New Years Day

Here is to hope for a better year for the World.  2023 was not very good in a lot of places for a lot of people.  May at least some of the problems get resolved.  I can't hope that all will, but if at least some were, that would be good. 

I won't try to describe them all; it could become too devicive.  I'll just say that (metaphorically) the 4 Horsemen are running amok and we need to "rein" them in through national and international cooperation.

On the home front, I need to get more active cleaning, declutterring, and arranging some moderate renovations.  I've slacked for a couple of years and the house needs work.  I've been here 37 years.  Things wear out, get old, and fail.  

The list is long and I won't burden you with all of it, but some problems feel more urgent than others.  My kitchen cabinet doors are dirty but have been cleaned so many times that they need to be re-finished.  I can do that myself, but it requires a lot of basement space and that is so clutterred that I can barely move around in there.

So I have to declutter the basement first.  But the basement is full of planting trays, buckets of used and new planting soil and old planter pots.  So I have to get the soil in hose trays emptied into buckets, the buckets labelled "used" and "unused",  and all the still-useful cell packs cleaned so I can stack them up out of the way.

I need the space to refinish the cabinet doors, but I also need it to build memorial markers for Ayla and Laz.  Every horizontal surface in the basement has stuff on it, including the tablesaw I need to build the memorial markers.  

I need to change out the light fixtures on the 4 shelf plant stand.  I have old fluorescent fixtures there now (best available at the time) but I bought LED fixtures a year ago and have dreaded doing the work to take the old fluorescents off and attach the LEDs.  And again, that takes basement space to do, and I don't have that right now.  But it is getting to the start of indoor seed-starting season, so I need to get at that soon.

The basement fridge is old and failing.  I have to break off frost-buildup in the non-freezer section about once a month now.  I plan to recycle that one, move the kitchen fridge to the basement, and buy a new one for the kitchen.  

An efficient one if possible, but temperature maintenance is actually more important to me.  I do so much cooking with fresh meats and veggies that I am in and out of it a lot.  So cooling recovery tie is very important.  My current one is not really good at that.  The next one will be better.  

I may buy a small stand-alone freezer, but I don't know exactly where I would put it, and they aren't very energy efficient.  But it isn't something I would be opening a lot, so that may not be a real problem.

Other renovations involve replacing old carpet with linoleum.  I'm not a person who walks around the house barefoot, so nice soft carpet isn't my major concern.  Easier cleaning IS.  I have a "steam" cleaner.  Its just soapy water of course.  I used it 5 years ago and the dirt that came out was amazing, but the carpets stank like hell for days.  

I need linoleum flooring in The Mews Room and the computer room because that only needs mopping.  I can do that a lot easier and often.  And I could get rid of that annoying plastic computer chair mat!  My bedroom carpet was really top quality and it can remain; it is still good.  It's the only place I go barefoot.  

So I have all these things to do around the house.  I think the first thing is to clean the basement.  I need space to accomplish several things.  And we are talking about a few weeks of work there.  What I got done in 2 hours yesterday hardly made a dent in the cleaning.  And the things I want to do in the cleaned-up basement will take a few weeks (a month?) themselves.  

Then buy a new fridge, having the oldest one taken away (with some rebate credit from my electric co-op), the current one moved to the basement, and the new one installed.

After that.  changing 2 rooms from old carpet to new linoleum.  That will be a bit of work.  I'll have to move all the current computer equipment, box up all the books from 4 bookcases, and haul all the old computers to the garage for a recycling trip.

Then I think I have the windows replaced.  Half either won't open or stay opened.  I'm debating between  sliding windows or casement windows.  And double or triple-pane UV-reflective glass.  I need to re-read Consumer Reports articles about all that.

There is more I need to do (and this doesn't even include outside yard work), but I think that pretty uses up all 2024.  LOL!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, MAY 2024 BE A GOOD YEAR FOR YOU!

Salad Trays

I keep trays of salad greens on sawhorses of the deck.  They are convenient there.  Most leaf lettuces, celery and pak choy are "cut&come again".  But they do wear out eventually.  I kept the previous planting going from Spring to a few weeks ago.

So it was time to start again.  I dumped all the tray into a large tub.  Very sturdy tub; I think it is used for automotive stuff like draining fluids, but I'm pretty good at seeing other uses for stuff.  Like the 10" wide plaster-smoother that I use to scrape the litter boxes clean.

So I had all the soil in the tub a couple weeks ago and a surprise rainstorm hit.  So I had a tub of mud!  That took a couple weeks to dry out.  And because there was more rain coming, I suspended a tarp over the tub allowing airflow so it could dry out without getting soaked again.

Finally yesterday, I had workable soil again.

I'm missing a few pictures that were so bad as to be unusable.  But they showed a tray in the tub and scooped soil filling it.  I used a small block of scrap wood as a leveler and to lightly press the soil flat.   Then I poked some slight depressions added a seed to each and pilled the holes.  You'll have to just imagine that part 6 times.  😖

But when I was done, I had my salad bed replanted...

 I have small round carrots, pak choy, red romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, and green leaf lettuce.  And it's not the stuff you see in the grocery store.  Red romaine lettuce is never seen.  The red leaf lettuce is bright red from top to bottom instead of just the tips.  The green leaf lettuce is lime green.  

The celery is still growing from before, but I don't get stalks; I grow it for the tastier (slightly bitter).  I grow the pak choy for the leaves (for wrapping the contents of shrimp rolls inside the dough wrappers to avoid punctures).

Most of those plants are moderately cold-hardy, but before it gets too cold, I will bring them inside under lights.  Fresh salad all Winter!

The Fenceside Perennial Bed, Part 2

So, more and later pics when it was in its prime...

First, I have to say that I am bad at remembering names.  If I see a flower name, I can usually see the image in my mind.  But seeing an image doesn't get me the name all that well.  I envy those who can do both.

Stoke's Aster.  It may be my favorite perennial.  It lasts darn near forever (I think these are 20+ years old), blooms dependently, and never seems to have a weed problem.

Not sure.  Lobelia?  Salvia?

I love Purple Coneflowers!

Rose Of Sharon?  They didn't last long.

Moonbeam Coreopsis, I think...  They didn't like the garden competion much, so I moved the survivors to a large deck pot where they have resided happily ever since.

'Autumn Joy' Sedum in final color... 

A domesticated hybrid Goldenrod.  It died after several years, but I sure liked it.

Some Aster?

LC's burial spot, surrounded by lovely flowers...

And Skeeter's...

I finally gave up on edging flowers and planted species daffodils.  They still come up, but there are fewer each year.  Grass gets in and gives them some problems.  I planted crocuses among them.  The voles got at those pretty fast.  I'll have to redo that.

So that was the perennial bed in the early years.  Nothing lasts forever, though.  Spring will be the time to fix problems.