Successes All Over The Place

What a weekend it's been here on Mars. I somehow found a giant burst of energy & got all this accomplished:

Saturday -- Beer!

First brew on Mars: a Belgian Saison that I'm planning to bring with us on vacation in July.

3 kinds of malt + 3 kinds of hops + a sock full of crushed grains = hooray!

We don't have a tub here like we did at the apartment, so some of the steps got a little dicey, but overall there is just so much more space here that it's much, much easier to brew overall. Success!

While the beer was boiling away happily, I tried making a heated bed for Zoey, using the bed warmer we put on our mattress when it gets chilly (i.e. 11 out of 12 months). She gets so relaxed in the sun & loves being under a blanket so much, that we thought we would experiment & see if she would choose a heated bed over her regular bed for the evening. She is from the desert, after all.

Sleeping dog! Success!

Feeling ambitious, I thought it was high time to bottle the Oud Bruin I brewed last May & have been letting age quietly in a corner all this time.

So old! So sour!

This is a six gallon glass jar. I kind of can't believe that it survived the move. 

After all was said & done, it was around 11pm. Adrienne came home with Amanda in tow a little earlier, & they celebrated the historic bottling with me. Meanwhile, Zoey patiently waited for me to finish & stop making such a racket.

"I will punish you later by barking at 3am."

Sunday -- Peas & Paint!


The planters in the back porch from a couple weeks ago are almost ready to move outdoors. That means the Pea Tangle, with its contagious Powdery Mildew, must go.

A last look at the pea plants:

We will all miss you...

A view of how big they are, compared to me:

I wasn't sure how I was going to harvest the peas 3 feet above my head anyway.

Two paper grocery store bags later, this is what remains:

Goodbye, peas

Most of the pods are too blighted to eat, so I shelled as many as there were ready for shelling:

This is about 2 cups. Success!

Then I set to painting the wood paneling in the hallway, dining room, & kitchen! A long day's labor, but at 7pm, this is what I had to show for it:

Much brighter! Success!

I mentioned the other day that the walls in the bathroom were off-white. Well, next to the mauve trim, they definitely look like a dirty, old off-white. Next to the white trim I just painted, however, you can see that they actually are a lemony butter cream kind of color. The yellow tiles, yellow walls, & white trim make me feel like I'm standing in the middle of a lemon cake. The white walls & mauve trim in the dining room & hallway now make me feel like I'm standing in the middle of a strawberry cake. Adrienne said the same thing to me when I finished. 

I'm glad I don't have much of a sweet tooth.

A "before" photo, for comparison:

The painted-over wood paneling reminds me of New England beach cottages I've been in. Now I know that that's not a quaint New England style -- it just means the owners of these cottages didn't want to pay to renovate. 

I'm beginning to doubt whether the mauve trim is Jackie's doing, by the way. It just seems too fresh a coat of paint. I suspect the listing agent had some painters come in to "spruce up" the place, & he just told them to put on whatever was cheap. Or, he likes mauve.

Here's the kitchen, after:

Success!

Here is a "before" photo, for comparison:

No trees were harmed in the construction of this kitchen.

There is a large gap between the wall & the set of cabinets that I thought would be even more obvious once the wall were painted white:

On a windy day, you can feel the breeze blow through here.

Well, it so happens that while I was cleaning out the Haunted Garden Shed, I found a length of the plastic faux-wood trim that is capping the wood paneling in the kitchen.  

Voila!

Success!

Meanwhile, Adrienne had a wonderful time rampaging throughout the city's Pride festivities with friends, enjoying a gorgeous San Francisco weekend. Very well-deserved rest & recuperation after a long week of being stuck at home with the dog, patiently training her through her nervousness about being left alone, & playing Florence Nightingale, trying to get drops in the dog's ear for a worrisome ear infection that seemed to come out of nowhere on Wednesday.

