Yesterday ended up being another busy day. First thing in the morning I was on my way to Spokane Valley to drop off 400 pounds of summer squash at the co-op. Since I was only a couple miles north of the Lowe's I stopped by to pickup a pair of 2x8x8 pressure treated boards for the deck.
31 pounds of summer squash were ready to pick from the plants. It is always a surprise what I will end up with each day, even trying to guess from what I left to grow the previous day is difficult, so I just pick until I am through all the plants.
I noticed a couple of my pepper plants had fallen to the side so I went an put tomato cages around them. The peppers are all doing amazing this year, probably the best I have ever grown them, most likely due to the crazy heat. The jalapenos are kicking butt and growing nice sized.
I have one large ancho with a bunch of smaller ones on the other plants.
The bell peppers are all doing great and I am getting some that are nearly the size bought in the store! Again this is a first for me to have this many well growing pepper plants.
The tomatoes are putting off a bit better and I got 1.5 pounds picked. The tomatoes don't last long around the house as we all tend to devour them.
The cucumbers are in full swing and I picked 32 of them from the 2 rows. There was some that are wonky shaped and some smaller ones. When I was dropping off the squash at the co-op I asked about any need for cucumbers and it sounds like thee are more than they need available from other farms so I now have a glut of cucumbers to get rid of to @stryeyz coworkers and anyone else I know. It does look like I will be able to sell the 200 pounds of beans I will have, with 100 picked already I need the other half which is easily on the plants right now.
After noon I set about getting the deck shuffled so I could start the railing installation. The in-laws gave us a set of Trex railing that they never had installed and I have been sitting on for a year. The first thing was to clear the edge of the deck then to remove the fascia boards and the first two sticks of decking. This gave my dad and I enough room to install the 2x8 boards between the joists.
3 screws on each side hold each of the boards in place. We did double stack the 2x8s on 5 of the posts and one more will get a double stack. The other 4 will get single 2x8s underneath or support. We got them installed then the 2 deck boards put back.
I made a quick trip to North 40, the farm store, for bolts nuts and washers. Once I got back we started to install the posts. I got 5 1/2 inch x 3/8 bolts but had neglected to get any lag bolts which we have ended up needing. Luckily I had some in the tool shed even though they are 4 inches long.
2 bolts and 2 lag bolts have the corner post strong enough could probably lift the deck up with it.
Not long after we had the 4 pots installed on the long side of the deck. All 4 posts are super strong and I can lean against them without any movement.
The last post we installed was the one at the top of the stairs. There will be no stair rail as it would get right in the way of being able to climb the stairs from an angle. The post is super strong and will be solid enough to use to help pull the body up the stairs while climbing them. The post is likely to be the most torqued and handled being in that location.
The bolts through the support boards. The first is the corner with 2 lags and 2 bolts the other is one of the middle posts with 4 bolts.
After the deck work and once @stryeyz and the boys left for bible study I took the dog down to the creek so I could dunk in the pool and cool off. Later in the evening I remembered that I had to get grain this morning so I got the trailer hooked up and ready.
This morning I was out of the house by 5:30 and in town picking up 8 barrels of grain. I dropped off 4 empties at the other brewery before heading home. After posting this I have to go empty the barrels, pick squash then a few row of beans. This afternoon we will keep working on the deck railing and then in the evening we have cub scouts.
^Affiliate/Referral Link^
Signup With my Link and we BOTH get 25K RBN
Fleming Family Farm
FLEMING FAMILY FARM, LLC
Sustainable & Organic Methods | Heirloom Produce
All images are original works of Fleming Family Farm unless otherwise notated and credited.
If you find this post useful or entertaining, your support is greatly appreciated by upvoting, following, and sharing!
Bitcoin : 1C6idTJBJ3CJJt9kHoKi4av1XLzg8eQ7rv
#proofofshare
Gab
Time for pickles and relish and such?
Very likely. I've also been wanting to hit up the Agorist Market in Spokane. I have produce and a few other things I could take for barter, I'm just shit at bartering... I'm not a haggler.
I need to find out when the next one occurs and see if I can get that day off from library work.
Good summer project. In the house work can wait...