Weighty Matters

I calculated the weight the cold frame would have been subjected to.

Given that the weight of water in pounds per square inch is 0.036127, here is what the water on the ribs might have been:.

Depth   Weight outer ribs   Weight center ribs
1 inch                     23.41               46.82
1.5 inch                 35.12               70.23
2 inch                     46.82               93.64

I cut out some snow and found that, after some melt, there was about an inch of water that would have accumulated on the top of the cold frame. No wonder it collapsed.

Cold Frame Post Mortem

A photo is worth a thousand words, but still needs to be interpreted with words to make sense. I took a closer look at the nature of the catastrophic collapse of the cold frame. There were some variations, but there was a general pattern. All center ribs broke at a place between 6 and 12 inches up from where they attached to the raised bed.

There were also several ribs that were snapped at their base where they were attached to the raised bed.

A key to the sequence of events that probably happened lies in the evidence provided by the end ribs. These did not snap completely, but bent and developed stress fractures. On both sides where this evidence appeared, there were splits at the 6 inch to 12 inch area above the raised bed timbers. This is more visible in the segment on the right but still occurred in the segment on the left.

Finally, it is worthy of note that on just one of the middle ribs was there evidence of breakage near the top of the rib.


So, what probably happened is this: The snow and ice accumulated on the top of the cold frame. Unlike rain that runs off, a bond was formed that kept the snow and ice in place. The snow and ice gradually caused the ribs to flex downward. Being only 5 mm in width and designed to be easy to bend, to a point this flexibility is desirable. However, when the weight of the snow and ice accumulated sufficient weight, probably in near the middle (lengthwise), the ribs started to snap, which probably cascaded throughout the structure relatively quickly. The points with the greatest stress was near the 45 degree points of the arc at that point in time.

My next step is to consider re-engineering changes that will allow future frames to either deal with snow and ice better or to allow them to hold more weight.

Salvaged Carrots

Kathy needed some fresh carrots for a carrot cake recipe. She wanted fresh, not frozen. I had planted seeds at the end of the summer planting window in one of the beds covered by the cold frames that collapsed under snow yesterday. So, I had James help me take the cover off. We picked all the carrots that were to be found. Carrots may survive the winter, but my experience last year was not promising. Better take them out when you have the opportunity.


The harvest wasn't as large as at the end of the summer, but there were two advantages. The carrots I planted around Memorial Day took extensive care. I had to water them daily in the summer. Watering is not an unpleasant task, but it required diligence. On the other hand, the carrots planted around Labor Day were pretty much ignored by me. I let nature take its course with them. I think they actually grew pretty well when covered with the cold frame that seemed to help regulate water under the tent.

The second advantage, a small one, is that when I harvest in the winter, I can go a little slower on the processing side of things. I cut the tops off the carrots and, because we had an open house for James and Angie to get ready for, just set them in the garage, where it is like a refrigerator.

The one thing I should have probably done better that would have resulted in a slightly larger harvest would have been at planting. I was hurried and didn't bother to make sure the seeds were properly covered. I had covered them with some potting mix out of a bag instead of properly getting seeds at the correct depth and covering them with soil. I probably cut my production 50% or more.

Frosty Failure

It snowed and iced yesterday. When I had anticipated what effect it would have on the cold frames, I thought the snow would sort of slide off to the sides. I didn't anticipate what would actually happen. What really happened, of course, was that most of the interior ribs broke and the covers collapsed. A catastrophe in both the mathematical and horticultural sense.


My design of the cold frames was obviously a failure. Although, one of my favorite quotes is from Francis Bacon.

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

It will be until the snow leaves that I will be able to do a complete post mortem. However, it appears without question that the biggest stress was on the center sections. While damaged, the end ribs didn't actually break.



On the other hand, the greenhouse stayed intact.



I had enough sense to put something up against the entrance to the beehive. In this case, I hadn't taken the top cover and inner cover in from the hive that had died from a moth invasion in, so I just laid them up against the front of the hive. Better than last year when the March storm blew snow and ice right inside the hive. I hope this helped.

16F

A temperature of 16F will evidently kill broccoli even if it is covered by a cold frame. That was what I experienced this week. I went out to pick some broccoli for dinner and found a horrible smell coming from under the cold frame. The spinach and lettuce still seem to be doing fine.

The lesson to be learned here is to plant broccoli and cauliflower earlier so I can harvest earlier.

I have thought about figuring out how to install a small heater with a fan in the cold frame that I could kick on when the temperature falls too low. I may continue to think about this. If I were better at electronics, I would design one that had a built in temperature sensor to auto-start it when under-the-frame temperatures dipped below a certain level. It might be worth thinking about or even searching for should someone have already thought of it. Then, instead of paying $3 a head for broccoli at the store, I could pay $10 a head as a prize for growing it myself. I obviously have to think about this.

December Veggies

After several nights with temperatures in the low 20s I was curious about how veggies in the cold frames have been doing. (last night, it got down to 20F.) Yesterday I uncovered one of the frames and picked some spinach. Spinach will usually survive these temperatures but lettuce won't. However, the lettuce looked just fine. (And the spinach, sauteed in olive oil with a little soy sauce and ginger, tasted pretty good.) It has also been pretty windy the past week. The bungee cords held everything down very well.

Last night Kathy cooked some carrots that had been harvested and stored in the refrigerator. They had started to deteriorate. I had presumed that, since we buy carrots that are stored in the refrigerated section of the grocery that they would do fine there. When I examined the rest, they looked like they were on the verge of some kind of transformation. So, last night I took out what remained in the refrigerator, peeled off the skin, parboiled them, and repackaged them with the FoodSaver for freezing. They mostly seemed good, but next time I should remember to just freeze them from the start.

Pantry

Yesterday was a cold and dreary Saturday. Cold rainy days are not conducive to working in the yard, no matter how diligent. Last night we hoped for snow, but when it finally got cold enough (the low last night was 21F), it quit raining.

Kathy is visiting her parents in California, which, oddly enough, gave me license to tackle the pantry. I don't know what other people's pantries are like. They aren't usually featured on home tours, unless they have been emptied of everything that functionally makes them a pantry. Ours was expanded when we redid our kitchen. We added about a foot to the port side, the benefit being that we also added a wall full of shelves that increased our storage capacity by about 40%.

