The Freeze Never Happened in our Area

Today, I turned the furnace own. The temperature in the house was 63 degrees.

I was working again cleaning around the greenhouses.  I keep finding trays all around the south door of house two.  I worked some there this morning and again in the late afternoon.  The germination trays can get extra heavy when it rains and if they out in the rain.  Rain was the forecast this afternoon.

While I was doing this Robert and Frank, Andrew, the furnace guy arrived about the same time. Andrew got the furnace going.  It didn't take him long.  The valve attached to the furnace would not turn for me.  It turned for him.  Isn't that the way it works.  He loosind one of the gas pipes to bleed out the air.  He tightened it up when he smelled the gas.  He lit the piolet light and turned up the thermostat.  The furnace worked.  I had him pick some tomatoes while I got the check book.  $15.00.

Robert and Frank removed a lot of tomato plants out of house seven.  The weight of the tomato plants hanging from the bows was putting some stress on them.  Robert and Frank picked peppers, tomatoes, The mature Italian squash and some watermelons.

I dug the onions before lunch.  They were laying on the black weed barrier.  After lunch Carol and I cut off the onion tops.  I put them in the garage for them to cure a little.   Later we drove to Fillmore from some groceries.  We got a roast and hamburger at Ashton Farms.  Eric, our son, called and wanted to know if the could visit us tomorrow.  That was the main purpose going to Fillmore.

I moved the compressor into house three to get it out of the rain.

It rained on the way home from Fillmore and it has rained quite a bit this evening.

No pictures today.  I got too busy to document the day with photos.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Started in house one - ended with tomato cages

I made five or six more hooks this morning.  I worked in house one most of the morning.  I used the hooks two hang tomato plants that were being held up by four foot bamboo stakes.  They were determinate tomato plants with some large tomatoes.  I will watch and see how they do.  Below is the twine and tomato clips.

Yesterday, I braced up the egg plants on the south end of house one.  Before lunch, I braced up the egg plants and pepper plants on the south end of house one.  Now they are braced all the way.  I drove some stakes in the ground and stretched the twine between the stakes.  Many of the plants are over three feet tall.

An interesting pepper.  

 Here is another version of a two basket tomato cage.  The difference is the adjustable height.

These pieces of wood have holes drilled at and angle.  The wood is the right size for driving it into the pipe for a tight fit.

A nail inserted into the hole.  Then the cage can be lowered or raised depending on the height of the tomato plant.

Below I drove in a screw which holds the cage in place.

I weeded about half of the onions yesterday and Carol finished it off this morning.  the weeds are on the left side of the row.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

The Lawnmower is Fixed & Home

Yesterday, I planned to pull the weeds in this pepper bed.  This morning after the chores are finished, I spent one hour there pulling the weeds.  In the picture below, it is hard to see any pepper plants.

Weeds are pulled here on hands and knees. Pepper plants are visable, and the weeds are laying in the walkway.

 Weeds are removed and shows the two rows of pepper plants.  The pepper plants are very healthy.  Many of them have small peppers on them.

I worked in house one hanging and weeding the tomato plants.  They are branching and branches are growing all over.  I tried a new method of hanging tomato plants.  I saw it on YouTube.  Stake is driven into the ground between the two plants.  Each plants has a string anchored to the stake, and then wrapped aroung the plant and tied to the wire which is about eight feet high.

Saturday and Robert's Friends

Robert, Frank, and Christina were here by eight this morning.  The went right to work stringing the cucumber plants.  After that they began to lay out the drip tape in the South garden.

While they were doing that, I gathered up the frost protection fabric. We used them in mid may when there was a threat of frost.   Some was in house one and the other was in the garden where the corn is planted.  I put it on the driveway.  Carol helped me fold it up.  I am storing them in the north end of house 3.

Back to Robert:  They planted a lot of pepper plants.

 There are two rows of drip tape and three rows of peppers.  All together there is nine rows of peppers.

 They also planted some vine crops.  Squash and watermelons.

