Square Foot Garden pt. 3

 

This is the current state of the square foot garden. I've made a few additions. I was using tomato cages I made in Michigan out of pvc, but I brought only 2. The trellis is official SFG but I had assumed it would be expensive to do and felt I'd spent enough on the boxes and mix. However, the electrical conduit, rebar, and nylon trellis roping was actually quite cheap.

 

 

I had a lovely purple pepper forming when it was suddenly gone. Apparently the abundant number of rabbits in the neighborhood started looking at my garden as a smorgasbord. I then added the rabbit fencing with the stakes at the corner. It is not SFG official.

 

I have five tomato plants in with one being a cherry tomato. I had planted a cherry tomato in a pot earlier but now realize it is a yellow tomato. In my mind tomatoes are meant to be red. I also have four pepper plants--a green, a yellow, and orange, and a purple. Two squares have beans (9 per square) and 6 squares have okra (1 per square).

 

I also added four zinnias as I thought they looked so nice at the nursery and I like the color.

 

Friday

1. 2 Adirondack chairs polyurethaned.  Check.
2. Backyard "mowed" with weed eater.  Check.
3. Front yard mowed with  mower. Check.
4. Used blower to clean off sidewalks, driveway, and patio. Check.
5. Dirt spread around SFG. Check.
6. 3 loads of laundry done. Check.
7. One trip to WMT. Check
8. Following the events in Boston and West, TX. Check.

It's only 2:17 but I'd say it's been a productive day. Check. Check.

Square Foot Gardening Pt. 2

The mix is mixed and placed in the boxes and the tomatoes and peppers are planted.

What I have learned.
1. "Mel's Mix" is sold pre-mixed at Home Depot. For the cost of the 3 items (peat moss, vermiculite, and compost), the time to mix, and the effort to mix, I think it is worth buying the pre-mix.
2. The book says to put the 3 items on a tarp and pull corner to corner to turn it over and get a good mix. This is heavy to do. I got it done, but for the second box I ended up turning a lot of it with a shovel.
3. There is a reason the book says to use a tarp. I used a plastic dropcloth and on the stony patio this ended up not working so well. It also ripped with the heaviness of the mix.
4. It was heavy to drag the mix to the box and try to get it in the boxes.
5. It would be better to put the grid on after filling with the mix.

Most important things I learned:
6. I'm all prepared to help others build and fill their boxes.
7. I had a lot of fun in the "dirt" today!

Square Foot Gardening Pt. 1

With a smaller back yard I am making a switch to gardening this year and trying the square foot gardening (SFG) method. I am not completed but wanted to share what I've done so far as I'm very excited about it.

Here are most of the supplies ready to go.

 



 Maybe not a conventional way of doing so but here I'm building one of two 4x4 boxes. I was working on it alone and wasn't sure of how to do it but this worked for me.

 



 This is one box completed. The author says if you don't have the grid it isn't really SFG.

Saturday I leveled out part of the yard, put down the landscape fabric, and placed both boxes.

The next step is to make the "soil" mix, but all of the items are dry so the book recommends not doing it on a windy day. Of course, now that I'm ready to mix it we are having 15-25 mile winds with higher gusts so am having to wait to mix it. I may end up mixing it in the garage but then that means making multiple trips to the backyard with 5 gallon buckets of the mix so not real excited about that.

More updates coming as the process continues.

Aa Random Saturday

Miscellaneous thoughts from today:

You do have to put baking powder in cornbread. I had it but forgot to add it with the other dry ingredients.

My friend's son will be getting married this summer. Yesterday he and his fiance had their first meeting with their minister and his wife. He is about 80 miles from here and the fiance is living in Texas. Between now and the wedding the minister, his wife, and the couple will meet by Skype every two weeks and for the year following the wedding as well. I haven't been through that process but that certainly impresses me as a minister who sees his responsibility as much more than pronouncing a couple husband and wife and collecting his fee. Oh, there's no fee either for this.

Today I sold my table and chairs. They had no real sentimental value to me, but I liked them. I found them at a garage sale about 5 years ago and had them refinished. Renae recovered the seats on the chairs for me. For some reason I don't like selling those or the hutch for the big move. The younger couple that got it were obviously happy at how nice they were and said they would take good care of it.

Thankfully I'm not as sick as others, but this cold has pretty well wiped me out. I slept hard for over an hour late this afternoon which means I didn't get to Hobby Lobby Appreciation Day.

My parents are the best.

House Project

This is my house project for the summer. Eight years ago I replaced the old carpet on the front step which is about a 4'x4' area in front of my door. The carpet had been chewed by a small creature at the bottom and it was fraying on the edge. The condo association doesn't look kindly on that and I was more than ready to get rid of it.

Hence my idea to remove the carpet and paint. Renae pulled the carpet off one evening before I had the chance to take a picture of it. Below is wit the carpet off. My thought was to use the pressure washer and an adhesive solvent to remove the leftover adhesive. For future reference--it doesn't work.

