Where did summer go?

I found this blog post in the draft pile...from May! Terrible. Well, here's a snapshot of our summer house antics.

Back in March it pretended to be spring one weekend, just long enough for Mark to build a coffin cover for our insane, poorly engineered valve box in the front of the house. We had a rotted piece of plywood loosely tossed over this, right next to the front entry. Dirt had caved in all around it and aspen tree roots had attack all of the pipes. We had several sprinkler issues when we first moved in and trying to get to the valve box and the water key was an absolute declaration of war. Mark used a machete and hand shovel for hours trying to fix this once and for all. And you know what, he did.

Introducing: coffin valve box. Made of cedar fence posts. Has a customized cut-around for the water key, a handle for easy access, and an interior barrier to keep the dirt far enough away to actually access the joints.

The key door isn't on yet in this photo. I got too impatient.

While Mark salvaged that area of the garden, I moved a few wheelbarrows of dirt and a huge stack of abandoned rocks we've bumped around the perimeter for 4 years in and around our garden boxes to level out the ground plane and add some better foot paths during the muddy seasons. Now that it's covered in snow you'll have to wait til spring to see them.

I also planted about 35 bulbs of fresias and dahlias around two of the front planter areas, moved two lilacs bushes, and ripped out the random boxwood bush on the north side and the three gnarly barbary (read: thorny evil bushes that attack you for no reason) on the front side of our house. Our front planter looks barren now but hopefully it will fill out nicely in a couple of years. And despite our rough planting season, I still managed to get some good bouquets of tulips, mums, hyacinths, lilacs, dahlias, and roses.

 

Yes, those are shot glasses being repurposed as vases.

Our peach trees actually produced fruit this spring! But because it was their first year I pulled all the fruit and left only one bud (couldn't resist!). It was delicious:

Our currant bush also produced this year. Not a bumper crop but enough to make a jar of amazing currant syrup. Here's the recipe:
1.  Put currants in a thick-bottomed pot with a little water (so the berries don't burn) on low. As they start to heat up and break down you can gently help it along with a spoon.

2.  Once the mixture becomes liquidy, pour the currants into a sieve or cheese cloth and let the juice run off. Do not squeeze or aggressively strain them because you want to keep that natural pectin intact. You can leave this to drip for a few hours. This strainer was set on top of a clear pyrex bowl to catch the juice so I could measure the end product.

3.  Once you've collected the juice, put it back on low heat until it starts to gently bubble. Stop here if you're making jam. If making syrup, add a little water to thin it out. I squeezed some lemon juice into this before I put it in a jar just to help preserve it. I didn't can it so it went straight to the fridge and got used quickly on toast, scones, ice cream, and waffles.

Aside from syrup we also had an awesome garden production. Our major failure this year was attempting potatoes. You'd think growing up so close to Idaho that would be a natural talent of mine. But no. Not sure if we'll attempt next year or not. I will say that kale is definitely a keeper and we have finally figured out a good schedule for the garlic. Canning totals this year were: 6 quarts of pasta sauce; 5 pints salsa verde (tomatillo base); 15 pints traditional tomato salsa.

Now that winter is here, I think it's time for a home brew. Ahem, Mr Robinson.... 

More holes in the walls?

Yeah, I thought we were done with this, too. But obviously home improvement is a slippery slope. More like an addiction, really.

We added a window in our cave-like bedroom! We now have a gorgeous 47x47 inch window that faces south bringing us lots of natural light plus a cross breeze. Ahhhh. Awesome.

Mark going to town on the window finishing.

Now we have been doing this long enough that you'd think it would be an easy hole in the wall, siding repair, interior sheetrock repair, paint, blind, done. WRONG! We have learned that no matter how many home improvement projects we put under our belt something will always go slightly awry. This time it was something as simple as paint.

