Local forager

We have gradually ventured on bikes further and further from our home. Our latest discovery is the bike path that traverses Berkeley through Albany and onto El Cerrito ending finally in Richmond. We only went as far as El Cerrito. It is an amazing ride along and above the BART installation. It winds through houses and parks with little pit stops for sitting and enjoying the scenery.  The kids love to ride bikes. Rome is still on the trail-a-bike so we go at a pretty good pace.

We are continually on the lookout for ripe berries and fruit. Blackberries are in season as well as Plums and Loquats. Wild plumbs are on the backside of their season and very sweet--too sweet. Blackberries were a huge hit. The kids love them and as we rode along they would yell-out "BLACKBERRIES" as we came upon a patch. We found a Santa Rosa Plum hanging low over the bike path laden with fruit. Kassi was standing on my shoulders tossing down fruit while rest of were eating them almost as fast.

I just went to mapmyride.com and mapped our route 13.5 miles. we did that route yesterday and the day before. Over 25 miles in two days is quite a bit for our first rides.

GARDEN...

In other news Toly and Tabitha's garden is doing amazing. We have eaten several tomatoes even a cherokee purple. There should be a flood of tomatoes very soon. We have a couple of small squash and similarly sized cucumbers--a couple more days for them. We have eaten two eggplants. Pole beans are just reaching to climb. There have been dozens of meals of swiss chard. The dill has bloomed and forming seed heads. Toly and rome have eaten a few carrots--albeit one was baby one.

More raised beds

These raised beds are 2ft by 4ft by 10ft. they hold about 3 yards of dirt. My exorbitantly high taxes pay for things. One of them is free compost on the last Saturday of non-winter months. We plan to exploit the heck out of this resident benefit.

I had to buy a wheel barrow for this endeavor.

I made a screen board so we could add some local soil for minerals.

Tristan was a huge help. He, Toly and I were at the secret location where compost is available at 6am. I shoveled from the pile into the truck while Tristan shoveled it deep into the bed. Toly helped too. He was in charge of knocking the huge mounds of compost down to a much flatter and manageable size. 

Black Gold...  

Toly was so insistant on helping. I didn't have anything for him so he went and found a container and filled it from the truck and drug it to the bed filled it. Drug it to the bed and emptied it--over and over and over... That boy never quits. 

A completely full bed.

Here is my work half full truck after a raised bed.

DAY TWO...

And raised bed number two.

Tristan got into the act and became very helpful.

No Bamboo, EVER..

Many more artifacts were found

Initially worms were of a huge concern. Tabitha exclaimed "We are not in Tibet" 

In the end most of them survived.

My Obama shirt is a bit more popular here than it was in Missouri.

The back of our house still a little rough. We are getting there...

Two beds are finished in the back yard. It will be two months before we can build more since we will be camping with our home schooling group during a bad time next month.

raised beds

A few weeks ago we built two raised bed out front of the house. This afternoon I built a double deep one for the back yard. It is the first of eight proposed beds. We hope to grow a substancial portion of our vegetables. First we had to dig down and kill all the invasive bamboo in that area.

This bed wil go right next to the old concrete pad. Eventually this concrete will get removed. For now we'll work around it.
Rome is my little helper.

He found some old toys. All the kids have been pretending that they are archeologists.

Here I am chopping the bamboo runners from under the slab. Die, Die, DIE....

This is a sketch of our general plan.

I got some copper based pressure treated (safe for food gardens) lumber.

Kassi and Toly were huge helpers.

This is Bamboo hell. We have spent many days digging in this area. I hate Bamboo now.

I don't feel this serious when I am in the moment.

I made my own brackets from some recycled angle aluminum.

Bolting it together.

Pre-drilling for the sides.

My ballest/helper enjoying the job.

Tristan saving the aluminum spirals for moustaches.

Cute Boy in his Communist party shirt. (I find that shirt very funny)

Toly

Noisy impact driver.

Kids in motion.

A gang of helpers. I wonder if there is a collective noun for "helpers" that are small kids?

closer...

Kassi

It is shaping up.

We finished it before dark. This morning is Berkeley free compost day. Before daybreak I will take Tristan and Toly to get a few yards. It is hard work shoveling but well worth the effort.

life has a sound track

the kids have had about three months of piano lessons. Tabitha says "her life has a sound track." I always wanted a house filled with live music.

Slow and steady wins the sanity

Yesterday was a big day. Our front yard is tiny and adjacent to a busy street. It has been neglected for decades and continued to be neglected since our arrival. The interior of our house simply needed too much work to make it livable. So our yard has languished while we pecked away at indoor projects. That all changed yesterday. It all began a few weeks ago when we bought a mission olive tree for Valentines day. It needed a home and the front yard is it.

We ripped out those filthy juniper bushes. I have always hated juniper bushes they smell like cat pee to me.

Here you can see the years worth of trash that has collected under them. Over the course of the next week or so we will need to dig a trench and install a french drain from along that with fence out to the sidewalk.

My work truck and a chain proved instrumental in pulling those big bushes.

After cleaning the trash and debris we made our plans and I cut the concrete walkway a little to make way for the new bed.

My worm drive saw, not really a concrete saw but it will do in a pinch.

I had some scrap aluminum that I made the corner stakes from. I used my infinitely useful metal saw to sharpen them as easily as I could a wooden stake. I had three saws going during the day, concrete, metal and wood. I also needed a hammer drill to cleanly finish out the inside corner.

Toly and Rome were big helpers while I built the box.

Now it just needs some dirt.

Other progress has been the upstairs saga. Work has continued we painted the main room and kassi's room. I finished out the doors to the future eave closets.

I had to replace all of the electrical outlets and switches since most of the were broken or cracked and filty. 

This is the new "SUN" light for the boys room. Ikea has wonderful and inexpensive stuff for kids.

Here is Kassi's closet shelves after being trimmed but before the final coat of paint.

All the upstairs progress happened two weeks ago. Last weekend I worked on the stairs. They need to be completely re-built. I tore them appart and rebuilt the first few stairs up to the landing. They were in the worst shape. I still need to finish the upper flight but I need a long weekend before I tie into that.

The kids live up there now:) and need continual access. After I rebuild them I will install the new oak treads. We plan to paint the risers ROY-G-BIV