Saint Petersburg calling

The phone rings.....  I answer it in my normal way, "Cindee."
I hear a distant voice, "Hello?  Hello?"
I say, "Yes?"
He says, "Is this that fancy bioshelter way up in Alaska?"
Immediately I sit up straighter and press the phone to my ear a little tighter.  "Yes it is."
"Say," he says, "I just read that article in Alaska Magazine about your house."
"YOU DID?"  I burst out.  I had no idea that it was published.
"Yeah.  You know I first went to Alaska in 1955 with the military. I know exactly where that house is, but back then there was no Eagle River."
I'm thinking, Cool, I'm in Alaska Magazine! I'm not really listening.
He says, "Say, I think I understand everything, but how do you get those worms to eat your junk mail?"
Now I'm smiling.  I add sugar---no I'd better not mess with this nice old man.  "I just toss it down there and they eat it.  I shred it first though."
He says, "Do you wet it?"
"No."  I say.  "I don't need to wet it, because I'm always throwing left overs down there. But you'd have to dampen your junk mail before you fed it to them."
"Wow," he says, "that must be some special kind of worm that can eat junk mail."
Still smiling, I say, "No, just the regular ol' red wigglers."
"R-e-d---W-i-g-g-l-e-r-s"  he says as he writes it down. "Where'd you get your red wigglers?"
"From Uncle Jim's Worm Farm."  I say.
"Where's that?" he wants to know.
"Gosh, I think in Tennessee."
"My mother's cousin lives in Tennessee.  I suppose they have some good worms there."
Silence.
"Aren't the dyes and stuff on that junk mail gonna kill those worms?"
"Well, good question,"  I say. "We have an expert up here--Jeff Lowenfels, he wrote a book called Teaming with Microbes."
"T-E-A-M-I-N-G--W-I-T-H--M-I-C-R-O-B-E-S" I hear him writing it down again.
"Anyway, he says that everyone is using soy-based coloring these days and that we should only worry about printing from China."
Silence.
I say, "I haven't gotten any mail from China lately, so I'm not too worried."  I hear a chuckle. "Where are you from now?"  I ask.
"Saint Petersburg."
Well immediately I think I'm talking to Russia, but quickly dismiss the thought, because he certainly didn't have a russian accent.  So I say, "In Florida?"
"Yup!"  he says.  "We've got a real nice place down here with four bedrooms."
"Wow."
"Yeah, I've always been interested in this green stuff and being green. But now I'm going to have to get me some worms to eat my junk mail.  Have you ever been to Saint Petersburg?"
"Oh quite a while back we were there for a training.  So I've been there all right."  I say.
"If you ever get back this way again, you look us up.  You can stay with us as long as you want."
Grinning now, I say, "Thank you.  It was such a joy talking to you today."
"Okay then."
And we hung up.  A connection across the continent to ask me about my worms.

If that just isn't amazing!

Adventures of a Fall Storm 

The fun part of living in this house is that there is always a new problem to solve---you never know what is going to happen next.  But these adventures got a little out of hand this week!

Our solarium is really a 42x12 foot cement swimming pool.  It's about a foot deep at the shallow end and 8-10 feet deep at the deep end.  It's filled with gravel and plant roots.  It's really a very ingenious system.  This week we discovered the design flaw.  

After a HUGE rain/wind storm and then another one a week later, we were aware that the cistern was getting close to over-flowing.  When that happens, we simply start draining the water down the mountain.  Not a big deal.  We just have to watch so the water doesn't start flooding the basement.  

We only drink 2 gallons of water a day at the most and that's the only water that leaves the house via pee.   All of our grey water is recycled and pumped back into the solarium via the fish pond.  Then the water over flows the fish pond and seeps back into the gravel swimming pool and then is pumped into the cistern for reuse. It's a great system------except when there's torrential rains.

Well, it was a "perfect" storm: a record rain fall, no electricity and a baby visiting.  (Of course, after the fact, we realized we should have gone to buy disposable diapers).   All was well until the electricity went out.  Since we've lived here (5 years), we maybe had one other power outage longer than 2-3 hours.  This one was all day about 7 hours.  We watched it rain, started a fire and really didn't think much of it.  

