Saturday, September 19, 2009

Angry Villagers

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We decided to try to burn the seed heads off our weeds in the garden. After so much of the garden had died, due to the fusarium wilt, as well as much of my time being spent in the kitchen, learning more about the wonderful world of canning, our garden looked like this:









The seed heads of the weeds are what is scaring me. There are some vicious, thorny weeds in there and they are LOADED with seeds.

I don't know if we spray them, if the seeds die too, or if they will drop and be fine. A friend wondered about burning them off with our propane torch. Nice idea, but I can't afford to go get the tank refill.

What is a girl to do.....?

I know! Build a torch!

You can find almost anything online. We learned a lot about torch building. One thing I SHOULD have thought of but didn't, was using a green branch, instead of the handy, ever-so-movie-torch-like, club you see here. Aesthetically pleasing, yes, but also catches fire all the way up to your fingers, if you don't watch it.





Also, the staples in the staple gun were not long enough to do the job. But you need to use 100% cotton, so you don't get any nasty burns from having melting globs of fabrics fall off and stick to your screaming flesh.

And Tiki Torch type fuel is good. Clean burning. You can use oils of other types, like motor oil, but that will give you smoke. Don't use more flammable things like gasoline.

We began by stapling the folded old t-shirt to the club.





Then the fabric must be pulled very tightly as you wrap. If you don't, you will have too much oxygen in there when burning and it will be brighter, but shorter lived. Rather like a flaming ball dropping at your feet.





Stapling every few inches, all the way around, we wrapped as though we were peasants, ready to invade Notre Dame.

Seth gives ignorant approval.





Then the staples began falling out. So we grabbed God's gift to humanity, baling wire.





Completely unprepared for this endeavor, we had only enough to pour over the torch to barely soak it. The actual instructions call for soaking the torch in a container of oil for 10 minutes. It was very thirsty.





Oooooooo! Scary villager!!!





And this is how we discovered that this method is extremely ineffective for this purpose.





The seed heads were too green to burn as well.





This garden may never dry out before those seeds drop, so our next approach is to go out with scissors and bags and trim them off.

And now you know how to NOT build a torch and eliminate seed heads.

I'm sure I can use a torch for more fun projects however. Stay tuned!

~Faith

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20 comments:

  1. I love how NOT to advice,heehee.Great post :0)

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  2. Oh no! Well... it looked fun anyway! If you need help in the assassin department, I will be there. I always thought that the guillotine was a useful instrument! ;-D But seriously, if you need help you can call! Love you and hope that your Shabbat is going well! Love~

    P.S. I had a wonderful time yesterday! Learned so much!

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  3. You two are a hoot and a holler!
    Why does this whole idea of yours NOT surprise me? Cause as I've come to learn about you, your motto seems to be "Where there's a will, there's a way!"
    And to think about taking photos???
    Too funny!

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  4. Granny,

    Being able to see some yayhoo do all the wrong things causes increased learning due to laughter. LOL

    ~Faith

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  5. Leah,

    Assassination. Did you ever take that word apart and look at it? I just now did. LOL Now my mind is everywhere.

    If trimming weed seed heads appeals to you I've have some to do on Monday. :) Oh, and there's plenty of food still around here.

    ~Faith

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  6. SBF,

    Perhaps useful in old building demolition...?

    ~Faith

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  7. Cyn,

    I'm here to serve... LOL

    ~Faith

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  8. OMG! Scary! My garden looks the same way, seeds heads included. I try ripping out as much thorny pigweed as possible, because that's my archnemisis, but really there's no stopping it! I think our landlords burn their garden once a year, can't remember if it's Spring or Fall, I'll let you know when they do it.

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  9. Jo,

    YES! That's what these are! I had tried to look for the name of them, but couldn't find it. However an image search on google with your name proved it.

    I hate them. Pure and simple. They are nearly impossible to pull, the thorns go all the way up and down the entire plant, and finding a gripping place is extremely time consuming.

    I am VERY nervous about them going to seed. I just read that they like to come up in burned areas... don't know if burning is then a good idea or not.

    Supposed to be great bird feed...

    Here's a link, maybe you've seen it already.

    http://www.oisat.org/pests/weeds/broad_leaf_weeds/pigweeds.html

    ~Faith

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  10. It does tend to get a little complicated, doesn't it? As far as I know, I am free on Monday! Good times! Love you~

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  11. Oh well, at least you LOOKED really cool with your flaming torches... :o)

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  12. You need a dozen chickens in a mobile chicken tractor. They would eat seeds stalks and all.

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  13. My goodness my boys would have had a blast doing that.

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  14. Leah,

    I'm going to feel so much better when that job is out of the way. :)

    ~Faith

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  15. Beth,

    I have always felt that the coolness factor scores half the points in most chores. ;)

    ~Faith

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  16. Sharon,

    I just bet they would! You'd have more challenges, in your drier climate, but just think, one night you announce -

    "Boys, we are going on a night raid, and we are going to need our torches..."

    ~Faith

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  17. This I'm sure will sound bad, but glad to see your garden looks like ours, weed wise that is! Ours is a horrible mess of weeds and to think we worked so hard pulling and hauling wheelbarrows full of weeds earlier in the season. It's the same every year, we haven't found a cure for it, when canning starts the weeding has to end. Unless you can weed by moonlight, LOL!


    Take care and blessings to you both,
    Kelle and Cortney

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  18. Kelle,

    I'm really glad to hear you say that. That is exactly what happened here. LOL I'm not the only one!

    I seriously gave thought to quitting sleeping for a while, enticed by the lure of having 8 extra hours a day to accomplish everything.

    ~Faith

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  19. Ouch! Not something I'd try but it might work. I'm too afraid of firing the entire field and house.

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