Chapter 36. How Does Your Garden Grow?

This last time I made bread, I actually ground the sprouted wheat in my grandma's old hand-crank meat grinder.

Interesting experience; the bread has a TOTALLY different texture, too. Nice. I soured it on the counter overnight before adding the yeast/etc and then I baked it in the bread baker machine...didn't want to heat up the whole house using the oven, considering it was 108 degrees over the weekend. Man. And the machine did a GREAT job. I just had to keep peeking in as it was mixing to make sure that I had added enough flour to make a good dough.

My garden is coming along...Sadly, my camera isn't faring so well. Been dropped a few times too many. I need to have a wrist strap because I drop everything these days. My shoulders and hands are just a mess. I'm doing a bunch of physical therapy stretches to see if I can get them up and running again without surgery. Had to give up dog training; I just can't take the jerking around on the leash any more.

So here is the veggie garden, as of a couple days ago. It's hard to remember that the pots are anywhere from 1 to 1.5 feet wide, so really they ought to be adequate for the plants, as long as I remember to water them a LOT when they are bigger. I have never seen all that much root system on the plants I have torn out at the end of the season. It sure seems like these ought to be big enough. I know there's an issue with root temperature; I'm hoping the pots will be adequately shaded by the zucchini and watermelon leaves.

So here it is so far.

I will pave in the entire dirt area with granite scrap, leaving just a small square of lawn in the center, like maybe a six foot square. Just enough for dogs to pee on. That way I can replace it frequently with a few strips of sod when they kill it off. LOL.

I haven't figured out what I'm doing with the bed on the far end...it's just weeds right now. I am seriously considering trying to grow some heirloom wheat in it!

The green beans are doing really well. I started them FOUR TIMES this year. The first time they grew and then died; the second and third times the seeds just rotted; and the last time I planted the remainder of the seed packet, 51 seeds, and 16 came up. OK then. I have given them old branches to climb on and hopefully that will get them mostly up and out of the way of the dogs lurking on the other side of the pickets. I am planning to fill in between the pavers with either decomposed granite or pea gravel. Haven't actually figured that out yet.

Here are the basil (with the cuke in back), the eggplant, the watermelon, this dumb vine I'm going to dispose of, and the zucchini. I cut back the basil to make some pesto and here is the cuke:

I am hoping that it too can survive the dogs lurking inside the kennel...well ,I might have to put some additional wire on the inside just to help them survive. We shall see.

My compost was a huge success this year; I used it in all of the veggie pots. I actually decided to empty it out and begin a new batch in the compost bin. I layered it in dirt, green stuff, old dried up scrap, chicken manure, and started over again. Garden lasagna. Now I need to find some worms for it!

Chapter 35. Daily Bread

I took some time out from digging (well, really I've been killing my shoulders with picking, stacking, and arranging slabs of granite) to make some sprouted wheat bread. It's a long, drawn-out process that I totally enjoy, and yesterday I decided to take pics of the whole thing. The following blog is extremely picture-heavy, but here goes nothing!

First, I soak two cups of whole wheat grains and then rinse them a few times a day (takes maybe 36 hours, depending on time of year and temperatures) until they look like this:

 Just the tiniest bit of root showing. Any more than that
and the bread'll be too wet!

Then I start grinding them in the processor. At first the kitchen is filled with microscopic screams as the tiny living things start spinning around! I then add half a cup of milk, ignoring the ruckus.

About 30 seconds later, the grains are quiet again, which is actually nice. LOL.

But there's lots more grinding to do before they are ready. They will never be as smooth as flour, but it's the slight chunkiness that makes sprouted wheat bread seem like sprouted wheat bread. (You know what I mean.)

Then I add 2-3 tablespoons of honey and a teaspoon of dry yeast. I squirt in maybe 2 tablespoons of oil (I like safflower but coconut oil or sunflower oil or flax oil would be fine, depending on taste), and a teaspoon of seasalt. 

Add one cup of organic unbleached white flour. *I like to have a tablespoon of gluten flour and a pinch of dry ginger (as flour conditioning) in that flour.* Then lots more mixing, like 30 seconds or so. Each of the following four pictures represents about 30 seconds of processing.

More mixing! 

Oooooh look, starting to get gluten strands!

Even better ones!

And now it's turning into a dough ball in the processor:

Time to turn the sticky but cohesive glob out of the processor

and onto my floured canvas

I like to add 1/2 cup of raw sunflower kernels
at this time, but it's totally optional.

Knead until you get a nice smooth ball. I never knead enough; knead as much as you can stand! Ten minutes would be great. Then oil a bowl and roll the dough ball around to coat it with oil. 

....and prepare to wait for like 90 minutes, 'til it doubles.

ALMOST!

OK. When it's big, you will turn it back onto the board. It'll be airy and soft 

but definitely a cohesive ball.

Then I knead it just a little and put it into a pan. Two small loaves would be great, but for some unknown reason I decided to put it into a square baking pan. Just playing around with the form!

I cover it and try to find a warmish spot for it to rise again.

And then it's time to stick it into the oven. I have to set mine at 365 to get 350. The darned things all seem to have their own sweet spots.

Finally it's done...about 65 minutes later, for mine. 

Probably less if it was in the two small loaf pans. 

No, I have no idea why I opted for weird shaped slices!

It's a tad gluey-looking because the smell drives me up the wall and I CANNOT wait until it's cool! What is the point of baking bread if you don't get to eat it hot out of the oven??? Especially this stuff...OMG, it's a whole new bread experience.

Chapter 34. Ground Zero

Look here:

The darn thing is in the ground!

