Recovering Accounts when all seems lost...

The Garden Shed Project

In this video, we are building a lean to Garden shed near the trailer/tiny house/cabin. Also, a few surprise guests show up... a herd of 33 deer just 20 yards (or so) away from the 2015 Garden. Oh, my! Going to be a great season. :) - Cloud

Temporary plastic on the roof until tar paper and metal.

200th Post. Where I have been. What I am up to. Video updates!

Pondering...

I've been dead a while on Blogger. My mind has been racing elsewhere. Taking care of various projects here in our 8500FT mountains. Transitioning to Spring. (Although the weather goes back and forth between it and winter) Today we even got some small hail?

Anyhoot. I've been working more at creating Youtube videos to document the progression of living Off-Grid. To pair up better with that I have created a Facebook page as well. http://facebook.com/thestayathomegardener

I believe that will allow me to interact easier with people as well as post photos and commentary between video updates. :-) 

As far as resuming blogger... I am not sure whether I will simply remove it or retain it as another platform to interact with such great and interesting people.

On the chance that a few of you have missed the Youtube channel, Youtube.com/user/cnypilot, below are a couple video links to recent happenings! #61 is a video about the start of the 2015 Garden season here at 8500FT/2560m in the mountains of Colorado. While #60 is a video flashback to when I first installed Solar electricity in 2013 and the journey started. :)

 

#60 - Beginnings of Solar

 

#61 - Changes (Gardening)

PS. In the upcoming #62 video I will be showing off the build of a Garden Shed that Samantha and I have been working on.

Garden Shed inspiration from Pinterest

Raising Walls.

Hanging about.

Coming along nicely, me thinks.

Just think peace!

A quick note for all us gardening folk. Keep the forest for the trees in our push for getting a jump on the new season!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/10/periklis-papadopoulos-sentenced-andonios-mirtsopoulos_n_3052416.html?utm_hp_ref=crime

Houston, Ray of Sunshine.

The weather was pretty rough this morning. Afternoon held up not all that much better either.  Instead of spending the day cooped up in the FBO, holding down the couch, I (hypothetically) took up the offer to hop in a plane to Houston for the day. 

A group of co-workers and myself have been 'camping' at the FBO down in Houma, LA. The owner has been overly gracious in allowing us the use of the downstairs pilot lounge. It has worked out nice for the two weeks we've been working here. It has several nice sofas, tables, and a room of bunk beds. I've opted to push two ottomans together to create a platform for tossing the sleeping bag upon. 

Guess being short (5'7") has its perks. 

This morning, another co-worker and I, took up the owner's offer of hoping in on a free ride in a small, multi-engine aircraft, flying a charter client out to Texas. A Pressurized Baron, if you are familiar. Quite unlike me, I made sure to be sitting upstairs on the sofa ready with my headset first thing in the morning so as to not be forgotten.

Ray, it's unbelievably hot in Texas already, guy.

Places I have mapped/been so far on the road :

Batavia, NY - October 22nd to November 6th, 2012

Findlay, OH - November 6th to November 18th, 2012

Washington, PA - November 18th to December 1st, 2012

Beaver, PA - December 1st to December 15th, 2012

Chesapeake, VA - December 15th to January 5th, 2013

Anderson, SC - January 5th to January 6th, 2013

Lexington, KY - January 6th to January 8th, 2013

Ashland, KY - January 8th to January 18th, 2013

Columbus, MS - January 18th to January 19th, 2013

Baton Rouge, LA - January 19th to January 24th, 2013

Houma, LA - January 24th to Current (February 5th, 2013)

Internet Photo

Internet Photo - Cabin

Early Start ! Louisiana

I'm so ready to plant!

Rough Camp Food - Thai curry - Potato

Grand Isle Beach - Poor Guy never saw it coming

 

Autumn Crossings

I've been away for quite some time now. My apologies for that. It occasionally happens to even the best of bloggers, to which I am not one. ;)

My life has been in preparations for the upcoming fall and winter seasons. It would be nice if it had a direct link to gardening, however, not this year. After such an eventful near-year of garden preparations and harvesting life is carrying on an indirect path for a while.

