randbponder -jnette -kentnc & ALL MY PUTER WAS DOWN 3 days . big pain. congrats on new granddaughter. got up to early. going to take a nap. good looking wind chimes you got. see you latter. jim.
General Discussions - 2010 - Chapter 33
Well it took long enough, but finally found out it was a boy. The baby's Grandmother left a message on our answering machine.
I kind of like calling her a grand mother, she takes it so well. lol
We were in the city longer than either of us planed on. I got a call that the parts I had ordered were in. and we needed a couple other things too, mower gas for one. So we took the little pickup. Well- - -it decided to lay down on us. Wouldn't you know it, on one of the hottest days of the year, 110 heat index. But I cashed in on me always helping Gary. he came in and brought us home. But where I had to leave the truck, I had to get it as soon as possible. So hooked up the flat bed car trailer, behind the van. It either didn't like the heat either. It just got real gutless. Some times I wasn't sure it would get through the intersection, then pulling hills- - O My.
Well got every thing home. but now comes which do I fix first and how much is it going to cost. First things first though. Took a long shower, to start cooling down. Tossed all my clothes in the washer they were already wringing wet. so now am relaxing with a fan blowing right on me. Boy does that ever feel good, the iced tea ain't bad either. lol
Jim I know what you mean about the pain. I have to get a little grumpy when ours acts up too. Some times have to run two different virus scans and reboot. And yes I admit talking to it.
Russ, this is terrible weather to be working on vehicles in. Wish you had ours. It rained today. Had to turn the heater on in the car yesterday. I sure hope we haven't seen the end of summer. They are saying 90s next week. Sure hope so. If not, I may not have any ripe tomatoes this year.
This has been the wettest July & August that I remember. We have had to mow our lawns every week. Normally the lawn has started turning brown by now. And of course having the heat with the wet, it is perfect for grass, weeds and most other vegetation.
Tomorrow is supposed to be down into the 80s but still high humidity and little or no breeze.
I did have some good luck after I got home. Gary called and said that 3 boys that live close to the church, were mowing the church yard, so now I won't have to. The 31st of July. 2 of the boys helped as my mower broke down. Then the 5th of Aug. I used another mower and got it done by myself. I think those boys need a reward. I really wasn't able to do it after going back to the city and hauling the pickup home.
I'll have to check as to who prompted them. I know they are hard workers and willing to do so.
What kind of reward do you think they need Russ? What is wrong with the same reward for them that you got? Didn't you have a good feeling getting it done? So glad you got help with it Russ.
Doesn't the grass look so much nicer green than brown?
I remember in Seattle people would let their lawns go brown 'cause they all knew that when it started raining it would turn green again. They looked awful all summer. Then we moved East of the mountains where it doesn't rain so much, but people here keep their lawns green all summer.
How are your vehicles today Russ. Have you been able to get them repaired?
What kind of reward do you think they need Russ? What is wrong with the same reward for them that you got? Didn't you have a good feeling getting it done? So glad you got help with it Russ.
Doesn't the grass look so much nicer green than brown?
I remember in Seattle people would let their lawns go brown 'cause they all knew that when it started raining it would turn green again. They looked awful all summer. Then we moved East of the mountains where it doesn't rain so much, but people here keep their lawns green all summer. So much nicer.
How are your vehicles today Russ. Have you been able to get them repaired?
I had a plumber out the other day and he told me I needed a new pressure tank. Ouch.
Nope haven't even unloaded it. It can't fit in the ol budget for another month. Property tax has to come out of it first.
And you mentioned needing a new pressure tank - - - - ugh I need one too, been trying to get by.
I thought slavery was outlawed.
Oh man Russ, I hope they aren't as expensive there as they are here. One thing you've got going for you tho, is that I am sure you can do the work of installation yourself. I might have tried it when I was younger, and Bob would probably break something on it. I have to pay a trip charge besides the labor and parts. If I could find my plumber. He was suppose to be here to install it yesterday (we went down and bought the tank yesterday) but he never showed up and I can't reach him. Now what?
How bad is yours? Mine was full of calcium deposits I guess, and the tank kept trying to fill up. He said it would burn out my well pump if I didn't change it. Sooooo? Where is he?
Connie, haven't heard a peep out of you for a while. How is the garden doing? What did you do about the bales for next year?
How is your husband doing? Is he planning Johnny Appleseed's garden for next year? He will have fun growing the seeds out and he will soon discover that he wants more plants then he has room for. Even with 20 bales. But that is a lot.
Bet you guys are busy canning aren't you? LOL, I forgot you were going to do that.
