Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Back in for a break... allergies went totally ballistic and I can barely breathe.... holy cow.. I haven't been able to get my breath and stop coughing. I took a pill this morning but obviously it wasn't enough.Just took more to try to stop the over reaction....Wheezing like I have asthma.....

I ran the walk behind weed eater around the garden another round, and up and back on the path to the chickens and made a new path through the waist high stuff to the garden more directly from the back deck... up and back, and around the back of the carport one more pass.. did a little around/near a couple of the trees too.... If I keep doing this, I will have it opened up in a couple weeks ..... especially if I keep up with the mower now and keep it down. Should never have let it get away from me like that. But, I have always hated mowing grass... even as a kid, I would rather clean the car out and vacuum and do the windows instead of mow grass... my father would set the list of chores and my 2 brothers would do all they could so they DIDN'T have to do the cars except wash the outside... so it was fine because I hated mowing the lawn even then.
I was going to take the mower out and see about doing the little bit in front of the house and out the path to the chickens and garden where it is dried from the other day... but don't know if I can breathe enough for that. Might be better to wait for tomorrow now. D@#%&... I was on a roll too until I started coughing and nose was running and then it got hard to breathe. This is the worst it's been in days...

So, I just put in a load of jeans to soak and will run them through in the morning. Supposed to clear off somewhat, but now there is a 20% chance of spotty pop up showers through Thursday... they can't make up their mind. But the temps are only supposed to be in the 70's with nights in the mid to LOW 50's.... not garden growing weather.... guess we can't change it... take it as it comes. That's pretty chilly though... would like to see 70's-80's and upper 50's-60's . Don't need the hot 90's....

No farms scheduled at this time but that can change in a minute. It's June so got a few that need to be caught up with.
Hope this coughing/congestion gets straightened out so I can see about the mowing and work on getting the fencing done tomorrow. Want to get some more green beans in too.... Oh well, take it as it comes...

 

[Ridgetop]

You should get one of those big masks with replaceable filters from Lowes that are sold for painting. Maybe that would help with the allergies. I hate masks, but coughing till you can't breathe is pretty bad. Plus you have the entire hay season coming up! Making hay season I mean but hay season allergies too.

 

[farmerjan]

Thanks @Ridgetop ... but in another week-2 weeks the allergies will stop. Orchard grass will be past pollen and once we finish cutting one more field.... no we just cut the last one and baled it this past week.... then it will stop. I may look into a mask for next year though if it is going to keep getting worse each year. The locusts are about done also... and then I will have minimal reactions to anything... I have a bunch of OG here in the yard and the pollen was flying off the stems as I cut it yesterday. I might get a runny nose for a bit and eyes might get a little itchy if it is dry and dusty in the hay fields... but I am about out of it. Mid June .... NORMALLY.... I just got so much stuff stirred up in the air yesterday with the weed eater on that tall stuff.
This evening I ran the lawn mower around the garden 2 times for the 3 swaths I had weed eated and nothing... It is weird... and I only took one allergy pill this morning...

Just came in from working out there. Didn't do alot earlier during the day because I was aching... shoulder ... must've slept on it wrong again. I need to make an appt with the chiropractor and get back to some regular visits again....
Anyway, I did get the mower out and did part of the lawn but made it a point of going out to do around the garden. Did 2 passes up and back on the path to the chickens but didn't finish the lawn. Batteries were getting low so they are charging and I will get the lawn finished tomorrow. And I want to take the walk behind and do some more around that is up to my waist to open it up a bit more. then I can mow it and chop it up more and use for mulch in the garden too.
Then I got out the electric netting I had gotten last year and hadn't used. Got it up all the way around the garden and have quite a bit of length left over... (2 rolls) so I am either going to see about getting a shorter roll to use instead of the long one... and use the long one for a chicken "yard" since they like to get into my flowers... or see if it can be cut and attached to one of the extra posts you use for corner bracing etc.... and then just save the other for a small chicken yard or something. Of course if I make the garden bigger next year.....
It is not electrified yet... I think that it just being there will deter the deer running through there for a night or 2... It will confuse their normal shortcut through the garden and out across the road at the end of the split rail fence that is there....
Plus the new purple green beans have just come through the dirt... the first 2 short rows I stuck in about a week ago... and I don't want them to even have a chance to find them. The ones I planted just a few days ago will be next and they are out at the end of the "open" part of the garden.
I did find that whatever had nibbled on a few of the pepper plants has completely stopped since I took and sprayed them with the spray I got... which is basically blood meal... They are growing new leaves and nothing has touched them since.
I didn't go get the other 2 rolls of wire today, either. Tomorrow I will do that and run a few other errands that I need to do while I am out.

