The FeDibblety family

Our garden has been doing pretty well this year. Today I harvested a bunch of tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and hot peppers. We have gotten about 2 dozen cucumbers this year, from only two plants. We have been using them in various salads, as well as making cucumber lemon water. We planted a variety of different tomatoes. We have 2 sweet 100 cherry tomato plants, and a sweet chelsea cherry tomato, which are orange. They have been doing quite well. I especially like the sweet chelsea. We also planted 2 early girls, a roma, either a big boy or a better boy, and a couple heirlooms – one cherokee purple, and one Mr. Stripey. I have been disappointed with the heirlooms. They don’t yield that much, and these particular ones are not very flavorful. They are pretty, but I want flavor too! The roma seems to be having a problem with blossom rot. Maybe they need extra water? The early girls are doing pretty well. Another added problem is that our chickens keep eating the tomatoes before I can pick them. Next year I am going to fence in the garden to keep the chickens out.

Our patty pan squash is also doing pretty well, and is quite tasty. I have gotten patty pan at farmer’s markets before, and they were yellow and small. Ours is not turning yellow, and seems to want to be bigger (it does not come off the vine easily when small). I have been removing the seeds and adding it in stir-frys and ratatouille and the like. It is pretty mild, but tasty. We also have some winter squash growing, which is looking pretty nice. I am not sure how to tell when it is ready. The blossoms were very beautiful (and tasty). I took some pictures of them several weeks ago. Eating from the backyard is fun. And around this time every year, I think about how I will do things better next year:

• putting rows of small things (peppers, basil) in between the rows of tomatoes
• pruning the tomatoes more aggressively
• trying out weed block instead of black plastic, and covering the entire garden
• fencing the garden to keep out the chickens
• Not planting heirloom tomatoes so I can get enough to can
• Planting eggplant instead of summer squash, since Clare doesn’t like summer squash

Last year when I put in the garden, I clipped back some of the plants growing at the back wall of our yard. I wasn’t sure what they were. Some of them turned out to be roses. Last year we got a few, but this year we got a ton. I am pleasantly surprised, especially considering I have hardly touched them at all this year.

This past weekend we planted the garden for this year.

Before we actually got to planting, we decided to finally take the tree down in the backyard which is ugly and very close to the retaining wall (and blocks sunlight from our garden). That turned out to be a 3-day project, but it was worth it. Most of the time was spent cutting up the branches and bundling them so our trash service will take them way. They will take 4 bundles per week, so it will take several weeks to get rid of all of them, but that’s fine.

Once we had the tree down, we could start planting the garden. I had tilled the garden on Thursday, so all we had to do was put down the soaker hose, the black plastic and then put the plants in. I saved the black plastic I used last year in the garden, so we used the same holes. I learned this method from Angie Fender in Indiana, and it works quite well. I don’t think she used a soaker hose though. Not too much watering is required in Indiana, but in Colorado we definitely need to water the garden. Using a soaker hose under the black plastic minimizes evaporation. Planting the garden was a little trickier this year than last, since Spencer wanted to help, which mostly involved him poking the trowel in the dirt, but also involved him pulling out a few plants. We branched out this year a bit, and did a variety of tomatoes and hot peppers, plus some cucumbers, butternut squash, and peter pan squash. We bought the plants on Friday, and got the tomatoes and peppers in on Saturday, but didn’t get the other stuff in on Sunday. They don’t seem to be doing as well. It could be the extra day, or the extra “help” we got from Spencer putting those in. Or it could be that most of those did not fit on the black plastic. We’ll see how things turn out.

I finally started remodeling our main bathroom several weeks ago. The first stage was demolition. Unfortunately, I forgot to take many before pictures, but that is life. I started off by removing the toilet. I got as much water out of it as possible through flushing, bucket, and towel. I took off the tank, and it is now downstairs. We like the toilet, so we will reuse it.

