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Post by macmex on Jun 17, 2021 6:01:02 GMT -6
I first became interested in Linux because Microsoft kept removing options which allowed the user control of his/her work environment. One of my brothers kept encouraging me to try Linux, because it is the epitome of "user rights." The first time I loaded Linux onto a machine I got stuck within 5 minutes and dropped the whole thing for about a year, before trying again. I can remember the learning curve and the exhilaration of figuring things out. Now when I work on a WIndows machine it's a let down. I find Linux (I use Linux Mint) to be so much more straightforward and simple. It's also wonderful that the great majority of programs I use are now Open Source and downloadable for free through Linux Mint's operating system!
Linux & Homesteading
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 17, 2021 7:19:39 GMT -6
Yesterday was 97-degrees, so it was torturously hot by about 11:00 am. This morning promises to be more of the same. I waited until 6:00 am for it to get light enough to see, then went out to the garden, and pulled weeds until my clothes were soaked through with sweat. Thinking it was probably 9:00 am by then, I came inside to get a drink, only to discover is was just 7:45 am. What a hot day this is going to be! I decided I'd better go back out and turn on my drip irrigation before it gets so dry out there that watering won't help. Hopefully, if I catch the tail end of the moist ground that we still have from last month's heavy rains, I'll be able to ride the coattails of that moisture and save a little water, not to mention, maybe my plants won't suffer as much in this coming heat.
Summer isn't even here yet ... I thought it was supposed to be Springtime for another 3 days.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2021 8:00:35 GMT -6
Super hot yesterday and will be today.
Thank you for the watering tip, ron. I'll be certain to do the same. I've been multi-tasking. Outside weeding for a little, indoors for a little while and back out again. Wash, rinse, repeat. I see evidence of me having been incredibly lazy. And I need to expand!?
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 17, 2021 8:22:06 GMT -6
Irrigation Re-visited I got some detailed photos this morning, of the drip irrigation system that I have installed here. I buy my parts from Irrigation Mart, or else Morgan County Seeds, whichever is cheapest.
People ask me questions about how I have this set up all the time, but it's kind of hard to explain without pictures.
One of the most commonly asked questions is, "How do you know when it's time to water if you have plasticulture covering all of your rows?" The answer is simple, but people think I'm being a smart-aleck when I reply, "Just poke your finger in it." I don't know if that's the universal method? But that's how I check mine.Below, are close-up photos of all the different parts.
This is the main on/off valve, along with the pressure regulator. The back-flow preventer is inline with the pressure regulator. My well pump is set at about 45 psi. My drip tape is rated for 15 psi, so my regulator is a 10 psi regulator, just to play it safe. The extra hose outlet closest to you in the photo is just there so I can attach a water hose, in case I need to wash something off at the garden. With the extra outlet, I can do that without having to unscrew my drip irrigation setup. There is a pipe union there, so that I can take this off in winter and store it inside. The 1" inch shut-off valve on the main PVC line is just there so critters won't crawl into my line while it's unhooked for winter. The main 1" inch PVC line is buried in a shallow ditch that I dug 500' feet from my house to the garden with the help of a team of mules. It's not buried deep enough not to freeze, so every Autumn, I unhook this, open the main valve, go to the house end of it and blow it out using an air compressor, then, I close the valve to keep mice out in winter.This is the Tee fitting where the water hose connects the main valve to the blue header hose. The blue hose is 1 1/4" inch, so I use 1 1/4" schedule 40 PVC with a hose adapter glued into a 3/4" reducing bushing for the water hose attachment. Hose clamps keep the Tee fitting secure.This is one of the two hose end caps. It is made from a 1 1/4" PVC nipple with a pipe cap glued onto it. Hose clamps keep it secure.This is an example of what each row looks like. There is a barbed shutoff valve pushed into a 1/8" inch pilot hole, attached to a drip tape that runs the entire length of each row. Each row can be shut off individually for repairs and still leave the rest of the system 'live' while you are working to repair any damages.Lastly, this is just an example of what the terminal end of of each length of drip tape looks like. I tie a couple of hard knots in the end of each line to prevent water from escaping. If you have extra shut-off valves handy, you can place one of those on the end of each line to accomplish the same task, but I was running low on valves this season.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 17, 2021 16:51:47 GMT -6
Whew!
