More Deer

 After breakfast, I walked out to the garden to see if there was any evidence of deer.

There are a few deer tracks in the soft soil.  They be a little hare to see.  I fixed a broken trellis for tomato plants.   I picked the cucumbers and took them to the post office.  Most them were gone by this evening.  I picked a bucket of tomatoes.  They are not coming on as fast as they should.  We then drove to Fillmore and made a stop at the State Bank where Carol got some cash.    We got some groceries at the market and then drove to Kanosh to look at the apartments that Thayne has built.  It is a fourplex.  

After lunch I got a small roll of concrete enforcement wire.

I cut off four feet of wire and pulled the edges together with four two foot pieces of tie wire.  It makes a nice tunnel for protecting plants from the deer.  Can also be used in the spring to help protect it from the frost.  I built to more which used up most of the wire.

I covered these Bush bean plants.  They are almost ready to bloom.

At the bank we picked up a coin counting device.  We have a lot of coins and we want to deposit them at the bank.  We emptied on large bottle.  It took about and hour to put the in the coin wrappers.  

Lisa gave us some dahlia plants this spring.  They were pretty slow, but are blooming now.

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Yard Enforcer Worked

I went out as soon as it was light enough to see if there was any evidence of deer.  The sprayers thought that it was night.  I got sprayed several times.  When it was much lighter, I turned off the water.  I picked cucumbers in both gardens.  After Carol washed them, I took them to the post office.  About half of them were gone this evening.  

I was going to move one of the Enforcers north of the north garden to a spot between the north garden and the road because there were a lot of deer tracks there.  It seemed like the deer came from the north east.  I had a major problem.

A week ago or so the deer broke the trellis.  I worked part of the morning fixing it.  I got the horizontal wires put in to the right place.  

I went up to the well and shut off the water.  The tap that was there leaked a lot of water and I couldn't shut it off.  The hose was connected to the Enforcer.  I removed the hose and the tap.  The water was still running but there was not much pressure.   I replaced the old tap with a new one and then shut off the water. 

There is a ball valve in the rose bushes.  I cut away all of the roses so I could remove the broken valve.  I couldn't remove with the adjustable wrench.  I got a small pipe wrench to the the valve stem and was able to remove it.  There was low pressure running water.  

I wrapped it with Teflon tape and then screwed on the cap.  I went back to the well and turned on the water.  Great! Nothing leaked.

I moved this Enforcer to a spot between the road and the garden.  The soil was so hard, I couldn't get it into the ground.  I then moved it north of the cucumbers.  The ground there was wet.  I pushed it into the ground and hooked up the hose.  It is now working.

The dahlias are really pretty now.

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Veggie Juice

 Carol got everything ready yesterday for veggie juice.  tomatoes, onions, celery, peppers, and  parsley.   This morning we started making it.  We did that even before breakfast.

We ended up with ten quarts and one pint.   We got so busy with this I forgot to get some photos.    Carol prepared the tomatoes and I put everything else ins the food processor which turned it all in to juice, almost.  I cut the parsley into smaller pieces.  We put it all into one big kettle and boiled it until everything was soft.  

We had finished breakfast I picked the cucumbers.  After Carol washed them I took them to the post office.  There were five left when we brought the home tonight.

The someone rang the doorbell.  I went to the door and there was a package which was delivered by the UPS driver.  I opened the box and it was two Yard Enforcers.  It is a sprinkler device that turns on whenever a deer gets close.  I read the directions and then assembled all the parts.  It took four AA batteries.  

I had to go to Fillmore for a garden hose.  They had one heavy garden hose that I didn't like.  I bought some hose connection parts and used a hose that I had.  I put the first Yard Enforcer in the south garden. The water was turned on and it sprayed round and round.  Everything that I did, didn't help.  It was time for lunch.

I assembled the second one placed it in the north garden.  It worked, but wasn't consistent.   I messed around with it for a while.  Then I removed the battery pack from the first one and took it to the house.  It didn't work because I put one battery in backwards.  I put it in right and it worked.  The Yard Enforcer has a dial with four positions.  Off, Night, Day, and Day and Night.  When everything was working I turned the dial to night.  We will see if it keeps the deer away.  

We put the veggies into the pantry.

While doing that we emptied numerous bottles of snap beans and tomatoes.  We dumped them into this bucket.  I emptied the bucket on the compost pile.

The yard Enforcer in the north garden

and the one in the south garden.

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Deer & Radio

 I had the radio on all night in the south garden.  I was anxious to go out an see it.  It wasn't light enough until after Breakfast.  It didn't keep the deer away.  There were deer tracks all over the garden.  I brought the radio back to the house and put away to extension cords.