Russ, The caster bean that looked blacker than the other is blooming and it is a totally different flower than the red one. Now I am really confused. I doubt that I will get any beans from it tho. I didn't the red one that bloomed last year. Altho it was in a container. This one isn't.
Did you get your vehicles working? Sure glad you were able to get them home. What a pain. Speaking of which, how are your head and your eyes? Do you still have the pain?
Well, there is still an ache in the area that all the fractures were and the vision has gotten better and I finally got a new pair of glasses, as the eye Dr. was finally able to find a happy medium of using some prisms to correct some of the double vision. I still need to use prescription reading glasses when reading or I have to close one eye while wearing the new glasses. I could have the surgery to correct it but I just don't want to be hurt for a quite a while yet.
It took a while to find the problem with the pickup, then we had to wait for Barbs check to buy the parts. But the little S10 is running again.
The van will wait a little longer but I think I have a handle on it too. Without checking it out, it acts like it may be just the 02 sensor.
Sure lost a lot of power and took more than twice the gas than normal. which is what would happen when the computer would go into what they call open loop, like when you first start up and before the sensor gets warmed up. I'll get after the van's problem before too long though as I will want to use it for fishing and short camping trips. Then there is also that trip to Colorado, next summer. I really hope nothing gets in the way of that.
Both kinds of Castor beans are blooming here and forming seed pods, so we will be able to send some back to you. The black ones are way over my head now. I think if I get enough seed I would like to plant a row of them along one side of our acre at least past however little my garden is next year. I need to get a picture of them for you too Ive been kind of behind the 8 ball here lately, or at least falling behind on getting things done.
Russ
I would love to see a picture of them Russ. Also take one of the reds. Did you plant any greens? A picture of those too would be nice.
Glad your eyesight is getting somewhat better even if they have to engineer a headpiece for you to wear. Sorry, just being funny. Hope you can adjust. Sometimes that isn't easy. Especially seems the older we get the harder it is to do.
So sorry, you have been through so much with that accident.
It is great that you can take care of the vehicle problems, but please stay away from tires or anything else that can blow up. Gas parts too.
I'll bet Barb is on your butt. Bet you 'bout gave her a heart attack coming up to the door like that. Awful thing to have happen!!
After one of our discussions, I am pretty sure I only have what I had and we kind of decided they were the green. and now I have the ones you sent as well. I will try to get another picture yet today of the ones that I had. I haven't put any on the pueter yet. They aren't as big as yours. I think it is the difference in the soil, and a Black Walnut tree close by.
Yeah, you're right in thinking Barb, Sandi and Connie are all very concerned. Sandi even went so far as to have all new tires put on the trailer. Of course l am giving the trailer to her and Ken but they are leaving it here for me to use, until they have need of it. It really came in handy the other day.
Better go out and get that picture.
Russ
Ok, if you still have those send me a couple. I can't find them. Wonder if I deleted by mistake. The green was the very first one I grew a few years ago. Then the red. Now both red and black. I can't believe yours aren't bigger than mine. Remember how big yours were?
Hey ALL!!!!!
Well...I was wondering about ya'll. It has been quiet on here and I was envisioning everyone bringing in all kinds of veggies from their garden :)
We are on the search for hay and straw bales. We were told by a farmer that straw will be scarce due to prices of wheat...BUT...it has gone up $1.00 so they will plant winter wheat but those bales won't be ready until July of next year. It will be hard to find square hay bales as most farmers here go with the round bales. It will be a challenge and that is why we are on the hunt for them now.
Tomato plants are 7 ft. tall now and we have some baby watermelons that just about double in size everyday. I have canned 12 quarts of dill pickles and had plenty of extra cukes to share with the neighbors. Going to town in a few minutes to get more lids so I will be ready to can tomatoes when we have enough ripe to do it. How is yours doin', Jeanette? Are those 'maters turning ripe yet? Has your weather warmed back up yet?
Reckon I need to charge admission fees for all of these curious people looking around in my yard? HA!!! Now there are 4 neighbors that said they are going to do this for sure next year and they are wanting us to "coach" them. Don't quite know how we will do that and tend to our own but we will do the best we can. Gotta take care of our neighbors :)
Hubby is loving this. He has been released from the Dr. now but hurts everyday. Dr. said it could take up to a year for the pain to go away and the SLAP tear to completely heal but there is nothing more they can do for him. No work available in this rural area like so many others but we will find something before long :)
Glad to hear your update, Russ. I know you have been through a lot with your accident. I had to replace the 02 sensor in my vehicle not long ago. Sounds like the same problem I had. Problem with mine was it has two sensors and it had to be tested to see which one needed to be replaced. It was acting up when I went to see my DD in AR. and they told me it was fine to drive...but you will burn more gas doing it. Made it back to MO and replaced it.
