A very special garden shed

Suddenly this week it got really beautiful. Even back before the climate started to change, April in Montreal was always wildly unpredictable, with anything from snowstorms to gorgeous sunny t-shirt and shorts weather, sometimes only days apart. Being a city buried in deep freeze for half the year, when those first days of warm weather hit, we throw caution to the wind, take down our Tempos, take out our bikes and get the urge to plant tomatoes. Even though the "frost date" comes the third week of May, and those who plant tomatoes too early run the risk of losing them some cold night early in May, the temptation is strong.

Just after my last post (and after two fantastic and comparatively incident-free seders, and lots of wonderful time spent with family and friends visiting from all over), I planted my seeds indoors. I put in chocolate cherry tomatoes (at least I hope that's what was in that envelope), San Marzano and steak tomatoes, two varieties of hot peppers, four types of basil, several types of sunflowers and a week later, when I remembered, some of that wonderful "blue wind" broccoli. The person who named the variety must have a sense of humour. I get the "wind" part, but not sure why blue. They looked pretty green to me.

A walk around the garden last week gave me the first snapshot of what comes out when the snow melts, the first spring plants. The usual expected ones were there: strawberries, onions, periwinkle, crocuses, hyacinths, but also some I did not expect so soon, the sweet williams and the poppies! There was also a lettuce starting where I had them two years ago, and some seeded and then I let reseed again last year. I decided that if the lettuce was coming up on its own, then I should plant my first batch this week.

To do so, I needed to move the bikes, which wintered in the area I planned to use as a lettuce patch this year. I checked out the temporary bike shed, and realized that this was going to be an interesting project. As I have explained before, Josh has some grandiose plans for a workshop/shed in the back yard, and as we do not have the money for this, we have a low cost bike shed/garden shed with a roof we can remove to make a Sukkah in the fall for the Jewish Holiday of Sukkot. The original sukkahs were harvest huts, temporary shelters in the fields used to sleep in during harvest season, so using our garden shed as the basis of our sukkah has a really authentic feel. In fact, I use the shed to dry garlic, store garden tools and materials, so it really is a harvest hut. The frame is wood, the walls are tarp with a gap between the walls and the roof, which is made of plywood covered in tarps. At least it was until last fall. It is not very watertight, and the tarps were less than effective after 5 years, so when Josh took them down, he decided that after Sukkot we really should replace the roof. Being Josh, he had all kinds of ideas of alternate materials to replace the wood, some of which sounded great but did not work with our budget last fall. I started a new job and was on a temporary contract which could end abruptly, and there was a long delay before my salary was adjusted to the proper level based on my experience, so we were a bit precarious financially and plastic sheeting could wait. We had temporarily moved the bikes and lawn mower out of the sukkah, and I suggested that we use the gazebo frame which we use to grow beans and cucumbers on (and lettuce under) to put the bikes in, and cover the flimsy structure with tarps to keep the rain out. After Sukkot, I suggested sealing the structure completely with tarps for the winter and leaving the shed roofless until the spring, thus postponing the purchase of materials and the construction job until warmer weather.

At the beginning of the winter, the temporary bike shed had a peaked roof. The gazebo frame, like much of the material used for our garden, was rescued from being thrown out and many of the joints were held together by one of Josh's favourite construction materials, zipties. One very heavy snowfall in February, I looked out the window to see that the roof of the temporary bike shed was gone, replaced by an inverted yet large pile of snow. We looked at it for a while and decided that there was not much we could do about it so let it be. Last week, when I looked at the weather forecast, I decided that it was time to take the bikes out of the shed (and plant some lettuce). The tarp that was sealing off the front of the gazebo had the bottom of it trailing on the ground in a puddle of ice, freezing it shut. The top of the gazebo had collapsed, so that the tarp over the top was slung down, weighed down by two large puddles of ice water with chunks of ice still floating in them, separated by a peak which was held up by the seat of one of the bicycles underneath. The fact that the puddles were held suspended suggested that the tarps, at least, were not leaking much and the bikes underneath should be okay. I waited another day before tackling the problem, because there was not much point until the tarps were free of ice at the base and could be removed.

I told Josh that we needed to take care of the roof, so I could liberate the bikes and have a place to shelter them properly. Josh suggested that for the summer, we could put on a roof made of corrugated plastic, and when we take it down for Sukkot, he could then buy pressboard to put underneath to reinforce it when the snow falls in order to make it stronger, and that he could put the corrugated plastic on top in shingles overlapping to make it more watertight. In fact, he said, he could probably get some corrugated plastic from our friend Yoram, who may have some he is getting rid of from his retail company. This sounded quite affordable and reasonable. I had a vague idea of what I thought corrugated plastic looked like, something like what is used in making greenhouses. I was not sure what it was used for in stores, or why Yoram would have some to give away for free, but when Josh left to pick it up on Sunday morning, I did not worry about it. My mind was on freeing the bikes.

