Archive for January, 2013

Sucked into the WordPress Vortex

Posted in Uncategorized, Wordpress, tagged on January 30, 2013| 7 Comments »

Sucked in...("Photo courtesy of NSSL"

Sucked in…
Photo courtesy of NSSL

I’ve never been accused of being a good writer.  My grades in school were mediocre at best.  So when my daughter offered to set up a blog so I could write about bees, I thought “this will be interesting.”  She IS a writer.  When she was young our family would play little word games.  Her older brother and I would be haltingly coming up with words, but when it was her turn, she contributed loads of well placed words.  She couldn’t have been over 8 years at that point.  Where did she learn all that?  Possibly from her Mom reading to both kids every night before bed.  Obviously, she didn’t get it from me.  My fallback line has always been, “I’m a printer, not a writer.”

Blogging has changed everything.  While I still have trouble putting thoughts into words, taking a photo first makes it much easier to write, but it still takes time.  Only after the dinner dishes are done, do I get to blog…although I have been known to cheat here and there during the day. When my wife goes to deliver some print jobs I know I’m good for awhile… “I just want to finish up this thought and then I’ll get back to work.”  All of a sudden I hear the car returning…”Yikes, I just blew a whole hour!  I better get busy before she comes in.”

She does all the cooking, mostly from scratch, cleans the house, works in the shop and even takes time to knit in the evenings.  In the summer, add the gardening to the list.  What do I do?  I work the presses.  Thankfully, she doesn’t know how to do that or I might be out of a job.  I’m also SUPPOSED to be getting the expenses in order for taxes,  but when I get on the computer, I’ve got to look at my stats and comments and…the hours just fly by…sucked into the vortex.  While my wife is very understanding, the Internal Revenue Service is not, so it looks like it’ll be less blogging til I catch up.

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Slow Heat

Posted in Uncategorized, Wood heat, tagged , , , , , , on January 23, 2013| 7 Comments »

No thermostat heating for us, no sir, we like to hard work.

No thermostat heating for us, no sir, we like to do things the hard way.

You know the saying “Wood heats you twice…once when you get it and once when you burn it?”  How about when you stack it and/or split and move it?  For all the time we’ve lived in Oregon, we’ve always heated with wood.  There were times when we had so little wood we’d gather it off the beach.  We’d bring it home, split it, only to find it was too wet to burn.   Since we’ve lived here so long, the trees have grown up around us and now we have the option to cut on our own land.

Cat wants to help

Cat wants to help

Stacked up in sun to air out

Stacked up in sun to air out

This is the closest thing to a tractor that I've always wanted, but our acreage just doesn't justify a tractor.

Daughter is driving the power wagon…the closest thing to a real tractor that I’ll ever have.

Splitting wood the easier way.

Splitting wood the easy way…letting your adult children do  the heavy lifting.

Cooking on the wood cook stove

Garbanzo bean and veggie soup cooking on the wood cook stove…tea water always hot.

When our old stove wore out, we wanted to get a stove that would heat the house AND cook our food if needed.  We looked at some fancy catalogs, saw some very nice nickle-plated stoves and stoves that would heat a 24 gal. tank of water, but with our smaller space, we settled on the Baker’s Choice.  We can cook on the 6 sq. ft surface, bake in the oven, and heat the whole house.  The firebox is big enough to hold 10″ diameter wood.  While I miss seeing the warm glow of the fire, this stove heats the house and cooks very well.

Big Eddy enjoys the heat.

Big Eddy enjoys the heat.

15 year old Cody appreciates the warmth.

15 year old Cody appreciates the warmth.

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Raised beds and Companion Planting

Posted in Companion planting, Drip watering, Gardening, Raised beds, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 10, 2013| 5 Comments »

Myy new raised bed made from scrap siding.

My new raised bed made from scrap siding.

After watching a video about extended season gardening about 15 years ago,  my wife and I decided to try it out.  We had to make a few adjustments to keep the tents from blowing down in the wind.  By strapping 1.25″ pvc to the inside of the wood we can adjust the height of the hoops…one year we’ll have short hoops for greens, the next year we’ll have tall hoops for tomatoes.

Those raised beds served us well, but are starting to rot.  When we replaced some partially rotten wood siding on the house, I decided to use it as a replacement raised bed.  I sawed out the rotten areas and just cobbled these together to get a 4′ x 16′ x 14″ tall bed.  (1.22 m x 4.87 m x 35 cm)  I painted this time with some left over house paint, hoping it will protect the wood for another 15 years.

I added two drip watering grids by using 8′ (2,44 m) pieces of pvc.  The joints do not have to be glued because with all the holes drilled in them, they won’t leak.   I drilled the holes about 6″ apart (15 cm) on each side and then plant where the water comes through.

Companion planting  (Look at the comfrey site too)

We’ve had trouble with growing carrots in the past.  Sometimes they fail to germinate.  If we get them to grow early in the season, the slugs get them.  So we wait until July or August, but then we get a carrot maggot, those little worms that tunnel into the carrots.  So in an effort to grow great carrots AND avoid the tunneling worms we found leeks to be a good companion plant to carrots.  They repel the carrot fly.

Drip water grid. By not gluing the joints, I can use the same hose to grid connection, by slipping it off one grid, and onto the other.

Drip water grid. By not gluing the joints, I can use the same garden hose to water grid connection, by slipping it off one grid, and onto the other.  Also I can ‘mix and match’ the pvc to fit longer or shorter beds the following years.

Carrots and leeks growing well

Carrots and leeks growing well

3/4 inch pvc hoop slips easily into socket (Looks like I didn't paint it very well)

3/4 inch pvc hoop slips easily into socket (Looks like I didn’t paint it very well)

Deer love carrot tops, so to avoid building a 10' (3 m) fence all around the garden, we opt to net everything. I've tried twine, wire, and now fishing line

Deer love carrot tops, so to avoid a high fence all around the garden, we opt to net everything. I’ve tried twine, wire, and now fishing line to tie the netting to some pvc.  It’s a very tedious job, but once it’s done, little effort is needed to flip the netting off.  Just remember to flip it back or the deer will enjoy.

By placing the plastic, I can decide to protect against the raging storms, or to let a gentle rain soak the soil

By placing the plastic, I can decide to protect against the raging storms, or to let a gentle rain soak the soil.  In winter, I keep the plastic on to protect them in frost or the occasional snow.

Healthy carrots and leeks

The reward are healthy carrots free of little black worms and leeks for the winter dishes.

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