Autumn Catch Up. And a Rant or Two. And a Sad Ending.

These really turned out nice.

Here at grouchyfarmer.com’s palatial headquarters the gardening season has pretty much been wrapped up. All the gardens have been cleaned up, we’ve done some minor maintenance work around the outside. The last crop of the season, the brussels sprouts, have been harvested. The chest freezer is full right up to the top with tomatoes, squash, green and wax beans, beats, carrots, a variety of peppers, etc. MrsGF blanched and froze the sprouts yesterday. The shelves down in the basement are full of jars of tomato sauces of various types along with pickled beans and pickled beets.

We probably have enough vegetables canned or frozen to last us through the whole winter without having to buy anything from the grocery store, which not only helps the budget but gives one an enormous feeling of satisfaction.

There were no real surprises out in the gardens this year. Some things did better than we thought, some did worse.

It was a rough year overall for gardening because of the drought. We had to resort to watering the vegetable gardens just about every single day. We have 2, 30 gallon barrels and a 50 gallon barrel connected to diverters on the rain gutter system on the house and garage so we normally have rain water to carry us through a short dry spell. But this year the barrels were empty for most of the summer. I’m actually surprised that we didn’t lose a lot of plants this year because of the heat and drought.

The biggest disappointment was the tomatoes. They were a yellow variety called something like Amish Yellow Slicers or something like that. They tasted very good indeed but production was woeful. Small fruits, extremely tough skins, and around the end of August the fruit stopped growing, and even stopped ripening entirely even though the plants themselves looked healthy.

Carrots were another disappointment. We tried something different, carrot seeds that had been “pelletized” so to speak. Carrot seeds are extremely tiny. It’s impossible to just plant a single seed without resorting to using a tweezers and a magnifying glass. So usually there’s an enormous amount of waste because clumps of carrots have to be thinned out. With this pelletized stuff each seed in encapsulated in some kind of biodegradable stuff, about the size of a small pea. And it would have been a nice idea. If it had worked. It didn’t. Almost none of the pelletized seeds came up.

Onions were good flavor but smaller than normal. We expected that though because of the harsh conditions over the summer.

Every year we like to try growing something new that we’ve never tried before. This year it was the brussel sprouts in the lead photo. They are one very strange looking plant. They developed a massive stalk as big around almost as my arm, and about 4 feet tall. And the sprouts themselves just sort of pop out of nowhere wherever a leaf stem attaches to the stalk.

The research MrsGF did on them before we planted them was that it was best to wait until after the first frost to harvest them, so that’s what we did.

Certainly they tasted good, much, much better than the commercial ones we’ve been buying frozen. The commercial ones sometimes have a rather bitter, even nasty flavor, to be honest. These though were amazing. No bitterness at all, very mild flavor.

Still I’m not sure they’re worth growing. We like them but we don’t like them that much, if you know what I mean. And since they’re basically a mutant cabbage of some sort, they are subject to the same problems cabbage has, including some nasty insects you have to watch out for.

Electric/Solar Stuff

On the solar power front… Ah, well, this is Wisconsin, isn’t it? That means we get days, even weeks where we may never actually see the sun. We’ve been going through one of those periods of cloudy weather and it is very irritating. I think we’ve had clear skies perhaps one day out of the last fourteen. Grrr…

I really, really need more solar panels. But with the roof scheduled to be replaced in the next year or two it doesn’t make sense to put 20 solar panels on the roof only to have to take the down just one year later to replace the roof and then have to mount them all again. So the lack of PV means I can’t switch the house off grid as often as I’d like as well. Oh, well. I knew that before I went into this and we decided to do it anyway so all we can do is live with it until we get the roof done and can then permanently mount enough solar up on the roof to adequately feed the system. Until then we’re limited.

Otherwise the solar system has been working just fine when we’ve been able to use it. Haven’t had any issues with it at all. Plus it’s reassuring that we don’t have to panic about keeping the sump pumps, furnace, freezer and fridge running during a power failure. Even without solar, as long as the batteries are full we have enough stored power we have enough power to keep the house running for a long time without having to resort to trying to start the Generac backup generator. Trying to start that thing in cold weather is royal pain in the neck.

And let’s throw in a Christmas cactus just for the heck of it.

MrsGF’s Christmas cactus always blooms right around Thanksgiving, and it’s right on schedule this year. I noticed the other day that it was just starting to form flower buds. In a week or so it’s going to be covered with flowers.

