Peter Hentges

 It seems wise to add my real name to a post so that people can find me relatively easily or, if they come by through other means that they learn who I am outside of my rather officious title. (The account name is the acronym for Just and Beneficent Ruler of the Universe.)

Mary and I both took a week off work last week. It was quite enjoyable on a few fronts.

The first weekend we stocked the cats up on food, water, and clean litter and headed to Rochester to visit Mary's sister and family. Spent most of the time with the sister and brother-in-law with two meals that included her niece and the niece's husband and two kids. One of those was outdoors and the other had us eating in separate spaces to keep some social distance. Mary's sister and niece are both nurses and her brother-in-law recently retired from running Mayo's pulmonary lab. So they're all quite aware of the dangers and needed precautions. Despite recent reports of such family gatherings being a source of virus spread I feel pretty confident that we aren't in any danger of either contracting or spreading.

It was very nice to spend some time out of the house and away from work. The trip to Rochester was also the first road trip we took with the new electric car. The round trip brought us down to about 15% remaining charge and an estimated 40 miles of range. A bit nervous-making between road signs when checking to see if the remaining range will be enough to make it home, but a very pleasant trip. The adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping features of the new car make highway driving nearly automatic.

The other main activity we undertook was a visit to the recently-reopened Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. MIA required free time-bound tickets in order to maintain an appropriate population density. We arrived a little early for our time slot, but they had space available and let us in right away. We spent most of our time on the third floor holding their contemporary collections. In particular was a photography exhibit in which the subjects were children and included commentary by kids of various ages. I thought the most striking part of the exhibit was a multi-year project of a photographer and a refugee girl. The photos show her growing over time, but maintaining some aspects of her spirit. She appears guarded and subdued in some photos, but in the final photo has clear, purposeful eyes.

The other cool exhibit was some art deco objects, which included a Tatra T87 car of Czech manufacture. Flashy and fast, it was favored by Nazi officers. It was apparently, however, very dangerous to drive and is credited with killing more of those officers than active combat.

One of the side effects of my first pair of bifocal transition lenses and the general business lockdown is that reading texts has become a significant challenge for me. I've been reading less as I get older in general, but for the last several months it has become quite troublesome. With my current prescription, the distances at which I need to hold reading materials are either far enough away that the type is difficult to make out, or close enough that I don't need my glasses at all (which means a few inches in front of my face), both of which are uncomfortable for any length of time. I believe that things have loosened up sufficiently now that I can schedule an eye exam and work on getting new lenses. I should probably get new frames as well since my current ones have suffered a few traumas and tend to slide off my face if I get at all sweaty (which happens more frequently when wearing a mask).

So I've been missing reading things. I was a voracious reader as a child and kept reading quite a bit through my 20s and 30s. I slowed down a bit in my 40s as my eyes got worse, but still enjoyed a day with a novel. Now, I can't sit and hold a book or e-reader comfortably enough to get through one. I've seen a few folks doing re-reads of various authors during the pandemic restrictions and I have the lovely illustrated volume of Earthsea stories that was released a few years back that I would like to get through. Motivation for getting that eye appointment, I suppose.

Since pameladean asked so nicely, I took some photos of the extent of the front-yard prairie. Click through for larger images.

Here's a shot of the boulevard from the walk to my front door toward our southern neighbor. Most of what you see here is Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), a favorite of bees (also called Bee-balm) and other pollinators, it's a good nectar source.



This is a panorama shot that gives you an idea of the wildness of the front prairie. It looks from the sidewalk toward our neighbor, along the yard in front of our house, and on to the corner. Most of what you see here are cup plants (Silphium perfoliatum). Once upon a time I planted three plants of that species; they like it here a lot.



And a bonus pic of what is likely a Red Admiral butterfly ( Vanessa atalanta) checking out a recent cup plant flower. I like that the butterfly's curled tongue is evident in this shot.

I've been doing pretty well under the restrictions implemented due to COVID-19. I'm fairly hermit-y by nature so my day-to-day activities haven't varied a whole lot. No movie theaters, so I've been binging more things at home. Saw Hamilton, am getting caught up on Doctor Who, got through all of Warrior Nun, saw all of HBO's Watchmen. Eating out is heavily curtailed, though there are getting to be more options. Mary and I have started being regular weekly diners at Colossal Cafe just up Como Avenue from us once again. Any time we eat out I make sure to add some extra over and above my normal "20% and round up" tip to help out hourly workers who may be having to choose between risking going to work or risking not paying rent. I'm not sure how restaurants will do when it gets to be too cold for outdoor dining.

I took advantage of the 3-months of free online guitar lessons offered by Fender. They are chunked well for my attention span and have a "streak" reward system that gets me to actually practice by engaging my gamer's completion instinct. Mary says she can hear improvement, so that's encouraging too. I know three whole chords now, so there's no stopping me.

