Lawnmower Repair & Phone Validation

The first thing this morning was to pick the peas.  There was quite a bunch of them.  After breakfast we shelled them.  Carol put them in the freezer.  It took two, one gallon zip bags to hold them all.  There will be one more picking.

I drove the lawnmower to our neighbor, Richard's, place.  He can fix anything.  It needed a fuel filter.  After lunch I drove to Fillmore for the filter and made a deposit. I also, bought some groceries.  When I made it home, one loaf was moldy.

I went back with the part to Richard's house.  He put it back together and it seemed to work well.  I drove the mower home and mowed the east side of the east lawn to house five.

I was on the phone with a Samsung person to activate my new phone.  She was hard to understand.  After a half hour or so I got it activated.  I won't be able to make or receive calls until Wednesday or Thursday.

I started taking pictures.  The first ones were in color.  I then went outside to take some pictures and there turned out to be in black and white.  I could not figure how to get the color back.  I called the company and they were not of much help.

I was going to mow the lawn.  I started up the mower and drove slowly at half throttle and it quit.  I tried it several time and it still wouldn't work.

I did a lot of weeding in house three.  There were two trays of Rubber Rabbit brush I cut back.  Also, there were a lot of dead.

..The earwigs are eating some of our young tender plants.  I got this bug bait this morning.  This evening I sprinkled it around all the plants that were being eaten.  watermelon, topaz melon, pole beans, and a couple of crookneck squash plants.

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What a Week-Four Days-Provo Each Morning and Home Each Evening

Monday, June 26:
This morning Carol began to pass blood.  She called the clinic and was told to go to the emergency room at the Fillmore Hospital.  It was later diagnosed as Ischemie  Colitis.

They did numerous test at the Hospital and it was determined that she would be take to the Utah Valley Hospital in Provo by ambulance.  It seemed to take a long time before the ambulance came.  I followed it until Holden where I got off and picked up a few things.  She was attached to tubes and wires, and was in a lot of pain.  I decided to come home.  I didn't have any meds or extra clothes.  She was scheduled for a colonoscopy Tuesday morning.  She had to drink a gallon of medication.  She was still drinking that when I left a little after seven.  A water pipe in house six had come loose and water was running into house five.  Ann our neighbor was doing the watering.  She called and I told her to shut the water off in house two.  I was able to fix it.  I found some cement and glued it back into place.

Tuesday,  27 June:
I started the morning by running water down the potato rows.  I watered many of the flower beds.  I prepared some snacks to eat on the way to Provo.  I backed to the end of the driveway.  I saw those pretty black eye Susan's.  I picked a enough to fill the vase.  I got gas as Costco in Spanish Fork.  As I took them in to the hospital, I passed many people and some commented on how beautiful they were.


Stress Test

Pruning, Peppers, and Egg Plants.

Robert was up early this morning working in house six.

pruned and weeded in house six

planted peppers and egg plants I in garden two  Jeanne and Sadie helped.

Another Morning in House Six

This morning  before breakfast we were being "pea pickers".  We did our first picking of the season.  We will pick again Monday morning.

 After breakfast I watered in houses two and three.  Then I began to work in house six.  I put on a long sleeved white shirt which turned green pruning tomato plants.  I put on exam gloves to keep my hands clean.  I worked in there for nearly three hours.  When finished I cleaned the center isle.  Some of the plants are above my head.  There are a lot of tomatoes.

It was so hot out side I decided I would work in the yard in the shade of the tree.  It is west of the drive way.  I have two pictures.   This is how it looked when I started.  I did not get finished, but maybe tomorrow.  There are a lot of weeds that haven't been cleaned out for two years.

 This is how it looks when I had to quit.  I can finish tomorrow.

One of the watermelon plants was eaten by earwigs.  I had one cotyledon which did not last very long with the bunch of earwigs.  I sprayed it this evening.  It is pictured below.

House one has a lot of egg plants on the east side.  Earwigs have been chewing on them.  They come out at night and seem to eat all night long.

This is a small garden cart that Lisa and Eric gave me.  I could then sit while I work.  I tried it in the garden and it was hard to move it while I was sitting on it because the ground was cloddy.  I brought into house one and was able to  move with ease.  To move forward I would roll the wheels forward.  I use the orange twine to pull it around without having to lift it.

