Do Not Need No Stinking Gyms

Know lotta folks with significant alterations in their normal every day activities and wanted to mention that ingenuity reigns supreme when it comes to fact that gyms closed at present time and folks gotta do what dey gotta do to either stay in shape or get into better shape.Wifey and I and our older son have very large vegetable garden and older son and I had great idea for 10 by 20 greenhouse to get a jump on planting seasons by starting plants via seeds(for the most part).All we did was take Harbor Freight 10 by 20 portable canopy and swap out roof tarp for greenhouse style tarp(Amazon Prime)and we made doors out of 1 by 4's sandwiched together and got greenhouse style plastic sheeting(comes on 4 ft wide roll)for front and rear and I got greenhouse tarps for both sides and used grommet kit to add grommets to attach everything(when we need to open up greenhouse-simply unhook bungie straps and roll up sides),quite ingenious!!Got Tropical Rainforest inside fine and very spacious almost commercial greenhouse.As far as getting aerobic work-out,think how much energy it takes to unload pick-up load of incredibly rich and dark-as-charcoal garden soil(Accardo Materials in Mandeville-tad over $32 per yard),then load up 5 gallon buckets or 4.1 gallon plastic garden containers and move em to huge garden and water dat garden everyday,sometimes and mostly twice daily and I personally use 4 gallon plastic bucket to transport water to huge garden,give each plan a healthy dose of artesian well water(have 1050 ft deep flow well-Cyprus family very much self-sufficient)and older son has plenty of hybrid egg-laying hens.Pretty soon de Cyprus Family Farm gonna have ample vegetables for our family and older son sells eggs wholesale and retail and probably taking ride soon to get another supply of egg-laying hens to add to what he already has.We get in serious work-out each and every day and might get another yard of fine Accardo's garden soil tomorrow!!!

Mandevillian

Wifey and I taking nice ride to Sportsmans Warehouse so I can see if dey have some dem June Bug Red Speed Worms dat Kentucky bass and largemouth bass love so dang much.Got me nice supply of other colors but can't seem to locate June Bug Red.Do have some fine Bagley dee-diving crankbaits dat should wake up some dem chunky Kentucky bass and buddy of mine(same fellow who suggested dock-shooting for sac a lait)was telling me he knows a basser who nabs some huge Kentucky bass in Tickfaw using crankbaits-gonna try some of my deep-divers!!

Mandevillian,adapting to ever-changing world

Ole Mandervilln has a farm Ee i ee i o 😜

Yep,Gotta keep dem doggone deer at bay and biggest mistake we made last year was to allow older son to throw bunch of chickens in dat enclosed garden and it did not take bobcats and coyotes too long to rip holes in deer fencing(polypropylene netting)and they destroyed about 65 hens(he wishes now he had all dem hens but we may take ride to Shreveport to get bunch of hens @$2/hen).He has about 70 egg-layers right now and they lay some incredibly large brown eggs sought after by lotta folks.Might get us some rouens as those eggs are even more sought-after,think they sell for almost $1 per doggone egg.We had nice flock of both mallards and rouens but Katrina and coyotes wiped em out and we sold a few fertile eggs to buddy of ours and he had few ducks but coyotes took his out as well.If we had the buck$ we might fence in garden like one we saw near 4th St launch in Ole Landing but our fence would cost thousands vs the tiny fence we saw.Dat fenced in garden is about size of large city lot!!

Mandevillian

Mandy don't know your setup but I drill my drain holes about 4 inches high in my containers . Only water every 2 days when they small and once a day when big....

Nice plants ya got there-older son has about a dozen Better Boy loaded up with tiny tomatoes and we should reap those rewards by first of May!!Our set up somewhat similar but we drill holes in bottom of 5 gallon buckets and are using some fine soil plus we put about 2-3 inches of coastal hay at top to not only help keep down weeds but insulate plants and when ya stick ya fingers through layer of hay,soil is very moist and much cooler than it would otherwise be.Started virtually everything from seeds and we have mostly heirloom tomatoes and other heirloom eggplants,cucumbers,etc.Get a lotta seeds from Rare Seeds.Com and I routinely receive about 2-4 seed catalogs/day.Think we may save seeds from this particular garden.We do water everyday and having Artesian well water definitely helps in my estimation.We have used composted horse manure that my son got free,free,free and we have ordered bunch of 4.1 gallon containers and we also use grow bags that older son ingeniously came up with,using discarded feed bags and they work extremely well,though a chore to move once filled up.What we plan to do is to transport soil to garden via nice heavy-duty garden wagons and set up grow bags on site vs trying to transport em from our house next door to older son's nice field where garden is located.If ya check on Amazon,there are grow bags available but getting em from discarded feed bags saves plenty.Once finished,we will most likely have well over 200 tomato plants,countless cucumber plants and couple nice rows of hybrid corn and all the eggplants,squash,okra,etc and ya might not have been able to make out the bell peppers and cayenne and jalapeno peppers but all are thriving.It is definitely a labor of love,takes plenty of TLC but we love having all the fresh vegetables we can possibly use plus once Farmer's Markets get re-established,hope to peddle a few,along with older son's fresh yard eggs(he is already selling plenty eggs)!!

Mandevillian

Mande,

My Cherokee Purple and Pink Heirloom tomato seedlings you started in your greenhouse and gave me that I planted in my garden here in Abita Springs
are thriving! Thanks again, I will keep you updated on growth.

GB3,Yep those lil babies look mighty fine and the taste of heirloom tomatoes is unsurpassed.The main reason lotta folks do NOT plant em is that they are not nearly as disease-resistant vs newer non-heirloom varieties.Love the potato-looking leaves of Brandywines.Wifey had a cousin that would actually create varieties of tomato and he created one,think he called it 'Pontchartrain' and not sure which heirlooms he mixed to come up with that variety.Would be neat to patent a new cross-breed of fine heirloom!!Good luck and we need some more dat T-Funky 'social distancing' therapy!

Mandevillian

jimgrains51,I actually was trying to locate two items that I lost,one a ring that belonged to my dad,the other a money clip.Lost the ring few years ago,fishing the Bayou Lacombe area and I did attach Go Pro to PVC pole and looked like I mighta located ring,just never got around to trying to dive for it.Money clip had no money on it and musta dropped outta my pocket,along with fine Kershaw knife(found knife at boat launch and liked it so much I went on Amazon and got replacement).Must be neat locating items dat have been buried up!!Garden has been labor of love with lotta effort and this year quite a bit of expense with buckets and great garden soil but after this year's out-lay,expenses gonna go way down!!

Mandevillian