bits of fourth

 It's the Fourth of July.  I have the day off from the office job, but still have 'double duty' postal route tomorrow so I don't know if we are going to try to go do anything late night tonight.   We're still waiting for the HVAC company to get the equipment and come install it, probably next week.  I've written a little bit on a few books but I've taken up teaching E some work skills like inventory management, spreadsheets and table formatting.  She is going to help me set up a printer today.  I told her we also need to work on some phone skills, and of course, preparing more for her driving test.  We need to focus on getting her a car to drive - but the HVAC was unexpected and we've had to do that first.  Next week we go and make sure she has all the classes she needs to graduate this year, as there have been some changeups required.

 

I've wondered what other online courses I could get her to take that might be of use for her, certificates etc.  I took that financial literacy course with her late last year, but haven't been chomping at the bit to take any more on that site, either.  But she is appreciating learning more about computer skills that I actually use daily at work, and her school experience has pretty much thrown her out into word processors and spreadsheets and said 'go do something with it' without giving her anything useful to do with it or any instruction.  It's a far cry from when we had entire classes in typing and ten-key (which she had never heard that term before), computer programming and word processing.

 

I've been studying French and Welsh - both of those are advanced level stuff so it's not as easy as just playing around in low level Japanese or Czech, but still not as annoying as  trying to keep Spanish separate in my head, and started a different world in the Minetest to see how I adapt to building now with knowing how everything works and how to survive in each environment.   And that isn't getting any more books released.  I've just put a lot on my plate right now and some of it - like E's extra computer lessons - are things I probably should have been doing for a good while.

Language geek

I did a few of these charts last year or more ago, just to see how often I return to the activities / switch the activities over the day and was just as surprised then how much I switch all through the day in almost spirals.  They say this 'spaced repetition' is all the rage, but I've been doing it for years.

Typical language geeking while off from post office today, did my Japanese Kanji reviews and a bit of DuoLingo in Japanese and Spanish first thing in the morning. I also took some time to browse and read hiragana and kanji and look up things on signs and advertisements and images that I could not read at first. I took some French tests, Japanese and Spanish review sessions and then played Stardew Valley for an hour in French... and a bit more here and there waiting for things over the day.  I was playing it in Japanese here and there, as well, a few weeks ago.

 

We took Esme out for her birthday dinner after school and also picked up the truck from the mechanic.  It still doesn't feel 100%, but we'll still have to see.  Then I finished the laundry and crashed when we got home, because it is cold and it felt like it had been a long day already.

 

As usual, when the animals wake me up in the night I spend a little time on some language waiting for them to cycle in and out of the house and getting ready to fall back asleep.  I don't do this on my phone, but at the computer desk.

 

Friday : a non-work day : it is now 1:45 am on Saturday (at update)

 

 

Saturday and Sunday will both be 'work' days... we'll see how that goes

a Raised Bed garden for vegetables

The raised bed garden I built between yesterday and today for Irene. 

along with her cat and dog helpers :)

It is 16 standard cement blocks, and about 12 bags of different soils, a third of which is 'container gardening mix'   We lined the bottom of the area with cardboard before we put the soil on top, just like I did in my own raised bed garden three years ago.  The next step is to water it down good, and let it drain a little, and plant a few test quick-germinate things to make sure the ph level is good. 

Radishes like pH of 4 to 5.  If they come up purple instead of green - it is WAY too 'hot' of soil.  Komatsuna and mustard greens like 5 to 6 pH, and cabbage likes 6 to 7.  All of these things should show 'signs of life' within 3 to 6 days if the soil mixture is good.  If it is, then put the greenhouse plants in it.  If you see any warning signs, get a pH kit or, in the case of knowing that it is 'hot' - add pelletized lime, water down and let drain again before trying again.

Make sun shades for indoor start seedlings, prevent sunburn!

Are you ready to garden this year?
Our calico cat is, and she swears she's helping.

I am going to show how to make a cheap effective sun shade, to prevent sunburn on your newly transplanted indoor seedlings.

