Composting

Another busy weekend in the rear view mirror, where does time disappear to?

We had overnight guests, a funeral to attend, friends in for lunch,  dinner out with friends one night, then an unexpected trip up to Merritt to pick up my parents, but it all fit in somehow, as it always does. 

Inside the hoop house you can see the kale growing with it's frilly leaves.  I added more Endive and Lettuce to this bed.
 

I had two garden related activities that I really wanted to accomplish -  number one was to get some more endive, lettuce and peas planted out in the raised beds that have the hoop covers on them.   Done!

Our kitchen compost barrel was full to the brim about a month ago, and my handyman Chuckles made us a new one so that we could alternate them.  The old one (blue one) has been sitting on the ground for a month now, being rolled over each weekend to keep on stirring the contents.

The blue barrel, ready to be emptied, the new white one is on the stand behind.

 

Lovely rich worm filled compost ready for spreading.  All from kitchen scraps!
 

So number two garden chore on my list was to get this barrel emptied and spread the contents onto the gardens.  So, after having dinner with Mom and Dad at their place Monday evening, I went home and in the semi-darkness of dusk, and in the pouring rain I dug about two-thirds of the contents out of the blue barrel, into a wheel barrow and distributed it around all the flower beds in the yard around the house.  It felt good to get that much done, and I love my garden time, light or dark, rain or sun. 

Admittedly,  I like it more in the sunshine, but I will take it however I can get it!

A little about my kitchen composting -

We have been composters for many years.  Now many cities include kitchen compost in their regular recycling pick up, but we would never give this valuable stuff away!

On my counter I keep a fairly large plastic bucket with a good lid, into which goes all peelings, eggs shells, coffee grounds and filters, unbleached paper products and seeds, pits, leftover veggies, etc.  Never any meat products, bones, fat or anything of animal origin. 

Every day or two, I empty this into the big barrel shown in the pictures above.  The barrel in use has a metal bar through it, so it rests on the metal stand, and can be easily rotated.  Most times when I dump my kitchen bucket, I give the big barrel a spin, to keep everything mixed together. 

It's amazing how much veggie matter we generate!

We alternate the two barrels, so one can rest, fully compost and get emptied onto the gardens as we are filling up the other one, then we switch them, so every 6 months we have a fresh batch of compost to spread.  This amends the soil beautifully, and when it's ready for spreading it is full of fat worms ready to get to work in the beds.

It's Here!

Yippee, my seed order arrived yesterday!

In an enormous box, since I also bought a growlight  garden in order to start seeds and keep a supply of fresh stuff around in winter. 

Growlight Garden
 

Although Chuckles was a little condescending about it, he helped me assemble it and seems interested in the possibilities.  But he claims he could build a better grow light garden!  I don't dispute that, it's just the amount of free time he has in a day (none) and the number of projects on his to-do list (about 800 and counting).  Which is why I didn't tell him ahead of time I was making this particular purchase.

The seeds themselves inspire all kinds of daydreams on my part, which is why I told Chuck he could use the bobcat to strip off the grass layer on the garden area so I could start tilling  and amending it this coming weekend.  Any job he can do that doesn't involve the renovation of the shop is a welcome change, so he is thrilled at the prospect.

We could also start fencing the garden area, which didn't get done last season.  We have the fence posts, just need a post pounder and some wire mesh. 

Dad examining some Iris
 

Meawhile, last weekend on our Saturday outing I took Mom and Dad to Tanglebanks Nursery and we had lunch at their Bistro.  A friend of mine came along for the adventure.


The food was very good, some interesting choices on their menu, and the place quickly filled up!  I will definitely make it back that way once spring arrives and they have more stock in their yard.

Mom was very smitten with these Primulas
 

They did have some lovely primulas on display, with enormous petals and even some with frilly petals which I have never seen.

 



Meanwhile, back at the country estate there was some trenching, pipe laying and trench filling happening.  These pics were first thing in the morning, when the morning mist was still swirling about.

 

Mini-Hoop Houses

The urge to garden got to me!  After weeks of reading through my seed catalogue until it was dog eared, and checking out Pinterest and Facebook for fresh ideas, I needed to get some dirt under my nails! 

After the torrential rains of Friday and Saturday, Sunday was a perfect day, balmy and bright, warm enough to work outside with just a light sweatshirt on.

Chuck and I got busy and made some mini hoop houses for our raised beds.

