Why I Oughta...

It took close to ten years, but I finally am the owner of a pair of gloves that I've been wanting to use in the garden.  All the way back in September of 2013, Neil Steinberg posted a love-letter to a pair of Chicago-manufactured gloves and I have wanted them ever-since.  At that time, the gloves were made by a a company called J. Edwards who sold the gloves only to distributors.  But, at some point, they were either acquired or merged with the Kunz Glove Company who (as of 2022) ran an ecommerce storefront or sold them to folks who sell one pair at a time like here .  You're probably thinking:  dude...just go buy some gloves from the orange Big Box store.  I'm sure they'd be fine, but if you go back and read the post from Neil Steinberg , you might come to the same conclusion that I have:  these are special.   So, these gloves are now mine- my Christmas gift from Nat.  And, I can't wait to use them in the garden.  See below for th...

Over the weekend, I started to organize some of my garden tools in preparation for the Spring garden season and began to turn to my hand tools.  Part of stimulating my organization this weekend was the whole 'social distancing' thing that we're doing, but it was also this video from Erin - the Impatient Gardener - where she talked about how she sharpens and treats her garden tools . I'll come back to that video in another post (mostly because....ummm...the whole Niwaki pruners are pretty sweet and warrant a post where I lust after them, right?) I have collected my tools and have begun to think about how to store them in an easy-to-use way for the season.  I also began to look at my gloves and inventory'd them.  Out of that exercise, I think I'm going to call it now:  I need to add something to my 2020 to-do list:  Upgrade my garden gloves.  Here's my full 2020 list .  For the past few years, I've been MOSTLY using disposable gloves in the g...

Neil Steinberg from the Chicago Sun-Times always does the best obituaries .

Photo from thethirdcity Over on his blog, Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg does his typical brilliant job of dissecting the news and making me think and smile about the minuscule $12M renovation that Union Station is about to undertake.   When we lived with Nat's parents while we were fixing our house, I took the train in from Naperville everyday and used Union Station.  Now...I get the good fortune of using Ogilvie everyday.  And there is no comparison.  Union Station is just flat out awful.  *Gross* is a good way to put it.  And.. Steinberg points out that they want to fix the old stairs.  And...he thinks it is a bad idea : Union Station is a hell hole — loud, crowded, smoky, cold, in winter, airless in summer, dripping cascades of what please God is water all year round.   So news that Amtrak finally plans to toss $12 million into fixing has to be welcome, although anybody who has spent anything on home repair has to imme...