The easiest way to get the water off the collapsed temporary shed was to pierce a few holes in the tarps on top and let it drain, but as our bikes were underneath, and the purpose of the shed was to keep them dry, suddenly dumping a winter's accumulation of melted precipitation on them was not an ideal solution in my mind. Josh found a plastic tube at my request, and I used the old suck the tube to get the water flowing and direct the end quickly at a bucket before ingesting it trick. I had just emptied my compost bin, and as our outdoor hose was not yet turned on, I decided to kill two birds with one stone, and drain the roof puddles into the compost bin, recycling the snow water by making compost tea which I then dumped on the onions and garlic and poppies. It worked fairly well, though it took a bit of time. While waiting for the water to drain, Josh asked me to help him out by wiping down and passing the corrugated plastic sheets up to him on the frame of the garden shed.

That was when I discovered what type of corrugated plastic this was. Think election posters that pop up attached by zipties to lampposts all over town during campaign seasons, and you will get the idea. These particular corrugated plastic signs (for that's what they were) had advertised Special 29.99. It's an interesting look. Josh, being creative at recycling, had bought some waterproof white spray paint to give it a cleaner look when he finished screwing them onto the roof. What he did not anticipate was that the spray paint would not stick to the plastic. He plans to buy some different products and experiment, but in the meantime, my newly renovated bike shed has an interesting, but very special look to it.

We both managed to finish up our tasks, the temporary shelter being de-tarped, and the collapsed roof of the gazebo being shored up by long bamboo poles, which will make it easier for me to pick beans and cucumbers, though anyone else in the family may have to duck to pick lettuce underneath. Josh got the garden shed covered and I cleaned it up and hung up all the rakes and hoes and things, planted a row of lettuce, and then we began to do some yardwork.

Our neighbour's ash tree took a real beating in the high winds of the snow storms and freezing rain we had this past winter. On more than one occasion, we heard branches fall and bounce off the roof into the yard. Our internet and phone cables must have been hit, because we suddenly had connection problems with both resulting in a service call to reinstall the lines. The fallen branches were then buried under more snow and ice, so only when it all melted did we see the full damage. There were some rather large branches all around the yard, the equivalent of a young tree's worth. Josh used his machete (he's been waiting for a chance to do this) to strip down the branches and then tied them up in a bundle to leave for garbage collection day. We still have a lot more to collect, chop and tie, but at least part of the yard is looking better.

I may have mentioned in previous posts that part of our springtime work is dealing with the garbage that blows into our yard over the winter. A lot of it ends up in the lilac stand, which lines the edge of our property along the side street rustic. Our house is on a corner lot, a block away from a recessed expressway which creates a bit of a wind tunnel ending at my house and dropping all kinds of plastic and paper garbage. There are also many pedestrians who pass by and I suspect some of them carelessly drop their garbage. Yesterday, I had an hour or so at home at lunch time, and when I walked across my lawn I was mortified and decided to take a bit of time to do a clean  up. I grabbed a garbage bag and a garden glove, and got to work. This year's haul included six or seven water bottles, lots of candy and chip wrappers (including some with Arabic labels and plantain chips), one condom wrapper (glad I had gloves!), three explicit pornographic playing cards (a joker, a queen of spades and one more, I stopped checking), a couple of beer bottles, a few zipties and bits of tarp which were the only things that came from my side of the fence, and lots of cups, plastic bags, paper food wrappers, newspaper, and bits of styrofoam. I filled an entire garbage bag, and I am sure there is lots more under the top layer of leaves that I missed, and will go back to on another day. Truly disgusting! After my labours, my yard looks much more beautiful.

What the Hay, It's Passover!

