Skystrideria

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

But What About Second Saturday?

Today my boss sent us all home because the server (located across the country) wouldn't let us log on. I really enjoy it when this sort of thing happens. It is like a second Saturday has been tacked on to my week.

Our living arrangements help with this as well. The place we live in is a rental owned by a partnership of my Dad, a brother and myself. Which means that I am paid for any work I do to maintain or improve the value of the place. Gardening doesn't count. But the pergo floor we installed in our landing room does. The pay is just a bit less than my day job, and my house is a bit nicer at the end of the day.

Anyways, I took advantage of that arrangement today by putting up the bead board in our bathroom. And then we took a long nap. After dinner I put up some trim in our landing room. So it was an excellent Tuesday.

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Weekly Project Roundup November 11,2018

I think that I will start writing a summary of my weekly projects every Sunday for awhile. I am working on a post about how I got married to Lynae. And I have a few other philosophical ones in my drafts. But project summaries are easy and so they will help me get back into blogging.

Last Monday was our second anniversary. So I came home early and grilled some steak.

On Thursday Devin and I changed my brake pads and rotors. Just before we got married, I put some high performance brake pads from Britain on my car. I often distract myself when I drive. So anything that can reduce my stopping distance is a good thing. The brake pads worked well, but they started grinding this Summer. So I bought some ceramic pads to try. During installation we found that a nut was missing from the passenger side ball joint. We found a new nut, put it on, and now my steering is more responsive. So that was a good night's work.

On Saturday we finished cleaning up the garden. The first frost happened on Tuesday night, so the tomatoes and nasturtiums were done. Inter-planting nasturtiums worked perfectly. It kept the bugs off of the cabbages and tomatoes. In 2017 cabbage bugs were constantly chewing up our cabbages. Not this year. We will do that again. Though they generated so many seeds that they might naturalize in those beds.

Later in the day Lynae did some baking while I built a spear. There is at least one mountain lion patrolling our area. So I figured that a spear might be useful. That, and LindyBeige goes on about the benefits of spears. So I took an old rake handle, JB-welded a 6 inch nail into the end of it, and hammered a sixteen-penny nail through the side to use as a hook. My brother-in-law made a gaff for the blackberry harvest this year, and I wanted one, too. So now I have a tool that is half-spear, half-pruning hook.

Finally, I cut some bead board to close in the hot water heater in our bathroom. Someone worked on the water heater a number of years ago, but did not replace the panel in front of it when they were done. The panel was set out in the garage and then burned after a garage cleaning. But we found some bead board, cut it to fit, and tomorrow I will fasten it in place.

So those were the projects I worked on last week. I am sending Lynae and my son to Minnesota to see family for Thanksgiving. So I have a bunch of projects planned for then.

Saturday, November 03, 2018

2018 Garden Cleanup Report

Today we cleaned up the garden for the year. That is the before picture. The after picture is below. Garlic, strawberries, carrots, tomatoes rhubarb are still in the ground. But we cleaned up the cornstalks, green beans (which were still producing), squashes, cabbages and sunflowers.

Zuchinni, cabbage, green beans, potato and crook neck squash
The deer and rabbits were still getting into the garden this year. They decimated the cabbages and tomatoes, in addition to attacking the carrots and squashes. We double fenced the corners where the deer were jumping in. And we arched chicken wire over some of the crops. Next year I will just have to build an 8 foot tall fence. But in addition to that, a friend with a hunting license came out and harvested a beautiful buck this week. Two more friends will stop by for late deer season in two weeks. So that should help reduce browsing pressures.
Our man-child is very comfortable outside

Productive wife
We spent two hours today with the fork and hoe to weed the beds. My siblings have orders to move piles of leaves onto the beds this next week. After three years of battling blackberries, it sure is nice to pull the leaves off in the Spring and have beds that are softer than they were in the Fall.

Beds ready for leaves
For next year we want to do more of the same, but with no deer.