Gardening
Re: Gardening
Hi Stuart,
Yes, I am using old feed bags and newspapers in this process. When Carl and I mulched the strip along the fence, I first put down feed bags, old cardboard and newspapers, layered landscape cloth over that and put mulch atop that. Did the same for the pallet bed.
Carl has the garden paths mostly dug out and to my eyes, it is art. So, I'm heading out to put down feed bags and newspaper over which I'll lay the landscape cloth. When I recover from that effort, I'll lay down mulch. In the meantime, I've got to get going and start weeding the beds so I can add in the veggie starts.
We've been to SF a few times and find it delightful.
Yes, I am using old feed bags and newspapers in this process. When Carl and I mulched the strip along the fence, I first put down feed bags, old cardboard and newspapers, layered landscape cloth over that and put mulch atop that. Did the same for the pallet bed.
Carl has the garden paths mostly dug out and to my eyes, it is art. So, I'm heading out to put down feed bags and newspaper over which I'll lay the landscape cloth. When I recover from that effort, I'll lay down mulch. In the meantime, I've got to get going and start weeding the beds so I can add in the veggie starts.
We've been to SF a few times and find it delightful.
Moderation is for monks. To enjoy life, take big bites.
-------Lazarus Long
-------Lazarus Long
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Re: Gardening
Well, with the exception of finishing off the entry arch, the "heavy lifting" is for the most part done. The beds will only be raised by about 5 or six inches, and three or four of that was dug down to where the rototiller didn't reach and we had hard-packed soil that would have been a nightmare to move with a simple shovel. (I'm not licensed to use explosives -- I should put that on my to-do list.) The nicely-tilled soil was all shovelled up into the bed areas which now have large mounds of the stuff in them. Landscape cloth and mulch goes into the paths next.sapphire wrote:Carl has the garden paths mostly dug out and to my eyes, it is art.
We've had the arch for several years, and this time I'm actually going to properly anchor it so it doesn't blow over in thunderstorms (which it did several times in each of the past few years. It's a pre-fab, my woodworking skills coming in a vast distance behind Kirbstone's, but it's pretty enough and Sapphire and I like it.
I really want to get out to the west coast again before I check off this planet. The only place I think I've been out there that I didn't much like was Los Angeles, but that may have been situational issues.We've been to SF a few times and find it delightful.
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Re: Gardening
Carl,
I want to thank you for all of the heavy lifting that you have done in the garden. Even unfinished (my job to finish) the plot is gorgeous! I was so pleasantly surprised to see the trellis arch up when I came home after running around trying to get insulin for TeddyBear.
So my work is cut out. Unwrap all those old newspapers and put them down in the path, lay down the landscape cloth and start to mulch. At the same time, level off the beds, pull the weeds out and plant the starts.
Its an adventure!
I want to thank you for all of the heavy lifting that you have done in the garden. Even unfinished (my job to finish) the plot is gorgeous! I was so pleasantly surprised to see the trellis arch up when I came home after running around trying to get insulin for TeddyBear.
So my work is cut out. Unwrap all those old newspapers and put them down in the path, lay down the landscape cloth and start to mulch. At the same time, level off the beds, pull the weeds out and plant the starts.
Its an adventure!
Moderation is for monks. To enjoy life, take big bites.
-------Lazarus Long
-------Lazarus Long
Re: Gardening
Nah!,
The trick is to go and admire other peoples' gardens. We visited Lismore, Co. Waterford yesterday which has a large fairy-tale castle dating from 1185, but much added-to over the years. The Cavendishes, Dukes of Devonshire married into the Boyle family who owned it in the early 17th Century & they have it to this day. It has a stupendous very old garden which we wandered round.
I spotted this non-branching rather straggly palm, which my MM says is a type of Date Palm. At least it survived long enough to attain that height. I also spotted this very new, professionally made movable hen coup in the Duke's orchard, which I think is far too cramped. The 'Lower garden' slopes down to the river Blackwater under the castle and has glorious walks &c. T.
The trick is to go and admire other peoples' gardens. We visited Lismore, Co. Waterford yesterday which has a large fairy-tale castle dating from 1185, but much added-to over the years. The Cavendishes, Dukes of Devonshire married into the Boyle family who owned it in the early 17th Century & they have it to this day. It has a stupendous very old garden which we wandered round.
