Grow Away Little Girl

Since March I've been experimenting with gardening - a couple of things have sparked this interest. In December I moved into another position at work which keeps me busy but I also now have more free time on my hands. I work from home two days a week and that means no travel and I can spend my lunch hour pottering in the garden. The other reason is why everyone else has a sudden interest - prices. David and I spend about $80  to $100 a week in vegetables and given the financial state of the world these days - it will not get better anytime soon. So, I thought I'd let you know what I've figured out in my horticultural travels. First off, I have inherited my Grandparents green thumb.

Hooray. 

Hydroponic Gardening - my first outing - I researched units and found some horrifyingly expensive. What's the point if I'm spending a thousand dollars (or more) on growing $50 worth of lettuce? Amazon has some cheaper versions, the one I bought holds 72 plants, the net cups and sponges, came with a pump and cost $114. You can also DIY with PVC pipes but the labor and cost end up being about the same. The unit came with almost no instruction so I Youtubed it.  I checked out lighting at the local shop and  nope - $500 to $1000 for a basic set up - $80 Amazon. I bought a seedling heating pad ($14) and trays ($12) plant nutrient mix ($15). Discovered old tissue paper ($0) works just as well as special growing paper. So. I bought rock wool to replace the sponges, it's biodegradable - I'm not sure if the sponges are reusable. I planted zucchini in the hydro unit and it's growing great guns! but it takes up a huge amount of real estate covering my other little plants. So far I've counted about a dozen little zucchini, the rest are pretty new seedlings.  But in the end everyone is growing well. The only issue is pollination, since the unit is outside not a problem but if it's inside you have to do it by hand. Which was not hard at all. You Tube. I change the water once a week, my reservoir is a 10 gallon black covered tote ($6) and you have to keep it out of the sunlight or you get algae. Algae will take all the oxygen out of the water and kill the plants. 

Dutch Bucket -  I'm doing this passively right now - you can buy a set up with a pump which works like the hydro unit but it's more expensive ($225 for 6 with a pump) and it takes up a lot of space. I do have a lot of Amazon points though.... but for now since I'm still figuring it out I'm not investing in something that may not be workable. So. 4 inch net cups ($12 for 25), clay pebbles ($11 for 2 pounds which is a lot), 5 gallon pail with a lid from Lowes ($7.50). I'm using the Kratky Method for this which I'm loving. I took a plant from the hydro unit, in the cup with the clay pebbles (for holding it upright and aeration), David cut a hold in the lid for the cup to sit in. Add plant nutrients, fill to the top, pop the top on and that's it. I explained the Kratky method below.

Raised Garden  - David built these (about $500) - we spent more because it will be a permanent structure. David also had to put a fence and gate because Bee and Dutch were using them for playing King Of the Hill and would not stop. Bastards. We got a load of topsoil for the yard anyhow to fill a dip and we had the rock left over from the driveway, easy peasy. I had seedlings started, seeds, etc... I bought belles, lavender and hydrangeas for the middle garden to attract the bees for pollination and a couple of started plants at the small nursery down the road.  Since I started quite a few seedlings I have most of it filled, I have another set of seedling started and they will probably go in next week.  I've also inspired some neighbors to start their own gardens, one waved at me yesterday and shouted rather cheerily "we're copying you!" so my efforts are not going un-noticed. 

The Kratky Method -  this is the addictive one. I've got 3 going, rock wool ($12 for 100) or net cup and any light blocking container ($0). I have 3 so far using a kombuca bottle, a yogurt container and an old hydrogen peroxide plastic bottle.  Same as the Dutch Bucket - the way it works is you put your seeding in and fill to the top. As the plant uses the water the space left provides the air to the plant and gets the roots to grow to reach. You just need to add it occasionally and you can use a container depending on the size of the plant you want to grow - I will be using the Dutch Bucket for zucchini in the future. You can only do one plant per container (unless you use a tote sized one ) so it can look kind of junky. 

The whole reason I'm experimenting is I'm planning on year round gardening. David will be finishing the green house and I have the big lights  - FYI look on FB marketplace, Craigslist, etc.... failed growers sell that stuff for nothing!! The only downside is everything smells vaguely of pot. But I bought about $1500 dollars worth of equipment for $75 so no complaints here. So far I've been pretty pleased with my progress. 
 

