Furnace Filter

I watched my wood working shows for a couple of hours.  We were going to Fillmore for some birthday cards, some groceries, package of LED, and a furnace filter.

I didn't know the size of the filter.  I turned off the furnace and removed the filter.  I found the number and wrote it on the back of a card.

After lunch I cut down most of the weeds in the dry garden.  I started with pruners, then clippers, and then my battery operated weed eater.  It worked the best.  I dug up some alliums and took the over to Richard Darnell.

I dug up and cut down the cabbage and broccoli and other such crops.  Some of the stems were supper large and as tough as a small tree trunk.

Yester day I dug up the pipe and installed a low pressure drain.   I filled the hole partway with pea gravel.  I cut a # one pot in half and placed it over the rocks

I then covered the half pot and pea gravel with soil.

I finished covering it with more soil.

All of the plant material was put in the compost pile.

Halloween tonight.  We placed candy in a bowel and put up the sign.  We don't know how many came.  Most of the candy was gone.

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Garden clean-up

 After it warmed up some I went to work in the garden.  I have been removing plant material to help be ready for spring.

I cut down all of the corn.  It froze over a month ago and much of the stalks had dried.  I cut them down and hauled them to the compost pile.

I picked the corn and shucked it.  It was surprising to find large ears of what looked like good corn.  There were two ears that didn't look to good.  I gave it to our chickens.  They went right after them.

The kidney had some nice geraniums.  I started to pull them.  Most came quite easily.  They were pretty wet and my gloves got wet.  I dug the rest of them up with a shovel.  I cut down the frozen chrysanthemum. I put them on a burlap tarp and put them on then compost pile.

There were geraniums under both of the north baywindows.

There is a waterline that I thought might freeze and break during then winter.  I dug up the end of the pipe.  There was a plug in the end just after the hose bib.  My adjustable wrench couldn't hold the plug.  I can't find my smaller pipe wrench.  I got the big on and was able to unscrew the plug.  I found a couple of PVC parts.

I bailed out the water and was able to install a drain.

I cut and dug out the chole crops.  There is one left on this row.  I have to leave something to do tomorrow.  

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Winterizing Dahlias

 The sun was shining on the dahlias this morning when I went dig them up.  I dug up four, but the ground was so hard that some of the tubers broke and I cut off some some tubers.

What do you do when the ground is hard?  You pour on the water.  I used a small sprinkling water can.  I should have watered them one more time before we turned off the well.  It looked as if I would have to pour on the water the rest of the day.

 I told Carol of the difficulty of digging and would cover them with straw.  I decided not to but decided to cover them with leaves.  I raked some leaves and then began to blow them into a pile.  That worked really well.  I put them on a square of burlap and then dumped them on the dahlias.  I did this several times.  I got the lawnmower and mowed up the on the front and east lawn.  By the time I finished the dahlias we covered deep with leaves.

We were told to trim the trees around the power line that services the greenhouses.  Shane borrowed my electric chain saw and had one of his helpers did the pruning.  The above photo shows cut off branches and the power line.  

I pulled most of the Blue Lake pole bean vines of the tunnel trellis.  A heavy snow would crush the hoops.

Another view of the tunnel.

I removed the trellis pipes and put them away.  

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Finished Removing Tomato Vines

By this afternoon it had warmed up some.  I went out to the garden and began taking down all of the trellises.  I cut off the root with my shovel and then set on a chair and cut away the tomato clips.

I removed the Styrofoam which I thought would allow the ground heat to come up and warm the soil.  Just the opposite happened.  It insulated the ground and kept it frozen.  I was able to dig a couple of sweet potatoes that were a little larger than my thumb. I left the the Styrofoam off allow the soil to thaw.  I took them in the house and washed off the dirt.

I piled all of the tomato plants on the giant pile of vines.  It is about six feet high.

The was a eighteen foot pipe holding the tomato trellis up.  I took the pipe down.  I needed a step ladder to be able to reach the pipes.

I picked sweet corn about two weeks ago and put them in the fridge in the garage.  We ate four ears that are about six inches long.  Carol ate one and I had three.  They tasted like they had just been picked.  even some of the husk were starting to dry.

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The Day After Snow

It was again cold this morning, but not as much as this morning.  I watched the morning news for a while and then went to work carving our pumpkins.  I sat around watch videos on You Tube for a while.

