Life goes on - Summer 2016

David, nice garden. No time right now to garden. Snowing anyhow, started this morning on the way to work.

How long have you been growing crabgrass? I want to give it a try.!!

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Hi all, the tractor did the plowing and the disking last year. We have a 4 year old and a 2 year old so life took over and we let it go hence the crab grass. Life is a little better now so we are gearing back up. The beds are all formed with a fork and reformed each year. After the first hellish year it’s a lot easier. Looks are deceiving it’s very wet right now my soil is actually very Sandy. We use local horse manure and all my charcoal scraps. I’ll have to remember the crabgrass as fodder one…

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Harvested about a dozen radishes out of my raised bed today. Only 2 made it to the house. Maybe need to leave my pocket knife in the house next time. Nah too hard on the teeth
Nice looking garden

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Love fresh Radishes from the garden
Last year I grew a bunch of greens and Broclli, heads were small (didn’t know I was supposed to pack the soil tight when setting plants) but tasted grate. Grew a few potatoes in a pail for my son.
He planted them very late so we only got a few small ones.
Jesse

Thanks for the link Jeff I will have to explore a little over there.
David looks like you put in quite a nice garden. I buried some half rotted popple slash in a few beds last year really helped to hold in the moisture in my sand. This year not much that looks like wood. I can reach my hand down in almost half way to my elbow. I just pushed a d handle fork in and twisted it to prep them beds this year. I buried about 3 more cords this year in the remaining beds. If you try it just remember that all that carbon needs lots of nitrogen. I make chicken coop soup. Chicken coop bedding and charcoal fines in a bucket of water over night and in the beds during construction. I have been gardening in this spot for about 5 years now and top dressing with a composted manure and leave mixture I made in my neighbors barn yard. I would take trailer loads of my leaves and my skid steer over and clean his barn for him for the compost. Wish he still had them critters, only one truck load of that compost left.

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Hey Jim the permaculture folks call that system a hugel kultur raised bed. It’s supposed to work great for creating rich soil.

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Indeed they do David. I just dug mine down two shovels deep instead of piling them so high. Last years are only 10 " high . The ones I did this year are maybe 14". My thinking is that I will have some soil to steal for some beds in a green house down the road. I am also taking down the very tall pines on the south side of my house that faces the road. Once they are gone so is my privacy. Thinking of building a 4 foot tall hugel bed /berm at the edge of the easement to regain my privacy. I am planning on planting as many perennial edibles as I possibly can.

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Sounds great. My south side is a swamp so I have thought of doing the same to raise the ground level at least on the beds to plant… Something.

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I don’t think we had anything growing this morning.



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OK, here’s a puzzler for you.

You hook up a trailer, and decide to test the lights. No need for the keys, you can check everything with the truck off. Running lights, check. Hazard lights; check. Brake lights; oops the left one is out. The truck’s brake light is also out. However you’ve already tested the bulbs, and you know it’s the same power wires used for the hazards as for the brakes. What’s going on?

Try to figure it out, then reveal the answer below. Click to see.

[spoiler] Solution: The turn signal was accidentally clicked to the left position, while the ignition was off.

Normally, the turn signal grounds the brake switch on one side, stopping the power to the bulb, and replaces it with power from the turn signal flasher. Since the ignition was off, the flasher wasn’t working, but the ground works anytime. So, the bulb didn’t light.[/spoiler]

And yes, this happened to me about half an hour ago. :wink:

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How do you do the blur/hidden tags?

You have to use spoiler tags.

[spoiler]this is a secret[/spoiler]

comes out like this:

[spoiler]this is a secret[/spoiler]

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I need another clue. What about the blinkers?

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Remember, the ignition is off. Blinkers not tested, but the hazards work fine.

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turn the ignition on and the blinkers will work.

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After though…left hand blinker left on when you shut truck off.

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always seems seems to be the ground. The more you load the lighting harness the more goofy stuff you see. many times won’t show any signs till you add the trailer

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I am with the ground reply,I like too hang a seperate ground wire between the trailer and the truck frame or inside the trunk if its a car.

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Assuming you have previously tested the lights and know the Left/Right turn to be correct, you can from then on simply check parking and hazards. If they both work, you’re good to roll.

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My own private argos; splitting the tractor awaiting my ring gear and starter from Steiner

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