Hallo from Idaho..

[MountainWard]

I did a little grazing this morning on my regrown greens. Gotta keep it very minimal yet until they actually grow out a bit but very tasty, especially the garlic greens man I love the garlic greens sooo tasty. I will be able to weed the planters here in a few days which will deliver me a mouthful of tasty small weed sprouts.. My wife always shakes her head she sees me weeding the indoor planters and eating all the weed sprouts.. lol... She always asks "how do you know none of that is toxic?"... Hasn't hurt me yet... lol.. Then she follows that with "You are the reason our kids are like that"... lol.. Then usually a comment about her marrying a rabbit.. Then my retort that we did have 6 kids, being like a rabbit isn't all bad..

In spite of my daily grazing on the greens most seem to be doing reasonably well.

The onion tops are doing awesome, they are a fair bit older than everything else though...

The carrots are starting to produce reasonably well, I am getting to eat a reasonable amount of carrot greens already.

The leeks won't produce much for greens they just go straight to seed but that seed is useful for growing more tasty leeks.

Looking forward to the turnip tops to get really going, I love turnip greens almost as good as spinach..

Can't really tell yet if the Brussels sprouts or cabbage are actually doing anything yet, I will have to patiently wait and see on those.

 

[daveb]

I have waterflows from my dams in the late winter and spring up a ways into summer but no actual streams here.

even off a dam if you have some drop you can make a hydrolic ram if you havethe need to raise water to a tank or push it a distance

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Possibly wind-energy or solar might suit you better. Thought with all the trees, perhaps not wind-energy.

Our pump has a steel pipe too - an absolute nightmare to work with as it's so heavy. Anytime the pump broke down and had to be taken to a mechanic of some kind, we had to chain the pipe up and hope it wouldn't fall until we returned.

 

[MountainWard]

I cut down a 40 foot tamarack tree and drug it to the house. I attached it to the base of a tree about 12 feet from the well head and chained it on the top so that the end of it was over the well head. I had a pulley at the top of the tree with about 75 feet of cable. I just parked my truck a ways away and hooked the cable to my winch and had my youngest son John run the winch. I used a table mount 6 inch vice to attach to the pipe just below the junction. Then I would unthread the top pipe and have john let the winch back out. Take off the threaded piece I made to attach to each pipe for raising and on again to the next 20 foot pipe. It was pretty simple for me with that system.

 

[daveb]

Does anyone else regrow their waste produce?

Some onion cut offs growing.. You cut the bottom 1/4 inch of the onion that had the roots and bury just under the surface of the soil and water it it. In a few days they root and begin to grow a stalk out the middle of the onion. It will "not" produce an onion bulb but it will produce greens and go to seed if you desire.

I also plant the top 1 or 2 inch piece I cut off from carrots as well. They also will not grow a new root, but they will grow a big bushy plant of greens and go to seed as well. I grow these in the winter in the house and then transplant to the garden in early spring.

I love doing leeks they do amazingly well with regrowing. When you plant seed you have to wait for the second year for them to flower like onions, carrots etc.. By buying a leek at the store you can use 90% of the leek and regrow the the bottom 2 or 3 inches and get seed that same year as it is technically the second growing year for the plant.

I grow these in the house during winter and then plant them out in the garden in early spring as well.

The same as above you can also regrow the cutoff portions of celery bought at the store. I also grow these in the winter and the replant into the garden early spring.

I have also done this with cabbage from the store, brussels sprouts from the store, cabbage I have found a little more tricky than the rest. I would also like to try lettuce as it is supposed to be the same way.

Anyone else have anything like this? I would love to know more plants that I could do this with.

actually ive done a couple different onions from cut parts , i have some egyption bunching onions ( walking onions depends what you know them by ) about 5 years now still growing strong that are fromcuttings from part of one from scraps and get some nice clusters at top. i've done celery make sure to band i up and wrap it so the stalks get pale otherwise if stays real hard green and will be on estringent bitter side.i regularly re root tips of various herbsbesides the ones i grow from seeds

 

[MountainWard]

Woohoo... Daughter in law Alana is going in to have the newest grandson tomorrow morning. Gotta make the journey to town so the wife can be in there during the birth.
. .
daveb.. I wasn't aware that they banded celery together like that. It does explain why all the celery I have grown and what I seen grown was really green and stringy compared to the store bought celery. I will have to try that out.

John and Alana had this little beauty "Misty" 13 months ago... Misty and I with baby Misty. Sooo looking forward to seeing the new grandson...

 

[daveb]

Woohoo... Daughter in law Alana is going in to have the newest grandson tomorrow morning. Gotta make the journey to town so the wife can be in there during the birth.
. .
daveb.. I wasn't aware that they banded celery together like that. It does explain why all the celery I have grown and what I seen grown was really green and stringy compared to the store bought celery. I will have to try that out.

