Garden Projects

"why do all my projects make you stressed?"

Those are the words that Sean asked me last week, while we were at the community garden workday.

His projects make me stressed because I am a simple woman with simple needs.  Sean is a complicated man with big ideas.  So when I asked him to fix my garden gate, that translated into a visit to Community Forklift for inspiration.  We bought a huge, thick piece of wood along with a screen door and some grandiose plan to build an architectural marvel in my garden.  When he mentioned renting an auger, I said enough is enough, I AM A SIMPLE WOMAN, NO AUGER.

So, last Saturday, while I was helping to weed around the blackberry bushes, Sean was installing a new door.  He used a shovel to dig the hole for the post (Danny, my garden neighbor asked if he used cement at the bottom of the hole - every one tries to help out in the garden!)

 Thank you honey, you did good.

Since last fall, I have been collecting wine bottles.  I have a cadre of friends saving them for me and finally, I have pictures to show what I am doing.  Not sure how it's going to work out but as I told Penni, the garden manager, it's an experiment.  If it doesn't work, I will pull out all the bottles and try something else.  I am planting the bottles to create borders around the garden beds.

That boxy trellis you see?  Another one of Sean's grand ideas.  I said, build me a trellis for my long beans and I got a box!

Rainchain with recycled materials

Today, Sean and I went to Community Forklift to look for stuff.  The glass in the storm window for the cold frame broke so I though we could just buy a new window.  Who knew that all storm windows are not the same size.  We were unable to find one with the measurements we needed so abandoned that idea for just stapling plastic over the current window.

Sean LOVES this place.  A warehouse full of recycled building materials. I wish I was more handy because the website has lovely pictures of projects that customers made and I can't image tiling a patio, making a wrought iron fence or building a room with this stuff.

I can, however, do small projects.  Last year for Christmas, I received this cool book from John, my kids' dad.    The Revolutionary Yardscape by Matthew Levesque

The author is a landscaper and has created cool projects for his own house, using found/recycled materials.  He has a few rainchains and I thought I could definitely do that.  Last year we made a trip to Community Forklift and I bought these gaskets (at least that is what I think they are).  Cost for them = $8.50

They've sat on the back porch all summer - it was time to create something.  So today, I found some clamps that I thought would work.  9 clamps for $1.45 - not a bad deal.

It only took a few minutes to put together, Sean hauled the ladder out of the garage and Viola - a lovely rainchain.  I hope it works.

Spaghetti Scrub

Last month, Sean, the kids and I went to Brooklyn to visit my sister in law and her family.  While lounging in her fabulous kitchen, I noticed this funky scrubber in her sink.  She described how a friend had given it to her, it was made out of corn and that it was fabulous.  I decided I had to have one of my own.

This is what it turned out to be

Spaghetti Scrub

It comes in two types - Coarse (made of corn cobs) and Gentle (made of peach pits).  I only ordered the coarse but I'm thinking I should get the gentle too.  The ingredients for the Coarse are corn core powder, cotton and polyester.  They are made in Japan and supposedly the scrubs last for months and won't rust.

The next question is whether they are compostable?

The garbage can

Between composting and recycling, our household doesn't generate that much garbage - maybe a trash bag a week and not even a full one.  Today I decided to start to track what is going into the garbage can, to see what is being tossed.

Started with the empty bag last week and so far, I have thrown in:

2 empty butter wrappers
1 Target gift card holder
plastic tea bag covers
plastic top to milk bottle
a piece of plastic packaging from son's DS game
plastic top to seltzer bottle
plastic straw
kit kat wrapper
plastic bag from a robot model - parts were in bags
64 oz juice carton
2 rubber gloves
plastic bag for potatoes
ice cream container
Crisco wrapper
frozen container that held apple juice concentrate
tissues - lots and lots of them
candy bar wrapper
plastic liner that held bread
 Plastic container that butter came in (can't be recycled)
plastic hanger
plastic bag for nuts
1 bag full of trash from bathroom (mostly tissues and q-tips)

Plastic plastic and more plastic - none of it can be recycled.  What can I do to eliminate more plastic?

Merry Christmas from Black and Decker

I just received an email from Black and Decker, offering me a special deal for their loyal customers.

Let me tell you about my experience with Black and Decker.

In the spirit of trying to reuse and recycle, I wanted to figure out a way to fix my toaster oven.  The toaster button would not stay pressed - sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't.  I didn't want to just throw it away since the oven part was fine and I figured the button just needed to be replaced or something like that.

I searched the Black and Decker website for repair information and found a customer service email.  An email was sent to them, explaining the problem and asking if there was an authorized repair place in my area.  The response was "Black and Decker has no authorized service centers".  Period.  No other advice.  So I reply, saying, you're telling me I can't get this repaired and my only alternative is to throw it away?  The response from B&D was "you can take it to your preferred service repair center but we can not recommend one".  Okay.  My response was to tell them that they were not helpful and that I thought B&D made crappy products that broke down after not much use and forced customers to buy new products.  The response from B&D was "we are sorry you are not happy with our response and we will send your comments on to our supervisor"

I did end up calling my favorite service center, Waters Appliance Service Inc, in Gaithersburg, MD.  As soon as I said Black and Decker, the very nice man on the phone said "oh no.  Not Black and Decker" and he proceeded to tell me the story of how the company sold their small appliance division to another company and the service and quality had gone downhill and that they no longer repaired B&D products.

This happened over the summer and was the last I heard from Black and Decker until my holiday email.

I also had a Black and Decker weed wacker that stopped working this summer.  For tools, I was able to get a phone number for customer service.  I explained the problem to the rep and was told it sounded like I needed a new battery pack.  Ok, where can I get one?  I was given the name of a service center in MD and gave them a call.  After explaining the problem and giving them the model and brand the response was "oh that model was discontinued."  The original B&D customer service rep couldn't have told me that from the start?!!

One last story about small appliances.  I had an American Harvest dehyrdrator.  It stopped working this summer. I called customer service who told me that I could pay to have the machine shipped to them but they couldn't tell me whether or not they could fix it and I would be better off buying a new one.

Am I the only one who wants her appliances/tools to be fixable?

Recycle - Reuse - Food Storage

This piece of furniture now lives in my basement

It's a section of the library's shelf list.  There were 10 sections sold off in the past month. My neighbor and I each bought one.  It was a bargain for $50, especially since S and I saw one about 1/4 the size in a furniture shop on 14th St, selling for $227.   My neighbor cut his in half and he is using it as a work bench/storage in his garage.

The card catalog was in my garage while I figured out where to put it in the house.  I really wanted it upstairs somewhere but that would take redesigning the whole first floor.  Since I wasn't up to that task and didn't want this to sit in my garage all winter, today S, my neighbor and I moved it into the basement.

I think most of the sweet potatoes will fit into it.