Ninety-seven degrees again today! Good thing I ran my drip irrigation this morning.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 18, 2021 20:34:31 GMT -6
I think Oklahoma has even been hotter than our area at points this past week. I know I try to have my outside work done by ten in the morning, and by then I’m dripping wet and pretty tired. I know I’m thankful to come inside where it’s cooler, and from the looks of some of my plants in the afternoon, they’d like a break, too. Some of them have grown so tall that I’m not sure I can put shade cloth back on, but I might just have to do it if the plants really start suffering.
I had never pulled all of my onions in May because we were getting so much rain. The remnants were still in the bed where I planted cucumbers and peppers this spring, but I pulled all the onions yesterday so that I could mulch that bed. It was great to dig into the pile of wood chips my husband had made for me months ago and still find some moisture in the middle of it. I put a nice thick layer around the cucumbers, peppers, zucchini and beans. Other beds had been mulched earlier, but these needed that soil protection now that summer’s heat has really arrived.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2021 9:31:52 GMT -6
Yeah. I call it a quasi desert in july and august. Our wind is what makes it so. Like a convection oven. My small plot surrounded by sunchokes is being put to the test now. And i think it is working.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 19, 2021 14:13:59 GMT -6
Here is where I am with my okra plants so far this year. Everything is about a month behind schedule because of heavy rains and our abnormally cool Spring weather.Hopefully, these plants were forming roots during all that time, because they certainly were not forming vertical growth during the cold nights and all those super cloudy days. The branching is coming right along on schedule though.They are filling in quite nicely, but they have been stunted by the cold Spring weather early on. Not all of my plants are at this same stage of development. These are just my oldest plants. I've been sowing seeds weekly for over a month. Some were sown as late as two weeks ago and have not even formed 'true leaves' yet. I don't ever sow my seeds all at once. For one thing, I don't want to have to pick 1,600 plants on the same day starting out. I have to let the market develop some before I start harvesting 100 pounds of pods in a single day. The other reason for that, is that I never know where the 'sweet spot' will be concerning the weather. So, with staggered plantings, I stand a better chance of at least a few of them actually hitting a 'sweet spot.' There's not much worse than having an entire crop stunted by bad weather because of unforeseen circumstances.
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Post by hedgeapple on Jun 19, 2021 15:47:05 GMT -6
Remember being in a Texas heatwave in 2012, and feeling pretty sorry for myself. Then someone sent me an article about streetlamps melting in Stillwater, OK.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 19, 2021 17:21:11 GMT -6
Back when I was an Apprentice and still going to school nights, I'd drive from Hulbert to my place of employment in Chouteau, which was 32 miles away. Then, from Chouteau, to Tulsa after work, which was about 40 miles, in order to get to night school. Then, after school, I'd drive back home to Hulbert, which was about 62 miles. I'd make that 134 mile trek twice per week.
Along old highway 33, which is now 412, there used to be trees so close to the road that their limbs hung down to be trimmed back by passing vehicles. (Kind of like Lost City Road is today). I remember back in the summer of 1980 that it got so hot and dry, the sun reflecting off the pavement in the scorching afternoons killed all of the grass and also the lower limbs of all the trees along the side of the highway.
Reflected heat off of paved roads is bad stuff. Back then, we had no air conditioning. At times, while driving those endless miles, it felt like the sun was going to melt my face. I've seen more than one car burst into smoke and just give up the ghost while idling along, stuck in the heavy traffic leaving Tulsa during the July and August heat. Most of us today have it made compared to 40-years ago.
