Old Dave's Garden

2012-01-18T08:32:00.000-06:00

Update for Terra Nova Gardens

Progress continues at Terra Nova Gardens. I discovered today by talking with a neighbor in the area that the tree being cut down is actually a Mulberry tree and not a cotton wood. The tree is now all cut into chunks. Some need to be split before being stacked.

I had time to stake out some of the garden beds and dig one before the snow began. It appears that this land has been the recipient of dumping for some years. I have found many vine roots, rocks, chunks of concrete, carpet, and car parts. That's just in the first 4 foot by 8 foot garden bed. In another spot, I found a sizable chunk of concrete that will possibly need to be dug out and broken up. There's many other assets to be recycled on the property such as old tires, big rocks, and four inch trees that could be used for rustic fence rails.

I truly feel like a land owner now. My first tax assessment came in the mail yesterday. I paid the whole $10.74 for the year. Ah, yeah, I could have paid just the first half year of taxes but I thought, "I'll just be a big spender and pay the whole thing at once."

Finally all the parts for the seed starting station have been bought and assembly began. With only a few interruptions from Bradley, the station was completed. Now the timer will be plugged into wall socket where the extension cord is plugged. I've heard there needs to be a little wind on the growing plants to make the stems strong instead of spindly and leggy so I will get a small clip on fan to provide the gentle wind. The seed starting station is not too fancy, didn't cost much, is adjustable, and can easily be expanded. The lighting is two 4-foot shop florescent lights with four sunlight bulbs. I wanted a four bulb fixture but really $30 was a bit much so I bought two 2-bulb lights at $9 each. It works just as good maybe better. I'll put an old towel under the heat mat to help it work a little better. These shelves are three foot in length. I could have bought four foot shelves but it would have been a little tight to get to the furnace so I decided to purchase a six foot shelf and cut it in half, which was cheaper anyway, giving an extra foot for furnace maintenance.

Granny blessed Bradley with the most awesome Christmas present. Well that's according to him anyway. This is a Lego Kreo Megatron Transformer. There's 346 parts with an instruction book of 105 steps to assemble the awesome Transformer. The above picture is two hours into the construction at step number 25. Below is five hours into the assembly with the completion of step 68. Woo hoo over half finished. I expect another 3 or 4 hours of pure grand pop and grandson bliss. Well, actually it is kind of fun seeing his excitement as he assembles Megatron. It's team work. I find the parts and Bradley assembles them. Actually he's pretty good at it. He's much faster at assembling than old grand pop is at finding the parts.

The weather is finally getting colder well for a couple days at least. Back in the 40s by the weekend. I should be able to do some more surface clearing at Terra Nova Gardens by next week. Yesterday was a volunteer day at a local non profit organization. Plugging some floor holes where water pipes used to go to the steam radiators before the hot air furnace retrofit happened. Today just a coast day.

Have a great day everyone and I'll catch up with ya later.

2012-01-09T18:45:00.000-06:00

Update for Terra Nova Gardens

It's time for an update on Terra Nova Gardens. A lot has happened since the last post. I've actually got the deed in my possession. Once again it was a little disappointing to see the actual deed. I mentioned in the last post about how unsatisfying the non signing of the final action of acquiring the property was. Well, the deed was just a piece of regular printer paper basically giving information as to where the property was located and to whom it belonged. The Notary Public stamp was not even embossed. It was just a stamp. I guess I was just expecting a little more flare. Oh, well, I can get started with some real work now.It's going to be a long process to bring this property under production. Since the weather has been so warm I've been able to start work much sooner than I expected. I first have to start with a story about a man I met on the first day working at Terra Nova Gardens. I have nothing but hand tools so armed with a rake, small branch loppers, and a shovel, I started the daunting task of cleaning out the first year's area for gardening. Along came curious Larry. He has a son that lives right across the road. Larry is an old (85 year old) construction worker that basically drives the neighborhood looking for conversation. We struck up a conversation and I explained that I had plans for a garden on this property. After a few more minutes of conversations, he indicated that we could get some fuel for his machine, as he called it, and he could scrape all the those weeds off the property. He never would quite say how much he would charge and always dodged the question. So for the good sake of the being a good neighbor so to speak, I agreed that he could help. I really didn't know what to expect. We climbed in his old beater truck and drove to the gas station for off road diesel fuel. He used his machine (medium sided Bobcat) and worked for about an hour scraping off the weed, vines, and scrub brush. After the process was finished, I asked how much I owed him. He said, "How about 20 bucks." After I got over the shock of how cheap it was, I couldn't get the money out of the wallet fast enough. Now it seems that I've made a friend for life as he has made it his mission to watch my property to made sure no one will be messing around with it.

It looks a lot better since the weeds and debris have been scraped off. I have been able to get a better look at the ground. I thought the water issue would be not enough but it seems that the issue just might be too much. There are several wet spots on the property. The soil in these spots is black mucky sticky dirt. However, with raised beds I should be OK and probably will have to do much less watering that I had first expected. I've talked with several neighbors, who probably think I'm a crazy old coot, and have discovered some history of the area. It seems that this area was a river bottom at one time in the early 1900s until they confined the Missouri river to it's current channel. The water table is high here and my friend Larry said it would take less than ten foot to hit as much good water as I wanted. So my spring up behind the other cottonwood tree, which is called in this neighborhood a sink hole, just might supply a goodly amount of water if nurtured in the right way.Since I am massively ahead of schedule, I decided to cut down part of an old cottonwood tree that would fall right in my gardens should it decide to do that. As it turned out the tree had a hollow core and most assuredly would at some time fallen in my garden area. Armed with big Bertha, my chainsaw's name, and all the technical support things that must go with a chainsaw, I started the task of cutting down the 50 foot tree. After about three hours of nibbling around the base of the tree and many coffee breaks the first crack was heard and the tree moved about a half an inch. From then on it was give that notch a little buzz and stand back and listen for more cracks and movement. After three more buzz and runs, the tree let out a major crack and moved another inch. Two more little nibbles at the back side relief cut and the tree crashed to the ground right where I hoped it would fall. For the next two days a friend of mine and I sawed away at the tree slowly but surely getting it down to the bare trunk.

It doesn't look too scary now does it? You can see over on the left side a branch that was buried into the ground when the tree fell. You will see it better when you view the video. I worked on getting that branch out of the ground for about an hour and a half. I dug a two foot hole around the branch and it still went deeper in the earth. I finally just fired up big Bertha and cut the branch off two foot under the ground and covered up the stump. One thing I did discover was the the dirt had a rich black look and had good texture to it. In most parts of our city the top soil is a little anemic and is only about 6 inches deep at most then a hard pan clay soil goes on forever. Here as I dug the two feet down the soil remained the deep rich black earth. It had a few chunks of small rock in it but all the better for drainage.

If you made it this far and are still with me, then here's a video tour of how Terra Nova Gardens look today. I hope you are enjoying the reclamation of Terra Nova Gardens.

As the sun sets behind the trees, the light grows dim, and the turkeys come to roost high in the trees above Terra Nova Gardens ever watchful for any suspious activity as the nocturnal critters creep out to see what has happened to their world. Tune in next time for another episode of how Terra Nova Gardens is evolving. Leave a comment to tell me what you think. Have I really jumped off the deep end into the deep dark depths of a sink hole or is there hope for this vision?

(Muttering to myself as I walk away from the computer with voice trailing off) Oh man, I'm just not as young as I used to be. Where is that bottle of Alieve? I sure could use a hot tub right now. Aw that hot shower and coffee will really feel good tonight. (big sigh) It was a great day. I'm going to just sit down here in the recliner for a minute. (big yawn) Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2011-12-30T18:34:00.000-06:00

Reflections of "Old Dave's Garden" blog

October 2009 "Old Dave's Garden" was born. It's been just over two years that this blog has recorded the some what strange and entertaining antics of Old Dave in his garden. My goodness, who would have thought anyone would follow such a blog but at present there are 27 followers. This week the total page views rolled over the 7,000 mark. I am indeed humbled. My very first comment received brought a surprised look on my face that anyone should not only read the post but feel inspired to leave a comment. It has been a refreshing journey that has brought sadness, joy, inspiration, compassion, challenge, and many more things of character building. Many thanks to those of you who read and comment here on this blog.

January and February were spent in the basement working on a food storage area. The plans were aggressive and the project didn't quite get completed but January of 2012 the project will continue.

In March Spring sprung and tulips bloomed beside the daffodils announcing that Spring had arrived. Cleanup from the winter began with great anticipation of gardening, flower planting, and continuing outside projects. A trip to Las Vegas to visit family and to celebrate what was to be my Dad's 87th birthday and his final one.

April brought one last blast of winter with snow which didn't last long but brought much needed moisture. Rains abounded through out the month as grass started it's growth for the year and made the ending of winter a joyous time.

As April rolled into May the poor man's living patio once again came to life as flowers were planted in hanging baskets and along the retaining wall.

June ended the school year which brought much joy to my grandson since he was to leave to visit his Dad in California on July 4th for an entire month. The rabbits were foiled by covering the lettuce with a screen and the first salad harvest was eaten with lip smacking enjoyment.

July brought the hottest month of the year to us and many 100+ days with no rain were endured. Gardens suffered but produced the first tomato from the garden. The automated gravity feed watering system worked flawlessly and most likely saved the garden from burning up. While my grandson was absent visiting his Dad a free standing fort/tree house was erected in the back yard and a swing set from the neighbors refurbished and anchored in the ground. It was a busy month.

In August some garden cleanup along with much yard work was done. What started as a simple faucet replacement of a couple hours ended by a total replacement of the sink and all plumbing to the drain pipe in the wall taking about a week. It was quite a project. Returning to school saddened my grandson for a while but then it was good to see all his classmates again.

September began the process to buy Terra Nova Gardens from the foreclosed property website. A fall garden was planted just before leaving on a fishing trip into the high country of Nevada. The limit for Trout was brought back to enjoy during the winter months. The fall garden, "Mesclun lettuce", started producing.

October inspired the Mesclun to prolifically produce and a salad a day was the norm. Yard cleanup, dismantling the gravity feed garden watering system, and continuing to work on the back yard patio kept me busy.

A very warm November kept the fall garden producing and allowed more work on the backyard patio. Many hours were spent at Terra Nova Gardens scouting, dreaming, planning, discovering, and even some clearing of the land.

December gave me a great Christmas present. The official deed to Terra Nova Gardens came in the mail just before Christmas. Now I actually own the land and serious planning has begun.

Overall it's been a grand year and I'm so excited about the New Year of 2012. How much can an old guy with stand.

So I leave you with this old Irish blessing and pray your New Year is the best.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields and,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

2011-12-18T19:41:00.000-06:00

Terra Nova Gardens are now Mine

Good news. Terra Nova Gardens are now mine. My imagination is running wild and dreams are way bigger than I could possibly accomplish any where other than in my mind. Garden planning has filled up my spare time. Yeah, like who has any spare time.

I really thought that the closing procedure would have signing involved but it didn't. I just handed over the final payment and they gave me a receipt and we were done. It was quite uneventful and was nothing like closing for a house.

After paying the payment, now .... in three to four weeks the deed will arrive in the mail. (Big sigh) It's a good thing that I'm a patient man. I just had to visit Terra Nova Gardens after knowing that the property is really mine. I sat on the section of tree that has been down for years and dreamed about how it would look in a couple years. This section of tree will have to be chainsawed up and removed as it's right in the middle of the garden area.

It's difficult to know where to start. I expect the cleanup will take a few days before I can stake out the beds. Because of evidence of den type critters I feel the need for a fence. The flowers around the outside of the fence will be a first line of defence. My plan is to eventually have a fence that is 64 inches high with an additional six inches sort of under the ground. My thought is not bury the chicken wire fence straight down in the ground but to flare it out semi horizontal under the flowers. That way if digging critters do get through the flowers their claws will catch on the wire when they try to dig. I'm thinking that it will discourage their digging. What do you think?

This is the total plan for the first 60 feet of Terra Nova Gardens. It's the clearest in that it doesn't have many trees. It just has weeds, vines, and brush. This is a three year plan if I don't have too many distractions. It will put 35 beds into production.

This is a great picture to show height of the bank in the back of the property. The first 60 feet straight back toward the bank is fairly level. If you click on the picture to get the full size, it gives a getter look at the bank. This bank is on the west side of the property and will be a great asset to keep high wind bad weather from damaging the garden.

This will most likely be the last post about Terra Nova Gardens until Spring. Now the focus will be on inside projects that are down in the deep dark food storage area of the basement.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to all.

2011-11-30T10:12:00.001-06:00

Another Terra Nova Gardens Post

Yes this is yet another post on the Terra Nova Gardens. I can't help it. My imagination is running wild with anticipation. Can you tell? These two properties together would be almost an acre of land which would net, after a major clean up, about half to two thirds of an acre to turn into gardens. That would be more than enough to keep me busy and out of trouble for many years to come. Don't you think?

You may have to click on the picture to get a bigger view of the properties. As you can see there are many trees. The left road in the picture has a major bank that drops down to the flat part of the property. I'd say that the usable part of the property is about half. The rest on the left of the property will be left in trees to hold the bank together. The bank is about a 45 degree climb which may require a stairway in the future project plans.

Here's a little higher up view of where the property is situated. You can see that it's surrounded by city but yet kind of isolated from the city. The property lines in this picture are both properties. The one that's mine and the one that will be in foreclosure soon.

Here's a closer look at the properties. I have marked where the turkeys were and if you click on the picture you can get a bigger picture. You can see why I'm concerned about them crossing the road. It's a major thoroughfare and I wouldn't want anything to happen to Tom and his girls.

It's difficult to decide what to do first when spring comes. Now I have to rethink my backyard gardens as well. That will have to be more immediate vegetable gardening fresh for the table. The storage and give away will come from Terra Nova Gardens.

I know that some of you have exciting plans as well or at least plans that will require lots of work. I better start going back to the gym this winter to strengthen up for the coming year.

Well that's all for now.

2011-11-25T19:40:00.001-06:00

Terra Nova Gardens

The new property (Terra Nova Gardens) paperwork is moving along. We are now into the final phase of the process. The owner has not responded to the pay up notice so now the title is being cleared of all the liens and back taxes. This should take about another 30 days. It's almost 100% assured that I'll have the deed by January or maybe by Christmas. What a present that would be.

Bradley and I drove out to the property today because I had made some discoveries a couple days ago and I wanted to get some pictures of what I had found.

I discovered that a flock of wild turkeys had taken up residence on the property just north of mine. There is one magnificent tom and about 20 hens. I walked over all the properties all the way to the fence. Most of the rest of the properties belongs to the city. This property with the Turkeys on it will come into foreclosure in January and would be a great addition to the one I have. It's cheaper, bigger, and would require a lot more work to clean up. Two major cottonwood trees would have to come down to open up the property to allow gardens to get sunshine. In addition to the two cottonwoods there are many downed trees and four inch sapling trees to clean out. It would, however, made the property a tad short of one acre of land. What you see in the above picture would be left in woods as it begins the steep climb to the top of a bank which needs to have the trees to prevent erosion.

Here's a little better picture of Tom and his harem. He is a magnificent bird. For a fleeting moment I thought, "Thanks giving dinner", but then the thought left.

Another shot of this beautiful bird. They had actually climbed up the steep bank and were now across the busy highway in a small patch of brush cover. Cars were stopping along the road just look at the flock of wild turkeys in the midst of the city. Now I expect I'll have to find out what to plant in my gardens to feed the flock. I wouldn't mind having them hang around. Hopefully, they will become accustomed to me being there and working the gardens and not cross the busy road any more.

