So far it's been unseasonably cool this July. Not necessarily a bad thing, don't get me wrong. But unusual to have this kind of cool on. It's rained once- and I saved 71 gallons of rainwater for the garden. Seriously hoping this weather isn't an indication of a hard winter- I can't afford to miss work due to being snowed in this winter.
Really need to start checking around to see if I can pick up a free or super cheap rain barrel or three. Just off one morning rain I collected over 70 gallons, had to keep bottling it till I ran out of jugs! It would be sooo much easier to utilize bigger barrels, lol.
But the other day while it was still nice and dry I got in some hardcore adventure mowing. The alley behind the barn is now cleared out around through the sable- now it's a matter of keeping it mowed down. Got some trimming done around the chicken coop, and now I've come to the realization that the coop area needs a lot more work than I initially thought it would. Including a shitton of cleanup of grape vines and scrub trees, as well as a goodly bit of repair and cleanup on the coop itself.
Then I mowed down a path all the way along the south and east sides of the horse pasture- that was major as hell. And a round path around the "campground" on the back 40 corner, and that was pretty darn serious too. Started trying to hack in a path around the north side of the horse pasture, but I didn't get too far- the mower was complaining, and I realized I have a huge amount of tree and brush to clear out.
I have major work to do in filling in and smoothing out the rutted section on the south side of the pasture- too much of a wet dip and a lot of heavy truck action has resulted in the area being almost impassable when dry, and horked when wet. Not too sure what cheap/free solution will be to that one- my sister suggested "just get a load or two of gravel". Shit, she has no idea how expensive that idea is. I would love to dig out and put in a cross drain pipe- but that is stupidly expensive as well.
In gardening news... the garlic is curing up right fine in the solarium :) I've bagged off the first 8 of the tomatoes for seed saving! I've also started the fermenting of the first tomato seed, patio tomato. The Crosby Egyptian beets are finally starting to pop up, and the earliest of the radishes I sowed in the raised beds are popping up too- too bad I can't remember the order I planted the radishes in, heh. Raspberries and gooseberries are coming in now as well, and I picked about a pint of each today. The gooseberries are already in the freezer- a nifty trick is to freeze them, then shake them in the bag while frozen, it tops and tails them perfectly in a snap, and then can be rinsed off, perfectly clean!
As a random aside about canning... the place I work at uses tons of boxes for incoming goods. I've discovered some of them are absolutely perfect for storing canning jars in. There are candies that come in pint jar boxes, other candies that come in 24 jar boxes- with dividers, and all the fried apples and cobblers come in 12 count boxes that hold quart jars perfectly, again with dividers.
And sigh... really dying without a dehydrator. I don't know where I will pull the money out of my ass to get another one, but time is coming up fast to seriously need one. But I'm down to my last jar of corn, and onions, and running really low on celery too. And got summer squash starting to come in, and cukes that will need dehydrating. Garg.
Welcome to Growbox Hill
Welcome to Growbox HIll!
Showing posts with label Yard Stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yard Stuff. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Friday, May 15, 2015
Bring it on spring!
May 12th...
Today I finished up planting in all the mints. There are still a lot of goodly clumps of grass in between the mints for now to help hold the hill in place while the mints establish themselves. But man, years from now.. someone is going to buy this place and have a mint jungle, lol. The lemon mint I think is going to be the most... predatory of them all after the chocolate mint. I actually had to yank chocolate mint out of the pineapple mint patch and get it back into it's own area, lol. But the lemon mint got placed into the outside edge of the whole border, to trail up and down the edge. So when I mow it will smell like chocolate and lemon, yay! The ginger mint is by far the most beautiful, being a smooth leaved variegated. I tried to plant them all in so that even when they get grown in I will still be able to tell them apart mostly.
Pulled up a heap of kudzu- die kudzu die! And removed a handful of baby weedy trees and raspberries. Moved some variegated ivy too. That whole area will bend to my will damnit.
Got the herb bed weeded, and the variegated sweet marjoram planted in. Now it's just weed, weed, cut back tarragon, weed, weed for the rest of the season there. And ooohhhh, the fancy alliums I planted in the outside corner of the herb garden are just about to burst into bloom! I really wanted to get more weeding done on that side of the house today, but hell, there is only one me and so much to do.
Got the other side of trouble hill done with it's cleanup- I found two little chamomile plants growing! And one seriously disturbed toad, I'm surprised I didn't sit on him by accident, lol. But now that whole area is cleaned up and ready to go for planting in the chamomile and toothache plants- and I finally got the four dwarf lavenders in too :) I'm going to plant in some of the coleus in that area too for pretty foliage.
Got the area where the smoke tree is going to get planted in marked off. No, it didn't get worked on today for planting in the tree- I have no idea when my sister is going to get that done, but she said she will be doing it tomorrow.
Got a couple pots of the daffodils planted in, the small branching ones. Those went in under the maple on the other side of the house. As time comes for it, I am going to give that whole area a vigorous weeding! It needs a thinning out big time.
Got three large dead limbs sawed off in the orchard- one on an apple, two off the apricot tree. And a handful of snipping too. I didn't want to do too much on the trees since they are now in full bloom. But I think the sour cherry tree will be grateful not to be overhung by the dead apple limb anymore :)
I split up and repotted all the coleus- man, there were a ton of them, there is now 2 1/2 flats of the things! A couple of them from the mixed container are turning out to be absolutely beautiful dark purples and rusts- I guess I got a fondness for those over the variegated purple and greens which is what I mostly have. But I will be planting in a heap of those in a couple weeks- I am absolutely going to pay mind to seed saving and taking cuttings from some of those beauties when the time comes.
Now that I am cleaned up and tick free- it's time to get on with some other things. I gotta get a frost blanket over the mini greenhouses that have the tomatoes and peppers in them, and got some cooking to do- need to make up a couple quarts of pickled mushrooms! And since I drained off the pepper chive vodka today, I need to finish that up as well.
May 13...
Still didn't get the pickled mushrooms done. Good thing mushrooms can hold for a while, lol.
I did however enjoy sleeping in till 9 this morning. Good lord, a whole uninterrupted 10 hours sleep can do you a world of wonders. I had the hubby help me with flipping around the mattress and futon layer last night, and with a re-fluff of the feather bed, it was a heavenly rest.
But even the best rest must come to an end, heh.
Today I busted out and got the first leg of the front yard border done. 3x14 of sod dug out, and 4 hardy hibiscus, 7 mums, and 8-10 each of 4 different kinds of narcissus planted in. Along with a goodly smattering of Papaya and Cream nasts to grow in for this summer. Sis dug the hole to plant in her smoke tree, and kind of dug out the ring for Night Beacon lillies around the tree. Of course when I put down straw over the beds, I put down extra around her bed in hopes of smothering out weeds where she skimped out on. But now the new beds are done in the front yard. Hopefully they will like their new homes, and grow in big and strong.
After that I should have done a bunch of weeding around the solarium- but decided to do a round of mowing around the front yard instead. By gosh the grass already needed the mowing, and I really wasn't up to a round of weeding after busting my ass for 5 hours with bedwork, lol. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I don't have to be in till afternoon tomorrow, so hopefully I will get the solarium areas weeded out and seeded in then.
In good news, though it has been 40's and below overnight last night and tonight, the garden squashes and beans are holding on and growing in right fine. After tonight, we are supposed to be seeing another warm streak that will hopefully lead into a sustained warm pattern, and I can get more plants put out into the garden areas.
May 15....
Got some cooking done yesterday, and a bit of weeding, not much else- it was a work day, smack dab in the middle of the day.
