Has It Been Nine Days? ~~ May 24, 2010

.

I've honestly been so tired I have not felt like blogging.

Also, I don't know how many of those who read my little-blog-of-grand-adventures watch the news, but so much has been going on that it's a little overwhelming. I am a firm follower of Jesus Christ, and I believe what the Bible says about the coming end of days.

For years I have been watching, paying attention to things to see when they line up with what the Bible says. For the last few years events have been happening so rapidly that I always said my head was spinning. Well, I had no idea what I was talking about. The last couple of years of head spinning have been a cake walk compared to the last couple of months, and I don't see things slowing, but instead increasing.

I have unsaved family members, including the man who is still my husband yet refused to take his place as one, and my heart is burdened for them greatly. This could all be drug out for some time, or it could happen very quickly. But what is coming for those reject Yeshua Messiah as Lord in their life is terrifying.

How's that for an opener?

This pool wore me out! As of today's entry, it is up and operating, though not completely finished. I'm seriously getting old, here! I do not remember being this physically tired before. I guess I should not be surprised, what with menopause and lupus, but it is strange to see yourself decline, you know? We are so glad it's up!

I wish I'd had time and energy to document everything we did, like a very detailed pool construction tutorial, but being so tired and planning so poorly got in the way. I will share some of it, and hope that it will be useful to anyone who wants to set a pool up. Including Michael and I at any later date.

This is the third steel-walled pool I've set up. The very first one I did myself. I was very young then. I can't believe I did it alone! LOL But the place was level, easy to prepare, and the weather not quite so much like a sauna.

Here's Michael, trimming the replacement deck boards for the three that were so tweaked.





It's really not the best job. But I am sacrificing looks for the budget. We bought only what we had to for making the deck safe and comfortable, four boards and some screws. We actually had to rip one of the boards to make it narrow enough to fit here. That means we ran the saw all along the length of it, lowering the resting plate on the saw to adjust the depth enough not to cut through the joists below.





Still, somehow, the ends did not line up. We lined up the curved ends and found that shrinkage over the years had affected length as well, something that surprised me, considering these were all screwed down quite tightly. So we used a board to guide the line I scratched with a screw tip.





The ends had nails in them, from the little duck barrier we'd installed years ago. They could not be pulled so trimming the deck had to wait until we could get a diamond tipped saw blade.

It was very hot, so we temporarily used plumber's tape and some screws...





to affix this nifty shade umbrella we found at the dollar store. Wouldn't a dollar been a great price? It was 20 dollars. I almost got 4 for twenty dollars, but then they found the price was labeled wrong. Too bad!





And we laid down the guide rails to get an idea where we needed to level the ground a bit better.





After that I wimped out. Standing there with the heat reflecting up from that dirt did me in. What's with aging, anyway!

~Faith

.

Yawn....... Update request?

.

UPDATE - I would like to add some comfrey and Echinacea to my herb garden. Does anyone have some roots and/or dried flower heads they would be willing to send to me, if I pay postage?

Back to the original post! :o) ~~~

Sorry, that was the best title I could come up with this morning.

It was a big weekend, despite there being two Shabbats to enjoy, they were busy ones spent in our very favorite way, with friends. I wish I had lots of photos to show you, but honestly, I was too busy just sitting around talking and I missed most of the adventures.

However, there was a little work to be done before it all began. Friday morning we really tried to get to get the pool deck done, but we hit a snag.

First thing we did was screw down the outermost deck boards, flush with the joists underneath.





The reason we wanted them flush is because we hope to put umbrella holders on the sides, and deck boards sticking past would get in the way.





Then we had to find the center point and mark it, as well as having the boards lined up straight on their ends.





Here, this board is screwed down right up to the center line. Spacing can be a little intimidating, so I usually lay them out and get an idea for how much spacing to go for.





Screwing them in is both fun and aggravating. Fun ~~ who doesn't like to operate power tools? Aggravating ~~ the boards are rarely perfectly straight, and have to be pushed or pulled in various areas as you screw them down so they line up neatly.

In this photo, you can see the garden tool we used as a spacer to hold the boards apart while I shoved on this end and Michael screwed it down quickly.





That ax head makes a nice wedge spacer as well, anything you can find is handy. Oh, and don't you love the numbers on the boards? LOL Michael did not hear me say "pencil" and instead used permanent marker....

Here is one side of the deck where we did not get the spacing right. The old board just would not give enough. At a distance it is not that noticeable...





But up close you can see the end just would not get over enough. We are trying to economize and not buy new boards, so we let this one go.





But at the other end we had three boards that were excessively tweaked as you can see here. There was no amount of pushing and pulling that I could do, feet braced against the poles, that would do the job.