Here's Bradley, my grandson, standing about half way up the bank. He tried to climb to the top but it got too steep and he didn't make all the way up to the top. His first visit to Terra Nova Gardens in his words, "Grandpa this is awesome but it looks like a tornado hit this place." Don't you just love the uninhibited truth that kids speak?

The second discovery was this very wet spot. I found several other bigger spots like this one including one that flowed water under the road through a culvert. That one belongs to the city and I seriously doubt that I could buy that property. Since we have not had any rain for about three and a half weeks, I suspect these spots are natural springs. I may have to rethink the water issue. Most folks would think this is just an old mud hole but I on the other hand thought it was a remarkable find. I just have to figure out a way to utilize it for watering Terra Nova Gardens. I took samples of the water and soil to be tested by the county extensions service to see just what the issues, if any, there are.

As you can probably tell I am quite excited about the purchase of the property and hopefully but this time next year it will look quite different.

Have a great day. What are your plans for gardening next year?

2011-11-25T08:39:00.001-06:00

Last Garden Harvest and Working on the Patio

Hi everyone. Thanksgiving once again has passed us and for me it was a time for reflection on the past year and thinking about all the things that I have to be thankful that are in my life. Because of a recent event, I reflected much on how grateful I am to have had such wonderful parents. It's so sad that many kids of today's generation will not experience the love of parents as I have. The normal stuff such as food, clothes, shelter are other things that I am grateful to have. I can't ever remember going hungry unless I wanted to go hungry in my life. I've always had a car since I was 15 years old. I've been able to purchase and maintain a house since the early 70s. I have truly been a blessed man.

I am thankful for the health that I have because without health I could never be able to do what I feel is my calling in life, which is helping others in need. I am thankful for the family and friends that support me during the down times and rejoice with me during the good times. I am especially thankful for my blogger friends that I have acquired over the course of the last couple years. You are the best encouragers ever.

What are you thankful for?

The last of the harvest came on October 21st. The tomatoes were small compared to earlier in the year but with the weird weather they just kept getting smaller as the year progressed. The green peppers started out slow and really didn't start producing until the hot weather of July was over. Then they kicked in and produced prolifically until the cold weather killed the plants. This batch of green peppers now resides in the freezer to be consumed when the cold winds of winter are blowing outside.

Mesclun salad mix still surviving after several mid 20s night time temperatures. I am starting to like the tough rugged nature of this salad mix. Chuck informs me in one of my comments from the post about the Mesclun salad mix that a Mesclun salad goes for $10 in Chicago. I've eaten at least a $100 worth of salad and as you can see it hasn't put a dent in the plants. It appears that there are four different plants in this mix. I have no idea what their names are but here's a picture of the different plants.

Now you probably will be saying, "Hey I only see three salad leaves and one carrot." You would be correct. The fourth plant in the salad mix is the normal yellow leaf lettuce that I'm accustomed to seeing. Unfortunately there were only two plants and I ate them. The calendar says that the carrots should be ready but as you can see they are just a bit small. They are quite tasty though. The leaf on the left by the carrot just looks mean and tough doesn't it. It's the one that seems to be the bully of the mix and has taken over almost entirely. Ha, I suppose it's the one that has the most nutrition. I keep eating as much salad as I can until the cold temperture finally puts an end to the experiment. I would count the Mesclun Salad mix experiment a great success .... well that is after I finally got over the weed look of it. My family and friends couldn't believe that I would actually eat such a nasty looking thing. It just proves the old saying to not judge a book by the cover or in this case a plant by its looks.

Ok, let's move on to the backyard patio. I've been attempting to get as much done as I can before the extreme cold weather and snow set in. Some will remember the slow progress I made during the spring and summer months. It seems that things have a way of getting me side tracked. There has been a little bit of a set back in the progress but nothing that will keep it from being finished .... eventually. :0)

Two years ago a retaining wall was built for a friend of mine who was selling her house and needed some curb appeal. About 30 blocks were left over from that project and took up residence in my side yard. Being the conservative minded guy that I am (cheap), I thought it would be just the thing to use for the retaining wall of my backyard patio. So the first layer was dry fitted on the buried concrete block foundation. After the dry fit, the blocks were removed one at a time, the top of the foundation was cleaned with a wire brush, construction adhesive was applied, and the block was set in place. Twenty four blocks for the first layer were glued in place. A trip to Menard's was supposed to be to gather up about 25 more blocks to make another layer but instead it only brought disappointment when the blocks needed to match the others had been discontinued and the replacement blocks were not compatible. So I had to pull up the other glued down blocks and replace them with the new design. The old blocks will be used for the fire ring so it won't be a total loss.

So life goes on at the Urban Ranch. Things get built, progress is made, and all is well with my soul.

I would be interested in hearing about any projects that you have in progress.

2011-11-07T21:12:00.001-06:00

Where has Nebraska Dave been?

Well, folks it's with a sad heart I write this post today. Two weeks ago my sister called with a message that our Dad of 87, who fought the good fight against bladder cancer all summer was beginning to slowly deteriorate. The cancer was in remission but the chemo and radiation wore down his strength. She suggested I come for a visit. He lives in Las Vegas and I live in Nebraska. My daughter and grandson decided to tag along to see their grandpop. Upon arrival we were told that he had taken a turn for the worse and was now in a semi comatose state. When we arrived at the Long Term Care facility, I immediately went to his room and talked to him. He opened up his eyes and looked at me intently for five minutes as I talked, then closed his eyes. It was to be the last conversation I had with him. Five days later he passed away peacefully.

Dad started his life in a small town in Nebraska and lived all his youth years on a farm. His school education was 9th grade but he just had a way of knowing how to fix things, build things, or come up with solutions for a problem. He was a self taught truck mechanic and had his own business for over 20 years. He retired at 55 and moved to Las Vegas where he and Mom worked as trailer park managers for many years. His attitude for positive living influenced all those that knew him and his humor kept all entertained. He was indeed my hero and a great Dad.

While in Las Vegas I took Bradley fishing at a small stocked city pond close to my Dad's long term care facility. We didn't catch any fish but he had a good time throwing out the plastic fish and reeling it back in. The weather was good most of the time but one day it did rain .... well, they call it rain. It got the street wet. They have a term there they call dry rain. That's when it actually rains but because the temperature is so hot it evaporates before it hits the ground. That happens during the summer hot months.

There's not been much activity with projects or gardening the last couple weeks. All that's left to do is to dig up the potatoes. The broccoli and carrots are not going to reach maturity but the Mesclun salad greens are still growing like weeds. (pun intended). I haven't heard anything from the new property yet but I expect to hear something any day now.

My daughter was in a car accident right before we left for Las Vegas. Someone cut across three lanes of traffic on the Interstate and then slowed way down. She was able to get slowed down but the car behind her didn't. The car hit her so hard that neither the trunk nor the two back doors could be opened. It blew out the back window as well. It's a blessing that Bradley was home with me as he would have been in the back seat. Now we have to go car hunting. I'd rather take a whipping in the town square than buy or sell a car or a house. I'm just not good at wheeling and dealing. It's a good thing that I have a friend in the car business. Oh, yeah, Lydia had a few bumps and bruises but she was OK.

Remember the storage room project of last winter? Well, it's about time to start working on that project again. Maybe, just maybe I can get it finished this year. :0) I still have hopes of working on the backyard patio project but the weather is starting to get cold with the threat of freezing rain and snow. So it's time to move the working projects inside for the winter. Does anyone else have winter projects planned? It's only about a month until the first of the seed catalogs come out. That's always a joyous time for me. How about anyone else? Which seed catalogs do you like and order from?

I've been working on the GRIT garden planner program for the new Terra Nova Gardens property. Whoa, I can have a lot of garden beds there. The beds will be 4'X8' but without board or rock borders. They will be raised just by natural tillage. I will have four foot pathways between the beds. Each row of beds will be six deep so for every 32 feet I can have 18 beds. The area in the video that's flat is about 50 or 60 feet wide. I can have about 35 to 40 beds without too much hard work. I want to work on some other things before get into gardening on that scale. A ten by ten patio in the back of the beds with a simple fire ring will be one of the first things on the list to be able to burn the brush and weeds.

Then there is the water issue. I see another gravity feed system in the planning stage. I have a source to acquire 55 gallon barrels that could be ganged together and store as much water as I wanted to store. I would put the barrels as high on the back bank of the property as I dare without being visible from the street. That would give me at least a 45 to 50 foot drop to the gardens. That should give me a good amount of hose pressure just from gravity. Water for the garden would have to be hauled. I figure my little Ford Ranger (Ranger Rick) would be able to haul 110 gallons at a time. At 8.34 pounds per gallon for water it would be about 917.4 pounds which is about the load limit for Ricky. If I pull off the road on the street above the bank, gravity would feed the water into the barrels for the garden watering.

Where would the water come from? I will be beefing up the rain water system from my house. The total roof area is 800 square feet and with a possible .62 gallon per square foot rain collection for every inch of rain, it would be a total of 496 gallons for every inch.

Whew, big plans with a lot of work. I expect this will be a work in progress for the rest of my life. What do you think? I haven't even thought about the fruit trees, berry bushes, or bee hives yet. My mind is spinning with the possibilities.

I really need to go now. I need a coffee break after thinking about all that work. Ya'll have a great fall in the yard and garden.

2011-10-22T22:54:00.001-05:00

New Post on Old Dave's Adventures

Click here to see new post.

2011-10-22T13:45:00.000-05:00

Clean up the Yard and Garden

The yard cleanup has begun. One of my trees and the two neighbors with like trees has dropped all their leaves. However the neighbors with Maple trees have another two to three weeks before they begin their leaf drop. So this is only round one of the yard leaf cleanup. I will have to do another round of cleanup before winter sets in. This picture is the poor man's leaf chipper. It looks a lot like a lawn mower. Doesn't it? Yeah, old Chomper the lawn mower comes through again. His 30 weight oil is a little stiff in the cooler weather but once he gets going, he can crunch leaves with the best of them.

The first round of leaves go straight to the compost pile. I have a limited space for composting so the second round of leaves with have to go to the yard waste and let the city compost it. Next year I should have more space to garden and more space to compost. Here's the picture of the Urban Ranch compost pile. Next spring it will be much smaller. I will peel off the layer that I just added this fall, scoop out last year's layer and use it for the garden, and pile this years layer back on the compost pile. I just don't like the method to always be turning the pile to keep the composting active. My two year method works for me and I'm sticking to it.

I pulled out the rest of the garden as it was definitely spent. There were two grocery bags of green peppers and a few little teeny tiny tomatoes. All the garden debris went into the yard waste bags to be set out for the city to take away. I don't want to take any chances of disease or bug eggs make it to next year's garden. After all that work, I just have to take a break and enjoy the great fall day. The temperatures have fallen into the upper 20s a time or two but the hanging baskets have not been bitten my old Jack Frost. The Impatiens have really put on a display this summer. The side bar Begonias have done a great job as well but they are starting to show a little wear and tear around the edges. It's going to be hard to beat this display next year.

The last harvest except for the potatoes was a big one from the green peppers and not so much from the tomatoes. Now if I can only come up with some thing to do with all these peppers. Any suggestions? Anyone? Anyone?

I have dismantled the automated watering system and drained all the hoses. The hoses are stored in a big barrel and the timers go inside for the winter to keep them from freezing. The tanks and barrels have been all been drained for the winter. I'm kind of sad to see things winding down for this year but I'm already planning bigger and better things for next year.

I hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather.

2011-10-11T17:31:00.000-05:00

Time to Eat the Mesclun Lettuce and Work on the Patio

I guess it's about time to sample the Mesclun historic cuisine of chef Platt of the famous Q's restaurant in Colorado. I've been told not to let it get too big and cut it don't pull it. OK, if you don't hear from me for awhile, call poison control cause I accidentally ate a weed and not the lettuce cuisine. Ack!! OK, so I exaggerate a little but I did see a bug in the lettuce patch the other day. It was one of those big fat leaf munching worms. Ha, it was on a bind weed. Even the worms don't like this stuff.

The carrots are a little sparse but seem to be coming along. If the weather holds, I just might get a carrot. Out of the 80 carrot seeds planted, about a dozen give or take a couple have sprouted into plants. I suppose I really should give them some water as the promised rain of the past few days turned out to be only .3 of an inch. So for the last month and a half we have received a total of just a bit more than one inch. Not a lot for six weeks. Normal rain fall for September is 2 inches and October is 2.5 inches. We are well below that.

I've been working on a patio in the backyard that will end up being a fire pit patio when completed. It's been an off and on thing when more important things aren't happening so it's made slow progress this summer. I have the hardest part completed which is the concrete block foundation for a retaining wall which surround 3/4 of the patio. It will be a real asset to the back yard. You can kind of get an idea of how it's going to look when completed. I've set the first row of retaining wall blocks on the foundation. The entry to the patio will be at the bottom of this picture and be about five or six blocks wide. The actual patio level will be about the level of the front row of smooth flat blocks. Yeah, I know the yard is getting a little scruffy again.

I have one last parting shot of the Poor Man's Patio for this summer. With the first frost date of October 15th fast approaching it could come at any time now. This has been the most successful attempt to beautify the trellis so far. It's going to be hard to beat this year. A daily automatic watering and a shot of Miracle Grow every three weeks probably did wonders to help things stay blooming.

I hope you all are having a great fall. The leaves are just about all off the trees and now it's time to round them up and get them in the compost corral. 

2011-09-26T10:43:00.000-05:00

Returning to the Garden

Before leaving on the fishing trip I scoured the city to find seeds for a fall garden. One lesson learned from that experience is to buy the seeds in the spring because there are no seeds for fall gardens. So finally I found one lonely seed rack at the local nursery with very limited seeds. I purchased the last lettuce, carrot, and broccoli seed packs on the rack. Carefully, I set out to plant the seeds as indicated on the packages. I lightly watered them for the next couple days and then left to head out to fish in Northern Nevada.

Upon my return, much to my surprise this is what the planted lettuce looked like. It really looks like a patch of weeds to me. It was the ugliest lettuce I've ever seen. I dug out the seed pack to see exactly what in the world I had planted in my garden. Here's what it said. Q's Special Medley chosen by Chef John Platt and exhibits flavors, textures and colors as varied as the acclaimed cuisine of Q's restaurant in the historic Boulderado Hotel. Imagine that? I had planted acclaimed cuisine of Q's restaurant. .... It still looks like weeks to me. I guess that I'll let the mess grow a little more and maybe even sample some of the foliage to see what Chef John Platt is serving to his customers in the historic Boulderado Hotel. Sorry, it still looks like weeds to me. How about you?

Next up is the broccoli. Only three out of the eight planted germinated. That's not a very good germination rate. I hope the broccoli can endure some cold weather because in just a few short days the October 15th first freeze date will be arriving. With temperatures in the middle to lower 40s at night it just might happen any day now.

The carrots were even worse. Out of the 80 some planted, I could only find four plants growing. I guess that I've got a lot to learn about fall gardening. It's been a pretty pathetic experience this year.

The tomatoes are definitely on their last leg and will be ripped out before the week's end. It was a strange year for tomatoes. However, the green peppers sprang to life after the long hot month of July was over. I'm harvesting bags full of green peppers from the eight plants that did nothing until the end of July. Gardening this year was a trying experience that caused me to learn a lot about the patience of growing plants.

The bid on the foreclosed property has been excepted and now the notice has to be sent to property owner to pay up or else. If he does not respond, then the waiting period will be 60 days before we can move into the final stage of clearing the deed and making the final payment to actually own the property. Patience patience patience. I just might own a piece of property for a Christmas present if all goes well.

