garden of lettuce...

For my last post I'd drawn somewhat of a plan to try & generate some ideas on where I'd put the bed for a garden in my backyard this spring...long story short, I won't be doing a complete overhaul of my backyard like the plans show (i'm only renting this house and who knows how the landlord would react) I dug up a bed about a week ago on a very hot sunny day. It was fun and hard physical labor (esp. outside) like digging can be good for my mind and keep me sane! I got some seeds from a friend, that i can plant outside right now w/o fear of frost or cold temperatures. Really it's just some greens including swiss chard and a couple varieties of lettuce. I've started a tomato plant inside my house and am hoping it's getting enough light to grow and i'll try a transplant in the next couple weeks to a bigger container or into the bed. Starting a garden relates to this course and some of the books and articles we've read so far.

The chapter in Cheap that critiqued Whole Foods was a fun read for me and goes along w/ my own garden. I have conversations like this all the time where one person'll point out the benefits of shopping 4 local produce versus mass produced and the other will point to the obvious, "It's too much $". I've begun to question where i buy my food a little bit more as well as the work that goes into it. It's too bad that in Bloomington there isn't a middle ground between Bfoods and Kroger. Maybe the farmers market'll tempt me this year, or i'll have a good turnout from my own harvest. Until then i'll keep working in a kitchen @ a restaurant where i get free food. (hmm, where'd it come from?)

OK, today really felt like spring weather (esp. w/ the afternoon showers) so I thought I'd try and to start thinking about my plans for a garden over the next few months...I started to grow some basil and cilantro last year at my old house, but my landlord mowed over the plants when she was doing the lawn ARRGH. So far this year I've started a compost pile outside, though it's been so cold most of the material in the pile still isn't really decomposing....i'll have to do more research on this online or ask around town. My parents have always had a garden in their backyard and i've wanted one for a while, it's just been hard for me to find the time. The idea of being able to grow and pick produce as I'm making dinner or a salad for lunch is AweSome! I just hope I can get the soil ready for May 1st. I plan on starting some seeds indoors in my kitchen window over the next couple weeks to get them ready for outside when the last frost is gone. Here's a preliminary list of some veggies/herbs/fruit I want to grow as well as a garden plan for the backyard. Much like the umbrella project I'm working on, this has a lot to do w/ my search for self-sufficiency and moderate waste through my own individual behavior.

Success w/ shower curtain???

Ok, so I haven'thad any time to post much or really work on my project for the last couple weeks because of work obligations and a sickness I can't beat :( I finally got access to a digital camera though so i'll be able to upload some photos of what I've been working on recently. As time has progressed I'm realizing more and more how challenging my project is and I'm coming up against certain issues that have slowed me down. This has made me realize though that i'm really good at coming up with cool ideas but it's really hard for me to find the time to devote to the project and follow through. I found this cool history book about parasols and umbrellas at the I.U. library and have been looking through it for inspiration/ideas. Like many of our readings thus far in the course, a lot of the book focuses on handmade parasols and craftsman performing their task in a workshop. Parasols in the 18th and 19th century were geared towards women which makes me think about Gelber's reading and elite women's lives in the 19th century. Why were the crafts that many women were creating at home no longer as utilitarian as craft had been in the past? It's important that the umbrellas I will perfect will be made with mostly recycled materials, ie. old frames, fabric, trashbags, etc. I'm trying to send a political message about waste and conspicuous consumption and how it can and should be avoided when necessary. Here's some pics from the book, "Umbrellas and Parasols" by Jeremy Farrell" published in 1985. I've also tried to include some photos (albeit scattered) of my own work so far. I took an old shower curtain and sewed the tips of the frame of an old umbrella to the curtain. I realized as i was doing this that shower curtains or trash bags probably won't work
as the fabric because they tear too easily. This is making it harder for me to decide on a recycled material but we'll see where this goes. -pete

Progress Report...Umbrellas y garden, etc.

So, I haven't had that much time to put into my projects this week (due to a hectic work schedule), but I've narrowed down what my plans are for this semester. Over the last couple weeks I've been collecting old/broken umbrellas around btown and have been using them as plans for building my own homemade umbrellas. I've got several old golf clubs that i'm going to use for the handles/arms of the umbrellas and have been going to Salvation Army and picking up cheap colorful (bright) raincoats which i'll use as the material for the top of the umbrella. The hard part is finding the right materials to attach the fabric to. Originally I was thinking I wanted to use metal (like most umbrellas) but now I'm planning on using wooden rods/sticks. I'll use wood because I can use a staple gun to smoothly attach the rain coat material. I like the idea of using the golf clubs because
1. They're heavy duty and won't break like a wooden cane might have.
2. When i'm walking with an umbrella I have a tendency to use it sort of like a walking stick and golf clubs have a built in handle.
I'm still struggling to figure out how many branches I should have that attach to the raincoat material as well as the golf clubs...
I'll have pictures uploaded next week when I get a chance to go the library and check out a digital camera. (until then i'm still stuck w/ disposables).
Also, I plan on starting a garden in my backyard this spring. Last year i tried at a different house but I didn't start my seeds indoors and all I could get to grow was basil and cilantro (and my landlord mistakenly mowed over the plants when she was mowing the lawn one day)
I plan on trying to attend at least a couple of those classes the city offers at Banneker Community Center on gardening when I'm not stuck working the night shift.

-pete

Brainstorming...

So I've got a lot of ideas swimming around in my head right now on what I'd like to focus on for my project/s. I really like to fold origami animals, either out of wrapping paper (so they're huge) or out small pieces of paper (I made some penguin earings for an ex gfriend that were awesome). The yarn bombing thing was cool (i've done some origami "bombing" in Denver) hanging giant crabs off of apartment complex roofs and businesses. The problem w/ that is after it rained or if it was windy the paper falls apart (ephemeral...) I want to make something that has some sort of use other than physical beauty or weirdness. I've got some old science lab beakers that i've been contemplating turning into french-press coffee makers. For this I'd have to come up w/ some sort of wire mesh(for the filter) along w/ making a lid to specifically fit each beaker, and maybe some sort of liner for the glass (b/c it'll be hot w/ boiling water). So there's that idea and also I'm thinking about trying to make my own umbrellas. I thought about this when I was helping a friend sell pizza slices to people in the pouring rain last Wednesday. I'd seen several broken umbrellas that had been thrown away on campus and thought, hey I could fix em, or could use them as a blue print to try and make my own. For this I'd probably carve a tree branch to fit like a walking cane for the arm of the umbrella. I go to Salvation Army thrift store about once a week looking for stuff (cassettes, records, clothes, etc.) and have found some pretty cool waterproof jackets that I could try and use as the material for the umbrella. Sounds like a challenging project but it would be fun and there's definitely a market for umbrellas (it's almost spring) Also, i've got an acquaintance who just bought an old printing press that she uses for odd projects (she's printing her first book on it as i type this) I don't know anything about how a printing press works, but she's offered to show me how to use it and let me print stuff on it. So...that being said, I still don't know exactly where I'm headed but I do know that I want a project that's challenging but not extremely time consuming. Also, I want a craft to have some sort of practicality or usefulness besides its aesthetic value. I know I'm going to go back to making my own hacky sacks when I get some spare time. Is Guatemala still the biggest seller of hacky sacks out there? Maybe B-towns next.

-Pete