Overwintering Pepper Plants, Update. 12.22.22

 Here are the pepper plants.   Not much change.  One of the Tabasco pepper plants has more growth than the others, but not enough to be concerned about.

This Tabasco has the most growth.  Fortunately, it's not a lot.

This Cayenne Pepper plant has tufts of growth, but again, I don't think it's too much.

This Banana Pepper has very minimal growth.

Overall, I'm happy so far with how these pepper plants are remaining mostly dormant, but still alive and green.  They are half way through the dormant period.

Next month, I also plan to start pepper seeds.  It looks like these plants will be way ahead of the new ones I start in January.

Sewing A Cotton Rope Bowl. 12.16.22

 This was my first attempt, so it counts as practice.  The goal was to make a pie carrier, so a pie wouldn't slide around.  I thought I was making it too big.  But it turned out way too small.  It's also a little wonky.   Still, there were some learnings.  I made this using 3/8" cotton rope.

When practicing, I used some cotton thread I had sitting around.  Poor quality, broke multiple times.  So I changed to a better quality cotton thread meant for machine quilting.  Worked perfectly, did not break even once.

Despite not being the size I wanted, this did make a nice rope bowl.  It seems quite strong.  It takes a little practice to make, but isn't difficult at all.

The braided cotton cord that I ordered came, so I made another.  This time, 1/4" diameter.  The rest was the same method.

I thought the 1/4 inch was more difficult to sew well, because the narrower diameter was not as easy to see  under the presser foot.  Still, it worked fine and the final product was a very nice rope bowl.  I think it worked perfectly.

Dragon Hot Sauce. 12.6.22

 The Thai Dragon + Cayenne + a few Tabasco pepper sauce has been fermenting for more than two weeks.  I made Tabasco - type hot sauce.  There was enough for a bottle plus a little more.

 This is what it looked like fermenting in the jar, after two weeks.

I ran it in the food processor until as finely pureed as it would do.

Then I used a sieve in a bowl, and a spoon to squeeze the juice out of the pulp and seeds.

A turkey baster worked for transferring the juice into the bottles.

I tested the sauce on a fried egg.  Nice flavor and lots of heat.

Rufus At Home Depot. 12.6.22

 I wanted some fence posts to support the mini apple trees in the mini orchard, so took Rufus to Home Depot.

He likes riding in the cart, and it keeps him from being underfoot and getting into trouble with the leash.

Kitchen Curtains For The Holiday. 12.6.22

 We don't do much for the holiday.  This fabric was end-of-bolt so the price was very inexpensive.  It's just the valence, so the view of the duck yard is unobstructed.

The kitchen window gets a different curtain for each holiday or season, so it doesn't become too boring.  I have some fabric on order for Chinese New Year, for the first time, but that's doesn't start until late January.  

This valence only takes about an hour to make.  Very straightforward project.

Schlumbergeras in Bloom. 12.6.22

 These are looking nice.  This is such a rewarding plant.  They require very little care, and make such a show at the right time.

Edit - here's another one.  I started this one from cuttings, about a decade ago.

Bagging Leaves for Leaf Mould. 12.6.22

 The five vegetable raised beds either have something growing in them, or a soil "therapeutic" cover crip (mustard), or will soon (winter onions).   I still want to add leaf compost to them, but this time it will have to be as they do in UK, by making leaf mould.  Leaf mould is made by storing wet leaves in large leaf bags, letting them moulder for a season into something like an intermediate stage between compost and peat moss.  It's a fungal dominated process instead of bacterial (whatever that indicates).  I still have some large areas that need a thick tree leaf mulch but there is also make a bag of leaf mould for each raised bed.

The truckload made five big bags of leaves.  I tied the tops and laid them in an out of the way, out of direct sun.  Various sources state it will take six months to a year to become leaf mould.  I'm in it for the long haul.  One thing that's great about using these leaves, is I don't think they carry any vegetable plant diseases or parasites.  Just healthy humus.