Whatcha Up To???

[Mr_Yan]

Yesterday I spread another truck load of mulch then went up to my community garden for some work. While there I mulched my raised bed. Pulled weeds from the in ground bed. After the weeds were gone I spread eight tractor buckets of mulch on my in front bed. I over seeded the whole area with white clover the planted the rest of it. There's already sugar pie pumpkins and butternut squash planted up there. Now I seeded or transplanted from soil blocks:

rutabaga
collard greens
beets
dwarf sunflowers
kohlrabi

I also loaded another yard of mulch into my car.

I'm a little worried about my use of mulch because the beds get tilled each spring and this could lead to a nitrogen shortage. this mulch looks reasonably broken down and composted right now. I spread the cover thinking it will help bring nitrogen into the system when tilled. I also planted the rows far enough apart to run the lawn mower between them. According to permiculture ideas cutting the tops of nitrogen fixers cause them to shed some root mass and allow the plant matter (both tops and roots) to release the nitrogen as they break down.

after all that work I went to a friend's house and helped him replace gutters. ten hours of hard work and I was beat.

 

[Ibtsoom]

My canning has started as well.. Put up ~ 40 pints of tomatoes and 21 Quarts and 2 half gallons of hot dills.. Now I'm on to Bread and butter and sweet pickles.. Got probably another dozen or so jars worth of tomatoes to put up yet..

 

[w_r_ranch]

Outstanding!!!

 

[wolffman]

Wolffman - tobacco - that's interesting. Will it make around these parts? All of my students want to know if I grow pot when they find out I garden for therapy (but I'm not getting good vibes out of the garden this year. When I tell them what I plant, they want to know if I'll give them some space in my garden to grow pot? Yeah, right kiddos.

I have spent the past two mornings and evenings trying to save my garden whose tomato plants have drowned from all the rain. I'm cutting off all the brown branches and yellow leaves - one plant clear to the ground - to see if they'll come back. Believe it or not, the garden already needs water. It's been sprinkling outside this evening and we're supposed to have some rain coming in. Enough to water the garden is okay, but I really need to get it some nutrition on which the rain keeps washing off. I also need to recover my roots, as the dirt has been washed away, despite my placing huge mounds of compost around the base of each plant. I also found a couple of Texas Wild tomato plant volunteers coming up in the garden - about a foot tall each. I also read in this month's issue of Mother Earth Magazine that you can take six inch long suckers off your current plants, root them, put them in potting soil to let them grow a little more and do a second summer planting; and they will come out true to form of the parent plant. Not that I have any suckers that are six inches long, but maybe they'll grow.

I guess I'll go ahead and pull up my onions, though they aren't very large, and plant something else since all the tops are plastered to the ground. Maybe purple hull peas. I don't know what to think of my Yukon Gold potato plants still being green. Guess I'll give them another week and see if I want to go ahead and pull everything up and plant something else.

So much for using gardening as stress relief therapy...

Congrats to W.R. and those who are getting anything at all from their garden. Today I did get 8 more cherry tomatoes and threw a half eaten Tycoon over the back fence. I hate squirrels!

Yes, I have discovered that quite a few folks grow it in TX. They get multiple harvests from a single plant in our long growing season. I'm going to use plastic mulch next year for several crops including the tobacco. As much as I don't like the idea or look of it, I just don't have time anymore to keep up with it all. The flood this year produced weeds that I've never seen, and it would be heck trying to keep a clean garden next year.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Its been raining since last night here (2.08" thus far), so all that was on the agenda today was to seal up the five 2 pound bags of green beans that we blanched & bagged yesterday.

I was going to pickle 4 pints of garlic, however I never got to it... hopefully tomorrow.

Cut Mrs. Ranch's hair per her request..

 

[Ibtsoom]

3" of rain for me on Sat morning - more to come with this tropical system getting closer. I put up 12 pints of Fig preserves and 6 pints of dewberry jelly yesterday. Picked up 10 lbs of cukes from my buddies garden to make some bread and butter pickles. Hope to do that this afternoon. Also have some juice left from the dewberries so I'll be making more of that jelly as well. Gonna go home from work early today in order to batten down the hatches for the upcoming storm. Gotta put up all of the lawn furniture and take all the hanging plants down. Hope the rain estimates are on the low side - not sure how much we can handle. Already really saturated and the tide is just about over my dock as of this morning.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Made bread.

Picked 4 more cucumbers, 20 jalapenos, some corn & a tub of tomatoes (we will can them tomorrow).

Went to pickup fuel & do the grocery shopping this morning as it looks like we are in for another round of bad weather here too...