This is very important!  A lot of people will sunburn their seedlings without knowing it, because they forget to harden them off - or they buy them from a hothouse that did not harden off properly.  Sometimes, the sun is just too much for an indoor-raised plant.  It will show by bits of the leaves turning white or pale yellow and flaking away, like brittle paper.

To help prevent it, we are going to try to block some of the noon and afternoon sun from hitting the plants full force.

It is also important that this be a light colored, but not bright white cloth.  Bright white will send too many rays reflecting back off the cloth.

I grabbed this cotton cloth because it is handy.. and I don't care that it will not survive to next year.  The sun will damage the cloth over time and make it brittle, too - but by then, your plant will have grown up healthy, we hope!

Cut a rectangle off your fabric about as wide as your tomato cage and at least as tall, maybe more.  Cut an inward gash on all four corners, but not too far, as you don't want the fabric to tear completely and the strip to come off easily.

Now you will tie the top two strips to the wires above your plant, creating a little 'tent' for it.  I do this on the WEST side of my plants, because I have trees to the EAST that block most of the bright morning sun.  If you pull the fabric a bit over the middle of the cage as well it will block direct noon sun...

If you are out in the open and need protection on both sides - make two shades, one for each side, or tie the rectangle more over the top - we aren't blocking all the sun, just the hottest sun so that the plant can have a rest.

In some years when I only had one or two plants I would set up a few buckets and a board on the west side and be done with it - but this is the way to ensure each plant gets some shade when it needs it most.

Just loop a slip knot around the wire and then pull it shut - but not too tight, as it could tear.

I usually tie the bottom ties as well, positioning the shade so it blocks most of the sun at 2 or 3 o clock in the afternoon, putting them out about this time will ensure you are blocking the light all the way to sundown.  

You can do this with old shirt fabric or an old sheet and protect your time investment in your seedlings.  Sometimes I will tear up some of these shades later to help tie bits of vines loosely to the cage, once the plant is big. 

The other tips I got from my mentor was to bury my tomato seedlings 'all the way to their ears' in the hole, but not with the leaves actually touching the soil!  If the leaves touch the soil that keeps them moist with dew and that can invite viruses and bacteria to the plant etc.  Add a little loose dirt and water at the bottom of the hole, and then put the seedling pot contents into it.  Gently press loose dirt in and around the seedlings pressing the outer corners of the pot soil down into the dirt, while trying not to break the stems of the seedlings.

Sources :

I was taught to do the sun shades by Tom Carpenter, of the University of Minnesota Experiment Station, way back in 1994 when I was at one of my very first employments.  He had also had my father on the farm when I was a small child and he was in the National Guard with Mr. Tom.  I was proud to hear about the gardens, see my father's picture on the wall and learn the different ways to take care of plants.  The plants we made 'much larger' sunshades for were delicate shade plants that were part of experimental seed trials.  But, he explained to me it could be done for even a small plant or with a large sheet for an entire area, as long as it was secured well, and to take it down in a high wind or heavy downpour.

 My 'bury them to their ears' comes from Mr. Harold Cole who I worked with at Lowe's.  It was a long time ago, but once in the breakroom he was talking about planting and gardening and I was all ears. Ha!  He said the plant will grow extra feelers / suckers in the stem to take in more nutrients and be stronger if you bury it all the way up to the leaves delicately and water it in gently.  He said he planted 90+ tomatoes every year from seedlings!

Also be sure to water your plant in and check on it the next day and the day after that.  It is only common sense - but you want to make sure the shade has not been torn or blown away.  And remember if it is going to rain hard you will want to maybe put a 5 gallon bucket over the top of your seedling and 'squidge' it in to the soil (so it doesn't just collect water under the edge)  Remove the bucket as soon as you can - or it will get hot under it the next day.

Enjoy, good gardening!

