C.S. Wilson's Blog, page 3

Over at Women on Writing, today's post was a writing chal...

Over at Women on Writing, today's post was a writing challenge. I've always loved writing challenges, and have done several in the past. Since I'm trying to get back into writing shape, the Webb Writing Challenge is exactly the exercise I need. I've linked directly to the post, but I also want an easy to access list for myself, so I've copied it below:

Write a poemUse your name as a writing prompt.Pen a flash fiction in a genre you don't usually write.Find inspiration in a favorite song - either the lyrics or memories connected to the song.Everyone loves a surprise ending. Write something with a twist.Try some epistolary writing - tell a story through other writing (letters, texts, emails, diary entries, police blotter, etc.).Learn something new and use it in your writing.Write about a place you've never been - an actual place or an imaginary world you create.Create a random question (or use a question generator), then answer it with a piece of writing.Condense the time period of your piece - have it happen in 24 hours or less.Be someone new! Write from a viewpoint different from yours - different age, gender, religion, politics, financial situation, time period, profession, etc.Choose another piece of writing as your jumping off point; anything from a novel to a news story to a birthday card from your Aunt Marion.There are 27 emotions: admiration, adoration, aesthetic appreciation, amusement, anger, anxiety, awe, awkwardness, boredom, calmness, confusion, craving, disgust, empathic pain, entrancement, excitement, fear, horror, interest, joy, nostalgia, relief, romance, sadness, satisfaction, sexual desire, surprise. Focus on one in your next writing.Allow the next person you eat a meal with to suggest a writing topic.Infuse an inherently unlikable character with traits that make your readers root for them.This one is going to be tough and require me to really push my boundaries. There's not a single prompt listed that is a no-brainer for me. I'm excited about this, and will be sprinkling these writings throughout my blog posts for the next year or so.

The Outhouse, Part 2

I'm not sure when it happened, or why, but between turning 50 and Bill being killed*, I turned into some sentimental crazy lady. I find myself getting sentimental about the dumbest things. 

First, the Whimsical Treehouse. When I'd explained what I wanted to do with the old pallets and extra windows from the Lodge, Beel was all in. Hell, I am even sentimental about the pallets, because we'd used them to help train the horses. Instead of being horse bridges, the pallets became walls. Within just a few weeks of Jay and I returning from Italy, and telling Bell about my cockamamie idea of building a greenhouse so I could grow my own pomegranate trees, he was killed, but I didn't let the idea of the greenhouse die with him. Mom and I built Whimsy, which was a good healing project, and now she's got a great origin story.

Whimsy is home to a pineapple and pomegranate,
plus all of her outside friends: concord grapes,
honeysuckle, kiwi berries,
tomatoes, rosemary, and lavender.

Then the cross-buck fence. For Pete's sake, it's a section of stupid broken down old fence. But I couldn't let Mom get rid of all of it. That stupid broken down old fence contained three generations of our 'stangs. If the fence could talk, it would have some amazing stories. Now it's a part of my garden. 

Peas, cucumbers, and corn.

And now, the outhouse. I was so excited to get it back into service, to bring a part of our livery back to life. Then it crashed and burned. Again. 

I was worried about the handwash station blowing over,
not the outhouse (this time).
My heart sank when I saw the crack in the wall.

I didn't think much about the potential damage the night of our get-together, because the wind had knocked it over a couple of times previously, and the worst that happened was the roof had fallen off. However, I knew, when I walked up the next morning and saw the crack in the side that I might have to tell the outhouse goodbye, that the stupid wind might have finally killed it. I was crushed and a bit ashamed to admit how upset I was about the outhouse being gone.

At least the roof stayed on this time? LOL

It's a stupid little outhouse made of plywood and a pallet, nothing to get upset about. Except ... except ... that stupid little outhouse was a reminder of the summer that we ran the livery. 

The summer I worked three jobs, but each weekend I took a different child up to work with me and we got to spend one-on-one time together. 

The summer I fell in love with Queen Estes, my first heart horse. 

The more I thought about it, the more I realized it wasn't just a stupid little outhouse. That little building that Beel built had been around for some pivotal memories, no wonder I was upset about it.

The night after it was blown over, the night I realized the extent of the damage, I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned. In the middle of the night, as it so often happens, something Jay said came to mind, "it's just so top-heavy". He was right. The outhouse was too top-heavy and I should have not given in to my lazy side - I should have anchored it. I spent a couple of hours beating myself up about that, too. Then, just as I was finally drifting off, in the wee hours of the morning, a thought popped into my head, "what if I used tin on the roof just like Maggie? That would decrease the weight by a lot." I remembered that I had some leftover tin from building Maggie, maybe a piece would fit. Maybe I could just replace the cracked side of the outhouse. With that, I was finally able to sleep.

When Mom came down a couple of days later to watch the arraignment** with me, we decided it would be a good use of our time and would help us burn off some frustration to see if we could fix the outhouse.

We were both busy tearing off the roof, and forgot to take pictures, but we did manage to get it off. Mom thought that if we could just get the roof off, we could square up the sides and pull the cracked pieces back into place. We had to prop the backside of the outhouse up with cinder blocks after (wo)manhandled the roof off. She was right - with the roof off, we were able to square it up again.

