Erin Erin, trying to be an agrarian, how does your garden grow?

We have gone back to our NORMAL west coast weather this year (finally!) and as a result there has been more moisture falling from the skies, more lawn mowing and much lest forest fire scare out here on the island.  By this time  last year I was fearful for the forests around my home and praying for rain.  This year's off-again-on-again rainfall patterns have decidedly not been falling. in my favour, and as a result my outdoors projects are much slower to completion. Again, because I try to be a glass-half-full girl, I have had less watering to do and as a result of the optimal conditions, MOST of my garden has been growing REALLY well.  

As at my last post in May, I'd just planted my corn, onions, tomatoes, carrots, and beans. I'm having a slow grow with the bed that the onions, carrots and Health Kick tomatoes are in.  I have started feeding them all, but I think the soil that I have in that bed (which is ALL new potting soil) had very little in the way of nutrient in it and so that bed is still looking very much as it did in May. The rest of the plants, including the apple tree and grapes (which I pretty much ignore and they grow astonishingly well) and the Damson Plum tree (which has now made its official comeback - and HOW!) are HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!

So, for the record, here is today's gratuitous garden gallery (like the alliteration there? tee hee)

Damson Plums - ripe and ready for the picking

Grapes will be giving a bumper crop soon too
and yes, I need to replace the shed!

Just a few of the grape bunches I will be working with

This is the bed that is not growing as I had hoped
This fall I will deep compost and plant a cover crop

Cherry tomato plants that are VERY happy

Corn - higher than the eye can see - and already
starting to show tassles!

A pretty green place!

With love across the waters...

A New Window, A Whole New Look!

The front bedroom has been a dark and dreary space as long as I've had the house.  One single window, up underneath the carport overhang, and no overhead lighting.  the overhead lighting will be fixed with a MAJOR renovation to the bedroom side of the house - but not for a very long time as I am not planning to have anything major done to the house now for a few more years... well, except for the lottery win.  When I win the lottery, all bets are off LOL.

In any case, like the kitchen, I thought the addition of another window might make a massive difference.  So I called my friends at Got Gutters and they came out and gave me a quote.  Done!

In May, when the weather cleared up for a while, they came out and installed the window - and thus transformed a room that was dark and dreary into a very bright space!  And since it is the larger of the two bedrooms, once I had the window in, I decided a coat of primer to get rid of the yellow, and a light creamy paint tone (this colour is called Pita Bread) would make all the difference in the world.

No longer a storage space come computer room, this is now my bedroom!

Here are some "before" shots - just so you can get a feel for the yellow...

Yup.  Dark and Yellow.

Notes to the contrator

The wall where the new window will go.

When I came home for lunch that day, this is where things were...

Already in!

Trim needed next

 And when I got home after work we have trim!

With trim... now to paint!

And that weekend I primer coated everything

Ready, Set,  Go!

Brighter already

Holy cats - what a difference!

Even the door got a coat!

And finally the paint and moving my stuff into that room!

Such a different feeling space

Light and airy - and did you notice?
More closet space!

It really is a lot bigger than it felt!

I still have multiple indoors projects - never fear - but these ones are more related to space-intelligent design for a small house.  Planning and posts around those will follow soon, I promise.  For now, I leave you with much...

With love across the waters...

Get your mind into the Gutters

Ehehe.  It has been a long time since that came to mind as a title for this particular post.  

In March I had quotes to have a new window installed into the front bedroom and a second quote to have the the gutters replaced all around my house. Good home maintenance includes cleaning gutters - but if you are like me (and as I got older I became more concerned about the distances between me and the ground) the concept of climbing a rickety ladder to clean out gutters is an easy thing to think about but a difficult thing to actually DO...

In my efforts to ensure my house is maintained properly, I look for ways to make maintenance efforts light and impact heavy.  Clean-free gutters scores a HUGE gold star for this.  Essentially they are gutters with built in screening to make cleaning a thing of the past - yes, even out here on the green coast!

Old gutters pulled off - yuk - the crud that had built up in them was actually GROWING stuff!

Ugh - look at the crud in there!

Ugly old brown gutters!

New gutters installed - this was the super cool part - the truck has this machine in it that actually molds out the new gutter AND the built in screen all in one go!  The basically just walk it out as long as it needs to be - meaning that the gutters along the length of the house are all one continuous piece (think no seams and therefore no leaks!) and they cut in drain spouts where needed!

The new gutters are black (and look REALLY sharp) and have a low profile to the house - so they blend right in!

Excellent clean profile to the house... but I can see
I will next have to have all of the soffits replaced!

Clean line along the side of the house

Oh - and this one actually has a
cleaning trap in it!

With love across the waters...