Sometimes I Amaze Myself

 My insomnia is still with me. I have been napping every day, then feeling guilty because I am not getting much done. I picked some green beans this morning, along with collard greens and turnip greens. I cleaned and cooked them to go with the chops on the grill. Made a pan of corn bread, too.

I have had my shower and am ready for bed at barely 7:30. Seems like winter is beginning to tease us. I am prepared to bring all the potted plants in and hope for survival. I lost my asparagus fern last winter. It was huge and I had managed to protect it for many winters. I cried, then bought a couple of small ones. This year I have the little green house on the porch that I made from a bakers rack I found on marketplace. I already had the one I made last year. The most problematic thing is finding shelves that will not block the lights and will let water drip down into the pots below.

Bigger problem is knowing that the giant Boston ferns will not fit in either green house. I have three of them and a giant spider plant hanging in the shade by my shed. All of them bought from the clearance section and carefully babied for about a week, then pretty much left on their own. They seem to thrive on neglect. While all the rain waterlogged my veggie garden, the other plants did really well this season.

I managed to root some ginger from the produce section of the grocery. In case you want to give it a try, be very patient. It took 6 weeks to see it poke up through the soil. Just a tiny little shoot about the size of a toothpick that I mistook for an insect at first. Now the larger one is about 14 inches tall.

While cleaning in the kitchen awhile back, I was checking expiration dates on my spices and using up almost empty bottles. Some of the bottles were glass and I decided they would work well to propagate cuttings. I mentioned it to the man in the recliner. I wanted something that could hang in front of the windows. All my outer walls are windows, after all. In MY mind I pictured some shelves 4" wide or less, with holes that would hold the little jars and have eyehooks on either end with some chain to hook into an eyehook at the top of the window.

As usual, MY vision does not translate well into the mind of the man in the chair. I actually bought some containers that look much like test tubes. I have a good command of the English language; I speak clearly and enunciate appropriately ........ but he never seems to get what I am saying.

After much discussion and ideas from him as well as me, he made this thing that will hold only three bottles. It has a top and a bottom and two sides. Yeah, not at all MY vision. It does fit in the windowsill but limits the number of cuttings I can root. As far as being useful, well, I could just put the jars on the windowsill. Not only that, and I mean this in the nicest way, it is ugly.

He used some pieces of scrap wood that I gathered up (because we all know I am loathe to throw anything away that MIGHT be of use). He used a piece that had clearly been in the way of his saw blade and has a 1/2" cut into the wood that is the bottom. The side pieces he attached are not lined up well and he sanded nothing. Most especially he did not sand the holes he drilled for the jars.

I painted it sage green and displayed it prominently. A conversation piece, if you will. His reasoning? It does have merit. He explained that the jars would "fall through". Of course, I knew this and was playing around with rubber bands and other things to find something that would grab the jar and hold it in place. I will find it yet. The 1X4's are overkill for the weight of the jar, water and cuttings. I WILL find it, of course. I still have access to the jig saw and have my own drill. I can do this myself. I was just sharing with him and picking his brain for ideas. That's what I get, right?

And I have solved the issue. On the test tubes I can use washers (like for the water hose). Just need to make sure the holes are the exact size of the tubes, then pull the washer down over the top of the tube and it will prevent it from slipping through. Sometimes I amaze myself! Other times, I wonder how I have managed to survive this long!