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Post by breezygardener on Aug 29, 2024 14:32:15 GMT -5
Nothing. It was just one of those days.
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Post by desertwoman on Aug 29, 2024 20:57:13 GMT -5
would love to see a picture of your finished floors. Here they are. The first is what it looked like before (this is actually in the bedroom). Our guess is that the prior owner sanded- rather than stripped- the bedroom floor (losing the decades old patina), which ended up looking like a gymnasium floor- that bright yellow look- and so then painted on this opaque stain to tone it down. And then used the same opaque stain in the kitchen, to match the floors
here's the finished floor. We stripped it and put on a clear oil, to bring out the natural patina. I had to turn on the light since it was overcast today, which brightened the pic a little and made the it a tad lighter than it actually looks. The floors are about 70-75 years old.
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Post by desertwoman on Aug 29, 2024 23:40:35 GMT -5
Spent 3 hours on the native grass and finished weeding another section- mostly bindweed and Siberian elms., plus the area around the apple tree had something I don't know the name of. Deep rooted and tough to get out. I think some seed got washed into that area with our acequia irrigation water because it is new and nowhere else on the property. It took some effort to get it out and there was a lot of it. Still have a small patch to pull out. Checked out the veggie garden and lo and behold there is a tinge of color in a couple of sun gold cherry tomatoes. Will I eat a first tomato from my garden before September?? Stay tuned...
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Post by emmsmommy on Aug 30, 2024 0:56:52 GMT -5
Another scorcher yesterday but we decided to make it a town day. First was delivering 3 1/2 dozen pepperoni rolls and 30 loaves of mini bread to Mom for the concessions at the heritage craft fair this weekend. Then a quick stop at the .25 thrift store and then to the courthouse to pay taxes and pick up a farm exemption form which evidently didn't get mailed to several people this year. The form was due by Tuesday at the latest but I didn't want to make another trip, so took my records and filled it out in the car while hubby and I enjoyed a blizzard from DQ. A quick stop at the grocery store for milk and back home. I did stop by the local plant and herb business and obtained some pure cut-short seed as mom had originally given her seeds and thankfully I was able to get two packs for next year. I will continue to grow what I have, separating out the odd colored seeds and growing them in a different area just to see if it's a fluke or if I actually have a new variant. There's a chance of rain the entire weekend so I went through the garden and collected any dry or nearly dry bean pods and brought in to dry. Noticed first blooms on the trial bean that was planted in late May and hoping it has time to mature and produce a few seeds before we get a frost. When I stopped to get the seeds, they were also having a yard sale which hubby loved. I picked out an old enamel pot, a terracotta (?) chicken planter and two sealed jars of mystery beans. My main attraction to the beans is that you could tell they were harvested by someone as there was lots of chaff in the jars. They have the hinged lids and they were stuck tight so I had to gently use a butter knife around the seal and to carefully pry them open. Not sure of either variety, but one may be mayocoba. Oh and here's a preview of the dry bean mix I've harvested so far. I'll definitely be saving some of those blue seeds to grow separately next year.
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Post by gardendmpls on Aug 30, 2024 6:20:02 GMT -5
Did a little research and found a match to your blue bean seeds. Sacre Bleu is a bean developed by Lisa Bloodnick. She takes rogue beans from the rare types she trials in her fields and grows them out. Most come to nothing but this seemed like this one had good potential. She kept growing them and removing off types until in 2018 they only produced purely one type. They are offered by the Experimental Farm Network and sells out pretty quickly.
The EFN had another blue bean that was more like a cut-short bean and was renamed San Bernardo Blue. Originally it was named Nonna Agnes by the man who brought it to the US from Italy and grew it here. He named it for his grandmother. The company renamed it for its area of origin because " This bean was introduced to the US by an American who named it after his grandmother, who had no actual connection to the bean or its development. So since no one named Agnes had anything to do with this bean, and we don't know anything about its origin other than the town where it was found, we will henceforth refer to it as 'San Bernardo Blue' ". I think this is an example of the "political correctness" of today. The bean does have a connection to Agnes. Her grandson grew it and maintained it and instead of naming it for himself, he honored his grandmother by naming it after her. Can't see what is wrong with that. I wonder, if the person who found it and grew it in Italy had named it after his grandma, would they have changed the name because, "Seed purveyors have a duty to be as transparent as possible when it comes to names and stories attached to seeds, and we feel strongly that 'San Bernardo Blue' is the most appropriate, accurate, and honest name for this bean". Disagree. If Lisa Bodnick had named Sacre Bleu after her grandmother, would they change the name. And maybe they should change the current name because, can a bean be "sacred". Just my two cents.
