The Garden Thread - March, 2024

March 2, 2024 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[MomwithHope]

Nice fish! They look like they are saying “Rut Roh!”

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Striped bass.. how'd they get in there with your perch? Special dinner bonus I guess!

8:46PM Storms East of KC heading your way, or may pass to the north of you. A lot of hail. I heard the thunder this afternoon. They started up the next county over.

[Pollard]

February temp/humidity tracked every 24 hours at 01:00:00 aka 1:00am. Why 1:00am? Because that's what the default was and I didn't bother changing it.

I've since brought the temp/humidity sensor inside to the seed starting room which has no real climate control. It is indoors so it does smooth the above out a bit. Seed mats and covering the seed starting rack do the rest.

Been watching the current seed rack Wx since bringing the sensor in but just now changed the logging for every hour on the hour instead of daily.

There's only so much room for the log file and then it starts kicking old data out to make room for new. There are ways to record it long term. The manual way is save the log.txt file once a week/month etc. Then there are techier ways which I might eventually try.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thank you! It’s just a matter of him hitting the spring. We have a number of small creeks in the pasture, which makes water for the Heifers much easier to manage.

There’s also a ‘dry dam’ that keeps one area from flooding in heavy rains, but that’s just a muddy mess most of the time.

He’ll figure it out if/when he really wants to. I’ll look for that publication, though. I’m sure there are some You Tubes on pond building; he’s always watching those to fix this or that. Right now he’s wiring the barn for electricity again, and finishing up my chicken coop before ‘Chick Days’ hits the Farm & Fleet and I bring home boxes and boxes of baby chicks. *Delighted Squeal* :)

I tease him that he’s secretly watching funny ‘Cat Videos.’ So far he has not denied it! ;)

[Augie]

I bought the hybrids from Hartley Fish Farm in Kingman. It worked out to meet the truck in the parking lot at KMS while they were on their way to a delivery. They were 6”-8” size when I put them in.

We got half an inch of rain from that system that moved through last night. Good timing. I’ve got grass seed down. Now maybe it will come up.

[Liz]

10 Minute Raspberry Jam (small batch)
Easy, healthy homemade recipe uses fresh raspberries, honey and lemon juice. NO pectin or sugar.

Ing 1 pint raspberries (2 cups), 1/4 cup honey, 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions Put into pan, and stir. Bring to boil, simmer 10 min to jam consistency......
longer for thicker jam. Keep in jar refrigerated. Can freeze second jar.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

That looks good! :)

[Liz]

Small batch recipe.......so its always fresh tasting.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I prefer small batch canning, myself. I made Maple Apple Jam last season that was out of this world. It’s great on everything. :) (Our own apples, Beau’s own Maple Syrup.)

Similar recipe, below. (I think Q. gave me the recipe I actually used.)

https://commonsensehome.com/maple-apple-jam/#tasty-recipes-49890-jump-target

[Pollard]

And away we go. Beautiful day in the high 70s and now this.

Hail and damaging straight line winds. Just hitting here, rumbling, howling, things flying. If the sides and ends of a high tunnel were open right now ....

I'm down in the lower left getting hit with that curved line. Some people to the N and NE are getting it worse.

Lights just flickered for half a second which reminds me. I need a deep cycle 12 vdc battery to run the DSL modem and my laptop when electric goes out and will need for the tunnel too.

[Qiviut]

I did give you that recipe. Someone I gifted it to just used it on homemade biscuits & was telling me how good it was. At the new house, there are orchards nearby, so I will be using fresh apples next fall. I like apples that smell and taste like apples ... hard to find such apples in the grocery store.

[MomwithHope]

Too cold for gardening so I thought I would do a capicola slide. This one was ready today. 9 weeks. We enjoy this with cheese maybe crackers or on a salad, but the absolute best is chopped thin on a pizza. Best pizza topping ever. Using smoked sweet paprika is a must. And you need a meat slicer, it needs to be sliced thin.

[Qiviut]

The scenery got real interesting today! I had an appointment with a roofer (also a volunteer fireman - he had not heard anything about this fire) at 2:00 & we stood in the driveway at the back of the house & watched the fire come over the ridge top - dramatic. These pics are from about 5 pm - I could still see fire in some places, but it doesn't show on the pictures. I haven't heard how it started yet.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

They’re doing some early spring burning around here, too - but your shot is very dramatic! Yikes!

[Qiviut]

If this was a controlled burn, it surely appeared to be out of control. The plumber (here this morning) saw water drops by air yesterday. Last night, there were lights on the mountain that came & went - fire crews I suspect because there is a forestry development road along the ridge on our side. You could see the glow from the fire on the other side of the ridge- didn’t show up in pictures. It made for an interesting day in addition to the (slate) roof inspection (I now know quite a bit about slate roofs). The good news: the slate shingles pile by the pole shed will save us about $2,500.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Shingles! Is there ANYTHING they can’t be used for?

One of God’s most important inventions - right up there with the everyday Chicken! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

That is BEAUTIFUL! Yum! :)

[Qiviut]

These are slate shingles and handcrafted (generally in Italy) so expensive & supply can be an issue. There is a specific name for the slate (I don’t remember it) & it’s the same kind as is on part of the White House. We majorly lucked out that so many are on hand.

There are six bundles of shingles left over from getting our house re-roofed about 5 years ago. Since the house will eventually be bulldozed, I am bringing the shingles with me - will probably use them around the raised beds.

[Pollard]

pH test strips came in yesterday so I’ll be testing today.

My bok choy and oriental greens seedlings are growing fast. I’d say in another week I’ll need to pot them up or get them in the ground.

I’m still not a fan of 72 in a tray. The cells are just too small imho. My coffee creamer container pots will fit 18 to a tray but they’re kind of big and that’s not many. Good for things like maters and peppers though. I like 36/50 for general use, greens etc.

Got more seeds I need to get started. Too many. I never did buy any cell trays so I’m going to do some in TP/PT roll cardboard. Looks like 50 will fit in a 1020 tray. I’ve got enough paper towel tubes to make 100 pots.

Peas all popped up and humidity dome removed.

Along with the pH test strips, came another piece of mail. A reminder to pick up my tree seedlings from the state nursery. The ones I completely forgot I ordered back in Sept. Got 10 elderberry and 10 persimmon. Supposed to pick them up on the week of the 18th but I’m going to call and see if I can change that to the first week of April since that’s when I’m taking vacation.

Tunnel frame 5 of 7 will be going in today. Weather allowing, 6 of 7 next weekend and 7 of 7 on Easter weekend and then go as far as I can with bracing and ends over vacation.

Money will be the limiting factor soon.

[Diana in Wisconsin]