Friday Garden...

...Drunk Walk.  (Not really, just shots as they come from the camera, taken in no particular order.)

This late in the season, and there are two blueberry buds! 

Flowering bud!

A clutch(?) of ripening 'maters. Reddest one is about baseball size!

Volunteer Romaine! These were from seeds produced buy a plant I purchased at the store.

        Strawberries. 

        About a week and 1/2 ago, I pulled everything, broke up the plants, and re-planted them.  

        The deadlooking ones mostly have green shoots, so the bed will be bangin' next year!

Peppers.  These are the ones that came (for free!) in my order from a nursery in

            New Mexico.  The ones I intentionally purchased did about as well - I have one 

            immature plant in a pot. It will come in when it gets cold, too.

Potted Basil.

Lower pot, Rosemary, which will be re-potted and brought in for the winter.

More strawberries, in a mini-Mexican pot. Plus Oregano!! 

The heavy rains and the weight of the tomatoes toppled the cage, but didn't uproot the plant.

Still rooted!

Horticultural notes:  The peppers sprouted quite well in a mini-hothouse I use. It consistes of water-saturated planting media in a square aluminun cake pan with a plastic lid ('bake and carry'). Pan with lid sits on a warming pad, and water condenses on the plastic lid.  Tapping the lid a couple of times creates 'rain', and the seeds stay hydrated!

Doc Deb and I discussed the interesting growth process pf these peculiar peppers. They sprout, and in about two weeks, hit about 4 inches tall. Then, they 'stall'.  I don't know if they're concentrating on root development (my hunch), but they stay the same height for about a month. Then, blammo, they get about 18 inches tall, and peppers sprout.

More on the peppers soon! (I'm doing a test quiche using them rather than Green Ortegas!)

Friday Garden, Before And After

About a month and a half ago, I started to resurrect the garden from a year's worth of neglect. The oldest part of the oldest bed finally gave out - it has rotted at the joints. I'm salvaging what I can, and re-arranging things a bit.

Remains of the oldest bed. Top half is all the can be re-used as-is.

The new potato bed, with potato sprouts

I'm experimenting with a new potato growing technique. I was told by one of the guys at the auction to keep burying the sprouts as they come up, which causes them to grow more potatoes. I've doubled the height of this bed, and will add one more layer. This makes use of another bed that started to rot.

10 Gallon Potato Bag

I'm also experimenting with the bag o' taters! Same principle, just in a canvas bag. The bag has a door flap that you can use to 'pick' potatoes without pulling up the parent plant.

Romaine lettuce and onions

I pulled up the oregano, replaced it with red and green romaine, and tidied up the onions.

Below, the two blackberry sticks:

 
Progress below the fold!

Catching Up

OK. This is a photo fueled ramble, pretty much in chronological order.

First, the establishing shot! Last fall, I got the patio cleaned up and the heavier bits of construction wood out of the elements.

Here's a random shot of Thumper campling out in the laundry basket. He has gotten calmer and more pet-like around me. I can approach, reach and scritch him with no downside. (Others can't - an elderly gentelman tested that out for us last week.) He's excited to see me when I come down in the morning/get home from work, and is generally more manageable. He still quivers, but less so than before.

We have become buddies.

Work is progressing on the walk-thru closet: 

Much more below the fold!

Friday Garden, With Impending Doom

Rain and sun have done wonders for the garden. Doom after the fold.

Establishing shot:

Strawberries:

Potatoes and peppers:

Potatoes and onions and garlic:

Blackberries:

Oregano:

Potatoes:

Potato flower:

Roses:

"Wildflowers":

Blackberry, again:

Impending Doom:

Agua

I haz it...

...but it wasn’t pretty.

Let me explain:

Back in the early part of the year, we got a notice from the boro that, starting in the spring, they were going to lay a new water main down our street. The boro Water Guy came over, and made sure that the connection coming into the house was copper. It was.

Then, nothing.

About six weeks ago, they started putting in the new main, and I got a visit from Water Guy. Seems there was an issue.

The place in which I live is the eastern most of three old row houses. Every building on every street has their curb box (“water shut-off”, or just “shutoff”) pretty much directly in front of the building. For reasons, ours was in front of the townhouse next door.

Water Guy made a good case for moving it to the front of our place, where it should actually be. He pointed out that, should something fail, we would need to dig up the sidewalk in front of the neighbor’s place to repair it. When I heard that, the word “liability” jumped to mind. (Remember, I’ve raised an attorney.)

He came in and looked around the basement. All we had to so (he said) was punch an iron pipe thru the foundation wall out to the hole where the box would be. Once that was done, we shoved copper pipe out to the shut-off, and hooked everything up. Piece of pie. Easy as cake.

Oh, and he wanted us to move the meter from the back wall of the basement to the front, thereby eliminating the possibility (and temptation) to tie into the line before the meter.

So, they boro digs out to the front of my porch/edge of the sidewalk, the plumbers come out, punch the new hole, insert the copper, move the meter, hook everything up, and go have lunch.

Did I mention that this place was built well before the boro was incorporated in 1881? It was.

The boro got the line in and ready. They started doing the connections from the west of the block eastward, on the side of the street opposite me. What with the rain and all, it took the contractor about three weeks to get down to the east end of the project.  In the meanwhile, I had made arrangements with Saunders Plumbing to rearrange the furniture in my basement and get us hooked up to the new shutoff. I handed them off to Water Guy to coordinate schedules. I must give them both great props for their communication with each other, and with me. 

