Waiting for Customer-Old Friend

I was expecting a customer this morning.  He said that he would be here before nine.  I went out about 8:30 so I would be there when came.  I started removing the frozen tomato plants.  I had to remove the tomato clip.  Instead of kneeling to unhook the bottom clip, I cut the vine off at ground level.  Then, I picked the plant up where it was more comfortable to remove the clip.  I did this on both ends.  I started on the south end shown in the photo below.   Some of the tomatoes would fall off as soon as there are touched.

The north east corner of house one.  I worked back here so I could watch for the customer.  There is a small door that is open at the left that can't be seen on this picture.  I took the vines out that door.

Looking south where many of the plants are gone.  I needed the step stool to hang the tomahooks that fell off.

The customer came, Doug Page, and bought eight Salvia pachyphylla plants.  I have know him for years. It came to $50.00  He is the one that gave me the Bristle Cone pine seeds.

I left the wheelbarrow in the summer squash garden a couple of days ago.  I filled it with the rest of the Armenian cucumbers.  I needed the wheelbarrow for the next project.

The next job was to remove all the annual plants and dig the dahlia tubers.  

I left the annual salvias.  They reseed themselves and have a pretty blue while most of everything else is frozen.

After lunch I spent over an hour in the dental chair.  He fixed my front teeth.  He then did Wild Root Canal.  He drilled into the roots to remove the puss.  I was a guinea pig.  He said that this was the first time that he done it and nobody has done it before.

I dug two dahlia tubers.  The ground was so hard and difficult to dig.  I dug one dahlia plant and cut through some of the tubers and broke some of the others.  Digging the next plant, I was more careful.  I dug away quite bit of the soil exposing some of the tubers.  I then used a pressure hose to wash away the soil.

We drove to Fillmore for a few groceries, deposit a check, and fill the car with gas.  We stopped at the Ice Box for ice cream.  There were other customers in there.  More than I have seen at any other time.  I asked for one large chocolate cone and another vanilla cone, laid four one dollar bills on the counter.  She quickly got them for me.  But, she would not take the money.  I urged her to take it and she said that was okay while she walked away.

When I got home, I dug the other tuber, which come up easy because of the soaking with water.  I turned the sprinkler on and let it run all night.

The two dahlia plants with all the tuber shown below.  It shows some cut and some broke and some good.

Comments and questions are welcome

One Job Fnished Others Waiting

This morning I paid a couple of bills and did some cleaning in my office, bedroom.

I called the Direct TV people to cancel.   It costs nearly $100 each month and most of the channels that we watch can be picked up from the translators South West of Holden.  They used every technique available to get us to stay with Direct TV.  I said no to them all.  I got a call from them this evening where they tried again to get us to stay with direct TV.  I said no again.  It will be shut off at midnight.

I wanted to burn all of the Four Wing Salt Brush, but Carol thought that we should haul it to the Land Fill. The picture below shows all of the brush that I cut down yesterday.  I started to drag the branches to our driveway.  That seemed slow.  I got a large tarp and filled it.  I would tromp it down and put more on.   There are some Siberia Pea shrubs that were pushed over.  Most are dead now.  Some are still in the gallon nursery can.  I carried these back to the trailer.   That worked pretty good.  I finally got all of them by the driveway.

It is time for lunch.  I had some jello salad and baked sweet potato.  I mashed it and covered it with butter, salt and pepper.  It was really tasty.

They are all piled up on the grass west of the driveway.  It looks like there would be no problem getting them loaded on the trailer. 

After lunch I loaded them on the trailer.  Several dimes I tromped them to be able to get more on.  The last things on the trailer were the Pea Shrubs.  I soon got them loaded.   No picture of that.

Carol and I drove to the Landfill and unloaded.  We can always unload faster than we load.
I went back to where the four wing salt brush was and took some pictures.  The picture below shows and empty space the brush used to be.

There were five main plants that I cut down.  Two of the root clumps are in the photo below.

I went into the garage looking around for nothing.   I noticed a piece of masonite that was the same size as the table top.  I put it on and used screws in each corner to fasten it to the table top.  Worked out really well.  The top is smooth and easy to clean.

One of the legs on the table I made yesterday was 3/8 of an inch shorter. I made a little square piece and attached it to the bottom of the leg with a screw.  I put it on the wrong leg.  The table was really out of balance.  I remove it and put it on the right leg.  Table now is balanced.

I secured the table to the table saw by attaching a short board to the table and using a small c-clamp I attached it to the table saw.  It is illustrated below.

Our family is most important to us.  All of our children live in Utah except one who lives in Kentucky.  We attend weddings, missionaries comings and goings, high school and college graduations, baby blessings and baptisms, and other family activities.

Comments and questions welcomed.

Another Day of Unplanned Outcomes

We drove to Fillmore this morning where I made a deposit at the credit union.  Each fall I get letter from the department of motor vehicles.  It has to be signed by my doctor.  We also bought a few groceries.