The Bionic Cowgirl putting her bionics to work.

Adding more structural support.
It turns out I was right also - I did have some leftover tin from Maggie's roof. The bit that I had Chief cut off was just the perfect size! We scrounged around and pulled the screws from the old roof to use to attach the new tin roof. Yes, I'm using a hammer, but just to punch a bit of a hole into the tin so I could use the drill to drive the screw. I'm sure there is a proper tool for the job, but I used what we had within reach.
Lots of concentration to avoid hitting my thumb.
New roof installed!

We were able to square up the outhouse, and in doing so, just as we'd hoped, it pulled the cracked side into alignment.  For now, the outhouse is resting on the cinderblocks. When I have time, I will glue the crack, and add in the missing piece. It's not getting to stand up again until after I have the anchors securely placed in the ground and attachment points on the outhouse itself. I'm also going to change the orientation. I'd placed the outhouse along the periphery of the property, with the door opening to the west. It was cute that way, because it was "facing" the property. Now, though, I'm going to rotate the outhouse 90 degrees so that the door is facing south, allowing for the roof line to follow the same angles as Maggie and Whimsy - the wind seems to flow up and over them nicely, so I'm hoping it'll do the same with the outhouse.

*It makes people flinch when I flatly say that Bill was killed, instead of the kinder, gentler "we lost Bill" or "Bill died", but the fact of the matter is that a distracted, meth'd up driver killed him, and I'm not going to sugarcoat it.

**We're still in the beginning stages, believe it or not, of the court proceedings, despite it being two and a half years since the accident. We were hopeful that the arraignment would go well, but all that happened was another extension and court date in August for an arraignment then. I'll post a full update in the very near future over on Mom and Bill's blog.

The Saga of the Outhouse, Part 2

I'm not sure when it happened, or why, but between turning 50 and Bill being killed*, I turned into some sentimental crazy lady. I find myself getting sentimental about the dumbest things. 

First, the Whimsical Treehouse. When I'd explained what I wanted to do with the old pallets and extra windows from the Lodge, Beel was all in. Hell, I am even sentimental about the pallets, because we'd used them to help train the horses. Instead of being horse bridges, the pallets became walls. Within just a few weeks of Jay and I returning from Italy, and telling Bell about my cockamamie idea of building a greenhouse so I could grow my own pomegranate trees, he was killed, but I didn't let the idea of the greenhouse die with him. Mom and I built Whimsy, which was a good healing project, and now she's got a great origin story.

Whimsy is home to a pineapple and pomegranate,
plus all of her outside friends: concord grapes,
honeysuckle, kiwi berries,
tomatoes, rosemary, and lavender.

Then the cross-buck fence. For Pete's sake, it's a section of stupid broken down old fence. But I couldn't let Mom get rid of all of it. That stupid broken down old fence contained three generations of our 'stangs. If the fence could talk, it would have some amazing stories. Now it's a part of my garden. 

Peas, cucumbers, and corn.

And now, the outhouse. I was so excited to get it back into service, to bring a part of our livery back to life. Then it crashed and burned. Again. 

I was worried about the handwash station blowing over,
not the outhouse (this time).
My heart sank when I saw the crack in the wall.

I didn't think much about the potential damage the night of our get-together, because the wind had knocked it over a couple of times previously, and the worst that happened was the roof had fallen off. However, I knew, when I walked up the next morning and saw the crack in the side that I might have to tell the outhouse goodbye, that the stupid wind might have finally killed it. I was crushed and a bit ashamed to admit how upset I was about the outhouse being gone.

At least the roof stayed on this time? LOL

It's a stupid little outhouse made of plywood and a pallet, nothing to get upset about. Except ... except ... that stupid little outhouse was a reminder of the summer that we ran the livery. 

The summer I worked three jobs, but each weekend I took a different child up to work with me and we got to spend one-on-one time together. 

The summer I fell in love with Queen Estes, my first heart horse. 

The more I thought about it, the more I realized it wasn't just a stupid little outhouse. That little building that Beel built had been around for some pivotal memories, no wonder I was upset about it.

The night after it was blown over, the night I realized the extent of the damage, I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned. In the middle of the night, as it so often happens, something Jay said came to mind, "it's just so top-heavy". He was right. The outhouse was too top-heavy and I should have not given in to my lazy side - I should have anchored it. I spent a couple of hours beating myself up about that, too. Then, just as I was finally drifting off, in the wee hours of the morning, a thought popped into my head, "what if I used tin on the roof just like Maggie? That would decrease the weight by a lot." I remembered that I had some leftover tin from building Maggie, maybe a piece would fit. Maybe I could just replace the cracked side of the outhouse. With that, I was finally able to sleep.

When Mom came down a couple of days later to watch the arraignment** with me, we decided it would be a good use of our time and would help us burn off some frustration to see if we could fix the outhouse.

We were both busy tearing off the roof, and forgot to take pictures, but we did manage to get it off. Mom thought that if we could just get the roof off, we could square up the sides and pull the cracked pieces back into place. We had to prop the backside of the outhouse up with cinder blocks after (wo)manhandled the roof off. She was right - with the roof off, we were able to square it up again.