The problem we have had has been moths. This has been a somewhat enduring problem, almost since the day we moved in. It seems that, no matter what we do, we eventually see the little creatures flitting around in the room. I have refused to fumigate. Mostly, we try to catch and kill. The biology/ecology has to be pretty easy to understand. Moths are attracted to food and spawn. So, there must be food that they can get to. We have taken to storing opened cereals -- both the contents of boxes as well as rolled oats -- in gallon sized containers with tight lids. We have tried to put as many other things in containers as well. But, there are things that are hard to store that way -- chips, saltine crackers, and cookies, for instance.

One of the big culprits this time was a sealed container of split peas and other beans. It was so loaded with vermin that I opened it outside before I put it into the compost pile. Sort of hate to see things like that go, but when they are bad, they are bad and there is no use trying to save them. What is telling is that the inside of the container was loaded with moths, many of which had already died. So, basically, the container worked, but in the wrong direction. Somehow moths had infested the contents when it was opened and then were trapped inside. It suggests we need to figure out how to be more efficient at keeping things free when we are storing things the first time.

My strategy was to pull out everything that was on a shelf and sort through it, cleaning up as I went. That meant that the kitchen became a temporary pantry. But it allowed me to sort things and get rid of things that no longer needed to be kept. I was able to clean up and organize the spice racks and put things back in a more organized way. There are lots of some things -- cereals, mixes, soups, canned and bottled fruits, cookbooks, pasta, oils, sweeteners, and, in our case, chocolate -- that can all be grouped. But then there are odd things like seaweed for sushi and samples of jams that we have just a little of.



No pantry that we have managed has ever been totally organized. I don't think it is possible. The second law of thermodynamics applies. All systems tend to entropy and disorganization over time. The other truth is that, when you clean up one mess, you almost always make another. The pantry is clean but the kitchen has suffered some and still needs some further cleaning, which will create a mess some where else, ad nauseam.

Compost a Solamente

Because there is now only light in the morning for me to work in the yard -- the sun has set by the time I get home from work -- I decided to see how long it would take me to do a load of compost by myself before work. Jenna is up but is getting ready for school. Jeff is not up. The dogs are not any help with this sort of thing.

I went out about 15 minutes before Jenna had to leave for the bus, so about 7:45, and was able to load up a tarp with leaves that had already been piled up. It took less than 10 minutes to rake them onto the tarp and pull it back to the compost area. Then I came in to wish Jenna well at school. Once she had left, I returned to the compost area, took the cover off the shredder/chipper and moved it into position. It took a couple of attempts to get it started. It took about 10 minutes to feed the leaves through the hopper.

I decided to try something different. I took all the leaves that I had just processed and put them back on the tarp. It reduced the apparent volume to about 33% of the original. Then I fed the leaves through again. The mass was now about 25% of the original or maybe less. It took about 20 minutes overall. So, it's doable in short periods; in a half an hour I can do a complete load of leaves. It will take at least a week at this rate, but it has the benefit of giving me a morning workout (in addition to walking the dogs). It's raining right now, so it may not work to do this everyday.

November Composting

It was finally a good day to start taking care of leaves. Nice temperature (around 60F) and not much wind. Jenna helped me load and pull the first tarp down. I tried to get the chipper/shredder started. Jenna tried and Jeff tried. It would turn over but not start. So I went to Tractor Supply and got some priming spray and a new spark plug. I haven't started the chipper/shredder in a long time, so I am not surprised that it needed something to get going. Jeff finally got it to turn over.


When I bought the chipper/shredder, I got it used. It is a Murray, a company that went bankrupt or sold out. I believe Troy Bilt bought them, but I'm not positive. Like many companies that build quality products that go out of business, I feel a bit sad for them (probably an overstated emotion, no tears were actually shed). They may something really good. It has a great design with the pull down hopper that allows you to scoot leaves in from the ground level. Many other chipper/shredders I looked at didn't have that feature. But, of course, there are not going to be any replacement parts when something customized for the machine breaks. I enjoy it and feel lucky to have found a used one that was in very good condition.

Jeff and Jenna brought me two more tarpfuls of leaves (about a quarter or less of what we have in the yard). It took an hour to process all of them. The process is automated but not fast. The goal of using the chipper/shredder is to break down the leaves so they will compost faster. The chipper/shredder only does a fair job at grinding things into really small parts. While all of the leaves are ripped, some of them are still somewhat sizeable. I ran some of these through twice. Three tarpfuls unprocessed take up about three cubit yards of space. The chipping/shredding reduced this by two thirds to about one cubic yard.

It will take nature's processes to fully break them down. Leaves I have processed this way in the past end up good, but shrink to about a third the volume. With as many leaves as we have, there should still be a decent result, maybe a yard or a yard and a half. We've been blessed in the past with a lot of earthworms that seem to love the leaves and do a good job helping turn the pile into good compost.


What is left of the manure compost is ready to go.


The whole process took a lot of physical energy and time. The outlay costs beyond the machinery, tarps, and tools, were only gas and a spark plug. The heavy cost was my time. At the end of doing this one batch, I wondered if it was really worth doing all of this for a yard or two of compost. Strictly in economic terms, it probably isn't. There are compost companies who have bigger machines and that process much more of this stuff much more quickly. I could simply buy the end product for less than it costs me if I were actually paying myself for my time. But, I remind myself that this is part of being self-reliant. The cost of a cross-country trip by a tractor trailer to deliver me some mulch via Lowe's has costs that haven't been fully calculated. I have the raw material ready at hand. And, I love the feel of doing something with the resources I have been given. I'm really not happy on Saturday until I am exhausted.

Thanksgiving

There are things to be thankful for. Mostly, even during a recession, we live in a land of plenty. It's better to live today during a recession than in the 1300s when the Black Plague raged, for instance. But it is even better to be alive today than in the 1930s and 1940s. I guess you can even make the case that, with the demise of disco, vinyl records, and polyester, it is better today than in the 1970s and 1980s.

I personally am thankful for the same things that would matter in any age. I comfortable companion who accepts me for what and who I am and children who never cease to make my life interesting.

My family, of course, comes with a heritage. Those who left me with genetic and psychological qualities and who provided me with life-molding experiences. They survived much more trying times but continued to see life as worthwhile and my life as holding promise. I'm not sure what my distant relatives -- those who survived the Black Plague long enough to procreate -- contributed, but I have no doubt that they did.

And then there is the sailboat. A very great surprise birthday present from Kathy, Jeff, and Jenna. It's something to be thankful for. I hope it doesn't cause an early demise once I start sailing it in earnest.

Waste

The weather looked like it was going to be on the cold side again several days ago, so Jeff and I put the covers back on all four cold frames. It got down to 34 one night and 32 the next. Since then it hasn't been as cold, but the highs have been in the low 50s, so I am happy to keep the cold frames on.


