JAP69's Blog

Container garden [ seed order arrived ]

Seeds came in mail yesterday. Time to prepare the seed starting mix and plant seeds. I can feel the anticipation of spring in the air.
There is a bird feeder in my yard that has bird seeds that spilled over onto the ground and I have noticed those seeds are the first to sprout indicating the change in the season. They have not sprouted yet.

Look out and see the rebirth of life spring forth in its abundant glory.

Entry #3,830

Container garden [ seed order ]

Ordered more seeds today. Should be planting seeds in another week or so to have them ready up to size to transplant around first week in March.

Charleston Belle pepper. Nice sized pepper for stuffing and other needs.
Yellow Monster pepper, Another huge pepper
Yellow Cherry tomato, Nice sweet tomato for salads and whatnot.
Suyo Long cucumber, An Asian cuke that bears hot weather and up to 18 inches long that tastes great according to the description. Can be picked from fingerling size up to full length.

Still have other seeds left from last year also.

Suppose to warm up next week for awhile and may start doing a few things for spring readiness.

Do not want to procrastinate.

Entry #3,828

My old school

When I started school it was not consolidated until I entered the sixth grade. Yep, I went to a one room school house for my general area which had maybe 30 students at the most from grades 1 through 8. There was no such thing as preschool and kindergarten. A diligent parent taught their children their numbers, letters, basic reading skills and some writing before they even started school.

I walked to school the majority of the time which was about one mile one way. The school had a coal stove to keep us warm during the cold days. There was a shed on the school grounds to store the coal and maybe some other school needs. There was out door privies. No indoor bathrooms in that school. The outdoor recreation area had swings, teeter totter, and a few other pieces of recreational equipment. There was maybe a 2 acre field for ball games and a basketball hoop mounted on the shed wall.

When the teacher started teaching on a higher grade level than I was I paid attention to the higher grade level picking up bits and pieces of their studies. Penmanship was a must back then to keep your letters and words legible. The chicken scratch you see today is horrid. I learned my letters using the Palmer method.

Entry #3,826

3 Old-Fashioned Christmas Gifts Our Ancestors Crafted By Hand

Just happen to stumble upon this this afternoon.

Check out the log cabins for boys and girls.
When I was just a young lad I had a set of Lincoln Logs. I do not even know if they sell that kit any more.
_________________________________________________
3 Old-Fashioned Christmas Gifts Our Ancestors Crafted By Hand

http://www.offthegridnews.com/how-to-2/3-old-fashioned-christmas-gifts-our-ancestors-crafted-by-hand/

Entry #3,824

Do you

Have an imagination large enough to comprehend that there is no end to the universe. Travel through space for billions of light years and never reach the end.

Entry #3,823

I wonder if

The Stonehenge builders had a watcher on full time duty keeping track of when certain events were to occur to notify their people that it is close to the time to gather for their shindig or what ever they did on those events.

Entry #3,822

Build your own Stonehenge

We know the dates for our solstices and and other important dates in our life.

Just set a permanent sitting stone in the ground and on important time events just go out the same distance for two vertical markers which could be set a short distance apart. When you are sitting facing the vertical markers and the sun shines through the center of the markers that would be the date event for those two vertical markers.

Entry #3,821

The bagging leaves tale

Looked like rain today and got my ass out in the yard and blew the remaining leaves into two separate piles. Then I took the mulcher mower with the catch bag and mulched them up and put them into two bags filling both bags.

Figured I had about two bags worth. Those 30 gallon lawn and leaf paper bags.

Was not too long after I finished that it started raining.

That is done except for the other side of the back fence with a mowable strip about eight feet wide which borders a drainage ditch which borders the road.

Entry #3,820

In back yard today

Took the leaf blower and piled leaves for bagging. Bagged two plastic bags without shredding the leaves. Going to use those dry leaves to scorch the inside of the wooden containers. Only probably need about one minute of burn to scorch them. Bagged two plastic bags of shredded leaves for the garden behind the fence. Build my ground boxes about 10 inches deep and put about 3 inches of shredded leaves in it.

Then I bagged up 3 paper leaf bag containers to set out for the refuse man. Still some more leaves in part of the yard to bag up. Maybe two paper leaf bags left.

Blowing in a pile and using the mulching mower with a catch bag attached works just fine for me. Mulching dry leaves cuts down on the bag count as I can get quite a bit in a bag that has been mulched. Need to do the leaves when they are real dry for max efficiency.

Flowers are still going strong. Pansies are starting to bloom again after I dead headed them and cut them back some a few weeks back.

Entry #3,819

Went in yard today

I had a small chat with the squirrels. Then I walked around and talked to the trees telling them to be nice to the squirrels.

Told the trees they had to shred their leaves they dropped all over the yard and to bag them up. They all agreed to the chore. They got half of them done today.

Entry #3,818

What happens when you plant crops too close to each other

I was told this story when I was younger.

My father planted some sweet peppers in a field and planted some hot peppers next to them. The bees done their thing on gathering pollen and carrying the pollen to other plants pollinating the plants to grow their vegetables on their plant. The peppers grew up to picking size and when the sweet peppers were used for the kitchen they ended up being hot sweet peppers. Green laugh

True story.

Entry #3,817

Scale model idea

I was thinking about the log cabin idea and came up with another plan for something that could be useful that could look like a log cabin.

Build a scale model log cabin 36 inches long x 24 inches wide about 12 to 16 inches deep. For the bottom I could use boards about 2 inches wide. Build a scaled low pitched roof covering it with maybe flat tin. Put scale size front door with a window on each side. On the each end put one scale size window in the center.

Are you ready for this?

Hinge the roof front and back to open up the scale model to the inside opening it from the ridge line. At the top of the scale cabin build a tray with four sides about 3 inches tall to set on brackets near the top. Open the roof to the tray, lift out the tray holding small stuff to the larger storage below.

Figure it out yet?

A scale model log cabin foot locker.Jester

Entry #3,816