My New Bench

      We had some friends over on the holiday weekend to get ready for our Tang Soo Do test and decided to have a nice BBQ while they were here.  The night before the practice we realized that we lacked seating for our friends.  I asked Photo Dude if it was possible to use some of the fantastic salvaged wood we had in the garage.  Now please remember that Photo Dude is an electrician NOT a carpenter by any means :)  He is an amazing husband though that will pretty much always take my crazy ideas and make them work.  So he started playing around and cutting up the pallets for me.  He even got to use his new table saw that he got for only $40 at a yard sale. 
      Photo Dude used scraps of wood to make sure that the planks were evenly spaced.  He did tell me that if he were to do this project again he would probably build the X supports and then add them to the top instead of trying to get them into the proper place last.



I love the way the bench looks, it isn't anything too finished and if it gets knocked around it won't be ruined looking.  We (okay Photo Dude not me) are also going to try and figure out how to build a table with a flip top so that it can be stored against a wall in the shed.

Love It!!!

Change of Plans

 This is what Photo Dude brought me home last night.  I took a look at it and said "what the heck is that"?!  Really like we don't have enough weeds?  He explained that one of the guys he works with brought him some strawberry plants that he had asked about back when it was still snowing out (ya' know like three weeks ago).  Photo Dude had completely forgotten about the request and we didn't have a spot planned for these babies so we had to make a change of plans for the big tubs.  The potatoes got pulled out and more dirt got added.  We picked out the six plants that looked the most likely to survive and put them into the tubs.  Some of the plants already have berries on them.  They were taken from a mature strawberry patch so we have hopes that these are going to be good growers. 

      We were gifted 12 plants total so the six that didn't make it into the tubs were placed where there box wood bushes when we moved in.  The soils isn't so good and has a bit more clay but the strawberries looked like they had been planted in clay before we got them so who knows maybe they will grow well enough that next year we can move them to a better plot. 
     Ugh.....  I just don't know what to say.  This year has been so bizarre we go from cold to hot then back again.  The rain has just not stopped for weeks on end at times, several times the lawn has gone for two weeks without being cut.  The low spot in our back yard is wet enough that we should have just planted rice.  Hopefully the next little bit will keep us dry enough to actually get the yard tilled up for the boxes. 

Potato Experiment 2011

Back a few years ago we tried to grow potatoes in a five gallon bucket.  Unfortunately the experiment was not a success.  At the end of the growing season all we had to show for the effort were a few handfuls of marble sized potatoes.  After the failure we decided to read up on how to grow potatoes (no we didn't do that first).  Did you know you are supposed to 'hill' potatoes?!  Sure you did because everyone knows that, well except for us we didn't know that.  Anyway we decided to try it again this year with a little more knowledge and a little bit bigger buckets.  I went to TSC and got water buckets from the horse/barnyard animal department.  The color choice was made by the kids they actually agreed on the color!  It was a small miracle.  After we got the buckets we took them home and explained our plan to Jeff and then told him he needed to go with us and get dirt.   It was a little like how I got my garden last year.  Buy half the stuff then he will feel the need to help us with the rest.... I'm evil like that.  We went to several stores and got a bunch of different opinions about the soil we needed.  As with many things we decided to just wing it and got the supplies you see in the first photo.  Jeff grabbed one of the spare barrels and mixed them all together.  We let it all sit for a few days and incorporate.  Or we got busy, something like that.  Jeff drilled holes in the bottom of the buckets for drainage and we got some stones from the neighbors for the bottom of the buckets.  In theory it will help the water drain without all the soil also leaking out.  Well that's the way it's supposed to work for house plants right? 
These are the potatoes.  I purchased them from one of the stands at the Farmer's Market.  She gave me some advice about planting spaces and whatnot.  She's great and sells 50# bags of potatoes for $8 if you don't mind a mixed bag of the not so pretty ones.  Can't beat that with a stick right? 
So we (Jeff) planted the potato bits and then hauled them to the back rock area.  We didn't water the soil because rain was expected that night.  If you would like a great link to learn more about growing potatoes try this one.  Have a great week.

Book Giveaway

Dollwood Farms is having a giveaway for the book shown.  Just head over to the blog and add your comment :)

I have a blog post I'm working on but there are a ton of photos to go through and I've still got to catch up on some left over house work.  

See you guys tomorrow!