How to build a wooden trellis

After we moved into our house we discovered a young grape vine growing in the back yard. Well, it wasn't growing when we moved in, at that point it really just looked like a stick in the ground, but before long it sprouted leaves, and vines and even a solitary little bunch of grapes. We're still waiting to find out what type of grapes we have, and whether they're good for eating (or making wine?). In the meantime I thought I'd better do something to support the vines that were getting ganglier by the day, and starting to lean out onto the ground.

I checked out trellises at my local hardware and garden stores, and was shocked to find that even basic wooden ones cost at least $30. Forget what you'd pay for a fancy wrought-iron one! The one I made cost about $6 in materials, and took me less than an hour to make. I used five 8' 1x2s, a hand saw, a drill and a handful of 1.5" screws. If you have any scraps of 1x2 around, this is a great opportunity to use them up, since this project requires some shorter pieces, and it doesn't really matter how long they are. Here's my setup:

I started by laying an 8' 1x2 that would be the center piece on the ground, and attached a short (about 1') cross piece to it about 18" from the bottom using two screws. If you want to be sure that the wood won't split, you can pre-drill the holes, but I just went ahead with the screws themselves and backed up and drilled if the wood looked like it was starting to split.

I then attached two more 8' 1x2s, one to each end of the cross piece, using only one screw each so that I would be able to adjust the angle between each of them and the cross piece. This is how you control how much wider your trellis is at the top than it is at the bottom. I just sort of looked at it and adjusted it until it seemed right.

I used a scrap piece of 12 that I had lying around for the next cross piece, attaching it where the vertical pieces were the same distance apart as it was long. I then cut one of the other 8' 1x2s into two pieces, one smaller and one bigger, and attached them lower down and higher up on the trellis, respectively. I attached each one to the center piece and each of the other vertical pieces with two screws. 

At that point I decided that the trellis had enough bars and vertical pieces for my purposes, but you could certainly add as many cross pieces as you want. If your outside vertical pieces were farther apart, or you wanted to build a very tall trellis (or a short wide one), you could add more vertical pieces. I would recommend attaching them to the second or third cross piece, so that more structure is added to the trellis as it gets wider. 

Here's how the trellis looks now that the grape vines have grown a bit more, and are used to being supported by it.

Grapes are, of course, far from the only type of plant that a trellis like this could be used for. It would be great for roses too, and you could use different sizes and widths of trellises for raspberries, cucumbers, pole beans or any kind of climbing vine. 

You could also paint or decorate this trellis in any number of ways (red, anyone?) to add a splash of extra colour and interest to your yard or garden. Do you have a home made or decorated trellis? I'd love to see what you've done, and hear your ideas for how I should jazz mine up a bit!

Healthy & delicious white bean spread

Back when we lived in Austin our favourite restaurant used to bring freshly baked bread and a delicious hummus-like spread made from cannellini beans to the table for us to enjoy while we waited for our meal to be prepared. It was always a welcome change from the bread and butter that you so often get at restaurants, not only because it's a healthier alternative, but also because they had different versions of this deliciously simple spread. For a while they served a roasted red pepper version, and later they switched to serving it with olive pieces mixed in, and a few olives on the side. Since moving to Toronto, we can't go to Sagra any more, so today I decided to try making this yummy spread at home. 


If you've made hummus before, you'll find that the process of making white bean spread is quite similar, although I find that the finished product is a bit lighter and smoother in texture. White beans are also a little less expensive than chick peas, and this recipe calls for less tahini (which can be almost as expensive as hummus itself) than most hummus recipes. For me, the biggest challenge was figuring out exactly which "white beans" were the right ones for this recipe, since several different varieties of beans at the grocery store seem to go by that name, and none of them said "cannellini beans" on the package. After a little online research I was able to determine that the beans I was looking for are also called white kidney beans. For my first attempt at the recipe, I decided to go with a can of beans instead of committing to a whole bag of dry beans (although this would be a less expensive way to go, if you plan to make the recipe more than once and have the patience and foresight to soak the beans overnight).


I started with a recipe from FoodNetwork.com, which you can find here. I'll share the original recipe along with my adjustments, substitutions and things I will do differently next time below. The instructions are very simple; just combine all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

The recipe calls for:

• 1/4c chopped green onions 

I used fresh chives from the garden, and put in 1/3c because I harvested too many and didn't want to waste them. I would use chives again, but next time I'll stick with just 1/4c.

• 2 T fresh lemon juice
• 2 T tahini
• 1/2 t dried oregano

I used fresh oregano from the garden, but next time I would use dried instead, since the final version ended up tasting a bit leafy, even though it was well blended.

• 1/4 ground cumin
• 1/8 t salt
• 1/8 t freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (19 oz.) can cannellini (aka white kidney) beans, rinsed and drained

I drained the cannellini beans, and set aside the bean liquid, which I used about 3 T of to thin out the spread at the end, since it ended up a bit too thick. I didn't rinse them, but I probably will next time.

• 1 garlic clove, peeled

I used 2 cloves, and I'm glad I did (but then again, we like garlic!) I cut them in thirds before adding them to the food processor.

