Martha Stewart Arrives On The Witch's Island

So it’s spring again and we’re finally getting out of the winter doldrums. Mind you, it was a great winter here, at least weather-wise and spring came early but the temperatures have been fluctuating like crazy. We had 20 degrees C in February and snow in April, Saturday was 32 C and today it is 10. It’s been hard to figure whether to get the garden under way or to wait for a bit. Last year I started my tomatoes and peppers way too early and by the time I got them in the garden they were very tall and spindly. I ended up restarting a lot of them and I swore I wouldn’t make that mistake again this year. I held myself back as long as I could but it does seem like spring is at least a couple of weeks early so I started them anyway. Let’s all pray that there is no frost in June!

Not that frost is the only thing to worry about. Our entire tomato crop was destroyed by late blight last year and we didn’t get more than 2 or 3 tomatoes from 40-some plants. What a shame as the plants were doing very well until the blight hit. So, this year we are going to mix things up a bit. We’re going to put the tomatoes at the other end of the garden away from the infected rows and we’re going to try a new supplier for the seeds.

Our order arrived about 10 days after being placed.

The packages are plain and simple. Let’s hope that the plants are more specatular.

I found out about Heritage Harvest Seed while reading a post about seeds on the Canoe Corner blog. They specialize in “rare and endangered vegetables, flowers and herbs.” and they had dozens of different varieties of tomatoes alone! The descriptions for some were so compelling that I had to try them. As an example here is the blurb for “Sylvan Guame”:

“An old heirloom from Canada that was obtained from an elderly man in his 80s. The original seed was from Russia. This excellent variety produces gigantic red oxheart shaped fruit. My largest was 3lbs and that was during a dry year! The fruit are not only large but delicious. My absolute favorite large fruited tomato. Indeterminate, regular leaf foliage. (80 days) EXTREMELY RARE. Highly recommended!”

How could a person resist? It was very difficult to pick out only a few types to try so I just went nuts and ordered 8 and then they threw in another for free! Oh, and 3 types of beans and 2 different peppers. What am I going to do with 9 different varieties of tomato, you say? Please don’t ask such difficult questions while I’m busy planting.

Here is a list of what we got for about $54.00 including shipping:

Tomato

• Sylvan Gaume 
• Harbinger 
• 42 Days 
• Forme de Coeur 
• Fireball 
• Silvery Fir Tree 
• Bonny Best 
• Bison 
• Uncle Joe’s – free 

Beans 

• Steeves Caseknife 
• Red Peanut 
• Jacob’s Cattle 

Pepper 

• Matchbox Chilli 
• Black Hungarian

Look, a whole garden’s worth of peppers and pumpkins are growing on my windowsill.

It sure didn’t take long for the seeds to germinate and now I’m hoping that they don’t get to spindly before I can transplant them.

Spring is all about getting back outdoors after the long winter and to me that means in part that lobsters are back on the menu. I’m not a big steak eater but I love Surf and Turf. This little canner was just the perfect size. Hubby took it out to the back deck to break it up for me so that the juices didn’t stink up the kitchen. The body and shells all went out into the trees as a treat for the birds and foxes.

One small canner is all I need for my first taste of lobster this year.

It is also time to get out into the gazebo and see if all the effort the last two summers was worth it because blackfly season has arrived with a vengeance.

So far, so good, the little bastards are staying out but we need something to sit on. We looked all of last summer and the best furniture set we found was the “Lanfair 4 Piece Conversation Set” from Martha Stewart Living . Yes, Martha has come to visit The Witch’s Island and it looks like she might just stay awhile!

The Lanfair set came in one big box in disassembled form. It really is amazing just how tightly packed in it was. We spent one whole afternoon putting it all together and it came out all right. There were a few bent tabs and some pieces didn’t align quite right but we managed to make it work. Also, the fabric cover on the cushions was different than is shown on the box and the display set in the store. Those were a solid green but ours have a subtle striped pattern (which we actually like better).

Here’s Martha arriving on the back of our John Deere.

The picture on the box showed a different material on the cushions.

Even the tools needed to put it together were included in the box.

Here are all the pieces spread out and ready for assembly.

The first chair is done after an hour’s work to get it square and level.

The chairs were finished just in time for a union-mandated beer break.

We’ve also been out to the nurseries again and this time we came home with a “Yellowbird” magnolia, a “Honey Crisp” apple and a hybrid apple tree which has 5 different varieties on one trunk. We were just going to put in the Honey Crisp but it needs a second different type of apple to pollinate properly. We have lots of wild apple trees around the yard but just to be sure we got the hybrid one to keep the Honey Crisp company.

