Around Waynos house

[wayno]

My Pumpkin plant is out of control, I planted it in hopes of getting a pumpkin for Halloween, I don't need more than few to pick from, I would rather have Watermelons to eat, they were planted at the same time, the Pumpkin plant is on the right in this photo below.


From the other side the Pumpkin is on the left.


This is the Watermelon plant that is doing good, I would prefer this one to take over the garden rather than the Pumpkin plant.


I have never trimmed/pruned/cut back a Pumpkin plant before, will it kill the whole vine if I cut them back, that giant Pumpkin plant is only 4 vines.

The other two Watermelons are not likely going to produce anything, this one was shocked from moving it from where it was planted to here, it wasn't doing well there either.


And the other Watermelon plants were grown from seeds and were planted too late, the Pumpkin plant is going to cover them, likely within a week unless I do something about the Pumpkin plant as each vine end/tip is growing inches each day, and there are several tips on each vine now.

[wayno]

Well this sucks, I don't think this is a Watermelon plant, it looks and tastes like a cucumber to me.


This appears to be a Pumpkin, it certainly don't look like the Watermelon starts I have seen in the past.


I doesn't look like I will have any Watermelons unless them seeds I started and planted grow extremely well over the next few weeks, all these plants were bought or started and then planted after I enlarged the garden except the one I moved which has flowers but doesn't look that healthy or maybe a better description would be it appears to be stunted, it's growing but not very fast, you can see it has flowers.

[wayno]

Well the lenses came today, the Barlow lens is great with the 26mm eyepiece although everything is upside down, but if looking at a planet I am not sure if I will care what side is up as all I really need to do is adjust the aiming knobs right to keep the planet in the center of the eyepiece.
I can get way closer of a view of the tree fir cones across the top of the house across the street(block and a half away) with the Barlow lens and 26mm eyepiece and it is a crystal clear view(focused) than I can with just the 20mm lens all by itself, I beginning to think there is something wrong with this 20mm lens, I cannot seem to focus it and i tried it with the Barlow lens also, same result, cannot get it focused clean and sharp.
I used every eyepiece and I get just about the same result, I can get real close with the 10mm lens and have the same fuzzy look as I have being really far away with the 20mm lens, I hope it is clear tonight, about 40 percent clouds right now.
By the way I think the reason everything is upside down is because this telescope has a built in Barlow lens, and when an eyepiece is inserted it is right side up, but when I put another Barlow lens in it is going thru 2 of them now and everything is upside down.

[wayno]

So, I tried several combinations of lenses and the Barlow lens and different lenses, the only combo that worked where I could focus it was the Barlow lens and the 25mm eyepiece, the view is closer than the 20mm without the Barlow lens, I can barely see 2 reddish rings on Jupiter and only 3 moons tonight, I was able to get Jupiter in the lens with the 10mm eyepiece but could not quite get it to focus, I will try a little later tonight when the planets are higher in the sky, it might be clearer with less atmosphere to look thru as the planets are pretty low in the sky right now.

It appears that this telescope is a piece of shit, I will get over it as I don't really have that much money into it, not sure what I am going to do right now, I will think about it, I don't see the point in messing with it much more, but every time I look down the hole without the eyepiece it doesn't look right, that small mirror looks goofy/not centered in the hole.

[wayno]

I received the last eyepiece I ordered today, I was able to almost count fir needles on the top of the tree this afternoon, I could count small limbs on the tops of trees almost a mile away, but the view was no better when looking at Jupiter or Saturn, the telescope is either not collimated/calibrated, a piece of shit, or a combination of both.
This Zoom lens(8mm to 24mm) was kinda the Hail Mary for this telescope, I was able to see and focus on trees better than ever before, when I really turned it up(zoomed in closer) I could see details of fir cones, but I also noticed another thing, when it was on the 8mm setting I could see shit floating around in my eye ball, I have heard people call them floaters in the past, but when I turned it back to the 18mm setting the floaters went away, another thing happens is it kinda gets this honeycomb look with stuff floating around that I have to see thru with a lower number than 12/14mm, I expect this is what makes the planets look fuzzy at night, I cannot see the honeycomb and shit floating around in my eye ball at night, but during the daylight they are both easy to see, I expect this is why I have two different reading glasses on me most the time, one set because everything is just a little bit clearer and another set so I can see things like the computer screen more clearly, I put on 3 sets of cheater glasses to remove splinters and read labels on pill bottles.
I have looked at other telescopes on the computer, but I think what I really need to do is look thru someone else's telescope first that can focus on Jupiter and Saturn and that I can see Jupiter's bands and Saturn's rings, that way I will know it is not my eyes that are part of the issue/problem.