So we had to call it quits and get some new boards when we went to town for office cleaning, gymnastics, and some grocery shopping for the Big War the next day.

Saturday morning, amidst a bit of house cleaning, I quickly planted some Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas, some Black Seeded Simpson lettuce, and a couple of cucumbers.





I don't know how well the peas will do, but I really wanted to try a second crop. I'm hoping with the mulch the beds will be cool enough to see something come of them. This variety is a low bush type, that trellising is not supposed to be necessary for. I will transplant them closely so they support one another.

The lettuce variety is a hot weather resistant type, and is going to be my attempt to grow in the summer, out in the garden area. I may plant them underneath another crop to shade them.

The cucumber plan for the year is to not harvest a bushel a day, like we did last year! So I want to plant just one or two a week, to have a slow but steady supply of salad cukes.

The eggplants are doing great, so far! At least a lot better than I expected. They are withstanding the flea beetles. I believe the mulch is helping. They all have flowers, though they are still on the small side. This is quite an accomplishment here. Usually flea beetles completely prevent the growing of eggplant.





Then we were blessed to have a good supply of friends over for the afternoon and night. Michael had been planning an airsoft war for months, and about 10 young people came to participate, bringing along parents as well.

I wish I'd taken lots of photos, it was a wonderful time, but I was too busy visiting and being spoiled rotten by help!

This brought tears to my eyes. 10 heads out there, all picking strawberries for us. What would have taken over an hour for the two of us, they all swooped in and got done very quickly. I hope they enjoyed a lot of berries while picking, they are so good when fresh.





They brought in 3 large bowls of berries, and we ladies enjoyed chatting and processing them. Then we went out and picked a salad with all sorts of things from the herb garden thrown in. It was fun to pick and choose what flavors to add.

The young people came back from war for dinner, promptly ushered me out of the kitchen, and proceeded to finish fixing dinner for me. I'm so spoiled!

I did manage to snap a couple of shots of only a small portion of the battle paraphernalia strewn about the house and front porch.









Good times!

~Faith

.

Geraniums intoxicate Japanese beetles.

.

Thanks to my fellow blogger at Going Yard, I found this article on the sad, sad situation of habitual narcotic use on the family lives of Japanese Beetles. They just never learn.

Hatred.... It's a strong word. But I feel it for these beetles. I like this article.


Geraniums intoxicate Japanese beetles.


Several bites of a garden-variety geranium geranium, common name for some members of the Geraniaceae, a family of herbs and small shrubs of temperate and subtropical regions. Their long, beak-shaped fruits give them the popular names crane's-bill (for species of the genus Geranium, , and a Japanese beetle falls to the ground in a stupor stupor that lasts some 8 hours. It's hardly a great way to avoid predators or get on with beetle business, like reproduction. Yet researchers now find that the beetles never learn. They choose geraniums over perfectly good linden leaves and get paralyzed day after day.

Researchers described the knockout effect on Japanese beetles in 1929, notes Daniel A. Potter. He and David W. Held, both of the University of Kentucky Coordinates: The University of Kentucky, also referred to as UK, is a public, co-educational university located in Lexington, Kentucky. in Lexington, have studied beetle learning and the sad effects of geranium intoxication intoxication, condition of body tissue affected by a poisonous substance. Poisonous materials, or toxins, are to be found in heavy metals such as lead and mercury, in drugs, in chemicals such as alcohol and carbon tetrachloride, in gases such as carbon monoxide, and on family life. Their results will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata.

In theory, insects with wide-ranging tastes are the most likely to learn to avoid noxious foods, according to the few studies that have tested this idea, Potter says. However, Japanese beetles eat nearly 300 U.S. plant species but don't avoid geraniums.

The flower petals, especially from plants in full sunlight, seem the most narcotic narcotic, any of a number of substances that have a depressant effect on the nervous system. The chief narcotic drugs are opium, its constituents morphine and codeine, and the morphine derivative heroin.

See also drug addiction and drug abuse. , Potter reports. His most extensive tests were of red geraniums, but flowers of white, coral, and other colors also slammed the beetles. So did a water-soluble leaf extract.

A geranium "is like candy to them," Potter says. Beetle pairs offered a choice picked geranium flowers so often that they laid just half as many eggs as pairs provided only with linden leaves. Intoxication is dangerous for the beetle, but is it fun? Potter won't speculate.

Geraniums intoxicate Japanese beetles.

I'll be shopping for White Geraniums.

~Faith

.

Getting Closer

.

Sweetheart's Mom mentioned a particular type of plantain that is even better than the regular one I am familiar with.

Here is what we've been using.





And I'm wondering if this is what you were talking about, SM?





