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Category: gardening

Sat. Oct. 10, 2020 – so much stuff to do

Humid and warm.  Some wind.  Probably.

It was very pleasant Friday, if windy and overcast.

I did get a few things done, but mostly it was a day of domestic bliss.  Make breakfast for 3, one after the other, lunch for 2, separately, then dinner for all of us.  That takes a surprising amount of time.  A bit of cleaning, mostly with the leaf blower, and picking up stuff.   I went through some more ebay and auction stuff.  Did some very minor stuff in the garage, and did a bit more decorating.  Lots of time got eaten with real estate research – driven by my wife…

The roofer confirmed Monday and Tuesday, so I have to get the antennas down today or tomorrow.  Late Sunday I’ll have to move some of the Halloween decorations too.

I looked at all the garden beds.  The beets might be starting.  The peas are coming in, but only a few plants.  Nothing else sprouted.   The citrus is starting to get close.   I will recheck the timing, but if I don’t see sprouts soon, I’ll open a new packet of seeds, and try again.  It’ll have to be soon though.

One thing I did mostly for fun was to take apart the slow cooker and see if I could find the fault.  I did, the thermal cutoff switch has failed.  It’s a  $2 part if you can wait for it to come from china.  I have  a whole bin of salvaged ones, but they may have a different temp rating.  I’ll check them out in a day or two.  The control board also had two swollen capacitors.   If I have the temp switch, I’ll probably change the caps too.  Then it will be back in service.   They are not super expensive, and real Croc-pot cookers come up in the auctions and at goodwill all the time, but I do like fixing things and it’s good practice.  It’s also a quick fix.  The longest time would be spent replacing the caps, second longest was taking out all the screws.

“make it do” is part of my ethos, as is fixing stuff, and I learn a lot whenever I fix something.   Valuable skills if things go south, valuable in any case even now.

Fix something.  Get something old working again.  Conserve something.  And stack what you can.

nick

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Fri. Oct. 9, 2020 – week FLEW by, 20 days ’til Halloween

Dreary and warm.  Humid and overcast.

Thursday was overcast with scattered showers.  Most parts of town got at least a bit of rain.  I dodged through it mostly as I drove all over town and back.

Picked up the new desk chair to complete my daughter’s room makeover.  It’s purple mesh!!11!!111!11   It’ll match very well.

I also swung by my secondary location and did a small bit of reorganization.

All in all, didn’t get that much done this week.    Not really thrilled about the progress.  I better get something done this weekend.  Oops, probably won’t as we’ll have rain and weather.  And Monday-Tuesday I’ll have roofers messing up everything and making noise.

It was nice eating mostly out of the freezer this week, with a few canned goods.  King’s Hawaiian rolls freeze very well, fwiw.  The new temp monitors give me some peace of mind too.

The peas have sprouted and are currently growing.  None of the other seeds have sprouted yet.   I super suck at gardening.  My wife made the argument that I should just give it up as I’ve only really grown collards and carrots, and a couple of beets.  I’m going to keep at it though.  Eventually I’ll have to find stuff that grows just through blind luck, right?

The oranges and grapefruits continue to ripen.  I’m really hoping for a success there.  Unless they’re ‘woody’ they should be fine as the color is coming in, and they are a good size.  The Meyer Lemons are like weeds, they grown in spite of me.

The second house search continues.  They’re doing land office business for rural properties at the moment.  Lot’s of people planning to GOOD…

And now we’ve got Delta headed across the Gulf.  Fortunately for Texas, it is supposed to turn north, which is un-fortunate for Louisiana.  They are going to get hammered again.

Fires are burning, riots are raging, hurricanes are still coming in, and civil war 2 looks to be heating up.   About all I can say is — keep stacking.

 

n

 

 

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Tues. Sept. 29, 2020 – more cool and damp?

Maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll get the cool without the damp today.  ADDED- 54F and 90%RH this morning.  Fall is here.

Yesterday was certainly nice.  It was a bit overcast for part of the day, but the sun did peek out.

I got seeds in the ground in the remainder of the raised beds.  I put turnips, beets, and quick growing radishes in the beds.   I’ve still got the window boxes to do, but I feel better now with something in the ground.  The peas are coming up, and I think the beans might be too.

