Tomatoes From Gotta’s Farm In Portland, CT

Friday, September 4th, 2009

I am really doubting that you remember last year’s tomato adventure. If you don’t, you can read about it by clicking the link right before this sentence. It was so much fun that we decided to do it again.

I bet this is going to become a yearly thing. Hey, that’s fine with me. I like tomatoes. I like tomato sandwiches and I like tomato sauce. As a matter of fact, I had some tomato sauce just this evening. I made it from our new tomatoes.

Anyway, yeah, so it’s September. The nights are getting chilly and some of the more exciting fruits and vegetables are ready to be picked. Laura has asked me a few times over the course of the Summer about the date we got the tomatoes last year. Since I have this handy blog, I just looked up the date of my previous tomato post. Doing that is getting much easier now that the blog is a few years old. Trying to do that the first year…umm, not so much. The second year…a little bit. The third year…now we’re getting somewhere.

Before we got in the car yesterday, I gave Gotta’s Farm down in Portland, CT a call, just to make sure that had tomatoes available. They told me that they did. They call them, “Canners.” I think that’s because some of these tomatoes are a little beat up. Some people prepare them and put them in cans or jars. I think that’s the reason. Tell me if I’m wrong. They made sure to ask me, “Canners?” I said, “Yeah” wondering what the heck they were talking about. I don’t care what type of tomatoes they are, they just get sliced up and stacked on a sandwich over here on my end.

Large ripe red tomato

Large ripe red tomato

I hooked the trailer up to the car before we left. This was a multi-purpose trip. I wanted to pick up a bunch of bales of peat moss and I needed to bring Laura to the bank. We were going to drive in a big circle. Off we went.

When we arrived at Gotta’s Farm, we pulled up along-side the building. I felt like a trucker because I was pulling a trailer. I should have had a cigar in my mouth. We parked right next to a pallet of peat moss. Who knew? I had planned on getting the peat moss from Paul’s and Sandy’s Too, but since this stuff was sitting right in front of me, I decided to buy them out. That’s right, I stacked all 17 bales of peat moss in the trailer and then went inside to check out the tomatoes.

When I got inside, I was reminded that there was more than just tomatoes that ripen this time of year. There were also peaches. Oh yeah…mmm…mmm…mmm. How I do just love peaches. We agreed that it would be a good idea to get a box of peaches as well as a box of tomatoes. Now, let me tell you that a box is like ten pounds. It ain’t no little box of peaches. It’s a big box of peaches. So many peaches, in fact, that I believe we might have to make a peach pie or two. Now, that wouldn’t be me making the peach pie, that would be Laura. She is much better at making pies. I just know how to screw them up. Plus, it’s much more fun to come inside to a nice warm peach pie after trying to spread peat moss over freshly seeded lawn than to have to make it myself, but that’s another story for another time.

Okay, so just to wrap this up. I had the first of many tomato sandwiches yesterday. It was good. I forgot to put salt and pepper on it, so it was basically just toast, mayo and big thick tomato slices. Like I said, it was good. Tomorrow’s sandwich is going to be better.

One last little thing that was pretty weird. While Laura and I stood in the farm stand yesterday, I looked at her and said, “Isn’t this strange? We stood in the exact same spot a year ago almost to the day doing the exact same thing. We’ll probably do the exact same thing next year.” Okay, that kind of took me by surprise. I am not a real fan of having year’s fly by without any huge memorable events happening (like sailing across the ocean). How many years like this can go by? I am going to have to ponder this and then write about it. I’m sure it will be very deep. And then I am going to have to do something to make these years much more memorable.

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Happy Friday

Friday, August 21st, 2009

I guess it really doesn’t matter if it’s Friday or not, we work seven days a week ’round these parts. Yeah, we should really stop that.

