Planting More Morning Glory Seeds

— Posted inGardening — 2 min read

We’ve had a wonderful bloom this year from our volunteer morning glory plant. Unfortunately the plant is nearing the end of its life cycle, though it is still displaying a handful of blooms everyday. The little seeds have an extremely hard shell, so the best way to ensure the seeds germinate is to soak them in water till they begin to germinate. Today was the day that little miracle of life occurred.

My job in all this was to construct the seed bed near the back fence. Our soil is rock hard clay which some times grows things and sometimes doesn’t. It was a matter of removing half of the clay, pulverizing the other half and mixing it with potting soil and and sandy soil. Before placing it back in the hole I made a bottomless “container” out of bricks.

In the ground go the seeds.

A thin shade cloth cover will give them a good start when they are up and growing.

The old morning glory has definitely seen better days. The new bed is about 10 feet to the right of this one.

Just to prove that was not a posed photo of her planting the seeds, here is the video i took immediately after taking the photo.

Tomato and Pepper Seedlings Under Grow Lights

— Posted inGardening — 1 min read

It’s fall garden time and our tomato and pepper plants are busy growing under the grow lights. The get a very weak solution of Miracle-Gro as their daily watering. There is also a small fan set on low blowing on them. The grow lights are controlled by an automatic timer and are on for 15 hours a day. They are darker green than they appear because of the red cast from the grow lights.

They are very sturdy due to the gentle breeze from the fan.

The Start – Turning Juice into Wine

— Posted inFood — 1 min read

The 6 gallon fermenting buckets, having been washed and sanitized, await the addition of the bentonite clay, juice and water.

The new juice kit with yeast added on top. These Island Mist kits include a flavor pac and while the instructions say to add the pac after the fermentation is completed, I always add about half of the pac to the primary fermentation. She who drinks these wines likes them much better that way. The great thing about making your own wines is they can be made to suit the taste of the person who is going to drink that wine.

The juice of the older kit (bought in the spring of 2021) is much darker than the new kit. The yeast packet included with this old kit was past it’s use by date, so I used a new yeast packet along with a dose of yeast energizer. In four weeks we will have the answer as to how the two kits compare.

Back to Making Wine and Back to Posting

— Posted inFood, Other — 1 min read

Back posting after a 9 month hiatus that included a 128 day cruise around the world. My wife, running low on her favorite wine I make for her, smiled when she mentioned that to me. After all these decades of being married to her I know a hint when she gives me one. Until tomorrow….