Our First House

January Harvest Monday

2012-01-30T16:45:00.000-08:00

Just because I can, here is a rare January Harvest Monday. The hoop house plastic is looking pretty rough and I figured I better pull the rest of the carrots and beets before a cold snap wiped them out. So by flashlight I fought slugs and got a bowl full.

Is Spring Getting Close?

2012-01-30T06:15:00.000-08:00

This time last year it was cold, very cold. I still have carrots and beats in the garden and yesterday noticed that about half of the garlic is starting to come up. It's a little early to start tomatoes, but it is time to think about early cold weather crops.

Our garage is cold. Last year I started plants in the kitchen, which is cold too. Yesterday I modified a blanket with Velcro to cover the plant starts in the garage and keep some heat in. Between the seed heating mats and the florescent lights it should be warm enough to get these started. I am planning on a couple plantings of lettuce and spinach.

What the future holds

2012-01-15T18:42:00.000-08:00

If I’m going to do something, I do it spectacularly or I don’t do it at all. - Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud

There's a running theme to the Shasta. John and I are both going super-engineer on this project. By the time we're finished, it will be the most over-engineered Shasta in the history of Shastas. As the resident Structural Engineer, I spent some time creating drawing, laying out the framing, and making material take-offs.

Streetside Elevation

We spent a lot of time looking at photos of other renovations online and we took excellent notes and dimensions during the demolition. What I took away from everything I've learned so far - these trailer were not actually "designed" by anyone and the structural framing in the original is less than adequate. Now, I'll admit, that may be the licensed engineer talking. I usually design things for traffic loads, heavy equipment, or full human occupancy. A trailer is much different, but I know what I am comfortable with. The Shasta as originally designed, I am not.

Shasta Layout

But unlike the things I usually design, this one has a very tight weight limit. So my challenge was to come up with a framing plan that met the following criteria:

I am comfortable with the finished product.
Can be built by the contractor (John) with assistance from the structural engineer (me) and not cause a divorce.
Weighs less than 300 lb (not including floor framing, insulation, or skin)

Right now, I have aluminum framing in mind. We found a local supplier that sells stock aluminum shapes by the foot. My first shot at the layout included diagonal framing members, hollow rectangular tubes for the main members and angles for the lighter members. The "contractor "asked for a design change to make construction easier.

I eliminated all diagonal members, not a huge deal. I also changed the angle members to smaller square tubes. The bonus to all tube shapes? We will be able to fasten the plywood interior and the aluminum skin exterior to the tubes easily. I laid everything out, measured, and counted everything needed. All of that information, of course, went into a spreadsheet.

Right now, the rough numbers I have for weight is 190 lb, which includes 15% extra to account for connection details. Based on the online pricing, that is about $620 in framing, not including connection details. I have 100 lb to play with for my weight allotment. I'd say that's pretty good. I'm assuming once we start assembling the Shasta, I may decide to make some field changes. That 100 lbs might come in handy.

The front and back corners are still going to be timber. I can only imagine the cost of having aluminum custom fabricated to fit those curves. The floor framing will also be timber, basically the same framing as the original.

I think the rebuild is well-planned out. Now we need to finish stripping the floor off the frame, de-assemble the frame and strip.

Warning: This Post May Cause Physical Illness

2012-01-08T17:47:00.001-08:00

I'm serious, if you are ever thinking of owning a vintage trailer, do not continue reading.

Here is what our little trailer looked like just a few weeks ago.

This weekend was the bulk of the demolition. The back and curb side walls were the most rotted. They came off with little more than a few taps with a hammer.

The kitchen and cabinets were by far the most solid part. Although, solid is pretty relative.

Here is a random shot you don't normally see. This is looking from the closet through the opening for the ice box and out the front door.

An indoor tornado?

Ever wonder how big of a pile a shasta makes on the floor? Here you go.

Demo is almost complete. In the next week we will pull off the floor and start refinishing the frame.

The Incredible Shrinking Trailer

2012-01-05T06:21:00.000-08:00

At some point in the near future the trailer posts are going to switch from demo to construction. But, not today. Over Christmas break Sam and I have been peeling back layers of this very stinky onion. The aluminum skin has all been removed. After about a million rusty nails, screws, and staples we can see the full extend of the remaining wood. This project is less of a restoration and more of building our take on a 1965 Shasta Compact since the frame and windows will be the only things we are keeping.

Up front I found some structural wiring.

On the streetside I found a dead weed that had grown a couple feet up into the body. I would expect boats to have less exposure to water than this poor trailer. Notice the leakage on the inside of the skin and this was the "good" side.

Gratuitous aluminum shot. The roof with all its roof sealant is off. It had layers of black roofing tar and white aluminum roof sealant. At this point I think the 1/4 inch insulation was providing structural support.

Now that the skin has been removed we have a pretty good picture of all the previous owner's home fixes for water damage. Here are the top three.

3. Expandable foam sprayed around the rear window to seal what appeared to be a rear window leak. After some investigation the leak wasn't from the rear window so the foam just pressed the existing sealant apart, creating a leak. The structure under the rear window was completely gone.

2. Black and white roofing sealant used around the vent in the kitchen. The trailer has been sitting in a dry area for a couple months. Funny, the only wet spot on the trailer was under the water proofing since the white type didn't really bond with the black stuff. The structure under the vent, around the door, and floor under the door was completely rotten.

1. Giant hole on the roof. Luckily it was covered with masking tape and coated with the roof sealant. Water ran in the hole in the roof, down the back wall, and rotted out the back wall.

The take home message for hillbillies looking to fix their trailers, don't use 2 inch drywall screws when the walls are only 1 inch thick and, roofing tar should not be used on things that aren't buildings.

Happy 2012

2012-01-02T11:04:00.000-08:00

Wow, hard to believe that 2011 is finished. Looking back at the pictures, it was a busy year. Sam passed her 16 hour structural engineering licensure test in the spring and I passed my professional engineering test in the fall. We took trips to San Diego, Las Vegas, Golden, San Francisco, and Reno. We did some races, some went better than others. And we worked on more than a few house projects.

January 2011 started out very snowy.

February pretty much stayed the same.

Sam had two friends diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011. In the spring she dyed her hair pink and shaved it off. We also got some Boulevard chocolate ale.

In April the garden started off strong, but it turned out a tough year for the garden.

We started over with the front yard.

By May everything was looking great. Come June and later things didn't look so good.

We had some monster peas.

The annual tiki party was the first weekend in June. I smoked 5 pork butts on the new green egg. Turns out 50 people can not eat that much and we ate smoked pork for months.

By June the garden got sick, cause or causes are still unknown. The squirrels developed a taste for green tomatoes and we didn't get our first one until October.

We managed a few concerts in July, it was so hot. Even got Mark to come along to one, unbeknownist to him.

July and August were hot. Our running, outdoor time, and the garden interests wained.

In September Sam made a trip to the ER after a crash, which happened only a couple weeks before her big fall race. She attempted unsuccessfully to race that one in Texas.

In September Tentill Blue played a reunion concert at the Roe Circle Country Club.

In September we also added a 1965 Shasta trailer to the stable. It has project written all over it.

In preparation for Thanksgiving at our house, Sam worked on the new front door.

And got it completed.

We also managed to turn the furnace room into an official half bathroom.

For Thanksgiving we smoked a turkey on the green egg.

Made it back to Wisconsin for Christmas. Here is Sam practicing with our new tomato gun.

All in all it was a successful year.

TRIPS

In January we went to San Diego for Sam's company Christmas party and took a couple days to see Palm Springs.

And dinosaurs.

In February we made it to Las Vegas for an old college roommate's wedding.

In June we traveled to San Francisco to see the Dispatch reunion and saw some friends and drank some beer along the way.

In August we spent a weekend in Golden, and consequently also drank some more beers.

In November Sam and the girls headed to Las Vegas and I headed to Reno for the weekend.

It definitely was a year where we headed west. Wonder where the next year will take us.

Not For the Squeamish: Part 2

2011-12-28T06:33:00.000-08:00

I fear that until there is nothing left but a frame this may be a continuing series. As bad as these pictures look they just can't properly portray the conditions we are finding. I think the rule of thumb is 1) if the trailer looks good it has water damage, 2) if the trailer has water damage don't be optimistic on how much you are going to save. In light of recent events we are rebuilding from the frame up.

Everything worth doing is worth overdoing.

The curb side tin has been pulled. Here is a good corner.

The roof slopes from the back to the front. I shouldn't be surprised that more than a few of the 1x2s weren't actually connected.

As Jerad mentions, the pile of structure is getting larger underneath the walls. We need to get the sides templated before there is more pile than structure.

Not for the squeamish

2011-12-12T05:15:00.001-08:00

We have finally made some honest-to-God progress on the trailer renovation. Maybe progress isn't the right word. Let's call this "discovery." In case you missed John's previous posts, the trailer required some shoring since some of the wood framing had rotted out. The first order of business was removing all loose items from the inside. Then we started taking off exterior pieces and set the goal of removing the lower panel of skin on the back to see exactly how much rot we were dealing with.

The last picture with her skin still on. Not too bad, right?

Here is how the entire back of the trailer is currently being supported - 2x4s and nails. It's not pretty, but it's doing the job.

The inside was easy. We started on removing trim that secured the back panel. I started getting a bad feeling when the screws were all so rusted we couldn't get them out with the drill because they'd strip out immediately. While John was cutting screws off, I was working on the screws along the bottom edge and realized they were just spinning. So I got down on my hands and knees and peered underneath the trailer for the first time. I had two thoughts: 1) it's going to be easier to peel the skin off than I thought. 2) At this point, the skin might be structural.

First piece of skin is off! And oh my...

John won the contest for who's side lost the biggest chunk of wood. There is nothing left of the corner support. There were no vertical supports in the back panel. The 2x4s John installed are holding up the whole damn thing. Did I mention the floor supports are also rotted?

The pictures don't do it justice.

This project just became much more complicated. John left it up to the resident structural engineer (me) to come up with a light-weight solution that can be installed piece by piece since we can't take it apart without it completely coming apart. Insulation will be interesting. But the weight restriction is what will make things a challenge. I'm open to suggestions.

Half Bathroom, CHECK!

2011-11-23T07:57:00.001-08:00

I took a couple days off this week to get the house ready for Thanksgiving. I have been working on the sink cabinet for the second bathroom. It is in and now we actually have one and half bathrooms.

As a reminder, here is where we started in September.

Now we have a light switch, sliding doors, a floor, and a sink cabinet. There isn't a whole lot more we could have stuck in this space.

Kind of a weird angle crouched on the toilet. The backsplash got extended up to hide a bunch of valves and pipes.

After trips to Lowes, Home Depot, and several hardware stores, this project is done!

It's A Hit

2011-11-15T06:03:00.001-08:00

I feel like someone is watching me.

You May Enter

2011-11-14T06:48:00.001-08:00

The lack of posts isn't due to lack of work. Our garage is full of projects. Luckily this weekend we got a few zeroed out.

