I've seen images of rain gutters being used for strawberry planters, particularly in more industrialized environments. And I've been wanting to do something along those lines for over a decade. However, the impetus to actually create some hanging strawberry planters came from the unintentional over-watering of our yard, and the resulting wave of slugs that infested our strawberry crop last year. So this year, to start the strawberries over, I've constructed some hanging planters.
I bought some shelf brackets and 8' of plastic gutter. after a few weeks, I bought some chain, eye bolts, washers, lock-nuts, and some all-thread. I drilled some drainage holes in gutters, and setup the brackets. I then made the chain hangars and cut the all-thread rod to the right width. Leveling out the gutters, I then put a layer of sand, and then covered the remainder with potting soil. I'm planning on doing a 1/4" soaker tube to make sure they get watered.
Once upon a time in 2009, we had some pet cats. On occasion, we would venture off on some adventure. Being good cat owners, we wanted to make sure our furry feline friends stayed well fed, and out of trouble.
To that end, I constructed an automatic cat food dispenser. It was constructed out of a discard water pipe end, a rotisserie motor, a round hair brush, and a bowling ball. And given a coat of grey paint.
The cat food would be put in the top area of the dispenser, waiting for the rotisserie motor to slowly churn the food onto a waiting plate below. The dropping cat food would make a plinking noise on the glass plate, letting our cats know that food had arrived.
However, after a while, the cats got lazy, and perhaps overfed, and were not eating the food right away. So the neighborhood birds moved in, to help with the cat food.
I viewed this as a problem, and decided a bit of home automation may solve the invasion of the magpies. I added a motion detector on our pergola slightly away from the house (and the cat food feeder), pointed downward. When triggered, the motion detector would activate the sprinklers near the house. This area had mint and various flowers growing in it. It worked to scare the birds away.
A few weeks later, we headed out of town. Before we left town, we had friends over for a backyard barbecue, and they remarked about some of the mind growing in our backyard, near the patio.
Before we left town, we had told them to stop by and grab a patch of mint as a starter. Now that we were out of town, they were out on a bike ride. As they were in the area, they decided to stop by and grab the mint.
They wheeled their bikes into the back yard, and proceeded to cut out a patch of mint. However, the mint they selected was directly below the motion detector, so their efforts were complicated by the sprinklers turning on several times. Eventually they got their mint starter.
Later that day, a hundred miles away, I checked the automation logging and saw that the backyard bird invasion had begun. The birds had been furiously setting off of the motion detection for about 25 minutes.
Only later did the truth of the tale become evident.
Last fall I bought a very used E.J. Kahn-esque pot-metal bank off of eBay. We were looking for a bank for Andre, and growing up, my brothers and I had one of these banks which we used to store porcupine quills in.
The one I bought off eBay was very used, and needed to be repainted. I stripped off the paint, and made due with a limited acrylic palette. The bank came with an impressive and ancient copper padlock (with no key). I fabricated a key for it. The bank was dropped after a few months and needed to have the to of the lock hasp replaced with some wire.
Another project that I wanted to accomplish for Andre was some Americana decor. I found this vintage Sexton eagle on eBay, but it needed to be repainted. I busted out my limited palette, and some gold and silver spray paint, and I think it turned out alright.
When we purchased our house, the sprinklers were wired to a controller for the townhomes down the street. I then wired the sprinklers to our garage using recycled wire. Now, years later, the wires experienced enough voltage drop that it wouldn't fire the solenoids. I trenched a new path through the yard, and laid down conduit with new wires. The sprinklers are working again. And a new storage shed to keep outdoor-ish things outdoors appeared.
The color of the first coffee table did not take well to its new abode. So after trying it out for a bit, and talking Melissa out of attempting to remove the stain, we manufactured another coffee table. It's pretty much the same table with a different color. However, during the drying process, a cold weather front rolled in, which slowed the project down a bit. We finally got the table inside, and just in time, as the snow stacked up yesterday and today.
Melissa was looking at Pintrest and ran across this neat coffee table design. Our previous coffee table was a large 1970's tempered glass circle atop gilded tentacles. We had spray painted the gold paint with hammered bronze paint, to remove some of the late sixties and early seventies gaudiness. While the previous table was battle proven, Lauren was crawling up on the glass table and slid the top off inadvertently. So we decided to fashion up a new coffee table. We went with a gray weathered stain. I also beefed up the plan with some biscuits between the boards.
We got a used red wagon from a local garage sale. It's front wheels were bent under, but it was a quick fix and we've been having alot of fun with it. We also got a ride along bicycle seat for Melissa's bicycle. It was another previously used purchase that was missing an important component. I fashioned up a new bracket out of leftover angle aluminum remnants from the laser cutter project, and it was ready for the Greenbelt.
