You voting today? It’s important.
Beautiful Amarylis are coming up from Christmases past:
My backyard in full bloom:
Mini super bloom of California poppies, the state flowers, which attract bees:
"Downton Abby" rose + verbena + pansies:
My best rose, Perfume Delight, over 30 years old and still going strong:
From the Mediterranean Garden:
Ole Moms Nature dumped an April Fool’s joke in the yard. Snow, wind, and slop. Looks to be the norm this whole week.
Bkmk
We have a foot of snow on the ground thanks to our latest stupid weather joke. Well it is April first! I did get the stove in the greenhouse going today. I moved the old Vermont Castings stove from the house up there as I am replacing it with a new Jotul. Chores chores chores!
"Our" 3 barred owls were out hooting and hollering a little after dawn, this morning, about 30 ft. from the house. That quieted down the chickens for a few minutes. :-)
Not really a garden question:
A chicken laid 5 eggs in my garage - she was sitting on them yesterday. (Feral chickens à re everywhere), how long until they hatch and move out?
Well kids, we are having winter again today. It got cool enough that I decided to cook a big stew on the wood stove. Noting better. I recently swapped out our 30 year old Vermont for a new Jotul F55. IF you want to know, it works fine and it passes my test of being able to cook on the top. Made breakfast Sunday. Excessive tastiness! Best of all, no catalyst. Not finicky about colored paper etc. FWIW highly reccomended.
I am starting the bulbs I wintered over in the root cellar. Some of the dahlia bulbs are so big I have to bust them up to get into 6” pots. You get more plants this way.
Soon every windowsill in the place will be full!
I Spent a nice afternoon in the shop watching it snow...again. I did get petunias pricked out and transplanted into 288 cells. I had a very nice jazz station on (Just Jazz in Dusseldorf, Germany). Very relaxing. I get to it from the Radio-Garden website.
I am employed.
It’s a place that around these parts, is considered the dream job for a blue collar guy. CNC Machinist. Closest place to home, good pay and laid back as far as companies go these days.
A question for all:
Given the problems we have with our well water (lots of particulates), what has the experience been of those of you with filtering water that quickly “loads up” the typical 10” x 2.5” filter cartridges. I’d really rather not be replacing filter cartridges so frequently! Which filter type, pleated, string, or porous foam, actually has the most capacity to collect sediment in the water, before “loading up”?
Note that I’m asking about a “first stage” filter. We have “2nd stage” (finer / activated charcoal) filtering for our drinking water, and 2nd stage (10 or 20 micron) filtering for our washer, which latter has a hard to deal with inlet filter that clogs easily with water not filtered down to 20 microns or so.
This last time around, I’d purchased a 6-pack of what are, essentially, hard polypropylene foam “melt blown, grooved sediment water filter cartridges”. These are said to have longer life due to a 3 layer design — essentially, the water passes through first coarse, then medium, then fine filtering, to extend cartridge life. The grooved design is claimed to “increase filter surface” area. However... the outer surface of these seems less porous than the 30 micron rating, and, these seem to “load up” with fine sediment faster than string or pleated filters. Indeed, in a couple listings on Amazon, the string filters are claimed to have “4x” the holding capacity of the melt blown filters. Some of the string filters are also claimed to have graded density too, looser on the outside and denser inside.
A new wrinkle I saw on Amazon were pleated and string filters made of polypropylene material. I never saw in the past what the filter element material actually was, in “brand name” pleated and string filters we were using, but I do recall the pleated filters would tear once they loaded up and had to bear more pressure. With the string filters, it seemed we were getting little tiny fibers off the string itself, if the filter was left in place a little too long. I would think polypropylene material or string that does not get exposed to light (UV) would last a much longer time?
Some pleated filters are also claimed to be “washable”, and I’d think if the polypropylene cloth is reasonably tough, they’d be re-useable. ??
Thoughts? Experiences?
Checking in here. Southeast Texas.
Going around the horn.
Cantaloupes, Honey Dew melons, Jalapenos, blackberries, strawberries, tomatoes, carrots and green onions.
Already have some ripe strawberries.
Good gardening everyone.
If one is using “just breeze” through a window, to strengthen young tomato plants’ stems, I find I have to “stake” them to not have some blown over in gusts. But, does the plant still get the full benefit of the breeze, if the stems are now stabilized?
Yes, I know a fan on low speed would be better (ie., “controllable”), but, aside from it being an awkward (placement) in this case, the plants are in front of a couple windows and I’d really like to have the windows letting in some fresh air, when practical.
Thanks!
Happy Easter, everyone!!!
God's blessings to all, and especially Diana for providing these great threads!. :-)
Last place had a safety coordinator who doled out and would keep track of safety glasses, ear plugs etc and would let everyone know that those ear plugs cost $1.20 a pair.
This place has a mass dispenser of 3M ear plugs. Grab them when you need some. They have a vending machine with Sharpies, highlighters, rubber palmed gloves, safety glasses etc. No cost or tracking who gets what. Just hit a couple of generic keys and the item number.
No notes hanging everywhere like the last place bitching about little petty things like "To reduce costs, use only two sheets of paper towel to dry your hands". It really takes three and they're a GFSI participant so hand washing, and drying, is a major thing. Besides, who wants to grab a wet door handle because people can't get their hands fully dry?
PTO rules changed three times while I was there. So many little things to drive a person crazy and then they wonder why there's a high turnover rate. Well gee, when the owner says in a newsletter that "people change jobs more often than their underwear", I can't imagine. There was one girl who worked one day and up and died. He mentioned her as being hired "with the expectation that they would work here for some time". He was upset that she had cost him money with the hiring process and lack of ROI. The nerve of her dying like that. I almost walked out that day when I read that. Cold hearted bastard.
I've been remembering all kinds of things like that this week that I must have mentally blocked out. Recovering from Stockholm Syndrome.
My boss here, at least while I'm on the weekday shift training, seemed like a hard nosed old redneck, my way or the highway, type at first but is actually open minded and has humility and humor. The guy who will be my boss on the weekend shift is kinda wired but other than that, seems easy going.
I understand the process, math and mechanics of it all and just need to learn X, Y and Z(plus and minus) and the keypads and various screens on this thing. Then they'll stick me on a different model to learn that one and then probably another and so on. :)
They're also handing me training literature that they're in the process of writing and want feedback from someone that's going through the learning process and has no preconceptions. Problem is, I do have preconceptions on copy writing and formatting. "It looks great - only thing I would do different is completely change it". That'll go over well. :~) I'll just make one suggestion at a time every other day or three.
Nutella-filled Puff Pastry Cookies / makes 9 cookies
Easily doubled----puff pastry bakes up buttery and flaky.
Ing 1 puff pastry sheet 1 small egg 2 tsp water 5 tsp Nutella 5 tsp p/butter icing sugar for dusting
Steps Egg Wash: Whisk egg w/ fork. Add water and whisk. W/ sharp knife, cut thawed pastry into 9 squares, about 4" each. One at a time, place pastry squares on parchment squares. Brush edges w/ egg wash. Place about 1/2 tsp Nutella in center; top w/ 1/2 tsp p/butter.
Bring 4 corners together, then repeat for sides. Shape into ball then flip, folded side down. Lightly press w/ fingers to flatten a bit. W/ sharp knife cut 8 petals; twist petals 45 deg, all to the same side; filling should now be visible. Bake golden in oven center 400 deg 15 min. Cool on counter. Dust w/ conf.