What Did You Do Today?

[Pappy]

Looks like a good day Eric.  JW have a safe trip, I know you will have fun.
 Pappy

[Eric Krewson]

Just general stuff today;

Food land had 10# bags of chicken leg quarters on sale for 79 cents a pound, I bought 30#, 20# for me and 10# for a friend.

I like to stockpile single serve vacuum sealed packs of meat for quickie meals later.

The 10# pack had 12 leg quarters in it, like to cook meat over charcoal with hickory thrown in for the smoke. while I was at it, I cooked 3 packs of deer cube steak as well. I skin my leg quarters because the skin has 60% of the calories.



I rounded out the weekend by starting my garden seeds, I am a little late but I ordered a 48" grow light and plan to subject my seeds to 24-hour daylight to see what happens. I planted two kinds of tomatoes, three kinds of squash and cantaloupe.



I thought my greens were toast when the temps got down to 9 degrees. Somehow, they made it through the freeze. I gave them a shot off ammonium nitrate a couple of weeks ago and they really took off. Looks like I will be adding more to my freezer before I till my garden. Collards in the foreground and kale in the background.

[bjrogg]

Looks great Eric. Love seeing stuff green up in the spring.

Some plants might do strange things if you do 24 hours of light.

Some plants trigger their switch from vegetative growth to reproductive growth by changing of daylight hours. Especially from going to a longer day to a shorter one.

I would be interested in seeing how it works.

Bjrogg

[JW_Halverson]

Just general stuff today;

Food land had 10# bags of chicken leg quarters on sale for 79 cents a pound, I bought 30#, 20# for me and 10# for a friend.

I like to stockpile single serve vacuum sealed packs of meat for quickie meals later.

The 10# pack had 12 leg quarters in it, like to cook meat over charcoal with hickory thrown in for the smoke. while I was at it, I cooked 3 packs of deer cube steak as well. I skin my leg quarters because the skin has 60% of the calories.



I rounded out the weekend by starting my garden seeds, I am a little late but I ordered a 48" grow light and plan to subject my seeds to 24-hour daylight to see what happens. I planted two kinds of tomatoes, three kinds of squash and cantaloupe.



I thought my greens were toast when the temps got down to 9 degrees. Somehow, they made it through the freeze. I gave them a shot off ammonium nitrate a couple of weeks ago and they really took off. Looks like I will be adding more to my freezer before I till my garden. Collards in the foreground and kale in the background.

HOT DANG! I ran across the same price here a few weeks ago and snagged 20 lbs. Half got grilled with a Texas dry rub and the other half got treated with multiple moppings with a North Alabama White BBQ Sauce. And like you, I bagged them up and stacked 'em like cordwood in the freezer.

Today I spent on last minute preparation for heading out to OJAM. Oil change, packing the vehicle, last minute adjustments to the load. And then I went down to the county treasurer's office to get the title change and registration on this new-to-me vehicle. I checked in and was told the max wait time was two hours two minutes. Ok. Great, I'll just go have a leisurely lunch! I came back 90 minutes later and sat down to wait. I waited a whole 3 hours and 45 minutes longer for a total of 5 hours and 15 minutes. All the parking around the area for several blocks is 2 hour time limit, so along with spending altogether too much time, I got a danged ol' parking ticket to boot!

Yeah, well, I have the alarm set for 3:00 a.m. and intend to be out the door shortly thereafter. I have at least 12 hours and 36 minutes drive time according to MapQuest Route Planner and I hope to do it all in 14. Hello, Stillwater OK and OJAM!

[Eric Krewson]

My seedlings are doing well, I never used the grow light I bought.

I rebuilt an old grill I had to give to a friend; I plan to buy a new one but completely rehabbed my old one with new burners, new igniter and new grates, I have a thing about giving someone a junky gift so I turned my grill into just about a new one for her. With new burners, grate, igniter, a good pressure washing and a coat of black paint over the rusted base this old grill worked better than it did when it was new.

Yesterday I put a few morels that a friend gave me into a blender with some grain to make a slurry to put around some trees in my woods to see if I could get a morel patch or two going. I have heard that half dead cherry trees are a good candidate for growing spores, I have 4 such trees in my woods, giant trees. I only made a couple gallons of spore material to spread, with the mushrooms I blended up, I could have filled two or three 5-gallon buckets and sill had plenty of spores in each bucket but at 77, I carry a full 5-gallon bucket poorly, especially down the sides of a very steep hollow.

Morel spores in the qt jar, billions of them. 

[bjrogg]

Good luck with the morels Eric. I tried it once but it didn’t work for me. I would like to try it again. Maybe I did something wrong or conditions were wrong. At any rate, hope it works for you. Never can have to many morel hunting spots.


