One of the neat things about having Nana nearby is that I get to hear stories from her. Not just the major, life changing stories, like how she met Papa, or what it was like to have kids in Juneau's early days, but normal stories. I wanted to capture a few of them here for my siblings/ nephew and niece.
Last weekend over dinner I was talking about reading the Monuments Men (about the effort to save art, artifacts and monuments during WWII), and I confessed that I know embarrassingly little about world history. Did you know that Germany tried to invade Russia? Which is why Russia ended up in the war? And that we weren't exactly on the same side? Matt and I bemoaned that Juneau schools never seemed to take history very seriously, so now we are just ignorant adults. Nana said she also didn't get much world history. In high school she was on the annual commitee (yearbook), and she has this very sweet, very dull world history teacher. Should would just come in the class, flash him a smile and say, "I have to work on some things for the annual. Can I do the assignment next week?" and he would let her out of class. Pretty much all year. Seriously. I never pegged Nana for ditching class.
Earlier this week, we were talking about hot water heaters, and Nana reminisced about how when she was growing up, their hot water tank was basically uninsulated, so you could feel on the site how much and how hot the water was. (I assume Nana's Mom had impervious hands as well.) Nana said her mom always seemed to have infinite energy. I have heard he describe the garden that kept the family fed all year, especially when beans, fruits or other things were ready for canning. Because it was a large garden, there were huge spurts of urgency where Grandma Sandlin would have both Nana and Auntie Jeanne in the kitchen, canning for hours. Nana said she could see out the window that it was blue skies and sunny, but she was always caught in the sweltering kitchen heat. And at the end of a major canning effort, her every energetic mother would pat the hot water heater and say, "Come on girls, we still have enough hot water to do a load of laundry." I thought of how ambivalent I can feel about laundry when I'm tired, and then she told me how they DID laundry: manually. They would fill up two tubs, one with soap and a rinse that they would run it through a ringer, and they drop it into the second rinse, with "bluing" and then ring that out, and then hang it all out to dry in the sun. Just hearing that makes me want to flop into a frazzled domestic mess, but she said her mom never wanted her dad to see how much work it was. He liked to see her looking calm and relaxed when he came home from work, so she always made time to clean up from all these things, including scrubbing the floor, brushing her hair and changing her apron so that when her dad got home things were calm and quiet. I asked if she was ever able to achieve that standard with her own kids, and she just laughed.
We had planned to see her and Jerry this week to have dinner and go to the movie Saving Mr. Banks. Due to my poor planning (oh, the movie starts when?) and our general lack of urgency, we missed the movie, but it was nice to have dinner with Nana and Jerry. Just like "old times" before the folks moved here.
Oh, and I feel like bragging. As I mentioned we had a really great time at MOHAI a couple weeks ago, and when I mentioned this to Nana and Jerry, they thought it sounded cool, too. So cool, in fact, that they got one of the buses to take a load of people down there for the day. And they ALSO enjoyed it a lot.
Matt has been busy this week. He gave a talk on Friday, and is gearing up for the mountain bike race series. This means making changes and updates to the bike, that seemed to involved new wheels, and new cables, and many hours in the garage. He really enjoys that.
Showing posts with label Gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gardening. Show all posts
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Things that Grow Well in My Garden
This is a list for future reference.
Things that Grow Well in My Garden:
Roses
Cilantro
Chives
Beans
Nasturtium
Mint
Also doing well:
Swiss Chard
Rosemary
strawberry
Dandelions
Things that Grow Well in My Garden:
Roses
Cilantro
Chives
Beans
Nasturtium
Mint
Also doing well:
Swiss Chard
Rosemary
strawberry
Dandelions
Monday, May 13, 2013
Our new Worm Box
Remember that time I tried to keep worms? Remember, it was going to be a really enlightened way to deal with kitchen scraps, except I had no idea what I was doing, and the worms had to live in the basement which was too hot, then too cold, then too wet and somewhere in the middle we unleashed a torrent of fruit flies on out little duplex the horrors of which cannot be imagined. Matt (rightfully) banished the worms outside, where they eventually froze, long before turning any quantity of household waste into dirt. (So yes, there was a bucket for of frozen, rotting food with worm carcasses on our back porch for much too long.)
Anyway, forget all that. I've gotten from training in worm handing from an experienced vermiculturist- my mother-in-law. She promised us works and send us hardware, and we just recently put together the box. Just as I was on the verge of caving and buying new wood, Matt decided we could put a box together out of old pallets, and found a bunch being given away. I was all enthusiasm until I realized how hard it is to break apart pallets. Matt soldiered on an knocked together a mighty nice looking box, complete with a fairly solid looking recycled lid (and hinges!). This weekend, as part of our Mother's Day exchange, we took home a box of worms and some starter stuff for worms. They got settled in their in the box yesterday (Fig 1).
So let's discuss some of the design improvements of the current box.
1) It has no bottom. It will drain directly into the soil, the only barrier is a wire hardware cloth, which keeps out mice.
2) Wood is more breathable than plastic. The moisture thing was a serious issue for the last worms, because they were sealed in a sweaty plastic coffin. We should have worked around that this time.
3) I know what worms eat. Betty informs me that these red worms don't do much to orange peels or onion skins. Those were the main components of the first box- which, since no one was eating them, drove up the moisture and smell. We won't be sending the worms food the don't like, especially while they are getting settled.
