Updates

Hello... here's a peek at what we've been up to.

George built a little brick flower box and we planted a small variety of flowers:
Vintage Mix, Red Marigolds, Pansy.


The nasturtium is growing like crazy.

We also just planted a Japanese Honeysuckle along the side fence.

We got a great cabinet shelf unit for my 'art room/dining room' at Urban Ore last weekend. It's perfect and I love it.

We came up with a space saving dish rack on a rail, George add this new-old shelf, and changed the kitchen light:

Operation: Market-Garden

One of the reasons I wanted to buy a very old house was the fantasy that I would come across treasure. Finding hidden Comstock lode silver or Barbary Coast gold pieces would be nice but actually finding historical items in unexpected places is just as rewarding.

Case in point, I had to fix an area in the basement that was damaged by long term neglect. As I was removing what looked like old paper, I saw that a piece of it had some color. Upon closer inspection (and a quick search on the web) I learned that what I found was an original 7th Armored Division patch from WWII.

The 7th Armored crashed the Omaha and Utah beaches,liberated cities in France and held positions along the Seine river and also fought at the Battle of the Bulge. You can see the interesting history here

The unit was known as the "Lucky 7" and was one of the most highly decorated units of the war. I imagine that a previous owner of our house was part of the unit, survived the war and, for some reason, attached his patch to a post in the basement.

I have this neat patch in my office and plan to create a small display for it with a note about the 7th Armored Division. Thanks for your war service, sir, wherever you are.

Lettuce harvesting

After watching a couple of videos I decided to harvest some lettuce this morning. If you cut the leaves leaving about an inch to inch-and-a-half from the base it should start growing again. Other than a 30-45 day guideline and just watching them grow, I'm not sure how big they are supposed to get but figured they looked ready. I'm happy to report that our first organic-home-grown-lettuce salad was delicious and I only dressed it with some olive oil and splash of balsamic vinaigrette!

Hey, I'm a beginner :-) but I also learned that you want to cut the leaves before they 'bolt'. If the plant gets stressed generally due to temperature, drought, overcrowding, etc., it starts to seed and flower = bolt. It also causes the lettuce to taste bitter. I read that if your lettuce plants bolt, it's probably best to heap them into your compost pile and start again.

That must be what happened to my basil last year! It grew tall and flowered and did not produce the lush basil leaves I was expecting. On that note, we caught a segment on the Katie Brown Workshop program and watched her & her pal build a tiered herb garden that we may give a try. They used a wooden stair risers and screwed in wooden window boxes. Here is a link to her instruction page:
http://www.katiebrown.com/kbep1.cfm?cat=GROW&episodeid=6&seasonID=5

How does your garden grow?

Last weekend was nice and we did some garden work on Saturday. I pulled weeds and George started working on the shed which will eventually be a green house.


There was a small plant growing and the leaves looked like there might be some sort of root vegetable underneath. George dug it up and solved the mystery. It was a white daikon radish in the shape of a carrot! We tried a tiny piece and it had a spicy peppery taste.


The Santa Rosa Plum Tree we planted in Dec. 09, just flowered.


The nasturtium is still taking off like crazy!

And last but not least, the lettuce plants seem to be doing exceptionally well! Look at how much they have grown!



Now everything is getting a good watering with this stormy weekend. We've also been following the NHK news on Japan, especially George. It's hard to fathom such devastation and along with the sadness we feel towards the challenges survivors are facing, we are also reminded and making some emergency preparations of our own.

Lettuce & Ladybugs & Love

George prepared a container garden box by drilling some holes for air & drainage in his old storage tub. This past weekend we took a little trip to the East Bay Nursery and purchased a couple of lettuce starter plants so I can start growing a salad :) It's a variety of red leaf and romaine. We'll see how it does especially since the rain is back this week.

We are still figuring out how to approach composting and are leaning towards vermiculture.

While at the nursery, George noticed a 'Ladybug House' in a kit you can buy. Then we saw it cost something like $37 and we put it back. After a little Google research, he was able to build a cute little Ladybug House from extra wood scraps we had, and I painted it our aqua blue color. It has a 'Shabby Chic' worn look to it.

Apparently you just put a little sponge soaked in sugar water to attract them and then it becomes a little safe haven for them to feast on aphids and last year our plum trees had a lot of aphids! We are just starting to see blossoms now. Well see how it goes and report back.

On another note, all the daffodils have bloomed and we decided to move the bougainvillea to a sunnier spot on the deck. George is building a wood planter box for that. A picture will follow.
So now the nasturtium can take over that whole space, and it will!

and.... Happy Valentine's Day......
It's nice to work on things together w/someone you love.

Kitchen Updated for Pennies

George built a windowsill, stained & put up window trim, and did lots of finishing touches. So we managed to finish a kitchen renovation by the end of January. With the exception of track lighting and the floor which will happen later.

The window trim is reclaimed wood from the original kitchen base cabinets. Using glaze, we only needed 1.5 sample cans of aqua blue paint for the entire wall. The base cabinets courtesy of a free giveaway on Craigslist. The artwork and stool courtesy of Urban Ore. The artwork is an impression by Monet of just outside his Giverny home, which we visited a few months ago.
We only had to shell out cash for a new counter, copper-faux backsplace and acrylic sink which came out to around $350. The best thing is we didn't need to change the "footprint" of the kitchen or move walls, electrical or plumbing. We basically just worked everything in around the existing main elements in a kitchen that hadn't been updated since perhaps the 60's. Lemons from our tree in the basket shelf.

As if that wasn't enough, he also wallpapered the entire front entry closet, including the ceiling, by himself. The butterfly wallpaper was found at Urban Ore for $2 for both rolls.

Hard at work

George has been busy this week, re-framing & installing our new double-pane kitchen window. He also insulated the wall. No more leaks and drafts.

Yesterday he replaced the counter, cabinets & sink! He will have to share more from his perspective of doing all the hard work. I just painted the wall and assisted a little. There is more finishing to do, but it is a tremendous improvement. I love the deeper sink already.


I did some weeding yesterday and cleared the Eiffel Tower area. Now it's just the bougainvillea, nasturtium and the new daffodil bulbs Marleen gave us, are sprouting.
The other daffodils are blooming as well, and the lemon tree is full of lemons that I need to out and pick now. Then I get to start digging up weeds on that side. Toodles.