Today I got the whole solarum beds weeded out, a royal PITA every time. Moved a goodly chunk of violets off to under the pinkbud tree in back- I figure they got a good chance of settling in there, and hey, then the less mowing around that stupid little tree, lol. I planted in all the Milkmaid nasturium seed I had there too- they did pretty well last year there, I'm hoping since I cleared out more space, I will get an even better flush of lovely creamy blossoms this year.
Dug up a crapola of area on the edge of the solarium bed on the south and it looks much nicer now. I've discovered that a lot of the hyacinths have produced seed pods this year! So yepper, you bed I will be saving the seed and planting it in again. I also planted in all the glad bulbs I saved last year- got no idea which ones are which, I didn't mark the bins, oops. But they did all go into their own bags, so I planted them all in their own rows. So we shall see what comes up. I also planted up three pots of Alaska Salmon nasturtiums for the front porch- those get pretty blooms and variegated foliage.
Took time to take pics of the new beds out front, the garlic beds, and the squash and bean bed down by the garlic beds...
So.. now I'm off to get ready for work!
Today I finished up planting in all the mints. There are still a lot of goodly clumps of grass in between the mints for now to help hold the hill in place while the mints establish themselves. But man, years from now.. someone is going to buy this place and have a mint jungle, lol. The lemon mint I think is going to be the most... predatory of them all after the chocolate mint. I actually had to yank chocolate mint out of the pineapple mint patch and get it back into it's own area, lol. But the lemon mint got placed into the outside edge of the whole border, to trail up and down the edge. So when I mow it will smell like chocolate and lemon, yay! The ginger mint is by far the most beautiful, being a smooth leaved variegated. I tried to plant them all in so that even when they get grown in I will still be able to tell them apart mostly.
Pulled up a heap of kudzu- die kudzu die! And removed a handful of baby weedy trees and raspberries. Moved some variegated ivy too. That whole area will bend to my will damnit.
Got the herb bed weeded, and the variegated sweet marjoram planted in. Now it's just weed, weed, cut back tarragon, weed, weed for the rest of the season there. And ooohhhh, the fancy alliums I planted in the outside corner of the herb garden are just about to burst into bloom! I really wanted to get more weeding done on that side of the house today, but hell, there is only one me and so much to do.
Got the other side of trouble hill done with it's cleanup- I found two little chamomile plants growing! And one seriously disturbed toad, I'm surprised I didn't sit on him by accident, lol. But now that whole area is cleaned up and ready to go for planting in the chamomile and toothache plants- and I finally got the four dwarf lavenders in too :) I'm going to plant in some of the coleus in that area too for pretty foliage.
Got the area where the smoke tree is going to get planted in marked off. No, it didn't get worked on today for planting in the tree- I have no idea when my sister is going to get that done, but she said she will be doing it tomorrow.
Got a couple pots of the daffodils planted in, the small branching ones. Those went in under the maple on the other side of the house. As time comes for it, I am going to give that whole area a vigorous weeding! It needs a thinning out big time.
Got three large dead limbs sawed off in the orchard- one on an apple, two off the apricot tree. And a handful of snipping too. I didn't want to do too much on the trees since they are now in full bloom. But I think the sour cherry tree will be grateful not to be overhung by the dead apple limb anymore :)
I split up and repotted all the coleus- man, there were a ton of them, there is now 2 1/2 flats of the things! A couple of them from the mixed container are turning out to be absolutely beautiful dark purples and rusts- I guess I got a fondness for those over the variegated purple and greens which is what I mostly have. But I will be planting in a heap of those in a couple weeks- I am absolutely going to pay mind to seed saving and taking cuttings from some of those beauties when the time comes.
Now that I am cleaned up and tick free- it's time to get on with some other things. I gotta get a frost blanket over the mini greenhouses that have the tomatoes and peppers in them, and got some cooking to do- need to make up a couple quarts of pickled mushrooms! And since I drained off the pepper chive vodka today, I need to finish that up as well.
May 13...
Still didn't get the pickled mushrooms done. Good thing mushrooms can hold for a while, lol.
I did however enjoy sleeping in till 9 this morning. Good lord, a whole uninterrupted 10 hours sleep can do you a world of wonders. I had the hubby help me with flipping around the mattress and futon layer last night, and with a re-fluff of the feather bed, it was a heavenly rest.
But even the best rest must come to an end, heh.
Today I busted out and got the first leg of the front yard border done. 3x14 of sod dug out, and 4 hardy hibiscus, 7 mums, and 8-10 each of 4 different kinds of narcissus planted in. Along with a goodly smattering of Papaya and Cream nasts to grow in for this summer. Sis dug the hole to plant in her smoke tree, and kind of dug out the ring for Night Beacon lillies around the tree. Of course when I put down straw over the beds, I put down extra around her bed in hopes of smothering out weeds where she skimped out on. But now the new beds are done in the front yard. Hopefully they will like their new homes, and grow in big and strong.
After that I should have done a bunch of weeding around the solarium- but decided to do a round of mowing around the front yard instead. By gosh the grass already needed the mowing, and I really wasn't up to a round of weeding after busting my ass for 5 hours with bedwork, lol. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I don't have to be in till afternoon tomorrow, so hopefully I will get the solarium areas weeded out and seeded in then.
In good news, though it has been 40's and below overnight last night and tonight, the garden squashes and beans are holding on and growing in right fine. After tonight, we are supposed to be seeing another warm streak that will hopefully lead into a sustained warm pattern, and I can get more plants put out into the garden areas.
May 15....
Got some cooking done yesterday, and a bit of weeding, not much else- it was a work day, smack dab in the middle of the day.
Today I got the whole solarum beds weeded out, a royal PITA every time. Moved a goodly chunk of violets off to under the pinkbud tree in back- I figure they got a good chance of settling in there, and hey, then the less mowing around that stupid little tree, lol. I planted in all the Milkmaid nasturium seed I had there too- they did pretty well last year there, I'm hoping since I cleared out more space, I will get an even better flush of lovely creamy blossoms this year.
Dug up a crapola of area on the edge of the solarium bed on the south and it looks much nicer now. I've discovered that a lot of the hyacinths have produced seed pods this year! So yepper, you bed I will be saving the seed and planting it in again. I also planted in all the glad bulbs I saved last year- got no idea which ones are which, I didn't mark the bins, oops. But they did all go into their own bags, so I planted them all in their own rows. So we shall see what comes up. I also planted up three pots of Alaska Salmon nasturtiums for the front porch- those get pretty blooms and variegated foliage.
Took time to take pics of the new beds out front, the garlic beds, and the squash and bean bed down by the garlic beds...
So.. now I'm off to get ready for work!
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Hooray for seeds!!!!!
January 17th...
What's been going on over the last week? I had a job interview at Cracker Barrel, and the retail manager liked me enough to set me up with an interview with the general manager. It's only part time, and not a lot of hours during the winter, but right now any money coming in is good. I can cross train for more than one position too to help bring in more hours- and it will still give me a little time for getting stuff done around here as spring creeps closer. I'm still hitting all the sites every day to see what else I can apply for of course.
My sister came home mid week, and her kitties were really frigging happy about that. Like my meows, they miss their person terribly while gone. She said she's gonna make some stuff for the etsy shop, but we shall see if that actually happens or not. She said she wants to pick up a welding job too, but again, we shall see. Today was melty and steady in the mid 40's and she was nuts enough to shovel the whole frigging driveway, so that was really nice. Now the kitchen is clear, and once we drop back down the rest of everything might turn into a full sheet of ice to drive on. I really really hope not though, because we might get snow back in next week. But hey, at least the temps are supposed to hover around freezing instead of super arctic.