Another unplanned project was the table I made that sets at the backside of my table saw. I started before lunch and finished after lunch.  I gathered several 2x4's that used for the legs.  I cut the four legs which are 1 1/2 inch square.  The skirt was made of other 3x4's are 20 inches long.  The top is made from an old piece of 2/4 inch plywood.   It has and six inch over hang on the four sides.  When sawing from now on the pieces will slide on the table instead of falling on the floor.

My plan was to continuing the job yesterday of removing the Four Wing Salt brush.  'The photo shows two saws that I used.  The hand saw with the yellow handle was used first.  There are some clippers with red handles I used to cut away the top branches.  The branches at the top had the leaves.  With them gone I could see some branches that I cut off with the pruners. Finally I could the base of the Salt Brush.  I laid down and using the hand saw I cut them off.  Some of the branches were nearly eight feet long.  I cut enough of these off, then I used the chain saw to cut off bigger branches.  It took me several hours and was able to cut all of them off. They were so tangled with each other that it was difficult to pull them loose.  To the left of the hand saw are the stumps.  They are very clear in the photo.  

The stems and branches are piled all over the place.

Another view

Comments and questions are welcome

Today's end was Unexpected.

When it warmed up I checked out the greenhouses.  House two was warm and the others were frosted.

From time to time our cat, Tiger, comes into the greenhouse;  Today, he jumped on the bench that I was using.

Yesterday while cleaning in house four, I found some wire baskets.  Below I covered on basket with clear plastic wrap and placed another basket on top of it.  Next spring I can use these two get an early start on melons, cucumbers, etc.

The potting soil in the soil been is powdery dry.  I started to wet it down before lunch and finished after lunch.  It took a lot of watering and stirring to get it all wet.  I filled one 1206 tray with the wet soil.  Later I planted two six packs various seeds which included, basil, cauliflower, cabbage, sweet corn, and pole beans.s

Richard lived with us for about a year a couple of years ago.  One thing he left was this gun safe which his ex  broke it open.  It won't lock any more.  I moved it into house two and to put a couple of shelves in it.  This would give us a handy dry place for some of the tools and supplies we need for planting.  I put some 1x2 runners on each side, and then set a shelf I made out of plywood on top of the runners.

There is a small shelf near the top of the gun safe.  I then added another shelf and put some of the items in it.

The tomato plants in house one have suffered frost damage for about a week now. I started to remove them and put them in the compost pile.  There are two rows in the center.  I removed the tomato clips and pulled out five or six plants in each row.

I planted a fruit tree in the west end of the orchard.  This used to be a plum tree, but it died and a new tree came from the root stalk.  A couple of years ago, it fruited while in the pot.  There weren't very many, but they had a good taste.  While I was watering today, I watered this tree and decided to plant it.

There is a grove of Four-wing Salt Brush.  I don't think these desert plants are in groves.  Many years ago I had gallon pots of the Four-wing Salt Brush in this area on top of some weed barrier.  Most of them didn't sell so I threw them away.  The plants had rooted through the the weed barrier.  I broke of those that had rooted and later the roots produced new stems and plants.  Now they are pretty big.  This evening I started to cut them away.  I would liket to build a fence around the orchard for a new place for chickens and maybe ducks.  The Salt Brush is in the way of this project.  The two photos below show a little of it.

House One - Hard Frost

Hard frost this morning.  The garden hoses were frozen.  The furnace was working in house two.  Below are two photos that shows the tomato plants and some tomatoes in house one.  Vine were shot. Some of the tomatoes are still good.

Comments and question are welcome.

Cold Day, But Warm Inside

The Gambel Oak acorns are now in the fridge.  I am waiting for the germination.

 I built this drawer for my Kreg tools, screws and clamps.  These tools were not used to build it.  It worked out pretty good, but far from being beautiful.  It is made out of recycled wood and the bottom out of Masonite.

 I bought a bunch of drawer pulls from a hardware company when the went out of business.

 I found this squash bug in greenhouse two which is heated.  No squash vines any where in house two.  I squashed it.

 We dried onions yesterday.  Carol took them out of the dryer this morning.

Planted radishes in the raised bed.

I did some of cleaning in house four. I found some things in there that I forgot that I had them.


Questions and comments welcomed.

Potatoes are Dug, But Midgets

I picked some tomatoes this morning and took them to the post office.  Over half were gone by evening.

I gathered all of the acorns from the Gambel Oak that is growing near the road.  There are over  acorns.  They are scheduled put in a zip bag with some potting soil and then in the fridge until next spring.  I check on them every month.

Carol started to cut up the onions.  I got the dehydrator ready.  We cut enough onions in to small pieces to fill the dehydrator.

We finished digging the potatoes.  We started Monday and finished today.  Most of them are small, but did find a few bigger ones.

When we finished digging the potatoes, the garden looked like this. The whole thing looked like it was spaded.

It has been a long time since I built something in the shop.  Today I made a stool.  It is about fourteen inches square and fifteen inches high.  I will use it in the garage to reach the things on the top shelves. It took me a couple of hours to make it.  I made a few mistakes.  Will do better on the next one.

Comments and questions are welcome.