John and Alana had this little beauty "Misty" 13 months ago... Misty and I with baby Misty. Sooo looking forward to seeing the new grandson...

yes it refered to as blanching during growing and wrapping stalk not to be confused with boiling blanching. grandpa used to use heavy brown wrapping paper, it cut so it wrap the plant plus about 25% more overlap and at crown atleast an inch up above the stem union , ive done it with newspaper and cardboard milk cartons also wrapped and mounded so the soil block all light from stem 3 to 4 weeks before harvesting this will produce a light stem and a sweeter flavor profile , if you want a stronger tarter celery do a wrap about 2 weeks the tops and darker stems dry and use for soups and stews. if you get celery from store that has thise sickly yellow green hue to it, its a type of self blanching it nutrients and vitamins are not same as regular celery and i find the flavor bland and almost a soapy back ground tone. when you blanch if you use 3 or 4 weeks before harvest and find the flavors too bland next time try a week shorter blanch


and hehehe grats grandpa

 

[daveb]

found a good shot to give an idea

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Congratulations @MountainWard ! How exciting! You are all so cute together. I wish you well, and hopefully bub will be born healthy and swiftly.

So exciting

 

[MountainWard]

Well Friday was canceled by the doctor and they rescheduled for yesterday morning 7 am. Nathaniel Lee was born at 5:29 this morning at 20 1/2 inches long and 8.02 pounds with thick curly black hair, looks very much like I did as a baby. Everyone is healthy, happy and very worn out. The wife and I went from 6 am yesterday and got back home around 1 pm this afternoon. I told her it has been a very long day, in fact it almost feels like it was two days... lol..

Momma is resting the hospital with baby, John is at home getting some sleep so he can head back to work tomorrow and grandma Misty and I have baby Misty here so they can both get some rest.

These are two of my favorite family pictures, they each have the most of our kids in them at one time neither have them all but these are as close as it gets.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Congratulations!!!!!
I hope baby Nathaniel Lee and his mumma are doing really well.

What an exciting time! I can only imagine. You sound like such a proud father and granddad 🤗

Those pictures are so nice! You guys look so happy 🥹

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

@MountainWard how are you and the family doing? I hope you guys have had a lot of quality time with eachother. How are baby Nathaniel Lee and his mum? And are you and your wife doing well?

Also, made any progress on your projects in the garden? I'm very curious.

 

[MountainWard]

Doing well, watched the grandkids yesterday while the youngest son and his wife went wood cutting. The wife is doing well and I have been battling my computer and Microsoft. I have finally won again the computer is all set back up the way I want it. Getting a lil tired of Microsoft and it's updates, always the most inopportune timing. Microsoft has killed 3 hard drives in a matter of 3 1/2 months.

Between Microsoft and everyone else updating all of the time they are killing poor computer. Might be time to build a somewhat upgraded computer again. I built this one 7 years ago from used parts I cobbled together. I have a few others that I built still working but they are older computers. The one the wife uses I built from used parts 12 years ago, it is ancient but still working. I am half tempted to go back to running a Linux based OS and just run windows within it if when I need to if need be. I hate Microsoft with a passion.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

That sounds quite fulfilling 🤗
I'm not too tech-savvy but I know the basics. If you ever need help feel free to reach out.
7 years is quite old for a computer. I've had to replace my trusted laptop after 5 years which was already considered quite old, haha. Do you reckon it's due for a few new parts, or to replace it completely?
12 years? That's insane! Well done, you must take quite good care of them.

I personally prefer Microsoft as that's what I grew up using and thusly feel comfortable navigating. But each to their own. Use what works best for you, so navigating the internet (and other functions) is bliss rather than a struggle.

 

[daveb]

i actually build them also hold dual master electrical engineering and computter sciences, watch newegg.com i picked up an msi mb and ryzen 5600 bundle not to long ago that was on special, also went with an msi 100Hz 24inch monitor plus a scissor arm i can raise to 6 feet and rotate monitor, Nvidia rtx 2060 super video card, and team t-force ddr4 32 gig ram , 2 tb mp33 m2 pro ssd stick, full case, and cherry mechanic keyboard just over $900 total but i shopped and waited for stuff on sale. dont mind the little light on bottom of monitor i made its 40mm diameter usb power desk light at present just have it taped bottom until i make a 3d printed clip to mount to bottom oh forgot i went no frills case i use an external CD rom drive and onler internal drive set into a stand alone case with adaptor that is all incase to plus a normal cd ronm into a 3.0 usb port bought offf newegg for 59 plus shipping