the goose loves: The Garden Thymes, Issue #1

Hey, Friends! Welcome to my new post series - The Garden Thymes. Yes, that's a pun on newspapers and herbs. We keep it classy on this blog.

Since I've done pretty well with my Tuesday's Ten posts, I figured the best way to post more would be to design another series on a specific day. I played around with Weedin' Wednesdays and Farmin' Fridays, but decided to skip the alliteration this time and go for the classic wordplay on Thyme/Time. Funny story - we haven't even planted thyme. But you won't know that until Issue #3 or #4.

This project, like many others, began many months ago, when my hippie husband Billy decided we should plant a garden and harvest our own vegetables, herbs, etc. I figured that after 7 years of living in Portland,(7?! Can you believe it?!) it was time to give in to the green culture and get growin.

So we decided we'd break out our tools and build us a planter box.

Maybe you remember this photo, when we first shared it back in March. Yep, two months ago. But it was still snowing back then, so there was really no rush.

We found a great tutorial video online, which I can't seem to find now. Some google-ing will probably get you some good ideas to supplement this "tutorial." It's a pretty basic rectangular setup with four walls, no bottom, and no ledges. Maybe we'll add ledges later, since I think they look nice.

We priced out various lumber sizes, and ended up choosing nine 8'x6"x2" boards in order to make an 8' x 4' box, 18" high. If you do some math (or if I do your math for you), that's six boards for the sides (stacked vertically) and three boards for the ends, each cut in half. We also got a 4"x4"x8" post to secure the edges together, and got that cut into four 18" pieces, with a 24" piece leftover. Yay numbers.

Here's our kind Mr. Home Depot, slicing our boards for us. Sure, we have a saw, but they never rarely charge us for cuts, they are wayyy faster, and likely more accurate.

Then we get home, reasses our side yard (the future home of Planter), and decide that four feet wide is too fat, and three feet would be better.

 So THEN we pull out our saw, chop one foot off each of the newly-sliced 4-foot boards, and add those wooden feet onto the ends of our 8-foot boards, securing the pieces together with some scrap plywood that was hanging out in the garage.

Now we had wood to make a 9' x 3' box. (Below are some one-footers waiting to be connected.)

I like lots of screws - Billy doesn't. I won this time.

So here's our dog, posing next to our long sides - 9 feet long, 1.5 feet high. You can see our 3-foot ends in front of the goose, and our 1.5-foot posts standing up.

Ooh, looks like a planter! Sorta.

Where's Waldo Bentley?

Putting the sides together is very simple, but slightly time consuming. You line up your posts with the end of one side, and drill holes all the way through. We used 3/8" holes and 3/8" bolts that were 5.5" long. I let Billy do the hard work here.

Then you take a picture of your dog, who's taking a break from ripping up his nice shark bed in the yard.

Then you take a picture of your husband, who's still working hard on the planter box.

Our sides were made up of three 6" tall boards, so we drilled three holes on each end, spacing them out so that the bolts from one side didn't run into the bolts from the other side. The bolts on the right are at the top of each board, while the bolts on the left are at the bottom of each board.

Then you repeat for the other four sides. Ideally, when you went to the hardware store, you bought 24 bolts that were 5.5", instead of about 15 bolts that were 5.5" and 9 bolts that were other various lengths, like 5" and 4.5". If you didn't, then you can take a break and head back to the store to get the right parts. We would never buy the wrong sizes, though, of course, but just in case you run into that problem...

  We completed two "L" shapes with the four sides, and then brought them over to the side yard to be finished, since it would be way too heavy and awkward to carry the box into the side yard once it was all put together. And we know Billy's my muscles aren't that big. :) And you're right - it's not quite put together here.  We had to go to Home Depot and get the right size bolts.

And that's where I leave you! The Garden Thymes will resume next week, when it takes a closer look at the dirty side of gardening - dirt.

the goose loves tuesday's ten (#9)

Friends!

Can you believe it's Tuesday already?! These weeks have been flying by. I also apologize for giving you nothing each week but a pretty awesome weekly Tuesday post. I'm going to work on forcing myself into other "themed" weekly posts (on different days) so that you get more stuff to read. Because you definitely just sit here waiting for another post all week - what else would you do?

