What did you do in the garden today?

[CNJ]

I moved my pineapple plants today. I couldn't handle the OCD feeling. I will plant sweet potato instead.

I grew Prairie Fire last year. I'll send you the rest of my seed packet if you want it. I wasn't impressed, personally.

Its already on its way, thanks for the gesture.

I took some pictures of my squash reaching the trellis, the empty spot where my 4 pineapples were, and where I moved them. I put two in my chicken's dirt bath box. I saw one Peking it out of curiosity, the leaf was too hard for the chicken to get a piece.

My chickens can't get in the 6ft x 6ft planter. It has a plastic bird net wrapped around it. They don't like it; I think they are afraid of their feet getting caught on the netting. One side is only a foot and a half tall, and all 4 sides are held up with wooden close pins.

I will take away the netting once the potato plants are flourishing, and let the chickens eat the leaves. By that time the okra should be tall enough and all of the squash branches should be on the overhead trellis.

 

[fuzzi]

We're in Charlotte, NC, visiting FIL who is in his 80s now. Sunny, warm (high 70s, low 80s), and I'm going to do some yard work today.

Yesterday, DH and I got out the "big, heavy ladder," to clean out gutters. FIL would try to do it and he shouldn't be doing that kind of thing any more. It was a struggle for DH and me to get that thing up and extended high enough to reach to second story gutters!

I'm going to rake and -- no! -- bag the leaves to go out to the curb for pick up on Friday. Seems a shame to throw them away, but they have no garden and no chickens to help take care of that kind of organic debris.

My dad was like that, doing things that made me nervous.

Checking out the starter on his RV home, age 93. Diagnosed with cancer but still getting up and doing stuff. Nine months later he went Home.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

I have to get the beds in shape this weekend

 

[Tstraub]

I harvested the last of the kohlrabi today. They were smaller than I wanted but we had a couple nights in the mid 20s and the leaves took some frost damage so I figured something is better than nothing and I picked them. There wasn’t enough to bother blanching and freezing so I’m cooking it with dinner tonight. My garden is officially done for the 2023 season.

 

[gtaus]

Curious. Info on Enviro/Tech Ink is not readily popping up in searches. I assumed they would have a dedicated website.

I could find nothing on the trademark logo. Which is why I am asking others if they have any idea of company and/or product.

I did find more of a description of the ink on this publication. Sounds like it’s just more environmentally friendly than most and recyclable, but not necessarily home compostable.

That blurb on the .pdf seems to indicate that the magazine was 100% recyclable. Unfortunately, I don't know if that means it is also 100% compostable for use in a food garden. Are the 2 the same, or different? I don't know.

I wouldn’t put it in my garden compost just to be on the safe side.

I certainly don't want to add toxic materials to my garden compost, but it really would be nice to shred up those magazines and use them as compostable materials. Not that I need more compost paper products, but I am really trying to reduce the amount of stuff we dump off at the recycle center - because I basically don't believe that any of it gets recycled.

It's been a long journey for me. Back in the day, we used to bag up our grass clippings and leaves in plastic bags and then send them to the dump. We used to fill up the back of the pickup with all kinds of tree branches and stuff and haul them off to the landfill. All our household waste was dumped in plastic garbage bags and dropped off at the dump. Over time, I got used to the idea of recycling some products, like glass, metal, plastics, and paper products. So, that was a small step forward, even though I have never seen any proof that our "recyclable" materials were ever recycled. Anyways, once I got chickens, I started dumping all the grass clippings and leaves into the chicken run. Almost all our kitchen scraps and unwanted leftovers get put into the chicken buckt and fed to the girls. All our wood tree branches and logs get used in hügelkultur raised garden beds, or at least used to burn out stumps here on the property. Almost all our paper products and cardboard are shredded at home and used first as chicken coop litter, and then later as compost material for use in my raised bed food gardens. Almost nothing organic leaves my property. But I am always actively looking for more ways to reuse our "garbage" before it ends up in the dump or landfill. Colored magazines are about the last paper product I have yet been able to reuse because of the toxic ink issue. But I think that might be changing, too.

 

[karenerwin]

I was gifted 52 ears of corn on the cob. I gifted 16 of those to a friend. I want to get the kernels off the cob and can them. Does anybody have any great DIY tricks to get the kernels off the cob quickly ?

 

[gtaus]

https://media.prod.bunnings.com.au/...af843a4b20bea2f018ebc36?v=c5efadd4&t=w500dpr2

I am not familiar wth that Ryobi saw. Is it a tile saw? A cut-off saw?

Ryboi does make a power cutter, but I think it's in their 4-volt line of tools.

I have lots of Ryobi 18v and 40v tools, but I ended up getting my power cutter from Harbor Freight and paid next to nothing for it after the sale price, all the coupons, cash rewards, and free gifts I got along with the purchase.

But, like I said, lots of companies are making these power cutters. It's just a matter of finding the best deal for you. They all seem to be very popular and well reviewed with high ratings. I know I really like my power cutter.

 

[karenerwin]

How's he doing?

Thanks for asking.
The burn clinic said they are very impressed with how well his skin has healed and with how much of his range of motion he has regained ! He doesn’t go back to the burn clinic for 6 months.
He has 1 more sessions of PT to do and his mental state has been very stable.

 

[FrannyNZooey]

My dad was like that, doing things that made me nervous.

View attachment 3679218
Checking out the starter on his RV home, age 93. Diagnosed with cancer but still getting up and doing stuff. Nine months later he went Home.

My FIL is like that too. He’s 86. One of the times my husband visited him, rather earlier this year or last, his father climbed a tree in his backyard to do some pruning. He sent me a picture too.

 

[gtaus]

https://www.mybinding.com/cutters/accessories/safety-rulers.html
I'm putting in the link, just in case this is something someone can use.

We used these at the photolab all the time for trimming printed sheets into individual images with a razor blade knife. The ones we had were 36, 48, and 60 inches long, but you can probably get them in shorter lengths.

They probably saved MANY hands and fingers; we also had to cut/trim plastic substrates, and those took some force. The safety edge protected hands and the image you were trimming.

Yeah, I really believe in safety first because a stupid accident can lead to a big medical bill or worse. Those safety rulers look like a good idea if you have your fingers anywhere near a utility knife razor blade.

When I used a utility knife to cut cardboard, my second hand was nowhere near the cutting blade. I would also have a scrap piece of plywood that I would cut stuff up on for better control.

Having said that, the power cutters are just so much better, easier, and safer to use. Plus, I can just leave the power cutters in the house and take them out of the drawer when I need them. I don't have to take our cardboard boxes out to the garage before I can process them into strips for feeding into the paper shredder.

All our Amazon and QVC boxes are cut up and shredded in the house without having to move them back out to the garage and storing them there until I get around to processing them.

You know, a big shout out to the companies like Amazon and QVC that are now shipping products in cardboard boxes that are 100% recyclable, with compostable paper labels and tape instead of plastics. Takes me almost no time to cut those cardboard boxes into strips with my power cutter and feed them into the paper shredder. Makes wonderful chicken coop litter and later gets composted out in the chicken run.