A Cool, Jacket Wearing Morning

After breakfast this morning we picked the larger cucumber.  With frost looming in the wings Thursday night we decided to pick all of the cucumbers.  Carol did her visiting teaching this morning and some produce with her.  Later she took squash and cucumbers to other friends.

I picked a Topaz melon which had the lightest tint of being ripe.  I check the watermelons also most daily for ripeness.  I picked one today that had a dry tendril.

The gas company turned the gas back on yesterday.  I cut their seal and slowly turned the gas to flow into house two to the furnace.  I struggled lighting the piolet light.  I couldn't hold the plunger down with my finger  I used a lot of matches.  I got some clamps to hold it down.  That didn't work.  I got some small washers to put on top of the plunger.  The washer was too big.  Finally I cut a small pieces of wood which gave me a larger surface for my finger.  I lit the match and lit the piolet light.  I checked it after dark.  The light went out.  I think the wind blew it out.  The north door needs to be closed all the time.

Later we picked the small and smaller cucumbers for a Manti Temple friend.  This afternoon they drove over from Fillmore with a small  bucket and plastic shopping bags.  They came out to house one and they filled the small bucket and two plastic shopping bags.  I filled a five gallon bucket with tomatoes.  They picked some cherry tomatoes.

Every time I water the native plants the weeds in the pots seem to mock me.  This afternoon I pulled the weeds, cut some of the larger ones, and used tweezers for the tiny ones.  Below are some Utah Agave, Fremont Barberry, and a few odd and ends.

Below are Round Leaf Buffaloberry plants in 5 1/2 inch square pots.  There were weeds there also.  Some the plants are dead.  I think they have been getting too much water.

There were three trays of Round Leaf Buffaloberry plants.  I pulled the weeds, removed dead plants, and sorted the small plants from the large healthy plants.

As I was taking pictures, I unintentionally got a couple of selfies.



Comments and questions are welcomed.

Lot of Picking

As soon as breakfast was over we started picking.  Carol began at the pole beans and I started in house one with the tomatoes.  I filled one bucket.  Dusty came over and she filled a half bushel box with tomatoes.  She went home and Carol and I picked tomatoes, cucumbers, and summer squash from our garden.  We filled two totes.

I picked more tomatoes and filled two buckets.  Carol prepared some produce for the Atkinsons who have four young foster girls.  I delivered the two bucket to the troseths and produce bag to the Atkinsons.

I picked a Topaz melon shown below which is beginning to come apart.  All of those that I have picked are too ripe.

Cut in half.

Some of the tomatoes are ripening in clusters.

We drove to Fillmore for a few groceries and mainly cat food.

After lunch I filled the tractor tires with air and attached the post hole digger.  The Stephens next had to put down their dog because of sickness.  They asked if I would make to hole for the grave.  I got the tractor working and helped them dig out the hole. They put the dog in and we filled the hole.

I put the post hole digger away and put the bucket back on.  I scooped up a little dirt and dumped it on the lawn next to the patio.

I mowed the lawn which hasn't been mowed for ten days.  I dumped the catch twice.

The pumpkin is beginning to turn orange as shown below.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

Las Vegas and Back in One Day

We were up early this morning.  We had breakfast and then began to load the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, Topaz melons, and cucumbers. These are what we took to the post office a couple of weeks ago but is reprehensive of what went to Carol's sister and her husband in Las Vegas.

We were on the road at 7:10 this morning.  It rained all the way to Cedar City, there were scattered showers to Moapa.

I checked my phone to see how many bars that I had somewhere near Cove Fort and discovered that I had my old IPhone instead of my new Samsung phone.  We needed the phone to find our way to Anne's house.  The car was full of gas when we left.  We gassed up again in St George and took a bathroom break.

We had an idea how to get there.  There is an I-215 that goes west which puts us about a mile way from Anne and Fred's home.  We got on the right street made a left turn and were just blocks away.  We turned down every road except one.  We stopped at a Drug store with the address in hand and asked one of the employees.  He found the address on his phone, and should use where the store was and told us the way to get there.  I had him come outside and point.  He told us to go back of US highway 95.  We did that and drove all around that area.  We didn't find it.  We stopped of a an insurance agency.  The receptionist was very helpful. She found the address on her computer and then had the directions printed.  The directions were accurate but took us in an unusual way to get there.  She turned the paper over and hand wrote a new set of directions by looking at the computer monitor which were very easy to follow.  I think that we drove around the area for forty-five minutes from the start until we ended up on Crooker Shell Ave.

We unloaded all of the vegetables, visited about and hour then headed for home.

It rained or had been raining part of the way back.  We stopped in Mosquiete for a late lunch at a Mexican fast food place.  It was really good.  We were filled an still had half left.  We put what was left in our cooler.

It started raining again as we approached Cedar city.  We chased a rainbow from Cedar city until Paragonah.  I took several pictures through the window, and the one below is the best that I could get.

The was light rain and then heavy rain all the way to Cove Fort.  There is a new building on the west side of I-15 at the north Cove Fort exit.  One the way home we drove to see what it might be.  It a place where they sell tobacco.

We were home a little before seven.  We had been on the road for nearly twelve hours which included the short stay with Anne and Fred.

All in all it has been a successful day.

Comments and questions are welcomed.