That evening when the lights came on again, I went down into the basement to check to see if there was room enough in our 1st 50 gallon drum to wash some diapers.  That barrel is the one that takes all the grey water and it's where the bacteria start eating all of the food scraps or whatever goes down the drain.  There wasn't.  It was at the top---which meant no showers OR diapers that night.  Not a big deal really.  We could wait for the morning for showers and diapers. 

But I didn't quite understand why it was full.  I started checking and adjusted all of the air hoses and found that no matter how much pressure I added to the first barrel, there was no water going to the second barrel.   I took the whole guts out of the 1st barrel and finally found a hair ball stuck in the pipe.  I blew it out, put the guts back together and we were back in business.  That's only happened one other time.  Strange.

Can you see the rain pipe coming in from the roof at the top center of this picture? 

As I was leaving, I noticed water on the floor.  I stuck my fingers in the cistern to feel water at the very top.  Yup.  That was the source of the water on the flour.  I looked down into the sump area to see if any water had gotten down there.  Sure enough, there was water.  I got out the shop vac and began sucking water.  I emptied maybe 35 gallons of water and dumped it down the mountain toward my "hugel kultur" garden.  It needed lots of water anyway. Then I turned on the garden hose and started running the cistern water down the mountain as well. 

Just about then I heard some hollering upstairs.  I decided the baby must've sat up by herself or something.  I kept checking the rest of the systems.  Low and behold another pump wasn't working---the one that sent water from the third barrel into the fish pond upstairs.  I swore under my breath and started problem-solving.

Maybe you can see here that the water is nearly to the top of the bridge!

This is the over-flowing lower pond.  Hard to tell since all you can see is the reflection of the lights in the water.

Just then Curt walked in the basement door and said the solarium was flooding.  What?  Really?  How could the solarium flood?  We decided to figure out what was wrong with the 3rd barrel pump first.  Somehow the float valve wasn't floating to trigger the pump to pump the water upstairs into the fish pond.  I'm not sure what we did, or if what we did even worked, but after jiggling and wiggling and freeing it from its plastic tie, it started working.  We got the hose and added water to the barrel to check it.  Low and behold, it came on, just like it was supposed to and pumped the water ---so who knows?  We headed out the door pulling all available hoses with us to McGeiver some other fix in the solarium.  

Water was pouring in.  Where it was supposed to go into the gravel, there was a fountain of water spurting every which way!  Our only conclusion was that the gravel was saturated and would accept no more water.   Yes, that 42x12foot swimming pool of gravel.  Obviously if the cistern pump can't pump for 8 hours when the power is out, it can't rain anymore.  The heavens somehow didn't get the memo.  Note:  don't build this house in a rain forest.  

Luckily one of the hoses Curt grabbed was the shop vac hose.  We connected it to the incoming rainwater pipe.  It didn't exactly fit, but I held it as well as I could while Curt hunted for the blasted DUCT TAPE, which never stays where it is supposed to be.  So we used packaging tape and taped the shop vac hose onto the rain pipe and ran the other end outside the door and down the mountain.  We found an old piece of flooring to prop the rain pipe up with.  Then Curt  taped the door closed----the hose was about an inch wide, so we didn't want every moth in the neighborhood looking for shelter in our house.  So he used quite a bit of duct tape, which is why we should have stock in duct tape!

Jeanie and Auri taking it in stride.

Catching the drips

Looking up to the skylight from downstairs.

I came back into the living room where Jeanie was holding the baby, who still had 2 clean diapers left.  Jeanie told me she had some more bad news:  the ceiling was leaking.  

What??? In the upstairs stairwell?  

I'm still not sure where the water was coming from, but in my mind I imagined the following scenario.  Wind blowing!  Rain downpouring!  White caps on the roof rolling over the lip of the skylights on the roof.  So----as soon as these storms leave us and it's sunny, I'll have to get on the roof and see if that was the case.  As for now, there's a bowl to catch any rain that makes its way in.  (When the rain and wind died somewhat, there was no more water coming in the skylights.)

Day 2.......The train isn't running.  Jeanie and baby need to go back to Fairbanks.  We washed diapers anyway and then we readied the house for being alone for the next day by shop vacuuming the sump pit again and re-taping the hose to the rain pipe all over again.

