waiting and waiting...

It seems that I'm in an anxious period of waiting currently. Not Joe was informally offered a new job, and now it's been two weeks of waiting for HR at the company to send him an official offer. I'm also waiting for a lot of samples to be analyzed at another facility (although, honestly, I'm not DYING for the results to come back, because I'd then need to analyze them, and I'm already busy with work as it is).

The biggest ache I'm experiencing, however, is anticipation of the harvest season to be over & winter to set in. Don't get me wrong, I want to enjoy autumn and all its beauty and crispness. But I have been storing away food from the summer's harvests, and...I want to start using it! It's somewhat silly - obviously I CAN use it now. But this primal fear in me says, "But what if you NEED that in the winter! Use the fresh veggies now - they won't last for winter!" And it's not as if I don't have a lot of fresh vegetables. My refrigerator is literally packed full of vegetables that won't store anywhere else (unless I had a root cellar...which, being that I live in an apartment, I don't) (oh, and I guess I could can some of it, but I'd rather have fresh carrots than canned carrots, you know?).

This is thanks to the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group that I have been a part of this season. The CSA gives me a huge crate of food every week. This experience was rather a snafu. The first time I did a CSA I got a "half-share," which is supposed to feed 2 people who love vegetables - and that was way, way too much for me alone to handle. This year I found a bunch of friends who liked the idea of a CSA, so I went ahead and paid for a "full-share" - enough to feed a veggie-loving family of 4. Guess what. My pals liked the IDEA of a CSA, but they didn't actually want to participate in the paying for or consumption of the food from the CSA. So...I obviously have received a LOT more vegetables than I need. So, it's good that I picked this year to learn how to preserve food, because that was about all I could do with much of it.

I've felt like I've been in a never-ending battle with vegetables. I'd make it my goal for each Tuesday to get all of my veggies eaten so the fridge would be able to accept the new shipment that arrived that day. I kept up with it for a while, and then...well, then I learned that composting is a great way to pay back the earth for the bounty is provided to us from it. If my 10 eggplants from week 1 didn't make it to the end of the week, they'd go in the composter, and I didn't need to feel bad about it at all. Except that I'd intended to pay for the vegetable and not the compost material. Ah well.

So, PLEASE...harvest, stop! I look forward to eating my frozen and canned vegetables en masse with no guilt that I am ignoring the 10 pounds of brassica in the refrigerator! I welcome the day when I can slice open the winter squash that keeps so well in a dark, cool closet, and say, "This is the ONLY OPTION I have! No lettuce, no spinach, no late tomatoes to contend with! I shall consume this squash with no regret!" Come, winter!

moving forward

There has been a lot of waiting going on here for some time. I've been waiting (and...am still waiting) at work for several people to make some contributions to our joint project and for a bunch of samples to be analyzed. Not Joe and I have been waiting to hear about a job he began pursuing on July 26 (fortunately, it was July 26, 2009, not 2008...).

FINALLY yesterday I heard about two sets of samples that will be getting worked on in the next couple of weeks, and today I am going to work with one of the potential-contributors to see if the machine they're dealing with works or not.

And...yesterday...Not Joe got the job he's been waiting for!!!! We are both very excited. Financial stability (or, at the very least, income rather than expenses-only) is a really nice thing. He's also been self-employed for several years, and the new job will have health care benefits -- I think we're both rather relieved about that.

He's not sure on the start date yet, but at least there's a JOB waiting!!

weather?

It's been great autumn weather here over the past couple weeks - crisp and colorful. I was just catching the bug to start cold-season knitting.

And then, today...

IT'S SNOWING!?!?!?!!!

birthday

It's my birthday. So here I am to toot my own horn. :-)

A brief update on me:

I still work at Penn State. I still research the same stuff. It is going okay - slowly, but surely.

I am still dating Not Joe. I hope that soon we will be not-just-dating. Not Joe is looking for a new job because he does not like his current one & there hasn't been much work there anyhow. He purchased a foreclosed home in the late spring or early summer and has been fixing that up to sell at a profit. We hope it gets done soon. Note to self: flipping a foreclosed home by one's self is a lot of work!

Joelle is still kickin'. She's quite fine and is again due for a haircut. Not too long ago she somehow escaped from her cage AND THE DOOR WAS STILL LOCKED. I am not exactly sure how that happened, but I know clamp the door closed at a different angle.

This past year I have grown in my fascination of growing vegetables and preserving them so I can eat "in season." I learned how to can!! Just yesterday I made 8 jars of jam, one of which was made from wild blackberries I picked myself! I learned that if one is to "put up" enough food for a whole winter, one needs to put up A LOT of food. I do not think I will have enough to last the whole winter, but that is quite alright. I dream that some day I can have a "homestead" where I have prolific vegetable and herb gardens, chickens, honey bees, a plot of berries, and a small orchard (and maybe even some goats or sheep or rabbits...??). But for now I will settle for a small step or two, such as...starting a dwarf apple tree & growing sprouts over the winter. I know where to buy the sprout-growing stuff, but I'm not so sure about the tree. I will also note that I believe keeping a homestead will take a significant amount of time - not something that I could do while, for example, being a postdoctoral researcher.

I still knit, although infrequently. Now that the weather is cool again, I'm feeling more motivated to do so. Christmas is coming, so I will need to get on Christmas knit-gifts very soon!