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Post by datgirl on Aug 30, 2024 8:18:09 GMT -5
desertwoman,What a difference in your floor. Love it. Thanks for posting the pictures.
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Post by emmsmommy on Aug 30, 2024 9:51:04 GMT -5
gardendmpls, I'm not entirely convinced the blue beans are Sacre Blue as the ends of the seeds are square like a cutshort as they were crowded in the pod. I'm growing a variety called Blue Meerabarbe that I picked up at the seed library. The label mentioned it was also called Nonna Agnes and further research led me to EFN where I realized this was the bean I've drooled over many times. I've also found another site that offers both Blue Meerabarbe and Nonna Agnes and hopefully I can obtain seeds from both just to see if there's any difference. I also agree with you about renaming. I spent several summers working at a daylily farm and so many varieties are named in honor of people who have absolutely nothing to do with the development either. What's the harm? Does that mean if the variant of my beans proves to be different, I can't name it whatever I want? I'm assuming that I could either name it after my grandma or great-grandma as it's because of their seed-saving that the variety exists today.
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Post by gardendmpls on Aug 30, 2024 11:30:46 GMT -5
Another beautiful bean is Mbombo, from Baker Creek and others. The seed has an emerald green color that turns to a beautiful grey-green as it dries.
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Post by breezygardener on Aug 30, 2024 17:37:18 GMT -5
Thanks to the big storm we had last night, today was foggy/cloudy & cool - aka lovely.
We spent the morning first dropping off a vehicle for its annual (fingers crossed) inspection, & then went to Walmart to pick up more stuff for the food pantry to go with the stuff we bought for them at Ollie's last week along with a bunch of empty egg cartons they had requested to give to the local farms who donate eggs to them.
It was too early for the food pantry to be open, so we drove over to the Mennonite grocery/deli & had lovely breakfast sandwiches in their outdoor pavillion out on the lake. Mr. Breezy had egg & cheese on whole wheat, while I opted for egg, scrapple, & cheese on white with a little mayo. I haven't had scrapple in YEARS. It was lovely out there with the stillness, low fog, & cool temp. Not a soul to be seen, but did see a Great Blue heron & a Great/White egret. Then dropped all the stuff off at the pantry & they were very happy people. I told Mr. Breezy that a few more food pantry trips & I'll have worked off some of my guilt for how much we're going to spend on this year's heirloom Thanksgiving turkey - lol!
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Post by datgirl on Aug 30, 2024 20:03:33 GMT -5
Not much of anything. Rain started around 4am and lasted most of the day. Went out to the garden when rain stopped and was almost carried away by the mosquito's. Oh I did make a banana bread.
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Post by desertwoman on Aug 30, 2024 23:25:14 GMT -5
First thing I did this morning was to spray a vinegar solution that someone gave me - SoilMender Enhanced Vinegar (10% vin/orange oil/molasses. Was told it works wonders on weeds, so used it in the driveway and along the lane. Jury's out on what I think about the product. Within about 2 hours some of the weeds were crispy brown. Others look perky as ever.
Continued to whittle away at weeding out the native grass at the farthest end of this area (easy to ignore). The bindweed got out of control and a heavy infestation of Siberian elm sprouts.Also finished that last patch of the deep rooted mysterious weed. I think one more round should complete this task.
