As I was wrangling the washing machine thru my workshop, I managed to jostle one of my crowbars ( the heavy one ) and drop it on my foot. nice.
But, we also did some fun stuff today. I built a window box for the side porch and we videotaped it for gardenfork. I also started to work on my smoker, and we are going to smoke some salmon tomorrow. I have some applewood from a neighbor, who gave me the stump pieces, so this will be a learning experience.
Henry and Mij were non-stop today, they are now taking a nap as I ice my foot. I bought one of those electric fence systems to keep the dogs from wandering into the road yesterday, am figuring out how to lay all the wire.
I was at the neighbors down the road yesterday, and saw Buddy’s ( Henry & Mij’s father ) new litter of pups again. You can see a few shots of them in the Tomato Mania gardenfork.tv episode. Lots of fun, its tempting to get another, but you should try walking multiple dogs in New York.
We’re going up to the camp for dinner. The camp is where you see Henry and Mij swimming in a lot of the video clips. I keep a canoe up there, we might go for a paddle before dinner.
Dennis
June 11, 2007
I came across your podcasts in iTunes and even though I live in middle England, I find your gardening tips & tricks helpful and entertaining.
Our seasons are closely matched, so I can put into practice a lot of your suggestions.
Our media giant here is the BBC and at the moment you are producing a better and more informative podcast gardening guide than they are, keep it up.
Do you have or are you planning an episode about soil conditions? I have recently moved to a new property and the soil here is very acidic, in parts I have had readings of 3.5pH.
For the most part, the part of the garden I have the problem with is the vegetable garden. I know I need to treat the soil with gardeners lime, but I don’t know when to do it, how much to use, or what the ideal target pH level should be. So any tips you have on soil conditions and how to treat the soil would be great.
Melton Mowbray
England
Ginger
June 22, 2007
Eric-sorry to hear about your toe (I’ll withhold the Tim Allen referrences) hope nothing serious resulted of the crowbar incident.
About the fencing…PetSafe has a version that is wireless. You can set it for a 30-90ft radial circle -well really its a sphere-of play area for the dogs; it can be expanded with multiple waterproof collars for multiple dogs, and there is no line to bury–this also means that you don’t have to worry about snow from interferring with the signal; it does have some problems with heavily hilly ground but from what I’ve seen you have fairly level grounds. If you want more area and have two buildings close enough you can overlap the spheres to give the pups more room to roam. The thing that sold it for us was that it is portable, so when you go somewhere as long as there is AC power you can keep the dogs in a confined area. Unlike buried lines which only zap the dog when it crosses the wire (and will zap them again when you take them back into the area) this system zaps them until they return to the area…for up to 30 seconds, which is longer than you think–if by chance the pup doesn’t get a big enough jolt it will continue to beep so you can locate the dog for as long as the battery holds out. We got ours off the web but I recently noticed the same unit at the local hardware store. Couple of draw backs:batteries are not rechargeable; unit needs AC power so black-outs can cause zaps. Put the link to PetSafe above…see if they will send you one for trial online…we love the product.
Ginger
June 22, 2007
PS. We don’t need to use the flags, as the dog approaches the extent of the area the collar beeps giving the dog a warning and they learn to listen for it…so no stakes to remove for mowing.