56. Dishwasher

So I broke down.

I think it was the moldy water in the bottom of our current dishwasher. Realizing we had to get rid of it, and then deal with a big hole in the kitchen. A hole I could fill with...what?

With money, for the most part. The floor underneath is subfloor, so whatever I did I would have to cover that. Trash? A cabinet to hide trash? Just plain cabinets of some kind? None of them sounded right. Or cheap, frankly.

A dishwasher isn't cheap either, especially not the way we decided to go. But I envisioned 6 months from now still trying to find cabinets that matched or at least blended in with the ones we had (which I have painted, of course). Dealing with the cabinet under the sink and its dark spookiness. Handling it all.

I looked at my dining room and decided life was hard enough for the house, for me, for us. Plus...I will admit that while handwashing dishes feels both noble and satisfying, I am the only person doing it. Jake will load and unload a dishwasher. But he never, ever, ever, ever washes a dish by hand. Never. Neh-vah. No way, no how. He doesn't even see the dishes when they're waiting in the sink. So I could see into the future. I go back to work and...

So we bought a dishwasher. It gets delivered, and installed, and the old one hauled away, tomorrow. It is stainless steel on the inside and the outside and I think we will be very happy together.

55. Garden Update

My potatoes are taller than Maeve. I have hilled them up as best as I can. I will do more later this week. My plan to utilize old chickenwire as a barrier is not the best plan I've ever had. I'm debating how to handle this better. The Urban Homestead book recommends old tires. I don't have any old tires.

Garlic is going strong. Peas have figured out how to climb the strings I've dropped down for them. Lettuce is great. Radishes are all picked and consumed. There might be one or two stray ones out there. I let the girls sow them. I should plant more.

What next?

Tomatoes, of course. I picked up two plants at the farmers' market and later realized they were cheaper than equivalent plants at big box store #1. Wow. So I'll be doing that again this weekend. I have an Arkansas Traveler and a Black Krim. I've done Krims before but they were in one of my FAIL summers, so I'm hoping for better results this year.

Cucumbers, although I'm not wasting garden space on them this year. They'll go in the yard between other plants, grow up the fence in the back as best they can. I have learned the hard lesson of heirloom cucumbers. I cannot make them grow here. But last year I slapped in an older hybrid pickling cucumber and had a ridiculous harvest. This year is slicing cucumbers--we'll pickle what we can't eat.

Peppers, especially jalapenos. And maybe I'll try my hand at something new. Daisy is begging for watermelon. We live, of course, on a postage stamp. But maybe I could give them a try for her.

So far, I'm staying ahead of the weeding. Of course, it's been like living in Scotland the past month or so. Cloudy, misty, cool. It's May 17 and I'm going to wear a sweater when I go pick up the girls.

I'm back, by the way. I don't know if it was a thyroid dip or just recovering from stress due to Mike's travel (over now) or the flood worries or what but I'm getting stuff done again. Which is a good thing, of course, but especially in a house like mine.