I spotted this non-branching rather straggly palm, which my MM says is a type of Date Palm. At least it survived long enough to attain that height. I also spotted this very new, professionally made movable hen coup in the Duke's orchard, which I think is far too cramped. The 'Lower garden' slopes down to the river Blackwater under the castle and has glorious walks &c. T.
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Re: Gardening
Those are beautiful pics, Tom, but I'm afraid we don't have enough serfs to care for such an expanse. We're very much on our own, and one step away from becoming serfs given the way our societal system is headed.
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Re: Gardening
Sigh. Wonderful pix. We will just do the best we can in this little plot we call home. I am very excited about how the garden is turning out and I am most grateful to Carl for the work that he has done.
Moderation is for monks. To enjoy life, take big bites.
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Re: Gardening
Not enough serfs!sapphire wrote:Sigh. Wonderful pix.
I still need to do some minor truing-up on the arch (some lines are completely plumb, some are a quarter-bubble out, and some are off-scale and need to be fixed). I'll likely get this done in the next day or two and then do the concrete pour (and I have already been warned in no uncertain terms to NOT perform the mix in the weelbarrow; the tone in Sapphire's voice makes Marlon Brando's Godfather sound like a complete and total wuss). I'll probably do this in two stages to facilitate the torquing of the structure that needs to be done.We will just do the best we can in this little plot we call home.
Sapphire says it's OK as is, but the engineer (and wannabe architect) in me wants to get it all squared up.
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A Work in Progress
Ask and ye shall receive!Kirbstone wrote:Pics of this Arc-de-Triumph would be nice.
Here we are looking roughly northwest. In the background is a moderate-sized chicken-coop that will (hopefully) soon be populated with birds and will have a 6' high fence around it to keep the chickens in and, hopefully, predators out. Towards the right is Sapphire's experimental "pallet garden" which is surrounded by cinder-blocks filled with potting soil with plants therein.
Here's a shot looking roughly east-southeast. It's funny that when I shot this image the arch looked like it was badly tilted off to the right -- which it isn't; I'd lined the camera up with the ground, and we're on the side of a hill. I had to rotate the image 4.2 degrees anti-clockwise to bring the arch vertical. Also visible in this shot are the shallow trenches that will become the paths and the piles of soil that will become the raised beds. And lots of weeds.
In this shot, if one looks closely at the lines of the arch, one can see the torque on the structure that I need to remove. It acquired this by being left on the ground for the winter (having been blown over a number of times last year in thunderstorms) at an odd angle.
Grounding it: These will be the footings once I acquire some concrete, something to mix it in, and actually pour it.
There's still lots to do. I need to figure out how much mulch to order for the paths (I just need to get off my backside and do some simple arithmetic) and Sapphire now needs to get the landscape cloth down in the paths before we can lay the mulch in. Sapphire also needs to get rid of the weeds; my remit was the digging and dirt-moving -- she gets to do the light stuff.
Then there's the fence around the chicken-coop....
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No wonder I'm ruddy hot and tired!
I just ran the math about how much mulch we're going to need to fill the pathways in the garden -- which is, circumstantially, roughly how much dirt I've moved. It's roughly 3.5 cubic yards [0]! No surprise, then that I'm wringing wet from exertion in the noon-day sun.
By way of comparison, Sapphire's pickup truck holds only two cubic yards -- and with that much mulch in the bed it completely sacks the springs out. Dirt is substantially heavier than that.
[0] I originally ran the numbers in cubic inches, and the precise number was 161,280 of the little bastards -- and I feel each and every one of them! (That's just shy of 700 (US) gallons to fill the thing -- if we weren't on the side of a hill where most of it'd run off.)
By way of comparison, Sapphire's pickup truck holds only two cubic yards -- and with that much mulch in the bed it completely sacks the springs out. Dirt is substantially heavier than that.
[0] I originally ran the numbers in cubic inches, and the precise number was 161,280 of the little bastards -- and I feel each and every one of them! (That's just shy of 700 (US) gallons to fill the thing -- if we weren't on the side of a hill where most of it'd run off.)
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Re: Gardening
