Casey & Curran's Baby Chest & Hutch

When we talked to Casey & Curran, they wanted a chest of drawers for their new baby with 5 drawers.  We found a solid, sturdy chest of drawers with only three drawers, so we decided to work with that and make a solid wood hutch top for it.  The original chest was pretty - ugly, quite frankly, but the drawers work great & you can't beat solid and sturdy. 

George got right to work and painted the drawers inside and out.  Then he painted the knobs - each in a different primary color.  He painted the whole chest - including the back. The top has at least 5 coats of white paint on it.  

After we painted everything, I cut shelf paper out and lined the drawers.  It just comes out.  (Simply paper, not contact paper.)

The Chest of Drawers part of the project is complete at this point, so we started the hutch top next.  George cut boards to face the shelves and painted them with the paint that matches the knob.

These little strips of wood needed several coats of paint to cover completely.

Buddy & Riley are watching us closely.  They watch even closer when we eat.

George cut the pieces and dadoes the sides for the shelves.

Shelf 1

Shelf 2

Shelf 3

And with the help of the rubber mallot & Grandma - we put the other side of the hutch on.

Without the top shelf.

With the top on.

With the back on....

 Painted - with the brightly colored wood strips on the front.....

 

Sneak preview with the hutch on the chest of drawers.....

Complete side view.......

Finally - the finished product.  Handcrafted by George for 

our first great grand baby!

Vegetable Restarts

We've trying to re-root vegetables.  Below you'll see pictures of 4 different plants.  I cut and started the 2 celery plants and 1 Chinese Napa cabbage plants a week ago Friday.  The romaine lettuce we put in water day before yesterday.

Napa Cabbage:

There are no roots showing, yet.  The cabbage is growing from the center out.  We got this organic Chinese Napa cabbage from our neighbor Jacque's CSA box of produce a week ago Thursday.  We cut the cabbage to add to a salad and put the root directly into the glass of water.  Every day I add a little bit of fresh water, to give it oxygen.  Once this plant roots, I'll put it in a Kratky pot.  (This is an off-grid hydroponic growing system.)

There are two celery plants below.  The one on the left is organic.  We grew it in our garden. It was woody and dry.  The celery on the right was from the grocery store.  It was juicy and we enjoyed it.  They were cut and put in the glasses on the same day as the napa cabbage:

Organic, woody celery

Store bought celery.

As you can see, the store bought celery isn't as tall as the woody dry organic celery.  I don't know what the difference is in the plants, but they are even growing different right from the start, even though they've been treated the same.

Below is the romane lettuce that we purchased at Winco.  We cut the greens off and put the bottom of the plant directly into a glass of water.  As you can see, I left too much foliage on the plant.  The leaves in back have lost their turgidity. 

 Back of the plant.  You can see a little growth at the very center on top.

                Front of the plant

Closer look at dying leaves

I need to put vitamin B12 on the bottoms of the plants, so they can root properly.

The vegetables above will go into a kratky hydroponic pot to regrow for salad in the future.  We will also grow other plants, including kale,  Swiss chard, tomatoes and other greens. Ginger, turmeric, New Zealand spinach, parsley & horseradish are growing in dirt filled pots already.

We have peppers, tomatoes, kale, purslane, borage, New Zealand spinach, black salsify, beets, turnips and other vegetables growing in our greenhouse out back.

Fall Garden Update Sept 5, 2014

It looks like the ghost of Riley.  Actually, when I snapped this picture Riley was right in front of me, smiling.  Between the time I pressed the button and the time the shutter clicked - he left the room.  Yes, he's that fast!!!!

My pals, Buddy & Riley!!!

Looking onto the front sidewalk and ornamental bridge from our front porch.

Front porch with the 3 terracotta colored planters my daughter Melanie gave us.  We bought the paint for our walkways, etc to match her planters.  Sweet!  Thank you for the flower planters, Melanie!!!!  We love you!!!

