Seems like we've been really busy. Geoff and Chris finished their part of the project, now it is up to us! Since we had boxes of pantry stuff in the living room and H's office, I was extremely motivated to get it all OUT and reclaim our space.
So, we went to IKEA to find some shelving that would make our lives easier and possibly spend less money on. Well, we found some of their bathroom shelving that seemed like it would work great.
Testing the shelves in the pantry.
You can see that I've been in there mudding and had yet to do the painting.
H had a helper and a slacker in the background...
The wide shelving is 7" deep, so that is nice that we have a wider walk way in there and I'm not a fan of deep shelves as I can't find things as easy. But, since the shelves were designed to go over a toilet, there were not enough shelves.
So Dakneese and I made a few more trips to IKEA to get more units. It was cheaper, looked better and was so much easier to get a few more of the units so that we had matching shelves that were the correct size and had the same hardware...
Hammering and lots of noise abounded in our house.
I've had helpers with the gardening. Our veggies are a bit behind every one's because we were so busy in April that we didn't get them planted early. But they are catching up nicely. I've tried to go to an every other day of watering and a weekly fertilizing regimen and we've had little problems with bugs or blight....knock on wood~
Last weekend, H was in Michigan for the Nascar race and I started building! I added the extra shelves to the bottom of both wide units. I had 2 extra frames. So I used one of them to create a bracing unit to hold back the wine tiles.
Here is the preliminary set up...
Where the wine tiles and the shelves meet, is the bracing unit I made....unseen....but that is ok...I know I did a good job.
One one of the treks to IKEA, I got some of their LED strip lights. We are set up now to put them on each shelf so that we can easily see what is on each one! Here, H is wiring them into the motion sensor, so they will go on and off as needed....no input from us. How cool is that??
We have one extra shelving unit. And space for 1/2 of one...so we need to cut the shelves in half and then attach them to the unit. Anchor to the wall and have all of the wall space with shelves! We still need to put some regular adjustable Home Depot shelves above the top of where the freezer is going to be...but that is another day...
Yesterday, we went to the community garden and saw how big our popcorn and sorghum is getting! Some of the tall corn has 2-3 ears on it! Can't wait!
Our friend in South Dakota is also growing some popcorn for his grandchildren....he has some different varieties than what I found....can't wait to see how his turn out, too!
Yesterday was also our community garden field trip to Pickens, SC. Another gardener's parents have a beautiful piece of property and they are bee keepers and master gardeners and master preservers. They also work with Clemson University with different things.
They had arranged to have a Clemson person talk to us about fruit trees. Both H & I weren't too excited about that segment, but it ended up being extremely interesting and I am so tempted to plant a fruit tree! I would like to espalier it so that it doesn't get too big, but that is a lot of work and I'm not sure if it is nothing more than a pipe dream for me....I should do more research on this.....
One of our gardeners....Frankie, has limited mobility. She has a smaller, taller bed at the community garden, which we call enabling beds. Here, she is with Lucy in the gator, being driven around the property while the rest of us talk and catch up on things.
One of the new gardeners have a lovely little boy, Eli. He liked the little lake and Cody, the 9mo puppy liked Eli!
The Harwards have such a beautiful homestead that both H & I thought that it was almost a waste to be in the barn all day with 2 different lectures. But the bee keeping demo was also interesting. I did have to run to the house to use the facilities and I simply had to do a quick wander of the grounds. Oh, so awesome!!!
Lucy and Dale.
A Methodist minister and his wife.
Not the best photo of Lucy...she's serious, but is always kind and has a twinkle in her eye.
They've been coming to our community garden events for 4 summers now....I so enjoy seeing and spending time with them.
May H & I be as active and likable when we get older...
Dale is showing us about how the hives are stacked and what each section is use for by the bees.
How the combs are put into the box...
Full combs...
The hot knife makes quick work of the honeycomb.
After it is spun out of the comb, there is a meter that you can use to see the percentage of water that is in the honey. 18.2 or less is desirable.
Any more and it can be used to make mead.
The Harwards don't make any mead. Oh well.
We weren't the only ones who liked the honey!
After the demonstrations, we got to go and pick as many blueberries and other yummy things that they have growing! Blackberries, mulberry trees, raspberries...16 or so raised beds with tomatoes, corn, okra, cucumbers, onions, etc.....and here H & I were disappointed about missing out on the farmer's market yesterday! Kate, one of our fellow gardeners had to taste a few of the scrumptious blueberries....as did we ALL!
Since we were about 30miles from A.Jane and U.Paul's, we ran over there for an hour or so. Diane is there helping A.Jane. I can't remember when I've seen her last, so we were both excited to catch up!
U.Paul looks so much better. He is off most of his medicines and has some color back and seemed to think and process clearer. Altho his hearing isn't as good, so keeping up with the changing conversation was a bit more of a challenge. But he did pretty well.
A.Jane said that she is really tired, but having Diane there has helped a lot. Over the 4th, Jason and his family will be there and then Diane will come back until her summer vacation from the school that she works at is over.
Oh, U.Paul had gotten out of bed and walked into the other room. He fell and hit the corner of the table. He had a pretty good shiner that was still healing up.
We got back home around 830pm. Since we had gotten up at 530 and was on the road before 7, it was great to be home with the dogs. The next door neighbors came to play with the dogs 2x. They appreciated that, as did we.
Today is relaxing and Nascar and visiting with friends who are coming over. They moved to Phoenix a few years ago and we try to keep up....it should be lots of fun.
Have a great Sunday!
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