Today was a busy one, on a couple of fronts -- both mental and physical, and I like that mix.
On the mental side, my sailling pal e-mailled me a file that he thought contained the track from our jaunt on 2012-06-08 where we ran into two separate thunderstorms and had to get the main down in one heck of a hurry in potentially treacherous waters. Unfortunately, the file format was binary and completely undocumented (It's magic! Why should we document it!). Undeterred by the lack of doco, I dumped the thing in hexadecimal and started looking for tell-tale signatures and marks. This is not unlike cryptography and code-breaking. After about an hour and a half of staring at the raw data I picked out a pattern, and within another hour had the thing cracked. Time and location fell into my recollection, and the weather RADAR images I archive pointed out that we were well into a nasty red blob when we needed to get the mainsail down. I e-mailled the corresponding track record to my pal, along with the time-synchronised RADAR image. The response contained one word: "WOW".
On the physical side, I drew up a list of items for Sapphire to pick up today so I could get a running start on the garden before the temperatures get up into the 90s mid-week. When I got home, I noticed no pickup-truck in the driveway, but assorted asked-for bits left on the lawn (2x4s, garden-hose, shims, and concrete). So I got to work, shored up the trellis-arch for proper anchoring, tweaked the torque out of it, plumbed and trued it up, and had the concrete curing before Sapphire turned up again with the bed of her truck filled with two cubic yards of mulch (I like working trucks; it's the little weenies that use them as single-passenger commuter vehicles that I have absolutely no use for whatsoever.) -- which I went on to empty and put into the walkways between what will be the raised beds in the garden. The same thing will happen tomorrow, after which my remit will be complete; the paths will be done and the arch will be finished.
Needless to say, I'm rather tired and am looking forward to a good night's sleep.
I'll be back on the briny again on Friday, this time with the all-up crew for the big run in early July which should be a good time. This time I need to remember my sighting compass and take a few fixes. The track from the 2012-06-08 cruise pointed out just how fast one actually moves when close in to land -- five minutes makes a big difference!
On the mental side, my sailling pal e-mailled me a file that he thought contained the track from our jaunt on 2012-06-08 where we ran into two separate thunderstorms and had to get the main down in one heck of a hurry in potentially treacherous waters. Unfortunately, the file format was binary and completely undocumented (It's magic! Why should we document it!). Undeterred by the lack of doco, I dumped the thing in hexadecimal and started looking for tell-tale signatures and marks. This is not unlike cryptography and code-breaking. After about an hour and a half of staring at the raw data I picked out a pattern, and within another hour had the thing cracked. Time and location fell into my recollection, and the weather RADAR images I archive pointed out that we were well into a nasty red blob when we needed to get the mainsail down. I e-mailled the corresponding track record to my pal, along with the time-synchronised RADAR image. The response contained one word: "WOW".
On the physical side, I drew up a list of items for Sapphire to pick up today so I could get a running start on the garden before the temperatures get up into the 90s mid-week. When I got home, I noticed no pickup-truck in the driveway, but assorted asked-for bits left on the lawn (2x4s, garden-hose, shims, and concrete). So I got to work, shored up the trellis-arch for proper anchoring, tweaked the torque out of it, plumbed and trued it up, and had the concrete curing before Sapphire turned up again with the bed of her truck filled with two cubic yards of mulch (I like working trucks; it's the little weenies that use them as single-passenger commuter vehicles that I have absolutely no use for whatsoever.) -- which I went on to empty and put into the walkways between what will be the raised beds in the garden. The same thing will happen tomorrow, after which my remit will be complete; the paths will be done and the arch will be finished.
Needless to say, I'm rather tired and am looking forward to a good night's sleep.
I'll be back on the briny again on Friday, this time with the all-up crew for the big run in early July which should be a good time. This time I need to remember my sighting compass and take a few fixes. The track from the 2012-06-08 cruise pointed out just how fast one actually moves when close in to land -- five minutes makes a big difference!
Retrocomputing -- It's not just a job, it's an adventure!
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Re: Gardening
Good heavens Carl, how do find enough time to go to work? 

