What's everybody doing today?

[hashbrown]

I got a new little trackhoe today to clean up footings and such around the big machines. Jake immediately claimed it as his machine. He gets out of school early on Fridays and he spent the whole afternoon cleaning up around the job.

 

[Meerkat]

Had company yesterday.
They brought gifts from the garden.
Had grand daughter yesterday.
She brought attitude.
Granny adjusted attitude for her.
Strawberry is sleeping beside me with her ear on my laptop.
She's still worn out from grand daughter yesterday.
Sipping coffee, relaxing,
Have to return new dog kennel to Wal*Mart.
I ordered 26 inch kennel.
I got 22 inch kennel.
Strawberry doesn't fit.
Heck grand daughter doesn't fit either.
If you can't find Strawberry and grand daughter and they're quite,
Maybe they're asleep in the kennel we have now.
Sometimes any way.
Grand daughter says that's her and Strawberry's room.
Have pot of bean going in crock pot.
Will be making fried chicken,potato wedges,cornbread to go with them for supper.
Crocheting various projects.

Had grand daughter yesterday.
She brought attitude.
Granny adjusted attitude for her. LOL.

 

[Meerkat]

Today was calm! Spent 3 hours doing a webinar with the rest of the supervisors. Wasn't bad. Left at noon and picked up a little hardware and installed some lights on our deck the wife wanted. Today is her birthday, so I took her out to eat tonight at one of our favorite resturants. We planned to have a little fire tonight, but the leading edge of Delta is starting to roll in. Light sprinkles now, and expecting rain thru the weekend.

Glad yall had a good day and the eife had a good B-Day.

 

[Grimm]

I organized all the veggies I just bought in the garage freezer and put all the older veggies in the house freezer to be used first. I cleared a bit more space for our coming Costco trip. I need to make room for 8 gallons of milk, bacon and meat- tons of meat!

Not much else this evening. Just enjoying a scary show on Netflix and a cup of tea.

 

[Terri9630]

24 by 40 and 20ft tall. Well, it will be 20ft tall because its going over a giant hole hubby dug.

Cool, how big is your greenhouse going to be?

 

[The Lazy L]

Loaded up for a competition tomorrow. Two hour drive one-way.
Used the mower to blow the leaves of the yards and into the surrounding woods.
Gave the chickens their last treat, apple scraps.
Set up for culling the chickens this afternoon after they lay today's eggs.

 

[Neb]

Today we poured concrete into the forms built on Thursday.

We did have a near blow out as I was filling the forms that scared me a bit with an image of being engulfed in a wave of concrete but it held "good enough".

The next step is to move the forms to the next section and "lather Rinse Repeat".

The rest of the day will be either working on the scale model or sorting Legos.

Behave,

Ben

 

[Weedygarden]

Loaded up for a competition tomorrow. Two hour drive one-way.
Used the mower to blow the leaves of the yards and into the surrounding yards.
Gave the chickens their last treat, apple scraps.
Set up for culling the chickens this afternoon after they lay today's eggs.

Do you blow your leaves into your neighbor's yards? It doesn't seem like something you would do. My neighbor cleans his yard by blowing all the debris out of his yard.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Son got in late last night, today he painted baseboards, the trim around the windows and 2 doors. I was able to finish up with the toe-kicks and the new mitered baseboards, I also made a tray to sit the toaster oven on, it will need to be sanded and painted. I was happy to be able to turn to outdoor work, got out my treestand, in the garden I installed one of the new lid frames and painted it (rain expected tomorrow), so now that raised bed can. I was able to plant 2 other raised beds with lettuce, spinach, and onions. If we get a couple of days of good rain and then I can put the new plastic on their tops they should be maintenance free the rest of the year. Last year I was harvesting lettuce and spinach in February.

Here is an old picture of my raised beds with lids open

Here is a picture of them with the lids closed... Plants are still inside the mounds....

About every 8 years I have to replace the lid frames, the plastic only lasts about 1 season, I usually pull the plastic off in late spring and replace with some sort of shade cloth...



