More leaves, more moisture

After writing last, saw an ad on CL from someone giving away bagged leaves. Went to get them after work one morning and got more than I counted on! Got 12-14 good sized backs, well packed. Few hundred pounds worth. Couldn't load any more and still see through the back window. Since then, had more rain and snow. Should help the soil when spring comes along. 

Rain is helping to soften up the sheetrock piled in the back yard. I'm still convinced the sheetrock is a good idea but takes more work and time than I had counted on. Due to water resistant coverings, sheetrock doesn't break down as easily as I had hoped. Good thing in your house, not good for breaking it down for agricultural use. 

 The sheetrock also doesn't dissolve as I thought it would. Remains pretty chunky for a while. Not really a bad thing, except aesthetcially. Actually means the minerals will be more gradually released and organically available for a longer period. Then again, I've mostly been dissolving it in straight water. It takes the actions of water, acids and microorganisms to dissolve it completely. I'll mix most in the soil and some in the compost bin for that effect. 

I am reconsidering the idea of buying compost from the local water utility before spring. Depends on finances, mostly. Can buy ten tons delivered for around $300. Less expensive if you buy unscreened, which has 2-4" wood chips in it. Probably go half and half, then rake excess wood chips from grassy area surfaces and compost or mix in garden areas. That would help keep soil more loose and again result in slower release for longer benefits.

Got stuff to do! 

Helpful weather

Weather this week has been helpful to gardening (not much else). At least, for the future, that is.

Been raining on and off. Not flooding, which tends to be more normal here if it does rain. Had a chance for it to soak in really deep. After all the tilling, that should help things compost in the ground with time. Hoping for a fairly wet winter, though I am probably not joined in that sentiment by many people. Should be, as water reserves here are extremely low.

Rain is helping the leaves compost a bit. I still need to rake much of the leaves into the compost bin. Had left them out with thoughts of piling them up for my daughter, who loves to play in the piles of leaves. Doesn't look like such a great idea now. Went from no leaves falling to all of them falling, immediately followed by rain, wind and cold. Feel bad because that's her favorite part of autumn. 

The wind also interfered with my collection of leaves. Blew much of them away from good collection sites. Bummer. 

Still, have a few hundred pounds which will make decent compost. Those which are not collected in the bin run the chance of drying out before I can get them into the bin. If it remains dry enough for a couple of days, may still be able to salvage the situation and still let daughter play int the leaves. Though I need to return the neighbor's blower soon. 

Wait and see what the week brings.

Catching up

Finally have a chance to catch up on some things which I couldn't post or a while. Couldn't post from my phone because Blogger changed the interface and it was incompatible with my phone. 

I did ultimately get the whole yard tilled. In multiple places, more than once. Mixed in most of the wood chips and large or excess wood chips went into the compost bin. 

Started collecting leaves once they fell but have been diverted multiple times in multiple directions. Had vehicle problems more than once. 

Got money together and had power turned back on, as mentioned in last post. Knew some wiring would have to be replaced, as some of it is original, circa 1966 and installed with methods that were outdated in most places at that time. Asbestos cloth wrapped and I believe covered with creosote. Then it turned out that even the newer cables installed before I moved in are just connected to old wiring. In most cases, the third prong on electrical outlets were connected to nothing at all. Could not afford to have the electrician rewire the whole house. Cost around $1000 just to get enough done to get the power back on. So, now I'm in the process of rewiring the whole house and finding some amazingly bad things about the old wiring along the way. Outlets in the kitchen on the same circuit as outlets in the living room. Junction boxes installed under the floors and nailed to the joists. Can't get past the water and gas lines beyond a few feet into the crawlspace and there are cinder block walls which block access under newer sections of the house. So going to have to cut trapdoors in several places. Just make them permanent for any future work. Upgrading everything as I go, adding new outlets on new circuits. New breaker board has capacity to hold up to 30 circuit breakers. I'm going to fill the whole board. Much safer that way. Add some outdoor outlets for different things. 

Had plumbing problems. Tree roots growing through the pipes. Used the tiller to dig up the pipes, manually cut the roots back and place broken cinder blocks around the pipes. Won't completely stop the roots but will slow them down. Had to buy some professional plumbing tools to remove roots from inside the pipes. At some point in the future, get a motorized heavy drain snake to run through the pipes once or twice a year. It'll pay for itself in two uses. 

Pipes froze again this past week, in spite of insulating the pipes. However, temps went down lower than they have in years couple times this week. As low as 4 degrees F the night the pipes broke. Since then, fixed the pipes, insulated them, had built a crawlspace cover for the electrical work. Had some outdoor carpet someone gave me which I hadn't used yet. Used that to cover the crawlspace cover for more insulation. Also helps the house by reducing wind from getting in the crawlspace. 

It will help once I can finally get some portion of the solarium built. Had begun building shelves and such for organizing the house and had planned on getting some portion of the solarium started. That was when all the diversions began.

Planted lots of flower bulbs for spring. Hoping those do better than the seeds have. Dug up all the tomato plants but most are still outside in buckets. Not sure if they'll bounce back or not. For insurance, I'll start seeds in Jan indoors again. 

Thanks to weather and soil, pumpkin harvest was really poor this year. There was no corn this whole year. Green beans did well right up to first frost. Kinda sick of green beans for the moment. 

Guess that catches things up. Been an eventful few months. Now I need to get some sleep. Have more wiring to do tomorrow. 

Back online!

Finally got my power back on and internet service again! Cost a pretty penny to do so but going to take steps to decrease that over time.

Only have a short time to write before have to be ready for work.

Never did see any spinach or lettuce from last planting. Think the biggest issue is sodium in the soil. Extremely high here. Trying to counter that with calcium sulfate. Otherwise known as gypsum. Which comes in the form of sheetrock. I am collecting sheetrock scraps from people who are doing remodeling. Got quite a bit now. Takes time and effort to soak it, strip the paper backing off and soak it some more before it becomes usable for the soil but I have all winter. Since it has sulphur as well as calcium, it should help the soil here quite a bit. 

Also back to collecting leaves as I did last year. Built an above ground compost bin and filled in the pit. More capacity and easier on my back.


Okay, have to get ready for work.