New Years Bonfire......

We removed an oak tree last week and now are burning out the stump.....
The hard part was getting the chain saw to work after a 2 year rest....but it did just fine...
It has been great fire weather this week.....cool and calm....
Weiners and marshmellow gallore...
A good way to end the year....
Happy fires to everyone and my you have a great 2012.

Plantdaddy's Pancake Tip.....

Don't mix up the corn starch and the baking powder...read the label first...

What you get is below....a nice cup mat...
Not good.....even the ants wouldn't eat it...
Batch #2 were perfect apple cinnamon pancakes...
They are all gone...

Z-shop Trick: Color Coded Rachets and Wrenches.........

Working on restoring 240z cars has been great fun and very educational.
But it was often frustrating to find the proper ratchet or wrench size.
Fortunately these cars have bolts that mostly come in 4 sizes (10, 12, 14 and 17 mm).
So we painted our wrech sets where yellow = 10 mm, orange = 12 mm, blue = 14 mm and green = 17 mm. It makes finding the proper ratchet or wrench quick and easy.
After 3 years the sets lost most of their paint so I refreshed them this week (below).The color red was added to our selection this year and that = one half inch. That is an American size so I painted it red like in red white and blue. I just used it on our chain saw. I always thought this was a great idea and we should have patented it. Now I am starting to see colored sets in a few stores. Oh well, too late smart again.

Rare Evening Post.....Happy Gardening Days.

After killing the garden in September with contaminated sprayer we are back.
All new plants and no spraying.
It was 86 degrees today.
I am eating radishes and carrots out of the ground and 3 kinds of peppers off the bush.
The load of fruit on our grape tomato selections are turning orange.
Herbs are the new fetish this year and we have about 15 different ones that we are learning about. The garden and greenhouses smell really nice.
So, here it is nearly Xmas and the loquats are in full flower (below) and already have fruit up to an inch long.
The oranges are tasting good as are strawberries.
Those are the highlights for now. Cauliflower next week if it ever cools down.

Adenium....Pain Filled Research....

My student had grown a beautiful crop of 100 plants of Adenuim cv. Red...(photo below)...
They were in full flower and beautiful...many with over 100 open blooms each...
But for the sake of science we had to cut them off and separate into piles of leaves, flowers and stems....(below)...this was very painful to do both emotionally and physically......it took 3 days to complete.......
These piles were weighed and then placed into bags for drying and a second weighing....

Soon we will know about top, leaf, shoot and root weight ratios, and how this is affected by pot size and nutrition....no matter what it was hard to cut up these beautiful plants.
Below are the samples in bags ready for the oven....It has been a very busy week.......

To make up for this sacrifice for science we have another crop coming....Adenium cannot be stopped.....

Flash Z-Car Mob............

Out of nowhere the Z boys showed up yesterday...
So we played in the nice warm weather......
All of a sudden cars were all over the yard....
Next thing we deicided to shoot some photos....
It was a Z-Car Flash Mob.......


So below are all of the 6 Z cars we have worked on for the past decade plus.....

...and now I know why my back hurts today..........pushing those things.........

Toasted Truck.....Chapter 2..........

So after a wonderful chicken dinner break we went back to check on progress......
The friendly local sheriff deputy was there and said hi and that the tow truck was on its way.....
After an hour it arrived and it did so in grand style......with Xmas lights.........it was getting dark now.

It took them awhile to hook their hoist up to the still hot truck axils.......it was even darker....the Xmas lights were really getting showy and cool to look at........we wanted to buy the truck just for the lights...........

btw...... Very nice group of tow truck people..........they had been in a parade yesterday and had not removed the lights......we thought the extra lights were great for safety on this country road.........

As you can tell by the darkness they had a little trouble finally getting hooked up.......But they finally did and went away safely...

Sunday Happenings.....Truck Toast.....

Around 4:00 pm I was watering a tree in the yard and heard a little commotion out by the highway.....
Gee there was a truck on fire......gee that is our fence and trees on the left.........
Gee Mosaic Mom's chicken dinner was just ready to eat......well that had to wait.......
Along came the fire truck to save our trees (the truck was toast).....
That is the poor driver below........he had just bought the truck last week and was going get a load of material to take to Sarasota.
He was so sad and we felt really bad for him. What are you going to do I asked.....'start over, I can't quit now' he said....

One good thing was that the newly filled 30 gallon diesel tank did not explode......

Then the sun started to set and things got really interesting...........stay tuned.....film tomorrow......

Contrasts in the Greenhouse.....

This adenium hybrid has been in full bloom for months now.......photo today.......
Hard to be to cranky when this plant is there to greet you each morning....
Now right next to the blooming fanatic are some relatives that have been put to bed for the next few months.
They are not as pretty now but will be come next May....and that is why I love these plants....

Something is not right here......

Thought I might have found a new colored pothos vine............until it moved........"Oh brother" said Mr. Snake....."here comes the crazy man with the broom again".......

Some days none of us can win...........