In for the long haul

School started up. Though I only have had two classes so far, I know this quarter is going to be insanely busy. At least I know it will be over in two months, and I'll have accomplished a huge amount of my degree, just with this quarter. In theory I'll have 16 credits, my practicum, and part of my thesis done by June. We'll have to see how that goes.

Spring break wrapped up lovely. I went to a cabin outside of Gold Bar with Gabby, Charlie, and some of their friends. It was beautiful. Gabby and I had the whole first day to ourselves in the hot tub, where we chatted and drank a fair amount of alcohol. We had a good time, to say the least. Sunday I went home to Mville and saw my folks and my doggies. Pretty chill vacation. I think I actually enjoyed staying in Seattle, riding my horse, hiking, and relaxing with friends more than I would have if I had traveled. Of course, if Leo hadn't visited me last week I would have wanted to see him. Now I need to start planning a trip to Arizona for May.

On the road headed to the cabin.

View from the deck of our cabin.

Hot tub where Gabby and I spent most of the trip.

The front of the cabin.

Sleepy old bear.

Monday I just had one class, Toxic Chemicals and Human Health, which is a basic toxicology course. Not too bad. After I shuttled to Seattle BioMed to work on my research, and I helped perform laboratory safety inspections. In Sunset magazine they featured South Lake Union as a daytrip place, I'll have to look up what they suggested and try some new things, as I'll be spending a lot of time in that area for my internship.

I tried to finish up some of the more time consuming things I won't have time to work on once school is in full swing (as I anticipate it being starting Wed). I planted purple (All Blue variety) potatoes and rose fingerling potatoes. I made more veggie kraut in several different spices (my last batch turned out completely delicious!), and I started a new Kombucha in the bigger container. I made three large bottles of the currrent brew, mixed with sparking water. The taste is pretty lovely. It's like sparkling lemon tea. I didn't end up adding any lemon to the drink, as the acid from the fermentation tasted a lot like lemon juice anyway.

Seed potatoes the day I cut them to let them callus up.

Dinner- wheat pasta with tomatoes, onion, and swiss chard leaves. Spiced with basil and oregano.


New kombucha- mix of blood orange red tea and green tea.


One of the new krauts- beets, carrots, cabbage, onion, garlic, turnip. I spiced one bottle with dill and mustard seed, one with red pepper flakes, and one with the mustard/peppercorn blend of the first batch.

My first kombuchas. They are pretty yummy (as you can see, I've sampled one already).

Other than that, I'm just trying to start my readings for my Environmental Law class (the first session is tomorrow). I'll have to read roughly one 300 page book a week for this class. Luckily, I read fast, and the books are interesting, but it's the situation where I wish I could read on the bus without getting motion sickness. For the rest of the week, I'm just going to concentrate on working on getting hours on my internship and homework done, as well as seeing my horse. I'd hoped to ride tonight, but my back hurts from the classroom chairs. I'll have to switch them out again with office chairs. That is something to look forward to when I graduate next year- never having to sit in plastic school chairs again. They should make the people who order them sit on them for a couple hours, see how they like it.

On the school and graduation front, apparently you can TA now, but put the money towards a quarter's credit next year. I wish someone had told me that when all the applications were out, as I thought it would just be unnecessary extra work, as I'm funded through June. My advisor must know, as she gave a TA position to the other grad student in my lab. Either she thought I knew and just didn't care about funding, or she didn't want to tell me so I wouldn't get jealous that she wants the other girl to have funding more than me. I wouldn't care about that. I just wish I had known as there were classes I could have TA'ed for open, that are now closed. Oh well, just have to hope I can find TA positions this fall. The thought of doubling my debt for one year of school is in no way pleasing or relaxing.

This weekend I'm going to a lecture on how to use herbs from everything from cooking to medicine. Should be fun, and it's free at Molbaks. I had hoped to go hiking too, but it looks like constant rain, so I think I'd rather ride my horse. My friend Sarah (one of the Seattle Sarah's, not the Oregon or New Mexico ones. I have a lot of Sarah's in my life) is having a birthday potluck on Saturday, so that should be fun too. I figure this is my last not too crazy week so I should enjoy myself!

I'm such a hippie

Well, I picked up my Kombucha mother yesterday, and my friends had me taste their sauerkraut and kimchi while I was there, inspiring me to make my own veggie kraut today. I now have a black and green tea mixed kombucha brewing on my refrigerator, and a mixed cabbage-carrot-onion-garlic kraut fermenting in my cupboard. I'm so excited to try all of these things. Hopefully I won't give myself food poisoning in the process- I boiled everything before I used it. I get to try the kombucha next week, and the sauerkraut a week or two after that!

Green and black tea kombucha. Yum!

Veggie kraut made with cabbage, carrots, onion, garlic, peppercorns, a hot chile, and mustard seeds. Oh, and salt, of course.

