From Paint to Popsicle:

I don't know much, but I am fairly certain that every successful house project at 726 begins here:

The rest of the story goes something like this:

If you let Jenna order a new duvet cover for her bed, she's going to want a clean white ceiling to go with it.

After you let her paint the ceiling, she'll ask if she can finish off the top of the room with a round of crown-moulding.

Once the crown is up, she'll look downward and want to add trim around the windows and doors. Inspired by the clean trim, she'll want to paint the closet doors.

With the closet doors drying in the yard, there's no reason not to get a new door to match the other doors in the house.

She'll be distracted temporarily by playing with her favorite three year old, by agreeing to house/dog sit for some very handsome men and by a trip to visit her mother. Plus, she'll want to turn some garden beds and plant some onions and some brassicas. 

She'll be thankful she has such a nice and helpful friend who is especially talented at painting and caulking baseboards, because once all the other trim is white, surely that will have to be white as well. 

Once all the painting is done, she'll decide she needs a few window-sils to go with the trim. 

So, maybe the next time Jenna says: "I think I need a new duvet cover" you'll think twice about saying yes...You might just tell her to go have a popsicle instead.

Friday Snow-Showers bring Saturday Sunshine?

Most of the pictures from today's efforts are a bit lack-luster. Today was a lot about making wide open spaces. At first there's nothing too exciting about the colorless images. But, the colorless images mean things can be planted. And, with little things popping up everywhere, it won't be long now. I found myself remarking about how much I appreciate lettuce. Lettuce is the first thing in the garden ready to grow and eat. With the bed turned and composed and starts under the light, salad from yard will be ours in no time....

Yard art is back!
These fun solar cattails from Mama-Pajama
and Neal make their debut.

Pulling the weeds today felt satisfying in a way that not much has in a while. The last month has really had me feeling like I'm spinning my wheels. And, for a number of reasons that just don't belong on the internet, I've just been feeling "done". "Done" with whatever's in front of me. "Done" with making an effort. "Done" with breathing air. Yes, it sounds dramatic and silly. But, that's exactly how I've felt. Done.

Pulling the weeds meant there was something I could control. With a little effort came a clean space of dirt where just minutes before their had been a dandelion take over. Small victories. Everything a beginning. And, everything a reminder of how fast things change. How seedlings, strong roots below the surface, grow to baby plants stretching out to space allowed. Time. Dedication. Patience. Luck. Some unpredictable combination yields predictable results. Worry less. Dig more. Yesterday there was snow, today skies filled with sun. Find space for what will come. Life, in time, will find a way. 

Violet, Not Martha (I'm afraid...)

I've been avoiding fixing the gutter-into-the-rain-barrel for the better part of the last six months. I was thinking that I needed to buy a new gutter piece and also a strap so I just didn't. Today I looked at it and decided it could be done with a hand saw and a drill, all the pieces re-purposed. It worked out well enough (it's done, isn't it) but it doesn't look all that pretty. This was decidedly a Violet move. Martha would not approve...

Honestly, I imagine Martha wouldn't approve of last year's remodel on the potting shed either. Check out how messy it is! The pots don't match and there's a dirty worm bin and buckets of potting soil and the like. The gloves are on clothes pins that are strung on a piece of twine. No, this is not a potting shed that would meet with Martha's approval. But, it's super functional and I like transplanting my little seeds in the warmth. I started the last of the tomatoes and peppers today. The seedling station is taking over the dining room! 

In other news:

1.  I decided to open my drip irrigation kit. It wasn't as tricky as it sounded at first to put together, but I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to be the most efficient drip water-er possible. It seems like the system (while joyfully simplistic) may miss some plants, no matter how it's organized...I really need to turn it on for 30 minutes and test it out. But, for now...I can say I got started.

2. I pulled these carrots. They wintered over. Nice.

3. I installed the bee station. 

4. There will be garlic.

5. And, blueberries...

6. And, raspberries...

Hooray for spring! And, picnics in the park with friends. And, bubbles. And, gratitude that is bountiful.