Beyond that it was little things knocked off the list.  Washed two down jackets I picked up for the kids.  Like new condition, real down, traditional makers, and I used a technical down wash on them. I’m running them in the dryer on the ‘no heat’ cycle until dry.  Just in time for cooler weather!

Moved some more stuff to the auction pile.  Looked through the current auction, which finally lists some of the stuff I dropped off last month.  Maybe I can drop off this stack soon.  I put back one of my UHF antennas, and moved another wire antenna.  Not super high on the list, but I was up on the roof to look at the chimney cap.  I’m not going to be changing that out for new.  The repair guy mortared it in place.   I’ll leave it until we need to have the chimney cleaned to worry about access.  At least the cap won’t blow away ever again.

Had a real nice dinner with a new recipe.  I talked about it in yesterday’s comments.  Usually my ‘go to’ book is an older copy of “Joy of Cooking”.   If you only have room for one food prep reference book, I think that should be it.  It will answer any questions, provide delicious recipes from simple and basic ingredients, and it’s funny besides.  Add a couple of other category cookbooks, preferably older or put together by a church lady, and you are pretty well covered.  I’ve got a couple of wild game books, the Fanny Farmer book, a bread book, some specialty books like on chinese cooking or low carb,  and several ‘church lady’ books.  Those are great for regional favorites, simple and hearty meals, and classic ‘church social’ dishes.  I’ve done posts or comments on recipe books before to cover the other ones I consider essential from a ‘prepping’ standpoint.  Search should find them.

We finished the night with a little campfire in the fire ring in front of the house.  We made s’mores and watched the flames for a while.  I’ve got a mexican pottery bowl half filled with sand that is perfect for a little fire made from twigs in the yard.    Just what you need for a dozen s’mores.

Later today I’m making a scrap run with a couple dozen dead batteries.  Then I’ll head out for a couple of auction pickups.  If I have time, I’ll stop at my buddy’s store and drop off some mold killer/disinfectant/odor killer.  He got some water in the house during the big rain.   And of course, all the backlogged tasks are still there too.  Maybe I’ll get some of them knocked off.

I’ll try.  And I’ll keep stacking.

n

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Sun. Sept. 27, 2020 – hey, growing things are growing

Nice and cool compared to just a couple weeks ago, still damp.

Saturday was really nice out.  Cool-ish except in the late afternoon sun, with a light breeze.  I did get some stuff done, but if you sleep through most of the morning, you get a whole lot less done.

I got some more cleaning and organizing done in the garage.  It was only a little bit, but still some progress.  I moved some stuff out of the house,and moved stuff around in the house to put it away, or put it in the ‘to be sold’ pile.

On most days what I did outside would just be ‘piddlefarting’ around, but some things DID get done.  I pruned the grapefruit and orange trees.  I intend to keep them about 10ft tall and 2-3ft thick to fit in the narrow bit of my yard between the house and my  neighbor’s driveway.  I also need them to be small enough I can cover them when it freezes.  The grapefruit has about 10-12 fruits, the orange 5-6.  They are starting to get ripe too.  That will be my best yield to date.  I’m hoping it gets better every year now.

Pruned a bit off the grape vines.  They are basically done for the year anyway.  Never got a single grape this year.

Moved my weather station from the north side of the house (my driveway) to the south side (neighbor’s driveway.)  That puts it in more natural air, and closer to both displays.  It’s still too close to my roof and will continue to read higher than if in shade.  I changed the batteries again, and now I can see it on the displays in my office and bedroom.

I used the Garden Weasel ™ on the bare spots in the lawn and seeded them.

I didn’t get more seed in the garden though.  That is on the agenda for today.  Root veg.  Lots of root veg.

My peas are already sprouted in the side garden!   I better get some steel mesh over them before the tasty sprouts get eaten.  I really hope that I’ll get some viable plants and a crop this year.

Spent some time cleaning the pool.

Went through some stuff I’d squirreled away.  I keep finding stuff tucked here and there.  A lot of it really needs to be sent to auction.

Won a couple of auction items.  Another really nice battery charger.  If I’ve got a forklift to keep charged, I need a good charger to leave with it.  If I end up with a lake house, I’m sure I’ll need at least a charger there.  Having good ones makes a difference.  I’ve really increased my ability to charge batteries lately.  I also won a boat battery selector switch, and some 10gauge jumper cables.  I will look at wiring my inverter into my batteries now, with the AC charger and the switch to choose charge or discharge through the inverter… or something like that.

