Cedar Kitteh Fortress

 Or I could have called this Doggo can't keep his nose out of stuff that is not his.  Harley is an eating machine.  That includes raw food directly in the garden, Turkey Gibblets on the cutting board, and now anything that is for the Kitteh.  Well, anyway the next version of the Kitteh Fortress is a Cedar Chest.  We have had it around the house a long time as a decorative piece.  Time to make it functional.

 Hungry Hungry Doggos...  So the Cedar Chest was maybe a rustic storage piece for bedding.  We have had Eucalyptus branches in it while it sat in the corner.  So, we're going to convert it into a Kitteh Fortress.  First we need completely covert access for the Kitteh.  I don't want Doggo to see into it, or stick his nose into it.

 So I made a strategic opening in the back of the chest.  Kitteh like to be around, or under the couch in the living room.  The back of the chest will be toward the back of the couch.  A feature on this chest is that it has a hinged top which is relatively heavy, and flush with the sides.  If the top was to overhang the sides, then Doggo would be able to open the top with his nose.

 

The chest is made from Cedar Planks, and it is frameless, so I needed to add a couple support pieces inside where I cut the access port.  I did this cut with the oscillating saw so it is a nice cut.  This piece is a good example of clean aged Cedar.  It is a lot nicer looking than the salvage Cedar which comes from old fence panels.
 

Then we'll need to stock the Kitteh Fortress with provisions that Harley doesn't get.  But he wants.

You can see by what he did to the Cardboard Kitteh Fort.  I knew that one wouldn't last long...

 He crushed the top inward, not even needing to climb into the box because he can just bend over and get the wet Cat food.  I was suspicious of him getting in there when the top was pushed in a little.  A bigger clue was that the wet food was completely gone.  Kitteh never eats all of it at once, LOL!

 

A rare look at Kitteh.  She is plotting Harley's demise as she stares off into the distance...

Nunion Cluster

 I've had a little cluster of Onions growing in my garden over the last few years.  I let grow and die back naturally to see what the cluster would do on its own.  I think I like it.  Not as edible food, but just a plant to be in the garden.  It kind of looks like Mondo Grass, but smells like Onions...

 

Prairie-Cane

 Otherwise possibly known as The Wrath of the Plains have become a thing in Texas.  I have noticed this phenomena over the past four years or so.  In the Springtime we have exceptionally high velocity, straight line winds that break large trees mainly.  The smaller trees are more flexible, and bend with the wind.  But those crusty, old, large trees don't move as good, and snap.  This years causality  is the last Bradfod Pear Tree.  It was usually stunning in the Springtime.

 

For a week or ten days it was covered with perfect white blossoms that looked like Popcorn.  We had two of these in front until 2021.  This one was budding, and fixing to Pop when the Prairie-Cane got it, and snapped it off at the trunk.  The wind was reportedly 85 mph.
 

The wind was extremely loud that morning so there was noise coming from every direction.  The doggy door was blown horizontal, and the wind coming in the doggy door blew leaves all the way across the living room.  It was also dark, maybe about 5:30 AM, so I couldn't really see what was outside until sunrise.  We went out the front door for our walk a little later, and found this (above).

 The new roof fared well.  The wind was directly from the west and pushed the tree due east.  So the tree fell almost completely in the yard (above).  It didn't hit the house, and its also not on the sidewalk, or in the street.  That is a pretty lucky shot for a Prairie-Cane, this is usually much more messy.  If I was to compare this to what happened to my Oak Tree in back last year.  It was like the Oak Tree exploded, and there were little bits of Oak Tree everywhere.

OK, well, maybe no more Bradford Pears.  This could have been a serious liability if it happened in the daytime.  I should make a Chile Garden in that spot because it has light all day long.  Ooo... Tomatoes...
 

Trimming the Giant Live Oak Tree

 When you are good at growing plants there is a problem that arises.  Suppose one of those plants is a giant tree species?  Then it gets really big, bigger than the yard big...  OMG...  My pruning shears can't do that...  I have tree tools also, and they also can't do that...

This is the Live Oak in the back is after I called Daniel at Twin Oak Solutions.  This Live Oak is approximately 40 feet tall and is beyond my capabilities to trim correctly.  Twin Oak Solutions has all the correct tools to do a job like this.  Here is the way it looked before the trim...