Well, it’s kind of hard to stop working when it’s like 100 degrees and absolutely disgusting outside. I have been intermittently venturing out daily for some small landscaping projects. Every time I come inside, I am sopping wet with sweat. I mowed the lawn this morning, which wasn’t bad. Things changed when I had to start transplanting some shrubs. The minute I put any amount of effort into anything, there it comes. When that happens, I can hardly get my shirt off. It’s so nasty.

Okay, enough about that. Where have I been? Well, last week I had a few projects going on with the websites. I am trying to get some of the larger things done while it’s still Summer. Internet traffic generally picks up come Autumn, so I want to be in a good position. There are so many factors…oh so many factors. Changes generally take a few weeks to complete because as time goes on, you start realizing and remembering all the ramifications of what you are doing. I won’t continue to bore you.

I have been considering hiring a developer to assist with some programming on my sites. I did the math and figured that it was doable. Then, I started thinking about all the BS you have to deal with when getting someone else involved and I decided that outsourcing was the best route. So now, I am actually outsourcing to the company that created the software. It’s great…these guys are awesome and they know every corner of the software that they created. It has been a pleasure. So far, they completed two projects for me and are working on the third. I probably have about two more after this.

Outside…I have been transplanting some shrubs from the hill up front to various places around the property. It’s a miserable chore in this heat, but that doesn’t stop me. I just like to get out there. I am moving them so I have more room to mow. I am also going to be reseeding the entire lawn this Autumn, so I want to get that hill done. I want to plant a few more pines and some smaller fruit trees up there too. That should look pretty good.

I keep saying that I am never going to order any more of those little pine trees from Arbor Day again. I have varying luck with what I get. Then, I go ahead and order more. If you are going to order any pine trees from Arbor Day, I will tell you to stay away from the Blue Spruces. All (or almost) of ours died. All (or almost) of the Norway Spruces lived. Hmmm…if I do ever order any more of those trees, I am going to get the Norway Spruces. If I could just find some baby pine trees locally, I would be happy. That challenge is more difficult than it sounds.

We have been trying to go for our daily walks, but it’s getting hard to do that in this heat. We have been going about every other day. We tried to walk in the morning and then the evening to see which one was better. They are about the same. Either way, you still have to take a shower afterward.

It’s supposed to thunder storm this afternoon. It’s a little breezy outside right now and I am looking forward to the rain. It’s funny, all that rain we got in the beginning of the Summer is a distant memory. Now, the grass is crusty and the dirt is like concrete.

So anyway, happy Friday and I’ll leave you with this. Do you agree with me when I tell you some people just deserve to be smacked?

Blank

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The Rest Of The Summer

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

Laura and I are watching Lost over again. During the first go-round, either I missed a few episodes or she did. Neither of us had the complete picture of what happened during season 1, 2 or 3. Let’s face it…things really didn’t start getting hot until maybe season 3 or 4.

Anyway, we are all finished with watching seasons 1 and 2 and are now a few episodes deep into season 3. We are at the point of where Jack, Kate and Sawyer are trapped by the Others and John just saved Mr. Echo. Really, this has nothing to do with this post.

Okay, you know how when you watch a DVD and are at the main menu, there is this bit of theme music that keeps going round and round? It’s the screen where you choose which episode you want to watch. Well, On this DVD, the background picture for that screen is where Jack, Kate and Sawyer are kneeling on the dock in front of the water. There’s a mountain in the background. It’s right after they got captured. The picture of the water got me thinking.

I started thinking about how cool it would be to live in Old Saybrook, CT. Old Saybrook is located right at the mouth of the Connecticut River and the Long Island Sound. It’s on our list of places to get to this Summer. They even have one of those neighborhoods where everyone drives around in golf carts. That’s pretty much what I want to do. They have beaches down there in Old Saybrook and there’s a lot of really cool stuff. So there I was, looking at this picture of kind of what Old Saybrook looks like.