Lastly, one more success for this weekend: we've been waiting for a clean bill of health from the vet on Zoey's knees before we let her up on the couch with us. I mean, she tries & tries when we're there, & she sneaks up on there when we're in another room, but strictly speaking, it's still off limits. We got the greenlight from the vet a few weeks ago, but then out of the blue (please, dog, no more surprises) the following week, she started limping around from some mystery injury, so we put it off. Finally, she seems to be in good shape, so much to her surprise (seriously, she didn't respond to the invitation right away -- I'm not sure she believed her eyes at first), today was the day that she was finally allowed up for evening snuggling.

An excellent weekend was had by all!

One White Door

We're not really ready to sort out what colors we want to paint the rooms, but we know we're ready for the wood paneling & mauve trim to go, so we bought a bunch of white paint recently.

I don't know why I felt like painting at 7pm on a Thursday night was a good idea, but those cans of paint have just been calling out to me & I couldn't resist doing just one door.

I chose one of the bathroom doors because I think it will unlock a mystery: The tile on the bathroom walls is a pale yellow, & the tile on the floor is a sandy mauve sort of color. The mauve trim obviously really pulls out the mauve in the tile, so it's been tough to visualize what other colors the walls could be (currently off-white) when the mauve-on-mauve effect is so strong. I like white trim in a bathroom anyway, but I also figured that painting it would break the Total Mauve Effect & allow us to think up other ideas for the walls more easily.

Here's the door that hasn't been painted yet. There's the sink in the corner for color reference.

And here's the newly white door, against the floor & wall tiles.

It's low odor paint, but it's still a little stinky. I didn't think of that. It's 10:20pm and Adrienne is out at a movie. I don't think she's going to be too satisfied with the smell when she gets home & tries to go to sleep in an hour. Oops! Sorry, Adrienne!

Pestilence!

A pestilence has been visited upon the Mars Farm.

It has come in the form of depraved cabbage worms:

I am devouring your collards and brussels sprouts right now!

And the dreaded powdery mildew:

We are sucking the life from your pea plants and there is nothing you can do about it!

It's true that there is nothing I can do about the pea plants because it's just too far along. I can see clearly today that the mildew is so advanced, in fact, that pea production is slowing to a crawl. Alas!

As for the collards & brussels sprouts, I have begun to combat the problem the old-fashioned way: picking the little bastards off the plants by hand. The plants are mature enough that most of them should withstand this initial attack, which was, by the way, brought on by delightfully warm weather & those cute little white butterflies I was formerly so fond of. The mustard greens I planted a couple weeks ago next to the brussels sprouts have come up -- as part of the same family as collards, brussels sprouts, & cabbage, they're in peril. I must be vigilant.

The flora of Mars will not be kept down, even in the face of mortal danger. The marjoram, basil, & oregano I planted inside a week ago have just come up, as has my first fava bean bush on the front porch.  

I also have finished planting some 30-inch planters with more peas, more collards & brussels sprouts, and more lettuce. Here is how I got a 1.5 cubic foot bag of potting soil and a shovel on a flash one-day sale ($5! Just when I realized that I needed one!) up the hill on Friday after work:

No Dad, I didn't ride it like this. 

Here is the finished product:

More collards (which have just come up today! 4 days!) & brussels sprouts in one, and peas & lettuce in the other two. I wanted to try out setting them in different places & see what works best for next year.


Next year I should also come up with a plan for successive sowings, because in about a month, there is going to be an awful lot of lettuce all at once.

Update on Mars' Flora & Fauna

Lots happening among the flora & fauna of Mars this week.

First, more harvesting (by me) & cooking (by Adrienne) of delicious, homegrown veg!

Roasted chicken thigh & carrots, with a homegrown butter lettuce salad topped with pistachios, and pan-fried beets & goat cheese nibbles. 

Slow-cooked pork over rice, with tomatoes, bell pepper & homegrown snap peas!

Dinner served in our new dining room layout -- trying something different with the dog kennel thing. 

The hydrangeas on the table are courtesy of Jackie, the previous owner, who I like to think of as a third grandmother.