Things like that give a person whole new respect for our grandparents who by no means had it half as good as we did growing up. Of course, they may have had better sense than to go driving off to Tulsa in the heat of the day like that?
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 20, 2021 14:29:13 GMT -6
I note down “days to maturity” for all my plants now that I’ve moved to Texas. The extension agents tend to recommend getting early maturing varieties for our growing seasons (spring season before summer’s brutal heat and fall season before frost). I have found some of the DTM listings to be fairly accurate, some to be way off for my conditions. I just use them as a very general guideline. Heavy Hitter Okra, however, is proving to be right on “schedule.” I planted my first sprouted seeds on April 24th, and the first three sprouts popped up on April 29th after we had some good rain. Today is 53 days from germination, and look what I found: Here’s a copy of some notes I took from this thread earlier in the season: ”Flowers 55 days from germination. Pick pods by Day 4 after flower drop. Harvest pods almost daily. Prune lower leaves, not branches. Harvest aggressively early in the season for better production later. 3 to 4 inch pods.” It’s kind of hard to believe that I could get my first pod this week, and meanwhile I’m soaking two more seeds to replace seedlings that didn’t make it. I think one burned up in the sun, but I’m wondering if something is going on underground in that spot as I have some unusually wilted parsley nearby. The other came up and lost its cotyledons before I ever saw them. I’m thinking maybe it was pill bugs. I’m very excited about this blossom, though.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 21, 2021 21:44:47 GMT -6
When I blew up the photo posted above, I saw baby branches forming at the leaf nodes. Looking good chrysanthemum!
At that point I mulch the heck out of mine. I use green weeds (seeds removed) dry wheat straw, seasoned chicken litter, a sprinkling of good topsoil (for the enzymes needed) some coffee grounds from Starbucks, (I get them by the 5-gallon bucketful when I make my rounds in town) crushed eggshells, and lots of well water. Bagged cow manure from the hardware store will do, but the real thing works much better as it is alive with the things the mulch needs in order to breakdown quicker.
Note: Put the weeds on the bottom of the mulch ring, so they will cook down into mush rather than drying into hay. If they dry, you'll lose the nitrogen that cooks off as a gas.
I've never used commercial fertilizer, so I'm not even sure how that works, but the organic stuff does a pretty good job for me.
I feel guilty even sending photos of all this lush green manure that I have on hand here. It's just a sample photo of what I use for the base of my mulch rings. I'm not sure what to recommend in Texas? This is a photo of a mulch ring getting started around the base of an elderberry plant. It's about a foot thick and about 8" inches deep. The second tier will be seasoned chicken litter from my hen house, the third tier will be wheat straw, the forth tier will be very wet coffee grounds, the fifth tier will be topsoil as an enzyme. Then, I water it in heavily and let the hot sun do the rest.This is a photo taken May 6th, 2021, the day I was busy laying the first layer of the green mulch layer around 60 of my elderberry plants. That actually took more than one day to accomplish. I think it took 8 or 9 days in all. This is the same elderberry patch from the same angle, in a photo taken about a month later. June 12th, 2021.It's a lot of hard work, but plenty of mulch, and plenty of water, will work miracles on your plants. I do the same thing on my fruit trees. I've grown a pawpaw tree from the size of a pencil to 72" inches tall in one summer using this method. My elderberry plants are 8' to 10' feet tall already and loaded with blossoms. I've had year-old peach trees grow so fast that the bark split. The okra goes nuts too! It's a full-time job to do this on a large scale. I grow cover crops year 'round, spread tons of chicken litter, and rake 3 acres of leaf mold annually. I've spread as many as 100 bales of straw in one season.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2021 22:32:00 GMT -6
We rushed to mow today since it was cool. The kids mowed and I weeded. I make them bag the brass and dump piles at or near the gardens and I go by and lay it all out. Good stuff!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 21, 2021 22:43:35 GMT -6
There is a book titled, "How to Grow World Record Tomatoes" by Charles Wilber. You can get it from Amazon as a used copy for about $15.00 (worth every penny!) I've read through mine several times over. That's where I got my mulching ideas from.
