Predated Clouds

The date is right, I just got lazy and delayed a week before posting these. All were taken in a car (with a dirty windshield) on the way to and from NH. I wasn't driving...

First Butterflies of Spring

Well, the first ones to sit still. Probably a Cabbage White and two Spring Azures. All can be seen at Broadmoor right now.

Finishing Touch

Found some cheap handles that look vaguely plant like for my crates.

Unexpected Free Time

Due to the MA holiday today I didn't have work, which was a nice surprise. With all my sudden free time I played in the garden a little, arranging rocks from our crumbling rock wall for a rock garden, and planting the raspberries in a planting bed rather than in pots. All the berries are going to be caged better this year, since the birds think they're ready to pick just a day before we think they are. Last year we got 5 blueberries. I didn't get to building the actual cage yet, but have some ideas. It started raining before I got too far with it. Once it started raining I decided I'd make my kitchen less of a death trap again. In my shopping for scrap wood my kitchen has a tendency to sprout boards and planks leaning against all available surfaces. One of my dogs is convinced that all of them are going to kill him, so eventually stops going in the kitchen, at which point it's time to build something out of the junk. Over the weekend ikea had a free breakfast so I got to chauffeur Mom to and fro and bought some shelves while I was there. I was planning on hanging some shop lights off them so I could get all four double bulb 4 foot shop lights lined up to light the seedlings, which haven't really been thriving in the 65 degree basement. they should do better in the 80 degree critter room. I got the shelves up but then decided they wouldn't hold the 20 lbs worth of shop lights securely enough, which led to this. I did have to go to HD for the S hooks and Eye Screws, though later I found I could have scavenged enough of them at home to finish it. The braces were in the basement already, and I have 1x3 wood chunks all over the place from various projects. I'm quite happy with the result. On this one bank of lights is out as I kept forgetting an extension cord was why I had gone downstairs. After the light setup I was feeling quite industrious. I next tackled a 2 dollar piece of plywood and made the frame for a cold frame. Halfway through the jigsaw gave out though, making the cold frame more expensive than I had planned, but I like the new jigsaw. (I use a jigsaw to cut plywood because being a girl I can't use a 10 lb circular saw. I'm not really keen on table saws either, as they are the way most wood shop workers lose fingers.) During one of my trips to HD earlier I had bought some plants, and bemoaned the fact I didn't have a box to keep them from repeatedly falling over. Enter the crates. Using the measurements of a seed tray I made two crates out of wood that had been hanging out in my kitchen and basement. I think I might buy some handles for the short sides. I expect they'll be a lot harder to carry full of plants. After today I'm down to one 2x6 and 2 old windows leaning in my kitchen. Not too bad, and the dog will go in there now.

Garden Gate

This weekend's garden project went well. I decided Thursday that I needed a real gate on the new garden fence. Amazingly I've only fallen once scrambling over the half height fence from milk crate to milk crate. I kept expecting to fall again though, and my sneakers snagged every time I went over. I priced out a chain link door and just the panel is 40 bucks, including no hardware or posts. That idea lost. I ended up pounding two more 7 foot metal posts in about 4 feet apart. I screwed cull wood 2x4 to those, at 51 cents each. Using two 2x3 scrap pieces I had lying around and three 1 dollar 1x4 scrap pieces I made a frame. I clipped off the extra fence pieces I left hanging when I put up the fence. I already had two hinges. So for $5.00 I got a nice hinged gate. I might end up putting a wheel on the side that swings out to save on wear and tear, but overall I'm quite happy with it. I'm especially happy with this part. I even set it up so tennis balls can't roll under it. Sadly enough this attention to detail takes me a huge amount of effort. I'm usually too lazy to even measure things once let alone twice. I also spend way too much time at the clearance lumber section at Home Depot. They're already conveniently cut small enough to fit in my car, and as long as you check for straightness they're nice and cheap. It's why I've ended up with a bunch of 2 foot square and 4 foot square planting beds. I've even ended up with planting beds I didn't measure before hand at all. I just bought two pieces of 2 x 8 and cut each in half to make a square. It's gotten me in trouble before. Right now I have four 2 x 6 planks, and some nice 2 x 12 pieces waiting for a use.

New Ball Python

and why I really have to stay away from reptile shows and expos. Female Ball Python, direct from a breeder, and wow does she have a wonderful temperament. My older ball is kind of grouchy and nervous still. This one seems to have no fear. $30 bucks. The economy is affecting reptiles kind of heavily, since they would be considered a luxury, so no one is just dropping a couple hundred on a baby of a new color.