The Bionic Cowgirl putting her bionics to work.

Adding more structural support.
It turns out I was right also - I did have some leftover tin from Maggie's roof. The bit that I had Chief cut off was just the perfect size! We scrounged around and pulled the screws from the old roof to use to attach the new tin roof. Yes, I'm using a hammer, but just to punch a bit of a hole into the tin so I could use the drill to drive the screw. I'm sure there is a proper tool for the job, but I used what we had within reach.
Lots of concentration to avoid hitting my thumb.
New roof installed!

We were able to square up the outhouse, and in doing so, just as we'd hoped, it pulled the cracked side into alignment.  For now, the outhouse is resting on the cinderblocks. When I have time, I will glue the crack, and add in the missing piece. It's not getting to stand up again until after I have the anchors securely placed in the ground and attachment points on the outhouse itself. I'm also going to change the orientation. I'd placed the outhouse along the periphery of the property, with the door opening to the west. It was cute that way, because it was "facing" the property. Now, though, I'm going to rotate the outhouse 90 degrees so that the door is facing south, allowing for the roof line to follow the same angles as Maggie and Whimsy - the wind seems to flow up and over them nicely, so I'm hoping it'll do the same with the outhouse.

*It makes people flinch when I flatly say that Bill was killed, instead of the kinder, gentler "we lost Bill" or "Bill died", but the fact of the matter is that a distracted, meth'd up driver killed him, and I'm not going to sugarcoat it.

**We're still in the beginning stages, believe it or not, of the court proceedings, despite it being two and a half years since the accident. We were hopeful that the arraignment would go well, but all that happened was another extension and court date in August for an arraignment then. I'll post a full update in the very near future over on Mom and Bill's blog.

The Outhouse, Part 1

Jay and I love to host BBQs at our place. I use the term BBQ loosely. Maybe they should be called “food events” instead. We live in a very small house, so hosting has to be done during the summer months. Our events typically are attended by between 20-30 people. Not a ton, but not an insignificant number either.

Last summer, just as we were getting ready to host an event, we were headed home from the store and I was running down my to-do list in my head. Because our house is so small, and the only access to the bathroom is through the mudroom, kitchen, and our bedroom, I feel the need to clean the whole house. I’m a feral housewife, not a domestic one, so I keep the house lived-in, but not spotless. I mentioned to Jay that maybe we should just rent a porta-potty for our BBQs, then no one would have to go through our house to get to the bathroom

As soon as the words left my mouth, I remembered that Bill built a collapsible outhouse to use at the livery we ran 20-ish years ago. I knew for a fact that it was still standing at the lodge, so I called Mom to see if I could have it.

She was kind enough to say yes, and the next time I was up there, we disassembled it and loaded it onto the back of her truck. It was definitely worse for wear, but I was confident that we could revive it.

There was no way I could get the outhouse ready for the upcoming gathering, but looked forward to getting to use it for this year’s events.

I managed to assemble the outhouse, but not at all the way Bill did it. He’d designed it to fold flat, and then be stood up, like a cardboard box, but there was too much damage to some of the support structures to do that, and I had to replace them. It was a really cool design, but I couldn’t replicate it. Since my intention was not to have to move it from place to place, I figured I’d just screw it all together and not worry about its relocation potential.

All laid out and getting its cat scan

Bill had built it on a pallet with some linoleum flooring, but the pallet disintegrated when we took the outhouse apart. Pallets are not in short supply around our house, so I replaced the pallet and added some stick ‘em vinyl planks. 

Once I had the fancy floor in, it was time to assemble the walls. I think Bill's intention, in addition to making it moveable, was to make it so that one person could set it up and take it down. That one person, of course, being him. Since it was no longer the fold-flat design, I had to have help holding the walls up as I screwed them together.

The plywood roof had been too damaged to keep, so the outhouse remained an open-air version of itself until I could find replacement roof. Mom had some left-over shingles and a sheet of plywood that would work, so the next time Chief came over to work on Maggie, I asked him to put the roof up, too.

The kids' friends are certainly handy to have around.

Mom had offered me their chemical toilet that we’d used with the outhouse, but once I started looking into the waste disposal I passed. Bill always handled the waste disposal, and let me tell you, I had no idea what really went into it. He’d come to the livery every morning, take the toilet to the lodge, do some magic, and bring it back a little bit later ready to use.

I started looking into alternatives and came across some bags meant to line 5-gallon bucket toilets. Additionally, there is a gel to add to the waste that turns it into a compostable solid. The whole bag, once solid, becomes compostable. But let me tell you, no human waste is going into my garden. The bag o’ stuff can just compost at the county dump, not our house.

I’m not opposed to the 5-gallon bucket camping toilet set-up, but was certain I could find something better - and I did! An old chamber pot cabinet. I picked it up from FB marketplace for next to nothing. It's a little rough and needs some sanding/finishing, but I love it. It doesn't look very big, but the bucket is about a gallon, which should be plenty for a gathering of our size.

By the end of October last year, the outhouse was ready for use.