Today is our garbage day. Kathy cleaned out the refrigerator in anticipation of Thanksgiving. So, the fridge is now clean. The garbage can was full and heavy. This brings me to the point of talking about waste. I am not happy to be a contributing member of the most wasteful generation in the history of the world. What is worse, is that I think about this every Monday evening when I have to take the evidence of our own wastefulness to the curb. I certainly don't want to keep it around, but it makes me mindful that we waste a lot. Yet, I am not sure what to do about it. I have the appropriate attitude. I am not wasteful on purpose. We recycle plastic, cardboard, newspapers, and aluminum. But we still consume a lot. At least a portion of what is thrown out consists of things that no longer work or that cannot be reused by someone else -- broken toys and appliances -- things that are either broken or obsolete. I know everything we throw out was once upon a time brought in. I guess this means we are among the world's best consumers (although probably not as good as some).

I notice that we waste a lot of food. For a long time, we were feeding seven of us. When you are used to cooking for seven, it is hard to scale down to cooking for just two, three or four. Plus, Kathy and my consumption has decreased markedly. It seems we always cook too much and put leftovers in the refrigerator that spoil before they can be consumed. Part of the challenge is that the serving size that is offered in the grocery is too large. We can't eat a whole chicken, a whole pound of hamburger, or a complete box or mix of anything in one sitting.

I did buy a FoodSaver and we have started using it to freeze portions and left overs. But we are not yet consistent. And, on the good side, there are things we use regularly that we have taken pains to save, especially food from the garden. I think when you grow it yourself, you come to realize that it is precious and not to be wasted. That is one of the unadvertised benefits of growing your own food. It all of a sudden becomes more valuable. We still see waste, but much less. There is an attitude that comes with planting, tending, watching, fighting off pests and drought that you don't get when you pay $2.99 per pound.

Lava Lamp

I was in the room where we have our computer and needed some extra light. The only lamp in the room is a lava lamp. It doesn't give off much light, but I plugged it in anyway. Lava lamps are really pretty useless except as entertainment, but they are enjoyable to watch for short periods of time. The one we have has been around for a couple of years and is actually not in very good shape. But it still works.

As I watched it, it reminded me of Catastrophe Theory.



What is Catastrophe Theory? What does a lava lamp have to do with Catastrophe Theory? and What does Catastrophe Theory have to do with having sufficient for our need?

Catastrophe Theory was the brain child of Rene Thom. It is not a theory about why bad things happen. It is a mathematical theory about how to quantitatively describe sudden, discontinuous, irreversible changes. While it is a mathematical theory, the essence of the theory doesn't require math to understand. In fact, what I really like about the lava lamp is how well it demonstrates what a catastrophe is.

The essence of how a lava lamp works is that it contains blobs of wax in water that is heated by a light bulb. When the wax is cold, it is denser than the water and sinks to the bottom. When the wax warms up, it becomes less dense and rises.

Most of the time, meaning for minutes at a time, the wax in the lamp sits like it does in the first picture. It might appear at first glance that there are no changes, although if you watch closely, you can see the wax at the top and the bottom begin to change shape. The wax at the bottom bulges a little; the wax at the top starts to elongate. Then, when some magic point is reached, either the top drops a bubble of wax, or a bubble of wax rises from the bottom. Sometimes they collide. Sometimes the top will send a drop and the bottom will stay put. Sometimes the bottom will send a satellite and the top will absorb it. Sometimes the various bubbles of wax will stay separated at the top or the bottom. They will then suddenly merge. After a bubble leaves the top or the bottom, it can't be stopped and turned around. A bubble never stays in the middle. But I am watching one right now that lingers at the top without making the merge with its permanent sister.

Think of this as a metaphor for other things in life. There is the potential for catastrophes to occur around us in all areas of life. Like the lava lamp, events have the potential for catastrophes to disrupt life. Housing bubbles, stock market bubbles, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet have the potential to be global catastrophes -- sudden, discontinuous, irreversible events. They are all just waiting to change, being gradually pushed to the point of catastrophe. There are also smaller catastrophes like the suicide of a friend's teenage son, the loss of a beehive, and blight on potatoes. Like the first stage of the lava lamp, we generally see a little expansion or contraction and assume that life will continue or that we can deal with it. But then the moment of catastrophe is passed.

What does this have to do with having sufficient for our need? I think the catastrophe model -- sudden, discontinuous, irreversible change -- is what we need to prepare for. Smart people need to learn to become aware of the signs the mark the onset of catastrophes before they occur and figure out how to change course before the point of catastrophe or, at least, prepare to survive it. It's only before the point of catastrophe that something can be done. Sensing it coming and acting is crucial to avoiding or surviving its effects. It's something I've been thinking about for some time. Little by little I hope to explore this.

Chores

The end of daylight savings and the limited hours of light do have an effect. It is just harder to find time for a working person to do the chores that need to be done. In the past week, I have accomplished only a couple of tasks; picked and stored a couple of heads of broccoli and combined two smaller bins of composted horse manure. Of course, my 60th birthday left me doing other things as well. So, now I am faced with some small chores that I need to find time to do. Here is my list:
-- Go to the horse barn and get a load or two of manure.
-- Clean out the two raised beds that don't have anything planted.
-- Lay out and build three new raised beds (sort of a bigger chore).
-- Rake leaves.
-- Put the leaves and other dead plant materials that has been piled up through the shredder and get a new bin of compost started.

Most of this has to be Saturday work. The challenge is that I don't have the stamina or desire to spend an entire Saturday trying to get them all done. I will have to try to figure out what I can do in short periods before work, because that is the only time there is light available. (I haven't figured it all out yet.) I went out this morning and spent 12 minutes raking leaves. I timed the start when Jenna left to walk to the bus and the end when the bus arrived.

The temperatures have been warm and I still have the covers off the cold frames. It got down to 38 yesterday morning, but it is getting into the high 60s and low 70s during the day. I think that might be too warm to leave the beds covered. Some November! I am watching for colder weather.

Dead Hive

Doug Shaw and I went into the two hives that are on my property this afternoon. The primary purpose was to take off the top feeders. But, as soon as we got into the one hive, I could see that I had real problems. In fact, the ultimate problem. The hive was dead -- d.e.d. dead. Wax moths had totally destroyed everything inside. There wasn't a honeybee alive.

