The Best Laid Plans
Yesterday's day without electricity was a day of getting stuff done. The Pirate had vowed to have plants in the ground by end of day yesterday, and true to his word, he's got kale, chard, lettuce, beans, and something that ends in "choy" that isn't bok choy.
The new garden is in the old chicken yard and therefore already protected from deer, and when he put the raised beds in, he lined each one with hardware cloth (heavy-duty screen) so that the rats can't burrow in. The new garden is a mere 6 feet or so from Cistern Joseph-Ann, and the plan is to use all that rainwater we harvested during the rainy season to water our plants now when the rain isn't so frequent.
We're not sure how long 1100 gallons of water will last us, but if we are wise about our usage (water early in the day so less evaporates, water directly into the ground near the plants and not on the leaves) we can make it last a little longer. Depending on how long it lasts, we may end up investing in a second cistern (and I'm voting to name this one after my aunt the nun, Cistern Rosa). Considering that it took us all of 3 days of good hard rainfall to fill up a single cistern, filling two every season is well within expectations.
Speaking of gardening, I've been cooking up a plan. I've mentioned before that I'm alarmed at the number of my friends and neighbors who are out of work and therefore leaving town. I'm sure even more would love to leave town, but even moving costs money and they just can't afford it.
The first inkling of my plan came when the Pirate and I saw all the vacant land near us and thought "wouldn't it be cool if we could get people farming that vacant land?" But there are some steep barriers to entry, the first of which is that being on someone else's property is trespassing and you can be arrested.
The second inkling of my plan came when I realized that there's a lot of space to be had here. Most people live in houses on large lots, so for most people I know, room to garden isn't an issue. What's an issue is both the know-how and the materials. Here came my second idea. I've approached the owner of a local farm & feed store about giving me a discount on gardening stuff - potting soil, seedlings, etc., that can then be donated. Without hesitation, he said yes. Further details have yet to be worked out, but the first step has been taken - I have a supplier. YAY! Now I just have to get with the local charity organization, Valley Churches United Missions, to get help finding the folks who need the donations.
But not all of the day went as well. My chore was to prepare a part of our yard (a word which here means "area in front of our house," not in any formal sense of the word) for the spreading of wood chips. I finished scraping the rest of the vegetation off it, I burned off the more recalcitrant stuff, I raked, I did a small burn of the stuff I raked off. The hardest part was that I had to dig down and find the cover of the septic tank and build a box to go over it so that in future, we don't have to go digging around for it.
I dug and dug and dug until I uncovered a wooden cover that the Pirate said was put over the actual metal cover. I measured carefully and constructed a lovely redwood box to put over it - 26" x 13". And then we started digging for the metal cover, which was another 2" further down under more soil, and was actually 26" x 26". I was a little annoyed, but at the end of the day, the box I built will solve our problem - that of not knowing where the cover is and not being able to get at it readily. Sure, the next time we have the septic system pumped, we'll have to do a little digging, but at this point it's very little and we won't be accidentally digging two feet to the left because we don't remember accurately where the stupid thing is.
So, it's a fail, but not a total fail. The important thing, as always, is that we got this stuff done. It's on the list of "achieved," rather than on the list of "someday."
And, to reward ourselves, I made a nice pasta salad and the Pirate made some gazpacho. Mmmmmm...gazpacho.
The new garden is in the old chicken yard and therefore already protected from deer, and when he put the raised beds in, he lined each one with hardware cloth (heavy-duty screen) so that the rats can't burrow in. The new garden is a mere 6 feet or so from Cistern Joseph-Ann, and the plan is to use all that rainwater we harvested during the rainy season to water our plants now when the rain isn't so frequent.
We're not sure how long 1100 gallons of water will last us, but if we are wise about our usage (water early in the day so less evaporates, water directly into the ground near the plants and not on the leaves) we can make it last a little longer. Depending on how long it lasts, we may end up investing in a second cistern (and I'm voting to name this one after my aunt the nun, Cistern Rosa). Considering that it took us all of 3 days of good hard rainfall to fill up a single cistern, filling two every season is well within expectations.
Speaking of gardening, I've been cooking up a plan. I've mentioned before that I'm alarmed at the number of my friends and neighbors who are out of work and therefore leaving town. I'm sure even more would love to leave town, but even moving costs money and they just can't afford it.
The first inkling of my plan came when the Pirate and I saw all the vacant land near us and thought "wouldn't it be cool if we could get people farming that vacant land?" But there are some steep barriers to entry, the first of which is that being on someone else's property is trespassing and you can be arrested.
The second inkling of my plan came when I realized that there's a lot of space to be had here. Most people live in houses on large lots, so for most people I know, room to garden isn't an issue. What's an issue is both the know-how and the materials. Here came my second idea. I've approached the owner of a local farm & feed store about giving me a discount on gardening stuff - potting soil, seedlings, etc., that can then be donated. Without hesitation, he said yes. Further details have yet to be worked out, but the first step has been taken - I have a supplier. YAY! Now I just have to get with the local charity organization, Valley Churches United Missions, to get help finding the folks who need the donations.
But not all of the day went as well. My chore was to prepare a part of our yard (a word which here means "area in front of our house," not in any formal sense of the word) for the spreading of wood chips. I finished scraping the rest of the vegetation off it, I burned off the more recalcitrant stuff, I raked, I did a small burn of the stuff I raked off. The hardest part was that I had to dig down and find the cover of the septic tank and build a box to go over it so that in future, we don't have to go digging around for it.
I dug and dug and dug until I uncovered a wooden cover that the Pirate said was put over the actual metal cover. I measured carefully and constructed a lovely redwood box to put over it - 26" x 13". And then we started digging for the metal cover, which was another 2" further down under more soil, and was actually 26" x 26". I was a little annoyed, but at the end of the day, the box I built will solve our problem - that of not knowing where the cover is and not being able to get at it readily. Sure, the next time we have the septic system pumped, we'll have to do a little digging, but at this point it's very little and we won't be accidentally digging two feet to the left because we don't remember accurately where the stupid thing is.
So, it's a fail, but not a total fail. The important thing, as always, is that we got this stuff done. It's on the list of "achieved," rather than on the list of "someday."
And, to reward ourselves, I made a nice pasta salad and the Pirate made some gazpacho. Mmmmmm...gazpacho.
posted by Aoibheall | 10:30 AM
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