We have a lovely golden color in our bedroom, found nowhere else in the house. Mark chose it when we moved in and I absolutely love it. When our room was a cave it looked deep gold and now with natural light it looks like sunshine kissed the walls. Basically, it is awesome. Naturally, when we repaired the wall, we needed more of this fantastic color to make the window look as though it was always there. (If you read the previous post, this is how staples got into my ceiling. We put up plastic sheeting to keep the sheetrock dust/construction nonsense as far away from our sleeping pad as possible.)

We ordered the same paint name and brand from Home Depot and walked away to grab a few other things. When we came back to the paint counter, the sales person handed us a gallon with a yellowish smudge on it and we went away happily to pay for it. Mark got home and painted the entire wall. A few hours later, we walked back into the room to put on a second coat. But the problem was that our wall wasn't bright golden sunshine...it was sh*t knuckle brown. And the picture above doesn't do it justice. But it was ugly as sin. Believe me. I had to sleep next to it and it was an unpleasant sight.

So lots more painting than we expected. But now we have a finished wall with the right paint color and an awesome window. And our bedroom can go back to normal. Yipee!

Home Improvement Gets Personal

I love my husband. But organization in our household is a goal never fully attained. Case in point: pliers.

Whilst on a mission to remove staples from our bedroom ceiling (details on why staples were in the ceiling to follow...) I ran around the house looking for a pair of pliers to assist me. Despite having approximately 6 pair of various plyer styles and having spent countless hours over 5 years of trying to organize the tools under the stairs and then eventually the garage and giving Mark not-so-subtle hints as peg board sets for Christmas gifts I could not find one pair of measly pliers to get the damn staples out. After running around my house reviving 4-lettered words, I came to the realization that I needed to give up a joint solution and get a little selfish.

For those of you who don't know, several Robert's Arts and Crafts stores are getting closed down. One just a few blocks from my house. Being a coupon hoarder, I had a stack of 50% off coupons for Robert's. Noting the time pressure to use these coupons and my sheer frustration, I went to Robert's and splurged one of my coupons on my holy grail of home improvement self improvements:

PINK TOOL SET. 

Eat it. They are now hidden in the office (a place typically unbeknownst to Mark) and there for whenever I need tools. Yes the color is embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as the neighborhood overhearing my tool-searching rampage.





BONUS EDITION of PERSONAL CRAP
Since we're on the personal topic, let me just fill everyone in with where I have been the past academic year. Last fall I felt stressed and finally started learning how to crochet. (My dear sis gave me a beginning crochet kit for our birthday last year.) Between her and my two favorite co-workers at Pearson I was crocheting things like baby hats, beer cozies, and apple sweaters by the end of fall term. (Props to Mandy on the pictured beer cozy)

Then finals hit and I needed a new stress relief. So I took up knitting as well. Like my orange scarf? 

Then I got sick for the entire winter break and one morning whilst still wearing off the nyquil from the previous night I decided to learn how to cut my own hair. I haven't had bangs since I was probably 3 but I like the change. (This was taken in the moment. No foolin'. I am that talented on non-prescription drugs.)

And last fall Mark and I continued our weird holiday ritual by going to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. 
This spring semester I have buckled down and done more actual work (as opposed to productive procrastination) like writing up research papers for conferences and journal articles. And I got accepted to a really cool conference which is an honor itself but they are also publishing my paper in their proceedings. So happy! 
This spring break we went back to Mexico and soaked up the beach and sun. We came back to Utah and got snowed on. Then at the beginning of April we went to New Orleans for the first time ever and came back to Utah and more snow. See a trend here? I do and I don't like it. 

So there you have the complete re-cap of my academic year. Productive, fun, and, as always, with a pinch of random.

Is it spring yet?

Well I think it should be. Last year, as you may recall from posts-past, we experimented starting vegetable seedlings in our house. It went rather well but they did not get nearly enough sunlight because I had close to 30 plants crammed around 2 small windows that only got indirect light a few hours a day.

Seeing how we have recently reorganized the garage, we had a spare wire rack that had previously stored beer-making supplies and we had a newly cleared spare room downstairs (the treadmill/camping room for anyone familiar with the basement). So we wheeled the rack into the room from garage and turned it into a potting station. Mark wired 6 fluorescent lights to some of the shelves of which are adjustable so we can move the lights up and down as the plants grow. I have a 25 pod starter tray and we're on batch 1. Once they sprout and get large enough I will pot them in temporary containers to encourage larger root growth and keep them under the lights until the end of May and will start batch 2.