Only in Seattle?

Do people in other cities have days like today?..Days where the sky is mysteriously (what's that color) blue (?) instead of gray?...Days where the temperatures rise and you realize how the endless gloominess of winter around here has been putting you in a funk?..Days where you feel like spring might come again?...Days where you are able to feel a little more like yourself (or at least the self you like to be)? They must. Right? Well...Today was that day in Seattle for me. So...

Today's home and garden blog roll includes...

1. Waking up and finishing the last piece necessary for my application to my master's program. Hooray!

2. Regular Sunday chores (coupon clipping, laundry, oatmeal, grocery store, 2 weeks of clothes, clean sheets).

3. Finishing the construction of the bee-house-stand (seen in it's unfinished form). Kumquat painted it and I really think the new colony is going to L-O-V-E! My plan is to bury it about half a foot down into the ground for stability and then attach some mini l-brackets to keep it in place....

I

4. There was also fire. There was also torching. Die moldy spores! Die!

5. I got a new notEbook. I can't remember the last time I filled one before the end of school year. Information had to be copied. But, it's so clean and tidy.

6. Transplanting many a tiny brassica. The flowers have to move out of the grow light area to make room for the veg! Hello, baby broccoli! I'm waiting for you baby cauliflower!

7. Beginning some demo work in the picnic shelter. Taking down the "ugly", one might wonder what took so long?! I know, you're thinking it doesn't look like much now. But, I'm telling you, if I'm good at anything it's seeing possibility. That's all I see. Just stand by for the transformation!

7. Beginning phase four of a birthday gift for our favorite soon to be three year old! I wish I could take responsibility for the fabric choices. But, I must credit KMQ and Jamie #1 for that. Still, I'll take a smidge of credit for how pretty it's turning out...

8. Making this galette for dinner. Jelly-bean and I were hanging out at Mr. Perfect's a few weekends ago and he was flipping channels when I saw BRIDGET! I love Bridget. Mr. Perfect wanted to watch his movie, but did record ATK for us to watch after. They made this tart. However, when I went to find the recipe online I was blocked because I don't have a subscription. But, can you believe it? For some reason K.____ happened to buy the magazine with the recipe in it, just the other day. She sent it to me. And, ta da! Dinner.

8:00 and the whole family is sitting down to rest. I'm going to call it a successful-sunny-sunday!

There was sun..

So, I trimmed the raspberry canes.

And, started the first round of tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower and celery. We'll see about the celery. It's Kylene's new desired veg.

It was nice to see blue sky!

It's official...

The colony is dead.

It rained a lot so I went to clean out the hive and found a pack of moldy bees. No happy bees came to greet me at the window so I popped the top. It didn't take a rocket-scientist (or a very good beekeeper) to discover the enemy:

K.____ says that it's not because I'm a terrible beekeeper (I'm still not so sure-maybe she is just saying this so I won't cry?)...Instead it's because the colony was too small to keep itself warm and dry. Moisture is the number one killer of colonies around these parts and since Colony #1 only had a little time to get established, it didn't have the numbers it needed to keep out the moisture. Too much moisture means = too much mold = dead bees.

So...I cleaned out the boxes the best I could. Four of the frames were full of really nice, capped honey. Good news: They didn't starve to death. They had plenty of food. On K.___'s advice I wrapped one of the boxes with the frames of honey and put them in our fancy deep-freeze (good thing Kylene got that for Christmas, right?). It seems this will kill the mites and bacterial and moldy spores. Then, Colony #2 can use it as start up stores.

Then, I cleaned the rest of the boxes and frames the best I could (the next step is to torch them to kill all the other bad junk). I also think I need to build the bees a little platform. The current hive wasn't right on the ground, but I figure if I can get some more air movement up under the hive it will make Colony #2's job just a bit easier.

There was one frame with just a tiny-bit of capped honey and otherwise pretty comb. I brought that one inside and set about finding a YouTube video about Warre' Hive Harvestin'.