Antenna

The HGR-QRO PreciseRF antenna continues to work amazingly well. I’ve always liked magloop antennas. They have serious drawbacks, are fiddly to get tuned, etc but damn they work well when everything is set up right. Especially for their size. I already had a MLA that I used for portable operations that I liked very much, it couldn’t handle more than a few watts of transmitter power.

The most impressive thing about this antenna is the low background noise level. I’m still amazed at the huge difference in the background noise levels when comparing it to my OCFD antenna. Ever since I got my license ten years ago I’ve had background noise levels running S5 – S8 or even higher on the average day. It might dip as low as S3, rarely, but generally it’s been a pain in the neck. But with this antenna the noise level is essentially zero, while actual radio signals being received are as strong or stronger than they are with the dipole. And it works at least as well on transmit as my OCFD antenna.

Rant Time.

grouchyfarmer.com’s palatial headquarters.

The staff here at grouchyfarmer.com love a good rant more than anything else… Well, okay, so that’s not really true, I guess. They like pizza. Put out free pizza in the employee lounge and it’ll be gone in like five seconds. It’s like as swarm of locusts from some biblical plague on pizza day. And Joann has chickens. She has like twelve of the damned things running around here now and we’re thinking of staging an “intervention”. And maybe a fried chicken day. And our IT guy, Jeff, is the president of the local Black Pink fan club. We try not to talk about that. But generally speaking they do enjoy venting their spleens about whatever it is that’s sticking in their craw, so to keep ’em happy let’s get on with this.

EV Push Back

Certain persons (you know who you are) seem hell bent on to strangle this trend towards electrification any way they can. The problem they’ve been having is that by and large electrification makes a hell of a lot of sense even if you don’t take into consideration the whole climate change thing. There are some legitimate issues with EVs, but those are being dealt with. So they’re starting to just make crap up now.

I think it’s too late to stop it, though. While the doom and gloom crowd is doing its best to shut things down, everyone else is just quietly getting on with things because EVs just make sense. The claim that you can’t electrify heavy trucks? Guess what, it’s already been done. Volvo has been quietly producing electric trucks since 2019 and is currently ramping up production. Makers of farm equipment and earth moving machinery are moving in that direction. JCB, New Holland, CIH, Bobcat, and dozens of others that make equipment ranging from small to gigantic are moving towards electrifying just about everything.

And there are very good reasons why. Maintenance is much easier, for one thing. And a hell of a lot cheaper. No more engine oil changing, no more engine oil filter changing. Ever. No expensive exhaust systems and catalytic converters to mess with. If you’re a major freight carrier with thousands of trucks on the road like Schneider, the potential savings on oil changes alone would be astronomical.

I have to close this off with a sad note. We lost our beloved cat Meg yesterday after a short illness.

Thank you Meg for being a loving companion for almost 17 years. We miss you.

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Author: grouchyfarmer

Yes, I'm a former farmer. Sort of. I'm also an amateur radio operator, amateur astronomer, gardener, maker of furniture, photographer.

25 thoughts on “Autumn Catch Up. And a Rant or Two. And a Sad Ending.”

  2. I am so sorry to hear about your little cat… in the picture, she looks like a real sweetie.
    We raised some tough-skinned tomatoes ourselves this year but thankfully, for the first year in a long time, the squirrels did not get into them…
    We don’t can anything because when we work it all out, it costs more to can our own stuff than it does to buy it…do not ask me why…It just does…
    I am glad to hear that your brussles sprouts turned out so well….I love brussles sprouts … they are my go-to diet dish ….
    We make our own pizzas around here …we got a pizza stone to bake them on… makes all the difference in the world …
    In my estimation, there isn’t a better breakfast combination than a good mess of brussle sprouts with several strips of crisp bacon on the side….even though I am an accomplished cheese omelet person …and when I scramble eggs, I always use the Jumbo size eggs and I cook them low and slow with a lot of country butter, slowly raking them in the skilled until they form these huge fluffy curds …and they are done when they turn this special yellow color with a satin-like sheen …
    Wisconsin sounds like a great place to live…
    Do you sell some of your electric back to the grid? Those of us who generate our own electric (and I am not one of them) are allowed to sell some of our electric back to the grid and they issue credits against our electric bills for it.

