Leaf Miners and Slugs

I worked most of the morning on an application to renew my line of credit at Zions bank.  There were three pages to complete.  The application called for income and expense figures that to awhile to find.  I took it to Fillmore early this afternoon.  I for got to take my income tax papers.  I brought the application home and Robert Reidhead, the loan office will get it Tuesday afternoon.

I have a terrible infestation of Leaf Miners.  They are destroying beets and chard plants. They are in the older plants and even some of the young seedlings.  The above photo shows them in a large beet plant.

There is an adult fly about the size of a house fly.  It lays eggs into the leaf of the host plant.  The egg hatches into a tiny larva.  The larva grows and emerges as a pupa which falls to the ground and emerges as an adult fly.  I haven't seen the of these except the adult fly.

 I put a few leaves in a bottle attempting to see a mature larva and the pupa.

An update on the home that is being built nest to the garage/shop across the road and down the street from us.

Another home is being built in the north west part of Holden.  I have no idea who is building it or who will move in.

There are some cucumber plants growing in one of the raised beds that are doing poorly.  I dug a hole for a slug trap.  The small cup will fit in the hole.

The cup is filled with beer.  I haven't seen any indication of slugs  in the part of the greenhouse.

I planted these Green Arrow peas about a month ago.  I want to plant them in house six in a couple of weeks.

A new plan for house six.  I have changed my mind several times in house six.  Yesterday I saw a video of trellising tomato plants.  In the center of the pictures is a twelve foot two by six.  Two posts will be erected about ten feet a part.  The two by six will be attached to the top of the posts.  There will be five of them.  Each will be twelve feet apart. The overhead wires will rest on top of them.  The twine and tomahooks will hang from the wires.  In the past they have hung from the bows which causes excess weight on them.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Valentine Day

Nothing exciting today.  I worked some on the presentation which is a week from today.  I shredded a bunch of papers and dumped a bin full in the garden.

I worked most of the morning preparing the material for filing my income taxes.  I think I have it ready for my tax man.

This is something that I have never seen before.  It is in the late afternoon and this slug is after a drink of beer.  The cup is a sample cup that we get at Sam's Club.  I don't know if it is getting a drink or if it has finished and leaving.

It has rained much of the day.


Comments and questions are welcome.

288 Cells and Beets

This early morning we went to the Manti Utah temple.  We were back home by one thirty.

We had another nice snow storm.  There was about three inches of snow.

Sunday afternoon these two small cups contained two large snails.  I would think that if have trapped them all.

I planted more Detroit red beets.  This tray contains 105 cells.

This afternoon I pored the beer through a sieve  and strained out more slugs.

There is one huge Swish Chard plant which is riddled with leaf miners and a lot of aphids.  I cut off a whole bunch of leaves and stems and gave them to the chickens.

Another photo.

This trays has 288 cells.  I used my new strainers and got some potting soil pretty much free from sticks.  I filled the above tray and put one beet seed in each cell.  I pressed the seed into the soil and covered them with more strained soil.

I carefully watered them and put then on the heating bench.  I expect them to germinated late next week.


Comments and questions are welcome.

A Little Warmer Today

It is Quenton's, our youngest grandson,  birthday next week.  Last Monday we bought him a present.  We didn't have a box that would fit the present.  We drove to Fillmore for some groceries and find a box.  At the back of the store there was an employee stocking some frozen food.  He emptied the box and with my tape measure the dimensions were nearly perfect.  We grabbed the box and got a few groceries and headed home.

The present was wrapped.  I put it in the box and it was a perfect fit.  I then made an address label.  We went to the post  office and Quenton should have it by Monday.

 After lunch I spent some time in house two.  I picked some Italian parsley, radishes, and one tomato.

I later picked a cucumber and put it all on a dinner plate.

Slugs and snails are eating the radishes.  The vegetable oil that I used a couple of days ago did not work. I put these small boards between the rows.  I am hoping that the slugs and snails will crawl under the boards.  In the morning I will find them on the underside of the boards.

The water in the hoses in house six melted some and I was able to water the lettuce plants.  The red arrow points to water dripping out of the drip line.

A lot of ice at the hose bib.  I let it run so the pipes will not freeze and break.  One hose was buried in the ice.  I used a heavy shovel to break the ice to free the hose.  I later turned it on and water started to run.  I want to sprinkle the ground in house six to start weeds germinating.

I had some time on my hands so instead of watching TV I started making and other short stool.   I made the legs out of some short 2x4's and I made the rails by ripping a 2x4 in half and ended up with two 1x4's.   I have had a hard time attaching the legs to the rail.  I used some clamps to hold the legs to the rails.  That didn't work.  I placed the heavy gear on the rail witch worked pretty good.  I applied some glue on the connecting pieces.   I then drove screws through the leg into the rails.

Here it is.  All it needs now is the top.  A little sanding and staining will finish it off.

New Door House Two

Pictures are not clear for some unknown reason.

