Honeysuckle

The honeysuckle bush on our fence has very beautiful blossoms this year.

My absence explained…

…no real excuse for not posting, but the last two weeks have been extremely busy.  As I was working my way around the house, trying to get the garden beds ready for their annual infusion of flowers, I decided that the front of the house needed a total remake.  The front faces north and gets very little sun, and the gardens are generally sort of anemic; so I proposed that we rip every thing out, put down a patio, and just put plants into pots and planters on the patio.  Carolyn thought it was a great idea, and so it was off to Beehive Brick and Stone where we ordered the pavers.  They came on Friday, May 8th, and for the next 9 days it was 10 to 11 hour days trying to get the patio done.  I even gave up bike rides and running.  That project is now complete…

The border around the existing sidewalk is 2 feet wide.  The patio area in front of the window is 11 ft x 11 ft.  Not sure how it will eventually be decorated, but the paving has been completed.

Next project was to do some work on the “hump”.  The “hump” is the mound of dirt which covers the culvert which runs through the west side of our property.  I wanted to put in a pathway over to Josh and Erika’s house, as well as do some landscaping.  Here is where that project stands after a couple of days…

Now it is on to the deck.  I have to refinish all of the horizontal surfaces.  I hired some college students to do it last year, and the results of their efforts did not make it though one year.

April 16th – 9 AM – 32 degrees

Its pretty, but……..

… enough is enough!!!

CUPUFU

Sandy City performs a major trash pick up service twice a year.  With the exception of hazardous materials, they will pick up any thing you pile in front of your house and take it to the dump.  Years ago it went by the acronym CUPUFU.  Clean Up Paint Up Fix Up.

This year the spring pick up was on Monday, April 13th.  I spent the entire weekend clearing brush and accumulated leaves off the “hump”.  The hump is a mound between our house and Josh’s house.  It covers a culvert that drains water from a cul-de-sac in back of us.

We clearly won the “biggest pile” contest on our street this year.  In the photo you can see the bags of leaves (at least 20) and the brush and branches that were removed.  There was also some detritus from the basement construction project.  All of the basement stuff disappeared from the pile before Sandy City showed up.  There are people who perform a useful function of salvaging recyclable materials from the trash piles.  We disrespectfully call them scavengers, while they should be called ‘recyclers’.

And this is a picture of the cleaned up “hump”.  It looks like we could make a pleasant area for some purpose under the trees.

The plants have taken up residence next to the bees

The seedlings have made the journey over to Josh’s Greenhouse.  The have survived their first night, and it is 47 degrees this morning, so I assume they have survived their second.  The greenhouse is heated by a kerosene heater which not only supplies heat, but carbon dioxide as well.

This is a picture of Victoria and the plants in the greenhouse.

The bees live right next to the greenhouse. You can see a corner of the hive over Victoria’s right shoulder. 

This is Josh and his bees.  He had just arrived home from a trip, and his bees arrived while he was gone.

Josh’s Greenhouse

This is the future home of Pratt’s Plants.  I went over and helped Josh put the windows on the greenhouse.  He is recycling windows that he replaced in his house last summer.  The front window is 6’ X 6’ and must weigh somewhere around 300 pounds.

 

Josh assures me that the Greenhouse will be ready for plants in a couple of days.  On Saturday his bees are coming.  He is going to have a hive to the left of the greenhouse.  I hope to be able to take some pictures of the arrival of the bees.  Apparently they come in a cardboard box, with the Queen in her own private little container.  Josh’s brother is going to do the honors of moving the bees from the cardboard box to the beehive.  Josh is going to be flying (smart man!)

Pratt’s Greenhouse (continued)

Marion questioned in a comment why I am not growing more vegetables… I will repeat my response (edited) here…

The reason I am not planting more vegetables is one of real estate, preference, economics and climate.

We would have to dig up serious parts of the lawn to grow more vegetables.  Large parts of the lawn are unusable because of tree roots. The Cottonwood tree has taken over the whole lawn to the west of the house.  Its roots lay just under the grass as it likes to suck up the water we put on the lawn.  Any where you dig to the west of the house you will find roots varying from finger size, to arm size, and even to leg size.

We also devote serious garden bed space to flowers because we like the color.

