High-Tech

Late last week, I got the call I’d been waiting for.

My mower had arrived J

The week before, I decided to do a little research. I was interested in looking for a mower, but I was especially curious about the older-style reel mowers. I figured, with the size of my yard, I would sweat more yanking the cord on a pull-start, gas powered mower than I would just pushing the reel mower around. Not to mention the reel mowers are cheaper upfront and less costly to operate since I wouldn’t be buying gas, oil, etc. or hiring a mechanic to service it should something go wrong. While I may have a working knowledge of home repair, I have no knowledge of mechanical repair.

Anyway, I visited a few stores here in town before making my way to Coast to Coast Hardware and talking to the owner there. She informed me that they didn’t stock them, but could order them in and had actually just done so for someone the week before.

I opted for the wider model..I think it’s 18”? The cost was $140, which I thought was plenty – I feel like I’ve seen them online for as little as $95, but this one was local and they even put it together before calling me to come pick it up J I also know I’ll be able to take it there if I’ve got a maintenance issue.



My baby after a job well done!

Everyone has put their two cents in on this purchase. Dad thinks I’m kind of nuts, my grandpa called it “cute.” I’ve also gotten all kinds of advice – be sure to keep your blades sharp; don’t let the grass get too long. I, literally, stumbled across my own piece of advice: pick up sticks and twigs before mowing. They will completely stop you in your tracks.

All told, it took me about 10 minutes to mow my yard (including a little tuft of grass along the alley) which is about the same as it had been with the self-propelled mower. This unit is so light, it’s not as hard as I had figured it might be, and I can have a conversation with someone other than myself while I mow!

I tried it on some of the longer grass next door and it still did a decent job. I’ve found it tends to skip over dandelions and things like that, though. The grill in the front just bends them over and the blades miss them entirely. I didn’t seem to have that problem in my yard, so I think it’s just a matter of staying on top of the grass and not letting it get out of hand.

Anyway, this is my latest purchase. I’m pretty proud of it, and I actually can’t wait to mow the yard again…which is NEVER the case J

I set a trend! :)

I posted about my goat cheese this morning, and this afternoon the local radio station featured Lois! Listen in and learn about one of our local celebrities J

http://www.kniakrls.com/2012/04/in-depth-reicherts-dairy-air/

http://www.reichertsdairyair.com/

Goat Cheese, etc.

In getting my backyard vegetable garden together, I knew I wanted to mulch the area between the rows with something to keep the weeds down, but also something that would give me something to stand on so I wasn’t wallowing in the mud back there. I’ve seen lots of people do crushed stone or mulch, but I was hesitant to do that because 1. A lot of work, 2. A lot of money, 3. Seems like a pain to undo if I don’t want a garden in the future..or if my seedlings crap out and I’m stuck with nothing this year.

So I started contacting some of our local farmers looking for straw. Our area is really lucky to have a pretty vibrant artisan farm population. Many of these farms are operated by families and are either organic or at least less reliant on chemicals than the larger agribusiness operations. One such farmer is my friend Lois. Lois raises goats, feeds and milks each of them by hand, and turns their milk into nationally recognized, award-winning cheeses that she sells to restaurants and vendors around the country. It’s hard work, but she loves it..and the cheese is ridiculously good.

Anyway, Lois hooked me up with a few (too many) bales of oat straw which will work for my mulch and hopefully not drop a bunch of seed into the plots. As much as I’d like to sew my own oats…I’d actually rather not.

Greeeeeen Acres!

While I was there, I bought a couple ounces of chevre from her and planned to make a recipe I’d seen a year or more ago that I’ve always wanted to try: goat cheese and caramelized onion pizza.

I was not disappointed.

I had a leftover hunk of pizza dough in the freezer from earlier in the week, so I rolled that out after my onions had browned and become super tender and sweet. I added a little garlic, salt, and pepper to the onions for more flavor. I spread a basic béchamel (butter, flour, milk, salt, pepper, parmesan) over the crust, spread my onions over that, and crumbled the goat cheese over top of everything. I baked it at 420F until the toppings were melted and slightly brown and the crust sounded hollow when tapped.

