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	<title>My Chicago Garden</title>
	<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com</link>
	<description>A little bit of nature in my own backyard</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:31:04 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<language>en</language>
	
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		<title>Paso Robles, CA</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Wine country in Paso Robles. The most interesting part of the day so far has actually been visiting an olive oil farm (Pasolivo) and doing a tasting and tour. I didnt realize just how bad the olive oil I have been buying from the local grociery stores realy is. Doesn&#8217;t even taste like olives when [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/21/paso-robles-ca/</link>
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		<title>Ristorante da Gaetano</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Sorry for the horrible picture, the camera on my phone sucks in low light conditions (actually any condition). We had a wonderful dinner at Ristorante de Gaetano in Paso Robles, CA. Our B&#38;B hosts told us most of the good restaurants in town are closed sunday night, but my wife found this little italian place [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/20/ristorante-da-gaetano/</link>
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		<title>Elephant Seals</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Elephant Seals at Point Piedras Blancas off highway one on our way down to Paso Robles.

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		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/20/elephant-seals/</link>
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		<title>Monterey, CA</title>
		<description><![CDATA[What an anniversary should be like, if you fail to climb a peak. We are heading to Paso Robles tomorrow for a quiet stay in a B&#38;B.

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		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/19/monterey-ca/</link>
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		<title>If you dont try, you are never disappointed</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We called off the trip early. In short, I was over ambitious planning for 8 days.  The pack weight of nearly 40lbs (necessary for 8 days) was way too heavy. We think we could have done Mt. Lyell if we had planned for only 3 nights not 7 and the pack weight was down [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/18/if-you-dont-try-you-are-never-disappointed/</link>
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		<title>Trail Start</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A little late start, but we are on our way. See you in 8 days.

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		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/17/trail-start/</link>
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		<title>Tuolumne Meadows Lodge</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Base camp. Had dinner looking south into the ridge line over the meadow in the direction of our trip. Proving a good plan to acclimatize for a day as I have a headache. Very nice tent cabin to start the trip. Excellent cell coverage in the meadow area but Im sceptical in the back country. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/16/tuolumne-meadows-lodge/</link>
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		<title>Permit Station</title>
		<description><![CDATA[At the permit station to pick up our wilderness permit. Then off to the lodge and dinner.

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		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/16/permit-station/</link>
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		<title>Ready to Go</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Gear is packed and ready to go. Ill be trying to update the blog with at least one picture each day off my cell phone, if we have cell service in the back country. I doubt it&#8230;but you never know.

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		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/15/ready-to-go/</link>
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		<title>Garden Tour (7/9/08)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I needed to start planning to put the garden to bed for a few weeks while we go on vacation. So today was as good a day as any to walk around and do a tour and start cleaning up before we leave on friday.



 
The north side of the driveway we planted last year is [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/07/09/garden-tour-7908/</link>
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		<title>Art Institute of Chicago</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last weekend the family took the Metra to downtown Chicago so I could have lunch with an ex-colleague of mine who just became a US citizen.  Afterwards, we took the opportunity to take the girls to the Art Institute of Chicago.  They did pretty good for 4 and 3, considering. Of course the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/06/18/art-institute-of-chicago/</link>
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		<title>Cabbage Pest damage</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Illinois extension has this to say about Cabbage Worms.
&#34;It is almost impossible to raise cole                crops in Illinois without controlling these pests.&#34;

Well I can tell you I agree with that statement.&#160; My cabbage plants were decimated last year (my [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/06/11/cabbage-pest-damage/</link>
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		<title>Storm Chasing &#8212; Morning Start</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m heading out storm chasing today with Paul Sirvatka (meteorology department of CoD) and David Mayhew (professional photographer) .&#160; Paul is having a heck of a time deciding where to go while David is pushing him to send us further west.&#160; I&#8217;m just along for the ride and bring my geek toys.&#160; We should be [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/06/04/storm-chasing-morning-start/</link>
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		<title>In defense of big box stores &#8212; a response</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Over on the My Skinny Garden blog, Gina brought up the topic of big box stores, and in particular their return policy on live plants.  Here was my response&#8230;..
Im a non-selective shopper [except under rare occasions where a particular store has made me particularly mad] , however I always give the local guy a [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/29/in-defense-of-big-box-stores-a-response/</link>
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		<title>First Harvest - 2008</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ First thing to be harvested this year is something new for me.  Lettuce was on the menu for dinner tonight! Our family doesn&#8217;t eat much salad at home, yet we like eating salad when going out for dinner. Doesn&#8217;t make much sense, but we do.  I took some cuttings from the various [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/26/first-harvest-2008/</link>
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		<title>$8 soaker hose system!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A few months ago I saw what to me was a new soaker hose system and it had been tempting me ever since late winter when I saw it on the shelves.&#160; Only problem was it was basically a very thin soaker hose and a 1/2&#34; distribution tube and they wanted $38 for it.&#160; I [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/21/8-soaker-hose-system/</link>
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		<title>Trip Report from our first family backpacking trip</title>
		<description><![CDATA[What can go wrong, will go wrong. But you can still have fun!&#160; Read all about it
&#160;
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		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/18/trip-report-from-our-first-family-backpacking-trip/</link>
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		<title>Woodchuck?!?!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We knew something was living under our deck the last year but we have never seen him.  Tucker (our dog), was always sniffing around the edge and practically destroyed a stacked full-cord of wood on the edge of the deck trying to get at something under it.
Well the animal popped his head up today [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/15/woodchuck/</link>
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		<title>Garden Tour (5/10/08)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[What a wonderful day to play in the garden! The temperature was wonderful and prospects of rain tomorrow. So I took the opportunity to do a quick look around the garden to see how things were doing.