Sam and Mark spent yesterday getting the front door hung just right. The escutchon plate was a vintage find on ebay. The window kits are from Crestview. The top three windows are reeded glass and the bottom is clear for the cats to see through.

It was getting dark and the pictures weren't turning out great. More to come, but you get the picture.

While Sam was working on the front door I have been building the cabinet for the downstairs bathroom. The sink is here and we are just waiting on the laminate.

The garden is pretty much shut down for the year. I picked the rest of the green tomatoes and peppers. The beets and carrots are getting big in the hoop houses and will be ok for a couple more months until I get a chance to pull them.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T18:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

It was a beautiful weekend here in KC. John took his PE on Friday which meant we just relaxed the rest of the weekend. Here's a few pictures from the festivities.

We did get a little work done - the new front door was fit up but then we had a hardware issue. John worked on a cabinet for the trailer and slept a lot. It was a nice weekend to take it easy.

The October Garden

2011-10-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

At this point it is getting colder and I am hoping for a few more warm months. Our garden gets limited sun and everything, especially the peppers come on late. We had a freeze scare this week so I got things covered best I could. If we get a couple more weeks without freezing there should be a good amount of production left.

Green tomatoes and late season peppers

The hoop houses were put back up this week. The carrots and beets looks good. They need at least a month so hopefully the plastic keeps it warm enough.

The tomatoes are continuing to grow.

Trailer Inspiration

2011-10-14T05:24:00.000-07:00

As I am sitting looking at our crooked trailer, it's time for some inspiration. 1960 to 1962 there were around 200 Holiday House travel trailers produced. Currently there are less than 20 remaining. This is one that got a frame off restoration and has a pretty awesome interior. Enjoy.

Goshen We Have a Problem

2011-10-12T07:21:00.000-07:00

With the weather getting colder I'm motivated to get the trailer running so I can get back into the garage. This week I picked up a temporary light kit and pulled the trailer to get inspected at the highway department. Good news, we passed. It seemed to pull straight and without a problem with the element.

After I got back from the inspection it seemed like the trailer was leaning more than usual. It always had a list towards the right rear due to some rotted wood. However, this seemed to be getting worse.

Upon closer inspection it indeed was looking at little more crunched than previous.

Turns out that the wood I thought was in bad shape, actually wasn't even connected to the frame. So the right rear corner was sitting on the rear bumper. Since a good deal of the structural members are gone and the aluminum isn't very strong, it was crushing at every bump.

Since I don't want to loose the skin or break a window, this needs to get shored up before I haul it to storage. Well, the temporary solution was jacking up the entire cabin.

Eight inches of lift later we are back to level. I will have to put in some more secure temporary supports to get it across town to storage.

Bikes, Trailers, and Doors

2011-10-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

We have been slowly plugging along on the on-going projects. The weather in Kansas City has been perfect the last month or so and we have been trying to enjoy it. So here goes.

I pulled the trailer wheels, repacked the bearings, cleaned up and painted the wheels, and got new tires. I should be road-worthy enough to get the title and move to its winter home.

Meanwhile, Sam has been working on our new front door. It was a little hassle getting a plain door to modify. We got a couple kits from Crestview Doors. The top three windows have reeded glass. The long bottom window is a clear viewing window for Portland.

The other notable news this week was that Sam took on a construction zone with her bike and lost. We ended up in the ER last Thursday getting her checked out. Everything is fine and she is moving better after a few days.

Quick Bathroom Update

2011-09-29T06:20:00.000-07:00

I have been plugging along on the downstairs bathroom and the doors are finished. There is still a little trim painting, but it is mostly finished. It is starting to look more like a real bathroom.

Doors closed.

We have made some big progress this month. Electrical installed, hole in floor filled, tile installed and grouted, doors fit, finished, and hung.

Doors stored out of the way.

Starting point

A Real Classy Trailer Post

2011-09-26T06:51:00.000-07:00

In preparation for moving the trailer to its winter home, I am working on getting it movable. This weekend I put it on jackstands in the driveway and pulled the wheels and hubs to repack the bearings. Surprise, the world's smallest trailer has a giant set of trailer brakes. They have never been used and look in great shape.

The wheels are a little worse for wear, or not wear. They are pretty rotted on one side from just sitting in one place too long. We thought briefly about replacing them with something more modern until I found out that I can't get replacements. The bearings should be repacked and wheels refinished with new tires this week.

The second bathroom project is moving along but without any interesting pictures. The doors should be finished and in place this week too.

A Momentous Day

2011-09-23T05:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a momentous day. We got our first tomato of the season. It has been a pathetic season for the garden. Since the weather turned a little cooler it seems the squirrels have focused on burying nuts and leaving the garden alone. There are loads of green tomatoes on the vines so hopefully we get a few.

Random Weekend Happenings

2011-09-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

So last weekend I harvested worm castings and used some to fill up the soil in the citrus orchard. All of a sudden this week random plants have been sprouting from the orchard. It's pretty funny, they look like tomatoes and peppers. I am going to let them go at least until the first real leaves show up to figure it out.

The second bathroom is grouted and the doors have been sanded and are in the middle of finishing. They will end up being walnut to match the table.
The trailer got a new jack in front. It works with the original caster and lets me roll it around pretty easy.

Roe Circle Country Club Concert Series Part 1

2011-09-13T04:53:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night was the inaugural concert for the Roe Circle Country Club concert series. David Oakleaf with Tentill Blue came in from Nashville. We managed to get the block party permit and only got the cops called a couple times.

The weather was great and not too cool. We had between 50 and 70 people come out, which was pretty good since there were lots of other things going on that night.
Mark has not moved in yet, but he is painting.

Yes, a car trailer was out stage.

The dude by streetlight. The night before was worked on covering the new streetlight. Only part got covered. The LEDs are way too bright and this week has commenced the complaints.

Fruits of Our Labors

2011-09-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

Overall it was a very productive Labor Day, at least by the "I can't believe what washed off me in the shower" comments. We grilled out with neighbors, Sam worked on getting flower beds tamed, and I worked on the second bathroom. Since the bathroom picture aren't that exciting, here is a gratuitous trailer shot.

Hey, I said these weren't very exciting but I posted a lot to ensure you that I did in fact work all weekend on this project. First step in turning the furnace nook into a bathroom was building a bulkhead to square up pipes.
Not too bad. There were five pipes/cords that run through this section.

Hey what about one on the other side to hide the electrical. Notice the switch, closer to a bathroom.

We ended up with a three door Johnson hardware sliding door kit. It was a tight fit top and bottom. Since the concrete slopes toward the drain, needless to say the world isn't flat here.

Sunday morning call to Jerad "hey where are you at.... Lowes why?... Stay there I need you to haul some plywood home for me" Three custom fit birch plywood doors later you can't see me pee.

After that on Sunday all I had energy for was filling a big hole with floor leveler.

Monday was for tiling. I hate cutting porcelain tile. But hey, doesn't it look original, that was what we were going for? Now to grout, install door hardware, finish the doors, and build/install a vanity. No problem.

Saturday we did a trial smoke on the egg with a turkey. Never mind my frowning expression, it was delicious.

Labor Day is Coming, Time for Work

2011-09-02T06:16:00.000-07:00

The word is that the hot weather is going to break tomorrow and fall will be here. We haven't done much at all this summer on the house. It has been too hot to work outside and too hot to work on any house projects in the garage. We are both looking forward to making some progress on unfinished projects this weekend.

Not much is going to happen with the trailer this fall but I thought some reference pictures would be good. Ours is all original, which at this point means it smells like 50 years of people hanging out in a 10'x6' space. Other than the wings, ours looks just like the original ad, at least on the outside. It originally had the top floor plan. The table and benches are gone so it is a clean slate. We are going to end up modifying it to something like the bottom layout.
Not too bad. Since aluminum doesn't really deteriorate the skin is hiding some very rotten wood.

All of the aluminum Hehr windows and screens are intact and work. I can get restoration parts and these will be back like new.

The screen door frame is in tact and in good shape. Right now it is in easy access mode.

The inside currently resembles a hobo lounge. There is very little to keep in here. Notice the little high window. There is a fold out sleeping shelf for a couple little kids and the window is for ventilation.

The vintage laminate paneling is not going to be replaced. We have lots of work before this is ready for a trip.

Ok, shifting gears to some in-progress projects. This space is currently the furnace nook with a toilet. There used to be blinds you could pull for some (little) privacy. I have been slowly working on turning this into a more true half bath. The project has stalled mostly because of the heat, but I should make some good progress this weekend.

Some solids doors will go on so people on the patio can't watch. Notice the light switch. That was step one. The tile was in pretty bad shape and has all been removed. There is a pretty good dip in the concrete and self-leveling grout will be needed before new tile goes back in. The plumbing is in for a sink.

The tile has been removed and cut to make space for the bottom track of the sliding door system. We got a very nice three track Johnson hardware system. This is a pretty small space and pictures are hard so don't expect them to get any better.

Random picture of the day. An owl was hanging out in front. It just sat and watched us all afternoon.

Our First Trailer?

2011-08-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

The talk around the circle this summer has often been of redoing an airstream. Every time we start drinking the idea keeps coming up and getting kicked around. After checking on the towing capacity of the element, unfortunately all airstreams were out of the picture. Here and there we started looking at ultra-lightweight trailers that were originally designed to by pulled by cars. The good part is that in the 60's there were lots of little trailers to load up the family and head west on vacation. The bad part is that they were cheap and not treated very well. Most have been modified or have just rotted away.

Well because we don't have anything better to do (insert sarcasm), we ended up finding a project. It is pretty rough and needs a complete redo and will be good motivation to finish up those nagging house projects this fall.

It's a 1965 Shasta compact, 12 feet from the tongue to the bumper and originally listed at 1125 lbs. It is all original and prime for restoration. It has aluminum louvre windows with screens. There is a little kitchen, icebox, closet, benches around a table, little pull out bunkbed for for little kids. There has been leakage around the back window and the seat supports are shot.
The plan is to restore it for a home base for vacations and for races.

Mid-Summer Slump

2011-08-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

Luckily last week we got to escape the heat of Kansas City for the mountains. I had a conference in Golden and Sam came out for the weekend. The weather was perfect, sunny, cooler, low humidity, just perfect.

What to do in Golden, Coors' tour of course.

The Coors brewery in Golden is the largest single-site brewery in the US.

It was a self-guided tour and we quickly guided ourselves to the tasting room. Coors has a "short" tour for the School of Mines students who refer to it as Coors lab. We each got three real sized beers in glass glasses.

Overall a very nice tour with lots of memorabilia.

From one tour

to the next.

After carb loading we managed to do some running in the mountains. From our hotel all trails headed up.

It sure was a bright sun. The run up was pretty slow, but the run down that was fun.

After Sam left I managed to get in a couple other runs. I headed up South Table Top Mountain which overlooks the town and

the brewery.

I also made it up to Buffalo Bill's grave site, or at least on of them. He and his wife got divided up between a few towns.

Back at home it is hot and humid. I can't get any good pictures because the camera fogs up. Yes, that is a giant sunflower.

The poor fall starts. My beans all died and only a couple broccoli made it. At this point I am looking forward to next year.

