First of all, the soaker hoses failed because I drilled so many holes in them that all the water came out in the first 6 feet and none made it to the end. New hose bought and I let it just ooze water as it was intended to do, but then it took too long for the barrel to drain and the water was evaporating before soaking into the soil. THEN I decided to drill holes again, but this time one shot clear through the hose but about every 12 inches instead of every inch. This did the trick. Water comes out at a reasonable rate, equally distributed throughout the length of the hose. I'm trying to refrain from having a potty mouth in this process, but fuck, man, the hoses and water issues alone almost made me jump off a bridge.
Also, I started bringing out my seedlings to acclimate them to the outside and within a few hours of being in the direct sunlight, they all croaked. Just shriveled up and fell over dead. I lost all the sunflowers, carrots, Brussels sprouts, nasturtiums, green onions, wildflowers, lettuce, beans, and peas. Gone. Two months of effort shot all to hell. One zucchini survived, a few pumpkins, a couple lupine, a few Galapagos tomato plants, and a few peppers made it to be planted in the beds. In the house I still have really immature broccoli, really immature cauliflower, really immature romanesco, and some Walla Walla onions that won't stand up straight. SO! Given that I had 6 flower beds (190 square feet of dirt) and not much to plant, I hit the nurseries and found some gigantic veggie plants for no more than $2 each, often $1.50 each. I got 2 pea plants, 6 broccoli plants, 6 cauliflowers, 6 Brussels sprouts, a few tomatoes, basil, chives, some zucchinis, a bunch of lettuce, my favorite cantaloupes: muskmelons!, and a bag of 80 red onion starters. Later I got a bag of 75 yellow onion starters, so there are something like 155 onions planted in my garden right now... yikes. And then yesterday, in the pouring rain, I shoved a bunch of seeds in the dirt that had nothing planted in it yet, and decided to see what happens, so there are now more pumpkins planted, watermelon, sunflowers, wildflowers, bush beans, and peas. At this point, I'm kind of burnt from all the disappointment and expense and if anything produces food, I'll be relieved. This is the view from my bedroom now. (Still have to do the mulching.)
All of this was going on when the house renovation stuff started. Last Tuesday morning this big truck showed up at 7am and my roofing material was dropped off. My construction salesguy said they'll start sometime this week, but Wednesday morning at 7:30 another truck pulled up and a team of guys with ladders began invading my yard. These were the nicest, coolest guys and I loved every minute of having them pound away on my roof. 13 hours later, it was done.
Thursday morning at 7:30, another truck pulled up and a bunch of guys got off and started tearing off my siding. I asked if they should be doing that, given that the replacement material hadn't been delivered, and they said yes, it was on the way, and they were in a hurry because there was an inspection scheduled at 11:30. They pulled off the siding to reveal that the original siding was still on the house! AND! AND! I could see where the original house started off, and where all the additions were made.
Here we have the back foyer on the far left with cedar planking. In the center is the bathroom, which was an add-on from the original house! The original house consisted only of what is my front room, dining room and kitchen (kitchen windows on the right). Much later in the game, the two bedrooms and the back foyer were added, which included the cement and cinder block half-basement beneath these parts. WILD!
Bathroom addition.
This is a photo of my dining room window with original siding, and beyond that are the two windows belonging to the two bedrooms.
Also, there was a south-facing window in the front room that was walled off and re-sided when they made the attic into a bedroom and put in the staircase.
And apparently they didn't get the house wrapped in time for the inspection, so the inspector left and couldn't return until 1pm on Friday, which set the progress back another day. So, it sat, wrapped, until they were able to come back on Saturday morning.
And now it's done! Well, everything but the gutters, and of course, it's done nothing but rain since then, and getting in and out with the roof dumping gallons of water on you is difficult.
So, Saturday afternoon, when I was supposed to be working on the neglected garden, I noticed that the front (which didn't need new siding, as it's protected by the porch and is a vertical wood paneling) and the new siding all around the house clashed really badly, were dramatically different yellows, and I ran to Home Depot and bought color-matched paint for the front. I then painted the front of my house!
I need to paint the dormer and the trim still. And get new address numbers for the house since those broke off in the removal process. But my house is almost done.
To celebrate, I spent the weekend canoeing.
And fishing.
And now I'm ready to get back to farming.
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