Sunny weekends have turned into a recent trend around here, and I'm 100% A-O-K with that. Except that still only getting two days of sun for every 5+ days of rain is still not enough. Or it's still enough for us Vitamin-D-deprived Portlanders to go crazy at the sight of sun. It's really a problem, though - we see the sun and we force ourselves outside. Or we feel guilty for being inside. Or I we get very overwhelmed about wanting to do everything within one weekend to enjoy the sun, and only having 48 hours (or less, really, because I do sleep) to do it all. Sunshine can be quite the burden! I'm working on letting go and just doing what I can.

 1. On Saturday, I took Bentley to the dogpark to

a) work towards Goal #17 and

b) meet 50 other beagles.

Okay well we didn't actually meet 50, but probably close to 20! The Portland Beagle Meet-Up Group met at our regular dogpark at noon on Saturday, so we figured it'd be a good time to meet a bunch of other crazy cute Bentley-types. We showed up closer to 1pm though, so we probably missed the full crowd. We saw a ton of beagles, but Bentley is still the cutest. And doesn't have the worst bark. Look at that happy puppy face. He loves sunshine too. See all that dirt on his tongue?

He also found a cow weimaraner to graze with. We love those dogs - maybe we'll get a weimaraner brother or sister for Bentley one day....  

Oh and that spot smelled really good, so he had to roll his whole body in it. Several times. For several minutes each. 

 2. We took advantage of the sun and hung our laundry outside. We fit a whole load (minus socks and undies) on this little clotheshorse and our main line. 

We were just finishing hanging the last shirt on the line, which is tied between the fence (as shown) and our back door lamp-thing, when the lamp popped out of the side of the house. Everything stayed intact within itself, but is only connected to the house by a dangling wire now. Oops. (I'm pretty sure the landlords don't read my blog... for good reason...). So we screwed a 5" screw into the house, and now the line hangs on that. For now. 

(P.S. Mom - I taught Billy some awesome clothes-hanging techniques that I learned from being your slave helping you hang clothes for all those years... like how to be economical with your line space and your clothespins. He suggested I write a manual. I think I'll leave that to you, though.) 

3. I love my boys. But they take some weird pictures. And only sometimes do I suggest the poses. 

This one is called "Best Friends - 8th Grade Photo-Shoot Style" (back to back). 

 4. On a Friday night, the last thing Billy and I want to do is cook. But going out isn't always friendly on our strict-paying-down-the-loans-like-crazy budget. So this past Friday we found a happy middle ground. We walked to New Seasons, picked out crab bites, fresh pasta, lemon-artichoke sauce, and beer, and walked out for under $20. (Would have been cheaper if Billy wasn't a fancy-beer-snob).

  The only way we could have done dinner this cheap at a restaurant is without alcohol (or with PBR), and even then it would have been tight. And these things took about 10 minutes to whip up, so easy on the cooking and cleaning. Eating leftover bean soup probably would have been cheaper, but this rocked. 

The final product: 

5. On Saturday morning, I did feel like cooking. I whipped up the blueberry streusel muffins from the super awesome cookbook Peas and Thank You.

 Yes, it certainly does say meatless on there. And there certainly are a bunch of vegetarian and vegan recipes. And we are neither. But all of the recipes are delicious (I'm actually guessing here, I haven't made my way through it all) and it's by a (local!) blogger named Sarah. Check the blog out.

 

Mmmmm. These barely made it to Sunday morning. 

 6. Billy and I went to the dentist on Monday morning. Yeah, as if Mondays weren't bad enough, we decided to torture ourselves with the dentist as well. More like the dentist doing the torturing... I mean look at all of those evil pain-inducing tools. Unfortunately we didn't come out cavity free. Billy had 2, and I had, well, more than 2. The good news? I still have wisdom teeth! Nope, that's actually not good news either. The dentist will make plenty of money off us this year.

7. Back to the sunny weekend. Bentley had fun playing with his reflection and sitting on the been-up-for-nine-months-and-they-still-aren't-hemmed curtains.

8. Here's a good teaser for you! We think that it's finally done snowing in Portland, so we're slowly sashaying into gardening season. How can we call ourselves true Portlanders if we don't grow our own Italian parsley and jalapenos and stuff? So we pulled out the lumber we bought a few weeks ago and started construction. And yes, somebody needs a pedicure. Real bad. 

 9. After spending all remaining sunlight hours building, we whipped up some chicken salad for dinner out of the Cooks Illustrated magazine. Classic and simple, but super tasty. And leftovers. Yay! 