My wife and I hit the the Native Plant Sale in Wheaton a weekend or two ago and used [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/10/garden-tour-51008/</link>
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		<title>Compost gold mine found!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Brian of cybology.com, and member of the Men&#8217;s Garden Club of Villa Park (not just for men!), just clued me in on a compost gold mine.
If you&#8217;ve ever looked for different kinds of compost/manure/etc at the local stores around you, you probably have noticed that all the big box stores seem to sell the same [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/05/01/compost-gold-mine-found/</link>
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		<title>The weather gods hate me!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Man! I can&#8217;t win this year.&#160; Two days of below freezing have completely obliterated my poor little tomatoe plants.
You can see the row of 3 tomatoes in the first picture.&#160; Yeah&#8230;that&#8217;s them&#8230;the brown lumps of goo. Just two days ago they were busting out of their store pots begging to be let loose.&#160; You can [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/30/the-weather-gods-hate-me/</link>
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		<title>A couple questions answered</title>
		<description><![CDATA[1) What are you using for the seed potatoes?
I maintain a planting diary that is fairly up to date with the latest information about the garden. If you check the diary you&#8217;ll see that I planted Red Cloud potatoes and Kennebec.&#160; The Red Cloud&#8217;s I got from Moose Tubers (a Fedco company) and the Kennebec [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/28/a-couple-questions-answered/</link>
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		<title>One mistake and everything dead</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Well it happened.&#160; In preparation for this weekends garden activities, I put my seedlings out in the cold frame to harden them off with a bit of outside weather a few days ago.&#160; And with all the hustle and bustle I forgot they were there!!!&#160; They got fried when I forgot to lift the windows [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/20/one-mistake-and-everything-dead/</link>
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		<title>Seedling update and last frost of the season</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It looks like the last frost of the season might just be in the next few days.&#160; Which means the next weekend will be the first plausible time to get the garden work finalized and get some direct sow seeds in the ground.&#160; Current forecasts show a trend upwards for temperature but be ready to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/12/seedling-update-and-last-frost-of-the-season/</link>
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		<title>It&#8217;s officially spring!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
   Here at our house we decide when spring is by the first sunday it is warm enough to eat hot dogs at Scooby&#8217;s outside under the umbrellas (on North Ave in West Chicago).  Well yesterday was that day! Yeah!!!!



