Homestead mailing list

[Leslie <cayadopi AT yahoo.com>]

Too bad lawn mowers don't come with a foot pedal to crank it instead of a 
pull cord (like the back-up starter on a motorcycle or scooter).   Although 
when my arthritic knee hurts, I can't hardly do the foot pedal crank either.

--- On Fri, 5/22/09, EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net> wrote:



 The Snapper 
mower is a snapper alright...the cord snaps back violently almost 
jerking my shoulder out.
How can I bypass this problem.  Has anyone ever rigged a contraption 
that will pull the start?




>From cayadopi AT yahoo.com  Fri May 22 14:25:50 2009
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From: Leslie <cayadopi AT yahoo.com>
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Subject: [Homestead] potato flowers !
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I have no clue what I'm doing,,,,,, but so far things are looking pretty good.
 
I have about 80 feet of potatoes in one patch, and those are starting to 
flower; as are some of the potatoes in the tire.  
 
I received my "seed" potato from Park 2 months late!  So that was planted 2 
weeks ago  and is just starting to come up, although I'm not sure if it will 
be ready before things get too hot here in the desert.  Maybe I'll have to 
hunt down used sheets and clothes, sew them together and make shade tents 
over them.  LOL !
 
My biggest battle has been with one kind of bird that I swear,,,, watches me 
plant seeds, then swoops down and digs out the seeds, or waits until the 
seedlings emerge and then eats the seedling.  Solution?  I made chicken wire 
tunnels and placed them over the rows until the plants are about 5" tall.  
That has reduced the loss to birds.  
 
However, the road-runners follow me around whenever I'm outside and make all 
kinds of noise when I return, as they are little beggars looking for kitchen 
scraps.  They are quite friendly and walk right in the house all the time if 
I forget to close the door.  
 
A big rattler had some 30 babies,,, and I can't say I like finding snake 
trails in the biggest garden.  At least the roadrunners have been catching 
and eating the baby rattlers.  Not sure where the big one is though.
 
Carrots?  So far they are growing like weeds with no help other than a wire 
cage over them.  They sprouted a lot faster than I thought they would.  I 
stupidly forgot to put the fertilizer in the trench first though.  I'm 
tempted to start another patch with fertilizer in the bottom of the trench 
and see how much difference it makes.
 
Something small enough to get under the wire cages though seems to like 
beets, and keeps eating the greens.
 
There are a lot of quail here, and I found that putting bird seed out outside 
the garden has helped keep them out of the garden.
 
After initial multiple troubles getting seeds to sprout, most things are 
coming up quite well now, especially in the garden that I have a good amount 
of manure dug in.   I've never had luck before, so this is a real first.
 
Yesterday we got our first rain in many months, and it is still raining 
on/off rain today.  So weeding will have to get underway in earnest.  
Although right along the irrigation lines, I've already had to weed around 
the new plants as the weeds like water & manure also.
 
I received some sweet potato slips in the mail, and boy oh boy were they ever 
dried out after spending the afternoon in a desert mailbox.... I hope they 
make it.  I'm trying to start my own, but who knows if that will work....
 
Tomato plants have been the hardest, and I finally purchased some at Walmart 
to at least have some, and threw some seeds in the ground.  Those finally 
sprouted, but it will be too late.  Peppers have been difficult too, and this 
is a pepper capital area.... I suspect my problem has more to do with trying 
to get the early start and my black thumb.  Transplanting has been so-so, and 
they do better started right in the ground.
 
 
Meanwhile the mice did $700 damage in the wires to my old truck............ 
causing numerous shorts and odd things making my truck seem like it is 
"possessed".  Hopefully they will be done by next week.
 
Hope the spuds get big under the soil.  I haven't been disturbing the soil by 
the potatoe plants to see if any little spuds yet.



>From indexer AT fairpoint.net  Fri May 22 14:37:37 2009
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EarthNSky wrote:
> ...I really need to mow today and all the neighbors are gone. I have 5
> hours of mowing to do and it looks like it will break out into rain any
> second.  I'm frustrated.
>
Well, I was too, but I fired the blasted mower (actually, declined to
have it repaired ONCE AGAIN!) and now use the scythe...quieter, more
pleasant exercise, doesn't chew up my toads and only takes about 20%
longer than mowing did.  Plus which I can do it early in the morning,
dew or no, which is when I really prefer to work outside in 'grass season'.

I used it for the 'big yard', about a half acre, at first, but now, as
the kids have moved around the world, I mow less and less area--not much
call for a volleyball court anymore, or ball-playing areas, etc, so now
I only mow an area that if put all together would likely measure about
100' each way, square, plus paths to the garden (200' or so by one
swath-width), the outhouse, and the root cellar (another 100' or so, one
swat wide).  Whole thing takes little time:  not even worth getting out
and fighting with a mower, not to mention the maintenance on the
bloomin' thing; the scythe requires nothing I can't do myself, on the
spot.  Plus which with the scythe I trim as I go...and that's what
really ate up the time before.  Counting trim time, I don't spend as
long doing with the scythe as I did with the mower, by a long shot.

The only negative has been that I have to shut the dog in his yard and
he hates it, but not a good idea to be using a scythe around
critters/little uneducated 2-leggers.  He gets over it the second he's out.

SJ