Made a quick trip in to town for coffee beans and lettuce. Heavy traffic (I took the main highway in rather than back roads to avoid road closures) as tonight is the burning of Zozobra- Old Man Gloom. It is the 100th anniversary of this tradition- the burning of a 60ft puppet filled with all our glooms. Shouts of 'burn him' fill the air once it is dark, and the fire dancer taunts Zozobra eventually touching the torch to the Old Man. Very pagan. It has gotten way too big and far too slick, for my taste. With attendance now in the 65,000-70,000 range they've had to put in much stricter security measures and screening and lots of rules. When I first got here, 43 years ago, it was a very local event (a huge turn out but not nearly close to 65,000)- with picnic baskets, blankets, and coolers dragged onto the field. Now one has to put whatever they carry to the event in clear plastic bags, no cooler, no bottled/canned water/drinks, no purses, backpacks, strollers, etc, But, still, it is cathartic to have a ritual like this to release the glooms of the past year
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Post by emmsmommy on Aug 31, 2024 1:39:04 GMT -5
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Post by emmsmommy on Aug 31, 2024 1:59:08 GMT -5
Out to water after kiddo was on the bus and back inside as it was already 80° by 8:30. Picked a handful of Trionfo Violetto beans and coupled with the harvest two days earlier, had enough for a mess of beans last evening. Watching British gardening show and am determined to finally get the paver patio in the backyard started, so spent an hour or so taking measurements, doing a few drawings and finally heading out into the shade to play with paver combinations. Mother-in-law gave us the red pavers she originally bought to redo her porch floor as she changed her mind and I discovered they clashed horribly with the brick on the front of our house, so looks like I'll be using them in the back yard, and the gray ones I bought will hopefully be used for a much-needed sidewalk in the front. Want to do it right but undecided about how big to make it so may just now and lay them out and live with them a few weeks just to see how I like it. On the agenda for next spring is construction of a new set of front steps as our rustic stone steps have proved a bit challenging with my ankle injuries this year. Right now I'm thinking of using leftover brick from the house to create the shell and then buying flagstone slabs for the actual steps but we shall see. I do know I'll have to create a concrete pad/footer if I go that route and moving the stones that are currently there is going to be a chore. Out again late evening to harvest more dry bean pods for seed and then back inside to clean up and then to lie down with kiddo for just a minute, which resulted in a seven-hour nap and her asleep beside of me. Hubby working all weekend even though I've cautioned him about the heat. I'll do my usual routine of watering early and back inside before it gets extremely hot and may work on repotting geraniums I'm planning to overwinter.
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Post by Mumsey on Aug 31, 2024 5:10:47 GMT -5
We had slightly over an inch of rain Thursday night. Went to the hospital early for annual labs/mammogram prior to appt next week. They sure are quick with results, got them all within 3 hours. All is good. Before I left I had put beets in the instant pot. Canned them all up, ended up with 7 quarts. Will take them to Dad's tomorrow, sis and I are going fishing! This time I'm taking along my filet knives. I'm thinking I will come home with cukes to make pickles for them.....
In the afternoon I went to the garden and spent over an hour ripping and cleaning things up. Took out all but 2 eggplant, picked those that looked OK. Took out 4 tomato plants and the lettuce that had gone to seed. The lawn guy came to the neighbors when I was out there, I had let Mr. Gray outside earlier so hurried over to get him back into the house. The guy was spraying awful smelling stuff. Mr. Gray is smart, he was already inside, so I shut the door. He won't get to go out again until tomorrow. Princess and I had to go inside too, the smell was strong. I'll resume today. Need to mow again too.
I have another pan of tomatoes ready to cook down, I think it will be salsa this time. And in half pint jars. A whole jar is too much for me at one time.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Aug 31, 2024 16:14:53 GMT -5
Today I harvested another 9 or 10 eggplants, and along with all those others I've gotten in the last several days, I put another 5½ trays in the dehydrator. I might put in a few trays of those green (and red) beans in there, to fill it up, as I have to do something with those, and started filling up another ziploc with them.
All the fall seedlings are doing well, except for that one new (for me) kohlrabi - Tianjin Green, for which I got not one sprout, out of at least a dozen. So I got out another variety I've grown before - Blauer Speck, a Purple variety from Baker Creek, which wasn't quite as good as Kolibri, as far as being a little later, and not quite as large, but it's OP, and better than the old Early Purple variety. So I sprouted some quickly - almost all of them sprouted in 24 hours, after soaking overnight in 250 ppm GA3, which I have found works fast with most brassicas. Today, I put some of the sprouted seeds in the small pots, plus another pot that I pulled the lettuce out of, because of those volunteers I used for the lettuce! So I should have a good number of these Blauer Specks.
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