So, this Monday (10-3), I get an email from Water Guy, who tells me that the contractor is going to start at the west end of the street again, meaning they are going to install the new shut-off on Monday.  Just to close the loop, I called Saunders, who told me they were expecting a three day notice, so they wouldn't be out until Wednesday (yesterday).  I ping Water Guy, who assured me that I would have water until the change over, and then I would have water again. So, it was All Good.

The plumbers, Joe and Ron, showed up at their appointed time yesterday morning. I gave them the 25 cent tour of the basement, and took them out to the sidewalk.

And the fun began.

The first thing we noticed was that the boro had not dug back to  the wall, like they said the would. This upset Joe mightily, who the words with Water Guy.

Discovery of the under-sized hole.

The discussion underway at the plumbers' truck.

My email to Deb:

So, right now, my guys & the city are 'discussing' who is going to dig out the rest of the hole.

Aaaand, we're off. 

Water Guy said that they would come over after break and dig things out some more. Push back project start to 10-ish. They do, and everyone convenes in the basement shortly afterwards.

Digging out the rest of the hole. On-site Water Guy on the left.

Next email, titled 'Doubt it's good...':

…when the Water Guy walks out of the house saying "This day keeps getting better and better…"

Some raised voices outside now. 

 Turns out, there are no accurate drawings of where things actually are. Like the connection to the (very fragile) sewer. Which is not a couple of feet over from where Joe and Ron need to punch thru the wall, but almost right under.

Sadly, I admit that my reaction was a bit less than charitable:

Starting to sound like a CF of epic proportions.

I laugh...

 From the last email I sent:

First pass at drill pipe too steep an angle. After about 4 hours, gave up, sank second pipe. Work progressed from there.

At the moment, unmetered water. Borough needs to come out (tomorrow?) and install it. They are supposed to reattach antenna, too.

 Next-to-last email at 7:28 PM, titled 'Plumber':

Is pulling away from the curb.

So, what was actually a four hour job took eleven and a half hours, not counting lunch.

Water guy was here this morning, and I'm back on the meter. (Good thing I filled the 1,000 gallon cistern last night!)

Before and after basement pictures below the fold:

Photo Dump

Missy found the box The MoP used to ship spices to me as payment for working on her web site. 

Disassembly of the monitor w/ the dead power supply. It apparently eats capacitors, so I dusted off my electronic soldering skillz.

The instructional video

Concurrent disassembly.

It's back together and working fine.

Potato harvest:

Min 'taters

More-or-less regular size 'taters.

How many drivers does it take to jump start this truck?

Looks like three, plus the driver.

The carpet in the living area desperately needed cleaning. Here, drying...

Front door & closet trim paint finished!  Transom window re-installed!!

Griffin on his spot on the (missing) carpet.

Caturday pic:

No. I got this...

Life, The Universe, The House and Everything.

I see that I haven't done a non-whiney house post in almost 4 months, so I must be overdue! This will cover a couple of months, what with more tarping, the 4th of July, the garden, and the start of painting. So, in more or less chronological order, here we go!

This was the garden, pre-hail...

Lettuce, onion, and lemon grass in a pot.

Potatoes (rear), onions, and garlic.

Kitchen bed - oregano, rosemary, basil and onions.

Started life as a melon-from-seed bed, turned into strawberries and peppers.

First oregano harvest!

Border bed oregano

Border bed potatoes (there are more in the 'empty' spot on the right.

Strew flower seeds according to directions. Nada.

Smoking dinner...

The Heirloom purple tomatoes. Yes, they wound up getting dry rot, too.

Next, when I tarped the second floor roof, I took the opportunity for some aerial photos:

Top: potatoes, lettuce & peppers Bottom: Onions/garlic, lettuce & peppers, strawberries & peppers. Notice the addition of the final raised bed, next to the potatoes. This became home to lettuce and a Ghost Pepper. Strawberries and peppers bottom right.

Two views of the kitchen bed:

Tarping. The roof is not going to get repaired any time soon, so I want to keep the elements from causing any more damage (if that's even possible). I used garden pavers to hold things together.

Baxter sunning himself whilst I tarp...

First go-round. I've added more pavers since.

Starting to paint. White walls, with a sort-of denim blue for the trim. I've painted two walls as accent walls, using the Modern Grey that I used in my room

Stairway /dining room wall

Supervisor...

First trim coat done.

From basement door to stairs

Inspection and approval.

Next, the garden as of today!

Lemon Grass

The heirloom tomatoes

What's left of the potato bed. The heat wilted the greens, and the rain accelerated the weed growth to ludicrous speed.

Potato bed, post clean-up (Reminds me... got to bring the shovel in!)

Blackberries and remaining potato plants

Did get a big, fat, juicy, tasty blackberry today. Now I understand them!

Border potatoes. Did much better than the raised bed. They were shaded from most of the hail.

Strawberries and peppers

Kitchen bed, post weeding. Pile o' crap on the right. Wilt-y tomatoes are wild, transplanted from the compost heap.

First of two piles...

...second of two piles.

I did assault weeding in all of the beds except the garlic/onion bed. I dug up as many potatoes as I could find - about 1/2 of a 2.5 gallon bucket. Got reds, some blue, whites, and Yukon Gold.

Veering back to the 4th of July at @PeeteySDee's compound, I was tasked  with supplying deviled eggs with Jalapeno and bacon. I decided that a batch with Wasabi and shrimp  might be interesting. Those turned to be the hit of t he two.

Last but not least, fungus in the kitchen:

Will have pix of the (more) finished painting Real Soon! Need to do some more trim, one wall, and the ceiling.