I got a few things done this weekend before I had to get back on the road. I Installed a new range hood Saturday afternoon. We had a range hood but it was old and the knobs didn't work so it was just useless sitting there above the stove for the last three years. They are not that expensive so I am ashamed that it took me this long to get to it. We looked all over town, well at the two places in town that would have them, and only found white and almond. Our kitchen is crimson, white and gray. Alabama Crimson Tide Colors, so almond is out and white is to bright. What we really wanted was black but that one is hard to find for some reason. So we headed north 18 miles to Greenville, stopped off at the Huddle House and had some lunch then headed to Buchheit's. Wow do we love this place! If I was a farmer I would be in heaven in there. Wait, I am in heaven in there. They had a stainless hood for around a hundred bucks and was pretty easy to put in. Now I will be able to have better pictures when I get to taking them while we are cooking.

That white shelf above the stove has to go though. when you are standing there cooking and you want something from the shelf you have to stoop to get it as the shelf part is too high up. I need one where the shelf is on the bottom of the backing not the top. I thought of hanging this one upside down but then the hearts would be upside down and that would be silly. It will have to do for now.

One other thing that I got done was I built my first cold frame and set it out. I planted just two short rows of iceberg lettuce in it since it was kinda small. It is only about 34 inches by,,well,,I Don't remember. Its small. I was a little off with my measurements so there is a a small gap in one end but I built it with screws so I can take it apart and square it up when I have time. The old window is just sitting on the top of it for now, once I square it up I will hinge the window and create some sort of prop system to prop the window open during warm days.

 By the way, that little heater that we bought to use in the plant incubator didn't work out. It would cut off at the right temperature but would not come back on. I think that it was getting over heated in there. We put one of our bigger heaters in there that just has a dial and a high low button on it. I found a better thermometer and set the heater on low. Then adjusted the dial until I had around 78 degrees constant. It seems to be working well. There are no seedlings up yet so I hope that the little heater's problem didn't cause me to lose what I planted. I should see something this weekend I hope.

Things to look forward to? I was at a hospital auxiliary book sale last weekend and found the cook book section right off. They had a sale on Hardbacks for a dollar and after 3 P.M. they were half off so I got a mess of them for fifty cents. I bought a bunch of cook books there. I am mostly into the older ones from the fifties and sixties along with anything older. I have some great ones now from that sale. Look for some cool stuff from that as soon as I get time to go through them. I'll get to it sooner or later, remember that I am an over the road truck driver trapped in this occupation and have to drive to make a living. I'll someday be out of this truck and into the kitchen full time but until then trucking is eating up all my time. Stay tuned.

Tim

Starting Plants For The Garden

Here is just an update of sorts, we have had our own kitchen garden ever since we moved north to Illinois and this year will be no different. I attempted to build a plastic room about the size of a large shower stall out in the garage to heat and start our garden plants in but I think that the plastic was way too thin because the small heater that runs us out of our computer/sewing room couldn't heat that plastic room higher than 30 degrees when the outside temp was 22. I took pictures of it but after it was determined to be a total failure I decided not to post them. Epic Fail!

Plan B was for me to build a couple of smaller desktop insulated boxes with a light inside along with a vent fan connected to an attic fan thermostat. My thoughts were that the florescent lights could heat the thing and grow the plants and the thermostatic fan could cool it down if it got too hot. I thought about something that I see at work and changed to plan C.

We go down to Florida from time to time and reload down there with frozen orange juice. sometimes on the same load we load "Cooler" juice that is not to be frozen so we have to buy these 4 x 8 sheets of 2 inch thick Styrofoam bulkheads to separate the freezer stuff in the nose of the trailer from the cooler stuff in the rear. Usually we toss this stuff in the trash first chance we get after unloading because it is in the way. But sometimes those trailers end up at our yard and have to be cleaned out. I called the boss yesterday to ask what they did with those panels, if they threw them out or saved them for future use? It just so happens that they have a few of them on hand in the warehouse and I am welcome to some of them.

Here is plan C. I have some stackable shelves out in the garage, you know the type that has black plastic shelves with gray or black plastic tubes in the corners to add more shelves? I have two sets of those in the garage and I plan to take whichever set has the most distance between shelves and encase it with these Styrofoam sheets on three sides and the top. I will then create an insulted front door or doors that can be opened to check the plants inside. We bought a heater that has its own thermostat so we can set it for 70 degrees inside so there won't be much of a need for a cooling fan. Walmart has encased under cabinet grow lights for about $20 or I could use the curly cue screw in types with some existing light fixtures I already have. At any rate there is going to be some seeds started for the Crimson Kitchen's, kitchen garden this weekend.

If I find that it gets too hot inside due to the weird winter we are having I have an attic fan thermostat up in the attic, all I need to do is make sure that it still works and find a small fan to vent to upper level of the plant incubator. I will take some pictures of this contraption as I'm making it so I will be able to post some later. These sheets of Styrofoam are a blessing, they cost around $20.00 if you had to buy them from the hardware store.  some of the plants that we are going to start are green peppers, yellow peppers, sweet red peppers, Jalapenos, Anaheim chili's, about 6 varieties of Tomato's, some Broccoli, cabbage, and whatever I might have forgot. If this incubator turns out the way I think it is, it should hold about 100 plants. This warm winter has me wanting to till the garden right now. I hope that it doesn't smack us in the face this March since it has been relatively calm so far. More late after I get this project started.

TIM