Hubby is planting my Honey Crisp apple tree. We’re soon going to run out of space for trees in the back yard.

Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious, Granny Smith, Gala and Red Macintosh all on one tree!

Just to finish off, here’s a really quick and easy dessert recipe that takes almost zero effort. Get yourself a package of frozen tart shells and bake them (empty) according to the directions on the box. When they are cool just fill them with some key lime flavour “Oikos” Greek yoghurt from Danone and then sprinkle the top with a bit of graham cracker crumbs. One 100ml tub of yoghurt will fill 3 shells. Key lime tarts, mmmmmm.

Oikos Greek yoghurt.

Key lime tarts. Very tasty.

Summertime Picture Post

So, where has the Witch been for the last month? Well, I’ve been a bit of a beach bum. Yes, you read that right. I purchased a new bathing suit, a bikini no less, and we have been going to the shore every chance we get. Even I, who is deathly afraid of the water (there are CRABS in the water, you know!) have been in for a swim. We have just been in the water, on the beach and under our umbrella while the winds were blowing so hard I literally had to hold on to keep it from blowing away! But it has all been fun and I’m loving it, when we get any sunshine that is. I even had a wardrobe malfunction with the new suit (Hubby was surprised) but sorry there are no details I’m going to share.

Here's me trying to keep my beach umbrella from blowing away again.

Look at my brave Hubby, out there wading amongst the CRABS!

So now you know why the Witch has been derelict in her blog posting. I decided the summer is too short to waste inside on the computer so it’s off to the beach we go. Well, okay, we have also been busy with the gardens, and of course the MOTHER!*//%** gazebo. What’s that Hubby? It’s almost finished? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha… what’s that?.. oh… you were serious… sorry!

Anyway, for now, I’m going to leave you with a collection of pictures which I hope you all enjoy. They are just a random collection from the past month or so.

Also, we are trying out a few changes to the design of the Witch’s Island so please be patient as we gear up some new stuff. Let us know how you like them.

Enjoy your day everyone, I’m heading to the beach again and I’m going to try to keep my swim suit on this time!

These shorebirds were having a field day running back and forth. I don’t know if they were feeding or just playing!

Some black headed gulls on the beach at low tide.

I found this message painted onto a rock while I was hunting for driftwood. They were obviously talented people but who goes to the beach with their paintbox?

The sky has been looking ominous for most of the summer. This particular system was very intense but not the worst we have had this year.

The vegetable garden was doing pretty good back in mid July.

By early August it was doing even better. The carrots, the beets and beans have been on our dinner menu almost every day for the past week.

My gazebo has finally got some stairs so now I don’t need to crawl in. Here are the stairs just minutes after Hubby finished building them (Please don’t tell him that I let it slip that it took him over SIX hours to make them!).

Here are the stairs again the next morning after being treated with the water sealer. We used Thompson’s brand and it did a great job on the cedar.

The final bit of construction prior to adding the siding was the window casing and now that is all done, too.

Okay, Hubby. You did great getting all that finished. Go and get that beer… Hubby? Hubby? All right, now where did he get to?

The flower gardens are doing pretty good, too. The lilies have all come out in bloom at the same time and they are just a riot of colours.

Here’s a close-up of one of the pink ones. They are huge, about 6 inches across and they smell wonderful, too.

The grapes are doing great this year. It’s going to be our best harvest ever as long as we get to them before the birds do.

The farmers have planted a lot of canola this year and when it blooms it turns this intense colour of yellow. So beautiful!

That’s me standing out on the back deck admiring all our hard work.

As another summer storm builds in the evening sky I will say see you later.

One last picture of me staring down the world’s ugliest Llama. That is all.

Cost of Building a Gazebo

The gazebo is just about ready for siding.

As the building season winds down, we are starting to look at how must the gazebo has cost so far. You may remember that we had budgeted about $4000.00 for this project based mostly on hopes and wishes (and the amount we had saved). Well, okay, we did have a little experience with the potting shed project so we knew at least which materials we would need to buy if not how much of each. The shed was a very expensive project though, coming in at around $7000.00 if I remember correctly, and it was a lot less wasteful of materials than the gazebo has been. There are lots of big triangular plywood offcuts lying around that just couldn’t be used in the roof of the new building just as an example. Even with that and with Hubby over-engineering just about every aspect of the project like he’s building a skyscraper we have somehow managed to spend less than the budget.