In other news, a kitchen garden has been planted! Here is a new bed of sage, summer savory, oregano, & basil, nestled in between yellow roses & the thicket of Jackie's mint:

Some dill, sage, & more basil in the office window:

Some marjoram, chives, parsley, cilantro & yet more basil in the back porch:

Marjoram & parsley are in the egg container, & are destined for the outdoors bed. 

Why so much basil, you ask? Just because we want to be able to make pesto. Why both indoors & outdoors, you ask? I've read that you can get good ongoing harvests by having a couple sets of indoor pots that you rotate outside, while also growing the plants in your outdoor beds. Seems like it's worth a try!

As for the status of the other plants in the established garden, the brussels sprouts plants are growing furiously, the front porch planters are sprouting lettuce already, & most of the collards are doing very well. This one, however, not so much:

Is there a variety called Lace Collards?

Some of the other plants are getting nibbled by bugs, but none are as bad, or as wimpy as this one. It  was in what I like to call my 'Failure To Thrive' bed -- much too shady for most veg, as it turns out. I just put a ton of cilantro in that same bed yesterday -- that apparently does well in shady conditions, so I'm hoping for the best.

As for the fauna, the little dog has been enjoying the stuffed toys she received as a gift in the mail. Looks like I have a sewing project this week:

Haunted Garden Shed Clean-Out & First Peas Dinner!

After fortifying myself with a delicious brunch with Amanda, Matt, & Adrienne, today I tackled the cleaning out of the Haunted Garden Shed (the slightly creepy room under the final back extension/porch-sunroom-thing that is full of weird stuff & random junk left behind by previous owners, & that we don't ever go in).

As it turns out, there is a hole in the wall, under the floor, that goes to the open area under the neighbors' deck -- a very nice way for urban nighttime critters (raccoons, possums, & yes, rats) to get in & out. When Mr. Bunkport comes to replace the fence this month, he is also going to cut back the floor of the Haunted Garden Shed & block up that hole, so I wanted to clear space for him to do that. No critters allowed on Mars. Unless they are willing to pay rent.

Here's the a photo from when we moved in:

And here it is, after two hours:

I took out two large, black trash bags of junk, found some gardening stuff we can use, & also set aside some other neat electrical fixtures & old jars that might be fun to decorate this space with, when it someday becomes our indoor/outdoor hybrid patio area (!).

Most of the gardening stuff belonged to Jackie, the previous owner, & was in the half of the room nearest the door. The back half of the room had much older stuff in it -- lots of wires, old lamp parts, jars full of nuts & bolts, & electrical bits & bobs. Clearly this had been someone's place to tinker.

Back in that older area, I also found interesting clues about the history of the house: a set of bank statements & cancelled checks from 1950 and some receipts from the early 50s belonging to Mr. John E. Davila, & two tickets to a long-closed amusement park on the ocean, called Whitney's Playland on the Beach:

Also, I found this old binder where Mr. Davila kept his monthly expenses for the latter half of 1950:

The neighbors told us that Jackie had a husband who died shortly after they moved in -- despite the last name difference, I think it must be Mr. Davila, but then again, I think that 1950 is too early for Jackie Duenas & her husband's purchase of the house. Such mysteries!

I also found this cat collar. The tag says the cat belonged to the people next door (not the current owners). Weird & Creepy.

Lastly, I found lots & lots & lots of raccoon poop. Especially under the workbench in the corner. Lots. The bad news about raccoons is that they choose a location for a 'latrine' & use that same location over a period of time. The good news about this particular latrine is that it doesn't seem like it's been used recently. I was wearing a lead-rated dust mask & heavy work gloves throughout this little project, but still, I thought it was best to leave it alone.

Inspired to learn more about the people who lived here before us, I finally sat down to take a look at the newly indexed 1940 census. I found that a family of 5 lived here then: Mr. Arthur Velvet, his wife Marie, & their three children, Joe (16), Marie (13), & Joaquin (12). Mr. Velvet was born in California, but, interestingly, Mrs. Velvet was born in Portugal. Also an interesting coincidence, Jackie's given name is actually Joaquina. I'll try to find out more about Mr. Davila next, & maybe try to find the house in the 1930 census.