Found 3 laptops in the trash at my secondary location.  Grabbed them.  I had a charger for one, a dell inspiron with win7 installed.  Someone shut it off during an update and now it’s boot-looping.   It’s a nice widescreen machine in good condition.  I’ll set it aside for now, but will likely get the OS fixed, or use a linux bootable to see if it will run.  There are a lot of ham related things to do with older laptops.  One was an older compaq that probably isn’t worth even booting and I didn’t have a psu handy for it, the other is a really big Toshiba gaming machine.  I might order a psu for that just to see what it’s all about.  I think it has discrete nvidia graphics, and about a 17 or 19″ HD screen.  It’s a giant with full sized keyboard.  Funny that 15 year old machines are still usable for something.

What can I say, I like older stuff that works.  It’s cheap.  I like fixing and using it.  If it lasted this long, it’ll probably last for a while longer.

“Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without!” a plan for the coming unpleasantness.  Keep stacking.

 

nick

 

Today is the two year anniversary of the death of Dave Hardy, or OFD as he was affectionately known here.  There’s not enough Moxie and pretzels in the world for what’s coming.  Miss you.   -Absent friends-

 

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Sat. Sept. 26, 2020 – still asleep if all goes to plan

Cooler, but nice out.  That’s the plan anyway.

Started heading that way yesterday.  It was sunny in places,overcast elsewhere and generally cooler than it had any right to be.  Still saturated though as my driveway still has standing water on it.

Ran my errands, and now have another alternative for Things That Go Bang(tm).  The current ammo situation points up the validity of having a couple of different systems in the safe.  556 or 762.  Why not both?  There was an argument to be made for .40S&W when 9mm was hard to get, and the agencies were all dumping 40s after the FBI changed… but I didn’t move on that.  I’ve always been bi-curious when it came to rifles though….

Enough of that tomfoolery 🙂

I’m at home all day.  My wife is off looking at another lake with a friend from the neighborhood who has decades on that lake and more than one property there.  That should mean I’m working in the driveway, garage, and garden.  I guess we’ll see.

And hopefully the females of the household let me sleep in today.  I’m been short of sleep and very run down.  Not a good place to be during a global pandemic.  If not, I’m making waffles for breakfast.

Maybe I’m making waffles for brunch…

So much to do and so little energy.  I better get started.

Tiny steps, big steps, doesn’t matter.  TAKE A STEP toward improving your position.  Stack something!

 

nick

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Thur. Sept. 17, 2020 – getting close to my wife’s birthday….

Hot and humid.  Overcast with possibility of rain.

Yesterday was a little bit cooler but so humid that puddles in the driveway never dried out.  It was overcast which helped a lot for comfort.

I did manage to get some things done.   I got stain and preservative on my teak outdoor furniture.  It needs to be power washed and the oil renewed every year or so.  Looks great now and should last for years more.  Quality pays off in longevity, with a little bit of care.  The chairs will probably need another application, and all the bolts tightened.  Domestic bliss will undoubtedly break out.

I swapped out my weather station for a replacement.  I got one new in the box for $12 so I took a few minutes and changed it.  I haven’t seen an update on the display yet, so I’ve got more messing with it to do.

I also got some seeds in the ground.  I got snap peas, some sort of green bean, spinach, and radishes planted.  I made some more progress installing the drip system for my window boxes.  The feed line is in place now.  That was the biggest problem I had with the window boxes- I didn’t water them enough.  Having the drip system fed by the grass sprinklers will mean they get watered on a schedule.  That should help.  Ag Extension says next week to plant the turnips and beets…  If I had plants for my dark green leafies, I could plant them but I don’t have any this year.  I suppose I should have started some, or gone and bought them.  Too much else going on.

Couple of things to do today outside the house.  We’re going to a lake house for my wife’s birthday.  I need to get the presents, cake, decorations, etc today, and do an auction pickup that is entirely stuff she wanted.  The lake house is on a lake we’ve been looking at for a while.  We’ve got one family we know up there, and it’s nice.  It will give us a retreat from hurricanes and somewhere to ‘vacation’ that is close and not infected.  It wouldn’t be an ideal bug out location, but it would be one… and it turns cash into stuff which is a hedge against hyperinflation.