Now that the bid has been excepted I may start to clear out some of the weeds and foliage to help with the spring preparation. If I don't end up with the property, then it will just be a good deed for the property owner. What do you think?

I still have a backyard project to finish up before the snow flies. The patio with fire pit has quite a bit to get finished. I still need a few more foundation blocks to set then the work will go a little faster. A small retaining wall and the main patio blocks have to be put in place. I better get started. Well, right after another cup of coffee.

Enjoy the fall weather as often as you can because winter is on the way. Farmer's Almanac says for my area that the temperatures for winter will be normal but the winter will be wet. I guess I better make sure the snow blower is ready to throw snow as one inch of wet equates to 12 inches of winter snow. The grandson will like that.

Oh, yeah, it's just about time to make that fall soup and start baking bread. Have a great day.

2011-09-22T23:36:00.002-05:00

The Fishing Trip

The fishing trip started from my home in Nebraska and went straight west on I-80 the entire length of Nebraska. A stop in Wyoming to see the two grand kids in Green River and the path continued on through Utah. It took me over a section of I-80 that I had never traveled before. The above picture shows the land on the west side of Salt Lake City, Utah. It's nothing but hard packed salt. This goes on for at least a hundred miles or more. It's absolutely worthless land to grow anything. I'm not sure what it would be good for.

Almost as soon as the state line was crossed into Nevada the landscape changed to scraggly trees and sage brush. What a change. I still not sure that this land could grow anything of value and either cows or horses were seen grazing the brown turf. So far I was not impressed with the soil of these two states.

Finally after two days of traveling, arrival at the the destination was accomplished. Another guy brought the tent we would be using for the stay at the National park camp ground. It wasn't much to look at but it did have hot showers and flush toilets. That's always a plus for me. As you can see there are no trees. The 6500 feet of elevation must be above the tree line. There's only that scruffy brush and brown tufts of grass to look at. It was a good camp site for the three days we were there.

Every morning we awoke to this view of the lake. The temperature would be cold enough to frost up the car windows so it was probably middle twenties. The morning camp stove coffee tasted pretty good with the cold temperatures. Perfect stillness with not a ripple on the lake. About noon the wind would come up enough to make a few waves on the water but still not too bad. By noon the warm clothing layers would start coming off as the temperature would climb up to about 75.

By day's end, we caught many fish. This picture shows the afternoon catch for one day. Since we could only have five fish each in possession at any given time, we only kept the biggest ones and ate fish every day. By the third day we had eaten all the fish we could stand and just fished for fun with catch and release. We decided to cut the trip short by one day and come back home. It was a great trip and I'll definitely be doing it again next year.

2011-09-11T21:40:00.000-05:00

Plumbing is finished and fall garden planted

As is with my tradition, flatbox furniture is just never designed right. It's just too flimsy for me. To beef up the back of this sink cabinet, special pieces of OSB board have been installed. Much better for moving to the final resting place and for attaching to the wall.

After a few more small issues the cabinet is finally in place with a new faucet and fully functioning plumbing for hopefully another 45 years. Now that this project is completed I can concentrate on my real passion which is gardening.

At last look the lettuce is up and growing well. I think I saw broccoli up but since I've never grown broccoli before, I'm not sure what a sprouting broccoli seed should look like. No sign of a carrot showing itself yet.

This is the second video of the property in foreclosure that I've submitted a bid to buy. You hear me getting more and more out of breath as I struggle through the tangled jungle to give you a picture of the interior of the property. Until next time be safe in all gardening and construction projects.

2011-09-02T19:26:00.000-05:00

First Ever Video of potential property

This is my first attempt to use the HD video camera that I won from a GRIT Magazine blogger. She was allowed to give away two cameras for a Purina promotion. It's been a learning curve for sure but I am amazed at just how easy it was to upload the video and how well it turned out. I even edited a portion off the end of me bumbling around trying shut off the camera. Hopefully I'll get better at this and have more footage later as improvements begin for this property. This property is not much to look at right now but by this time next year it just might be in a little better condition.

I hope enjoy the tour and be sure to leave a comment about what you think.

2011-08-26T20:22:00.000-05:00

Finally one for old Dave

At the end of day three score one for old Dave the very non professional plumber. So now the score would be faucet repair 2 and old Dave 1.

Remember that old pipe that had become one with the pipe in the wall. Delicate surgery was performed on the pipes to extract the inside from the wall drain pipe. The tools used for this ever so delicate surgery were a sawsall, a hammer, and a chisel. After one hour of surgery, the extraction was completed. It was difficult surgery as the wall pipe could have broken at any time which would have caused cardiac arrest. (No not the pipe silly. On me.) Thankfully that didn't happen.

Here you see a dry run for the plumbing just to see if all will be well. Only one seal is missing and a run to the local hardware store with rectify that. A little adjustment on the P-trap wall pipe may be needed but everything is starting to look good. Score one for old Dave.

Those that have followed my blog for awhile will know how much I love to put flat box furniture together but there are times when it just can't be avoided. This is one of those times. So with gritted teeth and a sharp box cutter the assembly procedure begins.

Well there she is. The completed cabinet. Ain't she a beauty? The last couple flat box projects the door and drawer pulls never have a long enough bolt to hold the knob on. Another run to the hardware store with correct this issue .... again.

So I think I'll take a three day holiday and hit it again next week. Well that is after I haul three sliding glass doors for a friend one day, take a trip to Melvern Iowa to help saw up damaged trees from the baseball size hail, and attend two birthday parties on the last day. Well one of the parties is for me so I can't complain. It's a great life if I just don't weaken.

Now where's that recliner. I think I need a nap from just thinking about this weekend.

2011-08-24T14:01:00.000-05:00

This is why I love working on plumbing

The last rain here was a real gully washer. Much to my surprise the next morning as I toured the garden and checked the official bean can garden rain gauge, it was full. It had rained a good four inches over night. Being 40 feet above the river level and no where near any flash flood creeks, my garden and property were exempted from any damage. Not so for some other folks. Stories came out about sewers backing up into houses and basements collapsing due to ground water pressure. Low lying streets were under water for a time as the storm drains just couldn't handle the torrential rains of the night before.

The decision was to replace that old faucet in the 1/2 bath that has been causing grief. As you can see it hasn't been used for a while. It's time to put this sink back into use. The wrestling match between the old bathroom faucet and me ended with faucet - 1 Old Dave - 0. Of course it teased me with the deception that I was winning by making it just hard enough to test my demolition skills. After wrangling the rusty faucet lock nuts with 45 years of corrosion and finally using a sawsall to remove the old faucet, the false perception was that fight was going in my favor. Alas after the battle raged for two hours and a feeling accomplishment came over me, the final test with water pressure on showed the error of my thinking. Water pressure on and sink faucet off, all was good. Hot water on, all is still good. Cold water on, spray on the wall and water dripping on the floor. Cold water off. Spraying and dripping quit. Hmmmm, defective faucet. The thought crossed my mind that my idea about using a used faucet laying around to save a buck was a dumb idea turned out to be true.

Home improvement store here I come .... again. That's not all that bad because on the way home seeds from the local nursery will be purchased to plant the fall garden. The faucet display just happened to have a clearance sale on the exact faucet needed. Yahoo!! So once again it's time to drain down the water system, remove the some what used defective faucet and replace it with a nice new one. Hopefully this one will last another 45 years. Then it will definitely be some else's problem. Ok, so let's begin.

Yeah, it's a messy job but someone has to do it. I keep trying to get my soon to be seven year old Grandson to help but he's not having anything to do with bathroom repair. He keeps saying, "Grandpa, I'll have a job," which means he'll be hiring someone else to do that job.

At the end of day two it's the faucet repair 2 Old Dave 0. Ah, the joys of working on 45 year old plumbing. The new faucet was great and installed just fine but just a little drip started from the stopper in the sink. Well, OK, a dribble. So no problem a new stopper came with the new faucet. Yeah, however, removing the old stopper was not possible and well, I broke the sink trying all different methods trying to remove the rusted solid plumbing under the sink. As you can clearly see that 45 years ago all the plumbing was metal which corrodes and rusts together magnificently. Another issue is the pipe that goes into the wall. After decades of close contact the two became one. Now the rusted pipe has to be chiseled out of the galvanized pipe. Oh, boy, I'm looking forward to that.

As the sun sets on the Urban Ranch, the faucet is installed. Yeah I know the sink is still missing. Tomorrow is another wonderful day in the neighborhood and who knows maybe just maybe the 30 minute repair could be almost complete.

2011-08-17T22:43:00.000-05:00

Cleaning up the garden

Cleaning up seems to be the task at hand these days. After letting the yard go in July, it's a never ending task to get it back to submission. I've been wanting to cut down a bush near my garden beds but just have not gotten around to it. Today is the day to tackle the task. My old knees just won't take the bending down too much any more so I tackled this task sitting.

Nothing like a little nap after a hard job completed. That's the beauty of not being on the clock. Resting and naps are when ever needed. You can see a few Sequoia weeds in the left background and the pile of cut bush on the right behind me.

When the day is finished, two garden beds are ready for fall planting and the bush is now bundles of yard waste waiting to be set out by the curb. Now the task will be to dig out the bush stump and expand the garden by one raised bed. After the yard cleanup it is really time to rest and recover for tomorrow is another day of cleanup and building. The work is never done around an urban ranch.

2011-08-12T12:25:00.001-05:00

Bradley's Fort is complete

The major project for July is complete. There was a bit of a stability issue but with both cable and wood bracing the issue was brought under complete control. It was the talk of the neighborhood for a couple days but now it's just part of the normal circuit of playing in the neighborhood. I'm sure there will be some additions and tweaking as time goes along. The second wind and rain storm blew through last night with no harm to the Fort. It's a full two weeks into the testing period and no problems what so ever. I'm declaring it a successful project that's completed.

Now the yard? That's another matter. Due to the focus on getting the fort finished before Badley's return, as you can see, the yard suffered from neglect. After a month of neglect it looked pretty bad. Mutant Ninja weeds sprouted up where my patio project was in progress and put on hold during the month of July. I really thought about getting out Big Bertha my chainsaw but reconsidered it and resorted to the old fashioned hand pulling weeds method.

After two days of blood, sweat, and tears that produced 11 bags of yard waste, the wild habitat yard was brought under submission.

It's amazing what a little hard work can produce. Now I need to attack the garden and the chain link fence line behind the garden. It looks like I just might be growing prairie grass in the garden. Then of course there's the side yard. The alien plant from outer space is trying to make a come back. Some hacking will be needed there as well. How would I ever be able to keep up with acres if I had that much land?

One last parting shot of the neighborhood gang enjoying the fort. Yesterday even one of the neighborhood girls joined the boys of the neighborhood and tagged around with them most of the day which was mostly spent in the backyard in the fort or on the swing set.

The garden seems to be winding down already. The cucumbers are wilting and the leaves on the tomatoes are curling but the production is still there. The green peppers never did come back after the initial six peppers. The plants look good they just aren't producing any more peppers. The onion and potato tops are drying up but that's supposed to happen about this time. I'm thinking about planting a fall garden so I'll probably be pulling out the cukes and replanting the spring salad area .

It seems there's always something to do around the Urban Ranch.

2011-07-28T11:59:00.000-05:00

Bradley's Fort and first Tomato

It's nearing completion. Just another day or two and the project of Bradley's fort will be a done project just in time for his return. Only the roof and ladder remain to be completed. All the neighbors are amazed at the building of it but it was really just a simple small porch kind of plan. Hopefully it will last many years for not just Bradley but his kids as well. Any of the parts can be replaced relatively easy if they should need replaced. It is turning out really good. Bradley returns home a week from today. He doesn't have a clue that old grandpop has been busy building him a fort up high in the sky.

This picture was taken just five days before consumption. They ripened fast.

Oh yeah, this is the day that's been in waiting for a long time to enjoy. The warm weather plants were tenderly planted that May Friday the 12th with great anticipation of the first harvest of the season which was two months away. Mulching, watering, weeding all took place as the plants grew in stature, then began to blossom, and set fruit. Each day the anticipation grew as the harvest came nearer and nearer. Today, was the infamous first bite of juicy flavor filled backyard home grown delicious tomatoes. Two were harvested and immediately sliced up with cucumbers and onions which were made into a delightful tomato salad. Aaaaaah, it was worth the wait. More delightful delicacies will be ripening soon. The rain last night will help with replenishing the much needed water in the rain water tank and giving the garden a boost. The official garden Van Camp bean can rain gauge says my garden has received about an inch and a quarter over the last couple days. May you all be as fortunate with rain and harvest as the urban, bio intensive, vertical growth, experimental garden as been this week.

Have a great day in the garden or project building everyone.

2011-07-24T20:17:00.000-05:00

Bradley's Fort part 2

Well folks here is the fort almost fully built. Now all that must be done is get it up on top the white elevated structure you see faintly in the back ground on the right side of this picture. I've only tacked it together with a couple screws in each wall corner just to hold it together temporarily until I get the floor painted and strapped down to the elevated structure.

The tomatoes have not started turning yet but I suspect it won't be long before the urban ranch's kitchen counter will be filled with tomatoes on a daily basis. What I don't give away I just can and use for soups later in the winter. Yummm!!

The cucumbers have started to produce. I suspect it will be a large harvest of cucumbers this year. I've already started giving them away as fast as I can. I want to make some dill pickles for Bradley but I think I better try just a few this year and see if he likes them before getting into full production. I will try a few quarts to see how they turn out. The cucumber on the right side of the counter is an English cucumber for sandwiches. A friend of mine asked if I could grow a couple plants for her. Well, I hope she likes them as they seem to be very productive.

You can see that the cucumbers are trying to take over the garden. They have reached the top of the eight foot structure that I built for them to climb. One vine has gone a courting to the pretty little bush next door. It has crawled up the chain link fence and across the top rail of the fence and intwined with the bush on the right of this picture. I'm not too sure about what the result will be but maybe a new type of bush cucumber is in the making. What do you think?

Sorry I haven't been more frequent at blogging but the back yard calls and days of summer are quickly slipping away.

May all your gardens be watered with fresh rain water when needed. May all your projects be finished before the summer ends. May you all stay in good health all the days of summer. If you can't stay cool then stay hydrated.

2011-07-15T09:22:00.000-05:00

Bradley's Fort

Bradley, my grandson that lives with me, is gone visiting his Dad for the month of July. During his time away I have decided to built him a fort in the back yard. He doesn't know that I am building it and hopefully it will be a great surprise when he returns. Many years ago I built a eight foot high platform out of four inch PVC sewer pipe to aid in painting the house. For 7 years it has stood silently beside the house not being used for anything. I thought that this structure would be perfect to use for the elevated base to a fort built high in the sky for the boys of the neighborhood. I thought that if I can get Bradley and his pals to hang out in the backyard, then I'll always know where he is and be able to watch what's going on with him.

The first order of business is to be sure the foundation for the fort structure is solid. Holes were dug four foot down into the ground to have the structure a solid base to stand upon. You can see here the bottom of the PVC structure and one of the tubes that will be fit down into the hole and be filled with concrete. It was kind of a hot sweaty day when I started this project but my anticipation was at a high level. The project will require steady work to be completed before August 5th when Bradley returns.

After digging the holes and filling them with concrete, mixed by hand in a wheel barrow, the base of the elevated support structure is set in place. Here you can see the 5 1/2 inch carriage bolts that were pressed down into the wet concrete to hold the structure to the concrete base pillars that go into the ground. Three rebar rods were pressed into the drying concrete in each hollow vertical leg of the support structure base.

