Texas Spring/Summer Thread

[robbyr]

Jinman, I gotta know with all the garden picking you do, how do you keep your back from hurting like ****?
I usually just have seven short rows of purple hull peas about fifteen feet long and by the time get thru picking them my back is killing me. Or the two or three rows of squatting to pick snap beans.
BTW, used a version of your recipe for spaghetti sauce. I didn't add any tomato sauce or paste when making the sauce but did put two small cans of tomato sauce in when I made the spaghetti. It was probably the best I've ever had. Gotta try pacerron's cheese pepper recipe.

 

[jinman]

Robby, I'm glad the sauce worked out. If you have fresh tomatoes and just add the stuff you like, I don't think you can go wrong with making sauces of any kind. However, if you buy the tasteless tomatoes from the store, you have to add something for flavor and that's where things get interesting. My salsa has been a tremendous hit with neighbors and my grandkids. I was shocked when their eyes lit up and they started digging in for more. I must have done something right.

I DO get backaches while picking peas, but I stand up straight and stretch a bit and then get back into it. Three or four ibuprofen also helps. I like to fib a bit and tell folks that if you grow vines as large as mine, you don't have to bend over to pick peas. That's only slightly a fib, you understand.:laughing: Beans are definitely the toughest, but okra is right on my level and easy to pick.

 

[pacerron]

I sit on one of those plastic square crates that is about a foot cube when picking green beans the first time for canning. Still have to bend over but not as much as when standing. For later picking we just pull up the vines and pick them while standing.
My wife is still able to sort of squat and pick but that would lock my knees up.
One of the reasons I am interested in black eyed peas is because I thought the pea pods were higher up on the plant making them easier to see and pick. Am I wrong?:confused3:
Ron

 

[pacerron]

Speaking of bending over and standing up, I was turning off the gas on the grill last evening and as I stood up I caught a glimpse of some unwanted guests on the house. See if you can spot them in photo # 1?
You can see in photo # 2 that it is an active nest. Usually nests this large are in big trees but every couple years or so
they build on the house or barns.
Do you folks have the same problem in Texas?
We usually leave them alone until freezing weather and then try to knock the nest down with a pole when they are on the house. Scraping off the paper glue they attach with is a real problem that high.
Any suggestions?:confused2:
Ron

 

[Bird]

Ron, I've never seen a hornet's nest like that in my part of the country. We do have at least 2 or 3 different kinds of wasps that build paper nests held on by a short stem, and we have mud daubers.

 

[sseelhoff]

108.5. My temperature sensor is the shade. Yikes.

 

[farmgirl19]

105 here, in the shade! I hear it will be warmer tomorrow.

pacerron, I have a friend that had a hornet's nest like that in a tree one year. Didn't know they were there, until he fired up the smoker under that tree! I think he had to have someone finally come and remove it, because it would have been months before they went dormant enough to not be a danger. Scary that they can get that big, and noone notice it before.

 

[Bird]

Officially 105 in Denton, and the same forecast for tomorrow. My infrared thermometer showed 105 to 107 at different places in the shade on my patio. I never have liked August.

 

[pacerron]

Scary that they can get that big, and noone notice it before.

Seems that way but we have checked our roof numerous times this summer for proper sealing since it was replaced late last fall and we did not notice this nest till last night. I think a lot of it has to do with the distance from the ground and the exponential growth of the hive workers/hive.
Only 88 here today but seemed like 95 because of humidity. I rushed to run the finish mower over the horse pasture as bad storms were predicted for this afternoon. We only got a few drops of rain and it moved on to the east.

 

[jinman]

"Wasp-es build nest-es out west on post-es as big as my fist-es." My mother would say that to teach me what the proper plural of those words is by saying all the wrong things. I was amused to hear Gollum in The Hobbit use the same phrasing. Our paper wasps don't make nests like the one you showed, Ron. I think our wasps are generally not as easily irritated as your hornets. They generally leave you alone unless you get very close to their nest. . .es. :laughing: