Sunday/Monday

SUNDAY MORNING
 We had a water turn this morning.  I turned it down at seven.  We didn't have our Sunday morning service because I was tending the water.  It was also fast Sunday so we didn't have any breakfast. 

After I turned down the water.  I checked this outlet for watering the asparagus.  I worked on it Saturday what seemed like hours.   It leaked quite a bit but not nearly as much as the last water turn.

I laid the pipes out Saturday night so it was mainly ready this morning.

Carol wanted me to water the baskets.  I decided to fertilize them.  I have a stool that I stand on.  I moved it and about twenty yellow jackets we falling down on the concrete porch.  I began stomping on them.  I turned it over and there was the nest.  I grabbed it with my hand in a plastic shopping bag.

I checked the screens in the ditch several time.  The truck window was so dirty that I couldn't when facing the sun.  I washed it with the hose and used a squeezy to scrape off the water.

The above photo is the first screen.  I cleaned it many time during the day.

Here I changed the direction of the water.  The water run up around snail hill and down the other side.

Carol picked a nice bunch of raspberries which we had for dinner.

Here I watered the plants on both sides stepping blocks.

I turned the down to Raymond Stephenson at one.  I was finished.  I had some water running on all four sides of the house.  I spent most of the walking from side to side and moving the pipes.

MONDAY MORNING

I think that this was set out Sunday night and photo Monday morning.

The black nursery can covered the earwig bait.

 The chicken run was covered with large mallow plants.  I dug them up.  I did think that the chickens might eat the seeds. 

Here the weeds are dug up and then carried out to the compost pile.

I removed the cages that were on the Peony plants.  There were a lot of weeds in them.

I cut the tops of which made it easier to pull the weeds.

The flowers west of the driveway are really pretty.  We are waiting for the peonies to flower.

I pulled a bunch of red beets this morning.  There were lots of earwigs.  I put a cereal bowl holding the earwig bait.

I pruned the tomato branches and tied them up.

We drove to Fillmore for three deposits.  Zion's bank, the Credit union, and State bank.  I bought two hose clamp for the fertilizer spreader.

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Asparagus is Fixed

I walked to the garden.  The earwig trap in the potatoes caught three earwigs.  The one in the dahlias hadn't caught any more.  I moved both to different locations.

I sprayed all of the cole plants to keep them free of cabbage loopers, or worms.  There were three rows of plants.  All but a few on the west end were healthy.

While I was outside, Carol answered the phone.  It was Chuck Tracy, the water master, telling her that we had a water turn at seven in the morning.  Yesterday, I bought supplies to control the water for the asparagus plants. 

I cut the rubber like material into seven or eight rectangular pieces.  I needed a hole to allow the water to run out.  I traced the outside of a two inch PVC pipe.  The cut through the side to get to the hole and cut out the circle.  I then glued them together alternating the cut from one side to the other. 

I trimmed each side on the table saw.  I had trouble getting the piece to fit tightly and in the right place.  I removed many time put it back into place.  I screwed it to the irrigation pipe and finally got it right. 

I put out some of the irrigation pipes for in the morning.

The flag has been up all day.

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Huge Earwig Catch

As soon as I was able to go outside this morning, I walked out to the garden.  Last night I put an earwig trap.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how many earwigs there was in the paper cereal bowl.   You can see the damaged potato plants.

Here is a closer look.  I am sure that there are hundreds of ear wigs.

I removed all of the hoses off the lawn in preparation for mowing the lawn.  I did a lot of trimming with my weed eater.  I trimmed around most of the trees and places where it is hard to get close with the lawnmower.

I dumped the clipping twice.  I put them north of the corn to cover the weeds that grow there.   crab grass.

We should be getting a water turn soon.  I wanted to fix the pipe opening for the asparagus and grape plants.  The water comes out of the edges in streams.

The arrow points to the point where most of the water escapes.

Two kittens taking a nap in the bucket of small rocks.

The kittens eating with one of the mother cats.  We call her Midnight.  She has a huge scab on the right side of her face. 

We drove to Fillmore where I got some things for repairing the water outlet by the asparagus  plants.  I cleaned it up and removed all of the old calking.

I took this part and another one to Roper's and they made a couple good suggestions.  I may get it fixed tomorrow.

I put out some more earwig bait by the potatoes.  It is covered with a black nursery can.

I fixed the the fertilizer spreader with those large hose clamps.  Also, i put green slime in the leaking tire.  It still leaks but much slower.

