60+ year old thread.

You’re a lucky one. So many of us came away from that talk with a bad feeling.

 

You took that one personal, Clint Eastwood would be proud.

 

Evening all:
I took Kens suggestion and put 10 rat traps out by the pond, I also modified them by putting a sharp nail through each one of them that the arm can clear and high enough so if the bear steps on them it will feel it! Today I checked them and one was sprung, but the bear hasn't pushed the pipe over since I put them out.

 

Good morning fellow Porchatonians!!!

 

Wishing a quick recovery for you both.

 

Morning 60+

 

Good Morning Porch Pals & Gal! Took it easy yesterday with house work and computer time. Going to try to program the garage door opener app again, and sunroom windows today. Slowly. With breaks.

 

I do the same with in ground yellow jacket nests. I usually wait till after dark when all the jackets are in the nest. The main problem I have with wind turbines is the blades wear out and need to be replaced. From what I have read the blades are not recyclable, I hope I am wrong.

Today for lunch I am going to try a Beef and Broccoli stir fry. Tonight, the Weber Kettle gets fired up for some chicken breast with ribs attached.

Enclosed is a pic of a small harvest from the garden. The tomatoes are delicious. I cut them up into 1 in chunks cut up some peppers and cucumbers and place in a bowl with sliced garlic, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and olive oil. Let chill and have a vegetable side dish.

Anyone else have a favorite way to eat fresh tomatoes? I am always open to new suggestions.

 

Freaking pool heaters...
My daughter's 2011Hayward pool heater needs a new control. The manual on their website gives a couple of part numbers. None are correct due to redesigns.
I can't get a definitive description of what's included with the new part number from Hayward, our supplier, or the supplier's warehouse.
I called the warehouse to see if they could send a picture of the front and back of the part, but they say they can't do that. I do that 3 or 4 times a week from our warehouse.
Befuddles me how THE MANUFACTURER can't provide any more info than the internet. AND I WORK IN THE INDUSTRY!!!

 

I've seen pics of a dozer burying blades. And oddly right underneath it says the blades are made of aluminum. I mean... if aluminum they have to be recyclable. And if the caption was wrong and they are fiberglass, they could be melted down, right?

 

Morning all:

Those veggies look good tom!
My favorite for garden tomatoes is just a sandwich with sliced tomatoes, mayo, and S&P, next would be a BLT sandwich.

 

@95SLE
I’m not a farmer, and no farms in the concrete jungle, so my tomatoes have to come from the supermarket. These days and for a bunch of recent years, store bought green tomatoes are made from unobtanium, but when I can find them, I feast on fried green tomatoes. Sliced, egg wash, flower with salt & pepper, and fried in canola. The flavor is out of this world, and makes you remember the tartness of a good tomato you can’t buy anymore.

 

There was a guy at work who used to bring in "pickled" green tomatoes, they were good! That was the first time I ever knew you could eat green tomatoes.

 

Hayward is famous for making "assemblies". One cannot replace a gasket in our multiport valve, whole assembly or nothing.

 

Most store bought tomatoes taste like cardboard. There are several reasons for this which I’m not going into now. Every year I grow a substantial veggie garden and my home grown tomatoes are my favorites of all the various things I grow. I have them sliced with a little salt, or pepper, or mayonnaise or fine balsamic vinegar with crumpled blue cheese and on and on. Sometimes tomato sandwiches. The neighbors are ecstatic when we give them some fresh red tomatoes.
And Alan thanks for mentioning fried green tomatoes. Haven’t had that for awhile but I’m going to make some for lunch today. Yummmmm

 

We bought some plants at the local Ace Hardware and transplanted them into pots. We've been doing this for years from different places... and it seems every year the plants are less productive. Do you grow from seed? Where do you get seed/plants and have you noticed a change in productivity?

 

My Father in Law kept a nice garden. His tomatoes had the proper tartness, and he said the secret was not to over-water them. As for tomatoes these days, I think they must be genetically engineered like so many other veggies. There is one veggie that I think benefited tremendously from genetic engineering, and that would be strawberries! Those things are tremendous, and don't rot near as fast as they used to. Next, they have to re-engineer bananas.

 

The tomatoes I grow from started plants. I get them from a large nursery in my area called Green Acres. It is a fabulous nursery because everything they sell is top quality stuff. If a plant dies you can return it for refund or replacement. What I like most about them is that they have actual botanists working there. They will answer any questions expertly. If you bring in leaves or parts of a failing plant of any kind they will diagnose the problem and tell you how to resolve it. They’ll also give information on how to grow successfully veggies, shrubbery or what ever.
I prefer to get my tomato plants from nurseries. When I use to get them from Ace and similar places I had a lot of problems with them. They just didn’t do well.
Here’s what I have found. In general tomatoes like fertile well drained soil. Emphasis on well drained. They like soil that is high in organic material so I amend the soil well. I make my own compost and at the end of the season mix a lot of compost into the soil. They like fairly neutral pH soil of 6.0 to 6.8. pH is really important as it affects soil nutrients and impacts the rates tomatoes absorb nutrients.
Watering is very important. Too much or too little makes for poor tomato production. Tomatoes split and crack when watering is inconsistent. Try to find the happy medium. Fertilize every other week. I like organic Fish emulsion but most any fertilizer works well.
You live in Utah and sorry to say the soil there is mostly crap clay. You need lots and lots of soil amendments like compost and manure. Finally mulching around the plants prevent water loss and having to water often or irregularly (which can cause cracking/splitting)
We have friends that live in Dammeron Valley Ut. And they have struggled for years to find the right combination of amendments, manure, compost and water. Finally this year it’s looking good.

 

Well I guess I'm doing pretty much everything you are doing... including the occasional buy from a nursery, although the local nurseries here probably don't compare to yours. I was just wondering if you'd noticed a decrease in productivity over the years... I've been suspecting genetic varieties that don't produce as well being sold to civilians. I used to get ten/twenty ripe tomatoes on a plant at a time and now get, maybe five if the plant is doing well.

 

I think you are right the genetic varieties often don’t produce or grow like I expect. I try to stick with heirlooms but my most dependable annual tomato is early girls. I know they are a hybrid but they’ve been around for 50 + years. I keep trying a different plant or two each year. Some producers some not. Surprisingly every year I get a couple volunteers and some of them do really well. Problem with volunteers is I have no idea what variety they are.