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Administrator on October 2nd, 2008
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I can’t believe that I’m the only one who is sick and tired of all the political ads, “debates”, news articles, etc, etc, ad infinitum. Tonight I am hunched over the computer trying to avoid the TVs on both floors of this house. Seems to me that the run up to this election has been going on just short of forever.
Please tell me just who, among people over the age of four, actually believes campaign promises? The only sensible thing from my point of view is to take a look at the candidates’ voting records and the stands (if any) they have taken on matters that are important to you before the Presidential Olympics began. Then pick the lesser of two evils.
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Administrator on June 1st, 2008
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Just wanted to up-date anyone who had read my previous blog entry and was curious about the Aerogarden. Much to my surprise, when I called the number provided and asked for customer service, I not only got through to a very courteous company rep, I was also given advice on what to do to keep my herbs alive until the replacement bulb gets here.
I was given an apology about the missing coupons as well and told that they would be posted to me ASAP! If the company follows through with these promises, I’ll be much more than pleased. I sure hope that the follow-through is as good as the telephone contact because I can see lots of uses for this unit. I’m hoping to use it to get a head start on some of my seeds in the Springtime and also for cloning plants from cuttings.
If anyone reading this is interested in gardening, I hope that you will check back to see how it all turns out! Also, you might want to take a look at http://davesgarden.com/ This is a gardening forum where I spend most of what little free time I have.
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Administrator on May 12th, 2008
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Have you seen the ads for this gadget and thought about buying one for yourself or as a gift? If so, I hope that this article might help you.
I live in an area with quite cold Winters (zone 5a) and the poor light levels inside make it nearly impossible to grow anything but the few houseplants that require very little light. During the warm weather, I normally grow a small organic vegetable garden and a separate area for herbs. The Aero-garden looked like a possible solution to provide fresh culinary herbs during the winter season.
Its compact size and built-in grow lights certainly appealed to me, and I was curious about hydroponics as I’d never tried it before. The price was a bit high for us, but I finally decided to ask for one for Christmas as I thought that it made more sense than having my husband spend money on things that I neither wanted or needed. He made quite an effort to find one for me, but it was apparently a popular gift and all the stores around us were sold out. In the end, this worked out for the best as one of my brothers gave me a wine refrigerator and we already had one. We were able to return it and (with the help of a coupon) only paid about $16.00 extra to purchase my Aero-garden.
Here’s the first tip I can give you —- look at the instructions before you start taking the little plastic containers out of the box! They are supposed to be put into the unit in the same positions as they were in the box. (Of course, by the time I read those instructions I had no idea which herb had been in which position and just hoped for the best with the placement I’d done.)
Here are a couple of pictures of the plants as they first started to sprout and as they filled out the unit later on.
On the positive side, the unit worked as advertised and it was amazing to see how fast the plants grew. Of course there were no weeds and no bugs to deal with and we actually had trouble keeping up with the production of fresh herbs. (Now, if you want to make pesto, you would need to opt for the version with all basil, as there wouldn’t be enough basil available otherwise.)
Now we come to the “dark side”. The literature that was provided stated that the lights should be replaced at 6 months. It stated that although people might not be able to tell the difference in the level of light provided by the bulbs, the plants would suffer from lessened light. I, of course, intended to test that out; however, in practice, one of my bulbs apparently just burnt out and it’s barely been THREE months since I turned the machine on! My second criticism has to do with the offer of $50.00 worth of coupons that was included as an incentive for purchasers to “register” their Aero-gardens. I duly sent mine in, but chose to check the opt-out box that stated that I was NOT interested in receiving advertisements from them. I’ve been waiting quite a long time and no coupons have arrived. Could it be that I won’t receive them because I don’t want to be bombarded with more ads? The registration form certainly did not state that this would be the case (otherwise I certainly wouldn’t have bothered sending the form in in the first place!) I have been to their website today and copied their Customer Service e-mail and phone number, so will soon find out what their answers are to both of the above problems.
In case you’d like to see their offerings, the website address is
www.aerogardenonlinestore.com/
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Administrator on September 18th, 2007
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We took a trip to Boston this weekend to attend a trade show and noticed on the way that the leaves are starting to turn colors. It seems a little early this year, but that may be a result of the very dry weather we had last month.
If you live in an area that does not present such a Fall spectacle, I urge you to visit New England in the Autumn at least once in your lifetime! Towards the end of Summer, I find myself not only wishing for the Fall season as a means to escaping the heat and humidity, but also anticipating the look, feel, and even the smell of the season. Many years ago part of the scent of Autumn in these parts was the smoke from the burning pile of leaves in most people’s back yards. I enjoy the scent of the fallen leaves themselves instead (and besides, as an organic gardener, I’d hate to see such a valuable resource go up in smoke!)
Nature’s gift to New England doesn’t stop with the gorgeously colored leaves either. It’s also apple season (and that means good old fashioned apple cider too, if you’re lucky enough to find a place that still makes their own cider.)
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Administrator on June 23rd, 2007
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I swore I’d never, ever do it again, but here I am, moving my business again! We have been using every square inch of the area that I’ve been renting for over ten years and there’s just not a speck more of space to be found. Our gift basket inventory has us bursting at the seams, so when a place opened up just down the street with a nice back room that will be perfect for building our gift baskets and a selling floor that’s set up much better than what we have to deal with now, I just had to take it. It almost seemed destined to be.
