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Thanks for reminding me. Just set the alarm on my phone to remind me to stop for more $1.50 plants on the way home today. Probably get another Sun Sugar then a couple each of whatever tomatoes they have that I don’t and some peppers. They have a lot more than shisito.

Gotta go out here in a few and pick up the plants that the wind knocked over. I can put them back in the seed tray now. I don’t have one with holes so I took the plants out so they wouldn’t drown with the rain. I’ll punch some holes in a tray or two after work. Will be handy for bottom watering instead of taking the pots out and putting in a different tray with water for a while and then putting them all back in the dry tray.

Cool, looks like my brackets will be here for the weekend. Gonna be sunny, 75 Saturday and 79 Sunday. It ought to look like a high tunnel frame this weekend.

Today; Mad downpours, hail and a couple of tornado warnings due to rotations in the storms. My boss said his neighbor got 3” of rain in his rain gauge from two quick storms. Storms formed along I-44 just West of where I work and headed to St Louis. Didn’t start raining here until I was probably half way home.

The rain gauge said 0.54 when I got home and it’s at 0.70 now.

Highest wind gust here was 52 mph at 4:43pm. Seven gusts over 30 and four over 40 but most were 20 or less.

Would have been a day to have the tunnel sides close 1/2 to 3/4 of the way for the two hours of gusty wind.

Sheep are better for mowing. They’re grazers while goats are browsers.

Won’t hardly touch fescue. They like clover and alfalfa. They’ll eat a little broad leaf grass. They’re eat all the wild flowers and anything with a thorn, except thistle. Blackberry, raspberry and multi flora are a favorite snack.

Harder to fence than dogs, cattle or sheep or most anything. Dry soil and a 6,000 volt electric fence? They’ll laugh as they walk through it.

I know and looked into the different nukes. RoundUp doesn’t have much to say about horse thistle but I found a couple that did. Either way, it’s less than half of 750 sq ft. Hand to Hand combat fits this situation.

The area outside the tunnel, yeah I’ll nuke it.

RE: Egg quality. I noticed with the hens in a coup that I fed egg crumbles vs my little free range survivalist hen that I didn't feed for a few years, her white was thinner but the yolks were nice and dark. I wonder which one makes for better baby chicks.(with fertilized eggs of course)

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Rain gauge finally came in. Plugged in the little LCD display and tilted the tipping cup back and forth and had a count displayed so it works.

I'm not using the display and will hook it up to one of my controllers indoors the tip the tipping bucket to make sure that works. Then I'll see if I can find a place to rig it up outdoors temporarily. Supposed to be on a nice level platform so "rigging it" - goat proof?

Screw it down to a piece of plywood, set it on the roof of the car, find highest point of rounded roof, shims corners of plywood until it's level. Gonna have to move the car where the wire reaches but they give plenty, 50 foot I think.

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Forgot to order my brackets first thing this morning so I did it first thing this afternoon. Will be a little less apt yo make it here for the weekend but that's ok, I have plenty to do.

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I have Horse Thistle in my tunnel and beyond the South end a bit.

Brought some horse manure in several year's ago. Didn't get a lot and thought I had it taken care of but then I quit gardening out there and even visiting so it spread. I did feed the goats hay out there a couple of years ago and got more from that. At any rate, I have it now. It's not real thick but it's spread out and I don't want to broadcast plant killer, RoundUp etc.

Just informed my son that we're going to pull grass and various weeds until there's noting but thistle left and then dig those out, collect them and burn them with the next trash burning.

Forced No Till Gardening.

I'll be stopping by for this one day soon. They open at 6am and I normally leave for work at 7am. Might become a once a week ritual.

I've noticed my own homegrown eggs had beautiful dark yolks but the white is a little thin. Seems they have the same. If they can do over easy with liquid yolk but not a single drop if liquid white, that's the ticket. That remains to be seen - or eaten. Good looking toast though too.

Interesting how these protesters are being treated so much different than the Summer of 2020 “mostly peaceful protesters” that burned down cities.

What is the difference?

Democracy (or Our Democracy)

You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

The way the left uses it means Our Global Color Revolution.

No republican or conservative should even utter that word. Even in the true sense, democracy means the popular vote wins and there's no such thing as the electoral college. Yet I see all the popular right wing personalities use it over and over.

Cut the swagged end off a 21' top rail which gave me 20'-9" leftover and I got 4 pieces 62" long from that. That gets me real close to the center of each arch and kinda close to 1/3 of the way in from each end of the horizontal truss chord. Put the end caps on those 4 pieces and it started raining. Rain let up a short time ago so I got two braces attached to the outer frame with the bottom end being held in place by resting on a couple of clamps.

These angled braces are not for a snow load. I would need a vertical up the middle and the angled pieces also going to the middle for that, just like wood trusses are designed. I just need to be able to hang vine plants from above and the top rail pipe needs bracing for that, else it would bend down. The middle gap between the angled pieces is shorter than each end gap but I'm more apt to be hanging plants down the middle and growing shorter stuff on the sides. It will work and this top rail @ $30 a length adds up quick. Not sure what will run lengthwise to actually hang from. Might be high tensile fence wire. I will need a couple lengthwise pieces to keep the spread of the cross pieces, just like I need a ridge beam and two purlins to keep the spread of the outer frame.

Some pics from the old general store that someone bought out and turned into a restaurant/market. First customer?

Eight miles away and I drive by it every day. They did a really nice job remodeling/refurbishing, including redoing the hardwood floors. Lots of stylish decor. Might have someone in the corner strumming on a guitar on Fri nights. A lot of posts mention "fresh veggies". Probably not fresh as in harvested that morning fresh. On the other hand, for all I know, they could be avid gardeners with their own high tunnel. They could be buying from the one grocery store that sells this much variety or some specialty supplier out of St Louis. Some people call fresh frozen - fresh.