This is even hooked up to a timer (in addition to switches) so we don't have to panic in the middle of the day wondering if we forgot to turn it on or off. This tray has 8 types of tomatoes (2 pods each) and the rest of the pods are a variety of bell peppers, including white and chocolate. Batch 2 is scheduled to have green and purple tomatillos and a variety of herbs.

Upstairs we have some exciting additions to our front room: dining room chairs finally came! (they were ordered in early December and have been much anticipated). We opted for some French Louis XVI round back style chairs in a contrasting color and style to the table. The chairs are a walnut flavor with rounded legs while the table is about the same red tone as our floor with more linear lines. The cushion on these chairs do not mess around! My tush is comfy as a cloud having dinner here.

This is the view from my area on the couch (where I do most of my working-from-home these days). I love looking up to this scene.

It feels like the finishing touch on the entire kitchen/living room remodel. And it makes us feel like adults, seeing how we have been married and in a house for the past 4 years sans dining room. Well, that and finding Mark's first gray hair a few weeks ago.

I'm done with finals = new post!

Remember the severed aspen trees a few posts back? At the end of October they were finally addressed. During the blessed late summer weather between Halloween and November 14 we had a lot of landscaping done at our house. Some of you may be asking why it has taken me a month to post these pictures. Well that is easy: not 30 minutes after the landscaping was finished on November 14 did a snow storm roll into the Wasatch Front. And the snow stayed until Monday (December 13) so I couldn't get pictures. But the snow was gracious enough to leave for one day so I could get you these beautiful pictures.

Of course I failed at getting sufficient 'before' pictures so I'll try to entertain with exaggerated tales and brightly-colored drawings along the way.

Update #1: The aspen trees. You all read my reasons about why they had to go and I've been called a hippie-no-more by family. But look what got planted instead: 3 columnar flowering pear trees in front of the house, 2 peach trees (one in the middle kidney-shaped planter and one on the corner of the house), and lots of bulbs/seeds that will hopefully bloom in the spring.  Hi Hudson!

Since we're in the front yard, let's just continue by turning down the road a bit.

Update #2: Park strip water whore is gone! That is fancy flagstone instead of grass and inefficient sprinklers. The planter areas have hyacinth bulbs and mini roses with drip irrigation.

(The next picture is a close up of the flagstone in the park strip on the other side of the driveway.)

Update #3: Also in the background of this picture you are able to see one of the major reasons for repouring the driveway. The carport was widened so hopefully no more visitors or ladies of the household will run over the sprinkler heads. And the other reason for gutting the driveway was that the 'drain' actually was one 4" hole that emptied into an empty rotted 55 gallon TIN drum(?!?!?!), which caused the very large crack and settling in the driveway. Not cool. Now there is a 6'x6'x6' gravel french drain with a sturdy metal cover, and no backups! We also put a little planter area just in front of the ugly 70's rock that allowed the side drive to be graded more gently.  We will be planting some lilac there come Spring.

Update #4: Squint your eyes and you might be able to tell at the end of the carport by the garbage cans is brand new steel black gate. The railing is strong but thin so it really opens up the view to the backyard. Both sides open from the middle and into the backyard like a french door (the previous wood gate had sagged and dragged on the concrete incline...and it rarely shut all the way). The other thing about the gate area is that we installed a trench drain running the entire length of the concrete that drains to the backyard lawn. Our gutters are piped to the drain too, so the side drive isn't an ice-skating rink in the winter anymore.  Because it's a concrete slope and our neighbor thinks that grass has to be flooded all summer to grow, we had a constant mud field in the backyard. Hudson loved it, we hated it. Nothing could grow there because the water literally flooded it every year, as well as it being completely shaded. In fact, let's take a closer look at the back yard.