I worked in the garage most of the afternoon.  I opened the south door.  The quart bottle was full of chicken scratch for the black hen.  She was killed before she had a chance to eat some.  There was a song bird on the ground.  It would fly up and peck at the hole and knock out some wheat and then would eat it off the ground.

Above is the frame for the north door of house two.  I will put poultry netting on it and attach to the door frame that is currently there.  We can have the door open and still keep the cats out.

As soon as we got home from the Manti Temple, I changed clothes and went to house two to see how the chicks were doing.  The heat lamp had broken again.  I put on a new one last night.  I don't know what is causing it to break.  There is reflector on it that directs the heat down.  I could get it to stay on the lamp.  I took it off.  I will check in again in the morning.

I put the wire back on so the chicks would not fly out.  Also, to keep any cats away.

Last night I put more beer out.  One of them had a bunch of little slugs.



Comments and questions are welcome.

d

More Work on the Mic Cord

Yesterday, I put out another cat food can with beer.  I checked it this morning, and there were dozens of slugs.  Many of them were very small.  Circled above are two lettuce plants that were eaten nearly to the ground.

 This morning I glued the two halves of the mic cord hanger that I made yesterday together. I put pm the clamps two hold them together.  There was a lot of glue squeeze out and they were slippery and hard to hold in place.  If I would do it again I would dry clamp the together and drill a hole in the top and another in the bottom.  I could apply the glues and stick a couple of dowels through the holes to keep them from sliding.

 I needed a handle for the hanger.  I need two small pieces with the same end grain and the hanger.  I clamped a piece of 2x4 to the table saw blade.  After a few tries I cut a section our of the middle.  I then put the piece on its edge and cross cut of the two pieces.  This method has the possibility of cutting tenons.

I glued the two pieces at the top of the hanger.  After the glue has set and dried I smooth it off two be a place hold on to it to move it around.

Cold Day

The lost round saw blade is found.

There are people in Holden with tractors that push the snow off of driveways.  I thought that when we got home from the temple that our driveway would be clear of snow.  It wasn't.  Carol and I got the shovels and started on our long driveway.  We cleaned about 2/3's of the driveway.

The temperature has been below freezing since last night. I ice has grown much larger.  The next few picture are of the same ice, but from different angles.

 Yesterday in house two, Robert and Frank buried some cat food cans in the soil and filled them with beer.  Twenty-four hours later then had attracted slugs.  Two had twelve slugs in it the other one had caught six slugs.  There were no snails.

I covered the slug bait with a butter tub placed upsided down.  I put them on when watering.

 I filled these plug cells with potting soil.  The one above is planted with Leeks.  One seed per cell.

 Above is a small tray of curl-leaf parsley.  One seed per cell.

Here is a group of them on the heating pad.

Transplanted  Tasmanian Chocolate Tomato.  These were planted 2 February 2018

Lettuce that was not transplanted yesterday.  It is perking up a little.  Water every day.

I took some hen scratch to  our black hen and discovered that the water pan was frozen solid.  I took it out to house two to thaw out.  There was a large night-crawler under the water contain.  Black hen quickly grabbed it and down it went.

 I got a a gallon of hot water from the house and poured in on the hose bib and PVC stub.  It took about half of the water.  It water began to flow.  I turned the volume down.  The hen was glad to get a drink.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Robert and Frank and Snow

It started snowing around two this morning.  After breakfast there was six inches of snow on our driveway.  It snowed most of the day and added another four inches of snow.

First thing after breakfast was to turn on the furnace in house six.  There was about ten inches of snow on the poly.  I remove the deep snow in front of the door.   I turned the on the furnace, the gas was ignited, and then I hung the poly Curtin over the fan on the north west corner.  I left and came back because the furnace shut off.  I followed the thermostat wire to the thermostat which was covered with dried left over tomato plants.  I turned it up and the furnace turned on.  I left it on the rest of the day.

This is the first picture I took this morning.  It is ponderosa pine decorated with frosty snow.

House six is warming some.  The snow is beginning to slide.

The snow on the top of the roof also is beginning to slide.  By the end of the day, most of the heavy snow had slid down the sides.

Robert and Frank were here.  Robert prepared a planting bed in house six. He removed all of the plant material, then drove the tiller through it five or six times.  We stretched the twine to show the boarder on both sides.  Other areas will be prepare at a later date.  It is ready for carrot, red beats, chard, turnips, radishes, etc.

Robert is planting the Styrofoam trays with leafy vegetable seeds.  Frank is helping.

 Robert transplanted a lot of the lettuce. 

I had bush snap beans here that were not doing well.  He pulled them up and replaced the with lettuce.

On the left are the lettuce plants left over.  Will find a place for them.

We have a lot of Styrofoam plug cells.  I cut them into five inch sections.  Robert finished the day by planting various seeds of leafy plants.

We have had problems with snails and slugs.  Frank brought three cans of beer.  He poured it into soft cat food cans.  They are partially buried in the soil.  It is said that beer attracts slugs and snails.  We will see tomorrow afternoon.



Comments and questions are welcome.