A Year Of Dutch.

Today is Dutch's official One Year Anniversary of being our dog. A year and a half ago was the horrible dog year, Molly first dying 32 hours after being diagnosed with a terminal abdominal tumor. Then Rueben following on her heels to the Elysian Fields not 6 weeks later with so many tumors they were on his heart and one lung was obliterated. No, we were not asleep at the switch - both cancers are insidious, there were virtually no symptoms until it was too late. Molly we didn't have time to breath - for Rueben the vet told us we could pursue treatment but best case was 6 months and he would spend the 6 months with surgeries and treatments. And just when we thought it couldn't get any worse Rueben and I were attacked by a raccoon  - we were both mauled and bitten multiple times - that just pushed everything over the edge. As hard as it was, we let him go gently. Crying for two months straight  doesn't even begin to cover it. 

I was destroyed. 

But then there was Bee the puppy and even though we were still recovering it was like the world was righting itself.  So smart, cute and her crazy antics  - you couldn't ask for a better dog. And then a few months later I got a text from Jess letting me  know that Bee's brother had been returned due to some unfortunate circumstances, was I interested? It was an almost immediate YES and I was on my way 5 days later - his name was Red which I changed of  course, a red dog named Red just makes you sigh, doesn't it?  The ride home was me being excited with Dutch quietly sitting in the back seat, trying to take it all in. When we got about 20 miles from home my new car died at the gas station which resulted in a slightly hysterical  phone call to my office since I couldn't reach David. Carmen came and got us, calmly loaded Dutch in the backseat and took us home. And it was of all the simple things the battery. When we arrived Bee was beside herself with joy - Dutch not so much. He went from pillar to post to pillar in a span of 3 weeks so he had some catching up to do. And dogs do grieve, I'm sure there were a few weeks he waited for his family to come get him and bring him home, he waited. But the sad, quiet days grew shorter and - I don't know if they really ever forget, but like us they move on. 

David gets tired of my lauding his virtues, yes he's the best looking dog he's ever seen, he's very smart, so nice and yes, he does seem more talented than other people's dogs, but honestly I don't think I've had a dog that I've loved this much in a long time. You know how sometimes you'll get a pet and they're just the best thing ever? But he is - he's so gentle and sweet  - when the granddaughters are here all he wants is to be with them. At night he lays on my lap,much to Bee's annoyance. Like any sister she does things to get under his skin, she'll take the favored toy and hold it so he can't have it, get in my lap and refuse to move - Dutch takes this all seriously and becomes a drama llama by throwing his head back and howling. Bee just keeps it up. But for the most part they get along well and they play well. David continues to train them to hunt and hopefully this fall they will get out there a few times. Dutch got some new stuff for his anniversary much to David's eye rolling and Bee got too since you cannot explain this anniversary stuff

Happy One Year With Us Dutch! 

You're the best!

 

Bumbling In Botany

I have a tendency to bulldoze through anything - I rarely approach anything slowly with great thought and research. I get blindsided by inspiration often - I'll just be toodling along and suddenly will think I should take up learning Udo or maybe live in a Yurt. In Idaho. While raising Alpacas and then next thing you know I'm attending YouTube College getting my PhD in Binge Watching How To Shear Alapacas. David is a big Nope on many of these ventures if they incude requirements such as Work  Visas, snowshoes or livestock. His take is I will lose interest as soon as the next Fun Thing comes along and he'll be in charge of a herd of bleating sheep. And he doesn't like sheep. He might not be wrong. But if it's something that doesn't require anything from him, moving or a loan and might possibly of use he's ok with it. Which is how I ended up playing with hydroponic gardening. 

I have a few reasons I'm interested in this - you can do it year round, it can be inside or out and if I can get to the point of growing real food - we will be saving tons of money plus decreasing our footprint. I initially started looking in the pot growing shops and quickly abandoned that - the investment was way out of my comfort zone. Lighting starts around a thousand dollars - and that's just the lighting. Most people frequenting those shops are pot farmers and start ups, not zucchini and lettuce people. So - on to Amazon. My set up plus the pump, plus the lights came to under $200 so I was happy with that. In the relative scope of things that's not bad for a hobby. We have a closed in sun room in the back - i was going to start off in the grow room under the house but realized starting out it would be difficult, there is no water hooked up down there so I would have to carry buckets of water up and down the ladder for the weekly water change so that was off the table. Plus David pointed out we have plenty of room up here so aside from the fun factor of telling people I was gardening under the house there wasn't any benefit to it. 