After I finished my kitchen endeavors I planted beets and carrots ( a little late, but what can you do?), and worked on transplanting my tomato starts. I now have 27 tomato transplants. It looks like I'll need to do the hot peppers in a week or so. I still have work to do on my deck garden, but it is starting to look nice. Now for the rest of the day I need to run out to the barn, do more research, and chat with a friend who lives in New Mexico on skype. I can't stress how much I love spring break. My first textbook came this week, reminding me that school starts again soon enough. But I still have three more days of break, and I plan on enjoying them to the fullest.

My numerous tomatoes, plus hot pepper starts in the seedling tray.

My deck garden so far!

First sprout in my multi-herb mix. I think it's basil. Any thoughts?

I Heart Hiking

Spring break is the best! Not only have I gotten to ride my horse every day for the last three days, I got to go hiking today with my friend Jessie from school. We hiked about six miles at Cougar Mountain, an easy hike just out of Seattle. There was maybe a 800-900 ft elevation gain, so there were some parts where we were huffing and puffing, but mainly it was a great time on a pretty day! We're going to try to explore more in April.

Coal Creek Falls- We ate lunch at the base of the falls.

Lots of streams all through the hike.

We wandered off the beaten path for a little bit, found some pretty surprises.

Happy because I'm outside in the sun on a Wednesday!

Jessie is excited to hit the trails.

Such a good time! No I'm going to clean up, work on my garden for a bit, do a little research, then head out for drinks with a friend and to pick up the Kombucha mother! Have I mentioned I love spring break?

I wish every week could be like the last

It was so wonderful to have Leo here last week. Best birthday gift a girl could ever get. I picked him up at the airport Sunday morning, and we got to spend the day together relaxing and catching up. I miss him so much when we are apart.

Highlights of the week:

-Monday was my 23rd birthday, and after a harrowing final in the morning, I got to go out to dinner with Leo, Gabby, Charlie, Stephanie, Angela, and Alisha. It was so much fun. I'm lucky to have so many great people in my life.

-Wednesday we had dinner with my folks and grandma, so I got to extend my birthday a couple days longer :)

-Thursday we woke up before dawn and headed to Salem for St. Patrick's day. It was perfect. We saw our old professors, and got to go to our favorite bar with old friends for St. Paddy's. I may have had a few jello shots too many, but it was a great night. I was so happy to see so many of my college friends, and I think Leo was pretty thrilled to be there too. Loved our cheap hotel too- nice hot tub.

-Saturday morning we cuddled, went out to breakfast, and prepared to say goodbye for another couple months.

This is where the plot thickened. Somehow, for some reason, Leo's flight was delayed long enough to cause the missing of his connecting flights, and through some ridiculous airline runaround, they couldn't get him out until Monday, and then only to Phoenix. For me, this was wonderful- I love any time I can get. For him, this meant missing an observation day in his classroom, as well as a day of classes. Not good at all. I really wished he could get on an earlier connection, and honestly, I don't understand how the airline made him wait two days to get to the wrong city in perfect weather conditions. It is spring break, so I imagine that increased the number of people flying out dramatically, but that is no excuse.

Despite that pretty huge disappointment (missing class is a big deal in a PhD program, as well as missing a teaching observation), Leo rallied, and we enjoyed our two extra days together. We played pool, and finally managed to beat an arcade game we first played in January (at a ridiculous cost in quarters). We relaxed Sunday night and watched Crazy Heart, a good movie about a washed up country singer finding some meaning in life.

Today I took him back to the airport, and he's on the trip back to Tucson. I feel so bad for all the nonsense he's going to have to go through, getting back from Phoenix by rental car. My day should be much more relaxed, as I just started spring break. I'm going to ride Starla, pick up a kombucha mother, and work on my garden, then head up to Mville to give my folks back their car.

I've transplanted most of the tomatoes to bigger pots. I was wildly successful growing them, and will have close to thirty tomato plants. I moved the swiss chard outside, and this week I will be planting beets outside, as well as carrots and starting more swiss chard outside. I started a herb medley inside (this could go horribly awry, as it is the Ed Hume gourmet mix, which includes chives, parsley, thyme, basil, and any number of other things. I won't really know what I have til the plants get big enough to differentiate). I'm going to start the cucumbers indoors this week as well. Hopefully, I'll get a great harvest this summer. I should have chard, beets, and carrots in May, if not sooner. At that point my tomatoes can go outside, as can my cucumbers. I'll plant more bean seeds next month too. Looking forward to posting pictures once I have my deck set up all complete.



