Around the “Farm” | Gardening in My Rubber Boots

Feb 15

Winter Color

Took a rainy walk around the garden today and found some color to help brighten up the gray day.

Feb 17

It’s Pond Clean-up Weather

We had an abnormally warm and pleasant weekend — in the high 50°s. Which is practically unheard of for this time of year. It was the perfect winter weather for cleaning/weeding the pond.

Here’s the pond last summer — hidden under the grass in the lower right.

As you can see, it’s a small pond that’s been taken over by an invasive grass. We had no idea how bad it was until we drained the pond and started tugging away at weeds – some sections were over a foot deep. Yikes. Here’s the ‘in progress’ picture.

It took most of the day but it’s done — we are a concerned the grass will come back. We plan to toss the grass debris in the garbage instead of composting (I’m not taking any chances). It’s the tiny and hidden roots we’re worried about spreading again. One thought is leaving the pond dry all summer to dry up any remaining roots.

I’d prefer we fill up the pond and enjoy it. Then hand pull any new grass starts that pop-up. I’m not sure what kind of grass it is. Anyone have similar experience? Thoughts?

Thanks for your help!

Dec 15

10 Comments

I’m a Wimp

The last couple weeks I’ve noticed a creature is living in my garage. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I assume it’s a rat. I’ve thought about leaving the door open to let the cats hang out in the garage but don’t want my pets getting into other potentially harmful stuff that may be out there. At least until I have the time to clean it out.

Then last night I was awoken by something trying to get into my chicken coop. I heard the distinct noise (twang) of the hardware cloth being pulled on and released. I quickly got up to see what was trying to get to my chickens and found my own cat pulling at the wire.

To get a better look at what my cat was trying to get (since I knew it wasn’t the chickens) I walked around to the other window and saw the sweetest looking rat sitting on top of my hen house — looking right at me with it’s doe eyes.

[Visualize picture of cute rat looking scared that I was too tired to take]

Instead of opening up the coop and letting my cat have a run at the rat, I went back to bed. I figure it had to leave the coop at some point and then it was fair game. In short; I’m a wimp.

I deserve to have rat poop all over my garage. Maybe I’ll put out some live traps soon and send this buddy to the woods (yes, I know this is also bad). We already know I can’t kill it. I’m open to your suggestions.

Jul 21

3 Comments

My Finished iPhone Phonograph

Well, I finished creating the iPhone adapter for my ‘phonograph.’ It works great! I’m a little surprised how well it turned out. I simply used PVC purchased from a local hardware store. I also found a use for the Dremel I purchased eons ago.

To make the PVC adapter I started with a 1/2″ tee and two 1/2″ end caps. To connect them I slid inside a piece of 1/2″ pipe. I used a hand saw to make my cuts/openings before gluing it all together. I then used the Dremel to sand everything down and to create the finger hole for the iPhone button.

I used another piece of 1/2″ pipe to connect the tee to the megaphone. Since the connection to the megaphone was loose, I hollowed out the wide part of a champagne cork to fill the gap.

Everything was spray painted black to match the horn.

Because I’m a huge sap, I downloaded more Billie Holiday & Ella Fitzgerald albums and created a phonograph playlist.