Work from home

Not sure I have mentioned here. I lost my job in December, the week before Christmas. As of right now, I have not found a new job. 

I have not limited my search to nursing. Indeed, I rather feel it is time to move on. I am not happy with the medical field here. 

It took many weeks of battle but I finally won my UI (Unemployment Insurance). I also got a moderate tax refund. Nearly every penny of both have been required to catch up on bills. I was behind on mortgage, electric, water, gas, internet, satellite TV and child support, among other things. Had to allow my prepaid cell phone to lapse and be turned off for over a week. Happily, I still had my VOIP service.

Had a garage sale. Didn't make much. 

I started going to a plasma center to donate, where you are paid for the time it requires.

Now that things are fairly caught up and a little more secure, in the past week, I started acting on an idea. To start a business from home. Going to start making hope chests and window seats, then move on to custom work. I've purchased a few tools I needed for that. Will be buying more within the next week and acquire more over time to do more specialty work. I am still going to the plasma center and using the money from that for the tools and supplies. Once I can sell a few items, I will turn some of that money back for more tools and supplies. 

Aside from that, I am hoping to make a profit from the garden this year. The planned garden is less diverse but expanded in size this year. Mostly tomatoes but with plenty of other things included.

I am not going to do simple, mundane items from the shop. My plans are for more artistic designs, with airbrushed art painted on. I can do more classical work if someone asks for it. One benefit selling locally is that I can offer a lifetime warranty. If anything is flawed in the workmanship, I will repair it free of charge or replace it if necessary, at my option. If something other than workmanship, I can repair it inexpensively. All designs original and no two completely alike. 

Nearly there. Will have the shop functional within the week. 

Once I start building things, I will compile a portfolio and build a website. I will take photos of every piece I build and place them in a book and web gallery.

I'm not going to focus strictly on wood and paint. Going to expand my artistic horizons and start picking up other things as well. Learn some works with leather, metal, glass, stone and possibly other media. 

None of this is going to happen overnight. I feel like this year is going to be a rough one. However, I also feel strangely optimistic about this. It feels like the right direction for me. I don't often feel that. It's a good feeling.

Solarium down

Took the solarium down on Sat. What remained of it. Winds picked up so strongly it was unsafe to leave it up. Looks like a temporary structure just isn't going to work at all. 

Temps at night have dropped back into the 20's. Luckily, nothing in the garden has sprouted yet, so I don't have to replant. Just have to wait until it's warm enough for things to start coming up. Maybe another two weeks.

So much for an early spring.

Should be warm enough during the day to get more done outside this week. Still more tilling, cutting and so forth to do before planting. 

Some good news is that most of my earliest tomato plants have formed true leaves. Many of those have multiple sprouts in single pots. Let them grow a little larger and stronger, then separate them into other pots. At this rate, they should produce fruit by early May, if the weather is warm enough.

One strawberry plant is now revived and another is showing signs of life. Not anywhere near the hopes for a whole crop of them but a good sign. First time they have survived even one season. 

Still waiting on results of the water test. Had thought it would have been done by now. Guess I'm just being impatient. 

Destruction

The solarium has suffered significant destruction. Winds have done damage at the top, while dogs have shredded the bottom. Not much I can do which will last at the moment, until I can afford more materials. 

I'm unemployed at the moment. Been waiting for unemployment benefits. Been waiting for about six weeks now. The UI system in NM is in such horrible shape that there was a state senate meeting today to look into it. Waiting to hear the news report on that this evening.

One upside. Night temps last night and tonight are slightly above freezing. Hoping that means I'll be seeing some spinach sprouting this weekend. 

Well, this will still be the best year for the garden so far.. if I'm still living here. Finances being what they are at the moment, that's in question.

Still lots of clay

Some parts of the garden and yard still have lots of clay. Getting better but enough to be something of a problem.

It's fairly easy to tell how much clay is in any particular area. Water barely penetrates but sits on the surface for a long time. The more healthy soil absorbs water almost instantly. So, some parts of the garden can be watered and the water instantly soaks in. In other areas, it takes longer and can run off of mounds before soaking into the soil. 

The more clay areas have not yet been tilled this year. My biggest concern is how much this reflects how much sodium still remains in the soil. I am going to till more over the next week or two and treat heavily with sulfuric acid. Of course, also tilling in organic material. I think the corn from last year is really helping with that.

I do still continue doing lots of reading to learn more about correcting the soil. One thing I have definitely confirmed is that the sulfuric acid is the right thing to be doing. 

I had my suspicions and confirmed that as long as soil remains heavily clay, it indicates an alkaline condition and a high sodium content. The acid dissolves the clay, making the soil more porous and allowing the sodium to leach downward.

