Clean-up Gardens

Scriptures, breakfast, and yard work.  I got tired of watching the news, therefore, I went outside.

I went out to the grape vines and found more concord grapes.  There were more than I thought that there would be.

The concord grapes are on the left side of the bucket and the Himrod grapes on the right side.  I ate all of the Himrod grapes.  The concord grapes are in the fridge.

This Topaz melon had been in the garage for over a week.  That was looking pretty unripe when I picked it.

The furnace for house five did not arrive until late this afternoon,  I fixed a pair of 2x4's to hold the furnace stand above the ground.

One of the big projects was to pull all of the geraniums in the kidney.  I pulled all of them up.

I left the purple chrysanthemums.  They are starting to bloom.   

I carried a bunch in my arms to one of the compost piles.  I stacked a bunch up and carried them with the pitchfork.  I carried two piles.  

I raked off the kidney making it look pretty clean.

I cut down the west hibiscus plant and took it to the compost.

Then I cut down the two east hibiscus plants.

There is a hole were the Dracaena used to be. I hauled four nursery can full of soil.  It took two trips.

I removed the conduit that was holding up the tomato plants.  I would have remove the plant material, but it began to rain.

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Frozen Drying Grapes

As soon as breakfast was over, I began cleaning up the grapes.  I had a big bucket full of them.  I pulled the grapes from the branches.  I put the grapes in a container and put the stems in a bucket.  I put some of them in the garage greenhouse.

I put them on the drying rack.

One of my neighbors is building a huge garage for all of his antiques cars and trucks.  He has been prepping the site since early spring.

The mortgage Lifter tomato plants have done really well.  I picked one for lunch, but didn't get around to eating it.

We are low on potatoes in the house.  I dug up two hills.  They are thick and there are many of them.  I cleaned them up.

We froze six trays of himrod grapes.  We will use them in freezes.    We put them in zip bags and put them in the freezer.  Our neighbor brought us four chickens.  I put them in the hen house and gave them water and feed.  Two are red and two are white.

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Canned Peaches

I picked more peaches this morning and then we drove to Fillmore.  We got gas, groceries, Some cash at the bank, prescription at the drug store, and lawn fertilizer at Roper's.

When we got home we started canning the peaches.  Carol did most of the work.  She scalded and peeled the peaches.  

We got nine pints of peaches.  One didn't seal.  It is in the fridge.

I was getting ready for four chickens.  A racoon or a skunk crawled under the poultry wire and killed and ate three chickens.  I put cement blocks in front hoping to stop them from crawling under.

The were so many grape vines and grapes that it was impossible to completely open the door.  I pruned away the vines.  And pruned away all of the grape clusters.  

I couldn't reach all of the grapes.  I got a ladder and got most of the grapes that were left.  I filled this bucket.  We haven't decided what to do with them.  That will be tomorrow.

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Tangled Grape Vines

I took a few pictures of the dry garden by the road.

In the photo above are alliums that are purple and foxtail lilies that are yellow.

Purple alliums with gray Rabbit brush back drop.

The carrots in the bed at the right are doing well, but the ones on the left haven't germinated.  I water them every day, but it dries out.   I put down some burlap and wetted it down.

As soon as we got home from the temple, I watered house two and then had lunch.  It was way to hot in the greenhouses to do any work, so I went out to the strawberry patch and dug up a lot of wild lettuce and fed it to the chickens.

I fixed the wires on which I will hang the grape vines.  I tied a piece of wire to the main post and the other end to a short post in the ground.  

I did the same on the west end.  Plus a turnbuckle.

This is how it looks between the two rows of grapes.    I cleaned away the alliums and other weeds.

This is how it looks after I pruned away most of the grape vine and trying to train it to follow the two trellises.

This one s pruned away so much that I can't hardly see it in the photo.


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Siblings Togather Again

This morning we drove to Orem, Utah, for lunch with my two brothers and three sisters and their spouses.  On the way up we stopped at Costco's, then Sam's Club, and then at Home Depot, and then at Deseret Bookstore.   By then it was time for lunch at the Chuck-O-Rama in Orem.

