Whatcha Up To???

[w_r_ranch]

Thanks Ernie! Actually I'm just making the best of a problematic area that was a pain to mow/line trim & always required spraying RoundUp to keep the weeds down. Now it can produce something tasty & useful instead of requiring constant 'cosmetic maintenance'.

Finished planting everything yesterday (except for the lettuce, chard & spinach). Then helped Mrs. Ranch by canning 11 pints of the jalapeno relish as she was getting tired & needed a break. 13 more pints & then I'll puree the rest of them for some straight jalapeno sauce. Waste not, want not as they say...

 

[Mike]

Not much going on today other than it got cold quick. Was 86 yesterday and a high of 64 today.

 

[w_r_ranch]

High of 81 here... Front came through about 0100 hrs with lots of lightning/thunder. Mrs. Ranch had to get up & sleep on the couch because she said the dogs were freaking out... I never heard a thing & slept like a dead man... Total rainfall this morning was 1".

 

[ErnieCopp]

It was 100 degrees on the veranda at Happy Hour Thursday, so i stayed inside, but cooled off enough yesterday to be out there again.
We do not need to go to the Desert, When the Santa Ana winds blow, the Desert comes to us.

Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

Watered the garden & treated the fire ant mounds that sprung up after the recent rains.

Filled the bird feeders, then unloaded the cattle feed into the barn.

Cleaned the 'redneck swimming pool' & then put it away.

Helped Mrs. Ranch prep the jalapeno relish, which we'll can up tomorrow morning.

 

[Rahab222]

With cooler temps. in, I woke up to the fact that I need to start my fall garden. I've only been going to the backyard garden to pick peppers and purple hull peas that are still producing. My pepper plants are all over 7' tall! Other than that, the garden is a certifiable disaster zone. Obviously, I don't like the heat. I had to haul a 16 ft., oak tree limb that had fallen from a tree and throw it over the back fence. It was so long and heavy, it kept falling back on me and broke a top board on the fence with the final push. I gathered up other fallen limbs and tossed them over the fence to the bayou, too. Long way to go to get everything back in shape. I did plant the horse trough with my first lettuce planting of the season - Grand Rapids Leaf. I bought three different types of lettuce to plant and will plant it all about two weeks apart. I've really missed that and wish lettuce and tomatoes were in season at the same time. I then cleaned out and hand tilled a plot to do my first planting of Short and Sweet Carrots. These grew well last spring and were delicious! I added new compost and tilled that in by hand before planting. Tomorrow, I'll clean, recompost and plant something else - after I clean out a space. Thankfully, I pulled out all the tomato plants when they finished producing; to encourage the stink bugs to go elsewhere. As usual, I have lots of things I want to plant; although I did decide against doing potatoes this fall; just got lazy and it was too hot. The Houston Texans play the Dallas Cowboys tomorrow at Noon, so I probably won't be back out again until the evening. I'm ready to have fresh things growing again! It was a gorgeous day in Houston today, so I loved being outside with my garden dog, Lily.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Watered the garden.

Canned up the last of the jalapeno relish (24 pints out of that tub). Kudos to my wife for getting all of them peppers done!!!

About to start cutting the grass...

 

[Mike]

Brought in the chives and peppers. Highs over the weekend was in the mid 50's to low 60's again. Weatherman even warned of possible frost Sunday morning. Should probably start looking at winterizing my pepper plant to keep indoors.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Dirt & rock for asparagus area/bed will be delivered tomorrow.

One of the garage door openers suddenly stopped working. Upon removing the cover, I found a softball sized mud-dauber nest on the motor. After cleaning it off, we were back in operation (guess it was blocking a sensor). At least THAT didn't cost me any money, LOL!!!

 

[w_r_ranch]

Dirt & rock for asparagus area/bed was delivered late this afternoon. You know what I'll be doing tomorrow...

 

[Mike]

Lots of severe weather today. A number of surrounding counties got hit pretty hard with hail, strong winds, and even a few tornadoes were spotted. Lucky my neck of the woods came out okay with only a few small branches to clean up.

 

[Rahab222]

Houston had REALLY STRONG winds come through Monday. No rain. Nature did a pretty good job of pruning a lot of the dead tree branches in the area. Gathered up and tied all the branches for Tuesday's trash day. I only had enough time to put in a small plot of the 6" - 7" carrots next to my shorter ones. We're back in the 90s and humid, humid, humid. Sure was nice to get a short feel of temps. in the 70s - 80's.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Yesterday I started spreading the rock on the asparagus bed area & got about 80% of it complete. I'll try to finish the rock today & start back-filling the bed itself with the soil mix so it will be ready for when the 'crowns' are delivered.

I'll post a picture when I'm done...

 

[w_r_ranch]

Well, I almost got finish, but unfortunately I just ran out of energy in the final stretch. The soil mix is in & the stone aggregate is about 96% complete (about 6'X4' area still needs to be done). While it was only about 90 degrees here, the humidity was very high & zapped me.

It's suppose to rain the next 3 days so I don't know when I'll finish it up. Today is our shopping day, so I will be resting my back.

 

[Mr_Yan]

So for about the last week I haven't even thought about my garden. I was the Caribbean either sitting on the beach, by the pool, on sailing a hobicat with my beautiful wife.

I need to work on cleaning out tomatoes and eggplants still this weekend. Our forecast is calling for the clouds to clear out tonight and a hard frost to set in.

 

[Mike]

Hoping to head to the garden shop tomorrow to get new potting soil for my chives and peppers that I brought indoors.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Watered the garden & then dispatched an uninvited guest this morning...

 

[ErnieCopp]

Not much. Watching and waiting for about 14 Jap persimmons to ripen on the small tree. That is a very heavy load for that smal of a tree, but have it laced up so do not think it will break a branch.
Then i ordered my Onion sets from Dixondale and hope they ship them soon,

Otherwise, things are pretty quiet for me now.

Ernie

 

[Mike]

Trimmed back the pepper plant and chives and repotted both plants in new soil. Should be good for the coming winter now.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Finished back-filling the asparagus bed area with the rock between rains bands...

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Also, we saw a rare double rainbow from the back porch just before I started grilling supper!!! I had to 'enhance' the picture some as it wasn't real pronounced...

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[w_r_ranch]

Watered the garden.

Picked up the parts I needed to repair the shredder & did the repairs. I then shredded some more... as there was no vibration, I'll say it is fixed.

 

[whistech]

Mr. Ranch, you should get a lot of great asparagus from that bed. It is one of my most liked vegetables. Beautiful work Sir!

 

[45 ACP]

Havent been around in a while. Been fishing and slingin' arrows at deer and hogs.

All I have left from spring garden is Jalapenos, and those will be picked clean and pulled this weekend so I can plant my fall garden, which will go in Sunday afternoon. Im planting Mustard greens, collard greens, swiss chard, 2 varieties of lettuce, 2 varieties of cauliflower, broccoli, 1015 onions, and carrots.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Thanks whistech, we have high hopes for them doing well as we love them too!!!

Today I planted the lettuce, spinach & radishes, then worked on the onion/garlic row (moving the soil mix & forming it as I went) & watered everything when I was done.

 

[ErnieCopp]

I had thought almost all of the small sweet figs had been picked but stopped by the tree this morning just looking for a couple to snack on, and found enought to fill at least another container or two. Tried drying them today without turning the dryer switch on, but found out when i got home this evening that did l not work, so will try again tomorow with the switch turned on.

Picked a few Jap persimmons, but these are the hard FUJU kind, so will take another month or so on the window sill before they are ripe enough to be soft and sweet.

Ernie