An Electrifying Project

My how times flies…. I have been so damn busy with various projects that I have not had much of a free moment or two to put anything down, besides now obviously.  My main project right now is the electrical system in my house. The warm weather has allowed me to work on the electrical system and finish it up before my permit runs out.

Another Turning Day, Continued

Okay, so my Aunt’s pile is freshly turned & aerated.  It looks to have about another 1 to 1 ½ weeks till it is technically finished, barring any more heavy rains since I cannot really cover it.  That will be just in time for a garden project that my Aunt and a Friend of hers will be doing together.  Not to mention the one project I was have talking about earlier this year which is also a raised garden bed.  This project which be growing a variety of squash for a fall harvest, so I actually need to get on that sooner than later. Never enough time and resources. LOL!  Speaking of this specific project, I am going to do a mini-hugelkulture bed with some cottonwood trees that are around my Aunt’s property.  In combination with the fresh compost, I think it will make for some really large squash.  Something that I think she will get quite a kick out of.  Currently, she has several cottonwood trees that are too close to her property line and are in a very wet area. Regardless, they need to come down.  I am going to cut the smaller ones down, cut them into rounds, and place them in the garden bed.  I know that fresh cut logs could become a nitrogen-sink, but I can mitigate that with some horse manure, and place the compost soil on top of that.  Also, the cottonwood should help the garden soil from becoming too wet/saturated by groundwater and allows for proper drainage from rain water.  I am not sure how tall it will be just yet, but probably safe to bet around the 18-inch marker.  I might have to dig down into the soil a bit to make sure it does not exceed that height.   I will post some pictures when I get to building that project, so keep an eye out for it.

Another Turning Day

My Aunt and Mother have both told me with much excitement that her pile is steaming big time. With all of the passing showers we have had in the last few  days, hopefully it is not too saturated with water since I do not have a cover to put over it. To be  continued....

*EDIT* Continued at Another Turning Day, Continue

Ah, What The Horse Sh*t!

Turning the piles on the outside into the center. Grass & straw on the
left, horse manure & alfalfa hay on the right.

I have just returned from my Aunt's property where I turned her two compost piles into one massive one, again.  No, you read that correctly and now you are thinking, "Did you not just make her a new pile the other day?"  Yes, I did.  But now I have made it better: I have combined the two massive piles into one even more massive pile.  What is better than two piles? One massive one. LOL!

Russian Comfrey Is Up!

They're all up! All seven slips that I received three weeks ago and are growing pretty rapidly.  I am so stoked!  Enjoy some pics.

Comfrey Harvest

The other day I had posted about finding some in-wild Russian Comfrey in a development plot nearby.  I just harvested some earlier tonight on a walk with my dog.  I got a good five pounds worth which oddly enough, I harvested less than a fifth of the plant.  There are two so I will be back to grab some more tomorrow or so.  I am going to make a comfrey compost tea for my mom as well as a biomass for my compost.  My Aunt will be receiving some too.   It is a good find!

I shredded up some of what I got tonight and mulched it around my growing comfrey plants. My mom took some and mulched in around some of her plants.  We used all five pounds and added the thick stalks to my compost pile.

What a Bitch!

You heard me.  That huge compost pile I was talking about the other day... well I just turned it.  Damn, it was tiresome. Took me a good hour to turn it all with my forks, although very worth it.  I pulled off the plastic covering on it to see steam race towards the overcast sky.  You did not have to dig to feel the heat of the pile. It is an easily 150-degrees.  So I began to turn the outside inside -- new pile next to it, of course -- and inside to the outside.  Only had to add a tiny bit of water the pile, but otherwise it was fine.  In the center, it is so dark you could not tell the straw from the grass and weeds.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love composting? lol.

Another Pile Started

I spent the day with my Aunt mucking horse manure from one of her neighbor's barns.  Boy, was there some manure to harvest.  We are using it to start another pile next to her already large pile that we started a week or so ago. Sadly, I am fresh out of straw for the time being so I will be using shredded  cardboard and paper for my carbon. With that said, that is going to be a bitch to do.  Last year, the ill-informed voters of my beloved State voted out the State run liquor stores in-favor for every Tom, Dick, and Harry establishment with 10,000+ square feet to be able to sell it in their stores.  (Corporate greed, anyone?)

I want to try this!

It's called hugelkultur.  And I want to try this out badly!  Watch the video.




Here is another video, but part of a series.


PS -- if it sucks up so much nitrogen in the first year, just plant a nitrogen fixing plant.

Lasagna Garden, Maybe?

I am thinking about implementing a lasagna garden between now and July.  Not sure where I might put it, but I am thinking of putting it on the southern boarder of my property.  I have some seeds that I need to plant sooner than later.  Hmm... not sure which way I'll go just yet.

Ingenious Creek Irrigation

My mom watering the piles.

