Indoor Greens Container Update

So here are the results so far of my indoor greens container.

Things are growing. At first I didn't put in the aluminum foil because I wanted to see if it would work without it. But, as you can see, things got leggy. They improved when I put in the foil so, yes, you definitely do need the foil in this project.

As you can see below, some of the leaves have gotten singed. That is because I had the lights hanging straight down and the leaves touched them. Even though cfl bulbs don't get hot like regular incandescent bulbs, they are still too hot to touch with hands or leaves.

So I've changed the bulbs to a horizontal orientation.

 Since this brings the bulbs just a little farther away from the bulbs, I've put aluminum foil on the underside of the lid to direct as much light back down to the plants as possible. I didn't take a picture of that though.

Early on I also noticed that the plants seemed a little limp even though they had plenty of water. I don't know if that was because of extra heat being held in by the lid (it's not air tight but it does snap on at each end where the handles are) or if they weren't getting enough air current or just air itself. So I drilled some holes in the top for ventilation. This seemed to solve that problem as the leaves perked up pretty well.

My next step is to either harvest all the plants I've got in there now and start over, or just harvest the most leggy ones and leave anything that looks ok. So far the pac choi (bottom right in the top picture) seems to be doing the best. But I put in the foil shortly after they sprouted. So that might be why. The red russian kale is the most leggy because it sprouted first and was my indicator that I needed more light. There are a couple spinach sprouts but they're kind of small and weak looking. I think the seeds were a little old. But I'll try them again in case it was because of the lights or ventilation.

I also plan on starting some purslane in here. I think these conditions will be just about right for them. Not yet sure what else I want to try. I'll have to look through my seed stash. But if anybody has any ideas or suggestions. Bring 'em on! I'm always open to suggestions and ideas. The sharing of ideas is one of the best ways we expand our knowledge and learn new things.

We're Going for It!

So they called us back and said they could give us a loan for most, but not all, of the down payment. That works for me! Gets us a lot closer than we are right now. But since hubby was at work, he wasn't able to call them back today. But tomorrow, tomorrow is a new day! Can you tell I'm excited? Then as soon as we have that money in the bank account, we'll call the lender and tell him so he can get the loan started. Then we'll call the builder so they can get the house started. 6.32 acres! Here I come!

The Big News!....... Maybe

So I can't keep quiet any longer. I've got to say it. The big news I mentioned before. The still only POSSIBLE big news. But big news none the less.

For the past month or so we've been looking into getting a modular house built. Not a very big house. 4 bedroom/2 bath. 1600sqft in total. I say looking into because we're still working on getting the mortgage loan and until that happens, nothing's been built yet. The only thing that's holding the mortgage back is the down payment. We would need about $6,000. But we have nothing saved up. Hard to save when you have bills to pay. But according to the lender, North Carolina has a thing that helps you specifically with the down payment. Only trouble with that is that you have to have a credit score of 640 or higher. Hubby's credit score is almost there so we need something that will push us up just that little bit. So we've got some credit cards we're trying to pay down that have gotten a bit more than 50% full. Seems that under 30% is a lot better place to be. And doing that would cost us a lot less than trying to save $6,000. (I actually wrote this post yesterday but we also applied for a personal loan at our credit union today. They said we should know by tomorrow if we're approved.)

We're really excited but since we don't yet have the mortgage loan, we're still trying to stay realistic that it could possibly fall through. One of the things we're excited about most is that this will be a brand new house. Not something used and abused by somebody else. It will only get abused by us and us alone. It's like buying a used car. You never know how the previous owner treated it or what problems it might have. It's brand new! Even the septic and well will be new.

We have already been back to the dealer's and picked out all the colors and such. I say colors loosely though. We ended up picking out a lot of greys. Light grey siding on the house, black shutters, black roof (more like dark grey). Grey laminate wood flooring in the main rooms, light grey carpet in the bedrooms, beige paint on the walls(this is actually standard but we can always repaint later if we want), dark wood cabinets in the kitchen, beige counter tops and back splash. I think that's pretty much everything. Walls, floors, kitchen, outside.

We actually like the grey and beige combination. But I realized the other day that we may occasionally have difficulty finding cat. The thing I'm holding is a sample of the wood laminate flooring we picked out.

There will also be a fireplace in the den. That's where we'll probably spend most of our time. I love a wood fireplace and have always wanted a house with one. So there we go. We also opted for the kitchen upgrade that gets us all black kitchen appliance. Big fridge, dishwasher, glass top stove, microwave above the stove. I think the standard kitchen was just a basic off white fridge and coil burner stove. Off white appliances wouldn't have gone well with the dark cabinets.

Even though I'm really excited about the house, the cherry on top for me is that we found a 6.32 acre piece of land for a really really good price. I will finally be able to have the mini farm I've wanted for years. I will finally be able to provide healthy, unprocessed food for my family by growing a big garden and raising livestock. We've already been to the property a couple times. Once to make sure we liked it, then with their contractor to discuss placement of the house and such. I didn't want to leave. I think the next time will be after we get the loan and we go look at it again with a property appraiser so he can mark the exact layout of the property and other such things.