The picture is a little blurry because I was in a hurry to eat the rest :)

So freaking good. My white sauce probably could’ve used more flavor, but otherwise this was way good. I thought later about adding a few leaves of thyme to the mix for next time. And there will be a next time! (If nothing else, I'll make the onions again. While the pizza baked, I was standing over the pan eating them by the spoonful. They were like candy!)

Last night was unproductive on the home front as I was called out to meet with a local guy about a fundraising project we’re working on. But I did have time to make a big batch of fettuccine for dinner (and lunch and dinner and lunch and dinner) with some asparagus I picked up at the grocery store. Not a bad day!

The pasta needed more Parmesan...but that's always the case :)

Let the hippie gardening begin!

Spring has sprung in Iowa! Actually, from what I’m reading, spring has sprung a little early everywhere this year. Temperatures have already been in the 90s, which – for us – is pretty unusual. But, combined with the mild winter, we’ve had it pretty easy so far in 2012.

That said, the farmers are worried about the lack of moisture we’ve had (no snow is not always a good thing) and people are waiting to see what the rest of the spring and summer hold. All I know is: if a warmer winter means a warmer summer, I’m toast. Humidity and I don’t get along.

Anyway, I’ve talked for quite a while about turning the enclosed front porch into my greenhouse and I’ve finally done it. For real. I ordered my seeds through a company called Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (www.rareseeds.com), bought some trays so I at least look like I know what I’m doing, and raked up some soil from the backyard to get everything started. I sprinkled a little bone meal into the soil mixture to assist the plants in establishing strong roots and I check for proper moisture every morning before work. The soil should be moist but not water logged.. check it with your finger to see. If it feels dry, water it; if not, no worries. It’s also important that your trays/pots have proper drainage because the plants will rot if allowed to sit in sopping wet soil.

My greenhouse :)

So I’ve been watching these seeds like I’m going to see something. Standing there waiting for something to pop up out of the dirt. Obviously I haven’t seen anything. However, over the weekend while we were building and painting kitchen cabinets..BOOM!



I borrowed a pair of grow lights from a friend at work who isn't starting her garden from seed this year.

Nearly all of my tomato seeds have sprouted! I’m still waiting on a couple herbs to show signs of progress, but so far I’ve got all kinds of tomatoes (about 6 different varieties, actually. Would you like any tomato plants? J) carrots, basil, thyme, oregano, and a bunch of different medicinal type herbs that I’m going to play around with. I bought a book quite a while ago that talks a lot about holistic remedies for stomach aches, sore throats, acne, you name it and I’m going to give it a shot. Of course, the backyard might be so thick with tomatoes that it chokes everything else out.

A Grappoli D'Inverno - an Italian varietal cherry tomato. I chose to grow mostly cherry tomatoes in the garden because - in my experience - larger tomatoes are more prone to rot, disease, pests, etc.

I was in Des Moines yesterday for an appointment when I remembered I had a Lowe’s gift card saved back from Christmas (it’s been so long, it was like getting a new gift!) After my appointment ended, I had lunch at a little French place and stopped off at Lowe’s to see what I needed to spend free money on. I couldn’t think of anything hardware-wise that I needed immediately, so I wandered around the landscaping side for a while. I ended up with a giganto bag of mulch, a blueberry bush, and a stick that promises to one day be a Concord grape vine.

A little mulch cleaned up this corner by the side door. I pulled out some of the old daylillies and planted them elsewhere. Otherwise, I've got a couple hostas, some oregano and pineapple mint for ground cover (and kitchen use) a mystery plant, and a peony that has yet to decide if it wants to live. With the exception of the daylilly, all of these were gifts from a friend - thanks!

So while dad finished up spraying panels for the kitchen cabinets, I mulched, dug in some new plants, and used up a pile of bricks left over from the old west chimney.

There's no reason my composter can't look good on the back of the garage!

This is my backyard - all staked out and ready for planting once the seeds have gotten a little bigger. I plan to mulch the middle row and every other plot with straw so I've got room to move around in here once the tomatoes have taken over. :)

Kitchen Cabinets

We’ve been working on a pretty big project for the last few weeks. Actually, we’ve been actively working on it for the last week and a half or so.  The rest has been mostly mental work..strategy and such. We made big progress this weekend, though!