 Hoop houses are now trendy, as full sized greenhouses and as what we used to call cold frames back in the olden days, when I was a kid.



The Materials Assembled
 

 

Taking shape

 Using some PVC tubing, poly and scrap wood from the ongoing workshop project, we made covers for three of the beds.  In a couple of hours we turned the raised beds into little greenhouses, into which I have now planted Endive, Grand Rapids leaf lettuce, Kale and Peas. 

Adding the Poly
 

 

It's a bit early, I admit it.  However, there's a 50 50 chance by my estimation that we could get through the rest of winter without another freeze, so I think these little crops might work out, and soon we could be munching on some fresh greens.

And if not, well I had a marvellous time with my sleeves rolled up, in my gum boots, digging in the dirt with the sun on my back and Bogey chasing the odd stick I stopped to throw!

Garlic sprouting
 

A quick trip to the back garden yielded this great news - the garlic planted in October is all up now.  We can look forward to another (bigger) crop of garlic this year.  I am going to put more in this spring to see how it performs alongside the fall planted crop.

Veggie Garden Review

The Veggie Garden In Review

Even without the fence we planned to build, the garden thrived and

didn't get eaten by bunnies or deer.

 

I've been looking at the seeds I ordered and planted, and trying to make plans for what to get for next season.  Mostly I was pretty pleased with my  first effort, considering I planted quite late (May long weekend), and basically created the garden in a single day, from a corner of a former horse pasture.  

 

Bush Beans – Carson – yellow beans.  These were very productive at first, but flagged a little through the heat, but once the weather cooled they came on strong again and lasted well into the fall, probably the first week of October they finished.  I got about 12 ft of row from 1 25 g packet of seeds.   I would need at least twice that to preserve any as we ate all fresh except for some given away.

Pole Beans, Fortex Filet – these were great  green beans, they get really long, and are very tender.  They were very productive.    I also planted some seeds from my 2010 garden, which turned out to be a few scarlet runners, which didn’t do well at all, and then some other beans which I think may have come from the in-laws garden, which did better.  I would like to plant more of the Fortex Filet beans next year, especially if preserving any.

Beets were a dead loss.  I only planted the Cylindra which I bought because their cylindrical, uniform shape appealed to me.  However, the greens didn’t develop very well, and stayed very red and tough.  The beets themselves also were very small.  Very late in the season, as I was dismantling the garden, I dug up the rest and there were a few decent sized ones, but overall I would not say these could be defined as successful by any standard of measure.  Not sure if it was the soil composition, the late planting date or just not a seed I was happy with.

Lettuce, Carrots, Beets, Radishes, and Cilantro Bed

 

Carrots did well but the 2g packet of pelleted seeds I bought did not go very far.  I got a 4 ft long 4” wide swath of carrots.  I would definitely go with the pelleted seeds again, but need about 4-6 times as many. 

Corn Sprouting

Corn maturing

Corn Ready for the Pot!

Corn was a success!  From the 15g packet of seedsof Jubilee Super Sweet I got seven 6 ft long rows and yielded about 30-40 cobs of corn.  The first picking wasn’t very sweet, although it looked beautiful and had a nice firm texture.  Later pickings were much sweeter but the texture was mushier.  I would grow this again and plant earlier.  Probably better soil will help.

Lettuce .  I planted Buttercrunch and Coastal Star.  Both grew well in the early months, but the transplants didn’t do well once the heat of summer arrived and we weren’t there to water often enough. 

Onion sets did very well, but I am not sure that the tiny onions that we yielded were worth the effort.  How do you grow larger onions?  Different kind?  Must look into.

Onions and Garlic ready to use

 

Garlic and Daffodils planted together

 

The garlic was fantastic.  I grew Russian Red.  We enjoyed the scapes in the spring and the bulbs we harvested were large with enormous cloves with a nice sweet garlicky flavour.  I only planted two of the small raised beds, but have already planted a much larger crop in the main garden for next years harvest.

Parsnips flopped.  None even sprouted. 

Peas were great.  The 25g packet of Green Arrow peas planted about 20 ft of row in two plantings.  I planted these in the back garden and they were affected by pea moths, which I now realize is most likely to happen when you plant them later and they flower in June/July.  The peas planted in the raised bed planter from seeds from my previous garden were less affected because they were planted earlier.

Tomatoes – did very well, especially the early girls.  The romas were pretty good and the beefsteaks did the poorest, as the plants did not get very large.  Big yield. As in 100+ lbs.

