Posted on 05/01/2024 6:00:41 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Forgot to mention I only use extra light olive oil. Adds no flavor. My favorite is Bertoli extra light.
I’ve got more Asparagus to pick come morning!
Also thawing two nice, home-grown-and-pasture-raised Porterhouse Steaks for supper tomorrow evening. Yay! :)
Green with envy over the steaks. Our local butcher has good beef but 18.00 a pound for a ribeye is just out of our budget right now. You are blessed to have raised your own.
We agree! And now that we’ve found a neighbor that raises pork, we’ll be set as soon as I start raising meat chickens. I want to get my current egg-laying ‘girls’ up and producing, first.
There was a gap of a few years there when I wasn’t raising my own meat and didn’t have chickens, but Beau has raised meat animals since childhood, so he’s been a great teacher. He’s totally in LOVE with the baby chicks so far. :)
Ask me about the ‘Spaghetti Squash Growing in the Lawn Year’ some day. It was BEFORE I was living here permanently. Beau is not allowed to grow Spaghetti Squash anymore. ;)
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.
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.
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.
I’d eat my left foot if it were wrapped up like a taco, LOL!
That all looks really good. :)
Weekly report from ‘Abandon All Hope’ Farm:
Got the mowing done yesterday - most GORGEOUS day we’ve had so far this spring. No reptiles or mammals were hurt in the process. :)
Speaking of mammals - our Taylor (Treeing Walker Coon hound) is expressing milk, so she should be birthin’ those pups of hers sometime this week. She is due May 8th. Mom is predicting seven; I am predicting 101 Dalmatians. I have NEVER seen a dog so pregnant - and I have midwifed a lot of pregnant females!
This week’s project is some back-ho work. Beau just left to pick it up from the machine rental place. He is digging out the north side of the barn foundation for some much-needed repairs. A new cement wall will be poured there, as he did in another part of the barn. The foundation is weak in some parts - they did a terrible job of rebuilding this barn in the 1960’s after it had burned to the ground. :( It sure is a PLEASURE having lights in there, though!
The chicks are all still with us and thriving - putting out more feathers every day. Six Barred Rock and six Buff Orpington. Beau asks them for fresh eggs every day, but so far - nothing! ;)
The greenhouse is packed! I re-potted all of the tomatoes, so they are taking up the most room. I had a few ‘failure to sprout’ on the Dahlia tubers, but I’ll still have plenty. Each will be upwards of 4 feet tall and filled with blooms. Can’t wait!
All of the fruit trees are pretty much done blooming, except for the Peach - she really exhausted herself last season, so I am not expecting much from her this season. She is leafing out nicely, and Beau did a nice job pruning her up after she broke off a few limbs last season, so heavy with fruit. The Cherries (North Star) are what I’m excited for! Both of them bloomed profusely, so fingers crossed for a good cherry crop this season.
Just general chores, today. Going on a Grocery Run and will stop at the Garden Center and see what’s up. With Mother’s Day this coming weekend, they should be fully stocked.
Have a Good Day, Everyone!
New take on oregano.
The best two options.
1) Don’t.
2) If you do, USE A CONTAINER.
I had some in my asparagus bed. Found out I had female asparagus plants, which don’t produce well but do provide lots of berries, which asparagus beetles like to over winter on. Since the point of the asparagus is to eat it, they are going.
I also had planted some oregano in that bed and I can not believe how it has spread! So I decided to dig it up. I think we need the backhoe. I have NEVER seen such a dense mass of roots in my life. I can hardly get the shovel in to get them up.
The female asparagus is not much easier to dig up. If you plant either of them, plan on them being there for a long time.
I am replacing the female plants with some new crowns that are male and supposed to be very heavy producers. They will stay.
I have beautiful amaryllis and nasturtiums this year (I didn't plant the nasturtiums, they must have come in from a neighbor's garden):
It’s been another moist week here in Central Missouri. That’s good news for the pond but bad news for getting garden work done.
My buddy Nick and I ran the fyke net in both of my ponds over the weekend. We sent a couple hundred bluegills from my bait pond to his quarry lake Saturday morning and re-deployed the net in the front pond Saturday afternoon. After that was done we pulled out a couple fishing rods and some cold beer and sat on the dock catching fish for a couple hours. We wound up fileting 25 >7” bluegills and one 12.25” yellow perch (right at 4lbs. of filets all told) and had a nice little fish fry for supper yesterday.
In between all of that I managed to slop around in the mud long enough to get a couple cattle panels installed on the sides of the new hoop house. I need to put another seven or eight panels up and frame in the ends to be ready for plastic sheeting. Also got the grass mowed and replaced the grow tubes around three of my chestnut trees with wire cages. The dang deers have started chomping on the tops of the ones that have grown out of the tubes. I ran out of 6’ welded wire before I finished so I need to grab a roll of that when I go to buy cattle panels.
The fun never ends around here...
I was considering trying to get my tomatoes in this week but what with the forecast for Wed through Sat, it would be blight city.
I’ll wait.
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.
Best to wait to the 5th.
Question(s) for you ....
We have a beautiful, large slate patio at the new house, surrounded by a rock wall which is a really good look. Mom has some very large pots, at least 4, that all match & would look nice on the patio.
My issue is that the darn pots are so heavy! I am going to get pot caddies so I can move them easily around the patio, but I am also wondering if the pots can be partially filled with ‘light’ material ... pine cones, packing peanuts, etc. I have seen this ‘tip’ in various places & I think I used pine cones (we have an endless supply) in the two huge pots on either side of our current steps (mom doesn’t remember if we did or not).
How much dirt should be in the pots if partially filled with something other than dirt - 12”? 18”? By “dirt”, I mean something like potting soil & I know they make a lighter soil for pots so they aren’t so heavy. Mom has regular dirt in the pots now (from our brush pile in back) that I need to dump - it’s heavy & compacts easily. I have used the brush pile dirt in my raised beds (but not the herb garden expansion bed) & heavily amended it with compost to lighten it up. The beds that have been there for a couple of years have great dirt now (that I want to take with me). I was thinking the raised bed dirt might be good in the pots, too.
The patio is pretty much full sun so we were thinking monarda and I have 3 lavender plants I intend to transplant/take with me. Some of the lavender will go in the raised beds.
My brother stopped by this week and wanted some herbs to take home - he picked a handful of rosemary, sage, couple of thyme sprigs & oregano out of my garden. He has quite a few raised beds & just ended up with another one after re-doing his back deck. He already has SO much (veggies) in his raised beds that I told him to plant the new one with herbs ... he won’t regret it. He’s got a green thumb - he’d end up with a gorgeous herb bed.
I know I have grown oregano before & did not remember issues with it spreading .... until last year. My oregano was a year old & I realized it had developed into a ‘mat’ that was encroaching on my thyme & sage plants & had taken over the end of the raised bed ... about a 4th of it. I had to get out the pulaski & chop/pry it up ... turned out to be quite a job! I chopped off a piece about the diameter of a coffee cup & replanted - that little piece, in the last year, has now also spread all over. The bed will be abandoned due to our move so I’m not going to the trouble to dig the whole thing up again, but will probably take a small piece to the new place/herb garden AND I will plant it in a buried container to contain the spread!
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