 The girls even spent some time down in the creek behind the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/07/its-officially-spring/</link>
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		<title>Is it spring?!?!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Just a few weeks ago we had snow on the ground and Shorty (because of his short tail, as compared to Fatty Lumpkin who is big and fuzzy) was munching on left over popcorn. 
But today was the first full day of working outside in the garden!!&#160; The first bit of manual labor was digging [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/04/05/is-it-spring/</link>
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		<title>Warm enough for tree houses and woodpeckers</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Sierra (my 4 year old) wanted to eat in the tree house tonight so we had an early dinner.&#160; While eating dinner we heard and saw a woodpecker making what looked to be a new home in the upper parts of a large dead limb in a tree on the edge of the creek in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/03/14/warm-enough-for-tree-houses-and-woodpeckers/</link>
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		<title>Hey! It&#8217;s green in here.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Sprouts are up!  Sierra and I also planted a couple butternut squash. My wife noticed us doing this and informed me that I had never started squash indoors.  That caught me by surprise, but she&#8217;s right. Hurm&#8230;wonder if it will make any difference.  Last years squash crop was _EXTREME_.
First picture is from [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/03/05/hey-its-green-in-here/</link>
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		<title>Seed planting has begun</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Yeah! It&#8217;s that time again in the house.&#160; Dirt is flying and seeds are being jammed down into starting pots.&#160; The garage is still too cold to put the seedlings out there so my wife gracious allowed me to bring the seed starting indoors.&#160; The girls have agreed to check them every day and let [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/24/seed-planting-has-begun/</link>
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		<title>Learning the harmonica</title>
		<description><![CDATA[So today we were at Outdoor World looking for something to blow $50 worth of gift cards on.&#160; I remember seeing a harmonica and learning DVD in the store the last time I was there so I went hunting. I found it and snatched one up for $15.&#160; I figured I could learn how to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/16/learning-the-harmonica/</link>
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		<title>Bluegreen Resorts - Free Vacation?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The family and I were wandering around Outdoor World a few months ago and couldn&#8217;t sneak past the free vacation people that are always there.&#160; In fact, lately I&#8217;ve been upset that Outdoor World has associated themselves with them. Usually I wave them off with a grunt and move past as quickly as possible.&#160; I [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/09/bluegreen-resorts-free-vacation/</link>
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		<title>Quick update</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A bunch of things are going on at the same time&#8230;.I&#8217;m still putting together the seeds I need for the garden this year. I think I have everything but cauliflower, I can pick those up somewhere local. There is a new layer of 8 inches of snow in the garden, with another 10 inches forecasted [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/02/06/quick-update/</link>
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		<title>Freezer Bag Cooking</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My wife and I are getting excited about our backpacking trip to Yosemite and we started thinking about food options for 6 to 7 days in the high country.&#160; We had seen the REI choices and frankly I&#8217;m not exactly thrilled.&#160; I heard about &#34;Freezer Bag Cooking&#34; over on the practical backpacking forum and decided [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2008/01/13/freezer-bag-cooking/</link>
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		<title>2008 Begins</title>
		<description><![CDATA[



I snapped this picture early this evening as a light snow fell. My camera, nor my photography skills do justice to the beauty of the trees covered in a light dusting of fresh snow. 
            




A new year has started and I have at [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/31/2008-begins/</link>
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		<title>Water as a cold frame heat sink</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I happened to be out taking pictures of the family making a snow man and took the opportunity to snap a couple pictures of the garden in winter. Man is it ugly.
You can see the 3&#215;8 (roughly) cold frame still hanging in there.&#160; I&#8217;m having problems getting a steady signal from the wireless temperature gauge [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/21/water-as-a-cold-frame-heat-sink/</link>