For space reasons it seems more productive to grow things which go vertical  or are bushy (tomatoes and peppers). I am planning to plant pole beans this year.

Then there are economics. It just doesn't seem to pay to grow carrots or other root vegetables, while tomatoes and peppers and herbs seem more worthwhile.

And finally this is not generally a cool weather climate.  Once winter breaks we have a very short spring (winter has not really broken yet.) Cool weather plants like spinach and lettuce and peas do not do well. Also plants which do best in humid conditions (like sweet corn) are challenged since our climate is technically a desert… Sage brush and tumbleweed inhabited our yard when we moved in. 

Project One – Bill Pratt’s Greenhouse (corrected)

With time on my hands and motivated to live a little more frugally, I decided to start some seedlings.  I was also motivated by Josh, my neighbor, building a greenhouse, and offering me some space in it for my plants.  At the present time I have planted 7, 72 ‘pot’ trays.  They aren’t really pots, but little bags of peat.  The come looking sort of like buttons, but when you add water to them they grow to be about two inches high.  The first three trays are shown here…

This was the original planting.  The tray to the left contains (from the bottom up) – 1 row: Sweet Basil; 1 row: Cinnamon Basil; 2 rows: Jalapeno Peppers; 2 rows: Sweet Peppers; 2 rows: Cherry Tomatoes; 2 rows: Beefsteak Tomatoes; 2 rows: Roma Tomatoes.  The other two trays contain Marigolds… all sizes and colors.

I have since planted four more trays.  One of them is starting to sprout, and contains a variety of Herbs and African Daisies.  You can see the four trays under daylight lamps in this picture.

  The greenhouse is not done yet, and there is no sunshine, so I have had to convert the guest (Nick and Alina’s) bathroom into a greenhouse.  I have the two sun lamps, and a space heater.  I am trying to keep the heat in the ‘greenhouse’ at about 75 degrees, as I have a whole tray of Impatiens planted, and they germinate best at that temperature.  I also planted a whole tray of Poppies Petunias.  Poppy Petunia seeds are just about the smallest seeds I have ever seen.  It took me quite a while to place 3 seeds, one at a time, into the little ‘pots.’

I will keep you posted on the progress of my plants.

Catching up in Peru

I received a forwarded-joke-email from my old ‘army buddy’, Terry Olson the other night.  It reminded me that I hadn’t talked to him in several months, so I gave him a call.  He answered his cell phone from Tarapoto, Peru. 

He was in the process of ferrying a Skycrane Helicopter from Tabatinga, Brazil, where it had been used for laying a natural gas pipeline, to Guayaquil, Peru, but got delayed by weather going over the Andes, and then by a fuel leak.

He reported that the hotel in Tarapoto was quite nice with air conditioning, internet access, and good Cuzquena beer.

His route to Guayaquil, weather permitting, and fuel leak repaired, will be Tarapoto – Chiclayo – Talara – Guayaquil.

Tarapota – Chiclayo is over the Andes, and when you look at it on Google Earth, looks fairly daunting. 

It was great to catch up with Terry again, I wish him well, and plenty of Cuzquena.  Someday I am going to have to make the trip to Oregon to see him after these 40 years.  Maybe now that I am on furlough that will be possible.

Alina wins!!!!!

Alina got 8 votes for this picture. She and Nick each earned 13 votes for their pictures; Bill only got 7 votes.

Skiing at Alta on Saturday...

Nick, Alina, Carolyn and I went to Alta on Saturday for a great day of skiing.  Alta is about 20 minutes from our house if the traffic going up the canyon is not bad.  The weather was beautiful, lift lines non-existent, and the skiing great.  Here is a slideshow which shows some of the terrain, and the skking styles of Nick, Alina, and Carolyn

We would like your feedback...

Alina, Nick, and I went on a short hike to Lisa Falls in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  We each took some pictures, and would like your opinion regarding which you like best.  The pictures can be seen here.  You can vote for the ones you like to the right.  You can select as many as you want.  Thanks for you input.

I caught up with Nick and Alina on the slopes today.

Alina was trying to charm the staff at the Brighton Ski Resort.

But also spent time on the slopes...

Alina and Nick - Bad News and Good News...

The phone rang this morning, and Carolyn answered. The voice on the other end...

"This is Deputy Stock from the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department. Could I speak to Carolyn or Bill Pratt, please?" Stomach muscles tighten!!! "This is Carolyn Pratt"...