The elevated support structure is completed. A total of 14 bags of concrete has gone into the pillars in the ground and the vertical legs of the structure. That's way over a yard of concrete and weighs in at about 1500 pounds. I suspect that this structure will be standing long after Bradley has moved on in life. Maybe the great grand kids will be able to enjoy it after old grand pop is long gone as well. Building for future generations to come.

Today will begin the actual building of the fort walls. It's been a labor of love so far and I can't wait to see the look on Bradley's face when he gets back home.

Have a great day all and leave a comment to tell me what you think about the project.

2011-07-10T08:43:00.000-05:00

Life is good on the Urban Ranch

Hey everyone things have been growing on the Urban Ranch by leaps and bounds. As you can see the trellis is a great success this year. It makes a great difference to grow shade plants on the trellis. The drip watering helps too. It was a great addition. It makes for a great place to just sit and relax after a day working in the yard and garden.

One of the projects that I'm involved with is the swingset that the neighbor gave to Bradley, my grandson. His kids are too old for the swingset and he thought it would be a great idea to tell Bradley that he could have it. Well, it actually was a great addition to the back yard and was is fairly good shape. Here you can see the condition of the cross bars after the boys have climbed and jumped on the bars. Sixty five pounds of active boy on a skinny cross bar doesn't work too well. Ah well what's a grandpa to do?Grandpa's fix was to make cross bars out of the top bar of a chain link fence. The test was to let the neighborhood boys climb on the bar to their heart's content. It passed the test of the sixty five pound boys. The swingset is now concreted into the ground and the horse has been installed back on the swingset. Yesterday Bradley and I went to the home improvement store and bought new swings and a set of rings to hang on. All that's left now is to repair the glider and the slide. That shouldn't take too long. The backyard is already the place to hang out for the boys of the neighborhood. Actually, I kind of like that idea. At least I can see where they are and what they are doing.Mornings are spent in the garden just enjoying the view and morning cup of coffee. It's becoming a morning ritual. It's amazing how the garden changes in just a couple days. This picture is about a week old and already the garden looks quite different. The tomatoes are beginning to grow green tomatoes, the green peppers have buds on them, the potatoes are blooming, and the cucumbers are growing toward the top of the support structure. The spring salad garden is done but the GRIT magazine garden software says that I can replant the lettuce and radishes now for the fall. I am thinking it's a little early and might wait until the end of July before plant the fall salad garden. What do you think?
Here's a full view of garden. The new blue water barrel is in place. It is a 50 gallon barrel that replaced the 35 gallon black barrel. It works better since I can take off the top and clean it when neccessary. The water spigot can be attached much better by being able to get inside to tighten up the nut on the inside of the barrel. I have two more blue barrels for garden expansion. Right now I have five garden beds but plan to expand by one or two more before the summer is over. However, the expansion will require the removal of the bush you can see on the far end. Ah, well, I used to dealing with roots to accomplish projects.
Bradley, my grandson, is leaving to visit his Dad for the month of July. While he is gone I plan on building a fort which will be about 6 feet up in the air. It will be a surprise when he returns home. I figure it will be a good welcome home surprise. That should definitely make the backyard a place for the boys to hang out.
Until the next time have a great day in the garden and keep those projects in progress.

2011-06-13T13:00:00.004-05:00

Joplin Missouri Trip

To read about the trip to Joplin Missouri click here. This will take you to my adventure blog. More to come about the extremely traumatic event.

2011-06-07T17:52:00.003-05:00

The Dog Days of Summer are Here

We have had several hot days here with the culmination being 100 degrees yesterday. Most years it take until the middle of July to even think about getting a 100 degree day but this year has just been a very weird year. Two days from now the weather prediction is for a high of 68 degrees. What is up with this weather? The whole weather pattern has gone wacky.

My first harvest of the year was the lettuce that grew from seeds that I flung on the ground and hoped they would grow. It was pretty spotty but what did grow was great. I cut the lettuce off with scissors to try to get a second crop but the hot weather has pretty much ended the lettuce season. It looks very wilted and probably will be pulled out soon. I thoroughly enjoyed the tender young lettuce salad and will try to grow more in the cool fall season. This is my first attempt ever at growing lettuce. I think it turned out really well. I have to laugh that since I've taken the netting cover off the lettuce, not a single rabbit has tried to eat any of it. Before with the netting on I could definitely see where they were trying to get at it. I guess once they know that they can't get in they just quit trying.

Here's the cucumber bed. The cucumbers are up about an inch or two. Well, that was a couple days ago and it seems with the hot weather they are literally growing by leaps and bounds. I'm going start watering twice a day during the hot days.

The tube you see going down the middle of the bed up on the concrete blocks is the final distribution tank for the automatic watering system. There is a small drip water hose that goes to each plant. When the timer turns on at 6am for 15 minutes the large hose from the bigger tank fills up the tube and waters the plants. I bought the straw bale to cover the bed with about an inch or two of mulch for now. This bed will be mulched a little deeper when the plants get bigger to help with keeping the ground from drying out and to keep the weeds down.

You can see some foliage under the tube that are potatoes that I had left over from planting the potato bed. I'm not sure about how they will turn out under the cucumbers but I just planted them there to use the unused space. So we will see how that turns out.

I like to sit in the garden in the cool of the morning and read, hence the garden chair. There's just nothing like sitting in the midst of plants and enjoying their quiet company as the bird and rabbit wild life scurry around looking for their breakfast.

Here's my wilted lettuce patch and the empty area where the radishes were. The radishes evidently had too much nitrogen from the rich composted soil and turned out all tops and no radishes. I just pulled them all up and threw them into the compost pile. As I said earlier the lettuce is doomed so it will be gone shortly. I might be able scrounge another small salad from the remnants of what's left. Even a small salad from the garden is better than the largest salad from the store. Don't you think?

The firepit patio is coming along slowly. It's either too wet or too hot to be digging in the dirt. The foundation blocks are a little better than half way completed. Then the back and side walls will be erected which should go faster than the foundation blocks. That will be the hardest and most time consuming part of the project. The laying of the bricks will be the final stage before getting the firepit. At the rate I'm going it will be a while before that happens but I'm happy with how it is progressing. I'm hoping to be using it by the end of the summer when the cool fall weather hits. It should be a great addition to the backyard.

Here's a look at the way the garden looks now. The bush on the right will eventually be taken out and another garden bed will be installed there. It seems that what ever project I do in the back yard it involves dealing with roots. You can see the bigger blue rain barrel that has replaced the smaller black barrel. This barrel holds much more water but it sets lower to the ground which might require me to have to lower the tubes over two of the garden beds to get the proper water flow. I like to do an over all arial watering of about 1 inch every week. By watering the roots of all the plants the rest of the bed will get hard as a rock if it doesn't get watered. Besides the potatoes need watering once a week. They don't get special automatic watering every day. It would be too much water for potatoes.

I harvested another lettuce salad from the small patch of lettuce. It was just as yummy as the first salad was. The cut lettuce seems to still be growing and I just might get another salad before the hot weather gets to it. I most definitely will have to grow more lettuce this fall.

Happy gardening everyone.

2011-05-22T09:48:00.002-05:00

Miracle Plants of the Urban Ranch

There are two of what I call miracle plants on the Urban Ranch. One is this little rose bush and the other is a peony bush beside the front of the house.

This little rose bush was planted back when the house was built in 1965. It grew into a big strong plant and produced many years of gorgeous roses. When I put in the first patio by the front door I dug out the rose bush roots and put a plain patio block patio over the area where the rose bush was. Somehow it crept under the patio and sprouted up right in front of the bench which was spring garden area at the time. Every year I cut the little rose bush down to the dirt and kept it there but it just kept coming back. The patio you see here was built about four years ago and once again I dug up the root and not only built a patio over the area but put in a wall around the patio. This wall although not very high where the rose bush is has a concrete block foundation so it goes down under the ground a good 12 inches. It took two years but once again the little rose bush that just wouldn't die crept under the patio and under the block foundation and sprouted up beside the outside of the wall. It's determination to live was incredible. Not to be deterred. I continued to try to kill the little bush. I dumped brush killer on the plant after I cut it off with the lawn mower. For an entire year the little bush survived the toxic poison being fed to it and although quite sick looking once again sprouted up last year with vigor. Upon seeing that this little rose bush just wouldn't give up, I finally gave in and gave it a trellis to climb and told it not to fear I was done trying to kill it. It can live long and prosper.

The second miracle plant is this little peony. This once is a story of natural disaster and not one of me trying to kill it. About four years ago a killing late frost killed this little peony late in the spring. It turned black and died dead or so I thought. Summer came and went with no sign of life. The next spring still no sign of life. Summer came and went again. I thought well I guess the little peony is really dead. The next spring one little sprout pushed its way up through the dirt. It produced one tiny little flower that year. Last year it produced six blooms and this year there are nine buds on the plant ready to bloom. I can hardly believe these two plants are still part of the blooming display of the Urban Ranch but the proof is in their strength.

We should all have the strength and stamina that these little plants have. They just wouldn't give up. When all the odds were against them, they stood in faith as long as one small spark of life still existed in their little roots. I should take a lesson from these two plants and note that when the whole world seems to be against me, just keep on standing up and moving forward.

2011-05-14T15:15:00.002-05:00

This is more like spring!!

I like this time of the year. Well, other than the bad weather. Nebraska hasn't had any bad weather in my area. The temperature has been a little extreme. One day it's freezing, the next it's in the 90s, and then back to the 40s. I've never seen it quite that extreme before. But, hey, that's climate change for you. I'm just glad the snow is gone and the flowers are blooming.

Here's a picture of the total garden as it looks today. I still have to get the tomatoes and the green peppers mulched in. Of course that's right after I get the watering tubes down to the roots of the plants. Everything is right on the edge of being turned up for the summer.

You can see the radishes are growing quite well but the lettuce is struggling a little. It's my first attempt to grow lettuce ever. I just opened the package and flung the seeds out on the dirt and tried to cover them up a little. I'm quite sure that's not the proper way to plant lettuce. I will have to try again in the fall. You really can't see the onions planted on the bottom of the picture but those pesky helicopter seeds are really invading everything right now. I haven't decided yet what will go in this bed when the lettuce and radishes are done, but I'm thinking some late tomato plants. I read that a stem from a producing plant can be cut, rooted, and planted just like a transplant. I think I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Next is my poor man's living patio trellis beautification. Phase one is completed and the hanging baskets are Impatiens. Last year I tried pole beans but there just wasn't enough sunlight to grow them well and the turned out pretty pathetic. Hopefully, this year will be better with shade plants. The sides will be begonias in containers. I may try the vertical wall planters in the future. They are a fascinating concept for growing.

You can't really see them yet but there are eight green pepper plants in this bed. You can see the watering system for the plants. It will take another couple days to get the system up and running like I want. I really need to do some cleanup after things are functioning.

The potatoes are finally planted and will be mulched up as high as the bed will with stand. I've read that as the potatoes grow if mulch is added the potatoes with keep forming right in the mulch. I use straw for mulch. It seems to work the best for me. I just get it from the local seed and feed store.

At this late date, the cucumber seeds will just be planted directly into the garden. Mom never grew any thing to transplant outside. She even plant the tomato seeds directly into the garden. They seemed to do quite well for her.

I hope all is well with everyone's garden.

2011-04-26T09:12:00.005-05:00

Rain and rain and more rain

It's been raining here. It's been a nice gentle slow soaking rain on and off for the last week. It's rained just enough to keep me from working on the backyard firepit patio. The garden and watering system needed some attention anyway. The hosta bed still needs a apring cleanup and the wild tree sprouts along the fence line need to be cut. So there's still plenty to do even when the ground is wet.

The rain barrel you see in the picture is a 40 gallon barrel that has been integrated into the watering system by running a hose from this barrel to the main tank. I did the math and the 12 x 24 foot roof area that runs into this barrel as the potential of 180 gallons of water from a one inch rain. Yikes!! This last rain raised the main tank water level by 5 inches. I figure that was the equivilent of 85 gallons of water. That was just a little drizzly rain that didn't really amount to anything. I may have to re think the design of this rain water catching system. It's potential is much larger than I first thought.

Here's the back side of the firepit patio project. Because of the afore mentioned rain, the progress here has been slow. Hopefully by summer's end, marshmallows will be toasting over the fire. I've been planning to do this for a couple years now and finally it's under construction.

I have been reading a book by Jerry Baker called "Majic Grass". It's all bout growing lush grass with all different concoctions. He has wake up tonic that contains bone meal, gypsum, lime, and Epsom salts. Then there's the turf builder with baby shampoo, cola, ammonia, and instant tea. My favorite is the snack tonic given to the grass every three weeks and contains dish soap and beer. Oh yeah and then every three weeks, its a dose of ammonia, corn syrup, liquid lawn food, and a can of beer. Then if the lawn can stand up in it's drunken stupor, it will be mowed. By the end of the summer I would guess the lawn will be signed up for Alcoholics Anonymous. This picture is a picture of all the stuff needed to get started with the Jerry Baker lawn care system. I'm just doing a test to see if it really works or old Jerry is just trying to sell a book. I'll let you know how it all works out.

Even though the yard was wet I managed to get the cucumber support up. The cucumbers won't be planted for another couple weeks. I suppose I could start them inside like last year and transplant them outside when the weather breaks. You really can't see the support too well but the leaning 2x2s in the center of this structure has wire fencing on it to allow the cucumbers to climb up the support. Last year the cukes hit the eight foot top of the structure. I'm planting more cucumbers this year with the aspirations of canning dill pickles for my grandson.

So as the dreary unseen sun slowly sets, one more preparation step has been accomplished toward the planting of the urban ranch backyard bio intentive vertical growing experimental garden beds. It was a good day today.

2011-04-22T07:19:00.003-05:00

Just When You Think Spring Has Sprung

When you least expect it and you think that Spring has settled in, the morning brings this. It was glorious and spectacular. I like these last wet sloppy Spring snows. They bring the last burst of wonderful nitrogen to kick start the growing season. It lasted only a day and by two days later it was gone with only sweet memories until next year.

I've been getting the main water supply tank ready for the automatic watering system for the garden beds. Last year when I built it as you remember there was a big hole in the side of this tank. After much work with covering the hole with metal and sealing it with silicone and a rubber patch on the inside, it worked well for the season but there was some leakage around the patch. This year I have once again covered the patch on the outside with silicone and then covered the entire patch and the bottom seam of the tank with outside wall water sealant. Rains have fallen since this work and so far all the leakage seems to have been eliminated.

I plan on taking a picture every week from this same angle to have a record of the progress in the garden this year. Here you can see the main tank is once again in it's final resting place. One of the secondary supply tanks is in place. The other one is being worked on as it wasn't used last year. Each secondary tank holds about 30 useable gallons of water and will supply two garden beds. At the far end which is a little hard to see, there are concrete blocks (what would I do without concrete blocks) to hold the final distribution tanks made from PCV pipe to water the actual plants. More about that at a later time.

It really isn't visible but the first bed is planted with onions, radishes, and lettuce. I'll have to cover that bed with some kind of netting soon or the cute little bunnies will decide it's lunch buffet time and strip the patch to the ground. Love those bunnies but sorry there is no free lunch at my garden.

I've been working on the trellis during the wet yard days. I've actually installed a low pressure drip system for the front yard trellis. The main line has been completed and you can see the black tube running across the top of the trellis. Last year I planted pole beans to climb the trellis and cover the structure with vines. This idea was a bust as beans love sun and this trellis is in full shade. This year my strategy has changed. I will plant shade plants in containers up and down both sides in containers and across the top. Hopefully with the drip watering system and the shade plants in place the look of the trellis will be a little better than the withering half dead anemic pole bean look of last year.

