September 23rd: Growing Season Ends but not the Gardening

All the tender crops were harvested on Saturday.  Notice the weeds in front,
this is how all the gravel paths looked when I returned from Alaska.

Yesterday I spent the whole day picking tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and tomatillo and basil and composting the plants.  I did manage to pick all the winter squash but left the vines to cleanup later.  I did notice I had some frost damage over Friday night but the frost was much heavier Sunday morning.  The harvest was OK considering that I was not home for 7 weeks during the worst drought in southern Wisconsin since the great depression. 

Someone asked a question on how my garden survived while I was in Alaska.  The answer is one of the neighbors down the street would stop and hook up one of my many soaker hose I setup before I went north.  My water bill for July was $107.00 and August was $160.00.  The city I live in did not put any watering restriction on during the drought.  I ask the clerk at the water department about it and her reply was if it had lasted much long they would have done it.  The local news stations did report that some nearby private wells did go dry this summer.
 

Another section that needs weeding.

The guy who did the watering kept apologizing for losing some plants and the overall shape of the garden.  I told him that I was grateful just to have a garden due to the drought.  The biggest crop to survive my absent was the weeds.  The weeds thrive extremely well in drought conditions.  I spent most of my time before leaving weeding my gravel paths, patio and driveway.  I wanted to spray herbicide on the driveway before I left but the wind never stopped blowing this May and June.  I try not to use sprays around my vegetables but sometimes it is the only way to control aggressive bugs or weeds.  I spent this last month cutting back the herb and perennial flower gardens.  I also weeded the gravel paths around all the gardens.  The gardens are well mulched and that did keep the weeds downs.  The exception is the perennial bed; I do not mulch that garden because I have bearded iris. The mulch allows the eggs from iris bores to winter over so the weeds took over the bed.  I still have half the patio, area in front of the shed and the driveway to weed.  So far I composted over 20 five-gallon buckets in the community compost since I been back.

 

The grape arbor by brother and I put up last spring. 
I put down mulch but it is not keeping the grass from invading it.

The vegetable harvest was good considering the summer.  I did get two pickings of green beans, enough tomatoes for eating and to make chili and stuffed peppers, some broccoli, eggplants, a small picking of tomatillos and two heads of purple cauliflower.  There are two crop that did extremely well this year the sweet and hot peppers and winter squash produced the largest crops I ever had.  The winter squashes include 3 Waltham butternuts, an abundance of Delicata and approximately a dozen Table Queen and Forkhook acorn squash.  The Brussels sprouts and red cabbages have been left in the garden because they become sweeten after a few frosting mornings.

Winter Squashes: The three Waltham butternut are in front behind them is Delicata. 
On the right side is the acorn squash; the green colored ones are Table Queen and
the cream ones are Forkhook.

I hope I answered some of your question about the garden.  I still hope to post more on the trip to Alaska when the duties around the house allow it.

Going to the Sun

As I was driving down I90 making my way west, I was trying to decide where I should start heading north to Canada.  I found out that there are many National Parks along the I90 corridor.  The first I noticed was the Badlands, the park is just south of the highway.  I kept arguing to myself that I did not have the time to drive through the park but I did take a break in Wall, SD.  Of course I did visited the famous Wall Drugs and stop in the National Grasslands Visitor Center before moving on.



McNanny State Fish Hatchery exit just before crossing into WY

As you drive further west you drive pass Black Hills National Forest and several National Monuments my inner voice kept saying turn, turn but I was good and kept driving west into Wyoming.  Just before crossing the Wyoming border I turn off at an exit for SD McNanny State Fish Hatchery to take some pictures of the rock formation. Wyoming has a new visitor and rest area.  The stop has several nice shaded picnic areas, tourist information, free Wi-Fi, and there is a beautiful bronzed status of a cougar outside the center.



Wyoming Welcome Center

My second day ended in Big Horn Mountain National Forest, I found very nice Forest Service Campground called Tie Hooks off Hwy 16 just west of Buffalo, WY.  I just finished putting up the camp before a short rain shower cooled things off.  The mountains were much cooler than the lower elevations, where the  temperatures were in the high 90’s for the first two days on the road.  The mountain landscape just bring a sense of wonder to me when looking at its beauty.


Wyoming Hwy 16 heading to Tie Hooks Campground. 
The rain show here was heading toward my campsite.

The third day started out stopping at the turnoff into the campground to take pictures of the Big Horn Mountains.  Once back on I90 I start driving toward Montana I decided to crossed the Canadian border near Glacier National Park.  I did several stopped to take some pictures.  Ate lunch in Helena where I stopped to buy a shock cord kit for my tent poles.  On the third travel day the temperatures were between 100 -105 in the plains and hazy due to the huge forest fires in Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota.



Big Horn Mountains early in the morning at the entrance to
Tie Hooks Campground.

