Posted on 03/02/2024 6:26:35 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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LB has a new battery as of yesterday. I seemed to remember having a hard time with a previous battery changeout finding the right size wrench to deal with the battery connections - I remembered right ...SO frustrating. Finally, I spotted a nut driver set or some such thing ... metric. 10 mm was the ticket - had the battery off in a flash. The new one went on in a flash as well. It’s just ‘amazing’ how well things go when you have the right tools. /s
Waiting on my tire tubes from Amazon - should be here this afternoon. I doubt they get put in the tires tonight ... maybe tomorrow.
IF LB will start/run, the window for trailering to the mountain house is Tuesday morning or possibly Wednesday afternoon (depending on how early rain moves out). Thursday would be ok. I have to be back at the old house by Friday evening. Not sure how much mowing I could get done because I have a ‘ton’ of branches to pick up - some are big enough to need cutting up. I think dad has a small chainsaw I need to find & get going - I found my chainsaw chaps the other day & they’re already at mountain house.
It’s quite breezy & chilly (currently 42) here today - we got 2.25 inches of rain overnight Friday (mountains got .71 - wish we could have exchanged rain totals) ... still a few puddles and the ground is super soft. Between the stiff breeze, chilly temps & soft ground, I won’t be doing anything outside today.
Vogue article "Best Botanical Gardens in the U.S."
Of the 46 items included in our analysis, these 12 fruits and vegetables were most contaminated with pesticides:
https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php
They also list the clean fifteen and a bunch in between the clean and dirty. https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/full-list.php
Report Summary https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php
Cabbage is kind of surprising.
My garden is doing good so far.....Got some Tom’s and Peppers started....Have some Maple and Juniper Bonsi coming along....And I have a Mulberry that I am air laying and some Redbuds....They are going to be good I think.
Wife and I both enjoy ‘hot cuisine’, so I wanted to give these serranos a try...we’ve been growing hot peppers for years, and I have NEVER run into pepper seeds treated in such a fashion where the fungicide was clearly visible. I always wanted my tombstone to say ‘Died Eating Tasty Food’, but died from FOOD, not insecticide or fungicide. :-)
Gorgeous! I’m not much for ‘tropical’ (I have that THICK Norther Blood) but I could probably spent a day or week or month in the garden scene you posted! :) Thanks!
I spent a good part of the weekend working on the new garden patch. I cut down three middling sized dead elm trees and two middling-large sized live elms and hauled the scraps off to the sippy hole. Then I cleaned up a big limb that came out of an oak tree in the dry lot and wiped out a section of board fence. Fortunately no posts were broken off. One post was pushed over ~45° but with Nanner's help I was able to straighten it up without much trouble.
While I had the tractor out I cleaned up the other pile of rotten hay and horse poo that was left over from feeding during the winter and added it to the heap in the new garden spot. After all that was done Mrs. Augie and I made a lap around the fence lines with the limb loppers and a bottle of Tordon RTU. I lost count of how many multiflora rose and bush honeysuckle we cut and treated. We quit when the Tordon ran out. There's not much point to cutting them if they can't be treated while the cut is fresh. It's a nasty job but it has to be done every few years to keep the fence lines clear of the cursed things.
We also made the decision to repair the perimeter fence around the sunflower field and turn that back into pasture. Those fences have been neglected for quite awhile so that's going to be a bit of a job. Those old fencerows are so overgrown it would be extremely difficult to pull new wire so I'll patch where I can and use cattle panels where I have to. I don't want the horses in my bait pond so I'll have to build a couple hundred feet of new fence and hang another gate for pond access.
Oh, the joys of a homeowner...
Still have buds on my Thanksgiving cactus.
Started our lettuce inside, Little Gem, Paris Cos, and Yugoslavian Red Butter lettuce.
Hung out our two Mason bee houses. Caught them early, only about a dozen had emerged into the bag. Last year it was a lot more, all alive just moving slow.
Tomorrow clean out the asparagus bed. I start slow in the spring.
Couple of good heavy rains during the day down here. Took this on my way home from work. I have 4x4 and would have crossed it if I had some weight in the back of the pickup. Probably could have made it anyway but I'm too old for dealing with what could happen if I didn't. Backend swings out and pumpkin ends up sitting on the concrete bridge with right rear tire hanging off. I'll take the 10 minute delay over that.
Turned around and took the long way in and will take the long way out in the morning. Not gonna complain because the creeks have been very low this Winter.
We have rain on the way midweek ... 2-3” for our area (on top of the 2.5” we got Friday night into Saturday). Areas to the northwest & southwest are showing potential 3 to 5”! The ground is pretty soft and the grass is growing. Some areas are too muddy to mow & if we get another 2-3”, we’re going to have ponds!
On the LB situation - a “bead buster” has been ordered & should be here this afternoon. My bro needs it to work on his ATV tires anyway, so it made sense to order it now when LB’s tires need tubes & one tire is being a stinker (it’s got Slime in it which is causing issues).
Major success yesterday - the siphon my bro loaned me fit in the gas tank (I have 2 & neither fit) and I was able to get almost all of the old gas out. It still smells like gas so it’s not separated into gas/water & that’s a good thing. We’ll probably try to start it up either today or tomorrow.
There’s a little 10 cubic foot trailer that LB can pull - trailer hitch is compatible. I pulled it out of the pole shed yesterday after clearing off everything in/on it and the tires were not totally flat, maybe half to 3/4 full - one was better than the other. After getting it to the garage, I got the tires filled and they look pretty good, not showing dry rot. Fingers crossed the tires are still ‘up’ this morning. With all the tree debris around the new house, I’ll need the trailer to clean it up.
While digging out the trailer, I found some really nice boards - they’ll work great for shelving in the shop for my garden stuff :-)
Yep, you’d have probably been ok crossing that, but to save ten minutes? I’d have turned around too.
I dumped 1.3” out of the rain gauge this morning. The little rains that we’ve been getting over the past few weeks haven’t done much for the water level in my pond. It had all been soaking in until this one. I haven’t had a measuring stick in the water for quite awhile now but my eyeballs are estimating 4”-5” of rise. Still a ways to go to achieve full pool but I’ll take it.
I love those Dirty Dozen lists! So handy. Also - I grow a lot of that stuff myself, so no pesticides to worry about. :)
Re: Cabbage - usually the outer leaves (that they don’t sell) are full of holes from bugs, so those would more than likely be sprayed for the overall health of the final cabbage head.
Unless you have a bad infestation of Cabbage Worms, the heads are usually OK at harvest. (Just my personal experience).
Glad to hear about the cactus - mine has a few open flowers and a few more buds on her. I think with the changing ‘slant’ of the sun these days, she’ll probably give it up after this last little bonus blooming. Who knows? She seems to have a mind of her own!
Good news! The ‘Sabre’ seed you sent me germinated just fine, so I’ll have two bushes of those tomatoes to try this season. Excited! :)
And you’re right - doesn’t look like ‘Sabre’ is ‘commercially’ available anymore - I’ve been looking! :(
I need a Redbud in the worst way! Such a pretty tree. :)
What a treasure trove your sheds are, LOL! I know Beau sees the barn and the garage that way - I just want a place to park my VW over winter! ;)
Great news on the Sabre. Save your seeds, and you won’t get many. Precious.
I always wanted a redbud but we just don’t get enough sun. And it would have to be surrounded with forsythia.
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