My Seed Tray

The seed tray I made a few years ago works great.  Holds vials of seeds conveniently and is sized to fit in the old basement fridge.  The newest one is on the left, my first on the right.  Having 2 layers makes the vials stay upright better.
 
Well, it broke.  Gluing plywood on the edges is weak, but I thought it was sufficient.   OK, time to re-glue.  I wedged the edge up just a little, and the other side came loose too.  Broke it.

OK, time for screws!  Not that it is easy to put screws into the edges of plywood.  Plywood is made of layers, screws apply outward pressure, layers separate!  So I used the thinnest screws I had (#4 if you know about that), drilled the largest hole I dared, used more glue (worked for several years and it sure can't hurt), clamped it all together and drilled countersunk holes for the screw heads, and screwed them in by hand until they were "barely tight", but flush with the surface.

That may seem like a lot of effort, but it is SO convenient for fitting in the fridge and for finding a vial of seeds (I have 90 seed vials).  My Dad used to just keep packs of seeds in a box in the garage, and I remember him searching through the box in frustration.  And being in the garage, they didn't last long.

But I got it all back together...

The vials fit through the top, and there are holes in the bottom too...

The sides are both glued AND screwed now, so it should hold together better...

And speaking of the basement fridge...  Here is the insides.  The black bottles are Nyger thistle seed I use to feed the finches.  Keeping them chilled helps them last longer.  I have more in the freezer section.  I buy it in a 50lb bag.  Not because I want 50 lbs at once, but because it is really good quality and I can't get it in a smaller size from that source, and finches are fussy about fresh seed.  The Big Box Store stuff is crap.  They let it sit out in the sun and it goes bad.

The seed tray fits perfectly next to them.  Yes that was deliberate.

Below the the thistle seed is beer.  I use it in place of water when baking bread.  Gives it a "deeper" flavor.

Next to the beer are jars of saved seeds.  I have some "self-sowing" seed flowers of types the bees and butterflies, and hummingbirds like.  But they are not as good at "self-sowing" as I would like, so I harvest dried flowerheads and separate the seeds to spread around in the beds in Spring.  And then I use a rlloer to spread compost over them.  I don't mind "helping Mother Nature" a bit.

My sealed-vial refrigerated seeds germinate after 10 years, when at normal temperatures and humidity, they would fail after 3.  And they are easier to find.  The vials are all numbered and I keep a list in 3 places (a 3 ring binder, the seed tray, and my set of index cards arranged by week of planting.  4 actually, it's on the computer.  Well, the complete disaster would be losing track of what seeds were in which vial.

I had to order more seeds (they do get used up when they last longer), but only 8 of the 90 vials.  And some just never never get used up before even being refrigerated they expire.  Celery comes about 1,000 seeds per pack.  My new oregano packet has 2,000.  I'll never use all those.  I plant 4 celery plants per year, and I only want 2 oregano plants, LOL!

Some of my seeds take a few weeks to germinate and grow slowly (especially some flowers), so planting season starts soon.  I used up my trash barrel of mixed potting soil from last year, so I better find the ingredients soon to make a new batch...

I usually do that in the Fall, but I slacked last year.

Speaking Of Internetlly Stupid

I order veggie and flower seeds just this time of year.  I get great catalogs in the mail.  Must cost them a fortune...  I've found the catalogs come in 2 categories.  The really good companies and the really bad ones.  The really bad companies offer "the world's biggest tomato" or the "cheapest prices" .

I've been gardening for 50 years.  I can tell the difference at a glance.  But for those of you who haven't, (and I'm not posting just for that) HERE is a website that rates gardening companies...

My point is to say that some really good businesses have REALLY WRETCHED websites.  If I was in the "website design" business (I'm not), I would search them and offer to improve them.  I mention that only for my possible easier use of them.

I ordered this year (as past) from Territorial Seed Company.  They don't have the very highest rating, but the negative ratings aren't things that are issues for me (quite frankly, there are some dumb gardeners out there). 

But their website is hard to navigate.  Most garden sites, you can just type in item numbers from the catalog.  Territorial Seeds doesn't even recognize its own item numbers.  Like they say a small packet of seeds is a "BN047C" and a larger packet is a "BN046G" (made those up just for examples) and you enter "BN047C", all you get is all the bean seeds...

And if you try going for all the bean seeds (beans on a drop down menu), it wants you to look at all beans even though the category says "romano beans".  And you have to repeat the menu for every item.  And if you enter a coupon code (there are sites for coupon codes), sometimes that wipes the cart and you have to staet again.  More than one user complained about that, so I didn't even try for one.  LOL!

Maybe it's a marketing thing.

