I was tagged to the Taco Or Beer Challenge by Sal.  If you don’t know, it’s (obviously) a play on the ice bucket challenge but instead of doing something wasteful and not fun (and then giving money to an organization that utilizes worthless animal testing), you get to eat a taco and/or drink a beer and you give money to support women’s health and help enable women to make choices.  I went to Fund Abortion Now and went to their state list, and donated to Planned Parenthood of Illinois.  I did this while eating tempeh tacos with yellow pear tomatoes, salsa, and guac and drinking a bottle of ginger ale/beer and it was bomb.  Then I took a nap.

Some people argue that being pro-choice and being vegan are at odds with each other, and I obviously disagree.  Mostly because I don’t think the opposite of pro-choice is pro-life, it’s anti-choice.  How many people claim to be pro-life while eating meat, supporting the death penalty, hunting, etc.  I think that being vegan is as close to being truly pro-life as you can get, and just being vegan is a feminist act since the dairy industry is all about forcibly impregnating cows and taking their infants away, repeatedly.  I don’t think anyone should be forced to have a child.  I have never had an abortion, but I have taken the morning after pill and I am grateful that it was available when I needed it.

I am challenging my friend Lindsay to eat a taco and drink a beer, and anyone else who sees this and has some dollars to spare! This also inspired today’s movie post if you would like to check that out.

Oh look, it’s that time of year again when I pretend to be a dedicated blogger. So exciting! My theme hasn’t changed, but the location has. I decided to make a dedicated site for me to prattle on about movies and i’m now adding in tv shows. More exciting!

(graphic by Amanda Chronister)

I don’t have all of the little touches finished yet, but all of the content from previous MoFos is there and there will be new stuff starting tomorrow. But in the meantime, I thought I would share with you some important VeganMoFo essentials for getting through a month of blogging without burning out. AKA, I am procrastinating doing other things so I did this.

1.  Remotes handy so you can watch reruns of Always Sunny, The Office, or whatever you kids are into while you blog.  Or if you’re me, it’s ‘research’.
2.  Caffeinated beverage of your choice.
3.  Vegan snacks that can stay on your desk without refrigeration, sorry hummus.
4.  A large supply of Amy’s burritos and wraps.  Trust me.  (and yes they immediately went back in the freezer, what kind of weirdo keeps frozen burritos on their desk)

5.  If you are so inclined, a variety of nail polish because waiting for your nails to dry is one of the few things you can do with your hands while also blogging.
6.  Hippie deodorant, because you will get ‘too much time in front of the computer’ funk.
7.  B-12, because you always need to take it!
8. Papaya enzymes, because they help alleviate heartburn and stress is a major factor in heartburn.
9. Hand cream because I have really dry hands, okay.
10.  Dry shampoo, because reading other people’s blogs is more important than washing your hair.

11.  Any source materials you may need, be it cookbooks or a semi-random stack of movies that you grabbed that may or may not actually get used.
12.  Tissues because the tears.
13.  Your phone.  I’m just kidding, you don’t need this, you don’t have time to talk to anyone!
14.  Post-its and writing instruments because you refuse to use your smart phone to actually keep track of anything but how bad you are at Sudoku.

15.  You need twitter open at all times.
16.  You should probably keep WordPress (or whatever you’re using) open to remind you to actually do the blogging part.  I guess that’s important.
17.  You need a nice, healthy distraction like Hearthstone.  I actually got 90% of my pre-MoFo prep done while playing!

Brian and I spent a large part of early spring building a new garden.  Last year, we just tilled part of the back yard and threw some starters in the ground and called it good.  The soil isn’t great though, so my garden didn’t do its best and I didn’t even get to hoard enough tomatoes to make sauce.  I knew building beds would be expensive because of all of the dirt, so when we got a settlement check from Toyota (what the settlement was for, I don’t remember) for $125, we agreed to put it towards the garden.  If you’ve built raised beds, you know that $125 doesn’t cover two cedar beds and a cinder block bed and all of the dirt.  So much dirt.  We just used basic soil and a little mushroom compost, plus my own compost and I think we spent nearly $100 just on dirt.  We bought 24 cinder blocks at a little over $1 each, and I can’t remember how much the wood was but cedar is pricey.  The only thing that made it a little better was that Menards was having a rebate promotion for a percentage back, so we were able to mail in a couple of receipts and get ~$20 back in store credit.

The rebate promo was in March, so we bought the wood and blocks then, and Brian built one bed one weekend and the other the next.  We were in no hurry since I knew that planting weather was still a ways off.  The hardest part was getting the blocks and dirt to the yard, we don’t have an alley or anything and my garden is on the opposite corner away from the gate.  So I had to load the blocks onto a moving dollie and pull them.  Dollies make moving heavy objects a lot easier, but that ease was kind of negated by the fact that I had to pull the dollie through grass instead of just over pavement.  I wanted cinder blocks so I could plant my herbs in the holes on the outside, and if I want to expand it next year I can pretty easily.  We went with two layers of bricks so I could plant greens in it from seed and not worry about Harley hopping on top of them to nap.  If you want a raised bed but don’t want to mess with cutting wood I would totally recommend cinder blocks, just keep in mind that they are HEAVY, we had to take ours home in two trips, and leveling the ground can be a pain in the ass and then you won’t do it properly and you’ll end up with some crooked bricks that you’ll have to push inward while trying to shovel dirt underneath with your hand, and that dirt will eventually settle and then the blocks will be crooked again.  Hypothetically, I mean.  That totally did not happen to me.

The greens as of yesterday.  As you can see, they’re doing great!  I have kale starters, then kale from seed, collards, and two kinds of lettuce that I can’t remember what they are and the seed packet is out of reach.  The front and back have basil, basil, more basil, sage, lavender, thyme, rosemary, and oregano.  I stuffed the bottom layer of the blocks with old leaves and dirt we dug up to level the ground to help keep the empty ones stable.  If you look on Pinterest, there are some really cool looking cinder block beds, you can even make a simple planter out of a couple, paint them, whatever.  And you can dismantle them at any time and re-arrange!

And here are the cedar beds, things are starting to flower and i’ve been eating really small strawberries this week but nothing too exciting so far.  The far bed is all tomatoes because i’m insane, the closer one is strawberries in the front (I planted four last year just to get them started and transplanted about a dozen into the bed from the babies they made), then peppers and eggplant, then four zucchini plants (I know, why, i’m stupid) watermelon because I thought i’d give that a whirl, and cucumbers in the back.  I tend to grow the same basics every year and try one new plant just to see if it’s easy to grow because i’m the laziest gardener ever.  Everything is doing great so far, we’ve had a decent amount of rain since I planted a month ago.  I hope to have a small jungle by this time next month!