4) The box is outside. The requirements for compost that lives beside the garage are much more forgiving that the compost in your laundry room. This is perhaps the biggest key to success.
And, since I've figure out how to add picture from my phone to the blog, may I present, a rhododendron bush that is ready to explode with color despite a steady diet of clouds (Figure 2), and my first ever rose that I grew in my own garden and it is so big and so red you may think you've never truly seen color before (Figure 3).
Perhaps more garden pictures can be shared once the rest of the things get settled. I like how lively they look in their little pots on the porch so far, but I'm trying not to get too attached in case I've misjudged what can be grown here.
Anyway, forget all that. I've gotten from training in worm handing from an experienced vermiculturist- my mother-in-law. She promised us works and send us hardware, and we just recently put together the box. Just as I was on the verge of caving and buying new wood, Matt decided we could put a box together out of old pallets, and found a bunch being given away. I was all enthusiasm until I realized how hard it is to break apart pallets. Matt soldiered on an knocked together a mighty nice looking box, complete with a fairly solid looking recycled lid (and hinges!). This weekend, as part of our Mother's Day exchange, we took home a box of worms and some starter stuff for worms. They got settled in their in the box yesterday (Fig 1).
 |
| Fig 1. The new Worm box, made of re-purposed pallets. |
1) It has no bottom. It will drain directly into the soil, the only barrier is a wire hardware cloth, which keeps out mice.
2) Wood is more breathable than plastic. The moisture thing was a serious issue for the last worms, because they were sealed in a sweaty plastic coffin. We should have worked around that this time.
3) I know what worms eat. Betty informs me that these red worms don't do much to orange peels or onion skins. Those were the main components of the first box- which, since no one was eating them, drove up the moisture and smell. We won't be sending the worms food the don't like, especially while they are getting settled.
4) The box is outside. The requirements for compost that lives beside the garage are much more forgiving that the compost in your laundry room. This is perhaps the biggest key to success.
And, since I've figure out how to add picture from my phone to the blog, may I present, a rhododendron bush that is ready to explode with color despite a steady diet of clouds (Figure 2), and my first ever rose that I grew in my own garden and it is so big and so red you may think you've never truly seen color before (Figure 3).
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| Fig 2. Our Rhododendron begins to bloom. It's magenta! |
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| Figure 3. My rose. The image doesn't quite capture a hue of red so deep your eyes ache. |
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Home Projects
When you move into a house, people seem super interested in "what you are going to do to the place?" We are pretty pumped about the fact that the house doesn't really need anything. We painted some walls for esthetic reasons. But nothing is breaking.
However, the out side parts of the house are going to need some help. There are some big, established plants around, which I am excited to watch transform into whatever the turn into. Will that tree out the kitchen window blossom? I'm starting to see some tiny buds on things, which will be exciting as the spring develops. But, I don't see any sign of bulbs, so I am loking forward to putting those in.
I'm also looking forward to adding a raised bed to the back for veggies. I'm not really sure how that works though, so I need to learn about it. I also am looking forward to having a worm bin, so I should probably get that build too. Dad doesn't seem to understand my interest in using reclaimed lumber for these projects. Sure, it is harder to find than a tree currently standing in the woods, but I like the idea of giving a second life to lumber, and garden projects can be forgiving in their dimensions.
I'm also collecting idea for brainlessly easy things to cultivate in the Seattle summer. I'm thinking peas/beans and some herbs. If this goes well, we can try more in the future. This is just the first little baby step in transforming the yard though.
However, the out side parts of the house are going to need some help. There are some big, established plants around, which I am excited to watch transform into whatever the turn into. Will that tree out the kitchen window blossom? I'm starting to see some tiny buds on things, which will be exciting as the spring develops. But, I don't see any sign of bulbs, so I am loking forward to putting those in.
I'm also looking forward to adding a raised bed to the back for veggies. I'm not really sure how that works though, so I need to learn about it. I also am looking forward to having a worm bin, so I should probably get that build too. Dad doesn't seem to understand my interest in using reclaimed lumber for these projects. Sure, it is harder to find than a tree currently standing in the woods, but I like the idea of giving a second life to lumber, and garden projects can be forgiving in their dimensions.
I'm also collecting idea for brainlessly easy things to cultivate in the Seattle summer. I'm thinking peas/beans and some herbs. If this goes well, we can try more in the future. This is just the first little baby step in transforming the yard though.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Always looking for adventure
Just checked the score card for the weekend, my life is pretty good. Friday night, we went to see The Capitol Steps performing in Bothell with Anne Cox- which was HILARIOUS. I know them as an NPR radio show that mocks current events, musical style- and they were oh so good live.
Saturday, even though Matt had a bit of a cold, he decided to go buy a unicycle of craiglist. We both spent a little time trying it out in the garage. Before we started, Matt said, "do you think we need helmets?" After the first try, yeah, you should always wear a helmet on a unicycle. It's like sitting on a surprise eject button. Matt is progressing much quicker then me, he can pedal a couple strokes before he gets ejected. Me? I just let go of the wall and fall off. It's a work in progress.
