My brassica’s have taken a beating from bugs this year. I am a new Gardner, so my first mistake was mistaking cabbage moths for cute white butterflies. Then the white powdery mildew showed up on the broccoli.
But I could not figure out what was eating them. I tried some neem oil for the broccoli to help with the powdery mildew, and BT spray for the cabbage. Still, I am fighting them.
I suspect, I planted too much of each, cabbage and broccoli, too close together. Next year I will change it up and intermix things so there isn’t one giant buffet for things to get out of hand. It will also help me separate and treat individual plants without the whole crop being effected.
However, some of my broccoli was ready to harvest.
Taste-wise and it’s very different from grocery store broccoli, which is lower on flavor and more woody in texture. Not all the plants were ready, but that’s fantastic because I can spread the broccoli harvest out and get more still as time goes on. So my leftover pizza dinner plans for tonight will be put on hold, and broccoli and chicken teriyaki will happen instead.
My last issue is with earwigs. I found them in my sunflowers first, and wasn’t sure if they were a good or bad bug. They eat plants so they are definitely bad. I mean, I am okay with them existing, as they are plant eaters, not ear eaters, and actually protect their young and not really worried about the ear wig public relations disaster they have going on. I’m not sure who decided they go into people’s ears, but it’s kind of funny disinformation campaign.
I learned I could set out olive oil or fat traps. I had some extra bacon fat from breakfast yesterday’s and mixed it with enough olive oil to maintain liquidity, and set them out. they are nocturnal, so I waited until this morning to check.
Earwigs are assholes because they eat your plants. I have been seeing them everywhere, and I think it may be the uncharacteristic heat this summer. I’m not an earwig expert. Maybe they are always everywhere every year. I won’t know until I have a few more years here.
I was pleased I caught some, though.
I’ll leave the traps out until it rains. With the new irrigation system, they won’t get in the way so they can happily sit out there for a bit. Maybe thin the population down.
Hopefully, I can win the battle and hold all the pests off long enough to get my harvest in from the cabbage and broccoli.
We eat a lot of rice dishes and my favorite way to use up leftover cooked rice is as a breakfast porridge or congee.
Ingredients
1 TSP ginger paste from those convenient grocery store tubes, or use fresh. Whatever works for you.
1 TBSP Better Than Bouillon Chicken Flavor – Don’t use a cube of bouillon. It’s not as tasty. This stuff is a different world of flavor, and I hate brand name anything.
2 Cups cooked leftover rice. Bonus points if you made it with MSG the night before. Don’t fear the MSG.
2 Cups water, then maybe extra at the end if needed
1/4 Cup Crushed or Chopped Peanuts
1/4 Cup Low Sodium Soy Sauce – Or regular if that’s what you have.
Enough chopped green onion to top
Directions:
Add rice, water, ginger, and chicken Better than Bouillon to the sauce pot.
Bring to a low boil for somewhere around 20 minutes, or until your rice reaches a rice pudding texture. You can go longer or less, depending on your time constraints. I often do chores while it’s going and forget for a while.
If it looks too thick, add a bit of extra water, mix thoroughly, then give a minute or so to integrate.
Stir in the crushed or chopped peanuts.
Put in a soup bowl, and drizzle soy sauce on top, then add your green onions.
Notes:
I also sometimes add a fried or over easy egg, or sausage, or leftover chicken teriyaki. Basically whatever I have in the fridge at the time, or whatever I have the energy to make for it. It’s very versatile.
Garden Note:
I have these grocery store green onions I have planted in my garden when I was done with them, and I cannot emphasize enough how much better they taste planted in my garden. They have so much more flavor.
I was not holding my breath as they came from the grocery store, but apparently proper care and growing time makes them a whole different plant.
I bought some Rain Bird drip irrigation kits on Amazon. I was super excited, and ready to make watering my garden easier. I have bad days where I limp and it’s hard to just stand there and water things physically. I was hoping by setting up an irrigation system that it would be easier on me.
My first set back was when my neighbor knocked on my door to let me know that a silver van was following the Amazon truck and stole my boxes. I was in the garden at the time, and only 20 minutes past the delivery point. Reporting this to Amazon was near impossible and the cops in my jurisdiction won’t even take a report for petty theft. I went to get what I could locally, and reordered what I could not.