 I got the watering system fixed and let the water run for a short time to mark the spot where the emitters are.  Also, the ground would be softened some for digging later on.

 On each side of the garden hose dribble tubing were incerted.

 In the late afternoon I filled the backpack sprayer with weed killer.  I sprayed around the yard and gardens until it was empty.  The picture below was some weeds that I missed several weeks ago.

The first crop of corn is showing silk.  The ears will be small, but it should be good. The later crop is starting to tassel.  The ears will be more natural in size.

 It was after eight when I checked out house one.  There are no strings to hold the tomato plants upright.  Frank brought some four foot bamboo sticks.  I could not get them in the ground deep enough to hold them upright let alone to hold a tomato plant.  I could not pound them in the ground because the bamboo would bow.  I took a half inch pvc pipe a little over three feet long.  I pushed the bamboo in as for as I could.  then slipped the pvc pipe over it and with a mallet I was able to pound it in four or five inches, and with a tomato clip I attached the tomato to the stick.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

Nice Rain

Last night we picked all the bell peppers and we left the jalapeno and Anaheim pepper.  It had rained most of the night.  The garden was muddy and the peppers were wet . We don't need those peppers, so we put them in grocery bags and left them at the post office.  They were mostly gone by noon.  We have taken a lot of our surplus to the post office it is used by some that don't have much gardens.

Carol Sliced a lot of the bell peppers and put them on large sheet pan.  I put them into the freezer.  Later in the day she put them in a gallon zip bag and then back in to the freezer.

A couple of days ago, I cut the dead and worn out flowers and plants in the dry garden north of our house.  This morning Carol said that she would rake them up and wanted me to get a tarp.  It is much easier to use the tarp.  I then drag the garden refuse to the trailer.  When the trailer is full we take it to the dump.  

The was a couple of times during the day that I destemmed the raisons.  We have two red bowels when full of raisons will fill one quart zip bags.  I is quite slow doing this.  I filled both of them.  I have enough raisons to fill two more bowels

Carol picked two pomegranates and removed the seeds.  They are put into a zip bag, frozen until all the pomegranates are picked.  She makes them into jelly.

 Robert will be here tomorrow, Saturday, to pick the beans.  The planted late.  This will be the third weekend to pick, and most likely the last one.  A frost is forecasted early Sunday morning.  The will be turned into pickles. 

 This picture is the entrance into the crawl space under our house.  The threshold has been moved by some animal.  Maybe a skunk.  What ever is doing it cannot crawl under the door.   Mystery.

Harvesting

I was working on another cage for the tomatoes.  I have three to go.   It seems like we just picked the beans,, but after breakfast we picked another nice batch of snap beans.  Carol gave them to one of out neighbors. 

This morning I washed two bags of raisins and drained the water out through a colander. After they had drained for an hour, I spread them out on a towel and by lunch time they were dry. 

I put them back into their quart zip bags.  There are four bags.  The first two are the ones that I washed.  The second two bags were washed before I put them in the bags.

There are enough grapes in the tote that is left to fill four more bags.

Our melon patch has done very well.  The variety is Topaz.  They need to be picked as soon as a little yellow appears in the skin.  It is my favorite melon.

The smell of the orange flesh reaches across the room.  I save seeds from year to year.  These seeds are not sold in any of the seed catalogs.  It weighs about eight pounds.

 We have been drying plums in the fruit dryer in the house.  I have removed the pit without cutting the plum in half.  First I used a small tube and pushed it into the stem end of the plum and forced the pit out the blossom end.  That did not work very well.  I used a very sharp nail and pushed it into the stem end.  That was difficult.  I took a slice off the blossom end which exposed the end of the pit.  That was a little better.  I made a slice in the end and used a small spoon like tool and fished out the pit.  Conclusion.  That takes to much time.  Finally, a light comes on, I will dry the plum with the pit inside.  We will see how it goes.

The forecast was for rain.  Carol wanted to pick the peppers before the rain and the mud. This is what we got.