Toilet Repair.

The downstairs toilet leaked. Mary had turned the water off to it, and I had to figure out why it was leaking. So, I checked it out, and found that the flapper needed replacement. So off to the hardware store. Back after the trip to get the toilet working again. Replaced flapper, and fiddled with chain length and finally got it working so that it wouldn't stay "open" after the flush. I have kids, and they usually don't hang around after they flush to "jiggle the handle" if the toilet tank doesn't fill. So I got it working, and now it isn't leaking. About 15 minutes of fiddle time, and 45 trip time. Lucky me. One small victory in the battle of home ownership.

Table Saw

Yesterday morning I purchased a table saw. I am planning on building things around the house, and using one of these will make these tasks much easier. I spent about 3 hours putting it together, making sure that it was all set up correctly and such, then I got to actually turn it on!

I spent another 2 hours making pusher stick, pusher block, rail fence extension, and feather boards.

I'll be sawing things now!

This morning I went out to pick raspberries before it got too hot. I came back with 3 large quart containers full, and put them directly into the freezer. They will keep there for a good long time. Berries for lots of things to come. And I never got out of the neighborhood today. I'll go out again later this week and try to pick some blackberries at the college.

Mary returns from Colorado and niece and nephew watching. She had fun, but I think it may have worn her out. And to think, some women wait until their 40's to even start families. Wow.
Love you Mary, and I'm sure that Beck is happy that you did this for her.

Restful Weekend.

I had one of those.

I didn't do much of anything that was scheduled, planned or otherwise anticipated. Down time. Free to do whatever struck my fancy.

So, I baked a couple of logs. Yep, that's right, baked them. It was a small piece of oak branch, and an inch thick slab sawn off of a bigger log. After they were baked in a 300 degree F. oven for about an hour, I took them out to cool. I then drilled holes in them to attach them so that the slab would be on the bottom, and the oak stick/log would be upright. After all of that (and 3 deck screws to make sure it stayed together) I rescued my poor dieing dendrobium orchid. It was a victim of over watering. I left it in the pot for too long and the bark was breaking down and suffocating it. Anyway, I tied a patch of sphagnum moss to the oak log, then set about tying the orchid to the log, careful to not kill what few roots were left.
This I do for fun!

Anyway, the orchid should do much better now that it won't rot. (I treated all of the trimmed root ends with an anti-fungal/bacterial - cinnamon.) I will have to make sure that the orchid gets watered often, and check to make sure it is growing well. Hopefully it will live. If not, I'll have to try again!

That was Saturday's big project. Ok, little project. The community college had fireworks Saturday night, and that was a good show, since we live only 10 walking minutes from there. Mary and I went with a neighbor and had a fine time. Oddly, neither twin wanted to go... Hmmm. Are they growing up?

Sunday was spent reading and generally goofing off. I did get a few loads of laundry done, and some beans planted and gardens watered, but aside from that... just a relaxing July 1st!

Next week: Work at paying job for 2 days, Tuesday evening send Mary to Colorado to take care of her sister's kids while her sister goes to Africa on business, no work on Wednesday, work 2 more days, then have another weekend. Life is good!

Summer Vacation

My family and I went to Orlando for Mary's family reunion.

We had a wonderful time staying in rented houses and visiting with all of the siblings, kids, cousins and uncles and such. Really good to be with those folks.

I have one brother, and Mary has 3 brothers and a sister. That makes for much different family dynamics! Mary calls it "critical mass". When my family gets together, we just never get to that point, because there just aren't enough of us. But Mary's family gets there quickly! It is always a good time to hang out with them.

We did some of the "touristy" things. My thing this year was going to Epcot Center. I've been wanting to go since it opened, but this was the year that I got to go. We also went to Weeki Wachee Springs. That was pretty cool. It was a kinda interesting show, the kids seemed to enjoy it, and we then all went to Buccaneer Bay (the waterpark area) and had some fun on the water slides and swimming in the fresh water. Really nice.

Most of the rest of the time we spent hanging out at the house, watching the kids swim and just being together. Really good family reunion.