The deer bent a metal pole over which caused some of the cucumber vines to lay on the ground.

Here is the pole that was bent over.  

The deer took a bite out of these tomatoes and caused them to fall off the vine.  I moved the together for the photo.

I picked a bucket of cucumbers and took them to the post office.  They were all gone tonight except for two large ones and three pickling cucumber.

I did a lot of weeding while it was cooler.  Most of the weeding was in the corn.

These broccoli plants had gone to seed.  One of them was covered with aphids.  I dug them up and put them in the compost pile.

I dug up the onions.  Not as many as last year.

I watered the east lawn.  I put the sprinkler on the south end of the lawn and pulled it back every forty-five minutes.   It took most of the day to water.

I started making a small cage for some of our kittens.  All that was needed was a door that could be securely locked.  That was over a month ago.  I finished it today.  

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Tooele and Back Today

 I got everything in the garden watered.  I also watered the kidney, and geraniums on both sides of the front door.  I also did the baskets.  I picked a large bucket of cucumbers.  We used two grocery bags.  Half in each bag.  We drove to Fillmore to get some canning lids.  There weren't any.  Carol had several prescriptions fill at the drug store, and then went to the Revere clinic to meet with the doctor's technician she was having any A-fib.  She wasn't.  Then to the hospital for a blood test. 

We came home for a couple of minuets, then on their way.  We stopped at the Payson Wal Mart for canning lids.  There weren't any.  Carol bought a couple of gifts.  We then headed for the Red Wood road west of Lehi.  I was giving Carol directions based on my phone UPS system.  We drove on roads that we have never driven before.  Carol wasn't happy about the way that we went.  We finally made it to Tooele and stopped about one hundred feet from Paul's house.  I called him and he came out of his house.  Carol turned the car around and parked in his driveway.  

We had a good visit and then a tour of their house.  They got half of the cucumbers.  They have a lot of room upstairs and downstairs.    We then went to Denny's for lunch.  After lunch he drove us around Tooele where he showed us the homes and businesses of his boys and daughter.   Most of their children live in Tooele.   We were there for several hours.  We drove out to Stockton where they own a business which is leased to someone else.  It has been doing really well.   We then went back to their house and headed to Linden,  

We stopped at Nyleen and Mile's home.  We gave them the other half of the cucumber and left.  We stopped at Costco's for gas.  It was almost eight when we got home.  I took our radio out to the south garden with a couple of extension cords.  I turned on the radio and turned up the volume.  The hope that the deer will think that there are people out there and stay out.

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No Deer Today

 I couldn't find any evidence of deer in the garden when I went out this morning.  I had one more piece of welded wire.  I made one more tunnel.  The last piece of the heating bench was waiting for me north of house six.  

It didn't take me long to take the welded wire of the wooden frame.  I rolled the up the wire and left the frame to take apart for another day.  

I made four more tunnels and one smaller tunnel with what was left over.  I was able to cover most of the bush bean plants.  I covered another large bush been plant with an upside down tree basket.

Carol had an appointment with heart Technion.  She has no A-fib.  We bought some groceries and thne went home.

This is how it looks when I finished it

My last planting of Early Sungrow corn is coming up.  Takes five days to germinate.  It will be ready in fifty-seven days.

In my checking account the was a $130.00 purchase paid to AARP.   I didn't know what I bought.  I called Kim at state bank.  She checked into it and gave me a phone number to call.  I called it and ended up with someone who wanted to sell me an alarm system that I wore around my neck.  If I fell, I could push the button and someone would come and help.  It was a recorded message.  I hung up and got my AARP card and called the number on the card.  

A live person answered the phone.  I told her my problem.  After I answered her questions to identify me.  She said that my membership was good until October of 2031.  I was transferred to another lady who said that I could get a refund if I wanted it.  Of course, I wanted the refund.  It might take three weeks to get it, she said.

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More Deer Damage

After breakfast I went out to the garden.  There were not many deer tracks.  I picked the cucumbers in the south garden.  I then to pick there.    The deer or a deer bent the center post part way to the west.  

I bent in back into a vertical position.   

I was working near the west fence where the rose bushes are.  I could hear water running.    I looked all over and finally saw pipe stem sticking up.  A ball valve some time ago froze and broke.  Some water was spraying out.  It wasn't a lot.  I got a heavy black pipe tried to push the lever up some.  There were so many rose branches and stems, that couldn't reach it.  The solution was the cut all the branches away.  I worked on it before and after lunch.  Shane was here pulling weeds.  He helped me move the third part of the heating bench that was in house two.  We put it on some blocks.  I will remove the welded wire tomorrow.

