100K House

Here’s a great blog about a small firm in Phillie who are designing and building a house to come in at less than 100K in construction costs that will be LEED certified.  The house is 1000 sf.  Its a terrific idea and the site is filled with interesting tidbits, like this discussion about how many square feet are really needed, why square feet per person has grown so much since the 1950s, and how people get by with less; and this one which discusses passive cooling and other techniques, and whether a house in Philadelphia really needs an A/C system.  I look forward to perusing this site at length.

Hack’em Sack’em

I spent a good chunk of yesterday putting together a version of this great de-cluttering hack to hide our modem, router, and a number of related cables that had been snaking like jungle vines in our living room.  I should have taken a before picture.  Maybe  I’ll post the  after in a little while.

Our twist on the hack was to mount the pegboard in an unused drawer in a sideboard table.  We turned the drawer upside down and affixed the board using small bolts with wingnuts.   Our pegboard is much smaller than is shown in these examples, due to the size of the drawer, but we have fewer component to deal with, as there is no computer involved.

I found the idea on a site called ikea hacker that presents photos, stories, and how-to’s of how people around the world have run in new directions with off-the-shelf ikea products.  I love this stuff–people are amazingly creative.  I wonder how large a portion of Ikea’s revenue these things account for.  Probably not much.

Salting the Walk

I have yet to purchase sand to help us get traction as we come down the walk and up the front steps.  I’ve been meaning to, but it requires a trip to Home Depot, so I’m neither inclined, nor have I had the time.

I bought a 20-lb bag of potassium salt (I assume its potassium chloride, but I should check).  It was the middle of both the price range and the responsibility range of the salts available at my local hardware store.

It was kind of a wussy decision to take the middle road, but I had not done any research before buying the salt, so it seemed the best path at the time.  Why should buying salt be any kind of dilemma?  Why not just buy the cheapest stuff and be done with it?

Well, there are a few reasons I’m concerned about salting.  Here they are in rough order of importance:

• Our walkway is surrounded by flowers and shrubs, I want to use a salt product that will not harm these plants, as they are attractive, I like having greenery and I’m not sure I could replicate this garden on my own at this point, and they undoubtedly ad value to the house.
• Generally I am wary of the effect that spreading so much salt around has on the environment.  I’m reluctant to add unnecessarily to any problems caused by salt laden runoff.
• Some salts may be dangerous to pets.  To me, this concern is pretty unsubstantiated at this point–is there really a danger to pets?  If so, how are pets exposed to salt and how can they be hurt?
• A fourth reason, that does not so much affect us, but I learned in looking into salts is an issue–some products are damaging to concrete and metals.

From some initial research–I found this helpful page on about.com.  Note the table at the bottom of the page.  It lists eight different ice-melters, notes their chemical composition, and briefly summarizes the pros and cons of each.

The only one noted here as a particular threat to plants, is rock salt–the same chemical composition as table salt.  I would not necessarily take this as an endorsement of plant-friendliness of the others, except where it specifically plant-friently.  Some are described as fertilizers, even.  As far as pets go, this page is not all that helpful.

This page was helpful in outlining risks that salts pose to pets.  It seems that the greatest issue is that some products can get caught in pets’ paws if they step in it, and it will irritate them.  Further damage can occur to their mouths and digestive systems when they lick the stuff to get it out.  Since our cats are indoor-only, the foot thing is not an issue, but I remain mildly concerned that they might ingest it if we track it indoors.

Anyway, I think I’m happy with what we have for now, as it seems like a good match to our needs.

Kittehs

In October, after a couple of abortive attempts, we brough home two lovely kitties.  One is the dad of the other (or so the shelter people told us–they don’t look much alike), and has one eye.   The other is an orange kitten.

We’ve been living with them for a about two and a half months now.  Owning pets has brought a new layer of responsibility to this venture.  I welcome it, except for the poop.

This makes me think of another kitty-related house theme that I don’t think I’ve yet mentioned here.  We have a small colony of feral cats living next door under a set of junky cars (let me impress you with a description of my neighborhood…).  There were several young ones around this summer–most likely this spring’s kittens.

I’ve thought about trying to catch them and get them spayed and/or neutered. I figure it would be better to try and see that thsi population of cats levels out and then gradually drops out of attrition, than try to rescue them.  I assume that it would effectively besiege the local shelter, and its unlikely these cats, wild as they are, would be suitable for adoption.  I’m not sure I’d want to cut short their life of freedom, uncertain as it is, in favor of a live of uncertainty lived in a cage.

Really any intervention is a bit outside my normal leaning, but I do find it tough to see them foraging for food as the ground freezes and bouts of bitter cold come through, and my cats (and wifey and me) meanwhile are warm and well-fed on the other side of the window glass.

Neglect

I have been neglectful of this blog and whatever responsibilities may be entailed in it.  It has been some time since my last post, and I suspect that I am fulfilling a well-established blogging pattern in which people start blogs, straggle along for a few posts, get busy with some other things, let the blog nearly die for lack of nourishment, guilt pushes them back for a last gasp or two and then, again that’s it.

Well I’m here to tell you that this is a very likely possibility in my case too.

Garden Timeline – Pruning Raspberries

We have been wondering whether, when, and how to prune our raspberries.

We want to ensure that our patch remains healthy and will produce next year.  We also want to cull the herd a little as they are running a little out of control.  After a little research, here’s what I found.

First thing, there are two kinds of canes–the first year canes, that don’t produce fruit, and the second year canes.  These are the producers.  I guess there are a couple other kinds as well–third year and beyond–these I guess just need to be pruned off, and dead ones that definitely need to be removed.

