still more

Entry for April 08, 2008
Yesterday was a pretty productive day. I've got the garage almost totally cleaned out, YAY! I sorted thru most of the scrap lumber and decided that most of it will be cut up to be burned in the furnace. Speaking of furnace, I got the energy king uncovered and moved into the garage. Wow is that thing heavy, it took me every bit of 20 minutes to walk it insid 4" at a time. I decided that since its just going in the garage, I wont run the thermostat and will just hook the fan motor to a switch. I need to get some duct to run from it, and pipe the intake and flu, but at least its inside and where I want it. Ahhhhh finally, heat in the garage.
I made the leaf bin I talked about earlier as well. I wanted to put it by itself somewhere in the open, but I only had 16 feet of 4 foot fence. I didnt want to have to buy any more, so I put it against the dog kennel. This way I was able to use the kennel fence as the back, and made it 4 x 8 feet. Rather than fence posts, I used 1" pipe for posts and drove them into the ground and wired the fencing to those. I raked up a little bit of the leaves from in front of the garage and fence just to show a little something in there for my efforts. Next to it, to the west, I layed out the two drums I plan to make into compost tumblers, and the next 10 foot section (along the kennel posts) is where I'll make the first cold frame. At the very end I will keep the trash bins I am currently using for compost just to keep the shredded paper in, and possibly house waste if the tumblers are full. I dug out the last 55 gallon drum I had in the garage, and since the top was already cut off, I'll ise it as a rain barrel for garden water. I just need to check at work for 2 more drums now since I want 3 rain barrels total. All 3 will go at the bottom of downspouts. I have plans drawn for how I want to make these. They'll be off the ground just the height of a concrete block, and will have a hose attachment at the bottom, and a 2" overflow that will attach into the drain pipes where the downspouts were.
Hopefully today when I get home I can start in the garden. I'll just walk around and pull up any weeds that managed to get started and toss them in the bin I made yesterday. If this weather stays the way it is, by this weekend I can give it one last good tilling. I decided not to till it every spring anymore (after this one) since if all goes well, and I keep the ground covered, I wont have any weed problems and the ground can naturally take in anything I lay on top. After the tilling, I want to get some stakes and string, and lay out the raised beds I want to make in the front. I have the whole garden layed out on paper, every square foot is used. The entire length of the front (60 feet) will be raised beds. This will take all the greens and smaller root crops like carrots & beets. Behind that will be for potatos and then anything that vines like the squash and cucumbers. The rest, for now, will be in conventional rows. If I have enough timbers left over, I'm going to make a small seperate bed for my horseradish since it takes up so much garden space. (plus I am the only one that eats it) I still need to make spots in front for Lisa's gourds and pumpkins too, argh almost forgot about those.
I also found out yesterday that the baby goats were born a week and a half ago, so I have to get some things going for lisa's new critter. I need to build it a small house, and add a second gate at the kennel so there's no chance of it getting out when someone comes in. I also decided, whether it happens this year or not, I am going to build the rabbit hutches I want. Yes, rabbits. I won't go into this one quite yet, but I will soon.
Sometime this week I have to make some calls. I need to see if I can borrow my uncles truck for a few hours to get a good load of firewood from my sister in laws. She had her fireplace converted to gas so she doesnt need it anymore. It's really only lit twice a year on holidays, and god knows she cant be bothered with carrying in that much wood. Ah well, what did I expect from someone with less than 1/4 acre of lawn that pays a lawn service to mow it. Anyway....back to where I was. I also need to find someone with a trailer so I can get that lowboy home from mom and dads. There is finally almost enough room for it in the garage now. I hope to build a lean-to behind the garage or get a small shed kit someday, but with the way work has been lately, it won't happen this year. It figures now that I have made some room in the garage, I'll fill it back up with spare tractor parts, ah well. At least its useful clutter.
I suppose I better swallow this last bit of coffee and head to work. Blahhhh I hate driving an hour to a job, but its work and they pay for the gas....and at 3.39 a gallon now, thats a GOOD thing.