Today for lunch we had grilled flank steak, shrimp cocktail, potato salad, deviled eggs, imitation crab-broccoli-cheese dip with grilled pieta bread tips; brownies for desert… I was so full I floundered most of the afternoon…

 

[Amish Heart]

I put little granddaughter on leaves today. She raked up 4 large bags of leaves and then I had her dump them out on the burn pile farther away. She'll work on some more tomorrow. I've got the greenhouse in good shape now. Had to rake out about a foot of cow patties. Last owner let a cow in there. Pallet tables are made. Ugly, but functional. Ready to seed some pots of lettuce, spinach, and plant the green onions I bought. Grandson has been doing chores in slow motion. Taking 30 minute bathroom breaks. About ready to eliminate his phone for the day. Granddaughter is at a two person bday party, and then heading up to work. Finally finished the last of the two bushels of apples. In the dehydrator now. Cut up two trays of the green onions to dehydrate, and planting the bulb parts to grow more.

 

[Neb]

Son got in late last night, today he painted baseboards, the trim around the windows and 2 doors. I was able to finish up with the toe-kicks and the new mitered baseboards, I also made a tray to sit the toaster oven on, it will need to be sanded and painted. I was happy to be able to turn to outdoor work, got out my treestand, in the garden I installed one of the new lid frames and painted it (rain expected tomorrow), so now that raised bed can. I was able to plant 2 other raised beds with lettuce, spinach, and onions. If we get a couple of days of good rain and then I can put the new plastic on their tops they should be maintenance free the rest of the year. Last year I was harvesting lettuce and spinach in February.

Here is an old picture of my raised beds with lids open
View attachment 51604

Here is a picture of them with the lids closed... Plants are still inside the mounds....
View attachment 51605
About every 8 years I have to replace the lid frames, the plastic only lasts about 1 season, I usually pull the plastic off in late spring and replace with some sort of shade cloth...



Today for lunch we had grilled flank steak, shrimp cocktail, potato salad, deviled eggs, imitation crab-broccoli-cheese dip with grilled pieta bread tips; brownies for desert… I was so full I floundered most of the afternoon…

Those images are inspiring Urban!

Qs

How tall are your garden boxes?

Is your garden area completely clear of grass/lawn? That is one of the changes we plan since weeds are a real problem with us and our busy schedules.

Is the arrow there to prevent the snow plows from running over the beds? (smiley-wink)

Ben

 

[LadyLocust]

I got a new little trackhoe today to clean up footings and such around the big machines. Jake immediately claimed it as his machine. He gets out of school early on Fridays and he spent the whole afternoon cleaning up around the job.

That's awesome! Let'em at 'er~ I had a tractor I claimed when I was in HS. I didn't own it, but I got tons of work done on that thing. Let him claim it. Once the new wears off, it will still be "his job" and that much less for you to worry about

We've had long days and short nights. Hubby is on 7th week of working 7 days / week. I'm on day six and might be working tomorrow too then heading straight into another fun-filled week :-/. A couple more weeks and hopefully we will be able to take a day off. We are both getting tired. One day this past week, I was in 3 states in 1 day and saw only 2 Biden signs over the course of however many miles driving for 9+ hours covers. I picked up our beef this morning and got it in the freezers so that is comforting. 19 year old niece spent the night so she could help out (working) then will head back to school tomorrow. So far she has done more than one of our full timers - a 38 yr. old "man." Ha! Good girl. She is a petite little thing (we are runts on my side) and eats like a horse. We told her she doesn't need college, she can stay and work for us (joking of course, though we would hire her full time in a heartbeat.) I am at work but decided to pop on here before I start tackling the quarterly taxes which I usually have completed by the 10th.
It's raining and supposed to for 3 days - yay! Autumn might actually be here. I love it!

 

[The Lazy L]

Do you blow your leaves into your neighbor's yards? It doesn't seem like something you would do. My neighbor cleans his yard by blowing all the debris out of his yard.

Typo on my part. ...into the surounding WOODS.

 

[hashbrown]

Spent the day replacing ball joints on my brothers truck. I truly detest ball joints, the shop wanted $1200 to replace them and I figured he had a better place to spend that sort of money. It's a crappy job but I did get to spend the day with my brother.

 

[Neb]

Spent the day replacing ball joints on my brothers truck. I truly detest ball joints, the shop wanted $1200 to replace them and I figured he had a better place to spend that sort of money. It's a crappy job but I did get to spend the day with my brother.

Ditto that!

Even better if at least one of you has the right tools and one of you know what you are doing.

Ben

 

[hashbrown]

Ditto that!

Even better if at least one of you has the right tools and one of you know what you are doing.

Ben

His truck is a 2013 and now you have to grind a lip off then press them out! I think they want you to buy complete A arms with ball joints installed instead of replacing ball joints these days.

