How we installed a waterline for the vegetable garden

Posted on September 21, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

A big to-do on the garden task list is now done. We finally have a hose at the garden… and I’m so happy to cross this one off the list.

With the lack of rain we had this summer, we watered the garden a lot. However, the closest hose was at the driveshed. That was three hose-lengths away. I had screwed the hoses together back in the spring, and most of the time we kept them laid out across the yard. But any time I had to wind them up (like every time we cut the grass) it was a heavy haul.

Adding a tap at the garden was one of my Home Goals 2016. I already shared a bit of the misery that was digging the trench from the driveshed to the garden (ground so hard, summer so hot, rocks and roots so many, garden so, so, so far away).

When I measured the trench, it came out a bit more than 100 feet. I spent a week visiting various home improvement stores and then specialty plumbing suppliers trying to find someone who would sell me 110 feet of irrigation pipe. All I could find was 100-foot or 400-foot coils. Ugh.

I bought 100 feet and crossed my fingers that we could splice on a small extra piece we had at the farm already and still make it to the garden.

But it turned out I was worried for nothing. When Matt and I unrolled the pipe and laid it in the trench, it easily reached the garden. Thank goodness for small wins.

The other thing I was worried about was our plumbing abilities. I had a plan, but I wasn’t sure if it was actually going to work.

We dug down to the waterline that ran to the hose at the driveshed. After turning off the water, I took a deep breath and cut through the waterline with the hacksaw. So much for my brand new work gloves.

Then we inserted a T. A note about these connections. They fit super, super tightly. We boiled the kettle and then Matt poured the hot water over the pipe and that softened the plastic enough that I was able to wedge the fitting into place. The clamps on either side provide extra insurance to hold everything together and prevent leaks

From there, it was easy to connect our new 100 feet of pipe.

At the garden, the pipe sneaks under the brick threshold at the gate and up the post. Look how much pipe we had. Exactly the perfect length. And look at the water flowing. We did it! And there are no leaks! Big wins all around!

Backfilling the trench was much easier than digging it out. Wiley helped which was huge.

Baxter did not help. In fact he staged a sit-in (lie-in) to protest when Matt started to put the sod back down. “Dirt is good, dude.”

The finishing touches were clamping the waterline to the fence post and then installing a hose hanger.

Rather than a typical hanger, I wanted to try a metal bucket. I’ve seen a few other people do this, and I figured it would give us a place to stash nozzles or maybe even some garden tools.

Again, I spent some time running around to various stores trying to find the perfect bucket. Then I remembered a rusty old canning pot–one of our many gifts from previous owners. I knew there was a reason I didn’t throw that out.

I drilled a couple of holes in the bottom and then bolted it to the fence.

Then I dragged the hose out to the garden one final time (except for seasonal shutdown, but don’t burst my bubble, okay?) and coiled it up.

Such a great addition to the garden. And this is actually our final to-do on our garden to-do list. This year has been all about adding the structure (raised beds, trellises, perennials) and functionality (gate, trellises, hose) to the garden. I think all of this is going to make a huuuuge difference next year.

The other thing that is going to make a huge difference–and that we have yet to do–is clean up. We have a whooooole bunch of weeds that I want out of there before winter sets in. That’s still a few weeks away though, as harvest is still going strong.

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How is your garden growing? Does plumbing make anyone else anxious? How do you handle irrigation in your garden?

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Dragonfly

Posted on September 19, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’ve come to associate dragonflies with the farm.

I loved examining this specimen that I found yesterday.

I just wish I’d been able to see him flying around the farm.

Do you associate any animal, bird or insect with your home?

Apples growing wild

Posted on September 16, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Old apple trees grow at various places around the farm. The quality varies as does the flavour, but I love seeing them all.

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Garden Olympics in Illinois

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Today’s post from Sarah in Illinois further solidified my belief that we’re completely kindred spirits. Obviously, Sarah and I both love our gardens. I realized today that we also both love the Olympics. Sarah has come up with a really clever, Olympic-esque way of summarizing her garden’s performance this year. Let the medal ceremonies begin.

