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Mr_Yan

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Kids back in school
Still pulling long hours (72.7 last week)
Garden sucks this year - really dry and never improved soil
 

w_r_ranch

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The crew arrived to start taking down the dead trees & cut lanes thru the woods. They got a lot done today... Mrs. Ranch was impressed when she saw a 36" wide oak tree turned into mulch & incorporated into the soil in less than 30 minutes, LOL!!! Man, this is the only way to clear land!!! They will be back Tuesday thru Thursday to finish up.

Made a pot of pinto beans & seasoned up the brisket.

Fed the cattle.
 
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M

Mr_Yan

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yesterday - 30 mile bike ride, 14.9 mph average speed, warmed to to 48 F by 9 a.m. at the end of the ride. I'm out of shape
 
K

ksk

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No water since yesterday afternoon.Checked the pump house and everything dead. Tomorrow being Labor Day,water well companies probably will not be working.I bought some gallon jugs of water and teaching the wife what it is to ration water as I did in the Navy.
 

w_r_ranch

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Made bread.

Put the brisket on the smoker at 225 degrees over hickory & post oak coals at 0900 hrs. I'll pull it at 1800 hrs & let it rest...

Made stuffed jalapenos.

Refilled 11 of the 12 hummingbird feeders. I can tell that their numbers are increasing as it took 2 gallons of nectar this morning.
 
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w_r_ranch

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No water since yesterday afternoon.Checked the pump house and everything dead. Tomorrow being Labor Day,water well companies probably will not be working.I bought some gallon jugs of water and teaching the wife what it is to ration water as I did in the Navy.

If you guys need to shower, you can come here & use the guest house & refill your water jugs.
 

w_r_ranch

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Watered all the trees, flowerbed, asparagus, porch pots & hanging baskets.

Fed the cattle.

Refilled the redbird feeders, then cleaned/refilled their water trough.
 
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M

Mr_Yan

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Local labor day truck parade - big rigs from local companies, fire truck, cement trucks...
Playground with kids
Whole trip on bikes. Mid way through the ride a local police officer stopped us and gave us helmet citations. Everyone was wearing a helmet so each "citation" is good for a free ice cream cone.
 
K

ksk

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If you guys need to shower, you can come here & use the guest house & refill your water jugs.
Thanks for the invite.Really appreciate it.Filled up the jugs at the in-laws. We took ''deer lease'' showers [heated pan of water] last night.Hopefully we will get a call in the morning from water folks.Glad I hadn't planned to feed a bunch of people today.
 

MR. G. L.

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9
been busy doing other things .. had cantaloupe volunteers come up started watering they are now putting on melons.. trimmed tomatoes down to about 26 to 28" started feeding an watering now have lots of blooms some small tomatoes forming (might be to hot to do any good) we will see . took advantage of Houston garden center clearance sale 5' tall Crepe Myrtles $ 15.00 got 2.. going in Wednesday for the dreaded colonoscopy . been cutting the yard an ditches went over to the new neighbors (that's starting a new house build ) an mowed there fence line . got . 7 tenths had a lot of showers go around us :rolleyes:
 
K

ksk

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Does anyone here grow blackberries?
I planted Quachitas three years ago.Planted them along my high fence around the garden.The second year I had enough that I canned many jars of blackberry jam.The berries are huge and very sweet.The top reason I choose them is they are thornless.The birds love them so much that I ended up putting a mesh over them to keep them away.It helped a little.The third year[this year] was little to none for some reason. I got maybe a handful. I'm not sure the reason.I did cut them back and maybe too much. This year I pruned them and very little cutting back. I water them all year and also fertilize also.The plants that I received were 8-10 inches long.They were planted in May,so I watered them a lot during that first summer. By the second year,some of my canes were 15 foot long.
 

wolffman

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I planted Quachitas three years ago.Planted them along my high fence around the garden.The second year I had enough that I canned many jars of blackberry jam.The berries are huge and very sweet.The top reason I choose them is they are thornless.The birds love them so much that I ended up putting a mesh over them to keep them away.It helped a little.The third year[this year] was little to none for some reason. I got maybe a handful. I'm not sure the reason.I did cut them back and maybe too much. This year I pruned them and very little cutting back. I water them all year and also fertilize also.The plants that I received were 8-10 inches long.They were planted in May,so I watered them a lot during that first summer. By the second year,some of my canes were 15 foot long.

I've been doing some research and that variety requires 300 "chilling hours". Maybe it was the light winter we had that caused them not to fruit.
 
K

ksk

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I've been doing some research and that variety requires 300 "chilling hours". Maybe it was the light winter we had that caused them not to fruit.
That is interesting. I'll go back and check my records and look and see how many cold days January through April. I know peaches need so many chilling hours and my peach tree[3 years old] was loaded.They recommended planting the berry plants in May,which I did.I planted 9 plants and lost tree.It took lots of watering for them to survive that hot,dry summer.
I forgot to mention a main reason I started growing blackberries,were Close Encounters with ''copperheads'' picking dewberries.The wife and I love dewberries but I'm not as quick as years ago.
 
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w_r_ranch

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Shredded the far back southeast pasture that the clearing crew finished last Saturday. The crew was cutting lanes in the woods today. It 's too hot to ride down there so I'll check it out tomorrow morning. I'm beat...
 
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M

Mr_Yan

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I've been doing some research and that variety requires 300 "chilling hours". Maybe it was the light winter we had that caused them not to fruit.
I just had to look up chilling hours. New term to me, but I've never been concerned about it not being cold enough for a plant to fruit.
 
M

Mr_Yan

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Home fermenting looks easy - from the outside looking in. Am I taking my life in my hands making saurkraut in jars at home? Can I really just mix cabbage, and salt in a jar and keep it on the with an airlock for weeks to months? I'm looking at this website for saurkraut.

I can buy local kraut at the farmer's market but all of it has caraway seeds which I'm not a big fan of outside of rye bread.
 
K

ksk

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I just had to look up chilling hours. New term to me, but I've never been concerned about it not being cold enough for a plant to fruit.
Our famous Hill Country peaches is ''feast or famine'' each year dependant on their ''chill hours''.
 

wolffman

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Location
Texas, Gulf Coast
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Home fermenting looks easy - from the outside looking in. Am I taking my life in my hands making saurkraut in jars at home? Can I really just mix cabbage, and salt in a jar and keep it on the with an airlock for weeks to months? I'm looking at this website for saurkraut.

I can buy local kraut at the farmer's market but all of it has caraway seeds which I'm not a big fan of outside of rye bread.


Easy, cleanliness is the key.
 

w_r_ranch

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Location
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Made bread.

Spent the day monitoring the clearing crew. The big mulcher is leaving tomorrow for it's next job & the small one will stay for another day. They'll be back here next year to do more tree trimming here & mulching wider lanes in the woods. It was worth every penny as the home site looks amazing!!!
 
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