The Garden is Growing

I am seeing a dermatologist at 11:30 this morning.  I have a lot of pre-cancer things on the right side of my face.  After breakfast I started hoeing weeds in the garden.

The zoochini is coming up.  When I looked at it this morning,  some bug ate of the leaves of most of them.  There is a one left.   I hoed most of the weeds in the potatoes, cabbage, and a row of tomato plants.

I cut off the tops of the poinsettias, hoping for new stems and flowers 

I found two Blue Lake pole beans.  One is ready to pick and the other one is small.

While I was seeing the dermatologist Carol did some shopping.  I was in the exam room for about five minutes.  I made a deposit at State Bank and at the credit union.  I payed a bill at Zions Bank.  We order chicken at Five Buck pizza.  It took about fifteen minutes for them to get it ready.  We came home and ate it.

 I put up this twenty foot pipe.  It is above a row of tomato plants that are about eighteen inches apart.  I will train the tomatoes to follow twine  trellis which is will be hooked to the pipe.

It was quite a project.  I drilled holes through the pipes.  I pounded the pipe into the ground.   I bolted an eight foot 2x2 to the pipe.   It took several hours to get the three supports.  I used tie wire as well
as bolts.  A stepladder was helpful. 

I screwed two brackets, one each side to hold the horizontal pipe in place. 

I could not get the hole in the pipe to line up with the hole 2x2, so I wired them together with tie wire.

One of them I got the hole right at the top, but the bottom I wired together. 

I pulled a carrot but it broke because of the hard ground.  I watered all the vegetables in the raised beds.  It was much easier to pull the carrots.   I washed them and took them into the house where I cut off the tops.  They are in a zip bag in the fridge.

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Christmas, 2017

Christmas morning, the celebrated birth around the world of the birth of Jesus Christ.  We have received a lot of presents from our Children and we opened them before breakfast.  It took some effort to figure them out.   One present is a shop stool given by Lisa and Eric Gray.

These two tomato cuttings were put in a quart bottle December 7, and developed a good root system.  I put them in gallon pots.  They are in this small aluminum tray and watered from the bottom.  Many time the water will run down the side and not soak if watered from the top.

The bench on the west side is on rollers where I can roll it either to the west or the east.  If it is rolled to the west, it gives about eighteen more inches in the center isle.  I have removed the wire.  The long 2x4's were held to the 2x4 below by screws driven into the side.  I had to put the bench upside down to reach the screws.  I drove some of screw so deep that I couldn't see them to be able to remove them.  I was able to get a few with a hand held screw driver.  I had to pound some off with the hammer.  The rest I moved back and forth and it broke the screws.

The wire is gone.  There were a lot of small staples all away around the perimeter. I was able to pull them out with a small pair of wire cutters.  There is a noticeable scar in the wood where the staples were.  The braces closes between the 2x4's held in place by the pressure from each side.  There are other braces have screws holding them in place.  The next group of braces are staggered some to make room for the screws. 

The bench was held together with grabber screws.  Most of them were pretty easy to remove.  My drill speed up the process.

I finally finished with the demolition of the bench.  All 2x4's will be used in wood projects that I will make in the future.

Comments and questions are welcome

Monday Morning -- Catch Up

I read 1 Nephi 12 and 1 Kings 3

I am trying to build a couple of items made with wood each week.  I decided to make a pedestal for a potted plant.  We have one in the house and I don't know where it came from.  I took the measurements of the one in the house and then out to the garage to start on it.   Last week I made some wooden blocks to make a block puzzle.  They were on my table saw and on the out feed table.  They were in the way for my new project, so I glued them together.  The photo below shows the cube, but it is not put together the right way.  There are twenty-seven cubes.  They are glued together to make a small L, large L, small T, a large T, and two other configuration.

I went out to house one to remove more tomato plants while the glue was curing.  I haven't cut tomato plants for awhile.  The vines were much dryer now that they were the last time.  I worked part way on the two rows on the east side.

I then began making the pedestal. I found an old 2x4 about eight feet long and cut it into pieces from the cutting list that I made.  I was making the base and the pedestal top.  I cut all the 2x4's in half so that I had some like 3/4x4.  I planed them to give all the same thickness.  First, I glued the top together.  I didn't get a phot of the top.  This is the base.