If you are not already aware of, I fly airplanes. It was how I made my living for the last number of years of my life. I've been happy with it. Last year I took it off in order to spend time at home, enjoy relationships with the GF, and the Cat. (I had previously seen my GF of 6 years say... 3?) Turned out to be a very interesting year. Now it has come to go back on the road. Returning to aviation. Returning to spending another 7-8 months living in a hotel without the possibility of coming home. Where really is home these days anyhow. *shrugs*

This is why I find myself taking another journey. This indirect path will take me from this position to having an acre and building a tiny house within a year from now. Woot! Now one certainly could continue to work at a basic job stocking produce at a high end 'natural foods' type store. No, not Whole Foods. Good guess though. Clever readers. Problem is that I wish to purchase an acre of land somewhere. Build a modest eco home onto it and garden (4000SF) 'til my butt falls off. So, a lot of gardening indeed. If I stay back and work produce it will take ages to fruition with saving a few hundred a month. If I go back on the road I can gather around $20k. Back we go! Ho, Ho!

Over the next few months I will be doodling in my spare time jotting out layouts for tiny houses, figuring out how many studs are needed, straw bales, square feet of metal roofing etc. Parting it all out, searching the catalogs and concreting the costs of things. Hopefully I will also figure out where I actually want to buy this dreamy acre. Southwest US with its awesome topography and sunshine? Hmm, no water... Midwest with forests and heaps of water but lack of nay a hill? *shrugs.

Well, what have I actually been doing over the last month or two besides day dreaming and working produce? I've been flying to bring back my currency in airplanes. Along the way taking up several of my work mates.

What a splendid way to end this post, with a new video! #30 - The Flying Episode. Enjoy!

Long days of summer.

Note : As delicious as Okra is when it gets to six plus inches, it is much better to pick them at half that. Although both sizes are perfect for straight off the plant fresh eating.

First Bells with First Okra (Friday)

Second Okra with First Tomato (Monday)

436 Grams of First Eggplant (Baingan Bharta)(Tuesday)

Fifteen - April 26th Video update

Finally.

Two days back over the weekend we purchased some jumbo sweet onion sets. Geesh they are inexpensive for so many! Makes you really wonder why bother growing from seed.

Although there is something nice about really choosing your preferred variety.

Either way it is a very long process of planting out over a hundred onions.

Along the way planted out the stuttgarts, Ampostas, and Leeks with the Jumbos. Things are really starting to move along. Garden is filling out nicely. The 'yard lettuce' is getting sizable. Mizuna looks like a horrible wig. The chard is finally growing. English peas and Radishes have broken soil.

Things are a foot.

Photos soon to follow.

Quick Notes

I haven't posted in a few weeks because I was out of town. Thought I might be moving to Arizona. Instead became a nice vacation to visit my old friends and family.

Before I left, however, I cut back a lot of what was going on with the city homestead. This would make it easier for V to take care of. Now that I am back, I will slowly but surely place a bit of it back up.

Just before I had left I planted out lettuce and various semi winter hardy vegetables. That being 3 weeks or so ago. You can imagine how delighted I was to return to find them more or less still struggling on. Now with the approaching warm weather it should be off like a heard of racing turtles for growth!

I'll keep you all in the mix! BTW, does anyone know how long it should take a well chitted potato to surface once buried 6-9 inches down???

At what point should I be concerned. lol

Filling out the Garden vlog

Figured words aren't needed this time around. Imagery tells a far more in depth tale. Whom am I to expect I could say anything further than that. :)

Ps. Other than let us see if it survives the last bits of winter. ;)

Potatoes are making a break for it! : Supplemental

Here it is. The good stuff. You knew I would get to it eventually. Became a rather long video. Hopefully you will not find yourself dozing off halfway through. ;) Act one... the spuds make a mad dash to the garden in their long journey back to my plate!

Potatoes are making a break for it!

Two days back we, the gang of spuds and I, decided to wing it (Go Wings!) and plant them up. Or deep down. Yes, definitely deep down. That was their choice. I could have gone either way with doing that or just tossing them on top of the lawn. Either way something is bound to happen with them. It would be heaps easier finding them all at the end of the season wouldn't it?!?

This years method of choice is to place the heavily chitted pieces directly on top of the 2nd layer in the double-dug process. First foot layer being most of the top soil. The second is the broken up hardpan, heavy clay in my case. Break up the hardpan with a garden fork. Place one piece every 9-12". Layer the topsoil back over it. Thus making them about a foot down. What this will eventually give you is a bed that only has to be bothered with twice. Once during planting and twice at harvest. No constant hilling needed. How good is that!

