Good morning!!!!

[WoodChuckDad]

I had a visitor yesterday. He was born (~1950) and raised in this (farm) house. They farmed this 80 acres here and his Dad did custom corn shelling. The 3,000 bushel corn crib (full cobs) is still here. They heated the house with the cobs (haven't heard about that kind of heat for years...). We spent a couple hours visiting while I gave him a complete tour. He told me all about "the old days" growing up here. He told me that they hand dug the basement, from below the standing house. He seemed satisfied that I was reviving the place, after the prior owner had let it go... He still is the area, collects old Deere tractors and even has the old Rumely Oil Pull tractor that has been in the family since new, and was used on this farm. Very interesting, getting the history of this place first hand.

That sounds like a very nice visit. Now I have to find something to read on corn cob heat. Never heard of it.

 

[daugen]

someone posted some woodpecker holes, well....
I won't have to dig up these stumps if this one very large red headed woodpecker has his way.
He loves these stumps

 

[rswyan]

72F with bright sunshine @ 10:00, heading up to around 79F for the day's high.

Storms came through last night, mostly to the south of us but it did rain here (nothing severe though) and I could hear the thunder rumbling in the distance. LWS reports that we got a total 0.79" which amounts to a good watering that will keep things humming along and growing.

Did not get tube feeders refilled yesterday, that will be high on the agenda for today though ... particularly given that one side of the plexiglass on the hopper feeder, which has had a long vertical crack in it for over a year, finally gave out yesterday ...

Set the deck on the Cub up to 3.25" and got the entire front mowed. From the looks of it, I could have easily gone up to 3.5" and will do so next mowing ... which probably isn't that far off, given last night's rain ...

Woman got back from renewing registration and doing a little grocery shopping, helped Her unload the car.

USPS arrived with the Amazon order for the new square pots, package was too large for the box up at the road so the mailman came all the way down to the house and dropped it off, along withe regular mail ...

After that I started mowing down here around the house, got that probably 90% done. Just a little over on the west side and the northeast corner left.

At that point it was clouding up and I had had enough so I headed around back and started cleaning things up tearing down the shelves to relocate them.

Got two sections torn down, one section put back up, and started loading all the plants that had been potted out of the seedling trays into the dump cart to move around back:

Took three trips but eventually got them all moved around back and put up on the shelves, tomatoes and peppers on the top, cabbage and broccoli on the lower shelf:

Did some further clean up back there after that and then came on in for dinner.

Woman had made stuffed peppers which were very good ... as they usually are ...

Later, after dinner, I started working on potting more tomatoes. Got 10 Bush Beefsteaks and 4 Crimson Cushions done. Finished up around 01:00.

Agenda for the rest of the day:

Refill tube feeders.

Spray east side of house and edge of driveway near house with glyphosate, if not too windy.

Refuel the Cub.

Collect up the straw that was used to mulch the strawberries and move it out of the way so that we have room to put up the hoops over the strawberries for the netting.

(We left enough slack in the netting over the berries that the weeds that are coming up is holding the netting up and giving the plants room to grow ... finally a good use for weeds ... )

Hose off some t-posts so they can be wire brushed and repainted.

Spray the other side of the remesh panels with phosphoric acid to treat them for rust.

Plus whatever else comes up.

Another new iris bloom, this time yellow:

Trees finally leafing out, native dogwoods in full bloom:

Hope everyone is having a decent Tuesday ...

 

[Popgadget]

Popgadget, can you (or should I say "should you") move the left side's piping start/end points closer to the right side's manifold? I know nothing about this. But it looks like a good serpentine path. I wonder how long PEX will last, buried in concrete, and what happens if the slap gets a slight hairline crack? I hope it lasts for a hundred years.

Good observation. I have tweaked the layout some, removing the loop from the long hallway/laundry room and using the feeds to all the other loops to heat that area. It will actually have a higher density of tubing than the areas with loops.

That will leave a “cool area” for Zoe to sleep on as well.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good morning! Low of 47°, heading towards 67°. Winds still blowing, but supposed to be less than yesterday, 20-25 mph w/ gusts to 35.

No damage from yesterday's wind, highest gust was 55.4 mph. Lots of dirt blowing around.

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! To Fritz. Hope it was enjoyable.

Buppies, not good news.... when it's LaNina, we are usually hotter and drier. That will probably put us into the 'exceptional' level of drought. Hope you are feeling better.

Speaking of dryness.... today is drip irrigation day. Hopefully I'll get most of the zones done. At this point, each zone is once a week for 1 1/2 hours. Once the daytime temps get up into the mid 80's, twice a week starts.

The fields are finally growing / greening up. If we don't get any rain, soon to be very brown..... Can't irrigate out there....

Drew, hope you get to feeling better. Seems that it was around this same time last year that you experienced similar. Wonder if allergies are a contributing factor?

Scott, any progress on the rockers?

All quiet on the western front so far today. All subject to change without notice. Yesterday afternoon the troublemakers started bothering the wife again.... for a second, I almost got involved. My better judgment won and I just went and took a nap.... far better that way.....
I feel bad for the wifey being in the middle, but she WANTS to be peacekeeper.....

I'm going to do a small project in the shop today. There is a bright blue 24" plastic cover over our water shut off valves. Sticks out like a sore thumb in the landscaping of the courtyard. Going to make a wood cover out of PT deck board scraps, stained to match the rest of the wood out there.

I have run multiple ideas through my mind.... from fancy circular 'flower' look, to simple rectangle..... I guess it will be determined once I get started....

Everyone have a great day!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

That's a Pilated woodpecker, not a red headed. They can tear up some wood. Neat to watch on an old tree.

 

[m7040]

I had a visitor yesterday. He was born (~1950) and raised in this (farm) house. They farmed this 80 acres here and his Dad did custom corn shelling. The 3,000 bushel corn crib (full cobs) is still here. They heated the house with the cobs (haven't heard about that kind of heat for years...). We spent a couple hours visiting while I gave him a complete tour. He told me all about "the old days" growing up here. He told me that they hand dug the basement, from below the standing house. He seemed satisfied that I was reviving the place, after the prior owner had let it go... He still is the area, collects old Deere tractors and even has the old Rumely Oil Pull tractor that has been in the family since new, and was used on this farm. Very interesting, getting the history of this place first hand.

That is always cool to get some of the history of the place

one of our neighbors Martha was born on our farm 1932 and she has told us many stories about life on the farm. The county took it on as a research project and wrote a nice report about the history of the place complete with research of Deeds and historical maps
The original Deed was taken out in 1802 for a 200 acre homestead by a German immigrant that had worked in the milling industry. Only 3 deeds all this time. The report detailed what was was found about the families and when the various buildings were put up

 

[kenmbz]

Just had a Sikorsky S76c land and take off from a house behind me.
That was loud.

 

[Buppies]

Interesting history m7040

Thanks LS

Feel better Drew no worries from me

Neat stuff gstrom 99 love history and stories of old homes in fact anything old

 

[riptides]

Just had a Sikorsky S76c land and take off from a house behind me.
That was loud.

Was it a black ops helicopter? They might have got the address wrong.