My work is piloting a "return to office" initiative starting the 25th (since that's a Saturday, the first day would be the 27th). I volunteered for it as I don't have any particular need to stay home (no child care, for example, which I'm seeing a lot of my co-workers work through) and my actual work needs are not location specific. They are sending me a "care package" of things to prep for this, including a thermometer with which I am to take my temperature daily before coming in to the office, and masks to wear while there and not at my desk. It will be interesting to see how it all works out. They say I'm free to drop out if I feel uncomfortable with the set-up at any time.

The other thing this staying at home has done is give me a lot more energy to put into the garden/landscape. Things are better than they have been the last few years, partially because of throwing money at having people help with things, but also because I like taking a few minutes out of the day to pop out and weed a chunk. Prior years, I'd be tired out after work and just not get around to even basic maintenance. Getting amongst the plants is relaxing, so the overall landscape benefits from my stress relief. I'm working on throwing money at revamping some of the space to allow for more of my stress relief, a more comfortable means of enjoying the space, and a bit more control over the development of the landscape. I feel pretty good about the plans there.

In our previous episode, the process of sheet-composting the back yard began with the distribution of a layer of compost over the entire back yard. The result:



Today that process was completed. This represents being ahead of schedule as the initial thought was that it would take multiple days to distribute the mulch. When the mulch arrived by truck this morning, I could understand why that was the assumption.



And that's just the first truck-load. (The second was smaller, but still. A lot of mulch.)

The landscape crew consisted of two young women. One of them was part of the crew that spread the compost, so she was familiar with the project. First up was working out how to prepare the molasses water that would reportedly be used to soak the compost in order to give its microbes a bit of a kick-start on breaking down the existing organic materials. This process involved molasses:



A five-gallon bucket and water. Kind of obvious when you think about it. I provided a 2-gallon watering can for distributing the batches of molasses water over the compost. So, in retrospect, it wasn't so much of a "soaking" of the compost as it was a "sprinkling" of the compost. I like to think the microbes on my compost team are therefore a lean, hungry bunch.

Working in sequence, the women spread the molasses water and then covered it with cardboard from large rolls delivered earlier in the process.



They then used wheelbarrows to cart the mulch over and cover the cardboard to a depth of about three inches. The result is nice and orderly:



We met with the landscape architect yesterday. Prior to that meeting she sent along a questionnaire about our goals, likes/dislikes, favorite plants, etc. Mary and I answered these independently of each other and not too surprisingly ended up with rather similar answers. The big picture will be to have an outdoor space we like relaxing in that feels natural and like it belongs in the space without requiring a large amount of maintenance. Native plants will help with that, and part of what got us here was acknowledging that things in the yard overall have gotten to the point that I can't keep up with all that's needed and that hiring folks to help with that is not only possible, but a wise thing to do.

So the architect's schedule has her design time booked until November. Given that the sheet compost wants to cook for the rest of the season and native plants tend to do best planted in the spring, this works out well for timing. We can plan on saving up for plant purchase and installation costs and look for a variety of sources over the winter when the design is solidified.

The first step of sheet composting is putting down a layer of compost. This was supposed to happen last week, but the significant rain we had made the compost too wet to deliver and spread effectively. So things got started today.

This is the big pile of compost that was dumped in my driveway.



And this is what that pile looks like after two very capable young women from the landscaping company spread it over my back yard.



The next steps in sheet composting are delayed until Friday as that is when there will be crew enough available to spread the mulch that is the last step such that it will not be blocking the driveway when Mary returns home from work.

Mary and I went for a drive this afternoon. Did a big chunk of the Grand Rounds scenic byway. Some of the parkways are closed to give those using the space for exercise additional social distance, so we couldn’t drive the whole route. Stopped at Longfellow Grill for a spot of lunch and are now back home relaxing.

With the sun past midday, we can open the East-facing curtains and enjoy the green of the front prairie. The Joe-Pye Weed is blooming, always a favorite of bees and butterflies. The anise hyssop and bergamot are just getting started, as are the common milkweed. A few early cup-plants and ox-eye sunflower have flowered, but they’ll kick into high gear in another few weeks. August will bring the asters, which will last through most of September.

Pretty much every year the city has occasion to send me a letter telling me to do something or another with my prairie. The last couple of years, this has occurred due to some of the plants getting taller than expected/planned and leaning over the sidewalk. This gets to be especially annoying for passers-by if the leaning plants are the cup plants, which collect little cups of water where their leaves grasp the stem. This provides a nice source of water for birds, insects, and small mammals, but also provides a bit of a shower to anyone brushing against them. Not desirable in the best of circumstances and possibly a hazard for some. In addition, partially blocking the sidewalk causes undue difficulty for anyone with a disability. So steps needed to be taken.

