Good morning!!!!

[rswyan]

53F and overcast @ 21:00, headed down to 50F for the low in the overnight. LWS reports that rainfall totals 0.78" since midnight.

Hopper feeder refilled, also two suet feeders.

Looks like the addition of raisins to the bird food may be paying off as a strategy:

Saw a Baltimore Oriole by the kitchen window today, perhaps trying to hit the suet feeder:

(Author: By Mdf - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4106444)

I have never seen those here.

May have to incorporate additional food offerings (and/or another feeder - perhaps a platform or tray)

Got Cub air cleaner pre filter washed out.

Made the run down to the Post Office earlier and dropped off Menards rebates (had one that needed to be postmarked by tomorrow), grabbed the mail on the way back in, also the cordless drill up at the shop.

Spray-misted inside seedlings/sprouts several times.

Worked on the whiteworm boxes, misting them and loosening up the soil, got four of the six fed. Will do the last two tomorrow.

Downstairs fish all fed, along with the three cats.

There used to be a fluorescent light fixture over the sliding glass door in the dining room. We removed it at some point, along with the cedar box that hid it and the drapery rod. We're going to be replacing it with track lighting which will have grow lights installed. So did a little research on that.

UPS just sent an email:

Woman's string trimmer is rescheduled to be delivered ... tomorrow ... (pretty sure that was the original delivery date)

Hope everyone had a great Friday ...

 

[Wagtail]

Good morning! Well the predicted rain arrived and this morning's gauge reading was 32.5mm, low temp of 6C and currently 13C.

Yay.

Sorry to see that 'Jeff' has his tractor + implements for sale... moving into a condo.

Take care all

 

[rswyan]

They are saying 107˚F in San Saba Tx Saturday. That's about a hundred miles west of here we are only getting to the upper upper 90s. Definitely a pool day.

Does the cultivator work best with an up and down motion or by dragging it?

Can't say for certain but if I had to guess, probably depends a lot on what you're using it on.

I'd think hard, compacted soil might be more up/down ... at least initially, until it was broken up some.

On looser soils I doubt that it matters much.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

yeah, first hummingbird arrived.
Have to remember to refill the feeders Sunday after all this rain coming.

Ken, my raised garden is out in the sun, warms up pretty quickly and I have a thermometer in it.
Everything is coming up, squash, taters, so soil has been warm enough. Radishes grow remarkably quickly.

does anyone know if weeping willows can withstand wet/flooded roots for weeks on end? Most trees can't.
I have these two new little willow trees coming in and have no idea where it is safe to plant them with all this rising water.
I've now drowned six shrubs. I have learned. Sort of. I guess willows will have to go on the higher ground; their roots will find plenty of damp ground nearby.

Drew, thanks for wishing us some rain.....
As the weeping willows go, yes, they can be planted anywhere.... even IN water. We have been rooting branch cut-offs in a five gallon bucket. Takes about 3-4 weeks, but the branches will sprout a root system about the size of a 1 gallon nursery container. Then we plant them in a 5 gallon bucket for the rest of the summer. They get planted the following spring.

We currently have 10 in 5 gal containers, 6 more sprouting roots. Surprisingly they are also drought tolerant but we have ours on irrigation.... they get approx 16 gals per week.

The trees in the pic are cuttings that we did last year. They are over 7' tall now, grown from 2-3' branch clippings.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

2.24” rain so far. Flood warnings out, some water rescues.
Saw a grocery store back in Ohio has knee deep water to get in. Dad got some water in the basement.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I noticed a bunch of trees sprouting in back yard under our pretty maple. I’m going to move some and hope I can start more trees. Don’t think they are from the oak. Leaves not big enough to tell yet.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good evening. High today was 80°, partly cloudy with a touch of smoke from the 7 wildfires in the state.

The one closest to us has now grown to over 168,000 acres. Only 13% contained. The winds weren't too bad today, only 25-30 mph. Unfortunately, the next 3 days are going to cause those fires to explode.... near the fire, they might have 60-70 mph winds. Our governor is really mad / upset at the forest service.... this was started by a prescribed burn.

Not a good idea to do a burn when the humidity is in the single digits, high wind warnings, and 'extreme' drought..... I wonder if anyone is going to have to explain "why?"

Doug, good to hear that Leslie is back from the hospital. Now it's time for you to get fixed! Hope you both get better soon!

I braved the wind today to do some pond maintenance. We were watching the birds go in there to get a drink. But, there isn't any water in it yet. I drained it last fall (as low as I could get it) looking for a leak. It was one of those plastic formed liner. Well, I found 3 cracks, all about 3-4" long...??? Don't know why it cracked, but they were all on the 'rolled' edge between the sides and the bottom. I went into town and got an EDPM liner that I'll just put over the plastic one. Gonna try to get it done in the morning before the winds get here around noon.

The knee is complaining, so time to go put it up on some pillows.

 

[sodamo]

Ted, thinking of your safety with the fire issues.

 

[daugen]

good morning all
sure wish I could send Ted some water, plenty of it here.
It's been raining lightly for a day now, about 1.4 inches so far and going to keep raining today.
50 out now, not getting any higher today.

was thinking of going to local Grange to Master Gardener plant sale but not sure if that area is covered. Diehard gardeners won't mind
the rain.

going to open up Burpee box, see what they sent me, need to do that in garage so that is on the list for this morning. So my planting list now includes
2 willows, 2 oxalis bulbs, two white snowball bushes(twigs...), and from memory four tomato and four pepper plants.

Ted, thanks for info on willows, never would have thought they grew there but with irrigation anything is possible.

have a lot of paperwork to do today, procrastinating like mad trying to avoid it, but the pile of unfiled stuff just gets higher.

hope you all have a nice weekend.

 

[Looking4new]

Get the economy bottle of super glue, a 1/32 drill and I'm sure you can fix it yourself. Ouch.

There would be no 'Ouch' if you include a couple of largish bottles of Scotch.