What did you do in the garden today?

[gtaus]

I brought salad in for tonight. Fixed the handle on the shovel part of the poop scoop
had rotted. took the handle knocked out the dead spot fed more handle up reset the screw.

Love it when people are able to "fix" stuff instead of buying replacements.

I've repaired a number of wooden handled tools with broken handles using handles from other tools with a broken metal end part. It might take 2 broken tools to rebuild one, but better that than losing both tools. I've also salvaged "broken" tools from being thrown out by others. Again, it's a matter of finding a good handle on one tool and matching it up with a good end on another.

Our local church thrift store will put some broken items outside for free pickup knowing that some people, like me, will take that item and fix it with other parts. Better that than tossing everything into the dumpsters.

Having said all that, I now try to buy my new tools with fiberglass handles which don't rot out to begin with like the wood handles eventually do.

FYI, I recently had a good tool end that I wanted to repair with a new handle. I went to the local Fleet store to buy a new handle as I had no handles left in my supply. Anyways, the bare handle was more expensive than buying the same new tool with a handle!

Some things I just don't understand.

In that case, I just put it aside and a few weeks later I found a used handle that would work if I carved it down a bit. Now it looks like new!

 

[WthrLady]

An old lady that lived next to my great aunt would make huckleberry pie. She would go into the woods at the edge of town to pick them, in the general area of NE PA. I loved that pie, I still remember the experience of eating it when I was young.

LOVE LOVE LOVE huckleberry pie.

 

[WthrLady]

This is the plant with bristles all over the stems. The leaves don't look like gooseberry leaves so I don't know what it is. I'll watch the fruit as it ripens.

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I'm going to have some Oregon grapes this year.

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And salal berries.

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I don't know what this shrub is. I ate a couple of the purple berries yesterday and they were good. Didn't get sick so I guess they're not poisonous.


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This pollinator is at work on the salal blossoms. Looks like a bumblebee but I don't think it is.

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The red huckleberry shrub...

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And chickens...

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Wild prickly rose

 

[gtaus]

I put the first bean trellis up this morning. I think it's about 9 feet tall, so I hope the 6 foot T-posts will hold it up. Made from free stuff- posts were left here when I bought the house. I found the cattle panel on OfferUp, free for the taking. I also got a big section of concrete reinforcing mesh and a second cattle panel. Free is good!

I started training the bean vines onto the panel.


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Love hearing about your builds with free stuff! Keep posting.

 

[gtaus]

Willie was looking good and sounded great. Much better than a couple of years ago when his emphysema was so bad.
...
Edited to add. Can you see how beat up Willie’s guitar is! That is a big ol hole where there isn’t supposed to be one.

Willie's guitar, "Trigger" is world famous. I think he has had that same guitar since around 1969. Over the years, his guitar pick just wore out that hole.

I'm not a big country fan, but I do like lots of Willie's songs. Also, I really admire someone who does what he loves for as long as he has been performing. Good to hear that at 90 years old he still has that magic.

 

[Smokerbill]

Wild prickly rose

Thank you! I guess I'll have some rose hips to eat this fall for a vitamin C boost!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_acicularis

 

[Smokerbill]

OK. I had a thought.

I see chicken feathers laying around the yard, and remembered that feather meal is an ingredient in organic fertilizers. So why not make our own organic fertilizer?

Chicken bones, blood if you process birds for meat, and feathers. Egg shells too. I'm not sure how they'd be processed, but I'm guessing bake them in the oven and disintegrate it all in a food processor.

I think there are some mineral ingredients included.

Organic fertilizer is so dang expensive!

Just thinking....

 

[gtaus]

Little emotional this evening. Last Friday I purchased a used Murray riding mower that looked like a really good deal. The original owner had the shop put in a brand new engine, but then he never came back to pay for the mower. I got the mower for half the price of the new engine and repair bill, so I was pretty happy about that. It rained all weekend, so this evening was the first chance I got to take it out for a test drive. Found out really fast that the shop had not checked the brakes on the riding mower and almost got myself into an accident going down a gentle slope with no way to slow down the mower. Immediately called the shop and left a message for the small engines manager. Will be talking to her tomorrow.

I'm sure they will fix the problem, but point is it should have never been put up for sale without proper checkout - especially something as critical as brakes! I have been buying new and used riding mowers from them for over 35 years, and they are considered to be the best in town, but this situation could have resulted in real injury. Nothing worse than the feeling you get sitting on top of spinning blades on a run-away machine that you have no ability to stop.

Not looking forward to that conversation tomorrow with the shop manager....

To make things worse for me, I had borrowed my brother's trailer to pick up the mower and he took it back home this weekend. He lives about 3 hours away, and won't be bringing the trailer back until sometime later in July. So, my "new" used mower might end up sitting in my shed, taking up space, and not even getting used for the better part of the summer. Bummer.

 

[TJAnonymous]

LOL. Your melons need a bra!

 

[TJAnonymous]

A pumpkin in June? Wow!

Yup... I've got another larger one that will be ready in the next few days! They both came out of the volunteer pumpkin patch that sprouted up on the edge of a wood chip pile that composted down. Since they were volunteers, they got an early start.... The pumpkins I planted in the garden proper still have a long while before they are ready.