The End of Winter?

It's supposed to be in the 60's and 70's this weekend, and it's almost May, but I'm not going to jinx us all by saying we've seen the last of accumulating snowfall. I'm just going to throw up a few photos from the last couple weeks. 

Here are two from April 18th, after 8" of snow:

(Notice the roof-rake marks on the left side of the house. It was that bad.)

(The sun came out, and it was really bright. I sneezed—a lot.)

Here are two pics from April 22, after another 5-7":

(View out the porch door. Notice the snow.)

(April 22nd, while it's still snowing.)

In that last photo you might notice a sculpture I made. It was about five feet high. I danced around it at 2:30 in the morning singing Christmas carols and waving a shovel. I'm hoping that will appease the snow gods, and that they will move to other pastures until next fall. 

Here's a closer shot, if you want to take notes on the design:

(Snow sculpture title: Yeti's Lower-Left Canine) 

Finally, and completely unrelated to the snow, Annie and I made a midnight trip to Cub the other day in order to find a bag of the highly elusive new Lays potato chips, Chicken and Waffle. 

(Taking a sniff before diving in.)

They were maple-syrupy sweet with a savory finish. And there is a strange phenomenon, I discovered, when eating them; you need to eat more than a few to really get a good, round flavor of the chips—but if you eat more than that they start to get cloyingly disgusting. 

So keep that in mind. 

-Daniel

Mini Greenhouse Progress . . . Loaf of Bread . . . and Keyless Entry.

Hello World!

(The tall sprouts in back are Kohlrabi)

That's what these seeds are thinking. After only a few short days most of the seeds we planted burst forth from the miry earth to breath in the fresh air. The problem is, the Kohlrabi had to go and get all excited, and now they hit the top of the greenhouse whilst everyone else still needs the cover. I tried taking the Kohlrabi tray out, but they wilted pretty quickly, so I put them back inside. They aren't really a transplant plant, so this was more of an experiment. We'll probably sow some of these seeds the old fashioned way—as in straight into the ground. But the bell peppers, basil, chives, swiss chard and tomatoes seem to be doing well, and with the snow gone from the backyard, I'm sure they will transition to the garden with few problems. Still waiting on the jalapeños though . . .

Moving on, the other day Annie's friend came over and I made a loaf of bread. I got the recipe from Chef John, and have used it many times before. It's a beer based bread, and the flavor changes quite a bit with the different style of beer you use. This time I used a belgian strong ale—it turned out well. I've used an IPA and stout before and each tasted great. I wouldn't suggest a light beer though.

(Beer Bread)

This photo doesn't have much to do with the house per say, but I don't feel like starting a food blog, so there you have it. 

However, concerning the home, we added a keyless entry lock to the backdoor, which is uber convenient. Here's a pic.

(New lock on backdoor)

I'll admit this now, since the lock is changed, but our old lock was broken and there were several mornings where I'd leave to go to work and discover the door had been left unlocked all night. Now we just press that button on top and the door locks itself. Like I said, uber convenient. Plus, it illuminates, which is nice since it's hard to see at night. 

(Me installing the new lock. Multiple pitfalls led to a three hour procedure)

So the photo above is not my greatest picture, but it took me three hours to install the lock so don't expect a jolly smile. I'm not Santa.  The problem with the installation was the old lock was pretty basic, and whoever installed it only drilled holes for what they needed rather than drill holes like you normally would for installing a lock. And I don't have those tools, so I had to improvise with a jig saw, file, and spade bit. I'm actually quite surprised it worked, there was a while when I thought we were going to have no lock on the door, and then we'd have to resort to the honor system.

Finally, and unrelated to the title, I thought I'd throw in two pics I took while playing around with my camera. They aren't good or interesting pictures, but the method behind taking them is. Somewhat. I've been trying to use the Bulb function on the new camera (which means the shutter stays open as long as you hold the shutter down—great for nigh sky photos) but I don't have a camera remote. So I would have to stand there and try to hold the button without shaking the camera. And if you want those pictures of the stars swirling in the sky you have to hold the button for several hours. 

So I used a rubber band and a squished jelly bean to hold the button down. It was just an experiment, but here is a picture of our living room at night after a seven and a half minute exposure (with ISO 100).

(Like I said, not interesting)

The only light is from the streetlight a quarter of a block away and the brand name on the TV. Here's another one where I had the light on for just a second, then sat infront of the window for two minutes. 

( A little more interesting, but not by much)

Anywho, when it warms up more outside and I can travel aways away from the city, I plan on trying this technique on the sky to see if I can get some cool night sky pictures.

-Daniel

Let the Garden Begin . . .

On Sunday, March 24, in the year 2013, Annie and I bought some seeds. 

