Saturday, May 10, 2014

Mouse problems. killed the fan

So, I have a fan to blow the hot air away from the back of the fridge (it's complicated)

and I noticed the fridge seemed to be not as cold as it should be... I go and check the fan, and find that a mouse has gotten himself caught in the fan, stopping it, and it seems, burning out the motor of this $110 fan. Great.  rodents. 

Friday, May 09, 2014

Strawberry problems

Great. now there's this.   Some sort of disease that messes with the genetics?? oy. 

These are the first strawberries out of my 'store bought' section.  Searching around, it seems it's something called phyllody or at least it's connected to that. I'm going to have to go out and destroy those plants, and hope it doesn't get into the others, or worse, get into the wild strawberries up here.  Apparently bacteria transmitted by bugs crawling around.  if it's not one thing it's another. 

Apple Tree Problems

In an attempt to get feedback and be able to show people my tree, I wanted to post these photos of my 4-kinds-of-apple-grafted tree that has been doing well, but seems sick to me this spring.  It seems like it might be a nutrient problem, but I don't know. 

The tree has been in place for maybe 7 or 8 years, and in good years, even as its a small tree, we've gotten 20 some apples off it at harvest.   

This is most of the tree, taken first week of May.  It had good blossoms on it, which come out first, but now it seems like there's no leaving, or very little. 

Close up of blossoms and leaves - the leaves seem healthy... 

 Here's another apple the same age (years in the ground) about 15 yards away from the sick one. much more green going on. 

I was worried it might be crown rot, as I did have one apple die of that, but checking out the crown, it seems just fine, and here's a picture of the apricot just 8 feet away... so I don't think it's bad draining soil.

it just seems sick and pathetic.  I have given it the same sort of soil amendments I always have, which I believe are nitrogen heavy and maybe somewhat acidic, but good organic material. 

Design Mistakes in my cob house

So, I have long meant to create a list of mistakes I made when designing the finishings on our house.  Now that we've lived in it for a ...