Where the Wild Things Are: Morgantown & the Zoo

After finishing up a huge midterm paper for my assessment class, I packed my bags and made my way to good ole Morgantown, WV. This is the first time I have had the chance to be in Morgantown with students around since I have graduated and it was great! It makes me miss my undergraduate days at WVU.

I flew into Pittsburgh, PA on Wednesday evening, which conveniently was St. Patrick's Day. I had the chance to celebrate the luck of the Irish with many of college friends and Molly and my mom. The evening started out at Black Bear with a delicious "Nacho Man" dinner and then moved to the Brew Pub. At the Brew Pub I was treated to some great folk tunes from local band Stewed Mulligan and was able to catch up with even more friends. Overall, I think it has to have been the best St. Patrick's Day ever!
On Thursday my Dad made his way to town and we all had dinner at a local sushi restaurant, Ogawa. After dinner we celebrated both Molly and my mom's birthdays at my parent's hotel room. The Easter bunny also happened to drop off a few things for me early, which was very nice of him.
On Friday, after attempting in vain to watch the WVU game at Damon's Bar and Grill, my parents and I ended up watching the game at the hotel bar, The Rat Pack. This was actually a very good place to watch the game and, of course, the best part was seeing a Mountaineer win! That night the whole family plus Molly's boyfriend Evan had a nice dinner at new Morgantown restaurant, Sargosso. The evening ended with me hanging out with a few more friends in South Park.
After driving to the Pittsburgh airport with my parents, I made my way back south to Memphis. However, the Spring Break fun did not end when I left WV. Abby and two of my fellow graduate students, Lindsey and Olga, spent the afternoon at the Memphis Zoo. I like the monkeys, but I think Abby preferred the polar bears. We had dinner at a really fun restaurant, RP Tracks, before driving home and collapsing on the couch. What a great Spring Break!

Living Green

In our last blog Chris mentioned our recent acquisition of a plot in the community garden. Well... today was our first day out there. After reading many articles on the internet and books from the library I decided to use the "lasagna" method of gardening. The first layer consists of wet newspaper or corrugated cardboard. The second layer is "browns" (i.e. compost, leaves), followed by "greens" (i.e. grass clippings, lawn scraps, or vegetable scraps). The final layer is manure or peat. The "browns" and "greens" are repeated several times until the bed is roughly 2 feet tall. Our layers consisted of wet newspaper, wet and dry leaves, grass clippings, and manure.

First layer (wet newspaper):Second layer (leaves):Third layer (grass clippings):

Fourth layer (manure... ewww):

After completing the layering process we planted some baby spinach plants we bought from the local Farmer's Market. I have also been attempting to germinate and sow some tomato, sweet pepper, and swiss chard seeds. Those plants will not be mature enough to be planted outside until after the last frost; approximately April 27th.

Baby Spinach and Tomato Seedlings!

The experience was great! It was wonderful being outside with Chris attempting to grow something. I think sometimes we forget where our food comes from. We forget it usually is grown from a seed, cared for, and then transported hundreds sometimes thousands of miles to our dining rooms. There is often a disconnect of where our food comes from and how it ends up on our plates. I think the experience of growing our own few vegetables will be freeing and very rewarding.

In other news Chris and I are very excited to see Jenny and Brooks next Saturday followed by my family coming in for Easter weekend. Friends and family visiting is always a welcome thing.