Sun it will alleviate soon though all this cold , I hope soon , real soon ,,
1 Alfalfa sprout
2 Echinacea , taking their time
3 fennel
4 ? looks like a campanula
5 more fennel ,,
Double digit minus temperatures are rare here ,, thank goodness , I have plenty of gear to deal with it , but it ain't fun no more lol ,
Me too, Jim. I can do plumbing, I can do small electrical things, but I stay away from the major issues. 3 brothers are all maintenance and mechanical engineers, heat and air techs, tho the middle one died a few years back. Dad was a jack of all trades, mechanic, electrical, rancher, farmer, and we learned from him and mama growing up. Never mined! Had equipment to dig and dozer with. Doodle bug is helping me repair and refinish furniture- he keeps hooking my screwdriver. I had to put away all the papers on my desk last night as he was looking to shred and claw and bite papers and electrical wires. Big Sigh. Guess I better hide my cords...
I saw a full spectrum twin plant light on amazon changeable bulbs I need for the house too...
I went and took residential wiring in 2011, as no electrician wanted to work in my attic and my house came with old black paper wrapped 2 wire. I eliminated a bad circuit and have added dedicated circuits for the office and fish room, need to add a couple more and permanently close the wall around the circuit box, I've had plastic taped over it since spring 2013, last time I actually did anything useful on it. i try not to work in the attic without at least an adult spotter out here to be sure I don't get hurt. Falling through the ceiling is my chief concern
This message was edited Jan 31, 2019 8:58 AM
That's good forward thinking Gypsi. Kudos for doing your own wiring! Saves a shitload of money but not my cup of tea. I'll stick to woodworking and growing things
I had 2 choices, do my own wiring, or see my house wiring catch fire like the house next door did a couple of years before. I hired a journeyman to teach me some hands on (neighbor, vested interest in no fire) but he didn't cover enough. I kept my textbook after the class too
Motors and things , can do , system wiring , not ,,,
Has anyone heard from Debra ,, ?
Spider plant
Echinacea
Fennel
Alfalfa
Only red Gaillardia remaining (cutting
This message was edited Feb 9, 2019 4:27 PM
Not in a while now,
I remember her saying she was having a problem with depression or something like that and she might be gone for a while. Or I could have dreamed that.
I will stop by tomorrow. Time for Vern's bed time.
Nice looking spider Ju. Do you grow those outside in the summer there or strictly a house plant?
I had the same dream Sharon except she had another word for it which I can't remember. Sad. Hopefully spring will foster happier thoughts. I have a way more understanding toward that sort of thing since retiring. For me no issues in the summer but easy to fall into a black hole in the winter. My worst believe it or not was the winter after the kitchen reno. A little bit of buyers remorse thrown in with a bit of depression and grey cloudy days.
Seems my winter cutting efforts with oxalis, Senecio and Euphorbia have been successful. All out from under the humidome and looking healthy.
Keith I grow the spider plants and then regrow after their several years old from the starts they make , outside usually on the porch in summer , I have about 15 or so started at this time , Enough to make 5 or 6 hanging baskets ..
At the moment light is wrong temperature is wrong , I am losing a few while others are looking real well ,
I need to find some good plant hangers
I used to have more trouble with depression, particularly in the winter. I think idle hands are a bad thing for me, the easier thing is to have goals to work towards. If I ever actually finished my house renovations, like hired someone and got it done, I think I would deflate like a popped balloon.
I love to dream and plan and change plans. I bought a fixer upper because a sweep the floor and mow the lawn and be ready for company would be way too boring. I did that for many years when I was married. I rather enjoy messing up projects then learning how to do them right. With no one griping at me I just made sure the roof didn't leak and the necessities all worked
Hope Debra is ok. I haven't quite figured out how to have the right humidity level for spinach and keep the cat out of it, but my pepper and tomato seeds are in pots, watered with rain water and on a heat mat in the greenhouse.
getting small things done, anything I need to grow is moving 3x as slow as it should- wasn't just the paperwhites taking their time. Elms are budded and pollinating and poisoning me. If Slippery elm wasn't allelopathic I could do more than burn that elm that got taken down. Fingers healed enough I finished scrubbing my last panel and put it under a roof to dry. Also back into oiling those furniture drawers that stalled while I repaired braces, and glued splits, and my daughter drug out 2 more chairs to see if I could salvage them. Raining again outdoors- well drizzling, to add to last nights 3/8". Gray days. You guys need to get you some full spectrum lights and sit under them with your plants. Supposed to have sunshine tomorrow and temps drop to 38* so I will trot my seeds back into the house tomorro afternoon and turn lights back on them.
I decided to get on here when I first open my laptop. At night I am to tired. Vern is napping and I walk the dogs in about 25 minutes for their second walk.
