JAP69's Blog

I have been thinking the last few days about scale modeling as a hobby. I was thinking of doing a log cabin in 1:12 scale.

I would like to build it the same as I would do during my construction days. Each log mitered for exterior walls, actual floor joist timbers mitered in. Scaled plank flooring. Roof rafters modeled just like actual rafters. Could even build a fireplace using scaled sized stone material. Interior walls I would just use probably solid wood of some sort.

I would purchase scale sized windows and doors.

I was looking at scale sized furniture and it would cost a size able amount of money to furnish the model. Could run into the thousands to furnish the whole model.

I will just stick with building the model to scale and purchasing the scale size windows and doors.

I was searching the net this morning and found an abundance of scale model supplies.

Has not reached 32 degrees yet so the plants are pretty much dormant unless the daytime temperature rises to give them a jolt of energy.

Have not done anything in gardening line in last week or so except maybe give them some water. Pretty much shut down operations until seed planting sometime in January. Will probably will wait until January or early February to do the steam cooking on the container mix.

Back on the farm we use to plant corn [sweet & field corn]. The corn would come up and the growing conditions were just right you could sit in the corn patch at night when the daily background noises were gone you could hear the corn stalks growing.

You think seeds and plants do not think? Think again. You ever see a kernel of oats in its husks with the two feelers sticking out. If that oat seed was laying on top of the ground those two feelers would reach down to the ground and push the oat seed down into the ground.

You ever watch leaves on a tree before a rain storm? The leaves will turn themselves over.

Today's container soil temperature 52 degrees. Has dropped 10 degrees since November 2nd.

I have almost a full bag each of the mushroom mulch and raised bed soil leftover that I mentioned I was going to use for the mulch tea bin. Thinking last night instead of the tea bin I will build about a 30 inch square box 6 inches deep and set it on the ground out in back of the lot and put the leftover mulch and raised bed soil in it and plant some melons in it. I like muskmelon as that is what we called them back on the farm. The ones that have the webbing on them.

The melons are too long of vines for a container so they should do in the box and let the vines run over the edge of the box. Maybe save some leaves from this fall to spread around the box to keep the grass down.

It is quite sunny in the afternoon in back of the lot so that would give about 8 hours of direct sunlight.

Transplanted the lettuce that I had started in the bunching onion bin into the pan I started the lettuce in at a later date yesterday. This morning I went out and spread about one half tbsp of bone meal ferlizer into the pan and watered it in some.

The weather is chilling down now to about in the 40s at night and 50s & 60s during the day. That ends any more seed starting for this year. Will start seed planting for the spring transplanting during January. Will give them about 6 or 8 weeks growth before transplanting. Warms up pretty decent by the end of February. https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/summerville/south-carolina/united-states/ussc0332

Seen some decent size plastic storage containers at the dollar store with a lot of holes already in the sides. They were 15 1/2 inches square x 11 inches deep. That is about 11 gallons. About $6.50 each.

About that bone meal I put on the plants a few days ago. The granules must have dissolved down into the soil. The Tomato plants have taken off like crazy. The Siberian tomato must have grown an inch the last couple days and one leaf has really taken in energy as it grew wicked fast.

The squash are so, so. Nothing to get excited about. They are growing but feels too cold for them now.

The pepper plant leaves are crinkling up. They look done for this year.

May transplant the lettuce into a ten inch pot in a couple days.

The bunching onions should be coming up shortly. Has been about ten days since I dropped the seed into the ground. If they come up in the container mix.

Flowers are doing fine.

Got some ideas from you tube last night.

I will go with leaving the charcoal in the paper bag it came in, loosely wrap the paper bag with an old sheet I have that I have been cutting up for rags, loosely loop a rope around it from top to bottom. Place it on the driveway and run back and forth over it with the car tire. Check it by feel through the wrapping to see what size I have it down too. Finish off a larger chunks with my pointed end of my slate hammer.

I have done slate work on roofs in the past from complete installation to individual replacement.

Have a story to tell about their telling that charcoal will last for ages.
During my construction days I was digging soil out to put a footing in for a garage. I was down about 6 feet in yellow sandy soil that did not look disturbed for ages. Took a shovel full of soil and opened up a circle of charcoal that looked like an old campfire about 18 inches in diameter. There was charcoal dust as well as little pieces of charcoal. I did not see anything other than the charcoal from the campfire. Can you imagine how old that campfire was and who sat around it cooking their meal and maybe for warmth depending on the season at the time.

