Post Secret

Last night, I went to see Post Secret with a couple friends. Post Secret is this website where people send in artistic, anonymous post cards with their deepest secrets. I wasn't really sure what to expect from a live show, and was honestly a little let down.

I guess I was expecting it to be skit-like, with different people reading postcards that were sent in, but it was mostly Frank Warren talking about how Post Secret started. He printed up 3,000 postcards that were blank on one side and gave directions on the other side, and passed them out on the streets of D.C. Then he posted them to the website.

He talked a lot about suicide prevention, which I believe is his goal with his tour. He had microphones set up at the edge of the theater so people could share their own secrets. Mostly people said how they never felt good enough for their parents, but one guy proposed to his girlfriend (and she said yes).

He encouraged us to come up with and pursue our own crazy idea. He pointed out a website called ifoundyourcamera.net. The person who created the website gets lost digital photos emailed to him, then posts the photos to his blog and (hopefully) returns the camera to its rightful owner.

The show was at the Gillioz Theater , an old theater that was recently restored to original condition. It reminds me a lot of the Fox Theater in St. Louis, though not as extravagant.

I tried to take a picture of one of the light fixtures but it didn't turn out so well...

 The Post Secret website operator, and author of several books, Frank Warren.

If you want to check out the website, go to www.postsecret.com

I think this archive is by the same guy, but I'm not sure. It looks completely different from the other website. I guess next week I should look and see if this week's postcards are on it?

I would like to go out more often with friends. I didn't even think about dressing up for tonight, but when I got to the Gillioz, many people were dressed up.

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Garden Report 09.09.11

While the weather is cooling off outside (in the 50s, 60s and 70s this week!), I'm slowly growing herbs for the winter and starting plants for next year.We've slept with the windows open all week. I love this weather!
Next week, after I take my last exam, I'll repot some of these herbs into larger pots. I don't want them getting all scraggly like the dill has gotten!
I've decided cumin is not a plant to start from seed. I bought new seed this year and none of it sprouted. I planted it multiple times, and the seeds all molded before they sprouted. But all the other seeds around them, of different herbs, sprouted without molding. 
The artichokes I planted to get a head start on next year's garden. I planted some this spring that have been outside all summer and they don't look near as healthy as these that I planted inside a couple weeks ago!

 I also started some wildflowers to put behind the greenhouse and in the beds in front of the house.

The only eggplant that has set on is on the plant that I did not use fertilizer on. The other plants are twice as large but haven't bloomed. I applied fertilizer twice, at the interval and amount as suggested on the package. To remember which plants had fertilizer, I only fertilized the ones with the identification tags. So one out of every 4 peppers, one out of every 2 tomatoes were fertilized. Same thing happened with the tomatoes; the ones that weren't fertilized produced more tomatoes. I think the fertilizer I used had too high of a nitrogen content, but it was stuff I had sitting around and wanted to use up. Guess I'll find a different fertilizer for next year!

Since it was cool this week, I put several plants in the greenhouse. Left to right: Golden Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary.

These are the four surviving artichokes out of the dozen or so that sprouted this spring. See how small they are in comparison to the others that I started inside recently?

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Future Orchard

When we eventually own more land, I'd like an orchard. The following varieties are all from the Stark Brothers website, which is a fruit and nut tree nursery in Missouri. Before we actually plant the trees, I need to research how much fruit one tree produces. I plan on preserving a lot of it. Maybe Mom and Dad will chime in on how many blackberry canes I should start with? (Hint Hint leave a comment!)
 
Fruit trees:
Apple Trees (Granny Smith x 1, Starkrimson Red Delicious x1)
Cherry Trees (Blackgold Sweet Cherry x 1, Balaton Pie Cherry x 1)
Persimmon (Prok American Persimmon x 1)
Peach (Contender x1,  Reliance x 1)

Other fruit:
Raspberries (Heritage, Jaclyn Primocane)
Grapes (Reliance Seedless, Marquis seedless - for fresh eating, Concord for juice/jelly)

Blueberries (Northcountry x 1, Northblue x 1)
Blackberries (Arapaho Erect Thornless, Natchez Thornless)
Strawberries (June-bearing variety)

Nut trees:
Pecan (Hardy Pecan x 1, Stark Surecrop Pecan x 1)
Almond (Hall's Hardy Almond x 1)

Dreaming:
Chicago Hardy Fig x 2
Key Lime, for the greenhouse (assuming we build another greenhouse once we move, or at least have a sunroom on the house)
Meyer Lemon, for the greenhouse

I'm trying to figure out how much land we need. Assuming 15' x 15' to 30' x 30' for each tree (10 trees): 2250 sq. ft. to 9000 sq. ft. required just for trees. Probably need to lean toward the higher number so we can walk between the trees easier, and so we can mow under them...