"I have to report an accident to a car driven by Nick or Alina blah blah blah."

Well, yesterday, Nick and Alina, were required to leave their rented car at the Brighton Ski Resort, and take the bus down the hill because they did not have chains or four-wheel-drive, and it had snowed all day long.

Deputy Stock reported that the car had been the victim of a hit-and-run accident. The passenger side door had been ripped off, and basically the car was undriveable.

Long story short... No skiing today for Nick and Alina. But they had purchased full insurance coverage when they rented the car, and Alamo delivered a replacement car (a red one) to the house, and have taken complete care of all the details.

The big plus was  wit a day available, we were able to get Alina to the dentist to begin to recovery process. Alina seemed very pleased with the results.

Alina gets her inheritance...

A package arrived from Granville the other day with Alina's inheritance.  The enclosed note (anonymously authored) reads...

"Alina asked for something Gramma used.  I've enclosed a plate a some glasses that she used almost every day.  I hope Dad has developed a sense of humor on the other side.  Beware of lightning bolts."

The entire contents of the package may be viewed here.  Warning.... Well just be warned!

Nick and Alina arrived today...

It was really great to see them again.  Apparently Alina's job as a flight attendant has been stressful over the past several months.  She changed hairdressers recently, and is not happy with the results.  She asked Carolyn to get her an appointment with Linda, Carolyn's hairdresser.  We also recommended our dentist (Alina has now been in England for 12 years, and her teeth are beginning to take on a distinctly English appearnce) and optometrist (the eyeglasses defy explanation).  

Basement Shower is done!!!

The door came in earlier than scheduled, and it is now installed.  

I have started a new blog...

to track my training for the Sandy to Snowbird Hill Climb which will be held this year on August 22.  A link to the blog is in the blog list to the right.

Somedays I get very conflicted....

After two days of being overweight....

...I slipped back into obesity today.  I am going to have to stop eating that damned (and bitter) acorn butter.  I was able to claw my way back to overweight by riding my bike for an hour.  So far today all I have had is a glass of Cranberry Juice (90 cal) and a bowl of oatmeal (100 cal).  I will soon have a yogurt (100 cal) with a few sunflower seeds mixed in (50 cal).  It is lunchtime afterall!

Thank God!  I am finally overweight!

Until this morning, the Wii Masters have determined, based upon my height and weight, that I was obese.  After several weeks on a fairly rigorous diet and abundant exercise, I finally dropped below the Wii threshold for obese and now am only overweight.  I am afraid that I will be overweight for the rest of my life, except perhaps for the time when the life forces are draining from my body.

Playing Tennis on Sunday morning ...

We decided to be daring...

...and so to flout tradition we got some wildberry purple stain.  I think it looks brown (which would be traditional), but you can see in the close up shot, it really does have a purple hue to it.  Becuase it is hardwood, it did not take up a lot of the stain.

The ballet bar is installed at last...

Today it finally all came together, and the ballet bar mounts which I had to have custom fabricated, were completed by S&K Machine.  The standard brackets positioned the bar too high for Carolyn to use, and there was no option regarding where the brackets were to be installed since they had to go in the holes which had been cut in the mirror.  The piece I had machined is the U shaped piece.  It replaces a piece which went straight up about two inches.

I also had to have the bar custom made... you can't buy 14' round bars.

I got it all put together this afternoon, and now have only to stain it.  Any suggestions for colors?

The lights in the exercise room are on two dimmable circuits.  I replaced the incandescent floods in one circuit with dimmable fluorescent floods.  They are cooler, use a lot less power, and do not interfere with the Wii as much as the incandescents do.  If I were starting over with the bulbs, I would have installed all fluorescents, but as I have 47 cans, it would be an expensive propositiion to replace them all.

Whose been sitting in my chair?

Alice Walter takes a nap....

The cats watch television...

You would think they would be intimidated by the huge mice and birds, but they are not. They paw at the screen, and look around the back of it.

The sound comes from the speakers below, and in the last picture, you can see Henry, Alice and George with Alice trying to see who is making the sound.

Carolyn does aerobics before a large Wii audience

Wii Ages today

Bill - 55 | Carolyn - 45

Alice Walter gets his annual physical notification...