One splash of color, the red belgiums are getting close. So funny that they grow upside down.

I found that cucumber in the gutter. The peppers are plugging along and that's about it.

We have been needing some motivation to get a few house projects finished. Nothing like a new big project to move the little ones along. Stay tuned for something cool.

It's Too Hot

2011-07-27T06:14:00.000-07:00

It's too hot. I just ran in the morning which is something I hate to do. All of the plants are looking pathetic. So here is a quick summary.

What's Going Well

- Bees, we have lots of honey bees in the garden and around the yard and they look healthy. The flowers are doing a good job of keeping them coming in.

- Sorry that's it.

What's Not Going so Well

- The yard is dead or hopefully just dormant. I have been watering but it is too hot for the young roots. We have huge completely brown patches.

- The garden is slowly dying. We are still getting some cucumbers and peppers that set before the heat. Nothing has set since it got hot.

- The poor worms are starting to die from the heat. We moved them to a shaded area next to the garage and I built a more open enclosure. Today I looked and found a bunch of lethargic smaller worms but nobody very big. Poor worms.

- I am having really spotty germination on all of the fall crops. The broccoli and beans just don't want to take and the carrots are moving slow. I am getting close to just ripping everything out and waiting for next year.

Updates and Stuff

2011-07-19T19:06:00.000-07:00

It's too hot and I haven't had much energy to do a good post lately. The yard and garden are looking a little beat. It has been in the 90s for weeks with almost no rain and we can't keep up with the watering. The entire yard is about to go dormant with lots of other plants looking like death.

Ok, moving on to more fun things. Sam qualified for the USA Triathlon age group national championships and will be traveling to Vermont next month to complete, pretty cool. We did a triathlon last weekend. Sam looked great and I about died. I am thinking racing for me means long slow events.

The birds have all hatched their second set of chicks for the year. We have baby cardinals, blue jays, and lots of awkward robins all screaming for some food. Here is a dad watching one look for food on the patio.

The worms got a major upgrade. They have been pooping machines lately but with the hot weather the can o' worms was just too hot. I was picking more than a few jumpers from the bottom catch tray as they tried to go deeper to stay cool. I built them a fully exposed rolling worm condo. It might just be me but I think they are really working harder in the new setup. It is amazing how much scrap food a bag full of worms can eat.
Even with the sickly garden the cucumbers outgrew their trellis. I built some boxes to help get them on the roof. Hopefully I will be picking cucumbers from the roof.

Speaking of cucumbers, one of my co-workers planted some Parisian pickling cucumbers and has felt sorry for my garden, so I have gotten a few. Again the crock came out and I tried another fermented pickle recipe. It was a bit salty but good. Also in the back, I made carrot and beet seed mats for the garden out of paper towels. I have never used seed mats before so we will see.

The pickles got washed to get rid of some of the saltiness and packed into jars. I haven't found a recipe for canning that doesn't require cooking all of the crunch out so these went in the frig. I will still tweek the recipe a little but unlike last year's attempt these I can eat.

Harvest Monday (07-11-11)

2011-07-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend was hot but Sam and I managed to spend just about the entire weekend outside working out. Saturday I paced a friend through his first trail run, the 10 mile Psycho Psummer race and had a blast. Then on Sunday we did a 25 mile bike ride in 96+ degree weather and it wasn't too bad, or maybe I got a little too much sun.

Sunday afternoon I watered and fertilized. The tomatoes are still looking beat and our neighbor's tomatoes got cleaned out. I am thinking about introducing a bobcat. Well, the color for harvest Monday this week is green. The bean plants don't get great sun and are pretty funky looking. The beans are mostly straight and look pretty good. The cucumbers and coming along and the sour gherkins are loaded. Two cucumbers are 25 oz, 23 sour gherkins are 1.6 oz. Weight wise they have a long way to go.

Trials, Tribulations, and G@DD@MN F@#K%NG SQUIRRELS!!!

2011-07-08T07:12:00.000-07:00

So while we have lots of projects to get going, I haven't really started yet. The electrical is wired in the downstairs bathroom, that's progress right? Last night I stopped over to take a tour of Robin Hood's Hideaway and that got me inspired to get some work done. But, until then here is a general garden post.

The red Belgian peppers are really coming along. These are actually hot peppers that were bred to be sweet. Since we haven't had any luck growing traditional bell peppers I thought these were worth a try. They stay pale yellow until full size then turn red. They look good and I really have high hopes.

This has really been a tough year for tomatoes. All of the heirlooms got wiped out by spray, virus, sickness, something. The remaining ones aren't looking so good. I can't seem to get ahead of the blight working it's way from the bottom up, all the new leaves are misshapen and funky, and I have a squirrel with a taste for tomatoes. Every morning I go out and see loads of half eaten tomatoes all over the garden and occasionally I chase the squirrel out of the garden. I am pretty sure it is only one that is causing me problems. They eat the big green tomatoes and chew off the stalks to get them down. My poor tomatoes look terrible.

Now pretty much everyone close to us has had problems with squirrels and has a solution to my problems. So before you provide solutions here is what hasn't worked.

1. Sprays: hot pepper, black pepper, garlic, lemon juice...... I have sprayed these around the garden, on the plants, on the fruit, to no effect. I mean this stuff is so hot that the blow back from application just about kills me.

2. Dangly things: Hang CDs or plastic bags out to scare them away. Right, not a chance of working.

3. Blood meal: The smell is supposed to keep them away. Besides providing way too much nitrogen, this didn't work at all.

4. Put water out: ok they eat tomatoes because they are thirsty. Bullsh$t, they eat tomatoes to piss me off. Water hasn't helped.

5. Feed them: Seem like a good idea until you have way more squirrels, chipmunks, and mice than ever before. I am still trapping rodents from this little experiment earlier in the year. I have relocated 21 chipmunks and 6 squirrels. I am the crazy guy that brings caged animals with him to work.

Here is my second to last solution. This is a motion activated sprinkler. I put it in yesterday and was excited that there were no new half eaten tomatoes in the garden this morning. Then I realized there is not a single tomato left in the garden. When I bought this the very nice sales clerk at the hardware store wouldn't let me leave without showing me a very nice pellet gun with a scope. Trust me, it is under serious consideration at this point.
Ok, moving on to something a little more pleasant. The cucumbers are doing very well. The left are the regular and the right are the gherkins. Yes they are growing on the roof.

The Mexican sour gherkins are loaded with ripe fruit. Here is one for scale. They are small, sour, and taste a little like lemons.

The straight eights did great for us last year. Looks like at least one is ready to go.

Even up against the house with limited sun, the fennel is ready.

Seems like I planted the wildflower bed just a little tight.

End of June Garden Update

2011-06-27T06:13:00.000-07:00

Things in the garden are going well, like the lettuce. Things in the garden aren't going so well, like the tomatoes. This will end up being a really light year for tomatoes. Between the plants getting sick and the squirrels eating the green tomatoes we might not get any.

I was planning on harvesting the garlic on 4th of July but they were looking brown and the peppers needed more sun. 45 heads of garlic later we are in business. I roasted all of them on Sunday. Some got used in soup and the rest frozen for later. I went through and thinned a couple carrots. I only planted atomic red, and boy are they red.

The peppers are doing well. They are happy to have the garlic out and now can get full sun.

Once again the cucumbers are doing great. Both kinds have reached the gutter. There are lots of little babies on the eating cucumbers and probably a 1000 on the mexican sour gherkins. I hope those are good.

A Great Weekend in San Francisco Day 3: Redwoods and Beer

2011-06-23T15:56:00.000-07:00

Redwoods and Beer, Redwoods and Beer, Redwoods and Beer

Redwoods in the lightning, redwoods in the lightning, redwoods in the rain

Ok, moving on. Our third day was just as much fun as the first two. We rented a car and headed north. It was still foggy and pretty quiet as we headed towards the Muir Woods.

The Muir Woods are supposed to be crazy this time of year so we got on the road early. At 10am all of the parking was full but we did find a spot on the road.
The redwoods are like no other place we have been. The trees are huge and all of the other plants are ancient underneath. All of the light green in the pictures is new growth, clearly they were happy trees.

There are lots of good hiding spots.

We parked right next to the Dipsea trail, on the morning of the Dipsea trail race. We even saw some runners on the trail. The Dipsea is the oldest trail race in the country and one of the hardest to get into.

I was there too. We did run 30 feet on the trail and now can say we ran the Dipsea.

And from the Muir Woods we headed to the Lagunitas brewery in Petaluma. Lagunitas is an especially magical beer that we have recently started enjoying in Kansas City. Since we were close there was no better time to visit. When I contact them about a tour the answer was "sure stop by when you are in town, we will be drinking on the patio." Hmmm, maybe our kind of place.

Their clubhouse overlooking the loading floor looks like every college basement.

Let's get this started.

I have been on a few brewery tours and this one was the most "behind the scenes." Lagunitas is getting ready for a couple week shutdown for and expansion. So they are running full time trying to build up a back supply and it was a little crazy for a Sunday afternoon. Yeah, that is a red homemade dress on backwards. Just say the people there were very interesting.

Brewing a batch of IPA.

This is a brewery that has grown in popularity very quickly. They have equipment everywhere.

Next to the brewery is the taproom and small restaurant. We got a few samplers and ended up tasting everything.

Mmmm beer chili nachos.

The locals come out on Sunday afternoons to hang out on the patio and drink beer, my kind of town.

Because, Sunday afternoons they have live music. This was a great end to the trip sitting in the California sun drinking beer and listening to music.

In Sonoma county even the view from the parking lot is great.

Last but not least, our friend Jenn flew in from Hawaii. We stopped by her parent's house on the way back to the city. Jenn and her husband Ian left Kansas City about a year ago. It was great to catch up.

Three great days in California. It has taken much longer recover and finally get the pictures posted.

A Great Weekend in San Francisco Day 2

2011-06-20T05:52:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was a fantastic and busy day in the bay. The day began early with some sightseeing and ended up with Dispatch at the Greek Theater at UC Berkeley.

It was pretty foggy most of the time with patches of sun.
We toured the Japanese garden at Golden Gate Park. It is the largest Japanese garden outside of Japan and worth seeing.

It was originally well planned and has ended up with lots of other Asian influences over the years. Here is a zen garden.

The pagoda is leftover from the Asian exposition.

We stopped by the Ferry terminal building to grab some breakfast. It is full of all kinds of local foods. Saturday morning has one of the best farmer's markets ever. We grabbed an egg sandwich at the cowgirl creamery.

MMMMM so good.

Great farmer's market.

We watched some traffic on Lombard.

Still sunny.

Then we swung by pier 39 to watch the sea lions.

And onto UC Berkeley. It's funny because the campus looks a lot like Iowa State's since they were designed by the same person.

And the reason we were in San Francisco. Dispatch hasn't gone on tour in 11 years and hasn't really played together since the last dispatch in 2004. When they announced the tour we tried to get tickets as they opened across the country. Everything sold out before I could get tickets until California. The Greek Theater at Berkeley is a great venue.