Marylin Johnson, Paul Johnson, Ray Johnson, Mary Anne Johnson, Gary Church, Annalee Church, Carol Johnson, Betsy Fredrickson, Karla Corry and Jim Corry.

A fuzzy snap shot.

Betsy Fredrickson, Mary Anne Johnson, Ray Johnson, Marylin Johnson, Paul Johnson, Annalee Church, Gary Church, Carol Johnson, Merrill Johnson, Karla Corry, and Jim Corry.

On the way home we stopped at Wal Mart to get a few Easter things.

When I got home I began working in the greenhouse.  I planted a long row of tomato plants. I needed a couple more plants so I used five of the smallest that is left.  These were in a six pack.

I had a whole bunch that were in quart bottles which were rooted.  These are in the same row and are eighteen inches apart.  I dug the holes with a trenching shovel.

Here is the row looking to the west.

The grape plants that I planted out a couple of weeks ago are really looking tough.  I ran water down the row to give them another drink.  I hasn't warmed up enough for any bud swelling.  The ones that I planted were in house two and well leafed out.  I think that they will be doing better by the middle of May.

I cut out a lot of weeds while waiting for the water run down the grape row.


Comments and questions are welcome.

The Stirrup Hoe is Lost no More

I did the watering and other morning chores.  While watering I found the stirrup hoe.  It was in house two laying flat next two the 2x6 on the west end of the raised bed.  There is a plant which I water at least once a day and watered the middle of the handle at the same time.

I transplanted another tray of red beets.   I transplanted the first half of the beets from the other side of the raised bed.  I have a hard time kneeling.  I made six holes with the dibbler, then I removed some of the beet plugs from their tray, then put the plugs in the hole.  I moved to the other side and made thirty holes.  I removed all the plugs from the tray.  I could then quickly put a plug in each hole.  When finished I watered them.  I finished before it got too hot in house two.

I did a lot of pruning in house one.  Some of the vines numerous branches.  Many of them were over five feet long.  I picked some nice gladiator tomatoes.  We drove to Fillmore for some groceries.  We stopped at Cluff's for a take home lunch.  I gave them the tomatoes with the intent that they might order some.  They said thanks and we came home.

I pulled some of the older red beets.  I washed them and made a group of five beets.

I wrapped them in  plastic wrap and put them in the garage fridge.  I wonder if the will keep fresh for three days.

I harvested two more beets.  One is wrapped and the other is not wrapped.  They are pretty much the same size.  Both of these are in the fridge.  I will see how they look each day.  When we harvest we may not have to wrap them.  Especially if they go to market on the following day.

The wind is blowing in the right direction for cutting down some of the trees.  That is from the south west.  I don't want any falling across the neighbor's fence.   Two stumps are left in the above photo.

The picture above is of a few other trees.  One tree is leaning to the south.  I was afraid to cut it down. The chain come off the bare.  It took me some time to get it fixed and back to cutting.

This small Utah Juniper has been growing here for five or six years.  I caught in the sunlight.  It has about six inches of new growth.  It is under a plum tree and must have been planted by a bird.

A cucumber blossom with a small fly on the right petal.  There is a tiny ant between the two bottom petals.  It is a little bit of a dark spot at the cleavage.  I wondered how that tiny ant made it way up them stem two the flower.

We harvested more dill.

The grapes continue to dry.  Over half of them are dry.

I have been setting on a lawn chair to do weeding and attaching the trellis string to the bottom of the tomato plants.  The chair is a little to low too get up and too large to fit between the rows.  I began making a stool which will be about twenty inches high.   The photo show the four legs and one rail.  The other rails are made.  They are made with eight inch 2x4's.   The legs are made out of two twenty inch 2x4's ripped in half.   I expect it will take about an hour to finish it in the morning


Comments and questions are welcome.