Unfortunately, with the last week or two of hitting super fucking cold temps, the solarium finally dipped below freezing. We lost the spider plants, but most of the rest of the plants still look pretty ok, including the dill surprisingly enough. I figured the cold would super kill it, and it didn't happen. But the winter squashes I had stored out there all got hit with the nip. So I spent a day roasting most of them off then draining them off, and now I have three quarts of pulp in the freezer and the last quart or so I pureed in the food processor and it's now in the dehydrator. I'm bummed that they got frozen, their color changed and everything so it was really apparent. But now between what I just froze and the last squash I froze up I got three batches of squash soup pulp ready to go. And I figure by the time the puree is dry and crispy, it will top off the squash flour right nice, but without the days and days of work like I did last time, lol.
I finally got the library at least decently unjammed with boxes of moms random stuff and the table moved out of the living room so we can pull moms treadmill out of the pole barn for her. Her stability is really suffering and she seriously needs to get on her feet and walking more to help improve her function again. Right now I worry about her getting coffee a few times a day with the way she walks around. Sedentary life is a killer for her, and we need to mend that. So treadmill it is. Now that the drive is clear we will be able to pull it out, maybe tomorrow.
Got three more litter jugs set out today, two of bleeding heart, and one of black peony poppy. The poppy is a breadseed type, the second I have planted so far. I will be planting it in the yard apart from the first just to help keep the seed pure. I still have one more show poppy to start too, but I'm not sure where that's going to end up.
And JOY!!! My huge trade seed package that I've been waiting on since November has finally shown up. Chock full of a ton of flower seeds, a bunch of veggies and herbs, and even some foliage plants. Now I'm going to have to figure out where a bunch of em are going to go, but I'm just pleased as punch about it. It looks like I might be able to do a full streetside border if I can get enough seed started and get the ground torn up. I'm going to have to save my pennies and rent a tiller in the spring, and I already knew that was coming. Just now it looks like it will be even more important to get it done. I want to get the streetside border set up, the smoke tree circle cut in, and I'd like to till up a strip along the fucktano fence in the sanctuary to start putting in a heavy border there too. Maybe I should contact Siggy and see what he has going on- I know he has a huge farm size tiller, but what I'm going to be doing is smaller, and I don't know if he has smaller equipment or not.
And I did get in some seeds that are kind of, um, yuck. Bronze fennel, red perilla shiso, and anise hyssop. Anise is one of the least favorite flavors around here, and I got a bunch of seed. So what to do? I was thinking maybe a planting in the back 40- that way I can use the seed, cultivate the plants for future seed use in trading and selling- and a lot of bugs and birds positively love the stuff, so even though we don't like it I can still start up a critter friendly patch. I also got in a bunch of tomato seed, even though I specifically asked not to get tomato seed, now I will have to figure out what to do with all of that, if I want to keep it or trade it.
But all in all, pretty happy about it all. I had sent off 84 packets, and got back 96 packets. Including a bunch of stuff I really did want. Like a lot of different kinds of lavender, coleus, chamomile, nigellas, and celosia. And some interesting sounding small broccolis and cukes. And a bunch of herbs.
I'm hoping by the end of this growing season, I will have expanded the fenceline bed up to the pole so I can get in a proper dill bed, get something going around the pole barn, the front yard/streetside beds, the sanctuary plantings... Plus the regular garden beds and starting on a lot of back 40 action. There sure is a lot of space back there that can be worked with.
I'm also hoping that as spring comes on, I can scrape up a few extra bucks for planting supplies to be able to get some stuff in a roadside stand. I'm already planning on starting out pretty much what I got for tomatoes and peppers I'm growing this year, but it sure would be nice if I can swing some other stuff too. Shit is just so tight now, it's hard enough to pay bills, let alone try to allow out a few extra bucks to try to make money to pay bills, lol. Winter is always harder too because of heating costs.
On the upcoming spring slate is clearing out the chicken coop and figuring out what we need to do to get a few chickens in this year. Hopefully it won't be too much investment to start getting regular eggs and some meat through the year. That would be a nice pressure not to have to worry about as much, less buying of eggs and chicken. I still am keeping my eye out for a good pressure canner at yard sales so I can start canning up meat, stocks, soups, and all that other stuff I can't water bath can. Still hoping that soon I can get the front burner fixed on the stove so I can actually start canning again when the season is nigh too. I'm paranoid I'm gonna fry out the back big burner then we are screwed for any reasonable big pan cooking at all.
But speaking of cooking... I made up a big ole pot of spaghetti sauce for dinner tonight- we got the boys so an extra big pot is needed. And I need to shoo off in order to prep up garlic bread and get the pasta kettle going.
What's been going on over the last week? I had a job interview at Cracker Barrel, and the retail manager liked me enough to set me up with an interview with the general manager. It's only part time, and not a lot of hours during the winter, but right now any money coming in is good. I can cross train for more than one position too to help bring in more hours- and it will still give me a little time for getting stuff done around here as spring creeps closer. I'm still hitting all the sites every day to see what else I can apply for of course.
My sister came home mid week, and her kitties were really frigging happy about that. Like my meows, they miss their person terribly while gone. She said she's gonna make some stuff for the etsy shop, but we shall see if that actually happens or not. She said she wants to pick up a welding job too, but again, we shall see. Today was melty and steady in the mid 40's and she was nuts enough to shovel the whole frigging driveway, so that was really nice. Now the kitchen is clear, and once we drop back down the rest of everything might turn into a full sheet of ice to drive on. I really really hope not though, because we might get snow back in next week. But hey, at least the temps are supposed to hover around freezing instead of super arctic.
Unfortunately, with the last week or two of hitting super fucking cold temps, the solarium finally dipped below freezing. We lost the spider plants, but most of the rest of the plants still look pretty ok, including the dill surprisingly enough. I figured the cold would super kill it, and it didn't happen. But the winter squashes I had stored out there all got hit with the nip. So I spent a day roasting most of them off then draining them off, and now I have three quarts of pulp in the freezer and the last quart or so I pureed in the food processor and it's now in the dehydrator. I'm bummed that they got frozen, their color changed and everything so it was really apparent. But now between what I just froze and the last squash I froze up I got three batches of squash soup pulp ready to go. And I figure by the time the puree is dry and crispy, it will top off the squash flour right nice, but without the days and days of work like I did last time, lol.
I finally got the library at least decently unjammed with boxes of moms random stuff and the table moved out of the living room so we can pull moms treadmill out of the pole barn for her. Her stability is really suffering and she seriously needs to get on her feet and walking more to help improve her function again. Right now I worry about her getting coffee a few times a day with the way she walks around. Sedentary life is a killer for her, and we need to mend that. So treadmill it is. Now that the drive is clear we will be able to pull it out, maybe tomorrow.
Got three more litter jugs set out today, two of bleeding heart, and one of black peony poppy. The poppy is a breadseed type, the second I have planted so far. I will be planting it in the yard apart from the first just to help keep the seed pure. I still have one more show poppy to start too, but I'm not sure where that's going to end up.
And JOY!!! My huge trade seed package that I've been waiting on since November has finally shown up. Chock full of a ton of flower seeds, a bunch of veggies and herbs, and even some foliage plants. Now I'm going to have to figure out where a bunch of em are going to go, but I'm just pleased as punch about it. It looks like I might be able to do a full streetside border if I can get enough seed started and get the ground torn up. I'm going to have to save my pennies and rent a tiller in the spring, and I already knew that was coming. Just now it looks like it will be even more important to get it done. I want to get the streetside border set up, the smoke tree circle cut in, and I'd like to till up a strip along the fucktano fence in the sanctuary to start putting in a heavy border there too. Maybe I should contact Siggy and see what he has going on- I know he has a huge farm size tiller, but what I'm going to be doing is smaller, and I don't know if he has smaller equipment or not.
