Week 62: Happy Birthday, AJ!

This week, all time and energy was focused on celebrating AJ's 40th birthday!

On Friday night, Mr. Bunkport's partner Reina, who co-owns catering & food consultancy Mocha & Matcha, helped us throw a cooking lesson/dinner party for AJ. Here is the menu (click to make it larger):

We had a total of ten people chopping, dicing, stirring, and cheering the cooking on throughout the evening. Everyone had a good time, and the food was incredibly delicious. Some photos of the evening's festivities:

(Photographs of AJ as a baby were required for decorating purposes, of course.)

Happy Birthday, AJ!

Week 61

I spent this weekend working on my final paper for school, so no projects to report this week. But here is a picture of Pickles, settling in for a pre-bedtime nap on the couch:

In 30 Days of Health news, I have been diligently doing my stretches and exercises, and am happy to report that my back is already starting to feel better. Also exciting, three people have already donated to my project, putting me at 14% to my goal! A big thank you to James, Mama O'Brien, and Momma Arave for their generous donations! If you haven't donated and are able to, please consider supporting my project and the critical services that Lyon-Martin provides to the LGBT community, by visiting my fundraising page and making a tax-deductible donation. Thank you very much!

Week 60, and 30 Days of Health 2015 has begun!

Just a little bit of gardening this week. Weeding, thinning, and harvesting a big bowl of spinach and some beet seedlings:

Also, took the rosemary branches and made them into more of a fence:

The favas are now about a foot high, and the peas are about three feet high. Happy little plants!

Next up: some modifications to the screen cage (which is working great -- the spinach & beets are leafminer-free), staking the favas before the wind breaks them, and maybe returning to the outdoor bamboo mural.

Also, the 2015 Lyon-Martin Health Services "30 Days of Health" fundraising event has begun! As much as I would like to do another project with Pickles, as I did in 2014 & 2013, things are just too busy right now for daily dog blogging. So, I'm doing a lower key, but also valuable project: daily strength and flexibility training to improve my posture and nip some lower back pain in the bud. Please consider supporting my project and the critical services that Lyon-Martin provides to the LGBT community, by visiting my fundraising page and making a tax-deductible donation. Every penny counts! Thank you very much!

Week 59

This week, while I'm on the east coast for work, I'm spending my home improvement time at Mars East:

So far, air conditioning vents have been opened, weep holes have been drilled in a window sill, an outdoor faucet has been turned back on, and a thermometer has been moved. Next up: dehumidifier filter replacement!

(So glad we don't have to winterize on Mars...)

Week 58

I had some school assignments that took longer than expected, so I could only get to one thing this week -- making a screen cage for the spinach and beets:

Basically, it's a box made out of window screen. I read about this as a way to keep the leafminer flies off of the plants. They destroyed the beets, chard, and spinach last time around, so I figured it was worth a try.

Next up: not much for the next two weeks, because I'll be out of town. There might be a guest blog post if AJ gets up to some home improvement, but if not, we'll just return to projects when I'm back at the beginning of May!

Week 57

Another busy weekend!

As planned, I mixed in some brown mulch to lighten up the scorched-looking yard:

I also made trellises for the peas, which are now about eight inches tall:

I put some carrots in, too, while I was at it.

We also moved the three tatami mats downstairs into the new room (not sure where they will finally end up, but we wanted to move them out of the living room), along with Jon's couch and a coffee table he also gave us:

From another angle:

He gave us a book shelf, too, but we're not sure where that will go yet. Upstairs, maybe, because it happens to match the ones we already have in the living room. 

Thank you very much, Jon!!! 

Next week, I think we're going to do a little more planting, which will essentially finish up the yard (well, as much as we can finish before the fence on the north side of the property is replaced -- the retaining wall is crumbling, so we're not touching anything on that side of the yard until that's done, since whatever we do will just have to be dug up when they do the work anyway). May is usually a warm month here, so it will be great to have everything tidied up and ready to go by then.

Week 56

Another weekend spent hard at work here.

I spent Saturday morning sealing the floor in the new room:

And then we spent the afternoon in the yard. AJ planted lavender & mint in this nice planter that Jon gave us when we moved in:

While the dog rolled & napped in the dirt:

Then she planted succulents in one of the planters we built:

Looks good, AJ!

While she did that, I spread out some mulch over our unappealing packed dirt and gravel yard:

I got black because I thought it might look interesting. It does, but it also looks like something burned down, so I'm going to be adding some brown in next week to finish up.

Pickles contributed to mulching in her usual fashion:

After finishing the one planter, AJ turned her attention to the other:

Things are really coming together! 

On Sunday I worked out an efficient way to collect & store the water that we waste while waiting for the shower to heat up, so that we can use it to water the vegetables when the rain catchment system is empty (or, you know, hasn't been installed yet). I looked into laundry-to-landscape systems earlier this week, but just one load would generate way more water than we can actually use in the yard in a reasonable amount of time -- only the vegetables need watering, & they seem satisfied with just a couple gallons a day -- so I set my sights on a smaller scale.

Next up: Finishing the mulching, and picking up Jon's old couch -- that is destined for the DuserHaus home brewery in the basement, but will live temporarily in the new room for warm afternoon fun times.