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    1. It’s possible to sell electricity back to the utility companies but the rate they pay is so low, down to about $0.04/KWH that it’s not worth the effort and extra expense for a small system like mine.

      My wife’s been roasting the sprouts with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and then drizzling them with a bit of balsamic vinegar before serving. Holy cow did those turn out good! I bet mixing in some crumbled bacon would be fantastic with those.

      We never really sat down to calculate out how the cost between home canned and store bought would compare. It wouldn’t matter if home canned cost more. What matters is the taste. It just tastes so much better because we can adjust the seasonings to suit what we like. We make most of our own salad dressings, tomato sauces, etc. these days.

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  3. I wrote a comment on your post about your little cat and the brussles sprouts , etc., and I sent it but I don’t see any evidence that you got it…

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        1. Thanks for pointing me to that. It was a very interesting article. I generally agree with it too. A lot of homes could shift a lot of their energy requirements to a solar power system. It would be difficult to go completely off-grid, especially in places like where I live. We can have clouds for days, even weeks at a time here that pretty much shuts down my solar production. Even so, and even with the inadequate amount of solar panels I have at the moment, we’ve cut our electric bill by about a third most months, and by as much as half.

          I was talking to a fellow in Germany a few months ago. Apparently over there they even have a program for apartment dwellers, balcony solar. Some kind of government subsidized program that lets you put about 600W of solar panels out on your apartment’s balcony.

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      1. That is a big relief and I understand completely .. thank you for explaining…personally I would welcome a troll or two…whenever I get anybody to read my stuff it stokes my ego…LOL And you know that I appreciate you… a lot.

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        1. I went into a panic there for a while when your site stopped emailing your new posts to me. I was afraid something happened to you until I saw you were still making comments on other blogs occasionally. Fortunately that problem has been taken care of.

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  5. WE had the same problem with the drought down here……I have lost 2 blueberry bushes…..my citrus crop was well below normal. I am truly sorry to hear about Maggie….it is sad to close a friend. Be well and be safe chuq

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    1. There was widespread drought over a lot of the country this summer. Lot of creeks and ponds dried up.

      We told ourselves we weren’t going to get another cat but I found myself looking through the listings at the local animal shelter last night so we’ll see what happens.

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  6. It’s nice that you have the resources to tend and grow such a bountiful harvest! 🥕🍅🧅 … etc.

    It appears Ms. Meg was a Siamese. IMO, the -ONLY- breed of cat I would own if such an event were to occur in my future (not likely). They are a most unique type of feline. Very sorry for your loss. 😢

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    1. Yep, she was siamese. Somehow we’ve always ended up with Siamese, all except our first was a rescue kitty or from someone who couldn’t care for them any longer. They are definitely unique in a lot of ways. They can be standoffish, aloof, but once one decides he or she likes you they’re amazing.

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  7. It’s nice that you have the resources to tend and grow such a bountiful harvest! 🥕🍅🧅 … etc.

    It appears Ms. Meg was a Siamese. IMO, the -ONLY- breed of cat I would own if such an event were to occur in my future (not likely). They are a most unique type of feline. Very sorry for your loss. 😢

    (P.S. Sorry if this is a duplicate comment … WordPress is screwing around with the login again.)

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  9. It breaks my heart to hear about your dear little cat…. I love cats …when I was a kid I had at least 12 of them hanging around all the time …my favorite was “Joey.” He was a one man cat and whenever I would come home from work, he would appear from out of nowhere, meowing and jumping on me and purring….I loved that cat….Whenever I try to grow tomatoes, the squirrels come and take a single bite out of all of them and leave them on the ground. I stopped trying.Have you ever tried growing “Ahn-Deeves” (Not endives)– they grow from the end of a chickory root in a place like where mushrooms would be grown..dark, damp, warm.??

    That “Headquarters” picture you posted looks more like our old out-house….if that is really your “Headquarters” doesn’t it get drafty to work in sometimes?

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    1. Thanks for your comment. I really miss that kitty. She was an absolute sweetheart.

      I neve heard of Ahn Deeves I’ll have to look that one up.

      The headquarters is actually an AI generated image I made by writing a description of what I wanted and a minute or two later that popped out. I think one thing all of this AI generated artwork is going to do is put the stock image companies like Getty out of business. Why pay money for a stock image from a service like that when you can generate your own, copyright free?

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