I got great birthday presents in relation to my deck garden too! A book on what plants to grow together, a sun hat, gloves, giant pots, and gift cards. Looking forward to getting everything going this week. There should also be hiking and yoga on the map. Plus, I get to start kombucha this week. I'm picking up the mother tonight, and will start brewing Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll post pictures of that as well, once I have everything set up. Should take a little over a week to get the results I want, so by the first week of school I'll have my first trial batch. Ugh, school. I don't want to think about that, though I need to get at least 20, preferably more, hours of internship done this week. I'll let you know in my next post what I actually accomplished this week coming. Now I think I'm going to head out to the barn, and then prep my cucumber starts!

Quick, quick!

No time for a long post today. Leo is coming in the morning, so I need to finish up my studying tonight for finals. Yuck. Can't wait until Wednesday when those are over, and I can just enjoy my time with Leo. I've been running around like crazy, just trying to get everything finished up so I can have a nice spring break.

Most of this week was spent doing homework and finishing up a giant paper for microbiology. Oh, and a take-home final for molecular epidemiology. I did have a little time to be creative with food, making a super quick and simple carrot salad, and baking a loaf of rosemary bread while I studied (bread is the perfect studying baking- you have to commit to being around for a long time, but the actual work is small).


Carrot salad:
2 cups Rainbow carrots, sliced
1/4 cup onion, sliced thin
2 teaspoons vinegar
1/2 teaspoon dill
Salt and pepper

Mix, let sit in the fridge a few hours, and enjoy.

(the bread wasn't actually this pale, that's just flash)

Rosemary peasant bread (this is for one small loaf)

1 package quick yeast
1 cup warm, filtered water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cups wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves

Mix water, yeast, sugar. Allow to sit at least 5 minutes. Mix dry ingredients, add wet to them. Allow to sit in a warm place covered with a towel for at least 1 hour. Remove from bowl, shape into loaf. Allow to sit at least 30min more on baking pan to continue rising. Preheat oven to 400 F, put a baking dish with water in the bottom rack of the oven. Hash the top of the loaf. Bake 40 min, checking at 30 min.


Besides that, I guess I wasn't in a great mood this week. Very lackluster, wasn't too happy with myself. Apologies to everyone who had to deal with me this week, including my horse. This quarter just wore me down. As it is looking next year, I may not need to take winter quarter (I would still need to take spring quarter, as there is a required class that quarter, but I have enough credits to take a quarter off), and maybe I should do that and just work. My fear would be finding a job for three months, but I am nothing if not resourceful.

On Friday I got to study at a friend's house (the first time I've ever done that at UW-it was a weekly occurrence at WU), then we went to a house party. I had a great time, it was so nice to see people. Seattle is a little lonely. I feel like I spend most of my time with my horse, who though awesome, isn't the best conversationalist.

Today I was massively productive- I rode, cleaned the whole house, studied, and applied for a job (the park ranger position). There is an aquatic wildlife specialist position that I'm hoping to knock off an application for this week, too. Other than that, I'm just getting really excited for spring break. Leo and I should have a great time, and then when he leaves I will start my garden, get to spend some quality time with my pony love, hopefully go hiking, and start my yoga class! Oh, and I think I've decided to brew my own kombucha. I was avoiding it, in fear of giving myself food poisoning, but if a microbiologist can't avoid campylobacter, who can? I've been drinking a fair amount of it, and it's just too expensive not to make my own.

Well, this is as much time as I can justify not studying, since I know I won't get a lot done after I pick Leo up tomorrow. So excited! Oh yeah, it's my birthday on Monday too, so that should be good :) I will write a post next week of my adventures. I'm going to try to remember to bring my camera when Leo and I have adventures this time. Hope everyone has a great week, I know I will (excepting finals).

That's more like it

Much better week this time around. Monday I snuck out and rode Starla. I have a new fleece butt pad for the saddle that makes it feel heavenly. I can't wait to trail ride in it!

Tuesday I had my first day as an intern at Seattle BioMed. They are insanely nice people, I think I'm really going to enjoy working there. I mainly did written research, as well as safety training for new employees. Afterwards they went ahead and showed me around the labs again. I would love to work there for the summer, but I'm going to start applying for everything now, just in case. Working next to Whole Foods is dangerous anyways- I just want to try everything they have (this week I got rolled barley to try instead of oatmeal- much better texture!).

Wednesday I managed to get my insane workload finished (Wednesdays are the day that everything is due), and came home ready to talk to Leo. Unfortunately, he got some rough news from home, and wanted the night to absorb it, which I understand. I just wish I could have been there. Instead of talking to him, I went to Zumba class, which is Spanish for "torture." Ha, it was actually a lot of fun, I'm just not in good enough not shape to do a full hour now. My left side with all it's atrophied muscles was screaming the next day.