Update #5: Ok, here's the ugly diagram. Just deal with it.

Imagine that you actually managed to park in the previously sharply-angled, steep carport and you get out of your car to our old fence/gate. After you pried the gate towards you with several Herculean heaves, you look down to see what damage you may have left on the cement from the gate and also see the mud bath you now have to swim through to reach the patio. Now you look up to see which direction to jump to and BAM! shed right in your face. And behind shed is this weird, random cement pad (previous previous owners told us it was a dog run but no one really knows why it's back there).  And there's a pine tree that makes sure nothing will grow between gate and shed, just in the case the flooding may have let anything survive, tree makes sure it doesn't reach germination.

Update #4 fixed the mud bath, update #5 was moving the shed to the vacant corner of the back yard and out of the way of the backyard entry. This is a view looking from our patio beneath the deck. It took men (Mark included) and equipment, and I don't want to know how it happened or how (un)graceful it may have happened. But it's moved.  For next year, we will build a simple pergola over the concrete pad and maybe give the shed a bit of a facelift.  The exposed side was up against the fence before, and the previous owners just jammed a bunch of scrap wood and lots of garbage back there.  In fact, the shed was propping up the fence as the backyard trashed when we moved in (in fact, November 14th we woke up to the wind blowing down three sections of fence, which Mark and our neighbor quickly improvised back together again just in time for Sis's engagement party).

Update #6: With all of that flooded out area under the pine tree where nothing could possibly grow, flagstone went down. I cannot explain how much bigger our backyard looks with it in! It was like tripling our patio area! So lovely! Hello there again, Hudson!

So there you have it. No more yard updates until spring. And also in spring we will need to break in our new landscaping with a worthy party. I've already got the pinata.

Part 2: Garage & Basement (It's a Poem)

(I decided that writing about all of the garage & basement improvements would be too long of a post. So I've condensed it into 12 stanzas and a handful of pictures. You're welcome.)

Twas the Night Before Winter
Autumn has left us with the yard finally mowed,
Not a stray grass around, the new trimmer was stowed.

Snowboards were hung from the ceiling with care
In hopes that efficient lighting soon would be there.

The beer fridge door now accessible at last
Awaiting sink installation from kitchens past.

Hooks and racks to hang coats dirty and wet
From wintery sports to a fishing net.

Three shelves line the wall in organizational bliss
And a unit with bins completes our shelving list.

Back to the basement we see a new use
For the large tiled area that seemed so confused

A man cave it shall now be known as
With a bar and TV this new room now has!

And the guest bedroom suite is underway
The last of furniture purchases, we pray.

But let us not forget what started this all
Moving back up the stairway and down the hall

To the fireplace with a face lift so bright
New lamps reflect the mantel's bright white

Chairs and posters finish off the kitchen colors
And quarter-round trim makes this room match the others.

With our rhyme ending sadly this very late nite,
I wish "Happy Winter to All and to All a Good Night!"

Best Saturday Ever

We still continue our ritual of starting projects but not finishing them. But on Saturday, we started something EPIC.

Fact: Aspens are pretty trees, in the mountains.
Fact: the clump at Tonys Grove in Logan Canyon are the largest living organism in the world.
Another fact: aspens don't belong in front yard suburbia. They sneak-forest your lawn.



Taylor was a doll and brought on his mad chain saw slaying skillz at 7:30am. I'm sure our neighbors hate us.

And since Taylor was occupied with our lumber yard, I got to go let out his chickens!









I love chickens! What a wonderful morning, being all lumber jack-y and chicken babysitters.

If anyone asks about our current front yard situation I tell them, with a serious face, that we wanted to go "all out" for Halloween this year.




Corey was a doll and came over to help us get started on electrical stuff. We have all new lighting in the kitchen, including hard wired under cabinet lighting. He did such a great job!



I have to patch the holes in the ceiling from the previous fixtures. Perhaps over fall break...

And garden time is winding down but not before we got some canning in:






And to build anticipation for my next post... I wrote you a poem! We just need to finish a few things so I can get some more pics to properly illustrate it.