That is the only gardening book I've ever read that will actually get you similar results if you follow what the book tells you to do inside. Charles Wilber goes through the process in detail, describing every step of why it does or doesn't work. There were amazing harvests on his land. Actually, if you didn't see the photos, you'd never believe the incredible things he grew there, all organically too. Of course, he grew his plants in Alabama, so his growing season is much, much, longer than ours is here in Northeast Oklahoma. He spoke of harvesting late Autumn green tomatoes and wrapping them in newspaper to ripen for Christmas. Ours never even make Thanksgiving here.
www.amazon.com/How-Grow-World-Record-Tomatoes/dp/0911311572
I have a little hen house and half a dozen chickens that I raise, mainly for the litter. I mix Charles Wilber's type of compost in covered 55-gallon barrels. I cut both ends out of the barrels and put banded lids on them. I just flip the barrels rather than turning piles by hand with a pitchfork. When they're done, I remove the band and lift the barrel off the compost to reveal the pile. My barrels have small holes burned in the sides with a cutting torch to allow aeration to some degree. It never ceases to amaze me how many tens of thousands of weeds one can fit into a compost barrel as they decompose. Again, that takes a lot of hard work, but what else are you going to do with all of those weeds that you pull each summer?
P.S. I leave the dirtball attached to the weeds that I pull for making compost. The dirt provides the needed enzymes to work the pile, plus it adds bulk as you go along. Otherwise, composting a barrel full of finished product might take you several seasons as weeds, leaves, and straw alone decompose to almost nothing.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 24, 2021 6:21:12 GMT -6
Is Charles Wilber the “kudzu compost” man? I think I’ve heard of him though haven’t read the book you recommend. I was thinking of it the other day, though, when I was looking at my passionflower vines. I was thinking about using them as a kudzu replacement. I’ll have to check the gardening section at a used book shop I sometimes visit. I’m afraid that we don’t have the green available on our land that you have, and on a lot of property we’re still fighting seedy weeds (horehound, thistles, Malta Star thistle, hedge parsley). The seeds come so early in the season that by the time the garden is growing, we can’t take the risk of putting pulled plants in there. Mostly we leave anything we cut or pull in place because the rest of our land is so barren and in need of replenishment. For something like thistles that could still make seed even after being pulled, we rot them down in water and make a lot of “weed tea” when we can, though, and use that to try to benefit from the nutrients that we don’t leave lying. We do mulch thickly with wood chips. We have lots of “native invasive” cedar that needs trimming, so we produce ample mulch for our needs.. We’ve realized that we are not going to feed our soil adequately at this point just from the inputs that we have on our own property. We do make compost but not enough to replenish all our beds each season, so we do buy some organic aged manure compost in bulk from time to time. When we built our first beds, my husband worked at a company that had a Starbucks in the building. For months he would pick up coffee grounds several times a week for me, and we used those everywhere we could. He was laid off from that job a couple of years ago, and I still miss those grounds. I’m very glad to have recently discovered a semi-local feed mill where I can get large sacks of alfalfa pellets and cottonseed meal for a good price. I like to use those from time to time to amend the beds. I’ll have to get an updated picture of the okra. It definitely has branches. There’s one that’s further along than the one I pictured. It flowered a day later, though, so it didn’t get the honor of being photographed (and it has more holes in the leaves from army worms). I may see if I can get a picture of it today, though, as the branches are very impressive to me. I haven’t seen young okra do that before. Edited to add: I just went out and grabbed a couple of photos of my two okra plants that have flowered. I’ll probably pick the larger pod this evening because I just picked up fresh okra from our local farm store, so it will get used right away for dinner. Do I go ahead and prune the leaves below those branches at this point? I’ve never done anything like that before.
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