But, then winter hit, and with it, the winds. Stupid Colorado winds blew the outhouse over and knocked the roof clean off. I let the outhouse lie on its side for a while, then got motivated to put the roof back on and stand it back up. It stood without a problem for a few months until another big gust knocked it over again.

I knew by then that I needed to anchor it in some way, and bought some big screw-in ground anchors from the jungle website. Jay and I stood it up yet again. The anchors were awesome and had a bit attachment for my drill that would help drive them into the ground.

Except, I didn’t take into account that our ground is so rocky. Even with the drill, the anchors weren’t going into the ground. The outhouse was standing, and I decided figuring out the anchors was a problem for another day. My mental solution was to borrow Mom’s auger, drill the holes for the anchors, throw in a handful of concrete, backfill it, water it, and then the anchors wouldn’t be likely to pull out and the outhouse would stand despite our stupid winds.

The morning of our most recent gathering, the outhouse was still standing, but I mentioned to Jay that we really should get the anchors in the ground, just in case. We had time that day, but got busy doing other things while getting ready. As the party time got closer, I mentioned it again, not really wanting to get out the auger and drill holes, but thinking we should probably do it. We discussed it and Jay said, "it'll be fine unless we get some tornado-type winds". Giving into my lazy side, I agreed, then went about getting it ready for the get-together. I lined the chamber pot, added toilet paper to holder, and mounted the remote for the solar light on the wall. I then moved our handwashing station from the shop out next to the outhouse.
Only one thing left to do - take it for it's maiden voyage. So, I did. I had to pee anyway, why not use my handy dandy outhouse? It was a good thing I did, too. 
I realized that the door didn't latch from the inside, the door wasn't hanging square, not that it really ever did, but it was off just enough that latching it was not going to happen. It was an easy fix, took three minutes, and we were ready for people!
It stormed off and on for the hour before people were due to arrive, but the blue sky appeared and it looked like we dodged the biggest part of the storm. Jay was just getting ready to light the grill when the wind shifted and got violent. Really violent, like the edge of a tornado violent. It only lasted about five minutes, but when all was said and done, the outhouse with it's fresh liquid gold deposit was laying on its side again.

The Saga of the Outhouse, Part 1

Jay and I love to host BBQs at our place. I use the term BBQ loosely. Maybe they should be called “food events” instead. We live in a very small house, so hosting has to be done during the summer months. Our events typically are attended by between 20-30 people. Not a ton, but not an insignificant number either.

Last summer, just as we were getting ready to host an event, we were headed home from the store and I was running down my to-do list in my head. Because our house is so small, and the only access to the bathroom is through the mudroom, kitchen, and our bedroom, I feel the need to clean the whole house. I’m a feral housewife, not a domestic one, so I keep the house lived-in, but not spotless. I mentioned to Jay that maybe we should just rent a porta-potty for our BBQs, then no one would have to go through our house to get to the bathroom

As soon as the words left my mouth, I remembered that Bill built a collapsible outhouse to use at the livery we ran 20-ish years ago. I knew for a fact that it was still standing at the lodge, so I called Mom to see if I could have it.

She was kind enough to say yes, and the next time I was up there, we disassembled it and loaded it onto the back of her truck. It was definitely worse for wear, but I was confident that we could revive it.

There was no way I could get the outhouse ready for the upcoming gathering, but looked forward to getting to use it for this year’s events.

I managed to assemble the outhouse, but not at all the way Bill did it. He’d designed it to fold flat, and then be stood up, like a cardboard box, but there was too much damage to some of the support structures to do that, and I had to replace them. It was a really cool design, but I couldn’t replicate it. Since my intention was not to have to move it from place to place, I figured I’d just screw it all together and not worry about its relocation potential.

All laid out and getting its cat scan

Bill had built it on a pallet with some linoleum flooring, but the pallet disintegrated when we took the outhouse apart. Pallets are not in short supply around our house, so I replaced the pallet and added some stick ‘em vinyl planks. 

Once I had the fancy floor in, it was time to assemble the walls. I think Bill's intention, in addition to making it moveable, was to make it so that one person could set it up and take it down. That one person, of course, being him. Since it was no longer the fold-flat design, I had to have help holding the walls up as I screwed them together.

The plywood roof had been too damaged to keep, so the outhouse remained an open-air version of itself until I could find replacement roof. Mom had some left-over shingles and a sheet of plywood that would work, so the next time Chief came over to work on Maggie, I asked him to put the roof up, too.

The kids' friends are certainly handy to have around.

Mom had offered me their chemical toilet that we’d used with the outhouse, but once I started looking into the waste disposal I passed. Bill always handled the waste disposal, and let me tell you, I had no idea what really went into it. He’d come to the livery every morning, take the toilet to the lodge, do some magic, and bring it back a little bit later ready to use.

I started looking into alternatives and came across some bags meant to line 5-gallon bucket toilets. Additionally, there is a gel to add to the waste that turns it into a compostable solid. The whole bag, once solid, becomes compostable. But let me tell you, no human waste is going into my garden. The bag o’ stuff can just compost at the county dump, not our house.

