Hard Turning Mower with Nearly Flat Tire.

When I woke up this morning, I thought that I would take a picture of everything that I needed to do today.  When I walk around the yard and the nursery I see things that I need to do.  When I start work I often don't get around to doing any of those projects.  I changed my mind.  There are a couple of tasks at the top of my list.

Picked few cucumbers, then had breakfast. then spent all morning working in house one.  I made a lot of TOMAHOOKS our of old tomato cages.  I began in house one in east isle on the north end.  The tomato plants were tall and had a lot of branching.  I cleaned some trash out of the north end for a little more room.  Using the TOMAHOOKS I was able to lay them down so the tops would not touch the roof.  You can see that they are leaning to the north.  I didn't count the plants, but there may be a dozen of them.

I pruned the bottom leaves and some fruit had spoiled.  With the leaves gone it is much easier to see the fruit.  The picture below shows the trunk of the tomato plant stripped of its leaves.

I worked there until lunch.  After lunch I started weeding.  The following pictures shows the weeds, the weeds cut down, and where the weeds after they were removed.  There are three different areas.

  Weeds have been removed.

Looking south at the coshire weeds.  Some are very tall.

The weeds are down, but are difficult to see because of the camera angle.

The weeds are gone.  I used a shovel for some and for others I pulled them up.

The weeds are tall down the isle past the cold frame.   I sprayed them several times earlier in the spring.  But rains starts a new crop.

Looking down the isle past the cold frame.  The weeds are cut down and are laying where I cut them.

The weeds are gone.

Weeds are gone between the stack of benches on the left and the single bench on the rights

I usually mow the lawn on Friday, and today is Friday.  I almost forgot.  After I did the weeds, I gathered up the garden hoses and removed the from the lawn.  The mower worked well, but after a while it would not turn well.  I thought one of the hydraulic motors was low on oil.  I was almost finished when I discovered that the back tire was almost flat.  I pumped it up and finished the mowing.  I dumped it on some morning glory in the middle of the strawberry plants.  You can see the strawberry plants in the corners of the photo.

I found a small nest of wasps attached to the ceiling in the hen house this afternoon.  When it was dark I went out with a flashlight on my hat armed with plastic grocery bags.  I grabbed it.  I then discovered two more that were large.  I the nest in the bag.  A few fell to the ground.  I stepped on all of them.  The I got the other nest completely.  The bags are in anther bag tied shut in the garbage can.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

Cool This Morning and Veggie Juice

After breakfast I picked the cucumbers and some crookneck squash.  Carol took most of them to the post office.  They were all gone except three Armenian cucumbers.


I picked three buckets of tomato.  We are making Carol's veggie juice.  Carol removed the bad parts of the tomato and cut them into pieces.  I smashed the up with our hand held blender.  It worked pretty good.  We ended up with seventeen quarts of veggie juice.  It taste really good.

The floor was pretty messy with the tomatoes etc.  I washed the floor mat outside that on the floor in front of the sink.  I dried most of the day.

 I had a piece of pizza for lunch and a slice of bread and baloney and tomato.  The tomato hid the bread and baloney.  It was really good.

 This afternoon I did some weeding by house five. I weeded in front of the bed and under the small apple tree.  I don't know what happened to the bottom of the picture.

The Jupiter's beard plant has finished blooming.  I cut it down and carried it to the compost pile.

I watched a you tube video last night where the hung melons.  I decided to hang a watermelon.  The string is tied to the stem and to a branch of the pinion pine.

 I hung tomato plants in house one with the TOMAHOOK.  No photos.

I went home teaching at the end of the evening.

Comments and Questions are welcomed.

Worked All Day -- On Different Things

After my morning devotional I picked bucket of Armenian cucumbers and a bucket of burpless cucumbers.

The last corn transplant is about sixteen inches tall and it is beginning to tassel.  It spent too much time in the six packs on the benches.  It is ninety day corn and half of that time was in a six pack.

I then wound up some of the twine in house six.  We may use it again some other time.

When I finished with that task, I noticed that the twine holding the overhead wire up, broke.  The tomato plants heavy with fruit broke.  I ripped an 82 inch 2 x 4 in half.  With my skillsaw I cut a notch in the end of each one.

The post is barely visible in the photo.  The notch is in the overhead wire.

After lunch I moved the rest of the grass clippings.  It took me a little over a half hour.  The photo below shows the clippings are gone.  Just a little left.

Below are where I dumped the wheelbarrow.  It is near the pole beans.  There must have been fifteen loads.  The old tomato cages are in the background.  Late I used some of the wire to make some TOMAHOOKS

 Here the clipping are spread around.  There is nothing planted there.

 I have noticed that the Salvia pachyphylla flowers contain ripe seeds.  I picked the blossoms and put them in a five gallon bucket.  I will thresh them when they dry.

I am out of TOMAHOOKS.  I cut a short piece of rusty old barbwire off the back fence.  On the way back to the garage I picked up an old tomato cage made out of concrete inforcement wire.  I cut them into pieces about thirteen inches.  I bent them into the right shape.  The one on the far right is made out of the heavy wire; the one on the left of it is made out of barbwire.

There some tomato plants on the north end of house one that have never been hung.  I hung two of the using the TAMOHOOKS that I made today.  The tomato plants are Sun Gold cherries.  They may not produce much, but we shall see.  I could have saved a lot of time by pulling them up.

After supper I tied up the squash plants.  I have to do that on my knees, but they will soon be tall enough to tie them up while I am standing.  Below the cucumbers are on the left and the squash on the right.  You can see at least one zucchini.

 Below is one plant with a lot of crookneck squash.