Our garden is just about done for the year. We currently only have two things still growing: peppers and pumpkins. In a future post I will go over some of the ways that I am preparing for next year, but for now I will review this year.

I started out with such high aspirations for our garden. And it’s a good idea to set your goals high, but when I look back over the year I need to be realistic with my results. I need to focus on what went well and not what didn’t. So I am going to go over the results in the spirit of the Olympics and start with my gold medal winners.

Gold medals

Sugar Snap Peas – With a mild spring and plenty of rain, I had a much bigger harvest than normal and I even still have some in my freezer.

Spaghetti Squash – I gave away several, I baked a few, froze some and I still have more to use up.

Kale – I couldn’t keep up with my Kale this year. I didn’t know what to expect when starting it from seed indoors and transplanting it, but it could not have done better.

Green Beans – We had an excellent first harvest and even got a few meals from a second harvest.

Potatoes – The potatoes did very well and we still have a meal or two to dig up before we close down the garden.

Peppers – Both our green peppers and our hot peppers really did well this year.

Silver medals

Radishes – The plants themselves did well. I just did a poor job of planning and planted too much at one time. So a lot was wasted.

Cauliflower – This was my first year for growing cauliflower. Again, the plant grew well, and I pinned the leaves closed like I was supposed to. Then I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Steve finally mentioned that he thought they should have been ready to pick by now. However, I had waited too long and they were all bitter. If I had been more vigilant they would have gotten a gold medal.

Tomatoes – The plants grew large and produced a lot of fruit. We made one harvest and took them to Steve’s mom to can. She made a few quarts of tomato juice from them. We had planned another harvest and then rain hit. In one weekend we got over 4 inches of rain and the garden was too soft for me to walk in. By the time the ground dried up a little and I remembered that we needed to pick tomatoes, most of them were rotten.

Sunflowers – The flowers are beautiful, but I did not pay attention to the amount I planted of each variety. I got several plants that are really pretty but only two are the type that you can harvest the seed from and the kids are disappointed that we will not have sunflower seeds to eat.

Bronze medals

Red Cabbage – I had planted 4 plants and they looked healthy, but I only was able to harvest one head.

Carrots – We planted the carrots too close together. The few that we harvested were good, but they did not have much room to grow very large.

Cabbage – I am thinking maybe cabbage moths or some type of pest took over the plants. All of the leaves were full of holes and we did not harvest any cabbage.

Asparagus – I didn’t know what to expect for my first year of asparagus. And I would normally think that maybe mine looked okay. Until I went to my brother’s and saw his first year of asparagus. His plants look so full and healthy and mine look so thin and spindly. I will have to add some new crowns next year.

There were a few vegetables that did not even show up to my “garden olympics” and so they did not get awarded anything:

Cucumbers – my plants this year were pitiful. Just pitiful. There is no other way to describe them. I think out of about 15 plants I harvested 2 cucumbers. TWO.

Brussels Sprouts – This was my first year of growing them and I knew that they didn’t seem to be doing anything. My thoughts were confirmed when I went out to the garden and saw Steve mowing the plants down. Apparently he had given up on them before I did.

Overall, I should be happy. We produced our own food. We grew food that was healthy and fueled our bodies with the best quality nutrients. There really is nothing I should be upset about. I should just look to improve next year.

In the meantime, I will keep checking on these vines and hope that we have some pumpkins to carve this year!

Great summary, Sarah. I think as gardeners we learn very quickly that we can’t expect everything to be a success. It even varies year to year. It’s really good to keep a record like this of what worked and didn’t, and use that to set goals and plan for next year. (BTW, I love the fuzzy fluffy sunflowers! I’m adding those to my garden plan for next year.)

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Making Monarchs and memories

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Our days here at the farm start early. In the darkness on Wednesday morning, Matt noticed that the chrysalis for both of our Monarch caterpillars had turned black. In actual fact, they had turned clear. However, they look black because the black wings of the butterfly inside are showing through.

