Compost bin(s) out of Pallets

Well, I looked online and found directions for a compost bin made out of pallets; you can find it here: http://www3.uwm.edu/Dept/shwec/publications/cabinet/factsheets/WoodenPalletCompostBin.pdf

Pallets are often given away, so right off, this appealed to me. Also, I'm not much of a carpenter, and neither of the males living here are either, so the simplicity of this design also appealed to me. It looks like something I can actually DO, without a lot of help.

Now, this is NOT saying this is the right composter for you, only that it fills the bill for ME. If I've learned anything by living all these many years, it's that people have different tastes, and what appeals to one will not appeal, even to her close friends, let alone the world in general. (That's one nice thing about good friends--they tell you, in plain language, what appeals to them and what doesn't--they don't use subtleties or beat around the bush, and they're not shy.)
I wanted an easy-to-build compost bin, one that was CHEAP to build, and one that would allow me to turn my compost pile. You might care more about how it looks, etc.

Sooo, I am going to start collecting the minimal hardware I will need for this pallet compost bin, and scout around for one more pallet. ( I intend to put my bin against our chainlink fence, so I will only need three pallets and I have two already.) Our town's City Maintenance Facility has a "free" pile right by their gate, and that is where I got the two pallets I have and probably where I will find the next one. I'll take the truck, though. I had the Impala when I picked up one of them, and it was quite a feat, getting it in the car by myself--I think I finally stuffed it in the trunk after trying, in vain, to wrestle it into the back seat. Not fun.

Spent the morning out in the yard with my dogs. It was warm (60 degrees is a warm spring day here-we're near the coast and on a harbor) and the dogs LOVE a warm day. They slept in the grass and just looked so very happy-watching them revel in the beautiful day reminds ME to revel in it, too. Poki was stretched out on her belly with her two short back legs straight out behind her; part of the time, she slept under my wagon. I guess she has now decided that my little wagon is her friend; she barked like crazy at it when I brought it out yesterday. She has a "thing" about wheeled conveyances, and also all motorized things.

The wagon is just a child's wagon, old, with those wooden slat sides. I bought it at a garage sale after someone stole my John Deere Green metal wagon from our backyard. I actually PREFER this old wagon to the nicer one, because it is the right size for me; the other wagon was really too big, although it had nice rubber tires, etc. However, that said, I would also PREFER that people not steal my things, of course.

My husband asked me what I wanted for Mothers' Day and I said, "Dirt!" I have been waiting for a year and a half for a load of dirt for a flowerbed in the frontyard. I laid several layers of newspaper down where I wanted the bed, sprayed water on it until it was thoroughly wet, and then covered it with a tarp. I'm PRETTY sure the grass is all gone under there by now!!! I never DIG a flower or garden bed; why do that when you can just cover the area and let the worms dig it for you??!! I do the same in the fall, if I decide to make my garden plot bigger for the next year. All it takes is a little planning ahead, and you'll never have to break sod again!!

I have an unhappy little rhodie that wants to be moved to a higher perch, so I'm going to mound up this Mothers' Day dirt, and make a little hill for it. Maybe then it will BLOOM next year!! I don't even remember what color it is, as the only time it had any blooms was the year I bought it. One thing about plants, you either make THEM happy or they make YOU an unhappy gardener!! At least, they make ME unhappy when they don't grow, bloom, live, etc., etc.

I also detached one of the Clemitises (Clemiti ?) from the Butterfly Bush. It was climbing all over it, so I had to detach it's little tendrils, one by one, so I could have it cling to the fence, not this other plant. I failed with several Clemitises, but finally have two that have begun to do well, coming back year after year. I don't know what I did wrong before, but I do know these guys like to be watered if it gets dry. I watered them both today as this is our fourth (!!!!) consecutive dry day.

I mowed the dogyard, too. And then ran out of fuel--not for the mower, it's electric and runs on a battery--for ME. Had to come in and eat. Later, I'll mow the rest of the backyard, as, around here, you have to mow when the sun shines.

Moving the Composter

I have a little plastic composter purchased from the county, and it has a little door in the bottom where you're SUPPOSED to be able to pull out finished compost. But it is VERY hard to get any out, so I just move the whole thing every year; it's really easier that way. I just lift it up and there remains a formed pile, with nice compost on the bottom and unfinished compost on the top half. So I drop the top half back into the now empty composter, sitting next to where it used to be, and the rest I can use now. I break up clumps while I drop it in to speed up the decomposition.

I also have about three garbage cans (holes in bottoms) and a couple wire enclosures with stuff in them, but if you don't aerate your pile regularly, it takes FOREVER to get finished compost. I would like to have a three part bin, so I could turn it, but so far haven't made one. The Master Gardeners had a three part compost system set up at the fair last year; it took 98 cement blocks; I liked it, but can't quite decide where to locate it, so haven't made one yet

The wire enclosures have been next to useless. They are vertical, and I'm thinking of taking them down and making a cylinder from the two that I could roll to aerate the contents. I think I need to do some research to decide how best to use this chicken wire.

Gardening

My baby plants are outgrowing their pots, and so I go into the greenhouse to spend just a minute or two and end up staying an hour. I need to move one of my composters and get some compost to mix with some really worn-out looking dirt--or maybe I'll be lazy and buy some finished compost. These are demanding little beings, and they take some time, but it is enjoyable work.