 

Basil crop was great.  I planted some good sized plants from a local nursery.  They really took a while to get going, so much so that I bought a tray of seedlings and put a seedling in beside each of the plants.  Once the hot weather came along it all took off.  I made two large batches of pesto, yielding about 24 meals worth, which I froze in muffin tins then transferred frozen into ziplock bags.  Each muffin sized puck is plenty for one meal for two with pasta and veggies.

 

 

 

 Red Currant Bush

 Red Currant Jelly in Progress

 

The red currant bush was loaded again this summer.  I used some of the frozen currants from last year along with some of this years crop to make jelly.  Then I carefully froze each successive picking in a big yogurt container which I then stupidly left out of the freezer by accident ruining all of them. So we are enjoying the jelly sparingly as it will have to last us for at least two seasons!

 

 

 

 

The Shell Cracks

It's no joke, this life transformation is hard slogging sometimes.

Even with the addition of Bogey into our life (love, love!) it is not always easy to stay positive when our life seems like a bit of a train wreck. We are virtually camping in our little factory during the week, and working our asses off each and every weekend at the country estate.  And progress is slow. 

Most days, I am weathering the storm.  I don't have to look very far to find folks in far worse circumstances than ours.  And ours is of our own making, so boo hoo to us.  And eventually it will all be done, and we will be moved in full time. 

I know I have neglected the blog. I guess I feel like my blog should be upbeat and full of positivity all the blooming time, when lately, I gotta say, I have been feeling anything but upbeat and positive.  But today, I can see some humour and a few things you might find interesting.  So here we go:

At the shop we sleep on a futon which is the size of a double bed.  It's extremely small for two people who exceed 6 feet in height with corresponding widths!  At first, it was one of my biggest beefs - `the bed in the shop is too small``  I would lament to anyone who would listen.  I now realize that when we get home to the big king sized bed that is soooo comfy-- it seems huge!   I am always freezing in it since my Chuckles is miles away on his side and I don`t benefit from the lovely heat he radiates that I have become very accustomed to during the week sleeping on the futon!  In order to cosy up to him, I squirm my way over towards the center of the bed - and encounter the hump created by the two box springs underneath the mattress!  Hmmm maybe we need to downsize back to queen size when we move in full time.

It`s astonishing how simply one can live.  During the week we have a microwave, an electric skillet, a toaster oven,  a slow cooker and a single burner propane stove (rarely used.)

 

Pictures of delicious meals prepared in our minimalistic weekday kitchen!

We have 3 full size plates, several small ones, a few mugs, a minimal amount of cutlery, and a three glass baking dishes of varying sizes, of which we use two often and one rarely.  We eat amazingly well, and I use the slow cooker most of all.  I make soups, pasta sauce, chili, and various other concoctions such as the one today which is cut up chicken breast, with rice, mushrooms, onions, red pepper, peas and carrots and a can of cream of celery soup and some broth thrown in along with two whole dried chili peppers.  Add a side salad, and there is enough for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow.  We cook rice and pasta in the microwave.  Being campers no doubt helps, this is like deluxe camping I suppose!

Our clothing choices for the week are made in about 3 minutes flat at home once all the laundry is done.  Two pairs of jeans, three shirts, and a couple of sweaters or sweatshirts does it for me.  They all go in a plastic bin at work so I just pull off the top.  I`ve never been a fashion maven, but this is simplicity itself.  It`s brilliant really. 

It has also been great getting Bogey before we moved to the country full-time.  In the city it has been imperative to expose him to traffic, and teach him rules of engagement with people and other dogs.  At the country estate, he runs amok on the property and if we took him only there, he would never have learned to walk nicely on a leash, come when called, the various hand signals he now knows or manners around other people.  Not saying he`s perfect, by the way, but he is learning!

Since I blogged last, we have poured the concrete aprons on either side of the barn and last weekend we pulled the roof off, as we are changing out the roof for a trussed style with a steeper peak to accommodate a room upstairs.  (The man cave, as I understand it!)

When I arrived with Bogey at the country estate, there were two ducks absolutely sound asleep beside the pond.  I drove up, crunching across the gravel driveway, and they still had their heads tucked firmly under their wings.  I do mean SOUND ASLEEP.  They likely had been using our pond all week long with no interruptions, so they were not guarded at all.  When they finally woke up, shook their heads, and stared at me, it was with a `who the hell are you`expression on their faces.  All weekend long they managed to co-habitate with Bogey and the other dogs.  A couple of times a day we would hear them honking and see them fly off, then we`d know that Bogey had decided he felt like a swim.  But they would return when he was finished! 

