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Green Tomatoes

Category: Pianolady's Gardens | Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 12:22 am

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I'm getting impatient now. So many green tomatoes staring at me. And the plants are over 6' tall, what's the deal with that? It's crazy. I'll be busy soon enough I suppose.


This one's my special one, just huge. Can't wait to bring it in and put it on the scale.


Found a new use for my hog panel. Pole beans.


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Garden at Back Entry

Category: Pianolady's Gardens | Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 8:37 pm

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This photo is actually taken from the deck. Considering the retaining wall was replaced last year (and things were trampled), this area has recovered pretty well. Some rain lately has helped out a lot.

The area where the bigger pond used to be gets filled with some time of annual each year. The area where the little pond used to be still has it's liner, and I keep bog-like plants in it. I just left the liner and filled it with dirt.



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Big Changes Coming

Category: Everything Piano | Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:59 am

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I tried a new job over the summer, a temporary office job just to see if I'd like it better "on the other side" (aka doing something else). Well...it's okay, but not something I'd like to do permanently for many reasons that I won't bore you with. Friday will be my last day, and I am excited to get back to everything "piano".

So, I've decided to get back into piano tuning, in addition to my teaching & accompanying/performing. One of our area tuners moved, and another is nearing retirement age, so it just seems like a good time to go back into business. I owned a very successful piano tuning & repair business from 1994-1998 and quit when I went back to school. It's not something you exactly forget how to do! I've already got my first customer next week!



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Tomatoes Setting On Heavy

Category: Pianolady's Gardens | Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 12:46 am

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I can honestly say this year's garden is my most promising one I've had in years.

The beans looked less than good at first, but are setting on strong now. I filled in the holes where the original planting didn't come up with a pole bean (package failed to mention that), so I've built some frames for those to climb. They were planted later, so I should have beans all summer long. I've got potatoes planted in front of the beans, the deer must be eating the greenery, maybe that's why they're leaving the beans alone.


Cherry Sweet 100's....



And the rest...


Mulching with grass clippings has been so helpful, I've haven't had to weed much at all. However, my garden does smell like a compost bin, which is fine with me.

I won't bore you with a bunch of pictures of green tomatoes. Can't wait to see the varieties once they start to color. I've got white, red, yellow, and purple tomatoes planted, big and small.

Last edited: Tue Jul 23, 2013 12:54 am

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A Day Devoted to My Truck!

Category: Off Topic | Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2013 11:47 pm

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Today I decided I'd not step foot into a garden and take advantage of the weather and work on my 2003 Nissan Frontier (which I dearly love) while it was cooler outside. These trucks had the option to have a cabin filter, but most didn't come with it. So I pulled out the glove box, cut out the hole for the filter (was pre-marked from the factory), and installed the cabin filter that I picked up from the dealership this morning. Really not a difficult thing to do at all.

Vacuumed out the car, cleaned the interior glass & vinyls, washed the car, Rain-X'd the outside glass and got new Firestone Destination LE2 tires for better traction installed this afternoon. Believe it or not, this truck was still rolling on it's original tires...which weren't very good when they were new. I'm looking forward to seeing how these handle in the snow, they were very high rated online.

RAGBRAI starts here tomorrow, so we've got 30 bikers tenting next door. That should make for an interesting evening. They'd be smart to sleep instead of party with the ride tomorrow, hopefully they will.

Got to have a few pics, I'm proud of my "older" truck, it only has 61k miles on it, and averages 22 mpg. I've put quite a bit of work into maintaining it since I purchased it a few years ago. Feels & looks like a new truck again!





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Made a Compost Bin

Category: Pianolady's Gardens | Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 8:03 pm

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Needed a compost bin for years, just never got around to doing it. Used 4 pallets, which were all broken in some way (which is why they were free), and made them work using L brackets and screws to make them go together. The 4th pallet was broken to the point I had to cut it in half and use it as a half door, which I attached with wire. Lined the inside with window screen and started my pile. I guess this is my "ugly" corner, but it's gotta go somewhere and it's not too noticeable in the grand scheme of things.



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Not much, but BEANs!

Category: Pianolady's Gardens | Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 11:27 pm

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Plenty more to come, but this will do for a snack tomorrow! I had to look up what I ordered from Seed Savers, and I've got Provider and Royalty Purple Pod. I had some "holes" I filled in with Kentucky Wonder, so there'll be a few of those too later.

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Tomatoes Looking Good!

Category: Pianolady's Gardens | Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 1:44 am

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I've enjoyed only two cherry tomatoes so far...but the others are setting on well. Spent the last two days weeding the garden and using my wheelbarrow to drag some water back there for the beans. Hope to pick my first beans tomorrow. Have plans to make tons of spaghetti sauce and freeze it, along with freezing whole tomatoes of course.



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Overrun with Cherries

Category: Pianolady's Gardens | Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:14 am

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My husband picked up a 12' stepladder on craigslist so he could really get up into the cherry trees. So I manned the 6' ladder, and he the 12'. 84 pounds of pitted cherries later, I had to ask him to please stop picking cherries! My Norpro cherry pitter worked like a charm once again this year. Looking forward to a winter of cherry pies, crisps, sorbets?, cherries in cooking, cherry jam....need ideas!

Last edited: Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:17 am

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