The next step was to remove the vanity, which was pretty straight forward. I took out the screws securing it to the wall, and disconnected the plumbing. There was one or two screws which were completely stripped, which I ended up cutting with my saws-all. Clare was kind enough to help me carry the vanity downstairs as well. I’m thinking of making it into a play bathroom for Spencer, since he really loves opening drawers and cabinets. So it is now filled with harmless everyday objects like cookie tins and egg cartons. I thought of filling it with toys, but it frequently seems that Spencer wants to play with “adult” stuff, not toys.

Once the vanity and toilet were removed, I was able to get most of the floor tile off. I pounded on the tile with an engineer’s hammer to break up the tiles. They came off fairly easy – much more easily than the floor tiles in the Spencer bathroom. It seems like there was not really much mortar on the tiles, so they probably weren’t installed very well.

I used a hammer and chisel and a pry bar to get off the tile around the tub surround. That was quite a bit of work, but it wasn’t too bad. I wasn’t exactly sure how it was attached. It turns out that it is attached to the walls with screws. I used an engineer hammer to get the tiles out, which worked really well. The added weight (compared to a claw hammer) really makes it more powerful. Once I got all the tiles off and removed the screws, I simply yanked on the surround to get it unstuck. I then did the same for the tub, and Clare helped me carry the tub out. It is currently in our yard. Last year our city had a throw away big stuff for free day. I’m hoping they do that again this year.

Once the tub was out, I could start removing the cement board. I considered trying to reuse it, but I didn’t think I would be able to get all the old mortar off it. I used the hammer and pry bar to get it up, and then had to remove the screws holding it down. It did not have any mortar between the cement board and the plywood, as I have been told to do. This is more evidence of shoddy construction, but it did make it easier to remove. Once I got the cement board up, I discovered some old linoleum tile underneath it. I worked a fair amount to get more of the tile off. I got all of the top layer off everywhere, but did end up leaving a bit of the adhesive layer in some parts.

After getting the cement board up and the tub out, I realized that part of the subfloor was rotten. This was not too much of a surprise, since we had noticed some leaks when we moved in. I had bought some extra plywood just in case this might happen. As it turns out, there was only a fairly small section which was rotten, and I was able to use a scrap piece of plywood to fix it. I cut a piece large enough so that I could screw it into three floor joists, to make sure it was plenty secure. The floor joists themselves seem to be in good condition.

The next step was to install the new fixture for the bath. We ended up going with a Delta Lewison. I really like how some of the Delta faucets have separate temperature and volume controls. We also had pretty good experience with Delta back in Indiana. I thought that the plumbing wouldn’t be too hard, since I already had some experience, but I was wrong. I guess maybe the third time it gets easier. I bought the couplings, elbows and connectors I needed, and decided to try to do some of the sweating before cutting off the old fixture. I think I have learned that this is not really worth it. I learned several more things from this experience:

1. Solder can get old. The 30+ year old solder I had from the Spencer house did not melt very easily. New solder helped a bunch
2. Solder both ends of a coupling at the same time. I tried soldering just one end, and some extra solder dripped down the coupling, make the other end unusable
3. Dry fit first before applying any solder paste. I accidentally used one 7″ piece and one 6″ piece of pipe, when I had been intending to use two 7″ pieces
4. Tighten any threaded joints with two wrenches. I initially used only one wrench, holding on to the mixing valve with the other hand. It ended up leaking, and I had to redo the whole thing

It took a bit longer than expected, but I did finally get the plumbing all done. I raised the level of the shower head by about 6″, so that it should be a bit nicer for tall people to shower.

The next step is to get the tub in and the floor tile.

Clare has been wanting to get chickens for several years now. The itch came back this year, and she spent a bunch of time looking at coop designs and trying to find chicks on craigslist. Last week she found some one on craigslist selling their coop and chickens and all the supplies for a really great price, so she pounced on it, and we now have chickens. They seem pretty happy, and they seem to bring Clare and Spencer lots of happiness, which makes me happy too.