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		<title>Seeds - It&#8217;s that time of year again</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I don&#8217;t know if I&#8217;m getting anxious or what, but I have this feeling I should have received my seed catalogs by now.&#160; I thought for sure Seeds of Change would have sent them by now, but it doesn&#8217;t look like they are out yet.&#160; And my Park Seeds catalog just arrived a few days [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/20/seeds-its-that-time-of-year-again/</link>
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		<title>Get out in nature!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My wife and I have decided to take a family trip out to California to see the grandparents (my mom/dad) and the extended family.&#160; My family loves Yosemite National Park and I&#8217;ve been going there since I was a kid.&#160; I&#8217;ve only been to the &#34;high country&#34; or &#34;high seirra&#34; a couple times, one of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/13/get-out-in-nature/</link>
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		<title>Shadow Casting</title>
		<description><![CDATA[[warning...math makes my brain bleed so I take no responsibility if the information below is completely wrong or calculates the shadows in effect on the moon instead of my house. Use at your own risk]
So I got to thinking of how to use the southern side of my house for growing plants.&#160; I had thought [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/12/05/shadow-casting/</link>
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		<title>Ever used &#8220;fatwood&#8221;?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[So it&#8217;s 28 degrees outside with a very light snow fall and my wife&#8217;s family is up for the thanksgiving holiday.&#160; I enjoy making and having fires in my house and have come to love our double sided fireplace that is the center of our house.&#160; I found this interesting product at one of the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/22/ever-used-fatwood/</link>
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		<title>Decided to plant raspberries</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My wife and I have decided to plant the remainder of our driveway fence line with &#8216;Heritage&#8217; raspberries.&#160; We&#8217;ve never grown raspberries so this should be interesting. From what I&#8217;ve researched the &#8216;Heritage&#8217; variety is the most popular world wide and is one of the varieties recommended for Northern IL by the extension office.&#160; Also, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/18/decided-to-plant-raspberries/</link>
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		<title>Get that emergency kit ready</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Now that we&#8217;ve had a week of near freezing temperature I&#8217;ve resigned myself to the fact that my vegetable garden is dead.&#160; But what that reminded me of was that I had not reviewed my car emergency kit lately.&#160; After moving to Chicago about a year ago it has been in the back of my [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/11/04/get-that-emergency-kit-ready/</link>
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		<title>Hard Freeze this morning</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Well the NWS forecast was off by at least 10 degrees maybe even 20.&#160; We had what is called a hard freeze (see below) this morning, not a first frost.&#160; The remaining tomato and pea plants are showing signs of damage even though I covered them with a plastic tarp. And even the tomatoes in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/28/hard-freeze-this-morning/</link>
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		<title>Frost Advisory!! Cover them plants!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Sat, 27 Oct 2007 17:18:44 
FROST EXPECTED ACROSS NORTHERN ILLINOIS TONIGHT&#8230;
.STRONG HIGH PRESSURE WILL MOVE ACROSS THE AREA TONIGHT. UNDER
GENERALLY CLEAR SKIES WITH LIGHT WINDS&#8230;LOW TEMPERATURES WILL
FALL INTO THE LOWER 30S. FROST IS EXPECTED OVER MUCH OF THE
REGION&#8230;WITH WIDESPREAD FROST OVER NORTHWEST ILLINOIS.
ILZ006-013-014-022-023-032-033-039-280345-
/O.NEW.KLOT.FR.Y.0005.071028T0600Z-071028T1300Z/
LAKE ILLINOIS-DUPAGE-COOK-WILL-KANKAKEE-LIVINGSTON-IROQUOIS-FORD-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF&#8230;WAUKEGAN&#8230;CHICAGO&#8230;JOLIET&#8230;
KANKAKEE&#8230;PONTIAC&#8230;WATSEKA&#8230;PAXTON
244 PM CDT SAT OCT 27 2007
&#8230;FROST ADVISORY IN [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/27/frost-advisory-cover-them-plants/</link>
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		<title>gardenfork.tv community</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Eric over on gardenfork.tv dropped me an email to tell me he has started a community website for gardenfork and realworldgreen (his other show).&#160; If you like the show head over, signup and participate. The url is http://thegreenhouse.ning.com/
 