Not counting the stolen items, I am in for roughly $200.
Everything started off well, and it turns out splicing a hose is pretty damn easy. I also have quick connectors I attached, and then started laying out the actual irrigation tubing and dripper ends.
Dripper end on my tomatoes.
Dripper end on my broccoli, and an extra bit that I forgot to pick up.
Drip hose in my onions.
Drip hose in my herb garden.
This is where I hit my second set back. While it is relatively easy to set up, if you have a physical limitation of any sort, this may be difficult. I had a garden seat to sit on, but being hunched over each plant in each bed? Ouch!
Then my final set back? I ran out of supplies. It took significantly more than the kits. I added a dripper to each of my larger plants, such as tomatoes, broccoli, and cabbage, and dripper tubes to the rest. It took significantly more time than I was expecting.
It was probably for the best I ran out of supplies because I was really hurting by this point. I’d been out there for a couple hours, and my wife was worried.
I also realized my original plan would need redone. My original plan was to use quick connects to attach hose sprayers for general yard work, but under pressure these do connect and unconnected with they will soak you. Not the best idea when I am usually in my PJs before bed when I am watering the garden.
Original quick connection set up.
I have ordered some more stuff to revise this to be easier, and here’s hoping it doesn’t get stolen off the porch again!
New plan:
Get more supplies and a four hose manifold? I think they are called manifolds or splitters when you have a one in, and four out situation?
Redo the hose connections with dedicated hose sprayer areas so I don’t get sprayed with the quick connects.
Add dripper lines to the last 2.5 beds in the big garden area that still need it.
Add dripper lines and tubing to the two beds on the other side for my mint and rhubarb.
Plan enough time, and down time afterwards to I don’t have to rush, and I can recover more easily.
The thing about moving into our own home is that we get to fix things that bother us. The downside is my list of fixit’s is so long that some items, like this morning’s fridge door fix we talked about, but just never made it to the physical list. My list is like a 5 year plan with marvel-esque phase roll outs.
This morning’s issue was the refrigerator door. For some reason, the way the fridge door opened was away from the cooking area in the kitchen. You’d have to walk around it, open it, then bring everything back to the counter.
It kind of breaks my heart that the little old lady that lived here before us had to shuffle around the fridge door every time she cooked. Someone should have fixed this for her.
My wife and I hated it from the day we moved in, but I while I had a hazy idea it was possible to flip them, I didn’t really know how, and honestly there were just so many more pressing things that needed done.
Last night, I had insomnia and was up at 3am, and for some reason when I got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the door irritated me again, and with nothing else to do, I started watching videos on it.
I found this video with my make and model fridge, mostly:
Video on how to reverse a refrigerator door.
It took me about a half hour to 45 minutes from gathering tools to putting them back in the shed and then it was fixed!
I had two white plastic door hole caps that were so old they broke, but they were decorative, and you can’t even see them on top the door. I could care less. I am so happy to have the fridge door facing the right direction now. My wife and I are both ecstatic.
Funnier to me, was when I popped out the bottom grill to move the bottom door post over a bunch of rice came out. That is my rice, from the day I moved in.
I dropped somewhere around 5 pounds of short grain rice in its plastic tub, which spilled literally all over the kitchen. You cannot appreciate how far 5lbs of rice will scatter until you drop it. I was so exhausted and sore from moving that I almost had a five star meltdown. I was in a hurry, and had to get so much else done as I was bringing it over before work that day, then I ended up sitting on the kitchen floor laughing at the absurdity of it all.
I told my wife, even after sweeping it all up, that rice was going to keep showing up for the rest of our lives. This bunch of it came out from inside the refrigerator grill. I guess I was right.
This is one less thing on my giant list, even thought it never made it to the list proper. I can stop thinking about it every time I open the door.
My garden is really starting to take off. I am so inexperienced, but I feel I am still doing pretty well.
My cucumbers, above, are doing well. If they all take off I might be buried in pickles, though. I planted a lot of them because of my inexperience and I wasn’t not sure if I’d kill them or not. I will hang some twine on the front brace and train them upwards. The sunflowers are also great. Those are taking off. I don’t know if they will survive the birds, and if I will get any, though.