We figured that later that day, we’d be proud parents.

I took Baxter for our morning walk and Matt left for work.

About 45 minutes later I was back in the kitchen making my breakfast. I turned around, and there was a butterfly in the bowl on the island.

Holy moly, EdWING actually had wings!

I went a little bananas. I took lots of birth photos. I messaged Matt. I tweeted and instagrammed the official birth announcement.

I was officially late for work.

Eventually though, I had to leave. That mean EdWING had to go outside. I’ve been referencing Karen’s “how to raise a Monarch butterfly” series a lot as we progressed with our caterpillars. A quick check of her site said that Ed would hang around and rest for about 2-3 hours and then he’d be ready to fly. Well, that would be when Matt and I were very much still at work. I couldn’t rely on Baxter to send his new brother out into the world, so Ed had to finish his resting outside on his own.

I found the most sheltered area I could and hid Ed under some leaves so that he hopefully didn’t turn into breakfast for a hungry bird.

Last I saw of him he was gently opening and closing his wings. So, so beautiful.

Kevin no-longer-a-CATERPillar hatched a little while later. Matt came home to a restless butterfly in a bowl.

He took him outside, and Kevin flew away.

Two Monarch butterflies. Out into the world. So, so amazing. We’ve made lots of memories since moving to the farm, and this is definitely another special one.

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Sunny, sunny sunflowers

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

My plan to plant sunflowers along the border of the vegetable garden? It was a good one.

So much prettiness.

And cheeriness. Doesn’t this one look like it’s ready for a kiss? Or it could be sticking out its tongue.

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September garden update

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Look! We grew a puppy again!

We grew a lot of other things too. Yet again, this garden is crazy productive.

The puppy didn’t fit in the basket.

Not pictured are the zucchinis that just won’t stop and hundreds of cherry tomatoes (I roasted a bunch last night for all kinds of goodness).

What’s growing in your garden?

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The results of our basement waterproofing

Posted on September 2, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Today is supposed to be the last post about our big summer project: waterproofing our basement.

Here are the previous posts if you need to get caught up:

However, I can’t wrap up this project because a week ago we had a torrential downpour and we had puddles in the basement. Wah-wah.

The first leak was in the laundry room and the second in the cold cellar–two places we’d waterproofed.

In the cold cellar, it appears to have come up through the shiny new floordrain.

In the laundry room, it somehow somewhere came through the wall. The rain was an extraordinary downpour, but nonetheless, my expectation from our waterproofing is that we would be waterproof.

The big selling point of working with our waterproofing company is that the work came with a lifetime guarantee, so we’re working with them now to make sure our leaks are truly fixed.

In the meantime, I can share some of our progress. Here’s the biggest illustration–and one area that doesn’t leak anymore:

Before (ish)

After with framing, insulation, drywall, paint, carpet and baseboard all redone.

I think the thing that frustrated me the most with this project–aside from the fact that the leaks are not actually fixed–is that we ended up basically back where we started. We shelled out a bunch of money, put in a bunch of work and it all looks the same.

But looks aren’t everything.

With home ownership, what’s behind the walls matters a lot. So that’s why it’s so important to us to fix our leaks, not just cover them up or ignore them.

Last week’s rain was a bit extreme. Up to then, we had a few other rainfalls without issue. In fact the night the crew left, we had our first big rainstorm of the summer. Matt and I were sitting in the living room, and I said, “I think I hear the sump pump.” Sure enough, rain was falling hard enough that the water was flowing through the weeping tile around the foundation and filling the sump pit. Talk about timing.

We love the assurance of our new sump pit and pumps. There are two pumps in our pit. One is a regular pump that is plugged into a regular electrical socket. The second is a back-up pump and it is plugged into a giant marine battery.

If for any reason the first pump gets overwhelmed or stop working (like the power goes out), the second one will kick in automatically. Considering that power outages are a real possibility during rainstorms, we feel very good about our back-up system.