This is the same hive in which I had noticed deformed wing earlier. I had treated it with api-life, but evidently (and this is just the post-mortem done on the spot by Doug and me) the deformed wing was a marker of varroa mite infestation. The treatment evidently didn't work or didn't work well enough. Weakened by the mites, the bees were not able to fend off the moths and the moth larvae. Strong hives don't let this sort of thing happen. So this hive must have grown weak. It's sort of sad. There should be a lesson in this. I think I will try some Russian bees next.

The other hive had no sign of any issues whatsoever. There was a nice cluster of bees in the brood frame and they had stored quite a bit of honey (I judge by weight when I pick up the back of the hive). In fact, I am now wondering if the healthy hive didn't rob from the weak one when they sensed what was going on.

Doug took the frames and boxes to his chickens to clean them up. Evidently, they really did a nice job and enjoyed the feast. Glad that something could benefit.

Ida

The once upon a time hurricane Ida has graced us with her presence.


It's obviously not as bad here in the Piedmont as on the coast, which is one of the reasons I felt that we could move here. Still, there has been plenty of rain. Our 3 acres has an easement that runs through it. Today is one of those days when you can see why. In what is normally a field of grass there now runs a 4' - 5' wide stream of water. We are literally at the top of the watershed. The stream seems to start at the culvert that empties into our yard. On the other side of the street, there is no stream. It means we will probably never need flood insurance because the stream cannot rise very high even in the most severe deluge.

Ida has also brought us wind, which has been a constant 20-30 miles an hour since yesterday. Evidently, the tropical low ran into a cold front from Canada and so it has sort of stalled off the coast, keeping the winds going longer than if she would have just passed through.


This all reminds me of one of my favorite fables.

There was a farmer who needed to hire help for his farm. He went to the annual fair where young workers could be hired. He asked around, but by the time he got to the fair, most of the young men had been hired out. In fact, there was only one young man who was still looking for work. He asked him, "What are your qualifications?" The young man replied, "I can sleep through a storm."

The man thought he would look around some more. Sleeping through a storm, just when help might be most needed didn't sound like a very good recommendation. But, alas, his searching brought him no other prospects. Reluctantly, he brought the young man back to the farm.

As the days went on, he was generally pleased with the young man's work. He did his chores without complaint. He wasn't the most talkative helper he had ever had, but that wasn't bad. Then the inevitable happened. A storm came up in the night. The farmer could hear the howling of the wind, the pounding of the rain, and the roar of thunder. He ran to the room where his helper slept and tried to wake him. True to his word, he could not be roused. Shaking and yelling had no effect. He could indeed sleep through a storm.

The farmer put on his coat and went outside, expecting to find the animals and crops scattered. When he got to it, the barn was secure. The latch and the hinge that had been broken were repaired. The missing shingles had been replaced. All the animals were safe and calm, unaffected by the weather. The hay was covered and tethered.

It was then that the farmer understood what his young helper meant when he said he could sleep through a storm.

When the winds blew last night I thought about this fable. I received the strips to help secure the windows in my greenhouse yesterday, but it was already raining and I wasn't able to install them. I was pleased this morning to look out at the greenhouse and see that the panes were all still in place. In preparation for the storm, because I knew it would rain and blow and that it wouldn't get near freezing, I took the covers off the cold frames. The veggies look a little blown, but for the most part they don't appear to have been damaged. The exception is the cauliflower. About half were blown hard enough to kill them. I should have kept the cover on this one bed.

There is a bigger message, of course. There are all sorts of storms we must prepare to weather: physical, financial, psychological, relationships, and spiritual. I think that is one of the constant thoughts that propels me forward in this quest for sufficiency and self-reliance.

A Weak Hive

On Sunday, Doug Shaw helped me pull a top feeder off of the hive I have in Clarence Brown's yard. This is the same hive I fed just a week or so ago. We were both impressed that this is a weak hive. I have fed them twice and they have capped honey. But there are still empty frames in the super. I'm not sure if I didn't feed them enough, but it is probably too late to feed them again.

However, the real weakness is that there aren't as many bees as I would expect to see in a strong hive and they are way too docile. This hive always has other critters inside -- earwigs, spiders, cockroaches, small hive beetles.

It will be interesting to see if they survive the winter. I hope they do, of course. In the spring I will need to take an extra good look to see if they have a productive queen and if they have some undetected infestation of mites. (I haven't seen any evidence of mites yet, but given the variety of other bugs, I can't rule that out.)

Austerity

The other day, Kathy asked me about my post about the bathroom. She said it sounded as if I was advocating for austerity as well as sufficiency. Before that, Laura Karendal and emailed and said my blog reminded her of the Amish or the Shakers. So, I guess the question arises, "Does sufficient for our need require austerity?"

A quick look at our home should suffice to answer the question. There is little austerity there. The house doesn't qualify as posh. In fact, in nearly all respects, it is just like those in our neighborhood. We upgraded the kitchen several years ago. We added a front porch. We finished the attic (three year's of do-it-yourself labor minus the electricity and heating that were sub-contracted). In fact, I recently spent time organizing the sound and movie system.

I think the point is we have done much of the upgrading ourselves or have done it within our means. The upgrades have met various needs.

So, I don't think austerity is what is meant by sufficiency. I think instead that I use the standard of sufficiency to ask questions and plan for the future.

Cold Frames Finished

All four cold frames are finally finished and covered.

When Jeff and I were installing one of the frames, a rib broke. Of the 40 sticks that made up the ribs, to only have one of them brake is not too bad. It would be better, of course, if none of them had broken.


I thought about why this might have happened. The first two frames went up flawlessly. They were designed in large part because of the accidental breaking of the plywood when Jared and I drove it home from Lowe's. The larger of the two pieces had a minimum length of 49", so that was the length I followed. But for the two new pieces, I had Lowe's cut the length to be 48" (this cut the 8'x4' sheet exactly in half, two 4'x4' pieces). I did this so I could just put them inside the car. It avoided using the trailer. So my first thought was that loosing 2" on the length of the rib might have put more stress on the boards than they could handle. However, when I took out the lag bolts that held successfully installed ribs, they had already started to hold the curved shape they had been forced into, so the wood's flexibility was sufficient to accommodate this arc.

I think the better explanation was how this one board was installed. Each ribs is fastened with two lag bolts on either end connecting it to the frame of the raised bed. For all other ribs, I only put the upper lag bolt in first and put it in loosely, allowing the rib to flex a little while I started the second bolt. For this one, the first bolt went in tight. When we tried to put the second bolt in, it was difficult to find the lower hole and we pushed it too quickly. I think it stressed the rib too much and it snapped.

