Posted on 08/01/2024 6:19:57 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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I marked this guy years ago, intending to do it and never got around to it. You may be able to use some of his ideas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHMQ_QQJtbY
Thanks! Bookmarked for later. I’m on a short Water Break, then I’m back on the mower. :)
Un
Freaking
Believable
So I called Lowes and after getting switched to the plumbing dept. over a 45+ minute period over 5 tries, each of which would just go dead after a while, I finally got a girl @ the main desk to check, and Lowes has NO convertible well pumps in store. Everything is special order.
Same story (just better phone service!) @ Home Depot.
Everybody is just supposed to go several days without a well pump?
Rural King has a Flotec pump, which only has a 1 yr. (and pretty limited) warranty.* I’ve not had particularly good luck with Flotec pumps (going back 10-15 years.
Menards has a Barracuda (house brand) pump for $100 less, and also a 1 yr. warranty, seems to be slightly less limited. But good luck getting parts for any Menards house brand item.
*The Flotec specifies additionally that the warranty only extends 15 months from the date of manufacture. To me, that puts up a red flag that any plastic or “rubber” part, or any corrosion protection, isn’t worth poop.
Tractor Supply has in stock “Countryline” pumps for even more money, and the same sort of crap 1 year warranty.
Good God.
I guess I’ll just go with the Menards pump and cross my fingers, plus keep my eyes open for a good deal on Amazon or Ebay for a better brand pump, swap that in this fall. Will also see if repair parts are available for the Water Ace pump - it appears to be repairable if any parts are still around...
BAH!
I made the tomato freezer jam recipe today. Had a bunch of cherry tomatoes and a few romas ready to eat. I weighed them, 1.5 pounds. Last year I made the tomato bacon jam you posted. Loved it but our bacon we get is home smoked by the butchers shop. I could have cut back on that a bit. Strong flavor. But still good. Hubby just tried the tomato freezer jam. Hated it. Even used the word blech. He loves heinz ketchup BTW which I don’t eat. Very little tomato and tons of high fructose corn syrup. I really like this recipe. And just having some with some homemade fries. You don’t need much, packed with flavor. I will cut back on the cinnamon as I could taste it too much. I also did not have any ginger and was not about to run out and get any. Would make this again and should probably pick up some small plastic containers at the dollar store. Between this and the shishito sauce I am all set. I had some of that schmeared on an Italian sausage. Had a quart Ziploc in the fridge of the last of the dehydrated tomatoes. I like to use them to make an easy salad dressing. Use a good bottle of ranch dressing and add the tomatoes a little at a time in a Cuisinart. Smooth very dark pink deliciousness. Made two bottles and one is gone already.
Ahh the good old days when I lived in Florida. That well had a jet pump which they carried at Home Depot and Lowes for a few hundred, 25 years ago.
My new neighbors here in Missouri just put in a well. It's 440 foot deep and cost them $20,000.00. Submersed pump replacement some day will be in the four digit range.
So I watched the video you sent me on homemade Pizza Ovens. Wow! How absolutely simple is THAT? And that man! He had some serious Keanu Reeves vibe going on! Easy on the eyes. ;) So, Thanks! You made this ‘Bear Camp Widow’s’ day, LOL!
“Between this and the Shishito sauce I am all set.”
Glad you liked the Tomato Jam. I love the stuff. I usually make it with the remaining tomatoes at the end of the season...when I am 100% SICK of tomatoes!
Tomorrow, my Brennan is coming over and I’m going to ‘Tom Sawyer’ him into chopping veggies for more V-8 Juice and also picking the Pear trees for me. He’ll never know what hit him as I am plying him with Chocolate Zucchini Cake and/or Brownies and/or Pumpkin Bread. He has one of those girlfriends that ‘doesn’t know how to cook’ so he is putty in my hands. ;)
To get a fire that hot you almost have to build it on the ground. I don’t know how a pellet stove would handle that heat. And the guy who made the video, shameless comment Diana. And while Beau is away.
“And the guy who made the video, shameless comment Diana. And while Beau is away.”
LOL! :)
I was thinking this would work really well in the same spot where we have our bonfires. Such a simple idea. But, yeah. SEVEN HUNDRED DEGREES can’t really be happening on our WOODEN deck. ;)
When I am sick of canning I dehydrate. For V8 we use the champion juicer for all the ingredients and just cook up the juice a little maybe an hour at most. It goes very fast. That juicer was brand new 46 years ago. Love that thing.