Esmes Minecraft and second day at school

 This is a 'recipe ingredient room' for her to read all the books with all of the letters and words jumping into the books telling her what the next ingredient is.  The chickens will give eggs, which are ingredients.  It is enchantment tables, surrounded by bookcases (she asked me several times why the books were not putting letters into her tables and I gave her a few directions, but she placed everything herself after hearing the reasons why it wasn't working).  with glowstone on top so that it lights up when it is dark.  It is built in 'creative mode' where she doesn't have to go find and/or make every piece herself to use it.  She just has to 'go to the inventory' and every possible item in infinite quantity is available.  That can be good AND bad :)

This is the bigger house I was building in my game yesterday and the day before.  It is 'hearts mode' as she calls it, survival mode - which she does not like because the hearts can go away and make you die *ha*, but it keeps my world free of millions of chickens, lava and unwanted water springs etc..  I think this picture gives some light on what she was doing in her world here... although she did this on her own before I got home.

'Her pink house with the roof and window so she can watch sheep.'

I have not seen her use stairs like this before...

She amazes me with the new ideas and how she 'learns over our shoulders' as Mark says.

She also had a second day of school today,less eventful, but she had fun.  I made a play dress yesterday for home use and hope to do another one today... we've been having her switch out of her school dresses to keep them from being puppy chewed the rest of the day!

cold bits

It has been freezing cold outside, very cold inside as well. It snowed some today and they are predicting more. Esme has had a bad cough and nasal junk for several days. I have been giving her eucalyptus vapor baths at least once (sometimes twice) a day and am very glad she seems to be improving. I haven't done any other sewing since the last pair of pants - I've barely been able to keep the laundry up this week. The cold just saps it all out of me, as well as worrying about how to make her cold better. We have been watching the Big Bang Theory and getting a good kick out of that. It is nice to watch something with geek humor in it - and to get the occasional thing I need to look up just because it won't let me sleep without knowing if it is what I thought it was etc etc....



A few pictures I snapped the other day and never posted... Esme stacking her wooden trucks and dripping watercolor paint down the side to see how it flowed. As long as she keeps it (mostly) on the paper I don't mind so much. She lined up all of her playmobil onto chairs and put blocks in front of them and said they were 'on machines playing blocks' - Minecraft!

She has been playing Minecraft and Sims 2 on my computer a lot when I am at work - and sometimes on Daddy's computer as well. He was watching her build 'houses' today with windows and doors - but he had to make the doors on the crafting table as she still hasn't got that part. She did build the walls and did a very good job. She still gets very upset when her character gets too far underwater before she starts to swim, and dies... today she respawned after the character died and wiped her brow saying 'Whew, that was a close one!' She still doesn't really 'get' it... but she knows something terrible is happening when the hearts (life) start getting less and less and the 'ow' noises start. She also was having a tame wolf follow her and was saying 'here doggie, here doggie, GOOD BOY doggie'. Yesterday she saw a non-tame wolf in the forest and climbed a tree (by placing blocks to make a staircase) and said she was 'hiding from the wolfses.' Sometimes, we just have to wonder what is going on in that mind... besides making waterfalls, hiding from wolves and throwing snowballs through the air to watch them arc she thinks that throwing items out onto the ice (discard item key) is great fun. She took an entire stack of dirt (64 blocks) and threw them out one by one to watch them 'slippery when wet' skid across the ice.

I've been hearing other very good words lately - that have perked my ears. 'That is perfect now.' is a sentence I have heard often as she adjusts toys into their places and makes things just 'so'. Tonight she said she didn't want to get out of the bathtub and 'didn't want to go upstairs either.' Either? I was impressed. 'I'm just kidding, I'm joking' is said OFTEN now.

She has been growling at me more about doing things she doesn't like though - like getting out of the bath, or going to bed. She is also emulating Curious George and pretending she is a monkey that does not need to talk, and Mama should pretend along with her and treat her like a monkey. That gets tiresome! I tell her to use her words and tell me what she means, instead of growling or oo-oo-ing like a monkey. Sometimes, that works. I've told her with the growling/refusing to cooperate that I want my 'better Esme' back because she insists she is 'the Esme Esme' instead of an 'Esme girl' or a 'better Esme'. I said the growling Esme wasn't a very good one and I wanted the better one we had before.

She told me also she wants to 'go to the BIG house in the BIG town and see the toys and the Mickey Mouse and the house again.' I don't know which place that is - Daddy or Grandma will have to tell me.