I replaced the broken rib (didn't lose any hardware in the process). Then I installed the fourth frame without incident. I had learned the lesson, so I proceeded slowly, leaving the top lag bolt loose until the lower lag bolt was in place.

I went to my office earlier in the day to finish constructing the cover. (The office has a large room where I can spread the plastic out, cut it to size, fold the edges and tape them, then put in grommets.)

Bits and Pieces

I called customer service this morning about my greenhouse. It has been hard getting in touch with the people who provide customer service; I'm not sure why. A very friendly woman answered the phone and knew immediately what my problem was -- the strips that hold the windows in place have warped. Evidently, the greenhouse parts are fully warrantied. She is sending me replacement strips at no cost to me. (I was prepared to pay if I had to.) So, despite its small problems, I am happier now with the greenhouse than before and I would recommend it to someone wanting a small space to let seedlings grow. The company does a decent job with warrantying its product.

This morning I went to make my oat meal and found moths in the container. I selected storage containers specifically with the idea in mind to keep moths and other bugs out. I looked and found moths (plenty of them) in 3 of the remaining 8 oat meal containers. I went deep into the one container I found moths in, throwing away the top layers of oats, and cooked some anyway. Kathy noted that if any were alive, they would probably die in my digestive tract anyway, so I shouldn't worry. I threw the rest of that container away.

Thinking about it, it must be the case that the eggs got in before the container was sealed, because the lids do fit nice and snug and, once inside, the moths and larvae have not apparently been able to get out.

It was 34 degrees this morning. Everything was fine in the garden.

More Cold Frames

It was 30 degrees when I woke up this morning, with the over-night low being 29. So, the cold weather is upon us. I'm glad to have installed the covers on the cold frames yesterday.

I looked at the broccoli. I have one large head. It seemed OK, but I will need to check it again.

At lunch I bought more plywood for the two frames I want to put over the broccoli and carrots and onions. I have one cover ready to go (#3). I need to make a fourth.

This evening, I started making the frame. I had Jeff help me cut the plywood into 2" boards. The last time (which was the first time), I wasn't as concerned about precision. As a result, the boards weren't as well formed (size varied just a bit more than I should have let it) and I tried to drill press multiple boards at the same time. This time, I watched closely as we cut the boards. I used a template I had created on Excel to mark where the holes should be drilled and I drilled the holes on one board at a time. I am very pleased with the result. The joints lined up much more cleanly.


It was too cold and dark to get the frames installed, so Kathy and I just put sheets on the broccoli for tonight.

Getting Ready for Frost

It was down to 36 degrees in our yard last night. The forcast for the next several days will be for even colder nights, down into the frost zone. I went out this morning and put the covers on the cold frames. I need to build two more and hope I can get them built before the carrots and broccoli sucumb.

November Cutworm?

I went out this morning to just look around. Daylight savings is gone and that gives me time in the morning and I doubt I will have any in the evening when I get home from work.

Most things looked good, but I need to do some clean up. The tops of plants that have been harvested haven't yet been put into the compost. There are small weeds poking up where the carrots and sweet potatoes grew, and some larger weeds in areas that I neglected.

Looking around was what I expected until I examined the cauliflower closely. One looked like it had fallen over because of the rain. But a closer inspection revealed a severed stem.



I didn't think I would have to deal with cutworms at this time of the year. I guess little collars are in the making for this evening. Of the 18 plants I put in, 1 died at the outset (the top growth had been pinched) and it looks like 3 will go from cut worm damage. Damage!

Cheers and Jeers

We harvested some broccoli from the garden yesterday and we have more ready to gather. Yesterday's turned into broccoli cheese soup.


The spinach is coming along nicely, but is only a couple of weeks old, so it is not ready to harvest yet.



I planted some cauliflower seeds about two months ago in 9-pack containers. I kept them in the greenhouse. Nothing happened. So about a month ago, I replanted. This time, I kept the 9-pack in the house in a Ziploc plastic bag to ensure that moisture and temperature would be constant. Some of these seeds sprouted -- not all, but enough to make me avoid the total failure label.


But here is what has me bothered today. The greenhouse was bought from Costco, but is no longer offered there. The problem I have had from the beginning is that the windows pop out because the system for holding them in is either poorly designed or poorly produced. (In my case, I think it is the latter.) The windows are held in by a thin plastic strip that snugs the window in place against an aluminum frame. The strips are warped. I have two windows that I am often replacing. Sort of a pain.


This is a problem that I have to solve one way or another. I have thought of drilling small holes and threading a bolt or something through it. I don't have much started in the greenhouse so far and don't plan on anything until spring, but I have to get this one solved. A greenhouse without windows that stay put is not a greenhouse.

The Perils of DIY

When I have googled sufficient or sufficiency, I often get self-sufficient or self-sufficiency or self-reliance in response. It is understandable. The concepts share something linguistically. But they are not the same. Sufficiency means having enough. Self-sufficiency means having enough and providing it yourself. Self-reliance means being able to get things done by yourself.

Now that I've clarified that with simplistic definitions, it's the practical that has hit me in the face. Last night we (mostly) finished the bathroom project. I like do-it-yourself projects. I save a little money, sometimes doing a project for a quarter of the professional cost. Sometimes things turn out alright. The plumbing, including the disappearance of the pedestal sink, turned out just fine. I needed to drill a couple of holes in the vanity to allow for the wall connections for the water supply and the drain was a little stretched because the feet on the vanity put it 3/4" out further than it should have been (I could have fixed that, but didn't). But, it works and it looks nice.

The wallpaper on the other hand is less than perfect. It is probably acceptable, but wallpaper is tricky to get down perfectly. And there is a difference between being perfect and it being good enough, which is to say, sufficient for our need. I think I hit the sufficiency level for the wallpaper. What makes plumbing different is that for it to be sufficient, it has to be perfect. So, I was self-reliant (I did it myself), I wasn't self-sufficient (other people around the globe produced everything that went into the project, I just assembled it), and we have something that is quite sufficient for our need.

Recently there have been other things about which I was not about to try to be self-reliant. Some shingles blew off our roof and I discovered a small leak in the roof between two skylights that I had installed several years ago. Roofs are not something you take on as a do-it-yourselfer unless you want a lot of expense and pain. There was an ad in the local paper for a roof tune-up. The price said, "bait and switch" but I also thought that even with that in the offing, it would be better to forgo self-reliance and fork over some cash and let the other guy take the risk. We needed repairs.

It turned out of course, that the repairs needed were even greater than we anticipated, mostly I installed the skylights without enough shingles around them. Evidently, shingles should need to go up all the way over the flashing. A small mistake that added $800 to the cost.

