Ben and I Make a Great Team

Ben was here right at eight and I hadn't finished my breakfast.  Yesterday, I showed him how to water. He finished and I met him coming in as I was going out.  I had him water the corn and squash.  Before doing this he helped me cut over 90 feet of 9 gage wire.  We cut them into twelve inch pieces.   He held the wire over the wood vise which was twelve inches wide.   I cut them with heavy duty wire cutters.  As he was watering I was bending them into the shape which I wanted.  The picture below shows the twelve inch piece and one that is bent into the proper shape.

The twine holding the plant up is wrapped around the bow and is hooked onto the wire.  Tomato clips hold the tomato plant to the twine.  The picture shows the sky and one of the greenhouse bows.

Ben dumped the soil out of the tubes.   Later we worked in house one untangling the tomato plants.  Some of them had branches over five feet long.  I would cut the those lower branches of the main plant.  I handed them to Ben and he would pull them out.  In the picture below you can see how they are tangled.   We have about five feet to go to be able to walk from one end to the other.   Be went home about eleven and I continued until lunch time.

This afternoon I worked in several of our gardens.  Below is summer squash plants which are beginning to produce crook neck and zucchini.  I have been pruning of the lower leaves and tying the main stem to the post.  Everyday they grow two or three inches.

I planted four gourd plants.  One of them died due to squash bugs, I think.  Pictured below is what I call the pumpkin gourd.  It is shaped like a pumpkin, but about the same size of softball. Today I removed all the male blossoms from the other gourd plants hoping to get some pure seeds of this gourd.   It is over six feet tall  and is loaded with the female bud.

 The watermelons are really doing well.  There are two different watermelon plants that I am training up a small post.  The one below was a late plant and it has grown up about eighteen inches.

 The watermelon plant shown below is about three feet tall and has a small female bud on it.  It is about the size of the point of your little finger

Below is a picture of the watermelon and Topaz melons.  They were planted late in the year but are doing well now.  There are as some call them baby watermelons and baby topaz melons.

Comments and Question are welcomed.

The Sabbath

The Sabbath
Attended all of our church meetings today.  I was at the High Priest Quorum meeting at five.

We had our first zucchini for dinner today.

Improvement in House One and a Pile of Fruit

Robert and Frank were here a little after eight this morning.  The picked tomatoes, peppers, and some cucumbers.  They decided not to do the Farmer's Market at this time.

We worked for an hour or so in house one trellising tomato plants.  We would find where the plant was rooted in the ground and the cut the branching close to the ground.  The twine was attached just inches of the ground.  The twine was cut at the right length and wrapped around the twine holder.  Frank is pruning the tomatoes.

 This row is almost finished to the end.  Soon we will be able to walk all the way through.

Robert is pruning tomato plants.

There are two large fans on the west end of house six.  The one on the left side made quite a noise.  The fan blades were hitting the top of the cover.  I put a brace on the outside to lift the top a little.  I wired it to the board.  The brace is sitting on top of two cement blocks.

To West Wendover and Back

We got the chores done and by eight we were on our way to West Wendover.  We stopped at Walmart in Payson to buy a wedding present where we bought a blender as a wedding present for Briana.  We also bought some wrapping paper and Carol got her a pair of shoes.  We stopped at Sam's Club for a few other things and filled the car with gasoline.

We stopped a Nyleen and Mile's where Carol wrapped the present and Where Miles cut my hair.  It was pretty long.  We gave them a lot of cucumbers from the garden.  They seemed pleased to get them.

From there we were on our way to West Wendover.  It is nearly a four hour drive.  The gps on my phone gave directions all the way.  It took right to the golf course club house.  We were way early and we drove up and down every street looking around.  We stopped into Smith's Grocery store.  We bought some Oriole cookies which we snacked on, on the way home.

It were at the club house a half hour early which was okay.  Family was there.  We were introduced to some of those that we did not know.  We had a quick visit with Christine before the wedding started.  It was quite different from any other wedding we have been too.  The groom was Cathlic and the Bride was Mormon.  The wedding ceremonies and vows were administered by the justice of peace who wore an official robe.  He gave about eight good points of advice.  Right after that a Catholic Priest spoke to them and said some things that were difficult to understand.  He did the sign of the cross frequently.  The groom and his father also made the cross sign.  The Justice of the piece then pronounce them man and wife.  We were in a few pictures.  My the phone that led us here would not take pictures.