You can see that the tulips and daffodils are displaying their spring announcing blooms and the weather is slowly creeping up to normal temperatures.

Here is the beginning stage of the much anticipated round backyard patio with a firepit. It will take most of the summer and hopefully by September I and friends will be sitting around the fire toasting marshmallows over the fire on a cool summer evening. Well, that's the plan anyway but those that know me there's always tomorrow and there's always time to take a coffee break on the front poor man's patio.

Well, that's it for today. Keep your powder dry and your knives sharp and I'll be back again to let you know what's up on the Urban Ranch.

2011-03-23T07:23:00.003-05:00

Spring has Sprung

Yesterday was a glorious day. The birds were tweeting, the air was warm and moist, and just to be outside working in the yard was a joy. I know that soon enough the warm and moist air will become hot and humid so I definitely enjoyed it as much as I could. The afternoon clouded up and a few sprinkles came down but the thunder didn't produce any worth while rain. It was just all wind and no rain. I raking all the debris off the front yard from winter. I had 6 big wheel barrow loads to go into the compost and garden beds.

As you can see the tulips and daffodils are well on their way to blooming. They started coming up in the middle of February which I thought was a little early but they seem to have weathered the freezing night time temperatures just fine. They are close to the house in a protected area so maybe that has something to do with it. I will be glad to see their bright colorful blooms again this year. They bloomed so well last year. I hope they can do it again this year.

I was concerned about the Crocus planted out by the curb. They were planted in the grass and did quite well last year but I didn't see any action this year until yesterday. Now I see many are coming up and a few are blooming. I like Crocus because they are the first to bloom in the spring and mark the true beginning of spring. Spring flowers just have a way of lifting my spirit.

This is just one fourth of the yard cleanup that I raked off the yard. The yard just looked like it really was grateful to have been cleaned for the start of the year. I liken it to getting a good scrubbing in the shower. I'm going to experiment on my front yard this year. There's a writer/gardener named Jerry Baker that has written a book on having a lawn that will be the envy of the neighborhood. He uses very unorthodox methods with common household products and a hose end sprayer. I will be testing his methods to see if they really work or it's just a bunch of words to promote a book. I'll be writing about the whole experience so you can follow along and see how it all turns out. Today I will hunt down the 20 gallon hose end sprayer that he talks about in his book and spray the yard with wake up tonic. It should be a good summer adventure.

All that good yard waste doesn't go to waste. It gets put on the garden beds and in the compost pile. During the summer I usually don't keep the green grass clippings. I let them go to the city yard waste pickup so it can be composted and I can buy it back. Fresh green grass just seems to turn into slime in my compost pile. I just don't have enough other stuff to mix with it so I let the city do it for me. In the spring and fall my yard has a good mix of dried out grass and leaf mixture which works in my compost pile. You can see the automatic gravity feed watering system barrels are somewhat in place. Now that I've expanded my garden I'll have to expand the watering system as well.

And so the spring/summer adventure begins.

2011-03-20T09:41:00.009-05:00

Winter Project and helping in Las Vegas

If you really need to caulk
And don't want a talk
Who you gona call
Dangerous caulk gun Dave

If you really need to saw
And don't want to jaw
Who ya gona call
Lightning skill saw Steve

Now ya all know
Who ya gona call
And ya really should know
That I ain't a poet.

There's a moral to the story
And it ain't about glory.
It's more about helpin'
And less about gettin'

One of the things we (sister's brother-in-law and brother-in-law's son and me) did while visiting family in Las Vegas was prep my sister's house to be painted. The metal screw heads on her house siding needed to be covered with oil based primer to keep them from rusting. Although we didn't get to the actual priming because of the complete bathroom remodel, it is ready for her to recruit folks to help her paint. We had to scrub a chalky white substance off the siding to enable the paint to stick to it. We used a sponge mop and a 1 to 4 vinegar water mix to wash the siding panels clean.

Back at home Grandpa is showing Bradley just how to staple up the insulation. It was just a simulation and not the real thing. Had it been the real thing Bradley would have had eye protection, head protection, and gloves. I believe in protecting all parts of the body as much as possible when doing construction.

The insulating goes up with little issues. The ceiling was the hardest as there were heating pipes, airconditioning lines, phone lines, and TV cables to insulate around. This area will not be taped and finished off in case it needs to be opened up to work on the utilities that run through the ceiling. The traditional way of drywall on the ceiling first will be changed and go up last to allow easy removal should that need to happen. A couple framing modifications have to be made before the final drywall goes onto the wall.

Yes that is a home made bottle of wine sitting on the foreground shelf. It's from my wine making days of middle 70s. That would make it about 37 years old. Perhaps I'll pop the lid when I'm finished with the food storage area. What do you think?

Have a safe remodel construction day. Leae a comment about what's been happening in your life. See ya next time.

2011-03-04T10:31:00.010-06:00

Some Assembly Required

This post will stray a little bit away from the garden oriented theme. With the ground still frozen and patches of snow still hiding in the shadows, gardening will have to remain just a yearning for now. My seed starting station will not be up and working until next spring. The food storage area has been put on hold this week due to being nurse for a six year old with the flu. For running an unmedicated temperature of 101 he sure doesn't act like he is sick. So much energy in such a little package. Anyway let's get started with what's been happening around the urban ranch.

Do you remember the late night days of yester year when some assembly was required on Christmas Eve? I have been a fan of some assembly required all through the years. Even now it still haunts me through my daughter and grandson. This time it raised it's head in the form of a twin captain's bed. These three flat boxes contain the parts for the bed, trundle bed, and drawers. Upon opening the boxes and finding the directions, I find that there are only five steps of assembly. Is this a bad joke or what? Two of the steps are nothing more than pictures. Oh, well, it's a good thing I've had much experience with flat box furniture.

Two days later the bed assembly has been completed with only one trip the hardware store for longer bolts to hold on the drawer pulls, two more longer screws for the final assembly of the bottom drawer assembly. The two short screws left over go where? The two final dowels for the drawer assembly are two long but a little grinding get them down to size. Just things a person needs to know how to do with some assembly required. It's a great bed and should last the energetic super hero warrior that sleeps there with his transformer friends many years. After a final glance I have to wonder just how and if this warrior's bed will ever fit through the bedroom door when it comes time to trade up for an older warrior's bed. Oh, well, I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Next up was a little appliance repair. Well, it started as repair. The tray inside the microwave stopped turning and I thought that the motor used to turn the tray was most likely the problem but it turned out the plastic sleeve that slips down over the motor shaft has crystallized and broken. How to fix? I'm still thinking about that one as the part is surrounded by spot welded metal and probably not meant to be replaced. The microwave is 16 years old and should be replaced but that's just not in the budget right now. In the mean time a manual spin of the tray every 30 seconds of use will suffice. Other than the tray turning the microwave works just fine.

While sitting out on the front yard patio enjoying one of the February 50 degree days I noticed my tulips were pushing through the dirt. Should this really be happening as the last frost day here is May the 15th. I asked them if they really knew how long it was before the last day of frost and if they really should be waking up now but they just gave me the silent treatment. Maybe they know something that I don't about the coming weather. I certainly hope so. Even though last winter was far worse than this winter I am still much more anxious to get out and start digging in the dirt. Maybe it's because I have more summer projects than last year.

While cleaning out the food storage area I ran across these scrap books my mother had put together during my high school days. I was a mediocre athlete in high school but was good enough to go with the traveling team in football and track. My mother cut out and put in the scrapbook every single newspaper article that pertained to the teams during those years. It was like going down memory lane for high school. I didn't even remember that I had put those down there 20 some years ago. I had to stop and wonder about what ever happened to those ambitious bound for college with a life time ahead of them guys and gals. I have not been to a class reunion since I left town to find my fame and fortune in life over 45 years ago.

Here's another treasure found in the basement storage area. It's the original Silivertone guitar that my parents gave to me as a Christmas present back when I was about 12 years old. It started my trek through the Rock 'N Roll years. I progressed through several electric guitars and spent many garage practice hours with my buddies and even had a band together for a short time. Mostly I played just for fun. I would really like to get back to that guitar picking fun stage again however instead of Rock 'N Roll I would now play Bluegrass flat pickin'. I would have liked to have gotten back to practice this last winter but six year olds take up more time than I thought, and well there are the winter projects.

That's all for now but I'm sure there will be more before too long.

Be sure to leave me a comment and let me know what's been going on in your neck of the woods.

2011-01-28T18:36:00.004-06:00

Phase 1 is electrical wiring and getting ready for insulation

First things first. The electrical wiring is always the first thing that needs to be done while all the ceilings and walls are open. The much needed switch to prevent having to walk into a dark room to pull the chain on the light in the middle of the room was wired up first thing. As with all old houses .... well some what old (45 years), there are unexpected things that come up. I know some will not think a 45 year old house is old but for my house it is. Some of the lumber demensions are different so compensations have to be make when construction is required.

Many years ago I thought that electrical wiring should be a snap as really there's only three wires. Just how complicated could it be? Well, I soon found out there are infinite possibilities of how those three wires can be connected together. There are three way switches and multiple lights and outlets that can greatly complicate things. I've been learning about all these things by going on my volunteer trips with the electrical team. It's been a great learning experience and I'm glad that I can put to use some of those learned skills at home. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

The first light is in and working perfectly with no changes. What a surprise that was for me. My tangled mess of telephone and cable TV wires from the many additions over the twenty five years of living in this house really needs to be cleaned up. Yeah well that can be done later right now my concentration is on the storage area. There some wire clean up to do there but most is out in the furnace area.

To install the insulation in the ceiling, a box had to be built around the heat vent for the dining room above the storage area. It will be stuffed full of insulation as well as the ceiling will have insulation stuffed into it. Then it will be covered with drywall. All this is done in hopes to isolate this area away from the heat of the house and keep this area cooler for food storage.After the insulation and ceiling, will come the most difficult part of the whole project. That would be the building of a wall with a door in it to completely isolate this area. Then more insulation with drywall on both sides to cover this wall. All this needs to be completed before fall harvest .... actually it would be even better before spring planting begins. The project continues. Tune in for the completion of the next phase of the basement storage area.

2011-01-02T08:28:00.003-06:00

Some Assembly Required

Through out my life time the key phrase for just about anything was "Some Assembly Required." Whether it be what I call flatbox furniture or kid's toys it always seemed to require some degree of assembly. So it's no wonder that even today in my projects that some assembly is required. Here are some of the parts required to wire in a new light and a wall switch for my storage area. Bradley, my grandson, has been home the last two weeks enjoying Christmas vacation so not much has been accomplished on the storage area. So you will have to stay tuned for the shocking outcome of Old Dave's electrical wiring experience. Remember there are old electricians and there are bold electricians but there are no old bold electricians.

January is a new month, a new year, and time for planning what will be finished this year. There are many things to keep me busy but two I've singled out to prioritize. First is the storage area that I am working on and the next would be the outdoor backyard patio with firepit to be completed by summer's end. If those two things are completed this year. Then I will consider it a successful year. As you can see there will be a lot of work involved to make this an area to hang out.

Do you have anything that will make your year a success? Leave a comment and tell me about it.

2010-12-27T13:02:00.004-06:00

Cleaning out the Storage area

Two loads to the dump and a pile of rubble in the basement corner later, phase one, the cleaning of the storage area has been completed. Bradley, my six year old grandson, helped with the cleaning. Of course there were treasures galore to be found in the deep dark confines of grandpa's basement shelves. It's the first time he was allowed in the basement and he was like a kid on steroids. Everything was a facination. He finally went into overload and had to go back upstairs for a time to recover. If it was up to him everything in the basement would be in the living room.

One of the treasures on the shelves was my original BB gun. I saved up $15.00 for this weapon with my $.35 a week allowance for chores around the house. I only shot squirrels and birds. However it didn't have enough power to hurt anything and had such a slow velocity that the BB could be followed through the air as it flew to the target. If I should hit a squirrel or bird, they would shake their body or fluff their feathers and scamper or fly away. It was the most marvelous thing I owned at the time which was at the age of nine years old. Ah, yeah, sorry about the rubble in the background but it will be leaving the premises soon.
Here's my meager stash for this year. Not much to brag about but it is a start. One step toward a food storage area filled with harvest or locally grown food. You can even see a bottle of home made wine from 35 years ago way back in the corner. I'm afraid to open the bottle for fear of what exactly I will find. It's the last of many bottles brewed way back in the early 1970s.

I will be putting the new wall on the left side of the steel beam. Anyone see an issue with that? Yup, that's right the shelf structure is a bit too long. One of my many changes will be the shortening of the shelf structure. The old Black and Decker saw will have to rip off a end section but first I'm thinking that I really need to install a ceiling light with a switch first. Insulation and drywall on the ceiling will come next. My plan is to start at the top and work my way down to the floor.

And so the project begins, where it will end no one knows but it will be an interesting journey. Tag along and see what happens in the dark depths of the Urban Ranch basement.

2010-11-24T11:38:00.002-06:00

Beginning Winter Projects

When my wife Dottie died over nine years ago, entire rooms of the house were chock full of good stuff. You know the stuff that's just too good to throw away but you don't quite know when if ever you will use it but just know that if you throw it away that the very next week you will want to use it kind of stuff. Yeah, well as I plowed through the house room by room sorting through what to keep, what to throw and don't know piles, the don't know pile got scuttled away into the basement area. That area became the storage pit from hell. In fact my daughter Lydia will not go down there because in her words "It's just too scary." (Big Sigh) I suppose it's time to begin reclaiming the basement. I know it will be a multi year project but will be definitely worth the effort. Anyway the above picture is the area where I want to put my storage area. It will be a challange just to clean out the area. All the shelves need to come out.

Hopefully by spring this area will look quite different. The only light in this area is a ceiling light with a pull string to turn it on and off. My plan is to wire in another light in the storage area with a light switch that controls both the furnace room light and the storage room light. A wall will be built across the front of this open area with a doorway into the storage area. The two inside walls and the ceiling will be heavily insulated to keep the basement heat from entering into the storage area. drywall will cover up the walls and keep the insulation in place. It's a big project but what is there to do when the weather outside is frightful. Hopefully closing this area off and having two outside block walls will keep the area at a cool 45 to 50 degree temperature. Well, that's the plan anyway.

So stay tuned and see mishap adventures of Old Nebraska Dave as he attempts of build a basement storage area.

2010-11-14T10:20:00.003-06:00

Cleaning up the garden

Has it really been that long since I've made a blog entry. The month of October was a busy month. November has started out the same way. This post will be about the cleaning up of the wonderful garden that grew this year. Due to a couple of killing frosts the garden is definitely done for this year.

As you can see the garden is quite dead. I'm trying to hack down the tomatoes that produced abundently this year. I planted just plain old Rutgers. They performed wonderful well. I have no idea how many pounds of tomatoes I harvested but it kept neighbors, relatives, and friends supplied all summer with some left for me. It was quite a marvel to watch the harvest just keep on coming long after others had given up.

This last harvest of ripe tomatoes was on November 8th. This was a full two weeks after what should have been the first frost date. The first frost didn't come until November 10th this year. Even though the vines were shriveled and dried out ripe tomatoes hung on them. The vines were still loaded with green tomatoes.

The last of the harvest of green tomatoes, potatoes, and green peppers. There was a harvest of onions later as well. Over all this year was pest free, disease free, and varmint free. While others were plaqued with bugs, disease, and critters, my plants weren't bothered by any of these things.