Updating everyone on the brassica and lettuce plantings. They are all snug and thriving. The subfreezing days and nights haven't fazed them. Yesterday the blustery weather did wreak some havoc on the garlics planted out on the first. Those in the east garden bed were unaffected. The green house structure build last year keeps the wind out with the large shoji like screen panels on the sides. A number of garlic from the front yard were roughed up. The winds were strong enough to bend the tops completely over. Not to worry. I am positive its transitionary, when it warms up they will resume taking off.

Oh yes. Picked up some Azomite this afternoon. I'm sure everyone is familiar with it. Rock dusts to remineralize our depleted soils. Apparently in the early 20th century there was a senate report discussing (circa 1920) this. If I recall, our soils contain 80% less minerals. What this means for you and I is even as we are meeting our caloric needs we possibly are still starving ourselves. Our foods to no fault of their own have no way of being as nutritious as they should be. Taking vitamin supplements is a joke. Many of them are never digested. They are simply being flushed down the waterways. The only one I consume is B12. A vitamin derived from the bacteria that creates it. Not animal nor plant. Another side effect of our modern living is the lack of helpful microbes because of irrational cleanliness. A dusty carrot from your organic garden isn't going to strike us dead, Folks. Just remember to replace the minerals in our soils. We are all expecting that produce to lead us to better health.

We purchased a number of plastic seed trays today from an amazing local garden shop. It was exciting finding Azomite there. Saved $30 over having it shipped. V and I spent the early evening planting up a bunch more spinach, beets, radishes, and the various 11 flower varieties. Our soil mixture is a blend of coir, perlite, compost, Azomite, and myccorhizae. I think it should provide a good foundation for them to start. Later I will plant them into garden soil amended with more Azomite, compost, and myccorhizae.

Sadly some of the plants seem to be a little off. I've been thinking that they need a bit of fertilizer. Yesterday, we purchased fish emulsion. Oh geesh. What a horrible idea that was. It smells horrid. I'm sure it is quite useful. The thought of it, however, makes me decided to return it for a refund. Here's to sticking with plant based nutrition. Leaf mould. Green manures. Rich compost tea.

Oh! Lastly. You all know that we planted corn. 5 kernels of which have become quite the foot tall plantings. That was until Kiki decided to give them a trim. Replanted them to one gallon pots a piece. Good thing we purchased a bunch of large day lilies last year for the english garden. Now we have a few good pots to repurpose. They were done with the dixie cups after several weeks. The roots were running races around the bottom of the cups. When I gently broke them apart from each other (they were incredibly woven together amongst themselves) the roots were over a foot long. Incredible. That should hold them out for another couple weeks until after last frost when the final decision of putting them in blocks of 5 gallon pots for the season or in a bed to their own will be made.

Happy Gardening everyone!

ps. look out for that supplemental in the works.

Garden Expectations : Supplemental

Here is the video Accompaniment to the Garden Expectation Posting:

Garden Expectations

Do most gardeners have a new garden expectation that changes when a new season shows its' face?

I think I do. I believe there are several actually. It may be commensurate with the amount of work that has been put into converting over on this scale all at once. As 1st man recently blogged about personal frustration at knowing his expectations are going to be a little off timeframe I can certainly attest to the same apprehensions. For the most part we have managed to do the roughing in on all the cultivated space to be worked. We do not have near the area as Two men have amongst themselves which makes it devilishly more attainable in a short term. My hat to you for your journey.

Garden Expectations:

I do not expect that the backyard will be as intense as it would be if It was awash in absolute sunshine. The thing to be seen is whether enough of the surrounding offending tree canopy can be trimmed out (so to believe) we can get decent results. Anything else will be entirely dependent upon our vigilance of breaking up the soil, what nutrition naturally is present, and how much we end up adding overall. It appears attainable.

The original garden on the east side last year came away with plenty of tomatoes, a few eggplant, heaps of cucumbers, and a number of peppers all with only partial full daylighting. Not to mention we planted things quite late. Another 2 months would have been perfect. It will show off the real abilities of bio-intensive methods. At least on a personal level as I already know they work. Having long ago been demonstrated.

