What Homesteading Activity Did You Do Today?

[steev]

Two different modestly-flowering shrubs, neither ever having been interesting enough for me to install them or learn their names. If they survive, fine, if not, it only cost half an hour to plug them in, so no big thing.

That paint is officially toxic waste, so good luck with disposing of it; just another of those things we've done that has turned out to be a bad idea. I suppose you could put it in canisters and leave it to your least-favorite heir.

In that vein, while I really like solar panels, I can't shake the feeling that there's a downside to their manufacture that I just don't know about yet. I mean, solar seems so swell that it feels like free lunch, in which I do not believe.

[12540dumont]

Richard, I feel your pain. Our cabin has asbestos shingles. We were going to get rid of them and found out we'd have to truck them to another state, as they are toxic waste. Instead we painted them and put them back up. Kinda like Nuclear Waste, no one wants it in their backyard.

Steev, I'm scared about the things that are being built that will eventually poison us all....

[richardw]

12540dumont they get carried away when it comes asbestos, if it remains in it2 solid form its not dangerous at all.

[steev]

Exactly; those shingles are pretty innocuous, although commonly required to be buried for disposal; just don't run them through your grain-mill, breathing the dust, or try to smoke them (they don't burn worth a damn and there's not a high in a car-load; even banana peels are more likely to be psychoactive, which really lowers the bar; yes; I was a very gullible, though adventuresome, youth; mellow yellow, my butt).

[richardw]

Smoking nutmeg lowers the bar even further, yes yes, been there, done that.

[steev]

Damned naked apes; always wanting to mess with "reality".

Nutmeg sucked worse than banana peels; cost more, too.

[steev]

Getting hot on the farm, but still plenty water in the soil; corn is sprouted; repaired more horse-deformed tree-cages; tilled, weeded, planted radishes, Lutz beets, field peas, zucchini, crooknecks, two turnips, Piricicaba broccoli, and Pungo Creek Bloody Butcher corn.

[richardw]

Horses?, you got a one/few out there?

[steev]

I let my nearest neighbors pasture horses on my back ten acres, since all I've got there are a few trees, caged against deer, elk, and now horses; it was a real need of theirs during the drought, but now there aren't enough horses on it to keep it cropped.

There's another seven acres that I wish they'd put their sheep or goats on (too much star-thistle for horses), but it's not adequately fenced to keep them in and coyotes or mountain lions out. Seven-foot fencing of all twenty acres is a project for after I've built a house and the tax-assessor has come and gone. One reason I'm loath to bail on my landscaping business, despite its becoming very arduous, is folding such expenses into the business, rather than just paying through the nose.

I would note that I seem to have found a steady helper, although he's green as grass and not the quickest study (lack of context, more than wits, I think), so it looks hopeful on reducing the backlog; just in the nick, as people are starting to go out in their yards, only to recoil at the sight; you have no idea how booked-up gardeners are right now; if I can surf this wave, it's a good time to raise rates and increase the number of regular clients; more money per hour works for me; my expenses sure aren't going down, and I'll be 73 in August (the age at which my Grandad died); gotta get that house built and my shit together while I can still do a day's work; I really don't want to end up in a rented room in Oakland; not that I don't like Oakland, but I'm kinda getting tired of the Bay Area's population density; hell, I've got tinnitis, so I really don't need 24-7 freeway-traffic noise, too.

I just want to get out in the middle of nowhere, where I can expire and be undiscovered before I'm too gnarly for an open casket, just dropped in a hole and thickly "mulched", maybe some rock to keep the boar out, although should I get around to harvesting some of them, I'd not be so averse to making recompense; fair is fair.

Admittedly, I'd like my skull to be cleaned, my vital statistics engraved on it, and put in a glass-fronted box over the door (I've got a nice gold molar), as a guardian against evil (and perhaps the squeamish). Morbid? Nah! I once lived in a room over a street-side tienda in Guatemala where the nicest piece of furniture, like a coffee-table, was the family's Grandma's mahogany coffin, ready for eventual use; a very well-made piece of woodwork; quite attractive aside from, well, you know.