The big project I’m referring to is cabinetry. Kitchen cabinetry. We’ve been pretty methodical about it, and we’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel! In all honesty, I don’t think it’s taken a terribly long time given the number of steps it takes to convert a sheet of material into the container I trust to hold my food, but Dad has been worrying about this for a while. This project is kind of his baby and he doesn’t want to mess it up.

Understandably so.

In the past, he worked with a custom cabinet maker on the side, so he’s got an idea of how it should work. That said, when he worked for this guy, Dad didn’t draw up the plans or install the cabinets once they were finished. So..he’s worried.

I’m not. We’ll be fine. We’re taking our time for a reason. The old ‘measure twice, cut once’ thing? We’re doing that, and usually having a conversation about each cut before, during, and after making it. If the cabinets are messed up, it’s our fault..not his. I suppose another good thing about building your own cabinets is that if they don’t fit you can make one that does. But what a pain that would be..

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our organized chaos in the garage. The cabinets in these pictures are the base units – since these shots were taken, those have all been primed and painted with a sprayer and stored in the enclosed porch until we’re ready for them. In the meantime, we’ve cut, primed and painted the pieces for the upper cabinets and should start assembling those in the next few days, or as his work schedule allows.

As I said, organized chaos.

Base cabinet boxes assembled, working on their face frames.

Cabinet with face frame. This will have a swing door..I think this size cabinet goes on either side of the oven.

Sanding the face frame for the cabinets with drawers. Very cool!

We’ll hang the uppers first, and then set the base cabinets – they’re easier to install that way. Once everything is set, we can measure for cabinet doors and counter tops, which I look forward to learning how to make out of concrete J

Wish us luck!

Hodge-podge

This is one of those ‘catch-all’ blogs I do that pertain to everything and nothing all at once.

The first part of that is me being a creeper and taking random pictures of random people’s property J I went on a little farm visit late last week for work – I had to take pictures of the houses and outbuildings on the property to satisfy my underwriters, and ended up deciding I might like to be a farmer if I could be a farmer on this particular farm.

Maybe I'm just too big a city-boy, but I don't know many of you who have cool little 100-year-old water towers in your yard. Or playhouses.. these are cool grandparents :)

This spring has really gotten to me for some reason. It’s unseasonably warm, everything is in bloom, the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing just enough to mess your hair and it’s amazing. Something about this old farm – and Iowa in general – just struck me as being the coolest place in the world at that particular moment. It has been in operation by the same family for over a hundred years and it has just the right amount of character that comes from 50 layers of paint and thousands of feet shuffling across the front porch. Luckily, the owner was happy to show it off J

I didn't know what this bush was? Fire engine red blooms. Like I said, this spring is getting to me.

Back on my homestead..

The baseboard project has gone really well! I have designated myself as the outside corner master. Inside corners..not so much, but we’ve decided “That’s why God made wood putty.” When it’s all painted and sanded, it looks really great..just like it’s been there forever J Pictures to come!

After a long Saturday of crawling around on the floor with the baseboard project, I decided to walk up the block to the brewery to take in the music. I hadn’t shown you the brewery yet, so I snapped a picture. Good beer, good music, no manual labor. It was a great night!

The Brewery in all its live music glory.

Dad and I worked most of the morning yesterday leveling out the backyard and making the back of the neighboring apartment building’s garage look less like a bomb had gone off near it. The latter of which turned into kind of a neighborhood effort: we raked the brush and pulled some old wood out away from the building, the neighbors came by to help haul stuff away, and a friend brought by some hosta splits from her garden. I watered them in last night and again this morning..we’ll see how they do!

My backyard was less a neighborhood effort, and more sweat on Dad and my part. Since my concrete man laid my driveway and the footings/slab for the garage, we’ve had these piles of dirt/gravel lying around. He offered to level everything out for us, but we borrowed our neighbors tiller and got after it. It looks much nicer than before, and it should be ready for homegrown produce whenever I am. …which could be a while, but it’s a nice thought.

Today, I’m back to work, but Dad has the day off and decided to build a prototype cabinet for the kitchen. We’ve got the materials and many of the tools..now if we could prove our measurements are correct we’ll be off and running!

It looks like a cabinet, right? Actually, shortly after I took this, Dad put its feet on and it looked much more convincing. We'll work on drawer slides soon and after a few more boxes come together we'll cut out a face frame..and it will be glorious.

More cabinets tonight, I imagine..and more pictures to follow!