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We've relocated 3 large bull snakes since moving here, they are funny how they'll imitate a rattler. I remember when we lived in SD, Jeff was driving back home from the Denver area in the dark, and when he got to Lusk Wyo he spotted a snake warming itself in road - he stopped and in headlights of car caught a really big one once he saw that it didn't have rattles - he often keeps a lidded bucket in the trunk of the car for such kinds of events. He brought it home to show me and the boys. One son was 18 months old at the time, was so excited to see it and he ran up fast with his mouth wide open to see it while dad was holding it - that snake reared back and struck right at his face, our son backed up and said, 'stupid snake'. He wasn't even scared from the experience - it was hilarious. I was having an at home demo party with ladies when Jeff came home with it - all the women even the one giving the presentations - but I still got 'credit' for a having hosted the party, she came back the next day to collect all her wares she left behind. That too was hilarious those women acted like that.
We've also relocated several water snakes as they eat our fish!
I saw they had some snow up above 10,000 feet, said it was gone by 11am. Cloud cover kept us a bit warmer last night we were 49. During the summer we use 2 fans blowing in at one end of house, and 2 fans blowing out at the other end, to draw that cooler night air thru the house, close it up in morning before the temp starts rising for day. No A/C needed. Hard to garden but great for using electricity usage that's for sure. We too had rain, even small hail at times.
Turns out he took the girls up to a place near Powder Mtn. I saw videos of areas where the girls had to ride across flat rocked, uneven areas and they did really well. They even didn't mind the bit of rain that hit before they were done riding they were having so much fun. They have good bikes for all this but its so good that they love being able to do this stuff with their dad - sure beats sitting in front of TV or video games! All this was done before lunch. Once they got here all 3 were pretty chilled feeling and the enjoyed the hot lunch, hot cocoa and heated lap blankets we had waiting for them - our house wasn't the warm temps they were hoping for after cooling it the night before, LOL.
I'm heading out now to see how we faired with that little bit of hail that we had.
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Here is a pic I took of our smallest watermelon that had black seeds, had to pick it cause the vine died.
Also, just finished our third FD batch of peaches and I found a strange issue after I pull them out after the final drying cycle. In the pic you will see what looks like ice crystals but I think they are sugar crystals. Have you ever seen this?
Glad to hear your son and G kids made it back safe and had a good time.
49 degrees here last night.
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Nice melon. Have not seen a yellow meated watermelon since I left south Georgia.......[  ]
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Looks like yours was a lot closer to ready than ours was - so hopefully the next ones can grow before it really frosts.
We were 38 this morning, whew, no damage to the garden from that temp or hail that fell the other day - dodged that bullet for sure. The next week we aren't expected to get near that cold again. Bet you got your house cooled down didn't you?
Yeah, that is sugar crystals. We got little of that that when we did grapes, cut in half. Did you leave the skins on?, We always peeled the skin off our peaches before FDing, that way the it can get moisture out from all the exposed sides, yours look like maybe it could only pull moisture from that top side.
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They are tasty, just wished we'd not picked the one we did, it could have used a little longer on the vine so those white seeds could mature to black seeds.
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yikes, got 39 here last night, forecast was for 43 and it was still looking like we would maybe make that before we went to bed last night. We only opened one end of the house and had only one fan blowing out, but the house got down to 59 by this morning. No doubt fall is here for us. I'm already thinking about what things need done outside before it snows - LOL
I've been trimming up over grown trees, still have more of them to be done but sure is looking good so far. With all the rain of course all the water tanks are full and I've shut down the sprinkler system for a while at least. [  ]
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[quote jjannie] Bet you got your house cooled down didn't you?
Yeah, that is sugar crystals. We got little of that that when we did grapes, cut in half. Did you leave the skins on?, We always peeled the skin off our peaches before FDing, that way the it can get moisture out from all the exposed sides, yours look like maybe it could only pull moisture from that top side.[/quote]
It has been the same over night temps for several days now, haven't needed AC at all during the day.
