Stool and Shredder

I was anxious as soon as it was light this morning to go out to house two to see how many mice I had caught.  I didn't catch any.  The four traps I set out last night caught nothing.

The bait was missing on one trap, but I think that ants ate it.  I did some transplanting which kept me busy for about an hour.  The phone rang.  It was Carol.  There was a package at the front door.

The planer was in this box.

It was the paper shredder.  I took it out of the box.  I opened the door and could not remove then bin.  It was stuck.  I called the shredder company, and the lady that answered suggested three things.  The last one was to hand into the bin and push it out.  It worked.

Most of the cucumber plants have and the rest will soon be dead.

I moved the last Cherry Banana tomato plant from the little pot to the larger pot which is the front pot in the above photo.

I cleaned the four spray tanks.  The plan is to use organic insect killers for insects, snails, and slugs.

This afternoon I began work on another stool.  I ripped two twenty-seven inch 2x4's into four 2x2's.

I smoothed the sharp edges of each leg with a router to have a more finished look.  I sanded the legs.  They look pretty good.

I glued the top onto the legs by turning everything upside down.  I marked the location of the rails and applied glue.  A weight on the rails held it together until the glue had cured.

I screwed the top to the rails.  The top was to large.  I ripped of a little from each edge at the table saw.

I took a couple of phots of the stool at the patio.

This photo is a different angle.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Nursery in the Afternoon

It was getting light when we left for the Manti, Utah temple.

The morning sun shone on the clouds and contails  on the way to the Manti Temple.

After we got home I checked the mouse traps.  The bait was gone from one trap.  Two others still were baited.

I glued a piece of dry cat food to the trap trigger.  I set the trap and dropped it.  The trap went off and the cat food went a fling.  I went back to the house and applied wet cat food to the trigger of four tramps.

Above is a photo of one of the traps.  We will see what happens in the morning.

There were more leek seedlings that needed transplanting. I filled a 1206 tray with seventy two cells.

I put eight pieces of cat food on this concrete block.  If they are gone in the morning it will be a sure sign of mice.

Warmer, Planting, Watering, Trapping

We drove to Fillmore this morning and washed our car.  It was really dirty and now looks really good.

Carol has been working on this puzzle for several days and finished today.

The warmer days has melted the ice in house six.  I drug the hose to the west end and turned on the sprinkler and watered the north side of house six.  There are millions of seeds and hopefully they will begin germinating.  I can kill them before we plant some carrots.

While the water was running I transplanted the broccoli into the jumbo six packs.

I removed the sticks that I put down to capture snails and slugs.  There weren't any.  

I planted Swiss Chard, Kale,  lettuce and a few others.  The picture is full of vermiculite.  I put a half teaspoon on each seed.

There were a few different tomato seeds where I use one or two six packs.

I took a picture of three radishes that had be damaged by what I thought were slugs and snails.  I put this photo on the Utah Homesteader's Face Book page.  There were ten comments and most said that they have been eaten by mice.  I put out three traps and baited them with small roast beef strips from Sunday dinner.  

This pole bean plant has been damaged by some caterpillar.  There are five other plants with the same symptoms.  

I took an other picture of the sprinkler.  I shut off the water.  The pathway has a lot of water on it.

Last week I made this stool, but it didn't have a top.  I cut a nineteen inch piece off a 1/2 inch sheet of plywood.  I cut it to size of 18 inch square.  I had a problem of getting it centered on the plywood top.  I decided put down some glue the top to the base.  I put a heavy weight on it to hold the legs to the base.  Tomorrow I can remove the weight and drive some screws through the top into the legs and rails.

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.

Robert and Frank This Afternoon

One of the first things that I did this morning was to hook up the compressor.  It has been in the kitchen over night to give it a good chance to warm up.  I took I plugged it in in the garage and it didn't take long to get the compression up to 100 psi.  Later I loaded it with nails and nailed to boards together.  I worked very well.  I didn't try again.  Tonight I let the air escape the tank.  I hope to make a picture frame a little later.

I bought three sweet potatoes Monday.  It is time to get them started.  I pushed three nails into the potato near the top, and put them in quart bottles, and filled them to the top with water;  which left the stem end above the water.  

The third sweet potato would not fit in the quart jar.  

Carol gave me a larger bottle which held chocolate covered raisons.  It was perfect for this sweet potato.

Robert and Frank came a little after lunch.  Robert brought me a birthday present which was a commercial shredder.  We got it going.  Frank brought some cardboard boxes that we began shredding.  Robert cut them into small pieces and began shredding them.  It really worked well.  For some reason the shredder quit.

Here Robert is taking it out to the box.  Frank is watching.

Frank is watching the shredder.

We later went out to the greenhouse and did some planning.  We are hoping for 25 people to sign up for CSA shares.  That will produce a gross sales of $1,000 a month.

Robert took the shredder back to staples where he bought it.  They did not have another one.  They will ship it to me.  I should get it in about one week.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Utah County Today

This morning we headed for Provo/Orem area.  We stopped at Wal Mart in Payson for a bunch of groceries and a few other things.  The next stop was at Sam's Club where we filled a prescription and bought a few other things.

I took a few pictures of some veggies to get a concept of how they are being presented.

Tomatoes

Leeks.

Three different ways of packaging tomatoes.

We stopped at Home Depot where is spent some time finding a Birthday present.  I looked at the clamps and decided that I wanted a nail gun or this one was called a brad gun.  I had a $50 gift certificate and a Carol gave me another $50.  The gun was nearly $100 and with the taxes and some nails that I bought if came to $120.

A couple of days ago I filled the thirty gallon barrel with fertilize.

I put out two small dishes vegetable oil for snails that are eating our radishes.  In two night I didn't catch any of them.

It has been very cold.  Down near zero.  There is quite a pile of ice below the tap in house six.



Comments and questions are welcome.

More Cold Temps and Christmas Tree is Stored Until Next Year.

Happy New Year.  That was the mood this morning.  It is cold, but the house is warm.  After breakfast we proceeded to put the Artificial Christmas tree away.

This is a photo of the tree after we put it up and decorated it.  To put it away, we had to remove all of the lacey snow flakes, the crochet angels, lights, and other miscellaneous ornaments.  The tree is made in five sections.  I put each section in the box and tied it shut.

The rest of the day was a pretty lazy day of watching tv, surfing the internet, and  eating chocolate raisons.  It was good to hear from all the kids and Holden, our grandson.