The wooden sidewalk turned out nice after 2 coats of paint.  It took a lot of work.  Bleach & 2 pressure washings before we gave it with 2 coats of paint.

Buddy & Riley on the walkway.

Strawberry rows around the back yard.  Buddy is on the freshly painted wooden sidewalk.

Our side flower bed with the peppermint in the whiskey barrel.

Side flower bed by the cement pad in the front yard.

Side view of the new sidewalk and grass we planted this spring.  It's dormant, but will look nice this fall.

Our new wooden sidewalk that George made to go from the driveway in front of the garage to the house.  We painted it with the new paint that fills in cracks and is not slippery when wet.

Riley by our strawberry barrel and just to the right of our doggie septic barrel.

Riley on the run..... Our herb terrace is on the right just below Riley.  We'll put a poly tunnel over the herbs to help them winter over.

Top view of our new steps that George made for our garden.

Our winter crop of parsley (volunteers) lettuce & broccoli. 

Leeks, peppers and Russian kale.  (Potatoes, onions and lettuce has all been eaten or harvested and put away.)

Tomatoes & peppers!

Carrots & beets that are still growing in our garden.

George built us new steps going down into our garden area.  Thank you, George!!!!

New Zealand spinach.  I just cut it back to the wood frame a couple of days ago.  This is ONE spinach plant.  It doesn't bolt.  I love growing this spinach!  It's the never ending spinach plant!

Our peppers, spinach, kale, turnips, black salsify, beets and spinach.  Beautiful!!

Greenhouse from front to back.  I took out 6 bushels of weeds from the walkway today.  I have a little blister on the little finger of my right hand - & I used gloves, too!

Empty bed in the greenhouse.  

Tomato plants at the end of our greenhouse

My daughter, Melanie, gave us these 3 - two gallon barrels.  We'll fill them with water and use them as heat sinks in the winter.  They will help keep our greenhouse warm at night during the winter. The final (third) off-grid hydroponics tote for greens.

The second off-grid hydroponic tote for greens.  Below it are the poly tunnel covers, which we will put out before the first freeze & cover the herbs & veggies out in the garden that remain.  The black tote will be filled with water to use as a heat sink.

Fertilizers and off-grid hydroponic buckets/totes for lettuce & greens.  We have to get netty pots & pearlite.

Front left of greenhouse is where we store our hand tools.  

Today I weeded the walk way area in our green house.  You'll see a black bin under one shelf.  It will be filled with water to use as a "heat sink" in the winter.  There are 3 - two gallon barrels (2 black, one terracotta) that will also be filled with water for heat sinks.

Buddy & his toys......

The brown cabinet on the left holds our dog food.  The bins below have bird seed for all the birds that come in our yard during the winter.  On the right hand side is our food dehydrator.  That has been a wonderful help in preserving the vegetables and herbs from our garden.

The little golden brown cabinet on the left is one I ordered from Collections, etc.  My daughter Shannon put it together for me when she was in high school.  Thanks, Shannon!!!

George made the little shelf unit on top for nick-nacks.

Our second fridge & upright freezer.  We put the fresh garden produce in the fridge.  The freezer is filled with veggies and fruit from the garden and local farms.

The tops of our fridge and freezer on the back porch.

I planted a lettuce mix.  No poo-pooh.

My ginger root (from Safeway) has finally sprouted - after 6 months of waiting!  I put coffee grounds around the sprout to keep the slugs at bay!

My single New Zealand Spinach plant that remains out of all of the seeds I planted!!! I put coffee grounds around the plant to keep the slugs away! 

Our horseradish plant has been attacked by slugs, so I'm on a slug hunt!  I put coffee grounds in the planter.  Hopefully that will discourage the slimy buggers!

My gardening books are in our reading corner.  

My bright red strawberry pot has faded over the years.  I have parsley growing in the bottom openings and corn salad greens sprouting in the top opening.

Storing Casey & Curran's kitchen table (under the TV, lamp & radio)

The oil painting with "A Water Pitcher with Flowers" George's Aunt Loraine painted for us.