You can see the load of green tomatoes still on the vines. I didn't really have time to do anything with them this year, but next year I will be prepared to use up the green harvest as well as the last of the ripe harvest. This day of putting the garden to bed was a perfect day with sunshine and warm weather.

There's nothing like a good cup of coffee after a day of garden cleanup. It just soothes the soul to sit and enjoy the sounds, smells, and wild life activity.

Have a great day

2010-09-30T11:05:00.008-05:00

Time for new Garden Beds

It's time to expand the garden by three beds. A quick, well not so quick, trip to Lowe's to get timbers for the beds. The timber pile was pretty well picked over for the entire summer. It took about an hour to come up with 27 useable timbers. The first thing is to mow down the grass. I'm not one to scrape the grass off the beds but instead I just cover them up with yard waste and compost in the spring.

It always seems that things pop up unexpectedly. Hauling patio blocks from the side yard to the backyard to build the path between the beds, one of those unexpected things happened. After piling the wheel barrow full of patio blocks I discovered that the tire was low. It was so low I feared the tire would lose all the air.

Well, I turned to the old school air compressor. Yeah, I know I'm a pretty old guy. It still works. I pumped up the tire in good shape and continued on my way to the back yard with the load.

Finally the path is laid block by block. Not too challenging yet. Still just putting the blocks on top of the grass. Does the grass grow up through the cracks? Of course it does, but a quick buzz with the weed wacker when mowing the grass takes care of the grass issue. It's really not that much of a problem.

First path done and now on with the building of the actual beds. There will be three more all together. You can see that the onion patch has turned to weeds while I was gone on the last trip.

Twenty seven timbers from the truck to the back yard was a task for sure. Fourteen trips later the task was done and it was time for a break. Twenty seven cuts later all the timbers are cut and ready for building the beds.

Ah, yes coffee is always a refreshing drink for breaks. As you can see the grass has grown as well during my absence. I really want to finish up the garden beds to be able to put the grass-fallen leaf mixture into the beds as a first layer of fall compost. By next spring this mixture will be reduced to a layer of half composted material.
That's it for day one of building the expanded garden beds. Tomorrow is another day. With all the timbers cut the building actually begins.

2010-09-29T18:42:00.004-05:00

Finished Garden Expansion

The expansion is complete. I had hoped for three more beds but only two beds would fit in the area to the water tank. I have enough timbers for another bed but that will have to wait until next year. Tomorrow I will be mowing the long overdue yard and with leaves mixed with the grass it will make for a great thing to fill the beds. Much more leaf mulch will go into these beds including the old beds. This will bring my total beds up to five.

Next year I'll have a full bed devoted to tomatoes, one for cucumbers, one for potatoes, and one for bell peppers. The last bed is undecided yet but will most likely start with lettuce and radishes. I like the white icycle ones that are a tad bit hotter than the red balls.

I really need to learn how to make pickles as Bradley, my grandson, will consume a half gallon pickle jar every couple weeks. What a kid. He eats pickles with everything.

As you can see the garden still has a little life left in it. The tomatoes have slowed down greatly and so have the bell peppers. The potatoes are from one plant with many others waiting to be explored. The onions are a mystery to me. They grew well after first being planted. Then after a couple months the tops died out and they were dormant all summer. About the middle of August they came back to life and are growing again. I'm not quite sure how that works but I'm waiting to pull them up after the first frost which is normally about October 15 which is just a couple weeks away. It's been a great year for gardening and I'm looking forward to a long winter's nap and planning for next year's garden.

This winter I really want to get started working on my storage area in the basement. Next year I plan on storing a lot more than last year. This year I didn't store anything and gave most of the produce away to friends and neighbors.

Happy harvesting to all and to all a good night.

2010-08-31T08:18:00.008-05:00

Gravity Watering System comes online

The gravity feed watering system came online August 10th and is functioning wonderfully well. I finished the connections and filled up the main supply tank a couple days earlier to make sure the tank was going to hold water. The patch performed perfectly and the tank only had one minor leak in another area that was not of concern until I drain the system for the Winter. Phase one has been a complete success. One full tank will water the plants that I have now for two to three weeks. Each plant gets a gallon of water supplied to the roots as you will see in the following pictures and explanation.

Coming out of the main supply tank I connected a shut all valve to the drain plug hole. The one thing that I wanted in this system was to be able to shut off the water anywhere in the system to be able to work on the different parts. Maybe I overkilled a little but the many shut off valves will be quite handy.

The hose connection follows the fence line through the three weeks of weed growth to the secondary supply tank. I found that water volume is needed for gravity watering to work.

The connection to the secondary tank is to the PCV valves with special hose thread connections. I discovered that the hose threads are different than pipe threads. I've yet to find a converter to go from one to the other, but have master minded ways to get around the differences. In the PCV world threads to fit a hose are called MHT (don't know what it stands for) and threads to fit pipes are call MPT (again don't know what it stands for). Much trial and error fittings were assembled at the Lowes store to come up with a workable solution. Alas the answer came forth. Persistance at the Lowes store always nets the answer.

If you look close you will see the difference in color on the 2x2 strapped to the secondary tank. This 2x2 has been dunked in a hole in the top of the tank and the bottom darker color is wet from water in the tank. It gives and indication of how full the tank is. Water will seek its own level and in this case the water level in the black secondary tank is at the same level as the water in the main tank in the first picture. I raised the tank up off the ground so the water level would be the same as the main tank when it was full. This tank holds about 30 gallons and on it own would water one bed three times.

The gray box on the right is the heart of the whole system. It is an automatic timer that turns the water on and off at designated times. In the heat of the summer I have the timer set for 6am to turn on for five minutes. In that time enough water will run into the final distribution tank to water 4 tomato plants and 4 cucumber plants with one gallon of water for each plant.

This is the final distribution tank. It's a 3 inch PCV pipe with holes drilled to glue drip irrigation connectors in the holes. The hoses are the hoses for the drip irrigation. This tank has been made for the bed with the four tomato plants and the four cucumber plants. One hose for each plant will be positioned at the root base of the plant.

This is a look at the distribution tank in position cradled in the holes of two up right concrete blocks with a slight slope to the opposite end of the tank. There are two hoses in each distribution tank. One is for the water to enter the tank when the timer turns on the water flow and the other is a air drain hose to allow the distribution tank to drain after the timer shuts off the water flow. The end not connected to the tank needs to be positioned higher than the water level of the secondary tank to keep the water from bubbling out the end of the hose.

It all seems to work good for now. I just got back from a two week trip and everything looks to be in good watered condition. This is another picture of the hoses going into the distribution tank.

The end of the hoses that actually water the plants are held in position by pinch clothes pins. It's the best thing I've found to hold the hoses in the right place and not squish the hose.

It's been a summer project that took a while to get put together. It was kind of a design as I worked kind of project. When I needed to go to the next step the idea for that step just came into my mind. It was kind of fun to see things come together at the end.

2010-07-29T17:06:00.002-05:00

Here's the final patch

Here's the final patch for the outside of the tank. It's been sealed around the seams with solder and with silicone adhesive sealant. It looks to be a sound patch after left to cure for two days.

Here's a look at the inside patch. I wandered around the Lowe's store looking for a rubber material to use for an inside patch. I finally came across a two inch rubber discharge hose for some use in plumbing. I used three pieces split length wise and glued flat on the inside of the tank with the silicone adhesive sealant. The pop rivets that stuck out through the rubber were covered in silicone as well to keep the seal. I have to build a stand pipe to keep the bottom sediment from getting sucked into the rest of the system. Then I'll fill the tank and get the whole system up and working. That's the plan anyway.

It's been a long process and I'm getting excited to actually see some of the system working and being so close to have the entire system functional. It's a long way from May when I started working on the whole thing. Many changes and many improvements along the way has made this a interesting and challanging project for sure.

2010-07-26T19:39:00.005-05:00

Patching the Main Supply Tank

Here I am making a patch out of a trash can lid. I don't know where the can went. The last storm during the 70 MPH wind it left the property never to be seen again. So if you happen to see a metal trash can without a lid whiz past you it came for Old Dave's place and you can just keep it if you want.

Yep, there's the hole in all it's glory. You can see where old Sparky my welder was just too powerful and blew the hole bigger instead of fixing it. Who knew that the metal in a horse tank was so thin. I thought it would be thicker but not so.

First holes have to be drilled to the size of the pop rivets used to attach the metal patch to the tank.

Pop rivets are the best for patching stuff. Nice and snug will definitely do the trick for patching this leak. On the inside of the tank a pool liner covered with silicone adhesive will cover the same area. With the weight of the water pushing against the patch I expect it will seal up the seam quite nicely.

Now with the plumber's torch and a little solder to seal up the seams the patch will be almost complete. When the second patch has been attached in the same manner the soldered seams will be covered with silicone adhesive and the outside patch will be completed.

Well, there it is. One patch completed. She's not too pretty but I betcha it won't leak. It will eventually be covered up by nice retaining wall blocks anyway. All I care about is stopping the leak. Now just one more patch a little silicone adhesive some pool liner and this tub will be ready to hold water. The final element in the water system is nearing completion.

Well that's it for this time. Hope to see you back soon. Leave me a comment and let know what you think of the wild and crazy project of Old Nebraska Dave and his unique gardening techniques.

2010-07-19T21:34:00.003-05:00

Cucumbers, Tomatoes, and Fallen Branches Oh My

A little storm blew through a couple days ago and left a little deposit on my driveway. This branch came from Old Sic the Sycamore tree. It was hanging out over my bedroom roof when it broke off. Some how it made it way down from it's high above loft to my driveway without touching the house, trellis, or any of the plants on the patio. That's a real miracle.

The garden is growing by leaps and bounds this year. I have potatoes on the right, cucumbers and tomatoes in the middle, and onions and bell peppers on the left. The cucumbers are beginning to produce and I expect an abundance of produce real soon. The bell peppers are growing in size and will soon be harvested.

As I said the cukes are coming in. This is the first of the harvest. I have harvested a total of 10 so far with much more on the way. When the neighbors get sick of cucumbers maybe I'll try my hand at making pickles. I bought a bag of pickling spice at Walmart but good Lord 7 cups of sugar seems like a lot to me. I think I might get a different recipe.

The tomatoes are just not turning yet. I have a great flurry of blooms and a few green tomatoes but haven't harvested any red tomatoes yet. I am waiting for that first bite into the red juicy globes. The summer heat won't seem so bad if I can have a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich or two .... or three.

Leave me a comment about how your garden grows. I am thrilled to hear about all gardening successes.

2010-07-09T18:09:00.003-05:00

Gravity Feed Watering System Distribution Tank

I'm back working on the distribution tank again. The input and vent tube are glued and ready to be used. Today I'm drilling the actual holes for the final delivery tubes. These are nothing more than 1/4 inch drip connectors which will have 1/4 inch drip hoses connected to them. In the working state these hoses will just be an open hose placed at the roots of the plant to be watered.

Here I'm testing the distribution tank. I filled up the tank with water and all four of the newly inserted connectors dribbled water for about 5 minutes. I will have to test the flow rate before actually putting the system in service to see how long I need to set the timer to get the right amount of water to the roots of each plant. Some things can be trial and error and others will be caculations of volume and flow rate. I knew that High School Algebra would come in handy some day. Right I didn't remember it either. The internet is a wonderful thing. Ask for a conversion and up it pops with the formula. why didn't I have that when I was in High School.

If you look real hard you can see the water running out of the final tube connections. In the final state there will be tubes connected to these connectors to direct the water where it needs to go. So far everything seems to be coming together. Let hope that continues.

Here's a better shot of the little drip connector inserted into the drilled hole. The tube fits over the end of the connector.

That's it for now. More about the whole system later.

2010-07-09T17:40:00.002-05:00

Another Week on the Uban Ranch

Hey it's me again,
I've been blessed far beyond what I deserve this week. My grandson, Bradley, and I went to see Toy Story 3 at the movie theatre on Monday. It was the usual weave of child entertainment and boomer generation humor. I am fascinated by how these children's movies can entertain both the kids and the adults. This third Toy Story Movie has the theme of moving on in life and how changes can be difficult but an OK thing. It's another great movie.

I attended a retired co worker's funeral this week which was a sad note. He was only 66. He was an active participant in golf, bicycling, softball, hunting, and many other physical activities. They suspect he died of heart attack on one of his bicycle rides. We are so blessed for every day of life that God gives to us. It's a sad thing that we need an event like this to realize that each day has meaning and can be joyous if we let it.

My back yard over the last couple weeks become totally hostile and out of control. Grass and weeds did abound profusely.

In one area of the back yard the weeds were so out of control I had to break out the hedge trimmer to cut them down. You can be assured that I tamed the wildlife habitat and one again the back yard looks like a well manicured urban yard. Hopefully the shorter grass and the absence of weeds with cut down on the bug population. The bugs seem to be thriving on the wet weather.

Next week I will have the privilege of cutting up a cottonwood tree for my friends in Elkhorn.

It fell during the high water of the river that flows behind their house. The soil is sandy and with the high water the tree just kind of slowly tipped over. I'm heading out to have a look at the tree on Sunday evening. That should be a good work out for "Big Bertha" my Stihl chainsaw. She's a 460 Magnum saw that I bought last year just for such occasions.

I hope that your week had as many blessings as mine did.

2010-06-18T18:38:00.007-05:00

Watering Manifold

The final stage of the gravity feed watering system is the distribution manifold. I have discovered that the key to gravity feed it water volume since water pressure is low. Here are the parts of the manifold. The parts consist of one 10 foot PCV three inch non pressure pipe cut in half. It will be used to make two manifolds. Two end caps for each manifold. Two hose connectors for the water and air vent to the manifold. Finally the small plant watering hose connectors. I've also discovered that since there isn't much pressure things can be glued together and quite successfully not have water leakage.

A close up look at the parts for the manifold distribution system. The threaded parts are threaded for garden hose connections. They can be bought at any local home improvement store. All of the tanks will be connected together by 5/8 inch hoses. It's the cheapest way to go since I have many hoses that can be used without cost.

The first distribution manifold I put together I capped the ends first and found that I should have capped them last. It would have made cleaning out the debris from drilling much easier. Things are getting easier as I move along with the watering system. I'm kind of learning as I go with this project. I haven't really found anything quite like this on the internet. I guess I'm pioneering a little with the gravity thing.

You can see that one of the connections is dry fitted in place. I drilled the hole smaller than the connection to be able to slowly fit the hole to the connector by using a small drill rasp. You might ask why is there two connectors for the final distribution manifold. One connector is for the water to flow into the manifold to be distributed out to the plants. The other is for a vent tube to allow the water to empty the manifold when the timer shuts off the water to the manifold. You might ask what will keep the water from just coming out of the second connection instead of the plant distribution hoses? The vent tube will be another hose that will be raised higher than the level of the secondary water tank. Since there is no water pressure the water will never go higher than the water level in the secondary tank but will allow air to enter the manifold on drain down when the timer shuts the water supply off from the secondary tank.

Whew, you following all that? Well that's the plan for now.

The final assembly for the manifold was to glue the connectors into the final plant distribution tank with Gorilla Glue. Wonderful stuff. After this dries over night the final sealing will be completed with silicone cauk. When that dries then it will be time for the drilling of the holes for the watering hoses to water the plants. These are just small hoses directed to the base of the plants to be watered. The water will flow out of the distribution manifold through the small trickle hose and water the roots of the plants. This manifold will be made to water four tomato plants and four cucumber plants. Each one of these manifolds will be five feet long and water one raised bed.
This manifold is well on the way to becoming the first timed gravity feed watering system. It's been an interesting journey for sure to figure out how all this will work together. It's become more of a challange to make it work than a real help to the garden. However when it's all up and running it will be a great help to just let it run without worrying about what will happen to my garden when I am away for a few days. It will especially be good when my 18 day trip comes up in September. Sweet!!