After that hilarity, we decided to go for a Bike ride on the nice wide trail (path? it's paved) near out house. On bikes, we made it up past Nana's new home no problem. Well, actually the problem was that Matt gave me the warm gloves, and it was raining and his hands got cold. But on a NICE day, it would be an easy ride. Afterwards we needed a warm up, and nothing suits better when you a frigid and soggy than Vietnamese Pho. I was reflecting that it is always hot and muggy in Vietnam, so I can't imagine how they came up for such a perfect cure for the drizzles: hot and spicy noodle soup. Matt's cold caught up with him a bit, so we had a long nap, which just set us up to stay up way too late watching TV until the time change.
On Sunday we had a really heroic grocery shopping trip since I am now keeping a working person schedule (even if I am not being paid for all those hours). In addition to being a teller, my internship at the UW started. I'm not being paid, and I'm not really sure how this will convert into a career opportunity for me, but I'm glad to be thinking about science again. It's hard to fit it in with my mid-day teller schedule, so I am hoping my schedule at the bank will mellow out to make that easier in the next couple weeks. Now I am "working" at various places about 30 hours a week, and filling the rest of my time driving to those places. Knowing that my schedule was about to get hectic, we shared a hot pot dinner with some friends.
Someday soon when the weather isn't so wet, I am going to try and get some garden action going. We've got crocuses coming up already, which I think means it isn't too soon to decide where at my house should become a garden. Wish me luck!
Saturday, even though Matt had a bit of a cold, he decided to go buy a unicycle of craiglist. We both spent a little time trying it out in the garage. Before we started, Matt said, "do you think we need helmets?" After the first try, yeah, you should always wear a helmet on a unicycle. It's like sitting on a surprise eject button. Matt is progressing much quicker then me, he can pedal a couple strokes before he gets ejected. Me? I just let go of the wall and fall off. It's a work in progress.
After that hilarity, we decided to go for a Bike ride on the nice wide trail (path? it's paved) near out house. On bikes, we made it up past Nana's new home no problem. Well, actually the problem was that Matt gave me the warm gloves, and it was raining and his hands got cold. But on a NICE day, it would be an easy ride. Afterwards we needed a warm up, and nothing suits better when you a frigid and soggy than Vietnamese Pho. I was reflecting that it is always hot and muggy in Vietnam, so I can't imagine how they came up for such a perfect cure for the drizzles: hot and spicy noodle soup. Matt's cold caught up with him a bit, so we had a long nap, which just set us up to stay up way too late watching TV until the time change.
On Sunday we had a really heroic grocery shopping trip since I am now keeping a working person schedule (even if I am not being paid for all those hours). In addition to being a teller, my internship at the UW started. I'm not being paid, and I'm not really sure how this will convert into a career opportunity for me, but I'm glad to be thinking about science again. It's hard to fit it in with my mid-day teller schedule, so I am hoping my schedule at the bank will mellow out to make that easier in the next couple weeks. Now I am "working" at various places about 30 hours a week, and filling the rest of my time driving to those places. Knowing that my schedule was about to get hectic, we shared a hot pot dinner with some friends.
Someday soon when the weather isn't so wet, I am going to try and get some garden action going. We've got crocuses coming up already, which I think means it isn't too soon to decide where at my house should become a garden. Wish me luck!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Again: no baby...
...Though I’m looking forward to the time when I’m allowed to start phone conversations with something other than ‘no, not yet.’ Progress, of a sort, is being made. We were out having Mexican food and Jess felt a few contractions. Nothing harmonically stable, in the vein of actual labor, but it’s a step. I’m convinced, of course, that it was because she tried my spicy fish. Tyler doesn’t feel like coming out: what is there out here to offer him? But then, mom tries spicy fish and suddenly Tyler isn’t resting as comfortably anymore. Hmm...
Last-minute tasks continue to get knocked off the ‘to do’ list. I tend to forget that even after Tyler shows up I will have time to do things...just less of it. Still, whatever motivates, yes? We went shopping at Costco Wednesday, thinking this time about shopping like people with an empty freezer. We didn’t go totally bonkers. As nice as some of the deals are, they don’t *all* freeze, and some weren’t actually that great of a deal. We actually wrote down some numbers for comparison to what we’d get at our regular supermarket. Boring? Perhaps, but *numbers*. Also, I’ve become slightly paranoid about money ever since we learned about the termites.
So we’ve moved some food into our freezer, freeing up a BUNCH of space, and with the rest of my free time this afternoon I did some ‘gardening’. Not much, mind, just a little maintenance. I trimmed up the (hugely overgrown) rose bush and a few others, got some weeds out of our flower beds, did some raking, and planted some more buffalo grass on some bald spots on the lawn. We also make a stop by the local plant-store on the way home from Mexican food, picked up some compost and a few plants, both flowering and a few herbal. I’ve now got some rosemary, cilantro (never seem to have it when I want it), basil, thyme, and lavender, just for fun. Herb garden ahoy!
I am slightly perturbed that the lawn people decided, instead of actually mowing our lawn and hauling off the clippings, to just push our fall leaves off to the sides and under trees where there is little grass to begin with. I guess it might compost eventually, but that’s not good lawn care. My white whine knows no bounds!
I do my best to talk about things besides babies, but man, am I excited to be a dad.
-N
Last-minute tasks continue to get knocked off the ‘to do’ list. I tend to forget that even after Tyler shows up I will have time to do things...just less of it. Still, whatever motivates, yes? We went shopping at Costco Wednesday, thinking this time about shopping like people with an empty freezer. We didn’t go totally bonkers. As nice as some of the deals are, they don’t *all* freeze, and some weren’t actually that great of a deal. We actually wrote down some numbers for comparison to what we’d get at our regular supermarket. Boring? Perhaps, but *numbers*. Also, I’ve become slightly paranoid about money ever since we learned about the termites.