It was cloudy a good part of the day. More sun this afternoon, but it is very hazy and it was even on the news this evening on the radio that there are 400 separate wildfires in Canada and it is affecting the air quality all the way south to Virginia. So that is keeping us a bit cooler too since the sun isn't getting through as well.
On top of that, we now have a 30% chance of some showers on Wed aft/eve/night... and another cool front bringing them down... then it might get warmer by the end of the week... It was 54 this morning and hit 77... and tonight they say we could get down into the upper 40's..... HUH????Not conducive to the garden growing very fast....

The ground is damp under the paper/cardboard/hay around the tomato plants... I pulled a few weeds and they came out fairly easily right around the plants... the potatoes are coming through more and more... I hope to get the sprouted ones put down tomorrow along the one side of the garden and cover with the mulch and see what happens.... Not cutting them or anything, just putting down and covering with hay... If the butternut squash or cantaloupes or whatever else I put there comes up they will all wind up spreading out through them...

So, tomorrow is another day. I am going to "partake" of an adult beverage to go to sleep and hopefully the shoulder won't keep aching... better than taking a pill for the ache.... and tomorrow, I may just rake up some of this "mulched grass" from the mower to use in the garden....that would work out the ache or make it hurt more... good exercise though....

 

[farmerjan]

I sat down a few minutes ago with my "plat" of the garden... to sorta see what potatoes are coming up better than others... of course they all did not get planted at the same time so am not comparing the different rows that were planted at different times... but like the 3 or 4 rows that got planted the same night...

And that the purple beans are coming up and the seeds were 3 years old... and have germinated really well...

The onions are not doing much with the dry weather... going to take some of that "mulched grass" the mower is making and try to cover over all the dirt around them to try to hold a little of the moisture in.

I have 5 varieties of fingerlings and 16 varieties of "regular sized" potatoes... well actually 17 since I had the Red Pontiacs that I first planted, before the fingerlings... over 50 lbs planted total since there was 5 lbs. of the Pontiacs and duplicates of 2 others.... hoping it will be at least 15 lbs of each harvested.... plus I will try to get the sprouted leftovers from the house in tomorrow along the edge of the grass... and mulched with hay and let them do what they can/will.....

Got to get a couple of new "turnoff's" for the hoses... and get the soaker hoses into the garden soon if we don't get any more decent rains... That rain last Monday was a God send... but it won't last forever. The ground is still damp under the mulch around the tomatoes and the peppers... but it has been too cold for good growth...

 

[Baymule]

Hope you get rain soon. It rained all around me last night, but none here.
I want to see how your potatoes do, all the different varieties.

 

[farmerjan]

Up and debating what to have for breakfast. Probably eggs again. I just remembered that I didn't eat any supper with working on the garden fence. I had eaten a roast beef sandwich mid afternoon, I ate cereal yesterday morning. I will go out and let the chickens out in a little bit... the fence is going to confuse them as they would go through the garden and pick at some bugs then run down the path towards the house. They spend alot of time under the trees and around the bushes, not under them but close to cover, so I think that the threats are from the sky... which I know there are some hawks around. The lt. Brahma hen did have one place she liked to take a dust bath in the evening.. might have to dig a spot for her outside the fence...so she will stay out of the flower beds too.

The RI Red cockerel is trying out his crowing...... . I can't help but chuckle... it will get better... but he sounds so funny with it kinda like a teenage boy's voice that cracks.....

By the looks of it the fence is still up.... intact.

Only got down to 53 last night... still cool out there but alot better than the 40's. Sun is out but it is hazy out there.

Just went out and looked at the fence and it is intact... and let the chickens out while I was out there... Need to take the walk behind around the outside and cut back some more of the high grass on the one side... part of where I need to cut it down to "mowable height"...
SURPRISE... another coon in the trap. Need to go back out with the gun. There was a ground hog killed on the road right in front of the house, so one less of them to deal with. Hope it was the one that was going under the storage shed...
And got another mouse in a sticky trap.....

Time to get things "together" so I can unload those 2 rolls of fence and get the other 2... then come back by the house to go do the errands I need to do in the other direction.

 

[Mini Horses]

I've had a groundhog move into a spot I had vacated 3 almost 2 yr ago. Been in just last 2 days, so out to buy melon to set the traps tonight. . Before it's family gets there. It's amazing how much they can dig, so fast!! Wish they could put up fence

 

[farmerjan]

on the ground hogs.....

