Jon and I are so excited! Yesterday we both took the day off to close on a 37 acre land purchase. We have been working on this for several months now and it has finally come to fruition. It has been so hard not to talk or blog about it (except with family). However, we did not want to say much until we knew it was going to happen.
First let me discuss the fine print. I have never tried this. This comes from conversations with one of my relatives and it sounds rather plausible. So, if anyone has tried this, please let us know.
The basic theory is that you can take a growing grapevine and simply redirect it back into the ground and back up. You bury the end of the vine four to six inches in the ground. Bend it into a U shape so the end of the vine protrudes back up out of the ground. That end then becomes a new grapevine with its own roots.
The basic concept is the same as using cuttings to grow new grapevines, but you do not have to cut them, or wait until next spring to plant them. You can do this in the middle of the summer, any time you have a cane long enough to reach the spot you want to start a new grapevine. The draw back to this is you have to start the new grapevine pretty close to the original. However, if you happen to have an unruly grapevine that you are planning to begin to use, you probably have several very long canes. You could start several new grapevines and start a mini grape vineyard.
New grapevines can be propagated from the cuttings pruned from your grapevines. Since grapevines must be pruned every year, this gives you the opportunity to plant more and more grapevines every year without going out and spending hard earned money for more. We like free.
You will want to plan your pruning with the plan of planting your cuttings. The cuttings must be planted in the same direction they are growing, that is the end of the cutting that is closest to the base of the vine needs to go in the ground. An easy way to keep track of which end is which is to cut the bottom of the cutting straight across, and the top of the cutting trimmed at an angle. This way you can always tell which end of the cutting goes in the ground.
Continue reading “Growing New Grapevines From Pruned Cuttings”
It is the time of the year to prune grapevines. It is best to prune them during their dormant stage in the winter, but it is also a good idea to prune them as late in the winter as possible. Pruning them late in the winter leaves less time before the open wounds caused by pruning to naturally heal themselves. During the winter, the vines are dormant and will not heal the wounds caused by pruning. This leaves a slight chance of disease to enter through the wound. Now, it is still better to prune them early in the winter than to wait to long, but to be on the safe side, I like to wait until late in the winter.
There is a lot of information to be found on the internet about pruning your grapevines, but a lot of it is very difficult to follow. I have read and reread dozens of posts about pruning grapevines, and to be honest it was mostly very difficult to follow. Luckily this is our first year, so the pruning this year is rather straight forward.
Continue reading “Pruning the Grapevines”
The baby chicks are growing so fast. It amazes me how long their wing feathers are getting. They have a fascination for pecking on the cardboard walls and floors of the box. We love to watch them scratch in the wood chips.
Here is a very simple, and cheap home security improvement that anyone can do in just a few minutes.
The plates in your door right now probably have 3/4″ or 1″ screws holding them in place. All this accomplishes is holding the plate in place. If you remove those screws and replace them with longer screws, it will add a little more resistance should an intruder even try to kick your door in.
Using 2″ or 2 1/2″ screws will secure the, plate in place as well as go through the door frame and into the stud next to the frame. This will make your door more sound.
Now, I am not suggesting this will stop an intruder, because it won’t. However, with 2 screws through the door knob plate, and 2 more through the dead bolt plate, it just may add enough resistance to force an intruder to fail to breach your door on the first try, or cause them to loose their balance due to the additional force. This could buy you some precious time. Enough time to get your wits about you, or give you a jump on preparing to defend your home and family.
There is no guarantee that any of this will help. However, there is a chance it will slow an intruder down just enough to change the outcome in you favor. For the few cents 4 screws cost, why not? Even if you think the odds of this helping are as low a 1%. Wouldn’t you buy that extra 1% for under a buck?
Recently I was given the opportunity to review the newly released “The Gardening Notebook” E-book by Angi at SchneiderPeeps. I’ve had it for about a week now and quickly glossed over it when I first received it. However, I did not want to do a review until I could spend more time with it.