So we’ve moved some food into our freezer, freeing up a BUNCH of space, and with the rest of my free time this afternoon I did some ‘gardening’. Not much, mind, just a little maintenance. I trimmed up the (hugely overgrown) rose bush and a few others, got some weeds out of our flower beds, did some raking, and planted some more buffalo grass on some bald spots on the lawn. We also make a stop by the local plant-store on the way home from Mexican food, picked up some compost and a few plants, both flowering and a few herbal. I’ve now got some rosemary, cilantro (never seem to have it when I want it), basil, thyme, and lavender, just for fun. Herb garden ahoy!
I am slightly perturbed that the lawn people decided, instead of actually mowing our lawn and hauling off the clippings, to just push our fall leaves off to the sides and under trees where there is little grass to begin with. I guess it might compost eventually, but that’s not good lawn care. My white whine knows no bounds!
I do my best to talk about things besides babies, but man, am I excited to be a dad.
-N
Sunday, April 18, 2010
New Camera, New Plants
Also, this is the 400th post on this blog. Grats to all!
So we got this new camera for our trip, and I thought I'd take a few pictures to try it out and show off my (mediocre) gardening skills. First off, check out these wildflowers:
Do you want more wildflowers? Here you go!
These are from the packet of wildflower mix that I planted back in the fall. It's hard to tell the difference between wildflowers and weeds, sometimes, especially because I don't know what the plants are supposed to look like. We didn't get any bluebells, though, and I thought we were supposed to. There are a bunch of other greeneries growing up around the base of the tree, though, so they may bloom in the future. Maybe even when we're on vacation. Heh.
Check this out. It's a Jalepeno plant. It a bit of an experiment, so I'm growing it in a pot. Hopefully we'll get a bunch of really spicy fruit later this year, assuming I don't mess up and kill it to death somehow.
This is our rose bush. I take no credit, other than trimming it back a few weeks ago, but it seems to have gone completely bonkers, which is nice. Very pretty. Give the bees something to flock to.
So vacation, maybe. We haven't heard anything yet, but Jess and I are keeping our ears to the ground with regards to our flight. We aren't leaving quite yet, but soon, and depending on how the Icelandic volcano decides to behave, we may just get straight canceled. Frustrating, but not devastating. At least we have an itinerary now, and if we need we can just cancel it and then shift the whole thing back into the summer sometime. And if we get lucky, flights will be going as early as this Monday, which would even give some time for all the stranded travelers to get themselves sorted out. We'll have to see how it works. Especially with the train system. Trains are more popular than ever now that they're pretty much the only way to get around.
Oh, and did you now that Iceland has another, larger volcano that hasn't erupted...yet? Last time it did it killed 1/4 of the population of Iceland. How's that for knocking down your travel plans?
Your word of the day is "Volcation", a surprise vacation that you didn't know you were going to take because your plane has been grounded by volcano dust.
Next up for me, a shower. And then I'm going to cook the last of the Omaha steaks we got as a gift several months ago. I've gotten a little better at cooking steaks, but I'm still not properly 'good' yet. Need more practice, but steaks make for terrifying big dinners.
Ciao,
-N
So we got this new camera for our trip, and I thought I'd take a few pictures to try it out and show off my (mediocre) gardening skills. First off, check out these wildflowers:
Do you want more wildflowers? Here you go!
These are from the packet of wildflower mix that I planted back in the fall. It's hard to tell the difference between wildflowers and weeds, sometimes, especially because I don't know what the plants are supposed to look like. We didn't get any bluebells, though, and I thought we were supposed to. There are a bunch of other greeneries growing up around the base of the tree, though, so they may bloom in the future. Maybe even when we're on vacation. Heh.
Check this out. It's a Jalepeno plant. It a bit of an experiment, so I'm growing it in a pot. Hopefully we'll get a bunch of really spicy fruit later this year, assuming I don't mess up and kill it to death somehow.
This is our rose bush. I take no credit, other than trimming it back a few weeks ago, but it seems to have gone completely bonkers, which is nice. Very pretty. Give the bees something to flock to.
So vacation, maybe. We haven't heard anything yet, but Jess and I are keeping our ears to the ground with regards to our flight. We aren't leaving quite yet, but soon, and depending on how the Icelandic volcano decides to behave, we may just get straight canceled. Frustrating, but not devastating. At least we have an itinerary now, and if we need we can just cancel it and then shift the whole thing back into the summer sometime. And if we get lucky, flights will be going as early as this Monday, which would even give some time for all the stranded travelers to get themselves sorted out. We'll have to see how it works. Especially with the train system. Trains are more popular than ever now that they're pretty much the only way to get around.
Oh, and did you now that Iceland has another, larger volcano that hasn't erupted...yet? Last time it did it killed 1/4 of the population of Iceland. How's that for knocking down your travel plans?
Your word of the day is "Volcation", a surprise vacation that you didn't know you were going to take because your plane has been grounded by volcano dust.
Next up for me, a shower. And then I'm going to cook the last of the Omaha steaks we got as a gift several months ago. I've gotten a little better at cooking steaks, but I'm still not properly 'good' yet. Need more practice, but steaks make for terrifying big dinners.