We drove home and stopped at Costco in Spanish Fork for gasoline and at the Red Barn for ice cream.  We were home around 8:30.

I Can't Get the Work Done. Help is Here

He watered them while I was pruning the summer squash plants.  I did not find and squash bugs or their eggs.  I tied the plants to the stakes.  This is the second and third time that I have tied.  There are small crookneck squash and two zucchini plants.  

There have been stacks of trays with dead plants in them.  Yesterday, Ben, my new help dumped all the trays and hauled the soil to Robert's garden.  To day stacked the six packs and put them in the trash can.  They are now in the back of the truck.

A couple of days ago, I removed all of the sweet corn stalks and put them on the compost pile.  Today we planted the corn.  I made the holes and Ben came by and put osmocote in each hole.  He then put a corn plant to the right of each holes while I put them in the holes and covered the root ball with the soil.

later in the afternoon I made more tomato hooks.  I drove two screws in a heavy piece of oak.  With a twelve inch piece of wire I was able to make about two per/minute.



I mowed the lawn,

I cleaned the sprinkler filters.

The 24th July Between Greenhouse Work

Most of our work was in greenhouse six.  Robert, Jeanne, and Sadie spent the night with us.  He was up at day light and started to work.  The Holden Ward Celebrated July 24th with a parade lot food, pop bottle rockets, and ice cream.  We went home after the breakfast and began work in house six.  It was mostly pruning the tomato plants and cleaning out all the weeds.  In addition there were several totes filled with ripe tomatoes.  It was very hot and sweat was dripping off our faces.  There were some clouds.  I shout the west door and turned on the two fans.  That really made a difference in the temperature.  Robert and his family went home about five.  Below, Robert is pulling weeds, pruning all stems below the last fruit, and picking fruit.

This is how the isle looked looking west.

 This is the isle looking east.

The wasps are under the board next two the cement block.

 There is another wasp nest in the hole the block.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

Help Has Arrived, but Left Four Hours Later

I was so dirty last night I showered before going to bed.  This morning I was up a day break.  There were three wasp nests in the shell on my pickup.  I took three grocery bags with me and with my hand in the bag, I grabbed the nest and closed it up.  I did all three and put those in another bag.  A rubber band held the bag close.  In to the garbage it went.

Robert and his BYU friends were here about eight.  I helped them in house one.  We were hanging tomato plants.  There were two rows of tomato plants that didn't have a wire above.  We put up the two wires and then began hanging the tomato plants to the wires.  We did this for over three hours.

I was interrupted to help Carol with sweet relish.  We ground up peppers, onions, and cucumbers.  She soaked them for two hours, and then I squeezed out the water.  She ended up with nine half pints or good relish.

After lunch it was work in our own garden.  We picked all the corn yesterday, at least I thought so.  I started to cut down the corn stocks, but to my surprise I found about twelve more ears of corn.  we had two of them for supper.  It has been hot work.

I stacked all of it on the compost pile.  It is getting be quite a big pile.   I hope that it will decompose during the winter.

Robert's plants are beginning to get grow to the top of the cow panel bow.  The fruits are hanging down.  There is one that is really big lower down on the other end.

There were sixteen romaine cucumber plants at the nursery.

I planted them where the first batch of corn was growing.  Some of them were nearly two feet long. The water run down the row.

I did a lot of weeding in the garden.  I first weeded the topaz melons.  Then around the large tomato plants south of the cucumbers..  When finished there I weeded on the south side of the cucumbers.

 I weeded along the head of the garden.  Most of the weeds were percaline.

 There is a raised bed that I neglected this year.  Last year there were beets and carrots growing there.  I removed all the dead plants and hope to grow carrots again this year.

 Lastly this evening I tied most of the summer squash plant to the stake.  A little fuzzy but you can see the twine around the stake close to the ground.  I have killed a squash bug and some eggs.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

The Lawnmower and the Turff Meet

I showered last night before I went home teaching.  This morning I skipped the shower and picked the sweet corn.  Carol and I shucked the corn and we cut off all the kernels.   We ended up with a gallon zip bag packed full of the corn kernels. They are in the freezer.  This afternoon I cut some of the corn down.