Here they are . . .

(Some seeds from Menards)

We also bought that tray thing and some dirt, but the seeds are more interesting. We're planning on turning the southernmost section of our backyard into a garden, and we thought we'd give our plants a little head start. Apparently the last frost date for St. Paul is around May 15th, and these transplant plants are supposed to be started 7-8 weeks before that date. Still, I'm a little wary of planting the seeds considering our colder than average spring.

But we still did it anyway.

(The micro greenhouse doing it's thang.)

I think this would be a good picture for one of those motivational posters. Underneath it would be the line, "Confidence: starting a garden when it's still below freezing outside." Another option would be, "Water Bottles: they keep cats away from plants."

Here's a map of what we planted in our tiny greenhouse . . .

(Plant layout)

There are only so many plants you can start in containers. We want to try several other varieties in the backyard, but most simply get sown directly into the earth, so we'll have to wait for spring. It's supposed to be 50 and rainy on Saturday, so hopefully that helps get rid of some of the snow. We'll probably end up doing a lot of the herbs in containers on the patio and possibly in the flower box that's on our porch, so that should leave a good amount of space in the backyard for peppers and tomatoes and kohlrabi and kale and whatever else. Plus, we got the hops. Now all we need is a chicken coop and we'd be self sustained. 

Anyway, it's just a start. Only time will tell how green our thumbs truly are. 

Here are a few random photos just for the heck of it. 

(I made a cake the other day. When I added the eggs to some oil and h20, I thought it looked cool, so I took a picture.)

(Here's the cake with a layer of caramel on top.)

(Here's the cake again, after the party . . .)

(Leo staying clear of the unfamiliar gardening equipment)

(This is the background on the mac right now)

-me

Time To Build An Ark . . .

There was a puddle forming on our patio—I blinked and then it was a lake. Soon I fear it will be a sea and after that it's only a few gallons away from ocean status. Below is a photo of our water troubles.

(Here's a sea even Moses wouldn't be able to part)

This is the first spring in our new home, so we're still discovering how the backyard handles the melting snow. So far, it hasn't done that well. Since the temperature keeps going up and dropping, the snow keeps melting into water and then freezing into a skating rink. On the plus side, I just got my ice skates back from my parents (ba-da-bump!). 

(You need a canoe to get to the garage)

This has been an above average year for winter precipitation, so hopefully it's not as bad next winter. Also, after the first big snowfall, we didn't fully shovel the patio, so maybe it would help if the snowbank we have is a little further back in the yard. Although I'm thinking the patio is the low point, so either way if we get a lot of snow, we're probably screwed.

(You can see Lake Itasca up near the garage. It feed's the Mississippi and our patio)

 I added the picture above to highlight our flow problem. All the snow and water and ice in the backyard meander down our walking path toward our patio. The one positive thing is the water seems to be pooling on the corner of the patio away from the house, so thus far we haven't noticed any water in the basement. My brother in law looked at the photo's and had some suggestions that might help reduce the H20 problem, but those will have to wait until spring. 

(Just threw this photo in to be artsy)

I added the above photo for two reasons. One, it shows how I used the recycling bins to jump to the ice and walk to the garage, but mainly I added this photo because I was messing around with photoshop and wanted to add it to the blog. The way I made it was by pasting the same image over a photoshop document twice. I turned the top layer to black and white, then simply erased the puddle, revealing the color copy below. It adds a cool look. 

Anyway, I don't hate the snow as much as most people, but I am excited for it to melt. When the snow leaves it means garden season is almost upon us. Can you say Bok Choy!? 

-Daniel 

More Shelves Than We Know What To Do With

Again, Annie and I want to give a big thanks to her dad for helping make the basement look less creepy and more livable. He recently finished painting the last section of basement floor. Yesterday (Sunday, Feb. 10th) he added some much needed shelving. And, although Leo hasn't completely tested each shelf, they look to be quite solid. 

 This photo shows the finished floor as well as one set of shelves, which are connected to the previous shelving. 

 The shelves are anchored to the ceiling joists, which I think was a pretty good idea on Annie's dads part. Unless, that is, we get a massive tornado—then the shelves might get sucked out of the basement. 

Here is a 'Leo view' photo that shows both sets of shelves. 

So we've pretty much doubled our storage space, which is good, because we should be able to keep everything except rugs off the ground, and who knows when this basement will flood next.

Now we just need to drive around looking for piles of junk on curb sides with signs that say 'Free' so we can fill up all these shelves. Until then, we have this stuff to put away. 

Of course, what's really important is the question, "What does Leo think?" When I asked him, he said the shelves looked nice, but he thought the materials and effort could have been put to a better use making one of these . . .

Maybe next time Leo.

-Daniel