stand outside the spotlight

More rain. I cleaned the rain gutter on the back side of the garage--water was pouring over the sides--and diverted the water in three downspouts away from the foundations with flexible downspout extensions. I had to cut a few inches off the bottom of two of the downspouts in order to get the flexible downspouts to fit. I promise I won't say downspouts again in this post.

Since I was already wet and since it was very warm today I raked leaves out of the gutter in the street in front of our house and in front of the two neighbors' houses on either side of our house. Now I have said house a few too many times. I was able to turn the lakes into swift moving streams!

as few words as possible

Rain. I really need to get out there and pick the last of the Raspberries.

hand over the reins

Wow--I haven't posted here since March of '06!

My garden is getting to be very established and is not much work anymore. This year I experimented with a small vegetable garden and have plans for another next year. Eventually I would like to turn what is left of the lawn into garden space for growing food. I have been looking into the locovore/urban gardening movement and I am pretty excited about expanding my food growing space.

I have twice as many Bonsai as I had in '06. Currently they reside in a small modular greenhouse in preparation for winter. My concern is keeping the pots from freezing and cracking--the trees will do fine.

I finally have a dedicated a space for composting after twice moving the pile from areas of the yard that just weren't convenient and were in the way. I use the same mounding technique that I have always used being sure to maintain a 3-1 green to brown mixture of materials. After 11 years it is satisfying to be a composter once again.

Last spring I started a worm farm with 500 Red wigglers from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm in PA. I used an opaque Rubbermaid container that I modified a bit by drilling holes for air circulation and for draining the worm tea. I have harvested the worm castings once and estimate that I now have about 5 times as many worms as when I started--most likely I will have to move some of them into another residence the next time I harvest.

Also this year I constructed five 55 gallon rain barrels and diverted the downspouts from the back half of the house into them so that I can harvest rain for my outdoor watering needs. The process was time consuming but I eventually came up with a design and a system that works well for me.

Note to self... post more often.