Full Worm Moon: Solar & Impatience

This week's hardscape addition: A trellis 

The Full Worm Moon will be out tonight. Having done some digging, there are worms running around under the garden. Things are waking up.

In another exciting development, Kiki and I had a conversation about getting solar installed for zero down payment. There's a tax credit that would be worth more than $6,000. We would also get a check from Xcel Energy (our utility) for becoming a small producer - about $2,000, we're told.

Solar is a big dream here, something we've wanted to do since we were kids. I always wanted a green house, and this would be a huge step.

We're approved for the loan to purchase the hardware and get it installed, but we're waiting for a quality quote to come through from the first company we contacted, and for a second quote that should follow a telephone call we are having on Wednesday.

This is a big deal!

On other fronts, this week is a little frustrating, because we can only do so much before we run up against the cold weather and soil.

I took Thursday off of work, and spent part of the day re-purposing the lumber from the blancmange-looking blanket that was devised for the prototype uber-bed. I just couldn't see any way to construct that that didn't flap in the wind and create difficulties getting it on and off. This left us with some left-over lumber and galvanized poultry wire. So I built a trellis for the peas in one of the lower beds. It stands at the ready.

I wanted to start some asparagus to get it going in the strawberry bed for next year. Unfortunately, we've flat run out of space in the greenhouse. 

I knew that the pace of growth might be a problem in the greenhouse when I started planting early, but some of the plants are really starting to get big, making me worry that they'll need to be potted on before they can be safely taken outside. This would be alright if we didn't have Zipper running around and biting everything that he can get his little teeth into. No plant is safe. So I'm seriously considering purchasing another small greenhouse, one that would be sun powered rather than T5 fluorescent powered, and have one of the shelves removed so the plants could be taller.

I considered working some clover seed into the lawn, but that's probably a bad idea because we're looking at below freezing temperatures for the next week. 

It is cold outside today - in the 30's. I'd like to take a look at our new rain barrel and figure out how we are going to install it. We can do this at the house, but that involves cutting into our brand new gutters. Another idea is to re-use our old gutters and install one on the shed, but it's uncertain whether that would collect enough water. Things to consider. 

The project continues.