Hiatus is over

Call it a writer's strike if you want I guess. I've been really really busy lately, mostly work. Ever other free minute has been spent getting things done on the house: Staining the porch, landscaping, planting flowers, etc. Here's a sample of my work:


Still a long ways to go, not to mention a lot of money. Nate and I used my tax refund and our economic stimulus check to buy a new toy to help out. I'll get pictures up of it as soon as its dry enough to use.

Until then here's a column to help you get caught up. This is from May 28. Obviously by now, it has warmed up and I'm getting my plants in.


Column 5/28
If you’re a person in the business or hobby of growing anything outside, it’s been a hard year to do it. According to one of the local weather guys, mid-May is usually the last frost of the year. And yet, frost was predicted again Tuesday night. Some people have fallen victim to Jack Frost. One ambitious person I see often set out all her tomato and vegetable plants. They are now sitting limp and black in her garden. My mother-in-law is the opposite. Every slightly fragile plant she has purchased is inside her house. Her hanging baskets, which she bought a month ago, are still hanging in the greenhouse she bought them from, awaiting warmer weather.

I got ambitious this past weekend and started getting ready to plant. My landscaping has been in the preliminary stages for several weeks now. I’ve been collecting garden tools and supplies, even using some. I raked and got rid of weeds from flower beds. I hauled in rocks from the fields to make borders and the start of a rock garden. I even convinced Nate to bring me a skidsteer bucket of top soil to create a small vegetable garden on the south side of our house. Until this past weekend, I avoided buying any plants. I collected a few along the way: a geranium won as a door prize, a petunia from Jacob for mother’s day, some little columbines from my mom’s garden and a small hanging basket from kid’s day at a local greenhouse. But, ever being the bargain hunter, a buy-two-get-one-free plant sale lured me in over the weekend. My new front porch has five openings. To fill it up I would need five hanging baskets, a purchase I was trying to figure out how to finance. Thanks to the sale, raiding my mother-in-law’s garden shed for five used but perfect condition baskets, and a large bag of potting soil, I was able to create five baskets for the price of one basket at the garden center down the road.

However, I do admit getting Nate to install the hooks for the baskets looks to be a project all by itself. While my baskets might take a few weeks to get caught up to the store bought ones, I think deep purple and white wave petunias will be just as pretty if not more so than anything I could have bought. Although I swore last winter I would not grow anything edible this year, temptation won out and I also picked up some tomato and green bell pepper plants. A few jalapenos and I’ll have the makings of fresh salsa later this summer. I’m also scouting a spot for a pumpkin patch.

So far, I have yet to put anything in the ground. I’d barely finished my baskets when Nate came to tell me there was a chance of frost. So Monday and Tuesday night, I grouped all the plants that could possibly be fragile and covered them with a sheet, tucking the ends under the heavy baskets. We can’t cover the many acres of corn just emerging from the soil, but they have a built in defense. Corn plants will come back even if frozen as long as the growing point is still below ground, which is about the fourth leaf collar. While this weather seems to be contradicting the global warming theory, it does make it a little frustrating if you like to work outside. Tuesday night I looked over the bundle of plants and wondered: Will it ever warm up?

Car for sale--cheap (4/16)

I’m having a few issues with “Ol’ Not-So-Trusty.” Unlike Ben, my car isn’t so rare, nor is it that old. It’s a Pontiac Grand Am, the make’s most popular model. Even though General Motors stopped making them in 2005, it is still nearly impossible to travel any highway without seeing one.

This ‘01 is actually my second Grand Am. I started with a green ‘94 right out of high school. Even though the car already had more than 105,000 miles on it, the body was spotless and it ran great. After trekking back and forth between River Falls and Spring Green for more than three years, it was time for a replacement. The car now had more than 150,000 miles on it. While it still ran fine (and had even better paint thanks to hail insurance) I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous every time I headed down I-94.

The replacement was another Grand Am, this one black and with four doors instead of two. It was only two years old at the time with 32,000 miles on it. By a college kid’s standards, it was like having a brand new car.

The new Grand Am GT also had a plethra of features lacking in my old one. First off, the power locks worked and I had a little remote to control them with. I had a moon roof, and I got to ditch my portable CD player with car kit for the new Monsoon system in the ‘01.

