Garden & Skillet

Stuff

 Fresh carrrots from the ground

 some unripe tomatoes I collected after cutting down the tomato plant.

 My new mango trees showing frost damage. Oops!

 My Florida mango trees showing frost damage.

My new Lodge skillet that I apparently didn't season enough. I'll tray again.

My new office workstation!

Et Voilá!

Converted deak lamp to LED

I had this desk lamp for a very long time. I loved it but hated it because of it's 100w halogen bulb. It would get so hot that the metal would be scorching. It was also a waste of electricity.
Fast forward, I decided to hunt for parts on eBay for LED parts and controllers. I found the pieces and a month later I got the parts I needed to start disassembling and retrofitting my lamp to become a LED lamp. Here is the result. I love it.

The bare LED is super bright and it's only 20 watts. 

I went to TapPlastics and bought a scrap piece of 1/4" P95 acrylic (.75¢) which I tabled sawed to 6.5"x3.75" to be used as a light diffuser.

Et voilá!

I love it.

Drove 11+ hours to Ventura County and back yesterday

 Left 6:30am for Highway 101.

 

5+ hours later I bought these cactus and picked up 4 mango trees.

 Then I drove home. This tunnel was cool, albeit short.

When I got home, I was completely exhausted.

New Goldfish from Buygoldfishonline.com

Et voilá.

Pond update

My pond is finally clarifying after adding plants and lots of additives.

Splash mat installation for my pond

Et voilá!

Epiphyllum oxypetalum bloomed

For the first time, my Epiphyllum oxypetalum bloomed and with multiple flowers even!

Neglected post photos

Earlier in the year, I bought 12 "Red Cap" Orandas for my pond. However only 3 survived.

With Helmut's landscaping help, I finally got to clean up my backyard for my future trees…

 … and vegetable garden. I planted some crops but only a few came out. Will post that later.

Checked off list.

Irises from schreinersgardens.com

I purchased some lovely irises from Schreiners Gardens.

(their website: http://www.schreinersgardens.com)

Bonus plants. These I planted at the corner of my property.

 These I planted into my raised beds.

Can't wait for them to flower!

New Trellis

Installed my new trellis; which was freaking heavy! Helmut, myself and Richard put this baby up with a lot of heaving and huffing. Helmut bolted the trellis into solid wood underneath the stucco.

Small bit of rain today.

Fruit trees are blossoming.

Acrylic barrier

I built my acrylic barrier today.

Finished Landscaping.

 Helmut came today and put the finishing touches on and handed me the final bill.

 Last night I made modifications to the splash guard. It seems to help the foam is driving me a little crazy. I wonder if some activated carbon would help clean it up?

 Oktoberfest #2. Lopsided but lovely.

1st Video!

My waterfalls.

First video post and made with my new nikon camera.

Nearly finished.