The grill looks great. I have a big four burner grill I kinda inherited from a very good friend. I had to change burners, grates and heat deflector but it is working great now. It was so awesome to light it the first time and smell the familiar aroma from my friendsj cooking.

My sister in law just gave me her husbands smoker. I got it working in time to smoke my last batch of smoked summer sausage. Once again it was so awesome to smell my passed brother in law’s cooking and I feel like we both contributed a little love to that first batch.

Your grill looks great.

Bjrogg

[Pappy]

You are about like me Eric, lots of projects going on. I had a guy at the Classic a couple years ago give me a big bag on morel spores and told me how to plan them, I did pretty much what he said I think  but didn't work for me either, someone told me sometime it takes a couple of years for them to come up, we will check and see again this year. Hope yours works out.
 Pappy

[Eric Krewson]

Poke picking time, we have had a lot of rain this spring, I have never seen as much poke weed coming up alongside the exercise trail that I walk. The poke was too small last week but just right this week so I started stockpiling it to put in the freezer.

I have never fried the stems but have watched the videos on how to do it safely so I brought home some stems as well as leaves.

I put up 4 packs on the first round and will pack my Walmart bag much fuller on my trip to the trail today. I blanch the poke 3 times dumping off water with the toxins in the process. I freeze the blanched poke leaves unseasoned and season it when I cook it.

[Pappy]

I use to eat a lot of poke when my Mother in law and Miss Joanie Grand Mother was alive, they both loved it and knew how to cook it up, poke and eggs was their favorite . I have a lot of it around the farm and use the berries from time to time for stain. By the way Gil got the Yew stave, now when the Classic is over I will help him fashion a bow out of it, very nice piece of Yew for sure. 
 Pappy

[Eric Krewson]

Time to start on the garden, the ground turned up perfectly. I plant through black plastic, I have to for several reasons. I have put so much barn yard fertilizer in my soil over the years that that the weed seeds in the stuff are so thick that I would have to hoe the whole garden every day to keep the weeds down. The next reason is this old man can barely hoe a row much less than a 20X60 garden.

The plastic is a pain to put down, I make giant staples out of grape arbor wire to hold the corners down, gallon jugs full of water and 20 or so 6' T-posts scattered about keep the rest down. The wind will lift the plastic like a sail if it isn't held firmly in place. After the plants grow a little keeping the plastic down is not a problem.  I recycle the plastic for as many years as I can, I usually get two years, sometimes three before the sun degrades it and it falls apart. I take the plastic up in September to plant my greens, I fold it up and keep it in my shop.

The dirty plastic in on its second year, I put last year's ground side up to cut down on the glare, the sun's reflection off fresh plastic will burn young plants.

I may decide to plant something different than the previous year in a piece of recycled plastic, I fill the old holes with newspaper to block the holes and cut new holes.   

[bjrogg]

Looks great Eric. Always enjoy seeing your garden. You can always tell when a person has a green thumb.

Good luck with your crops. That’s the farmer in me. Just love to watch everything grow.

Bjrogg

PS. Just curious if you ever tried cardboard in place of plastic? I know some do. I’m sure there’s pros and cons to both

[PaulN/KS]

Still a bit before I can start mine up here in Kansas. My asparagus is coming up nice though. But since I don't do potatoes or other of the early crop stuff I need to wait till the ground warms up a bit still. Plus, there's still a chance of frost yet here as well.

Question, you ever try the black fabric that folks put under rock gardens that's supposed to stop the weeds?

[Eric Krewson]

I have found that things like pole beans germinate and grow better if they are planted through a strip of landscape fabric. I am putting more and more strips of landscape fabric down the planted rows. I put black plastic on the bare spots to keep the weeds down. Plants like okra, squash and tomatoes like black plastic, I think this is so because these plants shade the ground from the Alabama sun. Spinach will only have a germination rate of about 10% or less if planted through plastic but does really well planted through landscape fabric.

I experiment with different planting techniques every year just to see what happens. A couple of years ago my yellow squash grew into my electric fence, there wasn't a bug or stalk borer on any of them all season, the vines grew out for at least 12 ft. I have been trying to figure out a way to put this finding into practice.

[PaulN/KS]

Thanks Eric,
I too have used a lot of "barnyard" fertilizer, mostly horse from the horse farm nearby, and it is pretty weedy. I might give the landscape fabric a try this year.
You ever try the New Zealand spinach variety? I had good luck with it one year. Not as well since though.

[Pappy]

Looking good Eric, you stay busy that's for sure.
 Pappy