[Taterhead]

Keep tinkering with all the variables and you’ll get it.

[wayno]

I think I will need to try and collimate/calibrate it yet again, what bothers me is once I get the small mirror centered, it gets moved out of center when I put the laser in and adjust it to be center on the mirror, it was said this is the hardest part on line, I spent a hours trying and I likely got it close as it was as clear as when I bought it, but that doesn't mean I successfully calibrated it, I just got back to where I was maybe.
I have a Jones Bird telescope, everything I read says to avoid them as they are almost impossible to collimate/calibrate, I suppose I could get lucky, but I really need to understand it to find that sweet spot, and there are 2 sweet spots, so finding both of them at the same time was described as nearly impossible on a Jones Bird Telescope.

Not sure what I am going to do right now, I have no more Telescope stuff coming, I am done buying telescope stuff for now, I really need to look into someone else's 10" Dobsonian Telescope and see if that is what I am after, they are more money.

[wayno]

Last year I ran a rototiller right down the middle of a fat row of strawberries and made two rows, well today I removed the left row and planted a new row in it's place, I am going to leave the other old row till next summer/fall.

I forgot to take a photo at first and yanked some out then I remembered.


Next I dug a trench to plant the strawberries in, I have done this since last year as i am trying to just water the plants in the rows and not the area I walk on.


Here is it done, I used the poly pipe again instead of the PVC as the PVC has too many holes and it doesn't water evenly along the whole row, now it has a hole for each plant only, this works for now, but in a few years I will be soaking the whole trench as the plants will not be aligned with the holes anymore.

[wayno]

Well I was looking on Craigslist today and seen a classic "Jason Explorer Telescope 400" that looked decent for $25.00, keep in mind this is a child's type telescope made out of wood tripod and a 3" tube, this is basic stuff I am talking about, I can see Jupiter slightly better and Saturn better also, fact is I had my best look at Saturn and it's rings so far.
That other telescope is terrible and i now understand what they are talking about when they say stay away for the Jones Bird type telescopes, but I didn't see that article till after I had bought it, everything I read before I bought it said it was a great beginner telescope.
Here it is, basic stuff.

[wayno]

I made an adapter so I could use my new eyepieces on this old telescope, the results are better, but when I go outside at night the more magnified eyepiece I use the more degraded the view, focusing on trees does not represent the view I have at night of the planets.



I could see a larger space between Saturn and its rings last night, but the view was not sharp, so I brought out the other telescope and compared the 2, the cheap telescope I could get a closer view of Saturn and its rings but it was dark/slightly fuzzy, but the other one was just fuzzy that close, but I could get a sharper/clearer view of Saturn and its rings if I backed of the zoom a little bit but I could hardly see space between the rings and the planet, the old telescope only has 2 eyepieces and its own Barlow lens, once I was close watching shit floating around in my eye kinda blocks a lot of the view of the planets, stuff like what looks like bacteria under a microscope, long little worm things floating around in liquid along with other stuff that floats thru like a moon passing in front of a planet, at first I thought it was a moon passing in front of Jupiter, but it happened too many times and was moving way too fast, this is stuff floating in my eye.

I did see another satellite pass thru the lens last night, but they are moving so fast there is no way to track them.

I will see what I can see tonight using the classic telescope with my new eyepieces, I have concluded that to be able to see the planets the way I want to see them I will need to buy a much more expensive telescope, I found an Orion-SkyQuest-XT10-Classic-Dobsonian-Telescope in stock for $600.00 that likely will get me to where I can see the planets in detail, it is supposed to be a great telescope that I can buy camera lenses with WIFI so I can see it on my computer, but like I said before, I would like to look thru someone else's before I buy one in case it is not what I am looking for.

LOL, this kind of stuff keeps me busy so I don't go crazy, and my adapter to use my new eyepieces cost me nothing and appears to work great.

