Tag: DIY

Spring Garden 2011: Quick Update

No silverbells or cockleshells
One Month In...

A month ago D and tore out the winter garden and put in the one for spring/summer. The weather has been really odd this last month with some days it getting into the 9os (summer weather) and then the next day being overcast and rainy (winter weather).  Tomatoes and Zucchini are really enjoying the heat but the colder nights seem to be holding them back. Despite, the odd weather everything seems to be coming in quite nicely, and with generous doses of Sluggo, the plants seem to be mostly safe from the predations of slugs and snails.

Before we get to the spring garden there was one last holdover from winter:

It all went into the composter
About 3 feet of celery

Sadly, none of the celery was usable. We grew too much this year and just weren’t able to use it, or give it away fast enough. This last plant was blocking sunlight for one of our tomato plants… I was hoping to salvage it but I think when it gets this big it is just too bitter.

Zucchinis
Tomatoes
Eggplants
Green Beans
Cucumbers
Basil

I’m hoping in another month I’ll have enough cucumbers and tomatoes to start my next project for the year: canning and pickling. I’m really excited about canning our own produce and then using it in the fall and winter. We had so many tomatoes last year that we gave bags away, or ate tomatoes with every meal. This year I want to save some of those for later.

I have two more tomato plants in the front of the house as well as a pepper plant, they seem to be doing fine as well.

A Quick Weekend Project

It's a Clothesline

With spring being here now and the sky being less overcast and more sunny. I figured it was the perfect time to put in a clothesline. I’ve been talking about putting in a clothesline since we moved into this place but had never gotten around to it… Until today.

I picked up some two eye screws at .38 cents each ($0.76), 20 feet of nylon for at .23 cents a foot ($4.60), and 36 clothes pins for $3.99.

The line hangs between the two outer posts of the trellis that is over the back patio. All I had two to was drill two holes, screw the eye-screws in, and then tie the rope between them. (Two-half hitches, if you were wondering… Thanks, Boy Scouts!) It took about five minutes to put up.

Total cost: $9.35. The cheapest clotheslines I saw for sale at the hardware store was $19.99, and that still required you to mount it.

How I Saved Over $100 on Car Repairs

My truck has been busted up forever. About four years ago one of the tires blew out and took a mudflap with it. Three years ago someone inserted a screwdriver into the driver’s side keyhole and busted it as well as co-workers at a crappy retail job breaking the handle to my tailgate. The truck was still drivable, after replacing the tire with the spare, but I’d just been ignoring all the others problems… Entering the car through the passenger side, lifting objects into the bed, etc.

I wasn’t dealing with the car because it was still operable and fixing everything was going to cost money. I was quoted $125-to 150 to replace the lock on the driver’s side, $100 for a new tailgate from a junkyard more if I wanted someone to replace it for me and/or paint the junkyard find. $80 or so for a new tire (yes, the blown out tire has been in the wheel well for four years; I am a terrible person.) D and I have talked about selling the truck recently, in order to pay down some of my debt, and I couldn’t sell it in its current condition so something had to be done.

While I was despairing over the cost of repairs D took action. She called up a number of junkyards and located a tumbler for the car door ($25). With the help of the internet I was able to breakdown the side paneling on the door and install the new tumbler myself. Money saved? $100-125. I also broke down the tailgate as well, and was able to remove the handle. $5 got me some epoxy and that was used to reseal the plastic handle. Sadly, it didn’t work… I was able to use the item codes on the handle though to locate a replacement on the internet that cost (with shipping) only $17. Savings? $75.

Next weekend I’ll be vacuuming the interior and washing the exterior and next month I’ll be using my discretionary funds to pick up some new tires. So, by the end of May the truck is going to be looking great and ready to be sold. Except I’ll have put all this time and effort into the thing and not want to =P

The Build a Civilization Kit

Global Village Construction Set in 2 Minutes from Open Source Ecology

As regular readers of DiMortuiSunt (now False(B)logic) -Ed) probably already know I’m a big fan of DIY. I grew up living an average suburban lifestyle: separated from the people, processes, land, and animals that make my life possible. As I’ve grown up I’ve recognized this glaring absence in my life. D and I have been trying, slowly, to become more involved. We belong to a Co-op; we garden and compost; we are learning to make our own food products; we are pickling and canning. I grew up being a consumer and I want to make sure as an adult I am a maker.

I’m not the only person who feels this way. There is an entire movement among my generation of people who are trying to get back to a more sustainable and authentic lifestyle (by authentic I mean one in which the person is making something, working with their hands, and creating tangible items). Some people are taking it farther than others. Everything they are doing, is amazing. Some of them I’m sure will change the world, like the man in the video above.

The idea of a DIY Civilization kit seems ridiculous on its face. The task of knowing how to and being able to create all the things necessary for the comforts of a modern lifestyle are just too complicated for a single person or small group of people to know. Despite that though the Open Source Ecology Project is an attempt to put all the plans, instructions, know-how, etc onto a single DVD that will allow the owner the ability to build and operate advanced technologies to jumpstart an economy and even a civilization.

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