THE REVEAL

You probably saw a picture yesterday...it was a closeup of the handle for the tailgate of...guess what?

A pickup truck, we bought a farm truck!

It is a 2006 Chevrolet Colorado.

It came from a customer at my office.  It has 225,000 miles but was just one owner and he kept it maintained mechanically.  A few years ago he retired and it's just been in the garage.  They drove it around a few times a year just to keep it running.

It's in pretty good shape on the exterior with no major damage, though it does need new tires.  The engine is in great shape even with the high mileage.  The price was just so unbelievably low we couldn't pass it up.

The bed has the usual scratches and scrapes and there is a dent on the tailgate.  We were thinking about a bed liner.  Sure a bed liner is there to protect your bed from damage in the beginning and this seems a little after the fact but it might help clean it up a bit. 

We'll spare you an interior photo because we want to use it as a before and after...after we have it detailed, ha!  It's a bit rough, spilled coffee, the seats are stained, dirty steering wheel, the door and arm rest are dirty etc.  It's not ready for its closeup just yet ha.

This model is what they commonly called a "work truck".  It is not extended cab, there is no extra third door or four doors, no bells and whistles.  It's automatic and has cold a/c that's all that we need.  Oh and it even has windows with handles to "roll them down", ha!

Best of all for what we wanted at the farm, because of not having an extended cab, it's got a full size bed.  I can get lots of bags of soil in there, landscape timbers, wood for raised beds, furniture finds, etc.

We're going to keep it in town for a few weeks, get new tires, have the interior detailed, get the oil changed, etc.  We want to just make sure it's in the best running condition.  Then we can go pick up (pun intended ha) soil, move a couple of large pallets we have in storage out to the farm, new landscape timbers etc.  It will be left at the farm after that for when we need it.

It might not look like this classic farm truck, but after all these years and posts we have had about loading whatever car we were driving at the time with plants and bags of soil, pieces of lumber, etc, we now have a vehicle we can use specifically FOR that. 

And we couldn't be more excited!

WORKING ON A SURPRISE

Part of what I did last Saturday was related to a surprise we have coming...

Tune in tomorrow for the details!

A BUSTED PIPE

Well, we mentioned that this past weekend wasn't ALL good stuff.  While I was working on the raised beds, "R" from 2nd Family said "let's turn on the water and check things out".  I said SURE, sounds like a plan...he went down to the well end and turned on the valve.  I turned on the valve at our end...

...and this was the result.

For those who might not be able to get the video to play, here is a still photo:

Water was spraying out under the bathroom.  There was one pipe that was split and water was coming out.  The good news is that it appears to be the only one broken in the freeze.  As he said "you guys got lucky".   We thought we got all the water out but this pipe must have been a low spot that still had some water in it.  Lesson learned.

The good thing is that it's just one section of pipe that is about 4 feet long from elbow to elbow.  "R" said it would be an easy fix and he's going to work on it for us.  

The valve on our end shuts off the water to the house but still lets the outside faucet run.  So until it's fixed, we can still get water for watering the fruit trees and the porch plants.  Heck, I can wash my hands under the outside faucet.  He's going to find some PVC pipe to replace the section though in the Houston area right now, it's pretty scarce.  We're in no hurry.

The awesome thing is he is going to let me help so I can learn these things.

Win/Win!

Thankfully, Spring is coming...according to the the apple tree which is COVERED in beautiful blooms.  At least no freeze worries now until NEXT Winter.

Compared to what we've seen in the state after the freeze, were were indeed lucky to escape with just this one small section of broken pipe.

ASSEMBLING THE RAISED BEDS

It was a good cool day and a good time to get rid of the boxes on the porch.  Spring cleaning is in the air!

2nd Man saw them and said that they reminded him of the Stargates from the film/tv series of the same name.

Um yeah, no, they aren't THAT big, ha.

Thankfully, they went together very easily. Four pieces each, line up the holes and then it was a bolt and nut.  Super easy. I did two and then took an iced tea break...

...and then did one more.  

I went ahead and rolled them to the back and set them in place.  I removed the other three from around the citrus trees (don't need to worry about a freeze now) and put them in place.  Then I measured them so they were perfectly aligned between the square boxes.

That means we have three more now for a total of six.  Four for the blueberry bushes we already have and two more for something else we bought that we'll have in an upcoming post.  There are three on one side of the fruit tree spot and three on the other side.

Speaking of the two "other" ones, on the way out to the farm I stopped to buy some bags of soil and compost and filled them up.  I turned the soil and grass underneath, put down some cardboard (just like we did with the tree beds) and layered in the soil/compost.  They are ready for planting but the plants that will go in them aren't quite ready yet.