And I did get in some seeds that are kind of, um, yuck. Bronze fennel, red perilla shiso, and anise hyssop. Anise is one of the least favorite flavors around here, and I got a bunch of seed. So what to do? I was thinking maybe a planting in the back 40- that way I can use the seed, cultivate the plants for future seed use in trading and selling- and a lot of bugs and birds positively love the stuff, so even though we don't like it I can still start up a critter friendly patch. I also got in a bunch of tomato seed, even though I specifically asked not to get tomato seed, now I will have to figure out what to do with all of that, if I want to keep it or trade it.
But all in all, pretty happy about it all. I had sent off 84 packets, and got back 96 packets. Including a bunch of stuff I really did want. Like a lot of different kinds of lavender, coleus, chamomile, nigellas, and celosia. And some interesting sounding small broccolis and cukes. And a bunch of herbs.
I'm hoping by the end of this growing season, I will have expanded the fenceline bed up to the pole so I can get in a proper dill bed, get something going around the pole barn, the front yard/streetside beds, the sanctuary plantings... Plus the regular garden beds and starting on a lot of back 40 action. There sure is a lot of space back there that can be worked with.
I'm also hoping that as spring comes on, I can scrape up a few extra bucks for planting supplies to be able to get some stuff in a roadside stand. I'm already planning on starting out pretty much what I got for tomatoes and peppers I'm growing this year, but it sure would be nice if I can swing some other stuff too. Shit is just so tight now, it's hard enough to pay bills, let alone try to allow out a few extra bucks to try to make money to pay bills, lol. Winter is always harder too because of heating costs.
On the upcoming spring slate is clearing out the chicken coop and figuring out what we need to do to get a few chickens in this year. Hopefully it won't be too much investment to start getting regular eggs and some meat through the year. That would be a nice pressure not to have to worry about as much, less buying of eggs and chicken. I still am keeping my eye out for a good pressure canner at yard sales so I can start canning up meat, stocks, soups, and all that other stuff I can't water bath can. Still hoping that soon I can get the front burner fixed on the stove so I can actually start canning again when the season is nigh too. I'm paranoid I'm gonna fry out the back big burner then we are screwed for any reasonable big pan cooking at all.
But speaking of cooking... I made up a big ole pot of spaghetti sauce for dinner tonight- we got the boys so an extra big pot is needed. And I need to shoo off in order to prep up garlic bread and get the pasta kettle going.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Great yard days
the 14th...
It was an absolutely lovely day today.Sunny and cool in the upper 60's. I got out around 11 and mowed up the whole front yard. I offered my sister mowing the rest of the yard. While she was mowing I went around the yard and did a lot of trimming.. a few truckloads worth. All the little tree bits and such that have gotten out of hand over the last season or three and I seriously needed to attend to.
The entire white fenceline is cleaned up except for the compost/bee corner. That's it's own project, lol.
The wild grapevine choked tree in the front corner is now cleared of vines and pruned a bit back. Opened up and cleaned up around the traffic sign.
The raspberry bed around the utiltiy pole- whew. That was a mess of old canes and unruly new ones. Got all the old canes trimmed out and all the new ones woven in contained behind the mooring lines.
Extra mowed down the arch drive and cut down all that tall stuff around the trunk where the arch drive meets the easement drive. That was a thing- but now the area looks so much better! I think I want to go ahead with some sort of light setup on that stump and plan in a serious bed of nasturtiums in that area starting next year.
A new mowing keyhole down by the pond was made today, as well as a little drive through path on the north side where we dump our non-composting weeds.
Tomorrow we need to walk out around the back 40 and see how truck driveable or not the trek is. I would like to drop todays trimmings in the way back corner. Want to walk out the north fenceline to see what needs to be done to get a footpath in order. I think eventually we will need to figure out a whole pondside path too, lol.
It's the 17th, and man we have been busy as hell out in the yard! Lots of pruning and cutting. Got the veggie beds attended to- to tomatoes now have been cleaned up and re-supported as necessary.
The whole potato aisle of the dog run is cleared out and cleaned out- we even got a couple pounds of potatoes out of those sloppy bags! Enough encouragement to do it again, only using hard sides containers like garbage cans. Those would be mobile and sturdy. Got the whole mess of nasturtiums dealt with in the other bay of the dog run. Picked the very first of my Histada Shield beans and those are shelled and set to cure. There's enough otherwise on the vine that I'm pretty sure I now have a crop batch amount of seed maturing.
Cut in a whole new path on the north side of the yard and combated a grave vine overgrown rose tree to do it. My sister attended to the long overdue lilac, and I think it will be much healthier for the cutback. One of the darker lilies will get planted in there, and will need to attend to the violet patch more between the lilacs and the pine too. And now we have a full mowing lane back there again, discreetly tucked back. That's our general dumping ground for weedy crap that can't go into the compost area. Eventually we will just keep going right down the fenceline entirely I think.
We will end up running a whole walking patch all the way to the back corner- it was widely groomed at one time so a bit of effort should see at least a footpath cut back in again.
It was an absolutely lovely day today.Sunny and cool in the upper 60's. I got out around 11 and mowed up the whole front yard. I offered my sister mowing the rest of the yard. While she was mowing I went around the yard and did a lot of trimming.. a few truckloads worth. All the little tree bits and such that have gotten out of hand over the last season or three and I seriously needed to attend to.
The entire white fenceline is cleaned up except for the compost/bee corner. That's it's own project, lol.
The wild grapevine choked tree in the front corner is now cleared of vines and pruned a bit back. Opened up and cleaned up around the traffic sign.
The raspberry bed around the utiltiy pole- whew. That was a mess of old canes and unruly new ones. Got all the old canes trimmed out and all the new ones woven in contained behind the mooring lines.
Extra mowed down the arch drive and cut down all that tall stuff around the trunk where the arch drive meets the easement drive. That was a thing- but now the area looks so much better! I think I want to go ahead with some sort of light setup on that stump and plan in a serious bed of nasturtiums in that area starting next year.
A new mowing keyhole down by the pond was made today, as well as a little drive through path on the north side where we dump our non-composting weeds.
Tomorrow we need to walk out around the back 40 and see how truck driveable or not the trek is. I would like to drop todays trimmings in the way back corner. Want to walk out the north fenceline to see what needs to be done to get a footpath in order. I think eventually we will need to figure out a whole pondside path too, lol.
It's the 17th, and man we have been busy as hell out in the yard! Lots of pruning and cutting. Got the veggie beds attended to- to tomatoes now have been cleaned up and re-supported as necessary.
The whole potato aisle of the dog run is cleared out and cleaned out- we even got a couple pounds of potatoes out of those sloppy bags! Enough encouragement to do it again, only using hard sides containers like garbage cans. Those would be mobile and sturdy. Got the whole mess of nasturtiums dealt with in the other bay of the dog run. Picked the very first of my Histada Shield beans and those are shelled and set to cure. There's enough otherwise on the vine that I'm pretty sure I now have a crop batch amount of seed maturing.
Cut in a whole new path on the north side of the yard and combated a grave vine overgrown rose tree to do it. My sister attended to the long overdue lilac, and I think it will be much healthier for the cutback. One of the darker lilies will get planted in there, and will need to attend to the violet patch more between the lilacs and the pine too. And now we have a full mowing lane back there again, discreetly tucked back. That's our general dumping ground for weedy crap that can't go into the compost area. Eventually we will just keep going right down the fenceline entirely I think.