Connie
Sounds like you are running on normal Connie. Thinking about next year already. By square do you mean 2 wire or 3 wire? The problem I ran into was that from the round ones they went to 3 wire square bales that were too big and heavy for me to work with. Now I can't find any of the small 2 wire bales.
Yes, we got about a month of nice weather and now we seem to be on the downside of the summer and running into fall. Going into the 70s.
The tomatoes just started ripening and the critters found them before we could get them. Now we are fighting that. One of these years I guess I will learn to save all the energy and buy from the local farmers instead.
Jeanette, I'm beginning to think that might be the way to go, for me too.
But there are some things that just can't replace growing yourself.
Connie; my van has a straight 6 in it. It has two sensors but only the one in front of the catalytic converter really controls anything. now a v6 or V8 may actually have 4 but the ones after the converter are more or less redundant, Their main purpose is to tell the condition of the converter, unless it is one of the newer models or a foreign. Rather rare for the rear ones to go bad. But not completely unheard of. I found a place on line that has the 02 sensors for less than most auto parts stores, so I will order one.
My tomatoes are starting to come on much faster now but for a while there I was beginning to wonder if I'd get enough to can.
I was very thankful for the few days that the temps only got up to the low 80s but it looks like it's on the rise again.
I'm kind of looking forward to cooking a bunch of the weed seeds with clear plastic next summer. All this wet weather made the melons and squash and the like put on extra long vines and I haven't been able to get at all the weeds without stepping on some vines and causing some fruit out further on the vine to rot, so some of the weeds are going to go to seed. UGGG !Some of the melon vines even went up and over into the lot to the South of mine. One of the Moon and Stars is hanging just below the three strands of barbed wire. Think I will try supporting it with a burlap bag or something. Have some pumpkins close to my North fence, same thing there. Oh well My neighbor can have all the pumpkins on his side of that fence.
Russ, finally got my computer up and running right now. After an hour with tech support. I just hate that and only do it as a last resort.
It might be the way to go Russ, but we sure would miss cussin' at the weather. LOL
Have a short story, weather related.
I was working on a highway project in Oklahoma City." Mechanic"
I had Barb come down as this had lasted beyond the year I was told.
Usually it was hot of course, Normally there was a wind and the red dirt would sift into the trailer, So one day Barb was praying and made the mistake of asking, Lord can't we have one day without so much wind?? The very next day, She got what she asked for. It was hot hot you could barely breathe Need less to say, she apologized and said Lord_ You know best, I will accept the wind.
So since that time we try to remind ourselves, to accept the weather and not ask for it to change. We do say to ourselves. Things like this is too hot for me or, how much more snow are going to get. We let it be known how hot or cold it is but He has had this old ball of earth and water spinning for thousands of years. So we figure he knows what he is doing.
End of story
Is that one of those "Be careful what you ask for" stories Russ?
Yup; sure is!
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Well we got another 2 1/2" rain last night, and it cooled down a bit.
11:30 and it's 66 F. I made use of the break in the hot weather, The concrete pad in front of the garage entry door had sunk on one side, about 4". I had made a form before it got really hot, so this morning I mixed several batches of concrete and made that sucker level again.
Eventually I will finish putting in a side walk, along side of the house where we park the car. That ought to keep some of the dirt from being tracked into the kitchen and deflect a lot of the water from running next to the house. I had planned to pave the entire parking area in front of the garage but something else took what I had saved up, so that went to the back burner, where it still stands.
That was going to be done with ready mix. but now just the sidewalk I'll do that myself.
Keep some gas money back for Colorado . LOL
That will be a good test for mileage, burning water along with gas.
I should know more by then though. The van gets 13 mpg now. We will see what it does by then. If it don't do any better ------- I'll have to take the S10 and a tent. Not much comfort in that idea. I can feel the daggers now. LOL
I bet we can get around you using a tent . I'll probably sleep in the van because of my back anyway and an extra foam matress is a good idea for you . We have privacy curtains in the pop up so don't worry about that either , It might be you and Barb and Johnny in there .A porta jon is a good idea . I just want to enjoy you guys and show you a good time .Gas and food is about all you have to worry about and we will put the food together for all of us .Might even be sandwiches for a coupla meals , we aren't going to cook , we're going for a good vacation and a great time prospecting . Just quality time with friends . O K ? Show you another whole way of life , no stress .