Ciao,
-N
Friday, June 19, 2009
Things that Happened
Stuff happens, I report on it.
We’ve been pretty busy here at Case de Preecs. The big upcoming event is a big roller derby tournament this weekend, with teams coming in from all over the country, from LA to Michigan. How exciting! Furthermore, Jess is an alternate on the LA team, so that means she gets to skate! She’s just a Rookie, but she enjoyed going to the tournament practices so much that eventually gave her a spot. The likelyhood is that she’ll be skating on Saturday only. She’ll be helping out for everything else, though, so big excitement! Very busy weekend.
Also, Jessie’s mom is visiting! She came out here on a road trip, bringing out various, random thingies with her. We’ve gotten some flowers, several fruits and vegetables, and even a hanging, swinging chair that she got for xmas several years ago that wouldn’t have fit in the apartment. Well we certainly have room for it now! Pictures will be forthcoming once we set it up. We’ve already taken JessieMom out to a couple of flagship Austin restaurants. Rudy’s BBQ continues to impress. She’ll come out for the tournament, too,
My experimental flowerpots are blooming different flowers now. The red-and-yellow ones are producing seeds. I figure I might as well let them. Now there’s some sort of strange, but very pretty, tiered purple flower. JessieMom also wants to head out to the red barn garden center and maybe tune up our front garden a little. I’m all in favor.
I have mostly been playing video games. Between Infamous, Prototype, and Red Faction, my free time is being well spent. And then Fight Night Round 4 in a few weeks. Mein Leisure!
-N
We’ve been pretty busy here at Case de Preecs. The big upcoming event is a big roller derby tournament this weekend, with teams coming in from all over the country, from LA to Michigan. How exciting! Furthermore, Jess is an alternate on the LA team, so that means she gets to skate! She’s just a Rookie, but she enjoyed going to the tournament practices so much that eventually gave her a spot. The likelyhood is that she’ll be skating on Saturday only. She’ll be helping out for everything else, though, so big excitement! Very busy weekend.
Also, Jessie’s mom is visiting! She came out here on a road trip, bringing out various, random thingies with her. We’ve gotten some flowers, several fruits and vegetables, and even a hanging, swinging chair that she got for xmas several years ago that wouldn’t have fit in the apartment. Well we certainly have room for it now! Pictures will be forthcoming once we set it up. We’ve already taken JessieMom out to a couple of flagship Austin restaurants. Rudy’s BBQ continues to impress. She’ll come out for the tournament, too,
My experimental flowerpots are blooming different flowers now. The red-and-yellow ones are producing seeds. I figure I might as well let them. Now there’s some sort of strange, but very pretty, tiered purple flower. JessieMom also wants to head out to the red barn garden center and maybe tune up our front garden a little. I’m all in favor.
I have mostly been playing video games. Between Infamous, Prototype, and Red Faction, my free time is being well spent. And then Fight Night Round 4 in a few weeks. Mein Leisure!
-N
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Anyone out there a gardener?
Hey,
I posted a new album with a bunch of pictures from recent events. I thought I'd throw up a few here.
Check out our new roof! It's been done for a while, and we upgraded to the neater-looking 30-year shingles. Very chic. We've already gone through our first rainstorm. It feels nice to know we have a good, protective barrier up while it's raining.
Here's some pictures from the housewarming/rock band party we threw.
Here's me rocking out with some coworkers.
Jessie mostly played guitar, though she may have added some impromptu vocals every once in a while. We played till about 2 in the morning, and everyone seemed to have a great time. Yay for that!
But the real reason made this was to show off my awesome garden and maybe ask some questions.
The great part about inheriting a garden is that pretty much everything about it is a surprise. We didn't know this tree bloomed with flowers until...it bloomed! Pretty cool. It's actually getting to big, though, I'm going to have to trim it back. So, to anyone out there that knows anything about gardening (NANA!) how to you trim a plant? When should you do it? Does anyone even know what kind of tree this is?
Here's another close-up picture in case it helps with identification.
This one was a surprise too. It was just a bunch of dead sticks over the winter, and I trimmed it back a bunch where it looked like the branches were dead. Then a few weeks ago, this happened. I don't what kind of plant it is either, but it sure is pretty!
We think this is some sort of rose bush. I know you're supposed to trim rose bushes, I'm just not sure when you do it. I trimmed it back a little earlier in the year before it started blooming. Glad I did, because it's gotten a lot bigger.
And, of course, our favorite. The tree we planted behind the house is growing up just fine, so far, and is covered with leaves. We still water it pretty regularly, we want it to grow some roots and fast. And it even looks like we might be seeing the first signs of some acorns forming. That's a good sign.
So anyone with gardening advice should definitely put up a post or add some comments. Love to hear from you!
-N
I posted a new album with a bunch of pictures from recent events. I thought I'd throw up a few here.
 |
| From Roof, Party, Garden |
Check out our new roof! It's been done for a while, and we upgraded to the neater-looking 30-year shingles. Very chic. We've already gone through our first rainstorm. It feels nice to know we have a good, protective barrier up while it's raining.
Here's some pictures from the housewarming/rock band party we threw.
 |
| From Roof, Party, Garden |
Here's me rocking out with some coworkers.
 |
| From Roof, Party, Garden |
Jessie mostly played guitar, though she may have added some impromptu vocals every once in a while. We played till about 2 in the morning, and everyone seemed to have a great time. Yay for that!
