A Midsummer Night's Snark

[zzyzzogeton]

She just threw the pit in a pot of topsoil on a whim, looked up some info on it, and... voila, we have an avocado plant. Our intent is to keep it in a pot and move it indoors during colder months, just because it's neat and a cool-looking plant. There's no way in heck I'm waiting 5-20 years for homemade guacamole!

Incidentally, homemade guac isn't at all hard to make... the only real trick to it is selecting some fruits that are ripe, and some that are little over-ripe for that soft creamy texture... I'll have Ang write down her recipe if anyone wants. Be warned, it contains no preservatives, so it will get yucky if you don't eat it all the first day or two... not like that's a big problem...

If y'all fertilize it, make sure to use a LOW nitrogen fertilizer, one where the first of the 3 numbers on formulation is 5 or less, preferably, 3 or even 2. This will slow the growth so it doesn't get big too fast. It will still get big, just take longer to do so. Higher N levels promote leaf growth and really high levels will kill a plant - it grows itself to death.

Your lawn fertilizers that advertise "green up your lawn" are all in the 15+ range and all they really do is promote leaf growth, not root or systemic improvement.

 

[TBL]

You might be sick when you add enough hot sauce to turn a cream soup red... Or maybe that is just me. Good lord my mouth is on FIRE! However my sinus are drained!

I do that when I go for Vietnamese Pho the broth practically glows. Its like a cure-all for colds and flu.

 

[worldwood]

Hang in there, ST :thumbup:

Speaking of planting trees, Angie got an avocado pit to sprout and take root. It took about six months to get going, but by golly it's an 18" tall plant now. I figure in about 30 years we'll have fresh guacamole

Awesome stuff man!!

Brother in law got some orange seeds to sprout... took about a year to get a foot tall though LOL

Got a pepper plant today as well... Not sure if ill put it in the ground or keep it in a pot...


Also got my table saw. LOVE it...

Can cut some thin slabs with a little care.... This is the only one i took this thin... dont have a need for wood this thin right now,=.

But the blade leaves a lot of marks or grooves on the wood... I seen more expensive blades in the store.... Do they leave less marks/grooves?



Um next up.... Wood circles...

There for a little project im working on.... Guess the wood type of both... win a one on one date with the very own Gunyon




This crap makes me wanna take a hammer to the side of my sander LOL

 

[tradewater]

WW, for smooth cut with few or no saw marks get a hollow ground planer blade. Dewalt has a 10" for twenty bucks. They are not carbide tipped and will dull quicker, so I wouldn't use it for everything. Only stuff that you want satin smooth. :thumbup:

 

[NJBillK]

Different blades with higher tpi will yield different cut patterns and coarseness left behind. But the finer the tooth, the more heat build up and more likely to scorch a piece of wood.
Do some research and see what blade types and tpi are proposed for the wood type and dimensions you are cutting.
------------
For everyone else (and WW if you want a break) Take a look at this!
Watch "Becker BK3 Tactool vs Dodge Omni" on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSuZxLT8_iY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[granitestateofmind]

Awesome stuff man!!

Brother in law got some orange seeds to sprout... took about a year to get a foot tall though LOL

Got a pepper plant today as well... Not sure if ill put it in the ground or keep it in a pot...


Also got my table saw. LOVE it...

Can cut some thin slabs with a little care.... This is the only one i took this thin... dont have a need for wood this thin right now,=.

But the blade leaves a lot of marks or grooves on the wood... I seen more expensive blades in the store.... Do they leave less marks/grooves?



Um next up.... Wood circles...

There for a little project im working on.... Guess the wood type of both... win a one on one date with the very own Gunyon




This crap makes me wanna take a hammer to the side of my sander LOL

Hey, I recognize some of that wood!

Glad you're having fun. Truth be told, I'm a teensy bit jelly....I wish I had more time to play with my wood.....
And I know what species of wood those pieces are....not that I would tell you given the "prize"!

