Irrigation and Clean-up

Sunday Morning:
We had our last irrigation today.  Robert, the water master, called a couple of days ago that we would have the water this morning.   I usually take the water first, but this morning Raymond had the water first.  He lets it run on his trees.  Then both of us could attend our church meetings.  After dinner I took the water which was a little past two.  Then for the rest of the day I was directing water.  First on the back lawn. Then on the east lawn and west of the garage at the same time.  The last part watered was the front lawn.  I spent the rest of day directing water and moving pipes around to get the water to go where I want it to go.  The water was shut off at seven.

I am impressed with the Green arrow peas that I planted several months ago.  Our first crop of peas were picked.  There were some that we missed and when I dug up the plants I saved all the peas that were too old to eat.    I soaked them in water with the intent to make split pea soup.  They then were put in the fridge where I forgot about them.  They had sprouted and I was going to throw them away.  Carol said that I should plant them.  I planted some in house six and some in the raised bed in the north garden.  The have done well in spite of high temperatures.    They are not starting to bloom.  it is hard to see the blooms in the picture.

Monday morning:
I put all the pipes away.  There are three places where I put them until the next water turn.  The next turn will be next spring.  The photo is west of the hen house.  I keep some in the orchard.  Then the rest are east of the snail hill.

I picked a bucket of cucumbers.  We drove to Fillmore for a few groceries, gas, and I made a deposit at the credit union.  We had lunch.

The deer are eating almost everything in the garden.  I heard on Face Book that one person used fishing string around his garden.  I drove conduit stake in the ground from the south fence to the rose bushes in the north garden.

The above picture shows the fishing string.  On the west side of the far south garden.

Here is s closer look of the string.  there is five layers.

A couple of days ago the wind blew really hard and blew the poly off house one.   The above photo is looking to the north end.

Here is photo looking at the south end.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Celebration and Eagle Mountain

We drove to Utah county to celebrate our fifty-eighth wedding anniversary today.  Yesterday was the real day.

Yellow Jackets

I began the morning by picking cucumbers, and three different tomatoes.  Regular, black cherry, and cherry plum.  I pulled four red beets.  There is a lot of eggplants.  I picked a bunch.   A couple of large ones and a couple not so large.   I didn't get any pictures.

I pulled a lot of salad onions.  I cut off the dirty roots, cut off the tops, and then went to the patio, where I cleaned them with the water hose.  I took them into the kitchen and did the final cleaning.  I didn't count them, but had a nice bunch.  

I washed and wrapped the cucumbers. washed the tomatoes and eggplants, and got it all in to the bucket.

I have a five gallon bucket and trapped a lot of yellow jackets.  They have been in the bucket for nearly a month.  I was waiting for them to die.  I decided to spray them with WD-4O.  They slowly died.  There was one large wasp or whatever it might be called.  I didn't spray it directly.  It climbed the wall of the bucket and fell back down.  I kept doing this.  I leaned the bucket nearly to the ground and got the above photo before it climbed out.

It started walk across the patio where I got this picture.  It is two to three inches long.

Here is another photo.  It walked across the patio and walked under the B-grill.  There were a lot of leaves on the patio.  I got the blower and blew them off.  I didn't see the large wasp again.  It tried to fly and maybe it flew away.

I started to pick plums.  There was one plum on the ground that was covered with yellow jackets.  I put an empty pint peanut butter jar on top of the infested plum and quickly put on the lid.  I didn't get the lid on tight.  I put it in the freezer.  and hour or so later I took it out and dumped it on my work bench.  

I counted twenty-five yellow jackets.

I drove to Fillmore and delivered the CSA bucket.

For the last month or so the water from the kitchen sink slow drained out.  I thought that the sink trap was plugged with some egg shells or something like that.  I took off all the pipes.  The part directly from the garbage disposal was held by two screws.  The on the right came out easily.  The screw on the left was a bugger to get out.  I used a socket and vice grips and finally got it out.  A bunch of stems from red beats were stuck in there.  I pulled it out and removed the gasket.  I cleaned away the putty.  A quick trip to Ropers is required to get some parts.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Rain, Very Little

I picked tomatoes for the Richardson's.  I didn't get and pictures.  They got two buckets of tomato plants.  One was full of Gladiator tomatoes, which are a large past tomato.  The other tub had a variety of red tomatoes with Lemon Boy on top.  We had cucumbers for the post office, but we game them to them.  We took them to their home.  They gave us a nice melon a couple of days ago and we also gave them some cucumbers.