So many things that need to be done: irrigation to repair before the heat/dry comes (soon); weed-tilling; seed-boxes to take to the farm, so I can peruse them for what I want to plant; planting, itself.

[steev]

Forecast failures aside, it really does look likely that the rainy season is past, here in NorCal; so, it's imperative that I re-up the riega; peruse the seed-boxes for what I'd like planted; get Sukie on the fallowed planting lanes; get things in the ground (late for Spring, early for Summer); sure wish I could expect this to be the order of things, just for regularity, but Climate Change seems to make that unlikely. I won't be "Anasazied-out", but I hope my heirs have been paying attention (not just to my ravings, but to actual data, as opposed to "denial" bullshit).

Must start a large grow-out of "Steev's Dry Wit" melons, just to see what promise is there; wish I had a pig, to deal with the excess/losers (as well as my need for pork). Someday, I'll be on the farm with time to deal with critters.

With luck, the rain will return in October; meanwhile: drip and mulch; mulch and drip; piss and moan; etc.

Wish the grapes were better sprouted on the arbor, as I think it's already "hammock" season, but no such luck; guess I'll be siesta-ing in a chair until there's more shade. Life is tough, and then you die. I've a bunch of various rooted grape-cuttings to go in this Fall. I've decided the problem of bird-predation on various crops is inadequate plantings of the afflicted crop; I figure the migrant bird population is more-or-less fixed, so I can exceed their grasp; no way in hell that I'm going to bird-net everything;

The grafts I did don't look hopeful; too late, I fear.

I think the two breeds from Joseph's Cherry Sweet will be up enough that I'll mulch them with some "chicken/rice-hulls"; I put it on a "veggie-garden" area of a house to be sold, but the realtors thought it undesirable; smelled like "fertility" to me; so I bagged it and barked the area, that being their preference; wankers!

[steev]

Repaired the leak in the well-plumbing that had been flooding the pump-house last year; sparked up the solar, ran the well a little, rewarded myself with a long, cool, drink of delicious well-water; went in to check things and damn!, there was a different leak; think I got that fixed, but won't know until next week.

Went to paint the new walnuts; couldn't find a brush; faked it with a sponge.

Weeded; planted Blue-Speckled teparies and mat beans.

Another 2-3 weeks should see pea-tips, as well as beet and chard thinnings in the salad.

Got to get my house-drawings ready for submittal before mid-December, if I hope to do construction in the Spring. It's hard to carve out time to build, during a busy season for work in town; so many balls in the air, and my reflexes are slowing, hard to keep them up, while trying to deal with ignorant help. Why didn't I get this shit together when I was younger? Oh, yeah; I was having too much fun, not that I regret that, just that it's hard to clean up my act.

[steev]

Scored a bunch of very pretty succulents today (the client didn't like them, having just bought the house), so I'll drop some on my sweetheart and my landlady; good vibes all around, at no expense to me.

That job also entailed removing some really heavy stones, but I managed to drop them on my landlady without disabling myself; that's a win/win; my kinda deal.

[prairiegardens]

I would think that dropping really heavy stones on your landlady would require rather more than some succulents to maintain good vibes, she must be exceptionally forgiving.

[steev]

She's been frequently stoned for many years.

There was still a small leak in the plumbing, but I put a basin under it and irrigated anyway, shutting off the pump near the end of the day, to take another swipe at stopping it; again, I'll know whether it worked next week.

The grape-arbor will be ready for hammocking next week!

Weeded the corn-patches; planted beans: Coco Noir, Bobis D'Albenga, Romano Purpiat, and Capitano.

Serviced the composter; I've got a whole trashcan of that to till in where the tomatoes go.

Thinned apples.

Must remember to take the mower next week, as the weeds are well past easily tilling under; roads and paths are overgrown, as well.

[mjc]

May 7, 2017 20:03:12 GMT -5 steev said:

She's been frequently stoned for many years.

California...right?