It had rained last night and the ground was a little muddy and the lawn was wet.  l removed the hose on the lawn.  By then the lawn had pretty well dried out.  I replaced a small bolt on the throttle lever with a shorter one.  The lawnmower motor idles too high.  Replacing the small bolt did not help.  I mowed the lawn and dumped the grass catcher twice.

I moved the patio furniture a little further to the north.  We covered it a couple of days ago and the rain last night.

I takes a little over and hour to mow our big lawn.   Below is the east lawn.

I drove the lawnmower in through the south door.  I backed it into the small space in house three.

I worked the rest of the morning in house one.  I pulled weeds and pruned branches on tomato plants on both rows, left and right.

The next row to the west is in terrible shape.  Branches are growing across one another and across the row.  I pulled weeds and pruned the branches.  I left the branches in the middle of the row.

One of the gourd plants has died.  I think that the squash bugs killed it.  I pulled it up and will plant something else in its place.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

Cursed Again, the Belhausin Car

Fred and Ann Belhasen paid us a visit yesterday.  They arrived about 1:30 and after a short visit we had lunch at Cluffs in Fillmore. The food was really good but we had quite a long wait to be served.  From left to right.  Fred, Anne, Carol, and me, Merrill.

We toured the nursery, visited some, and after supper we watched the video of Momamia.  It took quite a while to get the video to start playing.  Anne went to the car to get some things for bed. She put the key in the ignition and couldn't get it out.  The left the light on and the battery was dead.   It was late and we would charge the battery in the morning.

Fred had an appointed for some blood testing.   They had to leave by eight to make to their appointment.  We had to hurry and get things done.  I picked the cucumbers and some corn.  We put these in Anne's car.  After breakfast I hooked the battery charge to their car battery which was in the trunk.

The charger did not seem to work.  I got the direction and still could not get it to work.  I drove the car up close to their trunk.  I hooked the battery cables correctly.  There was enough boost to get the key out.  But car would not start.  the battery terminals on our car were covered and I could not get a good connection.  I then called Triple A to send someone over to start the car.  Thirty minutes went by and no help from Triple A.  I brought the truck over and hooked up the jumper cable.  Nothing.  I used my heavy duty cables.  Nothing.  I then got the wire and cleaned the truck battery' post.  Tried again and the car started.  I called Tipple A and canceled the call.

I worked most of the rest of the day in house one.  I cut rebar into six inch pieces.   I ended up with 27 pieces.  With these pieces I was able to hang one row of tomatoes.

I removed some weeds and hung this whole row of tomato plants.  I wore cotton gloves that helped me keep my hands somewhat clean.  My shirt and pants had green on them from the tomato plants.

I pruned some of the gourd plants.  They are growing branches.

I went home teaching.

Comments and suggestions are welcomed.

Hornets, or Are They Wasps? - They Still Sting

Home from the temple.  Had a quick lunch and then watered houses two, three, and six.  I checked out all of the gardens and house one and six.  There is a lot of work yet to do, such as weeding, hanging tomato plants, branch pruning, and picking tomatoes.

The lawnmower is in house three.  There is not room for it to turn around.  The three benches below are going to be stacked.  I will remove all of the trays, pots, junk.  I started to do that this afternoon.  one tray has a hornet nest in it.  I thought I would move it out side.  I picked it up to move it outside.  The hornets didn't like it.  They were really fast and stung me on the back of my left hand.  I was stung five or six times.  My hand began to swell.  This is the center.  Left is south and right is north end.

This is the South end.

 North end

One of the gourd plants droughted.  The dribble tube might be plugged.  I poored a couple of gallons of water on it.  I found no squash bugs today.  I did find one set of eggs that I soon removed.

I removed a few weeds and pruned some branching on a few tomato plants on the north end of house one.

I sprayed hornet nests with WD-40. There were two nest in the chicken run and one in the back of the microwave oven in house one.   After dark in knocked a nest in the gabled in of the garage.  It fell to driveway.  I crushed the nest on the concrete, and stepped on those that were crawling around.  I used the flash light.


comments and questions are welcomed.