Basil ice cubes

Before the first freeze of the winter, we brought in all the basil from our garden. We made a few containers of pesto and froze the rest of it, with a little olive oil, in an ice cube tray. These basil ice cubes are great for tossing into a pot of pasta or any other dish that requires a little oil.

Journal Publication

My fourth article, On Linkages: A Multi-Institutional Collaboration to develop asthma education for school settings in South Texas, was published in the January/February 2011 issue of Public Health Reports.

Sprinkler System: Part 2

Read Part 1 here.

Determined to find the backflow box, we dug up most of the yard, from the water line at the street all the way to the house.

Notice the oak tree in the picture above? This oak tree was undoubtedly much smaller 25 years ago, and some shortsighted individual decided to install the backflow box right next to the tree. Over the course of time, the tree had grown over the box and crushed it with its roots, so it was a small miracle that we found it. The old box was in such bad condition that we abandoned it and installed a new box, a safe distance from the tree, and rerouted the main water line.

We turned the water on and crossed our fingers. A few sprinkler heads popped up but there was hardly any water pressure. It turned out that all the water was leaking from a busted pipe...which was under our deck. So, of course, we had to remove half of the boards from our deck.

Fast forward a few days. The broken pipe is replaced and we're ready to test the system again. We knew the sprinkler system had four zones because they were labeled in the control box, but water was only running to the first zone. We were left scratching our heads as to how to find the valve boxes, 4 in all, that controlled the water flow to each of the zones. First we thought a metal detector might do the trick, but after some online research, we decided to rent a wire and valve locator. You can find these at irrigation supply or tool rental stores. 

Image source

In about an hour, Zach had found all four of the valve boxes! They were buried under a few inches of dirt and all needed replaced...

Heart Throb

I just added this quirky little Valentine to my Etsy shop.

Spring Planting

We've got our garden all spruced up and ready for the spring! We cleared out all the winter casualties, tilled the soil, and added compost.

We also added two trellises and a couple tomato cages. The trellises are made from lattice that we removed from our patio. You can see it here in this picture taken before we moved in:

We felt like it closed in the patio too much, so down it came. (As you can tell this was during our sprinkler project)

Zach cut the lattice down to size with the table saw and I attached it to the back of the garden bed with screws.

I also made garden markers for all the new veggies we'll be planting over the next few months, including lettuce, spinach, broccoli, bell peppers, peas, and tomatoes.  Here's what we've got planned for our garden:

Sprinkler System: Part 1

Remember way back in September when we shared this lovely photo?

What was supposed to be a weekend project to put in a stone walkway turned into a 4 month (and counting) long campaign to fix our old, abused, and nonworking sprinkler system.

Our house was built in 1984, and judging by the rotary dial in the sprinkler control box, we assume the sprinkler system was installed that year or shortly after. We learned from the former owners that the sprinkler system was broken when they moved in, and our next door neighbor, who has lived there for over 25 years, says he has never known our house to have a working sprinkler system. Needless to say, we had given up on it like all the previous homeowners. Until the day we began working on the stone walkway.

We started by clearing out a pathway along the side of the house, digging out a few inches of dirt and putting in a border.

Then we rented a truck from Home Depot, drove to a local stone supply yard, and filled up with several tons of gravel and flagstone. Once back at home, we shoveled the gravel from the bed of the truck into the driveway. With half our driveway filled with gravel, and half our yard excavated, Zach looks at me and says something like, "You know, if we ever want to try and fix the sprinkler system, now is the time, before we lay all the stone..."

I should mention that about a year before, we had an irrigation company come out and give us a quote as to how much it would cost to fix the sprinkler system. He walked around our yard for about 45 minutes then delivered the news that he could not find the backflow box (where the main water line ties into the sprinkler system). Essentially, he couldn't turn the water on.

Cut back to me standing there, covered in sweat and dirt, as Zach proposes we fix the sprinkler system. I knew he was right. That it was now or never. For a second I pictured a lush green lawn, without the effort of dragging a sprinkler around the yard. But then I snapped back to reality, and the giant pile of gravel at my feet. I tried to talk Zach out of it, but his logic prevailed, and we spent the rest of the weekend digging...

Hoop Dreams

Last week I shared about the pedestal table I found at my local resale shop. While there I also scored an entire bag of wooden embroidery hoops (6 round and 1 oval) for just a few dollars! I've got them hanging in my craft room; they look almost sculptural hanging there, like a work of art. Maybe I should install a series of these in a museum...