wiredfool

We’re working on brightening up the living room with the installation of a couple of skylights, and helping the airflow a bit with a ceiling fan. (and while we’re at it, fixing the ventilation in the roof by installing ridge venting. I’m guessing that when the house was built, there were a few parts left over…)

So, Some Pictures:

Ceiling duck:

Installing the Fan:

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An Open Tab Link Dump:

– An easy way to do all the steps required to get a well behaved unix daemon in python.
– Atlas Shrugged, Revisited
– Useful Emacs Commands
– Python mail server. Looks like similar intentions to something I did about 10 years ago and launched my programming career.
– MIT Course Notes on database systems. Something to read in spare time.

I’ve now gotten 10 pepper plants in the ground, along with the tomatillo, the rest of the squashes, and some replacement chard. Today, I picked up some herbs for the herb bed, a couple replacement thymes, a cilantro, 2 basils, and a couple of rosemarys.

I also got a ‘red warty thing’ which is sort of a pumpkin/hubbard cross. I’m hoping that it amuses me.

There’s one other batch of onions to plant out, then we’re pretty much done for now. There’s some spare chard and kale that will probably go out, and the straggler cucumbers.

Next year, all the squash like stuff needs to be started April 1, 2 seeds to a pot, and not right on top of each other. The tomatoes and peppers need to be started March, or maybe even February, inside, and warm, if we’re going to be able to use them.

The sunflowers and beans continue to grow well, though there are some ants that are getting some of the bean leaves. The corn is in, but unfortunately, I planted it right at the end of a heat wave, and not right at the beginning.

It’s really hot here. 80 in the shade hot, And today, every time I went out to move the water, there were more beans up. There were noticable differences from hour to hour. The sunflowers are up too, in quantity.

I got the tomatoes and zucchini in the ground today to take advantage of the expected next week or more of good weather. I’m hoping to get the corn and peppers in soon so they can get a little of it too.

A few days ago, I was looking at the pictures from the 3rd of June last year, and despairing that the potatoes and other bits were way behind. Well, a few hot days have cured that. Everything is loving the heat, so long as there’s water available.

So. It’s hot and dry here.

– The salad this year is a lost cause. We’ve gotten three plants from three plantings of lettuces, and the spinach is just beginning to get to edible size.
– We haven’t gotten any chard yet, but the overwintered stuff should be ready for a harvest.
– The overwintered kale has been good for a few meals, but it really wasn’t that impressive for production.
– The carrots planted May 1 or so came up thickly, then disappeared. The parsnips came up and are doing well.
– The peas are just now flowering, the favas are flowering and looking happy.
– The transplanted cauliflower has been in the ground a few weeks, and we’ve only lost two plants. The more recently transplanted brussel sprouts are looking good.
– Onions are looking good, both from the walla walla sets and the seeded guardsman and leeks, then set out as tiny plants.
– There are quite a few potatoes in the carrot bed.
– The potatoes are looking good, the March and April plantings have been hilled at least once, and the May ones are peaking out.
– The reseeding of the beets is working well, we’ve almost got a full bed of them.
– Garlic continues to do well, though I not sure how the seeded garlic will do. It’s still really small.
– The parsely and cilantro have been transplanted ont and are taking to the garden well. Slugs have gotten a couple of parsely, but none of the cilantro.
– I think that the slug beer traps are working. They seem to catch the slugs, and there doesn’t seem to be as much damage now.
– The Strawberries are as happy as I’ve ever seen strawberries in one of my gardens. The transplants from the compost pile are spreading like mad, the ones from the store are putting up huge leaves and lots of berries and flowers. There are a bunch of wild strawberries around the yard, and it almost looks like they’re invasive.
– The peas in the sprawly bed are doing reasonably well. I’m digging small holes there for the squash and sprawly things to grow for a while before I turn the peas in.
– The Pumpkins are in the ground, and looking pretty good. They were started in pots about April 1. I should have started the other squash and cucumbers then.
– The zucchini were started around early May and are good enough to go out, but it would be nicer to have them bigger. The Patty Pan and Butternuts are not ready to go out yet, but might be in a week or so.
– The beans and sunflower seeds have been in the ground a week, and are just starting to sprout. It’s been a warm week.
– There’s at least one apple set that we’ve found, but it’s still hard to see many. I’m expecting more.
– There are lots of cherries, on each tree.
– There’s three plums on one tree, and one on the other. The kids ate 4 plums for snack today. Not going to be enough for a while.
– There’s at least a few peaches on the peach tree, but I’m really worried about it. It has something that looks like a rash or blight, and some of the twigs were hit hard by the weather last winter.
– The pears look happy, but I’m not sure if they’re gong to set fruit. There’s nothing on the asian pear, and one cluster that looks promising on the Bartlett.
– The Blueberries have lots of blossoms and look like they’re setting.
– The Salmon berries are starting to be ripe, and we’ve got a lot of them this year. Knocking down the blackberries did wonders for them.
– The bed is almost ready for the tomatoes and peppers. The tomatoes are ready to go in real soon now, the peppers will probably be a week.
– The Nevada peas are a lost cause, and will get turned in in the next couple of weeks and their place will be taken by corn.
– There’s another planting of Cilantro in the greenhouse, Basil, and some recently repotted Kale. There’s also some extra chard ready for infill in the bed that was planted this spring.

Links to the big ones, they’re 3000 and 7000 pixels wide. The originals were more like 10k and 25k wide.

This one is half a circle, from the beaten down blackberries and resurgent salmonberries, through the fruit trees, fire circle, combined sprawly bed and nevada, now more of a utah shape, and then the raspberries and the blackberries that hide the main garden. This is the big one.

The sprawly bed — it’s got favas, garlic strawberries, and peas that are doing anything, a bean trellis in the back, and a few newly planed rows of bush and pole beans. Soon to come are the sprawly things and the sunflowers.

Take one at functional chainsaw art. This one is a little tall for Ben.