But maybe someone should fix their website.  Anyway, my order got placed and I will get some new seeds in a week.   I usually need to get about 10% of my seeds each year.  I keep them in specimen vials in the basement refrigerator, so they last years, but I do run out of some each year. 

I'll mention all this to the company, but you folks come first.  LOL!

Smetimes It Pays To Complain

Well, I've been a loyal subscriber to my local newspaper for 30+ years.  My "local" newspaper is 'The Washington Post'.  Not the average "local" newspaper...

I got a notice of subscription increases.  Mostly because they have started sending out "special editions" on topics I don't care about.  I wasn't subscibing because it was "local", but because it is one of the top newspapers in the the US.  The "local" part was happenstance.

I got tired of paying $5 for subjects like "museums" or "the subway".  I don't actually go to Washington DC anymore, I just happen to live nearby.  So I emailed them (emails are great for keeping records) to cancel.  I would miss the editorials and comics (2 full pages and I love comics strips), but I objected the the $5 special editions (that arrived more frequently lately).

They replied with a 50% discount offer...  Well, that sure makes up for the $5 special issue nonsense!  I accepted.  I got a confirmation email today.

They didn't make it easy.  Their emails were all "no reply" addresses.  Even copying the discount offer wouldn't work.  And the emails even said "just reply to this email".  Businesses are entirely stupid internetly sometimes...

I had to do a copy to Word, "forward" the email and copy the relevant part (offering the discount), and then add text to say I was ACCEPTING their offer.  Sent it. 

They may STILL be wondering how I did that...  LOL!

Heat Pump

It's working, but getting worrisome.  In freezing weather, it has a frost-thaw cycle in the outside part that usually lasts about 5 seconds before the heat cycle comes on.  Lately, it has been taking 15-20 seconds.  Not much difference, but changes aren't good.  And 2 nights ago, during a cooling cycle, it started making rattling noises.  That's not normal at all.

So, for once, before it heat pump just stops, I called the installer and arranged for a diagnostic visit.  They arrive tomorrow afternoon.  I sure hope the rattley sound is just a loose fan blade of something.  But whatever, I hope it is something easily fixable.

I have bad luck with heat pumps.  They usually die on a friday night on the hottest day of Summer and I have to suffer several days before they can come out to repair it.  Historically, it has needed replacement every 7-8 years.  Once one died in mid-Winter.  I can deal with cold a bit better than hot, but it still isn't fun.  I mean, I can add more clothes but there is a limit to how much I can take off.

If they find something simple to repair (or nothing or major repairs, come to think of it), I can at least get an annual maintenance contract at a good price and I think I will.  Knowing my luck, THAT should guarantee nothing ever fails again, LOL!  But it would be worth it.

I am one of those people who think that anything working should keep working.  It's illogical.  It like with my gardens and flowerbeds.  I keep thinking that, once weeded, they should STAY that way.  They don't.  ;(

The heat pump company gives the general "4 hour" range for arrival.  But at least this one calls a half hour that day before they anticipate arriving.  That helps.

UPDATE:

The heat pump was overcharged.  Over-pressurized.  The technician discharged "enough".   And because they overcharged it initially, all they charged was the visit.  I didn't argue about it.

It was sufficient that he immediately heard the same problem I did (and that is rare), fixed it, and left.  It was raining, and I held a BIG golf umbrella over him while he worked.  That got some good will.

He also gave me some useful advice.  I bump the heat up in the morning and use the a/c to cool down at night.  He said stop doing that.  "Open a window at night and use the fan, heat pumps don't like cooling the house when it is below 50F outside". 

OK, live and learn.  Wish someone had told me that 33 years ago.  My heat pumps die every 7-8 years.  My neighbors' heat pumps don't.  I've asked.  Now maybe I know why...

Gardening Light Stand

I have had my indoor gardening light stand the long way against the wall since I assembled it.  But it occurred to me that it would be easier to water all the plants if it stood out from the narrow end.  So I tried to just move it.  SCREEECH!!!  And my muscles objected.

Metal doesn't move on a concrete floor well.

So my first thought was to reduce the weight.  The rack came with shelves.  But they were kind of flimsy to add fluorescent light fixtures to, so I added plywood.  Worked great, but it is also hard to remove.  I managed the added plywood removal, but the lights were NOT coming off. 

The rack is 4' long.  The light fixtures are 4'+ and bolted in after disassembling and reassembling the fixtures.  I wasn't going to do that.  And the stand isn't actually bolted together.  It has parts that hold it together by its own weight.  It means you cant actually lift it or parts come apart.

So I had to figure out how to hold it together to lift the bottom.  Clamping pieces of wood to each corner in multiple ways seemed like a good idea.  If the parts separate by being moved up, them holding the parts down seemed promising. 

