The Furlough

My Christopher is exceedingly talented. I know I'm biased, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.

My ability to fix a flat tire is somewhat questionable while he has become a better bike mechanic than most of the mechanics you pay $50/hour for.

And that was just the start of it. After mastering the basics of maintenance, next up was building up his own bikes. He got frames and components and read up on all sorts of different bikes and their functions and figured out what bits work really nice with what other bits and he gets them all working super fantastically well together.

Was that enough? Oh no! This spring he took a welding class, bought a book on building bicycles, watched some videos, did some research and then built a bike. Built a bike as in designed the angles, dimensions, selected the type of steel, etc and transformed a box of steel tubing and lugs into a bike that one can ride.

Impressive as that may be, he took it EVEN further. To build the bike required specific tools & fixtures. Did he buy these fixtures? Oh no! He designed and built them and then used those to build the bike!

And here is the result. The Furlough. So named because it was built while Christopher was on "furlough" from his company and had the time to do this crazy project. I came up with the name. I may not be able to fix a flat, but I can name the socks off a bicycle! (Do bicycles have socks? Don't worry about it.)


A pretty basic bike, built with the intention of it being his "beater" bike for going to the movies, bars, etc. etc. Nothing too fancy, no high ends bits and bobs to attract attention, but still a pretty sweet ride.

Next up: He's been commissioned by his dad to build up a stainless steel lugged fancy smancy old man cruising machine. Now that he has worked out the process with that first bike he is ready to build some awesome rides. Let me know if you want him to make you one and we can put you on the waiting list before it gets too long!

How your garden DOES grow!

I said from the beginning that my goal with the garden this year was to get the bulk of the "construction" piece done and if we could get anything to actually grow that would be a bonus.

We mostly got the "construction" done. 15,000 pounds of rock, trellis system, seriously raised beds, 10 yards of dirt schlepped in, etc. We still have to do the patio and throw pretty bark mulch down over dirt in some places, but that doesn't really affect how or what grows.

As for all the "bonus" material - we definitely had some flops. Peas, it turns out, are quite particular about being planted in early spring and quite definitely feel June is far too late (close minded little vegetables.) Potatoes are similarly stubborn and have protested being planted 2-4 months late (depending on what method you follow) by not doing anything.

However, we have also had some wild success. The ground cover I'd hoped would come together by next spring is running rampant, my bush beans have been producing for weeks now (they aren't even supposed to DO that!) and we even have grapes on the freshly planted grape vine that has climbed from 2ft in height to 6ft in two months. That comes to about an inch a day!

And then there is the squash.... Everyone warns you. Three squash plants is two plants too many. I got a little enthusiastic though. The friggin' squirrel dug up the first round I planted so about mid-June I replanted and ended up with half a garden of voracious squash plants. I also ended up with multiple squash plants I didn't even plant. I'm not sure if Mr. Squirrel dropped the seeds somewhere or if the compost from our own kitchen scraps we spread contained the little time bombs.

This is my favorite squash plant. Didn't plant it, not sure what it is. It has run away to about 6 ft long now with 2 dozen flowers and it grows a few inches every day. I'm thinking it is some sort of winter squash and have my fingers crossed that it is butternut or acorn!

We definitely have more work to do, though not nearly as much as we have done, but I'm pretty happy with what we have so far.



Next up - some chairs so we can actually sit out there and enjoy it all!