I don't understand food.

It's a complex thing, food. I used to think if it was edible, it was okay to eat. Clearly, though, there is so much more to the concept of nutrition. Being that I was a chubby kid, I guess it makes sense that I had a "if it's in front of my face and it tastes good, I can eat it" mentality when it came to my diet. I have this memory of a family movie night when I was about 9 or 10 years old, and my parents opened a bag of miniature Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, my dad's most cherished treat. We passed that bag of candy around the room while watching a movie, and whenever it got to me I'd just think, "There is probably a reason why I should stop myself from eating more of this stuff but it's sooo good." Piece after piece after piece of chocolatey peanut butter candy found its way into my mouth.

Now that I'm older, I understand that willpower is vital when it comes to food. Of course there are foods that should be limited or even avoided altogether, and other foods that should be consumed often, even daily.  The problem is I don't know which are which.

If you are breathing, then you probably know that there are a lot, a LOT, of "diets" out there, all with varying rules to supposedly lead the dieter to health. My issue is that opposite diets claim to be healthy, to be the end all be all of how you should be eating. And to me, some of these diets, even ones that tell you to do nearly opposite things, kind of make sense in their own ways. For instance, vegetarianism seems right in that you would limit foods with animal products and fat, opting for leaner options with lots of vegetables and whole grains. But consider the paleolithic diet, a lifestyle that promotes the consumption of mostly animal products and unprocessed foods. Eating THAT way makes sense, too, and if you look into both of these diets you will read about all kinds of health benefits of each, all with reasonable arguments and even studies to back them up. What the hell? These two diets are very different, but both are "right"?

Should I be worrying about saturated fat and cholesterol, or too many carbs/gluten/processed foods? Which is actually going to kill me? And, does a "all things in moderation" approach work" Because, see, in the case of these two diets, each seems to claim that it's an all-or-nothing things. You touch  meat, you're going to have a heart attack. If you eat a bite of that pasta, you might as well start writing your will now. So who's right?

That's where I am, at this confusing crossroads of nutrition. And of course, those are only two examples of ways to eat. What about the other ones, too?  Is there one ultimately "right" one? These are the things I've been wondering lately. I have no conclusion, sadly, but I'm in the process of trying to work out a plan that I feel is good. Not necessarily "right," but good enough. Because I don't know if I'll ever find the answer.

Materials: Check!

Another trip to Lowe's, and we now have the supplies for the garden bed.

The materials we ended up getting cost about $60. This includes screws, some drill bits, the wood, and some stakes.

We were planning to use cedar or pine as suggested in the guide we're following for this project, but the store did not have those kinds in the wood size we needed. We found Douglas Fir to be a less expensive solution, and it came in the right size. I understand that this kind of wood will rot faster, but since we are only planning to stay in this house for a few years it should be okay in the long run. Hopefully it will hold up as long as we're here, but I don't really know what to expect. This is all one big adventure, isn't it?

We've estimated that the cost of soil to fill the bed will probably be another $60, since we can literally use none of the native soil and will need to bring everything in. This little project is getting somewhat expensive, but I knew going in that starting up would require an initial cost.

Now to put the thing together.

Ta da!

Here's the finished product. I found some chains with s-hooks meant for hanging plants or something, but they worked beautifully for hanging my lights. They are totally adjustable and everything! So adding those chains on to the cost, the project cost about $35 total. I'm happy! We'll see how it works with growing the seeds.

Speaking of growing seeds, whenever someone finds out what I'm doing I tend to get similar reactions.

Walmart Checker, being overly nosy in my opinion: "So what are you doing with all this stuff?"
Me: "Growing seeds indoors."
Walmart Checker: "Oh yeah? What kind of seeds?"
Me: "Garden seeds..."
Guy behind me in line: "Yeah GARDEN seeds. More like pot!"
Walmart Checker: "Haha! Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking!"
Me: "Haha....yeah, I've never heard THAT before."

It does get a little old.

First spring buds

I'm still expecting that there could be a snowstorm any day now, but when you actually see the buds showing up on the trees you can't help but feel optimistic.

No long sleeves for me today!

Why do I only eat this once a year?

Only my awful camera could make something so yummy look so unappetizing...

Corned beef. I love this stuff. Even when I was a "strict" vegetarian, I made an exception on St. Patrick's Day.

On Saturday, I tried cooking corned beef with cabbage, onion, carrots, and potatoes in the slow cooker for the first time. Success! Here is the recipe that I based my dish off of. Placing the cabbage on top of everything worked surprisingly well--I worried it would be super soggy after 8 hours, but not so!

