maximumcapsicum said:
Whoa man this is getting serious. Pull looks awesome. Lovin the production on the maters.
Thanks Adam!
Things are just getting rolling here
With 130 plants I should be swamped!
JoynersHotPeppers said:
Awesome garden, if your luck is like mine....that pathway shall soon be gone! Time to crawl and harvest
Glad you guys are getting some much needed rain!
Thanks Chris!
The plants are 3' apart and the rows are 4', I'm sure by the end of summer I'll be crawling for sure. Last year was 3' and 3', it was a jungle!
This has been a great month for us rain wise, 3.6" yesterday and 6"s total, like the old days. I hope it keeps it up
MeatHead1313 said:
Great looking pulls Scott! How's the 10 day forecast for you? We've got rain and storms predicted from tomorrow through til next Monday. Seems about right as my parents and sister are here from Wednesday til Monday lol. Will definitely have to try the pizza sauce recipe as well. I'm assuming the pepper mentioned is black pepper?
Thanks Chris!
Rain chances are lessening and temps a high of 90-92° later in the week.
Yes sir, black pepper, I should have clarified that.
GA Growhead said:
Nice pull!
Love the sunflower up close shots!
Can't wait to hear how the re mapping of the plants turns out. Hope it all adds up!
Thanks Jason!
I was really careful when I pulled seedlings from the trays, they were spread sheeted. As they went into solo cups from the trays, which I did immediately, I wrote the position down on a plastic fork and stuck it in the solo. When I planted I did it one plant, write down the location on a clipboard, and then made a spread sheet. What helped was the white pods on a plant at the end, I had it as a Jigsaw, at the other end was a white bhut. The Jigsaw now has pods and they are nice and bumpy like yours. So this got me thinking...
So I'm hoping I have everything straight now. This was blowing my brain up!
OCD Chilehead said:
Glad to hear about the rain. Nice looking pods. I've been waiting for that pizza recipe. Thanks. Going to give it a try soon. Had to laugh about the spread sheet. We're bound to make mistakes with all the multitasking we do. I guess that's pretty minor. Lol. Thanks for sharing and enjoy those pods.
Thanks Chuck!
The crust recipe is 100% perfect! We tried our own recipes and came close. We tried store bought crust too. The sauce is a really good starting place; we all have our taste preferences so tweaking is a good thing.
Where I screwed up with the spreadsheet is using East as the top and using columns as plant rows. Next year North will be the top, just works better in my head. Another hint was Bell's at the top (east) and I knew they were West.
stickman said:
I'll bet it feels like serendipity when you get more than a half an inch of rain at one time, eh?
This time next week you'll have twice the harvest! Thanks for the pizza sauce recipe... when the weather's cold I bake bread, and sometimes make a pizza at the same time, so this'll come in handy.
I hear ya 'bout the wildlife floorshow... our bird feeders provide hours of entertainment, and in the spring we watch the nesting boxes. We have a family of Wrens building a nest in one box this weekend and a family of 6 Chickadees in the other. I got this (blurry) vid on Monday... about day 3 after hatching. In 2 weeks the chicks should fledge and go.
http://s1166.photobucket.com/user/heebner/media/SANY1344_zps291a8f00.mp4.html
Keep 'em green buddy!
Thanks Rick!
It's been 10 years of drought here, garden of 2012 never saw a drop of rain until September. So this rain is a big deal for us. It was good enough to fill the tanks (made made ponds) on many ranches. And North of us got 7"s! Fantastic for the aquifers and hopefully Medina lake which was at 4%. Of course everyone's like "more, we need more". Not greedy,it's just been so long.
Glad you have the chicks to watch, I love watching wildlife around here. Since we fenced our dogs in and the neighbor that had 6 running loose moved I see more and more wildlife. I shot those picks through a window as the food bowls were two feet from the back door.
JJJessee said:
+1! on the rain, I'll bet you're ahead of us for the month, though I'm not complaining too much.
Nice photo of the duck in the tree. We have wood ducks up here, but I've never seen one up close.
Your jungle is coming along nicely and can only get better with those bodacious rains and all that mulch.
Time to kick back and just watch it grow for a spell and enjoy.
Thanks JJJ!
Rain is a good thing! Rain grows corn, corn makes whiskey...I'm sure you know the rest. It was a major blessing for this region for sure; ranchers have been selling off cattle it's been so dry. So if beefs high, our drought is part of the reason.