We got back home last night after about 16 hours in the car. We did stop a few times for breaks, and meals, but overall it was driving. I much preferred the driving all day coming home to the driving all night going down there, but that is just me. Driving all night did make it so that Mary could spend more time with her family, and less time spent resting in a hotel. Mary was fantastic, and did take her turns driving. I couldn't have done it all myself, especially driving all night. Daytime driving is easier for both of us, I think.

Nice scooter ride

So I had some time this Friday evening. So I hopped on the scooter and took a ride. I made it to downtown Annapolis, out to Crownsville on General's Highway, and up 3 to Veteran's Highway, to Benfield Road and then back down Old County Road. Not a lot of miles, but lots of nice back roads and fun curves and stuff. It was a good ride after dinner.

When I got home, I pittled around the gardens. I pruned this bush, and clipped that plant, tugged out a few weeds, and plucked some pachysandra from around the paths, trimmed another bush, clipped back some trees limbs, and just enjoyed the beautiful weather.
Our summer and winter squashes are growing well. The potatoes and such are doing well also.

I'm excited about the upcoming Florida trip. Looks like we are going to have a beautiful weekend before we go.

I don't know what I'll get into tomorrow, but I think some laundry will get done, then packing for our trip.

The Rain Barrels are Full!

I've been enjoying the rain this afternoon. The storm came about 5 pm, plenty of time to enjoy the rain. It did water the garden quite well, and filled up the half-full barrels. We are topped up now both in the ground water and the barrels. That is so cool! The pond too is almost to the top as well. We've put it out to our friends (and the Universe) in general that we would like some frogs for the pond. We have one little frog, but that seems to be it.

I have damp clothes now from walking around the house in the light rain. I couldn't wait to check out the yard! I'm so excited with everything, and how well it is growing.

We had some of the environmentally conscious Friends over for a garden tour last evening. They seemed much impressed with what we've done here. They didn't seem to believe me when I said that it was fun, and not too much work. I also tried to tell them that I have been working in this general direction of soil building for the last 3 years. It shows too. There aren't many places we can did out in the gardens where we don't disturb many earthworms at a time. I demonstrated that to the Friends last night, and they were impressed! Since some still have yards, lawns and such, use chemicals (pesticides and fertilizers) and have managed to kill off most of their worms, and beneficial insects.

With this rain, the slugs will come out and give us a chance to do some slug picking. I've noticed that the slugs don't bother the plants that are growing in wild profusion! Just the little ones we would like to eat later.

I planted 2 pounds of cover crop seed - White clover since I read Masanobu Fukuoka's interview in Mother Earth News Archives. I really like the internet. Anyway, he said to use white clover as a cover crop, and an inter-crop because it was the best one he had tried. So I went out on Saturday and put 2 pounds of seed around, and have been waiting for the rain to come... and grow our clover. Even the asparagus beds will have clover soon! The asparagus will come up over/through it and will be even healthier. If the clover gets out of hand, I'll just chop it off and let it be worm-food! If I want to plant other things, I'll just pull out some clover, plant the new plant or seeds and let them go. It will be a wild experiment by far.

Anyway, I'm excited because it rained. I'm excited because of the garden growing so well (the strawberries were fantastic! and more are still coming.) I'm excited to be alive. But most of all, I'm excited to be Mary's.

Garden Still Grows

It has been a while since I blogged. Mary has hit the big points in our lives. As for me, I'm still working, and it seems as if 8 hours a day is way too much work!

I look forward to coming home and being with family, friends, and of course the garden. Which is growing very well.

We've had some learning curve problems, like getting some of the seedlings to grow. Seems most of the leaf crops aren't growing very well in the new beds... I think the worms need longer to get them ready for us.

The trees are growing fine, and the kiwis, grapes and fig all are coming along.

We've had lots of fresh strawberries, and they are very good right out of the patch! Peas off the vines are excellent too! I've got carrots, beets, turnips and daikon radish growing in the front and side yards. Mary had beans growing in "TeePee Alley" aka the side yard.

Grow well, all.