Puttering Around

Took a break from studying to get some small projects done this weekend.


Project #1: Add a shelf to the Disaster Cabinet

We have one cabinet in the kitchen that has proven just impossible to keep organized:

The mess -- and the hassle and racket whenever we try to get anything out -- drives us both crazy. On Saturday, I made a shelf out of a leftover 2x4, along with a pair of stops to keep the baking sheets from sliding away from the wall:

Result:

Much better!



Project #2: Clear out the dying pumpkin vine in the front yard

The pumpkin vine in the front yard has grown very large, but the plant is succumbing to the dreaded powdery mildew, and the pumpkins are rotting on the vine. Its days are numbered. We have six or eight different succulent cuttings -- generous donations from Jennifer, Jon, & Susie -- just about ready to be planted in the yard, so I decided today to pull out the vine to make room for the replanting to begin.

Much to my surprise, after I had already hacked the vines apart, I found this under the giant leaves:

DAMMIT!

Project #3: Do something with the rosemary tree

We bought a hammock this week that fits perfectly in a semi-shady/semi-sunny corner of the yard, right next to a overgrown and mostly dead rosemary tree:

To make a little more room to get in and out of the hammock, and to reduce the number of spiders that could drop on an unsuspecting napper, I removed the left side of the tree. 

Meanwhile, there is a nice craggy part at the same level of the hammock that would make a perfect place to rest a drink, with just a little modification. A few taps on a chisel later:

Afternoon snoozing perfection:

It will be hard to be back at work this week, knowing that that hammock is out there, but I will be brave and do my best. I'm only working three days this week -- taking the two days off before my birthday! --- so I'm sure I will survive somehow.

Where Does The Time Go?

Well, that was quite a hiatus! I traveled a little in June, and then work began to get stupidly busy, and the weather was crappy so I neglected the garden, and then I up and decided to apply to grad school for some reason, and then here we are, all of a sudden, on August 8.

There are a couple sets of photos that I have to share, but today I'll just start with an update on what I did last weekend: I painted my office!

In June, I found out that my company will pay for a masters degree, as long as it's related to my job in some way. In that case, I figured, since it's mostly just a question of my putting in the sweat for a few years, it would be worth it in order to set myself up with more options later. So I started looking into online Master of Business Administration programs (dragging my butt downtown to a campus in the evenings for 3 years is a non-starter), found a good one with the concentration I want, & applied in July.

I found out the first week of August that I got in, so I decided to finally paint my office last weekend, to make it as comfortable & pleasant as possible for all this studying I'm about to do (what?). Here's how it turned out:

No more pink trim! The black strip is Contact Paper that works like a blackboard -- I can put exam dates, etc. up there & not have to worry about forgetting them. I also put up one of my grandmother's paintings, & a Blessed Mother that had belonged to her. Thanks again for sending those, Mama & Papa O'Brien!

As for this blog's mascot, Mrs. Zoey Pickles, she's doing well. A neighbor moved a few weeks ago & left behind a cheapo, folding electric treadmill on the sidewalk that we dragged home, & have been training Zoey to walk on. She's making good progress. Video of that soon. In the meantime, on our vet's advice, Adrienne has been bringing her to a physical therapy place to help get her back legs a little stronger. Here is a video of Zoey on the underwater treadmill there:

Collards, Butterflies, & Hot Dogs

The garden continues to be out of control with abundance. Amanda was over last night, & agreed that the pictures on this blog just don't do it justice.

Here's another attempt to show how enormous the collards are, by putting my foot in the photo:

Does that help?

Meanwhile, as usual, Zoey helped me with garden work on Saturday. Here she is, kindly holding a butterfly on her tail:

In other news, the sauerkraut is finished! Since it was such a warm, sunny day today, we decided to have some on hot dogs, with macaroni salad:

This what Adrienne thought of the sauerkraut:

Thanks again, Susie, for teaching me how to make this delicious sauerkraut!

Flirting with Powdery Mildew

Last June, I wrote about my struggles with cabbage moths/worms & powdery mildew.

I picked cabbage worms & eggs off the collards & brussels sprouts as diligently as I could all summer, but I just wasn't able to get out there often enough to stop the little guys from destroying the plants. We didn't eat a single collard last year. Knowing that I won't have a lot of time during the week this year, either, I have turned to industry! There is a kind of bacteria that only attacks cabbage worms that you can spray on the leaves, & let me tell you, it's really working some magic -- we are barely keeping up with the harvest. And best of all, this is considered appropriate for organic gardening because it is only toxic to the cabbage worms -- it won't destroy everything other bug that happens to be around, & it's non-toxic to humans or other animals.

As for the peas, this week I saw the first signs of powdery mildew! Again, I am turning to industry. This morning, I applied an organic-certified sulphur-based fungicide, & am crossing my fingers that it will stop the spread of the spores.

