Winter

Winter

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

More Twaddle on Tuesday

Today the weatherman said we would be having snow and blowing wind and a ice storm...Nope. I made you think right? More of the same over here. 108 today. Now that we are past all of that for today. Here is a photo of my latest chicken rug.


This is a fun rug to hook.

This is the bit of light reading that my husband is reading for fun right now. He is also reading these other books.

 He bought this handy-dandy kit to help him make these experiments to go with this book.
There is all kinds of goodies in this box. I enjoy looking at all of the transistors and wires and just fun
little things to build. He is teaching himself all of this for fun.
So he can program a Arduino to water his grafted Japanese Maples. He built his propagation chamber so that he can water the grafts 10 minutes every hour. Here is his finished propagation chamber.

Here is what he built for that.

 This is what is on the inside of it.

He built these racks for the plants to sit on like this so the water can run through.


He put these seedling trays on those.

The water will come out here to water them. Getting the water hooked up has been harder than I think programming the Arduino. He can do that part in the house. Working on this other stuff is outside in the heat.


The garden is loving all of this heat. So do the weeds.

The white Silkies are almost grown up. I have a hard time now telling who is the Mom and who is the chicks. I still can't tell which are roosters and who are hens.


The mud ball is now so huge. The boys do like the heat for this as they can keep working on it during the heat as it dries so fast then they can keep adding to it. My son Peter is continuing to search Guiness Book of World records and so far he has not found any thing for the biggest mud ball in the world. That is his goal is to have them come out and see if he can get a listing. It makes me laugh. Sasha thinks I am nuts for making her sit here all of the time.
Some of the things we have been doing. I have experimented with fermenting bell peppers. I am pretty happy with how they turned out so far. The fermenting sure keeps them crispy. I want to try that with pickles.

I hope you have a lovely Tuesday.

~Kim~

18 comments:

NanaNor's said...

Happy Tuesday Kim, I always love seeing what is happening on your farm. WE love Japanese Maples and many years ago, hubby tried to grow some seedling from seeds-putting them in sand and in the fridge but it never worked. He also had a hard time grafting them. They grew well in Ca. but here in Colorado, we have to put them in the garage each winter so they don't freeze.
Love the mud ball. Have a great day my friend.
Noreen

Kessie said...

I showed Ryan Dad's books, and he knew exactly what an arduino was and explained it to me. Your garden is coming along so nicely! It doesn't look like you only just started it.

I have the full blown cold from the kids today. Lame and fail.

Gail said...

Sounds like your place would be a fun place to visit. Always something going on.

Susan said...

Love the chicken rug!!

Debbie said...

i would love to live you....

and ohhhh the mud ball...hugh!!

GretchenJoanna said...

I love your chicken rug! Will you use it as a rug or a chair pad or a wall hanging or...?

I've never heard of or seen a mud ball before but I appreciate it as a resourceful use of what one's climate provides. I grew up in your kind of place but no one I knew thought of this! But the boys did try to get us girls involved in their wars using moldy oranges as ammunition.

Kim said...

I don't know what an arduino is but your husband is obviously pretty handy! The chicken rug is cute. You have hooked a lot even though it is so hot. (Gee, didn't mean to be so rhymey there)
I LOVE the mud ball. Cracks me up. We are too wet a climate to ever have a mud ball :)

Julia said...

I'm anxious to see how Ron's electronic control board works to water his grafts.
Your garden is really doing amazingly well in that heat.

I saw a video on how to tell the Silken rooster from the hen. The rooster is usually bigger and had some red crest above his beak.
Wow the mud ball is really big and must weigh a lot. I hope that the mud ball makes it in the Guinness book of world records.

Fermenting hot peppers sounds quite interesting. I read a little about the process and it sounds like a bit of work. The chemical reaction preserves the peppers so you don't need vinegar other than for flavor. Good luck with this and thanks for sharing.

Take care,
Hugs
JB

Julia said...

Your chicken rug looks very nice. Love the sunflowers on top. I had read your post and came back later to comment and forgot to mention it.

JB

Beth said...

The chicken rug is so pretty!! Not so sure about the mud ball though. lol

http://bitsandpieces-sonja.blogspot.com/ said...

Life on the farm...

I love the stories Kim, they never end, and it all reads like a book, a good one!

Tell the boys to keep after the mudball record. Why not? It's very cool, and I've sure never seen anything like it. :)

TexWisGirl said...

the mud ball always makes me laugh. your hubby sure is a smart and crafty one. i love your chicken rug!

Empty Nester said...

Our husbands are quite similar in this respect- the way they can figure out and build things. I'm not like that at all. But I do appreciate the fact that he is. You got that rug done speedy quick!

Nellie said...

I am greatly impressed with your husband's projects!

Sure do love those chickens!

xo Nellie

Alica said...

Ugh...still so hot?! Your garden really doesn't seem to be minding! It looks really nice...and what weeds?? I'm glad your husband has time to work on these projects...they look like fun!

Thistle Cove Farm said...

A MUD ball? How strange but how cool; now the heat, that's not so cool...ugh! Could do without that kind of heat...not good, not good at all.

Jacque. said...

Your writings are always so fun to read. So many different things in your life than in mine...love that you share them with us. xo

Kathy ... aka Nana said...

Beautiful garden ... 180 degrees different than ours. Ours has been in longer than yours, yet ours looks more like a brand new garden, with tiny little plants where as yours looks like it's been in the ground for much longer.

Sure hop you get some relief from all that heat. It's been hot here, too ... but not 108!!! Yikes, that is not!

Your hubby is quite the handy man ... I can read in your words just how proud you are of him.