New Year of 2018

Hello and welcome to my 2018 blog posts!
We've had an interesting few months so let me catch you up.
1. First and foremost we had to say goodbye to The WOF. She developed a rare type of skin cancer. We tried several treatments but weren't going to do anything too extreme due to her age. It eventually caught up with us so we made the call and stayed with her for the last moments. She was with us a long, long time and I have to admit it was one of the hardest things to do. But she's better off now.
2. Christmas: My sister, niece and her husband spent the holidays with us. We had a good time although interesting for the cat as two new dogs were traveling with them. They left on Christmas Day back for WV. December 26th I got the same virus I had the previous year. On the couch for three days before I was able to move again. I didn't wait this time and sought our treatment from the emergency room. A long wait later and I had a few meds but not anything over the top. I made it to work that Friday, the same day my boss made it back in from his illness. As of today I'm still on the mend with a bit of a cough and congestion. Trying a few new OTC meds now and they seem to be helping. Hopefully get through this soon.
3. First snow of 2018. I drove into it in South Carolina. I was coming up from Alabama at the time. Took me 12 hours total for a 9 hour drive. People in the south can't drive in snow.
4. New WOF. Much to Amy's hesitation I had to have another WOF in the house. Her name is Bailey. She's a 6 year old lab mix we rescued from the SPCA. She and the cat are having their rounds but I think they'll slowly work it out. I saw her on our local county animal control website early Thursday morning, called 3 times before I got through to someone. We went over her history and I told them my son would be around after lunch to check her out. He calls me and says that the dog was moved. We found her at the neighboring county SPCA so I spent Friday afternoon tracking her down and finally got her. She looks like she has part greyhound or whippet in her. She has seemed to taken over the WOF torch for the farm.

Well that's the Cliff notes version. As far as the garden this year I still have to repair/replace the garden beds and plan everything out for this year. Tomorrow I plan on testing some seeds I saved from last year. More on that Monday. Also have a list of things we need to get updated around the house. We've lived here since 2012 and haven't done any updating so now it's time.

Quick post so I'll see you soon.

Miss Bailey.

Im memory of The WOF.

Harvest Monday; September 11, 2017

Happy Harvest Monday. Harvest Monday is hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

We made the decision a few weeks ago that the garden in it's current size was too much to take care of with the two of us. Our commutes to work are long (ie. mines at least one hour each way), leaving us not very much time during the weekdays to do too much, which leaves our weekends filled with chores. After a while we got burnt out and said "enough is enough." We are downsizing other aspects of our lives since our youngest will hopefully heading out on his own adventure towards the end of this year, and the garden is downsizing with us. We've finally decided on 8-10 raised beds, which will be built in the same locations as the current ones, but out of block instead of wood. I'll be tearing out the current beds and have a bonfire this fall. I also plan on replacing the soil with new and tripling the landscape fabric and adding plastic, and maybe cardboard. The wiregrass we have here is crazy strong. Crap will grow on a rock. With our new size we'll be growing only the basics that we want and I'll have to keep a good eye on placement of crops to make sure I get the rotation correct.

Well with the downsizing in mind I mowed down everything in the field. No worries as the beetles had done some damage to most of the plants. I didn't lose any sleep over it. The remaining plants in the beds were under attack too so they weren't doing too well themselves. And the cucumbers had their run and were drying up. So I pulled all of the onions and left them out to dry and called it a year. Sad to say but we have other things that need our attention and gardening isn't one of them.

My harvest Sunday. Some small and medium Copra onions and two green bell peppers.

What we have now. I'll clean everything up this fall. 

Since my last post my wife traded off her jeep on a Honda Civic which she likes alot, I was hit in the rear end of my truck turning into our office parking lot so I've been waiting to get it back, my annual golf trip is coming up this week and we lost a few guys (they didn't evacuate deciding to ride out the storm; they're alive just stupid) since they live in Clearwater and didn't leave, I managed to strain my back (again) at the gym last Monday so I've been taking it easy to make sure I can go on this trip, our son was medically denied for the Coast Guard so now he's focused on the Air Force, my in-laws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and we got Roku Saturday since we don't have network TV. That and with the west under fire and Hurricanes Harvey and Irma hitting the south, things are definitely interesting. 

Happy Monday.

September 11th. Never Forget.  