The one I found was in French. I guess it was okay that I didn't really understand any of what he said because the visual was good and I set up a simple apparatus made from a colander, a mesh-sieve, a plate and two plastic cups. I need a smaller mesh to really get out all the comb-bits...Even so. We got to sample just a bit of Colony #1's hard work.

Next year I'll be smarter and better and we'll get the hive started up sooner and maybe I won't be making this same sad report. It's pretty lonely in the backyard without those buzzers.

We'll see if it's just a one-day-phase...

So, it's that time again when I start saying: When did we _________ last year? I trot off to my handy-dandy garden notebook and for about the months of January & February I can accurately report (some of) the details about when I ordered seeds or started baby plants. Then, I get busy with the work of actually running the yard and I quit documenting. I've vowed to do a better job this year. I guess time will literally tell...For now, (because what else do you do at 6 a.m. on a Sunday when you've been up for hours blowing your nose), this week's "Winter-in-the-House-&-Garden" short list.

1. Five-to-Ten Business Days Ago I ordered the seeds. Being one of my favorite winter chores I do check the mail with excitement everyday like a child anticipating Santa. While the spreadsheet (seeds i want real bad) does list a few locations, the shiny-gold-packets from Park Seed are my favorite. The beauty of the spreadsheet means that we could organize the old-viable seeds with the new ones that need replacing. Since we rated last years seeds (read: "amazing" cauliflower is not so "amazing" after all) we could order more of the good seeds and replace the lack-luster varieties with new ones to try. Now they're all organized neat-and-tidy in the seed box and ready for starting-up.

2. A Few Flowers to Brighten the Gray days of winter? Flowers from seed aren't very highly prized in this house. I'll get excited and start some in an effort to try, but they quickly have to move over in favor of more glorious things like broccoli, baby-lettuce and soon: TOMATOES! But, this year I thought I'd try my hand with flowers before the veg. needed room under the light. I do believe I detect my first sign of green...

3. Using up the stores...Last night while Kylene ran to the store for some nori (because we had gone about our busy day imagining we had everything for sushi, only to find out their was nothing to house the rice), I set about the work of slicing and dicing...While I did some battle with an avocado-not-in-its-prime, I did none with the beautiful carrot she plucked from our backyard. And, I added our favorite home-made-sushi ingredient: Pickled-Zucchini!

Three out of five ingredients from the garden in January.
I'd like to up it to 4 out of 5. Picky?

4. "It's easy to trust someone who grows kohlrabi..." I think that was the quote from Jamie (but, I wasn't actually there) upon hearing Kylene tell the story of feeding kohlrabi from the garden to the Seattle City Light lady who was out to change our meter (but, I wasn't actually there for that either). The point is...I love the quote, even if it's slightly misquoted AND we're eating carrots and kohlrabi and broccoli out of the garden in January. We still have a lot to learn about gardening in the winter. But, I'm thinking winter 2012/13 has not been a bad start.

5. I really think the colony is dead. I haven't seen much activity. There are a lot of dead bees. I know I can't be for sure until it warms up enough and dries up enough to actually check. But, I fear the worst. I need to add to my list of jobs to talk to K.____ about ordering me up a nuc. The bees being one of my favorite features of the yard...I'm going to try until I get it right. 

6. JOY IS...Having Blue Bird Grains via UPS deliver a 50 pound bag of hard-white-wheat-berries and a 20 pound bag of emmer-farro berries to your front door. I have: A five gallon bucket + a gallon ziplock bag + a giant mason jar of white-wheat for my grinding pleasure. I also have a giant mason jar + 2 gallon ziplock bags of emmer. Joy is not when your cracker recipe burns up in the oven (but, I think the mistake there was trying the simpler recipe first instead of going straight to Smitten). We're down to the last cups full of store bought flower. I'm really hoping that the grain will last us the year and that we can entirely give up our dependance on store bought flour in this house. It may just be the first New Year's Resolution I can stand by.