What did you do in the garden today?

[TillyPeeps]

Never use hand warmer with chicks! They may release some harmful gas. I used this shipping warmer to keep day old chicks warm in a large box after picked them up 3.5 hours away: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01949J35K

It similar to hand warmer but should be ok to use around animals. NO! They all pilled on top of the warmer and seemed to enjoy it on the way home. After we arrived home, all chicks passed out and I couldn't wake anyone up when toughing them in the next ~5 hours! None of them ever moved and most didn't open their eyes before I went to bed crying! I thought they all died and left them under heating plate just in case. The next morning, everyone was happily running around in the brooder! I never had chicks doing this kind thing before, but I would never use chemical warmer around my chicks again.

 

[Sueby]

Copper plus the fruit tree mineral oil…spray in fall, again in spring. I did that this year and the trees are definitely looking better. One site where I was reading up on this problem indicated to spray at leaf fall ( in the fall), and they actually knocked off/removed the leaves still in the tree and immediately sprayed the copper/oil mix and never had a problem since. The trick is to spray before there is any growth at all in the spring. The fungus hangs out and infects the leaf as soon as it begins to grow. This fall I’ll try knocking off leaves (the trees are very small right now bc young) and spraying immediately.

Thank you. I will try this in the fall.

I believe I have a magnesium deficiency so I treated peppers with epsom salt this am. & the PH is too high for my strawberries so I ordered some elemental sulfur. Watered the seeds. That's about it. Back to work tomorrow.

Thinking about going out to run a soaker hose for the tomatoes.

 

[Acre4Me]

In typical Acre4Me style, I crammed in 4 mounds for watermelon plants. Lack plastic on the mounds bc they do like to be warm. They can spread out in the path.

Then, we went to the woods at a friend’s family farm. The farm is being sold bc the dad passed away and the large business next door is planning to buy the land. So we harvested some forest dirt to bring to our garden. We hacked away the invasive honeysuckle and then took the top few inches of soil. We did this a couple of years ago -same woods, and the dirt is nice. Just among the understory, never a path or road. Here’s the patch we scraped up the dirt.

The harvested dirt.

 

[WthrLady]

I got .45 inches of rain last night, 3 miles to my north managed 6.5 inches. Lucky cattle ponds up there.

 

[BReeder!]

Could you double

OH! I should have thought of hand warmers! When I was talking with my husband, I said, "What would we do? Me snuggling them all night is NOT an option because they are gross." I'm just happy that it seemed to stay in the woods!



Probably everywhere... here's a picture of the coop.
View attachment 3839209
The boards aren't perfectly aligned, so water probably got forced through the cracks with the wind we got. I am planning on putting up plywood on the inside, so that would help at least block it from coming in through the walls. Most probably came in through the top ventilation. I'm thinking that adding a board across the front of the rafters would help to block some of that water without blocking the ventilation.

Up the siding to overlap the existing board? Running overlapping boards vertically would be even better.
Definitely put a board across the edge of the roof.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Freaking scary winds in circles here. Feeling dizzy.

https://www.kcci.com/article/severe-thunderstorm-watch-issued-for-southwest-iowa/60838526

 

[Smokerbill]

I ordered a few more things for my drip irrigation setup. Shutoff valves and assorted fittings for 1/4" and 1/2" tubing and a 200 mesh/75 micron water filter. A few things arrived today, and the plan is pretty well worked out in my mind.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Never use hand warmer with chicks! They may release some harmful gas. I used this shipping warmer to keep day old chicks warm in a large box after picked them up 3.5 hours away: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01949J35K

It similar to hand warmer but should be ok to use around animals. NO! They all pilled on top of the warmer and seemed to enjoy it on the way home. After we arrived home, all chicks passed out and I couldn't wake anyone up when toughing them in the next ~5 hours! None of them ever moved and most didn't open their eyes before I went to bed crying! I thought they all died and left them under heating plate just in case. The next morning, everyone was happily running around in the brooder! I never had chicks doing this kind thing before, but I would never use chemical warmer around my chicks again.

I visited a man's pigeon loft in 2000 & saw 2 babies in a nest bowl. 1 was being fed, fat & happy, while the 2nd was very thin, pale & not being fed by the parents. The man said it'll probably die. I felt so sad upon hearing that, so I asked if I could have the baby, since I had run a parrot rescue for years, maybe I could save it. He said sure, but it probably won't make it. It was January & very ice cold outside. The baby felt so cold when I scooped him up & he barely moved, he was so weak & what worried me...the bird was kinda stiff. The man said that bird is already half dead. I don't have much in the way of body fat, but that little bird fit nicely right down inside my shirt, his little feet using my bra to stand up, nestled right down, snug inside my warm turtleneck (looser neck almost a cowl). He hung out with his little head & beak peeking out of the sweater, underneath of my chin. I drove like that all the way home with the heater on full blast. As he started to warm up, he stood on his tippy toes inside my shirt & looked up at me, I smiled, he saw my lips move & immediately tried to get his beak into my mouth, I guess he thought I was going to regurgitate some food into him. If you've ever had a baby bird unexpectedly try to shove it's beak into your mouth, you know the reaction, makes ya laugh, then by laughing they try to push the beak into your mouth even more...so you have to keep your mouth shut, but you're laughing...it is hilarious. Got him home & fed with warm baby bird food & raised him up. He was a wonderful, dearly loved bird! My sweet Pidge, he would fly around outside then fly right to me when I called for him. I ended up building a pigeon loft & getting plenty of pigeons, but Pidge considered the house his own private loft, so he spent most of his time with me when I was home. He was a gorgeous black muted check with white splash throat & some white splash feathers on back of his head & white flight feathers on his wings. He actually resembled GI Joe, the original GI Joe...the WWll hero pigeon. Anyway...sorry I'm off on another tangent . But yeah, the moral of the story...never underestimate the beneficial warmth of your own body in an emergency.

I wish I had photos of my beloved Pidge, but I lost many things in a flood years ago. This is who he resembled, nearly identical.

 

[WthrLady]

@TillyPeeps I've never used them in a small confined space. They do give off Carbon Monoxide. It sounded like they were in an open coop.

Heck, I've even warmed rocks up in boiling water (gas stove) to put in tshirts for them to snuggle with.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I'm annoyed.

We are expecting a ton of rain over the next 2 days. It's been 3 weeks since I've sprayed my fruit & roses with Bonide Fruit Tree spray (the Captan version).

I typically alternate spraying between the Captan and Bordeaux Mix. The recommendation is every 2 weeks... And since we've had so much dang rain this spring, I'm rather anxious about falling behind on the spraying... I've already had my peach trees drop most of their fruit and what's left is showing signs of gummiosis. Roses are major battling black spot and apples & grapes have a few rust spots here and there already.

So here's why I'm annoyed... I bought some Bonide Copper Fungicide hoping it would be a faster application than mixing up Bordeaux Mix which takes over 24 hours (you have to dissolve the hydrated lime in the water first which is a bit time consuming). Well... I somehow missed the miniscule print in the instructions that state "apply at least 12 hrs before rain" and "reapply after rain." I'm annoyed because Bordeaux Mix (copper sulfate and hydrated lime) will not wash away from rain so I WRONGLY assumed that Copper Fungicide would be similarly rain-hardy.

Now I'm a couple of hours before rain is coming and unable to apply any fungicide that will stick. Guess I'll have to do it AFTER the rain in a couple of days. My own fault but still...

Harumphhhh......