Disposed of coon... then came to house. got a couple of the broken posts I had salvaged from the fence pile, that I had brought home with the idea of maybe a border around the flowers at the house... and put 3 down and backed truck up near them... pulled roll off and then tipped it over to lay on posts off the ground... then did the same with the 2nd roll...
Then gathered up my list and some other things and headed for TSC south of me. Stopped and paid off the rest of the outback bill, which I had forgotten and thought of it as I drove down by there... for when the alternator went bad....
Went through bank and deposited a check from the dentist office... I usually pay something and then they turn it in to my dental ins... and often I have a credit of $20-30 or so it seems... well, the dentist is selling the practice to the young guy that came to work there about 2 years ago... this has been in the works so no big deal... but they are trying to get the "books" cleared for the sale... which is fine. Dentist is going to continue to work there but he wants to cut back.... and this gets it set so he can "retire" when he is ready with not big hassle... don't blame him.
Went just down the road a 1/2 mile to TSC... got the 2 rolls loaded... the girl who did it I know from way back... and when I told her about what we had to do that afternoon... she used the fork lift....one roll on each of the "pallet forks" and put it right in the back of the truck.... SO SIMPLE.... caught up for a few minutes as I haven't seen her there much but I don't often go in on weekdays and I don't think she works any nights or weekends anymore. Walked around in the store and got a couple shut offs for the hoses and looked around... treated myself to some of the "Red Shed" towels with chickens and eggs on them.... they were too expensive to start with, were discounted 25% off or something... but I liked them so I got them.

Came home, parked truck and got in car and headed north to the other town. Went to my favorite nursery and they had bedding plants, flowers, 4 packs. 50% off... so I got a few more to put in the planters. Also had seeds 50% off so I picked up a 1/2 lb bag of some green beans because they will germinate well for a couple years....and some more sunflower seeds..... I was looking for the "repair" type kit for my soaker hose because it got cut last year... when I was mowing maybe? Anyway, I know that they make a "kit" for putting in "T's" to run other hoses off it and such stuff... and to put a fitting on the end and attach other ones or to cap them off....... but they didn't have anything. I am afraid if we don't get some rain I am going to have to run some lines for watering... Been looking for the "kit" but no one has had it....So went from there to Home Depot just up the road a bit... and they had an "all in one" type of deal with a 100 ft soaker hose and several "t's" and other things to "customize" the hose so it will work for a person's individual needs. They don't sell the "parts separate"... might be able to get them on line... but It wasn't real expensive with the 100 ft of hose so I just got the whole thing. I will do some research on line to see if I can get the "parts" separately too... I like the soaker hose better than a sprinkler system for conserving water.... and getting them well watered.

Went by the Lowes also since it is practically next door, and they had the same soaker hose for the same money.... nothing else special. Then came on home.

Talked to DS and seems he cut hay yesterday... of course never occurred to him to call me and tell me.... because I had texted him that I need a bigger wrench than what I have to get a short "connecter" hose off a 4 way gang valve that the part is broken to put it on the waterproof hydrant. The water here has so much lime that it makes things just "adhere" to the metal... and I broke it last year trying to take it off for the winter. I want to put another 4 way gang valve (plastic) on it so that I can run more than one hose without hooking and unhooking them... so want to get the short piece of hose off to be able to reuse it and I cannot get it unscrewed... So he naturally wants me to go rake it tomorrow.... and he was cutting the 2 top fields and the part of the pasture he cuts for the guy who owns all this, this afternoon/eve... It will be ready to rake Thurs or Friday... it is usually thick so maybe Friday morning after the sun gets on it and then he can bale it Sat??? I am letting him make the decisions and then he can't say I didn't tell him it needed tedding or whatever.It may very well need tedding up top anyway.

So, I then went out and got 4 short rows of green beans planted and a row of cantaloupe that will be able to spread, and a row of green crenshaw pumpkins... we always called them winter squash.... and put more of the sunflower seeds in at the ends of the rows and such. Got the chickens in, reset the trap, and then came and and mowed with the mower to finish the "path" out to the chickens and back... and then got most of the front lawn done and will finish it tomorrow since it was getting dark and my legs were saying enough.

There are more potatoes coming up... got to take my list out there so I can write down the ones that are sprouting real good. Since I planted the green beans and all, did not get the spouted potatoes down... but I really hope to do that tomorrow... I have to cover them with the mulch hay though or they will just burn and that is a waste of time then.