I am going to try and fix some door handles today. The door handles in this house all match including door handles to equipment rooms, door for entry into garage, you name it, they have it. They were chosen, by interior designer for looks, not work ability. So if a door is used to much, the door handle comes off in your hand. Some of the handles are on french doors that do not even open. So I have been moving the handles from stagnant doors to highly used doors. But I also cannot leave Vern to long because he does not remember that he cannot walk and tries to get up to see when I am and what am I doing.
I grow spider plants outside year round. Some got nipped when we got down into the low 30s but they did OK. They love the heat. My coleus cutting are doing fine but have about a 50% mortality rate. I just order plants for April 15th delivery from Rosy Dawn.
Keith and I are both looking for the Green with a very white edging coleus that just showed up on Facebook. I told him it was probably photo shopped. Like the bue hibiscus that showed up a few years back that was a total hoax.
We are in a warm up. Now back in mid 50's and low 40s. Trees are budding and so ar rose bushes. I need to feed them next week.
Gypsi, do you think I could use a sump pump to feed my garden. I was thinking get a very large garbage container, mix up my fertilizer (magic formula) and then hook a hose up to the sump pump and pump out the water so I can spray into the garden area with the hose. Can you fully emerge a sump pump. My old gardener, like Keith, hauls buckets one at a time. I cannot do that. I have one in the garage, still in the box. I need to go on line and see what it can do. It was just an idea I came up with and I hope it will work. Kitt, your family is just trying to keep you busy. Chinese Elms are not allowed here in Ls Vegas. No fruitless mulberry, no flowering olive trees and umbrella trees. To many individuals allergic to them. Umbrella trees because of the mess the seeds make. In the old part of town they are allowed but cannot be replanted.
We are suppose to be in the mid 50's on Thursday and more rain. This rain will make for beautiful wild flowers in the desert in the spring.
Vern is awake so I will get his afternoon drink ready for him and walk the dogs.
Vern and I cat Peanut and then a pho of his new slipper socks. Fleece lined. Like the inside of a ski boot. He does not complain about his feet being cold but they are always very cold to the touch. Hugs,
Vern looks very comfortable. so does the kitty.
Yes you can use a sump pump but you might want to be able pull the cord quickly if it is a large one, because they pump fast. They can be fully submerged and can run down to about 1/4 inch of water before you have to unplug them. The kind in the picture you can just thread a piece of garden hose on, it is a 1/6th horsepower which pumps 1600 gph, you wouldn't want anything larger or you want an easy power cut off. smaller would be even easier to manage.
the ones with float switch also work but the one I bought for my drainage project would be way too heavy to manage, and too powerful
I'm outdoors enough I'm wearing sunscreen. Pretty weather up here today, it was really nice, about 60 degrees and sunny.
my tomatoes have sprouted in the green house on their mat, but the peppers take longer than 2 days to sprout. Tomato seeds were in pots with no heat until I added the peppers saturday night.
This message was edited Feb 12, 2019 11:10 PM
Waving hello to Vern, cat looks so happy. I have 4 types of tomato showing up now, still waiting to see if that old Celebrity seed will pop up tho. I have socks I am wearing to bed. Hunter knee high socks. I had quit wearing them, but my toes think they are cold when they aren't so it makes me happy. I hurt again, chuckl. Sanded dresser and put a coat of non finishing tung oil / mineral spirits / Cognac colored gel wood stain from Varathane, then wiped excess. Need a few more coats without the stain... and I am still putting minor things back onto the dresser, chuckl. My elbow said take a break! The new raised bed planters are going to be Whiskey Barrel Stain! One small one is finishing up then the 2nd will be ready to color.
This message was edited Feb 13, 2019 2:01 PM
I have so got to start paying attention to the buttons I push😶. I am so ready to plant stuff, chuckl.
Nice job on the staining Kitt.
Sharon and Gypsi. Macgyver I certainly am not. I wish you luck on the sump pump watering idea. Gypsi I think the size and type you suggested is definitely the way to go. I am a little pessimistic of the practicality of the whole thing. I have used sump pumps a lot to move a lot of water quickly like draining my pond to catch the fish, emptying my large 100 and 250 gallon rain barrels in the fall and draining my septic tank when I had to make repairs to the field. Where my pessimism kicks in is not knowing how the sump pump will react to having its flow restricted or shut off with a nozzle on the end of a garden hose. It's brain will be telling it to pump because it is immersed in water but it can't? Man's thought process : like filling your bladder to the max and having someone put a tight rubber band on your vessel while you are letting it out. Somethings got to give! Sorry but that's how we analyze these things
I use sumps to drain ponds all the time, if we're supposed to water something past the hose reach, thumb over the end, just like running a garden hose. I don't think I'd try a fancy spray head, might cause a hose to burst
Ya, the old thumb trick may work for brief pot changes, long as you don't squirt yourself in the eye with some of that secret recipe stuff Sharon was talking about
Chuckl, size matters as to force of output. I haven't started pepper seeds yet, they need more heat so I wait a bit. Just babysitting the mater starts to keep in sun, and oogling this pork recipe my daughter wants me to handle for supper by 7 pm. Sigh, it is complicated and I am a firm believer in simpler is better. I see rubber bands a bit differently Keith- they were how the calves were castrated if we didn't want to cut...
