Finished Project Started Yesterday

It was about 9:30 when I started to begin the work of the large fan curtain.  It did not turn out to be a curtain, but will do the job better.

This morning I walked over to see how progress on this new home was coming along.  There was a large truck there at lunch time , but I could see what he has been doing.

I made a frame from 1x2 inch furring boards.  Some came off the old curtain and I had one new board that I used.  I build the frame on top of an old card table.  I predrilled all of the holes and then counter sunk them so I could drive the screw deeper into stiles.  I found some old white dirty six mill poly in house five.  I attached to the frame with small straps of wood and with screws.

This photo is from yesterday to see the comparison of today's photo.

The is the finished look.  I put on a pair of pipe clamps at the top twelve inches from each side.  I then drilled two holes in a slight angle down.  I put a cross brace which is black horizontal piece.  I can lift the cover up or down to put or take it off the bolts.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Quick Trip to Orem. Not Really

I needed some potting soil to continue work in house two.  About 9:30 we drove to Spanish Fork where we got the potting soil.  We then drove to Provo where we stopped at Sam's Club. We got a supply of soaps and cat food.  We then went to Orem and has lunch at the Golden Coral.

The only photo on our drive today was at the Golden Coral.  Carol didn't want her picture so she took this one of me having ice cream desert.

I brought the bag of potting soil to house two with the two wheel cart.  The bail of soil is quite heavy.  I cut it in half and with a shovel put in in the soil bin in the above photo.

While in house six I decided to repair the north fan in the west end.  The fan came on while I was not there in ruined the poly that was covering it.

I took all off all the poly and supporting boards.  I took them to the garage where I will build a new cover which will hang over the fan opening.  During the day time I can remove it and put if back up if there is any danger of freezing.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Home Before Noon. Almost

A week ago this morning we went to Manti, but because of the snow storm, we turned around in Scipio and came back home.  This morning went well. We drove to Manti without any difficulty.  Thing went well.

I took the above photo as a I was driving around town.  I like to document new construction in town.

I needed to fix this water tap that has been leaking for several years.  The tap threads had corroded some allowing water to leek past even if the hose was tightened.

I trapped a skunk in this four inch pipe several months ago.  I put on examination gloves and pulled it out.  I put it in a large plastic bag and put it in the dumpster north of town.  

Comments and questions are welcome. 

Broken Pipe

We did then Monday morning chores. They are washing and ironing, just one white shirt and Carol did that.  I vacuumed and swept the floor.  Every time I went out to house two, I killed leaf miner flies with the zinger.  I called it a zapper in earlier posting.  We went to Fillmore where I bought bunch onion seeds and come PVC cement.

We had a cold spell about a month ago.  I have several hose bibs that are on a little to keep the pipes from freezing.  In the evening when  locked up the chickens, I could see that the running water for the chickens was frozen.  I thawed it out with hot water.  This was when the above pipe froze.  You see in the above photo all of the ice.  This pipe froze and instead of breaking the freezing pushed the cap and nipple up a little.  When it thawed the   We
have had a couple of warm day.  I shut off the water and pulled out that short nipple.  I glued it back together.

I ran a sprinkler on the south side of house six.  Last week dug some holes for some posts.  The solid was had and dry.  The sprinklers softened the soil so I was able to dig without much difficulty.

I planted 4-6 White Lisbon bunching onions seeds in each cell.  I should of planted some six weeks ago, but forgot to get some seeds.  I bought seeds in Fillmore this morning.  There are 105 cells in this tray,

I found three pomegranate buds in the bush.  I will keep a close watch for aphids.

I picked a CSA bag for Thayne and Kim Christensen from Kanosh.  I forgot to take the picture when they were all in one tray.


Comments and questions are welcome.

A Box for Files

This morning was like yesterday morning.  Another couple of inches of snow.  It was a powder.  I have a card box by my desktop computer in my bedroom where I keep files which contain papers that I get each month.  The files will not stand up straight.  So this morning I began to build a new one out of a thin piece of plywood.

It took me most of the day to finish it.  It sixteen inches by twelve inches wide and depth of eight inches.  It is divided into three compartments.  I will be able to locate the files much faster because they will be standing up.  In the old box they were almost laying down.

