Serendipity is HARD WORK!

My schedule and project plans just got knocked sideways.  I met a lady who's downsizing her house.  The had a huge yard and garden which sadly I've only seen in pictures.  A senior, she can't keep up anymore and had to move to an apartment and everything must go.  Sadly, the purchaser of her home doesn't want her raised bed gardens.  So we made a deal.  I get the wood and soil and hardware.  She gets my muscle.  Cool idea but it ended up a massive job.  She has 4 beds at 4 ft by 8 ft.  One octagon 4 feet per side.  And a huge diamond.  We started a week ago and got rained out but so far it's 3 truck loads of dirt.  There is no access to the yard with equipment so we are filling garbage cans, carrying them to the truck, rinse repeat.  3 full days work and we've got half done.  Wow.  I'm tired.

Here is the first load.  We were planning very well so just dumped it.  Then we got smarter!  We also got a free planter!  Look at that hilarious beast.  Take a tire still on the wheel, turn it inside out, and cut petals on the edge.








The next load sat in the truck while we prepped the new beds.  I cleaned, brushed and repainted the boards.  Then we laid them out, dug the sod and filled with the new dirt.  Pretty nice improvement in the front boulevard.

And the second front bed in progress.  It's twice as large but we got a lot done so far.












And last, but surely not least, the Sauropot!  With my son's beetle decoration.  I know I know.  That's not a sauropod.  But the name is awesome.

Shop nightmares

My shop is an utter disaster.  I cut out most of the parts for the digger a month ago and things went fine.  Then I began digging in boxes and bins for accessories and layout tools.  Next thing you know I've got crap everywhere and can't find anything when needed.  I broke my bandsaw blade as well and then FINALLY, the weather turned to spring.

So I have put the digger on hold with parts ready to assemble while I plant the garden.  That is going great.  I am doing my vegetables in containers again.  I did 24 hills of potatoes in bag gardens, a huge pot of carrots, 4 kinds of herbs in 10" pots and bought a dozen tomatoe plants.  Last year I was more organized and did my  tomatoes from seedling but with the snow and cold in April I failed to realize the time had arrived.  Still, we should have a good harvest as long as the bucket brigade maintains it's vigilance.  Container gardening produces massively but you have to be Johnny on the Spot with the rainwater or it's a bust.

Design for Kid's Toys

I found a wonderful thing yesterday.  In my file of wood plans outside I spotted "Digger" Pattern on an envelope.  Lo and behold it's the hand drawn plans from the sandbox diggers my dad made for us as kids.  My god we had a hell of a lot of fun with those.  I had completely forgotten that my mom dropped them off for me and thank god I put them in the wood pattern file or I would never have seen them again until the next decennial file cabinet cleanout I do.  I feel like walking through the process of making my son a digger.

Step 1: Model the plans in 3d and make drawings for printing.

Here is a photo of the plans as they stand.  The only dimensions are the thickness of the material.  Yikes.  That's awkward but I got out my handy measuring stick, found an assistant, and off we go.  Turns out, it's pretty simple stuff with most dimensions easy fractions.  Of course, it's in imperial inches.  1970 was long before metric took hold here in Canada.






The modelling was quite straightforward except for a few tricky tangent curves and some blending issues.  Here is the finished 3d model.  I have decided I'll build one exactly as originally designed for the sake of history and then I'll fine tune the design for easier fit, assembly, and material efficiency.  I may also tune it for aesthetics.  I think the digger would look a bit better with the bevels on the legs matching up to the base without a shoulder and other details.  Missing from the model is the string which runs from the bucket to the handle to allow dumping.  Strings are awkward to model in 3d and look realistic.

The next step is to complete drawings for cutting.  I have organized printing them at 1:1 scale to make layout simple.  I'll get them printed on D size (24"x36") bond paper and cut out the patterns.

Summer Mushroom Hunting

I'm on a see food diet.  If I see food I eat it.  I also love to cook it in interesting ways.  A couple years ago an online friend got me interested in wild mushrooms.  And not the funny ones!  I love mushrooms and the idea of eating what I find is incredibly appealing to I bought some guides, hit some websites, and I'm trying to safely pursue this challenging hobby.

Here is this months collection.  Again, I missed morel season.  But then, I have no idea how to spot morals.  We've been collecting in town and the yard but my big spot is the Dickson Point Campground and fish pond at Glennifer Lake about 30 minutes from home: Dickson Point Campground.  There's a great abundance of interesting mushrooms in the bush and meadows.  I have confidently identified the most common ones I find as Leccinum but I'm working to determine if they are Leccinum Boreale or Leccinum Insigne (Aspen Bolette).  I'm working on determining which but in the mean time I've dried a few pounds.  We find a lot of big ones nearly 20 cm but they tend to be very full of maggots.  The little young ones like these are quite free of extra protein.

The giveaways in identification are the clear pore tubes on the underside, the scabs on the stalk, and the orange cap.  I sure wish I could find some king bolettes (Boletus Edulis) but no luck so far.