 

The ducks at home on the pond, between Bogey`s swims

 

Easter weekend is traditionally our first camping trip of the season, and I was bummed out that we were home working (again) with no other plans for the weekend.  So it was a fantastic surprise when young son and his girlfriend showed up from the island.  Together with Chuckles and older son, and some friends who showed up to help we got that whole roof taken off and the mess cleaned up.  That was a big job and very satisfying to see it behind us!

 

 

 

 

Above and below, the roof comes off!

 

Roofing material off, lots of mess to cleanup!

 

Above the roofless barn viewed from inside

 and below, our friends daughter pitched in and worked hard at the cleanup

 

 

My son`s girlfriend mowed the lawn with the ride-on lawnmower, supervised by Bogey

We also had an impromptu bonfire and barbeque with the kids and their partners and dogs,  which was a lot of fun and stress free.  Another example of how simple life can be.  No planning, no stress, they just showed up, we pooled our food resources, lit the barbeque and had an amazing family Easter. 

 

Bogey couldn`t keep his eyes open any longer by Monday afternoon!

 

A friend posted on Facebook the other day a verse that seems appropriate to both the barn project as well as life in general:

 

For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone.  The shell cracks, its insides come out, and everything changes.  To someone who doesn`t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.  Cynthia Ocelli.

 

My garden is taking shape!  I now have lettuce, peas, onions, garlic, parsnips, beets and carrots on the go.  I have dug up two small beds so far, side by side, each one has been a lot of work.  Stripping off the grass and roots, then digging out 6-8 inches of clay below, adding in 6`8 inches of composted manure, all by hand, me and my wheelbarrow, with a little unwelcome help from Bogey.  He sees me digging and thinks it`s a fun game!

Although friends have a bobcat they offered to bring over so I could prep the whole garden area at once, I have decided keeping it small for this summer makes sense.  With only being there on weekends, and the water shut off to the barn until the reno is complete, it would be hard to weed and water a large garden this season, so small is manageable. 

That`s it for now, I am making a renewed commitment to the blogging, be it happy news or simple desperation, you are getting it all from this point forward!

 

 

 

Cabin - et Fever

It has been cabinet finishing time lately. 

You might not remember the built in cabinets in what was the dining room of the country estate house.  They were butt ugly.  Seriously.  Unfortunately the flooring was installed right up to them but not under them, making removing them somewhat of an inconvenience. 

Okay, no one could argue that these are attractive.  Definitely '70's looking.

This room is going to be our home office, so the two corner units will be able to house books and files.  The big built in leads right into our dining area, so once it is finished, I will sell or repurpose the dining cabinet we have been using and move all the contents into this one.

This project has started and stalled many times.  Before Christmas I got rid of the sliding glass doors and the tracks, and sanded off all the residual glue from the tracks.  Then nothing happened for some time.

A few weeks ago I removed all the hardware, doors and drawers and sanded everything down.  We took the drawers into work with us and used some evening time to paint them there.

Here are the drawers on the workbench being painted.

This weekend we finished the filling and sanding, and I painted the cabinets while Chuckles made a new shelf for each.  In some of these pics you can see the new shelves sitting out front with white primer on them, they are still needing to be painted with the colour which is Monashee Mountains by Sico. 

Above, the big cabinet with the cutting of the new colour.  Below, with the first coat of new colour on.

Above, one of the corner cabinets with the cutting in done, below, with the first coat of colour on.

Below, all the cabinet doors needed one final coat, here they are laid out on floor.

I admit that part of my hesitation in moving the project forward was our colour choice.  I have had the swatch for ages and kept on holding it up to the cabinets and trying to picture them that colour.  Problem is, I am not good at "picturing".  We chose this colour because we wanted them to be darker, and this colour really picks up colour in the backsplash kitchen tiles as well as the living room carpets, so it seemed like a good colour in this transitional space.  But, it's so hard to know for sure until you do the painting, and then, if you don't like it...?

Luckily we both like it a lot!  I think it's going to look fantabulous when it's done.  And the hardware I chose is really pretty too. It's brushed copper, really cool.

 

The new hardware in package, I should have photo's someplace beside the counter top, which has a busy pattern.  Oh well, you get the idea!

 I like it much better than the hardware that's in the kitchen..oh no, does that mean another project?