We will end up running a whole walking patch all the way to the back corner- it was widely groomed at one time so a bit of effort should see at least a footpath cut back in again.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Holiday weekend
Not a ton going on around here. The fence works according to my awesome neighbor- the icky one didn't even look my way, but spoke to the awesome neighbor about it. Looks like the fence will indeed deter the icky neighbor.
Did some smoking- chicken one evening, and my Kefta Swiss steak another night. Did cooler corn- and that was spectacular. Got the corn fresh from a local favorite farm stand, and boy was it good as hell. Got the turkey stock made up from the turkey we smoked last weekend and the stock is in the freezer.
Made fresh blueberry muffins with lemon strudel topping- those were spectacular. Even paid mind to make notes so I can make them again, lol.
My attempt at canning cherries in apple juice was a fail- three quarts and all the seals were blown. So cherries went into the freezer- thank heavens for the chest freezer!
Lit off about 45 minutes of ground works on the fourth- it was sparkley and super fun. Made sure to hose them down real well after. Last night some of the locals blew off the big mortars before heading back into town- it was loud as a battlefield till midnight.
Went to mow another section of the yard today, and snapped my deck clutch cable. Boy, was I steamed by the time I got the stupid thing off to replace it. Now I have to wait till tomorrow to hit up the somewhat local dealer to see if they have one or can order one for me. Good thing I got dinky hands otherwise I would have never gotten the stupid thing off from under the engine case.
Started picking seed off the Alaska peas- there weren't enough for eating. But I still have a heap of Green Arrow I can set in for a hopeful fall harvest. Been picking and drying Nasturtium leaves too. And the garlic is looking so damn good, I can hardly wait till they are ready to pull up. I think I might just have to cut off the scapes for some garlicky dinner goodness soon. All the squashes look spectacular- I'm hoping for a serious crop this year. The tomatoes are all plush as hell, can hardly wait to start picking those too.
Got a faire weekend coming up- I sort of dread going through garb and seeing what fits, or more like seeing what does not, hahaha. But at least it's just a weekend behind the counter, and I should stop being a costume snob.
The family is settling in pretty good. We still have a lot of re-arranging to do, and a heap of boxes to unpack. But it's coming right along, peace and contentment is settling in.
Did some smoking- chicken one evening, and my Kefta Swiss steak another night. Did cooler corn- and that was spectacular. Got the corn fresh from a local favorite farm stand, and boy was it good as hell. Got the turkey stock made up from the turkey we smoked last weekend and the stock is in the freezer.
Made fresh blueberry muffins with lemon strudel topping- those were spectacular. Even paid mind to make notes so I can make them again, lol.
My attempt at canning cherries in apple juice was a fail- three quarts and all the seals were blown. So cherries went into the freezer- thank heavens for the chest freezer!
Lit off about 45 minutes of ground works on the fourth- it was sparkley and super fun. Made sure to hose them down real well after. Last night some of the locals blew off the big mortars before heading back into town- it was loud as a battlefield till midnight.
Went to mow another section of the yard today, and snapped my deck clutch cable. Boy, was I steamed by the time I got the stupid thing off to replace it. Now I have to wait till tomorrow to hit up the somewhat local dealer to see if they have one or can order one for me. Good thing I got dinky hands otherwise I would have never gotten the stupid thing off from under the engine case.
Started picking seed off the Alaska peas- there weren't enough for eating. But I still have a heap of Green Arrow I can set in for a hopeful fall harvest. Been picking and drying Nasturtium leaves too. And the garlic is looking so damn good, I can hardly wait till they are ready to pull up. I think I might just have to cut off the scapes for some garlicky dinner goodness soon. All the squashes look spectacular- I'm hoping for a serious crop this year. The tomatoes are all plush as hell, can hardly wait to start picking those too.
Got a faire weekend coming up- I sort of dread going through garb and seeing what fits, or more like seeing what does not, hahaha. But at least it's just a weekend behind the counter, and I should stop being a costume snob.
The family is settling in pretty good. We still have a lot of re-arranging to do, and a heap of boxes to unpack. But it's coming right along, peace and contentment is settling in.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Busy busy...
Tuesday, April 15
Yeah, it has been many days since my last post. Been busy busy. Since I last wrote I've made seasoning mixes and a few shelf stable dinner kits. Dehydrated a heap of mushrooms. Made some wicked ass pork, mushroom, and rice enchiladas. Introduced my sister to my homemade pickles, and she discovered shes a huge fan. Picked up a ton of carrots that were on supersale- dried up 4-5 pounds of grated, and made a couple jars of Zanahorias en Escabeche. Aka Spicy Mexican pickled carrots. Just made those today, this is what they look like, yum!
Got the wee folk garden all raked out of it's fall leaves- those got dumped onto the end of the dog run. Planted in Dusseldorf Pride Thrift, Butterfly Blue Scabiosa, and Touran Scarlet Saxifraga. The were on super clearance on a back rack at one of the hardware places. Here's the before and after shots :)
Along that back wall will be going in some lovely little red lilies. And to the far left just off the camera shot will be going the Milkmaid nasturtiums. The patio itself needs some cleanup and tending this year.
Of course with spring is the popping up of spring bulbs!!
The garlic bed is looking great! I don't think I lost a single bulb. If all goes this well till harvest, we should have many pounds of different kinds of garlic to try out sometime in July/August.
The bed of dwarf dafs and siberian iris were in full bloom early last week- they are usually the first full on blooms the yard sees, so I keep an eye out for that pop of yellow!
So, about a week ago, this is what the south edge of the solarium looked like:
You can just see the tips of the king dafs I transplanted in last year from the bee patio in the first pic, and the naturalized regular dafs are just little clumps in the second pic....
And this is what they looked like just a week later! The king dafs are showing strong, and the earliest of the regular ones have started to bloom. In other nice news, looks like grandmas poppy survived another year :)
Got more cleanup and rearranging done in the solarium:
I now have a nice solid countertop, a potting table, and a double stack of plant shelves! Woot!! Much cleanup has been done since these pics were taken. Notice the pots on the top row in the bottim pic? The ones with the yellow markers? Those are nasturtiums, they were planted on the 4th with most of the rest of the pots you see.
Here's the same nasturtiums, pic taken last Sunday. Amazing what a little seed can do in a week! The Alaska peas are popping up too, and the chamomile that I planted a month ago did so well, I filled in the rest of that tray with another 24 plugs, and those are all sprouted now too :)
The cats hanging out in the solarium thing has been going pretty well so far- I think the hot pepper spray I made works, they haven't been chewing on some plants they have previously wanted to chomp on. They really like hanging out in there too. And they are starting to accept the fact the doors are just sometimes closed with less meowing and fuss, lol.
Got the herb garden raked out nicely, and some seeds planted in on Sunday.
In the left back is rainbow carrot, in front of it is golden beet. Next are the spikes showing where the tarragon and savory grow. Then next in the back is lettuce, in front of it mixed beets. On the right edge is a patch of spinach, and in front sparkler red tip radish. Just out of the pic in the bottom right corner is where I moved the french thyme too- it was right on the edge of the walkway, heh.
Yeah, I know it's kind of early to start seed, but these are the heartiest of the seeds, and I'm in a zone warmer than most of my readers- I'm in zone 6. And the south side of the house gets the extra dose of warm. And with the leaves stripped off, I really wanted to get something on that tender open soil asap. If I really screwed the pooch and went too early, I still have a gajillion seed tapes to make, lol.