The second night I put on a solvent but I let it get too dry so I wasn't very successful that night either. The third night I used two different kinds of solvent and kept the adhesive moist to scrape as much as I could off. I was much more successful and below is the step ready for paint.

 First coat of paint put on over the weekend.

The next two are the second coat with tri-colored flecks. I'm not sure if the flecks will last.

I'm glad it's over. I may be painting again soon, but for now it's done.

A side highlight was getting to talk with numerous neighbors each time I was out working.

Never Again, Please

Because I'm single, because I live alone, because I have a friend who can do about anything, and because I like to think of myself as a diy-er, yesterday I decided to tackle my very slow draining drain in the bathroom sink. I had been told to take the trap off which I was able to do. Yes, I remembered to have something underneath it to catch the water. No, I was not prepared for the gunk or stench of the gunk. I cleaned out the trap and the pipe going into the sink as much as possible and put everything back together. The drain was still going very slowly so I thought I would need to "snake" the drain.

My friend brought a snake over later and I tried to get it down the pipe, but it went pretty much straight through so apparently the problem was further down and I needed a longer snake.

Then she asked, "Did you take out the stopper?" I don't know how to do that so I hadn't. Despite her instructions it doesn't just screw out. She fiddled around underneath and got it loose. Yep, we found the problem, and it was gross.

I cleaned the stopper, she put it back, and now I run the water just to see it go down the drain!!!

I then cleaned out the tub drain as well although it wasn't that bad.

Two observations:

1. Taking apart the trap, etc. to clean a clog at the stopper is like remodeling the kitchen when you just need a new microwave. A bit of overkill although I will say the trap is very clean.

2. At various times in life I've done things thinking God must have given me the experience to use again, but I really don't want to ever have to do that again. One of those is roofing, and now another is cleaning out a drain.

New Calling?

Thanks to a friend in OH I was able to make this call this morning:

Good morning. My air conditioning went out on Saturday and I think the fan capaciter needs to be replaced. These are the model and serial numbers. Will you be able to have someone come out and do that?

So in case your a/c isn't working and you hear the compressor running but the fan isn't, you need to take a pencil or screwdriver and try to move the fan. If it starts moving it's the capciter (sp?) and if the fan is locked up then the bearings are probably bad and you'll need a new fan motor.

Any more information and I may have to charge you.

Home Invasion

My home has been invaded by balloons--big, big balloons.

Why? My friend is having a party this weekend. On Saturday we stopped at a furniture store that was having a special sale. She saw all these huge (2 1/2 feet diameter?) balloons and asked what they were going to do with them. The clerk said they just pop them so Renae offered to buy them. The clerk said she could come the next day to get them. We showed up in two vehicles to get them just before the store closed and the sale ended. 7 in her car and 10 in mine!!! Now hopefully they will stay nice enough for Saturday. Meanwhile it's a bit scary when I walk by my back room as they completely cover the ceiling!



Kitchen Project

OK, here are the pictures of my home project. Soon after Christmas I had to replace a flourescent light bulb in the kitchen. When I pushed back the light tile I saw that the framework "up there" was finished off. I started thinking about how I could make a tray ceiling out of it and hopefully make my galley kitchen seem a bit bigger if at least part of the ceiling was higher.

Here is what it looked like to begin with:

This is with most of the drop ceiling removed. I still had the framework around the base to take out. Because the drywall wasn't originally exposed, the builders didn't tape and mud very well. I spent several evenings spackling and sanding to make the middle seam appear smooth. It was also difficult to pop the covers off the lights.

In the middle of the project. I needed to put the plastic higher, but I did clean off all the cabinets with Murphy's oil soap afterwards. Area is sanded and primed here.

New lights. The ceiling appears blue but it's white.

And the finished product:

While I did a lot of the work myself, everyone knows not much gets done without Renae. She helped with the crown moulding and hanging the lights.

Solution

Last night I realized a solution to my dilemma is that I could live with mail being delivered fewer than 6 days a week.

No mail = no mail clutter.

And the kitchen is now cleaned up.

Saturday

Today I got several things done that I've been wanting to do for days or weeks or even months:

1. Finally got to the bank to deposit several checks.
2. Got a surge protector for the tv/dvd player in the bedroom and plugged it all in so the dresser could be moved into place.
3. The back room is cleaned up except for my filing. That's a project for one night this week.

And, all the laundry is done!

It's a good feeling.

What a Rip-Off!

Having made no claims in five years, my insurance company has rewarded me by raising my condo insurance premium from $146 to $195 in two years!!!

I just got off the phone to double the deductible lowering the premium to $156. Dave Ramsey would be pleased, I think.

Power

Why is it harder to sleep when the power is out?

Last night at 11:30ish the power went out, and it woke me up. How can that be?

New Furniture

Several weeks ago I stopped at an estate sale and bought this (picture shows only the bottom) for a very, very nice price. This sat in my garage over night. . .