My sunflowers are doing well, but my herb garden seems slow. I have no point of reference, and I did start direct from seed because my house was so buried in new home projects and boxes and work that I didn’t have the space or mental head room for starting seeds early. So I am hoping the basil, parsley, and dill take off.
The green onions are taking off. The top two big squares are grocery store green onions. the rest are ones I planted. The seed planted ones are starting to work, but they are taking some time.
My broccoli is taking off. I had to add more support ties to my stakes, and take a few leaves off that were overshadowing my green onions.
I also got some unwelcome visitors:
These are cabbage moths. At first I was thrilled with the white “butterflies” in my garden, until I started finding my leaves eaten. Then I looked it up, and realized I have cabbage moths. The bird feeders mean they are eaten pretty quick, but those caterpillars are like crazy greedy. I keep finding them and flinging them away from the garden. I mostly feel tricked and betrayed because I like butterflies. Stupid cabbage moths!
My tomatoes are starting to take off. I did prune off some of the lower branches for easier watering, and I have been training them up the support. My biggest plant already has flowers. I am very excited. I have some good Ball canning recipes for tomato sauces, juices, and whatnot. I hope I get enough to do that.
My red cabbage is also huge. I had to trim a couple leaves that were overshadowing my strawberries.
My strawberries continue to do well. I am even getting a couple of berries. I have been trimming off 2/3 of the flowers like the directions say, in order to force better growth. I won’t probably get enough to do another batch of jam but it’s nice to see them going.
I also bought this garden stool on Amazon. My joints are bad, and I am only 51, so I felt like an old man, but this really helps. I can flip it over to kneel, and I can sit on it and work on my beds. It was very much more comfortable. Worth every penny.
Lastly, to get my plants enough water, I am spending a lot of time every day watering. I think it’s time to invest in a watering system. I was going to do it next year, but this is a lot. I have some bits and bobs coming from Amazon this weekend for the 4th, and I will see if I can get it put together. Even if it’s not a permanent structure, but just something I click the hose into for an hour, that would help. If it does work out, the system has a timer so I will try that too.
I am in my 50s, and I have a degenerative joint condition. As a consequence I work 4 days a week at a sit down office job, not five, because sitting in an office chair is painful. This is in stark contrast to my younger years, when I would not only work 5 days a week as a floor nurse, but also do 12-16 hour project days on the weekends. This means that small projects can wreck me for a few days.
With this in mind, yesterday was a nice day, so I pulled out my saw horses and tools, and built a cabinet box for next to the dishwasher.
I haven’t put the trim molding back because we are contemplating putting some sort of panel on the wall there. Something more water resistant due to the dishwasher. We are waffling between a traditional bead board look, or just abandoning all sense and doing art under acrylic sheeting.
This was just a gaping hole under the unsupported butcher block counter tops that the shit contractor left. He was paid to make a slide out cabinet but didn’t do the work. This is an ugly cabinet box made of 3/4″ plywood. I plan to paint all the cabinets and I will edge band and paint it when I do the rest. I was mostly concerned about the unsupported heavy butcher block drooping onto my $600+ dishwasher. Now I feel my dishwasher investment is protected, and we will be fine.
While I did this, I also cut up two closet sliding doors that we had to get rid of, so I can slowly feed them into the garbage can.
It also was good practice for using a circular saw guide that you clamp onto the wood. I’d never used any kind of guide before and this is my first circular saw.
This is a Bora WTX clamp. I really like how it works, but the reviews are right. The sled was just a pain in the butt for my Dewalt saw, so it’s got no use for me. I got straight cuts without the sled just fine.
I don’t have the most experience with circular saws, because when I was a kid I looked like a girl and my father refused to let me use any tool you had to plug in. I’m mostly self taught with the help of online videos. The guide came with a saw sled, which pretty much all the reviews said was garbage, and they were right. I tossed the cheap plastic thing, and just did my thing without it.
Turns out circular saws are not as scary as I had originally thought. I feel pretty comfortable now. It’s definitely weird going from being treated like a girl, and disallowed all access to the tools to make my life easier, to now not only being given access, to being supported and having other men in stores get excited to walk me through it. If transitioning from female to male ever taught me anything, it’s that sexism around home improvement and gender rolls are pretty damn real.
Speaking of ignoring gender rolls, I also finished sewing the curtain for my work room.