Next we'll need to get the soil for the blueberries (they like acidic soil).  We found a store here that sells it, it will require a large amount...we're working on that too. 

It was a good day, cool weather, no need to mow yet (but getting close) and I got several other projects done.  But there was a downside to the day...

To be continued...

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

Yesterday was a mostly good day at the farm but more on that tomorrow.

I went by myself because 2nd Man had to work from home but he had been starting some homemade bread the night before and finished it and baked up some loaves while I was gone.

So this morning...

...we had some avocado toast.  Fresh bread with a spread of soft and buttery avocado, some slices of applewood smoked bacon and fresh sprouts.

An avocado, bacon and sprout sandwich.  ABS?

Bacon, sprouts and avocado sandwich.  BSA?

Whatever you want to call it, wow it was so good.

We know you all can't resist a cat picture, especially sweet Hobart.  Here he is doing what he does best.  Sleeping.  We saved these round cushions from the window seat in the house and he likes to sleep on them.  The other day we put "his" afghan on them while we were straightening up and he found it and now that's where he sleeps most of the day.  The sun probably feels great on his old bones. 

Updates tomorrow on the latest from the farm.

Enjoy your weekend! 

GREAT DEALS AT TRACTOR SUPPLY

A few weeks ago, I stopped at Tractor Supply while looking for RV antifreeze for the pipes in the house. 

I double masked and went in.  I found the antifreeze right away and then as I was heading to the checkout, I noticed that they had a clearance section.

You know I can't turn down a bargain!

First up was the large wooden sign.  Very vintage looking and it was also large.  About 36"x48".  It's appropriately distressed too.

Price?  $3.50!

Then I found this beauty.  Obviously a leftover from Christmas.  This is metal and it's embossed with raised lettering and images and is almost 5 feet long!

Price?  $2.50!

It was actually on clearance for $5.00 (from original price of $34.95) and when the cashier rang it up it was 50% off because, Christmas clearance I guess?

For now, they'll hang in the barn, well the Christmas one is soon to be in storage loft with other decorations.

I also scored two boxes of farm themed Christmas cards (think Christmas chickens) for $1.00 box and then I just had to pick up a couple of these shopping bags...

We're always carrying things back and forth to the farm and use the heavy-duty grocery shopping type bags which work perfectly.  One of the ones we use now has vegetables on it which is cool because of the garden theme but when I saw this bag I knew we had to have a couple of them to add to our collection.

This is the side of the bag, we love the catchphrase they use..."FOR LIFE OUT HERE".

GREENHOUSE JEEP

So you probably all remember that before the historic Winter storm, I brought all the freeze sensitive plants back into town so they would be safe.  Our original thought was just to put them in front of the car in the parking space.  There were too many and they would be too unwieldy to bring into the apartment and of course hard to keep away from Hobart. 

Well the first night I took our handy dandy laser temperature device and the concrete of the parking garage was in the low 30's.  That didn't bode well.  So I left the plants in the back of my Jeep.

They had been watered before I left the farm so I figured they go a week between waterings, why not just leave them in the Jeep?  It's not like it was going to be hot.  Then I checked the interior temperature and it was pretty close to freezing too.  Oh oh.  So what did I do?

I decided that every few hours, I'd go downstairs, start the car, drive down the ramps of the garage, around the building if I could (when the ice was gone) and back up the ramps with the heater on full blast.  By the time I got back it was usually about 88 to 90 degrees in the car.  I'd go down about every 4 hours (yep even woke up during the night) and did that.  When I'd get in the car after the previous trip, the temp would still be in the 40's even when the outside temp was in the low teens.

After the days got warmer and above freezing, I just did it a couple of times in the evening when it was freezing, once after dinner and once before bed.

2nd Man said it was like having babies that wouldn't sleep so you load them into the car and drive them around until they fall asleep. 

Hey it worked.  Here they are.  All are alive and well.  The bananas were a little ragged from being flat in the car but they didn't freeze.  

Here are the pineapples, probably the most freeze sensitive, back in their spots looking good.  These are going to get much larger pots this Spring.

I'm not sure what was going on in the back end of the Jeep, but one of the blueberries is starting to put on flowers.  Somehow, I guess I turned the Jeep into a greenhouse, ha.

Greenhouse pickup truck, image via wikicommons.com

Maybe we should get a pickup with a greenhouse on the back end?  Kinda cool, LOL!

WARMER NOW BACK TO PROJECTS WEEKEND UPDATE

This weekend was good.  I got several projects done and/or started.

