Snow Took its Toll

Well, this is Gil's greenhouse after all the snow we had. 

TIME FOR A REDESIGN!!!

Daniel and I are making plans, can't wait.

Christmas Carrots

December carrots are on the menu!

 I'll need to use them up but there lots of greens left.

 Daniel thinks he's funny.

Christmas carrots ready for dinner!

Slingshots and Romaine

These 2 slingshots were part of the trimming up we did a few weeks back.

And food production is still going strong here in PA well into December. We had a wonderful dinner of sautéed swiss chard last night and Daniel promises me that we'll have baby carrots for Christmas dinner, yum!

Simon supervises work in the green house.

Togetherness

Daniel and I miss our son very much but we're keeping his fire burning here until he returns.

The greenhouse was his homeschool project but it's so important now as our fall/winter garden!

In the basement we're continuing his work, Daniel with skateboards and me with slingshots. We work side by side on the bench Daniel just resurfaced for me.

Daniel and Gilbert had some trouble with the skateboard deck glue up but Daniel has that nailed now. Links to their previous deck making below:

http://www.karenmakesstuff.com/2011/09/making-skateboard-mold.html

http://www.karenmakesstuff.com/2011/12/skateboard-mold-progress.html

They needed padding on either side of the veneers when it was in the mold. $5 yoga mats from the Five and Below did a great job. Above is a template Daniel made from an old treadmill belt. I found him the template dimensions online at: BoardPusher

Here's my jack pot, our neighbor across the street had some bushes and trees cut down. I visited over there with my garden loppers!

Daniel's ready to cut boards out, he has three waiting. I'll show you his progress later.

Simon in the Greenhouse

All the winter stuff finally got yanked yesterday, swiss chard, parsnips and yellow carrots. What you see is the early spring lettuces and I've just put in a second planting. Oh and I had company.

Spring Harvest

We're down to some turnips, parsnips, carrots and swiss chard.

We've started some tomatoes and herbs...

and we've processed some spinach and swiss chard...

and it starts all over again.

My Work is Done

Seems that while I was out today Gil took some nice shots of the greenhouse. You realize it's February, right?

On the bottom left we still have swiss chard I've been picking from, above that spinach, above that turnips. In the middle are the carrots that aren't in a rush to do anything and on the right are oak leaf and romaine lettuces.

He's picked some carrots, we found out that the tops are good to eat too.

I liked this shot of him as a shadow taking a picture of his skateboard. Not weird under the circumstances, he turned a regular deck into a long board. You'd have to know about skateboards.

Outside Inside

Gil's interested in creating a forge. He wants to temper his knives but there's so much to consider.

How do you obtain the right steel, how do you get a really hot fire, how do you blow air on the fire?

On a different note, we've already been eating from the garden. Bok choy and swiss chard, yum!

And then there's the inside...

All my mess, representing lots of different projects, all being worked on at the same time.

Pocketbook For Doris

 

A Butterick pattern, some prequilted material and a 12" zipper gets it done.

Why don't pocketbook patterns come with pockets? This one now has pockets and a sheet of cutting board plastic to protect the bottom. I was fussing about having to sew but now I have a couple more sewing projects I can't wait to start.

And our garden is growing!

What a Difference a Day Makes

My family is curious about how we did on Saturday with the snow storm. Well this was the only picture I took of the snow, it's from the inside. Gil was on the porch with his hot tea watching it come down.

Well this is Monday, no snow. Friday Gil and I got out and put in this path to the greenhouse. Look how artistic I am, my shadow is pointing to it!

Gil's Greenhouse

We decided not to roll the door edges and just screw the wood strips to the frame, over the plastic.

Then Gil cut the plastic around the door.

We're going to put plastic on the door with Velcro so we can adjust for ventilation. 

We started tomatoes, bok choy and swiss chard several weeks ago. We got that in and planted carrot, parsnip, turnip, spinach and lettuce seeds. Sounds like a lot, right! We figured that we were going into winter, things wouldn't get that big and who knows what will actually grow. We'll thin as necessary.

This is our worm mascot!

Almost Done

We're actually done but I stuck my other camera on its dock to charge and I can't get at the last pics. So now you have to wait until tomorrow to see the finished greenhouse. We used wood strips to fold the plastic under and to secure to the frame. This was a great idea from my dad.

Here the guys are figuring out how to secure the plastic around the door.

We used 6mm clear plastic from the hardware store. This is thick plastic but you still need to take care that it doesn't rip! We were able to use one piece for our project.

The rest tomorrow.

Finished Walls

This week Gil will work on raised beds. We have a huge roll of plastic I can't wait to watch them staple on!

Greenhouse Door

Keeps kittens out!