So, my first round of seedlings I had about 20 survivors, I just added the second round. I am going to be gardening outside with raised beds but I want to get this down pat for the winter. David is also building me a greenhouse off the back deck - the whole idea is to be able to grow vegetables all the time. I had no idea what I planted in the unit but it's become apparent a good number of the survivors are zucchini. I have no vegetables yet but I have blossoms and when they open I will have to pollinate. So far I've had two flowers but they were both males so it was a no go. My second round of seedling are bell peppers which I grew from the seeds I took out of the peppers I used for dinner. I put them on wet paper and then in the dark for awhile, they all sprouted! So during this I decided I wanted a bigger pump than the one that came with the unit. I found a reasonable one - Amazon again! When it came I realized this one did not come on a timer so I had to order that and then wait for it's arrival. That came and  yesterday I started hooking it up with David trying desparately to ignore me as it was not going well. No indeed, not well at all. First, the tubing was too big so I tried a rubber band, then David used a clamp. I fired it up and it leaked like crazy out the top and then down the side. 

Of course. 

Sigh. So David taped and clamped it - sucess! I had just drained the water and refilled the reserve bucket so I plugged it in and went to figure out the timer I had bought. I was sitting at the table with the directions when i heard the not so gentle sounds of a waterfall.Hmm. Took me a second. I ran in to see the water gysering out of the unit - gyser!! Thank goodness the floor is a deck so the it just drained out - I got it unplugged and I guess it's a bit more powerful than i had anticipated. I reinstalled the old pump and all was well in Plant World once again. And no, the new stuff with not be wasted - i will be doing a dutch bucket system for the fall so it goes into the future greenhouse pile. The other thing I've discovered is around here we have a lot of pot farm fails - people think they'll make their fortunes but reality is the competition around here is fierce and then by the time you get through all the government regulations....but the upside is I bought about a thousand dollars worth of fairly new greenhouse equipment giant grow lights, fans, etc.... for $75. Even if I don't use half of it there is almost nothing invested - she even threw in extra filters (they're huge!). It all smells vaguely of pot but for $75 I'm good with it. David is working on the raised beds and then I'll transfer the zucchini out - it's growing like crazy as you can see in the picture but it's overtaking the entire unit and covering the new seedlings. I think in the future I'll be growing lettuce. Or whatever sprouts!! 

 

A West Virginia Haunting.

A couple of months ago a woman showed up on my Ring doorbell video, she looked about our age. She knocked and waited, then left with some papers in her hand. We didn't know who she was and we  really don't get many people we don't know down here. Our house is about 3 miles down a back dirt road and there are only about 8 houses - it's not an ideal place to solicit and no one end ups here accidently. When we got home there was no sign, nothing stuck in the door or mailbox, no note with a phone number. We figured she was looking for someone else and had found them. Two weeks later - she was back again. This time we were out of town and she rang the Ring doorbell, but I didn't catch it til she was in her car - once again we missed her. And again there was no note or any way to contact her. I posted a picture on the local FB community board hoping someone would recognize her and then someone piped up

"that's a process server".

Now, when you flip foreclosures you occasionally do end up in court - the reason they're so cheap is not only due to condition but there's often issues with neighbors, irate relatives, the deed, etc....but we'd never been served with papers. And the only house out here we flipped was the Astoria house which I will someday tell the entire story of that mess - we did well selling it but what a fucking disaster it was with the local assholes. But I digress. As you can imagine we were freaking out in the What Now Area - but then about a week later she came back and David called me laughing. It was over a stupid piece of property in Fairmont WV that we had bought about 8 years ago? It was a little nothing that there was some big issues with the deed that left us paying the taxes every year but unable to sell it. David actually though about challenging it but....no.It's not a desirable area, the piece is really small - like an 1/8 of an acre if that.  We stopped paying the taxes a couple of years ago and someone was buying it. David thought briefly of paying the taxes but I was No. By the time we got done fixing the deed etc... it would not be worth it. We let it go.

