessert so I made a chocolate cake - the recipe and yummy pictures to follow later today.

Ok, back to it - Kate I hope this gave you some entertainment today :)

Fruits a Plenty

It was a busy weekend for the Swans. We kicked off the weekend with a three hour vegetable garden planting extravaganza on Friday night! We have:

- 12 tomato plants (4 different varieties)
- 18 pepper plants (jalapenos, habeneros, sweet, and hot)
- multiple yellow squash plants
- 3 zucchini plants

And we also planted these seeds:
- chives
- broccoli
- brussell sprouts
- cantaloupes
- basil

It's also possible I'm missing something. Anyway, we have two separate gardens - one big one and one small one....we thought the big one was getting the most sun, but after careful observation during the first really beautiful weekend in GA, we've now realized that the little garden might win the "best all-day sunlight" award. In which case, I hope you like cantaloupe and yellow squash, because we're sure to have A LOT!



The next thing we're going to try to grow is some hops for Mr. Cob's homebrew (aka Mad Swede Brewery). Hops require full sun so we've been analyzing the best place for optimizing their success. The latest idea is to plant them near our deck and let them grow up the side of one of the poles supporting the deck...or possibly in the front yard! Luckily hops look like this, so either option is OK and aesthetically pleasing:




Saturday morning I went to a class on Composting. The instructor had on a shirt similar to this, which I thought was hilarious! I learned a lot from the class - you need something green and something brown to make compost (i.e. grass and leaves) and the more frequently you turn your compost pile, the quicker you'll have good compost. I'm still undecided as to whether or not I'll try it. Instead, I was more drawn to the concept of turning "garbage to garden" where you simply keep non-meat food scraps in a jug and once you have enough you just bury them underground in the part of your garden that is currently empty, cover with dirt and the "garbage" helps enrich your soil. It's kind of the lazy girls way to good soil.

We also got out our bikes for the first time in months and went on a Sunday morning bike ride to the Flying Biscuit for breakfast (yum)! There are some serious hills on the particular route we took and it made me realize that I might not be ready to try a triathlon....I got winded way to quickly on the bike. But it was such a beautiful day and reinforced our decision to move to Kirkwood - I love being able to get to restaurants/shops without setting foot in a car. I also walked to our local library on Saturday - its only a half a mile!

All in all it was a wonderful weekend (we even had date night on Saturday night and friends over for dinner on Sunday - I baked a chocolate sour cream pound cake FROM SCRATCH for dessert - delicious)!! OH, and last week we got a new TV stand...the product details said it is "sage green", but the more I stare at it I'm convinced it's more of an avocado or pistachio green. Regardless of the actual color, I really like it - it opens up our living room. Now we just need a rug....the list is never ending. Here's a not-so-great pic of the TV stand.



I'll post pictures of the vegetable garden tomorrow. And more pics of the wildflowers - the solitary pink flower now has some pink brothers and sisters and some white cousins!!

Pretty Pretty pink

As I was walking to my car to drive to work this morning, I noticed something different about my wild flower garden. Yes it is still lush and full of bright greenery. But there was something different. There was a flower - a beautiful (albeit tiny) pink flower in the midst of all that green! I am so excited that my first attempt at gardening is officially a success! Now I can only hope that in the following weeks more little buds will bloom and I'll have a variety of colorful wild flowers! Until then, I'll cling to this beautiful, lone, pink flower...




(It's in the middle...you kind of have to hunt for it...)