So I purchased some garden stakes. First a set of bamboo ones, but when those proved a bit too weak I got some coated steel stakes of various sizes from the garden center. Placing these along the sidewalk, I run some twine between them and create a make-shift fence that keeps things from falling over where they aren't wanted. After the strong storms and rain yesterday, a few other things were starting to get in the way of the walk to the front door, which would inconvenience mail carriers and those making deliveries. Since delivery is more important in these days of sheltering in place, I added more of this barrier design to hold those things out of the way as well.

(One of the things that makes this necessary is that all my plants grow crazily taller than they should. Ohio spiderwort typically grows about two feet tall. Mine is about three. Brown-eyed Susan you typically see one to three feet tall. Mine grows five to six feet tall. These aren't outside the known ranges for the plants, but it is unusual. And it mucks with my planning. When you plan for something to be about three feet tall and it grows to six, the place you planted it may not be wholly appropriate.)

Today also started the process of doing a reset on the backyard landscape. Since we had two large dogs for 12 years, doing any formal landscaping in the back yard was doomed to failure. The best I did was keep the undesirable plants down to a dull roar. So now I'm looking to expand the native plantings on the property into the backyard, but doing so in a way that leads to a more organized aesthetic feel. This starts with sheet composting the entire back yard.

The process of sheet composting involves mowing down anything that currently exists, covering the area with of few inches of compost, soaking that with molasses water, covering it with layers of cardboard, and topping it all off with additional inches of mulch. The idea is that the sugar feeds the microbes in the compost, helping them break down anything else at the bottom of the stack, including anything that tries growing back. The cardboard blocks out any sunlight so new things don't germinate and old things have a harder time growing back. And the top mulch keeps it all moist so the composting does its work and allows anything germinating on top to be removed fairly easily. This all sits and cooks for the rest of the year and then we plant new things in the spring.

We're planning to talk to a landscape architect that specializes in native plants to work out what to plant. We've got the first meeting scheduled for early July, but her actual design schedule is booked until November. Given the overall timing of the plan, that seems like it will work out well.

The first step of the sheet composting (mowing everything down and removing things like fallen tree limbs) was completed today. The layering on of compost, cardboard, and mulch is planned for Friday.

As much as anything is ever complete. The remodel was officially finished in January, meaning that our contractor was no longer doing any work on premises. (They keep in touch for any warranty items that might come up.) We have been using the kitchen ever since, working out where various things go and finding out what we actually want to use and store in the space. Some things remain in boxes from Mary's move and me packing up the old kitchen. We'll be slowly sorting and consolidating.

Apart from the remodeling and the actual kitchen tools, the things we needed to get for the kitchen were:

• A small table to use at our new banquette,
• Cushions for said new banquette, and
• Art to brighten up the space and make it truly ours.

Mary did a great job tracking down a place nearby that could make the custom cushions for us. Our contractor's designer and cabinet architect had things set up so that the L-shaped banquette can be fitted with two cushions of the same size, allowing us to flip and swap the cushions to extend their life. Mary found a great print that really adds a nice pop of color the room.

Mary also found a guy on eBay who does custom wooden counter-tops. We ordered a cherry table top from him (to match the cabinets and bead-board in the rest of the space) and then I found a nice cast-iron bistro table base that works well to create a just-right size space for regular meals with just the two of us.

Finally, we found a print by Adam Turman of the witch's hat tower of Prospect Park in bold purples and oranges that fits the space, works with the colors, and appeals to our aesthetic sensibilities. We had it framed at the Carter Avenue Frame Shop, who have done very nice work on some of our other art, including prints by our friend Ctein. Here are photos of the “completed” space:

Mary and I are now owners of a 2019 Nissan Leaf EV. Refinancing the mortgage opened up some room in the budget and Mary’s 2013 Hyundai was atarting to hit that stage of “$500 repair every six months or so” that comes with age. We’ve had the car about a week now and are liking it quite a bit. Being last-year’s model we got a significant discount over the new price and this have a top-of-the-line model with all the bells and whistles.

The niftiest thing in my mind is what Nissan calls e-pedal. Acceleration and deceleration are controlled by a single pedal; let up on the “gas” and the regenerative breaking kicks in, slowing you smoothly to a full stop. It takes some getting used to and there is a separate pedal for the mechanical brakes, but it’s surprisingly easy to adjust to. It’s optional and can be turned on or off as one likes, but it feels very cool to get an extra little battery boost by slowing down.

So far, the biggest shift is plugging in the car when home. During our remodel, we had a 220 volt service provisioned to the garage on the theory that we would get an electric car “someday.” We just didn’t realize someday would be now. So we need to get the actual outlet for that installed and in the meantime are using standard 110 to charge the car. This takes a lot longer, so Mary’s commute ends up draining the battery down further than is comfortable over the course of a few days. Fortunately, she works near the dealership we purchased the car from and can stop in to use their DC fast charger to top up if needed.