Day 3 -- I drove Jeanie to Cantwell (half-way) across many, many flooded rivers.  I arrived home about 5pm and guess what?  The power was out AGAIN! Power came on finally about 9:30 pm.  Still raining!

Day 4----Just checked the sump pit and there's no water.  All of the pumps are working at the moment and as this goes to press, it is NOT raining! 

Decision:  no more debating about which generator to buy.  We have to have one.  Not for lights, not for heat, not for water----to run the pumps.  Too bad solar panels cost so much.

ONE LAST NOTE:  This only happened one other time in this house's history according to the builders/previous owners.  They discovered the solarium flooding in the middle of the night and were so flustered and half -asleep, Lu Anne fell in the pond.  Funny.  I'm hoping our story gets funnier as we tell it.  :-)

Spring 2012 -- All things come back to life: even blogs

Spring has sprung here in the Bioshelter.  There is so much water melting that we are running water down the mountain side--our cistern over-floweth.  

One of the really hard things to deal with is waste.  What do we do when you see other people polluting or purchasing things that will end up in the land fill?   It's hard.  I sounded pretty disgusted when I asked why my place of employment was buying apples in a plastic containers.  The staff said, "What's wrong with that?  It makes it so they don't get bruised."  I grimaced again and she said, "Why, do you want them or something?"   Without really thinking, but trying to make a point, I said, "Sure.  I'll take them." 

I've collected them all winter.  I have about 50 of them.  All waiting for spring.   Here they are!

 

I only have about 40 more to go.  What will I do with all of these trays???

I have rescued them from the landfill, but maybe only temporarily.  I'll let you know how they work.  

I planted Stinging Nettle in the salad box there, but in the apple cartons I planted two kinds of Basil, two kinds of Oregano, Echinacea, Chervil, Calendula and some other things I can't remember.  

  ****************************************************

I thought I'd show you the other things that have been growing: 

That is a bunch of LEEKS.  I'm using the plastic chicken cover (from a Safeway roasted chicken) to feed it water. 

 

 Here are all the tomatoes.  I MAY up-pot these directly into the green house.  Not sure if that is the best idea for tomatoes since it's still kinda cold in there.  Hmmmm.

Yeah, New Zealand Spinach.  It grew all winter, slowly but surely.  The aphids attacked it---it keeps growing.  We wash the aphids off and eat!  :-)

Bunching onions.    Yes!  I want A LOT.  Apparently they are good to keep pests away.    The a-word even (those which shall not be named) 

Lettuce.  I haven't decided if I'm going to let some of these grow up, or just eat the greens.  Maybe both.

  

Last but not least-----the califlower.   The cat has killed three little critters this week.  I hope those voles and shrews are getting the message that they can't come here and eat my califlower again this summer. 

I hope to continue writing here this season.  The season is off to a GREAT start!  :-)

Ode to the Midge

I now have swarming midges!  Can you believe it?  They eat aphids.  That's a good thing, right? 

Well, check out a picture of a midge.  Not bad, you say?  Hrumph.

They are like a non-biting mosquito and they love swarming.  Especially above ponds. 

Those midges are making me itch just sitting in the solarium next to them.  It's psychological of course, but why have a solarium if you can't sit in it without feeling itchy? 

Here's a picture of the swarm,

No, those aren't just spots on your computer screen, they are a swarm! 

I first got out the vacuum cleaner and sucked them up.  That was fun, but time consuming.

Next, I got a battery powered swatter.  That also took a lot of energy, but was so satisfying when I heard the zap that said I had electrified the crazy thing!  I didn't get nearly enough zapping sounds to warrant the continued swatting.

Next I got out the Vaseline and put it all over a paper.  I swung it over the pond in the late afternoon, and caught a lot, but I couldn't stay there all day.  I have things to do, places to go, dirt to dig in.

So I bought a sticky trap.  In an hour, that sticky trap was full of midges. 
I swear, they must triple their population every hour.  That didn't really put a dent in them.

Yesterday I went to Far North Garden Supply.  What a nice lady.  After she understood that I couldn't poison them because that's where our drinking water is, she got out the books to find out which predators eat Midges.  She did warn me that if I got rid of my midges, I would have aphids again.  Suddenly I seem to like aphids and their predators, ladybugs, a lot more than swarming midges. 