Hello to 2017 & To You This New Year

Hello and a late welcome to 2017. Ole TD here has been a busy bee since last post in November (yes November) so I wanted to catch you up on what's happening.
Seed catalogs: I have a lot of them, ranging from Baker Creek to Territorial Seed. I even have some from businesses I've never heard of. They may be good companies and I did peruse the catalogs but? I don't know. I am making my final seed list after this post though! Gotta get moving.
Garden planning: Yes, I probably should do this before the item above but as usual I will will come up with a basic plan and switch it up on planting day. And on a side note, the raised beds are starting to fall apart so there needs to be repairs or replacements happening this spring. They have built a few new houses in our neighborhood and I am eying the extra block left. Need to find out what they are going to do with it. I am definitely rebuilding with block no matter what. If I can't get it I'll keep my eye on CL or the Restore.
Facebook: I had an account on FB for some time and recently my wife and myself just decided to deactivate them. Tired of all the hassle and mess and idiots on it. I did start one for tossing dirt a while back and didn't do too much with it. I did a few updates on it this evening and plan on using it for my gardening, hiking, golf, etc. stuff. Check it out.
Chewy: We sadly lost our buddy on January 12th. We had previously decided that if the cancer came back we'd let him live out his life as best he could. It came back a lot faster and more aggressive than I had anticipated. I was out of town the day it happened so Amy had to deal with it by herself. He's not in pain anymore and we are happy about that. Our other dog and cat do miss him like all of us do.
Posts: Well with my Facebook dismissal I am aspiring to post more here. I'm not sure about the audience for bloggers anymore but hope to keep it strong.
Off to finalize my seed list!

Harvest Monday; August 1, 2016

Visit Our Happy Acres to see everyone's Harvest Monday.
I can honestly say I visited the garden once this week. Just been a busy week for this family. Working out of town, wife was not feeling well, hot, and our oldest just bought his first house. And with that last one we spent the weekend working on his house. There was a back outside room on the house that had leaked and literally destroyed the wood. So we tore into that Saturday and finished Sunday. It was a lot of work and really miserable outside with heat indexes of 107. But it was done. He and his girlfriend are repainting and refinishing a few hardwood floors. My FiL and youngest son tore out all of the bushes in front of the house Sunday too. Luckily the house came with a new roof, HVAC unit, carpet, and hot water heater. It's a lot of work but I know they can do it. Even his Mom came and painted Sunday. And she hates painting.
OK, finishing this up at lunch today as I was beat last night. That heat really takes it out of me anymore and I really didn't want to do too much. After I got back from his house, we lounged a while as the thunderstorm took our power out for a while (always does), ate some salad, then proceeded to sweep more on the &*#! pool. Third time this year adding flocculate to it. The weather has been hard on it and everyone else's too. Got to finish sweeping it tonight (hopefully.) If it rains I'll go to the gym instead. Leg day and not really digging that!
I took a few pictures of the garden this morning before I left for work. What a mess I have in front of me. Most of the tomato plants have given up, weeds need pulled, I still haven't sowed the second bean crop or lettuce, turnips, radishes, etc.

At least the Morning Glories liked the downpour last night.

As it was this morning. Plenty of red tomatoes left!

Here's this weeks spreadsheet. Notice I caught up last week but since I didn't pick anything except a few small items I didn't put anything in for this week. 

And the construction photos. 

It doesn't look like a lot of work there but trust me it was. No WOF of the Week this week. Sorry. Good luck to everyone and their harvests. Don't be like me. 

March. And Spring Weather!

Yes it is March and we are busy. The day was spent cleaning and preparing for the year. The Wife spent the day out front cleaning out the front flower beds (raking out the old mulch and tearing out the weed- ridden landscape fabric) and I did time in the garden pulling weeds, composting the garden beds and tidying everything up. This was after our trip to the gym. Kinda not sure why we went now. It is 6:19 pm and I'm wondering how much longer we are going to be able to stay awake. Anyway here's a few pics from the day.

Before shot.

 After shot.

And look what I found while cleaning. A few cabbages and a few turnips. 

We also picked up some flowers today.

And the rest of the plants are starting their journey.

As I said earlier we are hitting the gym regularly now. It a process, that's what we keep saying to ourselves. Other than that things are moving along.
Hope to blog more. See you next time.