I turned to Laura and said, “Hey Pumpkin heart, I want to do two more things before Summer is over. I want to go on that boat ride down in Essex (next week) and I want to go to Block Island to ride a scooter around the entire island.” She liked those ideas and even threw in camping. I told her that I was up for camping in December, when all the bugs are gone. I think we agreed on maybe September or October for that. I want to get one of those big hoodie sweatshirts so I can wear it in front of a campfire while smoking a cigar.

So that was my idea and that’s why I am writing this, just to let you know. Well, I had two things but now with the Old Saybrook trip, that makes three. Over and out.

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Scotts Kentucky Bluegrass Mix Grass Seed

Friday, July 31st, 2009

I am eagerly awaiting September 1, so I can overseed the lawn. I know I have mentioned this on more than one occasion, but I guess I’m just excited.

I went over to the Depot today to look for a new lawn spreader. Actually, I went to Sears first. No luck at either place. They are all plastic garbage. I already have one of those green seed / fertilizer spreaders, but the reach isn’t as far as I would like it to be. I have been considering a tow behind spreader, but all the reviews I have read practically everywhere tell me they are junk too. Apparently, the little doo-hicky that opens and closes the area that the seed comes out of is made of plastic and doesn’t do its job very well. I am looking for a nice quality spreader, so if anyone has any advice, I’m listening. I am also willing to give up my current spreader after I get a new one, so you just stay tuned.

While I was at Home Depot, I thought I would stock up on some grass seed for my upcoming overseeding event. I did all my research and decided upon Kentucky Bluegrass. This type of grass spreads and fills in bare spots and thin grass, so that’s what we need. Also, it has that nice dark green color that everyone loves so much.

It’s amazing, I created a few bare spots in the lawn early on in the Spring and they haven’t filled in yet. I guess the current grass doesn’t spread on its own at all. I really like the spreading quality of some grass, so that’s what I had my heart set on.

I opened one of the bags this afternoon because I couldn’t wait anymore. I was surprised to see such tiny little grass seed. This is the stuff with that “water technology” something or other. My goal was to sprinkle a little on some bare spots that are close to the garage. I want to see if anything happens before I go all out and do the whole lawn.

I roughed up the bare spots with a pitch fork and put a really small amount on each area. Then, I roughed each spot up again. I’ll give it a few weeks and report back what happens. From what I have been reading, it takes a good long time for this grass seed to germinate. With the cooler Summer and all the rain we have been having, I’m not concerned with the Summer heat doing a number on this seed. Also, the reason I only put a small amount of seed on each spot is because this seed was crazy expensive. I am going to use it very sparingly so it will cover the entire lawn.

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Salmon River – Connecticut State Forest

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

The other day was kind of rough. I spent a good amount of time on the internet getting phone numbers for “Pick Your Own” farms around the state and calling them. I was disappointed because so many of them didn’t have anything to pick. Many of the crops are running late because of the lousy weather we had in June. The local farms around here are booming, but the ones up North aren’t on schedule.

Since we wanted to just get out there, we decided to hop in the car for a cruise around some roads we have never been on. I had an idea, so off we went.

For the past year, I have been driving by a sign that says something like, “Connecticut Wine Tour” and never gave it much thought. I figured that since this sign would probably bring us somewhere neat, we would follow it.

Okay, so we jumped in the car and started driving. It was more of a sight seeing tour than anything else. We first passed the Easter Seals at Camp Hemlocks and did a quick drive through. Camp Hemlocks is “…the place where people of all ages with various disabilities, realize their dreams and strive to reach their highest potential.” It’s a pretty neat place. I liked the fact that they have a small lake that people can canoe and kayak on. We just drove through and left.

Onward and upward. Next, we came across the winery that I guess those wine tour signs were talking about. It’s called, “Priam Vineyard.” We drove up the driveway to find some growing grapes and a nice wine tasting building. I really wanted to go in, but didn’t have any cash on me. I looked at Laura and told her that we will put this one on the list to come back to…perhaps on the weekend. Oh, the disappointment. We drove back down the driveway and left.

