Poor neglected blog ...

So, I see that my last post was August 9th, 2010. Let me tell you why, and then we can try to start fresh.

On August 15th, my partner in rain barrel installation (and in everything else) proposed! While we had been talking about it for quite some time - and had looked at rings together - he caught me completely off guard.
On August 16th, I was hired as an elementary art educator for an amazing school in a district that truly values the arts. (As opposed to my last district, who cut art, music & PE for their K-6 students after levy failures, leaving me unemployed for a year.)

So good news all around - happily engaged, happily employed - but incredibly busy. Planning a wedding is not the easy thing that I had imagined or hoped for! Not surprisingly, there are lots of projects that I want to make myself. (More on these in future posts.)
Also, my job - while completely amazing - has consumed huge amounts of time. I have about 550 students in grades 1-5 that I see on a four day rotation. I have a great room all to myself (with windows, even!) that needed to be cleared out after 20+ years of occupancy by the previous teacher. I am still finding random things here and there, trying to consolidate and organize so that I know where everything is.

Hopefully, I'll be back soon - with pictures! - of some of the projects I've been working on.

Recycled Wine Bottle Torch

I want to make these for my own backyard!! Our current torches are wretched, useless things, and these wine bottles are so much more attractive.

Full disclosure: this post is a shameless steal from Erik Anderson. You can read his complete post (with assembly instructions) here: http://www.gerardotandco.com/blog/recycled-bottle-torch/


Recycled Wine Bottle Torch How To

Materials Needed:

1. Empty Wine Bottle (You can use any bottle you like as long as it’s glass and the neck is 1” in diameter. Be clever!)
2. Teflon Tape 1/2”
3. Copper Top Plate Connector (threaded for 3/8”-16 thread rod)
4. 1” Split Ring Hanger (threaded for 3/8”-16 thread rod)
5. 1/2” x 3/8” Copper Coupling
6. 1/2” Copper Cap
7. Two Hex Nuts (threaded for 3/8”-16 thread rod)
8. Two #10 x 1” Zinc Plated Wood Screws (if you’re mounting it to wood)
9. 3/8”-16 Zinc Plated Threaded Rod (I bought a 3’ rod and cut it down to 8, 4-1/2” rods with a hacksaw.)
10. Tiki Replacement Wick
11. Torch Fuel (For safety reasons, only use fuel made specifically for outdoor torches. i.e. Tiki brand)


Safety Note: This is for outdoor use only. Tiki brand recommends that the wick never be set higher than 1/4-inch, and I recommend that you exercise the same discretion and common sense that you would with any small open flame. Never leave your torches unattended.

A few new bags ...

... all with an interior zipper pocket!






Hope you like them as much as I do.

ComFest

May has been a crazy-busy month for me! So I'll squeeze in one last post here with a look back - and forward - at Comfest.
For anyone who doesn't know, Comfest is the Columbus Community Festival - 3 days of music, activists, street fair vendors, and drum circles. My mom actually worked security at the very first ComFest over 25 years ago! I've been going for pretty much my whole life, and I'm really looking forward to being a vendor this year. I'll be sharing a booth with the talented Amy N. of Sweet Stella Designs & Patrice Lehockey.



This is a picture from last year, when 3 friends showed up wearing their 'Oh Sheet!' bags. From left: Katy G., me, Cece C., & Robin B.

Rain Barrel Part 3: The Watering System

So the rain barrel is set up and ready to use! The final challenge of installation was to make an easy to use, practical system to water our vegetable garden. So in addition to the rain barrel, I also bought a hose splitter and 2 pre-measured lengths of drip tape.

The tricky part? Getting hoses the right length to carry the water from the rain barrel to the start of the raised beds. Fortunately, the hardware store has all kinds of neat tools and tricks.

I needed 2 lengths of garden hose - 1 about 7 ft, the other around 14. I bought one 25 ft hose and two hose end replacements, one male and one female. *Make sure you are buying the same size of hose and replacement parts!!*


Next, I cut the hose to the right length. It's important to make this cut as straight as possible!

Wiggling the hose replacement part into place is a little tricky, but it can be done! Remember to put the outer part (silver in these pictures) onto the hose first! Otherwise, you'll have to smack yourself in the head - just like I did.



Tighten up the screws, and you should be ready to go!








The great thing about the drip tape system is that we can turn it on and walk away for an hour. Our plants will get a slow, steady & gentle watering, and we won't be watering anything we don't need to be (like the weeds between the raised bed and our fence.)









Big thanks to The Rain Brothers for delivering my rain barrel and giving lots of advice! If you live in the Columbus area, I highly recommend them!
http://www.rainbrothers.com/

Rain Barrel Installation: Part 2

Ok, so we have a stand. Next step, actually hooking up the rain barrel to the gutter. We started by getting the stand where we wanted (and leveled) and then put the rain barrel on top. The next step is to get a hacksaw and cut the downspout at least 12 inches above the top of the rain barrel.










So far, pretty easy. Now, we have to trim the cut-off part of the downspout so that it will fit back on to the diverter. We followed the directions for size, but we actually used regular scissors to cut the gutter.





Next, we slipped the diverter onto the hanging downspout.





Then we placed the cut off downspout onto the overflow and strapped it back down, using the gutter strap that was already there. The kit came with about 3 ft of white tubing to connect the diverter to the rainbarrel, so we had to trim it down.














And that's it! The rain barrel is ready to use.

In the final episode of "Rain Barrel Installation", I'll tell you about the watering system I'm using for my veggie garden.

Rain Barrel Installation: Building a Stand

It's a beautiful Sunday morning in my backyard - the birds are singing, the lilacs smell amazing - and I can see our newly installed rain barrel. While it was a big project, now that it's all done, I feel that I can say that most people would be able to get this done with a little help from a friend. Doing a project together is always more fun than going it alone anyway.

So, the first step to installing a rain barrel is building a stand - unless you live on a hill. Since rain barrels have no water pressure, elevating them uses gravity to push water through the hose. We decided to make our stand about 2 ft high.


Supplies:
1 - 4" x 4" x 8'
2" x 4" (we have a bunch of these that were used for a project & then disassembled. We ended up using about 28' worth.)
Outdoor rated screws - 3" long
Wood stain/treatment - we used a color called Canyon Brown
Table saw
Drill/screwdriver
Paintbrush
Measuring tape
T-square (or something that helps you see when things are at nice 90 degree angles)

Unfortunately, Lowe's can't cut 4" x 4"s. We used our table saw, but quite possibly you could find a local lumber yard that would be willing to help you out for a small fee.

First, we built the base. Obviously, the 4" x 4"s were the legs.



We left the front bottom open because eventually, overflow from the gutter will end up coming out there. Our cuts weren't perfectly straight, but they were close enough. Even though we used our angle checker thing-a-ma-bob, we still had to tweak it a little - but that was easy enough.




Then we added the top. We left spaces in between the 2" to keep the weight down a little, and to keep water from puddling up on top. I'm sure you could use 1" x 4"s instead, we just have the 2"x 4"s already, and we like to reuse.
















Finally, we stained the whole thing - we want it to be pretty water-resistant & last a long time, so we covered the stand pretty thoroughly.
Huge thanks to Steve for all of his work on this project. He is patient & thoughtful, and I couldn't ask for a better partner for any kind of project!

Up next: Installing the rain barrel!