2010-06-03T12:31:00.003-05:00

Planting the Poor Man's Patio

Finally the Poor Man's Patio is planted. The final count for containers to be watered is 24. Up from last year's 10. That watering issue will be bigger this year. There are too many containers to water for just one leg of drip system so I will have to either have two legs or figure out something different. I came up with my own special mix for potting. It was equal parts of vermiculite, Miracle Gro potting soil, and Omagro compost. It should be the best ever. I might have over planted just a little but in containers it's always good to over plant some.

My makeshift potting table is nothing more than just a couple saw horses and my loading planks for the truck. The whole process of planting the patio took about 2 hours. Then it was off to the Goodrich store for a giant butterscotch malt for supper. I planted the pole beans in the two pots and hope that they will do well. The Morning Glory soaked over night and will be planted today or tomorrow. I hope they do better outside than in the sprouter. I just haven't got the hang of using the sprouter yet.

I got day lilies from Carol this week when I brought over the ladder so she could clean out her gutters. The day lilies are not going to work out like I wanted. I think the hostas will be just fine and the area will be covered with mulch. I didn't know that day lilies were clumping and got so big. That height will block the hostas in front of the foundation bushes. It's been a learning process for sure.

Well, here is the Poor Man's Living Patio for this year. It looks a little different than last year. It has Dusty Miller, Begonias, Impatiens, Vinca, Wave Petunia, and in the trellis pots pole beans and Morning Glory. I hope it turns out like the picture in my mind. Once I got the potting mix made it was not too long to get everything potted up.

2010-05-24T22:24:00.000-05:00

Summer Project 2
The gravity feed watering system is still under construction. I'm working on the secondary storage tanks by the raised beds themselves. The progress will be blogged in a week or two. I'm still figuring out how to get a pipe into the barrel without leaking. The challenge is that the top of the barrel doesn't come off and only a four inch hole to work through. I'm already up to plan "C" and counting.

Here I'm working on a trellis for the Poor Man's Living Patio. It's experimental as always. I want to over head trailing vines by the front door for the secret garden affect coming into the house. Cutting the 2X4s and 1X2s would be the first step in the project. I went with treated lumber except for the 1X2s.

It kind of looks like a ladder doesn't it. It's one vertical side of the trellis. Two are required for the project. Thank God for a cordless drill. It's the best thing ever invented. It gets my vote for the best invention of the last century. I don't care what they say about the Internet. I drilled the holes in the 2X2s so they wouldn't split. Good thing.

To stand up the sides I've used concrete blocks which is my favorite building material. It makes for good solid bases. You can see that it's just a little crooked but that will be taken care of soon. The base consists of three concrete blocks for each side on top of each other. The legs of the sides fit down inside the holes of the blocks. River rock fill around the legs in the bottom two blocks. The top block is filled with tamped down sand. Hopefully that will keep the trellis stable in the strong winds of Nebraska. We have had a test this last weekend with 30MPH winds and nary a sway was detected.

Up goes the top part of the trellis. I finally had to put one side up and then get the step ladder for the other side. It's a good thing the 2X2s were near the end. It made for a perfect support to hold the top while I bored holes through the side and top pieces to bolt them together with 1/4 inch carriage bolts. I don't think it will be falling down any time soon. Well that's the plan anyway.

A funny thing happened while at the Lowe's store. I was loading up concrete blocks when a man comes walking by and asks, "How many of those are you getting?"

"Ten", I say, but "I'd like to get more."

He says, "I have about 30 and their yours if you want them."

"Where do you live?", I ask.

"Oh, on the other side of Elkhorn in King Lake."

"When will you going to be home?"

"I'm headed there now."

"I'll follow you there and thanks a lot."

"No problem."

Anyway I loaded up 27 blocks at a weight of about 1500 pounds in the little truck that could. Ricky, my truck, has a recommended payload of about 500 pounds. I have to tell you he handled it like a trooper. Never a bob or a weave or bottom out and any time on the way home. However, it was a smooth ride without any bumps.

Boring the holes for the carriage bolts with my new drill was a breeze. The old drill I bought back in 1970 on sale for $20.00. I think that it lasted long enough. I'm just not one to get the latest thing because I want it. I'm a firm believer in ware out what you have before buying new. This hot little DeWalt is sweet. It just might be the last drill I have to buy. Certainly if it lasts 40 years like the old one I won't be needing to replace it.

Here's the finished trellis. Well almost finished. The next day I straighten up the sides, put on braces, and filled the blocks with gravel and rock. So now it stands erect square and ready to be covered with sprawling vines. I'm just sitting on the patio and admiring the look of it all so far. I do have a wonderful picture in my mind of how it's going to look. I hope it comes out in reality somewhere close to what I see in my mind's eye.

Time to fire up the grill, invite the neighbors over, and have some good old burgers and brats on the barbie.

All that's left now is the planting of the containers that will house the vining plants to cover the trellis. It's going to be rainy this week so maybe it will be a good time to open up the garage garden shed, mix up some potting mix, and get those containers planted with plants. I have other bulbs to plant in containers too so it could be an all day affair.

May all your gardens grow twice as good as you expect them too. See you soon.

Leave a comment and tell what you have been doing to stay out of trouble.

2010-05-22T14:00:00.000-05:00

Reflections of days on by

This week was a week of reflections. My Mother-in-law moved from a rented house to a rented apartment. As I mowed the grass for the last time at the house, I couldn't help but reflect on the memories over the five years she had lived there.

The fence that we built was the first major project on the property. It took a couple weeks to plant the posts and install the panels. It was a great addition to the property.

The patio was another addition. She and I sat on this patio and talked about many things happening in the world. We found many solutions to the worlds problems here on this patio, but just couldn't get anyone to listen. Imagine that.

Who could forget the flag pole. When she moved into this house the Land lord had just removed a tree in the front yard. She wanted the flag pole moved from the rented duplex to this house. We dug up the flag pole along with the hardened concrete under the ground, transported it to its new location, and planted it in the ground concrete and all. Of course she wanted it right where the tree had been removed. It was a job to bore a hole down through the root system of the removed tree to set up the flag pole. I've found that everything has a solution. It's just a matter of how much work do you want to do to get it accomplished. So now we begin building memories in the new residence. Anyone ever had reflections of the ending of one thing and the beginning of another?

2010-05-19T17:43:00.000-05:00

Gravity Feed automatic watering system Part 1
For some time now .... years .... I've been wanting to use the derelict horse tank left over from Lydia's, my daughter, backyard swimming days to make a gravity feed automatic watering system. This is the year that I got inspired to try to accomplish the project.

The first task is to dig the trench for the foundation layer of concrete blocks. Digging in an urban backyard can be quite interesting. One never knows what treasures will be uncovered in the digging process. It could be a large chuck of concrete, or a golf ball about 1 1/2 feet down, or pieces of toys buried long ago from kids that probably have kids of there own.

The first step is what I call getting the anchor block set. It has to be perfectly level length wise and crosswise. The whole project will be built off of this one block. The trench is dug and packed with a hand packer to get a solid base under the block.

There are easier ways to do this, but this is the least expensive which I'm all about. It's an eight inch square tamper that weighs about 10 pounds. A couple good whacks and the dirt is compacted and ready to see if the block is level.

Oh, yeah, this works for me. It's good both ways and if it wasn't then the task becomes sprinkle and pack dirt on the low end or side of the block. Some blocks seem to fall right in place and others will just be stubborn and won't want to set right.

This is not bad for the first day's work. So far things are coming together just like I planned in my mind. Sometimes that doesn't always happen. What I see in my mind and what the project looks like when completed are not exactly the same.

I think I'm going to sit a spell, gulp down a couple asprin, hit the shower and grab some grub. I just don't think I'm as young as I once was but the good news is that I'm not as old as I will be. See you in the next segment of the project.

Leave a comment about what you think of the crazy notions of Old Nebraska Dave.

2010-05-18T19:39:00.000-05:00

Gravity Feed Watering System Part 2

Finally after day three the entire first level base has been completed. This first level has to be perfect. I really was a bit nervous when the last block was put in place. The two sides came together with acceptable parameters. I think it might have been off 1/16 inch. That's pretty good considering my amateur ways of doing things.

The next level is just a matter of setting the blocks in place on top of the base level. There's not too much skill involved at all. All looks good so far.

Three levels of height from the anchor block should give me enough pressure to run the drip watering system. Things are really starting to look like this just might work.

Remember I told that the secret is to pack it down, pack it down, pack it down. The final layer of dirt is packed down in preparation for the final layer which will be sand. Even that gets packed down. Most likely next year the tank need to be removed from the base to level it up again. I figure when the 1200 gallon tank is full the weight will be close to five tons.

Sand is a little easier to work with than dirt. It can be leveled and packed to a much better level. The final screed is being completed and the base will be finished. Pretty retaining wall blocks will surround the base later to make it look much more pleasant to the eyes.

The end of the base project meets with my approval. This is after a week of rain and day four of the project. I like the way this is all coming together.

Here's the moment of truth. Let's just see how level is the tank on the base. Hot dog it doesn't get any better than that. I just love it when a plan comes together don't you?

Excellent!! This project will not only water my garden but be home for fish and a water feature. Maybe that will be next year. I just want to want my garden this year. I am even formulating plans for rain barrel water from the roof to gravity feed into this system. One step at a time.

Be sure to leave a comment about what you think of the gravity feed watering system. I think I'm going to sit on the poor man's patio with a nice hot cup of coffee and watch those gainfully employed come home. (grin)

2010-05-17T19:40:00.000-05:00

Things are starting to bloom around the urban ranch

Things are starting to bloom around the Urban Ranch. I planted tulip, daffodil, and crocus last fall and they certainly have not disappointed me. I'm not sure what the official name for these tulips are but I call them "Tulips of fire." They are absolutely the best tulips that I have ever had on the ranch.

My black beauty tulips came into bloom right after the tulips of fire started winding down. They are now just about finished but the Iris are starting to come into full bloom. I am in need of reblooming day lilies and have been in hot pursuit of tracking down some for over planting the tulips. I have discovered that day lily roots are referred to as fans and the best I could find was about one dollar a fan. That's just a little more expensive than I thought it would be.

The daffodils certainly were in competition with the tulips. I had a double row of about 60 or 70 of these guys. Their bloom cycle is winding down and I actually dead headed their little shriveled blooms today. They did put on quite the display for the neighborhood for a couple weeks. I want to interplant day lilies in this flower bed to keep the area alive as the daffodils die down in early summer.

Lila has really out done herself this year. As I have said in past posts she has spent her entire life under Old Rose the redbud tree. She has blossomed incredibly well this year with full sun. The aroma is heavenly coming from all those blooms. I guess that’s just the way nature is. The death of one thing is replaced by the rising up of another. It will be wonderful to see how she takes over the Spring beauty display in the absence of Old Rose.

The Iris have just come into bloom. I call these the sea of Iris. I have actually cut a few stems and brought them into the house for decoration. I never got to do that before because of allergies that Dottie, my wife, had. It's a different kind of experience.

Well there you have it. The blooming urban ranch is really out doing itself this year. It's the best year that I've had in many years. I'm thinking the best is yet to come. There will be many projects for the summer. I'm working on one now and will blog about in a few days.

2010-04-03T17:04:00.000-05:00

What's Old Dave been up to in the Garden

I've always been told that potatoes need to be in the ground by Good Friday. I didn't quite make it. How about Good Saturday before Easter Sunday? I was looking around for a good buy on Yukon Gold potatoes which are my favorite. Lowes had a bag of 6 little spuds for $3. Are you kidding? I had a meeting in Council Bluffs and decided afterward to take a trip to one of my favorite nurseries in C.B. to check out the spud situation. Oh be still my heart. Would you believe 45 cents a pound. For a little more than $6.00 I brought home 15 pounds of precious seed spuds. I soon realized that was way too much and probably could have gotten by with about 5 pounds. That's a lot of potatoes for a 4 foot by 8 foot patch of ground.

2010-04-03T17:03:00.000-05:00

I loaded up the garden bed with as many potatoes as I could and still had a fourth of bucket left over. Next year I'll know not to buy so many. As the plants grow they need to have staw around them to keep the potatoes from peeking out of the ground and turning a toxic green. No eating green potatoes for me. That's the plan anyway. Keep them covered with straw.

2010-04-03T17:02:00.000-05:00

My plan for the new garden beds has worked so far. Last fall I filled up two new beds with heaping piles of the last lawn mowing of the season. It was mixture of crunched up leaves and grass. Over the Winter the heaping pile composted down to well below the top level of the bed. This allows for the second step of the plan which is to fill up the bed with top soil. It will be a good eight inches of top soil on top of the composting leaving and grass. It should be good for what ever grows there. This bed I'm working on will be onions and bell pepper plants. It's just a smidge to early for the peppers.

2010-04-03T17:01:00.000-05:00

There's just nothing like a good onion on, well, anything. I decided to plant Texas Sweet and Red Onion. The rest of this bed will be filled and planted in about another 3 to 4 weeks. I will contain the pepper plants and they need to be planted after Mother's Day. No frost for them or it will be death. It's really good to be out digging in the dirt again. I really need to expand my garden again as I'm running out of space fast.

2010-04-03T16:53:00.000-05:00

Update on starting the seeds.

Well I believe the process of starting seeds was correct but the end result was a big flop. The lessoned learned was always ALWAYS check your seed to see if it's good seed. After not getting good results from the little green house, I decided to check the seed to see if it could be sprouted. I placed about 6 or 8 seeds on a paper towel, folded it over, moistened it will a sponge, put the whole thing inside a ziploc bag and placed it on the heat mat. It should only take about 5 to 7 days to sprout a tomato seed. After 10 days still not a single seed sprouting. Dang Walmart seeds anyway. I have one more shot at growing tomato plants and then it will be back to the big box store for plants.

2010-01-26T18:20:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking

I've been thinking. Right there is a dangerous statement for sure. There's not much going on in the garden this time of year so it's time to start thinking about sprouting seeds. I've certainly tried that in the past with the end result being sprouted compost fodder. This year I've been thinking what I really need is a green house to sprout those seeds and bring them into strong healthy plants. Yeah, that's what I need. So with thoughts and plans of success racing through my head I set about the task of selecting just the right one to fit my needs.

Here's one that's very traditional, has lots of room to start seedlings and grow tender shoots in the Winter. Nice ventilation when it gets too hot. Ah, but, it's just not exactly right for what I was thinking. Maybe just a little bit smaller.

OK, now this one is a quaint little flower house. The price is better. It can be moved easily and will sprout and grow quite a lot for the money. It still allows standing which is a good thing. It's looking a lot better but it's still not quite right for what I had in mind. I'll just have to keep looking until I find just the right one.

OK, now that's what I'm talking about. Twelve little seed pods just waiting to be watered and planted with precious hybrid embryonic nuggets of life and only $3. Ah, now that's right in line with my budget. Those skillful master gardeners from Internet blogs claim the seed sprouting time is the most critical time during the growing of plants and recommend keeping them in a warm place. Hmmmm, I guess that would be right behind the coffee pot. Some might be saying, "Come on Dave isn't it just a little early in the year to start growing tomato plants." Well, normally that would be yes, but I am thinking that I probably will need to take a couple trial runs before really getting serious about doing this plant thing. If all else fails there's always the Walmart garden center to rescue me from black thumb disease. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures of Old Gardener Dave and his wonderful new greenhouse.