We made a right out of the road and drove for only a mile or so and saw a sign for “Day Pond State Park in Colchester.” We decided to pull in the entrance to do a quick drive through. I have actually seen this park’s description a few times while looking for various state parks last Summer. I kind of always passed it by because I thought they just had a pond and that’s it. Honestly, I didn’t do too much digging into its writeup. Well, the park has more than a pond. There are some hiking trails as well. I wouldn’t say the trail system is more extensive than Gay City State Park, but they go for quite a distance. Of course, I may be wrong because I only gave the trail map a quick glance. Are you seeing a trend here?

We stopped the car and walked around for a few minutes and decided to continue on with our driving tour. I did have a lot of fun driving on the dirt road with the car. I am always trying to see how it handles in different environments.

After that, we pretty much thought the major sights were covered. We were driving down the road, heading back to where we came from when I saw a sign for “Salmon River – Connecticut State Forest.” Now, this was interesting. I was curious what the difference between and state park and a state forest was, so we pulled in. As far as I can tell, there isn’t much of a difference. We saw parking areas, picnic tables, walking trails…all the usual stuff.

Since I wanted to go for a walk and actually achieve something for the day, we found a parking spot and hopped out of the car. We walked towards the river and that is where the picture taking began.

There is a pretty neat trail that takes you down the river quite a bit. Along the way, we saw burned out camp fires, so there may be camping at this place, although we didn’t see any signs for camping. The sign out front also said the park, or “forest” closed at dusk. Hmmm. We walked a pretty good distance and then turned back.

Upon returning to the house, I did a little research on Google Earth to discover that this Salmon River runs all the way down to the Connecticut River. I think it would be pretty cool to tube down it. Getting back up would be an issue though.

Okay, let’s see some photos.

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Hampton HI300 Wood Insert

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

This is terrible, just terrible. I think I have found myself walking down a very bad path.

Okay, so I already told you that I am taking some trees down in the woods next to the house. This is a good thing and it’s really starting to look nice over there. I actually took two more trees down today. I don’t like to do too many at a time because I would rather get used to the small changes I make and think about what I am doing before I go ahead and take down some more. Either way, I am building up next year’s supply of firewood.

This is where the problem starts. I still have about a cord of wood from the trees I cut down last summer. It’s is seasoning quite nicely and will make for some splendid firewood come this winter.

Now, I am almost positive that I have complained about the miserable (in)efficiency of a regular fireplace. We have one here and it does a really great job of sucking up what ever heat you already have in the house, out the chimney. Sure, the living room is warm, but you have to wear a snow suit in all the other rooms. Really, I don’t even use it much…just on those chilly spring or autumn evening when the pellet stove isn’t running.

So here I am, sitting on a cord of seasoned firewood and building up next year’s supply. What to do?

I am very happy with the pellet stove we got last year. It kicks butt when it comes to heating up about 3/4 of the house. To get that much heat, I need to keep it humming all winter. Last winter, I used four tons of pellets. I wouldn’t mind having a heat supplement helping out the pellet stove.

I am going to make a long whiny story short here. I really want a Hampton HI300 Wood Insert for the fireplace in the living room. Take a look at it:

http://www.hampton-fire.com/Wood/Inserts/HI300/index.php

It’s really nice, isn’t it?

I called the fellas down at the fireplace store today and told them what I wanted. He wrote up a quote and faxed it over to me. The thing is, it’s pricey. I know I’m not going to save any money by getting this little toy, so I’m iffy about the whole thing. To make matters worse, there is a tax credit that’s available called the “The U.S. Biomass Tax Credit.” It gives you back 30% of your purchase and installation price, up to $1500. That is just driving me crazy. You can learn about the tax credit here.

I know I am going to find myself in the car tomorrow or the next day driving down to the fireplace store. It’s bad, but I just want to feel that heat cranking out of that stove this winter. It even has a blower.

I’ll let you know what happens.