There are perils to do-it-yourself. I like being self-reliant as much as possible. I love projects and building things. And, as I discussed with Kathy as a means of lessening the guilt and dissonance, the overall cost of the attic build out, instead of being 25% of the professional cost, is now 30%. I gained skill and knowledge. It just took 3 years to complete.

Sweet Potato Time

I've never grown sweet potatoes before. Back in June, I saw a 9-pack at Lowe's and thought, "what the heck!" The 9-pack quickly became an 8-pack as one didn't have the wherewithall to survive.

I honestly didn't know what to expect or how to grow them or what conditions they liked. With "potato" in the name, I presumed they would grow like potatoes. Unlike potatoes, they sent out long vines, but that was just something new to note. I didn't know if the tubers would form from the original plant or if they would form along the vine. I just kept them watered and let them go.

When it froze last week, the vines died (just like the vines on the volunteer potatoes that had come up where I had left an unseen potato behind when I harvested last June).

So, last night I harvested. I got a little less than 20 pounds from the eight plants. They emerged in all sorts of sizes, shapes and colors. While most were the pink I associate with sweet potatoes, there were some that had very dark skin. I'm wondering if I left them in the ground too long or if they have some sort of blight. (After posting this the first time, I read up on it and think I have scurf.) It will be something to ask my seasoned friends in the future.

Most of the tubers were too small to have qualified for the grocery store. I was most entertained by a few that seemed to have wanted to wiggle underground.

The varied sizes make me wonder what cooking them will be like. I guess I will find out soon. Next year, I will probably do the same thing; wait until I harvest the regular potatoes before I plant them, although I might do better planting a little earlier. I presume they can be grown just like regular potatoes from seeds.

Investments October 2009

So, money isn't everything, but the goal is to have sufficient for your need. There are two problems. First is defining what qualifies as having sufficient for whatever needs you think you have. Second is figuring out how to get a sufficient amount in a moral way. Tackling the first problem has been a bugaboo for all of human history. Fortunately, my concern is not the rest of humanity, just me.

The last 10 years of my mother's life, whenever I would visit, she would tell me the same story. It went something like, "One day Daddy came home. He said, 'I just paid of the last installment on the china dishes. Make me a promise that we will never go in debt again.'" And then she would give me the same mini lecture about staying out of debt and living within our means. I'm not really sure why she felt strongly about it, except for the fact that we have always had debt -- the house, a car (not now), and credit cards.

But we have always had assets, too. One of the traits I've had since I was small was saving. My Aunt Eva would take me with her on vacations and learned to give me two dollars if she wanted me to actually buy a souvenir because I would save one if that's all she gave me. I kept a homemade ledger of the money I earned as a pre-teen and teenager mowing lawns in the summer and shoveling walks in the winter. By today's standards, my income was minimal.

I opened my own bank account at age 11 or 12, going to a neighborhood bank with my meager savings (I kept them for a long time in a pill bottle). This was a different bank than the one my step-dad worked at. When I worked during the summer in my college years, I saved nearly all of it. I even saved $25 a month as a starving graduate student.

Then, in 1984 when we were still relatively young and with three children under the age of two and needing all the money we could gather just to keep our small family fed, I got an offer for a promotion to a tenure-line faculty position at the University of Southern California. I initially turned in down. Dean Biles had me in his office asking me why I didn't want it. I had three reasons. I would have to teach (which I am not good at), I would have to serve on committees (which would take me away from research), and no raise had been offered. So, in my mind, I was getting more work for no more pay. We negotiated a raise and I took the position. He also gave me advice about joining the faculty retirement plan. USC gave a liberal match (9%). I gave half of the raise (5%) as my pre-tax contribution and I was off to saving and investing again. I continued the practice when we moved to Bowman Gray School of Medicine and when I left Bowman Gray to start my own company.

How much do I need? I'm not sure. My goal isn't to be wealthy. My goal is to simply have sufficient for some as yet undefined needs. But I can imagine what some of those needs will be based on what they seem to have been in the past. They have nearly always been unexpected (mostly because I haven't been smart enough to anticipate them and because they are defined at least as much by my family and their needs as my own). My needs are things like the garden and greenhouse; not expensive, but not cheap, especially when you are wanting money that is more urgently needed elsewhere. So, instead of trying to figure out my needs, I have simply tried to follow a pattern of regular additions to my retirement accounts and then wise investing after that.

Up until October 2008, when I should have pulled the money invested in mutual funds out -- like everyone else -- I had done well; up 22% on average per year over a 14 year period. I lost 40% in the crash, but, as I reminded myself at the end, I still had sufficient for my needs.

I started investing again in March of this year (2009). The funds I picked have done well since then, although I was cautious and kept more money out of play than I put into play. Hindsight is wonderful, but not practical. There are no guarantees about the future. I anticipated the crash before it happened, but didn't act. Wise investing has to be a long term process.

I still think I have sufficient for my needs, however now, because I am past that magic age of 59 1/2, I am aware that the government takes a large portion of retirement accounts when they are withdrawn. So, ultimately, I may not have sufficient for my needs and the needs of my family.

There are economic perils ahead. The dollar is going to lose value. Markets may yet crash again. Money isn't everything, but having sufficient to help you provide for your needs is a basic issue that occupies at least 10 minutes of my life every week.

Too Much, Not Enough

I had planned today to have a focus on harvesting carrots. We have been picking them to use in meals the last couple of weeks and I have had the feeling that it was time to get them up before they started splitting. It's just that today turned into a day of too much and not enough. Too many things to do, not enough time to do them.

I started off well enough. I went to Lowe's and got some duct tape to complete the cold frame covers (the inside edges are formed by folding over extra plastic that will gather water if they aren't sealed). I also got some supplies to redo our main floor bathroom (wallpaper, a faucet, a light fixture). I figured I would be able to get it all done. I should have known from the beginning, you cannot do three tasks on one Saturday.

I got the first task done in 10 minutes. I used blue duct tape to match the tape used to set the grommets and the cold frame cover was done.

I went out and picked carrots, getting a little fewer than half into the bucket before it started to rain. It was still only 9:30. I was feeling pretty good.

I sorted the carrots into six piles. There are the ones with two legs. They get their own group to hang with. I don't know what I am going to do with them. Then there were the split ones. There were only about 8 of those. They are in a place of shame next to the toaster. Then there were the very large, the moderately large (mostly slender), the very slender, those of overall moderate size, and then the small. Kathy and I started with the small ones, vacuum packing them with the FoodSaver 2440.

