Last weekend our friends Sarah and Arnie came over for a potluck dinner. They brought ingredients for hot chocolate made without sugar (sweetness comes from ripe bananas) and made it for dessert. They invented this recipe and not only is it delicious, but it is actually quite nutritious. Mmmmmmm. I’m going to make it sometime soon!
-Kelly
My dogs always make me feel good about life. They live in the moment, which reminds me to do the same, and of course they always make me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Doing any activity with dogs, from a walk around the neighborhood to snuggling on the couch, can be a form of active meditation. This is only one of many reasons my life is better with dogs.
-Kelly
This week I am off from work (essentially the company I work for is doing a furlough week). When I found out about this, I was looking forward to the break from work and having some time to accomplish other things. I wanted to use some of the time to relax and unwind before going back to work, but I also have a list of things to do now that I have a little bit of time to myself. So far I’ve checked a few things off my list, but haven’t made much of a dent overall, nor tackled any of the major things that need doing.
Over the weekend: cleaned the house, had friends over, finished & filed our taxes (finally, with only one day to spare - my most extreme tax day procrastination ever), took the dogs to the dog park, did some work that needed to be done before my week off, organized all my sewing and crafts supplies
Monday: found a used dog crate on Craigslist in the exact size I wanted for a great price, picked up said dog crate, spent 2 hours at a well stocked Goodwill and got some good deals, took the dogs for an extra long walk, organized some stuff around the house, worked out, watched a movie
Tuesday: doggie play date with Helper & Ioda, cleaned the dogs’ ears, looked over proposals for our new fireplace insert and tankless water heater, did some research on permits and inspections, re-installed an electrical outlet in the kitchen that was removed when the window was replaced, watched a movie
I accomplished some little things, but I have bigger items on my list, and they’re just not going to get done. We have plans for Friday and all weekend, so I’m down to just two days, including today. I have been even less productive than I could have been so far, and the reason is familiar to me. Whenever I start to feel as though I have way more to do than can possibly be done in the allotted time, my motivation takes a major hit and I get kind of paralyzed. I started feeling it even before the week began, and I definitely let it get to me over the last couple days. I still have two days left, so I’m going to make the most of them - by doing the fun things on my list that I want to do and not feeling guilty about what I can’t do right now. It will all get done eventually. Or not.
-Kelly
It’s been almost a year since we were deep into building our cherished backyard fence. It wouldn’t be nearly so special if I didn’t have my two best buds, Sonny and Max, with whom I do much frolicking in its confines. A joy that would either not be possible or would be extremely risky considering the menagerie of squirrels and backyard chickens (the neighbors’) that would surely lead them astray or into a busy street. I make this point because I’m generally torn about fences and how they fragment our pathways to socializing with neighbors. For awhile we left a “rabbit hole” so my neighbor bud and I could have easy access to sharing a beer (not to mention he was super helpful in the building of the fence). For all my druthers about “fencing,” a good looking and sturdy fence can make a yard a beautiful container within which dogs and kids can run, all your junk can be piled without enraging the neighbors, and that can set an eye-pleasing scene in the place of the eye-sores that inevitably arise from having neighbors.
Back when I was building the fence my cousin asked for me to post some pictures because my design sounded cool. I’m about a year late, but in that time I’ve had the chance to step back and gain some insight into what was good and bad about the build process and what I did wrong and right. So let’s have a look and hopefully you can gain some insight as well.
This is the inside of the fence. We (my neighbor I should say), routed out pockets for all of the cross members to pop into. I thought about using standard hardware, but opted for this old school approach because I wanted the fence to be unique and to look great from all sides.
This picture shows that on one property line my neighbor had a cyclone fence that he (the landlord) didn’t want to remove. This presented an insurmountable challenge to attaching the fence slats in a standard way.
On the section adjacent to the cyclone fencing, rather than routing the posts and popping the cross members in, we built full panels. It’s kind of difficult to see here, but the cross members are actually tied into vertical members with pockets routed into them. Before putting the panels in, I stained everything (actually before the panel was even constructed). When the panel was complete, we tied it into the posts with screws through the vertical members.
On this side of the house, I wasn’t constrained by any fences but I did have to butcher the neighbors overgrown Japanese maple. He gave me the ok and it seems to have survived just fine though it still looks like half a tree when looking at it from my yard. C’est la vie though, I didn’t want the tree pushing over my fence.