As a fitting cap to a Sunday on Mars, we took in our first real harvest of peas, & Adrienne made a delicious seafood & pea pasta dish for our friend, Mr. Jonathan P. Retsky, & me.

Thank you for the delicious dinner, Adrienne!

Also, Adrienne was hard at work this weekend repotting plants & preparing to do wonderful things in the Front Yard Patch. Stay tuned for more on that soon!

Pea-tastrophe!

There has been a pea-tastrophe!

After reaching a height of eight or nine feet, only the left-most plants could find something to hang on to (the neighbor's trees) -- the rest were blown over by the 20+ mph winds we've been having:

For scale, this is a six-foot fence.

I put some twine up to support them in their newly horizontal posture, in hopes that their pods will continue to fatten up & find their way into our bellies. So far, so good. That one on the far left is going to find its way into the neighbor's living room before too long, I fear.

In other gardening news, our friend & neighbor Jon has donated a beautiful 4-foot planter to our veg-producing efforts:

Today I planted it & the planter nearest the camera with fava beans & more lettuce. The far one will get peas this weekend. They should have an easy time climbing their way up the security gate.

After we get some more dirt this weekend (there is something that seems so backwards about paying money for dirt...), we will begin planting our soon-to-be-famous kitchen herb garden. There will be chives coming out our ears before too long. 

A Little Pseudo-Decorating

Finally getting around to a couple decorating projects. Well, the word 'decorating' might be a stretch -- maybe more like 'continuing to move in.'

When we first arrived, we talked about getting a plastic film to put over the bedroom window, to do something about the "view."

Finally got one this week, & got it up there last night!

In the front room, I have been wanting to put up some curtains for weeks & weeks, because when I work from home, the light in the morning is just a little much. Done!

I was sent two very nice framed pictures for the walls this week. Maybe that's what caused this flurry of activity, actually!

Here are nine vintage postcards of Historic Lowell, Massachusetts, on the left. (On the right is a hand screen-printed poster protesting Arizona's racial profiling law that I got at a protest.)

And here is a framed photo of the Boott Mills in Lowell, on the right:

On the left, that's a drawing of Jack Kerouac & a kitten, also a Lowell thing. Kerouac, not the kitten. And also sent several years ago by the same generous people!

We finally got a better shoes-off-household doorway solution, as well -- the pile of shoes & slippers inside the front room was a little out of control.

Lastly, we put Zoey's certificates up on the wall above her den:

And here she is, basking in her own glory:

Zoey And The Wobbler

Apologies first, for the dismal quality of the video -- my camera is very ancient. Still, you can get an idea of the fun that Zoey is having with her new kibble-dispensing toy, the Kong Wobbler, & how good she's already getting at it, after just a few days:

She's just learned how to get it away from a wall on her own.

Way more stimulating for her than slurping her entire dinner out of a bowl in 15 seconds. And way more entertaining for me.

Front Yard Patch Conquered...Again!

This weekend's big Mars work was conquering the front yard patch...again. It's shocking how quickly it gets out of hand. I forgot to get a 'before' photo, but this is more or less what it looked like:

After 3 hard hours, Adrienne had it cleaned up entirely:

The view from the front steps, highlighting mysterious bricks

She filled the 32 gallon compost bin, plus 4 paper grocery bags full of grass, vining stuff, and giant (five-six feet tall) Italian parsley that had gone to seed.

The view from the front

A close up, showing the bumper sticker I put in the window: My dog graduated with honors from Pawsitive Tails!

Afterwards, we took one of the Parsley Monsters over to Jon's, just to show off. Here's Adrienne, showing how tall it was before she lopped the top off:

It almost won...

Jon admired the Parsley Monster so much, that he put it in a vase in his living room:

I hope it doesn't wait until the middle of the night & steal his stereo.