 

[dresnor]

Today marks the end of one of our favorite pets life, our parrot Micky. He was a Mini Hahns Macaw full of piss and vinegar. Amanda has had him since she was in elementary school and when we started dating he was part of the deal. He grew into a true companion and at times he just couldn't be without me. His funny remarks when it wasn't appropriate and his constant need for attention will be missed.

Please take time in your day to send some love his way this evening.

Thanks,

Jeremy

 

[NJBillK]

Damn, sorry Dres. A pet of any kind is always family, and one that would fit in to a snark thread is doubly so!

Keep strong bud, smoke and prayers sent.

 

[Silverthorn]

Im sorry for your loss Dres. Losing a pet blows.

 

[granitestateofmind]

Sorry to hear of it Jeremy. Please give Amanda my best. And a hug to Becker.

 

[DunkEm]

Sorry to hear it Dres. It's a rough day when a pet dies.

 

[1066vik]

WW - better blades = better looking cuts.
if you're chopping up framing lumber and plywood, 24-40 teeth on a combo blade if fine.
If you want nice cuts, 40 -60 teeth and slow feed rates. (not glacial, but not as fast as you can force the wood through, either)
I am a fan of the freud diablo blades - they give a decent cut at a reasonable price. Oldham and Forrest also make good blades.
if you want to cut really thin stuff, make a sacrificial table surface: with the blade all the way down, set the fence where you want it, then tape a piece of smooth plastic or luan plywood (1/8-1/4" thick) to the table flush against the fence. turn on the saw and slowly raise the blade up -- now your thin cuts won't fall inside the saw and get chewed up.

 

[Noswad0208]

Came out of the fair on the first night with three more dollars than I had when I went in. Winning Bingo is a great thing.

Sorry to hear about your parrot Dres.

Daiz, since the KA-BAR chat thread isn't really frequented, what's the story on your Phat Bob going up the Panama Canal without you?

 

[james terrio]

I'm sorry to hear about your parrot, Dresnor

If y'all fertilize it, make sure to use a LOW nitrogen fertilizer, one where the first of the 3 numbers on formulation is 5 or less, preferably, 3 or even 2. This will slow the growth so it doesn't get big too fast. It will still get big, just take longer to do so. Higher N levels promote leaf growth and really high levels will kill a plant - it grows itself to death.

Your lawn fertilizers that advertise "green up your lawn" are all in the 15+ range and all they really do is promote leaf growth, not root or systemic improvement.

I wouldn't put 15-1-1 "lawn fertilizer" on my lawn, much less a houseplant. The avocado will go into a bigger container with an organic soil mix... I doubt it will need any nutes at all for some time, but I'll look into it more and keep an eye on it. At this point I'm far more interested in growing roots than leaves.

Awesome stuff man!!
Brother in law got some orange seeds to sprout... took about a year to get a foot tall though LOL
Got a pepper plant today as well... Not sure if ill put it in the ground or keep it in a pot...

I've always wanted dwarf orange or lemon tree. As for the pepper, this late in the year I'd put it in a pot, up to 5-gallons. Don't over-water it! Pepper plants hate wet feet. Pinch off the top once it's about a foot tall, and pinch off the flowers as they come in. With a little care and decent light, by next spring it will have a good strong rootball and lots of sturdy branches and nodes, and it'll be ready to go bonkers when warm weather comes and you can harden it off and put it back outside.

In related news, I'm about ready to trim back a couple of my smaller pepper plants and try some indoor bonchi gardening this winter... should be interesting.

Also, stop buying PSA sanding disks... just get a can of 3M Feathering adhesive and use whatever sandpaper you want. It peels off/cleans up easier and you'll save a few bucks.

 

[daizee]

hagfish are GROSS!!!!

 

[zzyzzogeton]

I'm gonna try to over-winter some bell peppers this winter in the "porch greenhouse" I'm working on. They may or may not make any peppers, but I'm hoping they'll make peppers out the gazoo in early spring next year.

