Beets, CSA bucket, & Trap

Watched the news until eight and then went out after the Detroit Red Beets.  I started on the east end by pulling up the beets.  I threw them in the isle between the eggplants and the cucumbers where the big tub for the beets was ready.   I worked both ends of the beets and beets were up and down their row.

I got the wheelbarrow and filled it up.  I put the beets in the black tub and dumped them in the wheelbarrow.  I pushed the wheelbarrow out the west door to the patio.

Here I put the beet in my left and twisted and pulled the tops off with my right hand.  I dropped the beets into a bucket and with my right hand I grabbed another beet.  I continued doing this until I had topped all the beets.

I stopped working with the beets and picked cucumbers.  All the cucumbers are burpless and all are green.  One cucumber was yellow.  I think that for some reason it is an albino fruit.

It looks kind of strange with the green ones.

I had a sprayer on the garden hose and sprayed the beets with a good water pressure which washed away all the dirt.   The beets filled two five gallon buckets.

I wrapped the best cucumber with plastic wrap and they are in the fridge in the garage.  Those that were smaller or were bent Carol took to the post office.

I also picked a bunch of eggplants.

John Dennis was going to get the beets at 8:30 this morning.  He didn't come.  I called his wife she was going to tell him.  There was a knock on the door while I was having lunch.  It was him and I had just finished cleaning the beets.  He backed his truck into our driveway.  He wasn't able to pickle the beets until Monday afternoon.  I told him that I would put them in my cooler.  There was enough room in the cooler for both buckets and the ice packs.  He will pick them up sometime Monday.

One of the zucchini plants is struggling.  Yesterday it was wilted to the ground.  I watered well.  This morning it was looking  good.  By this afternoon it was wilted  to the ground.  It had some squash bugs last week.  I killed all of them.

I filled the CSA bucket with veggies and took it to Fillmore.  I gave it to Kim Christensen at the bank.

A lot of yellow jackets are in the board on the trap is to keep the wire cone tight on the bucket.  In the bottom of the cone is a cotton glove to cover the hole in the cone so the yellow jacket from escaping.

I better idea.  The them clips holds the wire cone tight to the bucket.

Some of the yellow jackets are crawling on the sides of the bucket.

Here is a better view.

I put the sucking end of a vacuum cleaner into the bucket on top of the cone.  Some yellow jackets were sucked in.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Mesquite

I had the sprinkler running all night on the back lawn.  It was getting light when I turned off the light.  I then started bringing in the cucumbers that were in the garage.  We started breakfast.  Miles and Nyleen arrived about 7:30.  They will be driving.  I finished my breakfast and we loaded Miles' car.  I guess that I was in such a hurry to load that I didn't get any pictures.

We drove all the way to Mesquite where we were to meet Anne and Fred. We were taking vegetable to them. We had a couple of bathroom stops.  When we got there, the problems began.  First of all we were there nearly an hour before they were to be there.  We were to meet at McDonalds on the north end of Mesquite.  We waited and waited and waited.  They were waiting for us on the other side of McDonalds.  We finally got together and unloaded Miles' car into the car that Anne was driving.

The back of Miles' car is up getting ready to unload.

The car that Anne was driving is loaded and we are saying our good-byes.

We drove all the way to Beaver with a few quick stops.  We stopped at the ice-cream place for ice cream and cheese.

The drive was slow going both ways through the gorge.  Particularly bad going north.

Miles showed me this home made device used for cutting off corn from the cob.


Questions and comments are welcome.

The Biggest Harvest So Far

I went outside this morning as it was getting light to start the harvest.  I was interrupted by three deer.

The doe and her fawn was in the back yard a little to the left and behind the cherry tree.  I was behind the pine tree by our patio.  Tiger, our cat, was at my feet.  I took the above picture.  The fawn started walking towards me.  I think that he was most interested in Tiger.

He keeps coming my way.  My smart phone didn't work right.  It kept turning off or switching to the selfie mode.

This is the last photo that I got.   He walked next to me and his nose was about six inches from tiger.  I think that it would have eaten and apple out of my hand if had one.

I scared them away and they went into our neighbors yard to the west of us.   There were three deer in total.

I built a wasp trap our of a bucket and window screen that I made into a funnel.  I had made the funnel several years ago.

The plums are getting starting to get ripe.  I picked some and took them into the house to ripen a little more.  The yellow jackets are eating the ones that fell to the ground.  The next picture are of what I harvested.

These are called Cherry Plum.  They are shaped like a Roma, but are much smaller.  They are juicy and sweet.  I can eat one in two bites.

