Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Garden Update

It rained all night, so everything is a little soaked. Got lots of goodies in the garden right now. Peppers, lettuces, chives, dill, arugula, rogue beans, some tomatoes I transplanted from pots last week that weren't doing so hot, and my ever-hardy okra plants. I still have room for more...



This one contains a packet of beans planted in August that have been very productive along with 4 recently added broccoli transplants.



Below are the guys from the pots. One variety if actually called "patio". Here they can be seen before their decline:

Thursday, September 24, 2009

How To Build A Simple, Expandable Clothes Rack

This type of clothes rack can be as simple or as difficult to make as you want it to be. I added a level of difficulty because we need them to be portable and take up as little space as possible when in transport.

This is what we're going for:


Tools that will make your life simpler:

  • Skill saw or some sort of electric saw

  • Electric Drill

  • Drill bits (size dependent upon your bolt size)

  • Phillips head drill bit

  • Spade drill bit (size dependent upon your rod size)

  • Bolts, washers, nuts (I used wing nuts for assembly without tools)

  • Four 3" angle connector hardware (should look something like this.

  • Twelze 1.5" angle hardware connector. Same as this, but smaller. (HINT: the back of these packages will tell you what size of bolts to get. Make sure that they are longer than 2.5", as the bolts will be going through the 2"x2"...)
  • Two 2" x 2" boards. I cut mine to 5 feet tall. This will determine height of your rack

  • One 2" x 6" x 8' piece of lumber

  • wood screws that fit those 1.5" angle connectors


(I try to obtain all my lumber by dumpster diving at construction sites. Be sure to ask permission first...)

Instructions:

Start by cutting your 2"x6". This will be your base. Cut two pieces 22" long and four pieces that are 8" long.


You're going to connect these pieces using your wood screws and 1.5" angle connectors. To do this, I lined them up first on a flat surface and marked the eyes of the connectors with a sharpie. It's not an exact science, but you will want everything to be as square and level as possible.



You then attach the hardware to the top of the base. I used my vertical poles as a pattern to make sure everything was snug. I also used a triangle thingy to make sure I was in the center of the base.



Next, you place your vertical pole in between the brackets you just attached and mark your holes for drilling.



Then you drill your hole(s) for your cross bars. (We used cheap-ish curtain rods found at IKEA for our croass bars. The curtain rods, being explandable, are what makes this rack expandable...)



Finally, attached the vertical pole to the base. I did this using bolts and wing nuts so that power tools would not required to assemble/disassemble.



Repeat all of the above for your second stand.



Here is in action:

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The Trick, Is to Make a Sign That's Unique

Rotten Tomatoes

I think 10 days of rain did this to my once tremendous-looking tomatoes:


Then these other ones got The Funk and so I just pulled those poor guys and sent them an early grave:


I replaced those with broccoli transplants I bought at NHG.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Clothes Rack

Stay tuned... later this weekend, I'll show you how I made the pretty inexpensive, pretty portable, super expendable, potentially scalable clothes rack pictured below.

Chicago

Last week, we traveled to Chicago for one of A.'s shows. I didn't get to see a lot of the town, but I'd certainly put forth that I met a ton of Chicagoans there in the Loop and Lil booth at Renegade and they were all super nice. You can read more about that over at http://loopandlil.blogspot.com

Here are some photos:










Excuse My Absense

Twitter made me blog lazy. I've since rebounded.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

My Poor Blog

I promise you, poor, sad blog that one day soon many new words will be strung together to form new sentences and those will combine to create new paragraphs on your lonely pages. We truly have a love/hate ralationship - kinda like the relationship I had with my '81 Jeep Laredo (with the 8 track) back in the Nineties...

Thursday, July 30, 2009

It's My One Year Anniversary!!!

Hooray for Life on Newberry Drive and thanks to all those who post and/or lurk! Here's how it all began...

Monday, July 27, 2009

Been Taking a Little Break from the Blog...

...but I'll be back soon... Swear! Until then, follow me at http://twitter.com/jdwhittenburg for the intricate details of my life...

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

It's Like Magic, but Really It's Just Nature


This flower...



turned into this okra pod:

Corn Fail

Well *sigh* my corn never came in. Despite my best attempts at plant husbandry, I don't think it ever pollinated. The plants themselves never reached full size, either... I pulled 'em and tossed them in the compost. I put in Fall tomatoes in their place a couple of weeks ago...



Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Not Peter Cotton Tail, More Like Jack Rabbit

Tonight, as I was in the process of cooking breakfast for dinner, A. called me to the garage very emphatically. It sounded like something cool was going on. Turns out, a jack rabbit was in our driveway. I grabbed my camera and moved in for a closer shot. I sat a few feet away for a few minutes before I tired of it all (and remembered my bacon in the frying pan...!)

Jack better keep away from my carrots!



Thursday, July 2, 2009

This is the Biggest Garage Sale. Ever.

The lady across the street owns a shop on the square in downtown McKinney. They started setting up for this sale early yesterday. This pic does not do this sale justice. This was snapped at 8am and already there was a line at the cash register. Drive down Newberry Dr. - You'll see what I'm talking about!

Friday, June 26, 2009

This is Chicken Shit!

http://eastdallasblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/06/city-chickens-flap.html

North Haven Gardens, which earlier this month took the unusual step of adding henkeeping supplies, housing and even juvenile hens to its gardening and landscaping inventory, has been told by the city the chicks must go.


North Haven Gardens is THE place for plants, garden supplies, books and inspiration. And Christmas Gifts for me. If Ms. Halleck says she got thenecessary permits and permissions, then she did. Anyone giving her and NHG shit for selling chicks ought to be tarred and feathered.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Return of Some Old Friends

My little buddy is back. This time he's got a travelling companion. They let me get awfully close. I think they both had they're eyes on my drying onions.








Watching an owl fly is one of the coolest things. They don't make a sound.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Hey, Food, Inc. - Way Ahead of Ya!

No, seriously, the books that inspired the movie inspired us as well... So, let's all go see it soon, ok?





I've got enough wood in the garage that I've plucked out of dumpsters to make a new garden. Maybe I will this weekend...

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

It's All Kinda Circular

Visit Bona Fide Darling - http://bonafidedarling.blogspot.com to check out a nice little, low-fi cover of one of my songs by Travis... Then you can go to http://www.myspace.com/jdw to hear the original.

Good friend to BFD Travis Hopper, from local band Elkhart recorded his own take of local musician J.D. Whittenburg's "Secrets That You Keep." That song is one of my favorites off of J.D.'s album. Travis gives the song an more intimate more...

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Bushes, Alleys, City Code and a Trash Truck Driver, Continued...

Go here for the explanation. At some point, common sense should prevail. Unfortunately for my bushes, Richardson City Code prevails.

BEFORE:



AFTER:



Friday, June 12, 2009

Porch Makeover

For the last two weekends, we've been working on making our porch a nice place where we might actually want to hang out. Short of replacing the roof, we're there.

BEFORE:

(I forgot to take actual "before" pics the way we had it set up...)



DURING:





AFTER











Pete loves it!