06-02-2025 — Caged like a vegetable

Howdy all. Nice day outside, if a bit hazy. Apparently the wild fires in Canada are blowing in through the higher atmosphere the last couple of days. At least when it is up there, I can breathe down here. They are calling the Air Quality fair to moderate right now. Once it gets solidly in the moderate range, I start wondering where the oxygen went.

Oh, the temperatures have been in the 60s, even upper 60s, from 9-10 this morning until now at 3 pm. And winds are moving, but not trying to freeze me to the indoors. So, what have I done with the good weather?

Yesterday I watered and weeded all vegetable garden beds out back. And watered flowering plants too. And then I spread granular bug killer everywhere. I was shocked how many ant hills were in the front yard ditch by the road. Hundreds, easily. It looked like what the entire yard looked like when I moved in back in March 2020. It took a couple years to get the bugs under control. I guess I need to get back at it. I also did a couple other small items yesterday like filling the bird bath, after a good scrubbing. Hey, they deserve clean water too.

Today I continued the bug assault. Used a whole container of the death juice concentrate that hooks up to the hose. Covered the back yard, being sure to not hit vegetable beds, and sprayed the trees and bushes I could reach of my neighbors that were holding the billions of midges (Canadian soldiers). Yes, they are back, and in major abundance. These are the small ones I showed a week or two ago. They hatch when the lake is in the mid 50s and then swarm. The news / weather reports around here, love to show how the swarms are so big and voluminous, that they show up on radar as they come ashore.

Also, I did some gardening. I added 3-4 foot cages around the pepper and tomato plants that normally try to grow wide and out of the raised beds and make a mess. I’m hoping I can force those mini fruited tomato plants to grow tall, not wide. We will see.

These are two tomato plants in the back beds. The two unopened cages will go around some melon plants that aren’t there yet. The little melon plant I was given has totally disappeared. I’m guessing a bunny rabbit has a full tummy now..

These are the cherry tomato plants that like to take over the world. They are now dual contained now with the cages and then the fencing. Notice the onions. Onions are a good companion plant for tomatoes because they chase some of the tomato pests away. I had to remove some onions today because they were in the way of the cages.

Hopefully the pepper plants will recover more from the 30s last week and will fill their cages by August.

And now, a commercial break. Sort of. About a week ago I was watching a YouTube video on 3D printing and the “influencer” mentioned, and used, an adjustable pair of pliers and said it was the best tool he had ever bought. Being a good sheep, I immediately went to Amazon, and after looking at them, knew it was what I had needed a couple months ago when I was trying to put the tables together in the laser and 3D printer rooms. Hey, and the thing was “on sale” for 30% off. I bought them.

They look much bigger in the picture. All of 4 inches long. But, they seem to have a good grip.

I decided I also wanted a slightly larger pair. I knew I had 6 inch pliers that didn’t work for me, but did not have a set at 5 inches. So I bought them and they showed up yesterday.

When I received them, I was certain I made a mistake. I’ll never use them, or so I thought.

I put them in my pocket, and was meaning to put them in the 3D printer room when I went to bed last evening. I, of course, forgot all about them. So today when I was trying to unfold the pepper cages, the metal hinges had wrapped around each other and they would not unfold. I was about to go find a bunch of tools, and remembered that I had forgotten to take these little pliers out of my pocket. Yep, they were there. And, wouldn’t you know, they were perfect for fitting in between the wire cages and grabbing the hinges and bending them around and free. Seriously, perfect size and gave my weak hands just enough leverage to do what was needed.
Now, that would be enough to change my mind and make me happy with my impulse buying decision. But, later, when I wanted to remove the hose nozzle from the hose, so I could attach the bug killer sprayer, the connection was super tight. Could not make it budge. Certain these little pliers could not open up wide enough to get around the 1 inch nut, I almost didn’t try. But, yes, they can. And once again, having these in my pocket, almost unnoticeable, saved me chasing after a tool box. I also used them to tighten the other end of the hose to the faucet connection. It had been leaking every time I turned it on since I hooked it up last month.

So, you MUST buy a pair now — https://amzn.to/43snzbT If you use this link, I may get a few pennies from Amazon, but your cost does not change. I say I may get pennies, but Amazon has decided in the past that every person using my links must be a relative or a friend, so they don’t have to pay up. Duh, who do they think is going to read my blogs? Not like a bunch of strangers in Utah are going to decide they must know the thoughts and doings of an old man in Ohio.

Hey, waste not. Or should that be waist? Anyway, those onions that I pulled will be chopped up and flavor my omelette tomorrow morning.

I hope to do some more things outside tomorrow. But for now, I will just be glad that today I could Enjoy Life.