Stuart Gallion
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Back in my skirts in San Francisco
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Back in my skirts in San Francisco
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Re: Gardening
Progress on the garden railway...
Yesterday I finished off laying a road through to the new jetty, and this completes the essential access between the village (to be) at Watersmede, and the main thoroughfare passing behind the station. The new jetty was infilled and erected to make better use of an area prone to flooding. No JCBs were required as we are, of course, talking 1:19 scale.
A new range of buildings is now under way. A loco shed is being constructed in the 'works' and a platform building with waiting room and segregated toilet facilities is almost complete save for half the pantiled roofing to be added tomorrow. This is cast in resin and is a smelly job. All buildings are of cast rapid set cement, sealed with sand and PVA grouting, and thoroughly weather resistant. They will be left out in situ come rain or shine...well, for my lifetime at least. They all use the JigStones cast and build method - my invention of this was over 20 years ago and I've only just got around to actually using it for myself! I'll post some pics sometime as the buildings I planned making back in the early 90's begin to at last come together.
A new diesel freelance outline battery loco kit has been ordered mainly for use on sand trains which are currently being hauled by the company's track inspection car - not an ideal unit, but I just can't be bothered flaffing around with firing up any steam power. My newest steam loco, a lovely little job which ran as sweet as a nut, was sadly resold last year to help finance the costly upgrading of electronic organ equipment. This leaves just two steamers both now of almost antique quality, one radio controlled and the other not.
That's the back garden - a strange world of trackwork and landscaping. Maybe next year, if enough progress has been made, I might see if an open day for charity can be arranged with the local kid's hospice. All kinds of minefields there I would think with possibly public liability insurance costs involved and getting safety measures in place. I shall have to look into it. Obviously this won't involve the hospice patients themselves, but would be aimed at any locals who support it.
The front garden is looking far more conventional. The strawberries are colouring up now almost ready for accompanying some Devon clotted cream, and the bedding plants are either in full bloom or just coming to the boil (lupins and foxgloves are very slow here this year). The lawn gets cut and edge trimmed once a week, weather permitting, and everything is looking dandy.
Yesterday I finished off laying a road through to the new jetty, and this completes the essential access between the village (to be) at Watersmede, and the main thoroughfare passing behind the station. The new jetty was infilled and erected to make better use of an area prone to flooding. No JCBs were required as we are, of course, talking 1:19 scale.
A new range of buildings is now under way. A loco shed is being constructed in the 'works' and a platform building with waiting room and segregated toilet facilities is almost complete save for half the pantiled roofing to be added tomorrow. This is cast in resin and is a smelly job. All buildings are of cast rapid set cement, sealed with sand and PVA grouting, and thoroughly weather resistant. They will be left out in situ come rain or shine...well, for my lifetime at least. They all use the JigStones cast and build method - my invention of this was over 20 years ago and I've only just got around to actually using it for myself! I'll post some pics sometime as the buildings I planned making back in the early 90's begin to at last come together.
A new diesel freelance outline battery loco kit has been ordered mainly for use on sand trains which are currently being hauled by the company's track inspection car - not an ideal unit, but I just can't be bothered flaffing around with firing up any steam power. My newest steam loco, a lovely little job which ran as sweet as a nut, was sadly resold last year to help finance the costly upgrading of electronic organ equipment. This leaves just two steamers both now of almost antique quality, one radio controlled and the other not.
