Monday, June 23, 2014

Conflicted

I hate these cheap ugly too-small vinyl windows, plus these were busted just before we moved in. They're in my studio. (You know, the room I use to store piles of my crap.) And I really want to create some order and get in there and make stuff.

I pulled out the four broken windows in this one. The cheap crappy things
seemed to be held together with chewing gum. Seriously.

The other unit has only three broken windows. Wahoo.
Peeling out the broken panes. Each one consists of an inner pane, an outer,
and a soft metal spacer. It's all held together with übersticky putty and double-stick tape.




I was going to rip 'em out of there, take out the white OSB, and fill the whole space with salvaged wood-frame windows, kinda like this: 

The Glass House from Houzz.com, and HalfCutTea.com



Yes, it's funky, but I like it. And it is reversible (ethical remodeler's rule: make only changes that can be undone. For instance, if you want to replace the lovely old original steel casement windows with cheesy vinyl, SAVE THE ORIGINAL WINDOWS. Not that I'm bitter).

I've got all kinds of miscellaneous windows, been collecting them for years. I know it'll take several weekends to rip out the ugly, then plan the layout and install everything… frame with wood, or get Tom to weld me a frame to hold it all together? So I don't know. I'm tempted to just pop glass into the broken holes and call it good. It'll still be ugly, but functional. It'd be a waste of new glass, though. And time. Might as well do it right, right? But it seems like self indulgence to spend so much time on my own art space. 

This is the reason I'm such a slow carpenter. The decisions kill me.


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One of the guineas (Tiny Wattles?) has decided to set. I got the eggs last night, and she pecked the crap out of me. C. has left her two eggs, marked with Xs, but everybody else lays in the same nest so you have to pull all the eggs out, look for the marks, and put hers back in – while she puts holes in the back of your hand. Guineas are generally terrible mothers, but she seems to be very competent. We don't especially want more noisy guineas but she sure does. We could deal with two more.

Annie and Izzy are kind of getting along. Annie only tried to kill her twice this weekend. Over food, of course. I like her. She's a goofball, and very sweet. I guess Em and Richard miss her and want her back, which is fine. She can come visit, though.

Izzy in the ox-eye daisies.

Annie has worn her toenails down to nubs digging after gophers in our rocky soil.



And the gophers have done some garden damage. C. found tunnels and dirt piles in the potatoes. She filled the tunnels back in, and tamped the ground down hard with the spud bar. All of her work was reversed the next day. She's getting pissed. Speaking of pissed, I left the chicken window unlocked and they had a great time digging up squash and asparagus plants. And something – a deer, we assume – has done some "pruning" in the lower garden. Half a dozen tomatoes, beans and sun chokes have been chomped pretty badly. 


Filling the tunnels up again.

Nibbled tomato plant.









But in good garden news, the maruba santoh green that C. planted is excellent. It grows quickly, and is delicious in a stir fry. We has some last night with cashews. Mmmm. And the non-heading broccoli is making huge leaves that the rabbits really like. C. picks them a giant bowl of greens twice a day. They get broccoli, spinach, chard, kale, maruba santoh, arugula, mustard, typhon, beet greens, leaf radishes and fun jen. And hay and alfalfa pellets. They are all silky and shiny.


A non-heading broccoli leaf. It's huge. C. watched Plumb Bob eat a whole one:
back and forth across the bottom, up and down the left side, the right side,
and finally, the stem all the way to the end. No, he didn't burp when he was done…
because rabbits can't burp. Or fart or vomit. Just a little bunny trivia for you.


Maruba santoh. The leafy bits are spinachy, and the stems are crispy.

I spend some time with the big animals, moving some fence to give them more grass, and scratching Savvy the sheep for a long time. 

I brought Azul a bouquet of alfalfa.

And he peed in his special pee spot. He and I share special moments.




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