Of course now, in the midst of the madness of packing whatever we can move while still remaining open, arranging for all the services (telephone, electricity, alarm system, etc.) to be shut down or relocated, getting the new store ready, trying to assure that we will have enough help on hand to move the showcases, shelving units, etc., I almost wish I’d never seen that “For Rent” sign! On top of everything else, I’ve developed a severe case of “sticker shock”. It is astounding what people charge to move a few door switches and an alarm panel or to take a sign down from one building and put it up on another. One of these companies wants to charge $145.00 just to have one of its employees walk into the town hall and pick up a permit (and that doesn’t even include the price of the permit itself)!
Hopefully we’ll be out of crisis mode in a couple of weeks and life will return to some semblance of normality. In the meantime, the veggie garden is being neglected and the insects are having themselves a feast at our expense.
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Administrator on May 4th, 2007
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Now this is downright embarrassing! I have some great ideas for Mothers’ Day gifts for other people’s moms, but I’m tearing my hair out, trying to come up with a good one for my own Mom!
Since she’ll soon be turning eighty-one, it is getting more and more difficult to find something that she would like that she doesn’t already have a dozen of.
She likes to travel, but refuses to go by herself (even though she usually ends up going on one of those package tours with lots of other elderly people). I wish we could buy her a travel companion, but I haven’t seen any of those up for sale lately.
If anyone out there has a brilliant suggestion, I’d really love to hear it!
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Administrator on April 30th, 2007
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These days I never hear much about the old May Day celebrations, but I do remember that as a child I used to make a May Basket for my mother. I’d either find or make the basket and fill it with wildflowers and/or candy. I don’t remember the part about ringing the doorbell and running away (perhaps because for me “run” seemed to be a synonym for “fall down”), but I do remember that she was supposed to be surprised. Just why she would be surprised every year as the same event occurred, I don’t know!
I’ve never seen a Maypole dance, but after doing a search on Google, found that such celebrations are still being held here and there throughout the world, including at least one college campus in the USA. Here are a few links that you might find of interest: May Day celebration, New Haven, CT , a brief history of May Day celebrations, an English child’s view of May Day.
It’s a bit late to plan on giving someone a May Basket, but don’t forget that Mothers’ Day is looming on the horizon. If you don’t know what to do for your Mom, you might want to take a look at the gift baskets for Mom page on my Silver and Stone website
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Administrator on April 13th, 2007
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Just had another birthday and am having a hard time believing that I could really be that old. Everyone keeps saying
It’s better than the alternative.
and so far that is true!
All in all, it was rather a nice birthday despite the fact that I spent the majority of it working at my store. My husband had the day off from work and prepared a three course meal for us, culminating in a made from scratch Chocolate-Orange Cake with Apricot-Grand Marnier Sauce. Yummy! I’ll have to check with him and see whether or not he used a recipe or if he can remember the amounts of ingredients he used. If possible, I’ll post a recipe for it here soon.
Another nice birthday surprise came when my accountant called, sang me a couple bars of a birthday song and announced that we would be getting a decent tax refund. Alriiiight! Now that’s a present we can both use.
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Administrator on March 12th, 2007
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Last year I posted a picture of the family of wild turkeys that was visiting our yard periodically. I’m amazed that they are all still together. Actually, I’m even more amazed that all but the one who disappeared early on are still alive! They have a well-deserved reputation for stupidity and we have witnessed this particular group doing kamikaze runs across the road. They seem to wait in the underbrush until a car is almost even with their hiding place and then burst out into the road right in front of the vehicle. Of course, where the first one goes, the rest just seem to have to follow. My husband nearly put himself through the windshield trying to avoid hitting them.
The group is now back up to seven, as apparently a male has joined Mom and the kids. It’s hard to tell, as the coloration of the feathers of all of the group looks the same to me, but at least one of this flock has started to act more like a male, fanning its tail and "gobbling". One of them (again, probably a male) apparently took exception to my brother’s car a couple of days ago and chased it part way down the street, yelling its fool head off. According to all of the articles I’ve read, including this one: Wild Turkey, they have full color vision. I guess he must have decided that the bright red color of the car meant that it was challenging him!
Here’s a picture of some of the grown-up wild turkeys, strolling about our yard again. I’ve sometimes seen them inside my veggie garden, but they usually seem to just be eating seeds and I don’t begrudge them as I generally have a lot more than I need.
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Administrator on February 3rd, 2007
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Okay, now that we’ve had a month to recover from the last spate of holidays — here comes another one! Granted, most people don’t get so frantic about Valentine’s Day, but I really wouldn’t want to let it go by without getting a Valentine gift for him Nor would I be terribly thrilled if he forgot to get something for me either! It kind of hurts to be forgotten or taken for granted all the time.
Anyway, my current dilemma is that I haven’t managed to come up with a good idea yet and time’s getting mighty short. All I’ve thought of so far is a new optical mouse for the home computer as our current mouse seems to be have developed Alzheimer’s — poor thing IS pretty elderly. Since we’d all use it though, it wouldn’t really be a present just for him. He got plenty of dark chocolate and port at Yule though, so now where does that leaved me? If anyone’s got a good idea, please leave a comment! This is NOT an invitation to the sellers of online pharmaceuticals, fake Rolex watches, and other comment spammers. Such useless comments will be deleted as usual.