February 7th?

Yes it is I guess. Where does the time go? This seems to be a running theme with me lately, always putting up a post saying "Yes, I've been missing." I am trying believe me. I do have reasons for my absence.

• We are still hitting the gym and I'm now to the point where I don't care if people see me or not. I try and work hard at it and that's all that matters. Hardest thing is getting the mid section trimmed down but I can see it slowly going away. The thing I find difficult really is the pain the next day. The program I'm doing is involved with a lot of sets plus a few extra things I do at the end. Wow. The first week after my layoff was terrible. Keep pushing through. One thing that is nice is that we prepare all of our lunches pretty much for the week ahead of time. Saves some money and time throughout the week. 
• Hit and miss upstairs right now. Weather hasn't been too kind. Needs to warm up a little. 
• Work is about to get busier this year for us. We have a few good projects coming up that we're all looking forward to. 
• Seed starting time! Yes, I started onions, peppers, and some flowers today. Not sure if I'll be putting up the light stand this year. It takes up some room. I probably should. Next weekend. 
• Concentrating on the youngest and his college choice, choice of studies, scholarships, etc. A lot in this that I was unaware of. 

Other than that it's the same thing going on everyday. It's getting brighter everyday, which means it's lightish when I leave work to go home. Still TV- less although we have been cruising Netflix and Hulu. Sure I miss watching the Euro golf on the weekends but we are saving ourselves $100.00 a month. That money definitely goes elsewhere. 

I got off my buut last weekend (or so) and did some weeding around the garlic plants and looked at the carnage that was the rest of the garden. 

Well that's all for now. Except I just realized that it's Super Bowl Sunday. Obviously not watching it so GO PANTHERS! Leia says so too as she's purring away next to me on the couch. 

The Other Item Filling My Time

Finally had the chance to get back to work on the additional bedroom (which is to be my youngests) since my oldest was in between leaving the Corps and starting his new job (which he has.) They got the insulation up for me with the assistance of my FiL, then we sheetrocked it and I've been slowly mudding the joints. I had all of the electrical run earlier and the floor was done when we moved in. I am going complete the finishing and simultaneously start on some walls in the adjacent area that we floored a few months ago. I have to do that so I can set the electrical panel and run power upstairs. It's a process and a hot one since it's summer and no ac up there!

Floored area. This was just  ceiling joists before. I intend on this weekend to gather up the excess insulation straight ahead and continue flooring out the way for storage only.

Insulation install.

Sheetrock and finishing(ish).

So this takes up my time as well when I'm not working on pool decks, in the garden, fixing crap, or at my actual job. 

I have a list a mile long. 

May the Forth Be With You!

I hope it is for you. We all need the 4th now and then.

Busy on the homestead today, trying to get some things done before I headed out of town for a few days (back to that grind again :( )
Yesterday evening I tilled between all of the potatoes and bush beans to get the weeds down, then proceeded to till the whole patch where I "started" corn. Nothing was coming up save for maybe two plants. Maybe I got anxious and started them too early so I replanted some new seed from the store yesterday so we'll see how this works out. Strawberries are really coming on now and it looks to be a bumper crop this year. I meant to pick up a couple more plants as we seem to have a dead area in the bed but that will have to wait for the weekend. Also spent some time tying up some tomato plants and starting a few mellons. Let's take another tour shall we :)

I picked up some bags of mulch at the store and started to do all of the beds. I obviously didn't get enough as I wasn't really in the mood to carry too much that day. I also have been adding more signs to the garden, not so much for knowing what's where (except tomatoes) as for dressing it up a little. I even try to draw a picture on them. 

I got the line hooked up and sprinklers ready for the pole beans. Probably be looking at a few weeks before setting up the netting. 

DIL's herb garden. It will be a few weeks before this really starts setting out. Fingers crossed. 

All in all looking pretty good so far. It's early, I know. 

Front beds. 

Amester (she was tired of The Wife) was good enough to get me some stakes Saturday at Cameron so I started making more signs. After the glue is set up, on to paint then into the garden. 

Got a good picture of our Grand kitten, Gunner. I think things are settling down in the house now, thank goodness. He likes spending time out on the back porch. 

WOF of the Week.

It's been a while for a W.O.T.W. I know, but how many pictures of horizontal dogs can one take? 