I disconnected the light fixture, the old faucet and the sink from the wall. Then I hit my snag. One of the nuts that held the faucet to the sink came of without a hitch. But the second and third nuts were corroded. I tried to get them off, sprayed them with liquid wrench, but they wouldn't budge. I had Jeff try. No luck. I got a different penetrating spray. No luck. I had Bobby Dean come over with a chisel. Bad luck or good luck depending on your point of view. The pounding didn't loosen the nuts and cracked the porcelain sink.

After that, I retreated back to the bathroom and primed the walls while Kathy thought. Then I went outside and picked the rest of the carrots while Kathy searched for a solution. The good luck part of breaking the old sink was that she really didn't like a pedestal sink anyway. It was not sufficient for her needs, I think.

We ended up buying a vanity to replace the former. She found a deal. The new one will hide the floor boards that have been discolored from some ancient water leak and has a granite top. Well below market price because it was sold through a furniture discount place where we have bought things before.

By then, it was 5:30. That's much too late to work on plumbing or wallpaper. So I retreated to storing more carrots. I am leaving the two legged ones as is for a while. I worked up from smallest to all but the largest, packaging them for storage appropriately. The small ones were packaged for the refrigerator and kept with their skins and their trimmed tops (half an inch of green). The long slender ones were peeled, lost their tops, and were blanched and frozen. The moderately large ones were peeled and cut into thirds (about two inch pieces), blanched and frozen. I haven't done the large ones yet, but the plan is to peel them and then use the Cuisine Art to cut them into little round pieces and freeze them.

I have done a rough calculation based on how much we have stored. We don't have enough carrots to last a full year. I planted a 4' x 8' section of a raised bed. It produced about 30 pounds of carrots; 25 pounds picked today and 5 pounds picked before today. We don't eat carrots everyday, but even eating them once a week, that is not enough for our family. Next year, I will need to expand the planting to a full 4' x 12' bed. Then we should have sufficient for our need.

In the middle of this, though, there was yet another distraction. Somehow, the condensation drain line for the air conditioner in the attic broke. Two pieces separated. The result has been that the corner of the ceiling in our bedroom has been damp. Well, damp turned into dripping wet. So, I needed to return yet again to the store and get some PVC glue. I have a ceiling to patch sometime in the future.

And I didn't get to the Anaheim peppers I had picked earlier in the week.

Bee's Last Supper

It was a warm day and tomorrow and Saturday it is supposed to rain. I have already fed all my hives twice, except for the hive at Clarence Brown's. Today after work, I ate a quick bite and then Kathy and I headed over to Clarence's. My job was doing the feeding. Her job was taking photos.

The bees at Clarence's place have always been very gentle, so I didn't bother putting on my veil or gloves. I didn't even use the smoker.

This hive was one that was split from my first hive in April. The hive had grown too large and was about to swarm. It was my first experience at splitting. Both hives ended up being a little weaker than I would like, but I guess that's what happens when you do a split. I moved the hive to Clarence's place in June.

What is interesting about this hive is that there have always been other critters inside. Today, on top of the inner cover there were cockroaches and a spider. This hive has always had small hive beetles, too. I'm not sure how much these other bugs weaken the hive. Clarence reported during the summer that they were very busy. They did store some honey, but not enough to make it through the winter.

To feed them, I used some sugar from food storage. The label said 1999. It had lumped together. I chopped it apart with a knife. Probably not the sugar we would eat, but the bees don't seem to mind at all. A gallon of sugar to a half gallon of water, heated, not boiled, until it formed a syrup. The yellow box is a top feeder. It has two wells that can contain the syrup and each has a wooden float that the bees can walk on so they don't drown.

The bees take the syrup into the hive and make it into honey. The last I checked they had some unfilled comb in the blue box, but they may have to make some more on some of the frames where they hadn't drawn comb yet. (The white box is the brood box where the queen lays eggs.)

I hope it holds them. There won't be many foraging days left and they'll be stuck in the hive until spring. I think they should have sufficient for their need now.

A Persimmon

Yes, a persimmon. Just one!

My fruit growing skills are not yet developed. Several years ago, I started planting fruit trees. I planted 9 heirloom apples from a supplier in the North Carolina mountains. Since then I have planted 3 pear trees, 4 pecans (2 died, but 1 of those sent out a new shoot from the root), 6 peaches, 4 trees that I thought were sour cherry (but probably are not according to Clarence Brown), 2 plums, and 2 apricots (both died but the roots have sent out new shoots). I think one of the apples has since died. It bloomed this year, but the leaves fell off prematurely. And then there is the single persimmon tree, that I planted this year and didn't expect anything from but ended up with a single, small persimmon.

Three of the apple trees actually produced fruit. However, I didn't harvest any. One got too heavy with fruit and a branch broke off in the wind. One (the one that lost its leaves) had fruit, but I didn't get any before it gave up the ghost. The last one actually produced nice sized fruit, but the birds and bugs got to them before I did. I'm not a successful fruit grower yet, except my small persimmon.

This reminds me of a Japanese tongue twister. Tonari no kyaku wa youku kaki kuu kyaku da. The customer next to me eats a lot of persimmons.

Of course, I thought it was ready to pick, so it now sits in the kitchen. But Kathy informed me that she had just talked to a friend today who has a large persimmon tree. Evidently, you aren't supposed to harvest persimmons until they fall from the tree. I actually had to tug pretty hard to get this one to come off. I don't think it is ripe.

One persimmon and I harvested it incorrectly!

A garden is tended by a gardener. What do you call someone who tends and orchard?

A Day for Thinking

Activities: It only got down to 34 over night (33 just before the sun came up). This means there was no critical test of the cold frame I installed last night. On the other hand, its only purpose is not to defer freezing, but also to provide a little extra warmth. The bigger test therefore is to see whether or not thnigs under its cover start to thrive a bit better.

I did go out to just look this morning. The covered cold frame looks fine. I picked up a handful of ripe Marino (Roma) tomatoes. I'm not sure exactly what to do with these. I don't seem to get enough at any given time to actually process into paste.

The day I started the blog, I went to the Google blog search site and searched for "garden." The first entry that popped up was a note that the blogger was sad because it was the end of the season and they had just put the garden under for the year. I was just starting something up in the garden. Why put your garden under just because the summer growing season is over? I remember I used to think that way. I no longer do. I eat all year. But, I am also the beneficiary of having read Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest. As I drive around my area, there are many flat ground vegetable gardeners who have, indeed, put their gardens under. There are a few who raise broccoli, cabbage. collards, cauliflower, and turnip greens. The fall/winter garden can provide a variety of foods. The cold frame is key.