Yesterday I was able to get out and do actual gardening. Planting 18 broccoli, numerous heads of lettuce, and even several swiss chard. It felt natural. Currently in the process of uploading a video segment of it. I think it came out pretty well. For the time being it looks somewhat sparse but I know in a very short while this broccoli will fill in all the little gaps. Amazing onlooking neighbors at the density of it all. There still is another 4x8 section over there which needs to be planted with the remaining various lettuce, leeks, beets, carrots, and garlic.

The front yard rests my fullest hopes. Plenty of direct sunshine. Hours upon hours of working the earth. Well manicured areas. A place to show off to those around me that things are feasible. It has to. lol. I know that there is bound to be some 'setbacks' but at the scale of doing everything out of the gate the overall should easily end up in the right direction.

Earlier I wrote about Kiki leveling off the corn plants. We both were quite upset about this. Myself from the act. The cat from the consequence. No, I didn't do anything rash to the cat. Just a stern talking to and subsequently the silent treatment which he absolutely hates.

For years my beliefs have been that what you feed yourself and your pets gives them the best chances at a long fruitful life. Barring of course the equal possibility that any one of us could randomly get hit by a bus whether they took pristine care of themselves through diet and exercise or ate McD's garbage day in day out.

Taking this approach with Kiki has been no different. He is fed a grainfree diet. It's called 'Before Grains'. Certainly not as cheap as the things you find in a grocery store. Frankly that muck is scary! Much in the same way as the 'human' food is in there. The cat has as a result thrived throughout the years. The other day being woken up to his corn munching got me to thinking. After all these years of grain free bliss (he is a true carnivore after all) he chose to go straight for the grain. Wonder if he missed it? Perhaps all of this is on the same line as people whom missed things they gave up long ago in the thought of eating healthy. The cat just happens to miss all those damn cup cakes I suppose.

Mr.Pickles (aka Kiki aka the Cat) woke me this morning.

Blasted Cat.

He wakes me up this morning to harsh hacking noises. Looking out the bedroom door it was easy to see the utility room door was also open. Quick mental calculations mean, crap, the cat ate my stache of plants!

Running out from the covers to shoo him off and assess the damage. Luckily over the last couple days most of them have been moved into the sunroom. Sad bit now is he got the corn. Where they once were 6 inches tall now they remain at 3. I am thankful that there is a raised lip on the dixie cups otherwise he might have opted to chew it from the ground up.

HRMF.

Trudging outside after all the morning ruckus bringing the garden fork with me. Today was testing day. Checking up on how the soil workability is coming along. I want to plant some spuds soon. Lets start in the front yard which is the northern part of our house. The first half of the 10 foot long beds along the sidewalk are already workable. The beds near the house are still very frozen. Can only shove a fork in an inch or two. Along the driveway things are coming along. It should be perfect soon enough for peas. That is in several weeks.

The 100SF long beds in the backyard are workable without much effort. Must have to do with getting more sunlight than the front this time of year. Assuming lack of an ice age the spuds should be on track to be placed in soil in another two weeks. I've read that a few people plant around St. Patty's. My take on it, however, is that if the soil is workable there shouldn't be any reason for me to hold off longer. In nature after all the tubers would have remained in the soil for the entire time.

This afternoon I was working the original garden along the east side of the house. The area was a huge mess when we purchased the house several years ago. It was being used as a compost area. Heavy on woody materials. Somewhat late last year we put down a 16' x 4' garden. It turned out to be a surprise. Although the garden was not bathed in incredible amounts of sunlight it still managed to produce a lot. It would have been better if the idea had occurred to me in the beginning of the year. The tomatoes and peppers would have had another two months to get on. That was also before I learned about double-digging. This year it will be a salad green area. I spent an hour double-digging to renovate the soil for a new season. I want to see if there is a drastic difference in production over last year. Also for some reason the soil over on this side of the house is warm enough to plant in.  It must have to do with a combination of being out of the wind and the bare trees giving access to sunlight.

Tomorrows plan is transplanting all the lettuces in the flat to this area and place plastic over it for a cold frame. Perhaps even taking a picture or two.

One month into Growing

According to this blog the plants began on January 12th. That is those started in the first 'Lettuce mix' flat.  Over the course of the last month it has been interesting noting the various stages of growth. How the plants are fairing with each incarnation of grow light set up. Bearing in mind that they started out under two 100watt equivalent CFLs and later moving up to the recent addition of another two sets of shop-lights. Three total.