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Spring Time In The Northeast

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

This is just another one of my documentation posts. I thought it would be nice to show the status of flowers budding as well as the grass and how far the leaves on the trees have come.

One thing to note is that we primarily have Oak trees on this road. I have been doing a lot of driving around and have noticed that everywhere else seemingly has more leaves on their trees. It looks pretty much like Summer there. Then, I get back here and it looks like early Spring. Oak trees bloom late, that’s all there is to it.

The grass is coming along nicely. It’s very green and the bald patches are filling in. I already mowed it twice. There is one thing I would like to mention…I have been using the rear bagger when I mow the lawn. I have read all over the place that it’s good to spray the grass clippings back onto the lawn. It probably is, but with my experience, and especially when the existing grass (and crabgrass) is seeding, it’s better to catch the clippings. I don’t want to spread crabgrass seeds back on the lawn. That would pretty much defeat the purpose of what I am trying to do here. I told a friend the other day, “Just take a look at what the good lawn services do and copy that.” Seems logical enough.

Here are some photos from a cloudy, muggy Spring day.

Yesterday, I received my notification call from Scotts Lawn service out of Hartford. They said they will be here within two business days. I gave a quick call back just to see what they will be doing. They told me that they will be spraying the lawn for weeds and putting down fertilizer / crabgrass pre-emergent. Sounds like just what we need.

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Are Lawn Weeds Annuals Or Perennials?

Sunday, April 26th, 2009

It appears they are both.

If you haven’t noticed, lawn weeds are starting to hit hard. It’s been hot for the past few days and this is prime season for all those ugly critters to take hold in your lawn. I actually just went out yesterday to get a few bottles of Ortho Weed-B-Gone, along with the hand sprayer that hooks up to a garden hose. I sprayed the front yard today and am going to wait to see what that looks like. I’ll let you know.

Since I had the guys at Scotts Lawn Service put down some pre-emergent herbicide, I am sitting here wondering why the lawn is starting to have weeds grow in it. There are some spots with crabgrass, but other weeds are growing as well. The whole thing got me thinking about which lawn weeds are annuals and which ones are perennials.

I found a nice description of the most common lawn weeds over at this website. I’ll put the weeds in a list for you:

Perennial Lawn Weeds

- Dandelion
- Ground ivy
- Clover
- Plantain
- Nutsedge

Annual Lawn Weeds

- Crabgrass
- Annual bluegrass
- Knotweed

I think we pretty much have all of these weeds, so my work is cut out for me.

I know that a lot hinges on how nice and full lawn grass grows. We have a few bare spots that need reseeding, but I can’t do that until Autumn. I am getting a little impatient, but seeding now (with the pre-emergent still active) is a waste of time. Also, seeding in the Summer doesn’t really work out too well. Come September, I am going to de-thatch and aerate the heck out of this place and reseed the whole thing.

Little by little. That’s what they say about lawns and lawn care…little by little and you’ll win the battle.

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Green Velvet Boxwood

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

There are two lessons I have learned about shrubs that I would like to share with you.

1. Only plant Boxwood.
2. Only plant in the spring.

There you have it. Now, let me tell you what the heck I am talking about.

I know I have probably said this before and have trouble following my own advice, but I really mean it this time. I am only going to plant Boxwood from now on. No matter how “deer resistant” you think a shrub is, it probably isn’t. Everybody says that Holly is deer resistant. Guess what? It isn’t. Deer like to nibble on the ends of the branches. It drives me up a wall. I had to go out today to pick up some of that deer netting to put over the Holly bushes. As far as I know, Boxwood is the only shrub that’s deer resistant (well, besides Juniper), and I am going on personal experience here. I have never had a deer nibble on any boxwood shrub I have ever planted. Everything else…yeah.