Chewie says "Hey Baby" (in the voice of Barry White of course.)

That's it for now as a long week awaits. Keep your groove on kids. 

One more note. Birthday of one of my favorite actresses. 

Crop Mobs and Layouts and

It's cold for our area. 3 degrees with whatever wind chill this morning when I left for work. I just bundle up a little more. As I have said, it's easy to put on more when it's cold but you can only go so far when it's hot! Got a few seed orders yesterday which surprised me as I ordered them on the 1st. One came from Oregon too. One order left and it has my WV 63 tomatoes in it.

I ran into an article a while back and saved it to post here sometime as I found it interesting. Crop Mobs. Heard of them? I haven't until I hit that article. Here it is as I can't find a web link to it.

So after that I did some more research and lo and behold, Crop Mob was started in my region of NC. Here's a link to their site. Crop Mob Basically what it is is a group of people that mob others to help. Not all are farmers either. Read up if you'r interested. 

I spent a little free time and made up an overhead view of this year's garden on Excel. I thought of using one of those garden planner programs but I honestly don't have the time to learn something new right now. Big To Do list. Here it is....

Definitely not set in stone but a general idea of what I want where. 

Speaking of lists, I took a look at the one I made at the beginning of last year just to see if i actually did any of it. Here it is BTW. And here it is with answers.

Build outbuilding CURRENTLY WORKING ON

Design and build water holding tanks to catch water from outbuilding for gardens Compost barrels SEE ABOVE

Finish framing upstairs for rec room and bathroom ONGOING BUT WITH DIL MOVING IN BETTER GET OFF MY BUTT

After electrical and plumbing complete, finish upstairs SEE ABOVE

Fix and finish side table NOT YET

Fix broken small chair NOT YET AND I NOW HAVE ANOTHER ONE TO FIX

Build two more card stock holders for The Wife ODDLY ENOUGH, DONE

Build trellis (pergola) over current garden beds NOT HAPPENING

Expand garden with in- ground plantings DONE

Start remaining seeds (a lot) this coming weekend DONE

Finish garage ceiling WORK IN PROGRESS

Yard sale WE NEVER GOT AROUND TO THIS BUT THERE WILL BE ONE THIS SPRING!!!!!

Fix cold water faucet in small bathroom NOT YET

Fix The Wife’s bathroom ceiling and repaint it HAH, NOT YET EITHER

Build Chewie’s new water and food dish holder NOT A BIG PRIORITY TO ME- FIL CAN DO THIS

Re- bend lawn mower blade bent when hitting big rock AHHHHH, LAZY AND WENT AND BOUGHT NEW ONES. I DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE A FORGE HERE ANYWAY.

Patch holes where I screwed up hanging living room curtains ACTUALLY FORGOT ABOUT THIS

Touch- up paint on walls around house HERE AND THERE

Finish and hang pictures in my bedroom DONE

Redo front flower beds and KILL ALL BERMUDA WIREGRASS! REDONE BUT THIS EFFIN WIREGRASS.... YOU CAN'T KILL THE SHIT. IT ACTUALLY GROWS THROUGH THE FABRIC!

Fix lazy susan in kitchen DONE

Greenhouse NOT FOR A WHILE

Fix small car and sell FIXING CAR FOR DIL USE NOW

Taxes (Uhhhggg) DONE. HATE TAXES. 

Fix small 4 wheeler and sell NOT YET

Build paintball enclosure WHERE IN THE HELL DID I COME UP WITH THIS IDEA????

Build golf club holder for bags and shoes FOUND CHEAP UNIT ON CRAIGSLIST

Invisible fence for the WOF's NOT YET

Pool? That means decking. NO POOL YET

Landscaping the side yards DONE

And I’m sure there’s more; stuff that pops up everyday

Winning the lottery IF I HAD WON, YOU'D BE SEEING DEAD SPACE HERE

So in looking at this list it appears I didn't do a whole lot but I did. I worked out of town A LOT last year, it rained and rained and rained and rained and rained, and I did other things. Painted the home office, painted Squeak's room, set up Bubby and DIL in new apartment, items that just pop up and need fixing, etc. Seemed like the year flashed by. Working out of town as much as I did really took up time I needed to be here, especially on the garden. This means that The Wife is going to have to step up and help me out some more. 