This big polypore has been on the base of this white spruce at the site for a couple of years.  I didn't want to cut such a happy shroom to do a spore print so I'm quite unsure what it might be.  Next trip I'll cut off one of it's small pals and try for an identification.

We also found a few other interesting ones under the spruce.  I took some pictures and one sample but it didn't make it home in good enough condition to indentify.  It's got the remnants of a veil and it's gilled so that's a starting point.  My first guess is some kind of amanita.

These little guys are all over the stumps.  I've no idea what they might be yet.

But the coolest find were  three great yellow monsters all in a clump.  It was great for identification to have one completely open and one just starting to open.  The big one is 20 cm in diameter and stood 30 cm high.  Quite a beast and striking in colour.  Bright orangey yellow.  I brought the three home and did a spore print on the medium size sample.  The spores are white.  The two open ones have annuli from the left overs of the veil and the small one had it's veil intact.  All three had volvas.  The scale of the mushroom shows clearly with my son in the background.  He's become extremely interested in finding mushrooms and regularly asks when we'll go hunting again.

Here's a closeup of the annulus and gills.  And a picture of my son in the yard showing off our finds.

Working through the key in my guide book I am pretty sure this is a large amanita. Keeping going on the key and noting the shape of the volva, scales on the cap, colour and size; I think they are Amanita Muscaria (Fly Agaric).  Now these are NOT for eating.  Supposedly they were used by the Lapps to cause visions.  I think I'll skip that part.  I have more than enough visions without herbal assistance. Rogers Mushrooms on Fly Agaric

So far I haven't eaten anything.  I've got some stockpiles of aspen bolete in a jar.  Some time soon I'll try out some recipes.  It's sort of slow going since I'm doing this alone.  I want to go on one of the forays with the Alberta Mycological Society when I get my membership.  So far, the schedule hasn't worked for me.

The Yard Update for July

We've been slowly upgrading the gardens and yard since the last post.  Most of my seedlings did very well although none of the cucumbers or melons survived.  Either I put them out too early and they got a chill or I didn't feed them enough.  The tomatoes and peppers started very slowly and I decided to feed them aggressively.  This made a huge difference.  I think the problem was we used very cheap soil bought on sale and it was low on nutrients.

I built a seat around our birch and have been using it for the potted plants.  A very lovely improvement although it's not being used as a seat right now.  I'm working on some plant stands in the garage based on redesigned antiques and using scrap wood.  When those are done I'll update with pictures.

We've got mix and match pots :)  Garage sales and leftovers from buying plants on sale will have to do for now.  It takes time but we have that.

The garden under the lodgepole pine is doing wonderful.  A few cubic meters of compost spread throughout seems to be giving a huge boost to growth.  We've got some weed problems since the compost is full of seeds but that's coming along.  The lilies are amazing and the hostas just love the location.  Choosing mostly native plants that love the shade works well.  The green garden bag is front is an odd one.  A neighbour gave me some seeds for what he called "mexican radish" which he warned me spread like weeds.  Supposedly they make big read spicy pods.  So far I have no idea what that plant could be.  My google-fu was inadequate to figure them out.

My wife found a wonderful use for some old drinking horns we had hanging around.  They've been in cupboards for years.

And the last work in progress is the dry rock retaining wall.  The local gravel pit let us pick over the leftover scrap pile for free.  It's a heavy load for the old truck but some really neat stuff: petrified wood, dozens of big pink and white quartz, and something with some shells.  I'm no geologist but I'm going to get a guide book on local minerals.   Now I really want to know what those are.

Gardening 2012 - seedlings

It's a bit sad that I haven't posted here in 2 years. Well, I'm going to start again. And I might as well start with this spring's first project of significance. The gardens. April started cold and snowy and it seemed we wouldn't get spring. But we all know (at least those who live here) that if you don't like Alberta weather just wait a few hours. It will change. My son and I needed a project one day and I decided to change how I do my gardens. We bought seeds and a seedling kit and started the long season growing plants inside. It was fun: pumpkins, melons, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers.

Two weeks ago we did our transplanting.  It was very handy that I'd scrounged this huge rolling cart from an old job.  The damn thing was filling up the garage and I was almost ready to toss it and then I realized it's perfect for hardening the seedlings by rolling in and out of the garage for night time.  Just in case of frost :)   This year we are going to try bag gardens for vegetables.  There isn't really a good spot for a permanent garden in our yard since it's all north exposure.  But the bags will do fine on the driveway or corners of the deck.

And best of all, re-using old junk.  Check out my sister's ancient pram we've had for 30 years.  It's a nice planter!  I look forward to home grown veges this year.

What is a socialist?

I find myself regularly describing myself as a socialist. It's funny because it frequently results in a comparison with a supporter of Mao or Stalin which isn't at all what I mean.

In a democracy we have the right and the privilege to vote for what is best for us. I'm frankly shocked that any working person paid a salary would vote for someone who suggests giving the rich a tax break. The American dream is just that. A dream. Most folks will never have a chance to be more than a wage earner. Live with it and vote appropriately. You want protections of your ability to work. You want the right to work where you live. Vote as if it matters. Failing to vote is a failure of democracy.