Building mock-ups is a trick that I learned from my neighbor bud. He helped me make this one to envision how a trellis running along the length of fence would tie into a larger one above a gate (still not built—the trellis or gate!). Some good clamps are super handy for this (and so many tasks).
Snow in April? We were hoping for it, and we got it! Our trip to Mount Rainier was originally planned for Valentine’s Day weekend, but we postponed it until April Fool’s Day. Through a series of lucky events, Max and Sonny moved in with us in early February and we didn’t want to leave them so soon. They had both already been through a lot of changes before we adopted them, so we wanted to make sure they felt safe and confident in their new home. Despite the delay of our trip to the end of snowshoe season, the weather held for us. We snowshoed (?) in falling snow and played around by sliding down some hills.
We stayed at Alexander’s Country Inn, thanks to our friends Lauren and BJ, who sent us on this getaway. We really enjoyed having their cat Luna stay with us for several weeks in August while they moved here from New York, and while we did not expect to receive such a wonderful gift in return, we certainly appreciate it. It had been a while since we went on a fun trip just the two of us, and it was really nice to spend a weekend together without computers, dogs (though we love them and missed them lots), or any household work or chores to do. Very relaxing!
The inn was great, and highlights included soaking in the hot tub after a day in the snow, dinners of trout from the inn’s pond, and the propane stove that heated our living area. It was so cozy, the way I hope our future fireplace/heater will be.
We liked the looks of the cabin across the street too:
The next day we were planning to do a short snowshoe before heading home, but much of the mountain was closed due to avalanche risk. We checked out the park museum, which was small but pretty cool if you like geology, taxidermied local wildlife, and trying to identify animals by their tracks. We could have gone for a hike, but we decided to head down the road to check out this place, which is best described in pictures:
While we were out having a great time, the dogs enjoyed a little vacation of their own, playing with their dog friends Ioda and Helper. We were thrilled that our friends Aly and Tim volunteered to have the boys over to their house while we were gone. Doggie play dates at their house the previous two weekends went so well, we all thought it would be a fun time for everyone, and it was. I hope we can return the favor sometime.
-Kelly
According to a study by researchers from Harvard University and Sweden’s Kalstad University and published in Environmental Health News, the solvents used in many water-based paints linger in homes and are linked to asthma and allergies in children. The scary part is that low concentrations of these PGE fumes can have an affect, and even low-VOC or no-VOC paints may contain these harmful solvents.
I am doubly interested in this issue because 1) we are planning on painting our house in the not too distant future and probably have kids at some point in the also not too distant future; and 2) I have a background in environmental health with a focus in exposure to environmental contaminants.
This is one of those times that I am glad we procrastinated waited to do some house projects. We haven’t painted anything yet because we have bigger fish to fry (project wise) and various holes in the walls that still need to be patched. We don’t have kids yet, but given that these PGE fumes can stick around, we might as well not introduce them into the house. Mother Earth News and Utne Reader both list some brands of paint that are PGE-free. I will definitely be looking into this issue and doing some research on which paint would be safest for any little ones that might come along in the future. And the collection of free paints we acquired from freecycle and friends will probably just have to mosey on its way to someone else (without little kids) or get thrown away.
Don’t freak out if you have young children and recently painted. The study found that risks were correlated with exposure levels, so if you used low- or no-VOC paints, you are much better off than if you used the regular stuff. Also keep in mind that this is only one of countless known and unknown environmental insults we are all subjected to daily and throughout our lives (this is meant to be somewhat reassuring - hmm). We can do our best to reduce these exposures, but we’ll never escape them completely. Infants and young children are at the highest risk because their bodies and brains are rapidly developing, so it is best to minimize their exposure when possible, but there’s only so much you can do. If you are really concerned about a baby’s room that was recently painted, something that might help is repainting with one of the safer paints (like Safecoat) to seal in the other paint. Make sure you’re not adding VOC-laden pigments to VOC-free base paint. Then air out the house - hey it is spring!
-Kelly
photo from Wikimedia Commons
Today I arrived in the big leagues of community gardening. For the last six years I’ve been gardening in a p-patch of 20 or so people. Today I started gardening among about 200.