At first I thought the flat was a wasted experiment. They grew very tall. A flat of very leggy plants made it precarious to water due to them falling down. Later it was decide they would do well to be completely dug up, spaced, and planted deeper up to their first leaves. They recovered remarkably well. Turns out now there are a hundred useable aka transplantable plants growing happily.

Since then I have been inspired to add another grouping of Tomatoes, Eggplants, Peppers, Brassicas, and even Corn. Yep. Corn. Btw it is doing fantastic. One of the better growing plants actually. Suspicion tells me that here soon they will end up being planted in 5 gallon buckets and around 2-3 Feet in height by the time I can transplant them. How exciting! So far, however, they are about 4 inches tall.

My birthday passed on the 13th of this month. Turned out fairly mellow but quite decent. Ended up receiving a $40 dollar gift card to our regular big blue box store with the caveat of finding something for the garden. Suspect it should work out nicely. First impression is that it will be applied to hoop tunnels over a couple beds to get things started. This is the first year of the massive garden. Nothing has been over wintered. Aside from a few Alliums which were transplanted several weeks ago into frozen earth (well the top 3-4 inches were workable due to the rain - but it has since frozen and they live under cloches) the land is barren.

Surprising about the alliums. They are a bulb plant though which are generally rugged. The eighteen garlic plants left in the flat are getting out of control. Rather, they were out of control until being trimmed back. *whew wee* The entire lower level of the house is an italian restaurant. Sniping off garlic chives is intense. So much in fact that it gave me a headache from the intense aroma. The leaves have a bold flavor. Brings me to ponder that throughout the year nothing really needs to be harvested. Just cook with the occasionally clipped leaves. Sustainability.

Enough Yaking. Here is another video :

So you want to break the norm and loose the Lawn.

I say 'L'awn here because of its iconic stature. I've heard it is a throwback to the days of large estates. Perhaps even it gives a modern home owner a primal feeling of security being able to see people approaching their household unobstructed. Doing the norm and not sticking out could even be taken out of our childhood schooling. Never wishing to be pointed out or the center of attention. Please don't call on me, Teacher, not because I lack the answer, but because I would fear my peers jeering. Probably not that.

When I am outside working the earth many people come by and ask. It is gratifying that most of it's positive. Wouldn't it be a shame to hear jeers for the next years we lived here. After all, it wouldn't stop us  would it. Sociology has always fascinated me. It is my belief that it does most. We simply call it people-watching. People are generally quite civil to one another but certain things elicit this great change in them. Say politics. While this is my very corner of blogville I'm not here to rant about my leanings.

Something very similar elicits a response in people. Ideas that challenge their own choices by simply existing. One that I have dealt with on a personal level is being a conscious herbivore. Years ago when I was still learning to fly in Arizona, I happened to ride the bus. There was one occasion where a gentleman had noticed some patchwork on my flight bag that pertained to Ahimsa. Live and let live. Compassionate living to all that surrounds you. It is my personal belief that everything has a right to live. Who am I to choose whether it does or not. Quite a responsibility we as human beings take on to judge that. (This is something I have pondered now with my mass scale gardening ideas. Where do I sit with the plant munchy bugs? I have already determined my stance with the mosquitos. Since leaving AZ where the dry conditions allowed me to never have to deal with them I've found that I react quite violently from the bites. Huge welts. My take on it is this : I won't go out of my way to kill them, although I will keep their breeding areas clear, but if it goes for me it's self defense at that point.) The man at the bus stop without any interaction from myself proceeds to chastise me about my own choices. A conversation that develops into him discussing with me about how fish and crustaceans aren't conscious enough to warrant ethics. I barely spoke throughout the entire encounter. Sometimes you just really wanted to get to school, y'know?

These things challenge people. It somehow causes them to debate their own choices. Perhaps it was myself calling for the attention with a patch on the bag. I don't think that is correct though in much the same way having a symbol of anything you cherish is a call for another to chastise you for it. Religious symbolism for example. Maybe, just maybe, the conscious choice to 'boldly' place our food self sufficiency right out in the public view is the same thing. Taunting those around us. Forcing them all to rethink their own hard worked choices in life. A stretch indeed. Most likely not, but having your lawn willingly torn out and placing food out in front where the good sun is does get passerby's to question. Once again, thankfully it's so far positive!

