Sunday, March 11, 2012

Wet and Soggy

The weather was not in my plans for this weekend. I knew there was a 90% chance of a wet three days but I looked at it as a 10% chance it would miss me and I would be able to get something done.

The unwanted house time while the internet was down did land me and the wife some indoor work time.
Along with Wee, BEB and Boppy, we all jumped in and started the mountainous task of making over 20 cases of Hot and Mild sauce. We did not get close to finished, but it was still fun. 


During some of the breaks in the weather we would go outside and work on the garden shades.
Last summer the gardens burn up and we can't have that two years in a row so shade is a must.
I used 16' cattle panels wired end to end to make 32'. Then bowed them up and over three raised beds. The beds are 16' long, 4' wide with a 4' walk between them. Both cattle panels nailed to each side bowed up to 10' tall in the middles. It took 8 panels to cover all three beds making a hoop house effect. On the panels I will wire on Lattice work. I have 8-4'X8' sheets and that will shade the Mid day to West evening sun.
I will post better pics later but the rain dampened the completion of this little project.       

11 comments:

  1. Whoa! A comment box!! First time in ages, I've been able to comment without piggybacking as a reply to someone else's comment!

    The 'hoop house' looks great, MDR. Might try something along those lines here later on. I'm glad you had family fun putting some cases of hot and mild sauce up. Care to share your recipe?

    : )

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  2. I feel your pain on the rain, as we have had it here but not as bad as Texas. A friend posted on FB her swimming pool that over flowed.She lives in Houston. When we had house with pool we would love to cannonball during rain storms to help with the overflow.

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  3. So when do I get to buy some of that sauce? Lol

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  4. Great idea on the shade for the garden, can't wait to see the finished project.

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  5. Glad to see you able to comment HB. This design is the most cost effective way to create shade for the gardens I could come up with. Plus the look will be better than most of the other designs I had.
    I will ask the wife on the recipe of the Hot sauce. It was her mom's so if she wants to share it I will.
    Thanks for the comment.

    Rob - I never had a pool so I don't know what that is like but is sounds fun. The weather will be in the 80's all week so that should dry everything up and then we can get back to business.

    SFG - Oh you know you can have some anytime. Just send me your mailing address and I will send you a jar.

    Stephanie - I should have it done this week. With the time change and longer days a man can work himself to death. The problem is this is only over three beds. I can't afford to do them all.

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  6. I'm telling ya, you will not believe how great the garden does under shade cloths! It will survive all summer and you will get more veggies!

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  7. Texan - I know, I am tired of not having a garden longer than July. I am hoping this will work. I am not using cloth due to the wind we get here but I am using Lattice work wired onto the cattle panels. This way I can also have the space to hang a bunch of plants as well.

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  8. So MDR, Did you have those panels just sitting around or did you have to buy them. We have just the opposite problem here. We are always trying to warm up the garden to get things started. At least until late June when it does finally warm up enough for stuff like beans. Buy September we are looking to try and keep the tomatoes dry so they don't get late blight. So your idea would work for that. Thanks for the idea. Now I just have to find out how much those panels are or try to find some on line.

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  9. sista - Like I have said before, sometimes I do have to buy stuff at regular price. I hate it but I still have too. I don't know if you have the store "Tractor Supply" where you are but that is where I got the cattle panels. They had them on sell of course. The panels are 50" tall and 16' long. Most call them cattle feed lot panels.
    The good thing about them is they will always be around. Once you have them you always will. These panels are what I fenced my whole property with.
    You can bend them, cut them, make gates out of them and just about anything you can think of. You can buy the hog panels and run them down the middle of your garden and the peas, beans, tomatoes or whatever will grow on them without pulling them to the ground.
    You can make a chicken tractor out of one, Instant goat shelter and just about everything.
    As you can tell, I like them.

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  10. this is awesome, MDR, buddy - i can't wait to see the finished project.

    poor jambaloney!

    your friend,
    kymber

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  11. Kymber - You are going to work that poor guy to death.

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