Quick Sewing

On Mother's Day, the family and I went to Home Ec. and Reform School to browse. At Reform School, I picked up a Sweetheart Patch Kit from Chikabird. The patch is backed with fuseable fabric.

I ironed the patch on and hand stitched it to a shirt I dyed. Simple quick projects can be so rewarding.

New Toys for Summer

School is almost out here at Camp Ramshackle. Around the corner are the wonderfully long summer days to be filled however we please. Of course, there will be many beach days, hikes, library visits and adventures. There will also be days spent at home, enjoying the garden, dirt, drawing and books. In anticipation, I invested in some new toys to celebrate. We try not to buy many plastic toys. Recently, however, my oldest son and I were introduced to Playmobil.

Playmobil is like a role playing Legos. Our new collection has guinea pigs, wild boar, raccoons and a tree house to name a few. The toys are manufactured in Germany.

But the box is always the best part.

Family Portraits

A few months back, my oldest son was inspired to draw portraits of the family. He used one of his favorite mediums, oil pastels.

I picked up the frames over the weekend and put them up. When my son walked into the room, he was quite pleased to see his framed work mounted on the wall.

Outdoor Furniture Maintenance Continued

Late May, I started some much needed furniture maintenance for six outdoor chairs. I've been treating them with Watco Teak Oil. I was on a roll with three chairs done when my bottle ran dry.

Both my local hardware stores were out. I guess everyone had the same great idea to take care of outdoor furniture, too. This week, I finally was able to get my hands on some more oil.

On Sunday, I finished two more chairs. One more to go. I feel like I'm on the twenty-third mile of a marathon. I can see the finish line.

Previously:

Another Outdoor Chair Oiled

Outdoor Furniture Maintenance

Manzanita Bark

We planted the notoriously slow-growing Louis Edmunds Manzanita (Arctostaphylos stanfordiana bakeri) over three years ago when we planted the bulk of our California natives.

The scrub is just old enough to curl away it's bark for the first time. As the plant matures, the bark will peel away revealing smooth wood underneath.

This planted started as a one-gallon transplant. It has been worth the wait watching it slowly grow.

More Artichokes

After three unsuccessful attempts to grow artichokes, our current plants are doing great. We harvested our first artichoke about a week ago and grilled it. Since then, two more chokes have grown.

And in another planter....another artichoke rears its head. This one already has ants claiming squatter rights, however. I don't have a high success rate battling ants and aphids. I will try again for the sake of the artichoke.

Bees on California Native Ceanothus

Bees and plants are happy with the extra rain we got this year.

Strange Mushroom

This odd looking mushroom popped up the other day. Can anyone help identify it? Update: our friend Jeremy (Rancho Garbanzo) identified this as the common stinkhorn. Thanks Jeremy!

Here's my finger almost touching it for scale.

Rescued Fence Post Lizard

Lizards are everywhere around our house right now. This one narrowly missed being killed by our dog Trudy who pounced on it and got most of the tail. The poor lizard tried to hide in the rock wall but was still woefully exposed. I was able to keep the dog at bay while I rescued the lizard and put it in this tree. She just stayed resting in my hand while I was able to snap this picture of her dazzling belly. A second later she was zipping up into the upper limbs to regroup.

Matilija Poppy - Primitive Drip

We planted this matilija poppy last weekend and put our primitive drip system on it. It's just a 5 gallon galvanized can with a little spout screwed into it. It helps the water penetrate our clay soil rather than just running off.

Our First Artichoke

We got our first artichoke! Only the strongest plant has produced a flower bud but this is very good news for us.

If you look a little down the stalk you'll see two other smaller flowers forming.

I've read that cutting the first flower will encourage more to grow. I'm not sure this will happen on this plant because the growth seems a little slow in general but we just couldn't wait to taste it. Plus I wanted to avoid what happened with our shiitakes a couple of weeks ago. I figure an artichoke in hand...

I hope that the rest will produce this year too but I also understand that doesn't always happen in the first year. Now our greatest goal is to make sure they survive through the summer.

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mother's Day, we love you Julia! And happy Mother's Day to our grandma's, and all the other mom's and grandma's too.

The card reads:"You are a good mom" So true.

Garden Update: Tomatoes

Thanks to some cooperative play on the part of my sons, I was able to plant some tomatoes. In March, I took a class with Marta Teegan of Homegrown LA. I used some of her tips when getting these plants in the ground.


I made room for the plants by clearing out my brussel sprout disaster. I've not had much luck with the brassicas. The aphids, however, had a field day with these plants coating the undersides of the leaves and blanketing the brussel sprout heads with their dusky bodies. I have yet to find a good way to deal with the aphids. I'm hoping the toxic leaves of the tomato plant will be an effective deterrent all by themselves.

Roasted Fennel and Potatoes

We stopped in on our neighbors Rancho Garbanzo recently and swapped some victuals. Jeremy gave us some delicious fennel and chard freshly picked from his garden.

Following Jeremy's suggestions, I roasted the fennel and potatoes with a bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt. After the potatoes and fennel started to brown, I added about four cloves of garlic to roast for another 5-10 minutes. When I pulled it out of the oven, I added some freshly picked oregano from our garden. A tasty treat on our dinner table.

I ate the last of the potatoes and fennel with a freshly laid egg that came from Backwards Beekeepers Amy and Russell newly laying chickens. Thanks for your generosity. It was delicious!