Well, if you cannot guess from the title I could no longer say no to passing another National Park.  I was hoping to find a campground near or inside Glacier NP for the night.  I ended up spending the night at Buckhouse Inn in Augusta, MT approximately 100 mile south from the park. 

The next post will be about traveling the Going to the Sun Road.

Back from the Wilderness

Life took control and I had to go with the flow since this spring.  I spent most of my time this spring weeding and preparing garden beds before I left to help my Dad.  My Dad lives in Anchorage AK.  I promise him I would go up and help him clean his basement apartment and move him into a first floor apartment.  I was planning to do this over the month of July and return to work by August 1^st.  The Wednesday, June 27^th, before I left for Alaska my Dad called me to let me know he was being admitted to the hospital due to a painful infection in his right foot.  The following day he had surgery to remove his toes up to the ball of his foot.  I left for Alaska on Sunday, July 1^st.  My Dad said everything was going fine and to take my time driving up to Alaska.  I planned on visiting Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada then drive the Yellowhead Highway (Hwy 16) to Stewart-Cassiar Highway (Hwy 37) to the Alaska Hwy and finally ending in Anchorage.  I took 11 days to reach Anchorage and on July 11 my Father was moved into a rehabitation center since he lost a lot of muscle strength because of not being able to exercise for nine months due to the infection in his foot.

I spent July 11 to August 13 in slaying at my father’s basement apartment in Anchorage.  I spent most of my time cleaning the apartment or being with my father in the rehabilitation center.  My father’s apartment was a mess.  It took just 3 days just to go through and shredded over ten years of paperwork and that did not include organizing the reminder of it.  I threw out dozens of extra large garbage bag that included food, 4 feet of catalogs, newspapers, cardboard boxes and just plain garbage.  What was left needed to be sorted and determined if Dad still used it.  The items he not longer used were sent to relatives or donated to Salvation Army.

I found an old bag of rice which must had been the source of the springtail bugs (no bed bugs thank god) that was infesting the apartment.  The bugs were everywhere; I first found them in bed sheets on the bedroom floor which I threw on the bed not knowing that they were in them.  I started to wash all the laundry and put them away thinking they would be ok in drawers under the bed.  Later I would find more bud in the drawers and sheets I cleaned.  I decided the only way to get control of the bug was to rewash everything again and seal them in plastic bags.  I also asked the landlord to call for an exterminator after I finished cleaning the place.

When not cleaning the apartment I was visiting my Dad or running errands for him.  The first week in Anchorage Dad seemed to be recovering from the operation just fine but hospital released my father before they should due to Medicare rules.  This caused a blockage in my father’s GI tract and the rehab center seemed to have problems giving enemas.  On Wednesday, July 19, I demanded they transport Dad to the hospital since the center could not help my father.  The hospital fixed the problem by giving him a proper enema that clears out his colon.  At the same time his urinary track started to shut down too.  An enema may clear out the colon but all that matter in the large and small intestines still need to move down into the colon so he was in pain for a few weeks.   My father’s GI system is just starting behave normally now.

That same week Dad was having a reaction with the pain and sleeping pills causing him to hallucinate.  On Thursday night he fell from his bed believing his room was on fire in the middle of the night.  The center sent him to the hospital again and he was release that night.  The next morning the hospital found a small bleed out in the lining of his brain.  He had another one on Saturday, July 21, and stayed two nights in the hospital before being released.  His health is slowly improving now but he is still in the rehab center.  I left Anchorage on August 13 after having lunch with Dad.

The trip back was fun I followed the Alaska Highway all the way to Dawson Creek.  I took so many pictures along the highway; it took four days to reach Fort Nelson.  I drove from Fort Nelson starting at 6 AM on Friday and arrived home at 10 PM on Sunday.  Those last three days were long but it was nice to walk into a clean home.  Now that I got this out of my system I hope to post some pictures of the trip.  Sometime soon I will try to update you on my garden and house projects.

Upholstery Class

I have not written about what I have been doing in classes lately, so here is the update. In March I was working on the Tab Curtains for the living room.  I did finish the pair of curtains for the single window but ran out of the matching thread for the double windows on the living room’s south side.  I ran all over town and still could not find a match then I tried the internet.  There were problems with back orders and it took a month before I found the thread at my front door.

During that time I was glad to have the 1930’s chair to work on.  As I have said before the fabric is removed in the reverse order as it is put on.  The first thing to remove is the dust cover on the bottom of the chair but it was already gone.  So I first marked all the pieces with a marker.  Once that was finished I started pulling all the tacks attaching the back fabric to the chair’s bottom and around the outside arms to the top of the back gentle pulling the loose fabric from the frame.  Because of the curved back all the back pieces (fabric and batting) came off as one piece.  I will leave it as one piece until I cut the new pieces; there will be less a chance the piece will be pulled out of shape.  The chair was lined with a white fabric to keep the batting and fabric strength and support, that also needed to be replace.  By the time I finished, there were tacks everywhere.  I try to keep them from getting on the floor but there still a lot to pickup.  When I take a chair apart I always need to check the bottom of my shoes for tacks in them and there are usually 1 to 3 tacks in either shoe.

