11:11 Angels Message Board

So I started with my first client today and I arrive at their house at 11:10 (which, placed me on the doorstep at 11:11.)
I was a great way to start off a new gig. I managed to negotiate my way though several stumbling stones along the way.
(Lights in my trailer did not work, I could find a few tools I thought I had, I burnt about two hours just getting to the job-site.)

I am supposed to be here... and I know it.
...so I am going to let it take me to wherever.

I worked a solid four hours today and it was productive, and I felt like I accomplished something.
My body is reminding me that I am not in the the physical shape I used to be. My body has toned up and looks different in the mirror to me.

I still have it.

You never lost it, sweetie!
I'm glad you had a great first day! That is good news indeed!
Love,
Sandy

Thanks Sandy!

It feels good so far to be doing this.

Hey Flint,
I hope every day is going as well as that first one.
My computer went kapoot over the week end... Now the poor dear has all new innards and I'm ready to roll...but I was sort of thinking it felt good in some ways to be busy on something physical. I decided to clean the complex's gutters yesterday. There were baby trees sprouting out of them they were so bad! and our landlord has not been in the best of health this past year so I decided to give it a go. The hardwood ladder he gave me to use must have weighed a ton and wasn't easy to move but at least I had no worries of the thing tipping backwards from the "extra weight on the back end. yep, I am sore but feeling good today. This old lady still's got it!
Love,
Sandy

You fell off of the ladder?
Don't do those things. It's not good to do those things.
Hope you are okay.

...So I was finishing up the first house and had a feeling somebody was watching me from the house next door. (It is my clients mother's home.) Anyway, it was next on my list, but after I had finished with the first house the client told me that she (Her mother) didn't live there anymore, and that they are selling the house.

So I did a lot of the outside clean up and I forgot to take my phone with me so that I could keep track of the time.
My truck radio clock is a couple hours off but I was just keeping track of the hours I worked... so it didn't really matter what time the clock reads just as long as it keeps time like a timer. So I start drinking my water while I am looking for another tool and I decide to put the key in to check the time... and it is 11:11. I had to laugh, it took me by surprise again.

I wonder if getting into the dirt makes you more connected...

Okay, I reread what you wrote and see you didn't fall off.

Nope no falls from the ladder for this girl. I have this fear of heights which makes me extra cautious when I am up high. In other words I don't take any chances. But it makes for slow going, though. I'm thinking of washing the gutters and facia now. They are in a shady area and have a bit of algae..well something green anyway, growing on them. I wouldn't mess with it, normally, but it is visible from our next door neighbors beautiful court yard and it seems unfair to leave such an eye sore marring their view. They are such nice people and would not ever complain about such a thing.

I wonder if getting into the dirt makes you more connected...

It does for the likes of us but we have certain leanings in that direction. For those who dislike that kind of thing it would probably have as much meaning as figuring out a tax form has for me.
But speaking of dirt..you should see all the wonderful composted dirt that came out of those gutters... a whole commercial wheel barrel full... rich and black! Just what I needed for some plants I want to transplant into some pots!
Love,
Sandy

Did you pull worms out of the gutters?
That's when you know it has been a long time since the last cleaning!

I need to do that here... there will probably be worms.
Could be where all the mosquitoes are coming from.

Nope, no worms! You have to wonder how in the world worms get all the way up there! Goodness, I never would have thought of the gutters being a source of the mosquitos. But it makes sense. Further north they have some very dangerous mosquitos. They carry a really nasty disease. In one news spot a couple years ago it showed authorities inspecting every home and yard looking for places mosquito's might breed. Of course because I am trying to remember, I can't think of the name of it...(No not malaria
Love,
Sandy

West Nile Virus...

There was a guy who was bit by a mosquito here who had West Nile virus and it messed him up really bad... I think it might have killed him. Moving water and water with lots of rocks in it prevent the mosquitoes from being able to multiply. The stagnant water in unused flowerpots and trash cans... and gutters are prefect places for them. (Most people do not think about their gutters.)

(It's 10:01 on my clock... I just looked.)

We had our first frost a couple of days ago, but it was not a hard freeze, and my tomatoes finally started to grow again. I was wondering if they were going to bounce back from all the heat... So far it has been small fruit if any off of my plants... Maybe I can get some full sized fruit before things freeze.

I try to be optimistic.

Hi Flint,
Is there a way you could build a cold frame around the tomatoes to extend their life past the frost date? I know in your area it would be just a matter of time before they would freeze though huh? You know what I always loved in the fall? Chrysanthemums or simply mums! Fall for me always meant pumpkins and Mums! There is a place just down the street from us who have turned their entire front yard into the most amazing and well organized flower garden. Every plant is in full bloom and it is a carpet of mounds of color.

Now me I think I left my green thumb back in the states. Everything I planted a month ago didn't either come up or survive after it did. Not sure who to blame...the little flock of sparrows who daily take a dust bath there, the cat next door who thinks it is her personal little box, the swarms of snails that crawl out of God knows where every evening to check out what's for dinner, or my lack of suitable gardener skills. I suspect George is leaning towards the latter and in fact, every time he has his hand in the planting it has worked out nicely so maybe there is something there.