Keys Desert Queen Ranch - Joshua Tree Homestead

On the way out of Joshua Tree on our recent camping trip, we stopped to take the Keys Desert Queen Ranch tour. It's a guided tour of a homestead established by Bill Keys in 1910. Bill lived here with his wife Francis. They had 7 children, 4 survived - 2 died very young and one had an accident at the well when he was 12. Bill lived here until his death in 1969 at the age of 90.

They had several wells and a dam to catch rain water which irrigated a small plot of land with fruit trees and a garden.


That's the dam in the background. I love the fences made with stacked logs. In the desert wood doesn't really rot like it does in other places. The dry air essentially mummifies everything protecting it from decay.


Gravity and hand pumps got the water up to the top of this tank which provided the gravity fed water pressure to the house.


They never had electricity and this is the original refrigerator. It's an external cabinet shrouded with water soaked burlap (at least it was soaked when it was in use). I think this piece of burlap has been there since 1969 when the ranch was occupied. They also had a propane refrigerator that came from the nearby Camp Pendleton Marine base which was once owned by General Patton but was essentially free-cycled to the Keys when Patton shipped out to Africa.


This is the best shot of the interior that I got through the screens. It looks pretty much like our house.


Bill and Frances had multiple irons in the fire when it came to making money. One of the main sources of income was this one stamp ore mill. I think I remember the Ranger saying it was a dollar a ton that he charged to process the gold ore. They also ran what was essentially a bed and breakfast with breakfast and diner included. Bill would also help other homesteaders set up their own places. Later he'd scavenge back whatever he had sold them when they ultimately packed it in and headed for more hospitable settings.


One of my favorite parts of the tour was a story about this truck. Apparently all 4 Keys children who survived to adulthood are still alive. The story goes that about six years ago one of them came back (they all have permanent access rights to the land though it has been donated to the NPS) and got this truck running. The tourists at the ranch at the time got the thrill of being driven around the ranch on the bed of the 1929 Mac truck! When word got back to the guy in charge of the park at the time, I guess he had a conniption and went out and permanently disabled the truck by breaking the suspension and pouring sugar in the tank. Sad but totally cool that the guy who grew up with it got it running again. What an amazing place it must have been to grow up.

After visiting Keys Desert Queen Ranch I was very inspired to keep taking our fledgling urban homestead farther toward independence.

Another Outdoor Chair Oiled

No one is more surprised than me that another outdoor chair has been oiled. Somehow, I've been able to work on outdoor furniture maintenance while the boys play outside. And not to sound cocky, but I think I might have finished two more but I ran out of oil.

The count:
Three down.
Three more to go.

Shiitake Bloom - Lesson Learned

About a week ago, we noticed that our shiitake bag which Phoenix picked up at the Mycological Society event at the L.A. Arboretum, was in bloom.

They were pretty cramped in the bag so I carefully pulled it down to have a better look.

I harvested the biggest one then and put it in the fridge. Next I cut little holes for the rest of the mushrooms as I worked the bag back up and over the block.

I figured that it would allow the mushrooms to expand while keeping the block moist. Everything looked good for two days but on the third day in the morning I noticed that they were all drying out - halfway on their way to being dried Shiitake mushrooms. I checked the harvested one in the fridge and it still looked fresh picked after 2 days.

I am such a fan now of the fresh shiitakes that I am on a mission to generate a lasting source. I think next time I might try putting them in the fridge at night. I've also heard of small tents that keep the moisture in.

I harvested all the half dried mushrooms and we'll probably use them soon rather than dehydrate and save them but they are still in the fridge.

Outdoor Furniture Maintenance

A great deal of our living at Camp Ramshackle happens outside. Our actual house is quite small, so we have created a lot of outdoor spaces including an outdoor dining room. Outdoor living is great for the spirit, but the elements can be tough on the furniture.

Each time I sit down and lay my arm on the desiccated arm rest, I add a task to my list of Good Intentions to oil the outdoor furniture before it crumbles into dust.

Photo taken by my 2 1/2 year old son.

Somehow my Good Intentions reached Action Potential and two chairs have been sanded and treated with Watco Teak Oil. I'm hoping that the thrill of accomplishment will provide the fuel to finish the other four.

I remain the optimist.

The Ultimate Play Pant

While visiting the Natural History Museum, a woman complimented my son on his bandanna pants. After finding out that I made them, she ordered five pair. These pants are so much fun to make. Every time they come off my sewing machine, I smile. They remind me of Nudie suits and Gram Parsons.

Joovy Caboose Stroller Fix

Many months ago while the boys and I were returning from a grocery sortie at Figueroa Produce, our stroller hit about an inch bump on the uneven sidewalk in Garvanza Park. It wasn't a hard bump, but it was enough to completely snap off the front wheel on our stroller.

The company sent me a replacement part gratis...granted after a bit of discussion about faulty merchandise and company responsibility.

When the part arrived, I was a bit daunted by the fix. So the broken stroller sat. My kids were getting a bit too heavy for me to push both of them at the same time. And now that they have scooters, who really needs strollers?

My friend who just had her second baby four days ago, that's who. So I set to the task of repairing the stroller.

First, I had to drill out the existing brads. The thought of boring out the brads paralyzed me in the past. But the time to set aside fear had arrived. It was much easier than I expected. I was able to drill through the top of the fastener then use a screwdriver to pop off the top. The piece came out easily. I'm terribly thankful.

Replacing the new part was easy after finding the right size hexagonal wrench and traditional wrench to tighten it.

Then I removed the tire from the broken piece by turning it upside down and releasing a switch and put the tire on the repaired stroller assembly.

Ready to roll.