Special Statement - Statement as of 5:24 AM CDT on June 15, 2015

... Increasing risk for heavy rainfall tonight through Wednesday could lead to a dangerous flood threat for parts of southeast Texas...

Expect bands of showers and thunderstorms containing very heavy rainfall Tuesday and Wednesday associated with the tropical disturbance that will be moving across the Texas coast and then off to the north. If everything lines up correctly... rainfall totals through Wednesday for
parts of the area could approach a 5 to 7 inch range with some amounts exceeding 10 inches where any type of training sets up. Rainfall totals this high will lead to flooding. Flash flood watches will be needed. Beginning tonight near the coast and offshore... there could be an increasing risk for waterspouts and tornadoes. Along the beaches... expect elevated tide levels and a continued threat for rip currents.

​

 

[wolffman]

Here comes that tropical storm. Well, I'm not sure what they are calling it, but it smells like fish and saltwater outside and the cows are all huddled up already.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Well we're under our third flash flood warning in three days. Nothing like you guys in Texas but we're getting our typical spring rains. There were pics of the parking lot for the grocery store we use where the water was 2.5 to 3 feet deep.

 

[w_r_ranch]

There is a chance the system in the Gulf of Mexico will become organized enough when it hits the warmer shallow water to become Tropical Storm Bill, prior to landfall on Tuesday. We got 0.25" a couple of hours ago from a little cell that popped up...

Just have to keep an eye on it. I remember a few storms that became Category 3 hurricanes in less than 24 hrs. TS. Allison never made 'hurricane status', yet still dumped 26" of rain in a day...

 

[w_r_ranch]

TS. Bill has been born... Current winds are 50 MPH & it moving NW at 12 MPH, so it should be over the ranch between 1200 - 1400hrs. tomorrow... I believe it will make landfall around Matagorda Bay about 1000 hrs. 60 miles due south of us.

 

[wolffman]

Prepare yourself for goofy weathermen/women in rubber boots, standing in water, holding on for dear life as this storm rolls in. Hahaha, I can barely stand to watch the drama.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Rahab,
I do not think there is anyway a person can be young and 89 at the same time, but i do appreciate my good fortune. But more some days than others.

Thanks,
Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

Well "Bill" stalled offshore for a number of hours, but it finally made landfall... so far we have 1.59" since midnight. I'm not impressed thus far, I've seen more action with a normal thunderstorm...

While we were waiting for 'the big storm' to begin, we canned 11 more quarts of whole tomatoes that I picked yesterday.

​

Made some stuffed poblano peppers, onion/cheese for Mrs. Ranch & brisket/onion/cheese for me.

​

 

[Rahab222]

Rahab reporting from Houston. I think the citizens of Space City are hurricane ready and if they're not, they'll be working towards it. Mom and I went to HEB for supplies on Monday, around 3:00 p.m. The store was PACKED! No place to park and no available carts. I had to wait for one. I went in search of D size batteries and bottled water while Mom got in line for lunch meat. Let's just say, I walked all over the store searching for every battery display that's normally available; but store personnel had apparently removed them as they were emptied. After poking my way, cartless through the crowd and digging through checkout line displays, I came up with (4) 4 packs of D sized, HEB batteries. I left one pack behind for somebody else who might come digging behind me. They unloaded a truck of drinking water, and by the time I got my (3) 32 bottle packs loaded on my cart, the crowd had wiped the whole truckload out. The manager looked dumbfounded as he looked on and finally announced to all those on the outer perimeters that they wouldn't be getting anymore water in. Their warehouse was out. You couldn't even get down the aisles; you were just standing there with your cart - if you had one. By the time we finally got checked out, cars were literally parking in front of the store in any available space, even if it was the main driveway. After our Memorial Day weekend flooding, people were taking Tropical Storm Bill seriously. Anything in the Gulf is totally unpredictable. Monday evening, our whole section was filled with the sound of people cranking up their generators to ensure they were in working order. Thankfully, nobody here lost their power. Tuesday, it's been a slow, steady, all day rain with a very cool, breeze from the Gulf - temps in the 70s. We're under tornado watch tonight and should receive our heaviest rains tomorrow (Weds.) We've spent A LOT of time in Houston praying this storm away, as Houston just can't absorb much more rain than what we've already gotten. God has answered, and so far, everybody is okay. Channel 11 has been broadcasting some "spoof" videos, submitted to them by viewers, making fun of the weather forecasters. Some of them are pretty clever as the "guest reporters" point out the street flooding that are trickles of rain in the gutter; their hair being tossed by grass blowers; and lawn chairs being thrown into the scene from the side. Houston will be busy praying away the remainder of the hurricane/tropical storm season. "Turn around, don't drown," has become the mantra on the streets and in the stores of Houston. You have to laugh or else you cry... Everybody stay safe!