Good to know about the sugar crystal, I kind of figured that was what it was, funny I've never seen that before and we have never peeled our peaches, maybe it was because the machine got done in the middle of the night and we had to leave it running until we got up. We have done another batch since then and they came out find, so that must have been it I guess[:/].
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[quote jjannie]yikes, got 39 here last night, forecast was for 43 and it was still looking like we would maybe make that before we went to bed last night. We only opened one end of the house and had only one fan blowing out, but the house got down to 59 by this morning. No doubt fall is here for us. I'm already thinking about what things need done outside before it snows - LOL
I've been trimming up over grown trees, still have more of them to be done but sure is looking good so far. With all the rain of course all the water tanks are full and I've shut down the sprinkler system for a while at least. [ ][/quote]
With the warmer temps today we turned our sprinklers back on. It was funny they were predicting 80% chance of rain on Weds and we got much less than we did on Tues, hardly even sprinkled here but it poured on Tues. Went fish at Willard today, wasn't nearly as good as last week.[  ]
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yes we got 3/4 of an inch of rain I think it was on Wednesday! Our sprinklers are still off. We'll water garden things by hand using rain water up. Looks like Tuesday will be another good chance of getting more rain once again.
Too bad the walleye fishing has been so odd this year.
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A little warmer last night, only down to 52, sure seemed much warmer today. Garden sure slows down on growing with all the cool temp.
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I think I found the problem with why I had those sugar crystals on the peaches after I pulled them out of the FDer. I think it was over loaded, with too much peaches. We have done two batches since that one batch and no issues whatsoever but on that one batch, we had four mylar bags of fruit that we got out of it and since we have only had 3 bags.
Another issue that I haven't run across, we had so many ripe peaches that we used our second set of trays, we cut up the peaches, put them on the trays, then put them in our freezer. This morning, after finishing our last batch, I took the trays out of our freezer and put them in the FDer. They were well frozen, so I was planning on turning down the freezing cycle but when I hit the little clock, to adjust the time down, it went right into the drying cycle, is that normal and if it isn't, do you think it will hurt, since the peaches were already frozen?
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you'll need to get fruit down to a much lower temp than your freezer can get to work properly. I'd run little shorter freeze cycle using manual settings, rather than just jumping to the dry cycle. We have two set of trays I put desk file holder in sideways so I can stack the trays in it on shelf. that way as I fill a tray with whatever it stays in freezer till I have 4 full trays, then I run a batch. The file tray holder keeps anything from encroaching into your tray's space too.
Maybe it was overloaded, but I think it more has to do with those skins being on them. Either way glad its working better for you.
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I've been pretty busy between tree trimming, hand watering the gardens to use up the water in the tanks (we 'll want them emptied for winterizing them and it is supposed to rain again on Friday) and caring for Jeff - he's been having wheat we thought was nerve pain in this latest knee replacement - after getting it checked by the surgeon, he4 feared it was not nerves but possibly a blood clot - but turns out there was no clot, so we're back to fighting the pain - its just so different than how the 1st knee went [crazy].
We're thinking of putting up a greenhouse over on the same side where the bales are. We spend so much time trying to protect some plants at both ends of the growing season it seems it'd be money well invested. Harbor Freight sells a 10x12 one that with a little beefing up to it, it should suit our needs. Think that may be our fall project to get it assembled and in place so it'll be ready for use come next spring. I'm hoping our two son's and maybe even our son-in-law will come the day of the major assembly process to speed up getting it done. I'll just need to provide lunch and dinner but that will be well worth having some help to get it done. The HF kit has a ton of pieces, nut. and bolts.
Seems my squash might be done for season, I haven't see any new blooms for some time.
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Got our high number for the year on green beans yesterday over 130, this cooler weather are making them turn on now, not sure if it will continue but I hope so. Picked our last watermelon yesterday after I notice the plants was dieing[ ]. Finally finished getting all the peaches on our oldest tree, been running our FDer constantly since we started picking them. Squash are slowing down with more and more leaves getting mildew on them. Cucumbers have had blossoms on them for three weeks now and not one cuke, might not get any this year.
Got down to 47 degrees overnight, saw a little snow on the very tops of our mountains yesterday morning, won't be long now. I'm already thinking about what I can do better next year in my garden.