But the real reason made this was to show off my awesome garden and maybe ask some questions.
 |
| From Roof, Party, Garden |
The great part about inheriting a garden is that pretty much everything about it is a surprise. We didn't know this tree bloomed with flowers until...it bloomed! Pretty cool. It's actually getting to big, though, I'm going to have to trim it back. So, to anyone out there that knows anything about gardening (NANA!) how to you trim a plant? When should you do it? Does anyone even know what kind of tree this is?
 |
| From Roof, Party, Garden |
Here's another close-up picture in case it helps with identification.
 |
| From Roof, Party, Garden |
This one was a surprise too. It was just a bunch of dead sticks over the winter, and I trimmed it back a bunch where it looked like the branches were dead. Then a few weeks ago, this happened. I don't what kind of plant it is either, but it sure is pretty!
 |
| From Roof, Party, Garden |
We think this is some sort of rose bush. I know you're supposed to trim rose bushes, I'm just not sure when you do it. I trimmed it back a little earlier in the year before it started blooming. Glad I did, because it's gotten a lot bigger.
 |
| From Roof, Party, Garden |
And, of course, our favorite. The tree we planted behind the house is growing up just fine, so far, and is covered with leaves. We still water it pretty regularly, we want it to grow some roots and fast. And it even looks like we might be seeing the first signs of some acorns forming. That's a good sign.
So anyone with gardening advice should definitely put up a post or add some comments. Love to hear from you!
-N
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Home and Garden Blogging
Hi there, once again,
Friday we got Jessie's grandmother in. She's been visiting for a while, and yesterday we went to the wildflower center and hung out with some cousins that also live in Austin. It's spring, so the bluebells and other wildflowers are out in full bloom. I got to pick up some wildflower seeds for experiments with our yard, but those are best to plant in the fall, so I'm hanging on for now. But I have a lot of seeds, so I can plant a lot of them, if I want.
Then today was home improvement day! We've added some upgrades to the outside of the house.
Hummingbird feeder! Just a little for now, to see if we get any.
Regularbird feeder! Because regular birds need food too. We're hoping we don't get *too* many pigeons, but there are quite a lot of them around here.
Mulch! I didn't get enough to cover everything, but this is a pretty good start, I think. I also probably should have gone for normal 'mulch' color, as opposed to 'Scorched Earth Black'. I'm still experimenting.
I have a couple of wide pots where I'm growing some things to see how they turn out. The big thing in the middle is actually a tree I rescued from our lawn before the mowers came by. I want to see if I can get some potted trees. Maybe I'll even Bonsai them if I get crazy enough. The rest of the pot is filled with wildflower seeds, which are just barely sprouting, and some native grasses I just threw in. I'm excited by the idea of replacing the lawn with native grass someday. It grows better, requires less maintenance, and if you get the right types, you don't even have to mow, if you don't want to. Neat.
And finally...
We had a broken sprinkler head. We discovered it while we were looking for hail damage. It was just spewing water all over and making a mess. Not good, and wastes water. So today we went out, found the right sprinkler head, installed it and adjusted it. Next time I'll wait until the ground is a little bit drier. We made a lot of mud.
Gotta go, soon, company here, but we're getting a new roof from our insurance company, work is pretty great, and we're getting visitors soon!
-N
Friday we got Jessie's grandmother in. She's been visiting for a while, and yesterday we went to the wildflower center and hung out with some cousins that also live in Austin. It's spring, so the bluebells and other wildflowers are out in full bloom. I got to pick up some wildflower seeds for experiments with our yard, but those are best to plant in the fall, so I'm hanging on for now. But I have a lot of seeds, so I can plant a lot of them, if I want.
Then today was home improvement day! We've added some upgrades to the outside of the house.
 |
| From New Album 4/12/09 5:25 PM |
Hummingbird feeder! Just a little for now, to see if we get any.
 |
| From New Album 4/12/09 5:25 PM |
Regularbird feeder! Because regular birds need food too. We're hoping we don't get *too* many pigeons, but there are quite a lot of them around here.
 |
| From New Album 4/12/09 5:25 PM |
 |
| From New Album 4/12/09 5:25 PM |
Mulch! I didn't get enough to cover everything, but this is a pretty good start, I think. I also probably should have gone for normal 'mulch' color, as opposed to 'Scorched Earth Black'. I'm still experimenting.
 |
| From New Album 4/12/09 5:25 PM |
I have a couple of wide pots where I'm growing some things to see how they turn out. The big thing in the middle is actually a tree I rescued from our lawn before the mowers came by. I want to see if I can get some potted trees. Maybe I'll even Bonsai them if I get crazy enough. The rest of the pot is filled with wildflower seeds, which are just barely sprouting, and some native grasses I just threw in. I'm excited by the idea of replacing the lawn with native grass someday. It grows better, requires less maintenance, and if you get the right types, you don't even have to mow, if you don't want to. Neat.
And finally...
 |
| From New Album 4/12/09 5:25 PM |
We had a broken sprinkler head. We discovered it while we were looking for hail damage. It was just spewing water all over and making a mess. Not good, and wastes water. So today we went out, found the right sprinkler head, installed it and adjusted it. Next time I'll wait until the ground is a little bit drier. We made a lot of mud.
Gotta go, soon, company here, but we're getting a new roof from our insurance company, work is pretty great, and we're getting visitors soon!
