Our Latest Recycling Project

It turns out I have all this family I never really knew existed. We went on a road trip to meet up with my Daddy-O and K.____ in Colville a little over a week ago and to be introduced to said family. My dad's cousin Pam has a beautiful home and she has done a few really masterful home improvements using totally recycled materials. 

I wouldn't say this weekend's project was inspired by Pam. It was actually inspired by an idea Murray had and a day that was making me live too deeply inside my own head...(When we moved the old, ugly, potting bench out of the potting shed to make way for the new one Murray suggested I take it apart and use the lumber to make the rain-barrel-stands she's been asking for. Perhaps it was my lack of enthusiasm for the chore that left the bench sitting in the backyard for several months. But, after a particularly unenjoyable day yesterday I decided the answer to my cranky mood was most decidedly time spent with power tools.) 

Rather I thought A LOT about Pam while doing the project. I thought a lot about how it is probably a lot more fun to do a recycling project with say GIGANTIC (read: three feet in diameter) PVC pipe that you get for free and get to turn into a really cool wall/planter, then it is to do a project that requires reclaiming warped 2 x 8s from a potting bench and pulling rusty nails from crusty 2 x 4s knowing that you could have got new, cheap ones at the Homey-D. Also, it was really hot and I was working in a corner of the yard that seems to smell distinctively like cat feces. I imagined Pam had none of these problems...

When I mentioned all this to Murray (when she came to make sure I wasn't losing a limb in my frustration) she just reminded me that, "It's not always about fun. Sometimes it's about the environment." Though, in her defense, she did take care of the poo-issue.

So...First I broke everything to pieces and ended up with a pile of mismatched scraps. My favorite. Things that don't match.

The table (Dad & Kim) does work great! Thanks!

Then, came up with a design that seemed like it might suit the purpose...

Added some cross supports to make it sturdy...

And, then Murray painted it so the color would match the garage. Surely it was a woman who invented paint. I just love the way paint makes something that would otherwise look ugly look clean and neat and tidy. Hooray!

Also, we made a sister table for the rain barrel in the front. It needs to be leveled and the gutter reworked, but you get the idea. Two rain-barrel tables made entirely of materials we already had. Hooray for recycling!

First Potatoes, Last Potatoes

We were having dinner with our friend Kelli on Friday night and I looked at her lovely garden, growing so stately in her backyard. Kelli (it bears noting) is a master gardener.

Me: Our garden is such a disappointment this year. 
Kelli: You say that every year.
Me: Yeah. Well, I really mean it this year.

But, of course I wasn't really aware that I say it every year and I did feel bad upon returning home to realize that it's not that bad in the garden. It's just so hard when you have to wait a whole year to try again...Such is the life of a farmer. Yet...As I write Murray is in the kitchen washing up the first meal of green-beans that I picked just minutes ago and potatoes that she dug while I was harvesting those. Such is the life of a farmer as well, I suppose...

Maybe it doesn't really matter that somehow the "pole" beans ended up in big "bush-bean" clumps? What matters is that they are a delicious snack at 6:30 in the morning when I'm out doing watering on what promises to be an 80 degree day...

Maybe it doesn't really matter that what you see above is the sum total harvest from the potato crop which probably amounts to about three more potatoes than were originally planted? What matters is that there is something totally satisfying about hunting through soil for heirloom purple potatoes and a Washington native yellow variety and the way it makes you feel like you might just being doing a small part in the war against monoculture...

Maybe what really matters is that Mother Nature seems to abound most with lessons that resound in more areas of life than just filling a belly. How fun is is that after all the effort spend attempting to cultivate potatoes in the garden, the only ones that really grew were the ones that sprung on their own accord from the compost pile?! My curiosity got the better of me after digging in the front, so I just reached down under a leaf and a pile of grass clippings and found: Ta Da! Without even a bit of digging these beauties:

So, I'm marveling a bit at the ways things sometimes just work out, independent of the best laid plans, how humbling satisfaction can spring from a compost pile, and how delicious dinner harvested from your imperfect urban garden really can be...