Painting Project Interrupted

My weekend project was to clean out the closet by the back door, paint it, and get it organized.

What do you think?  It's definitely a long over due project.

However, like normal, this project got interrupted by something more fun. In this case it was a bucket of rose hips I picked a few days earlier.  I'd been cleaning up the yard at my apartments which included cutting back the wild roses.  I try to cut them back and clean them up every few years.  I've never seen the rose hips this thick, or so ripe, so I couldn't resist picking them.

Bucket of  Rose Hips

Then I had to decide what to do with them.  Messing around on line, I found a recipe for Rose Hip Marmalade (Jam)  It sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a try.
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/rose_hip_jelly_and_jam/

These wild rose hips aren't very big, and I had a lot of them, so it took hours and hours and hours to get them all cleaned.  But boy were they pretty when I got them done.

Cleaned Rose Hips

Then I had to de-seed the 2 quarts of them to use in the marmalade.  And that took many more hours.  But finally I got them done, and cut up the other fruit, and got it all cooking. WOW, did it smell good.  The marmalade is a bit spicy tasting, and maybe a bit too sweet.  IF I make it again, I'll try cutting back the sugar a bit. But I'm happy with how it all turned out, though the whole process took me two days.

De-seeding

Marmalade Cooking

And then I had lots of rose hips left over, so I cooked them down and tried to make some jelly.  That went a bit faster since I didn't have to de-seed the rose hips first.  That rose hip juice is pretty tasty, and but the jelly came out as syrup.  I'm not sure why, but I like to make waffles, so now I have some rose hip syrup to serve with them.

Finished Products

But that still left me with my planned project undone.  So Sunday afternoon I took everything out of the closet and noticed the sheet rock had separated in the corner.  I'm blaming that on earthquakes...lol.  So I got out my roll of sticky fiberglass stuff, and mud and fixed up the corner.

Wet Mud in corner

Then today when I got home, I got the closet painted, with minimal paint splattering.  

Clean painted closet

The paint dried pretty fast, so I put up the closet hanging thingies I bought at Home Depot last week. I got all of my yard tools and chainsaw hung up.  And there is still room for the folding ladder when I bring that inside.  I may eventually add a small shelf, but for now I'm happy that it's all cleaned up and organized.

GreenGrid Modules on the roof!

Today we got the GreenGrid modules up on the roof.  YAY!!! http://www.westonsolutions.com/services/green_buildings/greengrid.htm

Thanks to Greg Collins it was a pretty quick endeavor.  Greg & Terry brought the skid steer up to my house.  We loaded the planted modules onto a pallet.  Greg then lifted them up to the level of the roof, and Terry pulled them off the pallet.  That part took about an hour.

Once the guys left, Valda held the ladder for me.  I went up on the roof, re-arranged the rubber pavers a bit.  Then I laid out more root barrier and put the modules in place.

There are 12 empty modules that need to be planted next spring, so there are some 'holes' in the layout.  I put a few of the pavers in those openings to hold the root barrier fabric in place over the winter.  And the walking path that divides the 2 sections needs to be added.  I hope to get those rubber pavers cut to size and put in place later this month.

And there are 4 unplanted modules on the roof.  Once it starts to freeze (which could be any day the way our weather has been this week), I'll sprinkle the sedum seeds I bought in them, and hope the come up and grow in the spring.  

And we even got a few hours of sunshine.  It was cloudy and cold this morning, the sun 'came out' about an hour before Greg & Terry showed up.  Now it's getting cloudy, should be raining by midnight.  I'm glad I didn't have to get up on the roof in the rain.

Mods onto the pallet

Lift the pallet to the roof

More mods to the pallet

Mods lined up by Terry

Root barrier down

Mods mostly in place.  Empty mods in lower
right corner, waiting for seeds.

Another pic of mods in place & extra pavers filling 'holes' until spring.

Walking path waiting for cut to size pavers

View from driveway - section 1 is 75% done.

Sedum Update

Back in June I started planting my first set of GreenGrid modules with a variety of sedums.  They've grown pretty well, I'm happy with the way they are growing and spreading.  Hopefully they will continue to spread next summer and fill in the modules.

Here are a few fall pics, you can see how they've changed color as the temperatures have dropped.  And most of them have bloomed.  Some of the blooms are teeny tiny, but they're really pretty when you take the time to look.

This is one of the Hen and Chicks, looks just like it did when I planted it.

And this is one of the Hen and Chicks that now looks like an
Alien invader or body snatcher.

Pretty yellow flowers.

This one turned a great red, and has a bunch of pink flowers.

Yellow Flowers - and a little bit of thyme still blooming
in the lower right corner.

Fall colors and tiny white flowers.