We had a "mini" tornado leaping through our neighborhood yesterday.You could see where it touched down- pockets of destruction and where nothing happened. Unfortunately one of the touch downs happened in my garden. Our small green house, weighted down with about 70 lbs of pots, plants and a bag of steer manure was yanked around and dumped on its face. Lost the flat of lettuce seedlings but other plants appear to be salvageable. This has given us a heads up on placement of the bigger green house. It's going to be anchored to the back fence!
Two crockpots on the counter this morning. One with homegrown, home canned spaghetti sauce and one with homemade baked beans. It's going to smell really good in here by evening. Have to mix up some sour dough bread, write and article and get busy. Reflexology clients this morning and music (me) and photography students (Eric) this afternoon.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Our urban homestead.
Spent part of the week building a slide show of our 2010 garden, Fun, frustrating, productive. The garden and the video both.
I am writing for The Examiner.com. You can read post, how to's, events, link to our videos at http://www.examiner.com/organic-gardening-in-vancouver/deanna-tworivers
Thank you!!!!
I am writing for The Examiner.com. You can read post, how to's, events, link to our videos at http://www.examiner.com/organic-gardening-in-vancouver/deanna-tworivers
Thank you!!!!
Saturday, January 22, 2011
1948 Hamilton Beach Mixer
This fall we were lucky to find a purchase a 1948 Hamilton Beach Mixer with the juicer attachment for less than the cost of a weeks worth of Starbucks coffee. We found the booklet for it at Vintage Books in Vancouver, WA for $4.00.
Today, with an abundance of mandarin oranges, we were able to make fresh orange juice.
Very easy to use, quick and painless clean up and great, fresh juice.
It's been a long time...
since I've had time to be here.
Fall got very busy musically. We played at Festivals and Markets throughout Oregon and Washington.
The garden thrived. We canned and froze the bounty we were blessed with and have learned to use and enjoy it.
PromoPhoto was blessed with a new, wonderful client Road's End Pottery. You can see some of their work and Eric's great photos at http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2055731&id=1511128434.
As the famous William Norris quote says “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”. End of the Road Pottery will fulfill that need.
My partner, Eric and I got married at Winter solstice and the year closed in a whirlwind of music, food and photography with good friends and family. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1701860220862&oid=392617058383&comments
Spring is nibbling at the edges. Wild geese in massive skeins criss cross the sky several times a day. Blueberry bushes are starting to bud.
Found a source for rabbit manure in sawdust and are mulching around with that. Some warm day I'll dig it in.
Planning more and better boxes for the raised beds. wishing for more blueberry bushes and perhaps a quince.
Right now we have blue sky, bright sun and 41 degrees!
Need to organize the laundry room, sort seeds and make a plan.
Happy New Year!
Fall got very busy musically. We played at Festivals and Markets throughout Oregon and Washington.
The garden thrived. We canned and froze the bounty we were blessed with and have learned to use and enjoy it.
PromoPhoto was blessed with a new, wonderful client Road's End Pottery. You can see some of their work and Eric's great photos at http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2055731&id=1511128434.
As the famous William Norris quote says “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”. End of the Road Pottery will fulfill that need.
Spring is nibbling at the edges. Wild geese in massive skeins criss cross the sky several times a day. Blueberry bushes are starting to bud.
Found a source for rabbit manure in sawdust and are mulching around with that. Some warm day I'll dig it in.
Planning more and better boxes for the raised beds. wishing for more blueberry bushes and perhaps a quince.
Right now we have blue sky, bright sun and 41 degrees!
Need to organize the laundry room, sort seeds and make a plan.
Happy New Year!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Fall Is Here-It's DIY Time to Get Ready For Winter
Have you heard about Habitat ReStore? http://pdxrestore.org/
" Habitat for Humanity ReStores are open to the public and sell a variety of good quality building materials, appliances, furniture and other home improvement products at a fraction of retail prices.
