I’m not sure if I did an update on the garden bed since the first one was built. We’ve now added 2 more. Only one more of them with the landscaping ties, the last one with fence board (we had more dirt and we didn’t want to really pay the extra for the landscaping ties on the last one. We’ll probably redo it in ~5 ish years if/when the wood starts to rot.
I feel like I should of adjusted the lighting on this picture….
This is a reverse angle shot of the second one (8 feet by 32ft)
The area under the mulch is not good dirt, we dug a bit lower on the sides and put the dirt there so we can walk in between the rows.
The second one is 8 feet by 32 feet The back row is mostly raspberries and asparagus
The “second one” (front) also has lettuce, cucumber, squash, watermelon, radishes, blackberries, beans and beats.
The back one has 5 Haskap plants
The last one is half flowers, half vegetables (and 10 blueberry bushes)
I love the re-store, it’s the habitat for humanity store where you can buy random building supplies. You never know what you’re going to find, but whatever it is, it’ll be a good deal and the money goes to habitat for humanity.
Anyway last year sometime I found these rocksolid garage floor coating for $50 a box (usually ~250). The reviews are a bit hit and miss, but most of them just mentioned that you’d need more than they said. So since I thought our garage was around 500sqft I bought 5 boxes which would allegedly do more than enough (625sqft).
Turns out our garage is more like 625sqft and putting just the right amount on was really not enough. You could see thru the coating to the floor.
It was a pain to get on and it took way longer to dry than they mention (they said 8-12h, but it wasn’t really ready even after 72h.
We got some more boxes after complaining to rustoleum and while it’s a bit better it’s still not great.
Anyway, here’s how it looked like:
We plan on adding another 3 boxes that we’re getting from rustoleum and we’re hoping it’ll be a bit smoother and less spotty. We’ll see. Either way, our garage is now ready to play ball hockey in.
I mentioned we’ve been doing a few projects. We’ve almost finished the deck, we still need to put stain on certain parts, but it’s looking really good with the finished railing and the lighting.
Recently I feel like I’ve been using projects as distractions. The Garden beds, the lawn, the garage, the lights, the trees, the posts, the deck. I’ll do individual posts on those because, why not, but I think it’s a bit of a response to the whole situation.
It seems so many people are looking at ways to get control over the situation. Sometimes it manifests itself as folks pretending everything is fine and they don’t need to do anything such as the protests against the stay at home orders in the US for example or folks going over the top and staying home 24/7 and using Lysol on everything that comes into the house.
It seems a natural thing for folks to want to have control over something when they don’t have it in other parts of their lives.
It makes me wonder what decisions or actions I’ve taken, not because I really wanted that outcome as much as to assert control over something. Maybe I didn’t need to eat those 4 frozen yogourt bars….
I was raised up believing I was somehow unique Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see
And now after some thinking, I’d say I’d rather be A functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me
But I don’t, I don’t know what that will be I’ll get back to you someday soon you will see
What’s my name, what’s my station? Oh, just tell me what I should do I don’t need to be kind to the armies of night that would do such injustice to you
Or bow down and be grateful and say, “Sure, take all that you see” To the men who move only in dimly-lit halls and determine my future for me
And I don’t, I don’t know who to believe I’ll get back to you someday soon you will see If I know only one thing, it’s that everything that I see Of the world outside is so inconceivable often I barely can speak
Yeah I’m tongue-tied and dizzy and I can’t keep it to myself What good is it to sing helplessness blues, why should I wait for anyone else?And I know, I know you will keep me on the shelf I’ll come back to you someday soon myself
If I had an orchard, I’d work ’til I’m raw If I had an orchard, I’d work ’til I’m sore And you would wait tables and soon run the store
Gold hair in the sunlight, my light in the dawn If I had an orchard, I’d work ’til I’m sore If I had an orchard, I’d work ’til I’m sore Someday I’ll be like the man on the screen
This last month I’ve been listening to Killing in the name of regularly.
While I had an understanding from the lyrics that it was an anthem against white supremacy, I didn’t know it’s full history. It’s sad how 28 years after it’s release, it’s still relevant.
For non-Black Canadian folks, here’s a list of ressources that I found useful (with thanks for my coworkers).
Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses Huh!
Killing in the name of! Killing in the name of!
And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya
Those who died are justified, for wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites You justify those that died by wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites Those who died are justified, for wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites You justify those that died by wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites
Some of those that hold office are the same that burn crosses Some of those that hold office are the same that burn crosses Some of those up in congress are the same that burn crosses Some of those up in congress are the same that burn crosses Uggh!
Killing in the name of! Killing in the name of
And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya And now you do what they told ya, now you’re under control And now you do what they told ya, now you’re under control And now you do what they told ya, now you’re under control And now you do what they told ya, now you’re under control And now you do what they told ya, now you’re under control And now you do what they told ya, now you’re under control And now you do what they told ya, now you’re under control (Control!) Those who died are justified, for wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites You justify those that died by wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites Those who died are justified, for wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites You justify those that died by wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites Come on!