Emergency Prepardness

We live in an earthquake, volcano, sunami zone and I have delayed putting together an emergency backpack with a couple days' supply of food and necessities for a LONG time. I think I was afraid I wouldn't pack the right things, but finally I realized that anything is better than nothing, when it comes to your emergency backpack. I hung three backpacks in the laundry room and started putting things into mine. I found a couple pair of clean underwear in my drawer that looked like they were about two wearings from the rag bag, and put them in my bag. I figured I'd appreciate them a lot more when/if they were the only clean undies I had! I'm going to put the worst pair of scissors in the house in there, too, for the same reason; we certainly won't miss them around the house, and we'd no doubt LOVE them if we didn't have another pair. It's all relative, you know?

The Canned Food Outlet is a great place to pick up things for your backpack. You can find seafood, meat, and fruit in small cans that open with a pulltab. Don't forget bottles of water, a pocket knife, bandaids, a couple washcloths, soap, WetOnes, a comb, tiny containers of shampoo, etc., and a roll of toilet paper. If you're like me and take several prescriptions daily, be sure you put in a week's worth of those, too (and remember to switch them out every month or two, so they're current). And put in some Tylenol or Ibuprofen, or whatever pain killers are your faves--emergency situations can be a headache, literally!

Don't be like I was and be afraid you won't pack your bag "correctly "and with the "right" stuff, or that you'll forget something important. Just start!! Today! Now! Even if you only put in a few things, you'll be glad you have them if you have to run for your life!! I promise.

Table Still Clean, JD Monkey Has Tail, Knitting in the Dark

Happy Monday from the exceedingly soggy SW corner of WA state. It's another one of our usual spring days, with alternating rain and sunny periods. The wind continues to feel very cold and nothing wants to grow very much in the garden.

I am happy to report that our kitchen table has stayed relatively clean for the last entire week! I only had to put away a few grocery items before I took this picture. It appears that my plan is working, whereby I publish a picture of my table every Monday MORNING. I am amending my promise to make it before NOON, otherwise, I might post a picture at 11:59 pm. and that is giving me way too much rope!

I almost FORGOT Mr. John Deere monkey's TAIL!!! Without his tail he could NOT be a monkey!!! (Ask any zoologist--it's true; without his tail, he'd be an APE and none of us want that, at least he and I don't).

I have finally solved the problem of simplifying my monkey's design. I used a toe up sock toe for this prototype's head and I didn't want to have to explain that process in a pattern--it's not all that complicated, but for someone who's never done it, there is quite a lot of explaining.

So, after a lot of thought and trial and error, I finally remembered how the Christmas stockings I've knit go together, and decided to use that relatively simple way to make the monkey's body. You knit the body on two needles until you get to the heel (monkey's rear)--that is much easier than using the toe-up sock toe and I wanted my pattern to be easy enough for a beginner to knit.
I tried to knit in the semi-dark at a concert last night, and you know, I didn't do half badly until I realized that I had dropped a stitch. I found that, yes, I CAN knit in the dark, but no, I CANNOT pick up a dropped stitch in the dark--that can be difficult enough in the bright light; especially if you'd knit several rows (like I did) before you noticed a stitch had been dropped. So, I'd say the knitting-in-the-dark experiment was at least partly successful. Blind people knit, so I thought maybe I didn't need light to knit either. However, practice at this is necessary and DO NOT, under any circumstances, drop a stitch or you're in BIG TROUBLE!!

Lost Library Book, Overdue Fines!!!

$24.05 worth of fines, $16 for a lost book I am quite sure I returned. However, if, by chance, I haven't, paying for it always lets me find the curse-ed book. We have been spoiled: for 43 of the 44 years we have lived here, there WERE no overdue fines, but the library levy failed, so now we have those fines. (SIGH!!)

I need to mark down when the books are due, maybe on a sticky note on each book; I can renew them online, but not if there is someone else who has requested the book. It's fair; I just need to GET ORGANIZED!!!!!

JD Monkey, Gardening

I almost forgot JD Monkey's tail!!! That wouldn't do at all, as all monkeys have tails. So I knit on his tail at Knit Group today and almost finished it--used ten stitches, five on each circular needle--it's boring to knit a tail, but necessary. Just about forgot to make the end of his tail white, too, until one of the others asked me if I was going to. Yikes, I am SO forgetful, it scares me sometimes---but then I remember teaching first grade and how forgetful six and seven year olds are, and I feel much better.

Today was a typical spring day on Grays Harbor: rainy early, then dry but with threatening clouds and sunny moments the rest of the day. My greenhouse gets nice and warm--I finally put a thermometer in it, and it was in the 70s in there today. It would have been warmer, but we have had a really cold wind lately---feels as if it's blowing over a glacier before arriving here!!! BRRRR!!!

But the good news is that it was dry enough to work outside a little this afternoon. I got a plastic colander at SA and used it to sift some of the lousy potting soil I bought last year--it's full of wood and rocks!!! (You get what you pay for, folks!) Anyway, once I sift it, it's very nice. I planted some over-germinated tomato seeds that I'd forgotten--we'll see if they do anything. I also planted two Armenian Cucumber seeds, and germinated the rest, and put some lavender seeds to germinate, too--I had almost no luck with last year's lavender seeds (purchased) this year; I will research harvesting my own lavender seeds before they flower this year.