Posted on 03/01/2026 5:58:25 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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Looks like the 20 mph gusts are going to taper off by noon and will reach the mid to high 60s. Looking forward to getting outside and doing things. Cabin fever has been setting in.
Latest idle mind mad mechanic idea is looking at how I can adapt BCS attachments to fit my little sub-sub-compact tractor with Cat 0 PTO. Looks like it would be pretty easy. BCS has a three toothed coupler similar to a lovejoy coupler. The two halves are on the end of the output shaft of tractor and input shaft of attachment. They sell quick-hitch adapters and I think I can covert one into a BCS to PTO driveshaft adapter.
This would be one of those someday projects. Before I'm old and can't do things manually, which includes wrestling the handlebars of a tiller or two wheel tractor.
Brought my two seed trays up to the house before the cold set in. I had about 75% germination rate, probably from letting the mix dry out once or twice. LED lights are basically heaters. Got my new lights higher but still need some sort of fan(s) to pull the heat off. The lights are a couple inches apart so I'm going to look at getting a bunch of 50mm computer fans and put them in a line down between the lights aiming up.
Dollar General quit carrying sticky traps and I have mice in the shed so I lost another 25%. Another reason I brought them up to the house. First it was a little nibbling then it turned to whole cells being dug out. I will say, this is the first year I have nice full, squatty seedlings instead of tall leggy things. Another pair of these LED shop lights and some air circulation to pull off the heat and I should be good. Time to start a couple more trays.
The “yo yo” weather is making life difficult as far as growing anything is concerned. We had 87° the other weekend, overnights in the 50’s. Highs the last couple of days are 30’s with overnight in the low 20’s. The plants & trees are fooled into blooming & then get a freezing, killing blast for their efforts. Per the forecaster I find most accurate, he is thinking April will be cold & wet. We need the ‘wet’ due to lingering drought conditions, but I wish the cold would go away.
I have heard of beer & chocolate in chili, but have tried neither. I have my chili heating up on low - it smelled good cold out of the fridge so once it’s heating well, the house will smell great! I am glad I did all the prep work yesterday - I am having a much more relaxed day today :-).
BTW, doing a lot of looking around online for DIY products. Our 2 grocery stores do not carry lactose-free dairy items other than milk, cottage cheese & some Cabot cheddar cheese. No cream cheese, yogurt or sour cream. I found lactose-free cream cheese 45 minutes away .... $7.99 for a ‘block’ of one brand & over $4 for an 8 oz. tub in another brand. No way I’m paying that kind of money.
What I found was that I can easily make cream cheese with 2 ingredients (lactose-free milk & lemon juice or white vinegar). Yogurt is a little more complicated, but again I can use lactose-free milk. Unfortunately, sour cream cannot be made with lactose-free milk although it is super easy to make otherwise. Greek yogurt, which I can make lactose-free, is a substitute for sour cream, so I’m ‘good’ there, too :-)
Also, as easy as it is to make cream cheese, I can make it when I need it so it’s always fresh & good. Mom eats yogurt every morning, so I plan to start making our own. I may invest in a yogurt maker to super simplify the process. Evidently, homemade yogurt is far superior in beneficial active cultures to store bought, plus no additives, & mom/I could both benefit from that.
One other loss from the weather, and my wife: When we got the tornado warnings I had my wife put my best (20,000 mAH) "battery bank" in her backpack, which she would take to the basement if it came to that. At some point later, after things calmed down, she put the battery bank back on the dresser, but I'll be damned: She plugged a USB "C" connector from a charger into an "A" output on the battery bank. That shorted the (nominal) 2.5A output, and killed the battery bank. The thing thankfully didn't overheat and catch on fire / explode -- the old wood dresser would have made great kindling, I am sure.
Sweet Jesus...
The charger still works ok -- I checked it directly with the phone. It was the outer metal "racetrack" of the "C" connector that shorted contacts in the female "A" connector. I imagine there is a fusible link or similar @ the output of the battery bank, but, this thing does NOT look like it will come apart easily, and, the link is likely a surface mount connection type difficult to deal with.
Thank God my wife never became an engineer - her initial direction in college.
Blame:
20% me - for not telling my wife to NOT try hooking up anything electrical related.
60% wifey - I've tried explaining and showing her the differing USB connectors multiple times. How can she not know by now -- she is not a dumb woman, but THIS sort of stuff just doesn't seem to penetrate.
20% the connector designers - who sized the USB "C" type male connectors so that they can fit nicely into the "big" side of an "A" female connector?
Glad you’re finding solutions to your Dairy Dilemma!
Do you have an Instant Pot? You can make yogurt in that. I haven’t tried yet, but it’s on my list.
I love making butter. I have this little jar gizmo (you can use a Mason jar) and it is so much fun. BUT - have a few other people around when you’re making butter - it’s like hand-churned old-fashioned Ice Cream and needs a lot of hands to help with the shaking. ;)
Another project I ‘Tom Sawyer’ out to anyone near me, LOL! But they’re always AMAZED at how easy it is to make something as everyday as butter. I love it! :)
(And the Buttermilk left behind can be used for many other things.)
The recent storm that knocked out power also fried a network switch and the network adapter of the tablet. The one in the docking station still works but evidently not great. Storm also knocked out my big controller. Got it cheap on ebay at least. I need to come up with a good single point grounding system to a dedicated ground rod.