All our merchandise is donated by businesses and individuals and we get new things daily. Follow us on twitter for the latest great deals.
Shop: We have two locations, one in Portland, OR and one in Vancouver, WA. Come visit us. New goods daily. Treasures are waiting.
Volunteer: The Portland and Vancouver ReStores need the help of volunteers like you. We have plenty of opportunities for both individuals and groups. Find out more on our Volunteer page."
Our local Habitat Restore is doing a series of free workshops on weatherization and home improvement. Since the cooler weather is here we may as well be doing something interesting inside.
Clark County Habitat ReStore October 2, 2010: Session 1 will focus on exterior weatherization. Topics will include window and door installation, exterior trim install, correct caulking, sealing and house-wrap installation.
1pm - 3pm
October 16, 2010: Session 2 will focus on sheetrock installation and correct taping and mudding procedures. 1pm - 3pm
October 30, 2010: Session 3 topics will include interior painting processes and baseboard and trim installation. 1pm - 3pm
All sessions will be taught by awesome trade professionals! Our lead instructor will be John Schwager, a local contractor and Restore customer. John is a great guy and we’re sure you will learn lots from him.
" Habitat for Humanity ReStores are open to the public and sell a variety of good quality building materials, appliances, furniture and other home improvement products at a fraction of retail prices.
All our merchandise is donated by businesses and individuals and we get new things daily. Follow us on twitter for the latest great deals.
The ReStore Mission
Our ReStores raise funds to help Habitat for Humanity build affordable homes in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan areas. And, we keep usable materials out of the waste stream and into home building, remodeling, and creative arts projects.
In just the past two years we have raised over $275,000 for our affiliates and kept over 1,800 tons of materials out of the landfill.
Get Involved
Donate: Individuals and businesses can donate new and gently used materials to our stores. We accept donations both large and small. Shop: We have two locations, one in Portland, OR and one in Vancouver, WA. Come visit us. New goods daily. Treasures are waiting.
Volunteer: The Portland and Vancouver ReStores need the help of volunteers like you. We have plenty of opportunities for both individuals and groups. Find out more on our Volunteer page."
Our local Habitat Restore is doing a series of free workshops on weatherization and home improvement. Since the cooler weather is here we may as well be doing something interesting inside.
Clark County Habitat ReStore
5000 E 4th Plain Blvd
Vancouver, WA
Saturdays at 1 pm.
1pm - 3pm
October 16, 2010: Session 2 will focus on sheetrock installation and correct taping and mudding procedures. 1pm - 3pm
October 30, 2010: Session 3 topics will include interior painting processes and baseboard and trim installation. 1pm - 3pm
All sessions will be taught by awesome trade professionals! Our lead instructor will be John Schwager, a local contractor and Restore customer. John is a great guy and we’re sure you will learn lots from him.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Rain and Fall
I haven't posted in a while because the summer has been intensely busy. We, TwoRivers Music, have played all over Oregon and Washington this summer and have shows booked "away" through October.
The weather has kept things interesting in the garden. We have discovered that our front garden in really a wind tunnel-part of the "gorge effect" I'm sure. High on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River the wind comes zooming from the East, up the street, across the front garden and through the back gate. Our tomatoes suffered from this and it actually took out our trellis of Scarlet Runner Beans. Ah, live and learn. The front garden in a different micro climate from the back. The back gets sun all day and is much more sheltered from the wind. Next year tomatoes will go in the back. Basil growing in the back is also much happier than in the front so...Basil in the back next year!!
We've canned applesauce and peach butter, frozen lots of cubes of basil for winter use. There will be more of that as the basil in the back is still producing!!
