As you know, there’s a lot of cleaning up to be done for this beautiful property. Last week there were pictures of the piles of “trash” gathered from the immediate vicinity of the house. This picture is the result of efforts to keep the trash out of the county dump (no longer willing to use the term “landfill”). The giant board with the electrical box on it will be cleaned up and used later on, so we’re down to some black plastic and beige plastic “boards” from the deck. More about what happened to the rest follows.
One of the pallets was intact enough to become a bridge across the drainage ditch between the house and the defunct dog yard. The rest of the pallets have been broken up to become part of the piles that will be left to rot in the planting area as homes for the bugs, the birds, and the bees. That’s what that bonfire-looking pile is.
On a walk up the road to collect the downed limbs for the bug habitat, I came across these beauties. I’ve never seen anything like them and still have no idea what they are. Anyone know? They’re huge. Probably 8-10 inches.
Part of the cleanup effort has resulted in a large stash of big and very heavy cement blocks. The ever-recurring question “what to do with these” brought forth a possibility. How about a functional, albeit funky, compost pile bin? Not attractive, agreed, but serviceable. Yet another expensive trip to the dump avoided, many pounds of material that wouldn’t decompose for a long, long time not going into the ground. I looked up some compost bin designs and saw clearly just how funky this one is. One pile was contained inside a picket fence. Given the cost of wood and the fact that wood requires trees to be cut, this little compost bunker is looking quite attractive to me.
At some point the area around the house, previously kept mowed, will need to be mowed. In putting together the compost pile, yet another benefit of that mowing became clear—green matter for the pile. There’s plenty of brown material and goodness knows I have food prep contributions, but not much in the way of green. Fortunately, I’d been told about a particularly aggressive thistle (nope we won’t be leaving those behind in Murphys) that loves this climate. It was definitely a mixed blessing to realize we have a bumper crop of those little wonders right here in our very own yard. A number of them have made their contribution to the pile.
Speaking of compost, I read a few months ago about an in-house composting unit called Lomi, from pela.earth. They’re expensive, but I figured if they did half of what they claim they’d be a wonderful gift for the earth. They turn kitchen waste, cooked and uncooked fruits, veggies, etc., along with things like paper towels and even the packaging it comes in, into “dirt.” Some of the dirt is ready to go to the garden, some is fine enough for house plants. They were backordered, which seems a good sign as to customer interest, and I just received notification that ours is in transit. Having just watched their “how to Lomi” video, I confess to being quite excited. And, having just ordered a very expensive box in which to ship all my recycling that the local recyclers don’t accept to a company that recycles everything, Lomi doesn’t seem all that expensive. I’m not sure what is included in their whole list of items in addition to food that can be composted, but I’m eager to find out and will give a demo once the process is grasped.
Remember the greenhouse? Cute little plastic number? Well, it’s gone from gardening item to communication workshop subject. I bought it weeks ago and have been in regular conversation with the fellow I bought it from since. I made sure that the regular-size trailer our handychap has would accommodate its dimensions, determined that it could be secured to the trailer and be highway ready. All good. But then our handyguy couldn’t fetch it so the seller agreed to deliver it. Which didn’t happen. “So, when can you bring it out?” “So, when can you bring it out?” “So, when can you bring it out?” It was a combination of “Groundhog Day” and sitting with my teacher when he would say, “You know, it’s not what, it’s how.” We keep having this conversation and I’m feeling optimistic that he now knows who I am! Finally, I stopped by and asked for a specific time. “Well, maybe even tonight.” Did not happen “tonight,” but shortly thereafter I got a call saying he was on his way. So exciting!
A while later a pickup pulled into the driveway. Yep, it’s him. “Mike, where’s the greenhouse?” He opens the back door of the pickup and points. It’s a kit! It’s in two cardboard boxes! Oh, my. Of course, we needed to go through the various steps in our dance such as, “How would I have known it was a kit? Why would I have been asking about the size of the trailer and would it fit and could it go on the highway? You do know there is nothing in or on any of these ‘demo models’ that indicates what the customer gets is a kit?” Blessedly, we got to the point of laughing about it and expressing gratitude that the two of us are not tasked with using our communication skills to maintain world peace!
Building a greenhouse is in our future.
Thus far, birds are our only “wildlife.” But then this little cutie wandered by! Dare we hope for bears?
In gasshō,
ch