I set up to take the best picture ever, and it was spoiled by some bystander.

We got great seats.

We brought the good camera and the big lens took some great pictures in the dark.

They played the encore from the lawn in the back, we were very close.

Best concert ever.

The setlist was amazing, they played 21 songs.

A Great Weekend in San Francisco Day 1

2011-06-16T06:33:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we took a long weekend in San Francisco to see Dispatch at the Greek theater at UC Berkeley. It was a great weekend filled with hills, sightseeing, beer, and good food. It may take a couple posts to show everything properly.

We arrived on Friday and spent the day walking around town. We managed to cover pretty much all downtown San Francisco. Chinatown is like no other place, we stayed just up the road.

We ate lunch at the 21st Amendment brewery. Sam had some great fish tacos and I had a spectacular meatloaf sandwich with plenty of bacon. They had an excellent black IPA. If you are in town I would highly recommend it.
Of course we had to stop by Lombard St. the crooked street.

San Francisco is known for sourdough bread and Boudin is one of the best known bakeries. We stopped by for happy hour and had some great food and local beers.

The weather was in the 60s and a nice change from the 90s we have been having in Kansas City.

Day 1 ended with a hike up and over Knob Hill and some fun with the TransAmerica building.

And we were off to such a great start

2011-06-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well, as soon as the tiki party was over things started falling apart, at least in the yard. Our brand new grass has gotten mold. It is pretty splotchy and some has turned brown and died. I sprayed it down with anti-mold/fungus product and hopefully that will help get ahead of things.

But, the garden is doing so well. I had been watching some of our tomatoes grow funky. They finally got big enough that I could diagnose the problem. Unfortunately the problem is mosaic virus and the solution is getting rid of those plants. So by the light of the moon I was ripping out all of our heirloom tomatoes. Good bye
- moneymaker
- Cherokee purple (2)
- striped German (2)
- Mr stripey

So we are left with two sungold cherry tomatoes in pots along with a way too early. In the ground are three San Marzanos, one sungold cherry, and one way too early.

Between the chipmunks which we are slowly relocating and the various plant distresses, I am getting real tired of trouble-shooting. I am half expecting everything in the yard to be gone when we get back from our trip this next weekend.

2nd Annual Tiki Party

2011-06-06T16:05:00.001-07:00

This last Saturday was out 2nd Annual Tiki Party and it was another hot one. After going to an outdoor concert Friday night, we spent all day cleaning, cooking, and general party prepping.

We had another good turn out - John counted 40 people on the patio at one point, we'll say an even 50 over the course of the night. John smoked 5 pork butts on the Green Egg. I made potato salad, Hawaiian coleslaw, pineapple salsa, and chocolate-almond macaroons.

A good time was had by all!

Gary brought a Gin and Tonic "aid station" in true trail-runner style. It was a big hit!

Flamingos with leis had taken over the berm.

Brett once again brought his strings and serenaded us as the sun went down and long after. It doesn't get much better than food, beer, and tunes on a hot summer night.

Cheers! Until next year!

Filthy, but not rich

2011-05-30T19:43:00.001-07:00

Dirt, grime, road grease, unidentified red stuff, if level of filthy defines a good weekend, then this was a great weekend. Like most of our memorial day weekends we were busy. Between running, riding, eating, drinking, and general hanging out, we worked getting the house ready for the upcoming tiki party.

Sam thought the fou dogs just didn't stand out so they got a few coats of a bright green. The new door won't be in place for the party, but it will be the same color.

Friday night we ate lots of peas from the garden and grilled jerk pork chops on the big green egg. Again it did a great job. Saturday we smoked ribs and they were wonderful.
The old poor excuse for a grill less than a month ago.

The new updated version with a concrete top made for the big green egg.

I made a polyurethane tiki mold from a lamp we got for christmas. Hopefully I will have cast an army of tiki men tiki torch holders by the party.

We made some excellent bacon and brown sugar waffles for breakfast this morning. While eating Sam was reading the latest edition of Atomic Ranch and got inspired to do some landscaping. The side of the house under the overhang is just a desert and never has looked very good. Sam spent the day grading, cutting edging, and laying weed screen.

And lots and lots of rocks. That side of the house looks much improved.

We are starting to get some heat and the garden is really perking up. Of the 10 tomatoes we have planted 8 haved already bloomed.

Even the biggest cucumber is blooming.

Other than the peas getting out of control the garden is doing pretty well.

I mowed the front lawn for the first time and it looks amazing. Everyone wanted to roll around in it, some naked, but the grass isn't that healthy yet.

The stage is set, the food is planned, the weather looks hot but good. Next weekend the tiki party is on!

The Happiest Place on Earth

2011-05-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

This weekend we made a quick trip to Wisconsin for a wedding and couldn't pass up a great opportunity to stock up on beer. Between Jerad's recent trip to the east coast and our trip to Wisconsin, the circle might have the best beer selection in Kansas City. Here are the beers we will be enjoying.

Sprecher (Milwaukee)-Mai Bock

Tyranena (Lake Mills)-Bitter Woman IPA

Rocky's Revenge brown

Chief Black Hawk porter

Three Beaches honey blonde

Minhaus (Monroe)-Fighting Billy bock

Central Water (Amhurst)-Shine on session

Ale Asylum (Madison)-Ambergeddon

O'SO Brewing (Plover)-Big O ale

Lakefront (Milwaukee)-Organic ESB

Potosi (Potosi)-Pure Malt Cave ale

Snake Hollow IPA

Grays (Janesville)-Hone ale

Oatmeal stout

New Glarus (New Glarus)-Spotted Cow (of course)

Two Women lager

And a black ale home brew from Sam's brother

Twenty 6-packs in a convertible? No problem.

The Answer is Three Years

2011-05-16T05:44:00.000-07:00

The question is, How long does it take living in Kansas City before you buy a smoker? A week and a half ago I picked up a Big Green Egg smoker/grill, this weekend was the maiden voyage. I woke up early on Sunday morning, fired it up and then went and ran the Five Trails Half Marathon in Leavenworth. It was ridiculously hilly. The only flat spots on the course were the tangents up or down the hills. Anyway, I had been training for this one for a long time and had a good race. I averaged 7:40 miles for about an 8 minute PR.

After the race I headed home to tend the grill. I rubbed down a pork butt the previous night. Before the race I filled it with charcoal and it didn't take long to light. The temperature went from 0 to 700F in about 10 minutes. I choked it back, threw the meat on and headed to the race.
The big green eggs have air feeds on the bottom and top. These openings were pretty much closed the entire day. Once the temperature got to 250F it remained there all day without any tending.

I'm sold. The pork butt was delicious and very little work. After I pulled it off I opened the vents and let the temperature climb. It got hot and burned of all the drippings which made the neighborhood smell great.

So besides running and smoking, we did some work around the house. Things to note in the garden, the first cucumber reached the trellis. Five tomatoes are blooming.

The peas show no signs of stopping. They are big and I had to use me as a reference for size.

This is my PVC vertical pea trellis. I was only planning on two levels, well it is up to four and 5 feet tall.

Hey Look! We are famous

2011-05-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

in a semi-obscure kind of way. Both of the blogs have google analytics but I rarely look at them. Today at lunch I logged on and realized that about a month ago we had another huge spike in hits. Turns out Apartment Therapy's re-nest blog did a post on our herb planter boxes, which were modeled after Thomas' salad table. Kind of funny since these are leftover scrap from Jerad's garage and about $3 in parts from Home Depot and take 5 minutes to put together.

Since they were so popular here is an update. The back concrete wall gets lots of sunlight, but is also a squirrel highway. In short order they cleaned out everything but the thyme. So Sam picked up replacement herbs and the boxes have been moved to a wall on the patio and out of the squirrelway.

The dimensions are 20"x20"x3.5" and about as big as you would want it. I can move them around without a problem carrying them like a laundry basket. Sam might not think they are so mobile.

The Most Productive Weekend of the Year

2011-05-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

We spent the entire weekend working outside in the yard. Running, bike riding, demoing a grill, and a couple copperhead snakes later, we are exhausted. Saturday we went for a run and worked in the yard. Sunday we went for a bike ride and worked in the yard. We got a new grill and Sam got a new bike. All in all it was a very successful weekend.

Sam worked cleaning out the bottom beds and got them replanted. The tall ones are elegant feathers.
This was our poor excuse for a grill. It is 61 years old and needed a face lift. The grill doesn't have a lid and burns through charcoal way too fast and the brick is in bad shape. We finally bought a new grill/smoker and this is going to be it's new home. So time for a remodel.

Unfortunately the mortar was is really bad shape and quite a bit had to get removed to get back to competent material.

I stripped all the loose bricks and cleaned the existing ones up. There were years of crud washed into the cracks and more than a few worms.

Saturday was spent relaying all the loose bricks and my back was really sore from sitting on the cinder block chair.

The grill/smoker we bought is the big green egg. It is a 1-2 inch ceramic-lined grill that can be heated up with a little bit of charcoal and then stays warm for a long time. I made a template and will be placing a concrete top to finish things off.

The garden is really coming along. We have been eating lettuce and the peas are getting close too. The fight is still on with the chipmunks.

Looks like we will be eating from the garden from now until December.

Great Weekend For a

2011-05-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

Nap. I was working in the yard on Saturday and came in to this. The cats convinced Sam to help them take a nap.

And at least Saturday was a good day to work on the yard. Radishes are coming along well.
This week I had a major battle, or a major loss, with the squirrels. They ate my potted tomatoes, all my herbs, half of the flowers, and destroyed a bunch of the onions. I purchased some hot pepper spray to keep them off of the raised beds. We will see if it works. This tomato is trying to come back.

We have been eating salads out of the garden. Baker Creek's rocky top salad mix is very nice with lots of different kinds mixed in.

The peas are growing like weeds. I am going to have to build a third level for them since they are already over 3 ft tall.

Complete Garden Update

2011-04-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

It's Easter and the first weekend we have both been home for a long time. We are spending the weekend working in the yard and not doing much else. It has been a little while since I did a full garden update so here goes.

Bed #6: The peas are up through level 2 and flowering.

Bed #1: Garlic is up. The cages are place holders for future peppers.
Bed #2: A trellis is up in the back for the sour gherkin cucumbers. Both beds 2 and 3 will have trellises. Last year we planted 3 cucumber plants. This year we will have 12. I better figure out how to make better pickles. A few blocks of radishes are filling in. The cages are for future tomatoes. The pots have a few sungold cherry tomato plants and one early variety.

Bed #3: The tomatoes and peppers are hanging out here for a few more weeks soaking up the heat. There is also carrots and cucumbers in here. This bed will get infilled with tomatoes.

Bed #4: This is our first year trying a production flower bed. I think we have 12 kinds of flowers planted.

Bed #5: The plastic was replaced with floating row cover. This bed has greens which don't really like the hot weather. The row cover helps to keep them cool and keeps out the moths.

Lettuce is in the back, then spinach not doing much, then mustard, then some very small swiss chard. The soil in here was a little too loose and the greens aren't very happy.

