Not a whole bunch going on around the farm. I'm standing on pins and needles waiting for the corn to sprout. It's always agony waiting for those little green shoots. Are they dead? Will they sprout or not? Lots of little showers the last few days. It gets dark, a bit of a sprinkle and it's gone. The cold overnight temperatures have been a bit hard on everything and I lost all but 4 of my Roma tomatoes. Guess I'm going to have to punt on that one, 4 plants is not enough to harvest for a years worth of food.
I'm just a little worried, the tomatoes and cuccs have been flowering for a week now and apparently are not being pollinated. So, yesterday I started hand pollinating the flowers. I have not seen a single bee yet this year.
The 6 strawberry plants that lived thru the transplant and the cats have really sprouted out. The whole tub is full of leaders and all of the have new berry starts on them. This type of strawberry seems pretty aggressive. The way they are going, I will have to make a row bed just for them by mid summer. Later this season, I should be swamped with berries. I like that idea!
The sweet peppers have put flowers on, none have opened yet but they will very soon. I have my q-tips ready for hand pollination. At $3.49 for 4 small peppers at the market, I can't wait for them to produce for me. Eating dehydrated peppers is okay but nothing beats home grown fresh bell peppers.
Speaking of $3.49 for 4 small peppers, checking the prices of fresh fruits and veges at the local market can give you a pretty good idea of how much money you can save yourself by growing those things for yourself. It also helps give you a good idea of what the price is if you have extra you might want to sell. Specialty items like watermelons and cantaloupes are usually pretty high priced at the market. $2.49 for a small cantaloupe, $5-8 for a medium sized watermelon. Both these fruits grow quickly and are easy to maintain. I will have pictures of both these vines growing here soon.
I've hilled my second round on the potatoes and they actually need another tire added already. They're looking pretty good, I hope they're making potatoes in all that dirt!
We had to round up the banty chicks that were hatched last week. Something was killing them. Out of 8 chicks, we have 3 left and they are now residing in the storage house brooder tank. So far so good.........
An update on the small disasters around the farm... I got all the carpet yanked out of the closet and all the water mopped up the best I could. We're adjusting to the whole no hot water thing as quick as we can. As for the door, the window screens and the leaking fuel tank on the truck, they are all still waiting. What else can ya do? Deal with what you've got and go on.....
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Hang in there, I know how you feel. We just had to dry up our savings to fix my husbands truck and the washing machine, and there is still a list of things. Your garden sounds like its doing pretty good. This warmer spring has all of our strawberries ready now. I just put up a batch of strawberry jam (my first time making it).
ReplyDeleteWOOHOO Coley! I so love strawberry jam. i am excited about getting to make some myself. Our days are warm but over night it's still in the high 40s around here. I'm surprised my beans are still alive, LOL. Oh, I so know all about how things sneak up and slap us, our truck needs a spindle, bearing going out of it and it's all one piece ( non replaceable bearing). We're holding our breath on that, it's $400 for the part. Thankfully the washer hasn't torn up yet this year. It's prolly next tho, LOL.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteJust an encouragement about the hot water heater. My husband and haven't used ours in more than a year now. Yes, it's very inconvenient heating water for baths, clothes washing (especially with one in cloth diapers), and dish washing, but it hasn't been too bad. When we moved out here, we hooked our electric up a bit shoddily, so don't want to pull too much power for risk of a fire in the woods where the line is currently laying on the ground. We've never felt a need to get a more permanent hook up until now. At 40 weeks and 4 days pregnant and labor impending, I would like to have a hot shower at midnight if I want to!
Also, our water reaches our house through about 300 feet of water hose coming from my in-laws house. Because it lays out in the sun, we get hot water whenever it's warm enough outside. Usually from May to October and 10 to 4 during the day.
Anyway, I really don't miss the water heater very much now, I actually enjoy the fact that it's something I can do without so that my husband can work off the farm less.
what exactly blew on the water heater.. A leak in the pipes or the tank.. the tank can be temp repaired with jb weld if not too bad.. Plz advise.. maybe i can get ya bacvk up..
ReplyDeleteWe live north of ya and Dear Man and I were talking about you this afternoon. Wonder if we can pick your brain...My taters are doing great. We are using a wooden planter stack as it grows idea but my sweet taters failed miserably. I tried just throwing them in the ground and also tried rooting them in water in greenhouse window. 25% of them made it but the rest just molded. How about a post about starting sweet taters right? We are thinkin of doing them under grow lights in basement even.
ReplyDeleteKat,
ReplyDeletehow high do you allow your taters to grow before adding the 3rd tire to the stack? or is two tires as tall as you go with them?
patriotSteve
Hello Finchnest, thank you for stopping in with your encouraging story. I know we're going to live thru this. We've lived thru worse than a cold shower ;) I've got plenty of firewood!
ReplyDeleteHi Trashdigger! Ah, the darn thing rotted around a plug. We did JB that spot but it's still leaking somewhere so we're going to drain it and yank it out for a better look. The spot it's in is darn small and hard to see in. We'll get it whooped or mash it, LOL.
Hi Beth! Ah, sweet taters. That's funny a little because we have better luck with sweets than regulars here. Potasium levels in the soil. I'll do a little digging and see what I can come up with that might help for you.
PatriotSteve! Good to see you! I let the taters get around a foot tall above the dirt before I hill again because the tires are E range 16s off the dually and a bit thicker than car tires. I'm going to go up to 4 tires high before I quit hilling them, as long as they keep growing good. Those taters actually need the next tire added but the rain was coming in on me so they didn't get hilled as much as I should have. next day or 2 I'll add the next tire and more dirt.
Kat,
ReplyDeletethanks so much for all your great advice and sharing your experience with all us greenhorns..... you and your family are inspirational! patriotsteve
Nature has a way of reminding us that though we may have gardened for years, we still have lots to learn. I stumbled on your blog last night. Very interesting and I was interested also to see that you are using half barrels to plant in. We have been doing the same thing. I look forward to reading more of your posts!
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