So it is nearly 10 and I have to go in and get something to eat... don't want much... trying to not eat late but I wind up outside in the late aft/eve as it is cooler and better for working the garden. Well, I got all that exercise with the lawn mower so I don't feel too bad about wanting to eat something.

 

[Baymule]

Fence wire…. A fence will be going up! It always feels good to make fence progress.

 

[farmerjan]

In for the night. Temps started out 58, up to 80. Skies were very cloudy/hazy... all sorts of warnings in the news about the air quality being poor/dangerous with the smoke/haze from the fires in Canada... it is becoming a real big deal. Supposed to be around for another day or 2 from what they are reporting. They cancelled ball games and all sorts of things.
It kept the sun mostly away except for late this afternoon have seen a few peeks.

Went down and got the tractor and rake and went across the road to the field we call "across the creek"... which there is a big creek that runs all along one side of it and under the road (big bridge) .... got it raked and there were a few green spots near the one tree as it usually is. It ought to have dried pretty good with the breeze we had all afternoon.
On the way down the road I went around a corner and all of a sudden there was a big tree down across the whole road and on the phone line that was almost on the ground... I called DS and told him and that the road was totally blocked and it would take more than just one guy with a chainsaw as it had alot of branches and leaves... Have no idea why it came down... so I had to go back up to the dirt road that goes behind my house and go the "long way" around... down past the stone house I used to live in... and around.
Took about 2 hours or so to rake it... it is very tricky to get in that gate and using the Deutz tractor is a little harder since it is bigger and doesn't turn as sharp... so I had to go up the road and turn around to come in from the other direction and not make a turn that is very difficult with the other tractor and this rake. But, once coming in from the other direction, I can get a straighter line to go in the gate. It is a 12 or 14 ft gate... so tight to go in no matter what you are taking.
@Baymule can appreciate that as she is getting her driveway/entrance enlarged due to vehicles not being able to make that sharp turn in there. Same thing with this entrance....
Finished it and came back up the road about 2+ hours later and they had gotten the tree cleaned up off the road and all...

I hung another load of clothes out since this is supposed to clear off in the next few days, no rain in the forecast until Sat or Sunday maybe. Then I ate a sandwich and then went out and got the lawn mower out and finished the yard and then took a rake and raked up the chopped up grass from the weedeater and then the mowing... piled it in the wagon and finally went out in the garden and got the potatoes along the edge and covered with the chopped up "hay" from the yard. I literally put them down next to each other and still have another 1/2 box left... Every single one was sprouted in the 2 boxes... I could have planted 6 rows in the garden with them... Don't know what I am going to do with these left... maybe just stick them in, in a row, near the crenshaws I planted and if they manage to come up and grow with the vines spreading......good for them.
I also planted some cucumber seeds around the "cage" I have of wire that I usually use for them... It's the stiff kind of wire they use for pouring concrete slabs...have had it for years... sturdy and they usually grow up it good.

The purple beans I first planted are coming up good. Thought they might not since the seed was 2 yrs old but I think every one came up.
Put down a few more papers and some hay on top. Need to do the rest of the newspaper I have and get hay on it to stop any weeds sprouting when we do get some rain. I also took and put some cardboard down around the rows of the cantaloupe and the butternut squash I planted the other day for when they sprout... and hay on top of them to hold them in place. Going to go through and get all the rest of the cardboard and stuff I had stashed and get it in the garden and all while things are not up or barely up ... It will save on mulch hay thickness, to use the cardboard and paper in between rows of beans and the vining plants... Will use straight hay/straw in the potato rows.
The only potatoes slow to start coming through are the Russets.... and the real white ones, Genesee, are slower than the others I planted the same time, but poking through some tonight. The warmer days are helping... and that inch plus of rain we had over a week ago did wonders soaking into the ground. Everywhere I have checked under the paper/mulch hay is damp....

Going to have to rake alot of hay tomorrow so don't know what else I will get done... But want to get the walk behind weed eater out again and work on some more of this "hayfield" around the house/yard in the next couple of days; and then I can run over it with the mower a day or 2 later and chop it up good and use in the garden.

Guess that is about it. Haven't fooled with the soaker hose or the new cut off connectors with the hose... next couple of days will get to that. Not ready to go as far as a soaker hose yet....
I want to get these flowers in the planters this weekend too... and a few planted along the porch... got some wire to put over them to keep the chickens out of them....