I cut down more tomato plants in house one.  I finished with the two east row.

Carol took a group of ladies from the Butter Milk DUP Camp to Cove Fort.  I mowed the lawn.  There was no grass to cut, but a lot of leaves to pick up.  I took me about an hour.  I dumped the leaves in the melon garden.

Carol wanted me to put the cushions from the outdoor furniture in the garage for the winter.  They were already in plastic garbage bags.  I tied the top of each bag with twine to keep the cushions in and the dust out.  I also blew the leaves off the driveway.

Carol is not back from here DUP meeting at Cove Fort.  I then decided I would finish up the day in House six. Tomato plants in house six are really tangled.  Cutting down the tomato plants in house six is much more difficult than in house one.   However, they were really dry, and broke.  I worked on the row on the right.

Comments and questions welcome

Most of the Day in House One

The winds the last couple of days have blown leaves from the Honey Suckle tree all over.  They are on the patio, the back porch and also the front porch.  I plugged the blower into the north outlet on the west side of the garage.  I blew of the leaves on the driveway.  Then plugged in the outlet on the west side of the house cleared the back porch and sidewalk.  I plugged in by the patio and blew the leaves there onto the lawn.  There were a lot of leaves on the patio.

Greenhouse one is were I spent the rest of the morning and also most of the afternoon.   It took a little scrubbing, but there were clean for lunch.  I cut down a lot of the tomato plants and left them in the isle.  I did stop for lunch.  After an hour or so working with the tomato plants my fingers get terribly dirty.  I used a brush, liquid soap, and warm water to get my hands clean.

This is how it looked when I stopped for lunch.  The two rows on the left are done.  Tomato plants are cut down and are laying in the isle.

I had an appointment with my dentist at one.  Last week I got a funny root canal done.  He did it again today.  I was on the chair about forty minutes.  He felt good about this unusual procedure.  I be back in six months.

I took a picture of the art print on the wall.  I might mount other prints the same way for Christmas presents.

As soon as I got home, I worked some more in house one and removed two more rows.  Half of the tomato plants are cut down.

The above picture is looking the north.  The one below is looking to the south from the north end.  I cut down more plants on the left side or east side.  I will be leaving a few because there are some that have not froze.

After supper I had an idea of story canning bottle lids.  I found a piece of 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe about three feet long.  I made a round piece of wood about four inched long that would fit into the pipe.  I made a square base 5 3/4 inches square.  Two screws held the base to the round piece of wood.  I then inserted the it into the PVC.   This is how it looked.   I then moved it into the pantry next two the kitchen.

Comments and questions are welcomed

New Flower Bed

Temple day.  We left a little after four this morning and were home a little after two this afternoon.
I worked in house one at several different times this after noon.  I am slowly removing the tomato plants.  The photo below shows quite a large section where the tomato plants have been cut down and removed.

Looking at the west end of house five.  There is a flower bed on the south side of the door and mostly weeds on the north side of the door.  I cleaned it up this afternoon and hauled the weeds and stuff away.  There are a few randomly place rocks at the bottom of the picture.  They will be places in a much better arrangement.

This seems to be an odd picture.  Several years ago I built a munch of big tubs using cement, perlite, and peat moss.  Over the years they have been broken.  Some of the pieces were in the flower bed below.  I hauled them out to the road where they will become part of the east end driveway.

Comments and questions welcome

Ben & I Hanging More Tomato Plants

I picked a tote of tomatoes before breakfast.  Carol gave them to the Masner's

Ben came a little after eight.  I hadn't finished breakfast, so I had him water in house three and the plants south of house six.  He did this.  I finished breakfast and met him outside while I was heading out to house one.  We worked there for nearly two hours.  We hung several plants and others were damaged by walking on them or rough handling.  We can now walk down every isle.

I worked some more after he left.  There are some large fruits on the plants.  There a bunch of sweet yellow cherry tomatoes.  I made more hooks and made one for the purlin.

After lunch I started weeding the tomato plants.  There are three rows and there were weeds around the tomato plants and in the space between the plants.  It was hand and knee work.  I run water down the rows which made the soil soft and made it much easier to pull out the weeds.

