The Garden Thread - June, 2024

June 1, 2024 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The MONTHLY Gardening Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.

If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located.

This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.

It is impossible to hijack the Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table Recipes, Preserving, Good Living - there is no telling where it will go - and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to/removed from our New & Improved Ping List.

NOTE: This is a once a MONTH Ping List, but we DO post to the thread all throughout the month. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest to Gardeners are welcomed any time!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“We are getting set to poor more concrete tomorrow - it’s just one 12’ length of wall, so it should go quick.”

Our barn burned down in the 50’s. When they rebuilt it, they did a p*ss-poor job of it, so the foundation has been crumbling in places. The concrete was first for the flooring - we filled in all the gutters - it had a milking parlor on the lower level. That’s where he built the new chicken coop and the new puppy/birthing pen. He also upgraded the stall accommodations for ‘the steer of the year.’ Once all the old stanchions are out and sold for scrap, he’s going to use the largest space for a workshop down the center of what WAS the milking parlor.

Last year he re-poured most of the north facing foundation, which meant taking apart some of the barn flooring above, and now we are working on the little last piece that’s needed to finish and that happens at 11am, TODAY!

Next project has to do with pulleys and come-alongs to stabilize the actual BARN because through the years it has shifted about 8” to the south.

He’s doing a great job - I’m just Clean Up and General Labor - we also have LIGHTS in the barn now, though one section has been on the fritz since an electrical storm a few weeks ago. It’s always something! ;)

[Qiviut]

A little sore this morning, but feels like something I’ll get over fairly quickly. :-)

Taking mom this morning to a consignment shop that takes furniture. She decided that her rather formal dining room furniture would not be a good look in the eating area of the kitchen. Tuesday, she bought a ‘farm’ style table & chairs that will look really great. Now, we need to get rid of the current table/chairs.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Someone will love that and have the perfect spot for it. :)

I was toweling off a wet dog the other day (it’s been raining some EVERY DAY for WEEKS, now!) and another one came up between my legs and knocked me over. I though my kneecap was busted, but with some ice, it was better the next day.

I guess we’re officially ‘tough old broads’ now, LOL! :)

[Augie]

Over the last two days we’ve gotten another 1.5” of rain here in the Middle of Misery. Can’t even walk in the new garden right now. I really need it to dry up for a few days or the weeds are going to get far enough ahead of me that I won’t be able to catch up.

Bummer about the dogpile. It’s usually not good when they blind-side you and take your legs out. Daughter’s doberman has folded me up a couple times.

I bought a pair of Goodyear tires for the camper yesterday. Installed them after work. Still need to buy a new generator and fix the leak in the water heater. The High Limit series is coming to Wheatland the end of this month and I intend to be there for it so I need to get busy with the fixing. lol

[Qiviut]

As of 4 pm, all the slate slabs are on the trailer along with 2 packs of shingles* (still have 4 more packs - will haul on future trips). The load is so heavy I don’t dare haul any more. I did load bags of pine needles (for mulch) on top of the slabs - they need to go & are fairly light weight & the cargo net will keep them from flying around.

Trailer is unhooked again so I can get the tailgate all the way down to load the back of the truck & get gas. I hope to be on the road by tomorrow morning around 9ish.

*Shingles: last year there was a yellow jacket nest in the pallet the shingles are sitting on. I got stung on two occasions, the last being a couple of stings, not just one. I was worried there would be a nest this year, but all was quiet, thank goodness!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

You’re making amazing progress! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Beau just bought four new wheels for ‘Shadow’ the F-150 so she can comfortably glide them to Canada.

My VW (2001 - 58K!) is having some break issues so he has ONE DAY to get that fixed before he leaves for his fishing trip.

P.S. We don’t NEED any. more. fish!

Thanks. Got that out of my system, LOL!

[Qiviut]

I may never walk totally upright again after 2 heavy lifting days. All I need to do tomorrow is get gas, throw my suitcase & cooler in the truck, hitch up the trailer & go .... hope all goes ok, have never hauled so heavy before.

[Pollard]

Goat Lady from a homesteading forum, that was the best until leftists invaded, once said, my goats and chickens give me all the soil I need. Good soil is what she meant obviously because she grew pretty much everything she needed. We had loose plans for me and the family to go visit her at some point. She needed some things fixed and was going to show/teach me her system. Never did get it arranged before the forum melted down and didn’t have each other’s contact info outside of forum PMs.

[Pollard]

Next project has to do with pulleys and come-alongs to stabilize the actual BARN because through the years it has shifted about 8” to the south.

That reminds me of a house I rented from a fireman. It was an old railroad town neighborhood, the predecessor to subdivisions I suppose. It had that layout of two roads with a drive-able easement in between to have a back way in which I've always thought was kinda cool. Back access + neighbor buffer + no visible utility poles on the real roads.

The house had a shed barely big enough for a small car and it had similar lean to it. I went in with come-alongs and chains and chain binders, ran big lags screws into the corners to hook to and slowly straightened it up and then cross braced it.

The fireman/landlord came by one day and saw it. He was in awe and said; How did you do that? He said he was scared to even go in there.

Almost got a job straitening up a cool looking old barn near here several years ago. In that case, I would have worked from the outside to keep it from falling before I messed around inside because it was leaning pretty hard and had less framing than the little garage. Would have tagged it to a big tree or two with chains.

ANYWAY. Fireflies are out tonight.

Got the linear actuator today. Nice looking unit. Will be interesting to compare it with the cheaper ones I get.