2010-01-21T19:48:00.000-06:00

Who says patios are only for summer?

Hey just hanging out on the patio reading my first seed catalog after cleaning the 12 inches of snow off the driveway. I always like to get that first catalog and begin anticipating the arrival of Spring.

Oh yeah starting to doze off after all that shoveling. I guess I better ease on into the house and settle down for a long Winter's nap.

2010-01-18T19:04:00.000-06:00

Winter Time Inspiration

Some gardeners dread the Winter months. Before Christmas is past Spring seed catalogs begin to appear in the mailbox. Planning and dreaming begins with the arrival of the first catalog. Flipping through the colorful pages over and over eases the passing hours and the thoughts of frigid temperatures outside slowly fade away. The lingering thoughts of tasty tomatoes from last season dance through my head and hopes of early warm weather could bring that taste back again by July 4th which is the goal of every gardener in this area.

The garden beds are under a blanket of snow until the melting March rains begin the process of warming the soil and bringing everything back to life once again. Nature’s cycle of life is steady, reliable, and never fails. All could take some lessons from Nature by living the slow steady simple lifestyle. Starting life for me was a wonderful carefree country life that every child should be able to experience. Distractions in life caused a journey away from those roots and 40 years later the trail has led back to the wonderful, slower, some what carefree, much simpler, life that was so cherished those many years ago. Although home now resides in the city, small time gardening, flower beds, composting, caring for the yard and house fill the days and give many joyful hours of pleasure. It can be a wonderful life if the perspective is right.

Many gardening projects are filling thoughts these days. Waiting patiently for the ground to soften will give way to digging, planting, and building. A fire pit, water feature, and patio are all on the drawing board for completion this next year. Big muscle and lots of energy will be required to make those dreams a reality. Perhaps not all will be completed this year, but time will tell just how many big ideas will be enjoyed by the years end. There’s always a time of rest, regrouping, and dreaming of more projects before next year arrives.

Sixty one days remain until the Spring equinox arrives which will begin the official time of Spring. Until then walking through the big box stores and reading the seed catalogs will have to suffice.

Experimental Crocus planting

2009-11-25T20:15:00.000-06:00

Experimental Crocus Planting

I've been reading about bulb planting. Jerry Baker, a well known master gardener, who has written many books about gardening, claims that Crocus can be planted right in the lawn. He claims that they will grow quite well and solves my question about what to do when the Crocus die back and there's nothing but dirt until the next Spring after blooming their hearts out. The claim is that they can just be mowed down with the grass with nary a concern and will rise up to bloom again the next year. Well, we will see.

The best method I could come up with was to dig a trench about 4 inches deep and the same in width. I did this by sinking my spade into the lawn about 5 inches then sinking the spade about 5 inches again about 4 inches behind the first. After two rows of sinking the spade into the lawn, I took my bare hands and reached under the sod and lifted it up and out of the 4 inch trench.
Well, there you have it. A four inch trench which is four inches wide all along the parking by the street. I figured if it will work there it will work any where.

The next step was to plant the 110 Crocus bulbs that I had ordered from Ebay. Yup, they came through the mail right to my door ready to be planted. All were health young bulbs ready to meet the dirt trench.

After the bulbs were carefully planted in the trench, the grass was rolled back into the trench and tamped down with a size 11 1/2 shoe stomp. Fifteen gallons of water poured on top of the now grass covered Crocus and the job was completed. It almost looks as if nothing has been disturbed.

Now we wait to see if it's true what old master gardener Jerry says or if I just end up with a dead strip of grass to contend with in the Spring. With all the digging, planting, stomping, and watering, I think I'll just sit a spell on the poor man's patio and enjoy the warm fall weather.

Not much gardening going on.

2009-11-14T11:34:00.000-06:00

Fall Bulb planting

The gardening ended October 10th with four inches of snow. The aftermath has been cleanup from leaf drop and flower bed cleanup from dead foliage. Here in this picture the flower bed is being prepared for Spring bulb planting. Space for the 60 daffodils and the 30 tulips really doesn't take all that long. As you can see the leaf drop continues which makes it the fourth time to rake and use leaves for mulch and compost.

A quick inspired trip to Lowe's nets clearance sale bulbs for the prepared bed. Just a little work in the fall will pop with beauty in the Spring time. The plan is to over plant this area with day lilies in the Spring. Usually by June the Spring bulb display is done and by July the area is back to dirt which makes for a dismal display area the rest of the summer. Day lilies will pick perk up the display just as the tulip and daffodil starting winding down. That's the plan anyway.

Here's the bulbs all laid out and ready to be planted the proper depth of 6 inches with the pointy side up. I can't tell you how many bulbs I've planted the wrong way. It just seems natural that the pointy side should go down, but it's wrong. The next couple days have a weather forecast of rain which should be good for the bulbs. Then it's mulch up all those leaves you saw in the first picture and use it to cover up the bulbs with a protective blanket until Spring. When the weather breaks in the Spring, off comes the blanket and wait for the display to begin. Hopefully, that's how it will work.

I couldn't find any Crocus at Lowe's or any other place including Mulhall's nursery. I really like Crocus because it's always the first up in the Spring even if they have to come up through the snow. I haven't had any Spring time flowers since I put in the poor man's patio last year. I really missed them this Spring. Anyway I went to ebay to find more bulbs. I have 120 Crocus and another 12 Tulips on the way. According to Jerry Baker, a master gardener that has written many gardening books, Crocus can be planted right in the lawn and usually by the time they are done with flowering the yard will need it's first mow down, which he claims will not hurt them for the next year. What a novel idea. I'm going to try that out and see how it works.

Next year should be an exciting year for gardening. I haven't even started thinking about what to do with the poor man's patio's living wall. The living wall is the main picture of the blog.

Preserving the harvest

2009-10-14T17:51:00.000-05:00

I tried my best to give away all the produce that I could but still I had much left to preserve. I had doubts about whether I could remember how to use the canning equipment and if the proceedures had changed any since I last canned 20 some years ago. I aquired all the stuff to can and set out to try something not so hard which was just tomatoes for winter soups. This progressed into full soup production as you see in the above picture. When meat is involved in soup, pressure canning must be the only canning proceedure allowed.

Here we are locked and loaded and ready to apply heat which will begin the process of pressure canning. After about 90 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure the soups ready to be removed from the canner. This year I have preserved many quarts of vegetable beef soup and straight up tomatoes. Next year I might get into pickles and jellies. It's hard to say what will come out of Old Dave's garden. For this year the garden is pretty much done and the planning of next year's garden begins.

It sure feels a lot like Winter!!

2009-10-13T15:04:00.001-05:00

With the wonderful snow we had here it knocked down all the leaves from my front yard tree. Of course the Sickamore tree will dribble all Winter and half the Spring just because it can. So I don't worry about the leaves on that tree. They fall when they fall. I had a nice tidy yard last Friday but things happened over the weekend. Old Chomper my lawn mower didn't want to come out of the shed and start. He kept saying that it wasn't his job to deal with cold and snow. He told me to go wake up Stormie, my snow blower, cause that's what she likes. However with a little coaxing he decided to come to life and help with the munching of the leaves for the compost pile.

A total yard rake down was necessary to get all the leaves, sticks, bottle caps, and other assorted things left from a summer frolicking through the yard. It went faster than I anticipated and in just a little over a couple hours the deed was completed.

I'm still piling the yard waste stuff on the garden beds with a hopeful idea the it will be composted enough over the Winter to turn under and make wonderful growing medium for the vegetables. I'm in the stages of considering just what kind of plants to grow next year. I've been taking a poll of the neighbors around me and so far tomatoes and cucumbers are ahead by a long way. I am considering cucumbers and possibly some pickle making next year. A friend says it's easy because Walmart sells pickles in a package. All one has to do is mix up the package in some vinegar, slice up the cukes, and pack them in the jars. You really don't even have to can them if you don't want too. She just let them marinate the designated time and ate them right away. She gave me a jar and they are delicious. It can't get any easier than that.

Well, cleaned up for now. There's still a bunch of leaves on the trees around the neighborhood so I expect in another week or so I'll be dragging old Chomper back out of the shed kicking and being his grumpy self. But for now I can kick back brew up a cup of coffee and sit out on the Poor Man's patio and enjoy the nice fall weather. I love this retirement stuff.

Winter comes just a little early

2009-10-10T08:39:00.001-05:00

Oh my word, I awoke today on October 10th and what an amazing sight I did see. Just yesterday I was sitting out on the front patio sipping a cup of coffee, basking in the sunshine, watching the neighbors come home from work. Life was good. Today I wake up to a Courier and Ive's painting. It's a beautiful sight, but I just wish it was a little closer to Christms before the winter snows begin.

Building Continues

2009-10-10T08:22:00.000-05:00

To hold the plant support structure steady, braces are here being cut. They are screwed into the uprights and into the land scape timbers. It took a few more 2X2s then I expected. I started with 16 thinking that would be enough for two, but I neglected to take into account the bracing that was needed. When the structure was all finished it actually took about 12 instead of the 8 that I had calulated.
The last round of timbers were attached after the uprights were in place and relatively vertical. The squaring up process came after the cross pieces were in place and before the bracing began. It all came together quite nicely.

Finally the project was finished. The compst material taken from mowing the yard a couple days earlier has been spread in the beds waiting for the winter weather to turn it into mush. In the spring the compost will be turned under in preparation for planting. Now that all the fall work is completed planning for Spring will begin. I usually get my first garden seed catalog right around Christmas time. It's always such a joy to be able to start thinking about Spring after the holiday bustle is over.

Building Building Building

2009-10-06T16:24:00.001-05:00

I've been sawing and building the day way. I had some issues along the way.

Three beds will be the limit for this year. I'll have to plan the beds and then hope to just rotate them from year to year with adjustments of course.

As you can see I've made concrete patio walk ways between the beds. I thought about just having grass then decided to use the patio blocks I've had setting around the place for some years. It just seemed like a good use for them.

I've started building the 8 foot support stucture on the middle bed. That's where the tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, and beans will go next Spring. In the right bed I want to grow potatoes because I do like and eat a lot of potatoes. In the left bed I want to put the salad stuff. As of now it will be lettuce, onions, chard, carrots, and maybe a couple peppers. At this point all this is just bouncing around in my head. I'll need to get serious about planning the beds when the holidays are over and the first seed catalog arrives. That's always a good indicator that it's time to start seriously planning the Spring time garden.

I struggled a bit with the drilling of the holes for the spikes that hold the land scaping timbers together. My old 40 year old drill just quit right in the middle of hole drilling. The cordless drill just didn't have enough grit to drill the half inch holes in the timbers. I'll either have to figure out what is the matter with the old drill or go buy a new one. I'm seriously leaning toward a new one. I think 40 yeas of service is a goodly amount for a drill. If the next one lasts that long it will become an inheritance for one of the kids.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another good day so hopefully I can get the rest done and settle down for a long winter's nap.

More materials

2009-10-05T17:55:00.000-05:00

Well as you can see there's more materials for the support structure and more timbers for the beds, but not much more work completed. Today was a dreary day with a threat of rain. The choice was mow the grass which was much needed or work on the garden beds. Since the grass was about two weeks over due and soon to become a back yard wild life habitat, mowing the grass was the choice made. After the lawn was mowed I decided to make a run to my second favorite store, Lowe's, and pick up the rest of the materials to build the three garden beds. Of course a stop at Border's book store for a cup of coffee and a leisurely hour spent reading magazines I'm too cheap to buy was in order on the way home.

Here you can see my composting bins. As you can see the lawn debris fell into two catagories. On the left was the green back yard clippings without much leaf mulch. On the right was the front yard almost completely leaf mulch. Some review is needed before mixing the two together. I seem to remember there is a ratio of green to brown in a compost pile. I'll mix the two and pile it upon the garden beds for the winter. By Spring the mix should be quite composted and ready for growing veggies.

By the end of the week the beds should be made and the support structures built. Ok, well, let's wait and see what happens.

Beginning Garden Tour

2009-10-03T09:59:00.000-05:00

This is the beginning of the tour. It's a extremely fall looking view of the front of the house which has the backyard which has the start of the bio intensive urban garden. It's just your typical 40 year old neighborhood house with a average lot size of 50 foot wide by 100 foot deep. So let's walk around the side of the house toward the backyard.
This is the way to the backyard. Through the chain link fence gate which is typical for the 60s built house. Along the way you can see the very spent Iris that will become either compost or yard waste in the near future. It still needs a little tidying up which is for another day. Let's get through the gate and around the corner to see the site for the garden.
You can see the garden plot way off in the distance beside the bush on the left side. As you can see what's supposed to be the backyard patio has become the storeage place for the building materials for other yard projects. These materials have accumulated over the last couple years from projects for other people. I have a side yard that looks like a construction site but has just about enough materials to complete the side patio next year. I have no lack of project ideas to keep me busy for a long time. Now if I could just concintrate of my projects instead of helping with other people's projects. Oh well it's just in my nature to help others first and then if there's time do my own projects.
Finally we come to the project at hand. The mission as I have chosen to accept is to build three 4X8 foot garden beds. The one on the right has been designated a garden area for 20 some years, but has only actually grown vegetables a couple years at the first building of the bed and the last two years. The other 15 plus years it was a wild life habitat that grew many species of insects and weeds. Originally, this area was double dug and enriched with peat and compost. I can't remember what I grew there but I think I covered the area with lawn clippings. The lawn clipping fresh from the yard idea didn't work to well as it heated up, packed down, and got moldy within a couple weeks. It really needs to be composted first. This first bed orginally started with two layers of landscaping timbers and this fall I decided to add another layer so as it stands now it's three layers high. That's about 10 inches of depth from ground level. As I mow the yard the last time this year, I plan on bagging the grass leaf mixture and dumping it in the eventual three beds that will all be three layers high. I'm hoping this will give the mixture a chance to compost down over the winter. Next spring I will double dig the new beds and fluff up the old bed and give the top a good spread of more compost to retain moisture and inhibit weed growth.

The long skinny poles on the path between the beds will be used to build the support for the vertical growth on the new bed on the left. Rough plans for this area will be to plant tomatoes, pole beans, and cucumbers. These plans are all up to change.

It's been kind of yucky weather with misty rain and high winds the last couple days which prevented me from working in the garden or yard much.

That's it for today. I hope to have more completed in a couple days.

First Garden Post

2009-10-01T19:13:00.000-05:00

This will be the first of many posts to track the escapades of Old Dave as he tip toes through the tulips to the biointensive backyard urban garden. What you may ask is a biointensive backyard urban garden? It is a intensive gardening method that is catching on in small city backyards or vacant areas within the cities. This method uses vertical growing techniques that require building supports for vegetables to be trained to grow up instead of letting them sprawl on the ground. The above picture is obviously not my backyard but it gives a look at what biointensive gardening is all about. This is a picture of a Pasidena California backyard that feeds a family of 4 from about 1/3 acre. They have been at the back yard gardening for 15 years so I have a ways to go. For those of you old enough to remember it's kind of like the World War II victory garden on steriods.

The patio main picture is actually my front patio that I build last year and certainly enjoyed this year. I call it the poor man's living patio because the bricks are really not bricks but a colored concrete patio block made to look like bricks. It's way cheaper than actual bricks and doesn't look really too bad.

So off we go on the gardening adventure in Old Dave's backyard. It will be a wonderful trip with planning, digging, building, planting, watering, growing, feeding, harvesting and preserving.