 I brought in the pumpkins and started to carve.  But first I looked at a lot of images online to get some ideas.  I used a sharp fila knife to cut off the lid.  It took a lot of scraping to remove all the seeds and gook.  They are really slippery  Their slippery-ness made it difficult to pull out everything.  I marked the location of the eyes, nose, and mouth.  I then carved those features.  When finished I got an anaheime pepper from the garden to give the pumpkin on the left a long tongue.  

I went out to the greenhouse to see how progress was coming.  House to was cleaned up.  The white is white plastic but by first glance it looks a little like snow.

Pumpkin with tongue which looks more like a red cigar.

All together

The more spooky pumpkin.

Sunday, I covered the carrot plants with 

Styrofoam to keep them from freezing.  I added more Styrofoam yesterday.  To day I removed the snow and ice from them today and covered the whole thing with poly that I used last year.  A 2x2 is attached to both sides which prevent the wind from blowing off the Styrofoam.  I can easily remove to remove the snow.

I put Styrofoam on the sweet potato plants.  The soil was frozen solid.  I hope that the heat from the soil will thaw the frozen soil.

I cut away the frozen tomato plants from the trellis string.  The trees shaded the area from the sun.  It was getting a little cold.  I stopped hope to finish it tomorrow afternoon.

Carol called  her knee  doctor.  She left a message. No one called her back.

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Weekend of Snow

Sunday Morning 

I don't usually do Photos on Sunday. 

The Hemp crew worked late into the night on Saturday.  Some of them were back Sunday Morning and some worked all day.

The weather forecast was for rain and snow around ten.  A lot of Shane's equipment was outside and he moved it to house three.  

All of the hemp plants that weren't harvested were put in house two which was covered with old poly.  They would be safe from any rain or snow.

The last thing on today was to cover the carrot plants with more Styrofoam to protect them from freezing.

Monday

I moped the bathroom.  Over the months the dusts settles to the floor.  It came off with a lot of soap, water, and scrubbing.   The is a small rug in front of the toilet.

There were people were still working in the hemp.  They have most of it harvested. 

I took another photo of the carrot plants.  There was a little snow on it.

Adam came to fix the washer.  He couldn't find anything wrong with it.  Carol then washed a batch of clothing.

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Moving the Dracaena

 I watched a couple of the wood working shows and then started digging up the Dracaena.

I started digging up the tall Dracaena.  I put pieces of plywood on both sides.   Each shovel full of soil was put on the plywood.  I dug quite a while before I was able to tip it over and roll it out of the hole.  I got the two wheel ed cart, I put it on the cart, but couldn't it was to heavy for me to lift it up.

Justin Smith was working in the hemp.  I asked him to help me.  He picked it up and pull it to the driveway and then pushed it into the garage.  The Dracaena was so tall that it is wedge against the ceiling and leaning against the workbench.  The photo is fuzzy.  

By now it is lunch time.  I picked seven or eight ears of corn.  Carol ate one and I ate three.  It tasted so good.

Here the Hemp crew is harvesting the hem.  There has been a bunch of people working there all day long and into the evening.

I prepared the carrots for the winter by cutting off most of the tops of the carrots.

Another view.  A close look with reveal the carrots.

Here are the ones that I dug.  I took them into the house.  I washed them twice and cut of the rest of the tops.  Carol put them in a zip bag and put them in the fridge.

I walked past the Big Tooth maple tree.  The leaves most yellow and a careful look will reveal some reddish leaves.

I dug the potatoes.  There weren't as many as I had hopped.  The crate on the left holds the larger potatoes and then one on the right has the smaller ones.

The fire marshal told us to prune the ash tree and the lilac tree.  I pruned them some last week.  When he was here reading the meter, he instructed me cut off more branches.  I cut off one large branch.  There were a couple of more branches that needed cutting off.  I got several ladders and asked Dustin to help me.  One heavy branch would fall on the  power line.  I put the ladder against the branch and he tied one end of a piece of heavy twine to a crotch.  I pulled on it while he cut off the branch  

I backed the truck into the drives way and loaded them into the truck.   I had to cut some into smaller pieces.

The last picture of the day shows the back lawn cleaned up.

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