-N
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Further adventures in home ownership.
So now that we’ve gotten the inside of our house all in order, it’s time to turn our attention to the outside. We have started, of course, with a burr oak in the backyard. It’s currently got little tufts of green springing out all over, so I dare say we’ve done a good job keeping it watered during the off season. Hopefully its roots go deep, now, and it’ll spring up lots of interesting branches and acorns to let us know it’s doing well.
There is, however quite a lot of other land to be maintained around our house, and the largest percentage of that is lawn. Well good for us, we’ve managed to get a lawn care service to come around and trim our lawn every couple of weeks, and while they’ve only come once, the lawn is definitely looking more impressive by stages already. Jessie’s a bit of a lawn nut, so she’s enjoying the improvements a great deal. We’ve also been running the sprinklers as necessary, but that’s quite nice because we can program it to run at 4 in the morning, so the sun is down and the water can get down and do its job before the sun comes up to evaporate it all.
And then there’s our little garden planters. We’ve got a couple of areas around the front of the house that came pre-planted with several perennial and several annual flower types, and since it’s currently ‘plant stuff’ season, we’ve taken to dusting up our front yard with some new plants. Jess did most of the work, going off and getting some pretty annuals to clean up our landscape. There are definite vestiges of previous plants in the area, and we’re letting them grow because, quite simply, we don’t know what they are. There’s a good chance they’re just weeds, but we’ll give them a chance before uprooting them and replacing them with something much more colorful.
I’ve actually been taken by a fancy of growing my own potted trees. When the lawn care guy came around to check out our plot, he pointed out several tiny plants that had come up around our Live Oaks, and then reached down and plucked one from the earth, acorn and all. Turns out our trees have been germinating just fine, and have dotted the landscape with little babies. Well before he came around to chop everything to a uniform height, I decided to rescue a couple of saplings. I’ve currently got them in little pots, and they’re still green, though no larger, so I assume they’re at least doing okay. I’ve got a couple of larger, mostly wider, planter pots that I plan to fill up with potting soil and transferring the trees to to see if they’ll still grow. I’m also planning to drop in some random wildflowers in there to see if they’ll grow. I’m off season for that, unfortunately. I have seeds, and you’re supposed to plant those in the fall so that they germinate over the winter and bloom...well *now*, really. But that’s what these little pots are for. They’re experiments. I just want to see what happens. And if the whole thing goes belly up, I can just till my little potting plants and start over. Experiments.
And if you’re wondering why there haven’t been any pictures yet, it’s because I’m not done storytelling. So hush.
The other experiment I wanted to do was to germinate some burr oak seeds. Jessie’s mom actually sent, with her birthday pack, a quartet of what are supposed to be burr oak acorns. I thought, well, no harm in putting them in some pots and seeing if they turn into something alive. Maybe I can get some more pots for them. Well I set them outside in little pots, and when I got home from work that afternoon, I discovered that squirrels had ransacked my nuts and taken them off somewhere. They were already buried! I just imagine them trotting around, “I smell acorns! They’ve got to be around here somewhere...” and then discovering my hidden treasures. Sillier still, they continued to harry the same set of pots that had held the acorns for another few days, just in case I had decided to try again.
Yesterday, Jess and I were relaxing upstairs in our room, lying in bed, when we heard the pitter-patter of rain on our roof. We love this, let me tell you. Few things are as comforting as know that you own a structure that can keep the weather off of your head. After that, we heard a couple of distant crashes of thunder. Also very exciting. Then, as we continued to lie there, the rain got quickly much heavier. “Pap pap pap tap tap tap whiiiiiirrrrr smack smack smack pitter patter thud thud THUD.” What? Rain isn’t supposed to go thud.
We opened our windows, and we saw this:
That’s not my video. I had my camera off. It’s someone else posting the same storm, though, and I’ll definitely take some thanking now for taking the time to find one without a constant stream of surprised cursing.
Yes, that is golf-ball sized hail falling from the sky. Jess and I watched in stunned amazement as the stuff came down. It bounced pretty heavily off our windows a few times, but nothing has cracked. There are, however, a few notable sources of damage.
This is the only ‘wow’ sort of damage I’ve found. I’m pretty sure it’s just cosmetic, but it’s impressive regardless.
The most obvious victim, unfortunately, has been our fledgeling garden. Several of our small flowers were treated quite roughly by pieces of ice falling at terminal velocity. Can’t imagine why.
The thing I’m most worried about is the roof. I’m actually going to go check our attic after I post this, and maybe call up our insurance company to see that they will do. This sort of craziness is, after all, exactly what we have them for.
Oh, and you should check out this link to the rest of the pictures I took of crazy hail all over our house. Someone let me know if that link doesn't work.
Well that marked the end of that day. I was planning to head off to Wing Tsun, but, predictably, class was cancelled. I’m just glad we weren’t on the freeway when this hit.
Micro News!: Jessie’s sister and her boys come to visit today. We’re going to pick them up this afternoon and they’re going to stay and watch Jessie play Roller Derby on sunday. I got some nasty road rash when roller blading around last week. It’s healing up, but is still obnoxious and *really* ugly looking. Jess took pictures, I’m not posting them. Ew. And yes, I was wearing my protective gear. It would have been *much* worse otherwise. I was off of travel for a while, but now I’m back on. I’ll be traveling from April 2 through the 7, which is shorter at least, but I’ll be supporting a few 22 hour work days. Yum.