 

[Bacpacker]

Hash I don't think anybody makes anything easy to work on anymore. I also think that is possiblly intentional.

Went to the gun show over in the biggest town near us. Picked up some ammo, not a single thing that wasn't. I did look at one vendor that had some medical supplies, trauma type stuff, TQ's, issy bandages, chest seals. Celox gauze. All of it has doubled or tripled in price. Not surprised, but I am disappointed. I wanted to pick up some stuff. But like .223 or 5.56 ammo, I can make do with what I have. Now isn't the time to just build stock if you feel like your ok with what you have.

It rained most all night, measured 1.13 at 10am when I left. When I got home still raining, we loaded up and drove to Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains. Nice drive. Other than traffic, which was less than normal, it was pretty quite in the rain. We did see one good size bear running across the road. Nice way to spend the afternoon.

 

[randyt]

Been to a few shows in Knoxville at the civic center. I think I bought my first SKS there.

 

[Grimm]

We made the Costco run and brought home a decent amount of meat, milk and dry goods in bulk. It feels good having 7 gallons of milk in the freezer (the eighth is in the fridge) and all that meat! Feels like I can relax a little bit with the election just weeks away.

 

[Double R]

I didn’t know you could freeze milk. Does it thaw and taste the same?

 

[UrbanHunter]

Those images are inspiring Urban!

Qs

How tall are your garden boxes?

Is your garden area completely clear of grass/lawn? That is one of the changes we plan since weeds are a real problem with us and our busy schedules.

Is the arrow there to prevent the snow plows from running over the beds? (smiley-wink)

Ben

Hey Ben,

For full disclosure, my space is very small and I have had to squeeze a useful growing space into a shoebox... I've seen your boxes and you have a lot more ground to cover...

When I started the wife could do harvesting but she couldn’t bend, so all my bed boxes are 34” high with a lip that can hold a car-hop style tray for your harvesting container, I usually only fill the boxes to within about 8-10” of the top of the frame. All of the boxes are completely lined with at least 2 layers of 6 Mil black plastic as I only use pressure treated wood for the frames. I did lay a couple layers of wire cloth in the bottoms before adding sifted soil (I had a goffer once).

After years of adjustments I settled on 2 "Standard" designs:

A 3'X7' bed with a swing open top and drip irrigation sprinklers hung from the high center top support. The triangles at the ends of the box support the top and places the bottom of the center spar about 30 inches above the soil. These give me about 9 months of good growing season, even with snow (Located in a Zone 6 growing zone)

A 2’X8’ bed with no top, I usually use these for peppers and tomatoes.

After years trying row gardening and constant fighting grass and weeds I was at the end of my rope. So when we decided to go "all in with" standard beds I removed all the sod, sifted it to save as much soil as I could…Laid down 2 layers of the 6 mil black plastic and built and placed the bed boxess on top of that, Then I cut the plastic inside each box, and stapled the flap to inside of the box, then I dug down another foot inside the box, lined the box to the bottom of the hole put in a foot or so of “poor soil”, added the wire cloth, put in about a foot of sifted soil, then put in about 18” of really good garden soil. I then added landscaping rocks around all the beds and walking boards on top of that. I still see an occasional weed, but I can just close the tops and spray…. Overkill is what I do….

I usually add about 6" of compost and new soil at the end of each season...

The old arrow…. When the tops are closed water will collect next to the wood swing arm and retainer, I used the arrow to poke holes every 6” along the base of the tops so water can drain into the box. It also serves as a good snow gauge when placed in a flower pot on top of the picnic table

 

[Meerkat]

We don't buy compost but use our own mostly consist of leaves and grass some food scraps which are few,mostly coffee grinds. .
I think we need to burn off raised beds this winter,nev hve but think we need the potash.
Then just add some leaves, maybe a few eggs and hen manure.
I do need to get back outside now since this week will finally cool down.
Being isolated the thing we need to do the most which is staying busy and active is the thing we do less.
I need to double dig garden again and turn under weeds that haven't seeded.

 

[snappy1]

Church this morning, then exercise video. Need to search for a wire brush to start "sanding" down wrought iron fence to paint. Will wash my sheets today and put comforter outside for awhile. Otherwise, try to take it easy. Not much sleep last night.

