New Years Day

The following two paragraph were put on my Face Book.  I wanted to express feelings rather than being specific.  

Today, I reached the big eight O, Those in the seventies are now young. Those In the nineties are the old ones. May you and your family be blessed this year.

My resolution: To be a better husband, father, grandfather and, great grandfather, and follow the example and teachings of Jesus Christ. Be a friend to all regardless of their social position, and be more forgiving.

Robert and Jeanne stopped to wish me happy birthday.  They brought a present which was a short stem ladder.  I have a tall one and with this won't have to stand on a chair on a chair to change lights.  We began re-arranging the in greenhouse two.  We worked for awhile and then went to lunch.

 We had one bench on cement blocks.  Actually it was a large box made out of 2x6's with a plywood bottom and a sheet of plywood, which had nearly rotted on top.  All of the cactus plants were on top of it. There is one barrel cactus that we saved with all of its little pups.  We kept starts of all of them two propagate new ones if needed.  We saved the bottom and moved the frame to the north-east corner of the greenhouse.  This will filled with soil grow something that likes winter coolness.

We made a new raised box which is on the left.  We another bench apart to make room for another raised bed.  We quite before we finished with it.

I gathered all of the large extension card that supplied power to the out door lights. There were nine of them.  I tied them with some twine and hung all but one in greenhouse three.

Robert and Jeanne left and I started the dreaded job of putting away the outdoor lights.  I put the strings of lights in a large tote.  I put to strings on the bottom and put a piece of newspaper onto top of them.  I then put a couple more string down and then the newspaper again.  This I continued.  I changed the procedure a little by rolling the strings in a sort of ball.  I was able to get six strings and then the newspaper again.  The newspaper help keep the stings from getting tangled.

It was getting later and the temperature was dropping.  I turned the water on for the Devil's Ice Tower.  I heard Tiger our cat, Climbing on top of house six.  I went out and got several pictures.  This one is the best of all of them.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Today's end was Unexpected.

When it warmed up I checked out the greenhouses.  House two was warm and the others were frosted.

From time to time our cat, Tiger, comes into the greenhouse;  Today, he jumped on the bench that I was using.

Yesterday while cleaning in house four, I found some wire baskets.  Below I covered on basket with clear plastic wrap and placed another basket on top of it.  Next spring I can use these two get an early start on melons, cucumbers, etc.

The potting soil in the soil been is powdery dry.  I started to wet it down before lunch and finished after lunch.  It took a lot of watering and stirring to get it all wet.  I filled one 1206 tray with the wet soil.  Later I planted two six packs various seeds which included, basil, cauliflower, cabbage, sweet corn, and pole beans.s

Richard lived with us for about a year a couple of years ago.  One thing he left was this gun safe which his ex  broke it open.  It won't lock any more.  I moved it into house two and to put a couple of shelves in it.  This would give us a handy dry place for some of the tools and supplies we need for planting.  I put some 1x2 runners on each side, and then set a shelf I made out of plywood on top of the runners.

There is a small shelf near the top of the gun safe.  I then added another shelf and put some of the items in it.

The tomato plants in house one have suffered frost damage for about a week now. I started to remove them and put them in the compost pile.  There are two rows in the center.  I removed the tomato clips and pulled out five or six plants in each row.

I planted a fruit tree in the west end of the orchard.  This used to be a plum tree, but it died and a new tree came from the root stalk.  A couple of years ago, it fruited while in the pot.  There weren't very many, but they had a good taste.  While I was watering today, I watered this tree and decided to plant it.

There is a grove of Four-wing Salt Brush.  I don't think these desert plants are in groves.  Many years ago I had gallon pots of the Four-wing Salt Brush in this area on top of some weed barrier.  Most of them didn't sell so I threw them away.  The plants had rooted through the the weed barrier.  I broke of those that had rooted and later the roots produced new stems and plants.  Now they are pretty big.  This evening I started to cut them away.  I would liket to build a fence around the orchard for a new place for chickens and maybe ducks.  The Salt Brush is in the way of this project.  The two photos below show a little of it.