Research excitement, gardening, winemaking, henna barter.

Most of you know that I have been working on a research project for a one woman show.  Up until now the research has all been computer assisted.  Pretty much anything you want to research is online these days. But now I am to the point in my research where I need documents to prove what I am saying. They are all down at the king county archives...on microfiche.   I'm old enough to remember when microfiche was   a really great tool  that helped speed  the research process .  Now , it is slow and labor intensive.   I realized last week that even  though Jimmy and  I are neo luddites  that we have been spoiled when it comes to getting the information we want. We think any and all information should be at our fingertips just  a second or two away.   Ask a question....get an instant answer.   I made one trip to the king county archives so far. Everything I need is there. I just need to get to it.  The archivists at King County are information badasses!   I walked up to counter on my first visit and  babbled a bunch of disorganized   word salad at the poor guy manning the desk.  He took a few seconds, organized everything I told him ..in his head.... and gave me a place to begin.  He even explained to me how to read the  bureau of land management maps that I have been staring at, for the last two years, with glazed over eyes.  I have a new hero and a random thought crossed my mind  while he was being  both patient and genius... I need to get him and Feral Jane together in the same room.  They would be perfect for each other.  I haven't  tried to match make for FJ since jr. high school  so, this truly was a random thought in the process. I  retrieved enough info from the archive indexes to be able to put together a four page outline.  I read it to  jimmy and he said it sounded like a deposition.  That's a good thing , I think.  Its means the information is there.  Now I just have to build a show around it.  An interesting show.   In the meantime life goes on at Mystic Cedars.   My poor sad garden perked up significantly after  last Fridays deluge.   We may even get a few solid meals out of it before the weather turns cold.  It hasn't all been bad though.   My home canned goods cabinet is getting full. Tons of Jelly and I have my second  huge jar of cucumbers brining right now.  I'm hoping to get at least one more batch of pickling cucumbers  out of the garden before the season ends.
The second planting of the garden is doing so much better than the  first.  The new pole beans I  planted are shooting up and we should get a really good crop from them as long as it doesn't snow in September.  
Here is an FYI for Baby Sis. The Blackberry wine is in the first  ferment and  is bubbling vigorously.  We should be getting a minimum of five gallons out of it. Now I just need to keep it warm.  When I put it in the glass carboy, I am going to put one of the  planting start mats under it.  I used to use classic heating pads, but mine all  burned out and the new ones all have  timers in them now that shut off after two hours.  Useless!
Jimmys Mom is coming in for a few days this week,  so the guest room continues to be a guest room for a while longer.  After she heads back home though it will once again become the  'textile' room.  Sewing machine, rug  frame, giant yarn depository, random baskets full of projects.  I will also be going through my bins of costumes and  rehoming  many of them.  I would love to  keep them all but to do that I would need to rent a  storage  room somewhere. Not going to do that.  And here is something I have been meaning to do.  I stopped using henna on my hair.  I now have a drawer full of henna and henna products in my bathroom that needs to go.  If you want them give me a call.   They are free.  Unless  you are in a bartering mood (cuz some people  are suspicious of free).  In that case, I am looking for  a couple of  good condition,  classic picnic baskets,  more yarn, really big baskets,  plant pots and that sort of thing.