I’m not opposed to the 5-gallon bucket camping toilet set-up, but was certain I could find something better - and I did! An old chamber pot cabinet. I picked it up from FB marketplace for next to nothing. It's a little rough and needs some sanding/finishing, but I love it. It doesn't look very big, but the bucket is about a gallon, which should be plenty for a gathering of our size.

By the end of October last year, the outhouse was ready for use.

But, then winter hit, and with it, the winds. Stupid Colorado winds blew the outhouse over and knocked the roof clean off. I let the outhouse lie on its side for a while, then got motivated to put the roof back on and stand it back up. It stood without a problem for a few months until another big gust knocked it over again.

I knew by then that I needed to anchor it in some way, and bought some big screw-in ground anchors from the jungle website. Jay and I stood it up yet again. The anchors were awesome and had a bit attachment for my drill that would help drive them into the ground.

Except, I didn’t take into account that our ground is so rocky. Even with the drill, the anchors weren’t going into the ground. The outhouse was standing, and I decided figuring out the anchors was a problem for another day. My mental solution was to borrow Mom’s auger, drill the holes for the anchors, throw in a handful of concrete, backfill it, water it, and then the anchors wouldn’t be likely to pull out and the outhouse would stand despite our stupid winds.

The morning of our most recent gathering, the outhouse was still standing, but I mentioned to Jay that we really should get the anchors in the ground, just in case. We had time that day, but got busy doing other things while getting ready. As the party time got closer, I mentioned it again, not really wanting to get out the auger and drill holes, but thinking we should probably do it. We discussed it and Jay said, "it'll be fine unless we get some tornado-type winds". Giving into my lazy side, I agreed, then went about getting it ready for the get-together. I lined the chamber pot, added toilet paper to holder, and mounted the remote for the solar light on the wall. I then moved our handwashing station from the shop out next to the outhouse.
Only one thing left to do - take it for it's maiden voyage. So, I did. I had to pee anyway, why not use my handy dandy outhouse? It was a good thing I did, too. 
I realized that the door didn't latch from the inside, the door wasn't hanging square, not that it really ever did, but it was off just enough that latching it was not going to happen. It was an easy fix, took three minutes, and we were ready for people!
It stormed off and on for the hour before people were due to arrive, but the blue sky appeared and it looked like we dodged the biggest part of the storm. Jay was just getting ready to light the grill when the wind shifted and got violent. Really violent, like the edge of a tornado violent. It only lasted about five minutes, but when all was said and done, the outhouse with it's fresh liquid gold deposit was laying on its side again.

First Pomegranate, Now Pineapple

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine thought she'd try to propagate a pineapple by using the top of a store-bought one. Now, had I tried it, there's no way in hell it would have worked, but her green thumb is a thing of beauty. Not only was she able to grow from a cut pineapple top, her original plant had "pups" (sucker) and one plant turned into a few.

I had been oohing and aahing over her pineapples, and last year she offered me a pup. However, by the time we got around to meeting up, it wasn't so much a pup as an adolescent plant. She was kind enough to send it to me in one of her pots, but I needed to repot the plant into one of my own.

I know even less about pineapples than I do about pomegranates, and I was certain I'd killed Pina during the repotting process. Lucky for her, she went into the greenhouse at work within a day or two of me repotting her, so she had a fighting chance. 

Greenhouse move-in day

A pineapple's growth is glacially slow. Despite taking pictures of her almost weekly, I couldn't see it. Compared to Diana the Pomegranate's growth, it looked like all Pina was doing was what I expected - staying alive over winter.

In almost three months, she looked the same to me as the day she moved in. I hadn't killed her while repotting her - whew - and she was surviving the cold Colorado winter. I had initially intended to bring her home when I brought Diana home, but decided to wait until we got back from vacation. Pineapples don't do temperatures below 50* F well, and the night time temperatures were hovering right around that, plus it was cold and rainy for about three weeks straight.

Finally, our weather leveled out enough that I figured she wouldn't die in Whimsy, and I brought her home. All that growth that I was blind to? It literally slapped me in the face when I tried to move her from the greenhouse at work. She easily went through the doors on move-in day. On move-out day, I needed help from a friend to get her through. 

Because I didn't see her growth, I thought I'd just slip her into the back seat of my car for the ride home. I managed to get her in there, but it required me to move the front passenger seat all the way forward and tip the seat forward. I'd intended to put her on the passenger side of the car, but she was too big for that. I had to use my foot to push her pot into the middle of the car seat, and even then, I had to bend some leaves to get the door to shut.

During the move from the greenhouse to the car, I noticed that she'd grown a pup. Where that came from, I have no idea. I didn't see one before my vacation, but I also wasn't looking.

The drive home was uneventful, but getting her unloaded and into Whimsy was a bit of a challenge. I learned from moving Diana to pay attention to the way I orient her in Whimsy. I had to back in through the door, but was able to rotate her pot so that her arms weren't blocking the doorway. The pup had to go, though. As cool as it would be to grow a second one, I'm not certain that I'll be able to keep Pina happy enough to fruit as is. She'll thrive in Whimsy at least through the summer, but I'm not sure how she'll do over winter. I'll have to really work to keep her warm enough, and she's too big for the house. The good news is, if I can keep Whimsy warm enough for her (above 50*F, which is unlikely), then Diana will thrive as well.

