I'm Michiganese!

LOL that's one of the lesser known of the many demonyms people who live in Michigan use to distinguish themselves. Most people call themselves Michiganders or Michiganites. . . But being of Japanese ancestry Michiganese feels like a better fit for me. To be more precise I'm a Michiganese Troll because that's what they call people who live below the Upper Peninsula :P

I have to say a huge THANK YOU to my friends in nine states (and several countries) and many in CA who, when they heard I was interested in relocating, offered me their guest rooms, driveways, backyards, and acreages to come stay as long as I needed to to decide if where they live is somewhere I'd like to live.

One of the first to offer was my friend Fred, aka Fred the trailer builder, who I met in person last June when I went to pick up The Glampette.

800+ spring cranes in progress

A lot of people have asked me "Why Michigan?" Well, I loved it from my first visit and found more to enjoy on each subsequent visit. Being invited to compete in ArtPrize sealed the deal. Instead of making my entry from afar then figure out how to transport it safely to Grand Rapids, it made more sense to simply do the production of my piece just a half hour away to lessen the likelihood it would be damaged or lost in transport.

Even though I did the drive to MI twice last year I have to say I was feeling so burned out and exhausted this year that I wasn't looking forward to making any more long drives on my own, anywhere.

So, after some negotiating (like how were we both going to fit in The Glampette since it's only 4'x6') and before leaving Washington, I picked Fred up at the airport. We took a slight (14 hour) detour south back to CA to attend the IRG (International Redwoods Gathering tiny trailer rally) in Carlotta just south of Eureka so we could meet a lot of our tiny trailer forum friends and see 99 other teardrop and tiny travel trailers up close and personal. I'll be doing a blog post all about the IRG in the near future. Honestly, the funniest part of the rally (to me) was that I gave Fred my "guest" bed, the 31" wide, 3" thick latex foam mattress (but he had to sleep diagonally to fit). And I slept up on my 17" wide counter, bunk bed style, on a 20" wide self-inflating camping mattress. It worked! I swear, I didn't even almost fall off. . . Not even once! I'll have a picture to show how it worked in a future post but Fred probably won't be in the shot. He's camera shy that way.

After the rally we headed east to Michigan.

And this is me in Michigan. I feel happier and healthier than I have in ages. I'm sleeping 8+ hours a night (unheard of for me), have lost about 10 pounds since my arrival, and am always full of vegetables.

Part of the reason I'm full of veggies is because a lot of my new neighbors have gardens that are currently overflowing with squash, cucumber, beans, and even some beautiful shelled garden peas. Since arriving it's been like I'm a member of a free CSA that never ends! I've been cooking up a storm and use as many veggies in each meal as possible. I also keep one or two tupperware containers full of fresh sliced and some boiled veggies (like beans and asparagus) in the fridge at all times. I pull them out with each meal and we nosh on them consuming an incredible amount of produce in just a day or two.

And this, this is my garden! Squeeeeeeeee! Once I decided I'd move to MI Fred (the builder) offered to make me a deer/rabbit/mole/vole proof garden to plant my seeds in. He'd read my blog post about The Seed Bank in Petaluma and knew that I needed a home for my seeds too, not just myself. I sent them ahead and he planted them before he left for WA so when I got here it was like *Poof* I have a garden!

In the mornings I wake up, make a cup of hot tea then wander out to weed, dig, or do whatever needs to be done that day. The plants are thriving to the point of too many seeds came up so I have to either thin and cull or thin and transplant the overflow. So far I've been transplanting because I don't want to waste a single plant.

I have to say there is no better therapy for a nature lover like me than to garden. I love getting my hands in the dirt and knowing I can cook and eat what I'm growing makes me happy beyond measure.

One of my favorite things about the garden is that it's full of tiny baby toads. They're sooooooo cute! They're itty bitty right now, some are smaller than a 25¢ piece and the rest are just a little bit bigger. The top picture gives you a sense of scale that the fly is about 1/3 the size of the little toad on the rock. I love them even more than I loved the garden snails in California :D

And though beautiful, this Japanese Beetle that came to greet me one day is bad news for any garden. I photographed him then reached out to pick him up and move him away but he started waving his hind legs at me to warn me off. I guess I was harassing him just enough. He finally flew away on his own. Good thing.