Enjoy your weather.
-N
There is, however quite a lot of other land to be maintained around our house, and the largest percentage of that is lawn. Well good for us, we’ve managed to get a lawn care service to come around and trim our lawn every couple of weeks, and while they’ve only come once, the lawn is definitely looking more impressive by stages already. Jessie’s a bit of a lawn nut, so she’s enjoying the improvements a great deal. We’ve also been running the sprinklers as necessary, but that’s quite nice because we can program it to run at 4 in the morning, so the sun is down and the water can get down and do its job before the sun comes up to evaporate it all.
And then there’s our little garden planters. We’ve got a couple of areas around the front of the house that came pre-planted with several perennial and several annual flower types, and since it’s currently ‘plant stuff’ season, we’ve taken to dusting up our front yard with some new plants. Jess did most of the work, going off and getting some pretty annuals to clean up our landscape. There are definite vestiges of previous plants in the area, and we’re letting them grow because, quite simply, we don’t know what they are. There’s a good chance they’re just weeds, but we’ll give them a chance before uprooting them and replacing them with something much more colorful.
I’ve actually been taken by a fancy of growing my own potted trees. When the lawn care guy came around to check out our plot, he pointed out several tiny plants that had come up around our Live Oaks, and then reached down and plucked one from the earth, acorn and all. Turns out our trees have been germinating just fine, and have dotted the landscape with little babies. Well before he came around to chop everything to a uniform height, I decided to rescue a couple of saplings. I’ve currently got them in little pots, and they’re still green, though no larger, so I assume they’re at least doing okay. I’ve got a couple of larger, mostly wider, planter pots that I plan to fill up with potting soil and transferring the trees to to see if they’ll still grow. I’m also planning to drop in some random wildflowers in there to see if they’ll grow. I’m off season for that, unfortunately. I have seeds, and you’re supposed to plant those in the fall so that they germinate over the winter and bloom...well *now*, really. But that’s what these little pots are for. They’re experiments. I just want to see what happens. And if the whole thing goes belly up, I can just till my little potting plants and start over. Experiments.
And if you’re wondering why there haven’t been any pictures yet, it’s because I’m not done storytelling. So hush.
The other experiment I wanted to do was to germinate some burr oak seeds. Jessie’s mom actually sent, with her birthday pack, a quartet of what are supposed to be burr oak acorns. I thought, well, no harm in putting them in some pots and seeing if they turn into something alive. Maybe I can get some more pots for them. Well I set them outside in little pots, and when I got home from work that afternoon, I discovered that squirrels had ransacked my nuts and taken them off somewhere. They were already buried! I just imagine them trotting around, “I smell acorns! They’ve got to be around here somewhere...” and then discovering my hidden treasures. Sillier still, they continued to harry the same set of pots that had held the acorns for another few days, just in case I had decided to try again.
Yesterday, Jess and I were relaxing upstairs in our room, lying in bed, when we heard the pitter-patter of rain on our roof. We love this, let me tell you. Few things are as comforting as know that you own a structure that can keep the weather off of your head. After that, we heard a couple of distant crashes of thunder. Also very exciting. Then, as we continued to lie there, the rain got quickly much heavier. “Pap pap pap tap tap tap whiiiiiirrrrr smack smack smack pitter patter thud thud THUD.” What? Rain isn’t supposed to go thud.
We opened our windows, and we saw this:
That’s not my video. I had my camera off. It’s someone else posting the same storm, though, and I’ll definitely take some thanking now for taking the time to find one without a constant stream of surprised cursing.
Yes, that is golf-ball sized hail falling from the sky. Jess and I watched in stunned amazement as the stuff came down. It bounced pretty heavily off our windows a few times, but nothing has cracked. There are, however, a few notable sources of damage.
 |
| From Hail Storm, March 25, 2009 |
This is the only ‘wow’ sort of damage I’ve found. I’m pretty sure it’s just cosmetic, but it’s impressive regardless.
 |
| From Hail Storm, March 25, 2009 |
The most obvious victim, unfortunately, has been our fledgeling garden. Several of our small flowers were treated quite roughly by pieces of ice falling at terminal velocity. Can’t imagine why.
 |
| From Hail Storm, March 25, 2009 |
The thing I’m most worried about is the roof. I’m actually going to go check our attic after I post this, and maybe call up our insurance company to see that they will do. This sort of craziness is, after all, exactly what we have them for.
Oh, and you should check out this link to the rest of the pictures I took of crazy hail all over our house. Someone let me know if that link doesn't work.
Well that marked the end of that day. I was planning to head off to Wing Tsun, but, predictably, class was cancelled. I’m just glad we weren’t on the freeway when this hit.
Micro News!: Jessie’s sister and her boys come to visit today. We’re going to pick them up this afternoon and they’re going to stay and watch Jessie play Roller Derby on sunday. I got some nasty road rash when roller blading around last week. It’s healing up, but is still obnoxious and *really* ugly looking. Jess took pictures, I’m not posting them. Ew. And yes, I was wearing my protective gear. It would have been *much* worse otherwise. I was off of travel for a while, but now I’m back on. I’ll be traveling from April 2 through the 7, which is shorter at least, but I’ll be supporting a few 22 hour work days. Yum.
Enjoy your weather.
-N
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