. . .until I took it to a wonderful furniture refinisher close by, and now it looks like this:



This is the finished piece with the top and the bottom:

When It Rains It Pours or Rather Floods My Basement

Today is Day 82 (no, not a typo) of my water saga. Briefly, one month ago sump pump put it. Gave it two weeks. Sump pump didn't remove the water so the guy who put it in said we need to put in a drain tile from the pump under the hallway into the bedroom to get the water to the sump pump. I thought the work would be scheduled last week, but no it had to go to the board for approval. That should've happened at Monday night's board meeting.

Last night I called to see if the work was scheduled yet. After the board member's nervous laughter, he told me that the work was on hold by the board. He wouldn't say who was the lead on that or why. I called but could not reach any other board member. Finally one returned my call and after a forceful yet nice conversation she said another board member was calling the maintenance board member to schedule the work.

I talked with that board member this morning. He said that he didn't know who I talked to or what I said but the e-mails were flying this morning! He said he would not schedule the work with a majority board vote, and that the one board member couldn't make that decision. He had the majority vote and wondered when I wanted it scheduled.

He called back a little bit ago and the work should be done this Saturday or next Saturday.

I told my father that I think I won, but let's face it--I still have a hole in my basement filled with water, the paneling and drop ceiling is down, the carpet is pulled up, and the sump pump runs and vibrates the living room floor.

My Brownie Came

When I was in elementary school I read a story about a cobbler who couldn't do all his work. At night brownies would come in and do his work for him. My sister and I will comment occasionally that we need brownies to come in at night and do some work for us.

My brownie finally came. My basement has been a total wreck for weeks now due to the flooding and repairs. When I got home from work last night I went down to check the water level. The front room that was stuffed with junk from the furnace room was cleared out and the foosball table put in the middle of the room. The bathroom was emptied of the paint cans and supplies and other miscellaneous stuff that I'd put there for the sump pump to be put in. The freezer and paint stuff was rearranged around the sump pump in a very practical way. The bedroom was straightened up around the bed and a path to the bed from one door and to the bathroom from the bed was cleared. What a relief to have the basement put back in come semblance of order even if there is still paneling down, drop ceiling scattered around, and a big hole in the floor in the corner.

I think my brownie's name is Renae.

Basement Lake

Apparently you're not supposed to have a lake under your basement floor.

This is what was left after the dewatering systems guys were here today.

They couldn't find a drain tile so with all the water there either isn't one or if there is they couldn't find it and it's stopped up somewhere. I really don't want them to have to cut up more of the basement floor.

The plan. Get another company to look at the tile or lack thereof situation. The thought is either try to unclog a drain tile if they find it, put in a drain tile, or put in a sump pump.

Calgon Take Me Away

Is today the magic day? Will the water system people come today???

EDIT: Supposedly between 3:30 and 4:00 today!

Random Friday thoughts that I haven't blogged this week

This is not a good time of year to buy fruit. The apples just aren’t as tasty and crisp as in the fall and it seems when I buy a bag there are often a lot of bruises that I don’t see until I get home and pull an apple out of the bag. Grapes are just more expensive and they too aren’t as sweet and good as earlier in the year. Clementines, if available, have gone back up to a price I refuse to pay. Strawberries shipped in from California are usually a nice red, but they just aren’t very sweet. Fresh strawberries are still at least seven weeks away.

Last night I went with Glenn and Renae to her induction in Beta Gamma Sigma, the business honor society. It was fun to see her recognized for her hard work the past four years.

Five weeks after the second rain storm that sent water into my basement, the situation is still not corrected. I’m frustrated and tired of getting water up out of the carpet. This is one reason not to be a condo owner.

Last night before leaving for Renae’s honors dinner, she saw a muskrat in the pond. I got the 22, went out on the deck, put the gun on a tripod, found the muskrat in the crosshairs, and plucked it off with one shot from 50 yards away. I thought I’d get a little love from my niece Jaimie about it, but she didn’t answer her phone. Tonight I have to go out with a shovel to bury it as there wasn’t time last night. Maybe another animal got it during the night so I don’t have to. In Klopfensteinese—it eckles me to pick up a dead muskrat with the shovel.

My company has instituted every other Friday shutdowns which results in a 10% reduction in the paycheck. I’ve been analyzing my budget to cut out fluff. One expense I could cut is the newspaper, but my mother said when I was home, “You were born with a newspaper in your hand.” (She also has said I was born tired, but that’s for another post.) I’ve read the paper almost daily since I can remember. As kids we would all try to see when the paper ladies turned on our street and would race to be the first to get the paper. In college I always made sure I ordered the paper for the year to be delivered to my dorm room—The Greenville News had a rate of $20 for the year at that time!!! One of the first things I’ve done whenever I’ve moved is get the paper started. When I was in Illinois I said I knew my life was ok if I had time to read the paper every day, and it was really good if I got to read the paper and watch Jeopardy. I should probably not get the paper now since the rates went up in late fall and will probably go up again, but the fact is that I like the newspaper. So for now I’ve decided I can keep my house a lot colder now and will keep it warmer in the summer to keep getting the newspaper.

Jayne from handbells. I haven’t mentioned her for awhile so I thought I would today.

So which of my random thoughts interested you?