Whatcha Up To???

[w_r_ranch]

Made bread.

Ran over to to the next town to pickup some odds & ends that we were short on.

Made a pot of Carne Guisada for supper tonight. I'll make rice later...

Got a pot of pinto beans seasoned up for tomorrow.

I talked to a grower over in Louisiana that specializes in ground covers & he is willing to sell me the 'Royal Purple' Lirope cheaper than I can grow them myself. He said he'll ship me whatever I need in 4" pots, so I told him I'll take 300 of them. They should be here in a couple of days. I guess I'll use the seed flats that I got ready for my Marigolds in the spring.

 

[Mr_Yan]

@w_r_ranch - I have a northern option of that flower Liatris spicata "Violet". I bought these as a $2 bag of corms at farm and fleet and they liked where I put them.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Mowed the front lawn right after work in between rain fronts.

This is why I can't get a fall garden timed right. We go from flirting with 80 F to under 50 F for the high in three days. On Saturday it was 78 and sunny. Now we had a high of 46 today and have had 4 inches of rain since Saturday to Sunday overnight. Thursday's low is forecast at 26 F.

 

[w_r_ranch]

- I have a northern option of that flower Liatris spicata "Violet". I bought these as a $2 bag of corms at farm and fleet and they liked where I put them.

Liatris is a totally different plant than Lirope...

Liatris (aka 'Blazing Stars) grows from a bulb... I had both the purple & white versions at our second house, behind the Lirope border.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Watered the garden.

Got the septic tanks sucked out, so we're good for another 5 yrs. Pew-wee!!!

 

[w_r_ranch]

Received the Lirope shipment last night & unpacked them. Today I pruned them (both roots & tops) prior to watering them. Afterwards I moved them into the greenhouse for safekeeping as I have other things that I need to get done (prepping the steel window lintels). I thought I'd never get done as it took all day. On the plus side, the plants are beautiful with well developed roots!!!

 

[ksk]

Watered and weeded the garden yesterday.Mustard greens are looking good.Finished the ''old deer stand''.Will go to town and buy corn for the feeder.Thinking about making a pot of chili tomorrow with the colder air coming in.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Yesterday we did the weekly shopping. I did buy a very nice 'watering wand' that puts out a fine mist or very small droplets. works great in the greenhouse!!! We didn't do much else as it was only in the 50s with 20+ MPH north winds.

Today I made bread & cleaned/reversed all the ceiling fans. Still pretty chilly here (40s/50s), although the winds have died down.

Watered the stuff in the greenhouse.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Kind of snowing this morning.

Painted a small bookcase for the 2nd grader - buy the Behr sample color jars at Home Depot for $3.50 when doing small projects like this

Did the weekly small grocery shopping.

Took the kids to a Lego build event at Toys-R-Us. Built a small BB8 starwars character from about 36 pieces. And we got to keep the Legos at no (direct) cost - most people there bought more Legos but we didn't.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Watered the stuff in the greenhouse.

Picked 2 buckets of pears & prepped them. Mrs. Ranch made a large pear pie & the remainder was done as escalloped pears (which will be frozen/vacuum packed once they cool enough). Yummy!!!

​

 

[Mr_Yan]

Fall clean up. 28 deg when we left for church today.

Finished cleaning out my garden beds at church. Picked 15 pounds of collards and 10 pounds of beets in this last go round.

Dumped the compost that accumulated this week up there and attempted to turn the piles with the tractor.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Started prepping the steel window lintels (sanding the rust off & applying phosphoric acid). This will take a few days as there 27 windows... After they're all dry, I'll prime them.

Watered the stuff in the greenhouse.

Received Mrs. Ranch's new KichenAid toaster. I hope this one lasts as long as the last one (16 yrs).

 

[ksk]

Watered the garden and started trimming trees that hinder me when I mow in the pasture.Now I can get closer to them with the mower.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Temps topped out around 44 F and it was blowing hard all day.

Raked up and shredded the fall leafs. Put them over emptied garden beds as winter mulch.

Cleaned out the rest of most of the gardens - tomatoes, dead squash, peppers, basil, carrots all removed.

Picked up the plastic crap from around the yard.

Emptied the rain barrels.

Carved pumpkins.

Carved two summer squash that went WAY too far. I had to use a saw to cut them and a drill to make round eyes. The rind was closer to wood than jack-o-lantern pumpkin flesh.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Made bread.

Finished prepping the steel window lintels before it started raining.

Vacuum packed the escalloped pears from 2 days ago.

Watered the stuff in the greenhouse.

Seasoned up chicken for tonight's supper (fajitas). I'll make some rice later to go along with it.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Did a round with kids trick-or-treating. 36 F when we started out.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Start the 'beginning of the month' chores.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Finish the monthly chores.

Start planting the Lirope, watering them in as I did.

Water the garden & asparagus bed.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Did the weekly shopping.

Watered the 5 areas where I planted the Lirope yesterday & the remaining flats that are still in the greenhouse.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Did the quarterly dry good / bulk good shopping - 100 pounds of flour...

Found that I have mice in the house this morning. Set out eight new TomCat traps.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Watered the garden & asparagus bed at sunup as it is suppose to be somewhat windy today.

Made bread.

Cut up 2 large briskets that I got yesterday. I separated the 'points' & will use them for homemade pastrami. Then I cut sections from the thicker ends of the 'flat' for smoked brisket & the remainder was cubed & ground for hamburger meat.

 

[wolffman]

Here's a little video I did of the ammo packer...

 

[w_r_ranch]

^^^ Let me be the first to tell you that was cool & that you did a great job engineering it!!! We toast your successful launch & hope you sell a bunch of them!!! ^^^

 

[Mr_Yan]

@wolffman
Nice work. I'm a EE and do most of my work in the electro-mechanical parts of kitchen equipment now and was 5 years in HUGE CNC mill controls and the like. The addition of the slide out platform to transition from the vibe-table to the packaging table is what got me as genius while watching the vid.

 

[wolffman]

Thanks fellas! Now I just need to sell a few of them lol!

In the mean time, I'm working on this super precision rifle rest. It's going to include parts usually reserved for CNC machining equipment.