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Post by chrysanthemum on Nov 28, 2021 18:11:16 GMT -6
Congratulations! That’s wonderful news.
Do you have any pallets lying around that you can put your boxes on for the forklift? If you think that having pallets might help minimize the danger in loading, it might be worth it to check Craigslist or whatever local network you might have for free things. Back when we lived in Northern Virginia we used to scrounge rounds of wood that people would have after a tree service removed yard trees. We’d store them on pallets before we got them split and stacked. When I needed additional pallets to replace a broken one or to add, I could find a business on Craigslist that would be happy for someone to come take them away.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 28, 2021 19:34:00 GMT -6
I think I can still get free pallets from the lumber yard. Back during the Summer, they had a pile of them in the parking lot that were free for anyone who needed one. That sounds like a good idea. When I go to town to buy heavy-duty cardboard shipping boxes, I'll check by there to see if there is a pallet lying around still.
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Post by rdback on Nov 29, 2021 9:27:09 GMT -6
My hands hurt for you and Hank lol.
Congrats on being DONE shelling seed!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 29, 2021 16:40:58 GMT -6
Today, I bagged and weighed the seed that hank and I shelled out. The final tally was 179.47 pounds. Good thing I'm not OCD or something ... (My wife says that's debatable.) It was really hard not to make it an even 180.
I got the big, Whole Seed, Baker Creek Seed catalog in the mail today. Heavy Hitter okra is the fisrt variety on the first page of the okra seed section, with a half page color ad. That single seed order ended up being somewhere around one million, four hundred, and forty thousand seeds. Now, Hank and I know what a million looks like. That would have been a good 'hands-on' lesson for school. Probably, more people should have lessons like that. We enjoyed our time out there each day, shelling seeds. That's what memories are made of.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Nov 29, 2021 19:03:43 GMT -6
Wow! Just wow!
I imagine that Baker Creek will have no problem selling it. I bet there are scads of people just waiting for it to come back in stock.
I have five dry pods waiting for me in the pantry. When I get around to shelling those, I may just have to weigh them (in Grams).
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 30, 2021 4:51:44 GMT -6
Thanks, Bon.
Okra can get to be a bit of a 'four letter' word around here by August. By then, my wife is getting pretty tired of seeing it in the kitchen every day. I've picked as much as 175 pounds of it in a single day. It wasn't an entire day though, I started at 6:00 am, picked 'til noon, then took the hot part of the day off and resumed at 6:00 or 7:00 pm, working 'til 11:00 by use of a headlamp. I've got to admit, even I was tired of seeing okra that day!
We've had okra fixed more ways here than Forest Gump has had shrimp.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 2, 2021 18:41:14 GMT -6
I took a soil sample to the OSU Extension Office in Tahlequah today and found out that the Soil Conservation Agency is plotting a new soil map for Cherokee County right now, so if you agree to let them have a copy of your information, they'll give you a free soil test in exchange for the test results for that location.
That saves their guys from having to drive all over the county collecting soil samples. I don't know how long that opportunity will exist, but that's the deal they offered me today. It usually costs me $15.00 to get a soil test processed. If you live in Oklahoma and you've got an old empty coffee can, you might take a sample by your local OSU EXTENSION OFFICE to see if they are doing that in your county as well? (They don't provide soil sample bags anymore). I guess they're trying to save money? It looked like some people took samples using old fruit jars, but they don't recommend doing that on account of breakage. Be sure to label your container with your name and address, just in case they lose the paperwork.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 7, 2021 22:32:49 GMT -6
I got an email confirming that all 6 boxes of seed that Hank and I shelled out reached their destination at Baker Creek today. There were about 30 pounds of seed in each box. Every time I pack one of those things, I worry a forklift might snag one of them. A single 30-pound box represents about three days' labor for two men, not to mention the time spent planting, weeding, irrigating, and harvesting the pods. That was an entire season's worth of effort. That's really a huge relief knowing they made the trip safely.
It's still hard to imagine that all of those pods are shelled! That was an overwhelming sight to have 75, 5-gallon buckets worth of okra pods stacked in the barn and all of them waiting to be processed.
Thanks, Hank!
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Post by macmex on Dec 8, 2021 6:51:43 GMT -6
It would be a nightmare to have anything happen to a single one of those boxes!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 13, 2021 18:36:03 GMT -6
Today was such a nice day, that I decided to spend it outside working in the garden. I tore down some old fence that has needed to be removed for years, and pulled a crazy amount of wild blackberry bushes out of my back fencerow. I'm tired and sore now, but it sure felt good to get some much-needed chores done!
The okra stalks are still too wet and slimy to work with. I cut a few of them down today, using a really nice chopping knife that George brought me, but the stalks are still way too wet to burn.
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Post by macmex on Dec 14, 2021 5:09:51 GMT -6
Jerreth dug up some frozen okra the other day and made us a stir fry which was out of this world.
I too, am looking better than a year ago, when it comes to stored, viable seed.
Here's a link to Ron's chopping tool, it's a Salvadorian version of the Billhook machete.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 14, 2021 23:02:17 GMT -6
Hedgeapple,
Thank you, for the generous gift. I received the hand pollination bags in the mail today. They are much appreciated. My okra plants have never seen anything so fancy before, they'll think they're getting a spa treatment after all the years of me using masking tape, bread twist ties, and hair brets on them.
Ron
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 15, 2021 19:32:52 GMT -6
Today was a perfect day for removing old rows of Plasticulture, 35 to 40 mph winds out of the Southwest, and 75 degrees outside! All you've got to do on days like this is dig up one end of the row of plastic, hold it over your head, so the wind can catch it from underneath, and hang on tight! The wind does the rest.
Unfortunately, you have to remove the plant matter first, so I was busy most of my time chopping down about 350 dead okra stalks and stacking them out of the way. Right now, I'm wondering if I'm getting too old to be doing this kind of stuff, but hopefully, tomorrow, when I can see my progress in the light of day, I'll feel a little better than I do right now. I ended up getting two rows 150' feet each torn out by a little past dark thirty.
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Post by hmoosek on Dec 16, 2021 14:04:13 GMT -6
I bet All those okra stalks would be good fuel for a hobo stove.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 16, 2021 14:53:23 GMT -6
hmoosek, I'll you're right about that!
Okra stalks burn like crazy once they are dried out for a few months. Right now though, they are saturated with moisture because it never really dried out after the killing frost came. Last year, I used okra stalks to burn out an old fence row full of wild roses and blackberry bramble. That fence was a huge mess! I couldn't get within 5' feet of the barbed wire because of the underbrush. It had steel T-posts, So I decided to burn it if I could. I piled dried okra stalks over the top of the whole thing and lit it on fire when the conditions were right and the wind was blowing toward my freshly plowed garden instead of the cow pasture. They were great for that job.
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