After taking a trip to one of the local hardware/home improvement stores, the ole lady came back with some flats of seedlings of tomatoes and peppers. This store always had the best price on the flats compared to the chain stores. With that, I knew that I would need to get to work getting some of these plants in the ground, so to speak, before they either dry out or before we get too ahead in the spring.
I still had my main hydroponic system that utilized the two 6" sewer pipes with the 12oz cups as planters, with room to accommodate 10 plants. I still had some bucket planters that were open plus one of the older oil drum planters still open. The other older drum planter lost its legs and fell over so it'll be emptied of dirt and staged with the outgoing scrap to go out on the next run. The first thing I did was plant tomatoes. I planted these in the bucket planters and in the old drum planter since they would need the most room compared to the peppers. I was able to get 10 tomatoes planted between all of the locations. I'll be needing to get some more cages for those tomatoes before they grow too big to be encased within. As for the hydroponic garden, I had to collect the perlite medium from a 5 gallon bucket that I had the stuff sitting in from last year. Of course water filled the bucket to the point that I had to scoop the perlite out by hand and deposit it in the cups then drain the water out and repeat until I filled the cups. For this garden I picked out the jalapeno and a couple of banana peppers to plant within. I put each plant into each cup and scooped enough perlite to fill the cup all around the plant before setting them all in the holes of the assembly. I will still need to mix some fertilizer mix and fill the drum up so it can start running like normal but for right now the tubes had standing water in them that will keep the plants moist until then. Another thing that I had to make note of were the fruit trees in the half drums in the middle of the garden. Two drums have fruit trees, what appears to be peach trees with a few strawberries within. The trees are starting to form fruits on them while the strawberries in the two drums are actually pretty large, due in part to the chicken litter that had been deposited heavily through the winter before even planting anything. One of the drums had a grape plant in there but it didn't make it and will need to be replaced. I'll end up planting another grape within and some strawberries as supplies allow. The last drum had a fruit tree that looks like it tried to come to life but didn't make it. The few remaining green leaves are wilting away and the bark on the tree is peeling off so the tree is pretty much dead. The blueberry plants within however are doing rather well. I'll end up breaking and cutting that dead tree up and try to carefully remove the remains in the dirt without disturbing the two plants so I can try to plant something else, maybe another fruit tree or something. Also right next to this dead tree is an apple tree that had actually did well the last few years but is now dead. All I could do is start breaking up branches in order to dispose of the tree to get it out of the way to make way for a new set up, perhaps another drum planter. With those developments, I'll be doing even more permanent plantings as supplies allow. I probably won't wait for clearance plants at the end of the season as I want to get things in the garden established as soon as possible so I can move on to other projects. One of the other things I did around the yard was rearrange some cars. After working on the Monte Carlo, which was parked at the back of the midway by the eastern end fence line, I went ahead and moved it out of the way to the side while taking time to charge the battery and fill the one bad tire on the S10 so I can get it started and moved. I moved that truck to the back of the midway where the Monte was sitting. From there I moved the Monte back to an intermediate spot next to the plotted line where the porch will be built at, just in front of and to the right of the S10. This left enough room to be able to park the Tracker and the Scion next to one another far enough into the driveway that I can pull out the F250 or park it off to the side along the western fence line. Even though the F250 is staged off to the side, I also plan on moving the FMT/F150 to the side closer to the chicken yard fence, hopefully after selling our old tow dolly, so I can open up the area along the western fence. I plan on laying a bunch of gravel over all of this area, including the area where I want to park the FMT, so I can build up the area. I need to build up the area as I will be building an A frame gantry with which I'll use to hoist up the 65 Mustang body in the process of dropping it on the Ranger frame we have. I will move the 65 Stang to the spot where the FMT currently sits then build the A frame around the car body. From there I'll relocate the Ranger frame just in front of the car's body so soon as I get it stripped of everything that needs to be removed prior to the frame install, I can hoist it up and roll the truck frame right under the body. One of my main goals with the moving around of everything is to get to where I have all the vehicles parked within the fenced in areas of the compound. Of course when the 65 Mustang project is in its advanced stages, we will be short one "vehicle" as the frame will be incorporated into the body. Also with the old tow dolly gone, that'll clear some more real estate as well. Now When I implement the plan to use the S10 for the 51 Chevy frame swap, it will yield another frame, but that frame will be built up to serve as a yard truck as noted in a previous post, it could end up parked anywhere based on how it was used. Also with the moving of cars, when I do manage to get the Ranger frame moved and staged by the 65 Mustang at its new parking spot, I also want to move the large stack of pre-cut firewood to the east fence line close to the firewood staging area so I can further cut and split the wood and only have to go a short distance to stack the wood on the pallets. Moving the Ranger frame and this wood from the area behind the garden fence will allow me to move the boat trailer and the catamaran boat that are currently parked on the side next to the storage trailer, close to the west side garden fence. Opening that area up will allow me to move the 51 Chevy and the Elcamino to that area. Of course I'll have to build the area up with gravel but once all that is done I'll have all the vehicles parked within the fenced in areas of the compound, on gravel where hopefully I can curtail invasion by varmints since they seem to prefer grass over gravel. More to come.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
May 2023
|