I was just relieved it was something small. Yesterday David got an email that we were getting a registered letter in the mail that needed signed - ugh!! So it came and it was another legal document ........from West Virginia. About a house we sold in 2012 and a deed correction tjat has absolutely nothing to do with us. Nothing. Nada. From reading it over it they have to notify everyone involved. I said to David we should just Strongly Object just for the hell of it, this is getting silly and annoying.  The problem with lawsuits, even the stupid ones can run into money whether you're right or wrong. You can be sued for anything at anytime and the kicker is even if its totally stupid if you dont show up you lose automatically.

I'm hoping this is the end of it, I'm sure with RE booming the house in Bruceton Mills is being sold, and that they just found an issue with the deed. Which is on the title company, not us. 

 

Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head

You know how they always talk about Washington and Oregon being overcast and dismal all the time? It's kind of true, some weeks it just rains constantly. We ask Alexa for the weather report and I've noticed she tries to mix it up a bit so it doesn't sound so bad. "Monday rain Tuesday Rain Wednesday Showers, Thursday wet weather....." - but I'm not fooled. And then there are the winds so you can't really carry an umbrella, I have 3 raincoats thank you for asking. It doesn't rain all day - but it will pour overnight, then be Dismal, black clouds rain, clears up......everything this time of year is damp and muddy. David tries to keep up with the floors but it's a losing battle. He did get the lawn mowed today, the sun came out for a few hours and when it does it doesn't look real - endless blue skies with puffy clouds, mountain in the background - technicolor grass and flowers. Everything is green - it never stays cold enough for it not to be green and the grass grows year around. The flowers bloomed a month ago, trees are all budded up and I can see the giant rose bush we unburied from the vines last year will be spectacular. 

My hydroponic garden continues I'm down to about 20 plants but the ones left are growing well. The biggest ones I am pretty sure are zucchini and two of the plants have blossoms on them as of this morning. I think the next go around I will have separate the seeds because I'm not sure what didn't make it. I'm going to start some more hydro seedling and then some in regular peat pots. I will have a raised garden this year so I have to get started on that. David built a small deck around the back and it will be enclosed by winter - I'm still planning on being able to grow year round. We continue to work on the yard, David is going to fence in the front where we have the giant cement pads, I'm trying to figure out what I want to plant and where. We're still arguing about the Monkey tree which is native to here and David HATES it, goes on and on about how ugly it is, it's not my decision, blah blah blah. It's seriously not that bad and cutting it down would be more trouble than it's worth. 

This is the first weekend in almost a month we do not have small children - it's very quiet around here. We have nothing really planned, a couple estate sales, maybe doing a little cleaning out, some planting and yard work but just pottering around for the most part. Tomorrow there will  be sunshine at least for part of Saturday so we can get out and do something fun. Have a good weekend everyone!

 

Easter And All That Sugar

Yes, I know we just had them last week, we actually dropped them off the previous Sunday morning only to have them heading back in this direction Friday night. The reason was their spring break occurred the first week of April and Easter did not. But Brandi was fine with driving down so we could celebrate together and left shortly after getting off from work. And then headed back to get the Easter stuff that she'd carefully hidden in her closet and forgot. They didn't arrive til almost 11 pm but I had everyone's room ready, we got the girls in bed, then they realized they were here so I herded them back to bed a few times despite protests. I started the vaporizer as they both have allergies and I think they sleep much better anyhow. Brandi went upstairs to her room and that was all she wrote. 

The girls were up early the next morning since they had slept in the car, we left Brandi alone as i knew she must've been tired. I started boiling the eggs, tucked everyone in with Poppop and tablets so we could play the Makeup game. They LOVE the Makeup game - you get a girl face and you can do the hair, eye color and apply enough cyber cosmetics to make anyone look like a Deranged Prostitute in no time. When you're done you can take a screen shot and email it to Mommy's messenger which I'm sure delights her to no end. So the eggs cooled - not fast enough of course, but they did it. By that time Brandi was up and it was time to dye the eggs! It is also Close Supervision Time because having two six year olds, 18 eggs and six cups of dye can be a bit harrowing. The kit I bought (Paas of course!) came with paint so while the eggs dried we mixed the cake complete with the Breaking Of The Eggs - they do well with it. It's funny how you don't realize until you see a small child do it how much dexterity it takes to do things like break eggs and pour ingredients. They're very crafty right now and we do tons of arts and crafts, baking,etc - not only do they enjoy it but it's so good for motor skills. I wonder sometimes how many kids end up with physical issues because they simply don't have the everyday practice. 