While my sister was here we picked up the materials to fix the solarium roof- now we just need the right stretch of warm and dry days to get it in place and sealed up. Also picked up the stuff to grow potatoes this year. I'm trying garbage bag growing this year, going to try the straw and manure mix. I picked up Australian Fingerling, Adirondak Blue, Kennebec, and Red Pontiac.
We got tons of cleaning and re-arranging done while she was here too. Lots of little stuff that is just easier to do with two people on the job. Like installing some closet rods, woot! We also went for a couple nature walks, got to scatter some black eyed susan and wild sweet pea seeds in their areas. Also sprinkled in a whole new batch of parsley seed down in the tulip border- and hooray, looks like I might have a couple parsleys that survived from last year!
Found out the hard way that my new little greenhouse blows over unless it's filled- so at the moment all the milk jug greenhouses are on the shelves in there. No problem, I guess those wild flowers are getting double shots of protection for the moment. Though soon enough I will need to move all those nasts out there.
Yeah, it has been many days since my last post. Been busy busy. Since I last wrote I've made seasoning mixes and a few shelf stable dinner kits. Dehydrated a heap of mushrooms. Made some wicked ass pork, mushroom, and rice enchiladas. Introduced my sister to my homemade pickles, and she discovered shes a huge fan. Picked up a ton of carrots that were on supersale- dried up 4-5 pounds of grated, and made a couple jars of Zanahorias en Escabeche. Aka Spicy Mexican pickled carrots. Just made those today, this is what they look like, yum!
Got the wee folk garden all raked out of it's fall leaves- those got dumped onto the end of the dog run. Planted in Dusseldorf Pride Thrift, Butterfly Blue Scabiosa, and Touran Scarlet Saxifraga. The were on super clearance on a back rack at one of the hardware places. Here's the before and after shots :)
Along that back wall will be going in some lovely little red lilies. And to the far left just off the camera shot will be going the Milkmaid nasturtiums. The patio itself needs some cleanup and tending this year.
Of course with spring is the popping up of spring bulbs!!
So, about a week ago, this is what the south edge of the solarium looked like:
Got more cleanup and rearranging done in the solarium:
The cats hanging out in the solarium thing has been going pretty well so far- I think the hot pepper spray I made works, they haven't been chewing on some plants they have previously wanted to chomp on. They really like hanging out in there too. And they are starting to accept the fact the doors are just sometimes closed with less meowing and fuss, lol.
Got the herb garden raked out nicely, and some seeds planted in on Sunday.
In the left back is rainbow carrot, in front of it is golden beet. Next are the spikes showing where the tarragon and savory grow. Then next in the back is lettuce, in front of it mixed beets. On the right edge is a patch of spinach, and in front sparkler red tip radish. Just out of the pic in the bottom right corner is where I moved the french thyme too- it was right on the edge of the walkway, heh.
Yeah, I know it's kind of early to start seed, but these are the heartiest of the seeds, and I'm in a zone warmer than most of my readers- I'm in zone 6. And the south side of the house gets the extra dose of warm. And with the leaves stripped off, I really wanted to get something on that tender open soil asap. If I really screwed the pooch and went too early, I still have a gajillion seed tapes to make, lol.
While my sister was here we picked up the materials to fix the solarium roof- now we just need the right stretch of warm and dry days to get it in place and sealed up. Also picked up the stuff to grow potatoes this year. I'm trying garbage bag growing this year, going to try the straw and manure mix. I picked up Australian Fingerling, Adirondak Blue, Kennebec, and Red Pontiac.
We got tons of cleaning and re-arranging done while she was here too. Lots of little stuff that is just easier to do with two people on the job. Like installing some closet rods, woot! We also went for a couple nature walks, got to scatter some black eyed susan and wild sweet pea seeds in their areas. Also sprinkled in a whole new batch of parsley seed down in the tulip border- and hooray, looks like I might have a couple parsleys that survived from last year!
Found out the hard way that my new little greenhouse blows over unless it's filled- so at the moment all the milk jug greenhouses are on the shelves in there. No problem, I guess those wild flowers are getting double shots of protection for the moment. Though soon enough I will need to move all those nasts out there.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Getting it done...
I've gotten a couple things done over the last few days...
Weeded out the root crop area of the herb garden. And yes, I gave up to temptation and pulled up 4 white icicle radishes- they were ready to be picked :) Nothing else was, and I was good and left the rest alone. I think after I pull all of them I need to put down a load of horse poo and leaves this year to overwinter.
I also got the daffodils planted in, yay! Took a goodly bit of time, but here's the result.
I know, the edge is still scrappy as hell- that will get more properly trimmed out in the spring when the next set of bulbs go in. I left in a couple of the milkweeds too. I planted small patches at a time. You can sort of see where I started out along the wall line and worked my way around the bird bath going counter clockwise. I'm kind of hoping this will look nice and fill in decently. I wanted to work around the birdbath since I knew that's where the drip point off the corner of the roof is. The line closest to me is approximately where I want the slab to edge up to eventually. Next step before winter will be sinking in a line of recycled cans to finish out that line.
This whole area took a while because I went through with a hand trowel and dug out a lot of root bits and a bit of gravel. I wasn't meticulous about getting the gravel out, but I did pick out all the bigger rocks. Those got dumped at the top of the hill where I want a patch of gravel.
I'm hoping to be able to pick up a couple bags of grape hyacinth on clearance soon like I did last year, and cut in blocks in the spring like I did last year.
Monday, Monday..
Got the seed trades packed and ready to go, along with other mail.. Even drove it to the post office- then discovered it was a holiday today, Columbus day. Oops. Decided while out an about to hit up the local stores for their Halloween wares. See what my local shops had compared to when I was out visiting. Glad I did because that stuff was already being clearanced out.
I now have three buildings. A candy shop and a B&B from JoAnns, and a blood bar from Michaels. Rather happy about the blood bar, I snagged it from the display to get it. I also picked up a handful of smalls. All in all, making a rather tight gathering on the mantel at the moment. I have to clean up Gluggs tank and install his heater before I can do final arranging.
I hit the local places that carry bulbs too- everyone is currently in full selling mode, no clearances yet on bulbs.
I've added a couple new links to the right...
http://listeningtoleaves.blogspot.com/2012/11/kintsugi-art-of-repairing-teaware.html a blog posting about Kintsugi, the art of repairing ceramic with precious metals. Very informative. It's under Making Stuff.
http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/myclock.html earth's position relative to seasonal cusps. As in what on todays date is the real times for the eight holidays. Brings up some fun points :)
Or wedding this year was truly on Beltane eve. True Beltane struck at three AM on the 5th, and we celebrated from Friday to Sunday :)
Halloween this year is actually on the light side of midnight on November 7th.
This link is under Cool Links.
Tuesday is gloomy. Stayed indoors and did some cleaning. Set up the Halloween stuff in the living room.
I needed to clean Gluggs tank and set up the heater for him first. I decided to move the whole tank to the other side of the mantel closer to the power supply in the corner. I hope he's happy where he's at now, and feeling a bit better about having warmer water. Apparently betas like warmer water in the upper 70's. And leaving the light on does not heat the water enough, promotes algae too much, and sort of messes with the betas normally preferred light and dark cycle.
So after that I was able to set up my new Halloween village.
Starting on the outer corner is the big ghostie I made as a kid and the local candy shop. Chocolate eyeballs and poison apples are in stock right now :)
Next to the candy shop is the local B&B. Grim is hanging out having his morning coffee and doughnuts while other folks go about their daily business.
On through the pumpkin patch, where the Great Pumpkin reigns supreme.
