Our temperature dived way down to a low of 7 degrees! Not fun to work outside so I did a lot of transplanting; seven flats worth of tomatoes and four flats of peppers. Boy, does that get my back but in just a few days the tomatoes have shot up and gotten nice and stocky.
I received my order from Sand Hill Preservation Center and planted more tomatoes, which are just coming up. They’ll be a little later but they’ll still be ready to set out in late May (in Wall o’ Waters). And I’ll have more than 27 seed varieties to offer next year.
Will put new chains on the big round baler. He kept breaking chains last summer during haying and that was a huge pain. They’re heavy and hard to thread. (They’re the big chains that drive the bars that make the bales in the bale chamber.) He later found out that someone had replaced the heavier links of the 851 baler chain with those of an 850, which are much lighter weight. Once that was done, he took the weed burner and burned our asparagus patches to get rid of the long dead grass and weeds. It looks so much better already!
Today I went out and refastened the chicken wire to the cattle panels next to the old cow corral. My chickens were escaping and running free. Soon they’ll be in my flower beds scratching dust wallows, then they’ll get in the garden and start pecking at peas, etc. I’ll catch them off their roosts in the goat barn tonight and clip the feathers on their wings, just in case I have some flyers in the bunch.
Will disassembled our three hoop houses. He’s going to build two 12′ x 32′ houses instead of the three 12′ x 16′ ones we have now, putting 6 mil greenhouse plastic on, which is guaranteed for four years. We had ripping during bad winds last year. That’ll be fun having more hoop house space!
I wish each of you a very blessed and joyous Easter! And don’t forget to can up that leftover ham and make bean soup from the bone. — Jackie
On my little greenhouse – the boys made it when the oldest was about 12 – I have put chicken wire under the plastic on the roof. It stands up to snow loads, hail, and wind much better. Maybe it would help on the hoop houses.
Thanks Jackie, I been thinking of taking a trip to a small Amish town near here. They have a really great hardware store there, and I’m betting I could pick up a grinder that will last and work well, from them. They have one fantastic restaurant there, too. Their cinnamon rolls will almost cover a 7″ plate.
gen
belle,
We’ll have doors on each end which we’ll open each morning as it WILL get hot in there with no ventilation. There are automatic vent openers that you could use in large, lightweight windows on top of the doors or beside them if you can’t get there to open the doors as well as large fans on timers if you needed them.
Cindy,
The beaver pond is just now melting; part clear with a little ice in the middle. Soon I should be seeing beavers. We’ll see what they say in a few weeks.
gen,
I use my manual meat grinder every year to make my relish. I also grind left-over roast beef, onions and potatoes to make hash, among other things. A very handy tool.
A very happy Easter to you, Will and your family Jackie!
jackie , do you have to really increase the ventilation with the longer hoophouse? here in Maine it is still cold at night but days go over 125 in the greenhouse before I get there to open it up!
May you and Will and all of your family have a very blessed Easter.
It is 41F here now (with high winds) and we are west of you. It will be coming your way soon. My indoor tomatoes look almost as good as yours and I am a rank amateur so for now I am feeling good. (Of course the aerial crop dusting so common on the western plains usually wipes mine out – I still am starting out optimistic – again!)
May the Easter bunny visit – but leave your seedlings alone!
Jackie, We too changed our plastic last year to 6 mil and it does hold up better. Yes, it costs more but holds up much better!! Even with the heavy snow it is still there.
Your tomatoes are gorgeous!! It makes you drool to think of the fruit they will bear in just a few short months.
So have you seen those rascal beavers yet??
Happy Resurrection Day to you!!!
Gotta get me one of those weed eaters!
I wish you and yours a wonderful Easter full of peace and joy. Your homestead is slow in waking up this spring but I know that when it does…it will take off and produce some of the BEST tomatoes ever. God bless you all and thank you for sharing your lives with us. It helps keep me going. :)
Happy Easter! Nice looking set of tomatoes.
I was looking at manual meat grinders today, the boxes didn’t say, but I THINK a person could use them to grind vegies for canned relish. They looked like what my ex mother in law used when we made green tomato relish. I don’t want an electric grinder, it really didn’t take a lot of time to use the manual one. I’m trying to make do with non electric appliances, especially the small ones. I live in a total electric area, and this winter was extremely hard on the wallet, lol. It isn’t really cold here any more, just damp and chilly, I’m sorry it’s still being what I consider FRIGID in your neck of the woods. Our tulips have bloomed, and the red buds are beautiful. Our pear trees have blossomed, so I’m praying we don’t have a late freeze. I’m re reading your books, and I wish I could pre order your new one, but it will just have to remain on my wish list for while. OH, and I forgot to tell you, the turkey my dad and I canned, he is LOVING IT. (He uses the pressure canner, I do the prep work!)
I was desperate enough to garden today that I planted 2 tomato seeds outside in wall-o-waters, but I filled them with hot water instead of cold. We’ll see how that works. It was a tomato variety I have plenty of, so I could afford to experiment.
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