Opa's place -Where an old rooster visits with friends

[Opa]

I does look like it is going to be another good day. I'm sitting here having coffee with Granny and Hope has gone to her son's place to babysit. I'm trying to decide if I want to work today or wait until tomorrow. I've got to finish cleaning a customer deck and it can't be power washed. The deck is huge and due to the white pine trees dripping sap and coating it with pollen it's a mess. Also since it is so heavily shaded mildew covers a substantial section. The only way to clean it is first with a scraper to remove the sap and then with a scrub brush. Slow work. Most of it is done but since the temperatures are rising quickly and tomorrow is forecasted to be cooler I think I will procrastinate just a little.

 

[1muttsfan]

Last week I finally saw the culprit that had been raiding my garden, eating tomatoes and the tops off of the carrots - a young woodchuck that fled under the chicken house as soon as it saw me. While I know Opa would say a firearm would be the most permanant solution, that won't work for me because 1. I would probably shoot and hit a chicken or a window and 2. I don't have a gun. So I borrowed a live trap. Since we went fishing in Escanaba this weekend I waited to set it until we got back. But, when we pulled in the driveway Sunday evening, the little devil had dug a burrow into the side of the slope of my drain field. Grrrrrr!

With the help of an apple, the varmint walked right into my trap yesterday, and was relocated in a wilder setting. Good riddance!

 

[Opa]

I'm glad that it worked out for you. Woodchucks are sometimes difficult to get to enter a live trap. I'm glad it worked out for you as they can be terribly destructive.

 

[Mom 2em All]

My oldest son once told me about a individual he visited that had all of his tomatoes in 5 gallon pails suspended 12' in the air. Each plant came out the bottom of the pail. The pails were all lidded and he had a drip irrigation system attached so that he could insure that a finite amount of water went directly to the roots of each plant. His entire garden was covered with a large hoop structure ventilated in such manner as to allow him to control the temperature. He planted his tomatoes on the 1st of March and was still harvesting tomatoes well into November.

Sam,

Is that like the upside down tomato thing they sell on tv? eta: heres the link http://www.topsygardening.com/ I had one of those one year. I planted the poor tomato plant in it, upside down. And it grew and bent itself upwards toward the sun, along the side of the container. Didnt give me any tomatoes. I figured it spent all of its energy trying to grow upwards.

 

[Opa]

Quote:
I guess it would be the same thing except he used 5 gallon pails so I'm sure it was cheaper than the TV jobs.

 

[Mom 2em All]

I guess it would be the same thing except he used 5 gallon pails so I'm sure it was cheaper than the TV jobs.

I was pondering your post...I bet because he has his up so high- 12 ft? I wonder if thats why it works better. My plant was not up that high- I had it eye level. I wonder if being up higher gives the plant more sun so it doesnt try curving upwards. hmm. The bucket would definitely work better than the teevee one. That one was flimsy plastic like a bag. Bucket would hold moisture in longer for sure.

 

[1muttsfan]

Good morning all, beatiful day here, a little cooler (59) but very nice.

There are several ways that tomatoes are catagorized. One is by how they grow - determinate (bush-type) and indeterminate (more like vines). Bush-type plants would probably not work as well in an upside-down system, as they continue to try to grow upwards into a bush.

Sam, I found another huge excavation along the back of my garage, not sure if it is the same varmint or a different one, but set the trap again this morning. Grrr!

 

[Opa]

Rarely is there just one. Woodchuck can be funneled into a trap as long as they can see thru the trap.

 

[rrrmamma]

Beautiful morning here at Camolot Farm. All the windows are open with a gentle breeze and the morning sounds coming in. Barn cats are at the door asking for breakfast, chickens are happily chuckling, and the wild birds are singing. It is cooler today. Yesterday I finally got the front porch painted. It really changed the look of the front of the house. It gave me a sense of accomplishment, since I have been gone most of the summer and had a bad fibro attack when I go home. Found a great chiropractor who has me walking straight again and the relief from the pain has given me my energy back. Got to make a long drive to the VA hospital in Chillocothe today or my husband's appointment, That will kill most of the day for getting anything done here, but the upside is I can go to Menards on the way home and pick up the supplies I need for my next projects. Life is good!

 

[1muttsfan]

rrrmamma glad to see you so happy