The Potting Bench Project

One of my old projects still looking good. Need to build one in Ahia too.

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This isn't a shot of my garden but it's too nice not to post.

It's my mother-in-law's garden.

There is nothing like zinnias to cheer up a garden.

 

Frank

Frank and the Sunflower Stalk

122 inches! That's over ten feet. It's a record setter for me. She bloomed yesterday so she probably wont grow any taller. The record is somewhere in the 25 foot range.

The 1ST Sunflower

Seems like I just finished putting in the supports for my sunflowers and this morning I found my first bloom. They are now all above the fence line and the front row of flowers are spilling out over the lawn.

Sunflowers...My New Fence

My summer fence is sprouting nicely. If only my other plants would grow as well.

These were planted four weeks ago from starts I planted in peat pots. The row against the fence is are Russian Mammoth - Last year two of these plants grew over 10 feet tall. The front row is a color mix. The birds liked these the best, more flowers to jump around and hang upside down from the branches to eat the ripe seeds.

I had to build a trellis this year because last year, and this year, the plants kept falling over. I remember setting up the sprinkler and after about 15 minutes of watering the sunflowers next the fence started to slowly tilt and eventually hit the plants in front of them and they all went over like a bunch of drunks leaning on a each other.

Thursday night I was watering the plant at the very far end next to the apple tree sank and took out the smaller sunflowers in the front. So I was out there at 10'o'clockish pounding nails in the fence and using twine to pull up the plants to a vertical position. All the while holding a flashlight in my teeth with the plants pushed against my shoulders. I think my clay soil prevents the roots from penetrating deeply. I tried to prevent them from toppling by digging deep and adding compost before planting but it didn't help,

The vertical posts are six foot long 2x3's which I drove into the ground using a sledge hammer while I standing on a ladder. If my neighbors had seen me standing there above the fence line like some crazed shirtless vampire killer they probably would have called the police on me. I added horizontal boards across there faces to hold the mammoth sunflower and added a wing on the front to support the smaller sunflowers. Very rustic.

Morning Glory is starting to octopus its way in between the Sunflowers so I should have quit a show in the next couple of months.

Ding Dong the Roof is Done...

My Valentines Gift to myself. I finished the dreaded thing at exactly 5:10 PM on Valentines evening. I would have finished earlier but I was 6 stinkin shingles short and my shingle stretcher was at the shop getting lubed.

Just in time to pop open a Guinness and watch the sunset.
Sunset was great. I will miss those.

More Rain and Disappointment...

It's starting to look like winter in So. Cal.
The rain hit about midnight on Thursday night and didn't let up until Sunday. The wind was minimal so I didn't loose any of my tarps.

I did spring a new leak. I am thinking it leaked through the plastic that I fastened down during the middle of last summer - screw holes through the battens. Luckily it dripped through my whole-house fan and missed the drywall on the ceiling (at least from what I can tell).

No other leaks and it looks like I have tarp placement down to an art.

On a more depressing note:
This month Men's Health reported that Crunch Berries, http://www.capncrunch.com, aren't a real fruit. Needless to say I am greatly disappointed. As a child my mom would not buy these "unhealthy" breakfast cereals for me. When I started to purchase my own groceries somehow the Captain Crunch would find its way into my grocery cart. It was always the type with the Berry's from the mysterious tree. 100 pounds later....

Not that I suspected that the berries were real, but it was so much more easier for me to rationalize the eating of Captain Crunch if it had real fruit. Considering how dumb some people can be, I suspected that there were people who thought that the crunch berries were real and it was confirmed when I found out that someone filed a lawsuit against Quaker for "fooling them" into thinking the fruity little red balls were real.

The lawyer should be disbarred and the women who filed the case should be sent back to elementary school.

They still taste good even if they are fake.

Now I need to know what flavor the Orange colored Hostess cupcakes really are.

Thanksgiving Weekend - no rest for the weary.

Saturday morning our chance of rain was predicted at 20% but by 7:00 A.M. it turned into 100%.

The thunder and lightening woke me up just before 6:00 A.M. I had covered part of the roof the night before with the intention of keeping off the morning dew. Unfortunately the partial cover-up forced the buckets of rain into the valley formed by the intersection of my garage and the house. The water then poured into a 3" by 3" triangle not yet covered by sheeting and felt.

All is ok in the house though (sarcasm). My couch caught most of the water!

As soon as the lightening let up I ran up onto the roof and covered everything with tarps. If I had known that it was going to hail I would have worn my hard hat too.

By mid-afternoon most of the rain had stopped but I had to wait for the roof to dry out to start shingling. I only got the first course put down and needed to adjust the exposure to match up with the main body of the roof. My son help heft 3 bags of shingles onto the roof.

I still haven't figured out how to seal that intersection. The whole thing was rotted out, prior to me working on it, with only a cover of tarpaper and eave blocking to protect the roof underneath the eave. That area is completely sealed off once I install the sheeting from the garage roof. I will be planting a time capsule inside just before I close it up. I will have to think of something witty to put inside the bottle. If anybody has some hints let me know.

First day of shingling - approximately 130 sf of shingles put down. I was able to heft 5 bundles of shingles on to the roof, for Monday night's shingle party, before my back begged me to quit.

No No No --- No Rain Please

I peered through the darkness trying to see the ka-thunk I was hearing.
Am I dreaming?
I looked over and the alarm clock was dimly whispering 4:30.
Where was I?
Damn- It's raining. I ratcheted myself out of bed, ignoring the snapping sound of too tired joints and threw on my shorts and raincoat and hobbled outside.

All day, and all year, the rains never came, the rancho was forever dry even when communities within a 15 minute drive from my house were getting drenched and even touched by itty bitty tornadoes. My rancho is located in geographic trough. Surrounded by hills the rain clouds are pressed dry between the surrounding hills and smoggy skies, never making it to my part of town.

The last time I checked for rain was at 1:30 am, standing outside I could see the stars peeking through the patchwork of fluffy clouds.

I was gambling and I was winning until I fell asleep.

I think the rainclouds were playing hide and seek behind my orange trees.

There is nothing as invigorating as standing on your roof in shorts before dawn trying to unfurl 1500 square feet of plastic sheeting. Southeast I could see the dark clouds hovering so low it looked like I could throw rocks into them.

The roof over the front portion of my house is covered with wafer board, slowing water leaking into the attic, but the garage is wide open. The huge gaps between the 1950's roof boards allowed the rain to stream into the garage like water through a giant ribbed colander. The dirt previously on the top of the roof washed over everything, leaving behind a puddles filled with itty bitty tar chunks from the old roof. Now the garage smells like the loads of old roofing, removed a while back, and there are oily looking blotches on the concrete floor.

What a mess.