The row of onions were terribly weedy.  Most were purslane.  There was also red roots and wild lettuce.  Again this was knee and weeds.   Or kneel and weed.

Here the weeds are out.  A small purslane plant in a couple of week will grow to be quite large.  If a leaf is kept moist, roots will begin to produce roots.  The purslane one either side of the onions will be removed with a stirrup hoe, which is stand-up work.

I planted three varieties of black-eye Susan earlier in the spring.  I planted them in the flower garden west of the driveway.

The egg plants in house one are getting large and falling into the isle which make it difficult to walk down the isle.  I made a retainer with three pieces of half inch conduit and heavy twine.  The photo below shows how this is done.   You see one of the half inch conduit and twine at the bottom right corner.

I used the device below to bend the wires to make the hooks.

Comments and Questions are welcomed.

Cursed Again, the Belhausin Car

Fred and Ann Belhasen paid us a visit yesterday.  They arrived about 1:30 and after a short visit we had lunch at Cluffs in Fillmore. The food was really good but we had quite a long wait to be served.  From left to right.  Fred, Anne, Carol, and me, Merrill.

We toured the nursery, visited some, and after supper we watched the video of Momamia.  It took quite a while to get the video to start playing.  Anne went to the car to get some things for bed. She put the key in the ignition and couldn't get it out.  The left the light on and the battery was dead.   It was late and we would charge the battery in the morning.

Fred had an appointed for some blood testing.   They had to leave by eight to make to their appointment.  We had to hurry and get things done.  I picked the cucumbers and some corn.  We put these in Anne's car.  After breakfast I hooked the battery charge to their car battery which was in the trunk.

The charger did not seem to work.  I got the direction and still could not get it to work.  I drove the car up close to their trunk.  I hooked the battery cables correctly.  There was enough boost to get the key out.  But car would not start.  the battery terminals on our car were covered and I could not get a good connection.  I then called Triple A to send someone over to start the car.  Thirty minutes went by and no help from Triple A.  I brought the truck over and hooked up the jumper cable.  Nothing.  I used my heavy duty cables.  Nothing.  I then got the wire and cleaned the truck battery' post.  Tried again and the car started.  I called Tipple A and canceled the call.

I worked most of the rest of the day in house one.  I cut rebar into six inch pieces.   I ended up with 27 pieces.  With these pieces I was able to hang one row of tomatoes.

I removed some weeds and hung this whole row of tomato plants.  I wore cotton gloves that helped me keep my hands somewhat clean.  My shirt and pants had green on them from the tomato plants.

I pruned some of the gourd plants.  They are growing branches.

I went home teaching.

Comments and suggestions are welcomed.

Weeding From the West to the East

The first thing this morning was a quick walk out the garden west of house five.  There are a lot of weeds.  Most are grass.  There are purslane, single leaf spurge, and puncture weed.  I spent a little over an hour using a stirrup hoe and a small hand hoe.  Later in the afternoon I raked up the dead weeds.  The are a few mist.  I will get them tomorrow.  The view is the south side of the bed.

This is the west end of the bed.  There is an apple tree to the left.

The potato patch has been growing weeds. There is so much weeding to do.  I finally got around to the potatoes and weeded three rows.  The narrow stirrup hoe makes it pretty easy; even the tall tough weeds.

Yesterday I picked all of the early corn.  We cut it of the cob and is now in the freezer.  The first picture is of the corn.

Here the corn stalks have been removed.  I put them on top of the compost pile. I will plant new corn transplants there next week.  The next crop of corn is on the left and the beans on the right.

There are a lot of weeds in the row of cucumbers.  It is on your hands and knees kind of work.

We drove to Fillmore to make deposit at Zions bank and to the credit union.

A couple of months ago I sprayed the weeds in the iris garden.  I cut the peonies down to the ground so I would not kill them. The next five pictures are of the comeback of the peonies.

The melon garden is really doing well.  I connected another hose to the one there and added fifteen more two foot dribble lines.  I turned the water on.  After it run awhile I dug small holes the collect the water on the end of each dribble line.

I worked some in house one pruning the tomato plants and trellising the tomato plants.