For the first time, I used corned beef that didn't have a bunch of preservatives or one of those "seasoning packet" things. Although less salty than corned beef I've had in the past, the taste was no less delectable.

May I just say that slow cookers are pretty much magical? So much love for that ingenious invention.

Light Stand for Seed Starting

Thanks to this site, I found a cheap and easy way to build a light stand for my seed starts. It took less than ten minutes to finish (except for the fact that one of the elbows I grabbed was the wrong angle and I had to exchange it at Lowe's...d'oh!) and costs about $7 (assuming you have access to a PVC pipe cutter or a saw already).

I began by gathering the materials:

• 10 feet (1” internal diameter, ID) PVC pipe (I only needed to use 8 feet of the pipe)
• 2 L-shaped PVC connectors (1” ID)
• 2 T-shaped PVC connectors (1” ID)
• 4 PVC endcaps (1” ID)

• hacksaw (or pvc pipe cutter)
• tape measure
• marker

I used 2 5' pipes for this job (so they would fit in my car), and ended the project with an extra 2' of pipe (since I chose to make the 24" version instead of the 48" one). I was able to borrow a pvc pipe cutter from a relative, so that reduced the cost and made the project go faster.

I went ahead and marked the pipe into sections that I would be cutting, like so...

...and used the pvc pipe cutter to cut the sections out into separate pieces.

Now, the fun part: connect all the parts! And just like that, in a matter of minutes and with a little pocket change, I had a truly lovely little light stand for my soon-to-be seed starts!

A stand similar to this with a light fixture tends to cost $50 or more (usually not including a bulb for the light fixture). I plan to use one or two clamp lights (~$14 for both) with fluorescent bulbs ($7 for 2), bringing my project cost close to $30. Not bad! Now I just need to figure out a creative way to raise and lower the clamp lights on the frame. Shouldn't be too difficult to make it work.

Am I really ready for THIS?

Good question.

But you know, sometimes it's true that thinking too much about something before you do it is a bad idea. This might be one of those times. If I really considered what I'm getting myself into, I might turn back this very second.

Here are the seeds I have and am planning to plant/grow/kill/whatever very soon:

• Dark Seeded Perfection Peas
• Purple Plum Radish
• Delicata Squash
• Orange Smoothie Pumpkin
• Salad Bowl Red Lettuce
• Danvers Half-Long Carrot
• Black Beauty Eggplant
• Sweet Golden Cal Wonder Pepper
• Casaba Golden Beauty Melon

March 19th is the earliest date in my region to start seeds indoors, and I'm preparing myself to do just that. Most of the seeds I have will need to be planted straight in the ground later on, but a few I can get going inside the house. Here's the thing, though--I really don't know what I'm doing. Sure, I've been reading, but I've never actually done real gardening before on this scale.

Here's the area I'll be working with.

Thanks for helping, Bailey.

See that dirt that's all raked and pretty-like? That's where the raised bed is going to go. Let me assure you that although it might not look like it from the photo, I want to re-emphasize the fact that the ground is PURE FREAKING ROCK and really quite impossible to grow anything in unless it's a certain type of weed, sage brush, or wild flowers. I don't think the "soil" is capable of sustaining much more than that. So we'll be bringing soil in instead.

See those black planter things? They're left over from when we planted trees last year, and I'm thinking of utilizing them as part of the garden. They're big enough to each fit a pepper, tomato, or other kind of plant. That way, we wouldn't need to make more than one raised bed.

Now excuse me while I figure out how many plants I can actually fit in the space I'm planning for the garden.

So, I want to start a garden.

A serious garden. A garden that grows enough food to actually be substantial. And I want to do it from "scratch."

First, let me tell you what I'm up against. I live on land that is pure rock, meaning what soil there is happens to suck. It's the poorest soil you'll ever see. This heroic part of me had the silly thought of "oh, I can make it work!" But no. I went out there with a shovel and couldn't dig an inch down. This, by the way, was when the ground was "muddy." So no, I won't be planting directly in the native soil. (just a side note--when we planted trees on the property, we did indeed need to rent a jackhammer to dig the holes. A JACKHAMMER.)

Check out that exceptional soil quality!

This means raised garden beds (which we will need to build), soil brought in, and plenty of amendments to make it workable. Oh, this is going to be an adventure!

First things first: the seeds! I'm going to try starting them indoors in a couple of weeks. More on that soon.