We tried to get as early a start as we could yesterday, to beat the heat. With the rest of the metal sheeting in place...





...we turned our attention to digging the French drain above the deck.





Adding a little water to make sure there is a drop in level toward the direction we want the water to flow.





That ended up being perfect. Now we had to direct all the rainwater collection off away from the pool dugout. I made this up myself, so I sure am hoping it will work. LOL





We tried to save the turf for reuse.





Now digging out a bit deeper for the pipe.





I forgot to take photos of laying the special pipe for French drains, but if you go to my tag on French Drains you can see how to do that there.

It's finally ready.





Now to cut the PVC pipe at a difficult angle. Directly above the deck is the normal French drain type of pipe. But out in the open lawn we have to have something that will support the tractor for mowing, and some way to have it out there without it being in the way of the mower blade. This is what I came up with.

Normally, cutting PVC is easy with a variety of tools, but the size and thickness made all of those ways difficult without special tools which we do not have.

I had heard of using string to cut PVC, and we found this video...

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-cut-pvc-pipe-nylon-string-218323/

So COOL!

So off we went to work some magic!





Only it didn't work. The string kept breaking.





I have no idea why. I thought it could have been because we had to get a start on the pipe with the hacksaw since the cut was to be at such an angle, but we also tried it straight across on uncut pipe and that did not work either.

After about 50 failures, I was back on the internet trying to come up with solutions. But while I was gone, Michael did it the old fashioned way. Hack away at something until it doesn't exist any more.





It took a while, but it was effective. Awesome!





So we laid it in, attaching it to the drain pipe.





We tried to get it as flush with the ground as we could. The problem is that in order for it to be perfectly flush, the angled pipe cut would have to be a good three feet long. That is not feasable.





And here it is, all covered up with the remaining gravel from the pile in the driveway, and utilizing only a couple of turf squares we'd set aside. The grass will quickly grow over the remaining earth. We'll have to mow over it carefully to get a feel for how high to have the blades.





Lunchtime!!! Michael went for the dark lettuce in the herb garden, and I went to pick lettuce from the shaded bed.





Some of you wanted updates on this particular project. They are doing fine. They are a little spindly, just getting a bit of dappled light in the afternoon, but they taste wonderful. The leaves are more delicate and tear easily.





I had also taken a couple of pear tree trunk suckers, put rooting hormone on them, and stuck them in this very light and rich soil mix. They seem to be doing well after a month.





We washed our lunch outdoors, enjoying the cool water from the hose.





Then we took turns spelling each other on mowing the place, and continuing digging out the caved in banks around the edge.





I am hoping the more gradual slope of the banks in combination with the redirection of water flow will keep erosion to a minimum. I don't want to buy retaining wall stones as they are too expensive.





Now to focus on the deck. We checked to see where we were at for level on all the boards. Of course, to make it perfect we would have to dismantle the entire thing and redo it. Not gonna happen.





So instead we reset the blocks and added a support post where necessary.





And that was where we had to stop. The deck boards have shrunk significantly over the years and we needed another board to add in, as well as new deck screws. We grabbed those really quick on the way to Men's group and Ladies Night.

Can you pick yourself off the floor at the cost of screws? It kills me!

~Faith

.

Black Rot and the Swimming Pool

.

After days of fall in mud puddles and traipsing through poison ivy, all of my shoes needed a good run through the washer and dryer.





Funny how kids today have never heard of doing that. I guess when we were kids it was something we always had to do, but these days either kids don't get their shoes that dirty, or they they just toss them out. I'm not sure. But YES! You CAN wash tennis shoes.

You need sustenance for all that relacing though.





Oh, and just because...

This is a great book. Don't let the cartoonish cover throw you. This book is just as good for adults as it is for the younger set.





I am always astonished at the lack of common sense I see in this world, and this book will help you learn to spot it, name it, and answer to it when you are faced with it.

The fig trees were pruned again. We began by cutting out all the bare wood on the first tree.





But we saw that some of that bare wood still had some life in it. It was hard to judge how high up that life went.

So we ended up leaving the rest at shoulder height.





Black rot has indeed made an appearance in our grapes. Michael went out and plucked off all the leaves with spots on them.









I know I should thin the clusters, but it's astonishing just how many there are.





Blackberries just about to bloom.





Maybe these are baby kiwi fruit? I hope so!





Time to take the pool deck apart.









Need to clear the earth away from the posts. None of that was there originally, just a bank. It had all eroded down and piled against the original pool.





Our stash at the back of the place comes in handy. We had torn down a barn a few years ago, and it still yields good stuff.





Part of it up!





Office cleaning awaited us, so we called it quits before we got much further.

A good day's work!

~Faith

.