 Those of us in the western suburbs of Chicago better prepare for the first frost of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/25/gardenforktv-community/</link>
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		<title>Cold frame completed</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I got the cold frame completed this weekend.&#160; I had to buy about $50 more of material because of mistakes I made during construction. I wasn&#8217;t working from a plan so I knew I ran the risk of things not lining up just right.&#160; I also added two handles on either end for easier lifting.
As [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/21/cold-frame-completed/</link>
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		<title>Alternative to Master Gardener?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Given that I have had so little time to actually do anything in my garden, I took the last few minutes of my day before I crash into my bed and checked out the local blogs (see links on the bottom right of the page) and found a great post over on Rosemarie&#8217;s garden blog.&#160; [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/18/alternative-to-master-gardener/</link>
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		<title>No frost&#8230;yet</title>
		<description><![CDATA[yeah! NWS forecast was off by at least 2 degrees, maybe as much as 8 degrees. My home weather station reported a low of 40 during the overnight.  The forecast for the next 7 days has temperatures in the low 40s in the evenings so we should be good to go for another week [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/13/no-frostyet/</link>
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		<title>First Frost Tonight? I Hope Not!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The great folks at the National Weather Service are forecasting 38 degrees across the Chicago area but the computer model point forecast is showing 35 degrees tonight for Wheaton.&#160; Ouch! That&#8217;s one degree below their 36 degree cut off for frost. That&#8217;s a good 3 days ahead of my planning, but well within the high [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/12/cross-your-fingers/</link>
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		<title>Cold frame almost ready!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I probably could have built the cold frame in one weekend but I wasn&#8217;t dedicated to doing it. I came very close though.&#160; The materials were obtained from Menards (have I mentioned Menards completely out classes Home Depot and Lowes by orders of magnitude?)
First I had to reduce the size of the 4&#215;8 raised beds [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/07/cold-frame-almost-ready/</link>
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		<title>Cold frame it is</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I did some basic math and measurements and some architectural type drawings and figured out that a greenhouse would just not work&#8230;at least like I had been thinking. So I went back to the cold frame plans.
I remembered I had a book called &#8220;Four Season Gardening&#8221; that had some plans for a cold frame so [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/10/04/cold-frame-it-is/</link>
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		<title>Getting Ready for Fall</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Actually it&#8217;s already fall, but we won&#8217;t bother with the details.&#160; I took about 10 apples from the batch we picked at the U-Pick farm yesterday and made apple butter.
&#160;While the apples were cooking down, I went out in the garden and ripped out the butternut squash.&#160; I harvested another 8 squash off the vine.&#160; [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/09/30/getting-ready-for-fall/</link>
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		<title>U-Pick Apples 2007</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Our family started a tradition of sorts last year of visiting a U-Pick Apple orchard at least once a year.&#160; This year we visited Royal Oak Farm up on the border of IL and WI.&#160; Holy Cow! That&#8217;s an orchard.&#160; They have over 10,000 apple trees of over 24 varieties.&#160; We spent the night up [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/09/29/u-pick-apples-2007/</link>
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		<title>First time for everything</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We fired up the fireplace for the first time since we bought the house.&#160; We visited a fireplace company last weekend and priced out a new fireplace *sigh*.&#160; $10,000 to rebuild our double sided fireplace.&#160; It&#8217;s probably one of the best investments in a home in the current market (everyone seems to want a fireplace) [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/09/23/first-time-for-everything/</link>
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		<title>Diary started</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve started a planting diary page.
&#160;Beans and peas harvest has started.&#160; I didn&#8217;t plant enough of them it looks like as I&#8217;m only pulling in a handful of either one.&#160; It&#8217;s barely enough to snack on.&#160; Which is what I&#8217;ve been doing.
&#160; Squash plant is still going psycho!! I have 15 squash in the pantry [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/09/22/diary-started/</link>
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		<title>Podcast discontinued</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s with a sad heart that I say that I must discontinue the podcast.  I&#8217;ve decided to switch to the less time consuming blog format.  To get a perspective on the effort involved in doing a 10 to 15 minute podcast like MyChicagoGarden, I was finding that I would have to spend a [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/09/05/podcast-discontinued/</link>
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		<title>Good Fences Make Good Neighbors?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Couple things have happened in the last two weeks&#8230;.
I&#8217;ve been invited to present to the Men&#8217;s Garden Club of Villa Park on Organic Gardening on August 28th at 7:30PM.&#160; The presentation is for an hour or so, which means I can&#8217;t just ramble. I actually need to have an outline and do some research. I&#8217;ll [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/08/15/presentations-and-compliants/</link>
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		<title>Plantings for a Fall Harvest</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I cleared out the cucumber plants today.  I harvested another 10 or so before I pulled them out. There&#8217;s no point continuing to harvest the rest of the year. I can&#8217;t handle the amount I have now!  My sister in law also came over to pick up some cucumbers. She&#8217;s going to make [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/29/plantings-for-a-fall-harvest/</link>
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		<title>Episode 13 - Garden Update</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
In this episode I&#8217;ll give another update on the status of the garden. But before I get into that I had a few people over the last month ask me to mention a gardening related event that some of you may be interested in.&#160; If you, or your organization, live in the Chicago area and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/25/episode-13-garden-update/</link>
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		<title>Episode aired on gardenfork.tv</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I filmed a quick episode of MyChicagoGarden for Eric over at gardenfork.tv.  He was kind enough to run it on his internet TV show/blog/podcast thing.  I&#8217;m linking to it from here so folks can check it out.  More to come!



