I’ve been looking and looking for that first spring robin. I usually spot them in cut-over hayfields early in the spring. This morning, while driving into town to mail seed packages, there he was. His/her back was to me, but no other bird does the hop, hop, stop, other than a robin. Now it feels like spring! And the weather has warmed up nicely. Yep, I know we’ll get more cold and more snow. But that’s spring in northern Minnesota. I had to laugh as I’m getting boxes of spring flower bulbs like glads. I won’t be able to plant them until June, so down in the basement with the onions and potatoes until then.
Will and Drew have been getting the manure spreaders ready to work. Our friend had a lot of wood ash delivered via semi-truck load, expecting to pay $5 an acre to get it spread. On second check, it was over $1,500 to spread what he has piled up on a hayfield! Will figured it could be spread with our manure spreaders. At no cost. So, now they’re over there, waiting to be used. I had to laugh. Will’s method of cutting hay strings off of the manure spreader beaters, where they get wound up en masse, is to burn them. He used to cut them off and it took hours. It’s a little scary to see them burn, but he does it in the middle of the gravel driveway near the water hoses and fire extinguisher. Nope, it isn’t “safe,” but it sure cuts down on the time it takes to get them off. I can’t watch.
The guys hauled a bunch of the swamp pads home from the front clearing to stack up at home. Will wants to use three of them to make a platform under the stock tanks so the cows don’t have to walk in the mud that always happens next to them due to overflows and/or leaks. Yes, they’ll eventually rot as they aren’t treated. But we have more to replace them.
While they were doing that, I got four flats of pepper seedlings transplanted. I’ve got quite a few more as we really like our peppers, in about everything, especially Cowboy Candy, Cowgirl Candy, and the relishes I make, not to mention lots of Cowboy Candy syrup I make extra to can up alone. While doing that, I discovered something. I didn’t think pepper stems had root buds on them like tomatoes do. I’ve always buried long stems in the soil when transplanting them, just to sturdy them up and keep them from flopping. When I was transplanting, I noticed some Striped Sugar Rush seedlings already had some roots starting to grow from the stem. See, you’re never too old to learn something!
The greenhouse is now going and nice and toasty for the little peppers to enjoy. Today I’ll be planting more. Yea spring! — Jackie
I’m glad your wildflower is doing well. We had one purple Lady’s Slipper over on the hill a few years ago. One. I keep looking every June but haven’t seen it again. I’ll look again this year with prayers first.
I sure hope you get some nice rain to help you plant afterward.
I hope that twine is not plastic (so toxic to burn). And YES, that looks SCARY! I don’t blame you for not looking. Garden is slow at getting put in (should have transplanted peppers and tomatoes 2 weeks ago and I don’t even have seeds planted yet! Oh well. Delay a bit longer and start them in May/June and transplant in July/August for the fall garden (first average frost is mid November here). During July/August the garden does not produce well here anyway (to HOT). It is dry here as well. We are under burn bans most days right now. Supposed to have rain starting tomorrow evening with possibility of severe storms on Thursday and Saturday.
I sure hope you don’t get severe storms. Rain is great. But those bad storms sure do a lot of damage. Yep, sometimes we just don’t get some things done we planned on doing. However, most of the time, it all works out in the end.
That’s Scary looking Will. Glad he feels safe in doing it. Pepper nodes!? Wow one learn something new everyday 1 robin is something to smile about Spring is gaining but still too chilly to plant and get a good turnout. Even had peas rot in this type of spring over the years. If you can be patient and wait, guess we all can. Sure hard on the days it 60+! Though they followed by 20’ nights. Be careful as always Will!
Oh, he’s very careful! I will admit, it sure gets the wound-up strings off much faster than cutting them off by the handful. We’re getting some more cold, as we expected. They’re even talking about 6″ of snow tonight. Yuck.
It warmed up enjoyed that I fired up my Mantis tiller. Every fall I winterize it. It ran perfectly and I tilled between the garlic rows. Next to see if my 1965 Troy Horse will work-i put a new carburetor on it. It wiil take adjusting. A friend called and said he lot of blocked up oak and cherry I could have for free. He quit heating with wood -age/time related. It’s a huge pile and I hauled home a third of it with a dump trailer. The plan is to get the rest over time. I like to split up with my grandsons. My splitter is now 40 yrs old. No parts are available for it -so I had a local welder make a new wedge. Everything including me is getting old. I too have noticed peppers having roots on the stems and I also plant up to there “necks”.its my job to clean twine (now plastic off the beaters on the spreader). I use a utility knife and it takes time. Fire may be the answer.
I used to use a Mantis all the time. But over the years, the quality of the machine went in the toilet. Our newer ones would not last two years. I’m assuming yours is an older model. Maybe we just use ours too hard.
I’ll bet your old TroyBilt Horse will work great. I love those old beasts. I had one that got frozen in our spring’s overflow ice all winter. When I went out to see if it would start, fearing the worst, it came to life after only two pulls, took off, flew down the hill and landed upside down, still running! It lasted many years after that too.
That’s great about getting all that hardwood! Our tractor-mounted splitter is also very old, but we would sure hate to go back to splitting by hand.
Here, here, “splitting by hand”. So glad to have a splitting machine. However, didn’t need it for at least 5 years after got it. We had piles of firewood, already cut and split from downed trees after the Carr fire in 2018. There were church crews that went out in this huge area, to residences, cutting down and cleaning up fire damage. They did the cutting and splitting. It was the property owners from whom we got firewood. Now? We just purchase our firewood, $350/cord. Regards from far north California.
Most of NE in severe drought, with some in extreme. Weather is still a windy roller coaster which has made the wildfires to the west difficult to fight. Another calf was born yesterday, when I tried to walk up to it the cow had her eyes & ears in a ‘back off Bi—h I got this’ look, so I quietly retreated lol. Calf is fine. My miniature purple iris my mom got from her mom is starting to bloom. Tomatoes & peppers are up & under grow lights. Jackie, I’ve never used those little peat pots like you have your peppers in. Do you need to remove the netting before planting? Wishing all a blessed Easter and good weather!
No, I don’t remove the netting as it does degrade in the soil. I know what you mean about the mother cow’s scowl when you approach the calf. Some cows are fine where others definitely don’t want anyone messing with junior. You were wise to back off.
Have a very blessed Easter!
Better half got squash/zuke vines wrapper around the tillers tines one time. A much smaller implement but yes, it took me a long time to remove them. Now I make sure all vines are pulled before he tills. Burning wouldn’t have been an option on the Troy-Bilt.
It hit 80 here today and calling for rain (which we need) tomorrow through Saturday. Sunday is supposed to be windy so planting on Good Friday will likely be delay a few days.
I was worried about an early blooming wildflower – the name eludes me – as I had not seen it yet on our property. A house we considered buying has a very nice patch of them. I took a walk this morning and was relieved. Not only blooming but has spread quite nicely. While I didn’t hike to the farthest patch, nary a garlic mustard to be found in the patch. I’ve been gently removing any garlic mustard in the patch these past few years. Will keep an eye on it however.
$1500 for a one time job (even with fuel costs) is outrageous. My guess is the person who provided the bid didn’t really want to do the job. But if s/he did, it would be profitable.
Here in far north California, of course our governor long ago put about 68 cents tax on diesel/and/or/ unleaded per gallon. All refineries are closing as per his orders. Wants to drive them cars out of the state. Glad he’ll be outta here by the fall election when his term is up. Anyway, when you mentioned the cost of work, my husband’s now charging $125/hour general construction (tons of “takers”) because his diesel fuel is now $7/gallon!