John Weiland

.....Just musing if the chocolate and salmon offerings whipped into a mousse might not additionally and additively arouse the passions of the French-speaking portion of the (Sasquatcheaux) population...?  Casting a wider net so to speak....

:-)

Shari Clark wrote:Hey there! I just wanted to ask if there are any peeps from the East Beaches / Winnipeg River of Manitoba here? We do seem to have unique challenges and it would be interesting to connect. My husband and I are in the East Beaches area, in a total woodland area about a ten minute walk from Lake Winnipeg. Thank you in advance!

Am I correct in thinking that the East Beaches refers to the old glacial beaches of Lake Agassiz?  Keep me in mind for questions of one in a similar location, but the 'banana belt' version south of you outside of Fargo, ND.  We are east of the Red River. but not technically on the beaches as those are a bit further to the east of our farmstead by about 8 - 10 miles.  So we are on the 'lake bottom'.....pretty heavy clay soil, old marshy tallgrass prairie, but with the beaches and woodlands not far away.  With the exception of the fall season, the climate here is always a challenge and the bugs and diseases that attack us and our garden just add to the 'fun'  Best wishes!

Wonderful post!  Unfortunately, even if half-way hairy, I'm already married, outside of your desired age spread, and possess too many health issues at this juncture to step again up to the plate.  (SW Ontario is a barefoot waterski trip away from northern Minnesota as well.)  Could these impediments be overlooked if my gait in front of a trail-cam is uncannily like the hairy one himself?  (How do we know Yeti/Sasquatch is even a 'he'?)

All jesting aside, I do wish you all the best in finding your partner, Terry B!....

Dennis Goyette wrote:Take down your Goliath.

When I was younger, "Goliath" was my older sister and I could get by with the comparison if I kept the rocks small enough....

....

My own signs:

1)  I spend more time looking at utility beds to put on a golf cart than building plans for a new sunroom

2)   I despairingly examine that pretty mushroom from a standing position....knowing how far that distance is from head height to ankle height where I might get a better view.

3)  What I used to identify as the drumming of a roughed grouse in the distance can now, when sufficiently prolonged, only be construed as none other than my cardiac arrhythmia playing with my head....and eardrums! :-o

4)  When the overhanging 'spare tire' from winter's hibernation provides yet another nesting location for spring's bounty of wood ticks....

5)  When 'crouching dog' is no longer a Yoga position, but a necessary intermediate re-oxygenation phase from laying on the floor to the labored attempts at standing.  (...but dogs licking your face do provide some levity in the process... ;-)  )

It seems like the concept of electric vehicles (EVs) is spilling over into the rural/farm sector at an increasing rate.  Many if not most of the major agricultural equipment brands are offering some sort of electric version of an ATV/UTV at this point and no doubt they have been able to borrow extensively from the decades of technology development in the golf cart sector.  While I'm still interested in solar juicing my current golf cart with a rooftop panel, I'm being seduced by current ads for some of the newer golf cart/UTV offerings, some from traditional manufacturers and some from new start-ups.  Typically these are 48V or higher, but there's a new twist if I'm reading the history correctly:  AC motors instead of DC motors as the power plant of the vehicle.  Although there may be advantages of an AC motor over a DC motor, it appears there's added complications as the DC current from the batteries needs to be converted to AC.  Minimally this would seem to incur a power cost.  Additionally, when I inquired at a local sales outlet about replacing the lead acid batteries with LiFePO4 (48V driving AC motor) they responded that some interface changes would need to be done and would not be something they could do locally.

Have any other tweakers and DIY-ers out there encountered these issues in the farm-based electric vehicle realm?  Is the AC motor the new trend and is it likely to phase out the DC motors of past electric golf carts?  I'm certainly finding that, as an 'ageing homesteader', these vehicles are worthy companions in getting work done.  Thanks!....

Truthfully, without seeing tomorrow's photos, it looks a bit like something illustrator H.R. Giger would come up with for Ridley Scott's "Alien" blockbuster film franchise..

... ;-)

If you happen to be up later in the evening, just take a glimpse at it with a flashlight to make sure it's not noshing on your tomato plant.  Hopefully his/her intentions are either innocuous or beneficial but it would be sad to assume and guess wrong.  Good luck!

The bin furthest to the left in your photo looks pretty far gone, but the other two don't look so bad.  When the sprouts get this long and summer is coming on, I get pretty surgical and remove a lot of the base area that includes the sprouts.  The remainder of the tuber can be fine....the more firmed fleshed, the better.  We will still use such spuds for mashed, air-fryed potatoes and potato salad. Is your situation one in which you can donate potato "hatchlings" to others in your area for them to start their own crop?  The local farmers around here spread un-used potatoes out on their fields and just till them in for returning the nutrients to the soil.  We toss any unused spuds into a nearby wind-break and they are taken care of by all creaters great and small..... :-)

Good luck!

Colin Crawshaw wrote:.....i don’t want the fox to think its easy and a free buffet for ever round here

Thanks i’m reading learning and thinking always

Yes,.....That's why we have a fenced perimeter that keeps the dogs in to protect the chickens.  For those chickens that decide to wander past the fence and up onto the road to peck at gravel stones, it's like hanging a "Kentucky Fried Chicken" or "Chick-fil-A" sign on the mailbox ...... (American reference to popular chicken-based fast-food).  Now if we could just train the foxes and coyotes to prefer roosters to hens! :-/

Joe Hallmark wrote:“Problem” solved. It is 100% herbicide residue. I’m assuming my compost is garbage too?

Was the residue found on the plants or in the soil?  Was it determined to be from spray drift or something that accompanied the compost and other amendments into which the tubers were planted?