After the Fire

It is amazing how the Earth regenerates after a fire or any major natural disaster.  In the disaster zone that fried my blueberries I had Borage plants to attract the bees and they were totally wiped out, or so I thought.  I removed the dead plants and tilled this area and added 6" of a really good mulch and the first plants to appear were the Borage!  It is claimed that the more you curse this plant, the harder you are on it and the more you neglect it, the better it will grow.

View to the right of my desk

   Maybe my office is the same?  I removed everything from it, scrubbed and cleaned and painted and put it back together differently and I like the new look.  I didn't struggle over paint colors and went directly to the mismatched discounted paint selection at the local home improvement store.  Some kind of lavender for the walls and a pale blue for the ceiling.  The end slate wall after a good cleaning remained the same.  I gave one desk to a neighbor, that extra desk was just a catch all anyway.  My new office is roomier now leaving more room for "art".  I even have an easel in this room!

Slate wall and widow in office

   The next door studio room is coming along.  I added bookshelves in a couple spots which helped clear out my office and adds a touch of interest to that room.  It is still a working studio where I can splash paint and make a mess without fear but has some added elements of interest.  It is not finished.  I still have some areas to develop but it is clean, just needs a bit more organization.

 Bookshelves added to Studio wall.

Studio wall and exit door, still too much clutter!

The office!

   It took a fire to get me to do this.

Studio, view from office.

I have made a couple trips to the dump and a couple to the recycle yard, given away "stuff" to the neighbors and even sold a few things and I still have too much "stuff"!  It is amazing how we acquire STUFF.  In over 35 years as a remodelling contractor, that was my job, making houses bigger for the addition of more stuff.  I do the same but I think of it as an illness!  I seem to be putting off the major cleaning of my shop.  It will be a huge task and I am not sure what is even in there!  I will take some before and after photos!  I think in my next reincarnation I will be a minimalist.  We work hard to "get stuff", to keep stuff, provide a place for stuff and we don't even know what we have!  Pretty crazy.

Harvest Time

This is the time of year my garden turns into a jungle and produces more than we can eat.  I feel like a millionaire and the Powerball isn't until tonight!  Heirloom tomatoes, especially Cherokee Purple and Black Krim simply cannot be bought.  They have a shelf life from perfect ripeness to way too mushy of just three days.  No tomato has the flavor and texture and aroma that can replace the homegrown.
I am popular with the neighbors this time of yer and wen I have too many to give away I get the dryer out.  Today I sliced and diced and cut up about 25 pounds of tomatoes, what it takes to fill the dryer.

Five Seasons!

It has been almost five years since I discovered the cancer.  That is five years added to my perfecting the best tomato!  Tomatoes are self pollinating but they will also cross pollinate so as you plant different varieties close together the seeds saved will eventually become another variety or at least a variation.  I only save seeds from the heirloom dark varieties, some Japanese varieties, the darker the better.  I like Cherokee Purple and Black Krim probably the best.  They are packed full of flavor and have a soft juicy pulp.  Of course my favorite sandwich is a BLT but it is hard to beat a grilled hamburger with a 1/2" thick slice of tomato the size of the bun!  I can pick them every day now, plenty to eat and give away but not quite enough to get the dryer out.  Soon enough!
Here is what I picked from the garden this morning!

Ruthless

That is the  best way to clean.  Trips to the dump.  I built this shop over twenty years ago and the office was adjacent to my welding area.  All the grinding and debris could easily penetrate into my office.  Almost four years ago I separated my studio space from the shop but at that time did nothing with the office.  It has never even been properly painted, just primed and I moved in... over 20 years ago!
   The fire has given me an opportunity to do what I should have done years ago, a thorough cleaning!
This involves trips to the dump!  A ruthless sorting and getting rid of stuff.

The studio, a 10'x20' space I created about four years ago
is pretty much back together but until I get the office emptied

What to say?  I am a welder!

it will become a dumping ground for things I may want.
Some of cleaning and painting is a process of moving things
around.  Eventually all will find a home or it is off to the dump!

The Phoenix !

We all rise from obstacles, inconveniences and ashes.  Dust ourselves off and get on with the process of living.  Having been a contractor for  over 35 years I know that huge messy jobs get divided into smaller more manageable tasks and get completed one obstacle at a time.  I emptied my studio, swept first, the floor and the walls and the ceiling.  Then vacuum , then mop, then paint.  Now already I am putting it back together.  I will reseal the floor but wait until everything is done.  I am going to empty my office, a 10'x10' room that over the years has become a "catch-all" , full floor to ceiling of things I might need!  I don't even know what is in here!
In the meantime I have power washed the outside, pulled two of the three blueberry plants out, radically trimming the remaining one which had some green leaves remaining.  The bamboo is also radically cut back but I am not worried about it.  Bamboo is difficult to kill.  Then I tilled up the soil and added about 6" of great compost based potting soil.  It is ready, like a blank canvas.  I radically cut back the Jasmine also and think it will live.  I removed two blueberries but am thinking I have room for three new plants!  So that will be a bonus.  I have wanted to improve the sprinkler system in this area for a long time so I did that too!  I made one huge truckload of debris to the recycle yard and that is where I picked up the compost potting soil.  It all looks "brand new"!  It will probably be a couple years before the new plants produce many berries.  The time to plant is in the Fall, October through March.  In the meantime I will plant a winter crop of broccoli there.  The ground with its perfect drainage will not go to waste.
I got a little welding job so I will now take a break from this clean up and have some fun.  Then I will attack this room, my office that has never been painted!  Then the shop itself.  It has been over two years since I have done that and bits and pieces accumulate, it seems as if by magic in the middle of the night!  I wonder what is in there?

