Beets are Gone

After breakfast and the news I worked at the desktop computer and finally was able to make a business card.  It contains the information needed to recruit CSA members or customers.

I went out to house two to prepare the vegetables for the CSA box.  When I do this I  have to bend over to wash and rinse the beets or onions.  I made a higher bench with blocks, bricks, and two 3x4's.  It worked much better but was still not high enough.  I spent an hour to save a half hour.  I do that all the time.  This save on my back.  I half fill each bucket with water.  I wash off most of the soil in the first bucket and rinse in the other two buckets.

About ten I made another CSA box.  I pulled the rest of the red beets.  I was able to make five bunches.  I picked five cucumber.

All that is left of the beets are a few dried up leaves.

After lunch I raked the leaves on the back lawn.  Raking is not entirely right.  I used a blow to make piles and then used a rake or scoop shovel to get the leaves onto the tarp.  I laid the tarp on the lawn and then used a steel pipe to hold down the edge facing the leaves.

 In the case I used the scoop shovel to load the tarp with leaves.

 I grabbed four corners of the tarp, pulled them together and put them over my shoulder.

I am making no till garden with straw, leaves, cucumber, and corn stalks.  Most of it should be decomposed by nest spring.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Getting Ready for Sping.

Soon as breakfast was over and a little news,  Carol says, "Lets pull the geraniums."  I got the tarp and laid it in front of the geraniums east of the porch.  We quickly pulled them up and placed them on the tarp.  

We then moved over to the geraniums west of the front porch. It didn't take long for these either.  The total time was 7-9 minutes.  I drug the tarp to the new compost pile.

From there we pulled the Wave petunias west of the driveway by the corner of the garage.  Leaves are falling and show up on many of these pictures.

Some of the dahlia tubers that I dug last week were beginning to wilt.  I took them out to house five which has no poly.  I loaded the wheelbarrow with recycled potting soil.  I sprinkled some of the soil on the tubers.  Then I sprayed them with water which washed the soil in and around the tubers and their roots.  I continues this process until all the tubers were covered and the soil was wet.

I saw a 2x4 by I don't know how long.  I have been contemplating making another short stool out of 2x4's.  I would use this one.  I pulled the nails out.  It is fairly straight.  It is a little hard to see; part of it is sticking of the bench to the left.

After lunch I covered the three flower beds with compost.  The following photos show the compost.  Last year we put compost on those beds.  The two pictures for some reasons are not very bright

We went to Fillmore for a few groceries and to deposit a check.  Fillmore main street will soon be finished.  Also, to fill the car with gasoline.

We are going back to the temple tomorrow morning, Tuesday, and Carol wanted the car vacuumed.  I used the Harbor Freight vacuum . It worked better than what I thought it wood.  I worked on it for over and hour.  I blew the leaves off the lawn with the Harbor Freight blower.  It has always worked well.  I used it to blow the dust off the vacuum filter.  It really did the job.

I made a little change to the out feed table for the table saw.  I put a small self drilling into the side of the table saw.  Then small grabber high on the table leg.  I wird these together which holds the saw and the table together.

I want to make a small stool. I cut two legs out of a 2x4.  the legs will 1 1/2 x1 1/2 x20 inches long.  I

made a tool to help drill a plumb hole through the table leg.  The screw goes through the leg hole and into the skirt.  I tried many different ways to attach the leg and skirt together and in square.

Comments and questions welcome

The day started with cucumbers --- finished with canning

Soon as breakfast was over, I told Carol that I will pick a bucket of Armenian cucumbers and some burpless cucumbers.  Surprise, I came back with two full buckets.  Carol washed them.  She took the Armenians to the post office.  There are a few people that leave their surplus vegetables at the post office.  Ours were gone.  We are taking the burpless cucumbers to Manti for one of the ordinance workers.

One of the rows of tomatoes in house one was leaning to the west.  I pounded a stake in the ground angled a little left of the post.  I tied them together with a wire and it now is plumb or straight up.

I filled a wheelbarrow with the grass clippings, which by now were hot and stinky.  I worked for two house doing this.

I mulched all the strawberry plants.  The didn't do well this year.  There was not any strawberries, period.  I didn't count the loads, but there were a lot of them.

The is a large box elder tree between the grass clipping and the strawberry patch near the garage.  Every time that we walk out to the garden, we have to duck under the hanging branches..   On my first trip with the wheelbarrow,  I had to duck.  I stopped then and tried to start the chainsaw.  I would start.  I grabbed my bow saw and went to work cutting a large branch with small branches hanging down.  It didn't take long until I had it cut down.  I drug it to the trailer.  I will load it later. 


tree picture

Some trays inside house three.  They were full of weeds and I pulled them today.

 On the bench south of house three are trailing daisies.  They were hanging nearly to the ground.  I cut them off.  There needs to be more pruning.

 These strawberry plants are sending out runners.  It is time to propagate.  I hope in the near future.

Below are pictured swish chard.  It has grown so big that it doesn't appear edible.  I dug half of it out, making it easier to pick the tomatoes.

After lunch, I started canning some tomatoes.  Robert picked a bunch of small salad tomatoes.  I boiled them to remove the skin.  I put them in a food processor to break them into small pieces.  I strained them through a calendar, put them in two quart bottles.  I them processed them in boiling water for 50 minutes.

 Here they are in the bottle.

After supper I took the following pictures.  I put a sprinkler on the compost pile to keep it wet and hopefully decompose.

 The watermelon vines are doing well, but the watermelons on the stake are dying before they even get started.  It is black on the bottom edge.

 The pumpkin vine grows twelve inches every day.  There some pumpkins beginning to grow.

Comments and questions are welcomed