Bed #6: Peas, onions and fennel. The squirrels have been digging in the onions and they aren't doing very well. I put up some chicken wire to try and convince them to move on. They aren't eating the onions, just pulling them out.

Herb box: This is an experiment. The squirrels pulled out a couple things. We will see if this survives.

I haven't said much about the composter. The naturemill is running like a top. Once a week we get a nice container of compost like this. It sits outside in a pile to mellow a month or so before I will put it on anything.

A Quick Update

2011-04-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend working in the yard getting more brush cleared and grass planted. I also got almost all of the garden in. When I get some time I will do a full update. I promise that when this semester is over there will be some pictures of house projects other than the garden.

This year I ran out of room for herbs in the garden and had to find an alternate site. The one site in the yard that gets plenty of sunlight is the space along the back wall. So I built a couple planter boxes to side on the wall. I used ipe and a a few zinc-coated brackets. The bottom is lined with chicken wire and landscaping fabric.

A Missing Yard and A Growing Garden

2011-04-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

Sam took her structural engineering exam last Friday and Saturday and I was at three conferences last week. So, needless to say we have been busy. Here is a quick update, although a couple weeks old now. It will help get caught up.

Here is the garden, circa April 1st. Six raised beds, two hoop houses, and lots of baby plants. The garlic is going crazy.

Under the hoops are onions and peas in this one, and greens of all sorts in the other one. The tomatoes and peppers have been pushed to the driveway since there is no room. I don't know how I managed with one hoop house last year because I'm full with two now. Meteors? Nope, as soon as I turned my back the squirrels starting looking for gold. I managed to salvage most of the onions, but those tree buffalo are really pissing me off. By the way, if I started marketing tree buffalo meat, would anyone be interested?

Mark was almost ready to start drywalling next door and really needed an excuse. So we decided to tear up the front yard.

The grass was non-existent and with Mark redoing his front yard, it seemed like an opportune time.

Since I was out of town Mark's crew had to do all the work. Interested in joining? All it takes is the standard uniform and a willingness to work for beer. No, you can't drive the bobcat.

Meanwhile, Monday Sam took a mental health day to recover from her exam. She spent most of the day planting in the back yard and making everything look pretty.

Ok, now you are all caught up. The garden is going crazy and there is plenty to do. Stay tuned

Everbody Hold Hands and Sing Kumbaya

2011-03-26T06:41:00.000-07:00

Sam has been spending lots of time recently studying for her test and has left me to my own devices. I have been passing the time reading lots of gardening blogs. I have also been reading books about garbage production, oh the exciting life of a college professor. The Naturemill has been working great producing good compost in about a week. However, just the two of us have to maxing it out each week. We have been questioning what will happen when the temperature gets warmer and the garden starts producing vegetables. One thing that keeps popping up on the internet blogs are the benefits of vermicompost. So lately I have reading up on worm composting.

Things you might not have known about composting red worms:

- If you cut them in half they do not grow into two worms

- Worms lay cocoons which can contain 2-10 eggs each

- Worm populations can double in 90 days

- Worms can eat half their weight eat day in garbage

- Red worms are not ground dwelling, they live on the decomposing forest floor

- Cardboard is some of a worm's favorite food

- Worms don't actually eat the decomposing material, they are after the bacteria decomposing it

- Worms can climb, can they ever

I bought a pound of red worms and built a worm habitat from an old rubbermaid container. I threw them in and the next morning, WORMS EVERYWHERE! They had climbed out of the container and were all over the garage floor. It's ok, Sam just rolled her eyes too. If you were ever interested, it takes about an hour to pick up 1000 worms. Back to the handy dandy internet. Turns out this is very common the first night. The worms are dehydrated from their travels and not used to their new habitat so they run away. I managed to collect most of the escapees, although I am still finding mummies in weird places. After adjusting their food a little everybody calmed down.

One of a thousand or so red worms pooping black gold in the garage.

After more research the rubbermaid tubs work, but aren't ideal. The air flow is too limited for really good production. With some of my birthday money I bought a Worm Inn. It is a breathable bag with a zipper mesh top and drawstring bottom. Food goes in the top and the finished castings are harvested from the bottom.
I had an extra garbage can that already had a hole in the side that has now literally become a can of worms.
The flow through design means everything is continuous. The worms work towards the top into the new garbage so there isn't too much sorting from the bottom finished material.
The worms eat lots of things that can't go in the Naturemill like cardboard which help to further decrease our garbage production. They love damp cardboard.

Pretty nice. This is now my composting corner of the garage. Once the worms get settled and up their production I have a competition in mind. I'm going to keep track of input and outputs from both systems to see which works better. Two to three pounds of worms should have comparable throughput as the Naturemill.

I never thought I would have a can of garbage eating worms in the garage.

Peas Please

2011-03-20T16:14:00.001-07:00

Can you believe we hit 80 degrees in March. It was a great weekend to work outside getting the yard and garden cleaned up. Some garden items are running ahead of schedule like the peas and garlic, and some is moving slowly like the greens.

Garlic is already hand high.

I started about a hundred peas in root trainers the first of march. After three weeks they are busting at the seams. Bed size currently has onions in half and peas scheduled for the other.
Root trainers are pretty easy to use and produce deep roots. Since transplanting the onions was kind of a pain so I might be using these next year.

I built a modular PVC system to use as a trellis. As the peas grow a can add another level to keep them supported. When it gets warmer the pvc hoops will be removed.

The peas aren't quite tall enough yet to reach the trellis. I think by the middle of this week they will be hanging.

Pink and Done!

2011-03-15T17:15:00.001-07:00

This weekend was Kelly's Party. It was pretty easy to spot with all the pink-haired people milling around! The total raised from going pink and bald was $2140 as of today!

Kelly went first, followed by her dad, brother, and several other relatives. Actually, she just shaved off the top at first.

I went under the clippers a little later.

I went for the mohawk first. I thought I might as well take advantage of a unique situation and go with a unique haircut.

That's a pink mohawk!!
Towards the end of the night, Kelly shaved it all off.

I love this girl. As if the pink mohawk didn't say that already.

This was the pile of hair at the end of the night. This brings whole new meaning to "Locks of Love".

Here's a fairly odd couple. John came straight from a school function, still in his suit.

John being attacked, I mean, hugged by Kelly. Don't let him fool you, he enjoyed it.

There was a random guy we met who was at the bar. He was so inspired by everyone that he came down for a mohawk and his family even donated!

All of the girls at the end of the night. I love this picture. Shelley sold her amazing granola and for the last month, she donated $3 from each bag to the cause. Her total: over $200! That's a lot of granola!

Here was the bald group at the end of the night. Clearly, there are a lot of people who care about Kelly!

I kept the mohawk until Monday. Kelly came over and helped me finish off the mohawk. First, we cut off the last of the pink. Hmm, that is an "interesting" look.

All gone! It's going to take a little getting used to. My head gets cold pretty easy, but it is much faster to get ready in the morning.

Let's Talk About Your Priorities

2011-03-10T18:17:00.000-08:00

Because if you weren't at the Beer Kitchen on Tuesday, we have a problem. Tuesday, besides Mardi Gras, was all hands on deck for Boulevard and Christopher Elbow's chocolate ale. Ok, a little back story. The San Francisco/Kansas City chocolatier Christopher Elbow teamed up with Boulevard to produce a very limited run of chocolate ale, released on Valentine's Day. It was a huge hit and sold out immediately. Well, as these things go Boulevard had a few more kegs than they let on and have been strategically releasing the remaining few. So thanks to the Kansas City beer blog for posting the good word, the Beer Kitchen in Westport had what might be the last four kegs. This week at 6pm they were tapping the last four kegs Monday through Thursday. The Monday opening was kind of a disaster with way too many people. Word went out Tuesday that tickets would be issued starting at 5 for the tapping at 6. This is serious stuff and I put out the call, meet at the beer kitchen at 5 or before. Luckily our friends have their priorities in order and most showed up between 4:50 and 5:00. We all got tickets and it was well worth the wait.

Sam, pink hair in all it's glory enjoying her first taste.

My ticket to the show.

It had a strong smell of dark chocolate and less chocolate in the taste. Overall, very good, very unique, delicious, and well worth the trouble.

That's right, like you were taught in chemistry. Waft that chocolate.

Hey, camera phones aren't that good. But you can almost taste it.

My excellent camera skill, from the third grade academy.

Shelley selling granola to the waitress. Although the waitress was a little upset that ur bacon me crazy was all gone. Come to think of it, since Shelley has been making bacon granola she does smell better.

The Only Road in South Dakota

2011-03-07T04:52:00.000-08:00

How to get from Rapid City, SD to Kansas City, head east, when you hit a town, head south. So the end of last week I went to Rapid City for a conference at the South Dakota School of Mines. The airport only gets 4 flights a day and my departure choices were a bit limited. Saturday morning it was foggy and apparently in Rapid City planes can't land in fog. Planes land at night just fine but don't ask them to land in the fog. All flights were canceled on Saturday and the ones on Sunday were full. The best they could do was a flight Monday, no thanks. I attempted to rent a car. Car rentals in South Dakota are individually owned and no one wanted to rent me a car that would leave the state. Luckily Hertz had one Arizona car that someone returned there, awhile ago. At the window they had a sign that said "ask us about our GPS units." I asked and the agent said "oh that, we don't have GPS." Well I asked. I loaded up in the world's oldest rental Toyota Camry and headed towards home. I stopped for a coffee and some novelty post cards and hit the road. I managed to get 5 miles before getting pulled over. The police officer kindly told me I was doing 5 over the speed limit, which had gone up anyway, I think it was the Arizona plates. After asking me where I was going he reminded me to be careful when I got to Sioux Falls (on the other side of the state) because then the speed limit goes back to 65. Well, 11 hours later I got to sleep in my own bed.

Rapid City airport when I got there. I guess an hour beforehand was more than enough.

Since security is only open sometimes.
A fairly typical resident.

I stopped by Wall drug to use the bathroom. It was pretty quiet. I passed on a well-priced stuffed buffalo.

I case you wondered what South Dakota looks like in March, here it is.

Keep telling yourself that.

Concrete tepee.

Sunday I worked in the garden planting onions and leafy greens. It is still a little cold so I picked up a light to try and keep them from freezing. The light was a little more than I expected and we might get a visit from aliens tonight. I think a tarp is in order to block some of the light.

Pink You Say

2011-03-02T06:12:00.000-08:00

Last night the team went to work on Sam's hair and succesfully produced cupcake pink. Her hair will stay pink until Kelley's loose your hair party in a couple weeks. Tomorrow she has a structural engineering conference and will forever be known as the girl with pink hair.

In Like a Lamb

2011-03-01T17:21:00.000-08:00

With Sam studying for her structural engineering test and me with class and traveling, nothing much is doing on the home front. I am being very diligent about seed starting so hopefully we get some more production from the garden. A few early things were started a month ago but the bulk of the starting happened this weekend. The peas are in root trainers and the rest of the seeds went into coconut fiber mulch. About half of the flats are vegetables and the rest are flowers. We are trying out one of the beds for cut flowers this year. The cucumbers were very eager to get going. These were last year's seeds that produced loads of cukes. I took this picture in the morning, by the time I got home they were pushing against the lid. Last summer we planted three plants, this year the plan is 12. I have a feeling that pickles will be in everyone's christmas presents next year.