Next project: we started a no/low cards/ no wheat way of eating. I won't call it a diet because it's a change of lifestyle. I've lost 11 pounds and quite a few inches (yay!) and my partner has lost 20 pounds (!!!). We both feel much better. When it came time to add carbs to what we eat we considered how best to do it. Didn't want to eat processed foods to the extent that we did and the wheat free breads are very expensive in the local stores and the variety is very limited. After research and consideration we sent for a packet of dry sourdough starter from San Francisco and bought spelt flour. By feeding the spelt flour to the starter we now have a 99% spelt starter. Have a lovely ceramic pot with sealing lid from Value Village for the starter. Had one misadventure with the bread. We bought a used clay baking pot and it cracked and fell apart with the first bread baking. Very disappointing. Next trip to Value Village we got a Corningware pot and lid. It works really well. The bread is dark, rich, moist and very sour! Makes great toast and is good with Eric's home made egg salad!! Last night after work (full day teaching piano and voice lessons, accompanying a church choir at rehearsal) we made our first trial at sourdough, spelt chocolate chips cookies. End result, very tasty, 8 dozen cookies mostly in the freezer. Thank you Eric for doing all the work and clean up!! You have the master's touch!
For those who might be interested all these experiments will result in a cookbook.
Canning tomatoes today thanks to a friend whose garden is not in the wind tunnel!! Playing music at a retirement home. No watering the garden today as the fall rain is taking care of it. We have green beans, tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, broccoli, basil, carrots, chard, onions and more still growing. Starting the fall clean up and planting. Got a mini green house to set up and much organizing to do.
Happy Fall!
The weather has kept things interesting in the garden. We have discovered that our front garden in really a wind tunnel-part of the "gorge effect" I'm sure. High on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River the wind comes zooming from the East, up the street, across the front garden and through the back gate. Our tomatoes suffered from this and it actually took out our trellis of Scarlet Runner Beans. Ah, live and learn. The front garden in a different micro climate from the back. The back gets sun all day and is much more sheltered from the wind. Next year tomatoes will go in the back. Basil growing in the back is also much happier than in the front so...Basil in the back next year!!
We've canned applesauce and peach butter, frozen lots of cubes of basil for winter use. There will be more of that as the basil in the back is still producing!!
Next project: we started a no/low cards/ no wheat way of eating. I won't call it a diet because it's a change of lifestyle. I've lost 11 pounds and quite a few inches (yay!) and my partner has lost 20 pounds (!!!). We both feel much better. When it came time to add carbs to what we eat we considered how best to do it. Didn't want to eat processed foods to the extent that we did and the wheat free breads are very expensive in the local stores and the variety is very limited. After research and consideration we sent for a packet of dry sourdough starter from San Francisco and bought spelt flour. By feeding the spelt flour to the starter we now have a 99% spelt starter. Have a lovely ceramic pot with sealing lid from Value Village for the starter. Had one misadventure with the bread. We bought a used clay baking pot and it cracked and fell apart with the first bread baking. Very disappointing. Next trip to Value Village we got a Corningware pot and lid. It works really well. The bread is dark, rich, moist and very sour! Makes great toast and is good with Eric's home made egg salad!! Last night after work (full day teaching piano and voice lessons, accompanying a church choir at rehearsal) we made our first trial at sourdough, spelt chocolate chips cookies. End result, very tasty, 8 dozen cookies mostly in the freezer. Thank you Eric for doing all the work and clean up!! You have the master's touch!
For those who might be interested all these experiments will result in a cookbook.
Canning tomatoes today thanks to a friend whose garden is not in the wind tunnel!! Playing music at a retirement home. No watering the garden today as the fall rain is taking care of it. We have green beans, tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, broccoli, basil, carrots, chard, onions and more still growing. Starting the fall clean up and planting. Got a mini green house to set up and much organizing to do.
Happy Fall!
Friday, July 30, 2010
The Sweet Potato Experiment and more
As an experiment we're trying to grow a sweet potato. Bought a Red Garnet at our grocers. Cut it in half, laid it in a pie plate with some "muck", in a couple of weeks lovely sprouts appeared. Time passed and we carefully broke the sprouts from the sweet potato and planted them in our back raised bed. It appears to be flourishing. Later this fall we will know if it worked.
Growing sweet potatoes for profit (Circular)
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