The next lesson has to do with when to plant your shrubs. I have planted in both spring and fall, but spring planting works out much better, in my opinion. See, if you plant in the spring, the plant has time to grow and mature its sensitive little twigs that were over-fertilized by the nursery. All that new growth has time during the growing season to harden up. If you plant in the autumn, all that new growth dies. Period. It just does. Those nights in mid-January that offer us those wonderfully chilly sub-zero temperatures do a wonder on new shrubs. I have about six Boxwood shrubs sitting outside in the dirt right now with dead top halves. It’s pretty funny to look at. Top half brown, bottom half green. The good thing is that I expect these plants to take off this year and will most likely grown right through the dead areas.

Okay, since Home Depot had Boxwood shrubs in stock and it’s spring, I decided to grab a few today. Actually, I grabbed eight of them. I am going to plant three of them in that new mulch area next to the driveway and five of them in a row almost under the porch in the back yard. They are going to look really cool when they grow larger.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the Green Velvet Boxwood is “a hybrid of Korean Boxwood (for hardiness and compactness) and Common Boxwood (for excellent leaf color in both summer and winter).” You can read the rest of the description here.

Here is what I bought today.

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How To Get Rid Of Crabgrass

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

I think the first thing you need to do is to recognize that your lawn has crabgrass growing in it.

Sometimes, crabgrass isn’t all that obvious. Actually, if your lawn looks great during the hot summer months but not in the spring or fall, you might have a crabgrass problem. This type of weed loves the heat. While many types of cooler grasses go dormant and turn brown during July and August, crabgrass is thriving. It makes the guy who takes care of the lawn proud…until October rolls around.

The first tell-tale sign that your lawn has crabgrass is the noticing of big brown areas come autumn. While the rest of the real grass is growing nicely, the crabgrass is dying off. The only problem is that crabgrass is an annual plant. Later on in the season, the weed produces seeds that we unknowingly mow into and spread around our regular grass. That lays the foundation for problems the next year, and the next year…you get the picture.

So, what do you do? Well, you can either get on your hands and knees and pluck out every single crabgrass weed you find all season long. That would probably do it. Or, you can apply what they call a “Pre-emergent grassy and broadleaf weed control.” This the probably the preferred route to travel down. You can buy the stuff yourself or call a service to come to your house and apply it for you.

The weed control is pretty nifty stuff. It rests on the soil of your lawn as small pellets and dissolves as it’s watered in. Somehow (and don’t ask me how), this weed control stops the weed seeds from germinating. Stopping the weeds from growing in the first place sounds a heck of a lot better than pulling them out after the fact.

It’s funny – while walking around, I like looking at the different levels of lawn care in different neighborhoods. You can actually see distinct property lines of those who take care of their lawns vs. those who don’t. One lawn is green, while the lawn right next to it is brown and full of weeds. By weeds, I mean big brown areas caused by crabgrass.

My friends at Scotts Lawn in Hartford stopped by today to give the grass its first application of “Early spring and spring fertilization” which adds nutrients to improve lawn color and strengthens the root system of the grass. They also put down some “Pre-emergent grassy and broadleaf weed control” which controls weed problems, such as crabgrass and other annual grasses later in the year. Okay, obviously I got those descriptions from the card they left with me.

I was really happy to see the guy stop by today, because I was getting nervous that the crabgrass seeds would start germinating. I always worry about things like this. Add that to my worry list.

The fella who stopped by today was very nice. We talked for a bit about none other than grass and its care. Believe it or not, it’s one of my favorite topics. Well, I’ll talk about anything that has to do with lawn care or landscaping. They are both interesting. We both agreed that there were some areas that had a little crabgrass problem, but nothing that couldn’t be taken care of.

I told the tech that I think the lawn is already showing nice signs of improvement from what they put down last autumn. Of what grass has already started growing, it’s really green and soft. I just hope we can keep this trend going and get the whole lawn nice and green by autumn.

I thought I would show you some pictures of the fertilizer/weed control they put down as well as some areas that have been affected by crabgrass. Enjoy, because you won’t see these problem areas for long.

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