The Good and the Bad and The Ugly

OK, so I stole the tile but I am trying to find some good from the ugly fire I had.  The saddest thing is the loss of my Blueberry plants, five years of nurturing them gone to pretty much ashes.  Over five feet tall and almost as wide and producing abundantly.  At least I got this year's pickings, so that is a plus.
"What happened?" you might ask as I am still asking that question.  A five gallon container of gas, about 2/3 full and next to it oil soaked rags, the perfect combination.  Call me an idiot, I am still doing that.
On "my list" yesterday morning, get rid of the gags and put the gas can away, safe away from the shop in a little outbuilding where it belonged.  On my list, but first was a stop for lunch.  Big mistake.
After lunch on my way to my shop, all of 100 feet in my backyard, I see a wall of flames about 20' into the air.  Flames caressing the eaves to my shop roof!  I ran, yes, ran to the pool, as close as I could get, turned on the garden hose and watered the fire as it laughed at me.  Dancing and yelling and screaming and hot, the water from the hose was a joke.  My efforts as a fireman were doing nothing to the flames so I changed tactics and sprayed the eaves and the roof where the fire had every intention of going.  I heard sirens and within three minutes I had eight fireman in my backyard, two fire trucks, the big hook and ladder type and an ambulance in the front of my house.  It was funny, they were admiring my little swimming (half lap only) pool and looking at my metal work!  The fire was like a chimney, about five feet in diameter and maybe 10 feet tall, but roaring.  No one got excited.  Two of them went to the street and returned with large fire extinguishers and proceeded to empty them on this burning inferno.  Pretty much nothing happened.  I was told to stand back and relinquish my weapon.  I didn't have time to explain the "stand your ground" laws as they took the garden hose from my hands and told me to move away!  I don't think they were armed but they were suited up for a fight, covered head to toe in firegear and ready to do battle.  I moved back as instructed.  Two other firemen were snaking 150 feet of firehose, much bigger than mine!
My reaction really would have been to just let the fire burn out.  I had saved the roof, well, maybe, maybe not.  Anything could happen.  You could see right through the gas can by now and clearly there was a couple gallons still in it.  "They only blow up in the movies," the fireman with the nozzle said as he turned on this humongously large water hose and everything went flying!  Tons of instant water and, sending the gas can flying, a wall of flame like I have never seen before!  Maybe 20 feet long and, like a tunnel of flame, five feet wide and ten feet tall, towards my studio and right along the blueberry plants!  Maybe, just two seconds but they were flames of hell, followed by a wall of water and it was out.  Just like that.  Faster than a microwave!  The blueberries suffered a death blow from which they will never recover.  That is the ugly.  I love my garden and feel responsible for its care.  I will take them out this weekend.  Looking in that direction, once one of the nicest views, is now depressing.
My studio door was open  as was the door to my office and all the smoke and there was tons of it, found its way there.  Leaving traces, like little powdery angel dust all over everything!
So, I get to paint my studio!  That is the good, I guess.  It is empty now and the floors are swept and mopped.  Art is off the wall. A little smoky smell is good, right?  Like art around a campfire!  Anyway, tomorrow I will paint and when that is done, attack the office.  Emptying it 100% and cleaning, mopping and painting there also!  I built this office over 20 years ago and it has never been painted!

 Roasted Blueberries?

 My view from my studio!

Now is a good time.

 The ivy is green in the background. That is one tough plant!

 The gas can and the fire was mostly on top of this table.

No one was hurt, my tomatoes are safe.  I get to clean and polish and paint and organize, so that will be the good that will come of this!  At least I finished painting the house before this happened. Timing is everything!

 The leaves are supposed to be green!

You say "Tomato", I say

 Well over a hundred of these flowers on the Trumpet Vine!

This one is grown in a six gallon pot!

You gotta be a millionaire or do it yourself! 

Tomato!  Oh man, I feel rich this time of year!  My house is painted!  I am done with the spraying part anyway and have the white trim to go.  I am in no hurry and will do it one section at a time, the same way I got the house painted.  I had to look at this job in bits and pieces because the whole project would have become overwhelming.  I would just say to myself, "today I just have to paint one wall" and eventually I met myself at the beginning where I began.

Trumpet Vine Entry to my garden

This one might get eaten today!

I spend every morning in my garden, a little weeding every day and that too does not become a big job.  I think this year will be a bumper year for the garden.  We had a pretty nice Spring and I have been eating tomatoes since June 25th, the earliest ever.  Now the "Big Ones" are ripening!  These are the one pounders from all varieties:  Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, my two favorites, and Lemon Boy, Brandy Wine and others that I have forgotten their names.  I save the seeds from season to season and each year they get bigger and better and healthier. I can't imagine a summer without homegrown tomatoes and I wonder how we got fooled into accepting store bought tomatoes?

 Getting Bigger every day!

 My garden pool where I go skinny dipping!