It worked.  I'm not sure whether a lever is geometry or physics, but after I clamped short blocks of wood to the bottom shelf.  I was able to move it 1" at a time.  And there was a pattern of moving the crowbar that worked.

1", 1", 1"...  And eventually, all those 1"s added up and I had it rotated 90 degrees...

Now I can put plant trays in and water easily from both sides and lift them out more easily (the original problems I was trying to solve).

And I had large plastic trash bags on the shelves.  They moved.  This time, as I set them back, I put the shelves IN the trash bags and folded the excess under them. 

Of COURSE I didn't take pictures.  I get involved in doing something and pictures are the last thing I think of.  But I can replicate some of it...

Did you think I wouldn't provide pictures?

OK, first is the clamping.  The one at the bottom crosses the rack parts that want to come loose.  The ones on the sides prevent that.  Clamps were suffifient.

Wedging the bottom allowed some slight movement.  That was the 1" at a time I mentioned above.  I did slowly move the stand 90 degrees.

Then I needed to replace the plywood above the light shelves.   And I wanted them covered with heavy duty plastic bags.That took some work fitting them over the sharp corners.  The boards BARELY fit around the rack.  This is an example of one.  And a cool thing is that I was able to fold the excess plastic trash bag under the shelf, so it stays tight. 

Here is the lettuce trays under the shelf I did today.  The others will be done tomorrow.  One is so tight, I have to cut it in half to fit them back, which is why I stopped.  And it was dinnertime too.

But the trays were SO MUCH easier to water and that was the point.  So I watered them, and it worked great.  I can get at them from both sides now.

Happy New Year

A new decade is upon us.  May 2020 be better than 2019.

Janus was the Roman god of beginnings and endings, thus the 2 faces forward and back.  Oddly, January is not named for him (the Roman year did not start in January) but for Juno, the major goddess.

But I like Janus as symbol of a start of the New Year.  Remembering the past year and looking forward to the next...

Happy New Year and Happy Janus Day to all!

Ending The Year

I could do a post about the past year.  I won't.  Personally, it was fine, but domestically and internationally it was a mess. 

I did some stuff.  I didn't do other stuff.  I need to make a list of things to do soon to get the New Year started right.  Update my Will, arrange for a full physical exam, get the 2005 Toyota Highlander in for serious maintenance (I hate all the too-fancy stuff on the new cars). 

I need to build a small medicine chest for Iza.  I need to completely rearrange the basement (too much stuff, poorly organized).  I need to stop smoking.  I DON'T need an exercise or diet change (other than smoking, I am disgustingly healthy).

I MAY decide to buy a smart phone.  I'm not sure exactly why.  I suppose I'm missing out on "something".  I plan to upgrade digitally in some ways.  Activate Siri on the computer maybe.  Turn on the HDTV voice command.  See what Amazon streaming service has to offer (as a Prime member, I'm paying for it).  I'm WAY behind the tech curve and I keep reading about stuff I COULD do. 

Or maybe not.  I'm pretty unhackable as things stand.  I can't even find myself on the net other than a few address errors of former residences.  Only the computer is online, and I have a backup system that stays offline until I plug it briefly. 

I suppose my 2 blogs are hackable, but they aren't on my computer, so I can't do much about that!

The funny thing is that I was "the techie" in my office.  Fortunately, I was able to retire just as things got beyond my knowledge.

When Dad lived with me in 2012-2014, I showed him "the internet".  He was amazed, but didn't have the slightest idea what he was really seeing.  And it wasn't just his age and declining mental abilities.  He simply had left his own tech world behind when he retired in 1979.  So that is food for thought.  Do I want to try to catch up or do I want to let it go?  And maybe finding myself in a world I can't quite understand anymore in a few more years?

It takes work to keep up with tech.  I find myself struggling with some aspects.  Should I have a "doorbell camera"?  Should my refrigerator know what I've run out of?   Do I need a computer program to tell me about pills and doctor appointments?  And whatever happened to voice-typing?  I might really need that someday, and better to get used to it now than when I am too stupid someday.  What about painless-death options?

Some people make New Year's Resolutions.  I'm pondering a decade or so of my future...  And this is a good time to consider all these things.

Waxy Hoya

When I moved into my first (rented) house in 1980, my sister sent me a housewarming gift.  A Waxy Hoya.

The plant still thrives on benign neglect.

I finally decided to repot it earlier this year.  It was all roots and no soil!  So I took care of that, cutting roots back and adding new soil.  I also took stem cuttings.  They all grew beautifully in small pots.

What do I do with 12 Waxy Hoyas?

Knives

This why you should NEVER try to catch a dropped knife...