While I was at the hardware store buying the fungicide, I remembered that I've been wanting to make a flirt pole -- basically a giant cat toy, but for dogs -- for Pickles, & picked up the materials while I was there: pvc pipe, rope, dog toy. It's great exercise for them, without being too exhausting for the human involved. It also is a great learning game -- by following the rules (stopping, starting, dropping the toy, etc. on command), they get better & better at self-control even when excited.

At my hardware store, they only sell pvc pipe in 10-foot lengths, so I decided to make two -- one 4-foot one for outdoors, & one 2-foot one for indoors.

First, I cut the pipe down to 4-foot & 2-foot lengths:

Then I threaded some clothesline through the pipes:

I knotted the rope at both ends of the pipes:

And then I tied on the toys:

I wasn't sure how interested in the flirt pole Pickles would actually be, so knowing that she gets very excited about new toys, so I got her this nice squeaky hamburger. For the short pole, I tied on the remains of her beloved panda that Mama & Papa O'Brien sent her:

Here's a guy from Bad Rap -- an organization that helps pit bulls & supports owners in the Bay Area, & does a lot of work to combat negative stereotypes & myths about pit bulls -- showing how a flirt pole works:


Training Video: Flirt Pole Basics from BADRAP.org on Vimeo.


Here's what Pickles had to say about the flirt pole:



What a good sit/stay! What patience!

With her knees being so delicate, we need to keep the movement in straight lines, & avoid any jumping. Now that we see that she likes it, we're going to have to practice alone to get the hang of how best to do this while protecting her knees. It's trickier than it looks!

Wine Goes Into The Fermenters

Today, three important things happened: we ate the first pea pod, Zoey got a new outfit, & I put the rose wine into jugs to start fermenting.


First, here is Zoey's fancy new leather collar:

On to the wine! When we last left our hero, it had been boiled, stirred, & left to sit for 4 days to gather wild yeast:

 

Today's first job was to strain out all the rose petals & fruit:

Then squeeze as much liquid out as possible:

I tasted the liquid -- fragrant sugar water! I also tasted the fruit & it was delicious, but obviously beyond sweet, having steeped in sugar water for four days.

After that step, it went straight into the fermenting jugs:

The corks & airlocks went on:

And off it went to ferment for three months:

I put it on top of the fridge, with its sauerkraut brother.

It's going to be a long three months.

Happy Birthday Adrienne!

Fermentation Experimentation

This weekend, I learned to make sauerkraut from my good friend & fellow fermentation hobbyist Susie.

Here we are at her house, chopping & salting the cabbage, & packing it into a big jar:

The salt draws out the water in the cabbage, & makes a big delicious briny solution for the fermentation. It gets weighed down beneath the surface of the brine by a bottle that fits into the jar:

It needs a little attention each day, but basically that's all there is to it. In one week, we will have a ton of delicious sauerkraut!

Susie also lent me a very good fermentation technique book that has a recipe for hard cider, which we may make later in the summer. While looking at the instructions for that, a recipe for flower wine caught my eye. My grandmother had a coworker who used to make dandelion wine; apparently you can make wine with just about any flowers, including roses. The rose bushes in the back are full of blooms past their prime, so I thought, why not? What else am I doing today?

To make one gallon of wine, you need one gallon of flower petals.  I wasn't sure I would actually have enough, but as it turned out, I had plenty:

Step 1 --Take all the petals off:

If you were making dandelion wine, you would have to take all the tiny yellow petals off the dandelions. Picture how many of those tiny petals you would need to pluck to get a gallon. Sounds horrible & tedious.


Step 2 -- Gather all the stuff:

2 lemons for flavor

2 oranges for flavor

1 lb raisins for astringency

1/2 cup berries to introduce/attract wild yeast

2 lbs of sugar to feed the yeast

big container thing (this is an enamel roasting pan)

fermenter jugs, corks, & airlocks

(later: another fermenter, bottles)

Step 3 -- Put the petals (less 1/2 c), raisins, sugar, and the rinds & juice of the lemons & oranges in the  big container thing:

Step 4 -- Pour 1 gallon of boiling water over everything, & stir until sugar is dissolved:

Step 5 -- Cover & let cool to around 100 degrees:

Step 6 -- While waiting for it to cool, go have a sandwich & give the dog a bath. Also get ahead for later in the week by drilling holes for the airlocks in some old champagne corks that you are going to repurpose for this project:

Step 7 -- Pour the 1/2 c of reserved petals & the berries into the cooled mixture, & stir:

Step 8 -- Cover & set aside.

And that was it for today. Next, I will stir it every now & again for 3 or 4 days, then strain it & put it into the jugs, where it will ferment for 3 months. Then, it will into another jug or set of jugs for 6 more months. And then, after all that, I will bottle it & age it for at least 3 more months. It should be ready next summer!

In other news, the garden is doing well. The first fava pods are emerging as the blossoms are starting to drop off:

There are about a dozen pea pods fattening up already:

Some arugula I managed to lose track of has flowered:

And overall, everything is just getting bigger & bigger, & more abundant. The red line in the picture below is the 5-foot mark:

The fava plants are now taller than I am, & it's getting hard to keep up with the collards & spinach. And it's only May!