And as you say the garden IS in kick back and watch it grow mode. 2 weeks ago we got 1.9"s and I went 7 days without having to water. That's monumental for me; 2 or 3 days was the best I could go prior to adding the heavy soil and mulch.
I may actually be on to something here
That's what they told me they were, wood ducks. If they have a more formal name I don't know it. Really pretty ducks aren't they?
Jamison said:
Jeez Scott! Took me about 45 minutes to just get caught up. Glad to hear about the rain in May. You know what they say "May showers bring SuperHot flowers
". Well I guess they don't say that, but sounds kinda good lol. Everything is looking spectacular and on point brotha! Those were some seriously nice deer with the bow!!! And the gun kill on the wall, def a mounter for sure. If they weren't so damn expensive to mount I'd do em all. I even want a doe mount for some reason???? Call me crazy cause I am! Thanks for them pics, now you got me all pumped up for bow hunting. Off to my first day of work down in TN! Wish me luck and enjoy your week bud!
Thanks Jamison!
And those showers should bring flowers. I have a pic from 5 years ago when it rained and 3 weeks later things just exploded, I'd love to post it but LB was in pretty skimpy summer clothes
Glad they got you going, I boiled those bow kills in a turkey fryer. I've been wanting to make plaques for them, maybe someday. They did give me some great rewarding memories; that and we made a ton of sausage and chopped meat. Venison @ 50% with a fatty brisket makes killer chopped meat.
Good luck on the new job, I'm sure it will go well. I bet they call you a yankee
It's a part of Southern culture, and you'll be fine.
Sawyer said:
Great updates, Scott. Glad you're getting some rain. Our forecast is for 80% or better chance of rain all week, so we should at least get some.
About the ants, unless you actually see them in association with aphids, don't be too quick to try to get rid of them. As Adam said, that one in the Manzano flower may be a pollinator. I know I've read somewhere that (non-aphid-farming) ants have taken up the slack for the sometimes-missing honey bees. I don't recognize the aphid-farmers on sight, but I do have one nest of big red ants in the garden that I let be. I know they aren't farmers.
Thanks for the pizza recipe, especially the link to making the dough. That'll come in handy if I ever grow enough wheat to start testing for dough-making quality.
Maybe you or someone else said, and I just missed it, but is that a
black-bellied whistling duck? Aren't they kind of rare? What sort of bird is that eating the dog food? I saw a pair of summer tanagers here the other day, a first on my place, but I don't know if they will nest here, or were just passing through. Since I was mowing and tilling that day, probably the latter.
Thanks John!
Good info on the ants, I haven't seen Aphids except on one plant early on. My fear is they will get into the house at some point.
Enjoy that Pizza! That dough is 100% right on.
Well that duck looks exactly like the one in your link. The previous owners who sold us the place 25 years ago just told us that 2 wood ducks show up every year.
I don't know about the bird, we have so many different types and I've never taken the time to figure them out. One I've been trying to take pics of is the
green jay, I searched on the site you provided. A shy and elusive bird that still raids the dog food bowl. One of these days I'll snap a few of them.
This morning was a trip! On the south and west side of the house we have 80% PVC sun shades covering the windows. They make a huge difference in the room temps and electric bill. It sounded like it was raining; but it wasn't.
As I went outside to get in my truck, I heard this racket East of me. About that time I started getting hit with all these flying bugs, BIG bugs. The truck was backed into the driveway so I opened the passenger door and started the truck. My next goal was to lock the side entrance to the shop; not gonna happen. Thousands of these flying critters were swarming around the Mercury vapor light and so many were on the slab by the door I said "uh nah".
Getting into the truck was like one of those movies where they show all the bugs swarming, they were everywhere!
Here's a not so good pic of them through my windshield. The black spots on the ground are the bugs.
We researched at work and found they were "cut ant queens", a delicacy south of here; I can assure you not here! They come out after a heavy rain. But in 25 years we've never had this many. This invasion was 95 times greater than ever seen before. Perhaps because of the drought. I sprayed them when I got home, the ones that were not in the dogs yard.
TS Moruga X Bhut-Spicegeist:
I brought this to work for a taste test.
I should have taken a pic before slicing it in two. It's a huge pod, about twice the size as most.
Thick walled and extremely aromatic; with a lot of oil and a nice large placenta.
The fragrance was citrus for sure, the taste was not that strong but good. I can't get a handle of what to compare it too. The heat was definitely in the super category, almost an instant burn. Affected the tongue and mouth mostly and lasted for about 10 minutes.
I have to go, we're under tornado warnings for a while..