Have a few little issues with the prototype that are easy to fix. All mostly due to my crude setup.
Was outside today and heard crows squawking up a storm overhead. There was three of them trying to run off a hawk. I didn’t know who to root for.
Always root for the Crows. They’re supposedly as smart as a toddler - which isn’t saying much, but they are pretty smart as far as birds go.
But then, I think ALL birds are smart - especially those that migrate. Could you pull up stakes and leave every year, not knowing what you’re coming BACK to? Not me!
Well my green salad and spinach seedlings in the greenhouse are dead from the freeze we got.
Baby cabbages in the greenhouse and baby radishes in the raised bed under a cold frame were unscathed.
I haven’t had a chance to look at the orchard trees yet.
Chili....Add a few Finely chopped prunes early in the cooking to add some sweetness!
You are a Gardener! The hawk will take care of rabbits and squirrels, garden pests that are both too large for Crows to carry off. Root for Hawk.
I do have an instant pot, but it’s an old model with no ‘yogurt’ button ..... bummer! You can make yogurt different ways without an instant pot, but pressing a yogurt button would be so easy! As much yogurt as mom eats & I would be eating too if lactose-free, I think a yogurt maker would be cost effective, but I’ll try some of the other methods first.
Well, the price is right! If you are not satisfied you can trial the other Passionfruit!
I would like to have chickens again. I kind of gave up on them because of the hawks.
I used to make yogurt for my daughter in 8 oz jelly jars. She would take them to work. I stopped because she is working from home and she was not willing to put in the effort to make it for herself.
Use whole milk. Heat the milk to 180℉ and hold it at that temperature for around 10 min. Doing this denatures the protein and and makes it more available to the culture bactierium and results in a smoother thicker yogurt. Strain it through a clean fine mesh collander to remove any skin that may have developed. Cool the milk down to about 110 to 115F. Innoculate with a live culture yogurt. I bought plastic lids for the jelly jars (metal rusted) and put them on tray in the oven with the oven light on. (**Check the temperature of your oven with the light on before doing this!! 90 to 105 would be good. ) Leave them in the turned off oven for about 12 hours, check if they set up, then remove to the refrigerator and chill. (Remember to NOT TURN THE OVEN ON while this is going on....put a Sign on it "YOGURT IN PROCESS" or something like that!)
Stonyfield yogurt From Walmart is a good innoculant and it had the "live and active cultures including S. thermophilus, L. bulgaricus, Bifidobacterium BB-12®, L. acidophilus, L. paracasei and L. rhamnosus." I could usually get 4 or 5 batches before I had to purchase another container of Stonyfield.
At the beginning of the culture Thermophilius and Acidophilus bacteria initally produce lactic acid which protects the yogurt from spoilage bacteria. as the temperature lowers the Bulgaricus and other bacteria take over and it begins to thicken and "set up". Immune factors.... The lactobacillus Rhamnosus colonizes your sinus and competes with cold bacteria to prevent colds. There are benefits from the BB12 and paracasei but I do not recall exactly what. ';
You could probably make a portable run for them with a cheap conduit frame with 1" chicken fencing for a lot less than the $1200 sales price. This might provide a good pattern!
https://www.chickenrangecoop.com/coops/chicken-coop-10x12 and https://mobilechickenhouse.com/portable-chicken-coops/
Fans of course will dry up the soil faster in your trays, but, they will help with the spindly seedlings. For me though, the lights made the biggest difference to get bushier tomato plants.
I have a LOT of saved 2 liter plastic soda bottles. My experiment this year is to skip the seed trays for some plants. In the past, I’d transfer the seedlings from the seed trays to the soda bottle “pots” to get big enough to resist cutworms and snails, then to the garden (in the ground or in big pots). The trick will be managing the warming of the starter soil with the lights. But, then again, I usually get plenty of tomato seedlings of the varieties I kike best, anyway, even when I don’t manage the temps all that well. The “tropical” plants from seed, like Opo, seem to require the most consistent soil temperatures of all, to germinate.
An advantage of the soda bottle “pots” is less frequent waterings needed, and that I have well developed, roughly 7” deep root systems on the plants when they go out to the garden. The bottles’ plastic is surprisingly durable (lasts years), but flexes easily to help get the root “ball” (actually more of a round column) out of the “pot”. A disadvantage is that they do not stack efficiently between uses.
Some of our daffodils survived, but, our 2 little plum trees flowers look whacked... The hyacinths look about 50/50. I can’t tell about all the buckeye trees’ buds yet, but most seem ok. The hummingbirds should be happy when they get here!
Yes, I’ve already decided no more free range birds. The other chicken killer has been coons of course. That’s mainly a matter of a well built coop. Not sure if it will happen this year. They would be in a brooder for a while before I’d have to get into a building project at least. Luckily I have Cackle Hatchery within driving distance so I can pretty much get chicks most any time and don’t have to worry about a minimum quantity or having chicks weakened by a 3-4 shipping ordeal.
I’ve always kind of like the A-frame style. Just did an image search for moveable a-frame chicken coop and saw some made with arched pipe. Now I might just have to make one that matches the tunnel frame shape. Would definitely need a chicken run coming off of it.
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