On the side of this blog there is a section that details the cost of our conversion. Tonight we were thinking about how more people could do what we are doing. Nothing special to it after all. Earlier I was conversing with another garden blogger about how even if you didn't have any money you could garden. Trading in more manual labor for the lack of finances. $20 bucks of seed could grow quite a supply. Could we have demonstrated this better with our own yard? We did choose to create raised beds with wooden borders. Very utilitarian in look. We could have used those plastic borders that you unroll to create curved flower beds etc. Our front garden is currently 585SF. This turns into 402 linear feet. A good thing to know for when we decide to use masonry to edge everything. Turns out that with the economy untreated pine boards we went with it comes to $.48 a foot. That plastic edging is $.45 a foot. Guess the only way to make it any cheaper than we did is to not have bordering at all. Choose inexpensive seeds from the store. Gardening is truly something everyone can do. Less than a hundred dollars would suffice including the purchase of a shovel, fork, and seed could feed you for the year assuming you had the minimal space needed. According to Jeavons, a vegetarian diet would be 4000SF. Ours will be Little over 1500SF.

At its core that is what this page is about. It's my attempt to continue to elicit a response in myself. To become a better person. To validate that I can in fact take care of myself. Life really isn't as complex as we want it to be. I mean, really?

Here's to a year of letting you, and me, know if I did it.

The spuds cometh.

What a decent day. It wasn't anything overly crazy. Outside was low 30s most of the day until it warmed to about 36F. The nice part, however, was the sun room. (An attached room with three sides of floor to roof glass. Sun Room, Arizona Room, Three season room. Which you use depends on your location. What do you call it?) As seen from my attire, thin sweater and loose scarf, it felt quit warm.

Dragged all the little seed cups outside. Even got help to move out one of the flats. The other one with lettuce is just too heavy and boxed in under the stairs to be move-able. Is it strange that It felt good treating them to a nice sunny day? A feeling similar to giving your pet a treat just because. Or your kids aren't making you pull out your hair so all is good.


Back to the spuds. Had to run out for errands. Finally got the much needed 3-way switch for the grow light. Now the broccoli will be happy with their added 2150 lumens. I've been pondering about where to purchase potatoes. How much. Varieties etc. Originally we were going to purchase from Maine potato lady. They carry a number of neat varieties in both organic and standard. To get the order by march or was it may, hmm, the order had to be in by January 30th. We let that slip by. Instead we are going to use store bought. 60lbs total for $28 bucks. Helluvah savings over shipping 50+lbs in the mail. I figure it this way, our state already grows some darn good potatoes we enjoy. Minimal expense. If anything is good enough to show the viability of growing them in the backyard where I want then a local mass ground version is a good start. I was cracking up looking at my shopping cart filled with all its bags. Thinking to myself about how onlookers must imagine that really big bowl of mash to come. We did pretty good though. Going through the bags on display I was pleasantly surprised at how many had decent root growth already! That took care of my wonder about how to get them going far enough to plant in the upcoming months. 40lbs of a white variety well sprouted and 20lbs of an organic russet which isnt deeply sprouted. Some of the russetts have tiny eye buds.

What is the best way to get them going in time to plant them in the next few months??

Harvest Monday - Right?

How does Daphne's Harvest monday go? Oh, that's it, you grow something and put it up so people will believe you. Proof is in the 1000 words right? Ok, so here it goes. The lettuce flat was getting out of control. A bit of it was leggy from growing under weaker lights for the first weeks. I had to thin them out anyway. It's finally starting to look like lettuce! Real leaves. Everything. Most exciting. After all of that managed to get a bowl of delicious sprouts. Spicy flavor and aromas mixed with general lettuce-ness.

Hey now... Be nice! It counts. I recall planting them seeds, watering, giving it light, and 'harvesting'. So there. *tongue*



Earlier I was replying to a comment on a previous posting. Seems humorous enough. (sad face) I'll just repost it here:

" Sadness though, a day or two ago I was using the pressure cooker to make chili, aka beans from scratch. The pressure cooker was being a butt. Had it only half filled but it still wanted to froth out of the top when it got to pressure. Opened it up, emptied a bit of liquid out. Cleaned the seal etc. It did it again, however, the fun happened the second time when it frothed and liquid poured over the lip of the oven creating a nice colorful mix of zaps and sparks of blue and orange. Me screaming bloody murder as I am running to 
the breaker. Turns out I toasted the entire range. Melted electronics. *damn* Thats an expensive diner!! "

That's real lettuce! I'm excited.