I found a better way by pushing it backward with my feet.  The seat swivels.  I can turn to the right or left to prune the tomato plants or pull weeds.

Robert came here about four.  We worked in the south garden the rest of the afternoon.  We planted more pepper plants and put out the drip lines for the garden north of the asparagus.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

Today

I worked all morning in house six pruning the suckers off the tomato plants.  I wore a long sleeve shirt and exam gloves to keep my arms and hands clean.  Some of the suckers were three feet long.  Others were much shorter.  I have decided that it is a full time job keeping them pruned.  There are new ones every week.  Many of the plants have ripe tomatoes.  I cut what I thought was the sucker, but cut the plant off near the ground.  It was loaded with Juliet tomatoes.

Insects ate some of the plants that I transplanted yesterday.  I sprayed the twice today.

I planted another 606 jumbo tray with Peaches and Cream corn seed.  When the corn already growing is harvested I will replace it with new transplants.

I mowed the lawn.  I thought today was Friday, but it is Thursday.

Some insects are eating our pole bean plants.  I went out with a light at 10:30 tonight and there were earwigs on the plants and on the ground.  I came back with a sprayer and hopefully I will poison them.

Transplanting Topaz melon and Crimson sweet watermelon,

I planted Topaz melon pictured below.  Some pumpkin gourd, and Crimson sweet watermelon.

Below shows blood meal that I put in each hole before the plant was put in.   I had one small six pack of watermelons which were well rooted except one below.  It is a single plant with showing only the cotelydens.  We will see how it works out.  

I finished planting seven Topaz melons and turned the water on.  It is is running down the Topaz melon row.  They are transplants about two weeks old.  They were easy to remove from the six pack and the soil held together.

 Close up of the Topaz melon plants.

Not much to look at but these summer squash seeds are old and planted a week ago Monday.  I am going to cut them all out except one when they get a little bigger.  The  plant will be trained to grow up a tall stake.

It has been a hot day.  It clouded up late this afternoon.  I did some pruning in house one because it is a little cooler.  There were a lot of suckers on.  I cut them off.  They should have been traillised a couple of weeks ago.  The are also a lot of weeds.  I set on a small scooter and pushed myself backwards to prune the plants.

Below are plants that haven't been pruned.  I will get some of them tomorrow.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

Not Much Today

I turned the water on at the drip north of the iris.  I wanted it to soak so when planting tomorrow, the ground would be soft.  One of the dribble tubes blew out.  There is  small stream of water coming out.  I put the dribble tube back in and tied it down with a twist wire.

 This looks like a map of a peninsula, The dark is the land.  In reality one of the dribble tubes is emitting water where the ground will be softened for planting tomorrow or  the next day.

 The photo is in house one.  Drip lines are to water the egg plants, tomato plants, pepper plants.  When it gets hot it expands and cause kinks or buckles/

Comments and suggestions are welcomed.

Irrigation Water this Morning

Water turn today.  I was up at five and after showering, I drove up main street to turn the water down.  Somebody had filled the ditch with water and it took some cleaning.  I turned the water down and it was in our yard by the time I drove back.  I had to go back and forth several time to clean the sieve.   I watereed every thing.  The turned the water down to Raymond about three.

Watering west of the driveway.

 Watering west of the chicken run.  The large tomato plants are on the right.

When I finished watering the lawn and garden I watered the orchard.  The water came from the gated pipe and the large white pipe took the water to the south side of the orchard.

Below are the Cucumber plants in house six.  They are being trained to climb the string.

These are pole beans trying to climb with nothing to climb.  Planning on a netting for them.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

Saturday and Robert's Friends

Robert, Frank, and Christina were here by eight this morning.  The went right to work stringing the cucumber plants.  After that they began to lay out the drip tape in the South garden.

While they were doing that, I gathered up the frost protection fabric. We used them in mid may when there was a threat of frost.   Some was in house one and the other was in the garden where the corn is planted.  I put it on the driveway.  Carol helped me fold it up.  I am storing them in the north end of house 3.

Back to Robert:  They planted a lot of pepper plants.