Click To Play


]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/15/episode-aired-on-gardenforktv/</link>
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		<title>Long time no posts</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Sorry about the length of time between posts.
Contributing to the lack of posts is that my free time, which the majority of is spent on MyChicagoGarden and the AllisonHouse weather business, has practically been zero for the last few months.&#160; My employer, Neohapsis, has been just slammed with business in the last few months and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/07/07/long-time-no-posts/</link>
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		<title>Garden Bloggers&#8217; Bloom Day</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Over on May Dreams Gardens there was a post asking what was blooming in the garden.&#160; So here&#8217;s my list.
Besides the ones shown below I have squash, lettuce (mix), carrots, cabbage, chives, basil, oregano, and corn.




            Sunflower (Discovery Mix)

      [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/06/17/garden-bloggers-bloom-day/</link>
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		<title>Episode 12 - Visiting a Worm Farm</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The family and I visited a worm farm, actually it&#8217;s a purpose built garage behind a house in the middle of a sub division. But the owner can produce 80 tons of worm castings a year and hundreds of thousands of worms.&#160; If you have visited a local Ace Hardware store in the last few [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/06/17/episode-12-visiting-a-worm-farm/</link>
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		<title>Episode 11 - Getting Started Again</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Over the last two months we&#8217;ve been moving in to our new house and getting all the emergency repairs done, like a new roof and plumbing in the laundry room.&#160; A few weeks ago we had a load bearing wall removed in the kitchen to make room for a more open floor plan in the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/05/19/episode-11-getting-started-again/</link>
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		<title>New podcast this week..honest</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Garden is up and running and I&#8217;m about to take another shot at some more seed starting to try and recover from some bad experiences early in the season.
I promise to have a podcast up this weekend even if it kills me.
I got the Worm farm video converted over to my PC so all I [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/05/15/new-podcast-this-weekhonest/</link>
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		<title>Delay again..but no worries</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I didn&#8217;t get a chance to edit the podcast before leaving for my sister wedding in California.&#160; But trust me..we have one almost ready to be published.&#160; The family visited a worm farm about a week ago and I took about 30 minutes of video that I need to edit down and send over to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/05/02/delay-againbut-no-worries/</link>
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		<title>We are coming back&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve decided to keep going with the podcast.&#160; My wife will be joining me for some of them or doing guest appearances as well as my oldest daughter Sierra. You hear her voice in the intro.
I&#8217;ll probably be cutting back to doing one podcast every 2 weeks, and providing more updates via the blog interface. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/04/06/we-are-coming-back/</link>
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		<title>gardenfork.tv</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I just found a cool website/blog/tv show over at gardenfork.tv
They have episodes on building a low cost grow light and seed starting. Which is perfect timing since I&#8217;m expecting my seed shipments any day now. You should check out Eric over at gardenfork.tv!
In between tearing out my kitchen and garage I&#8217;ll be putting some of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/28/gardenforktv/</link>
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		<title>Garden work about to begin</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My wife and I have decided to go with a professional landscape architect at the house in Wheaton. I&#8217;ll post some pictures as soon as I can find the camera memory card reader, but for now&#8230;just trust me that it needs a whole yard makeover.&#160; From what I heard from the neighbors the previous owners [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/18/garden-work-about-to-begin/</link>
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		<title>On hiatus for a month</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We close on our new house next monday (12th) and will be moving in and getting the house worked on and all sorts of small odds and ends so I&#8217;ve decided to put the podcast on hiatus for a month.&#160; During that time I&#8217;m going to evaluate if I want to continue the podcast or [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/06/on-hiatus-for-a-month/</link>
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		<title>Lots going on with the house(es)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The house in Northern Kentucky hasn&#8217;t sold yet but we are moving forward with the purchase of the new house in Wheaton, IL.
We would have liked to have sold the old house before buying a new house but we simply can&#8217;t live 600 miles apart from each other anymore.&#160; It has been since December 1st [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/03/02/lots-going-on-with-the-housees/</link>
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		<title>Episode 10 - Reading Seed Catalogs</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
It&#8217;s that time of year to put in your seed orders.&#160; Back in December I reminded you to place your requests with a few seed companies so you&#8217;d have some information to help you make your decisions. Hopefully you did that and now have 4 or 5 catalogs on your kitchen counter. In this episode [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/02/21/episode-10-reading-seed-catalogs/</link>
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		<title>Found a new garden podcast</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I was surfing iTunes looking to see if any new gardening podcasts had started and I found one that is actually really good!&#160; 
It&#8217;s the Alternative Kitchen Garden.&#160; The associated blog is fluffymuppet.blogspot.com
The author&#8217;s name is Emma, and she lives in the UK. She basically talks about whatever topic she&#8217;s interested that day. Much like [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/02/21/cool-new-podcast/</link>
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		<title>Episode 9 - Science Fairs, Whole Foods Market, Peat Moss and a garden update</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In this episode I&#8217;ll talk about spending the morning judging an elementary school science fair, then a little about Whole Food markets, a cool new website for vegetable growers and then I&#8217;ll ramble on about the controversy around using peat moss in your garden. Then at the end I&#8217;ll catch you up on how the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/02/08/episode-9-science-fairs-whole-foods-market-peat-moss-and-a-garden-update/</link>
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		<title>Episode 8 - Companion Planting</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This episode I&#8217;ll be talking about Companion Planting, or if used as a primary method in your garden, companion gardening. Done properly it can reduce, if not eliminate, the majority of reasons why you would need to use chemicals in your garden.
 
