Waiting for Customer-Old Friend

I was expecting a customer this morning.  He said that he would be here before nine.  I went out about 8:30 so I would be there when came.  I started removing the frozen tomato plants.  I had to remove the tomato clip.  Instead of kneeling to unhook the bottom clip, I cut the vine off at ground level.  Then, I picked the plant up where it was more comfortable to remove the clip.  I did this on both ends.  I started on the south end shown in the photo below.   Some of the tomatoes would fall off as soon as there are touched.

The north east corner of house one.  I worked back here so I could watch for the customer.  There is a small door that is open at the left that can't be seen on this picture.  I took the vines out that door.

Looking south where many of the plants are gone.  I needed the step stool to hang the tomahooks that fell off.

The customer came, Doug Page, and bought eight Salvia pachyphylla plants.  I have know him for years. It came to $50.00  He is the one that gave me the Bristle Cone pine seeds.

I left the wheelbarrow in the summer squash garden a couple of days ago.  I filled it with the rest of the Armenian cucumbers.  I needed the wheelbarrow for the next project.

The next job was to remove all the annual plants and dig the dahlia tubers.  

I left the annual salvias.  They reseed themselves and have a pretty blue while most of everything else is frozen.

After lunch I spent over an hour in the dental chair.  He fixed my front teeth.  He then did Wild Root Canal.  He drilled into the roots to remove the puss.  I was a guinea pig.  He said that this was the first time that he done it and nobody has done it before.

I dug two dahlia tubers.  The ground was so hard and difficult to dig.  I dug one dahlia plant and cut through some of the tubers and broke some of the others.  Digging the next plant, I was more careful.  I dug away quite bit of the soil exposing some of the tubers.  I then used a pressure hose to wash away the soil.

We drove to Fillmore for a few groceries, deposit a check, and fill the car with gas.  We stopped at the Ice Box for ice cream.  There were other customers in there.  More than I have seen at any other time.  I asked for one large chocolate cone and another vanilla cone, laid four one dollar bills on the counter.  She quickly got them for me.  But, she would not take the money.  I urged her to take it and she said that was okay while she walked away.

When I got home, I dug the other tuber, which come up easy because of the soaking with water.  I turned the sprinkler on and let it run all night.

The two dahlia plants with all the tuber shown below.  It shows some cut and some broke and some good.

Comments and questions are welcome

Working Around the Yard

We have several hose bibs that leak.  They need to be replaced to save on the cost of water.  We drove to Fillmore.  I picked some up at Ropers.  The one east of the house was leaking the most.  I had a difficult time removing it. My short pipe wrench would not turn it off.  The bigger one didn't work either.  I used the big hammer method. I put the wrench to the hose bib and hit the end with the hammer.  I hit it harder and harder.  finally it started to turn just the littlest amount.

Below is the pipes that are connected to the well.  I had to buy a new union. I glued the short nipple to the union and the other end to the ell.  At the bottom is a female adapter that I attached to the pressure tank.  I taped it Teflon tape and tightened with a pipe ranch to where I could tighten it no more.  I then undone the union and glued the rest of the parts together.  I turned the pump on.  There was another leak.  It was the gate valve.

The phot below from left to right shows a nipple, then the gate valve, another nipple, and then the union.  The size of all was 1 1/4 inches.  The union was the hardest to remove.  It was difficult to tell which way to turn the union.  The small pipe wrench wouldn't work.  I used a 14 inch wrench.  I ended up turning is clock wise.  I put the wrench on and pounded the end with a heavy hammer.  It didn't move.  I pounded harder and harder.  It finally turned a little.  Eventually I got it off.  Using the same method I removed a gate valve leaving the left nipple in place.  There is a heavy duty vice in the garage which held the gate valve firmly and with a hammer and wrench, I took it all apart.  A tripe to the hardware store for a gate valve and back.  I put it all together using Teflon tape.  The next morning I was able to get water to the garden.

I fixed an other tap that had a hose bib attracted to each end of a tee. The ball valve froze  and has a crack in it.  It works okay of it is all the way on or all the way off.  Put partly own it sprays through the break.

We have a lilac tree next to the garage.  Every winter some of the branches die.  Some are mostly dead with one live branch at the end.  I have a saws all that head a  metal cutting blade.  I removed it and after some difficulty put in another blade for cutting wood.  With a ladder and an extension card I was able to remove a few branches.

 Lisa gave us some dahlia tuber last week. We planted them this afternoon.  There are drip lines in this garden.  I dug a hole under every other emitter until we had them all planted.  We put a sprinkler on the north end and after thirty minutes I moved to the south end for another thirty minutes.  It should be looking pretty in about six weeks. 

A couple of lilac bushes are struggling.  We pruned several of them.  I used the chainsaw to cut some of the larger branches.  It is pretty sick looking.  We hope that it will branch out some.