[wayno]

I can see both Jupiter and Saturn better with my adapter and the Barlow/new zoom lens, but still too small to see detail other than a couple faint red bands on Jupiter and I can see Saturn and its rings(just one big ring), I can even see the rings separate from the planet better if I zoom in, but the more I zoom the darker it gets to the point I can't really see anything, I guess the best way to describe it is it gets darker and more grainy the more I zoom in.

I seem to be making baby steps forward, but I don't see it getting much better with the telescopes I have.

[wayno]

So I finally used these 2 water rings, these are made of a better soak type hose watering my Romaine lettuce plants I started with seeds, these soaker rings do not fall apart because the sun hits them and dries them out.



I don't know what type of bee this is getting a drink, there are a bunch of them, they look kinda nasty.

[wayno]

I do not recall ever having a cucumber plant grow like this one, I am having to cut off new growth trying to control it.


My Watermelon seeds I started are growing so fast they have over taken the one I planted in April that I transplanted.


Here is the transplanted one, it is growing better now also.


The transplanted plant appears to have one Watermelon started.


The Watermelon seeds I started have several Watermelons started, I am hoping these will grow large enough to eat.








I never thought these 2 plants would take so much room and I have cut the Pumpkin plant back to the point where it has no more branches, it is just growing several Pumpkins now.


This is the largest one right now, it's around 6" round and 8" long.

[wayno]

Had my first corn on the cob today from my garden.


I also have had a few Strawberries lately, like a small second crop, same with the Raspberries, a different amber color type, they come on at the same time as the other Red type, and they appear to have flowered again and now more Raspberries, the garden appears to have done well this year.

Next year I will start more things with seeds instead of buying plant starts, like the Romaine lettuce, the Watermelon plants, if I can figure out how to use a corn kernels I will do that also, I will try with the Tomatoes also, I will save seeds from all the plants and try growing my own.

[wayno]

I learned that I need to have heirloom corn(non-gmo) to be able to use the seeds for next years crop, the reason is likely something like they made the hybrid corn sterile or something like that so you cannot do that, the heirloom corn for next years crop was mentioned several times on several sites when I searched how to save corn seeds for next years planting/starts, and it also is mentioned on ebay for corn seed with a decent germination rate(they are saying 90 percent germination), the corn seeds I bought at Fred Meyers had a terrible germination rate, likely 50 seeds or more and only 7 germinated, I didn't even get 10 percent germination out of all the corn seeds I planted this year(couple hundred).

[wayno]

Well I have a Watermelon the size of a softball, and it is on one of the plants I put in the ground July 20th that I started after I expanded the garden(June 28th), that is very late(started seeds July 1st?), but I also put the Pumpkin and cucumber plants in the start of July and they are doing great.


I just am not motivated to work on any of my Datsuns, I should start on the U320 and straighten that door hinge pillar, I certainly have the time.

[wayno]

This is supposed to be a Beefsteak tomato plant, I thought Beefsteak tomatoes were supposed to be large tomatoes, these are like cherry tomatoes only slightly larger, I like beefsteak because they are large and only one slice covers the whole slice of bread, they don't even taste that good, lucky I planted an Earlygirl tomato plant also.


I got up on the roof so I could get the whole garden in one photo but it is shaded on one side, I will try and get a photo of it all in sun so you guys can see how big the garden is.

[wayno]

Here is a photo of the garden completely in the sun, it is amazing how fast the Pumpkin and Cucumber plants grew, they were planted in July.



It doesn't really look that big in the photo, I will need to do the Pumpkin and Cucumber plants differently next year, I might not grow Pumpkin next year at all, they take up way to much room, maybe plant the Cucumber on the front edge and train it to grow towards the house over the weeds that are the lawn in the backyard.

[wayno]

Well I have 6 Pumpkins of good size.


I also have 7 watermelons larger than a baseball, of which 4 are larger than a softball between the 2 groups of plants, here are two of the larger ones.

[wayno]

Well the wind destroyed my Corn and Pumpkin plants, it may have done the same to my Watermelon plants, this is what it looked like 3 days ago.


This is what it looks like now.


I used cement blocks to prop up the corn stalks, we shall see if they die or recover.


It sure looks different than when I looked at it yesterday.