While the cake baked and cooled we went back to the eggs, painted them then on to decorating the bunny cake. This consists of Nana just putting out bowls of candy, sprinkles and then I let them go. This year the bunny had actually eyes and whiskers - and some sort of Pox. Easter morning was spectacular, they're at that great age where they're young enough to  still believe but old enough to get excited about it. We got up and hid the eggs to prevent Bee and Dutch from finding them (they are hunting dogs after all!) D is a driven egg hunter, she needed to be reined in a bit, loping around the house  with her easter basket in hand. Brandi had also brought plastic eggs with small prizes so they both had a good run. Then we had to get ready for brunch, pulled the table out to giant size, got the extra chairs from the basement and Aunt Kim, Uncle Steve and Meg from Colorado showed up at 10. C and D LOVED Meg like they had known her since college and hauled her all over the house. D announced she would be her dining partner while C positioned her bad self between Brandi and Aunt Kiim. It was so much fun. Brandi and the girls headed out around 11:30 - school and work on Monday, Kim and crew left an hour later to drop Meg off at the airport. It was too fast, sometimes too busy but an awesome weekend!

 

Lights Out

Ugh. When I woke up I knew it was not time to get up, it  felt like almost but not quite - you know how you feel something is off but you're just not sure what it could be? It was chilly so I pulled up the blankets a bit then looked to see what time it was. Yup. Nothing. Nada. No faint glow of the clock, no blue light from the USB ports on the outlet. Our entire house has a faint blue glow to it at night - printer, Alexa, lap top, etc..... you get used to it, don't you?, so when the lights go out it's very noticible. I picked up my phone - 3;45am and it wasn't charging of course because we had no electricity. Hmm. There had been a weather advisory about snow, but I figured it was a bunch of hooey. (in my defense, it usually is). I looked out the window, Dammit!! I looked at the Clatskanie Community Board on FB which is where we get all of our info - and 2300 people were pioneering according the PUD. Dammit. 

We have a portable propane heater so David fired that up after snitching the tank off the BBQ - my poor hydroponic garden though was SOL for the morning. To keep the heat I had to shut off the sunroom where they live, poor Neo! I got the solar flashlight/chargers off the windowsill, they were fully charged and ready to go. We also have rechargable light bulbs - good for up to 3 hours. Those I love - you recharge them by just putting them in a lamp and turning it on for a couple of hours. In the video on YouTube they said you can also use them as regular lightbulbs so if the lights go out them lamp just stays on. But the electric doesn't go out that often and David uses them for other stuff. Since the propane tank was on the heater that meant no BBQ coffee - after living in PA and WV in which the lights go out a bit more often I'm pretty good at. David hooked up the generator and it ran enough for the coffee pot to make some busy noise,....then stopped. After  few more tries he gave it up, it was too cold to keep putzing with it.  By this time it was almost 7:30 and David said according the Community Board town had some lights. So he drove up and got us coffee, 

I got a text from work that the office was closed, the road was a mess and the bridge that connects Oregon to Washington was closed as it was a sheet of ice. No interet, but we actually have cell service here so I watched Victoria on my wee little screen. Victoria is a spanish soap opera that I watched years ago - got halfway through and they took it off! ARRGH. But it's back and I've been binge watching for an embarrassingly long time - there's almost 180 one hour episodes and I'm determined to finish it this time. David said he would like to hear the english language once in awhile but I'm 30 shows out and then I'm done so he'll just have to suck it up.  But I digress. The lights finally came back on close to noon so I didn't get as much done as I wanted but there's always tomorrow, isn't there? The temperatures are back up in the 40s and it looks likes its melted, hopefully we can get back to spring - I was really enjoying those 60 degree temps and I want them back!