I didn't take any pixs of tilling up the soil with my antiquated Troy Bilt tiller adding wood shaving from my woodworking shop dust collection system, crushed egg shells and of course a heavy application of 10-10-10 fertilizer.

The tomato plants are growing real well.  I had a deer eat the top out of one small plant, but it has put out again and can be seen in the foreground left in the tomato patch.  I planted (13) thirteen one gallon size plants and the balance were much smaller.  Most of the plants were Celebrity, a few pink Brandywine, a couple grape aka cherry tomato plants and a few more varieties.

TOMATOES COMING ALONG

About all of the plants have blooms and five or six have small tomatoes on them.

My bride aka Joyce and myself are anxiously waiting for those tomatoes aka "maters" to ripen and have our first Club sandwich of the season along with a BLT and regular tomato and Duke's mayonnaise sandwich!  There is nothing as tasty as a good ole home grown tomato.

TOMATO PATCH UPDATE 05-16-2024

The past week or two, we have a good amount of rain of which I call, "nutrients from the sky" and the tomatoes are really growing for sure.

As soon as the ground dries enough, I will have to get out the garden hoe and do some hoeing, well maybe pun intended, grin if you must!

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 05-16-2024.

FIRST TOMATO HARVESTED

Below pix of a Pink Brandywine tomato harvested today (05-24-2024) destined to be a BLT sandwich tomorrow.

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 05-24-2024.

TOMATO PATCH 06-28-2024

As evidenced by the above pixs, our tomato plants are producing very well and we have certainly enjoyed using them.

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 06-30-2024.

MORE TOMATOES

I have given away six (6) grocery bags of tomatoes, probably 25 tomatoes in each bag and the plants are producing very well as of this date: 07-05-2024.

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 07-05-2024.

NOTE:  I cut down the tomato plants at ground level and went over the area with the lawn tractor.  Around first of the year, our Lord willing of course, I will broadcast fertilizer and let it set and get rained on and will then till the tomato patch up.  This has been a good year for us having plenty of tomatoes.

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 08-24-2024.

YARD SWING ANNUAL MAINTENANCE

I finally got around today (04-27-2024) to apply a coat of TWP Redwood stain to our hanging porch swing aka yard swing circa. 2013, of which has held up extremely well in the elements.  I normally bring the swing inside my basement woodworking shop during the winter months and let it fully dry out and acclimate to the basement humidity.  I wipe the swing down with mineral spirits and brush any loose stain/paint.  Several years ago, I applied a marine varnish stain which wasn't that compatible with earlier finishes that I applied to the swing, my bad! 

This year, I used a foam brush to apply the stain instead of spraying it on and it worked out extremely well.

PAINTED SOUTH END OF GABEL

I applied another coat of paint with roller and brush to the south end of our home on 07-02-2024.  I did not take any pixs and below is an archived pix from last year.  I used a much longer paint roller handle and didn't move the ladders as often.

Web page created by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 04-27-2024 and updates as annotated.

HOT WATER HEATER REPLACED

Our twenty (20) year old hot water heater started leaking and replaced it on 07-18-2024.

Below hot water heater installed.  The hot water side did not align up perfect, but close enough.

I originally used Shark Bite stainless steel flexible hoses, but replaced them with PEX since there were lawsuits against Home Depot and Reliance Worldwide for said hoses failing.

STAINED WHEELCHAIR RAMP

It took about 5 hours to stain the above wheelchair ramp.  I used a small roller and brush for the upright pickets and a larger 9 inch roller for the deck portion.  I believe it took 1.5 gallons of oil based stain.  The wheelchair ramp was stained on 08-16-2024.

STAINED DECK

It took approximately 2 hours to stain the deck using a CATechnologies Lynx 300H HVLP spray gun and a 2.5 gallon pressurized tank.  I used about 3 gallons of stain.  It took around 1 hour to clean said equipment.

I have a few more projects to get done; e.g., spray weed killer, spray carpenter bee and termite killer, clean out the gutters and when cold weather gets here will place covers over the two roof turbines.  There seems to be something to do around a home all the time.

Several of the smaller projects, I did not add to this page, but gave the camera some time off and myself as well, grin if you must!

USED THE SPRAYER - 08-23-2024

I used the above sprayer to apply Roundup as needed and went around the perimeter of our home and sprayed carpenter bee and termite killer. 

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 08-24-2024.

SERVICED FURNACE

Our local temperature this morning was around 41 degrees F. and our home temperature had dropped to around 64 degrees +- and time to switch from cooling to heat.  Our system is what is referred to as a split system and you manually switch from heat to cool at the thermostat.

I switched to heat and the furnace fired up with no problem and let to run to get the home temperature to about 72 degrees or above.

Later in the afternoon, I oiled the furnace motor and oiled the squirrel cage type blower unit which has bronze bushings and changed the air filters which are three.  I did a complete service on the unit last heating season changing the nozzle, cleaning and resetting the ignition probes, oiled the burner drive motor, oiled the blower bushings and changed the fuel in-line filter from the oil supply tanks, therefore didn't need to do a complete service as stated above. 

I didn't post any pixs here, but there are archived pixs at my furnace maintenance page which details what I did.

Around next month, our Lord willing of course, I will place covers over the roof turbines to preserve heat during the winter months.  I am still waiting on a sheave flat pulley for the John Deere X300 lawn tractor that went bad last week and will replace said pulley when the replacement arrives.  Seems like there is something to do all the time, grin if you must!

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 10-11-2024.

LEAVING ON A SPIRITUAL NOTE

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, please take this moment to accept him by Faith into your Life, whereby Salvation will be attained.   

Ephesians 2:8 - 2:9 8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Open this link about faith in the King James Bible.