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me Motherfucker!
I’m not really good at taking in between project pictures or even before and after so this will be a bit short.
First we started with the smallest garden bed that will house the haskaps. We used landscaping ties (mini ties) and it’s 16 feet by 4 feet total.
There are currently 5 haskap bushes, 3 different varieties (beauty, blizzard, Aurora) and we’ll add the big one we have in the yard here after this year’s harvest.
We added landscaping fabric and cedar mulch to finish it off.
The second one is a bit more ambitious, It’s 8 feet by 32 feet.
For both of these we started by digging the perimeter, putting landscaping fabric and then adding 3/4 gravel for drainage.
We then added the mini ties. To get them to stick together we used some timber-lock 6″ screws. These suckers are massing and will make pretty much anything stick together. It even fixes some slight warpness that some of the mini ties had.
Since 8 feet is too wide to be able to reach, we decided to dig up a bit of the “bad” dirt on the outsides and use it to create a 2 feet wide “lane” 2 feet away from the fence so that we can reach everything.
You can see the strip in the middle where nothing is growing. Then at the front left there are watermelons planted and at the top right there is a black current bush as well as 4 blueberry bushes (that I’ve since learnt I’ll need to move if I want the back row to be all raspberries.
Since that didn’t use up all of the triple mix we’re making another planter, but this one much simpler (fence boards with 2 by 4s) at the other end of the yard that will be for the Blueberries and a flower garden. We decided to do it that way since the mini ties cost a lot and it takes a lot more time. While they are nicer and they’ll last longer we can always go back and redo it in a later year if we want to.
On top of all that we setup the garden I had build last year. We made 4 feet rows with the same 2 feet walkways in between. We then added the soaker hoses. I’m not sure the soaker hoses will be enough to be honest but we’ll see if we can make it work. Either way, almost everything is planted. The only things that remain for the main garden are the peas that I’ll plant in 2 weeks to ensure the harvest stays for as long as possible.
Also pictured, our compost bin that an animal has broken into.
While doing this I was chatting with a friend and when I was telling them I was just planting stuff, barely reading the guidelines and not really caring about all the companion stuff she referred to me as a YOLO gardener.
Gardening is one of the few things that I let myself “fail” at. In a sense that I’m not trying to be perfect. I’m not doing a whole bunch of research, I’m just watching a few youtube videos here and there and just overall enjoying myself. I feel like often we have hobbies that turn into chores because we seek perfection.
I’m going to write a longer post about this, but I’m starting to think that anything worth doing, is worth half-assing.
I used to have many physical books and bookshelves along with DVDs prominently displayed in my living room. A colleague mentioned their bookshelves recently and while there is a quote I like:
“We enjoy dreaming up a library that reflects every one of our interests and every one of our foibles—a library that, in its variety and complexity, fully reflects the reader we are.” Such a library is “an assembly of titles that, practically and symbolically, serves [to define us].”
Alberto Manguel (via Lucas Cherkewski)
Interestingly enough, that is in part why I gave away all my books and all my DVDs. While yes there was a practical reason to it, I never really re-read a book and the movies I had a copy on a hard drive. The real reason is that I was using it as a way of defining me to others.
At first blush there doesn’t seem to be anything sub-optimal with that, but I realized that for me, it was a vanity project. I wanted to appear erudite (smart, but like, for wankers), to show off my “depth”, how intellectual I was, how well read, how spiritual, how pragmatic, how emotionally mature etc etc.
And the problem with that, with culturing the image you want to project is that, for me anyway, it takes the focus away from being that deep, emotionally mature, intellectual person to giving that perception.
I don’t need folks to see my library, (I need to resist name dropping “smart” books here that would only serve the exact purpose as what the paragraph above talks about) for them to know who I am. They can figure that out relatively quickly.
I understand the appeal of signalling and it’s benefits. Yes it’s easier to know who you’ll have many things in common with. But does that actually grow my understanding of the world? Will it help me be exposed to new ideas and new opinions if I only interact with folks I think are like-minded.
I know that last paragraph is a bit of a jump, from the image we project with our bookshelves to getting out of our filter bubbles. But I think it’s related in that if we want to better understand the world, we need to let others better understand us, and that means not necessarily using simple signalling to categorize and simplify what is at it’s core an incredibly complex individual.
Edit: I realize this may seem like a hit piece against people who have bookshelves prominently displayed. That’s not my intention, if you have bookshelves that’s great, I just wanted to talk about why I no longer do, doesn’t mean I think you’re vain if you have bookshelves.
If you haven’t already seen these, there’s a BBC golf commentator who narrates his dogs. It’s kinda amazing and the kind of thing that will make your day much better