Gardening Notebook
Continue reading “The Gardening Notebook E-book Review”
I took Monday off from work so that I could go with George to get his wisdom teeth cut out. That all went as well as can be expected and was even quite comical at times (gas and anesthesia). In the evening after Jon got home from work we all took a trip to Tractor Supply. I figured George would want to stay home and take it easy, but he wasn’t going to miss out on Jon and me buying our first baby chicks. He is a country boy and has had his own chickens and roosters for several years. I’m sure he figured we would need his guidance.
TSC got their first chicks and ducks supply in on Monday. By the time we got there, all the baby ducks were gone and one container of the baby chicks were empty as well. Oh, you could hear them cheeping as soon as we entered the store. They had 4 large metal tubs still left. Oh, they were all so cute! I wish I had thought to take a picture of them then. But we were so excited, that it never occurred to me.
All of the little yellow fuzz balls were a straight run of White Cornish. The sign said they were better for meat chickens.
Continue reading “Baby Chicks”
Yesterday after church and our grocery run in Walmart, Jon planted our new raspberry vines that we bought from Tractor Supply Company Saturday. These were packed in peat moss and the raspberries we ordered online last year were shipped in a dormant dry root state.
I apologize the posts have been sparse this week. Work has been hectic and very full days all week and it seems life has just been a bit busy.
My oldest came by Monday after work to discuss his taxes, all the details about getting his wisdom teeth cut out this coming Monday, and to drop of his laptop for some software installation. It was good to spend the evening with him as sometimes I may not see him for a couple of weeks.
Then Tuesday I worked a little late as I was on the brink of a coding breakthrough and I just could not let it go! I got my program working fantastically and headed home. My boss was in the parking lot as I was leaving work and texted me that my car didn’t sound right and I should probably get it looked at. I had not noticed, but I turned the radio off and did hear the humming/whirling sound it was making. I had just had the oil changed last week and there were not issues. So, naturally I am really concerned as my Envoy is a 2005 and has 145k+ miles on it. After getting home, since Jon was closing I worked on George’s laptop. I installed his AVG virus protection, Microsoft Office, and then did some “clean up” on his laptop as he does not. He would not be offended if he never had to use a computer again, but alas he must use one for college.
Jon was off Wednesday and had already planned on taking his truck to the dealer as his check engine light had been on for a few days and his truck was less than a year old. So, he did that super early and luckily all was well. They said it was some code due to the aftermarket gas cap he has (we all had our gas syphoned awhile back and bought locking gas caps). OK, whatever at least it wasn’t anything big. So he was done at the dealership about the time I was heading to work. So I dropped my car off at another garage for them to take a look and Jon picked me up and took me to work. I had a bad idler pulley and they replaced it for $159. Well, that wasn’t in the budget, but at least it wasn’t worse. I was worrying the whole time until the garage called to tell me the problem. Then Wednesday evening we all went to church after work and school.
Thursday I actually went to Zumba to work out. I have failed miserably at working out recently, but am glad I went. I should report the instructor for attempted mass murder! It was brutal or ummmm I have gotten out of shape.
Then Friday I picked up George’s 4 prescriptions in preparation for his wisdom teeth surgery Monday and went to Sarah’s indoor soccer game. They won.
Then today Jon and I went to Sarah’s last soccer game of this indoor season and the girls won again. It was cool to wrap up the season with 2 strong wins as the beginning of the season was a bit rocky. Then we went to Tractor Supply after the game. We love TSC!
We were mostly going to look for onion sets as we need to start planting in a week and supplies for chickens. Yes, chickens. We have been discussing and preparing for awhile. The TSC employee said the baby chicks will be in Monday! Yay, I thought it would be a few more weeks. So, we went ahead and got some starter supplies for new baby chicks. Continue reading “Chicks, Onions, Garlic, and Raspberries”