I just sat her pot down in what used to be Yelena's tires. There's going to be some rearranging in the near future. The tires are going away, and Pina will have a stool to sit on. I still need to put insulation and OSB up on this end of Whimsy, but since Pina's in a pot, it'll be easy to move her and work around her. I have some time off next week, and am hopeful I can finish up.

It's been a long haul, but my greenhouse/garden dreams are slowly coming to fruition.

Out to Whimsy She Goes

The whole point of building Whimsy was to grow pomegranates, and the whole point of putting Diana in the greenhouse at work was to keep her alive through her first winter. Eventually, I was going to have to put them together, right?

There were just a couple of things I needed to do with Whimsy before moving Diana in, and Mom was kind enough to help with them. First, I needed to place screens over the windows, so that as she grew, she couldn't stick her arms out the window. Also, I wanted to improve the walls. I'd put insulation in when we built Whimsy, but I'd just covered it with heavy duty black trash bags, thinking the black would help absorb the heat and act as a heat sink. It didn't help as much as I thought it would, so I put up "real" walls with OSB. The OSB should help block some of the wind and cold down low. 

Both the screens and OSB had to be put up before I planted Diana, because I knew working around her would be difficult. She's pokey and sticky, and, honestly, miserable to be working around/under/through.

(Please ignore the haze on the pictures - we'd been sawing and sawdust coated everything, including the camera lens. Also, I should have given the windows a good scrubbing.)

Just the simple act of adding the OSB makes Whimsy feel ...
more substantial, like a "real" greenhouse.
These windows open from the outside. When it gets really hot
this summer, I'll open them for more air movement/heat loss.

Finally, the day came that I'd chosen to move Diana out of L.E.'s house. She had been throwing a temper tantrum at being moved from the perfect conditions in the work greenhouse, to really good conditions in L.E.'s south-facing window. Almost immediately, she started dropping leaves and generally being a temperamental, rude houseguest. God bless L.E. for putting up with her and not kicking her out.

Jay was kind enough to help me use the auger to dig a hole big enough for Diana's considerable root ball, and I went to collect her from L.E.'s house. You can see the change in her between the two pictures, and it was about a week.

Move out day couldn't come soon enough,
for L.E. or Diana.

For a plant that was throwing a temper tantrum about being in L.E.'s beautiful, climate controlled house, she sure the hell didn't want to leave. She left a trail of destruction in her wake. Her branches grabbed onto the doorways as she tried to prevent me from carrying her out. 
Leaves and fruits went flying.

Eventually, we were able to disentangle her, and plop her down into the Gremlin's little red wagon for the short trip to Whimsy.

I mixed up a few gallons of root hormone/stabilizer to hopefully help with the transition from being a potted plant to being an in-ground plant. She'll have from now until the end of September/beginning of October to stretch her roots and settle herself into Whimsy.
Before pruning.

When I picked her up out of her pot, I naturally went around to the more bare side. The side with the least amount of branches, pokey things, and stickiness. Then I backed into Whimsy to drag her branches in behind, instead of trying to stuff her branches in first. It made perfect sense when I did it. What I failed to do was rotate 90 degrees once I was in Whimsy, which would have put her biggest branches in the southeast corner instead of blocking the doorway. When did I realize this? After I'd planted, stepped on her, and soaked her with 3 gallons of root stabilizer. I was not about to dig her back up to turn her 90 degrees.  I had made a tactical error when I planted her, and didn't realize it until I started pruning. Sometimes, I'm such an idiot.

She stabbed me a couple of times as I was moving her from her pot to her new hole in the ground, and speckled me with sap, but I finally got her shoe-horned into the hole we'd dug. It was about 1/2" too small all the way around, so I kept shaving away at it with the shovel until I could get the majority of her root ball in. Then, I stepped on her. Repeatedly, until she sank down into the hole sufficiently. It's probably not the right way to do it, but it's the GunDiva way. I soaked her really well with the root stabilizer, and Jay helped me temporarily prop her up.

I had purposely not done any pruning, because I didn't want her to put too much energy into her roots. I'd saved all the pruning until she was planted.

The first things that went were any branches or air shoots on the bottom 18". I chose the strongest, sturdiest looking three "trunks" I could find, and cut away anything else. Then, I took some handy baling twine and wrapped it around the three "trunks" to draw them together to form as close to one "trunk" as possible. This helped her stand up a bit better. I did plant a support pole next to her that I tied her to. I kept the little 1x3" board we'd propped her up with initially, and will keep it there until she's a little steadier and less lean-y.

Finally, I scooted out from under her, and went to town on the branches. Any branches that looked sickly or dry, or that had lost most of their leaves got the axe. Well, not so much the axe, as the pruning shears.

I left her one little fruit, because I couldn't bare to cut all of them off. But I did tell her that it's okay if she drops it. It's way more important for her to establish her root system and grow strong, healthy branches instead of fruit this year.

After pruning.

