EnviroLink Forum

Close only counts in handgrenades and horse shoes.



I'll send the jackrabbits and ground squirrels your way.

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I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much. - Mother Theresa

I'll take em!

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"Yes like I said it all boils down to morals. What you think is right doesn't make a person wrong because they think different " X-Black

The mutant jackrabbits out here could feed a family of 10 for a year!

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I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much. - Mother Theresa

Well it was pepper harvest time tonight. Got to looking close at the hot peppers and there were quite a few big enough to pick. A little rain sure does help with that. Picked and froze about 30 of them tonight.

I cut mine in half took out all the seeds and froze them that way. I figured I could take out whatever I needed when making salsa or something, and leave the rest in the freezer till needed. Just wondered how anyone else does their peppers. I really don't want to can them, since I prefer to freeze. Might try leaving some whole with the seeds out so I can stuff them with creme cheese and deep fry them.

Got some of my rocks in place for my pond and got the waterfall up and running. Still a lot more rocks to do, and a bridge for the middle, but here's how it looks so far.

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I don't know what your problem is but I bet its hard to pronounce.

Not many things in the world better than peppers.

Wanna come build me a pond?

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I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much. - Mother Theresa

Not in this lifetime. One pond is enough for me. Still have a lot of rock work to do. I'm stopping by an old un-used railroad line to pick up some rock tomorrow. Years ago after they picked up the track they salvaged off all the rock they wanted, but I know of a spot where there is still some big rocks and some small stuff around. If you don't hear from me for a couple days please send bail money.

The nice part of building up the sides is that now it is easy to move some away. Tonight I lowered a spot about 18 inches wide by 3 feet long and now it is under about 3 inches of water. I put some rocks in it that stick up. My sister said that will be a spot where birds will use the shallow water for taking a bath. Tomorrow night I will do the same thing on the other side of the pond, only this time I'll be able to do any even larger area right near the patio.

The key is making sure this bathing area is within BB gun range of the deck.

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I don't know what your problem is but I bet its hard to pronounce.

I know what you mean but I have yet to build a pond. I have built terraces and raised planters. The house had three raised planters made of dry stacked slate when we moved in. I dismantled the two of them in the front yard and built one bigger one in the back yard. the ones in the front were replaced by a specialty stone called "sunset" with some really beautiful color variations .... a bit over 4.5 tons of it. There was also a terrace built in the back yard to create a secluded patio beside the house and the wall, with the upper section level with the neighbor's yard. With that stone wall and planter combo I had almost 14 ton of stone sitting in my yard at one time. The new planter in the front for this year was only 3 tons, but I brought the 4 tons of gravel and dirt in myself instead of having it delivered as I did last time. That meant I loaded it and unloaded it too. The same for the ~1.5 ton of stone for the raised planter for the garden area on tops of the terrace in the back. Now I just have to sell this house and start over as that seems to be what happens when I get everything like I want it .... or at least that is how it has gone the last 3 prior houses.

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With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

The front left



The front right



The moved planter



The newly finished patio entrance



The front last fall with the trees

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With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

Very nice landscaping, guys. I can't wait to do some myself.

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"Yes like I said it all boils down to morals. What you think is right doesn't make a person wrong because they think different " X-Black

I had built cold frames for my exterior gardens and luckily got the tops on in time for the biggest hail seen in these parts in history. That FarmTek plastic is Tuff!! So with the plentiful rain the rhubarb, onions, and zucchinis are really big. Neighbors love our zucchini presents. Zucchini in solar oven bread, and homemade spaghetti sauce, and fried in olive oil.
The Earthship has been providing year around tomatoes, red and yellow, pepper medleys blackish purple, gold, red, yellow, and green with combos. Carrots starting to come into the sun, with butternut squash and beets.
The butternuts outside(in cold frame) are 4" babies so far. Plenty of rainwater catchment to water everything. Outside and inside composters are doing well. Redworms are thriving along with the new addition of nightcrawlers to the Earthship gardens.
The home made cold frames were the best investment this year. Last year I lost all my outside plants to an early freeze. Basically it extends this short 9,000' growing season by close to two months(it can be as little as 2 1/2 mos.).

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"With every decision, think seven generations ahead of the consequences of your actions" Ute rule of life.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”― Chief Seattle
“Those Who Have the Privilege to Know Have the Duty to Act”…Albert Einstein

Onions and zucchini! I'm jealous.

Can you explain what a cold frame is?

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I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much. - Mother Theresa

A cold frame is basically a light framed low greenhouse you can take the cover off the top. One I'm using is actually an 8'x9' greenhouse tent with zipper door and vents plus shelves inside. The others are attached to the house with the "roofs" sitting on strategic galvanized 20F nails and screwed down to the front walls. The tops are removed for the summer and will be put back on before first frost to extend the growing season. I used cherry tone landscape timbers ripped in 4 roughly rounded 2x2s for a 2'OC framework with TUFFLITE plastic stapled to it. The plastic, greenhouse tent, and a lot more portable and permanent greenhouses are available at Farmtek.com. My greenhouse tent will be taken down and stored for the winter. I may just keep the cold frames attached to the house up to cut heating costs for the main house.

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"With every decision, think seven generations ahead of the consequences of your actions" Ute rule of life.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”― Chief Seattle
“Those Who Have the Privilege to Know Have the Duty to Act”…Albert Einstein

Beautiful pond so far, hunter88. All you need now is a small shade tree for half of it. Aren't you worried about raccoons fishing in it?

Very nice house and yard, Wayne.

We moved to a new house a month ago. It has a built in pool in the front of the house. You enter the front yard through a suspended lavendar door hanging on a frame attached to a black wood 6' stockade fence. Once inside you have to cross the pool to get to the front door via 3 square cement stepping stones that are columns which rise just above the waterline. That section of the pool is the "pond" section, about 2' deep with black polished stones on the bottom. To your left is a blue tile wall about 5' high with 2 cascading waterfalls at different heights. Behind the wall rises tall Bird of Paradise. It's a dramatic entrance no doubt. And a good DUI test [crossing the stones] before letting guests drive home after a party.

That sounds really nice. Post some pictures!

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"Yes like I said it all boils down to morals. What you think is right doesn't make a person wrong because they think different " X-Black

We'll take some pictures this weekend. We're so bad at that. Then we're even worse and uploading (or is it downloading) them to the computer. But I will put that at the top of the list, next to laundry for weekend projects.