For the living, you need to prune in late winter or early spring.

So you have to identify the new and old ones.  I did not find much information as to how to make this distinction other than somehow remembering which produced fruit and which did not.  But, this says to look for ones with “grayish peeling bark”  Cutting the canes involves trimming them down to about four inches from the ground.

Then you need to trim back the suckers.  These are smaller canes that seem to be a result of an attempt by the plants to spread.

Other things we need to do:

• tie the canes up to some string, or maybe to the fence
• try to limit the number of plants and get them into some kind of orderly row

Pruning seems to be important and should allow for new plants to come up.  Its also a good way to prevent disease.

Wireless and CAT5

One of the things our electrician mentioned when we discussed putting in new outlets, was the possibility of running CAT 5, or ethernet, cable through the house as he was running the other wires.  To hook up new outlets he would have to run wires out of the circuit breaker box in the basement, up through a pipechase or some other crevice, into the attic, and then back down into the upstairs walls.

It seems an awfully long way to go to to get an outlet upstairs, but I suppose it makes sense.  And while you are doing it, it seems to make sense to run any other wires you need or might need, at the same time.

But we have wireless, and it seems to work pretty well throughout the house.  So why bother with cabling?

Well, we may want to finish the attic someday (it is one of our big plans), so perhaps it would help bring internet to our attic. So that might be one argument.  Are there others?  Are there any good reasons to wire your house for internet if you already have reasonably effective wireless?

Poison Ivy Plan

[this post is slightly out of order, but I want to get it out there] I’m figuring on a plan of attack for the two areas of poison ivy in the yard.  This means starting with permission and preventive barriers and ending with appropriate disposal and cleanup.  Here’s a rough bulleted list.

• First I need to talk to my neighbors and get access to their yards to take care of this nasty.
• Get Ivy Block or some other pi barrier.
• Get Tecnu or some other product for cleanup.
• Trash bags
• Stock up on either regular vinegar or concentrated vinegar.
• Lay out protective gear, including long sleeves and long pants–preferably something I wouldn’t mind throwing out after.

Preparation.

• Slather myself in Ivy Block, which can be thought of as similar  to sunblock.  It supposedly prevents urushiol, the active ingredient in poison ivy (as well as poison oak, poison sumac, and cashews) from getting to your skin.
• Don the protective clothing, including rubber gloves, to keep the ivy from the skin.
• Tools: clippers, plastic bags for containing the clippings, homemade organic ivy-cide, boiling water

In Action

• Get out there and carefully, thoroughly remove the existing plant, clipping and bagging until there is only root.
• Pull as much of the root as is possible, while leaving some visible.
• In the hedge I want to expose the root so that any new sprouts will be visible.
• In the other location, where there are no other plants nearby, I’ll pour in boiling water at least, and probably the vinegar too.

Disposal and Cleanup

• After bagging it I’ll double bag to make sure there is no urushiol on the outside of the bag.
• Wash the clippers with Tecnu
• Remove protective clothing and wash with Tecnu.
• wash skin with Tecnu (it better work!).

Followup

• Watch watch watch for any return from the plant.

catchup

It’s been an age since I wrote anything here, so here’s a brain dump post to get things going a bit.

- I spent an hour or two the other day pulling seed pods off of the black swallowwort, which I had previously thought was bindweed.  Its an invasive vine that grows all over our yard.  The more mature vines along some of our fences, and in our hedge have developed good size seed pods, some of which are starting to burst.  When they burst, the pods show the plants relation to milkweed, and release little cottony seeds that travel on the wind.  I wanted to get the pods before they released their cargo.  Picked a plastic shopping bag full of them.  I think that this effort, along with frequent pulling of the vines as they come up, will pay off eventually.

- When I was battling the swallowwort I found some more poison ivy plants (only after I was close enough to have touched them).

- Speaking of Poison Ivy, I bought some Ivy Block and some Tecnu on Monday.  Thankfully I had the Tecnu when I needed it (I hope it works).

- Last week we finally got the shelves up in Wifey’s office.  One of the brackets started to pull out already so I have to get back in there with the stud-finder.  Maybe its a lesson I can apply when I put up my own shelves.

- This organic gardening supply site looks awesome! I can’t wait to get their catalog and pore through it in the winter months.

Garden Timeline – August Week 4

Our pear tomatoes are starting to produce a bit–some nice little yellow fruits.  I’m not sure they are in the best spot though,  or maybe they didn’t appreciate the move, because they seem not to be all that prolific.

The bindweed’s seedpods are becoming plentiful and a few are just starting to burst open and release milkweed-like seeds.  Yesterday I started going around to all the fences and ‘harvesting’ these.  I want to keep the seeds from spreading at all if I can. Its fun because it feels like a harvest too.  I wish I had a few kids I could pay to fill up buckets with these.

I’m seeing dandelions in seed as well, and trying to grab those before they propagate.

The poison ivy in the driveway hedge has started into its fall colors.  All the better to identify you with my dear.

The Black Cherry in the park nearby has dropped a load of fruit on the pavement, causing me to wonder if I would leave black cherry juice footprints after walking through them.  The blackcherry that hangs over our back yard dropped its fruit a few weeks ago.

It has gotten dry again, unlike early August where it rained nearly every day, so we are back to watering, and need another soaker hose.

The yellow and pink flowers (as yet unidentified) in front of our house are still going, though the yellow are showing some signs of flagging.  The hydrangeas are still working it as well.

Weeding continues apace.  Formulating a plan to get the poison ivy.  Its pretty much set now.  I realized that I have to get into the raspberry patch to work on an understory of bindweed, and worse, stinging nettles.  Oy.