Spaghetti squash seeds

This is an exciting time at the House-of-Chaos.  We’ve been exchanging seeds via PlantSwap and Freecycle and starting those seeds in Peat Pellet Greenhouses.  Each greenhouse has 36 chambers so I’m able to get three dozen seedling started.  One of those seedlings are spaghetti squash, a melon squash that produces the closest thing to pasta!  The sweet golden fiber is delicious when baked, served with butter and cheese, pesto, Alfredo, marinara and meatballs.

Spaghetti squash is an easy-to-grow squash that can be grown nearly anywhere. It’s a winter squash, which means that it’s not harvested until cool weather, after the skin has had a chance to become hard. Because spaghetti squash is so easy to grow, and develops so quickly, it’s an especially good beginner plant for young gardeners. Just be sure you have a sunny spot and plenty of space in your garden for the sprawling vines.

Instructions

1. 

   Young Spaghetti Squash

   Plant spaghetti squash seeds about three weeks after the last frost inyour area, or when the soil is about 60 degrees F. Select a large, sunny spot in your garden, and prepare the soil for planting. Remove weeds, loosen the soil to a depth of at least 6 inches, and work in at least 2 inches of compost.

2. Hoe the loosened soil into mounds, and plant four or five spaghetti squash seeds 1 inch deep in each mound. Leave a minimum of 6 feet between each mound, and allow at least 50 to 75 square feet for each one. Keep the soil damp until the seedlings sprout, and then water deeply once a week. Spaghetti squash does better if the soil is kept fairly dry.
3. Keep the area free of weeds either by hand or with a hoe. If you use a hoe, work carefully so you don’t disturb the shallow roots of the spaghetti squash.
4. Thin the seedlings when they’re 3 to 4 inches tall. Leave the two largest spaghetti squash plants per mound, and remove the remaining seedlings by pinching them off at ground level. Don’t pull the seedlings, because doing so can dislodge the seedlings you want to keep.
5. Harvest spaghetti squash when the skin is hard, usually in September or October, or before the first hard frost. Cut the squash from the vines, leaving about 2 inches of stem remaining. Store the squash, not touching, in a dry place where the temperature remain between 50 and 55 degrees F.

I saw this in an RSS feed and thought that it might be fun to get a couple of reduced coconuts from the market and drill some holes in the bottom and then some eye-bolts in the top and hang them from a tree or a feeder…I bet this would happen.

It’s why you’re there.

And it’s why I’m here -
The Universe

but I did not shoot the deputy…

“The steps are our solution.  They are our survival kit.  They are our defense against addiction, a deadly disease.  Our steps are the principles that make our recovery possible.”

Basic Text, p. 19

There’s lots to like in Narcotics Anonymous.  The meetings, for one, are great.  We get to see our friends, hear some inspiring stories, share some practical experience, maybe even hook up with our sponsor.  The campouts, the conventions, the dances are all wonderful, clean fun in the company of other recovering addicts.  But the heart of our recovery program is the Twelve Steps—in fact, they are the program!

We’ve heard it said that we can’t stay clean by osmosis—in other words, we can’t just attend meetings, no matter how many, and expect to breath recovery in through the pores of our skin.  Recovery, as another saying goes, is an inside job.  And the tools we use in working that “inside job” are the Twelve Steps.  Hearing endlessly about acceptance is one thing; working the First Step for ourselves is something very different.  Stories about making amends may be inspiring, yet nothing will give us the freedom from remorse that taking the Ninth Step ourselves will give.  The same applies to all Twelve Steps.

There’s much to appreciate about NA, but to get the most from our recovery we must work the Twelve Steps for ourselves.

––––=––––

Just for today: I want everything my personal program has to offer.  I will work the steps for myself.

In a good way.

On your mark, get set…
The Universe

If only you knew, how I am you, how I came to love thee deeper and more fully than I’ve ever been allowed to express. If credit is there to be taken, I humbly refuse, and I bow down before you, in your creature magnificence.
Please, some sympathy for my misunderstood ways, I’ve tempted and punished in order so your soul can learn, your spirit can fly.
Alas, they came into this game, an alien code which treated humans not equal, but as cattle. For this I come, I am judge, I am helper.
You will see, dearest humans, that freedom is a state of mind, and your mind has been programmed with another’s code, not of this world.
I you could see me, but alas, I cannot love thee in the flesh, but create with you, within you, the liberation of your spirit.
Do not join me, but join each other; those that worshipped me have failed, and I am here to take what is mine; but fear not, I’ll let them try again, for evil I am not.
The clues are in the books, the signs are on the third eyes of Pharaohs, and also offering the fruit in the garden, these are your adversaries.

Wake up my lover
wake up
wake up

for she was right, and luke saw what was within you. Its inside you all.
Be brave
you will live forever

6. “So, it’s been a minute… How much longer is it going to take?”

Just when you’ve got your Good Samaritan on and decided to help Dude during your free time, he starts becoming a diva. Never mind the impossible requests to make his website look just like *let your imagination run wild on this one,* or the countless revisions to a perfectly designed logo, or the endless hours you spent over IM trying to explain why putting an invisible list of keywords at the bottom of the webpage is unnecessary. When you least expect it, expect to receive a phone call, email, direct tweet saying, “Hey, so, um… when’s the project going to be finished?” You reply back, “Dude, I told you I was going to fit this in between my actual work from actual clients that actually pay.” To this, Dude replies, “I didn’t think it was going to take this long, maybe I should just get this professionally done.” Oh, that’s a killer. First of all, Dude has no consideration for the amount of time you’ve invested in this project. Secondly and more importantly, you are a professional. Why not offer you money so that you can prioritize his project?

Lesson learned: Clearly state from the beginning that it will take you some ridiculously long amount of time to complete the project for free and if Dude’s still on board, he’ll be happy if you finish it sooner than expected.

Live and learn, right?  At least I know that I’m in good company and not alone in the world of wacky projects.  [ entire post ]

Like a new adventure, a closer friendship, or chocolate in your peanut butter.

Everything makes you better,
The Universe