 

[w_r_ranch]

The wind & rain finally made it here around 1900 hrs. We ended up with 5.69" yesterday. The tanks that I can see from the back porch are now full & overflowing their spillways. A few more trees are down, so they'll have to be cleaned up later... The forecast for today is calling for an additional 3.47" (we have received 2.05" since midnight). Total thus far is 10.14" for this storm & life goes on...

On the lighter side, we canned 4 pints of pickled garlic this morning (red wine version).

 

[Ibtsoom]

Well I was off work for the Tropical storm - didn't amount to much at my house.. might have rained 3/4 of an inch all day. I canned tomatoes and made preserves / jelly.

Here's my total for the year so far:
50 pints tomatoes
6 pints rotel stye tomatoes
20 quarts and 2 half gallons of hot dill pickles
7 quarts of bread and butter pickles
11.5 pints of fig preserves
16 pints of dewberry / mulberry jelly
5 pints strawberry preserves
4 pints of loquat jelly

I know.. I have some kind of a canning problem.. I do give a lot away but between my parents and siblings and all of the bunch in my house we manage to eat quite a bit of it. Planning on making another 6 or so quarts of B&B pickles and probably 8 quarts of sweet pickles. My wife has a huge crop of passion fruit going so I'll probably make jelly out of those as well.

Took a look at the garden yesterday and the squash are pretty much done. Okra, tomatoes, peppers and cukes are still doing pretty decent in spite of the wetness.

 

[Rahab222]

Ibtsoom; Congratulations on having enough produce to can, considering that we are in the same neck of the woods and have had about the same amount of rainfall. My yard is still holding water from TS Bill. I went out to my garden today and picked 6 cherry tomatoes before the birds could get them. There are still some green tomatoes on a few plants, but I may have to pick those green as I'm seeing very few blooms. I'm sure the rain knocked off what blooms were there. The pepper plants are the only things that still look strong, but they haven't produced much. I remember last year, they really came on strong in August and produced through the fall; so much so that I tried to overwinter them. Guess I'll wait 'til the latest rains dry up and then try to plant my purple hull peas.

My Aggie niece is coming to visit tomorrow and we'll do lunch. Her UTSA sister will be in on Saturday. I'm just so thankful both of them are safe since San Antonio got hit so hard by the Memorial Day floods and the Aggie is currently home in Freeport for the summer. We really pray these storms away, because everything in the Gulf always seems to set its eye on Freeport/Surfside Beach. God has been good to us in this, so it's hard to complain too much about my garden drowning. Plants are replaceable.

Wolffman, are you going to try to replant anything since you turned your garden under in Needville?

Hope everybody's safe and sound.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Day 5 of being cooped up... received another 0.99" of rain.

High point of my day was making bread.

 

[w_r_ranch]

No rain today, so I finally made it outside. Top-dressed the firewood rack area with a smaller aggregate.

Got a Boston Butt seasoned up for smoking tomorrow.

Picked another 1/2 tub of green beans & a tub of tomatoes. We blanched & bagged up the green beans. We'll can the tomatoes tomorrow.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Checked my community garden on the way home and did some spot weeding up there. The rows I direct seeded 6 day s ago are germinating.

I filled my cavalier with another load of mulch and have spread that now. I've almost run out of mulch sources up there as the piles are either really old and mostly composted down or have just had new branches shredded over them and are REALLY hot.

 

[Mr_Yan]

We also added a guppy to the rain barrel in hopes that it will eat the mosquito larva.

 

[ErnieCopp]

While all of you folks are working hard, i am looking at a lazy easy summer. No moving rainbirds growing grass, no mowing the grass that will not grow, no picking anymore blackberries, and the tomatoes will be done soon.

So until the grapes and melons get ripe, I am living easy.

Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

Picked the last of the sweet corn. Then started cleaning up the garden by pulling up the slicing tomatoes (threw on a burn pile) & about half the corn plants (which I fed to the cattle after the ate their normal feed).

Fix the sprayer & then applied RM45 on about half of the main road to kill the weeds/grass. As my luck would have it, we got another 0.54" of rain just as it was finishing... it was not suppose to rain.

Smoked a 'Boston Butt' for supper.

 

[Mr_Yan]

We got about an inch of rain yesterday evening. During this a rain barrel fitting failed so I lost about 60 gallons of rain water. The rain pigs are almost half full again but I will have to replace the bulkhead liqitight fitting today.