We drove to Fillmore for groceries, a deposit at Zions bank and the credit union.  A week ago today I had cancer on my right temple removed.  I went to the clinic and had the stiches removed.  The nurse wasn't able to remove, so Dr. Basset removed them.  He said that he hadn't seen sutures like those.

There were a few drops of rain in Holden and Fillmore

 I took another picture of large wasp.  It way larger than the yellow jackets.

I found the small cooler in the ditch last year.  I cleaned it out this afternoon.  It will hold two gallon milk containers.

Shadow our cat was napping in this nursery can.  I couldn't resist taking a picture.  The cats are in them almost every day.

 I made another push stick.  It holds the piece of wood firmly against the table saw and the fence.  Hands and fingers are a safe distance from the spinning saw blade.  To the left of the photo is the first one I made.

I put out the yellow jacket traps yesterday afternoon.  I caught several dozen in each bottle.  The bottle to the left with the red lid is a nut bottle.  They are in the freezer.  It doesn't take very long to have freeze.

I began to cut down the weeds with the weed whip, where I found a lot of puncture weeds.  I got the shovel and dug them up.  There was a bucket full.  We took them to the dumpster.  I took a couple of pictures, but for some reason the didn't take.

The is always a wet spot in the isle in house six.  I get my shoes muddy.  I turned off the water this morning and turned it back on tonight to see if there was a leak.  There wasn't.  There is a low spot here.  I made a dike to keep the water from running into the isle.

The are a lot of spoiled tomatoes.  The crack and the sap beetle gets in and they are ruined.   I started cutting them off and putting them in the compost pile.

The above photo shows some that are spoiled.  A rotten tomato.


Comments and questions are welcome.

A New Grandson

When we got home from the temple there was an exciting message on our phone.  Eric had called.  I called him back and he reported that April had a C-section and a nearly an eight pound baby boy started its life in this world.

Tomatoes, Potatos, & bees

Saturday morning, Sunday, and Monday.    Only thing on Sunday was picking a few cucumbers.  In a sense it like milking cows.  It has to be done every day of the week.
Saturday Morning:  Carol wanted baked potatoes for Sunday dinner.  There are some vines at the end of the row that is being eaten by grasshoppers.  The leaves are gone.  I dug then up.

During the night the deer came in and ate most of our watermelons.

I put tomato cages on most of the melons to keep the deer from eating them.

I put a smaller cage on a uneaten watermelon.

Here is were the deer have eaten the sweet potato vines.

 I made this trap for yellow jackets.  There is a large wasp in there that I haven't ever seen before.

 The yellow jackets eating the plums on our plum tree.

The humming bird feed was empty.  Carol filled it and I hung it with a long wire.  The yellow jackets have been eating the sugar water.  I put it down low so I could vacuum the yellow jackets.  Our cats might be able to grab a humming being so low.  This afternoon I shortened the wire so that it is way out of  the cat's reach but in easy reach of the vacumn.

Picked our first zucchini today.

Another photo of more deer lunch.

I picked to buckets of tomatoes for one of our neighbors.  They are not all yellow.  The Lemon Boy tomatoes are thin skinned and are on top.

I put some spoiled plums in this large quart bottle.  It attacked a lot of yellow jackets.  I put a lid on the bottle and put it in the freezer.  It killed the yellow jackets.  I put it back under the plum tree.  Hope to get some more jackets.

I watched several videos yesterday on how some made a push stick.  The push stick keeps my hand away from the saw blade.    Here it is laying on the driveway.

Here it is standing on the driveway.

Here it is standing on the table saw.  There is a heel on the back end that hooks the piece of wood being cut.

I was going to spray weeds this afternoon, but there was so much puncher vine with seeds that I decided to dig it out.  It was so rocky that I couldn't dig the up.  I got a small tool and got on my hands and knees dug up a bucket full.  

I got most of them and I will get the rest a little later.  The were many ripe seeds and spraying them would kill them but the seeds would still be there.


Comments and questions are welcome.