I grew up a farmer too Kitt. LOL. All too familiar with those rubber bands.
That is a good point, but you know as you don't close the valve, one of those firehose sprayers would work, the brass ones. You just don't close the valve or the hose will blow off one end or the other.
I am late but all of you probably saved me from blowing off my head. I would have put a nozzle on the end and shut it off. Now I need to figure out how I am going to turn the sump pump off. I can do this but I need to think it out. I just cannot carry those buckets fill with fertilizer anymore.
Hugs to you all. I am going shopping tomorrow. I have someone to stay with Vern and I will be out and about for about 4 hours. A treat it will be.
I use a long extension cord tied around a belt loop if I've got to move a sump pump around, in your case you want to move, sump pump is stationary so 2 extension cords plugged in near your belt loop, unplug when done. house-cord-you-cord-sump
Not god with such things here ,,,
Here is a turnip green outdoors and a couple Echnacea inside
Gypsi, you are such a "Dude"....That is what all the landscape supervisors around here call each other. My father would say great kludge job. Thanks for the heads up.
I planted some russet potatoes today. And a few just about dried up pieces of garlic. I am going to get some onion starts because I love young onions.
I made some 8 bean soup today with a ham shank and OMG, i was delicious. Vern ate a small amount so I am going to give some to the caregiver tomorrow for her hubby. Do not want it to go to waste.
We had rain again today and suppose to have snow tomorrow. Most of the ski resorts in California are empty because the snow is to heavy and to high to get the equipment in to clear the roads to allow traffic.
Potatoes cut up and thrown on the ground. I cut them last night and let them calious over. Area after I dug and planted the slips. Black dirt compliments of my worms.
Sharon potatoes are cute ,
I love the bean salads and soups
My poor worms only have sand to mess with, I have to add Kow manure for blackness, or mushroom compost, but I do have a ton of worms too. Maters growing well, abt to go start some suckers from that 2' hi Hybrid Husky Boy cherry, I just hope they taste worth the trouble...Looks good Jim!
We had more rai today and then snow, barely, twice this afternoon. Currently raining.
My caregiver showed me how to cut top sirloin and then pound it into cube steak. Easier for Vern to eat. He cleaned his plate. Caregiver used to be a chef helper in many hotel kitchens so she knows a lot of the tricks.
Vern woke up this morning in Beaumont, Texas. Had a difficult time helping him to understand we were in Las Vegas. I just go with the flow and try not t upset him. He wanted to know why Fran, caregiver, was in Beaumont. That was the fist thing he asked this morning.
Going to be in the high 49s all week with 3 freezing nights. I hope my orange trees wait to bloom. We are 10 to 15 degrees below normal. So I need to wait to plant and fertilize.
Kitt, our normal soil is just good old desert blow sand. If you do not improve the soil, you are fighting a losing battle.
28 degrees and snowing here , still to cold for much ,
I agree Sharon! Its in the mid 50's here with more wind than I normally get even if its only 13/14 mph. Mater sprouts looking good, held off on suckers while they get a bit bigger, but I have fruit set on the store bought plant, and still have blooms. I need to catch rainwater in tomorrows rains...and set a few plants outside of dry storage today.
Had snow here last night. 3". Not a big deal for you guys but it was a big deal for the children of Las Vegas.
Snow has been melting all day from my roof and keeping everything around he roof line wet. Patio and sidewalks will be slippery tonight. I need to remember that. We are actually having a little bit of winter temperatures.
Highs this week will be in high 40s. Three nights at 32 degrees. Very unusual for Las Vegas.
Pretty chilly here too. Dude, well that's different. My lady customers call me a "bada**".
Grabbing snakes contributed to that
LOL.....
Chuckl, both terms are funny. 50* now Sharon, but rain all day tomorro and prob not above 45* til Thurs. Roller coaster tails from the north and their snows, chuckl. Got a coat of sealer on the stained rails, but SIL came down wihth flu and went down for the count, so waiting on him to feel up to assembly since he has this project and I am playing helper, chuckl.
Durn it, I need to read before I slap that button that doesn't respond like I want
This message was edited Feb 19, 2019 12:28 AM
This message was edited Feb 19, 2019 12:26 AM
My peonies are up, canceled plans with daughter I'm going to garden and flowerbeds.
near 11 pm and 53 degrees and rain some lightning also ,
Today I was emptying last years pots and thinking about trimming the fruit trees ,
Only thing about trimming is it may fall to 15 degrees tomorrow night , way to cold for that ,
I was going to trim mine, we will be below freezing at night march 3rd thru 5th, I've got trees blooming