Even worse than the Japanese Beetle? Deer flies! Look at its mouth in the upper picture. Its chompers consists of two knife like apparatuses called mandibles and maxillae that cut into your skin so the females can drink your blood. I hadn't seen any and hadn't ever been bitten by one, until I was.

Not the best picture quality but here was my left shoulder and back after being bitten twice by deer flies. The first picture was taken in the bathroom before I was about to take a shower so that's why the lighting is so yellow. I wanted to be able to document how solid red the one spot was when I first noticed them that night.

The odd thing is that despite reading the bites are known to be excruciatingly painful I didn't feel them when they happened. By the next morning the red had begun to dissipate leaving a central red area ringed in pink. Lucky me that for days they remained flat, weren't sore, and didn't itch. Eventually they did begin to itch mildly. Compared to mosquito bites they weren't bad at all.

Fortunately there are lots of dragonflies around the yard since Fred's property has a marsh behind it. They're gorgeous and quite photogenic coming in or sitting pretty in the backyard for close ups. One even landed on my toe one day! I wish I'd had a camera with me to take a picture but I didn't.

One of the first mosquito bites I received minutes after arriving at Fred's house.

Speaking of mosquitos. They love to eat me too. Apparently I am very tasty. To combat them I've been using my DIY citronella/lemongrass essential oil repellant I made a few months ago, got a citronella candle, and two live citronella plants that I keep me beside me on the back deck. The spray works really well as long as I remember to use it and spray every last inch of me down with it. Miss a spot and I end up with bites on my face, sides of my hands, or wherever I missed.

But I refuse to let the bugs get me down. It's summertime and gorgeous here. The backyard is full of wildflowers, the temperatures are usually in the 70's to 80's and it rains a lot. There are night time thunder and lightening storms and short showers during the day every few days. Everywhere I look I see green. It's an emerald state. I think Michigan is like Oz but with mosquitos instead of flying monkeys. LOL

The other night we went to dinner at the Turk Lake Restaurant & Bar. It's located on Turk Lake where my friend Judy is going to have to come and go ice fishing this winter because she's always wanted to ice fish in MI in the winter :)

We went because it was Taco Tuesday! Tacos for $1 each? Sounded like a good deal. I have to say the tacos exceeded my expectation. They weren't chintzy little tacos made with cheap ingredients. They were big, tasty, full of fresh ingredients, and for 50¢ extra came with a nice container of salsa full of veggie chunks and some well chilled sour cream.

Turk Lake's sunfish are colorful, beautiful, and friendly

An added bonus was walking out back on the patio after dinner. The lake is full of fish, particularly Pumpkin Seed Sunfish that swarm around the dock. I was amazed. There were dozens of them! Later I learned it's because kids take the popcorn and bread ends from inside the restaurant and feed the fish. LOL. I'll definitely be returning to try more dishes. I read in an online review they make excellent onion rings.

The trip itself out to MI was, thankfully, uneventful. No large hailstorms like last June. It was lots of stops at gas stations and meals mostly at sandwich and coffee shops.

I still get a kick out of seeing different parts of the country. Some are so unique like the salt lakes and flats just outside of Salt Lake City, UT. Since Fred was with me I was able to take pictures from the passenger seat while he drove.

The best food I had this time out? Was definitely the fresh salad at Whole Foods in Park City, UT. The worst (delicious but least healthy) for me had to be the garlic toast covered with mashed potatoes, slathered in gravy, and topped with fried chicken at the Iron Skillet in Laramie, WY. But it tasted so good!

I also got suckered into stopping for a soft serve ice cream cone at a Little America travel center. They post billboards along the interstate to let you know how many miles away you are from enjoying a cool, refreshing ice cream cone. I had to stop. It was worth it. It was the best, or it just seemed like the best after days on the road, but it was an excellent soft serve cone. I wish I had another one right now!

I also found a bull somewhere in Nebraska. He was lying in a parking lot so I adopted him and may use him as a mascot in future travels.