 10. But of all my ten ramblings, this one is the best!

Happy Birthday Jackie!!

Hope 25 is the best year yet, and here's to 75+ more!!

Til next week, or until Friday's Four. Or Saturday's Seven. Or some other clever weekly post title I come up with to get me to blog more...

the goose loves tuesday's ten (#7)

Well, friends, I've done it again. I've managed to post nothing for a whole week, and I haven't even been able to have a timely Tuesday post. But we'll pretend it's Tuesday instead of Wednesday and get to the good stuff.

"Today" is Tuesday, April 10th, and so I have Ten Tuesday Things on the Tenth for you! Yay alliteration.

1. Last Friday was Good Friday, and here is what made it good.



Shrimp Po'Boy at Miss Delta



I know that Good Friday is about reflection and quiet time and understanding the weight of the day - and don't worry. I did that all day. Work was busy and stressful and we were working hard. I was reflecting on strength and patience and sacrifice!

So then, by the end of the day, it was time to spend a few peaceful moments with the one I love over a tasty meal. And that's just what we did.

2. After driving up to Seattle on Friday night, I hung out with Monika while Billy went to Canada for a drum competition. Mon & I went to her friend's baby shower, and we wrapped up two onesies (one is below) and a little clutch/diaper case/pouch for the soon-to-be-mom-of-two.

3. On both Saturday and Sunday mornings, we walked Greenlake - a three-mile path surrounding a giant manmade lake in Seattle. The weather was gorgeously sunny, so we soaked up the rays and enjoyed the fresh air.

4. And it was Easter! So we said goodbye to Lent and ordered ourselves some delicious coffees - a latte for me and a (soy) mocha for Billy! Mmm lattes never tasted soooo good. (We got the regular 16 oz, even though I did talk earlier about getting a super-grande 64-oz-er...)

5. Here's your Easter post teaser - we celebrated with Monika on Sunday, and then had a little extra fun on Monday with the dog... details coming soon. 

 6. While Billy was still in Canada, Bents and I took a walk through Carkeek Park, a nice trail near Monika's house. LOVE the sun. 

I tried to get the dog to get up on the rock and lay down so I could photograph him, but he was way too interested in the bird/squirrel/leaf/stream noises to sit still. 

And why wouldn't I try again when we got to the field of daisies? 

 7. While I took pictures of the dog hung out in Seattle, Billy met his band in Vancouver, BC for the first competition of the season. He looked a little bit like this. Click here for his performance!

 8. One of these days, I'm going to get crafty again. And one of my first projects will be turning these beads into a gorgeous necklace for work. I'll add it to my long list of weekend projects.

 9. I made more cookies. Billy is a spoiled lucky boy! 

 10. Finally! Remember when I got that spraypaint (#10)? Well, here's the results! Spraypainted hampers. Those suckers used to be plain-old-ugly white. And now they're gorgeous!

I covered them with a layer of primer first, to make sure the paint wouldn't flake off. I covered the insides with plastic and newspaper to keep the paint only on the outside, and that worked well. I also let each of them dry for at least a week in the garage so they fully set. Oh and there's Billy's teddy and the art I made awhile ago that's waiting to go on the wall... 

So there you have it - another ten down for Tuesday. And I promise - food and Easter and Bentley posts coming soon!

the goose loves tuesday's ten (#5!)

 What up, friends.

Today has been an adventure. We started with an early morning, then 8 hours of work, then $500 in car repair,  and then 3 hours of snare drum practice at our house for Billy's scottish pipe band. Fun? Yeah, for the dog - he just got like 8 new friends. Me? Notsomuch. But I'm accomodating. All great stories for another day.

So finally we get around to the fun stuff. 10 Tuesday Things at 10pm.

1. I think the first day of Spring was this past week. I don't know officially since we are still in snow-ville. Yes ma'am - we woke up to snow on Wednesday morning. Or was it Thursday? Pretty though.

 2. Oh wait. Maybe it is spring! We did enjoy several gorgeous hours of sunlight on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. And so of course, like 95% of all other normal Portlanders, we headed outside.

We only got as far as the backyard, but it was heavenly.

 Bentley loved it too. That dog likes sun almost as much as he likes chicken. Almost.

 3. On Saturday, we went out to pizza and a north portland bar for our friend Allison's 2th birthday! The pizza was delish and we spent awhile playing trivia at the bar, which was also terrific.