Companion planting is a mix of gardening fact and folklore that advocates growing [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/31/episode-8-companion-planting/</link>
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		<title>Episode 7 - Getting Started Managing a Compost Pile (Part 2 of 3)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;Composting Part Two - Getting Started Managing a Compost Pile&#8230;
This is part two of our podcast series on compost and composting. I mentioned in the previous podcast that we are heavily leveraging the Rodale Book of Composting. You may find it useful to purchase the book as we move through the series. I also mentioned [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/24/getting-started-managing-a-compost-pile/</link>
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		<title>Teaming with Microbes - A Gardener&#8217;s Guide to the Soil Food Web</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As part of the January meet up of the garden bloggers bookclub, I finished reading Teaming with Microbes - A Gardener&#8217;s Guide to the Soil Food Web.&#160; It&#8217;s not your typical garden book in my mind.&#160; It spends a lot more time explaining science than is normal to find in the gardening genre.&#160; As someone [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/20/teaming-with-microbes-a-gardeners-guide-to-the-soil-food-web/</link>
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		<title>Episode 6 - Compost. Gardener&#8217;s Black Gold (Part 1 of 3)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;Composting Part One - Black Gold&#8230;
We are starting a three part series on composting, that black gold that every gardener dreams about&#8230;or should dream about. If you&#8217;ve never worked with really good compost you don&#8217;t know what you are missing. If you listened to episode 4 on the square foot gardening technique, you&#8217;ll remember that [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/20/episode-6-compost-gardeners-black-gold-part-1-of-3/</link>
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		<title>What Makes a Gardener?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[So Carol over on her blog May Dreams Gardens posed the question&#8230;
 What Makes a Gardner?
She asked several questions that beg to be answered.
 Do you consider yourself a gardener?

I guess I do. I&#8217;m not as good a gardener as others, but I guess if you play in the dirt and grow something you can [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/16/what-makes-a-gardener/</link>
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		<title>Episode 5 - The Basics of Organic Gardening</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Before we get into the meat of this podcast I need to apologize for not getting out the podcast on Wednesday as I had planned. My family and I are currently trying to relocate from northern Kentucky to an, as of yet not purchased, home in the western suburbs of Chicago. I&#8217;m doing my best [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/14/organic-gardening/</link>
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		<title>Episode 4 - The Square Foot Gardening Method</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
This is the last part in our series on &#8216;Getting Started with a Vegetable Garden&#8217;. This espisode will cover the basics of square foot gardening.
 
But first, a quick fix of a mistake during our last episode.&#160; Towards the end, I referred to carrots as a horrizontal rooting crop. Hopefully that was an obvious mistake [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/05/episode-4-the-square-foot-gardening-method/</link>
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		<title>House, Job and a new book</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s hoppin&#8217; now at work!&#160; I have at least 6 projects I&#8217;m managing with lots of different deliverables and more coming down the pipe.&#160; I&#8217;ve never been this busy at a job in my life, learning new things, feeling a little on the edge since I&#8217;m trying something new and I&#8217;m loving every minute of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2007/01/04/house-job-and-a-new-book/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Car electric fails</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Figures&#8230;
As I posted in an earlier post I had invested in a battery isolator/combiner and some auxiliary battery capacity so I wouldn&#8217;t damage my vehicle electric system.&#160; Well that system paid off in an unexpected way.&#160; On my drive up to Chicago for my first day of work several weeks ago, my car lost all [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/24/car-electric-fails/</link>
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		<title>Chicago, the house, and the garden</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve spent the last 3 weeks in Chicago doing work for Neohapsis.&#160; As expected there is plenty of work to do and they threw me in feet first.&#160; I just finished my first &#34;on my own&#34; gig with a customer this morning.&#160; Every day has something else going on, which should fit my personality perfectly.
On [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/22/chicago-the-house-and-the-garden/</link>
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		<title>Episode 3 - The Wide Row Growing Method</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;The wide row growing method&#8230;
This is part three in our four part series on &#8216;Getting Started with a Vegetable Garden&#8217;. This espisode will cover the wide row growing method.
 
But first let&#8217;s look at the calendar.
Tomorrow, December 22nd, is the winter soltice. The winter solstice marks the point where the sun has reached the lowest [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/21/episode-3-the-wide-row-growing-method/</link>
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		<title>Episode 2 - Picking a Location to Grow Your Vegetables</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;Picking a location to grow your vegetables&#8230;
This is part two in our four part series on &#8216;Getting Started with a Vegetable Garden&#8217;. This espisode will cover recognizing the right site for your garden.


