Nitrogen-fixing Bacteria

I recently had a conversation with the Google crowd about how legumes are "nitrogen-fixing". A bacteria grows on their roots in a symbotic relationship, and it converts nitrogen (N2) into a form that plants can actually use (nitrate, N03-). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_fixation)

I had read that the bacteria forms small pink nodules on peas. Last year, I tried to find them, and couldn't, so I assumed they were rather small.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled up my peas this year.
Not exactly small. The largest are about the size of a nickel. I also wouldn't really describe them as "pink", more like a buff color.

Coolness. Chemistry in the backyard. No need to fertilize this garden.

Funny enough, this is why, back in the day, clover was a good thing to have in a lawn. You wanted clover in lawn, so that way it would add in nitrogen. Clover was even standard in lawn seed mixes.

Then the idea of fertilizer came up. How do you get people to buy fertilizer? Well, you do some awesome marketing to convince people that clover is bad. You convince them that a good, healthy lawn has only grass. Clover is a weed. How do you get a lawn like that? Buy our expensive fertilizer! Of course, since only the rich can afford this, we now associate lush, grass-only lawns with wealth. Which means everyone wants one. Fantastic.

I claim that my clover-spotted lawn is vintage, thank you very much.

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Peas are crazy big

Well, Saul and I just ripped out the peas last weekend.This year, we decided not to tie them up. Normally, they look like this:

Kinda insane. Actually, this was more of a "we're lazy and we spent a lot of time away this season" decision rather than a thought through one. We came back from a week in the bay area to find that the plants had reached the top of a 3 foot lattice, gone 3 feet past that, fallen over, and grown back up again. While some vines were bent, it really didn't seem to hurt the plants, and actually made it easier to harvest!

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Local Brews

Maja has reminded me that I haven't posted in a year! OMG, someone reads my blog!

So, here starts more posting. :)

First up: I just found out about this awesomeness happening at Construction Junction. Let's call it a Pittsburgh Oktoberfest.

A nice thing about living in Pittsburgh: lots of local breweries. Getting local produce in the winter is tough, but local beers? Always a good selection. Among those appearing will be:

• The Church Brew Works
• East End Brewery (which is like two busway stops from my house)
• Erie Brewing Company
• Fat Head's Brew
• Great Lakes Brewing Company
• Rivertowne
• Penn Brew
• Sprague Farm
• Tröegs
• Weyerbacher

Also? It's either a 30 minute walk to my house, or a 20 minute walk and bus. So no arguing about who is DD. I suggest all you yinzers get back into town for this one. It will be awesome.

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sewing machine: HUGE SUCCESS

Do you see a hem on these pants? No? Good, because I have successfully used my new sewing machine to blind hem these suckers. Take that Martha. (Ok, so there's a line where I need to iron, but I did get the hem right!)


For the purpose of reusing clothes (and making new ones when I dislike the current fashions), I have purchased a sewing machine. Actually, my mother purchased me a sewing machine. (Thanks Mom!) Now that I have successfully done a reasonably difficult hem with it, it's time to go on to new, easier projects.

First up on the save-the-world-with-simple-stuff list: cloth napkins, kitchen towels, and other mess cleaners. We've already put the paper towels in a cabinet and use cloth IKEA napkins for non-toxic messes. But we've had a lot of friends over recently, and I realized we don't have cloth napkins. So we've been using paper napkins because the cloth towels we have are for dirty messes, not for wiping hands and faces with. So I'm going to try making some cloth napkins for next time!

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My camera works again!

I hadn't posted for a while as my camera wasn't loading pictures onto my computer. I finally figured out the problem though; it seems there is something wrong with the cable. Here's the weird deal though: it works fine on Saul's computer, just not mine. But when I switched cables, it worked. So whatever.

Anyway, just found this on the camera. The culprit is in the lower right.


And this one was just cute.

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