Urban Homestead

So I know that I am completely annoying with all this gardening stuff, but its just so wonderful and I want to share. I promise I'll be back to my witty rants soon, but for the summer, just bear with me.

Check out my progress. I'm updating often and harvesting and eating my produce and its all been so great so far. Yay!

Plot layout:

Back wall - cherry tomato plants, strawberry pot, and blueberry pot (which sucks)
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---tomato---tomato---pepper---pepper--
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---peas-----peas-----basil----basil---
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---spinanch-spinach--green onions-----
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---onions---onions---romaine lettuce--
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---carrot---carrot---cucumbers--------
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05/21/10
06/14/10
06/16/10
06/20/10

Let there be LIFE

And on the seventh day...

Not really, this is more like the 20th day, but still. I have created LIFE! Check out the pictures for the status of my vegetable gardening adventure. I have indoor seedlings going for: cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, leaf lettuce, chives, cucumber, bell peppers, and jalapeno peppers and outdoor seedlings for: leaf lettuce, snap peas, spinach, onions, chives, and carrots!

Are you not entertained?!?

My indoor seedlings have spunk, I think ;-)

Flowers brighten everybody's day :-) I bought these on Liberty Ave. and transplanted them to pots in the backyard

My delightful patch of love - peas are in the back left and leaf lettuce is in the front right, the others are little still, but they're there!

Cultivate your mind and the rest will follow

Apologies for the cheesy title. I'm getting bored with creating witty blog titles.

I LOVE MY GARDEN! There isn't any life in it yet, hell there's not even any seeds. But what there is - is topsoil and cow dung! Hooray! This completes Phase 2 of the summer garden extravaganza. Yesterday I turned over all of the soil (which was hard and gross looking and contained logs for some reason). I used a technique that I learned in my gardening class called double digging. Basically, you dig out a 1'x1' tunnel and move the dirt somewhere outside of the plot, but save it for later. Then you add topsoil into the hole. Next you dig out another tunnel right next to the first tunnel and use the new displaced soil to fill the first tunnel. Get it?!? And it goes on until you only have one tunnel at the other end of you garden and then you use the soil you set aside in the beginning to fill that hole. It was painful. My back, arms, and abs are killing me!

Then Ann came over and was my little helper. We poured topsoil and cow manure on top of everything and then just cultivated for about an hour: breaking up big clumps, moving everything around. Finally we installed a snazzy little brick perimeter. and Voila!! Craig and I now have a garden plot ready to go!

Peas are going in tonite. And I will start my seedlings for tomatos and peppers and some other stuff.

Double Digging

Finished Project!

Garden Project: Phase 1

I realize this is probably not the most interesting or witty of my posts - but I have found a passion... And it is in the form of a small 6'x6' plot of dirt. After taking my gardening class and committing myself to create life (botanically speaking) I sought out on a summer-long journey into horticultury.

The canvas: my new backyard. More specifically the plot of grass where a shed used to sit before we owned the house.

The challenge: create a vegetable garden.

Phase 1 - Transform the grass-covered plot into a fertile nursery for my babies (ie. crops) to thrive.

It took 2 days (about 5 hours which converts to a 6 pack of Lionshead), using a weeding tool no larger than a fork and Craig, who has a surprisingly green thumb, to complete Phase 1. Please enjoy the accompanying photos and get psyched for Phase 2 when we travel to CULTIVATION NATION!

This is your brain

I am young, I don't do drugs, I am pursuing an intellectually demanding career in biomedical engineering, I have no history of mental illness, I have smart friends, I've never had head trauma... so why the hell is my brain so dumb?

It's not like one event happened that made me realize my brain is dull, but everyday I notice a little fuzziness of thought - and it wasn't like that before. Man, in my prime (ya know when I was like 20 or 21, not the ancient 23 I am now) I was such a smart little whip. Answering questions in class, challenging philosophical systems, reading science for leisure. The closest thing I've done to science lately is bought a Ford Fusion...

Research is slow, slow, slow and I think its slowing my brain down. I haven't donned latex gloves in over 3 months! Plus I find myself doing stupid stuff - today I wanted to mail a letter at work and instead of putting it in the mail slot, I put it in the dumpster next to the mailbox. Stupid.

So I have identified my issue - dullness of a once witty brain. And unlike other schmucks who are okay with letting the dullness ride, I took a proactive defensive route. Over the past month I have engaged myself in brain-builders. Nothing related to science, of course, let's build up to that. I took a cooking class, a gardening class, and ceramics classes. LOVED THEM! Starting my garden will take a lot of brain strength - I'll have to plan out what veggies go where, how to keep pests out, and most importantly how to make room for cornhole.

Engineers love the Steelers

I haven't blogged since November 19th! That's so messed up of me. Alot has happened since then:

The calendar has changed from 2009 to 2010

Well that's pretty much it. The Steelers didn't make it to the playoffs this year and the Olympics haven't started yet so life's been slow. I have a plan for an epic upcoming blog, but it will have to wait. For now, enjoy this feat of Matlab code that demonstrates the boredom that an engineer feels in the absence of exciting football.

CODE:
%Jamie Haney
%January 2010
%GO STILLERS

clear all
clc;

phi=-2*pi:0.01:2*pi;
a=8;
b=2;

x1=(a-b)*cos(phi)+b*cos([(a-b)/b]*phi); %hypercycloid
y1=(a-b)*sin(phi)-b*sin([(a-b)/b]*phi);

x2=x1+10;
y2=y1-10;

x3=x1;
y3=y1-20;

plot(x1,y1,'y',x2,y2,'r',x3,y3,'b')