Water Experiments

So yesterday I took my camera out for a workout. I took my obscenely cheap circular polarizer, and tried some water shots, using techniques posted here: Discussing Water Blur. I was trying to decide if the polarizer was good enough for my uses, or if I needed to find a better one. It worked out better than I thought it would. I still need some Neutral Density Filters though to get a much slower shutter speed (or to play with water in sunlight, all these were in shadow.) Most of these were 5 second exposures.

Cooking Experiments

Periodically I attempt to make English Muffins. Over time it has become more desperate. There is now only one store near me that sells Cinnamon Raisin English muffins, and they're more than 5o cents a muffin. Every other store now carries LIGHT English Muffins, and is no longer ever sold out. I wonder if they'll ever discover the connection. The light muffins taste nasty. My most recent attempt worked out better than before. These ones taste like English Muffins. You can even taste the Cinnamon now. However I'm having a portion problem. They're maybe half the size of store bought ones. Obviously I have to cut them bigger before they're second rising, but I keep following the instructions that keep steering me wrong. 3 inch circles obviously don't work for me. However at 3 inches they cost something like 11 cents to make. So I guess if I ever manage to get them normal sized maybe 25 cents a muffin. Half Price vs Store Bought.

Weekend Accomplishments

Moved: 4 Rose Bushes 2 Delphinium Lots of Bee Balm A Black Eyed Susan 3 Clematis (wow do they have impressive roots) 2 Astilbe A Cinnamon Fern Threadleaf Coreopsis Lady's Mantle 2 Purple Coneflowers Spiderwort Native Geranium All this was to get any plant that had been fenced off by itself in the yard moved into the new fence. I still have to drain and rotate the pond so the dogs have plenty of room to circle the new garden fence. There is now just one fence outside the big garden now. Three years ago I planted a whole bag of crocus bulbs in a random spot in the garden. This year is the first time they bloomed, and now i have to dig them all up in a few weeks and move them. They have a fence up until they finish blooming. Everything else is now in a planting bed surrounded by 2x4 and wire fences. The dogs seem happy, and I no longer stand in the garden waiting for them to crush or eat something. So yes, I love my new fence.

Biodiversity and the Future

So just about every year now my family has a big family reunion on Cape Cod in July. I remember when I was 10 or 12 I went to a beach to walk the tide pools. There were shells everywhere. There were great stretches of seaweed, and huge spider crabs walking through all the seaweed. We visit the same tide pool beach every year now, and I'm finding it quite depressing. There is no more algae. There are no more spider crabs. It used to be there were so many hermit crabs you had to watch where you were stepping. plenty of basic rock type crabs too. Now you're lucky if you see 2 dozen hermits on your walk to the ocean. The most common site is strings of discarded beheaded striped bass still tied together and left to rot on the beach. There are almost no shells left. I brought back dozens of perfect scallop shells, big clam shells, and slipper shells when I was younger. Now there is nothing. I just keep thinking my 10 yr old cousin is visiting this beach, and he thinks this is what it's supposed to look. No critters, some dead fish and stretches of barren sand. No shells. No spider crabs. No algae. No wonder the next generation isn't screaming about all the animals that are dying. They never got to see them in the first place. Enjoy nature while it lasts.

Evolution of My Garden Fences

Before we went all Survivalist Camp on the garden fences we had tiny push in wire fences. Those survived the dogs for about a week. Next we got the taller push down fences, also not really dog proof. Wooden posts with chicken wire, turns out one of the dogs liked snapping those. They also don't stand up well to 50 pound dogs running into them full speed. Finally I pounded in 4 foot metal poles and put the chicken wire on that. Worked for a while, though one dog kept trying to sneak around the fences. Over this winter all the dogs learned to jump the fences. I'd also periodically find one in the beds that weren't surrounded like Fort Knox. After the big fence went up last weekend I started taking down all the small fences that had been in it. Now those are getting shifted around the yard to some raised beds that didn't have the best protection. Seems overkill to attach 2 x 4's to those beds and staple 3 foot high chicken wire on them. But, I'm not going to find any of the dogs eating my hostas again, or digging holes in the vegetable garden. Mind you the holes are so much more fun in the garden since the dogs haven't compacted that soil to the hardness of concrete yet. Now I have a huge pile of 4 foot high metal fence posts. Kind of funny that several of them are so bent I'm amazed they aren't broken. I guess unlike the wooden posts those ones stood up to the dogs. Or at least stayed standing after they got hit.