Our main garden is looking better this year than it has in many years.
That is primarily due to my visiting it every day.
Today I weeded the row of dill. For those who are unfamiliar with dill as a plant-in-the-garden, the seeds are small and the seedlings don't exactly explode out of the ground. Furthermore, the newly emerging seedlings are difficult to distinguish from weeds.
There is a very short window between when the first true-leaves appear (and the previously anonymous seedlings can be sorted out) and when the dill plants are overwhelmed by weeds.
The true-leaves of the dill are like carrot leaves. They are deeply incised and, frankly, not very efficient at capturing sunlight. The weeds quickly grow past the dill seedlings and the game is pretty much over.
There might only be a week when the gardener can easily determine which seedlings are dill (rather than weeds) before the baby dill is buried in the shade of faster growing Lambsquarters, Amaranth and annual grasses.
Well, by cracky, I hit the window. I got the dill weeded.
I still have lots of weeds in the garden but they are running a distant second to the plants that will produce food.
I put up the trail cam
I put up the trail cam to see what has been knocking over the plastic jars that I put over the baby collard greens plants to deter cut-worms and varmints. I also have a couple of traps set.
My cabbage plants are on the verge of outgrowing the pots I have them in and I need to have things squared away before I transplant them.
I had an apple tree tip over
The recent winds that accompanied the rain blew one of my apple trees over. It was grafted onto Bud-118 (with an interstem) which was advertised as "anchorage not quite as good as MM-106 or MM-111". I am thinking that was a gross understatement.
I dug a post hole and dropped in a Black Locust post and winched the tree back upright. The soil was drier than I expected after a 1" rain a couple days ago. It wasn't powdery dry but the soil didn't stick together coming out of the business end of the post-hole digger.
Pictures
I will take some pictures of the garden and orchard tomorrow.
Demo on bathroom still underway
Mrs ERJ strongly suggested that I not "help" the contractor.
This project is fill-in work for the contractor as he shuffles from job-to-job. Sometimes he is waiting for weather. Sometimes electricians or plumbers.
The drywall, tub, vinyl and the old vanity are out. The floor underlayment was construction adhesived in place so that is an additional complication for its removal.
The new shower surround is on-site. The vanity was ordered. The new vinyl has been selected.
When the weather is hot any progress is good.
Low pressure for old bang-sticks
The cool kids mock guys like me because we shoot "Fudd" guns. And the most "Fudd" gun of all is the single-shot, break-open shotgun.
There was a recent auction that sold three, single-shot, break-open shotguns and they all went for less than $70 each.
One complication was that they were 16 gauge which can be hard to find ammo for. Another complication is that they were probably made between 1910 and 1930 when metallurgy and heat-treat were not the most precise. In spite of those complications, it would be a sinful waste to relegate those historic, PROVEN firearms to the scrap-heap or to be used to stake up tomato plants in the garden.
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| 6000PSI-to-7000PSI is what blackpowder shotgun loads produced |
I must confess that I considered bidding on one of the guns in. One of the things I found out while studying that possibility is that Hodgdon's Powder has been quietly adding some low-pressure shotgun data to their on-line data.
If I had bid and won one of those guns, I would strongly consider running just those 7000PSI Hodgdon reloads. Those old dogs deserve to keep barking and there is no reason that an ounce of #6 or #7-1/2 at 1100fps can't keep killing bunnies and squirrels by the gross lot.
Oddball chamberings are no problem at all for the reloader. You could probly pick up a great press for pennies on the dollar too…
ReplyDeleteThere used to be gun and knife auctions around here many years ago, and sometimes such things were found in estate clean outs. Ammo and other supplies could be had for good prices, if you were patient and kept checking for new auctions. Reloading presses, dies, primers were sometimes listed too.
ReplyDeleteGood for you on the weeds. One bed of my garden is in overproduction with weeds. We’ve had a lot of rain, and the weeds like fertilizer as much as the peas do.
Southern NH
With a little practice those old singleshotz are amazingly capable.
ReplyDeleteThe ammo isn't that hard to find, and it's coming down in price. A couple boxes and a gun like this make a good backup to be stashed in case everything else falls apart. If you look around, the bigger gun stores will occasionally have 12 or 20 gauge Turkish single shot shotguns, new, for $80 to $100, so there are options beyond just old ones in that price range.
ReplyDeleteLast time I went squirrel hunting was with a single shot 20 gauge; far lighter and shorter in the woods than my semiauto 12 gauge and if the first shot didn't get the job done, the squirrel would run before follow-up shots could matter.
The issue these days for inexpensive guns isn't the item cost - it's the transaction costs: fees, taxes, paperwork, and waiting periods, official or unofficial.
I think that's part of the plan - if guns can't be banned, make them more expensive and difficult to get so that the marginal purchaser won't make the effort. In some states, it's being done with ammo too.
Jonathan
This article about growing tea in England popped up in my feed. You might find it interesting. I believe your region is at about the limit for tea grown outside of green houses. https://theconversation.com/can-britain-be-a-nation-of-tea-growers-scientists-say-yes-and-it-could-even-be-good-for-your-health-257495
ReplyDeleteProgress, however small, is still progress. And yay for getting the dill weeded! Re the shotties, Hodgdon is good about that. You can find 16 ga hulls to reload too!
ReplyDeleteI’m a fan of 16g singles. I’ve found ammo for them at pawn shops, of all places. They’re solid performers.
ReplyDelete