BTW, I also have a Chinese-style cleaver.  The first time I used it, I cut my fingertip.  And then almost chopped a finger OFF (took weeks to heal). 

It is safely stashed with a plastic edge guard on it in a drawer with some other things that are good but unused.  I may try it again soon.  But I'm AFRAID of the darn thing.

PSA for you all.  "Sharp edges and wine do not combine well"...

Indoor Gardening

Some plants grow well indoors under lights.  Lettuce is one of them, and I love my salads!

The specific names don't matter, but from left to right:  A loosehead , a purple romaine, an endive, and a red leaf.  The nice thing is that I can just take scissors and cut off a plant 1" above soil-level and it grows back.  Each 24" tray holds just enough that each plant grows back in time to be harvested again.  They go on for months that way.  And they are completely organic!

I got the planter trays from WalMart, I mix the soil myself (peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, and slow-release 12-6-6 fertilizer) but any houseplant potting soil will do.  I grow them under fluorescent lights on a rack.








I use standard lights (I used to use those Gro-Lux lights, but they are expensive).  But I learned that the white lights work fine IF the color index is right.  Plants like the red and blue ends of the spectrum so make sure the "temperature" listed on the box or label is at least 5,000K if you try this yourself.  BTW (possibly over-explaining) green leaves look green because the plants DON'T absorb that color.  But purple leaves do, so the 5,000K that produces all colors works for them too.

I also grow basil and celery, but I just replanted those trays, so no pics at the moment.

Since I'm discussing lettuce, here is my typical tossed salad:  Several lettuces, grape tomatoes, onion, mini-cucumbers (because they are seedless), chick peas, black olives, green olives, bell pepper, and sometimes a chopped mushroom or carrot or cubed ham.  Some people like cheese or croutons; I don't.  Otherwise, if you can eat it raw, I add it.  Except cabbage type stuff (I love them as sides, go figure).  They don't go well with tomatoes...

Well, since I'm discussing food, here's my typical meal:  3-4 oz non-fish meat (I hate fish), a large salad, and 2 side veggies (a green and a red/purple/orange/yellow).  With a couple glasses of Zinfandel (goes with everything I eat).  Dessert is nuts and fresh fruits. 

Sometimes some vanilla ice cream and Lindor/Lindt truffles...  Extra Dark, White, and Hazelnut.  I buy a 120 piece box of each about once a year.  360 pieces, 365 days. 


Tomorrow, I sit down with the seed catalogs and my seed tray and see what I need to order for next year.


The current model is on the left.  But the old one is good for carrying seed vials out to the garden.  All the vials (specimen containers I found on sale once) are numbered top and sides and I keep a descriptive list on a spreadsheet and the tray stays in the basement refrigerator (which I use as a root cellar for bulk stuff.

There is a fine line between "organized" and "obsessive", and I'm not sure which side I'm on.  LOL!  Probably, since I wonder about it, I am (barely, I hope) just under it. 

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year To All.

A Chistmas Bulb

Everyone who grew up with Christmas as a Winter holiday has special Christmas memories.  I got lots of things as gifts as a child.

But today, I am remembering something of Dad's memories.  There used to be Christmas lights that had individual bulbs.  When I was a child, Dad had one from his own childhood.  It was a Santa Head.  It was oval, but had specific wrinkles in the beard and slightly raised eyes.  I can't even imagine how such things were made.

But, back then, the bulbs were all incandescent (with heated wire filaments that glowed for you young'uns).  They burned out regularly, causing the entire string to go dark.  Such bulbs typically lasted only a few years.

Well, Dad had this one Santa Head bulb that he cherished.  It just kept working.  Sometimes it took some tapping.  If you tapped old fimament bulbs, sometimes the heated ends would re-connect.  Some years, the bulb wouldn't light and Dad would keep tapping it in all directions.  And most years, it would light up again.

There came a day when it just didn't.  He spent time for days tapping at it on a light string he had in the basement for repairing stuff.  Finally, he understood it wasn't going to light up again.  I was probably about 12 then, and I wasn't there when he gave up trying to get the Santa bulb to light up "one more time".  But I noticed it sitting on his home desk for weeks.  And then, one day, it wasn't there.

When you are a child, you don't really understand your parents as having been children themselves once.  You just know them as "adults"  I think that, on the day I noticed the bulb missing from his desk, I understood that he had lost a precious childhood memory.  And maybe I grew up a little that day.

I found this image today.

It looks like the same one.  Memory says it is the same one.  Dad died in 2014.  When I brought him here to live with me in 2012, he might have remembered it, but he went downhill fast.  I wish I had thought to find and given it to him while he was here "compos mentis"...