We also had them Bob the Crepe Myrtles, and now we have the Lollipop Trees by the patio.  These Crepe Myrtles make a huge mess every year with both the leaves, and white flowers, our Summer Snow.

The part of their service that I really like is the cleanup.  They bring a Chipper along with them, and mulch all the trimmings.  This machine is a Turbo Diesel Chipper, very loud.  But it reduces a massive stack of branches into a pile of mulch in very little time.

They are happy to leave a pile of mulch for you as well.  I'm still using the mulch from the Maple Tree they took out last year.  Here the Stump Grinder is reducing the Maple Tree Stump into a pile of mulch that got used all over the yard.  Mulch is an important part of keeping your white dog white...

They have trimmed every tree in our yard now.  Here is a before and after comparison of the Bradford Pear tree in front.  Periodically trees need to be pruned like this.  I have an example, the Pistache Tree, in front is doing a lot better since we pruned it last year.  This year it produced more growth, and looks healthier than it ever has.

Luminance Hot Sauce

 The Autumn is the right time for making Hot Sauce.  I have been doing this annually for some time, maybe about five years.  I've been growing Chiles for about 26 years, but didn't start making Hot Sauce until more recently.  Before I was pickling, drying, and smoke drying the Chiles.

So, what I have learned about Hot Sauce is that the best Hot Sauce is Fermented.  The flavor can not be mimicked by any other process.  And there are many other processes.  Hot Sauce is all about flavor, and not just heat.  Now don't get me wrong, I want the heat, but I don't want all heat, and no flavor.  There are specific components to the flavor that are critical to a good Hot Sauce.  Acidity, Salinity, Smokiness, Hotness, Sweetness, Savoriness, and Viscosity are all important attributes in a good Hot Sauce.

So, back to fermented Chiles for a moment.  I'm using a 9 oz. bottle of Carolina Reaper Mash from Pepper Joe's for this batch of Hot Sauce.  Then I'll dilute the Chiles with Tomatoes with a 3:1 ratio.  This does reduce the heat a bit, but adds volume, and flavor.  The Tomatoes are the San Marzano variety, that already have Basil, and (a little) Garlic adding to the flavor.  Right after saying that I am going to add a whole head of Garlic.

Starting off here we almost have a Italian Pasta Sauce.  Maybe its a little Garlicky.  We'll throw this in a pan, and cook it a little to cook the sharpness out of the Garlic.  When you cook Garlic it gets sweet.  Wut?  Sweetness in the Hot Sauce?  Yeah, more flavor.

At this point, before adding the Chile Mash, taste it for salinity.  I add extra salt to this.  Remember were making Hot Sauce, not Marinara.  The Hot Sauce will only be used a drop at a time, or maybe a couple drops, so the Salt needs to stand out.  I'll cook this until the Garlic is soft, and then everybody into the Choppa.

That is a 64 oz. pitcher, and we have about 30 oz. of Tomato Sauce in it.  Then I'll add the Chile Mash, and 8 oz. of Vinegar to start.  As the mixture is blending I am looking for viscosity.  The Hot Sauce is distributed in Woozy Bottles that have a Dripper Top, so you want the Hot Sauce viscosity to be light enough that it can flow through the Dripper Top.  The finish on the sauce has to be right so it can flow through the Dripper Top.  I use the Vinegar to "thin" the sauce to produce the correct viscosity for the Dripper Top.  The Hot Sauce is tuned to the delivery device.

The Hot Sauce has to be completely liquefied also.  Chunks of Tomato, or Garlic are not compatible with the Dripper Top.  There is a lot to this process simply concerning the delivery of the Hot Sauce.  The flavor is the most important attribute, but getting the Hot Sauce to the food is almost equally important.  I run the blender on high for an extended period until the Hot Sauce has a silky smoothness.

Then, finally we are bottling the Hot Sauce.  This batch yielded around 44 oz., or 8.66, 5 oz. bottles.  The yield per batch is fluid depending on the taste, and viscosity factors.  So, I get a varying number of bottles from each batch.  The bottles are washed, and sterilizer immediately before filling in a parallel operation.  We fill the bottle, clean up the top, apply the Dripper Top, and then the Lid...  Finished, right?  No, gotta haz label...