The pumps have two alarms. The first will sound if the back-up pump comes on and second very, very loud alarm will go off if both pumps for some reason fail.

I also appreciate the finish both inside and out. In the cold cellar, the dirt and footings around the perimeter are gone in favour of clean smooth concrete. And the crew did a great job of making the new concrete nice and even with the existing floor. Where the exterior waterproofing happened outside the laundry room, again the wall looks super clean, even though we appear to still have some problems here.

At the doorway to the cold cellar, where I always did a little hop across the dirt at the threshold, the floor drain is a nice addition. The floor drain ties into the weeping tile which in turn ties into the sump pit. Given the water we found in the cold cellar, I surmise that there was so much rain that it overwhelmed the weeping tile and spewed out of the drain.

So unfortunately, I can’t say we’re all done. We’re hoping we get there soon, and I’ll be sure to share when we do.Save

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Freshening up an organizer

Posted on August 31, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Sarah in Illinois joins us today with a great makeover that adds a bit of style to an area that sometimes doesn’t see a lot of decor–her garage. This is a lesson in the power of paint. Plus the power of soap and water!

It seems like all of my small projects get set aside during the summer months. We spend all of our time outside and don’t want to be cooped up in the woodshop/workshop.

I have a pile of projects out there waiting for the cooler months, but I did get one thing finished.

I found this old metal organizer that has been hanging in our garage for who knows how long.

I thought it looked handy, plus it looked like something that could be fixed up with a can of spray paint.

I took it off the wall and took the little jars off. They easily cleaned up in a sink of soapy water. I took off the bracket that attaches it to the wall. I thought that I could just run a little sandpaper over it and start painting. But the red paint that I chose didn’t show up well, it just looked like a rusty red color.

See how the red looks flat?

I decided that I should probably have done it the right way from the start. So I started over. I ran the sandpaper over it again and coated it with a light color primer. This helped the red really stand out when I painted it and that was the look I was going for.

I put several coats of paint on it trying to avoid getting much paint on the inside of the caps on the threads where the jars screw on. Too much paint built up would have made the jars hard to screw on.

Unfortunately, after all of the years hanging on the wall, there is a little jar missing. I am hoping I find it stashed somewhere in the garage, but I am guessing it may have fallen on concrete at some point and is long gone. So I will keep my eyes open for a replacement.

My mom and my brother’s girlfriend are yard sale pros so I am going to put them on the case. In the meantime, I am happy that I made an improvement that cost very little and is much more pleasing to look at.

Do you use spray paint very often on your projects? Do you ever try to take shortcuts then have to start over? What color would you have chosen to paint this organizer?

The red brings a great pop to the garage, Sarah. I think I probably would have kept the rust(ic) look just because I can’t be bothered painting it or decorating my garage (if I’m being honest), but it looks so good. Such a cheerful addition. I love the concept of this organizer. Do you think you could DIY something like this? Perhaps with some very strong glue for the jar lids?

Monarch caterpillar update

Posted on August 29, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Our Monarch caterpillars are no more.

But do not despair.

Because we are a big step closer to having Monarch butterflies.

We have two chrysalis.

Over the past week, EdWING Encarnacion and Kevin CATERPillar grew a lot. They decimated their daily milkweed rations.

Towards the end of the week they started to wander, looking for a spot to hang their chrysalis.

Eventually, Ed settled in. But something went wrong. He fell off the screen that covered the bowl. We found him curled in his J lying on a leaf.

We could see the webbing that he’d used to anchor himself to the screen hanging off his tail end, so we wrapped that over a stick and taped it in place careful not to touch him with the tape. It seemed to work, because a few hours later he had transformed into a chrysalis, and Kevin had climbed up onto the stick too.

By the next day, we had two chrysalis hanging from the stick. The black speck at the top of Ed’s chrysalis is actually his outer caterpillar skin. The chrysalis is inside the caterpillar, and he sheds his outer skin as he transforms.