Now, I know perfectly well that the rim is supposed to sit up on the ground, but that's not how I'm doing it. I am sinking it rim and all--which actually is kinda cool because it'll have even more water in it--and then I am bringing the granite pieces right up over the edges, like an overhang. The black plastic rim won't show. Like this, at Wet Web Media:

I'll be lucky if mine looks nearly that good.

Of course, there's no flooding going on right this minute, but I saw a little of it yesterday. It's right at the bottom of those steps up onto the retaining wall. Not enough to actually be standing water that will dribble into my pond. That's ok. I saved a LOT of rainwater to put into it. I will also get a handful of mosquito fish and some cattails for it.

I will dig my pond hole a couple inches deeper tomorrow...so I can put a layer of sand down there before I start backfilling around the edges.

Chapter 33. Catching Up

I haven't lapsed in work, much. I have lapsed in posting. OK I have done a lot of work that involved digging and planting in the front yard....filling in areas that are not mosaic with succulents and aloes and pebbles and broken bricks.

I have.....gotten in broken pieces of granite to pave the entire yard except a few small areas of lawn...

 

This is going to take 

a really long time!

I have dug the pond liner in nearly deep enough...I think it has 4-6" to go before I start filling in the loose dirt into the sides:

AND I have been planning my itty bitty brains out, all in the effort to make this place 1.salable and 2.politically correct, what with water conservation and all.

PLUS the new house floors are in and the van is running like a champ! 

Thanks Ed! My floor-and-van hero!

And I've been working on my book

                 and training my dogs!

Here is Diana learning not to take up very much space,
surrounded by new flooring.

Busy, busy, busy.

Chapter 32. Wait, I need to line you first!

Why I'm not Diggingahole Daily:

Chapter 31: Over Thirty

When I was sixteen, I knew I would never make it past 30. Here I am, ready to turn 60. OMG, I would have been horrified to know that back then. I remember thinking...wow, if I survive, I'll be 46 in the year 2000! No way! Practically ready to go into nursing care!

OK I think it may have been over 30 days since I even posted. Why? Because The Hole only dried out three days ago. And now the weather forecast is for a week of rain! So I have been digging for the last three days. Oh that sounds so much more dramatic than "I have dug a dozen shovelsful a day for the last three days." Anyhow, as my allergies are horrifying right now, and digging causes pathetic heaving of the lungs here, it's amazing I even did that much.

So here is a side by side, in order to view three days' work. First is The Hole as it was early this week.

Second is The Hole now. In order to truly appreciate the size of The Hole thus far, it is helpful to remember that the concrete strip behind it is a foot wide.

My new problem is working out depth. I finally realized that these damn plastic pools have that rim on them:

 ...that is meant to be up and out of both the water in and the dirt surrounding the pool, thusly:

...and eventually the lip is covered with nice rocks, as shown on the blog Old Towne Home. But that's going to be a problem for me if I'm going to reclaim water The Asshat  pours onto my yard. I need my pond to be sunken so that the water will run into it. I won't be worrying about water getting out. Therefore, my plan is to dig the hole quite a bit deeper, sink the pond rim about 4" under the level of the dirt in the back yard, and line the edge with scenic old broken bricks. That will look pretty good (I have some brick raised beds in the yard already) and will not be waterproof enough to prevent water from leaking into the pond.

Hence my digging well beyond the finish date. The plans keep changing! Oh and my allergies have been so debilitating that I'm on 5 different drugs at this point and nobody recognizes my voice. Good time to make prank calls...oh wait, they have caller ID now. Rats. 

Going outside at all is a serious problem for me. I has to dig when I cans!

Chapter 30. Turning Thirty

This summer I will turn thirty all right...my second go-round at it.

I dug this morning despite the coughing. Actually, it gave me an excuse to partake of my homemade cough syrup (one part maple syrup, one part honey, one part fresh lemon juice, two parts Bushmills). Needless to say, I feel a LOT better.

Here is the hole:

Here it is with the pool:

Here is the pile:

And I have some very bad news. My wonderful plum tree is about 3/4 dead; very few of its branches are bursting into bloom. I still have the wild plum, which is an odd but prolific tree.

                                              Here it is last year.....

I am guessing that the Santa Rosa plum on the right has finally rotted. This makes me very sad. It had the best fruit ever, except for maybe the one I used to have out in Winters. Oh man, I do love a good clafoutis. But I guess we all have our life expectancy to adhere to. I figure I have one more thirty left in me.

Chapter 29. I'll Huff and I'll Puff...

But no air is actually coming out so you're safe.

Dig. Hack, wheeze. Dig. Hack, wheeze, okie blow. Ad infinitum. I dig and I dig and the hole, she ain't growin! I'm SICK and I dig, and the hole she ain't growin! Tain't fair!

Yeah go ahead and make fun of me for digging and wheezing and accomplishing pretty much nothing. The hard part is actually walking across the yard to the MASSIVE pile where the dirt is accumulating, carrying a heavy shovel full of dirt and swinging it HARD against the pile so that the sticky crap dislodges itself from the shovel. Anyway, go ahead and laugh, but this summer when I have a cute pond, you will eat those snickers! No wait...I didn't mean you get candy....

Oh well. The little chardettes are surviving, and the peas too, and the green beans, the last being still  indoors. I sprinkled some Russian kale seeds from my friend Vera out with the chard and peas. I hope they come up and I can tell them from the weeds, cuz the weeds is comin in fast!

I have no idea why I'm writing in some kind of vernacular today, nor do I know what vernacular it even is. I'm sick, pity me!

Chapter 28. Minimum Daily Requirement

Twelve shovelsful...that is as much as I can managed whilst sneezing and wheezing and coughing. And to think you can't even see the difference! I bet it'll look exactly the same until the day I sink the pond in it.

I may not have grass, but by golly I have green ground...

Yesseree! I have a grand crop of moss!

Beats brown mud any day.