The watermelons are doing well.  Below is one on top of the root ball of a pinion pine that never found a home.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

The day started with cucumbers --- finished with canning

Soon as breakfast was over, I told Carol that I will pick a bucket of Armenian cucumbers and some burpless cucumbers.  Surprise, I came back with two full buckets.  Carol washed them.  She took the Armenians to the post office.  There are a few people that leave their surplus vegetables at the post office.  Ours were gone.  We are taking the burpless cucumbers to Manti for one of the ordinance workers.

One of the rows of tomatoes in house one was leaning to the west.  I pounded a stake in the ground angled a little left of the post.  I tied them together with a wire and it now is plumb or straight up.

I filled a wheelbarrow with the grass clippings, which by now were hot and stinky.  I worked for two house doing this.

I mulched all the strawberry plants.  The didn't do well this year.  There was not any strawberries, period.  I didn't count the loads, but there were a lot of them.

The is a large box elder tree between the grass clipping and the strawberry patch near the garage.  Every time that we walk out to the garden, we have to duck under the hanging branches..   On my first trip with the wheelbarrow,  I had to duck.  I stopped then and tried to start the chainsaw.  I would start.  I grabbed my bow saw and went to work cutting a large branch with small branches hanging down.  It didn't take long until I had it cut down.  I drug it to the trailer.  I will load it later. 


tree picture

Some trays inside house three.  They were full of weeds and I pulled them today.

 On the bench south of house three are trailing daisies.  They were hanging nearly to the ground.  I cut them off.  There needs to be more pruning.

 These strawberry plants are sending out runners.  It is time to propagate.  I hope in the near future.

Below are pictured swish chard.  It has grown so big that it doesn't appear edible.  I dug half of it out, making it easier to pick the tomatoes.

After lunch, I started canning some tomatoes.  Robert picked a bunch of small salad tomatoes.  I boiled them to remove the skin.  I put them in a food processor to break them into small pieces.  I strained them through a calendar, put them in two quart bottles.  I them processed them in boiling water for 50 minutes.

 Here they are in the bottle.

After supper I took the following pictures.  I put a sprinkler on the compost pile to keep it wet and hopefully decompose.

 The watermelon vines are doing well, but the watermelons on the stake are dying before they even get started.  It is black on the bottom edge.

 The pumpkin vine grows twelve inches every day.  There some pumpkins beginning to grow.

Comments and questions are welcomed

Robert Came Alone -- Work

First project this morning was to make a vegetable juice, using tomatoes, peppers, onions, celery, and parsley.  Everything was cooked.  We had breakfast while it was cooking and then juiced it.

After breakfast, Carol put it in the bottles and processed it.  Eleven quarts and one pint.

Most of the time Robert and I worked in house one pruning tomato plant branches.  That is a constant job.  We prune at one end of the row.  When we come back we see a lot of branches that were skipped.  Then in a week they may grow twelve inches.

We drove to Meadow, Utah, and visited the Pahvant Valley Trading Post.  We had hoped to sell tomatoes and peppers.  There were several venders there and no customers.  The owners said that they might have to close down.

I have made a lot of TOMAHOOKS to hang tomato plants to a support wire.  Today, we made a video.   TOMAHOOK

After lunch we again worked in house one.  We were pruning and hanging.

This evening we, Carol and I went to Delta for a family reunion.  Many brought prizes to give away in the following game board called PLINKO.  Board is made of a peg board.  There are many versions of it on YouTube.

Everyone that played got a prize.  The last drawing was for the winner of the quilt.  Mary Anne is announcing the winner.

There is the quilt.

 My brother Paul and his family winning the golf tournament.

After I got home, I tied up the squash and pumpkin plants.  They have really grown the last couple of days.

I asked Rod who mows the ball park to dump his clipping at our place.  I won't be able to move them to the garden until Monday.  I hope they don't begin to stink.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

Irrigation, Robert, and Frank at the Same Time

I was up early to get the water.  It was beginning to get light and there was also a bright street light at the ditch.  There were a lot of weeds growing.  I came back with the weed whip and cleaned the weeds.  The water was there by seven.  Robert and Frank also were at house one by seven.  Robert began to pick eggplants, tomatoes and peppers.   Here is Frank with some of the tomatoes.  They are taking them to a farmers market this evening.  There is a tote at the bottom left full of rejected tomatoes.  Most have cracks.  Carol and I will turn them into veggie juice.

I picked some black cherry tomatoes.  Also, there are some sweet pepper plants.

I began the irrigation by running the water through the pipes to the north and east lawn.  While the water was running there I tied more the summer squash to their stake.  I watered all of the plants in that part of the garden.  Below is a yellow crookneck summer squash.  

Below: cucumbers on the right and the summer squash on the right.

There is water running on the lawn west of the garage.  The gate valve can be faced in any direction to water grass or part of the garden.

 Here the water is running on the front lawn directed into a four inch pvc pipe.

The poles that were to hold the wires up began to lean to the side.   One row would lean toward the other row, making it difficult to walk between the two row.  I tried several ways of keeping the up straight.  I tied the pole to the purlin,  That was hard to tie and get the pole straight.   Then it occurred that if I drove a stake in the ground and attached the pole to the stake the pole would be straight.  The stake was a three to four foot half inch steel conduit.  The first stake was plumb.  The pole was able to pull the stake out of plumb.  The rest were driven at a light angle.  Then the pole pulled the stake in to plumb.  The one below shows the stake and pole being held together with a wire wrapped tightly around the stake and pole.  I drove a screw into the pole and hooked the two together with a wire around the stake and wrapped around the screw.   Most of the poles are standing up straight now.

These two barrels might be used to make a digester of plant material to be used as fertilizer.

Comments and questions are welcomed.