In looking for a present for Lauren, Melissa had seen some cute kid Teepees that people had crafted out on the internet. We decided to make one for Lauren for Christmas. After hunting around for supplies and figuring out the teepee features we wanted, we crafted up the Teepee. Lauren loves it, and it's a pretty place to keep her toys.
We recently found a spa to adopt from Craigslist. It was only a few years old, and in need of a good home. It's a Bullfrog 462. When getting a spa for an addition to the family, it's a good idea to get the electrical setup by a professional, or at least inspected. So we had the electrical inspector come and find the insufficiencies in our work. We got them fixed and have been enjoying it since! We're trying out using a Silver Catalyst cleaner Nature 2 W20750 and Potassium Monopersulfate (MPS) Leisure Time LES-RENU6 instead of Chlorine or Bromine .
A few years back, solicitors for a local carpet cleaning company descended upon our neighborhood. The first day I cordially declined. Another employee came back the next day. Two days later, a third employee arrived to sell me something, and I was a bit agitated.
As a result, I added a "No Soliciting" sign, which has worked pretty well. Solicitors in Meridian are required to have a license. Ignoring the "No Soliciting" signs can jeopardize that license.
We recently affixed a translucent diffuser to the front window, so I had to remove the taped up sign. Apparently the solicitors were waiting, because they started showing up again. After dutifully adding some watchtower literature to the recycle bin, I got to work on a new "No Soliciting" sign. Fired up the laser cutter, and presto-chango there's a new sign.
I've had several small projects in the past couple months to work on. I've put shelves in a closet, a workbench and shelves in our garage, and installed seat heaters into the FJ Cruiser.
The seat heaters was a crazy project that I will not attempt to recreate anytime in the memorable future. Car upholstery is much more complex than I'd like it to be; requiring skills and tools that I don't desire to acquire.
I've been interested in creating a laser cutter for a while, and am excited to create a simple CNC setup with use of the Makerslide rails and an arduino. I enjoyed a project that used an arduino before, and am excited to have some computer aided fabrication capabilities.
Our grapevine trellis was looking a little sad. The tension from the wires were pulling the post over, and making the wires sag. I was thinking of putting a two by six spacer in between. However, after looking at it a the trellis a bit closer, we decided to add some stylistic flair to our trellis...
I've fixed up one of our family's motorbikes. It's a Honda XL80S. I've ridden it to work a few times. Even on some cool and rainy mornings. It's exciting driving on the road when your top speed is 45 mph downhill. I also recently picked up an iPad. I've decided I wanted to use a tablet to make some artwork, as well as whatever tablets are good for. My first iPaintmash is exhibited here as the motorbike.
Our Adirondack chairs were in need of refinishing, so we sanded them down, re-stained them, and are re-coating them with polyurethane clear coat. Several coats of clear coat and some light sanding between, and the chairs get a nice glossy glass like finish.
I'm looking into planting some grapevines on our island. I have been reading several books from the library on how to go about doing that. One book, Vines to Wines seems especially knowledgeable and helpful. Part of the process is choosing a location and preparing the soil: so I am going to take some soil samples, and till up the dirt in preparation for next year's planting. In order to do this, I bought a rototiller off of craigslist.
I've been working on an ROV for the last month or two. It's based on an Arduino mega with web control (at this point). It's been a fun project so far, and I will post some video and photos once it hits the water.
I've constructed a new computer. It's a watercooling setup, which seems a little counter-intuitive for electronic equipment. It's been a fun project, and I've been enjoying learning more about water cooling. While I did construct a mostly new computer, I didn't upgrade the videocard, yet. I'm thinking about waiting until Starcraft 2 comes out, and upgrading around then.
We recently repainted our China hutch, built a pirate chest/deck box, and expanded the reservoir pool for the water fountain in the back yard. The sailboat has been repaired and had the missing pieces replaced. The wisteria seem to be slowly edging skywards towards the pergola. I'm enjoying watching the plants of our yard and garden grow during the summer. Our grapevines are doing really well, and next year I am expecting to get a fair amount of grapes.
We went up to McCall for the days before the fourth, and went hiking near Lick Creek summit, as well as rode an ATV to the top of one of the ridges above Payette lake and Blackwell lake.
I've seen images of rain gutters being used for strawberry planters, particularly in more industrialized environments. And I've been wanting to do something along those lines for over a decade. However, the impetus to actually create some hanging strawberry planters came from the unintentional over-watering of our yard, and the resulting wave of slugs that infested our strawberry crop last year. So this year, to start the strawberries over, I've constructed some hanging planters.
