Goodbye doesn’t mean forever

I’m not really a materialistic person, but I am sentimental.  I try to be realistic.

This summer my wife needs to transport not only our two boys, but also at least one of their friends.  All 3 or 4 of them, by law, require booster seats with shoulder belts until they are 8 years old.

When we bought our 2000 Ford Taurus station wagon with it’s rear-facing 3rd row seat right before H. was born in 2001, we thought we would have the law covered for years to come…because in 2001 kids were allowed to stop using their booster seats at age 4 or so.

So believing all would be well, in 2002 I bought what can only be described as my dream car, a 1996 Lincoln Town Car, Cartier edition.

We just didn’t anticipate the law change, especially the part about shoulder belts being required.  Somebody’s in bed with the newer car dealers I think.  So unfortunately we need a minivan.  Realistically speaking, my car needs to be the trade.  The station wagon is 4 years newer and has 180,000 fewer miles:

Why do I care that I’m trading away this car?  To put it simply…it is a complete masterpiece.  The exterior design is truly a thing of beauty.  The 26+ MPG on the highway is pretty good for a 4,400 pound vehicle that is one of the safest on the road, even at 12 years old.

I’ll miss this car!  And “one day” I’ll have another one, even if it means completely refinishing one at great expense.  How horribly worldly does that make me sound?  I feel bad that I care about “stuff” this much.

Don’t hang on.  Nothing lasts forever but the Earth and sky.  It slips away.  And all your money won’t another minute buy…

If my house burned to the ground while I was at work today, the thing I would be most upset about was that all my fish and my cat died.  I strive to be realistic and just know that things change, things wear out, it’s all dust in the wind.  But I’m falling short because I’m quite sad to see my car leave.

Spacious interior.

Goodbye car

Goodbye rear seat vanity mirrors

Goodbye leather seats and Cartier logo

Definitely the best $7,800 (minus trade-in) $5,665 I ever spent.

GOODBYE.

First vegetable of the season

Yes, this radish is still a baby, but I couldn’t resist trying a few so early.  They did just fine with cold weather, even got snowed on a few times…once while still tiny seedlings.  Produced 2 to 3 weeks slower than stated on the packet, but still did very well!

The greens taste just like the radish!

This bunch was actually started in a container before the dirt was delivered.

 

Garden layout plan 2008

The plan:

Bed 1 (completely planted)-

• Snow Peas along the fence  (need to re-seed, the first ones rotten in the ground) (or maybe I’ll put sweet corn here along the fence)
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• A few lettuces here and there

Bed 2-

• Radishes and Carrots
• Green onions
• A cabbage or two
• Sugar Baby and Charleston Gray Watermelons

Bed 3-

• Shelling peas along the fence
• Green pepper and Jalapeno
• Cucumber and Zuchinn

Bed 4-

• 12 tomato plants.  3 Rutgers, 3 Super Marmande, 4 Gardener’s Delight and 2 Cold Set.

Bed 5-

• Pole beans and bush beans
• Cantaloupe
• Jackolantern pumpkins
• Simon’s mini pumpkin gourd

Bed 6-

• New strawberries

This is what they looked like before they were full of dirt. I’ll have to get an update to show them now.

Charcoal grill frame becomes a table. Re-use!

So it’s Earth Day. Woo-hoo. I try to think like that most of the time, so it’s not really a once-a-year event for me. But I suddenly saw the irony of the date as I was loading up the station wagon with a load of junk that a friend offered to let me chuck into his dumpster. I had a project just sitting there waiting for me.

Rusted through! I used this $30 charcoal BBQ grill for 4 or 5 seasons and when I opened it this spring, I could see right through it. Oh well, time for a new one. So I got a $20 replacement that didn’t have the little plate shelf.

With this old grill in the garage awaiting death, on Sunday I grilled for the first time of the season. I really, REALLY missed that little wooden counter space to put my stuff. I figured I was just going to have to buy a little table to set next to my cheap grill. There goes the money I thought I saved buying the $20 model!

Then, as I was about to throw away the old grill it hit me! That’s a pretty nice framework under there! That part isn’t rusty at all!. Hey let’s make THAT into a table! I just need more slats!

I found a piece of scrap plywood in the garage and ripped it down to size on the table saw. An hour of drilling and sanding and it was done.

I put a coat of water seal on it, but I might still end up painting the whole thing to get a bit more consistency. I’m not totally digging the look of old wood with new, but I did make a free table from stuff on hand and I did avoid throwing the frame and wheels in the trash!

Here it is next to it’s new cousin, $20 grill. I think they will be happy together.