Mechanically, it's the same as a hydraulic jack/cylinder. This one's electric and there are air cylinders too. All are Linear Actuators. (action in a linear motion aka straight line in/out)

Retracted

extended

Attaches with a pin through each end hole like a hydraulic cylinder. Took a reading at both extents and set it electrically to the mid point. Didn't measure but it looked like 20% extended to me. Will have to play with it some more

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Fingers Crossed! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Pollard: HA! Just saw that you changed your tagline. :)

We are hitting the road this morning. Cabela’s for some VERY SPECIFIC fishing line Beau needs for the Canada trip, The Shoebox for some boot repair for him and some BROWSING for ME, lunch somewhere and Harbor Freight - for who knows what and Home Depot to replace two cordless drill-related things.

Then, back home for him to accomplish my brake job (I can drive his cr@p-tastic hunting truck if need be while he’s gone) and his LONG list of ‘Honey-Do’ items before he hits the road at dawn, tomorrow.

A perfect way to spend the day. :)

Got the mowing done yesterday, so that’s caught up. Pulled all the mulch away from my long-suffering tomatoes - but it rained AGAIN last night. We’re at 6.5” now in 10 days. UNCLE!

[Qiviut]

Made it - no issues :-)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Fan-tastic! :)

[Pollard]

Pollard: HA! Just saw that you changed your tagline. :)

Been like that about a month now since I overspent and had that really tight money week. Not much going towards the tunnel fund right now because things in life are coming up as usual. Reality was bound to bite sooner or later.

All in good time.

I have a sunsugar ripening and Salanova lettuce, Tatsoi, baby bok choy, wasabi radish, arugala, couple of shitito peppers and can pluck a leaf or two from a couple of other things, all at once, and officially have a salad of varied ingredients strictly from my own garden,(including 1 cherry mater)

Wasabi radish just isn't bulbing but the leaves have a nice kick. Need to find some Romaine type of lettuce for the crunch that I can grow easily in this acid soil to be the last piece of the puzzle. Maybe second to last. I should have grown some Almond Agaricus mushrooms in the front yard garden.

I will be liming the tunnel area of course but one goal for years now is to find things that grow in this native soil. Hey man; you want some acid salad?

[Pollard]

Success with the linear actuator. Once I measured the right combo of two possibilities of three wires, red and black or red and white, I get a reading that makes sense.

Last night when I used the red and black wires, it made no mathematical sense. 50% on voltage was about 20% extended on the actuator. Of course there’s no instructions that tell you which pair of wires to take readings from. They may have info or schematics for electrical engineers.

In either case I had a range of about a 6 volt reading through a potentiometer/resistor from a 12 volt input. In the case of reading between the red and white wires, 5 - 11 vdc with the half way point being 8 vdc because 5+3=8 and 11-3=8.

Extended the actuator half way and it read 8 vdc. Now I can figure out any position from there. Half of 6 is 3 and half of that is 1.5. If 8 vdc is 50%, take 1.5 away and 6.5 is 25%. Add 1.5 and 9.5 is 75%. Works for me.

I’m not getting into the math of 6 vdc = 100% of travel because 6 is a crappy number for that. Lots of .33333333 and .66666666 type numbers.

Knowing this

0% open (5.0vdc)
25% open (6.5vdc)
50% open (8.0vdc)
75% open (9.5vdc)
100% open (11vdc)

Close enough and observation will do from there.

[Augie]

New tires are a good thing and you can never have too much fish in the freezer. lol

The Sea Foam worked its magic in the tiller engine. It fired right up for me yesterday evening. I took it out to the garden patch and ran over the weeds and grass that are trying to undo all of my good work.

Cucumbers are up about 6” tall. Tomatoes aren’t happy with all of the rain lately but they don’t look terrible. Rhubarb plants have recovered from the transplant shock and are sending up new growth.

Weather guessers are calling for scattered showers tonight and through the weekend. I need to get sweet corn and pole bean seeds into the ground. I should do that after work today but I’m thinking I’d rather go to the sprint car races and leave the planting for tomorrow.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I am being completely lackadaisical with my planting this season, though Mom is coming out next week to kick me in the butt, LOL!

She will NOT be happy with me if I don’t have tomatoes and fresh flowers for her to raid mid-to-late Summer. ;)

The constant RAIN has really slowed things down around here. It is a real de-motivator!

[Augie]

I forgot to mention that Good Neighbor Dave mowed my hay fields yesterday. The sun is shining and the wind is blowing so there’s a good chance he’ll have it all baled by the end of today. If he isn’t able to bale it today it’s likely to get rained on. Not really a big deal for me if it does get wet. When that happens Dave takes the bales that got wet back to his place (cows will eat almost anything) and brings me good bales for the horses.

And the water heater in the camper is officially toast. I pulled the anode rod out, re-taped, re-installed, and tested with line pressure. It’s not peeing out a stream like it was, but it’s not 100% sealed either. The guy I bought the camper from wasn’t particularly inclined in the mechanical sense and I’m pretty sure had no clue how to properly winterize the thing. He would remove the anode before winter, drain the tank, and leave the anode out until spring. That left the threads in the tank bung exposed to the air all winter long which caused them to rust. I’ve tapped them out a couple times and there’s just not enough thread left to get a good seal on the bung.

It’s always something. lol

[Qiviut]

The chestnut trees are blooming. They're pretty, but I am not a fan of the 'fragrance' they are putting off.

Click on pic for a larger version.