Thinking: Tuesday evenings I spend at the Greensboro Family History Center. I have too little time between work and my assignment to spend time in the garden. So, its a time I can use to think.

The topic "sufficient for our need" was selected as a theme for my blog quite on purpose. It's a concept that I have been thinking about for a long time. The first time I heard the term, it was used in response to a question about money. And, to be honest, money seems to be important to people, especially some people. The need for money, the love of money, the value of money are all old topics. Nothing new there. And there are a lot of commentaries and quips about the importance of money. There are quotes like, You can never be too rich or too thin. and Money isn't the most important thing in the world, but it's ahead of whatever is in second place. Comments like these, are often made in defense of having wealth or a desire to have more than you've got. And, from the outset, there is no use arguing about it. Especially in a time of recession, telling people that money isn't important would seem to be total folly.

But there is a difference between poverty and wealth and having sufficient for your needs. When you are wealthy, by definition, you have more than you need. When you are poor, again by definition, you have less than you need. And it's not necessarily being cursed with poverty or blessed by wealth that is the issue I think about. In many ways, it would appear that people not satisfied with having sufficient for their needs are those who have put the rest of us in dire straits.

While not for everyone, I find that wanting no more than I need and being satisfied when I have sufficient for my needs is a key to well being and happiness.

I got a call at work today from Chad Werch. We talked about the business of research. At one point, he asked how I was doing. My response was, "We have sufficient for our needs." When I said it, it actually surprised me. It's a different response, isn't it, than focusing on whether sales or income is up or down from the previous year? I actually did look at our income and bank accounts at work today. I'm very glad that we have money in the bank and I know from past experience that being in debt would bother me terribly. But in fact, based on what I saw, we have sufficient for our needs. For the moment, we may actually have a little more than that, but life is self-correcting and there won't be a surplus for long.

So, whether it's money, or food, or friends, or housing, I think the key is hoping and striving to have sufficiency.

Knowing what that is, is not necessarily easy. Last night I went with Jenna to Best Buy. She has her allowance and wanted something. She ended up not finding what she was looking for and I was proud of her that she didn't spend her allowance foolishly. However, she did make me walk with her over to the cell phone aisle where she drooled over a couple of cell phones that her friends have. Does an 11 year old need a new cell phone, or is the one she currently has that was a hand-me-down sufficient for her needs? We just looked, but I worry about how to teach her, without making her resent it, to recognize what her needs are and what will constitute sufficiency.

First Frost

I went to bed last night a bit worried about frost. I haven't created the cold frame covers yet and a frost was predicted. Sure enough, the outside thermometer (Oregon Scientific) read 29 when I got up this morning. It was at its over-night low. After I walked the dogs and ate breakfast, I walked out to see whether there was frost or not. There was frost on everything. However, after my morning shower, I returned and found that the leaves on all the plants had apparently recovered -- even the lettuce, which is the first to wilt in my experience. There is now an urgency to get the covers made because a frost is expected again tonight.

I plan to follow the method of creating covers I previously experimented with, using sheets of 6 ml polyurethane sheeting, fit to the size of the raised bed (plus the frame) and tied down with short bungee cords. I went to Lowe's at lunch to get the materials. It occurred to me when I was buying the sheeting and bungee cords that self-sufficiency isn't cheap. The cost of the frames wasn't great -- the plywood was under $10 before taxes and the nuts, bolts, and washers was about the same, and that for the two frames I built -- but things add up.


The polyurethane went for $59 for a 10' x 100' roll. That will make 5 covers. Then there's the grommets, etc. to put the bungee cords through and the bungee cords. Buying lettuce, turnips, broccoli, etc. at the store would be cheaper. But I figure I can use the frames and the covers for years to come and, should hard times or inflation come, an investment now that makes us more self-sufficient and allows me to gain skill at growing things in cold weather is a reasonable trade off. If I didn't have the money, it would be different, but there may also be cheaper ways to accomplish what I am after. Besides, last night, we had potatoes, onions, and carrots all from the garden; fresh or frozen veggies from close to home.

Eric Reese helped me complete the first cover. Time is another cost. It took the two of us about an hour to measure it, cut it to size, and put the grommets in. However, in the end, it seemed to fit nicely.

An end note: the frost did the potato and sweet potato plants in. I'll have to look under ground when I get a chance to see what they produced.

Starting Off

What I think about a lot is the concept of having sufficient for our needs. It's an interesting concept that has led me to think about the economy, self-sufficiency, and what I value in life. It also has some practical aspects that I think about every day. So, why not have this the topic of my blog.

I think what prompted me to start this blog was a couple of things. First, I have been gardening ever since we bought our first house back in 1982. I think about it a lot, but haven't documented very much. From a practical stand point, I can use the blog to keep track of what I do in the garden and with the bees.

For instance, today I harvested about two dozen carrots. They were pretty nice looking for the most part. I peeled, cut, vacuum sealed and froze them. The point I should remember is that some of them had started to split.

Second, yesterday I finished building two frames that will be turned into cold frames when I attach plastic. I have raised beds -- six 4 x 12 boxes. The cold frames will allow me to keep gardening through the winter. But the story of building the frames is something I should document. (Here it is.) Last week, Jared, my oldest, came home for a few days during fall break. I like to have Jared as a helper, because he joins in and also questions what I am doing and why I am doing it. I had been dreaming about how to replace my old cold frame (made of PVC) for some time. I finally decided on a thin plywood cut into 2" strips and bent over the raised bed. We went to Lowes to get some, but didn't take the trailer; we just tied it to the roof of the Volvo station wagon. We got a few miles successfully, then I must have sped up past the point of catastrophe and, wham! it broke in two and lay behind us on the road. We drove home without it. But then he questioned the basis of how to make it, thinking that what I had planned wouldn't work because the plywood would just break. I showed him what I had planned on a similar piece of paneling (that worked perfectly). So, I went back and got the plywood off the road. We changed the plan a little, and yesterday, with the help of Jeff and Kathy, I installed frames on two of the raised beds.

What I like about these frames is actually two things. One is that there is an artistic element of symmetry and balance to a half-circle. The other is that they are very functional. Rain will run off. (It used to gather on my flat frame.) The sides are relatively free from obstruction. (The flat one had a cross member that ran where you wanted to reach.)

It's a good thing I did this -- build the frames, that is -- because it got down to 33 last night based on the outdoor thermometer. I will need to cover the cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and turnips very soon.