March 1st, the month old babies spent the first day out in the hoop house. This bunch has lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, mustard greens, green onions, and small regular onions, along with a few herbs. Maybe next weekend I will get around to planting this bunch. I need to pick up a lightbulb before they stay out overnight just in case it gets cold.

Last fall we cut down a load of trees shading the garden. With the increased sunlight I figured a sixth bed was in order. After work today I hauled dirt and amended the newest hoop house. The first hoop house has pvc mounts to the frame, for this one I got lazy and just stuck

everything into the ground. Hey my lack of effort paid off, it works just as well and can be removed whenever. I will probably de-engineer the first one also. The front half of this bed is scheduled for about 80 pea plants in a month and I will need to construct some supports. I am thinking pvc and netting. Thanks to everyone that has donated. Sam got to $1000 pretty easily and tonight is going pink. It looks like $2000 won't be much of a problem and she will end up bald on the 12th.

Bald for a Cause

2011-02-26T17:31:00.001-08:00

Back at Thanksgiving, my best friend Kelly was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer. She has been undergoing treatment since then and two weeks ago she started chemotherapy. Needless to say, the last few months have been difficult for Kelly and everyone she's close to. She's still training to run the Boston Marathon in April. And, on her good days she still kicks my butt running.

Unfortunately, Kelly has started to feel the effect of the chemo and her hair has started to fall out. As a way to show support and to raise money, I have told people that for $1000 in donations, I will shave my head. And as soon as we reach $1000 I'm dyeing my hair pink and keeping it pink until March 12, when Kelly will shave it for me at a party her family is throwing.

We're almost at $1000 already and I've got the dye. My bosses are donationing $250 (and tolerating my pink, then bald head) which will put us over the top. So on Tuesday, I'm officially going pink.

What a Difference A Week Makes

2011-02-17T08:51:00.000-08:00

Last week, cold and snowy. Today it was 60 degrees when we woke up. The hoop houses are consistently getting into the upper 70's when the sun is out and aren't dropping below 40 at night. The starts won't go out this weekend, probably next weekend. One of the larger Tabasco peppers was the first occupant. It will stay in a pot and can be moved inside if needed.

The other big news, we have something growing in the garden. The garlic has come up. The squirrels "moved" a few but must not have a taste for them.

I know garlic breaks ground early and is pretty hardy, but it is the middle of February.
We are off to Vegas for the weekend. Hopefully it is still warm when we get back.

Warmer Weekend Weather

2011-02-12T17:34:00.000-08:00

Today was the first of the warmer weather. It hit 50 today and I heard it is supposed to hit high 60s later this week. I took the opportunity to get the plastic on the hoop houses.

This is the compost pile produced from the kitchen scraps from December and January.
I picked up a cheap weather station at Home Depot. I put the outside sensor in the hoop house so we can see how much warmer it gets.

Think Warmer Thoughts

2011-02-09T05:22:00.000-08:00

Today is Sam's birthday, Happy Birthday Sami Jo!

This weekend and next week are supposed to warm up. If I get inspired I may get to work in the garden. Most of the greens/lettuce starts have come up.

Is that? Yes it is I started a couple tomatoes. These are little orange cherry tomatoes and are destined for pots. That way they can get moved outside when it is warm enough. Hopefully we will get a couple tomatoes by late may.

The Blizzard of 2011

2011-02-03T06:19:00.000-08:00

The blizzard of 2011 is over. UMKC has cancelled classes for the last couple days so my work week, at least for teaching, is shot. I drove home in the middle of the storm on Tuesday. The roads weren't that bad but I didn't see a few stuck people.

The circle in the storm.

Just think, we will be drinking beer out there in a couple months. Can't wait.
Since the first round of seeds are started and the garage is pretty cold, I rigged up a grow light and seed mat in the kitchen.

It only took two days for the salad greens, mustard greens, spinach, swiss chard, and basil to germinate. They are growing fast. A couple months from now we could have fresh greens.

Seed Starting 2011

2011-01-29T14:26:00.000-08:00

I looked outside this morning and it almost felt a little like spring. The squirrels were digging in the mud that was my yard and the robins were right behind them. Our robins haven't felt the need to go south this year. I even saw the fox running through our quickly melting snow.

February 1st is my official seed starting date for the upcoming gardening season. My goal this year is to stagger my starts so the garden produces earlier and continues to produce later. Hopefully I will get some cold weather tolerant items set out in the hoop house March 1st. I pulled out the bags of seeds that have been accumulating in the back of the cabinet and realized I may have gone a little overboard. My eyes were definitely bigger than my garden and some will be given away.

With all the restraint I could muster, I only planted the scheduled one meager flat. In there I have the first planting of salad greens, spinach, mustard greens, and swiss chard. Just for fun I started one sungold select orange cherry tomato. It will end up in a pot so I figured I could break it in early. It would be nice to have a tomato in May. I also planted some herbs. The herbs I start from seed generally don't do so well. I used up my last seeds of basil and rosemary. I will probably end up just buying starts for the herbs. Just to complete the flat I used up my last dwarf orange master pomegranate seeds and am trying to get a couple dwarf coffee trees to take off. It's pretty nice to actually be starting plants that will end up outside in the garden.
My one previous orange master pomegranate is growing like a weed. I got these seeds with hopes to turn them into bonsai. Nera managed to bonsai the previous set as soon as they put out leaves. This one was a fighter and came back from a nub.

Other plant-related exciting news. The little key lime is happy and getting ready to bloom. So in a year maybe I will get a couple key limes. Hey in Kansas we take what we can get.

Sam's succulent garden had a battle last fall with squirrels and robins. It took several months but these guys and looking good again. Note for next year, don't leave the juicy looking plants out after everything else turns brown.

A Modern View from Palm Springs

2011-01-19T17:31:00.000-08:00

The architecture in Palm springs is as cool as all the magazines portray it. We got into town and drive to the visitor's center to pick up a map for the modern homes driving tour.

The international film festival was going on, but everything was pretty quiet in town. We looked around some of the modern furniture shops and stopped by the Shag store.

The hotel Del Marcos, check out that door.
The Elvis honeymoon house.

We stayed at the Horizon hotel which is a restored mid-century hotel.

While showering you can see people walking around outside, pretty wild.

The courtyard at the Horizon.

The coolest hotels have triangle-shaped pools.

The Kaufman house.

We looked through the gates at the Orbit Inn.

Sinatra's place.

Swiss miss A-frame.

Not on the modern homes tour, just a regular house for Palm Springs.

And another one.

and another one, with a butterfly roof.

Love the driveway.

Sun coming up over the mountains.

And this what we came home to.

If you like modern architecture, Palm Springs is pretty great.

Warning: This Post May Cause Cancer in the State of California

2011-01-18T18:18:00.000-08:00

I'm so glad we don't live in California - everything out there causes cancer! There was a warning on our fridge in the hotel not to use it for dairy or medicine. There was a warning on the jet bridge that the air in the jet bridge may contain jet fuel and jet fuel causes cancer. There was a warning on the outside of the hotel that food and drink served in the hotel may cause cancer. Everywhere we turned, there was a warning sign for something that was trying to kill us.

On our way to Palm Springs, we saw a giant find farm. Huge.

Here's a shot from our hotel balcony in San Diego.

We found a DWR Bambi parked on the side of the street in Palm Springs.

A cool bridge on our way to Palm Springs. I'm a sucker for a concrete arch bridge.

We saw lots of birds. Lots of big birds.

An avocado stand on the side of the road, not too far from the dinosaurs we found.

Another big bird.

A Few Living Things in January

2011-01-17T08:51:00.001-08:00

It's cold and since nothing is growing, I have started growing a few things.

My key lime tree was getting lonely so I picked a few other dwarf citrus trees. I picked up a Meyer lemon, Kaffir lime, and a variegated pink lemon. They have been potted up a week and are all looking healthy. Maybe this time next year we can harvest some fruit.

When winter comes I tend to bake more bread than during the summer. This year I did a little experiment to bake sourdough. I created some yeast traps using flour and pineapple juice and set traps in the kitchen, bathroom, and garage. The low pH of the pineapple juice prevents unwanted bacteria from growing. Until now I have never gotten any yeast to take. Until now.

This time the pineapple juice helped and I got some viable samples. Dormant yeast takes 4 to 5 days to wake up so you have to be patient.

Here is a time lapse after their second feeding.

The bathroom sample was more reactive sooner.

Over night they all popped their lids.

I made a big bunch of starter for the bathroom specimen and used a generic sourdough bread recipe.

Hey, it worked and is sour. San Fransisco sourdough is very sour. Winter yeast are less spicy than the warm weather or older versions. I am going to try again in the summer and see if the flavor changes.

I think this is a good way to see what a house tastes like. So far I have only baked one sample and I will be trying the other two and see which location tastes better.

It was a little cool in the kitchen and the rise was pretty slow with small bubbles. The taste was subtle and nice.

Sam and John's Big Adventure

2011-01-14T06:15:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since we posted. Things have been really busy so here is a quick update. Last weekend we took a quick trip to San Diego and drove to Palm Springs for some modern architecture. The full update will follow shortly.

You never know what you will run across in the desert. We stopped for gas and Sam got into trouble with a roaming T-Rex.

Naturally, I saved her.
Since Sam didn't watch classic cinema as a child, she didn't understand that there was something special about these dinosaurs. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I had seen them before. OF COURSE! These were the dinosaurs from Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Pee Wee was chased from the diner by Simone's crazy boyfriend. Afterward she headed to Paris.

I am a magnet for finding cool stuff while driving. Dinosaurs from Pee Wee's Big Adventure, check. My life kind of seems more complete, what to do now?

Happy New Year

2011-01-02T07:32:00.001-08:00

2010 was a good year for us. 2010 was less about doing work we had to on the house and more about having some fun. So I thought I would steal a good idea from our friends over at Robin Hood's Hideaway and do a recap. Here's our first 2010. The major happenings for 2010 were parties, races, good food, traveling, and generally having fun.

January started out cold and snowy. We had some frozen pipes and I cut the back out of our closet.

In February we traveled to Texas where I raced in my second 50 mile trail run, the Rocky Raccoon. It was a hard race, but I set a new PR and it was nice to leave the cold snowy weather for a weekend.

In March the weather warmed up some and I worked on building the raised beds for the garden. We ended up building 5 4ft by 8ft raised beds hoping to keep the garden under control.

In April I traveled some for work and the garden kept growing. We traveling to New Orleans where Sam raced in her third Ironman 70.3. Even though she managed to swim through some rusty sheet pile, she got a PR and had a good race.

May was spent working in the yard and getting ready for our first party of the year. I finished some concrete planters for the side deck. Sam filled them so they looked right out of a magazine. Everything was planted in the garden and we harvest our first vegetables of the year.

