Diary

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Sunday, January 14, 2024

I have been thinking about a Vibrating Soil Sieve. Several people have suggested it and I confess I dismissed their ideas, thinking that my percussion (“dropping”) sieve was in effect a vibrating sieve – it vibrated every time I lifted it by hand and then dropped it!

But a recent slew of YouTube videos has changed my mind. In my notes at Vibrating Soil Sieve I take a look at two types of vibrating sieve:-

(a) Horizontal vibration

(b) Vertical vibration using a rotary cam.

In particular I am looking at the immediate task this year of filling my 24’x16’ raised bed, for which I will need about 1,000 cubic feet of sieved soil/compost.

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Growing greens for winter

I bought another clutch of celery. $cdn5.00. I want my money’s worth out of this.

I could not find my circular saw set, so I will be reduced to a 1 ¼-inch auger bit.

That is why I quartered the stem of the bunch. I should get the same amount of foliage.

My windshield-washer fluid jug has room for only three of the four quartered stem, marked here with black dots.

Note to self: When using auger bits in a high-speed drill, do not use the correct direction for drilling through soft plastic (see left-hand hole in the image).

Instead reverse the direction of the drill; the drill will still impart enough energy to make the hole, but will not screw the auger bit right through the soft plastic at high speed, giving me better control over the process (see centre hole in the image).

Here we are with three of the quarters plugged into three holes. To make them fit I trimmed two or three stalks from my stems. Hors d’oevre prior to lunch!

The bulk of the jug (holding the stems) fits snugly into the three inches high water-filled base of the jug. Estimated time to first harvest – three weeks. With a succession of jugs and the occasional new clutch of celery I should have soup and salad greens for many days until next winter.

Friday, January 19, 2024

I spent the last three days reorganizing my notes on Sieves . Three days of winds up to 100KM/h driving pellets of freezing rain will do that to you!

Sunday, January 21, 2024

I continue to update my thoughts on producing 1,000 cubic feet of sieved soil this spring in Sieves

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

The winds in Bonavista blow strong. When Queenslanders tell of horrifying wind speeds (80 Km/hr) I read all about it while our winds are gusting at 100 KM/hr, and all WE get is a cautionary warning from the weather bureau to put all loose objects inside.

Late last year I noticed that some of my plastic labeling sticks had blown out of the tree seedling tins.

My solution: bend the foot of the strip at right angles before inserting it into the tin, and only then load the tin with soil.

In the image above I have bent four sticks and am checking the stick against the diameter of a tin.

Here are four tomato paste tins, bent sticks inserted, filled with loose soil and a pear core placed atop the first can. Once the remaining three pear cores are in place, I shall push them down, cover them with soil, and set them outside to freeze.

Saturday, January 27, 2024

A catch-up day.

The single leaf given to me eighteen months ago by Mary has produced a healthy plant and leaves off that plant are now making another five plants. I will swing into full-scale production this spring. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the original leaf (centre) is trying to make another child to join its five grandchildren.

Bonavista has a drought season as far as rainfall goes. December through February – three months when rainfall is rare. Snow, yes, but rain, no.

I learned of this drought my first year here. I had begin to harvest rainwater and had four one-gallon kitty-litter jugs which came close to running dry by mid-January. I survived.

Now I have a well-stocked reservoir of four 25-litre demi-johns and a collection of over a dozen flasks. The porch cupboard is stocked with water. In truly cold weather the bottles freeze, but quickly thaw out when brought into the kitchen.

I freed up some floor space in the porch by stacking my collection pails. There is little sense in working them until March, when we can expect rain again.

I can’t find a web page that shows rainfall by month for Bonavista. Most pages either show “precipitation, including rain, snow etc” or show “days of rain” rather than amounts.

I start experimenting with raising herbs and other small plants in sardine tins using paper towels. I do not use paper towels in the house, but inherited 2 ½ rolls when I moved in, so I will use them as a consistent medium for starting seedlings of low-volume plants.

As well I am trying out a tip from a fanciful video that says Onions flesh promotes root growth. It costs me little to try it with small nodules of ginger root, and the rest of the onion was a tasty addition to my lunch-time salad.

I made a short list of existing seeds to use. The dandelion I sprinkled on all my large pots in the hopes of another harvest before the spring brings me the plants outside.