The least expensive gas was also somewhere in Nebraska. . . Or maybe it was Iowa? I honestly can't remember anymore. The corn fields. . . They just blend together. I do know the most expensive gas I paid for on the whole trip was in Eureka, CA at $4.27 a gallon, and that was cheap! Well, cheaper. The first place I stopped at was charging $4.29.

But for now the travel is behind me as I fold cranes and learn how to be a farmer. My radishes are almost ready to harvest! I'll be doing a full post all about how my garden grows and start sharing some fun new recipes I've been cooking up.

And in case you were wondering. . . Wine O'clock was in the garden one evening.

For now I feel like I found the place where my I can be happy, healthy, and creative.

And how can I not be content watching fireflies light up the meadow each evening?

Future posts will detail the IRG, my new garden, and living full time from The Glampette for over six months until I was able to leave CA. I am so grateful for all of my friends and family who have been supportive beyond imagination since learning of my change of circumstance. But a special thank you to friends Carl and Kim Mindling for allowing me to park on their property since January while at the same time welcoming me to use their home as needed while I moved out of my former residence, watched Kitai decline and pass away, and for helping me find my way out of my despair enough to enter ArtPrize. If it weren't for Kim's nurturing kindness and friendship and Carl's dedicated friendship and amazing culinary skills I honestly don't know how I would have made it through those dark days and months. But that's for another day and another post with a very happy ending :)

How will my garden grow? With non-GMO heirloom seeds!

It took a year and a month but I finally made it to the Petaluma Seed Bank. Located in an old bank in Downtown Petaluma the shop sells Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds which are special because they are non-gmo, not hybrid, not patented, and not treated.

It's sad that one has to make a special effort to find untainted seeds like those offered at The Seed Bank but if that's what it takes, that's where I'll go.

Miner's lettuce grows wild at Jack London State Park in Sonoma County

I first learned of the Petaluma Seed Bank after I was invited on a media tour and wrote this blog post: Discovering Eastern Sonoma County: Wineries, Jack London's Beauty Ranch, and landscape art. While visiting Beauty Ranch, home of author Jack London, I learned of Miner's Lettuce for the first time. It's an edible plant that grows wild in shaded woodlands around Northern California. I wanted some seeds and looked for them online, which is how I discovered the Petaluma Seed Bank.

When I walked in and saw all of the seeds I felt a little giddy! Considering I don't even have a yard at the moment I told myself I couldn't buy any seeds, I was just there to investigate and take pictures for this blog post. Why did I make the two hour drive up to Petaluma just to introduce you to this store?

From their website:

"All of our seed is non-hybrid, non-GMO, non-treated and non-patented.

We do not buy seed from Monsanto-owned Seminis. We boycott all gene-altering companies. We are not members of the pro-GMO American Seed Trade Organization! We work with a network of about 150 small farmers, gardeners and seed growers to bring you the best selection of seeds available! Many of our varieties we sell were collected by us on our travels abroad.

We offer over 1600 fine varieties! Unique seeds from over 75 countries!"

There are several three sided bays of seeds as well as an island of flower seeds upstairs.

There were even live plants for sale at the front of the store.

And gardening books. . .

. . . Composting information and tools as well as many other from and for the garden gift items.

This is one side of the upstairs island of flower seeds.

And the downstairs. . .

Where I found more gift items, gardening supplies, an entire room of air plants, and a small room set up for presentations.

There were also flower bulbs in the basement.

Remember how I said I wasn't going to buy any seeds? Yeah. That didn't work out so well. I found the Miner's Lettuce.

And these cute mini vegetable seeds. . .

Japanese seeds I've rarely seen like daikon radish and hadn't ever seen for sale before Hokkaido pumpkin. . .

My favorite bulls-eye striped Chioggia beets. . .

Some basic veggies like green onions, radish, green beans, rainbow Swiss chard, spinach. . .

Cucumber, lettuce, and tomatoes.

Rosemary, sage, chives, thyme, and basil.

And herbs. I'd been reading up a lot about mosquito repellents to make my DIY, natural, mosquito repellent spray and learned that mosquitos don't care for the scent of sage, basil. . .

. . . and lemongrass. The rest including the Thai sweet basil will be for cooking.

