The Garden

After years of having the empty space in our backyard we finally got our act together and planted a vegetable garden. It only took us 4 trips to Home Depot and 1 trip to Green Thumb.

Here you can see how hard we both worked. We debated long and hard about the format. We knew we wanted raised beds because the last time we planted a garden it was well enjoyed by bugs and snails. Our soil is like cement and trying to plant anything in the clay is ridiculous. I built a fence in the front yard a few months ago and wile digging in the dirt I ended up seriously hurting my thumb. Got a condition called "trigger thumb" which lasted many months. Sue wanted one or two large boxes and I thought some smaller ones would be better.

We bought four smaller boxes and the dirt with our first trip to Home Depot. In these two boxes we planted lettuce. We made a second trip for wood to build some bigger boxes and dirt. We spent about an hour looking at sprinkler stuff. The car would only hold so much so we made a third trip to get more dirt. Then a fourth trip for more sprinker parts.

Here is one of our sprinkler feeds. It fits onto our regular sprinker pipe and is called a microsprinkler system. Looks kind of like an octopus. We have hoses going all over the place to all the boxes and fruit trees.

Our end product. Along the fence is corn and onions. The far box has tomatoes, zucchini, green onions, and radishes which have already sprouted. The little boxes have lettuce (romaine and endive) and carrots. The closer box has watermelon, walla walla onions, basil, and parsley. Inbetween are our two apple trees and an orange tree we planted late last summer. My mom says she will come over when we are away and pick our vegetables. Almost as soon as we planted the seeds the birds started having a snack.

We also planted in the backyard some flowers so I can take Rebecca on our excurions; special grandpa-granddaughter bonding time.

BBQ update

The BBQ is still working. We put our old BBQ out at the street for big-item pick up and someone helped themself with 1/2 hour. What idiot would want that old, beat up, and filthy thing?

The DMV Visit

Lucky me, my driver's license expires this year. That means a roadtrip to the DMV. I made the appointment over the Internet. That was pretty cool and modern. Since I work in Valencia I went to the Santa Clarita office. Thanks to Brenda, she gave me some heads up as to the facilities and its location.

Good thing too. It was a tiny building with virtually no signage. The parking lot was full but again, thanks to Brenda's advance warnings I had parked around the corner at a small strip mall. I walked in the door about tenth in line. The line moved fairly quickly and I was given the magic number, F0019, and told to wait in the never ending group of chairs.

There were about 40 people at the chairs and they all seem in a stupor as they were waiting for their number to be called. I was hopeful that since I had a "reservation" my number would come up real fast. Everyone seemed aloof and to themselves, almost as though they were about to walk the green mile. A voice kept calling out the numbers, sounding as if it was from the movie Logan's Run. A soft, soothing voice which got everyone hopeful they would be next. Surprisingly, my number came up after about 5 minutes. F0019 to window four. I screamed BINGO and went to the window for my prize. To my suregrin the prize was I had to fork over $28 bucks.

She took my papers and gave me an eye test. How appauling, she accused me of not covering my eye completely. Little did she know I was just as blind with both eyes as I was one at a time. But I did not cheat, it was covered sufficiently. I passed the test and was told to go wait in the line all the way on the other side of the building for my photograph.

That was interesting too. Nobody would talk to anyone else. This line was about a ten minute wait. At one point a security guard came out of the bathroom and told us how to stand in a line. He move one lady up a foot, told me to stand behind her, and another lady to stand behind me; as if we had never stood in a line before. Our state's money put to good use. Then I saw one guy there for his driving test. Duh, he parked his car in an illegal spot painted red. I wonder if he passed his test.

Soon I was "next". Everyone else was envious. My turn came and the thumb print reader had about 5 snap shots before they got a good print. I was asked my name, as if the paperwork was not accurate. He took my picture and I was done. Now I get to anxiously wait and see how horrible my picture turns out. That worst part was having to add 30 pounds to my weight from 12 years ago.

The Barbeque

We bought a new barbeque at Home Depot last week. Saturday I decided to put it together. Some assembly required. Dang!

Yep, that’s one mighty fine barbeque!

Why doesn’t mine look like that?

Dang. I guess I need to start over. This time I will use the instructions. French, why are the instructions in French. What the heck is “le grille”?

I’m going in. How do they get all those pieces in the one box?

I got the stand put together. Looks good, I think. Will it hold the barbeque part? What holds it on?

Wow, its starting to look like something. That was really heavy. Good thing I have a buff wife to help lift it. Why don’t the holes line up. Dang it. I’ll try a little hammering.

So many pieces. So many boxes. Why are the pieces that go together in different boxes?

The end product. Odds are 10 to 1 in Vegas that it will work.

We tried installing the propane and it fired right up. No extra flames shooting out anywhere that we can see. Sunday night we tried it out. The meat looked cooked to me. Another successful project checked off the list.