Virtually every pepper I have ever raised - bell, jalapeno, habanero, hatch, poblano, serrano, banana - have all frozen off with the first freeze and never greened back out in spring. I leave a couple every year experimenting, hoping I'll "discover" a perennial variety. I did nurse a pair of outdoor bell peppers through a very mild winter once. We had a winter where it didn't freeze until mid-December and ended up only getting below freezing at night a few times and never for an extended period. They made like gangbusters that next year. The peach crop sucked that year as we didn't get enough chill hours for the high chill hour varieties.

My tepins/chiltepins (also sometimes called "chile tepins") aka "native" NorAm peppers freeze as well. However, they ARE perennials as I have several out in the yard that are 10 to 15 years old and they keep coming back. Tepins are also called "bird's eye peppers" due to their small size and round shape. Both tepins and pequins are called "turkey peppers". as well, because, well, turkeys are often seen grazing on them. The tepins and their cousins the "pequins" are both perennial natives to northern Mexico and southern Texas/New Mexico/Arizona. Tepins are about twice as hot as pequins, even though the tepins are smaller. Pequins are the peppers used in making "Cholula" brand hot sauce. Its watered down a lot since is Chulula is a rather mild hot sauce.

I make a vinegar based "hot sauce" for salads by packing a tobasco sauce bottle full of tepins, filling the bottle of peppers with boiling vinegar, capping and letting it sit for a month or so. Sprinkle the vinegar over your salad or whatever for a hot vinegary addition. When empty, replenish the vinegar and let sit while you use one of the other bottles you made up. You can recycle the peppers for at least 2 , sometimes 3 refills. Depends on the year.

 

[james terrio]

I'm gonna try to over-winter some bell peppers this winter in the "porch greenhouse" I'm working on. They may or may not make any peppers, but I'm hoping they'll make peppers out the gazoo in early spring next year.

It's always worth a try. I wouldn't count on them producing anything, in fact I'd pinch any flowers to keep them from stressing themselves out under less-than-ideal conditions. At worst, they'll die anyway; at best they'll have a huge headstart next spring :thumbup:

I'm going to experiment with a longer ferment on my jalapeno/cowhorn hot sauce this year (depending on my level of patience ) ... last year I only let my sauce fester for about 10 days with salt* before adding the vinegar. I also have a bunch of various cayenne types that I'll dry and roast for chili powder.

*up to 10% non-iodized salt by weight keeps mold at bay but allows the good bacteria to break them down...

Between all that, starting to mess with the bonchi technique, and starting more seeds around the first of the year, I should have sauce, fresh peppers and peppers in various stages of growth pretty much year-round.

 

[TBL]

Prayers and happy thoughts sent your way Dresnor and Amanda!

Damn it JT and ZZ, Y'all got me thinking about plants and trees I want to skip out on work and go for a drive....

 

[NJBillK]

Prayers and happy thoughts sent your way Dresnor and Amanda!

Damn it JT and ZZ, Y'all got me thinking about plants and trees I want to skip out on work and go for a drive....

Same here, I am going to take the long way home today. There are some really nice tree lined roads with Very few housee, aside from some farm land, if I take the "scenic route".

 

[TravisH]

I'm gonna try to over-winter some bell peppers this winter in the "porch greenhouse" I'm working on. They may or may not make any peppers, but I'm hoping they'll make peppers out the gazoo in early spring next year.

Peppers won't set when the temps fall too low (<50?).

'Over-wintering' peppers is done to keep the root ball alive so it comes back like gangbusters next spring. If you're wanting to harvest peppers you'll need a 'hot house'.

I'm trying over-wintering this winter with a couple of my best producing plants. About a month before 'average first-frost date', I'll cut in back to about 18" leaving only a few mature leaves. This should force out new buds. About 2 weeks after they sprout and have developed good leafage, I'll cut off all remaining mature leaves. Just before first-frost, I'll dig up the root ball, trim it up, transfer it to a large pot with potting mix, and move it indoors. I've got a 'grow box' setup for sprouting seeds in the spring and it should give the peppers plenty of light and enough moisture to make it through the winter.