Here’s a rundown on what’s been spent so far…

Item	Number	Cost Each	GST	PST	Total
H Clips 1/2 inch	50	$2.50	$0.13	$0.26	$2.89
Bevel Square	1	$7.99	$0.40	$0.84	$9.23
Bolt Lag 5/16 X 6	16	$12.64	$0.63	$1.33	$14.60
Construction Adhesive	2	$9.98	$0.50	$1.05	$11.53
Corners screen frame pkg.	1	$3.30	$0.17	$0.35	$3.81
Deck Block	9	$53.91	$2.70	$5.66	$62.27
Deck Boards cedar 5/4 X 4 X 12	8	$48.16	$2.41	$5.06	$55.62
Deck Boards cedar 5/4 X 4 X 8	60	$193.80	$9.69	$20.35	$223.84
Deck screws 2.5 inch pounds	10	$52.90	$2.65	$5.55	$61.10
Deck screws 3.0 inch pounds	5	$26.45	$1.32	$2.78	$30.55
Deck screws 3.5 inch pounds	8	$40.74	$2.04	$4.28	$47.05
Deck screws 2 in pounds	2	$10.58	$0.53	$1.11	$12.22
Drip Edge	9	$78.03	$3.90	$8.19	$90.12
End Cut Preservative	1	$8.99	$0.45	$0.94	$10.38
Fibreglass screen 48X100' roll	1	$108.35	$5.42	$11.38	$125.14
Frame screen 4 ft pc	4	$25.32	$1.27	$2.66	$29.24
Gripgard ice dam roll	1	$64.00	$3.20	$6.72	$73.92
Hanger Nails Box	1	$20.69	$1.03	$2.17	$23.90
Hinge pair	1	$6.87	$0.34	$0.72	$7.93
Joist Hangers 2 X 10	20	$32.00	$1.60	$3.36	$36.96
Landscape Cloth	1	$8.99	$0.45	$0.94	$10.38
Leather Tool Belt	1	$15.98	$0.80	$1.68	$18.46
Nails 1 1/4 Aluminum White	1	$7.49	$0.37	$0.79	$8.65
Nails 1 in Roofing lbs.	5	$11.45	$0.57	$1.20	$13.22
Nails 2.5 in Spiral box	2	$11.98	$0.60	$1.26	$13.84
Nails Finishing Galv. 1.5 in box	1	$5.99	$0.30	$0.63	$6.92
Nails Roofing 1 in. box	1	$14.69	$0.73	$1.54	$16.97
Paint Behr Ultra white	1	$45.97	$2.30	$4.83	$53.10
Patio Stone 18 X 18	10	$59.90	$3.00	$6.29	$69.18
Pine 1 X 4 X 8 clear	8	$50.56	$2.53	$5.31	$58.40
Pine 1 X 6 X 6 clear	8	$95.36	$4.77	$10.01	$110.14
Pine 1 X 6 X 8 clear	5	$71.74	$3.59	$7.53	$82.86
Plywood 1/2 in Select Spruce PT	6	$215.82	$10.79	$22.66	$249.27
Plywood 1/2 in Std Spruce	11	$237.17	$11.86	$24.90	$273.93
Plywood Meranti 1/4 in	3	$47.37	$2.37	$4.97	$54.71
Post Base 4 X 4 galvanized	8	$35.92	$1.80	$3.77	$41.49
River Stones 20 kg. Bags	30	$134.70	$6.74	$14.14	$155.58
Sandpaper 100 grit disk	2	$1.38	$0.07	$0.14	$1.59
Sandpaper 60 grit disk	2	$1.38	$0.07	$0.14	$1.59
Screen Door	1	$135.20	$6.76	$14.20	$156.16
Scrub Brush	1	$10.49	$0.52	$1.10	$12.12
Shingles Black Bundles	9	$209.67	$10.48	$22.02	$242.17
Shingles Cedar bundles	2	$42.00	$2.10	$4.41	$48.51
Skewable Hangers	6	$13.74	$0.69	$1.44	$15.87
Spline screen roll	1	$4.95	$0.25	$0.52	$5.72
Spout paint can	1	$1.58	$0.08	$0.17	$1.82
Spruce 2 X 10 X 10 PT	2	$33.94	$1.70	$3.56	$39.20
Spruce 2 X 10 X 12 PT	7	$136.22	$6.81	$14.30	$157.33
Spruce 2 X 10 X 8 PT	10	$131.72	$6.59	$13.83	$152.14
Spruce 2 X 4 X 10	18	$54.80	$2.74	$5.75	$63.29
Spruce 2 X 4 X 10 PT	10	$42.80	$2.14	$4.49	$49.43
Spruce 2 X 4 X 12	20	$76.80	$3.84	$8.06	$88.70
Spruce 2 X 4 X 8	26	$86.22	$4.31	$9.05	$99.58
Spruce 2 X 4 X 8 PT	22	$83.38	$4.17	$8.75	$96.30
Spruce 2 X 6 X 10	6	$30.00	$1.50	$3.15	$34.65
Spruce 2 X 6 X 12	6	$36.00	$1.80	$3.78	$41.58
Spruce 2 X 6 X 8	12	$43.20	$2.16	$4.54	$49.90
Spruce 4 X 4 X 8 PT	10	$88.88	$4.44	$9.33	$102.66
Tarpaper Roll	1	$24.99	$1.25	$2.62	$28.86
Thompson Water Seal large	1	$44.99	$2.25	$4.72	$51.96
Thompson Water Seal regular	1	$22.99	$1.15	$2.41	$26.55
Washer Flat 5/16 Zinc	16	$0.80	$0.04	$0.08	$0.92
Weathervane	1	$86.45	$4.32	$9.08	$99.85
Wind Brace 11 ft.	4	$23.96	$1.20	$2.52	$27.67
Work Gloves	2	$4.00	$0.20	$0.42	$4.62
Grand Total	512	$3,350.81	$167.54	$351.84	$3,870.19