I have been saving egg shells for months now.

The leaf miners are destroying our kale and red beats.  I have been spraying the beets and kale with Neem oil.  Today, when I sprayed, I could see the flies flying around.  I took the fly zapper pictured above waving it back and forth.  Every time I hit a fly I could hear this zapping noise.  The were a lot of flies in the radish leaves, which made a lot of noise.  I kept doing that until there were none left.

I  strected a string between the west and east ends of house six that marked the center of the greenhouse.  I marked the center of each 2x6x12 and then moved the board a little to the left or to the right then I dug some holes where the 2x4 posts will be.

Here you see the hole and the end of the board.

The horizontal wire will go from end to end and rest on top of these post and cross piece as shown in the above image.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Presentation

We woke up to more snow.  I snowed off and on most of the day.  Twice I pushed snow off the driveway.

This afternoon I met Jim Masner and Coral Richardson at the town hall were we set things up for the presentation.  There was snow in the parking area and on the steps.   It took awhile to get organized.  I hooked my lap top to the video projector.  I went through the slides and things seemed to okay.  Coral put up his grow lights and built a display of trays that he uses.  After all things were ready we went home to come back at 6:30.  I was going to work on my presentation and get a paper ready with a seed scheduling information.  I couldn't practice because my lap top was at the town hall.  I had some supper and went back.

It was five to before any people started to come.  I figured out how to use my mouse to change slides.  I would left click to go to the nest slide and right click to go back a slide.  There was about twenty-one people there.  Coral did a nice job with his presentation.   He took about forty-five minutes.

Then it was my turn.  My mouse would not work right.  The projector showed a small image and on the same screen it show the next image which was smaller and it also showed other information.  I was quite frustrated because nothing was working the way that I had practiced.  I had Jim press the two arrow keys to change slides.  I felt that it would be to late by the time I finished, so I hurried through my presentation.  I should have slowed down.  I also, forgot mention some things that I felt were important.

The people there helped put the chairs away.  I did the vacuuming, .  Jim mopped the front hall because of mud that was tracked in.   Ice melting salt was also tracked in. 

It was 9:30 when I got home.

Comments and questions are welcome.  

The Tomato Count

Carol had an appointment in Provo this morning.  She decided not to go because of the threat of snow.  After watching the news I began work in houses two and six.

I put on my boots and walked out to my stack of 2x6's.  Most are twelve feet long.  When installed they will look like a swing set.  The 2x6 will be held up by two 2x4's.  One on each end.  The horizontal wires will rest on top.

 I transplanted all of the tomato plants two three inch pots except five which were to small.  In the above photo there are three different verities in one 1020 web tray.  There are seven verities that I moved from six pack to the three inch pot to make a total of 78 plants.  I need at least twice that many to fill house six.

• Goliath - 25 plants
• Mortgage Lifter -15 plants
• Cherokee - 12 plants
• Pineapple - 5 plants
• Juliet - 9 plants
• Black Cherry - 5 plants
• Arkansas Traveler  - 7 plants

The photo above is an example of the transplanting done.  Some were done a couple of days ago.

I planted whole bunch of old seed of Big Beef tomato seeds.

The above picture and the one below show the small insects that are caught on this sticky sheet.  The adult leaf miner is the ones that looks like flies.

The leaf miners are living in the red beets and chard plants.  I put sticky traps in the beets in this raised bed.  Will see what happens in the next two days.

This is showing the burpless cucumber plants that I put in the raised bed last week.

I took this picture today of alternative planting methods.  The one below was how it looked a couple of weeks ago.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Snow, Garage, Raised Bed,

Temple day this morning.  We were up early began our drive to Manti.  The full moon visible through soft clouds. There was a skiff of snow as we left town.  With a little snow on the road we could tell that we were the first car on the road. By the time we were at the freeway entrance there was about and inch of white powder.  The snow was falling fast.  We followed a car with red emergency lights flashing.  The road in Scipio was slippery.  We stopped by the gas station to decide our next move.  Thayne, who usually rides with us, stopped at the side of us.  He went on and we turned around drove back to Holden.