I cook everything down together in my ‘heavy pot’ on the stove, then I use my immersion blender on that, then my Foley Food Mill to ‘juice’ it.
I LOVE how it all looks in the pot to start - so much Veggie Goodness and color and so GOOD for you if you omit/cut back on the salt it calls for.
I was mowing today and while passing my rows and rows of grapes was dreaming about Grape Juice, too. So yummy, and I never add sugar to that. Again, just flat-out goodness as Nature/God intended.
Life Is Good...but we could use a little more rain right now. :)
Whew - 440 ft. is “down there”. Although many years back my Dad was managing a small farm near Chester, IL, a bit NE, IIRC, and the owner wanted to put in a well. They tried several locations and depths and found water, but never did find drinkable water. I don’t know how much that ran them...
When I do caprese salad, I do slices of cheese, topped with slices of cocktail or cherry tomatoes, then add chiffonade basil, and drizzle a very thick balsamic on top. It disappears quickly.
Thank you!
https://lawnlove.com/blog/beginners-guide-scrap-gardening/
More hot and dry mixed in with hot and wet here in Central Missouri this past week. It’s an unusual summer here when you have to mow the grass once a week to keep it from turning into a hayfield.
The tomato plants are acting like they want to do something. I’ve been getting enough to have a tomato sammich or two every day. Mrs. Augie’s cukes are going very well at the moment. She’s got half a dozen jars of lacto-ferments processing now. Zukes and yellow squash are producing steadily as well. I even managed to get over the entire garden with the weed whacker so it doesn’t look like a totally neglected mess out there.
I need to give the sweet corn another shot of nitrogen today, hit the toms with some Grow-More 10-52-10, and give everything a good soaking.
We finished Nephew’s Sprinter van last weekend. He took off for the east coast on Tuesday to grab a load and start getting paid. With that task accomplished it’s time to clean up the mess in my workshop. I got a good start on that yesterday after work. I’ll finish that this morning then pull the boat out and give it a bath. Mrs. Augie has been wanting to go for a boat ride so that’s what we’re going to do tomorrow.
*** He has one of those girlfriends that ‘doesn’t know how to cook’ so he is putty in my hands. ;)***
I chuckled reading this.
Mine were like the photo on the left but everything as flat, large round slice of cheese, tomato slice and the chiffonade basil and italian dressing drizzle. Make me hungry. I don’t make cheese anymore but should pick up some at the store. Our tomatoes are really coming in and we have basil too.
Beautiful! I’m jar-obsessed, too. I need a spot to store them all so they are easy to get to and easy to put away.
And I want them somewhere near the kitchen so I don’t have to go to the basement to get them.
Now you’ve got me thinking - it IS almost time to clean out the under-the-stairs pantry, or if I REALLY get motivated I could organize an upstairs closet for that. But again, stairs. Grrr!
He just left. We had a great visit. Both he and ‘the girlfriend that doesn’t cook’ have recently gotten promotions in their jobs and the future looks rosy for them both!
He is a Mechanic and soon to be Shop Manager and she is in retail at a Garden Center and just got promoted to Buyer - so obviously he picked her as she’s a Mini-Me, though we DO have to work on that cooking thing, LOL! She really is a lovely girl and every bit as ‘sporty’ as he is...and I used to be! They are a pretty good match.
I sent him home with a bag of cherry tomatoes and slices of Zucchini Cake. :)
Tunnel top plastic came in.
Been working on end to end braces that tie the truss frames together.
Didn’t get out there until 8:00 even though I was up at 5:00. I’ll get out there at 6:00 tomorrow.
Spent a couple of hours cleaning up, weedwacking, moving things, spraying a few new horsenettle plants to kill them. From 50 down to 10 - progress. I think the new ones are the ones I tried to pull but that broke off. Weedwacked around them and then pulled grass/weeds from around them so I could spray just them.
Full sun and near 90 degrees makes things go slow. Takes 20 minutes to drill and put a bolt including rest/cool down time for each one.
Four bolts down, ten to go. I’m standing on the very top of the step ladder where it says Not A Step, so, no hurrying that.
Don’t think I’ll get plastic on this weekend but hopefully will get wiggle wire track done. The young optimist in me said getting the bracing and track done today would be a piece of cake. The older me just laughed. Still need to install the hip boards that the bottom of the top plastic will attach to.
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