A couple of days later, I went back and trimmed the branches that were blocking the doorway. If I hadn't screwed up in the first place with her placement, I wouldn't have needed to cut them back. Despite being much thinner, and looking much shorter now that she's in the ground instead of in a pot, she looks good. And, dare I say, happy with her new living situation.

I'll make a small box around her base and make sure that it's mulched well with straw to help her maintain her moisture, but once pomegranates are established, they're drought-tolerant. I think, for the winter, I might build her a cage of PVC pipe and drape it with heavy plastic to help protect her from winds and the cold. For our week or two of below zero temps, I'll hang a heat lamp for her.

Now to just get her to winter ...

Spring: Full of (Garden) Hopes

Now that spring is well underway, I've managed to complete the majority of my planting. I did sort-of follow the "no planting until after Mother's Day" rule for Colorado. Now it's a waiting (and watering) game.

Sadly, the seeds we attempted to start in Maggie the Magical Potting Shed didn't take. L.E. and I are still trying to figure out what we're doing wrong, since we haven't gotten a seed to germinate in two years.

Since they didn't take, I bought some tomato starts from our local greenhouse/nursery. For the past couple of years, I've attempted to grow my tomatoes in 5-gallon buckets, but they've really struggled. At the end of last year, I decided to build two tomato boxes - one for each side of Whimsy's doorway. I had a couple of extra pallets lying around, so I chopped them up, gathered whatever random wood I could find, and built them. They're rustic as all get-out, a mis-matched mess. Or as L.E. would call them, 'whimsical'. I planted in them a few days ago, and the tomatoes are looking pretty good. Certainly better than they ever did in the 5-gallon buckets.

The boxes will eventually be painted barn red to match Whimsy.

Jay's favorite tomato to use the the San Marzano, so for the third year in a row, I'm trying. Nebalee and L.E.'s San Marzanos grew incredibly well last year. Mine did not. I ended up with about two quart bags of tomatoes for the freezer, and that was a stretch to get.

~~~

Last year, Mom decided it was time to replace the cross-buck fence that surrounded her horse pen. Her new fence looks amazing, and initially, I was more than happy to see the cross-buck go. Honestly, it was so old that it needed repaired every summer, and was in danger of falling over at any moment. It was a right pain in the arse. I was happy to see it go until I got all sentimental and realized I couldn't let the whole fence go. I needed a piece of our horse history, so I asked her for a section. The fence had contained two generations of mustangs: Ranger and Shadow; Ranger and Jesse, then Washoe. Estes. Skeeter. Alloy. Pearl. I couldn't let it go, I needed to keep a section.

At the time, I had some vague idea of using it to plant something in. I didn't know what at the time, but I knew I needed to have a piece of that fence. By the end of last summer, I'd decided that it would make a great pea patch and erected it between Whimsy and Maggie. I layered some manure from the horse pen, then added topsoil and let it sit all winter.

The peas needed something to climb, so L.E. loaned me
one of her foldable trellis things.
I love the peas' little "grabby hands" finding
and latching onto the support.

~~~

I am a lover of pallet projects, which shouldn't come as a surprise considering Whimsy and Maggie are both made from pallets. I built my tomato boxes from broken old pallets. Jay and I have a little "pallet porch" on the east side of our house with two Adirondack chairs that my uncle made from pallets. Between them sits a side table made from pallets, which now holds my fuchsias.

So it shouldn't come to a surprise to anyone that when L.E. had her windows replaced, and her new windows arrived on a structure made of pallets that I was eye-balling it. When she offered it to me, I couldn't jump on it fast enough. It just screamed to be used for some vining plant, but what?

I initially thought about pumpkin, because Nebalee's pumpkins last year climbed her arch and looked great. But ... I'm not a huge pumpkin fan. I already had peas and cucumbers accounted for in the cross-buck pea patch, so I decided to try my hand at sugar baby watermelons. L.E. and I can train them to climb, and with any luck, we will get a melon or two.

I spent last night enclosing the bottom pallet and filling it with manure and soil. The top of the back end of the pallet is just a hair over five feet. If the plants climb up the angled front part, and down the back (with some help and training from L.E. and me), that's about ten feet of climbing they've got. If necessary, I can add a hog panel to it in an arch, like I have in front of Whimsy. (Actually, I might do that anyway, just to be on the safe side.)

I didn't want the front half of the pallet to go unused, so I looked up companion plants for watermelon. The first two listed were peas and cucumbers, but those are already planted in the pea patch. I scrolled further and found that peppers are also a good companion. Jay and I use a lot of peppers, so I bought some pepper starts from some kids at a garage sale last week.