I've determined that this year, I'm going to spray (in streams) a strong sulfuric acid solution in the rows between mounds to control weeds and acidify the soil while doing drip irrigation on top of the mounds. Most of the acid will be neutralized in the rows before working by capillary action to the mounds. Keep a close eye on the pH of the mounds. If the mounds start becoming too acidic, it's unlikely I'll have to do anything but stop the acid treatments for a while. 

Temps are climbing slowly. I'm hoping to see some spinach and lettuce sprouting soon. 

Broccoli and I just don't seem to get along. The broccoli seedlings don't seem to be doing well at all. Blah.

Temp swings

Not holding out much hope for the broccoli any more. Not going to give up entirely, just not expecting much. 

Biggest problem is temperature extremes. Right now, the night temps are still dropping below freezing. By the time night temps remain above freezing, day temps will be climbing above 80. Either extreme and broccoli just doesn't do well. 

I'm guessing most commercial broccoli is grown in highly controlled greenhouse conditions. If not, it's grown in a much milder climate than this.

On the other hand, I have lots of  tomato seedlings coming up inside. Once temps remain above freezing outside, I can get hundreds more started in the solarium. First couple hundred will be for my own garden. The rest will be sold as seedlings/plants.

I'd been searching for a couple of days for the warranty on the well pump. Finally found it today. Whew! Was getting worried I would have to buy a whole new pump. Not sure I mentioned before but the pump casing cracked. How that happened, I have no idea. It's been sitting in the same place all last summer and through the winter. I drained it to keep water from expanding in it during the winter. Since I bought the extended warranty, I can take it back and exchange it. Harbor Freight is good about honoring their warranties. 

As a bonus, I also found the warranty on the smaller utility pump while searching for the well pump warranty. I had forgotten I even got the extended warranty on the utility pump. 

Sent out water samples from the well and the municipal water to be tested. From the stains the water has caused, I'm suspecting it has a high iron content. It would be crazy if the well water has a high iron level, as much as the surface soil lacks iron and nitrogen. You would think some level of them both would seep upward over centuries. Especially the nitrogen. Guess the clay is just too dense. 

I wonder. Enough acidity, enough irrigation, enough growth on the top, could it eventually change the nature of the soil down to the water table? After all, the water table is only 6 ft down. I don't expect water to seep upward but if a cycle begins which allows the nutrients to seep upward, it would completely change the nature of my soil as long as the aquifer runs beneath it. 

Dog damage

The battle with the dogs continues. They seem intent on destroying anything to do with the garden.

They have torn holes in the plastic sheeting of the solarium in several places. I patched that with old tarps. They tore down the tarps. I stapled up some poultry netting to the wood, then placed the tarps over that. They jumped on the netting, tearing that down along with the tarps. Now one of the tarps is too torn up to use and I don't have the money to buy another one.

I've placed plastic sheeting and tarps over the young broccoli plants outside. They drag the tarp and sometimes the sheeting off, causing damage and exposing the plants to cold. This afternoon, I placed two small bowls of water on top of the tarp, so when they dragged the tarp, they got drenched. I've already had to replant a number of seeds. 

They still keep working their way under the gate, even with wood placed in front of the gate to the garden. So I also placed a small bucket of water on top of the gate. They move the gate and once again, they get drenched. 

I'll keep trying that for now. If that doesn't work, I'll have to get a rheostat and place a couple of electrical leads to deter them. Just enough power to get their attention, not harm them. 

If I don't control the dogs, I will not have a garden this year. Besides, in the places I plant flowers, I want to be able to smell flowers, not dog shit. I want to attract bees and butterflies, not flies and maggots. 

Tried setting up the commercial shelves in the solarium today. With the current arrangement, the shelves are too big. I may be able to set the shelves up in another place and wrap them with plastic sheeting. Maybe with magnets to close it up. Or bungee cords. 

Almost all the sheetrock is dissolved and broken into small pieces now. I won't be doing that again. Too much time, too much work and too much space. Besides, it was quite ugly. I'll stick with buying bags of gypsum pellets. 

I still have iron sulfate left from last year. That takes care of the iron and some sulfur.

The gypsum (and gypsum board) is calcium sulfate. That's calcium and more sulfur.

I'm still applying sulfuric acid, which adds more sulfur. 

The soil tests high in potassium already.

The well water is high in nitrates. If I need more nitrogen, ammonia will work. 

For basic needs, that just leaves phosphorous. Found a 5 lb bag of high phosphorous fertilizer (0-46-0) on Amazon for a good price.  

Between those things, compost and leaves tilled in, that should be a good start for the garden this year. Now I just have to control the dogs.