Obviously, the building is not yet complete so that $3,870.19 figure is going to go up but it won’t be by much. We have a lot of supplies already purchased that are just waiting to be used. We have the rest of the framing for the door and windows; we have the door, flooring, screening and some of the shingles. In fact, about all we have yet to buy is the remainder of the cedar shingles and the metal framing for the screens. We might just be able to buy that for less than $129.81 you never know!

My Vacation Starts Now!

My vacation has finally arrived and not a moment too soon. The last few weeks at work were very trying and frustrating, made worse when my request for a couple of extra days of unpaid leave was turned down. I’m hoping that the next 10 days restores my mindset to a better place.

Anyway, things got off to great start on Friday. Hubby met me in the driveway with a nice bottle of wine and I took it out to the back deck. It was a beautiful evening and we had some tasty BBQ chicken and corn-on-the-cob for dinner and just relaxed. It was a very peaceful way to start my holiday.


Saturday morning started off just brilliant. It was hot even at 8 o’clock although not as hot as our thermometer was showing. Take some advice; never put an outdoor thermometer where the sun can shine directly on it. You just can’t believe it until it gets back into the shade. I took my coffee down to the garden and planted some companion plants down the tomato rows. They really seem to appreciate having some marigolds mixed in amongst them. I’m not sure why, but it seems to be beneficial and it makes the garden look nicer, too.




Hubby has spent the first week of his vacation working on the gazebo. He was finishing up the base Friday afternoon by adding diagonal bracing to the posts and blocking between the joists. The whole thing is now very rigid and heavy. He may have over-engineered it a little (okay, maybe a lot!) but better to be safe than sorry. The roof is going to be heavy, too and we don’t want a strong wind to be able to flip the whole thing over.




He’s now ready to start adding the floor on top of the base unit and that meant that we had to decide what we were going to use. Last week we were at Home Depot down in the Big City buying more lumber when we spotted a pallet of cedar deck boards. The prices seemed pretty good but we were thinking that we were going to use pressure-treated spruce and that it would be the cheapest option. This week we went back to the Big City and checked around at all the local lumber yards for prices only to return to the Home Depot and those cedar boards. It turned out that the cedar was only a couple of cents more per board at the listed price but it was also on sale, reduced by 10%! The cedar was actually cheaper than the spruce! I was really happy because I would much rather walk on wood that hasn’t been treated with all those chemicals and the cedar smells so nice. Scratch the picture below and inhale; you’ll love the aroma, too.



It took us quite a while to select the nicest boards but nobody bothered us as we went through three big stacks of wood. It was stored outside their store in the bright sunshine and afterwards I realized that I had gotten a good sunburn. Not smart. In the end we bought 60 eight foot long boards and 8 twelve footers for a total of $275. After we got home we laid the boards out on top of the platform to see if we bought enough and we had plenty. In fact, we may have as many as 15 of the eight foot boards too many. We’re going to return any we don’t use… or maybe we’ll build a sauna!

A Mid Week Gazebo Update

Work on the gazebo has taken some good steps forward so far this week. Hubby has been taking advantage of time off from work and good weather to get the foundation work done. Despite having to go to town almost daily for materials he has placed all the footing stones and covered the ground with landscape cloth and river rocks to prevent grass and weeds from growing, installed and leveled the posts and attached the main floor joists. The rest of the perimeter boards got screwed in place last night. You can see the octagon shape clearly now and it’s going to be bigger than I thought. Maybe even huge!

Anyway, here are some pictures from this week for you to peruse. Mouseover the images for a brief description of what is happening. Enjoy!