June 19 2020
Hi new followers! Our home is built with recycled and reclaimed materials. The wall of windows is part of our passive solar retrofit. The vines climb up and through the twine and shield the room in summer, cooling it down. On sunny winter days, the room with the windows heats the entire house.
The 2 bottle gourds are taking off! Everyone is doing well in here. The Parsley is about to bloom, I hope the pollinators enjoy it. Keep wondering how big the Mandevilla (big red flower vine) will get.
I spotted the first ripe pepper on the Hot Paper Lantern pepper plant, the one that we overwintered. My plan is to just freeze it, and freeze all pepper harvests until I have enough to start making the hot pepper ferments again.
Our chairs on the deck are ugly white plastic things leftover from the previous owners. We have spent some time checking out various outdoor furniture options, and honestly, white plastic seems like the ugly yet practical way to go for now. Metal gets too hot, colors fade (unless you’re willing to spend big money, which we aren’t), and dark colors are also too hot. Open to suggestions though.
The low table is made from reclaimed / found materials - an aluminum table base, and an old clear freezer door. Stair railing is from the metal recycling place, it’s probably an old fence pole. The upper right part of the deck was created by taking down and reusing other decking we’d taken apart elsewhere on the property.