So I better get to it.  Hunter/gather mode engaged…

 

n

 

 

(keep stacking!)

 

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Mon. Sept. 14, 2020 – another week, another list of things to do

Hot and humid, but definitely less so.  Couple storms headed vaguely our way should make things interesting.   I do think that we are on the downhill slide toward fall though.

And since fall is coming, it’s time to get the fall garden in.

Yesterday I got the beds ready.  The one with the cabbage had no surviving crops, so that just got turned and fertilized.   The one under the grape vines still has a couple of broccoli plants which I left in place but I turned and fertilized the rest.  The attached herb garden got turned and broadcast seeded with a handful of mixed herbs.  I don’t think we’ll see anything from it, but it was worth a shot.  Of the two remaining beds, one has a single volunteer melon growing, so I left that but turned the rest.  The other has brusselsprouts and a pepper plant.  I can sneak some carrots and maybe some peas in around them.

The rain started up while I was working on the beds, so I packed it in.

I’ve still got to get the window boxes turned and planted.  Some of them are a solid mass of roots holding the soil in blocks the same shape as the boxes.  I guess that’s why nothing grew last time.  The first year I got some good beets.  I’d like to get some turnips and radishes.  I’ve still got one or two of the onions surviving in one of the boxes.

I’ve also got some tubs that I’d like to use on  the driveway as container gardens.  We’ll see if I get that far.

I still have to decide which beds get what seed too.

I did get the Honda gennie running well enough for now.   It will run on idle or full throttle with only minor hiccups.  Fueled it up and put it aside. That’s two running generators.  I’ve got to get the whole house running next.

The insurrection is heating up.  Cops targeted in LA and a crowd emboldened to the point that they are mocking the cops outside the hospital.   That is pretty damn bold.  Those people do not fear any consequences.  I wonder how long it will be before the death squads are visiting in the middle of the night, and which side will start first…

Prepare yourself for hard times, in mind, body, and spirit.  They are coming.  How hard remains to be seen, but they will come.  If you see a path where they don’t, please share, ‘cuz I don’t see us going back to ‘normal’ without passing through the fire.

Whatever you think you’ll need, I’m suggesting you get it now, rather than later.  And stack it high.

nick

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Sun. Sept. 13, 2020 – not even close to a Friday

Hot and humid, but perhaps less so.  I think Fall may have arrived, although my wife doesn’t think so.  I don’t even think it got over 100F in my driveway yesterday…

It was still hot out.

After spending the morning watching an auction close out (got a couple good things), I finally got out and did some stuff around the house.

I cleaned the pool, and then got right to work on my Honda eu3000.  The new  battery, fuel petcock and filter, were installed.  The fuel gauge turned out to be fine, the part I thought needed to be replaced was a separate part and just needed cleaning.  It started right up and ran smooth for a short while.  Then the roughness started.  Looking at the carb, fuel was spitting out into the venturi part, and that would bog the engine.  I decided to tear the carb down again and be certain it was clean.  That took up the rest of the daylight so I’ll be finishing that reassembly today.  I didn’t find anything obviously wrong though.  Next step is a little more trouble shooting, then a replacement carb.  There is progress as it now runs, just not as well as I’d like.  And it is worth spending some money on it, as it is a nice gennie.

Also on the list for today is planting something… I’ve got a bunch of fall stuff I can plant,  and want to get it in the ground.  I’m going heavy on the seed, assuming I’ll have low yields like last time.  I’ve also got a couple more “window boxes” to build and hang on the fence.  I’ve had the material for months.  Except the dirt.  I’ll need to order some more dirt.  Or use the dirt from the failed potato towers.  Actually, that’s a good idea.  I can order more dirt later.

Like all my plans, we’ll see what survives contact with the day.

What, if anything, have you guys and gals been doing to improve your position?  I’d especially like to hear from anyone who Bob talked to about prepping directly, now that it’s a couple of years later…

You know me, I’m going to keep stacking.  And I think you should too.

nick

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Wed. Sept. 9, 2020 – still stuff to do

Hot and humid, but less so.  I really do think we may be over the hump.

I mostly spent yesterday afternoon driving.  I picked up a couple of things I probably could have easily done without.  I’m backsliding.

It was too wet to cut the grass or work outside.  We got little showers throughout the day.    I spent the morning sleeping.   Too beat to consider almost 3 hours of driving around.  Not a productive use of my time.

