Archive | April 17, 2012

Lost Day

Apr17

For Lilfluff‘s Prompt.

Several generations before Learn-to-Knit-Day (LJ)

“So what are we doing again?”

“Lost Day!” Raquel, Smith Tertia Vestis, grabbed Ward, Jones Secondus Ludicrum, by the hand, dragging him down the hall of the megacomplex.

“You misplaced a day? There’s a bureau for that.”

“No, no. It’s my personal holiday. I get to take one person with me, and I tapped you.”

“Don’t I have some say in the matter?”

“If you ever read your forms, you would have.” She stopped to grin at him. “Look, it’s just an extra holiday for you, because my Personal Holiday Form says I require a friend to celebrate Lost Day with.”

“What, pray tell, is Lost Day?” He held up his free hand. “If you tell me it’s your personal holiday again, I’m going to throw things.”

“I started back in University. The first time was an accident – I missed a day of classes because I’d gone driving with a friend and gotten lost, so I had to burn a personal day to stay out of trouble. After that, well, I’d declared Being Lost to be my personal holiday.”

“Seriously? How do you celebrate that?”

“Like this.” She took a random left turn down a hall. “It’s why it’s celebrated on a Saturday.”

“It’s… Raquel, what’s in the backpack?”

“Three days’ worth of food and clothing for both of us, and enough chits for restaurants and hotels if we can find one. We’re getting lost, Ward. Really, truly, Lost.”

“I…” She had an amazingly strong grip. “I bet this was easier when there were cars.”

“This was easier,” she confided, “before all the Regulations.”

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Gardening… start! Or my weekend in the dirt

Apr17

This was a busy long weekend for me and T!

Thursday, Mother-Woman and Father-Man (alderfather) came down with the chainsaw and the rototiller and the truck (Yay parents with machinery!) We dug some garden space out of our yard – two long rows by the side of the garage, one 18″x25′ and the other 4’x25′, about 2′ apart. The narrow one is going to be squash and onions, while the wide one will be three 8×4 raised beds housing… almost everything else.

We also put in a long trench in the back against the hedgerow for asparagus (YAY! Asparagus! Finally!), which was… fun. Till, dig out the dirt, till in the trench, repeat. Lots of work, but rewarding! Then Mom & Dad & the truck took us to Tractor Supply Company so we could get our awesome cart!!

Friday, we drove to Syracuse where I got zapped with lasers, then spent an hour at Lowe’s on the way home. Peat, manure, sun hat (Yay sun hat)…

I really need to start taking pictures, don’t I?

Saturday we put in all the spear roots. Asparagus is a weird plant to grow, in that you get these little octopus roots, and bury them just-a-bit, then, as the plants come up, bury them more and more… and then you don’t get to eat the plants for three years! But after that, you have plants for years! article here

We dug the trench for the spears about 2x as long as it needed to be, so we planted carrot seeds in the front of the rest of it. When the field behind us plants corn, as we hope they will again, we’ll plant a row of corn there, too (Corn is wind-pollinated; the more corn, the better).

Then it started raining. The onions will have to wait until tomorrow.

The Giraffe Call is still going strong! We are just $5 from the first donation-incentive level!!

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