In early June we worked furiously getting the house ready for the first annual tiki party. We had 50 or some friends over for a welcome to summer blast.

I finished one of my favorite concrete projects. I build a green top for a patio tulip table.

Also in the end of June we traveled to Italy for a conference and some much needed relaxation.

By the end of June the garden had become well established and was starting to look like we were having an attack of the killer tomatoes.

July saw one very hot and unsuccessful race by John and l lots of vegetables coming from the garden.

We came back from Italy to find some soft baseboards in the kitchen. After further inspection the previous January's cold weather had split the supply line to the dishwasher. Lots of bleach and a new dishwasher later everything was back to normal.

Also in August I did my first triathlon. I had fun and it was a nice break from just running. It gave Sam a chance to watch a race, usually it is the other way around.

Also in August the garden had become a giant unruly mess. I had to venture into the forest to find tomatoes.

In September we ventured to Oklahoma for Sam's second big race of the year. Although it got pretty hot towards the end, Sam managed another PR at the 70.3 distance.

In preparation for colder weather, I insulated and sealed the overhang by the tub. Hopefully this keeps our pipes from freezing this winter.

2010 brought one happening I never expected. In October I had the opportunity to marry a couple friends of ours. The ceremony was very nice and much to my concern, legal. After being sick and undertrained I dropped out of the Heartland 50 at mile 25. Until this year I hadn't dropped from any race, but my schedule didn't allow the training I needed. But, I raced another 50 miler at the end of October and set a new PR and took 3rd place. With some peer pressure I signed up for the rocky 50 miler again in february.

November weather was pretty good in Kansas City and we spent some serious time outside. Sam did her first adventure race and loved. She also was part of the sock monkey relay team at the Kansas City marathon. Roe Circle raised the bar for yard day by renting a man lift to do tree trimming. I had much appreciated help clearing all of the scrub trees in the backyard. They were blocking half of the garden so it will be interesting how things grow next year.

In December we had our second party of the year. We welcomed winter with beer, cheese, and brandy old fashions. Sam raced in her second adventure race in so many months and started looking towards her engineering exams next year. The blog got our first national exposure linking to a post about our new electric composter. In preparation for one of next year's projects, the second bathroom, I installed some convieniently-sized shelves.

The house looked very festive as we wound the year down.

All in all 2010 was a good year. It's over and let's hope 2011 is even better. Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays 2010!

2010-12-28T18:36:00.000-08:00

Ah, the holidays! Time for family, food, travel, and chaos in general. We left the cats at home and packed up the Element for the trip to Wisco. Much more room than the trip back with our 8ft Christmas tree.
Dinner at the Great Dane. Wisconsin Cheddar Mac n Cheese, of course. And like any good German restaurant, it's served with a pretzel.

Me and my little brother.

Like any good aunt, I gave the two littlest one chocolate. I did make them stay in the kitchen so none got on the carpet.

Mmmm.

Hmm...

Chocolate is always a hit.

This was the "Shake Your Booty" dance.

Here's the Muppet!

First gift. (Spoiler alert, it's a tent)

I love these kids.

Life when boxes are just as good as the gifts.

Baby Jesus was a cowboy.

No explanation needed. Although, after this holiday season, I could go without cheese (and sausage) for quite a while.

And last but definitely not least - Ugly Sweater Party!

I'd like to think that I won. But Coco the Dog and Tyson, the littlest guy, were in a close tie for second.

Cheese, Beer, and Holiday Cheer

2010-12-19T15:59:00.000-08:00

The old fashioned party was a smashin success. This weekend we had our Wisconsin-themed Christmas party. At Thanksgiving we brought back a bunch of cheese, sausage, and beer for the party. Sam made venison stew. Jason and Kelly had a Tom and Jerry taste off, and I made our delicious version of the brandy old fashioned sweet. Our neighbors and a few friends stopped by for the evening.

Sam working on the delicious venison stew.

After simmering all afternoon, the venison was so tender. The stew had some spice and was really good.

Danny modeling both the Tom and Jerry and the old fashioned. Quiet on this end of the living room.

A little more action over here.

Mark keeping his backside warm.

I believe this was a discussion on the greatest illustrator ever. Norman Rockwell won.

Nera recovering in her fortress of solitude under the tree.

Thanks to everybody that stopped by, we had lots of fun. Merry Christmas!

Pretty Cool

2010-12-15T12:01:00.001-08:00

So I noticed a huge jump in blog hits after I posted the first composter review, but never looked into it. Turns out that our post was featured on the re-nest blog. So it turns out other people are interested in our compost, never thought I would say that. Well I guess that warrants a composter update. I have decided that all of the compost produced this winter is getting piled in one spot in the garden. At this rate, by spring we are going to have a huge pile.

Here is the typical week for the composter. Wednesdays are when I take garbage out so it is day 0 for the composter. I fill it daily from Wednesday to Sunday evening. It is pretty full at this point. I don't add anything Monday or Tuesday and just accumulate scraps for those days. Wednesday morning I dump the compost in the bottom tray in the garden and transfer from the top chamber. Then the accumulated scraps are added to start things off again. So we are looking at a week in the top and a week in the bottom. We consistently add coffee grounds, apple cores, banana peels, egg shells, and toilet paper tubes.

Lazy Weekend

2010-12-13T15:12:00.000-08:00

I know it's not even technically winter, but I'm cold and ready for spring. It got cold and snowy last weekend so we stayed pretty close to home.

The birds found seed beneath the snow.

The cats found sun.
and Sam had help studying and working on Christmas cards.

Christmas Garlic?

2010-12-08T05:53:00.000-08:00

The Christmas decorating is pretty much finished. All of the soft ornaments are on the bottom branches and every morning Nera places them around the house.

Last weekend I turned one of the beds and planted garlic. The garlic will be between our hot peppers. Since the hot peppers don't really get big until later in the summer, the garlic will be finished. I turned in some of the fresh compost which is looking quite good.

For those who care, the composter is working great. We are producing one container per week and everything that can go in is. Last weekend a bunch of fish scraps went in. This morning the feed consisted of a few toilet paper rolls, banana peels, bean cuttings, egg shells, coffee grounds, apple cores, and a ton of those corn starch packing peanuts. I have started a pile in the garden so hopefully next spring we can have a good visualization of how much has been produced.

Thanksgiving

2010-12-01T05:37:00.000-08:00

Last week we made our annual pilgrimage back to Wisconsin for lots of food, cheese, and beer. In the element we fit:

9 balsam wreaths,

8 festive bows,

7 kinds of cheese,

6 pounds of sausage,

5 cases of beer,

4 bundles of bows,

3 bottles of wine,

2 crappy colds, and

1 8 ft. Christmas tree

After Thanksgiving dinner I was so full I needed help digesting food. Our nieces and nephew helped by bouncing on my stomach. They are so fun to play with, but were typhoid Marys with colds. I think we managed to pass it on to everyone in my family the next day.

The medium sized dog costumes still fit Portland well. I am a little weary as to what presents he is going to leave us.
We picked out a nice 8 ft. balsam tree. Nera and Sam decorated it last night,

and undecorated it,

and rearranged the ornaments.

Composter Update

2010-11-30T06:50:00.000-08:00

I thought I would do a quick post about the composter since I have gotten lots of responses about it. Week one went great. Week two I started trying other things and got the balance off. I tried leaves and other paper items as brown. I also composted lots of apple and tomato parts. It smelled pretty bad even for the garage. I can only imagine what that would smell like in the house. Well, a little more baking soda and sawdust and everything came back under control pretty quickly.

Here is typical feed for the composter.

Egg shells, garlic pieces, tomato guts, rotten blue berries, moldy sour cream, and a couple toilet paper roll tubes.

Here is the week two compost. Overall it looks pretty good. Oddly enough the dry leaves didn't compost all that well. I put them in whole, mulched probably would be better. I threw in a couple whole peat pots from last season. These sat outside all year and didn't do anything. The few I crumbled up went away. The few I threw in whole really didn't.
Additional lessons after week two. When possible put in small pieces of whatever. When in doubt error on the side of too much baking soda, for smell.

This and That

2010-11-23T12:41:00.000-08:00

I took a couple days off this week to get some house projects done before we head to Wisconsin for thanksgiving. The green tomatoes mostly have ripened. This might be the last tomato salad of the year. I have a few small basil plants growing in the garage so it was extra good.

One of our goals for the next year is to get the furnace room and toilet looking more like a second bathroom. There is only so much we will be able to do with the current setup, but here goes. First on the list is more storage. There is some serious wasted space in here that can't be allowable in these houses.
I build a cabinet for the back wall. Boy, nothing like a tight fit. Notice it is sized to fit a case of beer, hmmm like I planned it.

I hung the shelves with a French cleat so we can pull it out easily if needed.

The convertible got put away for the year.

Since we now have much more sunlight to the garden and the hoop house worked well last year, I built another. Next year one of the beds will be dedicated to flowers so we didn't actually gain any space. Luckily Jerad keeps a supply of Ipe handy so I can wander over and get more. This is full build for the raised beds. We now have 6 4'x8' boxes which will have to do.

Happy Thanksgiving

Naturemill Composter Review

2010-11-17T06:19:00.000-08:00

I finally broke down and purchased a hippie appliance that I have been watching for a couple years. The NatureMill company has a series of home composters. All of the previous models had some issues with design or construction quality so I waited for the latest version to be out a year before I got one. Cities like Toronto and San Fransisco have curb side composting programs, most do not. According to the EPA, kitchen waste is the number 1 least recycled potential item. A third to half of all household waste can be composted. We recycle, but especially as we are trying to eat better, lots of vegetable scraps get thrown away. Compost piles are cheap, but we don't have a good spot for a compost pile, they aren't for many food scraps, and I don't want to carry scraps out there in the winter. So a home composter seemed like a good solution.

The naturemill unit is basically a low density polyethylene cooler. You know those cheap white ones. It is much thicker and nicer and is recycled and recyclable. The unit comprises of an upper mixing chamber and a lower curing chamber. The compostable items go in the top, it mixes every 4 hours. A pump continuously circulates air and then discharges through an activated charcoal filter so it doesn't smell too much. The unit also heats the mixer to 140F for rapid breakdown. The process is supposed to take two weeks, one week in the upper chamber and one in the lower. I got the Pro XE version which has a heavy duty mode. I got one from their direct outlet so it was much cheaper than a straight purchase. There aren't too many people that detail their experience so here goes.

This is the type of items we typically throw out. We started with coffee grounds, a banana peel, a rotten tomato, some tomato scraps, and an apple core. They suggest cutting up any stringy or long pieces so it doesn't tangle in the mixer.
Day 0 (Starting the unit): The scraps go in the top along with a cup of starter soil from the garden. Since kitchen scraps are usually full of water and nitrogen (green) heavy, the pH is balanced with some baking soda and the brown fraction balanced with saw dust pellets. Some pellets were provided to start up. I have an unlimited supply of saw dust from Jerad's shop, but will experiment with other brown replacement items.

Day 1: Not much left already.

Day 2: Yesterday I through in a few items similar to the initial batch.