 

Update: 6 months later…

After a couple seasons outside in the weather, the table is holding up perfectly and has acquired a more uniform look.  I decided not to paint it and I am glad I didn’t.  The boards match pretty well now and I’m very happy with this.  I’ll have this around for several more years.

 

After 6 months weathering outside

Tempting Tomato Fate

I planted out four of my 12 tomato plants last night.  One each of Super Marmande, Rutgers, Gardener’s Delight and Cold Set.

According to the chart I found for Illinois historic temperatures, after April 24th there is only a 10% chance of having another 32 degree night.

Tonight’s low is supposed to be 41, and the forecast shows the daily low rising for the next 6 nights. Hopefully there won’t be any frost tonight, but even if there is, I have more plants ready.

Duck Sauce

My 4-year-old son has seemingly always wanted to be a chef.  Here’s a little picture of him making egg salad when he was 3 1/2:

He insisted on not having any help, at all, even on ingredient selection.  On his own he put together boiled egg, mustard, raw chopped onion, romaine lettuce and just a touch of ketchup.  Add a little salt and pepper and it’s done.

He wouldn’t try it but dad had to!  The only thing I would have done differently would have been to peel ALL the shell off the egg (crunch, crunch) and watch the salt a bit.

SO tonight at dinner we were having pork chops with a rice dish on the side.  Cute little guy tells dad that the rice is great and asks me what’s in it.  Mmmmm, butter and duck sauce, mainly.

Oh yeah dad? What’s duck sauce?

So I find myself explaining, to a 4 year old budding chef, that this particular duck sauce is basically a pineapple and red & green pepper jelly.

It just seemed like it should have been all way over his head…but he’s tucking it away in that brain of his I know it.

Seed table 2008 after 5 weeks

Here I am tonight at my seed table.  I’m sitting down about a foot under the ceiling of our crawl space.

The tomatoes below were planted March 5th.  I’ve been able to keep most of them down to between 8 and 9 inches high by keeping the lights close to them.

I have three double-40-watt-bulb fixtures over the seedling table.  The fixture on the right side of the photo below is hanging higher on one end in order to provide a height gradient to match the growth rates of all sorts of different plants.

A tray of all the seeds I’m trying in 2008.

Starting the last few seeds…zuchinni.  Also in the photo below are jalapeño and green pepper, cantaloupe and the cups of the tomatoes.

My son has one of his mini-pumpkin gourd plants started and seems very proud.

 

 

 

As I said in another blog post, my broccoli and cauliflower plants were all already transplanted outdoors.  It’s 42 degrees outside tonight and forecast to reach 30 by morning.  I’ve taken steps to keep them a bit warmer!

Raised Garden Beds

I spent 16 hours moving the pile.

It’s a work in progress!

The dirt was delivered on Saturday

One String Method for marking garden grid

 

Starting a couple weeks ago I built the frames for 6 raised garden beds.  Last Saturday (a week ago) the dirt was delivered…to the front driveway.  I had to load it into a wheelbarrow (about 40 loads) and push it to the back yard.  Luckily downhill all the way!

Below is my one-string method for the grid lines on a raised garden bed:

Starting from seed

I planted seeds on March 5 through the 10th and a few more sporadically after that.  On March 17th, this is what my seedling table looked like under the hanging lights.

The thing you want to do is keep the lights hung only one or two inches above the plants, even if that means moving them up a fraction every night when you check on them.  If the lights are more than 2 inches above the plants, the plants will grow taller to let the leaves reach the light better.  If they get leggy like that they won’t have the strength to hold themselves up, especially when you eventually transplant them outside where the wind blows.

At times, I had some plants growing faster than others, so I just let the fixture hang higher on one end and rearranged the cups underneath based on height.

Not this year

This post is just a personal reminder of things I’d like to start growing in the yard but probably won’t get around to this year.  I’m sure I’ll edit it whenever I think of something else.

• Strawberries
• Asparagus
• Blueberries
• Cherry Trees
• Raspberries
• Big Onions
• Red Onions
• Peanuts
• Celery
• All the herbs in a great salsa recipe

So what AM I planning on trying to grow this year?  I say TRYING because I have no idea what will grow for me in my partially shaded back yard.

At this point I have seeds or seedlings for:

• Tomatoes (Rutgers, Super Marmande, Cold Set and Gardener’s Delight)
• Broccoli and Cauliflower
• Iceberg and Butter Crunch lettuce
• Cabbage
• Sugar Snap Snow Peas
• Jalapeño and Green/Red Bell peppers
• Sugar Baby and Charleston Gray Watermelons
• Cantaloupe
• Jackolantern and mini pumpkins
• Carrots and Radishes
• Pole and Bush style green beans
• Zuchini and Cucumbers
• Green onions