 

[UrbanHunter]

We don't buy compost but use our own mostly consist of leaves and grass some food scraps which are few,mostly coffee grinds. .
I think we need to burn off raised beds this winter,nev hve but think we need the potash.
Then just add some leaves, maybe a few eggs and hen manure.
I do need to get back outside now since this week will finally cool down.
Being isolated the thing we need to do the most which is staying busy and active is the thing we do less.
I need to double dig garden again and turn under weeds that haven't seeded.

I usually keep the clippings and leaves from the last 2 times I mow the lawn during the year and use it as a base for the compost, now that I have the new kitchen with the drawer under the sink I may add a compost collection bin to the thrash and recyling cans that we have.
We have a cast iron stove in the living room, I collect the ashes, store them in a metal can outside, and spread them on the beds in the spring...

 

[Meerkat]

I usually keep the clippings and leaves from the last 2 times I mow the lawn during the year and use it as a base for the compost, now that I have the new kitchen with the drawer under the sink I may add a compost collection bin to the thrash and recyling cans that we have.
We have a cast iron stove in the living room, I collect the ashes, store them in a metal can outside, and spread them on the beds in the spring...

Urban ,we don't have any wood burning things,so we have to emphecise. We do have a fireplace but have never used it, lit it once fisrt time 15 yr ago,too much smoke.Never got back to problem.
We could burn soem plentiful fallen froest products. I use to rake leaves every year and pile them up for compost but life happens and had to stop.

 

[LadyLocust]

I’m not seeing anything from Jim. Is everything okay?
@phideaux

 

[UrbanHunter]

Urban ,we don't have any wood burning things,so we have to emphecise. We do have a fireplace but have never used it, lit it once fisrt time 15 yr ago,too much smoke.Never got back to problem.
We could burn soem plentiful fallen froest products. I use to rake leaves every year and pile them up for compost but life happens and had to stop.

I understand that, when we moved here we had a fireplace that smoked and had no hearth (we were afraid to use it).

I made a large hearth in front of the fireplace, lined the chimney with a stainless steel liner, and installed a small flat-top wood burning stove. It can heat the main floor nicely in a pinch... The flat top means you can slow cook a nice stew with it if things go dark.

 

[Meerkat]

I understand that, when we moved here we had a fireplace that smoked and had no hearth (we were afraid to use it).

I made a large hearth in front of the fireplace, lined the chimney with a stainless steel liner, and installed a small flat-top wood burning stove. It can heat the main floor nicely in a pinch... The flat top means you can slow cook a nice stew with it if things go dark.

View attachment 51636

That is very nice ,goodjob.

 

[Meerkat]

I’m not seeing anything from Jim. Is everything okay?
@phideaux

I tag him at least every other day, hope he is just taking a break. I do see that he comes on now and then but doesn't post. We too hope he is ok aand comes back to let us know.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Well, today I got 1 new raised bed top on... The rain came in so it is open letting the plants get a good drink before I close them up for the season. The raised bed with the new top has carrots and beets still growing, I harvest them in small handfulls so we always have some fresh ready to go. Wife just called down to me asking,"are those yellow leaves on your tomatoes or blooms?", blooms, my tomatoes are still producing 5 or 6 a day, they are soo confused"

As winter will be here soon, I figured it was time to drain my rain barrels, with the rain no one will notice an extra 500 gallons going down the hill.

The rest of the day will be spent organizing the food storage shelves (After we cleaned out the old pantry we found a lot of duplicates that needed to be moved back down to storage).

When I think of all we have; I feel so blessed, for the last 10 years there were times when I would get spooked and buy an extra $500 in preps like ammo, TP, and stable food items, after each event that would become our new baseline. Today, most of the food in my inventory is 2019 or newer (I used COVID 19 as an opportunity to eat down old stuff and replace with new), I think we have about enough to get through almost any hard time I can imagine.

I checked the canning closet, I have about 30 boxes of wide mount and 20 boxes regular lids, I have 20 cases of empty jars. Right now I have about 16 cases full from last year and this summer. We hope to do a couple of cases of soups soon, might do some beets just to balance things out, but we didn't get to can peaches this year and I will miss that treat.

Tomorrow is a holiday, I may get out my home made 3D cammo and wash it, now that the kitchen is done, it will soon be my time to hang out in a tree and enjoy nature!

I really like the pellet gun I bought this year, it makes nice groups out to 70 yards (best groups are around 35 yards), it will quietly bring in a few of those tasty tree rats. I was able to get about a dozen tins of pellets so I am good to go there.

I believe in having sufficient rounds available for every caliber that I have and was blessed to have the opportunity to buy them when they were very inexpensive....