Another story about finding ancient things.
I was working as a laborer in my early years about 55 years ago for a builder installing pipelines in the new housing project. While down in the trench working about 6 feet down I spotted a flint spear head about 6 to 8 inches long and about 2 inches wide at the widest point. Can you imagine who the flint knapper was and the hunter who used and lost it somehow. Must have been ages ago before the white man arrived.

Looked around the net about biochar and its advantages and found quite useful information.

I will just add charcoal in my potting mix. will need to decide how small to bust up the charcoal.

I done a 10% calculation.

5 gallon potting mix, 10% charcoal=0.0024 cu yds = 0.48473766 gallons= rounding off @ 0.50 gallons = 8 cups

 

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Found this calculator to come in handy.

https://pacificbiochar.com/biochar-calculator/

Went to Walmart today for a few items and moseyed on over to the garden center where they keep the charcoal. Picked up a 15 1/2 pound bag of natural lump charcoal with no additives. My first bag I had gotten at the market which was natural charcoal which weighed 8 1/2 pounds and paid like $9.50 for it. I got today's 15 1/2 pound bag for $9.87.

I needed more charcoal for the two new containers I built and going to fill after I cook the potting mix in January or February or maybe sooner. I will take the charcoal I just purchased and bust it up into quarter size nuggets or less. May add more to the containers I already have charcoal in. I may just blend it into the top potting mix portion rather than have it layered between the top and bottom portion. When I remove the top portion and the charcoal layer of the containers already done to steam cook it will be mixed any how.

If I do any more new containers next year they will be 5 to 7 gallon plastic containers. I am not building any more wooden containers.

Busting up the lump charcoal should keep me entertained for awhile. After I get it busted up I will figure out the quantity by some unit of measure and portion it out for equal shares in each wooden container.

Done a fair amount of snooping around sniffing out ways to get sunlight to the veggies and other sun loving plants. A lot of methods out there from mirrors to reflective material to make mirrors. I also seen where you can buy reflective material in fair size sheets to redirect the sun.

Looks like problem solved once I got to thinking about it.

While I was looking around I remembered an article I read some years ago about where they pull sunlight into a tube and down into the building from the roof top or where they need to put it to gather the sunlight. I think it was in Japan where they did it. Brightens the whole room. The tube was fitted on the inside with directional reflective material some how.

Maybe if I do a search for sun tube I may be able to find it.

I have numerous trees in my backyard which is not very large to begin with. The patio deck area only gets sunlight in the morning for a few hours during the summer months. Now that it is fall the leaves are dropping but the growing season is about over for summer warm weather crops.

I have been thinking about this problem and thought about putting up convex mirrors in the yard to direct sunlight on the plants. Just done a search on using mirrors for directing sunlight on plants and found that it is done by gardeners. I only read one article this morning on using mirrors for the garden which was not too lengthy.

Looks like I may purchase some convex mirrors for directing sunlight on the plants. Done a search on convex mirrors and found they are expensive. Something like $40.00 and up.

Will need to find out about UV rays requirements for plants and whether mirrors redirect UV rays or they take away the UV rays. Also will need to find out if mirrors strengthen UV rays or not.

One of the pansy's had stem rot at the soil line again. Was reading this morning and some were saying that these nurseries pump them up with felizer to make them look good for a sale. They were saying they started their own from seed and did not have this problem.

Gave the tomato and pepper plants a shot of bone meal yesterday afternoon.

Have not done much this week in the garden. Installed new screening in a screen frame for one of the windows Monday. Used the 36 inch screening I purchased as the frame I did was about 30 inches wide. A screen I did not plan on doing but found a quarter size hole in the screening. Still have the bigger screen frame to do when I get screening. Going to need to straighten the screen rail on one side.

Got one of those internal probe thermometers at the market this morning. Soil temperature is at 62 to 65 degrees. Will use thermometer to monitor temperature especially during hot summer days.

Thinking of using light gray stone for mulch on top of the containers and wrap white cloth around the containers.

I came to the conclusion a container garden is totally different when it comes to the growing medium you use and how the ferlizer is added for plant growth.

They are two totally different worlds.