But first a personal note.&#160; I&#8217;ve finally moved up to Chicago and will be living in a corporate apartment in the Ashland area [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/12/10/episode-2-picking-a-location-to-grow-your-vegetables/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Episode 1 - Getting Started with a Vegetable Garden</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230;Figuring out what you want to grow and how much you want to grow&#8230;
This four part series is on &#8216;Getting Started with a Vegetable Garden&#8217;. This episode will cover figuring out what you want to grow and how much you want to grow. Part two will cover picking a location to grow. The last two [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/11/29/getting-started-with-a-vegetable-garden/</link>
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		<title>Starting a Podcast</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#39;ve decided to take a shot at doing a podcast on building a new garden at our new house in Chicago.
An episode or two will be up shortly at www.mychicagogarden.com 
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/11/28/starting-a-podcast/</link>
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		<title>Coming Soon</title>
		<description><![CDATA[No garden exists. That&#8217;s right..no garden. Well, how can I do a podcast on a garden that doesn&#8217;t exist?&#160; Because that&#8217;s the point of the podcast.&#160; You will be able to follow along as I move from my current home in Northern Kentucky, with its garden, up to the Chicago area with no garden.&#160; Since [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/11/27/coming-soon/</link>
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		<title>iPod after 4 months</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Well it hasn&#8217;t lost it&#8217;s luster.&#160; I posted 4 months ago about dropping $400 on a &#34;toy&#34; and wondering if it was going to be worth it or not. Well I can say that I think I have/will get my moneys worth.&#160; I&#8217;ve effectively turned off my car radio. I never listen to it anymore&#8230;nor [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/11/22/ipod-after-4-months/</link>
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		<title>Moving to Chicago</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s official&#8230;well at least the paperwork says it&#8217;s official&#8230;the family is moving to Chicago.&#160; We have our house up for sale here in Northern Kentucky and I&#8217;ll be starting my new job with Neohapsis December 4th.
This was totally volunteer and I&#8217;m looking at this as a very good thing. Chicago is a much better market [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/11/14/moving-to-chicago/</link>
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		<title>Power upgrade</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My Subaru Outback has been having electrical problems of some kind over the last few weeks. Last week I took it into the shop and they replaced some parts and gave it it&#39;s 90,000 mile checkup. $1500 later and it purrs like a kitten.
I&#39;m not going to take any chances though and have decided to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/10/16/power-upgrade/</link>
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		<title>U-Pick Apples</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Saturday we drove south near Lexington, KY to a U-Pick Apple farm.&#160; Great fun was had by all.&#160; We listened to a banjo player, watched a chainsaw wood carver, took a ride on a hay wagon and feed some corn to some lambs and a donkey.&#160; Oh yeah&#8230;we picked Golden Delicious apples and I picked [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/10/08/u-pick-apples/</link>
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		<title>Fall Harvest</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We harvested our one and only pumpkin today. I also sowed some more Winter Rye into the&#160;garden boxes as&#160;some of the&#160;earlier sowing either didn&#39;t&#160;germinate or I had them too deep in the soil. It also may&#160;have been that I&#160;opted for the low end of the seed per acre ratio when maybe I should have gone [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/09/24/fall-harvest/</link>
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		<title>Fresh raspberries</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We took a family outing to a local U-Pick farm and had fun picking raspberries.&#160; Later in the evening we made home made raspberry jam! Yum. This definately clinches it. We have to have berries in the garden next year 
&#160;

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/09/02/fresh-raspberries/</link>
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		<title>And one survives!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Looks like a single sun flower survived the weather and grew to maturity.

Also the new canner arrived today. Oh wow&#8230;now I know why it&#39;s built by a steel foundry. It&#39;s built like a tank.&#160;
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/08/30/and-one-survives/</link>
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		<title>First attempt at canning</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I couldn&#39;t wait for our pressure canner to arrive so I went and purchased about 5 pounds of cucumbers to make into bread and butter pickles. After canning they are suppose to sit for 7 weeks before eating. Argh!!&#160; I actually wanted to figure out how much 5 pounds (about 12 medium size) would make [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/08/26/first-attempt-at-canning/</link>
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		<title>Animal Planet</title>
		<description><![CDATA[For the last week my wife and I have been watching a particularly large spider (in our mind) build his web and eat his catch right before our eyes. About a week ago my wife noticed that a spider was building a web below the light above the sliding glass door to our deck/backyard.&#160; At [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/08/18/animal-planet/</link>
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		<title>Garden Trashed by Thunderstorm</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Oooh man! My garden got trashed last night during a storm. Well part of it anyway.
I lost my big beautiful bell pepper plant that I had not even had a harvest from, my mostly harvested bush beans, the onion crop is in jeopardy, one of the pole been plants was hit and the pumpkin and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/08/04/garden-trashed/</link>
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		<title>iPod</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I purchased a 30G black iPod last weekend and have been playing with it ever since.&#160; I have to say I am very impressed.&#160; I&#8217;m finding it very entertaining..which is what I suspect Apple was hoping for.&#160; It has been VERY easy to use and iTunes has been easy to manage.&#160; I was able to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/07/25/ipod/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Garden is looking great!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Just got back from vacation out in California and the garden has taken off like crazy.&#160; Corn is growing great, beans are ready for harvest and tomatoes are showing promise.&#160; I even had to cut back my basil plant by 50% so the other herbs would have room to grow.
    
]]></description>
		<link>http://www.mychicagogarden.com/2006/07/15/garden-is-looking-great/</link>
			</item>
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