First I know many of you are wondering about the house and the pipes.  We were too.  I turned on the water valve at the house and nothing came out.  Then I remembered that since we share the well with 2nd Family, they have a cutoff on their end and they had turned that off for us.  I went down to the house to turn it on and realized "R" still has it completely sealed up for freezing.  We're talking insulation, wrapped pipes, duct tape, towels, cardboard, etc.  Sometimes the person who put it all together is the best person to undo it because they know what order to undo it in.  So I went back up to our house and got three watering containers and used the faucet by the well to fill them.  I used that to water the stuff on the porch.  Mission accomplished. 

No need to worry about the pipes until next weekend. 

On to the next thing...   

Last week, they picked up the Zen Machine so we could have its annual maintenance done.  They brought it back Friday.  On top of annual maintenance items, they always wash it.  I even reminded them and asked them to wash it and clean it.  In year's past it has come back looking almost new...

Does this look clean?  I mean, they didn't even clean the tires.  I think one year they put tire dressing on and it looked so good.  Just a tad bit disappointed.  It kind of makes us wonder "how do we know they even DID anything" under the hood.  I checked the oil and it seems clean but who knows.  Oh well.  Just like gardening we have to have faith in the outcome, ha!

Once the water is back on, I'll spend some time washing it and getting it ready for its closeup.

On to the next thing...

On the way to the farm I stopped and picked up some bags of soil and compost so I could work on the garden beds.  Well, the ones we're going to use.

They look good after they are all "stirred up".  I break up the soil and mix it around and then add the new soil, compost etc and rake it all level.  Should be ready for planting in a couple of weeks.

I left these two covered...

This is a photo from 2019 when we really had it cleaned up and nice.  It's close but not quite as good as this now, ha.  Anyway, I used this photo to put the numbers of what beds we'll be using this year.  We'll use five of the seven; the front two, the long bed and two of the ones in the back.  

We're still planning but tomatoes for sure (gotta keep trying), a few herbs (gotta have our basil), jalapeños,  eggplant (maybe) and since we had SUCH good luck with them a few years back, we think we'll try the pickling cucumbers again.  2nd Man said he'd like me to try my hand at canning pickles again.  

Side note, anyone have any suggestions on how to clean up these weeds in an area like this?  I can't spray anything that will possibly get pulled up into the soil of the raised bed since the veggies will be there.  Vinegar?  Boiling water?  Anything else?  They are really annoying and keep everything looking crappy.

I did a couple of other projects and then the rain started.  I'll have more on that in an upcoming post.

Hope you had a good weekend!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A FEW DAYS MAKES

We know we posted one of these pictures last week but thought it would be fun to see the before and after...or maybe the after and then the before, ha.

Here is the view from the porch (yucky drizzly day but I digress).  Anyway, above is yesterday...

And here is the same view during the Winter storm.  Oh and it was 29 degrees then and close to 79 yesterday.

Sadly we think we lost the citrus...

This is the orange that we thought had much more green on it but over the last week, it's slowly started turning brown.  The trunk may have survived which means it most likely will come back but if it's stunted or reduced, it might take much longer to come back.

This is the lemon tree that last week we still had hope for.  We're pretty sure that it's not going to make it.  We knew it was too good to be true.  We'll give them time to come back of course but it doesn't look promising.

In good news, I got some other much needed stuff done at the farm to prepare for Spring so more on that in upcoming posts and a regular update tomorrow with the rest of the stuff done.

Here's an obligatory Hobart picture:

He's still sticking with the fluffy blanket that we used as a Christmas tree skirt.  Wherever we put it, he ends up in it.  It's soft and warm and he loves it.  And we love him.  So...the tree skirt is his.

Hope you are having a good weekend.

COVID LOSS

Recently we posted about COVID hitting close to home.  Most of those we mentioned have recovered, though some with lingering issues.  However I found out a few days ago that I lost one of them; the wife of my previous boss, whom I worked with side by side daily for the better part of fifteen years.  She successfully battled breast cancer more than ten years ago...

...and she fought hard with this too but in the end, she just could not come back from the virus.

She loved roses, these yellow roses are for her...

Then a dear coworker lost her Uncle to the virus (only 61, no underlying health issues).  As I was reading his obituary, I read a few lines in it that made me smile and I thought I'd share them with you:

"Later, he continued his passion of nurturing plants and trees and purchased a property...where he poured his soul into improving and perfecting the land.  He always had a garden much too large, but he insisted it was for anyone who needed it; it was for everyone."

You can probably guess why that struck a chord with us.  I can only hope that someday someone will say that about me and our garden and property.

This garden bounty is for him...

I remember early on in the pandemic a doctor or scientist said that by the time this is all said and done, almost everyone will know someone who has died of the virus.  We have lost a few customers at our office but losing her brings it close to home and just as my coworkers loss has come close to her.  COVID is so insidious in who it hurts and who it doesn't.

