dcarch

Met him, chatted with him, eaten in his restaurants many times. Why? Why? and why?!!! dcarch

You can't read? You silly, Anna already said she has no car. That means no Mercedes Benz, no Audi, no Porch, no nothing! dcarch

Looks like your soil is on the dry side. How do you keep everything watered? Do you have a well? dcarch

It there a need to prevent slime buildup? dcarch

SLUG IT OUT! Don't you hate it? You spend so much money and energy in planting your garden, then just when you are ready to harvest, come these slimy thieves to ruin everything for you. There are many popular "surefire" tricks on the internet to get rid of slugs. I have tried them all. None of them really work very well. After a lot of research, I decided to give the electric barrier a try for my strawberry patch. This method is very easy and inexpensive to implement. It has the potential of being 100% effective, 100% nontoxic long lasting and maintenance free. For the electric tape, I used self-adhesive copper tape (for stained glass work) and a 12v (old) battery for power. I expect one charge will last more than a season since it really is not powering anything. Two months later, so far so good. Have not lost one single strawberry yet. dcarch

Hope you all had a great Memorial Day holiday (USA) SV & grilled prime sirloin steak, grilled pineapple, watermelon, snow peas from the garden. dcarch .

Here is a little tip. Staking can be expensive and unsightly. You can get nice looking 36" long (yes, they do have 36" long) bamboo BBQ skewers cheaper. Check out Amazon, 100 skewer pack for less than $15.00. dcarch

Be careful with LED lights. Many LED lights flicker (strobe) which interferes with digital image sensor of your digital camera. They do sell special LED lights for photography. By the way, there is no such thing as "white" LEDs. The white is actually generated by a chemical on the LED. dcarch

Using the tripod: 1. It allows you to shoot at very low light level by setting the exposure long. 2. Try to use the self-timer for the sharpest image. Even on a tripod, the clicking by hand can introduce shaking. dcarch

How do you guys deal with biting insects? flies, mosquito, ticks, etc? dcarch

Crystallization can purify a compound or material. For instance to get ultra pure semiconductor material in chip making, a method known as zone refining is used. dcarch

Still have a few morel mushrooms left. dcarch Morel ravioli

A suggestion for you guys with a large garden: I don't have a huge garden, just big enough to be a pain to go from one end to the other, especially if I have to carry a lot of tools and garden supplies. So I got myself an electric mobility scooter and modified it for gardening use. So fast, even going up hill. Completely silent, and instant start. A good time saver, no sweat. dcarch

Or this: dcarch

Other than for aesthetic reasons, I have not found most weeds to be that detrimental to garden productivity. This year's weeds are next years tomatoes. More compost, weeds improve soil. dcarch

Happy Mother's Day!!! Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! I hope you all had a good one. It was not a day to go out for food. So I cooked. dcarch Salmon, morel mushrooms, roasted peppers.

LOL! A Vitamix is way over priced. A router is a 4x to 5x more complicated machine than a Vitamix, yet a router is about 1/3 the price. Both Vitamix and a router use about the same motor. dcarch

Call me crazy. Not wanting to pay for a Vitamix, I simply hacked my woodworking router into a variable, reversible high power mixer. dcarch

I am not the only one - a shop blow torch. I am the only one (probably) - My shop 10" table saw with a carbide blade to cut large bones, really works. dcarch

You don't eat the whole plant. Just like asparagus, you take a few shoots from each plant. The more you take, the more robust they grow. dcarch

One of the excitement from your garden in early spring is to find things you can harvest for dinner, I don't have morel mushrooms in our area, but I have asparagus, ramps and hosta. Yes, hosta. Many of you have hosta in your garden, not realizing that in some countries, hosta is a vegetable. dcarch Hosta and SV blade steaks

Go take a bath. You are filthy and stinky. I can smell you all the way here in NY. I just came in the house to change for some dry underwear, for the fourth time. Looking at the weather report, I need to get the work done as much as I can today. A couple more hours of digging, then call pizza. A long bath and many cold beers for me. dcarch

young okra leaves are edible. dcarch

yeah! dcarch

Frantically digging to get the garden started for this year. Found some more of these surprises from last winter. Nice reward for a hard day's work. dcarch SV blade steaks