Having a cool label on your Hot Sauce makes it a little better.  And you can add all the statistical stuff people want to see, like the Scoville rating.  The people that have been willing to try this seem to like it well.  It has an extremely hot front, but also well rounded flavor, and doesn't linger too long.  The acidity, and salinity are pronounced.  One friend said the Vinegar finds you first, but the Chile soon makes you forget about it.  I think this batch turned out well.  Oh, look at that, time to go eat some delicious nom nomz...

Southgate

This is the new gate on the south fence.  This is the third frame that I have built for a fence gate.  With each one I get a little more understanding.  There are a lot of gates that are constructed as part of the fence, and then you make some strategic cuts, add some hinges, and a latch, then its a gate...

No...  A gate is a door, it needs a frame.  You want it to stay square, right?

 

 

The horizontal pieces on this one are cut with a large radial arm saw to make sure they are nicely square.  The vertical pieces hold the horizontal pieces in place with 4 inch lag screws which are countersunk into the vertical pieces.  So, you can't see the hardware that is holding the frame together.  The hinges span the joint between the vertical piece, and the horizontal piece.  This adds a little more hardware to lock the frame pieces together.  As the wood dries out the frame will loosen a bit, and the lag screws can be tightened to regain any lost rigidity.

The old gate, by comparison, had no frame.  There were several pieces of wood added to a fence section which were intended to keep the gate rigid over time.  It had nails as fasteners, so you don't have the option of tightening the old hardware.  I did add a number of deck screws to tighten it up over the years, but it was still a floppy mess.  The hinges were attached to the upper most, and lower most horizontal pieces.  Then the pickets held all of the horizontal pieces together with nails.  There was one vertical structural member on the latch side of the gate, mostly to hold the latch.

On the new gate the hinges, and latch are attached to the frame directly.  The old gate had both the hinges, and the latch attached through the pickets.  This is another area where the gate will loose rigidity through the shrinkage as the wood dries out.

Probably what we like best about the new gate is that it opens inward towards the house, and is mostly out of the way when you are moving stuff through the gate.  The old gate opened outward, away from the house, and was all the way in the way when you were moving stuff through the gate.

With the gate opening inward I was able to hide all the gate hardware from the outside perspective.  This gives the new South Fence, and Southgate a nice clean appearance...

South Fence

 Last spring I made improvements on the South Gate by replacing the Cedar 4x4 posts with pressure treated Pine 6x6 posts.  This greatly improved the mounting points for the gate, but the gate itself is still the tired 25 year old Cedar.  It is very buggy, devoured by bugs...

Something happened recently to motivate me to repair this part of the fence.  It is the oldest, and most venerable part of the fence at the moment.  I had a Rabbit incursion, and the Rabbits were eating my Chile plants.  Yeah...  Last Straw...

Else where I have installed Dog Boards, or in this case Rabbit Boards to keep curious critters from burrowing under my fence.  The critters are very persistent especially if they know there are delicious nomnoms inside.

I start by peeling away the layers of rotted Cedar.  This stuff is 25 years old so it is crumbling as I pull it apart.  I try to scavenge the nails out of the boards.  Some of the boards can be partially salvaged for rustic projects.  A lot of it is too rotted to save.

Here I am down to the original frame rails.  The lower one is mostly rotted away, and the upper two are in better shape, but I want to replace all of this.  When I did the South Gate I replaced the posts of the gate frame, and added a middle support post.  The post on the right is old, and I will add another mid post on the right side.

The new frame rails are pressure treated pine.  On the bottom are two 2x6 pieces for the Critter Boards, and the other frame rails are 2x4s.  I'm using 3 1/2 in. Deck Screws to secure the frame rails to the posts.  The original frame rails were not level, so I am making the new construction level.

Part of replacing the frame rails was undoing the hinges for the gate.  My next project will be replacing the gate itself, but for this project I want to keep the gate right where it is.  So, I made a brace to hold the hinge side of the gate in order to release the post side of the hinge mount.  The frame rails also hold the hinge mount.  This way the lag screws for the hinge are biting into new wood.  Once the lag screws for the hinges are in we can release the brace holding the hinge side of the gate, and be able to use the gate again.

Adding the new Cedar pickets on a nice sturdy frame made of pressure treated wood is easy.  All that framing stuff is done, and this is just the facia.  It certainly looks better than that old rotted Cedar.  I'm not quite happy with the way the pickets line up.  I'll fix that when I make the new gate.

OK, looks pretty good.  The new gate will make it looks better.  Inside looks good too...