There's the birthday girl on the left, and some crazy guy Chris, our good friend from college, who happened to get his tooth knocked out hours earlier in a basketball game. Ouch. He's going gangsta-gap-toothed in this photo.

 And the three of us girls! Billy is to Jackie's left, hiding.

 4. If you don't already know that I'm obsessed in love with the color purple, then you haven't been paying any attention. It's been my favorite practically since the womb. Once, when I was about 12 and in mid-middleschool-crisis, I thought about changing my favorite color to blue or something. But I didn't, primarily because I didn't want to let my dad down - I knew how much he knew that I loved purple, and he was always so awesome at picking out fun purple things for me from business trips or trips to home depot. I love me my purple maglite!

Anyway, that long story is just to let you know that today, my new admin assistant was watching out for me too, and it reminds me of my dad, which is nice, since I miss him and my mom a lot (a visit to CA is coming soon, though, I promise!). She brought me 6 packs of purple post-its, two of which are a gorgeous dark purple, not just the pastelly-easter purple I normally see! Yes. Made my day.

5. On Sunday, Billy and I bravely avoided the to-die-for Portland Brunch scene and instead whipped up some English-Muffin-French Toast. What does that make it? English toast? French muffins? Who cares. It makes it tasty. There's even a ghost fork in the photo.

 6. Since Sunday morning was still sunny, we took advantage of the dry day and got some projects done outside. More on those later. But now I remember how much I love the sun. And how much I miss it.

Bentley loves the sun too. And loves being lazy. I'm pretty sure he's at least 27% cat. (Most likely along with 12% bear, 31% wolverine, 24% dog, and 6% bunny.)

 

 

 7. We Billy continued our cooking spree on Sunday night, with a bbq-ed beer-can chicken. We were pushing our luck on the good weather, and by the end there were rain drops harassing our chicken, but it came out REALLY good.

 I made the rest of our brussel sprouts as our green side, but we skipped the carbs. Who needs carbs when you have perfect chicken?

8. Just as I predicted last week, we started on our planter box this weekend. We checked out the ready-made ceramic and plastic planters at Home Depot, but options in the size we wanted (big) ranged from $35 to $65+ each, and we'd want two or three of those (they're usually circular pots, about 2 feet in diameter?). So we figured the build-your-own route was cheaper.

Based on a tutorial and plan we found online (more on that later), we picked up twelve 2"x6"x8' doug fir boards (about $3 each), one 4"x4"x8' doug fir post, 24 3/8" carriage bolts, 24 washers, 24 nuts, and a 3/8" drill bit. We do have the full-on drill bit kit, but it doesn't come with anything smaller than a 1/2" bit... really??

The nice man at Home Depot made our cuts for free. He cut six boards in half (for the short sides of our rectangle) and cut our  4"x4" post in 18" pieces. But we're basically building a 4'x8' rectangle, 18" high. Except that when we got home, we decided a  3' x 9' size was better for our side yard. So we recut and pasted boards together. Pasted with screws. But enough blathering on this for now - full post later, once Portland convinces us its ready for spring and done with snow. So maybe by June.

9. Onto other crafty arts, I haven't sewed anything for a little while, and my fingers are itching for thread and fabric and the whir of the machine. I've been dying to buy some cotton voile (never actually felt it, but heard it drapes beautifully), perhaps in this Tula Pink Dandelion Olive.

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Or maybe I'll buy some of this wispy pink.

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My end goal is one (or several) beautiful spring-y infinity scarves. I wear scarves at least four days a week during winter, but most of them are too warm, even for our shoddy "spring" in this town. But these would be a perfect bridge to the free necks of summer. And maybe I'll even give some away.

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10. Easter is almost here!!! I'm not as into Easter as normal, but since I gave up lattes for Lent, I'll be more than thrilled to get a veinte-20oz-full-fat-milk-foamy-latte on Easter morning. Doesn't Starbucks sell a bathtub size now? I'll have that.

In other Easter news, I think that we should get Bentley a bunny for Easter. Or maybe two. And real ones this time, not big fluffy ones. I think I like these. Maybe I like them because they have Bentley ears. Maybe I'm obsessed with big-eared animals. What can I say, I love ears.

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Looks like that's it for tonight. Come back later this week for more photos of Bentley than you ever wanted needed.