The only other possible problem is that our lease is up here at the end of March. So we need to get this loan quick so they can start building the house. They can have the house built in a month. But getting the foundation wall put in and actually placing the house and such could be held up if the weather starts to get bad. Like snow and ice bad. They can't dig a place for the foundation or put in the septic and well if the ground is frozen. So far this winter has been really mild so hopefully that holds out. If all goes to plan, they should have the house placed in plenty of time. But since there are still lots of things that can go awry, we're still nervous.

We've already spoken with the landlords here and they said they would work with us if the house wasn't done on time. The details of 'working with us' aren't ironed out, but at least we know we're not going to be kicked out if we don't renew our lease.

Anyway, that's pretty much it. I'll post again once we know if we got the loan or not. Cross your fingers, toes and eyes for us. Or maybe not. Fingers and toes can get cramped and crossing your eyes isn't supposed to be good for them. Instead, wish us luck and keep us in your prayers.

Air Lift Pump for Aquaponics

I keep forgetting to post this here. My mind is all over the place lately. Working on garden type stuff, learning the new sensor for my daughter's insulin pump, trying to get a mortgage for the house..... Oops, did I say that last part? Maybe I did. But I'll hold off on the details until we're sure we can get the mortgage. But here's the video I recorded the other day about my air lift pump I made for my future aquaponics idea.

Growing Greens Indoors

So remember those projects I promised to update you on? Well, this isn't those. I'm still working on those to get them to work the way I want. Also, I've been distracted by something that might bring big changes for our family. But I'll say nothing further because I don't want to jinx things. I'm not usually a superstitious person. But, like I said, this is a big change and I don't want to take any chances.

Anyway, you might be asking what is this blog about then? (Or maybe not if you read the title.) This blog is about salad. More specifically, growing salad greens indoors. I've tried growing greens in windows, I've tried growing greens in windows with cfl bulbs for added light. Neither turned out as well as I would have liked and the bottles hanging in the windows looked a bit unsightly and the lights were a bit bright shining out my windows.

So I got an idea inspired by something I'd seen in some videos. The people took cardboard boxes and lined them with tin foil or mylar. Inside they put a daylight bulb and some plants. The foil helped to bounce as much light as possible around the plants. I didn't have any cardboard boxes but I do have these big 30 gal containers.

I drilled a hole in the top and then three more around it, spaced evenly. I stuck the sharp part of my little pruners in the middle hole and turned. This broke the plastic between the middle hole and the ones around it. (I didn't have a big enough drill bit to make a big enough hole.) I then took the wire at the top of the lamp and looped it over and stuck it through the enlarged hole.

The thing I have holding the wire is just the clip that attaches the lamp to the clamp.

Here's an inside view at the lamps. They're hanging close to the lids because I'm holding the lid up. They hang directly down when the lid is closed. You can also see some of the little pots. I used butter tubs, large yogurt containers and cottage cheese containers.

Here's another picture of the inside with the lid almost closed. The daughter and I planted four pots of pak choi, four pots of Bloomsdale long standing spinach, and six pots of red Russian kale.

Anyway, this project was really easy and I threw it together in one afternoon. I will probably do the tin foil tomorrow. I won't take a pic of that though because it will probably be too bright and end up as a white blur. I didn't take a picture of the inside of the other container because I just have my succulents and a tropical in it for now. If things go really well in the first container, I may find some place else for the tropical and succulents and put more greens in the second container.

And that's it for now. I will update you all when I have more info on this and other various projects. And hopefully a big announcement! Have a good day/night!

What I'm Doing

Nothing really much going on right now. I did build a sort of greenhouse thing to protect my more tender plants. It's not the best built contraption in the world and I think I need to do a bit more work to it. But that will have to wait until next week. After I get it more stable I will post some pics and maybe even a video.

I'm also working on an idea for an aquaponics system. Right now I'm working on some of the plumbing details before I start filling up containers with soil. Yes, I said soil. I'm going to attempt an aquaponics setup with soil. I know. Soil is supposed to be a big no no in aquaponics. But I think my ideas for my setup are pretty sound. Most of that is going to have to wait until next spring. I don't want to deal with working the kinks out of the system and getting the nitrogen cycle locked in while having to deal with possible freezing in the winter weather. So spring it is.

But that's basically what I've been up to. Just working on projects in my spare time. But nothing really to show yet. Once I have things worked out that I can show, I'll post it here.

A Good Deal on Fruit Trees

So Lowe's is having a sale on a lot of their trees and I was able to get two more fruit trees. A Santa Rosa semi-dwarf plum and a Red Delicious semi-dwarf apple. And they were 75% off, so I only paid $5 for them.

Unfortunately I then realized that all these trees need pollinators. Meaning you need more than one variety for each one to pollinate with. I already have the other apple. But I need a partner for the peach and the plum. But this Lowe's doesn't have anything left except a couple apples. I'll have to make a trip to another Lowe's not far away to see what they have available. Wish me luck.