Day 2 (loaded): More coffee grounds, apple cores, and some rotten lettuce and old baked beans.

Day 3: The breakdown process results in lots of water vapor. At this point we had a steaming pile of compost.

Day 3 (loaded): Ok, it seemed to be working with regular items so I gave it a challenge. An old flower bouquet and some bills went in along with banana peels and the wood pellets.

Day 4: It did pretty well with everything. Although I cut them down, the stems from the flowers probably weren't the best thing since the woody parts take a long time to break down.

Day 4 (loaded): I heard that paper towel and toilet paper rolls are good compost items. I also threw in some newspaper ads. The flower stems were still visible. At this point the machine was pretty full. They state that this unit is suitable for households of 5 and can take 5 lbs of food per day. Although we had people over this weekend and generated lots of scraps, the two of us managed to fill it up quickly.

Day 5: When loaded to the brim some of the stuff builds up on the edges. I scraped the sides down.

Day 5 (loaded): Just to see what happens I kept loading.

Day 6: Almost everything had broken down except for the glossy newspaper which didn't do anything.

Day 7: The instructions say that it takes two weeks to make a batch of compost. They weren't real specific about, is that two weeks in the top or total? Since we filled it up in a couple days and nothing was recognizable after a week, I am going to do one week in top and one in the bottom. I pushed the transfer button and everything went down below. Enough stuff sticks to the sides so you don't need to add new cultures after emptying.

Here is what the bottom tray looks like. The only recognizable pieces were the newspaper pieces and some of the stems from the flowers. So in the first week toilet paper rolls worked well as alternate brown, glossy newspaper ads did not. Real woody stuff like flower stems should probably just get thrown on the garden. Apple cores, banana peels, meat, and dairy weren't a problem at all. The white cup catches compost tea that drips down from the top chamber and can be put on the compost or used to water plants. I am going to let this hang on in the bottom, which is warm and humid, for a week to continue breaking down. Next week this will go outside and the process continues.

I have been pretty amazed at the amount of scraps we put into this thing, now that we consciously choose too. I have noticed that our garbage weighs lots less. If we continue to produce a batch in a week or two, it won't be a stretch to predict 8-10 cf of compost a year out of this thing. Since the composting process reduces the volume by 75%, that is a lot less garbage leaving our house.

Last night we accidental forgot to put a bunch of sweet and sour chicken in the refrigerator. Ever compost sweet and sour chicken, it went in this morning along with some old guacamole. Kind of cool.

Tree Day 2010

2010-11-12T05:33:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Roe Circle engaged in another community yard cleanup. These cleanup days are escalating and each time getting bigger pieces of equipment. This time we rented a 45ft lift to trim trees. Each of us had been watching the dead limbs grow and just waiting for one to fall on a car. Since we already had one drop through a skylight this year, it was time to clean things up.

Eric and Elise supplied monkey pancaked and sausage for breakfast to give everyone strength.

The oaks around the circle we pretty easy to get since we could drive to them. Jerad and I had a little more difficulty getting to the elms over our house. Bearhugging a log while Jerad cuts, looking directly into a skylight is a little nerve racking.

We had to stop for more sausage at lunchtime. It was a good day to sit outside eating bratwurst and drinking Oktoberfest.

Next came the leaning pine tree.

Push

Turns out it works better if you cut it.

We used Mark's yard for staging and he worked the whole weekend cutting branches down to get them in the trailer.

We ended up generating about three piles this size.

A file photo for reference. Notice all of the trees behind me.

Most of those trees were either garabage trees or growing into our power lines. Instead of keeping any, I opted to loose them all so we can plant something nice.

Wow, it's pretty big back here. The garden will go nuts next year since these were blocking all of the sunshine.

Garden Summary 2010

2010-11-09T05:37:00.000-08:00

Even though there are a few mustard greens left in the garden, the 2010 growing season is in the bag. This year was much more productive than last.

This year we switched from a standard garden to raised beds. I started all the seeds inside and had plenty of extra to go around. The hoop house worked so well I am going to built a second one for next year. We, for the most part, kept all the crops separate. The tomatoes and peppers got huge and had great production.

April April

This year we planted:

Tomatoes: Mr. Stripey (3), Yellow Brandywine (3), and Romas (2)

Peppers: Green Bell (2), Yellow Bell (2), Jalapeno(2), Chili (1), and Cayanne(1)

Cucumber: English (3)

Summer squash (3)

Radish

Bush Beans (6)

Lettuce

Basil

June

The most southern beds were shaded and not as productive as the unshaded beds for the tomatoes and peppers.

August

Here's how the yield turned out.

Tomatoes: Mr Stripey (30 full grown, 3 little late season), yellow brandywine (12), Romas (154 full grown, 13 little late season)

Peppers: Green bell (8 full grown, 35 small late season), yellow bell (6), jalapenos (70 full grown, 50 small late season), chili (41 full grown, 17 small late season), cayenne (27)

Cucumbers (36)

Summer squash (3)

Basil (6 large bunches dried)

Beans (84)
Radishes (11)

Salad greens (2)

Carrots (32 small)

Things that worked, tomatoes, hot peppers, cucumbers. Things that didn't work so well, sweet peppers, summer squash, beets, leaks, salad greens, and spinach.

Since we cleared out a majority of the trees blocking half of the garden I am hoping we have a better year next. I am starting to get a feel of what we eat and what grows well. I think the first of January I will be starting seeds for next year, wow it won't be long.

Public Service Announcement

2010-11-05T06:12:00.001-07:00

This post doesn't have a whole lot to do with the house, I ran into something I think everyone should know about. We recently acquired a few more bicycles and our garage was starting to look like a bike shop. Several were in good condition, but not being used. If you check craigslist bicycles, even really nice ones, are cheap and there was no chance of selling ours. I started looking into places that accept bicycle donations and ran across the 816 bicycle collective. This is a group of interesting people that fix up bicycles for donation to people that otherwise wouldn't have transportation. I stopped by the other evening and I would encourage anyone to donate extra bikes or lend a hand. They are located down off of troost, go around to the back of the building. You can't miss it. If it was anything like last night there will be little kids everywhere riding bikes, colorful buildings, dogs on the roof, and bicycles everywhere under various states of repair. I have a soft spot for these type of community run activities like the Kansas Center for Urban Agriculture, that only exist to help people. It's very cool, go check it out.

Ok, It's Finally Fall

2010-11-02T06:34:00.000-07:00

The weather is cool and we might turn on the heat this week. Ok, I will admit it is finally fall. This past weekend Sam went to Milwaukee for a concert and I collected leaves with the Roecirclites.

Sunday I ran 50 miles at the Blue Springs 50/50. The day was pretty nice until the wind picked up. It was a leg course and half of the legs were into the wind. Normally I don't take good pictures during long races. This one I ate and drank much more than I ever have and guess what, felt pretty good.

Me finishing and still looking human. I set a new PR of 8:33.
Sam got a new haircut last week. I thought I would include a picture because it looks really good.

Cold weather means cleaning out the garden. I need to can this week to get rid of some of the peppers. Anybody know what to do with lots of green tomatoes?

A few are pretty big.

Next weekend is Sam's big adventure race. Her mountain bike bruises are healing so it is time for a fresh set.

I Do

2010-10-20T05:56:00.000-07:00

Sometime last summer, after a few beers over at Jerad's pool the idea came up of me marrying our friends James and Rebecca. Well last Saturday was the date, and I did. The wedding was at the Overland Park arboretum.

Mark and Eric we each others dates. There are a few pictures of Mark's locks blowing in the breeze.
Sam decorated the Z3 as the getaway car.

On Sunday Sam practiced her mountain biking in preparation for an upcoming adventure race. She says she's getting better. At this rate she will need a mountain wheelchair for the race.

Much Needed Updates

2010-10-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

We have had lots going on the past couple weeks. Last weekend I did (or rather started) the Heartland 50 mile race in Cassoday Kansas in the Flint Hills. I ran well up to mile 25 and then burned out. I had been sick the week before and that combined with lots of travel in September ended my day early. So, here is a picture of a few friends that finished the 100 mile race. Debbie, Coleen, and Laurie looked way better than I did at this point.

The night before we camped in the Element. There are no close hotels and this was the easiest option.
Sam enjoying a beer at the campsite. A SUV air mattress fits with the front seats pushed all the way forward. I got a set of drop down black out curtains so Sam was able to go back to sleep after I started. Night in the middle of Kansas is pretty cool, you can see all of the stars.

Sam had printed directions to the aid stations. However she turned on the GPS just to check. According to garmin, and Sam, nothing exists in the middle of Kansas. Teterville is the point on the map. That is a cell tower and collapsed shack.

It's pretty flat out there.

Here is me pulling into the 25 mile aid station.

With sore muscles, on Sunday I sealed the driveway.

This is getting close to the end of the garden.

Tour de BBQ

2010-10-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday we combined working out and eating at the second annual tour de bbq. Sam and I along with a few friends joined 2000 other people to bike and eat. We did 35 miles and hit Smokestack, Haywards, and Oklahoma Joes along the way. Not a bad way to start the weekend.

It was a little chilly at the start.
The long long line at Smokestack. Unfortunately they ran out before we got any. Oklahoma Joes had plenty which more than made up for missing food at the first stop.

Sam made a pumpkin cream cheese rollup to help us recover. Yum.

Hey what's that? Did John finish one of the half completed projects. Yep, the garage floor is finished.

Redman Triathlon 2010

2010-09-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

This weekend we traveled to Oklahoma City for Sam to do the Redman 70.3 triathlon. This was her big fall race. It is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile run. The morning started cool but ended in the upper 80's. It was Oklahoma so there were no trees anywhere. Sam had a 19 minute PR, was 3rd in her age group, and 13 woman overall.

I found a buffalo along the bike course.

Funny how Oklahoma and Mars look alike. Humans weren't meant to live either place.
Sun coming up over transition 1.

Sam intimidating the competition.

The women getting ready to start. It was pretty shallow and some of the slower women walked a good portion of the swim.

The water was very calm, which was a nice change after the New Orleans triathlon earlier this year.

The bike was a 2 loop course. Here is Sam going out on the first loop.

And coming in. Notice the focus, don't get in her way.

Meanwhile.......John wandered into the ghetto and bought fried pies.

They were good fried pies.

After fortifying myself I found Sam on the run. Looking good but getting hot.

She even did some old-timey running.

Blazing to the finish.

A quick dip in the lake helped cool down.

On the house front, the garden is starting to slow down but is still producing a few things. Before long everything will have to come out. Can you believe it is almost October.

After the race we headed back to KC for the Avett Brother show at the cross-roads. And then today we went to the KC Modern open house at the Marcel Breuer house in Mission Hills. All in all a pretty busy weekend.

It's Fall

2010-09-23T06:00:00.001-07:00

Not much happening around the circle. This weekend the air will get cooler. We haven't been doing much around the house, just getting ready for upcoming races.

The new skylight finally came in. Thankfully the temporary plastic held up during our recent rains. We ended up getting an operable skylight since not much air moves in the second bedroom.

Closed.

Open, ooh, aah, yep pretty exciting.