Facebook post: We’ll be cooking delicious breakfast until 11am and then for lunch we have Veggie soup (alpha-gal friendly) and all the usual, tasty lunch items!"

I'm guessing someone has the Alpha Gal allergy like I do. Probably whoever is the soup fan.

I had steak last night which was dicey because I found a Lone Star tick latched onto the back of my leg the other day which is what triggers the allergy. Didn't wake up with the hives though so I guess the tick was too small or just didn't have whatever it is that triggers it. That reminds me, I need to lay down the Sevin granules. That and burn on the other side of the tunnel area and keep it mowed short all around it.

Speaking of tunnel, I'm going to work now.

Stopped by the grocery store and got one more Shisito to put me at an even 12, a second Black Krim and a Marglobe. Couldn't get much because I overspent on the high tunnel & bought the rain gauge. That and it's time to pay monthly bills. I'm lucky that the bills are all separated by a week or so.

Gonna hit it one more time Tues when I get paid. Probably 6 more Shisito and a few more varieties of maters.

I did go get some more 2-3/8" straps for my outer frame for the angled truss bracing. Top one in pic only bigger diameter.

Heading out to start on those now. Still need 14 small 1-3/8" straps to fit the top rail. Bottom one in pic. Those come from Tunnel Vision because there's nothing like that available locally. Chain link fence normally just gets wired to the top rail like so.

If I order first thing Tues morning, they should be here before next weekend. I ordered the end caps Thurs and they were here Monday. Meanwhile, I can start wrapping it with fence so I can stick all these plants I'm getting in there asap. I haven't done a bit of soil prep and the grass is really taking off with all this rain we've had.

I only need one bed down the middle asap. Maters with peppers on one side or both sides. Looks like that can be done and both benefit from basil so I need some basil and of course marigold.

Listened to him on my drive home for a while. Luckily they replaced him with some local talking heads. He went into 90% Hamas/Palestine/Jew mode with the trademark Get Off My Lawn screaming and talked about the collapse of this country a little but with no emotion.

And the straps on the white pipe will be getting a few screws through it because the wind waggling the frame back and forth WILL loosen that strap up.

This felt tape will go between straps.

Got the horizontal truss chords up today. Since my outer frame is larger diameter than most tunnels, this would be enough for a snow load but I also need to hang a bunch of tomato plants from above. I could probably just add verticals going to the peak but two are better than one so I'll add two diagonals. Need to get 28 more straps for the 2-3/8" white outer frame pipe. Trip to Menard's - $1.29 ea.

It's really time to cut some trees around the tunnel. They're all leafed out now so I'll do it when the goats are around so they can get their minerals from the leaves of the freshly cut down tree. They go nuts for that. The first goats we had would scare me by running for the tree while it was falling.

I'm copying this but low enough to be wide enough to hang plants from all the way out to the sides, once I add lengthwise pieces. Speaking of lengthwise. In the pic above, there's a ridge beam of sorts plus two purlins.

I need to do that but there are no straps available to do that because of my oversized outer frame. Might have to get some flat bar and make my own. Either that or through bolt it with carriage bolt. Would have to use locknuts because the fence rail is thin and tightening bolts would just squish them.

God'll come up with something for me.

around the size of smallish buckshot

Ironic. I've read two different articles about flea beetles damage looking like small buckshot. I may have had a fleeting thought about how to get rid of flea beetles.

Using genetic engineering techniques, Martin and her colleagues inserted two genes responsible for purple coloration in edible snapdragon flowers into tomato plants. This process enabled the tomatoes to express the genes from the snapdragon and, subsequently, produce high levels of anthocyanins, thereby imbuing the tomatoes with a distinct purple hue and potentially enhanced health benefits.

The genesis of the GM Purple Tomato marks a significant milestone in agricultural biotechnology. Unlike previous GM crops primarily targeted at commercial producers, this tomato is the first GM food crop directly marketed to home gardeners in the United States, offering an opportunity for individuals to engage with biotechnology in their own backyard.

The GM Purple Tomato was deregulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2022. According to a statement from the USDA, the GM Purple Tomato is not subject to regulation by the USDA because it does not pose a plant pest risk:

In 2023, the Purple Tomato received a “no questions” letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which means the Purple Tomato is considered “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) and, therefore, does not require premarket review or approval by the FDA.

To qualify for GRAS status, Norfolk Plant Sciences submitted data from tests conducted internally.

The GM Purple Tomato was engineered by scientists at Norfolk Plant Sciences in the UK.

(in other words, FDA says the company, in the UK, saying "safe and effective" makes it so)

http://www.norfolkplantsciences.com/

Anthocyanins double the shelf life of tomatoes

http://www.norfolkplantsciences.com/anthocyanins-double-the-shelf-life-of-tomatoes/

Once again, it's not about our health. It's about tech profit. TRU$T THE $CIENCE

Little gardening web search trick so you’re results aren’t nothing but a gazillion overly wordy gardening blogs full of amazon links.

flea beetles extension edu

or if you want a pdf you can download

flea beetles extension edu pdf

The extension edu will give you mostly AG university results.

Just heard the first cicada oh joy. Talk about freaky looking when enlarged...

Then there's this thing.

Most of Baker Creek's pics show them harvested with flowers but with a lot thicker stalks than I have.

Choy Sum. (or Choy Very Little) One small side dish for one person per one plant seems a little stingy. LOL