Compost, and what you can make with it

For years now, we've been telling ourselves that, some day soon, we'd plant the rest of our garden beds, still empty after we re-landscaped our yard.  Today, we took the first step.  I rented a pickup, drove to the local landfill and bought four cubic yards of 60-day-aged compost.  That's two heaping pickup's full.  My wife and I got a GREAT sweaty workout shoveling all this brown gold into our driveway.  I'm going to be sore (again) tomorrow :-)

"The plan," this morning, was to go get the compost, then do a lot of spreading it around the yard in the afternoon.  Well, the best laid plans...  By the time we'd emptied the truck the second time, both of us were really, really tired.  We showered, then I lay down to watch a little TV in our bedroom.  Next thing I knew it was 5:30 and my wife was shaking me awake.  Thank you, dear.  I needed that nap.

This evening it was time for a little more knife therapy.  The box of produce from our CSA included still more chard this week.  So, of course, we had to make some more "Passato of vegetables, with chard and croutons."  Here's the pile of veggies, before the knife meditation turned them into nicely chopped piles.  Just seeing these amazing organic vegetables laid out like this makes my mouth water.

Tomorrow is a big day.  My mother-in-law is celebrating a birthday.  So the family will be meeting in a nearby state park, to tour the observatory there, hike a trail or two, maybe find a geocache, and eat cupcakes together.  We'll be bringing a camera.  Maybe I'll have some more photos to share tomorrow.

I really enjoyed making progress on the yard today, but I'm looking forward to spending some time outdoors without a shovel in my hand.  

Food log:

Breakfast:  more of the latest batch of sauteed squash, mushrooms, carrots and onions, cooked into a two-egg omelet with a little cheddar cheese.

Lunch: half a peanut butter and honey sandwich on whole grain bread, an apple.

Dinner: chard soup, half a piece of home made bread with butter, half a grilled cheese sandwich on whole grain bread, a glass of milk.

Snacks: half a piece of pumpkin bread, more of those sauteed vegetables, this time heaped onto whole grain crackers as a spread, two Dove singles of dark chocolate.