Jalapeno, serrano, serrano, habanero.
Hopefully, they'll survive.

~~~

On FB the other day, a friend of mine was saying that she's always wanted a big, beautiful garden, but the soil in her area is mostly clay and rocks. She lives less than 20 miles away, so I understand what she's talking about with regard to soil quality. The thing is, yes, our soil isn't the easiest to grow in, but there are work-arounds. For me, it's repurposing pretty much anything that will hold soil.

Potatoes in a tire stack
Garden freckles in old enamelware.
Concord grapes in the tires behind the pot.
Rusted out charcoal BBQ grill? Flowers.
Onions in the pallet collars.

I will never have the big, beautiful garden that my great-grandparents had, but the little bit that I do have is plenty. I must be getting old and sentimental, because I feel closer to my Great Grandma Wheeler when I garden (and when I can, but that's an end of the season thing).

Diana Moves Home

Before I talk about my wonderful, wonderful Wonder Woman pomegranate, Diana, I thought I'd give a quick update on my Black Widow pomegranate, Yelena. I did, indeed, love Yelena to death and she did not make it through the winter. I know I said I'd give her until June, but it was pretty obvious a few weeks ago that she had shriveled up and said "screw this". I can't blame her. She was a tough one, and probably would have made it if I hadn't messed with her so much.

Diana was a cute little thing when I got her. Here's a flashback of her baby pictures.

So she wasn't little-little, but compared to
her recent pictures, she was tiny.
She looked rough for a bit during her
transition from Georgia to Colorado, but she rebounded.
Move-in day to the greenhouse at work.
Diana, Pina the pineapple, and Lemony the lemon plant.
Pina looks great, but Lemony kicked the bucket a couple
of months in.

Diana thrived in the greenhouse! I put here in there to just survive the winter, all I wanted her to do was not die. She thought she went on a tropical vacation and exploded. At one point, she was growing between 6-8 inches a week.

Diana's last week in the greenhouse.

I had to move her out of the greenhouse in the beginning of April, because I was afraid that she'd get too big to move. Luckily, L.E. has a beautiful south-facing window that she has loaned us.

She's thriving in L.E.'s window as well

Being a Colorado native, I was completely ignorant of how pomegranates grew until I saw my first pomegranate tree in Italy, so I've been completely fascinated by how the fruit grows.

The buds grow very quickly
into this elongated thing before blooming.

As the bloom forms, but before it opens,
it looks like a demagorgan from Stanger Things.

You blink, and next thing you know,
there are fruits growing!
Diana will live with L.E. for a few weeks, probably until mid-May, before I move her to Whimsy. This time with L.E. is a great time to harden her off. Not that L.E.'s house is cold, but it is cooler than the greenhouse at work, and we're able to wean her off the drip system she was on. She'll get watered on a regular basis, but no more IV fluids for her. Once she moves out to Whimsy, she'll get a good trimming to start to train her to be a tree rather than a bush. And, sadly, I'll remove most of the fruit to encourage her to grow strong roots so she'll be ready for the winter.
I have a few things left to finish in Whimsy before Diana goes in the ground that hopefully won't take me too long to complete. I want to change out the insulation and put screens over the windows so she doesn't try to grow out of them over the summer.

Putting Maggie to Work

Following last year's failure to get any seeds to germinate, and the subsequent building of the Magical Potting Shed, we finally got to put Maggie to work. I'm not finished insulating Maggie, she's about 60% complete, and I need to buy a couple more sheets of insulation to get her to the point that Chief can put up the OSB walls. However, between the insulation I do have, and the warmer nights, L.E. and I decided it was time to start our seeds.

Not only did Maggie get to work, but we got to use the re-purposed potting bench! I've been looking forward to this day for a long time. Maggie isn't a large shed, but she's big enough for the three of us to work in there side-by-side. The pull-out dough board was perfect! It allowed me to work between L.E. and the Bionic Cowgirl without us bumping elbows.

This pull-out dough board is the
reason I fell in love with this piece.
Mom donated vintage trays to use.
L.E. getting going on her seeds.

L.E.'s seeds happily hanging out in a
south window.
My seeds in the other south window.

L.E. always plants a much more diverse garden than I do, but I'm getting there. This year, I'm attempting sugar snap peas, potatoes, and onions, which are already in the ground. The peas are starting to come up, but the potatoes and onions aren't doing much. They went in a week after the peas, so I expect to start seeing something in the next week or two.

The seeds I planted are San Marzano, brandywine, and cherry tomatoes, along with some small watermelons. I've become such a hoarder re-purposer, that I couldn't let L.E. get rid of a pallet stand thingy that her house windows came on. Instead, I'm going to enclose the bottom pallet, add dirt, and plant the watermelon so it can climb the pallet-formed trellis. 

I realized that after I plant the watermelons, I will still have a lot of area in the pallet that was going to be full of dirt, and I can't let that be unused. I looked up companion plants for watermelon, and found that I'd planted most of those elsewhere, but did find that they do well with peppers, so I'll buy some jalapeno and serrano starts to keep the watermelon plants company. 

I've also been trying to figure out what to plant on the north side of the pea patch, because I can't let that good dirt go to waste. I think I've settled on glass gem popcorn. I have a couple of varieties of sweet corn that I planted last year, but we have a very generous neighbor who allows us to harvest his sweet corn, so it seems silly to grow my own, if I can get some guaranteed good stuff from him. My glass gem popcorn didn't do well last year, but maybe this year, with more space it'll do better. Also in the pea patch, I'll plant cucumbers.

This is a huge increase from my attempt last year, but I've made some tweaks to my gardening plans, which basically means container gardening is out and in-ground gardening is in. 

Send all of the green thumb juju my garden's way, please. It'll need it.