My green ‘94 (also known as “Petey” to a roommate who insisted on naming all our cars) returned home to my parents. While it has had a little work, I don’t believe it’s had any major engine trouble and is approaching 200,000 miles on its odometer.
My ‘01, however, died shy of 150,000.

I’ve known for a year or two now that things were not quite right with my car. It’s had a slow coolant leak for several years. In January 2007 we had the intake gasket replaced.

A few months later, it was the fuel pump and a little glitch in the security system that wouldn’t let it start. This winter the thermostat went out on it. All these repairs are not counting the brakes, tires, belts, fuses, sensors and other parts that have been replaced. I keep telling myself I will soon have a new car, with everything that’s new on it.

Also this winter, I learned about the leaky head gasket. After conferencing with Nate, we decided to let it go and see how long it could survive. The hope was to save up enough to replace it by the time of its death.

A few weeks ago I noticed the throttle was sticking. Wanting to avoid another shop bill for now, I got in the habit of putting it in neutral when I came to a stop sign.

But a week ago Sunday is when it called it quits. The head gasket finally gave out and coolant spewed into the engine. Luckly I was close to home when this happened and limped it into the driveway. It hasn’t moved since.

After a few days deliberating its fate, we decided we are going have the head gasket replaced so I can drive it the rest of the summer. In the fall we’ll look at something different for the winter and park the Grand Am on the corner with a For Sale sign.

In the meantime, I’ve been driving my husband’s diesel pick-up. I enjoy the seat heaters and CD changer, but not its appetite. After dedicating a large chunk of my paycheck to filling its tank last week, I hope the Grand Am can be shocked back to life soon.

Hard lesson for a little pup (4/9 column)

As promised, Lucy is delivering stories for me to share with you all. Unfortunately, she won’t be as embarassed as Jacob will be in 15 years. Lucy, in case you missed it, is my lab pup. When I say “my” I mean it. Nate claims no ownership to her.

So far life with Lucy has been interesting. We are still working on the housebreaking and teaching her the ways of the Eckert world. She sits on command now, and is learning “stay” and “down.” This past week, I noticed Lucy caught on to “no.” She will now stop whatever she’s doing and look sheepish. When she really knows she is in trouble, she goes to her corner of the living room and cowers.

We’ve also been teaching Lucy about life on the farm. She will be primarily an outdoor dog when she gets older. I’ve been letting her spend more and more time in the barn so she learns to respect cows, barn cats, tractors and those who work there. Lucy learned an important lesson in farm life Saturday. I let her off leash so she could roam as she pleased. Lucy is fascinated with all the barn smells and spends most of her time wandering nose to the ground. While I was standing in the feed room and Lucy was down near the milkhouse I heard a yelp, followed by the laughter of Nate and his dad. Apparently in her explorations, Lucy came across one of Jacob’s barn kitties, Flo. Flo and Lucy have met before. The first day I had Lucy Flo took a swipe at her, nicking her nose and leaving a tiny drop of blood.

On this day, however, Flo got a bit better grip on the pup. According to my father-in-law, who had a fairly good view of the incident, Lucy took a sniff at Flo who let out a mighty hiss and attacked. As Lucy yipped and jolted away, she startled a cow who kicked and sent her flying as she was trying to escape the cat. Sometime in the fray, one of the two (I would assume the cat) put about an inch slit in her velvety puppy ear. Lucy didn’t want me to look at it. She was bleeding some and shaking her head which made it extra fun to try to examine. It was clean through the ear and didn’t appear that stitches would really do much to repair the tear. It was just a sliver away from being a full blown notch.

I bathed the poor thing once her ear stopped bleeding. She moped around the rest of Saturday and made the most of her injury. On Sunday the wound seemed to be healing and looked like it wouldn’t even leave a hole. But on Monday evening I found Lucy must have itched the healing gash, severing what flesh was holding it together. She now looks like the lower part of her ear is torn half off. On Tuesday I related this to my pet-loving co-worker, Kristen. I thought she’d have some sympathy for Lucy. She had a little, but also thought it was hilarious.

“She got her $%# kicked by a cat!” Kristen laughed. Yes, I guess she did. I don’t think Lucy was trying to hurt Flo. She just wanted to play with her a little. Still, I hoped Lucy learned a valuable lesson about being a farm dog: Don’t mess with anything that has sharper claws than you.