That's why it makes 2nd Man and I so hyper-vigilant to stay as safe as we can. 

Please, stay safe people...this isn't over...

SNOW AT THE FARM

See yesterday's post for an update about the farm itself 'after' the freeze and I added an update to yesterday's post about the boil water notice.

These are 'during' the snow.  2nd Family was kind enough to send photos after we said they could send any pictures they wanted to venture out and take.

So here are a few they sent us to share:

This is the back for one of their outbuildings, icicles all along the top edge...

Footprints in the snow! They were walking down toward our part of the driveway...

This picture shows how deep it was.  Again, for people up North and East, don't laugh at us but this is definitely a HUGE event for us...

This is their front yard...

And this is our driveway...

And this is our front yard.

This is the angle we usually post from the front porch.  This was taken by the trail cam (not sure what triggered it, we think a bird).  While we're glad we were safe and warm here in town (well, to a point, ha) looking at this makes us sorry we missed seeing it in person as this might just be a once in a lifetime moment.  Setting aside the terrible outcome that all of this weather brought to the area and to the state, there is something so beautiful about a pure white fresh snowfall.  Peaceful and neat, almost like a clean slate.

We'll take Spring though.  Ready for it.  Not ready for our Summers but at least we're prepared for that.  We heard a guy on TV whose house had collapsed ceilings from broken pipes say something that kind of sums up what happened here:

"Our homes are built for Houston Summers, not Michigan Winters"...

FREEZE AT THE FARM SURPRISE

 Saturday was the day to check the farm after the historic Winter storm.

There was still ice on the steps.

And on the North side of the house, in the shade, there was still some melting snow.  The ground was also super saturated everywhere from the melting snow and runoff.  The house was fine, thankfully.  

The water heater stayed unfrozen, we had rigged up some lights on old school hooded reflectors.  They hang with a clamp and as fate would have it the doorknobs in the bathroom (where the water heater is) were shaped to have a foolproof way to mount it with zero danger of falling off.  This angle looks like it's close to the door but it wasn't.  There wasn't anything flammable nearby.  Even with the rolling blackouts on the grid, it was on long enough to keep the area warm and above freezing in the house (small bathroom with both doors closed).  

The water was turned on to see if any obvious leaks.  We didn't see any but we decided to turn it back off until we could take a closer look by crawling under the house next weekend and inspect the pipes for small leaks that are not so obvious.  The p-traps in the the sinks were fine with the RV antifreeze inside.  

Looks like the house dodged the freezing problems.  2nd Family had one burst pipe under their house.  When we're not in the house, it's easy to drain, flush and shut off water.  When you live there, even with heat on, you have to have water and then you battle the temps but the pipes can still freeze.

It was time to uncover the citrus trees to see how dead they were (ice still around the outside of them).

This is the lime tree.  Dead.  Dead dead.  I bent a couple of branches and they snapped right off.  I figured that was going to be repeated two more times. 

This is the orange tree.

If I didn't see it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it.  It's still green!  The branches don't have any visible freeze damage.  I could be wrong, maybe it will never leaf out again or next weekend it will melt into a puddle, ha, but we were still cautiously surprised.  We have NO idea how this survived single digit temps.  I never put the Christmas lights on the timer under the cloth because we figured even if they were 10 degrees warmer with those turned on, it wouldn't help with a low of 8 or 9.  Somehow it looks like it survived.

And here is the lemon tree.

It's ALSO green.  Well, kind of.  There seem to be a few brown ends but for the most part it is green.  Again, we have no idea how it survived.  It could still die and we're planning for that occurrence.  But maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised?  Heck, one out of three would be great.  Two out of three would be amazing!

We're rethinking the citrus though.  We'll see what survives.  They are still so small and frail and haven't grown much since we put them in the raised beds.  They do well and then are set back by a freeze.  These are 2 years old.  If the orange makes it, since it's in the middle, we'll leave it and do something different with the lemon and lime.

Stay tuned.

Remember the beautiful peach tree blossoms from a couple of weeks ago?

Yeah, not so pretty now.  We had read that they were hardy to about -25 degrees so we didn't bother to cover it for this freeze.  Not sure if we made a mistake there. I guess we'll see what happens in a couple of months.

Come back tomorrow for some fun pictures of the snow at the farm.  2nd Family took some for us and then the trail cam captured a beautiful one of the front yard.

MONDAY UPDATE:

They citywide boil water notice was lifted!

We've followed the instructions and things are back to normal...though we did think twice about the first few times of using it but they say it has passed all the tests.