I pruned and trimmed and pruned some more.  I was able to move the branches out to the road with the pitch fork.

I got it all cleaned away.  I knelt on a board to keep from kneeling on thorns from the roses.  I could not turn the valve off.  To morrow I will buy a threaded cap.

 The deer are eating almost anything that is soft and tender.  It took a couple of big bites out of the perfect cucumber.

I had a little bit of welded wire left.  I made one more tunnel.  I put it some bean plants in the south garden.

This desert four o'clock has some nice evening blooms.  My smart phone camera has not been doing well today.

I covered the bush bean plants and then raked everything down to see if the deer come tonight.

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Damage by Deer

The first thing this morning I turned of the sprinklers on the west lawn.  As we were preparing breakfast, I turned on the trailing sprinkler.  I heard a large crashing noise, but it didn't concern me much.  

This is what the noise was about.  Apparently the deer were next the tomato plants hanging from an overhead wire.  The sprinkler was out of view of the deer but close enough to scare them.  The jumped to the south and tore down all of tomatoes and then landed on the lumber.

This is the first time that they have eaten a cucumber.

This is how a couple of the tomato plants looked.  My first thought was to leave them on the ground and pick them as they get ripe.

Later in the morning I decided to hang them back up.  Two of the pipes that were holding up the plants were bent.  I found three conduit pipes of the right length and pounded them into the ground where uprights were.  I wired the 2x2 to the conduit.

I wire it at the top and bottom with tie wire.

In the confusion one of my Topaz melon vines broke off at the root.  It is a dead plant.

I worked all afternoon on plant tunnels.  I removed the wire from the heating benches that were in house two.  I removed the welded wire from two of the benches.  There was a forty foot bench in house two.  It was cut into four pieces.  I removed the welded wire from one yesterday and built two tunnels.  Today, I used the last piece.  Instead of sixteen inch 2x2's, I used three sixteen inch pieces of wire.  

I sprayed morning glory with round-up.  To protect the bush bean plants I covered them with nursery pots.  Later I covered these same bush bean plants with the tunnels that I have been making.

In get the wires the same length, I made this jig that helped me get the three wires at the same length.  I made hooks on both ends which would hold both edges of the hoop wire at sixteen inches apart.

The wire and the jig.

I put a weight on one end of the wire and used a four food ruler to measure thirty-six inches.

I cut the twenty-four wires with a small wire cutter.  There is one more to cut.

I used the four foot ruler to find the center wire of I should say the center space.

This tunnel is on the grass.  It is hard to get a good photo on the concrete driveway.

A view from the end.  The black tire wire is barely visible on this end of the tunnel.

I made this one yesterday.  It has the sixteen inch 2x2 at each end and the sixteen inch wire in the middle.

Last of all, got this picture of the grapes turning into raisons.  I covered them with a piece of plywood in case we have some rain during the night.  It was cloudy with some thunder.

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A Deer Party in the Garden

I was anxious to see the garden.  After breakfast I walked out to the garden.  There were deer tracks all over.  Some in the soil,  Others in the mud and others in the raised beds.  

The above photo is one of the places where water had been yesterday.

It was around eight when I started to mow the lawn.  It hadn't been mowed for two weeks.  I removed all the hoses and things on the lawn.  A little over an hour later I was finished.  I put the clippings and leaves on the remnants of a compost pile.

The deer ate a lot of the bush bean plants.  I brought out some used nursery cans so that I could cover them in the evening.  I lined them up by every bush bean plant.  On the north side of greenhouse two were some benches heated by hot water.  These were used for years to help in the germination of bedding plants.  I thought that I might use the welded wire for building some type of wire covering.  It took some time to remove all of the screws and the wire staples.  

I stopped for lunch.  I got a call from Shane from Delta.  I didn't answer the phone, but called him back.  He and and his wife, who was in my class when I was a six grade teacher.  They wanted to identify a tree in their yard that was planted by a bird.   They wanted some more tree like it.  They brought over a branch for me to identify.  I had not idea what it was.  It wasn't like any tree that we had in our yard.  They were going to e-mail me some photos which I would forward to Robert.

After lunch I went back to work on removing the welded wire.

I made three tunnels like the one pictured above.  The welded wire was twelve feet long.  I cut three foot pieces and bent them into a 'U' shape.  I fastened sixteen inch  1x1 piece of wood on both ends.  This one covered three bush cucumber plants which would protect them for being eaten by deer.

One is in the garden and here are the other two.

 More deer tracks in the garden.

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