Rain Most of the Day!! What's Rain

I picked a few things for the vegie share at the post office.  Carol washed them and arranged them order.  They are in the photo below. Egg plant, Pimento peppers, and Romanian cucumbers.   Some were left over.  We are taking them to Las Vegas.

I did not get a before picture.  But the table saw was piled with junk.  To cut a board or move the fence, I would have to move junk.

I cleaned the workbench and the radial arm saw.  There is a small bench to the left of the saw which I also cleaned up and made a device to hold the hole saws.

I tied three more pepper plants to the overhead bar.

We hooked most of the overhead wires the header on both ends of house one.  The weight of the tomato plants pulled the right end of the header of its post.  I got several pipe clamps and a ladder and proceeded to pull it back into its original position.  It would not slide back on its post.  Using crowbar and I was able to lift it up to move it into position.  I wasn't able to take the crowbar out. I tried to block up the header with a half inch PVC Pipe.  It all came apart the header came towards me an knocked me off the ladder.  I was able to stem down.  A screw in the header hit my head a little to the right of my eye.  I dodged the bullet.

Finally I got it back together.  I mad 3/8 inch hole through the header and through the 2 by 4 on the outside.  I put a long bolt through the hole.  With a nut and washer I made it tight and was able to removed the clamps.

More Picking Las Vegas

This morning after breakfast we picked the pole beans.  We got one full bag.  Carol took it to the Bennett's.  We picked summer squash, more cucumbers, and peppers.  No pictures of what I picked.

Last week I dug up the leaking pipe. Today I covered it up.  I didn't want to pack the soil down.  What I did was to put half of the soil back into the hole.  I then filled it full of water.  I will add more soil to it tomorrow.  

 We got a load of grass clipping yesterday.  I couldn't get it move last night.  After looking all over the yard for the pitchfork, I found it in the back of the truck where I put it when we had our irrigation turn.  I hauled it to the garden.  There was thirteen loads.  It was pretty warm but there was cloud cover most of the time.

There is not anything planted here.  I have covered the weeds and weed seeds.  Next year I will have to figure away to grow vegetables.    There is a lot of grass.

I watered houses two, three, and five this afternoon.  In house two there was a wild aster in full bloom growing in the pot with the Salvia pachyphylla.   I cut off the flowers off to prevent reseeding.  I then cut off the stem below the surface of the soil to kill the stem.  There was a large white root growing up.  What was it, I don't know.  It is different from the aster.   Must come from the Salvia.  We will watch it to see what happens.

I was picking a couple more buckets of tomatoes and notice this cluster of tomatoes.  I had to take a picture.  I picked all the ripe ones.

I finished eating the watermelon in the fridge which was given to us by Coral Richardson.  I then picked a watermelon in the melon garden which had two dry tendrils which is an indication of ripeness.  Later I ate a small part of it.  It was not as red as I had hoped, but it was sweet down to the white close to the rind.

We picked more cucumber, peppers, and egg plants for our Las Vegas trip.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Picked tomatoes for Las Vegas Family

We were home after spending the morning at the Manti Utah temple about 2:30.   We picked cucumber, tomatoes, and peppers.  Robert and Frank came while we were picking.  Below is wat we picked.

 Robert and Frank did not stay long.  Robert had to get back to a barbeque.  They picked a few things and then took off.

I picked three Topaz melons.  The first one was too ripe.  The second one I gave to the Masner's, and the third one which was the best one, I put in the fridge to take to Las Vegas.  I weighed nearly seven pounds.

Comments and questions welcomed
Las Vegas

Cooler Weather, Watering Once a Day

This morning we begun the day by picking the beans.  Most that we found were small.  We wait until Wednesday and will pick again,   We picked jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, and some summer squash.  We then had breakfast.

The peppers were for Ann, our neighbor,  The cucumbers, summer squash, and a few beans went to the post office.

I went out to the watermelon patch.  The plants were doing well.  The watermelon hanging on the pinion pine broke loose.  It looked like it is ripe.  It was bleeding red at the stem.  This evening I cut off a piece.  It was pink, but tasted okay.  I gave it to the Masner's.

There is an empty spot where the melon was hanging.

While checking on the melons I saw this small watermelon which had split open.  It was a little pink with small ants having desert.

I built a trellis for some bell pepper plants in house two.  There are two, eight foot uprights to hang the twine.  There is one piece of pine for one pepper plant. It was too hot to do the other five.  There were four branches loaded with peppers.  I used the tallest branch and pinched the other ones.

I did some tomato pruning in house one.  Later I picked two buckets of tomato to go with the peppers we picked for Ann.  I think that there are six more buckets to be picked.

I had two customers today.  One from California and the other from Holden.  The spent $90.00.

I did more pruning and left the branches in the isle.  I will take them out after they dry out some.  I still have a lot of pruning to do.

There a lots of tomatoes left.  Below are pictured the tomatoes hanging on the vine which is hanging on the overhead wire by the twine.

I began to prune off the top of some of the tomato plants.  At this time of the year any small tomatoes or flowers would not be get ripe before they freeze.  Just below the top middle, you can see where it is cut.

I drilled holes in a plastic quart battle and a hole in the lid.  I filled the bottle with hen scratch and hung in a wire line above.


Questions and comments are welcomed.