Texas Spring/Summer Thread

[bindian]

Brandi;
I always wanted the fastest car, and the fastest horse! And then I wanted to drive the tractor. Nice to know I am not the only one!

Closest I got to a fast car was putting hand-me-down headers, from my brother, on my 66 Mustang.

My paint part quarter horse and part Welsh pony was faster than a full size quarter horse the neighbor had, that is........................in a short race.:laughing: Any distance Penny and I were lost.
hugs, Brandi

 

[farmgirl19]

Closest I got to a fast car was putting hand-me-down headers, from my brother, on my 66 Mustang.

My paint part quarter horse and part Welsh pony was faster than a full size quarter horse the neighbor had, that is........................in a short race.:laughing: Any distance Penny and I were lost.
hugs, Brandi

Are you sure we weren't leading parallel lives? I ended up with the 5.0 Mustang, with the powerful version, BEFORE they detuned them some in Feb. '79. Mine had come off of the floor, before Uncle Sam said they were too powerful for street cars. They then began using the version that I had in the police interceptors.

And my old QH gelding was faster than anyone else on the short run, and across a pasture!

Funny about you taking the mowers apart. I don't remember any of ours wearing out, due to dad's maintenance of them. I was always under a car or on a tractor with him, doing whatever project he was working on, even from toddler stage! Not something mom was happy about, but dad was happy to have the help.

 

[NativeSon]

I went to my high school friend's memorial service yesterday. It was attended by about 100 people and several of my former classmates. It was not a sad event, though certainly tears were shed. Lots of people stood up to speak and all said how even-tempered Cecil was and how he was always friendly and loving. One gent in poor health related how Cecil had called him weekly and just showed up at his house with a several bags of groceries on several occasions. Cecil's former business partner was also Cecil's best friend. I think that says volumes about his character when a partnership can dissolve and the two remain best friends. There were lots of stories about how Cecil gave people jobs in the grocery stores and mentored them on customer service. One fellow whose father owned several stores said his dad used to ask him, "Why can't you be more like Cecil?" Cecil had a broken left arm when he was young. The doctor putting on the cast set it too tight and Cecil's left arm was damaged and never fully developed. The arm was smaller and misshapen, but Cecil used it to its full potential. He played basketball in high school and baseball. He loved sports and didn't let his disability slow him down. Nobody thought of Cecil as disabled.QUOTE]

Jim, I've gone to most of my reunions and enjoyed seeing people that I grew up with and haven't seen in too long a time. There is a comfort level with old friends and it's good to make the effort to reunite with them.

This weekend we had a Mini-Reunion for our class for the ones that live out here in East Texas(went to school in Dallas). It was a lot of fun to see some good people and eat some BBQ Brisket and Ribs. Some of those people I hadn't seen in 45 years.

One friend who I grew up with, went to church, High School, and College with, was planning to show up. He had moved off to Houston and I had moved out here and our paths just hadn't crossed in a long time. We kept in touch with emails and said we were going to take some time and get together. I was really looking forward to seeing him. He passed away 2 weeks before our little Reunion. So we stood around and all had stories to tell that were about him, and that was good, but we all wished he had been there. As my Dad use to say "Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today."

Charlie

 

[jinman]

Thanks Charlie, Kyle, and Farmgirl19. I got the phone number of one fellow and plan to start having a few mini-reunions at least twice a year so we can get together somewhere for a meal and conversation. Our class has a facebook page, and I'll post on there when/where the gatherings will be.

Yesterday was a great day for gettin' stuff done. We have been trying to decide what would work best to hide our aerobic septic tank risers and decided roses would be the most enjoyable and easiest to maintain. I have a ridge to divert water flow off my yard away from the risers, so the top of that ridge was the obvious location. Years ago, I had iris planted there and had transplanted some St. Augustine grass runners with the iris when I transplanted them from house in Grand Prairie. Wouldn't you know that St. Augustine has grown and spread over probably 1000 sq ft or more. In order to preserve the St. Augustine for another area of my lawn, I showed my wife and grandson how to use a short handled flat-blade shovel to cut sod squares and undercut those so they could easily be replanted. After they removed the sod, I used my little cultivator/tiller to dig the holes. The tiller shown in the link has wheels, but the first thing I do with these tillers (I've owned two of them) is remove the wheels. They just get in the way of me using it as what I call a gas-a-hoe. So, we planted rose bushes and then I used the tiller to loosen soil and make wide shallow trenches for replanting the sod. It worked great for that.

I also staked my tomato vines and tied the plants to the stakes to keep the wind from beating them to death and maybe snapping them off at the ground. I'm not ready to put them into cages yet. With the style of cages I use, once I put them on, it's very hard to till the soil around the tomatoes. By using stakes, I can keep the soil tilled around the tomato plants until they are about 2' tall or slightly more. Earlier this year, I bought some of these 3' PVC coated stakes from Amazon. The price was less than the current price and not bad for 48 stakes because they are superb. They are completely coated and have plastic tips on both ends and strong enough to easily push into soft ground. I also found another terrific product for a gardener. It's a soft 1/2" Velcro plant wrap for tying the plants to the stakes. It comes in a 75' roll for around $7 and is extremely easy to cut and use in whatever length needed. It's much better than using tie-wraps to secure plants. Speaking of tie wraps. . . If you need some at an excellent price, Amazon sells a 100' roll of tie-wrap material that comes with a cutter for $3.44. I use it to tie my deer netting fence to my t-posts. The way the package is made, you just reel off the length you need and press down on the cutter to snip it off. Every gardener needs a roll of this stuff.:thumbsup:

Okay, Jim's Garden Tips is closed for this episode. Tune in each week for more exciting details. :laughing:

 

[txdon]

Okay, Jim's Garden Tips is closed for this episode. Tune in each week for more exciting details. :laughing:

Where's the youtube link for JGT????

 

[pacerron]

That sounds pretty nifty... Maybe pictures as the plants grow will be forthcoming.

We just put a T post at each end of a 50 foot row and a couple in between. Then as the tomato vines start getting taller take some old plastic baler twine and go down one side and back up the other with the tomato vine stems in between. By the time that is done about 3 times 8-12" apart coming up the vines are like trees with the branches holding the tomatoes off the ground.
Nothing fancy, but it works, so we can till between the rows most of the summer.

 

[Lou66]

I always use sisal hay string for my tomatoes plants,, sense I always have a couple of half role laying around,, at the end of the year I pull what ever is left in the square baler and set aside,, it doesn't do well setting all winter in the wet and cold.. it has weak spots in it.. and it always breaks when you stop looking back.. only a hay person will understand that.. so its either use it on my mata or throw it away.. also works well on green beans or anything else you need to tie up.. it is biodegradable,, Lou

 

[Bird]

I made up a bunch of cages of rectangular concrete reinforcing mesh for my tomatoes. That worked better than anything else I've seen and was less work for me. The rectangles were large enough to reach through when necessary and kept the plants upright.

 

[Western]

Bird, that is what I have around my fruit trees, thick and works great,5' tall too. Using 32" field fence left overs for the tomatoes, so far seems to be doing good. I drive a "T" post in then place the wire "basket" over the post and around the tomatoes.

 

[Bird]

Yep, Dennis, it was partly a matter of using what was available. I found a surplus of the concrete reinforcing mesh in the barn when I bought the place and I had a surplus of 1" x 2" lumber. So I made the cages out of the mesh, then drove two 1 x 2s inside each cage; one on each side to keep wind and such from blowing any cages over. Of course the tomato plants grow out through the mesh, so at the end of the season, I'd use a machete to chop off the growth outside each cage, so I could easily pull the cages up and store them in the barn for next year.