Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Stuff

 We lost some long time tenants today for the very best reason: they bought their first home. We met them at the apartment and did a walk through and returned their deposit and half a month's rent to them. We had a housewarming gift for them too. They are the sweetest couple, and we really are happy for them. Their house is just down the street from our current renovation, and so we will pop in to see them someday when we see them front porch sitting. 

We hung out at the house making a list of small repairs we needed to take care of. This is a house that dates back to 1848 according to the marker on the house although the deed shows that the house was purchased over 10 years earlier by a young couple that raised 6 children in the tiny place. It is one of the oldest houses in the city. (I can hear Cro laughing himself silly from clear over here. He's sitting in a cozy 300 year old house.)

A wing was built on to the house, but in the basement of that side of the house there is a hand dug well, lined with old stone. (It would have been in the side yard of the little house. The wing was built atop of it.) Someday when people aren't living in that unit, I'm going in there and doing some excavating. I hear that wells are a good place to find treasure. However, we bought the house with Tom living in that side of the building, and he's shown no interest in moving. We've had the house for 8 or 9 years now, I believe that he was a tenant of the previous landlord for 10 years or more. 

Our next prospective tenant showed up with two of her friends to look the newly empty place over. We showed her what repairs we had to make and told her to make a list of what she wants done. She saw one thing, a loose piece of ceiling between the exposed beams. It was already on our list of things to be done. We hung around for a while talking to the group, but headed out leaving them to figure out what their friend should do. We told them to shut the lights off when they left and lock the door behind them. 

Tim and I had errands to run before bed and we got them finished in pretty short order. 

I've got a list of things to get done tomorrow morning, utilities to be switched over and running to be done. I've got a class to study for. I'm taking a run to a town about an hour from here to pick up two food grade 55 gallon barrels for an experiment that I am pretty excited about. I've always been interested in hydroponics. Our cucumbers have been a miserable failure for two years running due to pesky groundhogs who dig their way under the fence and nibble. These critters can do an awful lot of damage from one weekend to the next. This plan will keep the vines high enough off the ground that they will be out of reach of those pesky creatures. 

Between the mushroom project and this, I'm plenty excited to get going on this year's garden. As Ed has pointed out, maybe this will be the year of the asparagus. This is something that I have planted multiple times in 3 different places, and never had any luck with. It's the second year for this particular planting, the first time I've planted it at this particular site. Fingers crossed. All I know is that I'm plenty tired of hearing Ed go on about having so much asparagus that he can hardly keep up with it. My fondest hope is that next year, that will be MY complaint!

9 comments:

  1. I'll be intrigued to hear if you ever excavate that well!

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  2. Hydroponics? You are ambitious. All the best, and keep us posted.

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  3. I had a friend who planted asparagus SEEDS. It took a long time for them to give a harvest, I don't know how long... but eventually, my friend had enough asparagus to share with me! She died. The asparagus is only one of several reasons I miss my friend.

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  4. Look forward to seeing the hydroponics. Cucumbers love water.

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  5. We have a hydroponic farm near us. It is very interesting and usually has some veggie to sell. Of course strawberries are the big crop now and acres and acres of them. Wal mart has asparagus starts a few weeks ago. I did not read how long before a crop. We used to pick it wild in Ohio. It is cheap in the grocery stores down here so I guess it might be in season.

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  6. We always had to save our asparagus from our dogs!

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  7. Looking forward to hearing how the gardening projects turn out for you. Can't let those pesky creatures win this year. Awesome to hear about your tenants. Owning a home is a great accomplishment and congrats to them.

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  8. I've never been able to grow asparagus. I think because it takes so long till you can pick it, I forget its there and accidentally dig it up! x

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  9. I think I mentioned this previously but we tried a couple times and failed until we discovered the soil pH levels weren't right for asparagus. Once we got the soil pH in the correct range, we had a lot better luck.

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