And into the graveyard, overseen by Job... He is being backlit by Gluggs tank :)
And up the way on the first shelf is the local blood bar. All sorts of folks hang out here! There are many vintages on special today, and the ever running blood fountain for general refreshment.
I did have all the pieces on the mantle at first, and everything was just too squashed up. Gluggs tank seriously makes a footprint! Spreading it out to take up the first shelf makes it all look a tad sparse, but that's a good thing. I know I will end up collecting more- possibly more than I really have space for, lol.
And this is the little witch that tells me how many days till Halloween, she resides on my filing cabinet. Off to her left is her little box of pumpkin numbers, and I can change the numbers daily :)
Decided to look around at what all there is in the world of Halloween village, and my goodness there is a lot of really neat stuff out there.. and a ton of stuff I'm kind of meh about. A couple that have particularly struck my fancy..
The Grinning Goblin Brewery by Lemax
There are tons of smalls that strike my fancy as well. And I've realized that just with the houses, pumpkin, and tombstone to light up that using all plug in cords will not do. I want to instead use battery operated lights, preferably led and maybe on a timer if I get really lucky. Huh, wonder if that sort of thing is within the realm of a raspberry pi- that would be a neat thing for folks that like to run holiday villages. Just hook up all the much smaller led leads, and have a Rpi programed to run the lights.
I also need to "give back" the second Halloween decor bin. Those three buildings come in some large boxes, and you bet I will be packing them away in those boxes. Right now the second bin is holding a full bin of shredded paper that needs to go out to trace in the garlic bed. I'm going to use the paper as sort of a base marker mulch that hopefully will show up nicely under a leaf layer. It just started raining, so I don't have to water in the bed before I start spreading paper :)
I want to grind up another batch of paper or two to lay down over the area at the top of the hill that leads down to the sanctuary. I've put in a lot of dug up gravel from the herb garden and around the solarium, and now I want a tamping in layer. I might also want to layer in a bag of beer caps. I want to firm pack in this spot before I terrace out any further. And allow the other side of the opening to firm up with mints- the chocolate mint is bordering this area, and doing well. After a large die off of moving the pineapple mint as I did, we have firm areas of this mint taking off too where it's supposed to. And several starts of leftovers from where I removed it that can now go into the die off areas.
This first terrace area is taking a while to firm up, but it's worth it.
Back to indoor stuff.. Started rearranging the library over the weekend past. Had a couple of menfolk on hand to shuffle bookcases. Set up the beta globe on the top of one, and it makes for wonderful lighting in the area. Need to fill it with water and some reflecting filler. Thinking through the rearranging, I want to set up the hermit crab tank in the library too. But as a tank for living stones this time.
Weeded out the root crop area of the herb garden. And yes, I gave up to temptation and pulled up 4 white icicle radishes- they were ready to be picked :) Nothing else was, and I was good and left the rest alone. I think after I pull all of them I need to put down a load of horse poo and leaves this year to overwinter.
I also got the daffodils planted in, yay! Took a goodly bit of time, but here's the result.
This whole area took a while because I went through with a hand trowel and dug out a lot of root bits and a bit of gravel. I wasn't meticulous about getting the gravel out, but I did pick out all the bigger rocks. Those got dumped at the top of the hill where I want a patch of gravel.
I'm hoping to be able to pick up a couple bags of grape hyacinth on clearance soon like I did last year, and cut in blocks in the spring like I did last year.
Monday, Monday..
Got the seed trades packed and ready to go, along with other mail.. Even drove it to the post office- then discovered it was a holiday today, Columbus day. Oops. Decided while out an about to hit up the local stores for their Halloween wares. See what my local shops had compared to when I was out visiting. Glad I did because that stuff was already being clearanced out.
I now have three buildings. A candy shop and a B&B from JoAnns, and a blood bar from Michaels. Rather happy about the blood bar, I snagged it from the display to get it. I also picked up a handful of smalls. All in all, making a rather tight gathering on the mantel at the moment. I have to clean up Gluggs tank and install his heater before I can do final arranging.
I hit the local places that carry bulbs too- everyone is currently in full selling mode, no clearances yet on bulbs.
I've added a couple new links to the right...
http://listeningtoleaves.blogspot.com/2012/11/kintsugi-art-of-repairing-teaware.html a blog posting about Kintsugi, the art of repairing ceramic with precious metals. Very informative. It's under Making Stuff.
http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/myclock.html earth's position relative to seasonal cusps. As in what on todays date is the real times for the eight holidays. Brings up some fun points :)
Or wedding this year was truly on Beltane eve. True Beltane struck at three AM on the 5th, and we celebrated from Friday to Sunday :)
Halloween this year is actually on the light side of midnight on November 7th.
This link is under Cool Links.
Tuesday is gloomy. Stayed indoors and did some cleaning. Set up the Halloween stuff in the living room.
I needed to clean Gluggs tank and set up the heater for him first. I decided to move the whole tank to the other side of the mantel closer to the power supply in the corner. I hope he's happy where he's at now, and feeling a bit better about having warmer water. Apparently betas like warmer water in the upper 70's. And leaving the light on does not heat the water enough, promotes algae too much, and sort of messes with the betas normally preferred light and dark cycle.
So after that I was able to set up my new Halloween village.
I did have all the pieces on the mantle at first, and everything was just too squashed up. Gluggs tank seriously makes a footprint! Spreading it out to take up the first shelf makes it all look a tad sparse, but that's a good thing. I know I will end up collecting more- possibly more than I really have space for, lol.
Decided to look around at what all there is in the world of Halloween village, and my goodness there is a lot of really neat stuff out there.. and a ton of stuff I'm kind of meh about. A couple that have particularly struck my fancy..
The Retching Pumpkin by Dept 56
The Grinning Goblin Brewery by Lemax
There are tons of smalls that strike my fancy as well. And I've realized that just with the houses, pumpkin, and tombstone to light up that using all plug in cords will not do. I want to instead use battery operated lights, preferably led and maybe on a timer if I get really lucky. Huh, wonder if that sort of thing is within the realm of a raspberry pi- that would be a neat thing for folks that like to run holiday villages. Just hook up all the much smaller led leads, and have a Rpi programed to run the lights.
I also need to "give back" the second Halloween decor bin. Those three buildings come in some large boxes, and you bet I will be packing them away in those boxes. Right now the second bin is holding a full bin of shredded paper that needs to go out to trace in the garlic bed. I'm going to use the paper as sort of a base marker mulch that hopefully will show up nicely under a leaf layer. It just started raining, so I don't have to water in the bed before I start spreading paper :)
I want to grind up another batch of paper or two to lay down over the area at the top of the hill that leads down to the sanctuary. I've put in a lot of dug up gravel from the herb garden and around the solarium, and now I want a tamping in layer. I might also want to layer in a bag of beer caps. I want to firm pack in this spot before I terrace out any further. And allow the other side of the opening to firm up with mints- the chocolate mint is bordering this area, and doing well. After a large die off of moving the pineapple mint as I did, we have firm areas of this mint taking off too where it's supposed to. And several starts of leftovers from where I removed it that can now go into the die off areas.
This first terrace area is taking a while to firm up, but it's worth it.
Back to indoor stuff.. Started rearranging the library over the weekend past. Had a couple of menfolk on hand to shuffle bookcases. Set up the beta globe on the top of one, and it makes for wonderful lighting in the area. Need to fill it with water and some reflecting filler. Thinking through the rearranging, I want to set up the hermit crab tank in the library too. But as a tank for living stones this time.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Back at Growbox Hill
I got back home yesterday afternoon. I love visiting, but always love being home more :) It was a rather nice and boring kind of drive home- always a bonus when driving through Chicago :) So after getting home was pretty much hanging with my love and meows, unloading the car.. Just getting back home.