The next class I started to work on the inside of the chair.  Again I started pulling tacks along the bottom of the chair to loosen the inside back, nosing and seat lining.  I did my best to keep the pieces together where I could.  The inside back and nosing with seat lining came off as two pieces.  The nosing and seat lining is the last piece off and the first piece on.  The seat batting was marked before pulling it off.  I have been taught to keep the batting and mark it so it can be used as a template for the new batting.  The edge roll was removed and should be replaced.  The roll is use to support the edge and keep the cushion in place.  The burlap covering the open space on the inside back was pulled too.  The only thing left that is not wood is the cardboard supports on the inside arms and inside back.

 

When I brought the chair I knew that I needed to do so bracing in the back and found what was causing the problem.  The left back leg was cracked and the chair’s base near the cracked leg also was crack.  Note: To determine what side of a chair is right or left, stand in front facing it and the chair’s left side is the same as your left hand and versus.  I talked to a guy at work about fixing it.  He suggested that since the crack is almost complete that I would be better break it off and gluing then trying to use a syringe to inject the glue.

 The chair is on hold since the thread came in.  I want to strip the chair's finish off first and then fix the leg.  I hope to complete the curtains for the living room double window by the end of May and I am look forward to working on the chair.  I cannot wait to see the finished chair.

Moving Forward

The cement basement walls are waterproofed and I started to celebrate until I looked at the wall dividing the sewing room from the unfinished basement.  While looking at that marked up wall I just started laughing at myself.   Oh well, painting dry wall is alot easier.

I still have a fourth of the basement floor to finish before I am completely done

Spring Blooms

A daffodil blooming on 3/18/2012

Southwest Wisconsin spring has arrived 5 to 4 weeks early.  It is unheard of to have 80F weather in mid-March.  So many plants have come into bloom way to early.  The fruit tree are now blooming and for the next several nights a hard freeze is forecast.  Wisconsin Orchards may lose their fruit crops this year.  Here are some photos of plants in my yard.

  

Violets blooming in the lawn on 3/21/2012

 

Hyacinth started opening on 3/18/2012

 

Tulip bloomed on 3/21/2012

 

Tulip bloomed on 3/25/2012

   


Crabapple Buds 4/3/2012



4/3/2012 Coral Bell Bud



Ground cover blooming 4/3/2012

Lilac buds 4/3/2012

      

100 Percent Converted

In March I completed the goal of converting three appliances over to gas.  The first was converting the oil furnace over to gas.  I have been planning on do this since I first moved in October 15, 2004.  That fall I had the gas company bring a line up to the house.  I waited until the spring of 2008 to replace my oil furnace with a new efficient gas furnace because I did not want to go in debit paying for it.  I informed the company installing the furnace that I would in the future install a gas stove and water heater, and to plan on that when installing the gas pipe.

I spent over a year looking for a gas stove on Craig’s List before finding a GE Profile gas stove in the fall of 2010.  Again I reminded the guy installing the gas line to the stove that there was still a hot water heater in my future.

Since the first day I moved into this house I have been arguing with myself about when to replace the electric hot water heater.  The reason why it took me so long was I could not decide to go tankless or not.  The installation and tankless heater was around $3000 in 2004 compared to a tank water heater, it was about 1.5 to 2 times more expense.  There were other reasons why I put it off, the water in southwest Wisconsin is heavy with lime and I questioned just how long the pumping would plug up.  Just look how close the limestone is to the surface; the picture shows an excavation for a nursing home expansion just north of my house.  If you lived here the water must be softened, the lime just builds up to quickly.  I discussed the tankless option with the pumper before deciding and he did not suggest tankless heater.  His reason was Wisconsin cold winters can cause a large different in temperatures with the water coming into the house and the tank ability to raise the temperature hot enough.  The frost does go deep into the ground, -20 is common here in January.  He also stated the tankless heater needs to be serviced twice a year.

The research I did before I talked to the plumber and I had been leaning toward the tank water heater.  I had them install a 40 gallon tank with power exhaust on March 21.  I do have a chimney but I never allowed the furnace or the water heater exhaust through it because I keep having a CO₂ monitor going off in the middle of the night with the oil furnace.  I also had many headaches in the winter and I believe there is a crack in the chimney.  When the roof needs to be done, the chimney is being pulled down.  I know it is part of the original design to my Sear’s house but it is unsafe and useless now.  I did mention the CO₂ monitor going off to my ex-furnace man but his remark was the monitors are just too sensitive what little I knew then.

Now I can check off converting over to gas. √

PS: On Saturday, I sealed the remaining wall with hydraulic cement.  This coming Saturday I can start painting the wall.