That's the back garden - a strange world of trackwork and landscaping. Maybe next year, if enough progress has been made, I might see if an open day for charity can be arranged with the local kid's hospice. All kinds of minefields there I would think with possibly public liability insurance costs involved and getting safety measures in place. I shall have to look into it. Obviously this won't involve the hospice patients themselves, but would be aimed at any locals who support it.
The front garden is looking far more conventional. The strawberries are colouring up now almost ready for accompanying some Devon clotted cream, and the bedding plants are either in full bloom or just coming to the boil (lupins and foxgloves are very slow here this year). The lawn gets cut and edge trimmed once a week, weather permitting, and everything is looking dandy.
Re: Gardening
Carl,
Serious work by the sound of it, and Diane must be delighted. Great calculations on the nav/weather/seafaring front, too. A bit beyond me, I'm afraid. I submit however a pic. of a really useful instrument you may perhaps not have included in your inventory to take on board. They say they're compact and work well while yer-arm is pointing in the right direction! It's a wrist sundial. With our forthcoming blue water cruise coming up within a week I have at last heard from my skipper. He thinks we ought to help cash-strappped Greece out and visit several of their nearby islands from our Turkish base start. My problem with that is, I've just stocked up on Turkish Lirasi and planned to take only limited Euros. But what the hell! It'll be fun, anyway.
Mugman!,
Fantastic work on the railway and I'd love to come to your 'open day'. Pics would be great. I suppose the local people who run fetes might be able to advise you on public liability for that. About four thousand years ago I ran the annual fete at our village, Rotherwick, near Basingstoke, Hants and I seem to remember my normal insurance broker arranging a day's cover for very little money.
T.
Serious work by the sound of it, and Diane must be delighted. Great calculations on the nav/weather/seafaring front, too. A bit beyond me, I'm afraid. I submit however a pic. of a really useful instrument you may perhaps not have included in your inventory to take on board. They say they're compact and work well while yer-arm is pointing in the right direction! It's a wrist sundial. With our forthcoming blue water cruise coming up within a week I have at last heard from my skipper. He thinks we ought to help cash-strappped Greece out and visit several of their nearby islands from our Turkish base start. My problem with that is, I've just stocked up on Turkish Lirasi and planned to take only limited Euros. But what the hell! It'll be fun, anyway.
Mugman!,
Fantastic work on the railway and I'd love to come to your 'open day'. Pics would be great. I suppose the local people who run fetes might be able to advise you on public liability for that. About four thousand years ago I ran the annual fete at our village, Rotherwick, near Basingstoke, Hants and I seem to remember my normal insurance broker arranging a day's cover for very little money.
T.
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Re: Gardening
This is the loco shed under construction...

You can easily see the JigStones block format. The top of the roof will be a ventilated affair.
This is where it will eventually go...

The platform building is also coming along. This shows a model after the sand/PVA grouting has been added...

The pantile roofing is cast from a mould in sections, using a car body filler.
Here's the new jetty area earmarked for some kind of fishing community. The red bricks will be cosmetically veneered in a flagstone finish...

...and this is the front garden...

Pete

You can easily see the JigStones block format. The top of the roof will be a ventilated affair.
This is where it will eventually go...

The platform building is also coming along. This shows a model after the sand/PVA grouting has been added...

The pantile roofing is cast from a mould in sections, using a car body filler.
Here's the new jetty area earmarked for some kind of fishing community. The red bricks will be cosmetically veneered in a flagstone finish...

...and this is the front garden...

Pete
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Re: Gardening
Those are very nice shots, Pete, and your front garden is exquisite! The works in progress are coming alone very nicely indeed.
Thank goodness the fish arent to scale with the railway -- they'd be monsters.
Thank goodness the fish arent to scale with the railway -- they'd be monsters.
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