Blackberries and Raspberries need about 4'x4' per plant. The blackberry varieties I picked from Stark Brothers come in packs of 6, so about 200 sq. ft. for blackberries (12 plants). The raspberries come in 3 packs, so about 100 sq. ft. for raspberries. I'll probably order 6 of each variety though, to have the same row length as blackberries, so bump that up to 200 sq. ft.

Blueberries need about 5' x 5' per plant, so 25 sq. ft. for 2 plants is 50 sq. ft.

Grapes spread about 5' per plant, and I'd like at least 4 vines of each variety, so 60 linear feet of grapes, with beds about 2' wide, so 120 sq. ft.

Strawberries need about 1' x 1' per plant, and I'd like a lot of them. Most strawberries are sold in packs of 25, so 25 sq. ft.

Total desired: 9000 + 200 + 200 +50 + 120 +25 = about 9600 sq ft, not including the aisles between the non-tree fruit.


I think the orchard plus the garden would need about 1/3 of an acre.

The Hubs figures we'll devote at least an acre to the orchard and garden. And the two goats. and chickens.

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Running!

Today, in addition to my weight lifting routine and 30 minutes on the stationary bike.... I also ran 10 minutes without stopping!
My run:
3 minutes at 3mph
10 minutes at 4.5 mph
3 minutes at 3mp

Total: 1.06 miles in 16 minutes. A 16 minute mile is not so good, but I'll get there!

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Music Monday: Guns N' Roses - November Rain

I promise I wasn't slacking today. Every time I tried to log in to Blogger today it just kept thinking.... and thinking.... and thinking... and my profile and posts would never load.

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Putting Food by: Mint Liqueur Part 2

Vodka after mint has steeped for two weeks.

I started making mint liqueur two weeks ago. The mint steeped in the vodka for two weeks. If you missed part one, go here.

To remove the mint leaves from the alcohol, I placed a square of cheesecloth in the mixing bowl, poured the contents of the jar in to the bowl and then squeezed the cheesecloth and mint to get all the liquid out.

 Simple syrup: 2 c sugar and 1 c water. Bring to a boil, stirring until all sugar is dissolved, then cool to room temperature.

 Check out the cool bottles I found at Marshall's!

 You saw the color of the liquid earlier, right? It was a little funny colored. I wasn't planning on putting the food coloring in, but after seeing the brown color I decided to go ahead with the coloring. 2 drops blue, 8 drops green. Next time I'll cut that in half.

All bottled up, it made about 5 cups. The recipe says to let it age for a couple months, but I think I need to taste test it sooner.

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Little Victories

I've been trying to go to the gym 2-3 times a week again lately. At the beginning of the year I was going 3-4 times a week and got a little burnt out. And I hurt my shoulder in March by lifting more weight than I should have.... Just recently I was able to lift weights with my right arm again. 

My typical workout is a round of lifting weights on the weight machines, then 30 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes on the stationary bike. (Sometimes I don't bike and do the elliptical for 45 minutes.) Today, I decided to run on the treadmill. I did a 3 minute warmup at 3 mph, then ran 9 minutes at 4.5 mph, then cooled down for 3 minutes at 3.5 mph.

Did you read that middle part, where I ran for 9 minutes straight? That hasn't happened since sophomore year of college when I was running about 20-30 minutes on the treadmill at a time. Even last year when I was trying to work up to a 5k I never ran that much at once!

I wanted to run longer but the gym closed early today. Their schedule says they're open until 7, but they closed at 5. Maybe because of the holiday weekend?

Run summary: 1 mile in 15 minutes.

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