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Cats & Kittens

Our cats like to curl-up in a number five nursery can.   Most people curl-up on the couch. 

The center one is full of tiny rocks.  It is there to keep the storm door from crashing off in a heavy wind.  The lower ones nearly full of potting soil.

Shadow is asleep.   And most of the time the cats are asleep.  Some times their head is hanging over the edge a is their tail.

The kittens like it tool.  Frequently there is one cat in the pot,

Shane and his crew put small hemp plants in the shade house.  They removed the shade. 

I put one earwig trap at the end of a potato row.  The potatoes around it are severely damage by earwigs.  There is 1/4 cup of soy sauce and 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.

It is covered with a number five nursery can to keep out the can.

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Another Day of Unplanned Activities

One of the strangest things happened this morning when I got up.  It was a little cool this morning and thermostat indicated a temperature sixty-eight.  I removed the fan from the window in the front room.   Light was approaching from the east.  As I walked through the kitchen I saw ants crawling on the kitchen counter.  I began slapping them with both hands.

One half of a cantaloupe wrapped with Press'm Sea; was sitting on the counter.  It was full of ants.  I grabbed a large bowel and put it upside down over the cantaloupe trapping the ants.  When Carol got up I lifted the bowel to show her.  Some mornings there are no ants; other days there are just a few; and still other days there is up to a dozen.  As soon as the ants become aware of our present, they scatter and run for cover.

I placed sticky tape on all four sides.  The bowel was lifted.  Most ants stuck to the, but there were a few that made it a cross the tape.  We then started killing the ants with our hands.

I took the cantaloupe outside to take some pictures before I feed it to the chickens.  The above photo shows the ants in the cantaloupe. 

It is amazing how the ants could find their way through the Press'n Seal to get to the meat on the inside. 

I watered the baskets and pots in the front yard.  I turned water on the garden, but there was no water pressure.  I walked out to the nursery.  Shane was watering the hemp plants.  I turned off the garden water except one hose.  I fertilized the east lawn and the back lawn.

 The spreader had been in the rain a little and the controls were all stuck.  I cleaned the hopper with water and put WD-Forty on the moving parts.  I got them all working.  The fertilizer was lumpy.  I dumped the bag on the driveway to break the lumps.  I screened out the lumps on the second load.  I was able to do all of the back lawn.

There was a larger spreader out in the back that has been in the weather for about ten years.  All of the moving parts were stuck  as if they were frozen.  This time it was WD-Forty that saved the day.  The back legs were made out of tubing that bent to make that were badly bent and corroded.  I removed four bolts.  One broke and it took a small hack saw cut through it and a punch to remove it.

I searched the internet trying to find a part.  I called Steve Regan to see if they hand any idea what it was called.  It was called Big Foot by Prizelawn.  I found places where i could buy a new spreader.  It cost about $800.00.  I decided to make two legs out half inch conduit.

I couldn't make look like the one that broke.

  I cut two piece to the proper length.  I drilled a hole in each end an bent them the right shape.  The photo shows how it looks.

One tire won't hold air.

I did a lot of weeding and just before dark I started the water on the back lawn.

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Earwigs & Hanging Tomato Plants

I was up a little earlier this morning.  The fan in the window was on low and the house temperature was sixty-five.  I turned on the furnace.  I turned it off at sixty-nine.  After breakfast I watched some news and then went out to check the earwig traps.  There were three paper cereal bowels holding equal amounts of vegetable oil and soy sauce.

To of the traps were buried in a hole with the top edge even with the surface of the ground.

Much of the work today was to hang the tomato plants.  I had to drive in four poles into the ground.   The pole is made out of pipe and an eight foot 2x2.   I put the last on in today.  One of them was leaning to the south.  I pulled it out and moved it about two inches and drove them back into the ground.  It looked much better.  I put in the last piece of black pipe.  It was about ten feet long.   It wouldn't fit the forks at the top.  I took it back down and it fit okay when on the ground.  I put it up one more time and with a little bit of twisting it fell into place.

Carol came out and we looked at the dahlias.  One of the flowers had sort of fell over.  I tied it together with garden twine.  The roots were disturbed so I watered the dahlias again.  The plant is the yellow one on the left side of the photo.

A surprise is this tomato that I call a cherry banana.  I saved a few seeds from last year and so far I got one plant.

This bowl is adjacent to a badly damaged Crimson Sweet watermelon plant.  Some earwigs were caught.

Here it is covered with a #5 nursery can.

My zucchini plants were eaten up by something.  I put a bowel to se what i could get.

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