The house came with these thick white blinds. They aren’t terrible, but the cat and I hate the blinds. We lost about 6-7 inches of window at the top of these like you see in my half thought out before picture below.
That cat tree is going to be replaced with a built in wall unit for our fat princess. It will take less space and be in less dire threat of being toppled by her antics.
Below here is an unfairly better taken after picture in which I opened both curtains, and also washed the windows because I noticed how filthy it was.
Ignore the potting bench that I am using for delivery drivers to hide packages behind, when they can be bothered. I am buying a bench to put there instead. Also, ignore the portable air conditioner. Getting mini splits for air conditioning is a few years off.
We will probably always keep the sheers closed because there is a lot of . . . activity across the street and we don’t necessarily need to live in a fishbowl.
I mean, The windows look so much bigger with that 6-7″ of space back. Also, look at that nice new window sill! I did that a few weeks ago, mostly because our cat is fat and can’t get up on there without it.
These projects are all a part of Phase 1 of the house plan. When I get all these little things done, I will deep dive into each room. That means better curtain rods, painted walls and cabinets, and finishing touches. Right now? I am just trying to get things functional and ready for a full launch into next year.
After all this, which I don’t think is much, I spent the rest of the day laying in bed sore as hell. I will probably not do much today either. I have to accept I am not 25 anymore, and pushing my body this hard has consequences. I’d be very kind to anyone else fighting with this, but I always feel like I could have done more.
After I finish writing this, I will probably make some breakfast for the wife and I, and go lay in bed again. Not a bad days plan, overall.
This picture is my homemade instant hot cocoa mix in front of my wife and my coffee and tea set up. The white jar is for loose sugar for my wife, the dark blue one is for instant coffee, and the teal one is for sugar cubes for me.
This is not a sponsored post. I don’t have affiliate links. This is just me, in my first home, marveling at the small upgrades I can make in order for my life to be a billion times better. I just like to document and link things.
My incinerator. Ignore the gap between the backsplash and the counter. I have to fix that. It’s relatively mild here, but is like a 1/4 inch as it creeps larger at the end of the counter. I haven’t sealed it yet because I am waiting to fix it.
This is an Insinkerator. That’s the brand name of my infant hot water system. What it does, is deliver water hot enough to make tea out of. You can increase of lower the temperature to fit your needs.
In my home, my wife prefers instant coffee. That is probably horrifying to folks, but she grew up on it, and prefers it. Over our 30+ years of marriage we have had normal coffee makers, high end espresso machines, you name it. She always goes back to instant. This actually frees up a lot of counter space, and reduces waste from Keurig and espresso machines, presses and coffee makers.
I am a hot cocoa and tea drinker because I am a very high energy person, and caffeine takes me into the arena of damn annoying real quick, so I stick to my caffeine-free tea, and my hot cocoa. What little caffeine I get from the cocoa is about all I should ever have.
In the apartments we have been in, we were in a constant hot water kettle search. We would burn through one every year or so, because between the two of us, we would have tea, cocoa, and coffee all day long. We just killed them from over use. I was even considering one of those massive zojirushi how water dispensers.
Add to this, my wife has ADHD, and she would always come start the kettle, then leave, and an hour later come back to start the process all over. Just waiting for the water to heat was enough time in ADHD for her to end up distracted and not get her coffee. Some mornings she would realize she’d have related the task endlessly and never gotten her morning coffee.
With this in mind, one of the first items I bought for the house was a hot water on demand system. It’s like a mini on demand system that holds a gallon or so of water for your use. The Amazon listing says 3 gallons, but that’s wrong. I think it’s closer to 2/3 of a gallon.
This is like a $250 luxury. I can get my cocoa in the morning instantly. My wife no longer circles the kitchen in a remember & forget coffee dance.
I think this is the single most amazing item we have in our home. I had no idea when we put it in that it would help my wife so much. This was worth every penny. When or if it dies, I am replacing it immediately.
Being able to modify my home in such a tiny way, to help make our lives easier? I really want this for everyone. We were so lucky to get out of the rental racket, and into a home, and I just really want this for everyone.
It’s just so shocking to me that with such a relatively small purchase I can make such a huge impact on my enjoyment of my home.