 There are two rows of drip tape and three rows of peppers.  All together there is nine rows of peppers.

 They also planted some vine crops.  Squash and watermelons.

 I got the watering system fixed and let the water run for a short time to mark the spot where the emitters are.  Also, the ground would be softened some for digging later on.

 On each side of the garden hose dribble tubing were incerted.

 In the late afternoon I filled the backpack sprayer with weed killer.  I sprayed around the yard and gardens until it was empty.  The picture below was some weeds that I missed several weeks ago.

The first crop of corn is showing silk.  The ears will be small, but it should be good. The later crop is starting to tassel.  The ears will be more natural in size.

 It was after eight when I checked out house one.  There are no strings to hold the tomato plants upright.  Frank brought some four foot bamboo sticks.  I could not get them in the ground deep enough to hold them upright let alone to hold a tomato plant.  I could not pound them in the ground because the bamboo would bow.  I took a half inch pvc pipe a little over three feet long.  I pushed the bamboo in as for as I could.  then slipped the pvc pipe over it and with a mallet I was able to pound it in four or five inches, and with a tomato clip I attached the tomato to the stick.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

Hot Today

This morning after breakfast, I sprayed weeds at the ditch where we get out water.  I prepared the spray yesterday, but did not get time to spray.  The spray tank fits on top of the lawnmower deck.  It worked really well.  I could spray some  as I drove.  Others, I would get of the mower and spray up and down the ditch.  Get back on the mower and drive up some and get off again.  I had some spray left over so I sprayed along the road north of our yard and greenhouses.

The leaf miners continue to eat the pole bean leaves.  I sprayed them with the ream oil.  I made a stronger batch.  I them sprayed the potatoes plants for flea beetles.  I didn't see any.

While I was spraying the potatoes,  I got a picture of the peas.  The pods are quite long and some are beginning to swell.

There are a couple of wild flowers that I am showing today.  The one below, we don't know the name of it.  It is about five inches tall and five inches wide.

The two pictures below are of a plant that does well every year.  It has lime green leaves with small dainty yellow flowers.  I have a few seedlings of it.

Below is a close-up showing the buds.

The last activity for the day is preparing trip irrigation for the melons and watermelons that will be planted north of the of the irises.



Comments and questions are welcome.

Southwest Flower Bed Adds Beauty

The first project worked on this morning is the Southeast flower bed.  Carol gave me the suggestion this morning to got to work.  After some nudging from Carol, I thought it best to begin the preparations for this bed.  Several days ago I brought in a lot of compost.  I dug up more weeds and then began spreading the compost in and even layer of the bed.  I tried to till the soil and compost together.  The compost was to deeps and the bottom soil was dry and hared.    The photo shows the east side of the bed.  That which looks deeper is a shadow.

Below is the west end.

I brought out Wave petunias, State Fair zinnias, geraniums, and two other different zinnias.  The tall at the back, the small zinnias on both sides, next the geraniums, then the Wave petunias, and more small zinnias at the bottom in the front.  We also planted several different perennials on the east end of the bed.  I dug the holes and Carol removed the plant from the pot and put them in the holes that I made.  The finished bed is pictured below.  We then put the water on it.

We stored the potatoes in the garage all winter.  We were not able to eat them all and they soon become wrinkled and soft.  I brought one bucket to the garden and dumped it.  There were a lot of new potatoes showing the effort of the original potatoes to reproduce.  I brought them into the house and may have them for dinner tomorrow.

Here are the little potatoes.

The Saliva pachyphylla looked so pretty that I just had to take a picture of it.

I want to plant watermelons and other vine crops in the space north of the Iris. The base for it is a half inch garden hose.  I can but it away for the winter.  I went to Fillmore to get some parts.  This is the end of the hose that I have kinked it.  I kinked it and used a section of PVC pipe to hold the king in place.  I did the same for the other end.

I hooked a pressure regulator to the hose bib.  with the tee the water will run in both directions.  

I drilled a hole in the hose and stuck in a narrow tubing to deliver water to the plants.  I had to wire the tubing to the hose so the pressure would to blow it out.  I then hooked a lead emitter to the end of the tubing.  Turned the water on and got it watered.

Comments and suggestions welcomed