Now my 2014 list:

• Finish outbuilding, including rain catchment system and composting bins
• Expand garden with three new beds and more plowed area and run water lines for them
• Repair existing water lines and install valves at each bed (so I can control what gets watered when)
• Build seating area near garden to enjoy the gnats.
• Build bird houses for Purple Martins!
• Finish repairs on small car. 
• After outbuilding is complete, move all items for there out there
• After items moved out of garage, finish ceiling finishing, including two new lights
• Finish 4 wheeler repairs and sell
• Garage sale March 1st.
• Build three paintball marker holders
• Finish Wife's bathroom ceiling
• Finish upstairs
• Patch holes in living room. 
• Back splash in kitchen (needed)
• Fix small furniture pieces
• Power wash and stain back deck and front porch
• Gutters and downspouts on front and back of house. Garage can wait. 
• Invisible fence for dogs. This will be nice to do. 
• Play more golf so I can enjoy my membership. 
• Lottery (to pay for all of this crap)

That's my general list for this year and I will be happy to get it all or mostly done. Well this should wrap up this post. What's on your list this year?

Stay warm kids. 

Seed Orders and Layout

Been a pretty good Woffie type of day. Cruised through my seeds on hand then poured over the catalogs. I am going to try more varieties of the same type of plants this year. I always have my standards but I want to experiment some to see if some different varieties will do well in this soil.
What I have on hand and what I am ordering.
Tomato
Large Red Cherry
Big Boy Hybrid
Black Krim
Beefsteak
Rutgers
Brandywine Pink
German Johnson
Katja
Abe Lincoln
Cherokee Purple
Eva Purple Ball
Amish Paste
Kosovo
Better Boy
West Virginia 63
Crakovic Yugoslavian
Costoluto Genovese
Scarlet Topper
Yellow Brandywine

Pepper
Yolo Wonder
California Wonder
Big Dipper
Perfection (True Heart)
Sweet Banana

Cucumber
Marketmore 76
Sweet Burpless Hybrid
Patio Snacker

Other
Fordkook Zucchini
Straightneck Squash
Black Beauty Eggplant
Early Long Purple Eggplant
Sierra Gold Melon
Clemson Spineless Okra
Alaska Pea
Honey Rock Melon
Obsession Hybrid Sweet Corn
Silver Queen Swee Corn
Chioggia Beet
Romance Carrot
Utah 52-70 Improved Celery
Inchelium Red Garlic

Also have the allotment of herbs: Basil, Parsley, Mustard, Lavender, etc. Amazingly I still have a bunch of flower seed packets too. I am not sure if they are worth anything now but they'll be worth a try I guess. I am going to be companion planting around the vegetables with some flowers that will hopefully help ward off some of my pests that like to eat. Beneficial insects may make their way on the half- acre too. I have never used them before so there will be some more research.

Will be adding on to the garden again this year. Get a tiller and I go crazy, leaving no dirt un- turned. Rotating the crops around some; moving onions and potatoes into the 6 small beds, tomatoes in the upper plowed areas, build a new herb bed by request and two more raised 4' x 8' beds. I did a quick sketch on the  pad with a cool app that lets you write on pictures.

Well that's what I have for now. Things will change here and there (definitely not planting all of those tomato varieties) but for the most part this is the plan. Hope your planning is better than mine.

Last but definitely not least it is The Wife's birthday today. Happy Birthday dear :)

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2013 has passed our homestead. By popular majority vote presents were opened Christmas Eve instead of today due to everyone's schedule. That and the chance to sleep in this morning. :) Everyone seemed happy with what Santa brought this year.

Daughter-in-law using her new tablet.

The Wife cruising the web.
 

 The boys playing games.

 

Me sitting on my butt watching Buying Alaska.

 

After sitting around for a while I needed to check on the onions. I may have promised pictures. I don't remember.



I went and got more lumber yesterday as I knew I'd have some free time today. Trying to get more work done on the building, and Squeak came out and helped me for a while. We were able to get the remaining walls up. Next I have to put on the exterior sheeting, build trusses, sheet  and shingle the roof for my next inspection.

After that I turned my attention to the garden even pulling up some more carrots.

I hope I'll be pulling everything up probably next weekend.
Well we'll be seeing family for the next few days and you'll see a few other things. Sad part about everything is that the WOFs are in the kennel. Oh well.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!