This spread is delicious on bread, but it's also great as a healthy veggie dip, and a fresh new alternative any time you would use hummus. It should last for a week or so in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Attic Insulation

One of our priorities with respect to the house (and to life in general) is to do what we can to keep our recurring expenses as low as possible. When we had our house inspected before we bought it, the home inspector mentioned that there was almost no insulation in our attic. Since adding insulation now will cost about the same as adding it a few years from now, and adding it now will save us money on our energy bills in the meantime, we decided to tackle that job right away.

We got a couple of quotes from different companies, all of which had received good reviews on Homestars (a great website where clients can leave feedback for home-related service providers). I was shocked by the price difference among the quotes though--the highest was $1600 and the lowest was $400! Both were going to do the same stuff, but the higher bidder was admittedly going to do it in a fancier way.

Our attic is about 400 square feet, and we wanted R50 of cellulose insulation (R50 means it ends up about 2 feet deep, it seems). I learned along the way that it is possible to blow added cellulose insulation into your attic yourself (although we decided it wasn't worth the hassle, given the great price we got). Apparently buying the insulation for our job would cost about $300, and there's a machine that you can rent that blows it up into the attic. At least this way if you're not getting any reasonable quotes in your area, you know there's another option available.

If you don't already have one, you should build a "collar" around the opening for the hatch. This is a wall that prevents all of the insulation from tumbling out when you open the hatch. Our expensive quoter wanted to make the hatch hole bigger, install a fancy plastic collar and a proper, insulated hatch. Our cheap quoter built a collar for us out of cardboard, and insulated our existing hatch cover with batt insulation (the fluffy pink stuff).

When it's done, it should look something like this:

And you and your family will be warm and toasty all winter long, and stay nice and 

cool all summer long, saving money and energy and the earth all at once!

Happy insulating!

How to get rid of a chain link fence

When we first visited our new home, one of the things that we knew we wanted to update right away was the fence around the back yard. There was a practical reason for this, namely, that if we moved the fence we would be able to turn a small part of our yard into a parking space (a much sought-after commodity in Toronto, since street parking is neither easy nor cheap). In addition, the existing chain link fence was unattractive, and since we're planning to hang our in our yard a fair bit this summer, we wanted something nice to look at.

Challenge number one was that the gate between our back yard and the fence was chained and padlocked shut. Once we discovered this, we called our realtor to find out whether the previous owners had the keys, since that seemed like the easiest solution. Unfortunately, the previous owners said that it had been "years since anyone had the keys to those locks". So much for that plan.

Our next idea was to use our handy hacksaw and cut through the chain (since heavy chain is easier to cut through than even a cheap padlock). So, we got some new safety goggles--a necessity for a job like this if you want to be sure you won't get a metal splinter in your eye--and waited for a sunny day.

In the meantime, I decided to do some online research into the best way to remove a chain link fence. I came across a great tip I thought would be worth sharing here.

The first and most important step in removing a chain link fence is posting an ad on Freecycle, Craigslist, Kijiji, or a similar list or site offering your fence for free to someone who is willing to come and remove it. This is what we did, and is how we managed to get our fence removed without having to dig out the posts ourselves. Be aware, in preparing your ad, that when you post something for free people are quick to reply and say that they want it, without really thinking it through. I ended up refining my ad a few times, so that I would only get replies from people who were serious, and who had the tools necessary to complete the job.

Here is the final version of my ad:

Free Chain Link Fence & 2 Gates - 50ft long. 

Date: 2012-03-27, 10:24PM EDT
Reply to: your anonymous craigslist address will appear here

We have a chain link fence in our back yard that we will be replacing with a wooden fence. It is in fairly good condition, and the mesh does not have any holes. If you would like to come and take it away, you can have it for free.

The fence has not yet been dismantled, and the poles are still in the ground. I have not dug in the dirt around the poles, but I can only assume that the poles are held in place with concrete blocks, which I've heard can be removed from the poles with a chisel or a jackhammer. (They will be hard to transport without removing the concrete first.) The mesh is also still attached to the poles, so you will need to take the mesh off of the poles before digging them up.

This offer is only open to people who want to remove and re-use the whole fence, including the poles. The fence is approximately 70 feet long, and there are two gates included as well. I would like it removed within the next week or so.

**BEFORE YOU REPLY please carefully consider whether you have the tools, time and ability necessary to remove the fence and posts, and transport them to their new home.

Thanks for your interest.

----

Sure enough, once it was refined, our ad worked like a charm. Well, it did take two tries to schedule the removal, and require us being at the house for the afternoon while the fence was removed, but in the end some nice folks who needed a fence to keep their rottweilers out of their neighbour's yard came and did the heavy lifting, and took the fence home to re-use as their reward.

They were happy, we were happy, and now we're ready to start building our new fence!

Here is a photo of the nice folks who came to take away our fence, hard at work.

Have you ever participated in a win-win exchange like this one? Here in Toronto there is a web site for people who want to swap their skills called Swapsity.ca. It's amazing how often we can get what we need from our friends and communities, in a way that benefits everyone. I would love to hear about you experiences finding that your trash is someone else's treasure (or vice-versa)!