After it was light, I went into the garage to put on my work shoes.  The snow and ice that was behind the wheels was melting and left quite a mess.  I backed the car out of the garage cleaned up the mess.  The water runs to both sides instead of to the center.  The lighter part in the garage looks white because the is no melted snow.

The above photo is of the beets, carrots and radishes.  The carrots are from new seed I bought this year.

I transplanted four pole beans two replace those that were eaten by slugs during most of the winter.  I have eliminated most of the slugs.

There is a lot of acorns in the fridge and have been there all winter.  I brought them out and mixed in some potting soil and soaked them.  Hoping that they will begin to germinate after thirty days.

This photo gives the names of four different lettuce varieties that I hope to buy.

One of the bathtub faucets has been leaking for months.  I fixed it today three times.  I made four trips under the house to turn the water off and turn the water own.  I took both faucets of two times checking the gaskets and the valve seats.  The valve seats were good.  I replaced one gasket.  One of them still leaks.  I think it is the cold water.   I watched several You Tube videos and they didn't help either.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Several Tests & Wasted Time

I worked more on Thursday's presentation.  I scanned a page from the back of a seed catalog showing several different nursery trays.  I could not move it to power point.

It is not a very good picture, but there are a variety of trays.  I will take some actual trays with me Thursday.

A month ago I cleaned the fridge.  It was really bad.  I put a note on my lap top to clean the fridge next month which is today.  It took me about three hours in January.  This morning I finished in thirty minutes.

Then I worked on my presentation until time for lunch.  Later in the day if finally copies the page and entered it into my presentation.

I transplanted geraniums and some tomato plants to larger containers.

After lunch I tried again to down load the catalog page, but couldn't get it done.  I did some planting and transplanting after lunch.  I planted another 1206 tray of Green Arrow peas.  Two seeds per cell.

I transplanted this lettuce plant and the kale plant to house six.  It is a frost test.  It has been freexing every night in house six for nearly two weeks.  

The above photo has one pea plant, one broccoli plant, and one cabbage plant.  I am checking to see how the they will do during the next ten days of freezing weather.

 I prepared two CSA bags.  They contain one red bell pepper,  zip bag of radishes, some Italian parsley, copra onions, and some salad onions.

I made this box for the sleeping cats.  but they hardly ever climbed in.   I cut large half moon shape in the front to make it more inviting to our cats.

Last week I put some beet greens containing some leaf miners.  I was waiting to see the fly emerge but instead found a larva.  It is in the white circle.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Leaf Miners and Slugs

I worked most of the morning on an application to renew my line of credit at Zions bank.  There were three pages to complete.  The application called for income and expense figures that to awhile to find.  I took it to Fillmore early this afternoon.  I for got to take my income tax papers.  I brought the application home and Robert Reidhead, the loan office will get it Tuesday afternoon.

I have a terrible infestation of Leaf Miners.  They are destroying beets and chard plants. They are in the older plants and even some of the young seedlings.  The above photo shows them in a large beet plant.

There is an adult fly about the size of a house fly.  It lays eggs into the leaf of the host plant.  The egg hatches into a tiny larva.  The larva grows and emerges as a pupa which falls to the ground and emerges as an adult fly.  I haven't seen the of these except the adult fly.

 I put a few leaves in a bottle attempting to see a mature larva and the pupa.

An update on the home that is being built nest to the garage/shop across the road and down the street from us.

Another home is being built in the north west part of Holden.  I have no idea who is building it or who will move in.

There are some cucumber plants growing in one of the raised beds that are doing poorly.  I dug a hole for a slug trap.  The small cup will fit in the hole.

The cup is filled with beer.  I haven't seen any indication of slugs  in the part of the greenhouse.

I planted these Green Arrow peas about a month ago.  I want to plant them in house six in a couple of weeks.

A new plan for house six.  I have changed my mind several times in house six.  Yesterday I saw a video of trellising tomato plants.  In the center of the pictures is a twelve foot two by six.  Two posts will be erected about ten feet a part.  The two by six will be attached to the top of the posts.  There will be five of them.  Each will be twelve feet apart. The overhead wires will rest on top of them.  The twine and tomahooks will hang from the wires.  In the past they have hung from the bows which causes excess weight on them.


Comments and questions are welcome.