This week spring has finally arrived. Although we had intermittent snow and nights were still below zero, we had a few sunny days which melted the snow considerably. I actually saw the first daffodils, looking a bit sorry on a cold morning, on campus at Vanier college up in a raised box. The ground temperature has not quite hit daffodil level. Along with the first hint of renewal in the garden came an outburst of student activism. My university students at UQAM voted to strike starting last week in protest of government austerity budgets, and this week Vanier students voted a one-day strike, which fell on a day I did not have classes. My stage students continued as usual, because unlike UQAM, Vanier has a much less radical student body and the strike was limited strictly to boycotting classes on campus. I was secretly grateful to UQAM for their choice of timing for their bi-annual strike (it seems to be happening every semester the past few years), because I was getting nervous about how I was going to manage preparing for Passover. With a student strike, I still get paid to work even if no one shows up in class, and as such I need to present myself as usual in my classroom on the off chance 50% or more of my students turn up and expect me to teach. They never do, so after a noble 15 minute cameo I am relieved of my duties and free to go home, and engage in an age old ritual of eliminating every speck of leavened substances (along with good old fashioned grime and dirt) to prepare for the ancient and nerve-wracking holiday of Passover.
This is the socio-political background to my week. On an environmental level, Passover, as an early spring holiday, coincides with early indoor planting time. In addition to cleaning the kitchen and obvious places where bread and grain products hide in my house (such as under my children's mattresses, you really don't want to know what I find there!), our workshop-laundry room needs to be reorganized to accommodate my seedlings which I dream of planting early but never do. Also, I had yet to locate a source of hay. Our friend Claude the agronomist was putting out some feelers for us, but I was ready to give up on it and anticipating a long summer of weeding and feeding the old fashioned way.

I mentioned being concerned about surviving preparation for Passover. The usual way in which I manage is to save up vacation time and take off a couple of weeks at Passover, usually half of it before for preparation, and the rest for during the holiday. My daughters are still in high school and as it is a Jewish school, they get off the week of Passover. By the time I have scrubbed my kitchen with a toothbrush and cleaned out the nooks and crannies of the dishwasher with a q-tip (that was a new trick I tried this year), prepared and run a seder for  20 odd people, I usually need a week to recover. This year I am teaching full time for the first time ever. There is no such thing as taking a two week vacation two-thirds of the way through the semester. Fortunately, the religious days of Passover fall mostly on the weekends, and Easter gave me the day before Passover off, but that was all. I discussed with Nancy my cleaning lady about moving into my house for the week, until Josh was surreptitiously laid off (temporarily between contracts) 9 days before Passover. Nancy agreed to two days hard labour, and Josh promised me not to worry, he'd take care of everything.

The best laid plans being what they are, this week was somewhat less than smooth and predictable. Last week both of my daughters were in the school play, which requires 100 hours of rehearsal time in the last week before the shows, 4 productions, a late night out to the Orange Julep following the last show and an all-night cast party the weekend after. I am grateful that the teachers are a bit flexible on deadlines to the kids in the show, but with only four school days until Passover after the extravaganza, the week before Passover was a bit extreme in catch up for the girls. And of course, Zara had a project for human biology, to make a model of the circulatory system using household items. Josh being an electrician and collector of all things esoteric and weird, "household items" can be very broad, and school projects are a particular interest of his. Why do something simple when you have LED light strips, a wood shop, paint, a heart shaped fridge magnet... except if you don't actually have the LED lights strips but an old school friend had a business...I also mentioned that since Josh did not manage to finish oiling and varnishing the remaining doors to the kitchen cabinets that he promised to have finished by this Passover, at least can he put up a light fixture above the sink, especially if he is going to Dan's  to get lights for Zara's project? Can you see where this is going? My dreams of coming home to a perfectly clean kitchen (with fantastic lighting), to be able to have a glass of wine, kick my feet up and relax before the big weekend seemed to be disappearing in a  haze of sawdust. Which would have to be cleaned up, too.

A cousin of Josh's and her husband decided to come up to Montreal and visit over the holidays, and took me up on my emphatic offer for them to stay at our place next time they visit from New York. I informed my son that he would be bumped out of his room and would need to clean it for our guests. When he turned 16, nearly three years ago, I told him he was responsible to clean his own room. It did not happen much. Josh offered to give him a hand. Six hours later, the room looks fantastic. That was just in time for Zara to get home from school and ask Josh for help making her project. Four hours later, Josh emerged from the basement finally to find me working at cleaning the stove and wishing they made self-cleaning gas stoves. Back in the fall, Josh bought a carload of apples which we had to turn into pies and cakes to freeze before they all went bad. Some of the apple pies dripped and left a big puddle of fruit leather at the bottom of the over. It was midterms and I did not have time to address the issue which continued to smoke and set off the smoke detector for a week or two every time we used the oven, but after that it settled in and became part of the scenery. Literally. By the time I went after it this week, it had become something between a polymer and a lacquer which did not come off without a chisel. I paid a price for my earlier neglect. The oven alone took something like 5 hours to clean, maybe more (Josh finished off the bits at the back where I could not reach).