I sort of feel like the old lady who swallowed the fly...remember that old rhyme? Probably before your time and I must admit it was rather harsh for children however, they taught it to us anyway. But it seems I am caught in a vicious circle. I am protecting the sparrows from the cat and the cat from the use of snail pellets which would be detrimental to her health and the snails...well..I couldn't hurt them anyway cause I have always had a fondness for snails ...(not to eat! bleah!) So it looks like my plants or plant embryos are gonna be on their own.

You know west Nile virus doesn't sound right either unless they are calling it by a different name. Oh, I just asked George. He said it is called Ross River Fever. Perhaps named from the place it seemed to originate in this country. Don't know. They have some very dangerous diseases here. One has shown up in horses in the past twenty years or so and is a death sentence if they are found to be harboring it. It can be passed on to humans and veterinarians and rancher families where the disease has cropped up must be tested. Last year they had the first cross over to a dog and that could be a huge problem as many more people have dogs then horses.

Well my goodness I am cheery today aren't I? Ignore "mopey me" and enjoy those lovely opportunities in your garden before winter sets in.
Love,
Sandy

Ross River is a new one on me. It maybe one of those things that are in your part of the world... (I am not certain though.)

I have been wanting to build a full fledged cold frame and/or a greenhouse but I have not decided on which yet. I live in an area of a heavy clay content in the soil, so digging is a lot of work. I also don't have a lot of room for one in the back because most of the space has been "developed." So if I want something like a cold frame or a greenhouse I have to tear down part of my yard and get cranking on the project. (So there's no saving the tomato plants this year.)

The cold frames I have seen on Youtube (The walk-in kind) are super cool and they keep a steady temperature and humidity in the winter. The trick seems to be dropping them in the ground so that the mass of the earth keeps the "sun bunker" from getting too cold. Some of these guys are growing tropical plants in zones that do not support these kinds of plants. The face or the window portion of the cold frames face the South and are built between a 30 degree to 45 degree angle depending on the latitude in the area it is built. (It is North where you guys are at.) The glass are made from house windows or old glass shower doors. and the inside is lined with a foam insulation of some sort, and or lined with black plastic... OH YEAH, and water. Water stored in black containers. Water other than the earth is one of the best insulators and mass storage for heat . Some of the people with their cold frames talk about how even on cloudy days they have a balmy 60 degrees Fahrenheit inside their frames when it is below zero with snow an ice on the ground.

It's all exciting to watch, but for me to do this I would have to be motivated to excavate 6' to 8' down of clay so a 4'x8'x8 = 256 cubic feet of heavy clay... (Then I have to figure out how to get rid of it, because nobody wants the clay soil.) But I do want one of these real bad... (And I found a pair of shower doors on Craigslist... before I came here tonight... so maybe this is a synchonicity for me.)

Another guy who built a cold frame was just growing kale, lettuce and various greens in his. He dropped into the ground about 3' down with insulation and then window frames... I'll just post the video... I have to look for it. His kale looked fantastic in the coldest part of winter.

One of the other problems I run into with using glass is that we get bad hail storms every so often. So if I use glass that is not places vertical the hail will break the glass... unless I find some sort of film that would prevent the glass from shattering when hit (like a security film for plate glass.) It is still sort of a hassle, but for winter you really need the roof to be made of something that lets the light in....

I have not had a lot of problems with snails... mot of them go for the pond in the yard. The garden is too far away... So maybe you have a ware source that the snails like or need a water source specifically for the snails so that hang out in the water feature, and not the garden... (Maybe.)

This is one of the ones I saw with the walk in cold frame, but I can't find the other one with the kale.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=446WshBQW-4

Then this is what I want to eventually do... It's called Aquaponics... It is a cross between hydroponics and aquaculture. (Greenhouses and ponds)
The vegetables function as a bio-filter for a pond.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV9CCxdkOng

This is too cool!

Now I would love to have one of those cold frames that were shown in the videos. Of course I am drawn towards the big one which of course he said wasn't very doable for most property owners. I wonder why? LOL I love a good challenge! Hmmm don't think our landlord would appreciate, what was it... an 8 foot by 12 foot x 6 feet deep hole in the ground. Actually my back is complaining loudly already and it is just a mere thought!

The second video was fascinating. Seems with the proper understanding and a little inginuity we could all be farmers when or if things get tight. That is unless you are like me and attract snails like the Pied Piper attracted rats! I think I know now why the snails are in the garden. In a dryish country and without other sources of water close by They are drawn to the water that is sprayed on the garden nearly every evening! Cute little slimey things though...
Love,
Sandy

Hey, if you decided to attempt the cold frame... you, being and artist, could always get a potters wheel to make good use of all that extra clay. I was just thinking...I really wouldn't need a cold frame here as it doesn't get too cold during the winter...unless I wanted to grow plants that prefer the warmer temps of the summer season here. I love pepper plants and would love to have different kinds of peppers year round!

I think that the snails would become fish food in the aquaponics (2nd video.)
Those guy are producing a serious amount of food in a year.
Between their selling compost. fish, and vegetables... That was pretty impressive to me.
The "hanging gardens" are easier to picture now.
Farmers raising their own trout, tilapia, catfish, blue gill... And they pack the fish in there too.


The extra clay thing would require a lot of water and mixing... It's not like a clay deposit where all the soil has been worked out, otherwise... yes. It would be a great to have the clay in my backyard!!! One day, I will have either a greenhouse & or coldframe.