These are Black Cherry.  This is my favorite cherry tomato.

Bell peppers, Anaheim peppers,  and Jalapeno peppers.

The is a yellow jacket nest in the electrical panel at the east end of house six.  One fell into a cob web on the greenhouse floor.  The black widow came right over to it and killed it.

Two totes of Lemon Boy tomatoes.  They are sweet and juicy.

 I had a 12:30 appointment with the dermatologist.  He dug out some more cancerist tissue on my temple by the right ear.  He scraped some tissue off an other cancerist on my neck on the left sign.

 This is a strange looking cucumber.

I cut a bunch of boxes in half and put each half

We put most of everything that we taking tomorrow morning on the kitchen table and bench.

I pulled a bunch of carrots to take to Mesquite, Nevada tomorrow.  

I spray them with the hose and the wetness gives them a shiny shim.

The yellow jackets made a nest in the electric box.  I sprayed them with W-D40.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Three Day Weekend

Saturday:
It is our temple night.  I did the morning chores.  The three woodworking shows that I usually watch were not on.  Instead they were having a celebration for fifty years of the show.  I worked in the yard and greenhouses most of the morning.

The peas that I planted some time ago and are really doing well.  I put these two welded wire cages so they would have something to climb.  It most likely will freeze before we can harvest some peas.

The deer have been eating our grape vines.   I think that this happened a couple of weeks ago, because they are growing new leaves.

 I was setting on the driveway next to the garage when Cody Carter drove by on his horse.  The horse was quite troubled.  He got off and adjusted the saddle.  He didn't see me. He then mounted the horse and rode away.

We picked some tomatoes and cucumbers and took them to our new neighbor, Jeff Williams.  He built a garage and a home across the road and a little bit to the west.  We had a nice visit and had a tour of his garage.  He restores older cars.

Monday which is today:  I picked the cucumbers.  I didn't think that there would be very many, but I picked fourteen.  They are in the sink to be washed.

After washing I they are in the other sink draining.   I put them on a towel to the left of the sink.

I set up my wrapping jig which make wrapping pretty easy.   Shot cucumbers are laid Parallel to the cutting board.  More plastic wrap is pulled out for longer cucumber.  They are laid on the wrap at an angle.

One cucumber was so long that I cut it in half and wrapped each half separately.  I should have cut off the stem end, which would make it shorter.

A stack of wrapped cucumbers.

 I forgot to give the Masner's the bucket of vegetables.  So it did this morning.  Cucumbers salad onions, red peppered, tomatoes, and some eggplants.      

The full bucket above.  There are two containers of cherry tomatoes.  

I got the shop vac out sucked up a lot of yellow jackets.

I had a little extra time tonight so I dug up all of these crabgrass.

The same place about fifteen minutes later. Crabgrass is one weed that his hard to kill.  Digging it up is easy,  but there are a lot of seeds left in the ground.

The Russian Sage is doing really well.  The one in this photo come up from a seed.

The one in this picture was planted many years ago and is doing extremely well.  I didn't get time to prune it.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Cooler Day - House Six Cool

After breakfast, I watered the pots and baskets.  I then went to house six and picked a bucket of Gladiator tomatoes.  I picked some two days ago for the market.  Both together made a bushel.  These are far Alicen Johnson.  She picked them up this afternoon.

Much of the time in house six I was pruning and lowering the tomato plants.  Two plants were lowered and the stem broke.  I don't know if the plant will survive or not.  

The above photo shows how these lemon boys are pruned and lowered.

I pruned off a lot of leaves.  The lower leaves are not need for fruit ripening.  It is much easier to see and pick tomatoes.

I took one load of weed killer and went after the weeds in the north and south gardens.  I was on my hands and knees pulling the weeds out of the squash plants.  I run water down the row which made it much easier to pull the weeds.  Also the water caused the squash bugs to come out of hiding and climbing on the vines.  There were about five bugs.  Two were young and one was pretty mature.  I squashed them

I run across the puncture vines in the north west corner of the north garden.  Instead of spraying them I came back with the shovel and dug all of them up. I then put them in the garbage in the garage.

The seeds have several sharp spines that stick to many different things.  I made every effort not to step on them, but I still did.  The above shoes show the seeds stuck to them.

 I watered the melons and watermelons.  A couple of the melons are getting larger.  These are plants that Robert grew.  This one has green flesh.

 The watermelon is about the size of a softball.

The melons are growing pretty good.


Comments and questions are welcome.