Is the West--Best

I grew up in the west, as in Colorado.  All my life I felt like it would be wonderful to live where it is green all the time.  Someplace that got a lot of rain.  Then the opportunity came to move to North Carolina, so we moved .  We found this great home on a little more that an acre of land.  We bought it and moved in on December 15, 2005.  The first year we lived in the house, I saw more rain than I had seen in the past decade. Alex mows the lawn twice a week, except in the winter. Winter is December and January. Then, in August of 2008 we went back to Colorado to visit the kids and grand kids, and realized how much we miss the west.  Alex always feels closed in and claustrophobic with all the trees.  Now we want to sell and move west.  We have our property in Southern Colorado, and a little piece in Terlingua, Tx.  Winters can be harsh in Colorado, so we thought we could spend the cold months in the desert of west Texas.  We have a old Airstream trailer, and have considered buying a motor home.  With diesel fuel at over $4 a gallon, there are some good deals on motor homes. Anyway, selling the house is next on the list.  That might be a problem, but we will see!

Friends on Sunday

Our friends Forest and Erica came by on Sunday and we worked on a project  making a frame to support the barrelponic plants.  We cut and painted some 1" PVC to go over the barrel. I will suspend parachute line from the top, for the tomato vine support. We enjoyed a couple shots of Lunazul Tequila. Erica brought us a set of Tequila glasses and we had a great time with our best friends. Forest painted the support frame, and I supervised. My tomatoes and eggplant are in bloom. I will assist with the pollination, to help assure fruit. Alex was cleaning up some weeds around the yard and started breaking out.  I went out and looked at where she was working and sure enough-Poison Ivy.  I hope she doesn't get it too bad. She is very sensitive to poison ivy.  It has not bothered me at all, yet, so I will finish what she started tomorrow when I get home. I took a picture of it. I am also posting a picture of one of the talopia being a pig.

Signs of growth

Just a quick update on Barrelponics.  The plants are starting to grow more rapidly, and the goldfish are doing well. I have added more plants, and they took right off.  I think that this is a sign that the bacteria in the grow bed is changing the ammonia in the fish waste into nitrates that the plants can use.  Now we will see if the goldfish do as well as the plants seem to be doing.  I added some yellow squash, a couple of eggplants, and several sweet basil plants. 

I am confident that I am on the right track to solving the issues with the barrelponics.  The tomato leaves have responded every well to the addition of iron.  Also; with the subtraction of the tilapia and a little time, the plants have began to grow more rapidly.  I think that I can add a few small fish to the tank and work on the balance of fish to plants. Attached are pictures of the same tomato leaves that were posted on the last post...

More trouble with barrelponics

I lost a couple of tilopia the other day. and no, they didn't escape from the barrel. I threw the other 2 in the other pond.  I will have to ask my good friend Sam at Queen City Hydroponics for any suggestions.  The plants may not have large enough roots to clean the ammonia out of the water.  The bacteria in the system may not have had time to develop into nitrates for the plants.  The leaves on the tomato plant are not doing well.  I will take these pictures to Sam and see if he can tell me.  Right now there are no fish in the system, however; the siphon is working great. That is good news, because all I have to do now is get the fish to plant balance right. Sam gave me some iron cloride to put in the water, because the plants need iron and the fish and plastic barrel do not provide any.