Today was some cleanup. Starting in on kitchen cleanup, mostly dishes. Unpacking from being gone- and that's always a thing, hehehe. Picked up the garlic and garden raid that I talked about in the last post. And a bunch of other stuff too.
A couple of sweaters and fall coat- all from Goodwill at damn fine prices. A goodly stack of books, ranging from 49 to 99 cents, most of them being on the low end. A couple odds and ends.
The books reminded me- I need to check in with the local library and see what I can drop off or not. I have a heap of books and such to donate, and I'd like to see them in the best donating sources.
And a fantastically cool board game- Gourmet Challenge. It's kind of a trivial pursuit, only in all things culinary. Origins of foods, eating etiquette, ingredients... And checking out the game of 2 boxed decks, a lot of stuff I know, a lot of stuff I don't. You have to build a cake of layers instead of filling in your pie. And the game was 100% complete- all for 6 bucks.
So, here's the catalog of what I got from my brothers yard.
I picked some of the fluffy ariels from this plant. You can see a cluster that I left to the right, and the frilly leaves of the plant in the center.
This is a purple spikes something- I gather seed heads from this one.
Stripped a few heads off what I think is an allium of some sort. At least the seed heads looked just like the ones I stripped off the solarium allium. This variety has a much thinner stem and leaf set.
Stripped seed heads from this daisy
This is a Wisconsin native of some sort, has large daisyish blooms
This plant has blooms, and grows by sending out runners to make new starts- I collected several of the starts.
This is a fast growing creeper that sends out runners and puts up starts. I plucked up a container of this stuff too.
Deadheaded this one
This plant is similar to the purple spiked one, but has pink spikes instead of purple.
This one is like the other that looks like it, but with greener leaves and different color blooms
This parsleyish looking thing puts out large blue flowers. I pulled some of the spent flowers in hopes of getting some seed
And spent flowerheads from this ladys mantle.
I also collected a bunch of seeds from the clematis, but I can't remember what the colors are on them, lol. And I got to take home a chocolate iris!
Got the garlic planted in this morning...
Here's the bed and how much it has settled since I set it up a couple weeks ago.
Marked off my 1 foot square boxes. Used map pins and some crappy leftover embroidery floss.
Here's my template to give 6 inch spacing. Made from a recycled bag.
Here's the bed with all the divots done and all the cloves planted in. Rows are 6 each going across- made for the easiest way with the varieties I had and how many I have. Going from the fenceline forward is:
Giant Russian
Leningrad
UP North
Skips 1
Skips 2
Skips 3
Pearl Porcelain- two rows of it
Kankakee Hardneck- three rows of it
Kankakee Softneck
Our earliest luffa was ready to pick, I was a tad leery since it had gotten damaged early..
Here they all are hanging
The one for picking is in the background, brown and shriveled up
Ready for peeling open
Starting to pull off the peel
This is what it looks like cut and split open. I already kind of knew that the seeds would not be good in this one, and I was correct in that assumption
The one tomato I planted in the ground- Lemon Boy- while I was gone, it somehow managed to overheave the two tomato cages I had set up to contain it. Did some serious pruning to it and reset the cages. Was able to get at a few ripe and overripe tomatoes finally.
Weeded out a goodly chunk of that whole patch to better expose the fall Top Crop beans for drying- need seed stock for next year :)
Picked what might be the last of the Hutterite soup beans and Gold Marie beans- I now have excellent seed stock for both varieties.
Still got tons to do...
I need to address and weed out the herb garden. The radishes and beets look great. Must resist the urge to pull any of them right now. And a lot of green to pull up and add to fall compost bed.
Rake up under the apple trees. What to do with all the fallen stuff? Perhaps a bottom layer to fall compost bed?
To mow or not to mow? The flowering shag I usually use for need to mow is popping up, but the grass isn't too shaggy yet. Right now I might just leave it because we are on the cusp of frost time- October 15.
Seriously have leaves and needles to rake up for our first bed. It will make for a rather nice top mulch to bury all those garlic seeds.
Thinking about taking fallen or cut brush to weave up the next box or two in rough form. Lordy knows I have enough of all of that.
Need to plant in daffodil bulbs.
Was able to finally pick some milkweed pods today, woot!! I collected about a half dozen heads and now they are drying in a bag :)
I have blooms starting to show up on the fall peas. hooray! Need to pull back all of the containers to the solarium access.
Got in a stack of seeds today, five kinds of peppers and one tomato. Need to package up my trade seed for shipping off on Monday.
Today was some cleanup. Starting in on kitchen cleanup, mostly dishes. Unpacking from being gone- and that's always a thing, hehehe. Picked up the garlic and garden raid that I talked about in the last post. And a bunch of other stuff too.
A couple of sweaters and fall coat- all from Goodwill at damn fine prices. A goodly stack of books, ranging from 49 to 99 cents, most of them being on the low end. A couple odds and ends.
The books reminded me- I need to check in with the local library and see what I can drop off or not. I have a heap of books and such to donate, and I'd like to see them in the best donating sources.
And a fantastically cool board game- Gourmet Challenge. It's kind of a trivial pursuit, only in all things culinary. Origins of foods, eating etiquette, ingredients... And checking out the game of 2 boxed decks, a lot of stuff I know, a lot of stuff I don't. You have to build a cake of layers instead of filling in your pie. And the game was 100% complete- all for 6 bucks.
So, here's the catalog of what I got from my brothers yard.
I also collected a bunch of seeds from the clematis, but I can't remember what the colors are on them, lol. And I got to take home a chocolate iris!
Got the garlic planted in this morning...
Here's the bed with all the divots done and all the cloves planted in. Rows are 6 each going across- made for the easiest way with the varieties I had and how many I have. Going from the fenceline forward is:
Giant Russian
Leningrad
UP North
Skips 1
Skips 2
Skips 3
Pearl Porcelain- two rows of it
Kankakee Hardneck- three rows of it
Kankakee Softneck
Our earliest luffa was ready to pick, I was a tad leery since it had gotten damaged early..
The one tomato I planted in the ground- Lemon Boy- while I was gone, it somehow managed to overheave the two tomato cages I had set up to contain it. Did some serious pruning to it and reset the cages. Was able to get at a few ripe and overripe tomatoes finally.
Weeded out a goodly chunk of that whole patch to better expose the fall Top Crop beans for drying- need seed stock for next year :)
Picked what might be the last of the Hutterite soup beans and Gold Marie beans- I now have excellent seed stock for both varieties.
Still got tons to do...
I need to address and weed out the herb garden. The radishes and beets look great. Must resist the urge to pull any of them right now. And a lot of green to pull up and add to fall compost bed.
Rake up under the apple trees. What to do with all the fallen stuff? Perhaps a bottom layer to fall compost bed?
To mow or not to mow? The flowering shag I usually use for need to mow is popping up, but the grass isn't too shaggy yet. Right now I might just leave it because we are on the cusp of frost time- October 15.
Seriously have leaves and needles to rake up for our first bed. It will make for a rather nice top mulch to bury all those garlic seeds.
Thinking about taking fallen or cut brush to weave up the next box or two in rough form. Lordy knows I have enough of all of that.
Need to plant in daffodil bulbs.
Was able to finally pick some milkweed pods today, woot!! I collected about a half dozen heads and now they are drying in a bag :)
I have blooms starting to show up on the fall peas. hooray! Need to pull back all of the containers to the solarium access.
Got in a stack of seeds today, five kinds of peppers and one tomato. Need to package up my trade seed for shipping off on Monday.
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