'
Hey that is sounding better all the time.
I will have to have some rhubarb crisp to take along. We gotta have that. LOL
I'm sure everything will work out. I'm watching my P's and Q's on that front.
We have shared a camper before, so that sounds great too. We do have a ply-wood bed frame in the van too, so I'm not real concerned about weather or not I can have this pop-up done. It would get a little old, after a while, as it's a little cramped for getting up in the morning and getting dressed. Oh well.
Russ
Have to tell you one story Russ:
A few years back Bob went on a fishing trip with a few other guys. Well, before he went we were in some store and spotted one of those solar showers. So he bought it and took it with him. When the other fellas saw it they laughed like crazy at him. About the second time he used it they were feeling pretty grimy so decided to try it. Well, the solar couldn't work fast enough for them so they were heating coffee cans of water on the fire. They all have one of those in their camping gear now.
I am sure you can rig up one of those shower curtains to shower and dress in Russ.
All ready on it. PVC pipe is a great thing, for making an inexpensive frame to hang a small tarp. and the joints can be pinned instead of being glued. A little rope and some stakes to keep it up-right, except in gale force wind. A black 5 gal. bucket, or even one of those collapsible clear plastic water containers, will heat the water enough that you are not taking a " cold shower ". The shower enclosure can also be used for the port a pot. Even the dressing room.
On a couple job sites I worked on I had a 55 gal. barrel mounted on top of my camper, I didn't even paint it. It worked for many showers.
At least a weeks worth. If I was going home on a weekend I would fill it before I left.
Someone once said necessity is the mother of invention.
Everything will have to store easily in or on the vehicle, in this case I hope the van.
We will have to have pictures of all of us and our camp site. lol
Russ
Where we used to go ,they had portapots . Emptied them every other day . Made a campground ,fee charged . We'll be further upstream now and haven't checked with my friends to see if they have the portable toilets there . A five gallon bucket with one of those toilet seats that fits inside and tall kitchen bags , a bottle of bleach and a towel over works fine . When we bought this place, it was the woods , took two months to get a septic tank and a well drilled . A 15"x15" hole four foot deep with a piece of plywood over it made a good dump station . We loaded five gallon buckets with the tall kitchen bags to line them and filled them with water at a neighbors, used twist ties to keep them clean and not splash the water out and hauled about twenty of them on a trailer at a time . It was kinda fun roughing it like that . After I got in the swing of it, I didn't mind it at all .That's from a gal that wouldn't even go to the grocery without hose, a dress and high heels when I lived in Dallas Tex. Oh , how I've changed . LOL
Sounds like you guys are going to have a great time. Hope there are fish in that stream. I'm sure if Sally is going there are.
Came home and have a bat in here. Bob's sitting here with a broom to help it out the door.
How are the tomatoes doing Russ and Digger? I don't have a ripe one yet. Would have but the critters are getting them before they ripen. I have put bird netting around them and it seems to have slowed them down some. But, I have some pretty big tomatoes out there that are getting ripe now.
Won't be fishing , will be gold dredging
Toms are about over .The stink bugs and army worms messed them up and I didn't spray ,but got all we want. Just keep your fingers crossed that you will get some ripe ones . May have to let some ripen in the house
Forgot the gold dredging.
We're skipping back and forth between here and recipes
My tomatoes are coming on good. for salads and just eating. I may be able to can a quart or two once in a while. Right now we eat them nearly as fast as they ripen. I lost about half of my plants early on. I had a couple volunteers come up and moved them to the cattle panels
with the rest.
They are producing as well as those we bought and transplanted. Figures don't it.
What I'm really getting an excess of are butternut squash. It's good that they keep well. I will probably be eating these all next summer. Hey Digger I might even can some that can be just heated up quick then you could help eat them up. lol
Actually I'm thinking about trying to sell some.
I don't know how so many of my seeds got mixed up but I haven't seen any muskmelons I have a lot of those little tiger striped ones. can't remember now but they have claimed a section of the fence and there's about a doz. of them dangling from the top to the bottom of the fence and I don't know how many on the ground hiding among the leaves.
Think I better call it a night got a big day planned tomorrow. I want to get more gravel and a few bags of Portland cement or that french stuff, Lafarge. lol
What I poured the other day is setting up good and as long as I have the forms set I may as well finish the job. The side walk, that is. We'll see how the day goes.