Oh my gosh. What am I going to do with all of these seeds? I figure as long as I relocate by the beginning of August I can plant and harvest one crop this year. If I haven't relocated by then I'll have to give my seeds to a friend with a yard so they can plant them. It was crazy to buy them but I couldn't resist. After all, it took me a year to get there the first time, who knows when I'll make it back for a second visit.

If you'd like to purchase Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds there is the option to do so online. Just visit their website RareSeeds.com to find out how.

Or visit the Petaluma Seed Bank at:
199 Petaluma Blvd. North
Petaluma, CA 94952
Phone (707) 773-1336
Visit their website for hours
Find them on Facebook

Tomatotastic! Tiny Sweet Pea tomatoes from my garden

You might assume by looking at this picture that I'm growing cherry tomatoes. But they aren't cherry tomatoes. They are much, much smaller than cherry tomatoes.

Three full grown tomatoes fit together on a penny!

I grew a single plant of Sweet Pea Tomatoes from Cole Canyon Farm. The lady I bought the plant from said it makes a good basket plant so I thought it would be small. I ended up planting it in the ground and not a basket. Well, the plant is now about 5-6 feet in circumference!

Hubby said "How will we know when we're eating them?" because he thought they would be too small to taste. Well, it turns out these teeny tomatoes are packed with flavor! Each bite is a burst of pure tomato goodness in your mouth. I should know, I don't really like raw tomatoes but I love these little guys :D

And it's a good thing I love them since I think in just another 3 weeks we will have dozens if not hundreds ready to pick! It seems I chose the perfect location, soil and amount of water for my tomato plant. It couldn't be happier. I'll take a picture of it when I return from my trip.

Next year if you see a Sweet Pea tomato plant pick one up for your garden if you have lots of space. You won't be sorry.

My DIY Herb Garden

Inspired by Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution I've decided to grow some edibles this year in my garden. I'm starting with lots of herbs because nothing can beat stepping outside to pick some fresh, organic herbs when I just need a little bit to spice up a dish. Here's a peek at what I've planted so far.

Do you have the Thyme?

I do! The creeping thyme I planted last year is loving its location in my meditation garden.

Our new Greek Oregano is also acclimating well. A close up of a crazy long shoot that's taken off. Hubby loves making a Greek Salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, onion and feta cheese. He's always used dried oregano so I had to really sell him on being willing to try fresh the next time he makes it. Of course I can also add it to pastas, sandwiches and other dishes so it will be used frequently.

The Rosemary came with the house and, as Rosemary is prone to do, is flourishing almost too well requiring constant pruning to keep it in check.

My new Moroccan Mint plant from Cole Canyon Farm. I want to try making the Vietnamese fresh spring rolls this summer and a little mint will go along way to brighten the flavor of the rolls.

Because I don't believe in using pesticides it requires some ingenuity when it comes to protecting delicate plants from garden snails and slugs. Our new Basil Spicy Bush, also from Cole Canyon Farm, is safely aloft in a hanging basket. I'll be really shocked if a snail or slug finds its way up the tree, across the branch and down the chain to enjoy a Basil salad. I'll be adding Sweet Basil as well as soon as I find another hanging basket.

Newly planted chives. Despite being planted on a 96º day the chives are looking pretty good. As the weather has cooled they've perked up. I did notice that one broken leaf on the ground in the lower right hand corner. Not sure if that's from when I planted them or if some bug bit the leaf off. Will have to police this plant more carefully and move it up if the bugs are going to chow down on it.

A happy surprise. Our neighbor's Japanese Maple drops all kinds of seeds on our side of the fence and we've ended up with a small harvest of baby Japanese Maple Trees.

I'm going to trade some of them for an additional mint plant from my friend Andy Mark because just last night I was enjoying a glass of freshly squeezed Meyer Lemonade with mint in his kitchen and it was awesome! We have a Meyer lemon tree so now all I need is some of the mint and said he has plenty to share and I can come dig some up.

And a kind of funny picture of my dog Kitai who for some reason looked really sad. I posted it on Facebook and my friend Oren Arieli said:

"Kitai want's an air conditioner and some frozen bacon strips."

I think he's right :)