With Josh being home, and having Nancy for a couple of days we hoped to finish our cleaning early and be ready to start cooking in advance, which we have never managed to accomplish before. Alas, life got in the way and it was not to be. On Tuesday, as I was cleaning the oven (still), Nancy contacted us to tell us she had slipped and fallen and was on her back, and not coming the next day. Then a surprise call from our friend Jack, he managed to locate hay and could deliver it. Was Thursday okay? He could not find bales, so it was a huge roll, and we would need a lever to get it off the truck, would we be home? I experience a huge inner conflict. The Jewish mother in me in screaming, the day before the seder and I have a huge roll of hay as big as my dining room on my lawn, wow what a conversation piece, ohmygawd yet another thing to fit into the day on Thursday, crap I will be working Thursday!! The gardener in me, (luckily the outer voice too) says GREAT!! I am so happy! Bring it on! We will figure it out! Despite Josh managing to get the workshop clean, organized and ready for me to plant my seeds, it does not look likely at this point that I will have time to plant before the seders are over.

Wednesday is my longest work day, as I have office hours and a class at Vanier then hop the metro downtown to UQAM to teach a night course. Fortunately my night course is on strike this week, so after a respectable but brief visit to my empty classroom, I did one more installment of Passover shopping and arrive home around 8 pm. While I was working and shopping, Josh was cleaning the fridge so I could put the Passover purchases directly in the newly cleaned fridge. We do a big purging at Passover, getting rid of anything that looks sketchy, or that no one has eaten in 6 months. It can get a bit nostalgic at times, but usually is just gross. In the process of cleaning the fridge, Josh noted that the plastic frame that holds up the big bottom shelf and the two drawers underneath was cracked in seven places. Being Mr. Handy-man, by the time I got home, he had glued it back together and painted it so it looked almost normal, but it needed to dry. All the windows were open, and the contents of the fridge were on the table. I spent some time putting things in boxes and bags and stacking them on the bottom of the fridge. More delays but at least the fridge and stove were clean. And good news, Nancy thinks she may be up to coming tomorrow.

By Thursday morning after Josh drove the girls to school transporting the project (can't take that on the bus), I was frantically trying to be useful before running off to work, and decided to clean the big glass shelf before reassembling the fridge with the newly glued frame. I had the shelf balanced on the sink as I started scrubbing with a sponge on some sticky gunk along the edge, and the thing exploded in my hands into a thousand tiny shards which spray all over the kitchen including into the open cabinet where I had carefully spent a couple of hours packing in all of my non-Passover pots, pans and containers, into the cabinets which I had just scrubbed clean to put all my Passover dishes, pots and pans. If I was not already short on time I would have just sat and cried, but we soldiered on and Josh was looking up numbers to find replacement parts. I wasted more than an hour finding the place to learn that oops they did not have it in stock and can order the part it will be ready in a week or two. We have 18 people coming to our seder, and we are cooking a bunch of things for my cousin's seder on the first night. This was not looking good. Josh had a big sheet of plexiglass which he got for free somewhere sometime and was saving for something which is now uneasily resting on a glued together plastic base (they did not have the replacement part for that in stock either, I checked) after he cut it down to the right size, leaving a spray of plexiglass shards all over  the workshop to be dealt with later.

I come home from work for lunch. My intention was to have enough time to do some more prep work but the time spent running around looking for replacement parts cut into my available time. I had initially hoped to be ready to unpack my Passover dishes (remember the dream of coming home to a clean kitchen) but instead Josh was just getting to putting up the light fixture he promised me to finish. Nancy had spent most of the morning removing glass shards from every pot and pan I own and was just getting started on what I had hoped would be finished the previous day. Did I mention I am EXTREMELY grateful to Nancy for helping us through the worst Passover cleaning disaster I have ever had? While in pain and when she should have been on her back? And Josh who should have been ragging on me for creating so much extra work, but only said that he was so happy it was me and not him, because if the shelf broke in his hands he would never hear the end of it, and who did not complain once, not ONCE, while installing lights and chiselling ovens and doing last minute school projects (well, he did complain a bit to Zara for her lack of organization and crappy timing). I came back at the end of the day to find that the light was up, the glass was mostly cleaned up, my son Isaac had helped Josh maneuver the hay into the back yard, and Nancy was vacuuming. The vacuum was making strange noises and a smell of burned rubber which I have experienced before. It means stop vacuuming and get to a repair shop (I needed this today). I called my mom to borrow hers and asked Josh to give Nancy a ride the the bus (she looked like walking for 20 minutes was not a good move) and pick up mom's vacuum.



Finally got the kitchen finished and all ready at midnight, so today we can start to cook. All that to say, we have hay, but I have not yet planted my seeds. Happy Passover!

P.S. Just went out to photograph the hay, and found hyacinths sprouting!! The periwinkle is green, and there are branches of the ash tree all over the back, but life if returning. Happy spring.