We find NEMATODES.  Now doesn't that sound delicious!  :-)

So, apparently these things crawl down into the mud where the midges are hatching their eggs and they eat them!  They eat everything---even earthworms.  So what happens when a nematode falls in the pond?  Will they attack my koi???

I have so many midges, I'm imagining that the nematodes will quickly multiply.  Then what? 

Does anyone know where I can get frogs? 

The Perils of Using Local Resources in your Garden

Spring is here and planting has begun here at the Bioshelter.  I’m boycotting all Miracle Grow Potting Soils and fertilzer easily available at Walmart, Fred Meyers and other big box stores.  If we are serious about cutting our addiction to oil, we have to learn how to grow without it, right?

The first thing I did was to search for an Alaskan Product.  My friend recommended the Fish emulsion soil from Nunilchik.  Well, I could just see it.  I would just get everything planted and then all the bears in the neighborhood would come over and dig it all up thinking they might find something yummy to eat.  So I wasn’t happy with that choice. 

My skepticism was definitely founded on reality.  Back when I was first married with 2 little kids and poor, I started my first garden.  I dug up a tiny little plot outside of the front door of our home in Wrangell, Alaska.  I didn’t know what kind of soil that was or if it would grow anything, so I wondered about fertilizer.

We happened to have over calculated on our winter’s supply of halibut.  It just didn’t taste very good after being in the freezer all winter in Ziploc bags filled with milk---a popular recipe to avoid freezer burn.  Because I didn’t want to waste anything, I saw a solution to my problem.  The freezer-burned halibut in our freezer could become my natural fertilizer. 

I had studied the seed catalogs and got just a few seeds of things which I knew would grow --even with all the rain we got-- in the Tongass Rainforest.  I had started them in the house and then one sunny day---and those were rare---I planted halibut pieces under each little seedling.  I was so proud of my first garden in my first home!  I placed big rocks around it for a border and finally went inside after it was too dark to admire the garden from the porch stairs.

The next morning I got up early to go out and water before the sun came out.  I came down the porch stairs and saw dirt strewn all over the path below me.  As I turned the corner and saw the garden, my shoulders sank…..all the air left my lungs.  I started getting teary.  Every single plant----gone.   The garden appeared freshly, but sloppily tilled.  I looked more closely.  Dog prints.  It was then I learned why the town was arguing about whether they should hire a dog catcher.  We knew all the dogs by name and enjoyed meeting them on the street.  Suddenly I didn’t enjoy it anymore.  I was so mad.  I remember sitting down on the steps and just crying.

So all these 30 years later the memory of that garden debacle was still fresh. I really didn’t want fish dirt. I drove in to Alaska Mill and Feed to talk to the experts. They assured me that if I smelled fish at all, I could bring the fish soil back.  So my planting began.  It smelled just like fresh soil, so I went forward.  For seedlings they suggested I get perlite to lighten the soil and allow for the seedlings to grow.  The perlite was from Bellvue Washington, but I took it anyway. 

So far, so good.  I’ll keep you posted when I transplant all my little seedlings outside in a couple of weeks.  J

Happy Easter from the Bioshelter's Solarium

Easter in the Garden

Ajuga:  Bugleweed

HAPPY SPRING

Marsh Marigolds

Now I understand why the former owner of this garden 

became a flower artist.  

These are my photos, followed by a couple of her paintings.

Louanne's Painted Callylilly

My white hanging flowers

My begonias

Louanne's painting

 

My yellow iris

Finally I got my LadyBugs!

Leslie, Triena and I stopped in at Sutton's Greenhouse yesterday and THEY HAD LADYBUGS!!!  Besides ladybugs, all of their little plants were up and growing.  It felt like summer in there.  

So,  after spending the night in the refrigerator, I turned them loose.   At first they were a little groggy. 

Then they started waking up!  

 Headed north!  Yikes! 

So I started dumping them out from the bag!  Much better. 

Now, go at it LADIES!  Eat aphids until you die!!!  And I mean it!

(Well, I guess there are male lady bugs, because I've seen them.  Unless they were just giving each other piggy back rides or something.)  

This one ignored my command.  I think she or he was THIRSTY!

Stay tuned for the battle of the aphids.