Russ
What is the French stuff Russ:? I was reading the other day about something they were using for sculpting. But, think it was pretty hard to get. Not sure if it was cement or clay. But, never heard of the French stuff.
Oh, well; La-Farge,is a french supplier for the powdered cement.
But today I found Portland cement, so I got 5 bags. That may be more than I need but You just want to run out with only 2 or 3 feet left to go.
I replaced the O2 sensor on the van and tried it out with a trip to the gravel pit, pulling the flat bed. I wanted to get around a ton or ton and a half. Well the loader bucket dumped nearly that much more on the trailer. It weighed just short of 3 ton. He would have tried to take some back off but I figure I have more concrete work we are thinking of doing, so I said that it's fine. any way the van didn't balk one bit at pulling it. Was a might weak going up hills but I expect that from it with the 370 some thousand miles on it. I know the compression is a little on the weak side. Anyway just letting ya know it's back among the " living". lol
Some are using sphagnum moss with cement and sand in the mix. I understand it is easily molded and shaped without a form or mold. Tuffa or something like that. It's lighter and easier to handle, I guess.
Yes, there is a forum on tuffa. Very interesting for garden art if you are into that. They make some really cool things. And, like you say, much lighter.
Glad you got the van running. Might need a place to sleep if it rains. The price of gold now you better take your shootin' iron.
Gosh did everone's garden just die? No activity on this thread since Aug 26th... Mine are still producing albeit smaller ones this time of year. It was a bad year over all for gardening here, way too much heat and humidity and way too little real rain. The water hose just barely manages to keep things alive, but one little downpour out of God's water supply and things perk up in a day or so... Just making sure everyone is OK.
Doug
Doing good here Doug. I hear ya about the heat and lack of rain.... I have one grape tomato still producing and I've let my basil go to seed so I'll more than enough of that next year. Thanks for asking.
Mike
I was bragging about no bugs , then was invaded by ittsy bitsy worms and stink bugs that ate holes into all the toms , even the green ones . Said for get it and took everything down .
I was also wondering what had happened to this thread! I'm sorry to hear that so many of you had problems this summer. Despite the heat I had my best straw bale year ever! As a result I have at least 3 people interested in using this method next year! They have stopped by in the last couple of weeks for a "lesson" in how it's done. My tomatoes went through the roof in terms of size and production. The one eggplant I planted in a bale still looks pretty healthy despite a mild frost the other night. It was as healthy or more so than some planted in E-Boxes. Many tomato plants still have a lot of green on them, unheard of at this late date in our climate. Almost everyone I know has pulled their tomatoes but mine keep churning them out. I am now collecting green ones for fried green tomatoes. Altogether I had at least 40 varieties and am fairly drowning in frozen tomatoes and sauce. I have even frozen fried green ones because I have too many to eat all at once! This is certainly a big change from last year where I got a very small crop off of 10 out of 40 plants!
I think what led to my success this summer was a combination of the weather ( quite hot at times but the bales held the water very well so didn't succumb) and feeding with fish fertilizer every two weeks combined with liquid bone meal and kelp. I had never used such a consistent feeding schedule before and it really worked. I had a mixture of straw and hay bales (first time for hay) but can't really draw a good comparison as just about all the bales did well. For me the hay heated up faster and got hotter. They also heated up even weeks after I thought they were done so a couple of tomato plants suffered from "stewed" roots! My obvious solution will be to set the bales out this fall to break down for next spring, something I was unable to do last fall.
This is my 4th year using the bales and I am a totally converted straw bale gardener - maybe even a little fanatic at times because they work so well and the left over broken down straw at the end of the season has been rejuvenating the rest of the gardens. I got the last of my bales for next year yesterday so am ready to go after the real killing frost hits to put them in place.
Thanks to all of you who contribute great tips and advice throughout the year. I am still learning and revising my methods but the one for this year thanks to Jnette was feed, feed (more than I normally do)!! It works alright!
I am attaching a picture of one of the gardens. I had the bales in four different locations.
Wow! How nice to hear of someone having a good garden this year. Most of the country had such screwy weather, different than all other years it seems, that people just didn't know how to deal with it I think.
For me, we had such a cold and wet June that we couldn't even get a plant in the mood to grow until July! Then of course it got hot and the plants were just starting out from scratch. And then it cooled off in mid August and have been getting warnings of frost this week. So you see our growing season was about 1 1/2 months. Isn't that terrible?
I am so glad for you that you had a good year and it is really something that you didn't see much of a difference between hay and straw. So, which did you get for next year?
Well, I am having computer problems and don't even know if this will get sent or drop.