Jayzus it's hot!

Wow... as I type it's 100°F and climbing and the forecast is even hotter tomorrow... My home office feels more like a place to bake cookies than make photos. The chickens are miserable, standing around under the deck panting. I gave them some ice water and some frozen blueberries, but they still look very unhappy. And poor Delilah is molting... although, losing some feathers in this weather doesn't sound so bad. Chickens are notoriously grumpy when they are molting, and she's gone from the friendliest to down right mean. I tell her it will be over soon, but she looks at me incredulously, then tries to take a piece out of my hand. Poor girl.
I'm sure the tomatoes and peppers are enjoying this, though. The rest of us will just have to lay low [like in the basement...] and wait it out. And probably watch a lot of movies.

Garden Box revisited

Well, its time to visit the newest garden box in the front yard. If you look back earlier, you'll see that this box was just built and filled this year. Through the miracle of photosynthesis and time, we're now on the cusp of a nice crop of Poblano Peppers.



As well as peppers, we've have Swiss Chard, Blue Lake Bush Beans and Snow Peas growing in the box, all planted in various phases so that we can harvest them in succession. This means that when the peppers are done, the peas will have more sun. As you can see, the bean plants are getting quite large. As we eat the chard the beans will get more sun to make more beans. Also, the shade the chard receives right now keeps it cooler in the sun, keeping it from bolting and extending the harvest.


It's been a fun little mini-garden to watch. Hanmi has been diligently removing the nasty bugs and giving a good watering every other morning or so. I think we'll create 1 new garden box each year and try different things. Today we saw someone growing corn in theirs! Last year's box is overflowing with pumpkins and soy beans. Yummy fun arrives in October.

The morning harvest

While puttering around in the garden yesterday morning, I couldn't help but notice how lovely the fruit & veggies & eggs looked when I set them down to attend a tomato plant... so I ran in and got the camera.

A full quart of blueberries, 4 eggs, and a half pound of beans... not bad for a 3500 sf. urban lot! I can't wait for tomato season!

Garden box o' leftovers [mostly]

On a hot summer day, we decided to build another planter box for the front yard. In our ever-growing need to expand our garden, we're always hunting around for nice designs that satisfy a few requirements:

• Pleasant to look at
• Pleasant to work with
• Holds dirt, won't rot quickly
• Good drainage
  
• Above doggie pee height
• Uses up some leftover building materials
  

It was a perfect day to take out the tools (table saw, miter saw, skill saw, drills and hardware) and use a bit more of our cedar woodpile. The rosewood stain and Trex decking make everything nice colors. The Trex top also makes a great bench, making a fun place to hang out while chatting with neighbors or just plucking weeds. We hope to have something popping up in about 3 weeks.

Hanmi came up with this design last year and it's held up well. The oil keeps it from rotting.

Here are some peechurs!

The staples can come out... they were a quick way to hold the end framing together prior to assembling the box. Also, the triangle braces for the Trex are the leftover miter cuts from the end frames. Overall we had very little waste.

Here you can see the original "prototype" for the planter on the left. It has been supplying us with lettuce, garlic, mustard & kale greens all spring. Next season crop is already on the way: pumpkins and soybeans! The only difference is the prototype was made with 3/4" plywood leftovers [the first box was made entirely of scraps].

Being fresh out of 3/4" ply, we got some 1"x6"x6' cedar fence boards and used those full length. The end panels were made with leftover 1/2 plywood framed with a leftover 2x6 that had been ripped in half.

words by Jim, photos by Hanmi

Home Again

Well, its one week late in posting, but we are now back home. Our bags took a few more days than everything else, so there was some consternation for a bit, however everything is fine now. Flying the route Santiago to Miami to Seattle to Portland across 2 airlines is a bit messy.

Of course, returning home always presents the new challenges of "gearing up" for the routines you left. Mail, work, taxes and the rainy season are here. Well, its nothing we can't handle in stride.

The trip was fun and we'll be hosting several dinners soon with friends to show slides and tell stories.

We're eternally grateful to Susan, our longtime friend who watched over the house for the weeks we were away. As she explains, getting used to a half-remodeled bathroom, a chicken coop and three dogs (one her own) every day was a chore. She handled the job beautifully, and even managed a few small crises.

Since we were gone over the Christmas holidays, we're a bit behind in actually sending out the paper cards, but we'll be writing letters soon.

Other than that, there's a few more reviews of places in Patagonia, but I think everyone would just rather look at photos ;) So we'll put together a few more posts soon, stay tuned.