Thursday I did get to catch up with Leo, and while we talked I started work on a portable cold frame for my garden. A cold frame is basically a tiny greenhouse, usually made with glass or plexiglass that you can put over plants (or open and close) on cold nights and days. Mine is not that long-term, but it is certainly economical. I took a really heavy-duty Costco cardboard box and cut out panels on all the sides (leaving a little cardboard connecting for stability between all panels). Then I used clear packing tape to cover all the exposed edges. I bought a dollar store clear vinyl shower curtain and taped it together, effectively making a little greenhouse. I think it should at least hold up for this year, and eventually I'll have a place of my own and it will be worth my time and money to make a real set-up.


Later Thursday my bad tummyache turned into the stomach flu, pretty strong and rapid. Actually, I don't really know what it was, as it felt like my egg allergy combined with that mysterious ulcer problem I had freshman year of college. Painful. I wasn't able to go to school on Friday, which started out as relaxing, and migrated up to boring and irritating. I'm not really meant to sit still for 24 hrs straight. I wanted to check on Starla, but as getting dressed was a struggle, I didn't think handling a 1000lb animal would be in my best interests.

Saturday I was able to eat food, and life was instantly better. My stomach was still tender, but I take what I can get. I finally got to ride Starla. We rode bitless for the first time since Sept, and I thought she did really well. There were a group of four men on the ground in the arena roping "cows" (sawhorses with plastic bull horns), and they were really impressed Starla didn't care at all about the ropes flying around. They joked that I should work with her on cattle roping, she might be a natural. I think Ms. Starla would find it beneath her considerable dignity to work with cows though. In further good news, I think her gums are getting better from the mouthwash. Turning back to normal horse-y pink.

I came home and celebrated actually being able to eat by making pasta with cherry tomato halves, black pepper, and smoked cheese. It was very yum. The picture isn't great, but it tasted awesome to someone who had been "eating" Gatorade for days.


I was going to go to a seed starting class in Woodinville, but I didn't want to try being somewhere new with a tricky stomach. I'm really excited about some of the free class opportunities. There is an herbal class next month. I have been thinking that next year I'd like to get my Master Gardener certification. It would be really great to teach people about sustainable ag and eating healthy. Honestly, I can't think of many better ways to help public health in America.

I am also really interested in the growing trend to sustainable livestock. I can't wait until I can actually handle all of Starla's care. There are some really innovative ideas for green horse care. I'm hoping to make it out to some of the Horses for Clean Water talks this year. But I'm also really interested in food animal sustainable production. I wonder how many people realize that 50% of antibiotics used in the US are used in food animals, and that is the reason we have kidney-destroying e. coli, and are facing a day in the near future where antibiotics are useless because of widespread resistance? And I wonder how many people would be outraged to find out the reasons we pump animals full of antibiotics is because we don't want to pay to feed them food they can digest, or give them space to be healthy. M. Pollan talks about how farming in the US before WWII was incredibly sustainable and healthy- farmers fed the cows and chickens the vegetable waste, and the farmers fed the veggies the animal poo. Now we've separated the processes, so we have farmers needing to put environmentally destroying phosphorous and nitrogen on plants, the run off of which gets in our water. And we have cows growing up on lots, chocked full of food they wouldn't normally eat, given antibiotics, and the poo goes into "manure ponds". And guess where the manure goes? Oh, yeah, our drinking water. Yays. No wonder the vast majority of microbiologists I've met are vegetarian. It's hard enough to get antibiotic free veggies.

So I'd like to do more studies in sustainable ag, and maybe work on human impacts of livestock zoonotic diseases and impacts of antibiotics. I wonder if anyone would take me seriously as a vegetarian in that line of work? People are so freaked out about the "Vegan Agenda", the secret plan to make everyone in the US give up meat. I haven't been told about this plan yet, but I still drink milk, so maybe I'm not a high enough level vegan to be in on the plans. Honestly, they need my help, as I think only 2% or something of the population is vegan. Slowest. Takeover. Ever.

Leo comes in one week. I'm so excited! Ready to celebrate the end of the quarter with my fella. I'm going to have lots of fun with him, and then Spring break will mainly be for working on my internship, riding Starla, and trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I have another quarter ahead of me before summer. I miss semesters.

I still have Sunday left of the weekend, but I think it's mainly going to be pony, lots of homework, and cleaning. I mostly feel like I have a handle on things for this week and next, but we'll see. Things have a way of going south quickly. Oh well, a week from Wednesday I'm done with this quarter, and get to do my favorite things with Leo. I'm picturing a week of movies, Indian food, arcades, oh, and my birthday! I get to take a painting class from my folks as a present. I'm so very excited to take it. I can't wait until I have some time to paint this summer. I feel like I have some good ideas I haven't had time to put into action. God willing, I'll get to take art class this summer.

Well, this post has mainly become a bunch of rambling, which is a good sign sickie needs to go to bed. I'll try to update before Leo comes, depending on how far along I am in on Operation Get-the-apartment-clean-study-for-all-my-finals-before-Leo-gets-here-and-turn-in-everything-due-this-last-week-of-school. We'll see.