Today I’ve got pickups, and some of the stuff is preps so there is that.  I got mortar, cement, other project stuff, and various sundries.  The guns and ammo went for too much, but they did have some.  556 brought 70c/rd before adding fees and taxes.  One box of 100, name brand FMJ 9mm went for $53 plus about 25% for tax and fees.     All the rifles went for big money, and the pistols went for more than gunbroker prices.  There were a couple of accessories to be had cheaply though.    I should be able to get the auctioneer to commit to my consignment arriving tomorrow.  I’ll get that loaded up later in the afternoon if he will commit.

And if the rain stays away, I’ll get the grass cut.  Fingers crossed.

My ag extension planting guide says it’s time for fall beans and peas, and almost time for fall root veg.  I’ll get some beans and peas in, and get the beds ready for the roots.  Dark green leafies are due too, but I don’t know if I’ll try them again this fall.  Geez I feel like Charlie Brown and the football with this gardening business.

But hey, social unrest, civil war, crime, disease, economic collapse, famine- all possible; some almost guaranteed.   Time’s a wasting.  Keep stacking.

 

nick

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Sun. Aug. 23, 2020 – more to do, big wind coming

Hot and humid.  Rain?  Wind?  No idea, but it’s sure to be hot.

Saturday was overcast and rained, so it was actually cooler than I expected.  I got some of the yard work done.

Mostly I was watching auctions closing throughout the day.  Preps and stuff for the house, mostly.  I got some good bargains, and I’m set for life wrt butane lighters.  I got 100 of them for $14.  I also got an arrow fishing reel, that should go perfectly with the little crossbow pistol I was talking about last week, to make a line thrower for getting ham radio antennas up into the trees.  The rest of the stuff was very mixed.  Some magpul gub parts- mainly rifle furniture, some shotgun shells, several bike maintenance items, roof rack rails, knives, and some target stuff, cleaning supplies, political items, flags, and some building supplies rounded out the list.  Mixed bag indeed.

Took a few minutes to break down and vac seal the meat I got from my grocery order, and put away all the things.  I moved stuff into the new, very small, refrigerator part of the fridge/freezer.  I think it will be fine for the stuff I usually put in the garage fridge, and it will force me to get my vac seal and freeze done promptly.   It’s very strange putting gallons of milk and cartons of eggs into what 40+ years of conditioning tells me is the freezer….

I’m going to put the old fridge on a local FB sale group.  The shelves and door system fit a ton of other fridges, so someone might want an unreliable fridge, if only for parts.  I DON’T want to have to figure out where to take it to get rid of it and my scrap yard won’t take it.

Today will be more cleaning, more organizing, more putting stuff back in place.  After getting the yard finished, that is.  And maybe some pool maintenance.  And some indoor stuff to let my brain cool…

My gardens are a shambles.  I have one cabbage left.  The corn stalks turned brown, and the ears are about finger sized.  The mini ears had full sized kernels, where the squirrels didn’t get them, which is weird.  Several of the peppers died.  The brusselsprouts are hanging in but aren’t producing the stalk or buds.  A couple of the broccoli plants are still alive but not growing.  The asparagus is about 3 feet tall and very fern-like.  Tomatoes have lots of plant, not much fruit.  I got one good tomato, smaller than a tennis ball last week.  Turns out that tomatoes and potatoes are enemies, so maybe it wasn’t just the heat that killed my potato towers.  They are right next to, and in between the tomato plants.  I did get one volunteer, either a watermelon or acorn squash.  So far it’s about 6 inches tall.  We’ll see if it continues to survive and thrive.  I need to start thinking about fall planting.  I feel like Charlie Brown and the football with this garden nonsense.

I better stack the cans a little higher, since I’m not growing anything but frustrated.

On the ‘decline and fall’ front, in Portland the cops are finally doing what Chicago cops have been doing for decades– nothing.  They decided to just let some lefties and righties fight.  Nobody got shot or stabbed this time.  The Chief says if they are voluntarily looking for fights, he doesn’t really see any way the cops could make that better… And the cops were no where to be seen when the insurgents ran through the suburbs harassing the sleeping normies.   Soon it won’t be loudspeakers and threats, it’ll be sticks and stones, fire, and gunfire.   You are on your own.  Ammo up.

Stay away from crowds.

Stack it high.

nick

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