Driving home from Mass at 12:45 yesterday, I noticed puffballs (Calvatia gigantea) that had popped up in various yards.
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| I usually only notice them when they are full-sized and overly mature for eating. |
Handsome Hombre LOVES mushrooms. He would be totally geeked if he found out that he had them growing on his property. Unfortunately, both HH and Southern Belle are pinned to the wall due to work commitments.
As with all mushrooms, make sure you have a rock-solid identification and test with a small (very small) initial test and then give it 24 hours before eating any more. Remember, pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.
Applesauce notes
We canned 35 more quarts yesterday so we are over our target of 52 quarts. We also had 3 orphans that we did not run through the canner. Those will be gifts to assorted families.
Tarps
While doing a causal inventory I noticed that most of our tarps have seen heavy usage and I need to replace some of them.
Do any of you have strong opinions about the most versatile size(s) for tarps? Yeah, I know the standard answer is "One that is just a little bit bigger than the one you got."
A tarp is like a girl who lives next-door and is everybody's second-most-favorite girl. She wins the Homecoming Queen voting because she is somebody everybody can agree on.
There is almost always a "better" solution for any problem than a tarp but that "better solution" is almost always much more expensive and isn't sitting on a shelf in your garage or barn.
I've acquired about dozen pieces of corrugated metal roofing in various states - some of it was free-as-in-beer. Works great for chicken coops and firewood piles! I used to use tarps for my firewood, but I've replaced and thrown away so many...
ReplyDeleteThe local metal roofing supply place has a scratch-n-dent bin, 5 bucks per piece. Great source. My firewood doesn't care what color steel keeps it dry and neither do I.
Do you do anything special to keep them from blowing away or are they attached to wooden framing?
DeleteHave not bought tarps in several years, as the cows were sold in '19, but the last few we had, to cover hay stacked outside the barn, were either 'billboard' tarps or repurposed shipping container covers. Both lasted for years, and when they inevitably developed holes/tears, we'd just cut them up into smaller pieces to cover various things. 'Billboard Tarps' & 'Billboard Vinyls' are two major suppliers.
ReplyDeleteI will have to check with one of the local billboard companies to see what they do with "old" billboard covers.. At one time, they allowed people to haul them off for slip-and-slide parties and the like.
DeleteWe have one canvas tarp that lasted about 25 years, but still in service many years after that. It was only used to cover the door of a shed. I was impressed by the longevity. All the plastic cheap tarps tear and fail after 3 to 5 years.
ReplyDeleteDepending what the use is, I would recommend canvas.
Southern NH
8x10 or smaller. They can be folded by 1 person in wind and this greatly extends their life span as they actually get put away vs left under a rock until someone (the present interlocutor) clips them with the mower. Folding along the 10 foot section let's you haul a deer with an 8 foot wide/4ish long "taco" and doing similar things with yard waste promotes piles heavy enough to be useful, but light enough to be filled and moved quickly.
ReplyDeleteCan always grab 2 of them as needed, but I leave my big tarps in the barn unless I can think of some real reason to justify them.
ERJ - We have a great deal more fungi here in New Home 2.0 than in New Home and several of my coworkers are amateur mushroom hunters. I simply do not have that level of confidence in my identification skills.
ReplyDeleteSome varieties are "safer" than others. True morals, Giant Puffballs and maybe Porcini (bolete). Porcini are "in-season" in much of the country right now.
DeleteIf your coworker invites you, the worst that can happen is you get a pleasant walk in the woods.
Sizes? Who knows. One strong opinion is I have Arcturus tarps for emergency shelter. Green on one side and silver reflective on the other. Small ones for your get home bag. Probably handy in a cold weather first aid situation. A big one for camping. Silver up for cool and down for warm. Put one on my Scoutmaster heavy canvas tent at scout summer camp. Temp inside was the same as outside for my after lunch nap. Roger Oh, and don't forget the battery powered fan for the complete scoutmaster napping kit!
ReplyDeleteOnce worked for a guy who sold and installed automatic pool covers. When we replaced them it was a major deal hauling them to the dump. They would not accept them unless they're cut up into small strips. We would gladly give them away. Usually were 20'x25' or so. --JoeRoy
ReplyDeleteI only get larger tarps for specific uses so replacing them years later would be just replacing them (aprox) size for size.
ReplyDeleteThen again I would not replace one unless..
a) I needed it
AND
b) the old one went into the trash when I pulled it out.
2 weeks ago I made a run into town for a replacement larger one.
I am reconsidering my purchase of Harbor Freight tarps after Project Farm's recent test.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6ush2x6tB4
For pitching over a truck bed for makeshift sleep - whatever size it is, CANVAS is much less noisy if there is variable breeze. The synthetics are much lighter, but noise level is like falling asleep in a potato chip factory. Not conducive for sound sleep.
ReplyDeleteJoe, didn't you recently discuss using chitin for late blight control? I did a search on you blog and couldn't find it. Maybe I saw it someplace else.
ReplyDeleteIMO you either want the heaviest tarp you can get or the lightest depending on intended use.
ReplyDeleteFor a lightweight, waterproof tarp I use and highly recommend the AquaQuest Safari tarps. The 10X13, weighing only right at 2lbs, goes in my pack whether I'm hiking or hunting. Currently it is on its seventh year of use and still looks and works as if it is brand new and it has seen some pretty tough use, high winds, heavy rain and snow, low ground cover when on stand etc. It is somewhat expensive at a current price around $190. I believe I spent something like $79 when I purchased mine. I would not use this tarp for covering a wood pile or similar due to the lightweight and cost against the risk of tearing it on a jagged piece of wood.
For a heavy tarp, at what I consider an excellent price point, is the Vevor 16 mil tarp. I have currently have the 20X40 that we use as a rain/snow cover for our outfitters tent when elk hunting. I only have four seasons on this tarp but again it still looks and works as if it is new. This tarp is currently going for $95 and the same spec tarp from other vendors is running from $130 to $180. The tarp is fairly quiet in the wind and I have detected no UV degradation, however that might be a fact of only being used during PNW fall weather. The grommets hold well under tension with no signs of pulling out so far.
Just a note I am not affiliated in any manner with either of these companies or vendors.
wes
wtdb
Not to be critical, but I’d always understood the saying to be, “Pigs get fed. Hogs get slaughtered.”
ReplyDelete