As I have stated before, my Aunt has a large piece of property that includes a creek pretty much cutting it in half.  Yesterday, we started two compost piles in her pasture area on the other side of the creek.  At the time, I did not have a solid idea on how to add water to the compost piles.  My mom who was helping me was grabbing a few buckets full of water to help throw on the piles.  After we have finished doing that, we were around the creek when she came up with the seed of a brilliant idea.  Before I get to that, I wanted to say that this creek is "running" about ten months out of a year with July and August being the driest. So naturally, if this idea panned out it could help my Aunt out a bit with her water bill. The Utilities bill is a bit different in the county compared to Tacoma.  The water bill is separate from power and gas.

Adventure In Raking

I spent today across from my Aunt's place raking up grass clippings from her neighbor.  The resident of the property said that we could have it since we intend to use it to start a pile or two for my Aunt.  In fact, he was a bit surprised that we wanted it.  He has about two solid acres of nothing but tall, tall grass that he usually just cuts down and leaves it as mulch.  So my mom and I got up today and head out there to start harvesting the green gold. (We are always working together it seems.)  I was not expecting it to be as hard as it was, but all that raking make me sweat.  It was worse than my Aunt's.  Most of the grass that was cut only hid the long, uncut grass below it that the lawn mower just knocked down.  You had to rake with the direction of cutting otherwise you could not rake the clippings at all. Some times you could not even do that without tangling up your rake.  We only cleared about an acre of the all the cut grass by the time four o'clock rolled around, nevermind that we already had enough to form up a good two piles worth of compost.  We ended up taking  a rather heaping truckload of grass home to add to my already three working piles.  (More is always better, right? lol)

We dumped the truckload of grass clippings at home and split it somewhat evenly between the two compost piles here.  I tell you, this is going to be real fun to turn this Wednesday. LOL!  Anyway, we grabbed our last bale of straw to take back to my Aunt's to use in her piles.  In less than three weeks, we have used all four bales that we bought.  I guess we really did have a need for the stuff.  Once back at my Aunt's, we formed up the piles.  Each pile is 4-foot wide by 7-foot long and at least 3-foot deep.  We placed them next to each other and one on top of a beehive that nested itself in a tree stump.  All in all though, I had a ton of fun doing it even if I might hurt tomorrow.  Honestly though, I do not mind being sore and I really got to work on the removal of my farmer tan.  It is just ugly on me, seriously.  Ugly!  Now, I have an idea about using her creek as an irrigation source for her pasture area where these piles are located.  I will report back later if it works out or not.

New Compost Pile

Here is my fourth compost pile for the spring and should be ready by the middle of July. Quite excited, to tell the truth. The other piles will be done in the next thirty days at the latest. I still needed more grass and soon more straw. lol never ending need.

Russian Comfrey Pictures

 Here are three of the slips that I received from Horizon Herbs the other day.  I did not post a picture of them in the last entry so I am doing so now.  Instead of receiving six, they sent me eight slips.  How awesome is that!!  They are all planted now and I will know if they'll take within two weeks time. Hopefully within the next seven to ten days.

Tis the Season For Composting!

I have began building one of my compost piles the other day from my lawn clippings. Of course, I have a proper ratio of nitrogen to carbon for quick composting, however, I did want to try this new compost starter that my mother showed to me at one of our favorite gardening stores. It is called

Dr. Earth Compost Starter and costs around $12 dollars. The gardening store I visit will sell only organically safe products and they often try out what they sell.  Another reason why I decided to give this a try is the simple fact that it is supposed to be human & pet safe instead of the chemical starters that are more than readily available.  From what I can tell, it is microbe-saturated sawdust. And so far, just after four days, it is already steaming a plenty which pleases me to no end.  Now for me, it has only sped up my compost by a matter of a week or two depending on the weather here.  Although probably not a big bump for some folks, it is a big bump for me since I use a lot of compost around my rather large yard.  I will report back good news or bad news about the product as I work with it a bit more.

Spring is here!

Minion -- yes, that is her name -- at the backdoor grateful
 for the a warm day to pounce upon one of her brothers.

Well, spring has arrived and I am very grateful!  Nothing beats the prospects of spring, summer, and fall.  My favorite three seasons of the four, however, that is not to say I do not enjoy Winter either.  I found this last winter particularly hard on me, but I could just be showing my age. :-P  With the warming spring sun and somewhat warm showers that comes with it, I have started my vegetable garden and already have my compost pile working.  However, that is just the being of my work for the season or two.


One of my projects is to take down my incomplete shed that I built several years ago and replace it with a bigger one. And actually complete it this time. I stopped working on it when I decided on taking a road trip with my uncle and just never returned back to it. I also have a kitchen remodel that needs to be finished up, however, I need to expand the permit for the bathroom as well since it has developed some serious issues in the last nine months. I really did not want to break into the bathroom remodel while I have a kitchen remaining unfinished, however, it cannot be avoided right now. Speaking of remodel, I also need to repair the shoddy electrical in this house. The previous remodel-er and owners really screwed up this house, but the house is over a hundred years old.