Here’s the 20’x10’ plot after I spent a couple hours removing old raised beds, clearing weeds, and turning over the soil. My first order of business was to remove the raised beds because they were made with pressure treated wood (a no no). I rolled out of bed 2 hours late to the orientation so neither camera nor coffee were on my person or in my blood (to help remember the camera) therefore no “before” pic. The large pile of dirt and weeds (front right and back right) stem from the fact that, in my “patch,” I like to compost in place— it saves me having to get and load a wheel barrow and it gives me the peace of mind that I know what’s in my pile. My worms like it too. I’ll cover the piles with burlap sacks when I get a chance to keep the weeds from germinating before decomp.
The soil in the garden is amazing… supposedly the result of being on a peat bog. I made a central path that leads into the plot that has side spurs on the right side and leads to a U-shaped path in the back of the plot. I dig out my paths so that my veggies will have more soil (depth-wise) to grow in. IMHO, It’s important that the furthest part of any bed from a given path isn’t out of arms reach so that weeds can be weeded and the harvest brought in. It’s also good to envision the ergonomics of moving hoses through the space.
Tools of the trade: garden tool bag, water bottle, hand trowel & claw, old knife, pruning tools, seed boxes containing seed, twist ties, permanent marker & blank garden signs, zip lock bags, and small plastic container with lid are some essentials. I brought the big pruners today so that I could scavenge some bamboo and cut it (at the joints) into small sticks to act as grid nodes for laying out my plantings. Before using this tact, I’ve tried pen and paper with much thought and ultimately struggled to keep the paper clean and dry and available (not lost). I laid out the corners of the imaginary boxes where a particular veggie would be planted with the sticks and wrote the seed type on a blank sign. This turned out to be super efficient and will ensure that I know what was planted where.
Usually I dote over purchasing seed each February. This year I’ve been too busy to afford doting and have plenty of old seed inventory to clear from my coffers. Seeds can last from one to several (or more) years. If a particular seed is a year old or isn’t supposed to store for as long as I’ve had it, I sow it more densely and hope to make up for lower germination rates (i.e. “the number of seeds” times “the density of seeds sown” = “the number of successfully germinated seeds”). I planted peas, lettuce, carrots, cilantro, chard, radishes, dill, broccoli, and some crimson clover (cover crop for the back 1/3 of my patch).
I finally did something I’d been putting off for a long time. I went in the crawl space under the house and stapled wires to the bottoms of the floor joists to make them totally secure. I was so happy when I found out doing it this way is to code here in Seattle. Since they are in an uninhabited space where no one ever goes and they were already somewhat secure, it wasn’t a huge problem, but I hated having that last detail hanging over my head. Or under my feet as it were.
We use this staple gun for cable along with these staples. I got them at Lowes after someone at Home Depot told me there was no such thing as a staple gun for cable. Go figure. We’ve discovered that there are certain people at both our local HD and Lowes who are very knowledgeable and helpful. Matt has a plumbing guy at HD he loves. Not everyone can be that… at least not at the big stores. Our local Ace Hardware store seems to be brimming with experts and they are always available to give advice. Anyway, the staple gun is OK. It’s a lot better than having to hammer in each individual fastener, but I find it takes a lot of leverage to make it staple right, which can be difficult when you’re working in small spaces. I wasted a lot of staples, but eventually I got it done.
This is the toolbox I brought with me (electric lantern not pictured, but that is a must, unlike most of the other stuff which I didn’t need). And the photo below was taken on a different occasion (off to work on something in the attic), but this is the same outfit I wore in the crawl space.
Tyvek suit with hood. Tyvek booties. Full goggles. Dust mask. Work gloves. LED headlamp. My industrial hygienist friends will appreciate my liberal use of PPE (personal protective equipment). It is not necessary to wear a full Tyvek suit (or any suit) in our crawl space, but I choose to wear it because it makes me feel safe and comfortable. There is some big scary spider paraphernalia (webs and egg sacs collected over the past 60 years) in the crawl space, along with more than a few big spiders (including one we thought might have been a black widow but maybe just a false black widow). The head-to-toe suit gives me a sense of security and allows me to focus on the task at hand instead of constantly checking whether any spiders are on me. It also keeps my clothes and hair dust-free, so when I’m done I can shed the suit and plop directly onto the couch for a well-deserved snack and TV watching.
Here’s a peek into the crawl space after I was done. The haziness is because I didn’t take my camera out of its ziploc bag. I’m kind of paranoid about my camera getting dirty, and of course I wasn’t about to take off my work gloves (spiders!) to take the picture.
-Kelly
Staple gun and staples pics from lowes.com.