I got the stakes to fix my broccoli. It’s been windy and rainy here, so all my broccoli fell over. I had no idea it needed staked, because I hadn’t ever grown it before, but now it looks much better. No more sideways plants, with upside down leaves. Ignore that tiny one. It’s a replant when that square of broccoli didn’t come up. He’s doing fine.
Also, my Amazon purchase for my wife came in. I like to buy her things. Today? It was a red dragon onesie. I love it and she was thrilled with it. The cat? Tally is really not too sure about this development. She’d only just gotten over the balloons my wife got as a get well soon gift from her coworkers for after surgery.
Behind her is a router and all sorts of internet cables on the shelves. I was supposed to drill a hole through the wall, install 2″ desk grommets, so the wires could go through, but instead I made wall pockets for iPad and laptop storage next to our bed.
I found a unicorn tote for my wife, the lovely disaster unicorn, and a hail gay satan one for me. Yes, yes I did find a hail gay satan tote bag on Amazon. You can find anything there. It’s amazing sometimes.
We both use an iPad in bed, and my wife also uses an old laptop for writing her YouTube scripts and gaming notes. I am always concerned they will get stepped on, so I made them a place to go up off the floor. We can’t use a normal nightstand arrangement because our bed is literally in the closet, sticking out, which is cool with star lights, but I don’t want to do pictures until I finish the canopy for it. This means we have to get creative with storage.
Also, my wife has ADHD, and tucking anything in for a nice clean look was out the window 30 years ago when we married. I find keeping everything in easy to access and visible areas increase the likely hood that it will get put away, and that she will remember where it is.
This is actually straight, but the picture makes it look crooked.
Construction was just a fabric envelop made out of tote bags with pictures I liked on it, and then I used the straps for the totes to make a small loop at the top, then I put some hooks in the wall, with carabiners I had laying around. The rainbow ribbon was just what I had on hand because I bought 100s of yards of it on Amazon once, so I use it in my projects when I need a bit of ribbon tab.
The most exciting part about this is I own the whole damn house, and I could use actual hooks that screw into the studs in the walls. It’s not a rental, and if I want to put holes in my walls, I sure as hell can. The sheer freedom to put 6 cup hooks in the walls? Worth every penny of my mortgage.
When we went grocery shopping on Thursday, we also hit Trader Joes. They have better snacks and frozen ready-made foods with less ingredients I question, and for a pretty good price.
I bought a mint plant because my teeny tiny mint is barely there, and I planted it in the 2 foot planter with my mint seedlings. Mint is generally a contagious plant that overtakes everything, so I am hoping either the seedlings or the plant overtake that planter.
I also got on with the cheese prep. I had a 5 pound Costco log of sharp cheddar and another 5 pounds of pepper jack, and a couple frozen squares of similar items from last time we went to Costco that needed shredded.
That flat of peaches in the back is for my wife. She’s making peach cobbler this weekend, and she will make it all into cobbler filling, and will freeze any she doesn’t immediately use.
I use a kitchenmaid attachment I bought off Amazon for shredding. I don’t have a food processor. I have a Ninja blender food processor bowl, but it doesn’t have a shredder or slicer attachment. I absolutely will NOT shred this much cheese with a box grater, so this was a good solution for under $30.
My original plan, 6 months ago, was to cut it into squares, then shred it once it was thawed, however, while it does work, it’s not my favorite. You can see the texture difference below. The big bowl on the left is fresh grated cheese, but the small Tupperware is the stuff I froze, then grated after thawing. It still uses the same, but I think it impacts my nacho game with how it melts.
Fresh cheese in big bowl versus previously froze cheese in the small bowl.
I ended up with a lot of cheese.
I started doing this because the cost of cheese was insultingly high, but then I discovered that the cheese I was buying in the grocery store proper wasn’t as good. The sharp cheddar wasn’t as sharp, and the pepper jack was just bland as hell.
Don’t even get me started on the pre-shredded cheese. It’s just wrong. Like it doesn’t melt right, and tastes, I dunno? Dusty? Because of the anti clumping agents. It was just crap.
I did a quick cost analysis. If I paid Fred Meyers prices for the Sharp Cheddar? I’d have paid $39.95. I’d have paid $22.48 for the Pepper Jack. I did not take into account the Ziplock bags. That would add a few cents per package.
