Modern Anachronist

Food Forest (pt. 1)

I love the idea of foraging for food. Ever since my friends and I used to gorge ourselves on blackberries & raspberries in the woods as kids.

And there’s a little bit of woods behind my house.

This weekend my wife went to an event to collect seeds from native plants and she came home with some Paw Paw seeds.

If you’ve never heard of it, the paw paw is the largest fruit native to North America. I’ve heard of them, held them, but never tasted them.

So I planted 13 paw paw seeds in the woods behind my house.

Hopefully some of the seeds germinate and survive long enough to grow fruit.

I learned after I planted them that I’m going to have to wait five to ten years before they yield fruit.

Adding tie downs to the utility trailer.

Everything is ~~ball bearings~~ eyebolts these days

When I bought this trailer almost three years ago, I was amazed by how few good tie down points there were (just four). After an unfortunate accident on I-295 over a decade ago, I have an obsession with securing my cargo.

Sometimes it’s the little things

Back in the days when I maintained foreclosed homes, I saw these installed in basements all over Philly. They never had the outer can, just the grinders, so I left them there. I finally broke down and bought one, and couldn’t possibly be happier.

Modifying the utility trailer

Last year I bought a utility trailer. Mostly because I was tired of putting Yurt bits on the roof of the Excursion. But also because I knew I was going to need to haul things I didn’t want inside my baby.

Today, I needed to hail a cubic yard of gravel, but the open sided utility trailer was just the wrong tool for the job.

I think I’d get home with almost zero gravel.

Garden Storage & Workspace (Phase 1)

Birthday present for the wife this year is a space for working and sitting and storing tools and materials for the veggie garden. *

It’s a wee space, but it has room for all the bits & bobs she keeps in the garden.

In addition to storage, she has a bit of a work space and a place to sit so she can commune with her plants.

Re-lamping the upstairs hallway.

In which I attempt to correct the poor decisions made 50 years ago by the lowest bidding electrician; five years ago by a corner cutting house flipper; and ease the unease of a 9-year-old boy; all with an overly complicated hardware and software solution.

Irrigation Manifold

Four years in this house and the plan for the vegetable garden is finalized. (I think. The wife might not be settled yet.)

Five raised beds surrounding a garden shed / work space. But now we outgrew the irrigation system that I threw together when we were prepping to be out of town for two weeks and she didn’t want the garden to die.

I’m a gas utility worker by trade, so I’m used to working with valves and fittings, but water isn’t something I deal with on a regular basis.