Showing posts with label beans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beans. Show all posts

Friday, August 21, 2020

August 21 2020 Update

August 21st Update

Garden Update So we've got tomatoes now, boy do we, Mortgage Lifter variety are huge this year.  Going to start making sauce soon. Rose picked probably the last of the Zucchini's, our winter squash are getting big.  Green beans are coming in.

Car troubles... Hyundai Tucson -  The Tucson started having issues last week, it would stall over and over.  I went to Amazon, where else?  I purchased a $22 ODBII code reader to tell me what was wrong...  Low and behold the thing worked, told me the Camshaft Position sensor was bad/misreading. I spent some computer time trying to locate the sensor for my Model/Year vehicle, and I finally found an article that located it for me, spend 30 minutes finding and removing the sensor, ordered the replacement, it'll be here on Thursday the 20th. I'll let you know how all this works out.  I have a boat in the yard I can't tow because of this so I'm anxious to see if this'll work out.  So Thursday came and Amazon showed up with the sensor, my biggest fear was realized when I dropped the 10mm bolt that holds the sensor in place at the back of the engine in a blind spot, I heard a clink as it bounced off something and it was gone.  I climbed under the front and looked on the ground, I looked down from the engine compartment to see if I could see it from there  had nearly given up and decided to look under the car from behind the front wheel, lo and behold there it was! I climbed under and was just able to reach it!  It took a couple more minutes with a mirror, flashlight to line up the sensor hole with the engine block and it was in!

The Spider in the Mist Rosie called me to the back door the other day early in the morning



The spider web hangs 10' or so in the air suspended across a 30' or so space between the Martin house and the Apple tree.

Kitchen Sink Strainer rusted out, Rose found water under the sink, when I put a pipe wrench on the nut holding the strainer the whole strainer basket pretty much fell apart, that made for an easy removal.  Off to Ace to pick up the parts I needed, this was a "two tripper" (a job that takes two trips to the hardware store because either you forgot something or the parts you bought were not quite the right ones in the first place). This was the latter, the strainer I bought was too long to fit in the allotted space. I saw a shorter unit at the store but thought I'd best purchase the exact replacement.  WRONG...lol.  Back to Ace, got the shorter unit installed without too much trouble. Only had to re-tighten one of the couplings shortly thereafter as it was dripping. Fingers crossed...

Strainer to Plastic flex, to Chromed, to Galvanized steel, so it goes in an old house....
 

The pond is way down probably down 5' in height from full, there's probably 8 to 10 feet of bank showing that would normally be under water.  We're on a dug well, a rock lined cylinder (9' in diameter x 19' deep) the water level goes up and down as the water table does. We need to watch the water level closely, the pond water level is the same as my well. We've never run dry in 30 years so we're hoping... especially with the watering of the garden daily.

It was Dragonfly Day was Aug 13th this year, tens of thousands of them were swarming throughout the yard and fields, there's a very small white fly that is coming up out of the grass they seem to love.  The Bard swallows also seemed to love the feast there were a couple dozen catching invisible bugs in the sky, they'd fly front to back yard then back over the field again.  Fun to watch!

Obligatory Deer Pics




Lot's of bad stuff going on right now COVID-19 is still here, the spectacle of what they are calling politics too.  Stay safe out there!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

June Bugs are Buzzing at 8:30am

It's going to be a scorcher today with tomorrow being even hotter, glad I took the day off, 82 degrees at 8:30 this morning.  Supposed to hit 95+ with a heat index of 105 Degrees.  Gardens are watered early, and the barn is cleaned.  Now to relax!  We have to pick vegetables tonight, peppers, beans, and squash are ready. 

Stay cool!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

String Beans, and the first Tomato of the season

Beans, beans, and more beans, I love 'em. The Pole beans started coming in today though only the eastern end of the row so far, Yellow Wax beans are coming in very well still, I'm thinking of putting in another row or two. 

We have Pik Red tomatoes and a couple Roma Plum tomatoes that have started coming in today.  The Roma plants don't look like they are doing well (greens are dying from the bottom up), I'll talk to Tony up on the hill he has more experience with the Roma's, maybe this is normal for the plants.

The Colorado Potato beetles have slowed down I may not need to spray them, maybe I can just pick off the remaining beetles.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

The July Garden - SUMMER GOLD

SUMMER GOLD
What a difference a couple of weeks of rain and heat makes in the vegetable gardens.

Here's my account of what is and isn't working out so well this year...

What's working well:
  • The Silver Queen corn is over 6' tall now, tasseled with small ears.
  • Zucchini is outproducing our ability to eat it.
  • Kale is doing well, need to pick this week.
  • Cucumbers are abundant
  • Wax beans are coming in by the bucket, Green bush beans are coming in as well.
What could be better:
  • Pole beans have not started producing yet.
  • Peas are slow in producing.
  • Colorado Potato bugs are relentlessly eating the potato plants. I am going to try Eight where Sevin failed...
  • We think there's to much wood ash on one of the raised beds seems to be real slow producing this year.
  • Weeds this year, ugh, timing rainstorms, life, etc. got the best of us early.

About Canning... (Picture at the top of this post is the fruit of our labor)
We're back to canning again, with the economy stalled we feel it's prudent, it makes us nervous every time the power fails worrying about the freezers. One of the benefits of canning is no refrigeration is required.

We canned (using a water bath canner) our first batch of Bread and Butter pickles. They look great, IMHO. Canning always seems to take a lot longer than you think it will.

We jumped back into pressure canning again today and put up 5 jars of wax and green beans.

Rose wants to can up some Butter next week, hmm maybe some Kale too...

Friday, June 13, 2008

Garden is coming along...

Well here we are two weeks into June and so far we're doing well, the second planting of cantaloupe, and watermelon are up. We're picking Broccoli...

I had to spray the beans, something is eating them up.

The potato beetles have arrived, i handpicked a few I'll have to spray/dust the potatoes this weekend, I think it really paid of buying certified Maine seed this year. I think every one I planted came up.

The Mosquito Magnet is empty I need to refill the propane tanks, that's OK the grill tank died last week as well might as well fill them both.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

And the rain came down...

Finally... we got some much needed rain, not a downpour, a nice two day long drizzle. You can hear the mosquito's growing and buzzing just out of sight.

This rain really helped the garden out, most of the beans have sprouted, and we're hoping the remaining squashes come up too.

2026 Hopkington FAIR!

We went to the Hopkington fair on Saturday Sept 5th, just before we left I'd checked the weather, it said we'd get a 4 minute shower...