Inner Tubes and Gooseberries

The past couple weeks Harold and I have been a little under the weather, fighting off a respiratory virus or sinus infection.  We are better now, though, and trying to get back into all the work needed around the farm, now that spring is finally here.
     One of our first projects was to get the greenhouse planted up.  Even when I wasn't feeling well, I still had a little energy to get things planted.  You can see that things are progressing well:

Lettuce and spinach are up, tomatoes and peppers growing nicely, and look at the size of the garlic plants!

Another project we tackled today was transplanting 4 gooseberry bushes.   About 9 or 10 years ago, a neighbor gave me 4 small plants of gooseberries from her patch.   I planted them, but actually forgot about them for a whole year!  They managed to grow and stay alive despite my lack of maintenance (and much to my surprise!), and for the next 8 or 9 years I always meant to dig them up and put them somewhere else but just never got around to it.   I originally planted them about 1/4 mile down the road by the old trailer house we used to live in.  I rarely watered them and if they didn't get rained on, they just sat there.   Well, this spring I saw that they were STILL alive and growing nicely!  I figured they deserved to get better care!  So we dug them up and planted them by the greenhouse.   I suppose now I will "kill them with kindness" after 10 years of neglect!

Somewhere in this mess is four gooseberry bushes.

After digging them up, we hauled them back up the road in my little "zippy wagon".  This little wagon that Harold built out of scrap pieces has proved to be SO handy for yard chores, and connects easily to my riding lawn mower.  And it's something that even I can handle!

Before setting the gooseberry bushes in place, Harold used the Lo-Boy tiller to dig up the ground and make it smooth.

The first bush is set into place.  Sure hope the bushes like the new place as much as they liked the old place!

All 4 bushes replanted now and watered.   After 10 years of neglect, they will finally get some care!

Gooseberries are a wonderful fruit.  They make the BEST jelly, and you can also use them for sauces and pies.   I once made a gooseberry pie.  It was tart on the first bite, but after a while it tasted better.    But if gooseberries are nice and ripe, they can be eaten as is, and they are really good.
     Now - here's a "remember when" for those of you old enough to remember stuff like this.   If you recall, in my last post I had a photo of the old tires on the 2 row corn planter Harold resurrected from the farm graveyard.  He found some tires to use for replacements, on an old horse cart he had.  (Harold was quick to point out that not everything around here should be considered "junk", but is actually "vintage replacement parts" ! ) Anyway, the old tires on the planter were the old 'inner tube' style.  Do some of you remember when tires actually had inner tubes??  After Harold took off the old wheels on the planter, he discovered the tires said "Fisk Rubber Company" on them.   A quick search on Google gave us the info that this tire company went out of business in 1940.  So we know that the corn planter he has is at least 76 years old!!!

Taking the old tire off the rims.  I remember my Dad doing this.

Here is what is inside the tire!  An inner tube.  As a kid, I remember using these to play in the lake with, as flotation toys.  The inner tubes usually had a lot of patches.  Men would go to the hardware store and buy 'patch kits' to fix up inner tubes.

This is what is written on the side of the inner tube.

Both of the inner tubes off the vintage tires on the corn planter.

Corn planters of the 2 row and 4 row variety are actually getting very popular around here.   Hunters like to plant up 'deer plots' of corn or soybeans for deer and other wildlife.   They don't need modern machinery to plant up a little plot, so the old style planters are in demand again.
     After planting the gooseberry bushes, Harold tilled up nice and smooth another row for me.   I will plant some gladiolus bulbs I bought.   I bought 60 bulbs on sale in various colors (12 different colors).  If the glads do well, I hope to sell some of the flowers at my market booth this summer.

Nice to have riding machinery to do the work!  Us old folks have to take that into consideration!

In a couple weeks I will be planting up the rest of the gardens.   Right now I have a lot of plants on the back porch where it is cool and breezy.   They are getting used to the outdoors after being in a warm living room under grow lights.   Look at the size of some of the tomatoes!  They really need to get into the ground quickly!

These tomatoes are 2 feet tall already!  They need to get planted real soon!

In other news, we have 3 new kittens born about 5 days ago.  I don't have any photos yet, as I don't want to disturb mama kitty any more than I have to for a while.    They are all black and grey striped.   We usually have a core population of 12 or so cats on the farm at all times.   The cats come and go.   We get cats coming from elsewhere, and ours go to other farms.   I guess that is nature's way of preventing a lot of inbreeding.   Most farms around here have at least that many cats also.   It takes a lot of cats to keep the mouse population down!
    While we are slaving away at chores, our ever-present tomcat Tommywhite watches everything we do!  But he keeps his distance, unless it's feeding time or he wants some attention!

Tommywhite, our favorite tomcat, is always with us.   He has to see everything we do!

As you can tell, nothing earth shattering is taking place here on Honey B Farm - just the usual spring work and daily stuff.   That's kind of what life is all about here in the country, doing what you like to do, and enjoying the peace and quiet.   The craziness of the world and all its problems seem very far away............