Love it! Sure, I’ve got to put on more than just shorts, but its a burden I’m happy to survive, given the wonderful coolness of this weather. The cats like it, and I get to stay warm for a change, instead of trying to stay cool. So far my cats still recognize me even with socks, shoes and shirt, which is good.
Cooler weather also means its time to fire up the fire ring. Toasty warm. Natural. Primal. I like primal. Its as old as old. No keyboard, no mouse, no monitor. Just primal nature.
I’ve got a fireplace in the house, and were it updated I’m pretty sure that would be fantastic too. But it is useless as it is. I want to build a wood stove, but haven’t done that yet. This house is a tear down, I’ve got not interest in putting money into it. A wood stove would survive its way to the new house.
Ah, the garden.
There’s no need to wait for the new house to build out the yard. Gardening is my first profession. I’d still do it except for being old and physically broken. What I do for myself I can do because I know how. I’m just not as productive as I used to be, and I don’t have to be. So I take my time and enjoy the work outs.
What is productive is my fire ring. I tend to keep all organic matter in the yard, and even drag stuff home, where it is advantageous. There’s plenty of fire wood. I use the ashes in my soil. Win win. It’s awesome, that such a simple thing is rewarding to me. Two less things I need to buy.
The rest of my organic material gets composted into good dirt. Living in Tampa, Florida, we don’t have soil, mostly. We have sand, mostly. Amending the sand with endless organic material is crucial to growing more than sand spurs. Soil is the one thing you have control over. Light is light, water is water, air is air, climate is climate, plants are plants. Building soil though, that you can alter to suit what you want to grow.
PH, wetness, shade, even exposure, picking the right plant for the right location, all of it tied to soil.
Speaking of plants.
I’ve got two working float trays now. Float trays are used to start seed plugs, mostly for tobacco, but they work in general, for all seeds. They are made from styrofoam, and float on water. You fill the tray with a good germination mix, or in my case, yard-made sand and compost, plant your seeds, mist the top, and keep the trays floating on water. The trays stay irrigated, and when the seedlings are ready, you pop them out and plant them in their next location.
Growing from seed is one of those differences between being a gardener, and someone who works in the yard. It is also much more productive. Seeds are like free, and plants sell for good money. So making plants from seeds pays well, if you want it too.
Time warp.
I’ve taken on a job, for myself, to build a bicycle taillight, and next a bicycle headlight. From scratch. So I got the surface mounted device (smd) LEDs, tiny little specks that require surface mount printed circuit boards (pcb). Huh. My first contact with electronics happened about fifty years ago, and things were a lot bigger then. Back then, well back then you couldn’t make what I’m about to make, the tech didn’t exist. But building stuff back then was much easier.
These days, you need a digital microscope, surface mount equipment, a damn steady hand, and the ability to create your own circuit boards. At least for finished products.
I can’t vouch for the steady hand, but I do have the rest of it. The cool part is that you build it on the computer, then prototype/breadboard, to verify the design, then “print” the board(s). With boards in hand, you then go about populating the board with components. Digital camera/scope, tweezers, flux, SMT rework station to solder, test equipment. This is now basic stuff.
That sounds like a lot of trouble, and it is easier and cheaper just to by a bicycle taillight, but far less enriching. After all, if you can make a thing from scratch, you can make most anything. Like my home brews of old, I would brew beers I could not purchase. That’s the payoff for learning how to do for yourself. Getting what you want, the way you want it. Building what money can’t buy. Same holds true for clothing, cuisine and programs. 🙂
Cookies!
Like cookies. If you’ve not tried it, try this. Take your cookie dough and cook a few off in the microwave. I put three or four on a glass plate, and nuke them for one and a half to two minutes covered, then thirty second uncovered. Poof! It works. I stay fat in fresh cookies, because I nuke them on demand. Keeping the raw dough in the fridge (or freezer). Use microwave safe glass, and being as there’s all kinds of fat in my cookie dough, there’s no need to grease the glass. Just plop down your dollops of dough, and nuke away. Off the glass, onto the cooling rack. A few cooling minutes later its munch time.
I’ll still bake them in the convection oven, but only when I’m using that oven to heat the room. And can wait thirty to forty minutes to eat them.
They go great with Cuban coffee. And Tampa cigar.
What do you do for yourself that most people just go out and buy?
Thanks for the visit. Please share this if you like. See you next time!
Clarity, unity, organization, action. Let’s not fail where it counts.
Be American. Stay American!
David Weeks, Information Developer, Tampa, Florida.