Sorry to hear that Jeff is having issues with his knee replacement, hope things improve.
I have seen those HF greenhouses and I think they would greatly improve your early and late season gardening.
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low of 35 last night! Forecast was for 41! sweet potatoes in the box got lightly frost damaged everything else looks to be okay except for a little frost damage on the bean plants but not bad at all , a deer ate our two largest watermelons halfway on each and nibbled a cantaloupe too, they haven't ever eaten anything from the melons before!!!… UGH!!! I can say this those seeds were starting to turn black - LOL I'm heading out now to frost cover those sweet potatoes now cause Fri and Sat nights are only forecasted to be in the mid 30.
Gotta have that greenhouse for sure - just too many variables here. We know the HF need a little beafing them up but hopefully it'll serve frost probelms as well asd keep the deer off.
Jeff si still very haoppy to have this pain rather than the pain his knees were causing before. Its a ll relative.
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I was wondering, how many bean plants did you have? I only had 3 cause I wasn't sure how many beans I could get from each, but maybe I needed to plant few more than that.
We only got down to 43 - the forecasted temp - so no further damage has occurred.
I took a couple picture of the SP box that we made with the arched pvc frame with a cover on so you can see how it works. Jeff used some scrap 3/4 inch pvc to make the clamps, he cut out a section then sanded and rounded the corners and the cut edges so no sharp edges on them, they work nicely. Hopefully with Friday nights low of 37 forecasted and Saturday nights forecasted low is 38 we won't get too much colder than that! Think I'll cover some other things today as well. We put the same kind of frost cloth over the melons, mostly as deer deterrent but looks like it may need it for frost as well.
We mapped out the general location for the greenhouse. Of course we are running out sunny spots, I still need to remove some branches and could small trees here and there. I did want a little forest walkway 15 years ago and I did get one once all the trees grew, now I'm removing some of them. [crazy] [blush]
I picked large bowl of tomatoes, most were so hidden I didn't even realize they were there at first. Think I'll be processing something with them all. Hopefully if we cover stuff we can get at least couple more weeks for the other green ones to ripen up. There are a lot of green ones. I am sure we fried green tomatoes at least once in next couple weeks.[ ]
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I think I got 7 or 8 plants to come up but at least one hasn't done well because it's right beside my sunflower plant and it's not getting much sunlight. Here is another pic of my green bean plants, they are growing on a 9 ft long by a 6 ft tall section of an old dog run. This cooler weather is agreeing with them, just picked over 140. Here is a pic of what I just picked. I also got a strange colored carrot, not the best pic but it was white.
I like the clamps Jeff made great idea, where did you buy that frost cloth at? Nice haul on all the tomatoes.
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Yeah looks like Ill just need more bean plants next year. Have you ever tried adding little minced garlic and toss it all with olive oil then roasting them in the oven? Its pretty tasty. Nice trellis for them you got there too.
That is funny colored and looking carrot for sure.
We bought a huge roll of the frost cloth off Amazon several years ago. It was pricey but so nice to be able to cut the sizes you need, and you can just reuse it from year to year too. We just use clothespins to hold it place clipped right the trellises or even itself, except of course on the box where I now can use those clamps. It comes folded in half before it gets rolled up. Its nice since it lets light in and wont burn your plants if it stays in place once the sun shines on it like plastic can do. Ill see if I can find it send you a link to it so you can see it what it looks like.
Tomorrow our high should only be 56 so Jeff and I are going work tomatoes into something, we'll need to inventory to see what we need the most.
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Sorry it wasn't from Amazon, but we've had ours since 2013.
https://www.greenhousemegastore.com/yard...gJyMfD_BwE
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Was down to 46 here overnight, only 49 right now but seeing some clearing skies to the west. Sorry to hear your already getting frost damage[ ]. Sorry about the deer eating your watermelons. We have never tried minced garlic, with olive oil roast green bean but it sounds good. When it comes to cooking, we are pretty lazy, we just boils our vegs, then put seasoning on them. Thanks for the link to the frost cloth.
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