While that is not a lot over the course of 4-6 months in differences, it’s still aggravating. Especially for a product that tastes worse. Plus I can buy it once, pack my freezer, and not have to go back to the store or pay MORE when the corporate grocery pricing fiasco reduces the size of the package to give me less for the same price.
I think my next step will be a vacuum sealer. That will definitely help prolong the life of my food, and I suspect if I get one, I can buy the bags in bulk, reducing prices.
Yesterday we went to a business/restaurant supply Costco. You can use your normal membership to go to the business/restaurant supply Costco. It’s just a Costco that doesn’t have all the electronics, clothing, and home goods, and instead has the food in bigger quantities, and restaurant supply stuff. The reason we went is it opens at 7am and is practically empty, with easy parking. We get up really early, and hate crowds so it’s super nice.
We spent a lot at Costco, and filled our chest freezer with restaurant quality crinkle fries, salami, lunch meat, hot dog sausages, a sliced cheeses, and corn dogs. Just about everything you could need for the next six months when you have non-cooking days.
While I like to cook everything from scratch, I am not always physically up and running. On those days, I like a quick and dirty meal and ready made food is a part of that. As my condition progresses, I have had to make peace with the fact that while I have the skills and prefer 100% from scratch cooking, concessions will have to be made. I focus on those items I really love to make, and make do with store bought for the rest.
Arguably, the best greasy spoon on the west coast.
We then went out to eat at one of the best kept secret diners in our area. The staff is amazing. The food is 110% Americana diner food that is well made, affordable, and with portions that are bigger than I ever eat.
However, going out in public these days is always risky. When my wife went to pee, some lady complained to staff about a “man” in the bathroom. My wife looked damn good in her little floral skirt, doc marten’s and top. She has boobs larger than my head, and her hair color was killing it. To call her a man at this point in her life is just literally being a bigot. She may be identifiable as transgender, but she looks NOTHING like a man.
We live in such a blue area that this was a non starter with the staff. The staff member cleaning the bathroom completely blew her off. When my wife left the bathroom the lady had gotten her husband to come stand with her by the door to the women’s room. Apparently, not content to just wait and come back after my wife, she wanted a man person to come menace my wife.
I should remind everyone my wife is 6’2″ tall. This apparently matters to the cis men she towers over. He couldn’t look her in the eyes when she smiled and waved at them both, and came back the the booth. This has been happening more and more. The amount of times my wife has been challenged by some lady in the bathroom, who then goes and gets a man to come help her threaten my wife with either implied or overt violence is just insane.
To be fair, the silver lining to this madness is the number of cis dudes that completely look out of their depth and back down when my wife shows up. Size really matters to cis dudes when height and threats come into play.
Oh, and can I be petty? My wife looked more feminine, had better fashion sense, and was just factually more beautiful than the nasty tired old lady freaking out?
The real challenge of this all was actually just being in public. My wife can’t leave the house without something happening right now. Those bigots seem thrilled there is a minority they can unabashedly attack because they feel they finally found a socially acceptable victim. Don’t be mistaken, these same people are probably racist antisemites, too. They just found a new group that isn’t fully protected by social convention and are gleefully on the attack. The Venn diagram for transphobia, racism, sexism, antisemitism, and all the other ‘isms, is pretty much a circle.
The most insidious situation is the picture taking. People will just take my wife’s picture like they saw Bigfoot. They are not as discrete as they think when they even try to be sneaky. Some assholes use it as a way to harass her by outright getting in her face to do it.
I live in a large city. My wife, is legit not even the weirdest thing I see driving to get donuts at sunrise just last week. Have you seen a meth head wearing a feather boa and nothing else at a bus stop dancing? I have! This is not a really rare occurrence because we live in a city that has a rep for that kind of drug use.
I mean, there are so many more pronounced situations going down at any one time in my limited time outside my home, that to pick my slightly gothy transgender wife to target for photos is just people being assholes.
It’s a risk whenever we go out these days, and while I am a transgender man who can “pass” as cis, my wife cannot. I worry for her safety a lot these days because the uptick in violence is very real, and you never know if you are going to run into someone that has been wound up by the media and is just foaming at the mouth to hate crime someone.
I truly wish this wasn’t a concern we had to work with just to go get breakfast and groceries.
Garden Rat 