Al Cart

I added 3 pics. One has a glove for size comparison, and one has an almost ripe strawberry. We got a frost last week (about 28 degrees), but this strawberry seemed unaffected.
Al

Hi, I noticed something in my garden this year and was wondering if anyone else noticed the same thing.
I have a 4ft x 12ft patch of June bearing strawberries in my south facing front yard. I've had them for about 3 years, give or take. They have always stopped producing berries by early July. They did the same thing this year, except for one spot. I had a low growing thistle self plant near the middle of the bed. When I happened to walk past that spot in late September, I found fresh ripe strawberries under the thistle and about 6 inches from the edge of the thistle, and none anywhere else in my patch.
So, has anyone encountered or heard of this before? I'm not complaining, and I may purposefully plant a few thistle to see if it happens again.

In case anyone asks: zone 5, Northern Illinois, USA, Earth. I don't know the specific variety of strawberry nor thistle.

I apologize if this topic has come up before, but has anyone heard of/built/seen a binishells? From what I can tell, it's a steel reinforced concrete dome structure built using an inflatable support. The only online price I can find says they start at $3500, but I don't know what size and if that includes labor.
http://www.binishells.com

OK, thanks for the info!

Hey, I came across this antique wood burning furnace today. It was in an old one room school house, but I was told that it wasn't original to the school house. I'm not an expert in fireplaces or furnaces, but I'm wondering what the large crescent shaped box was on the back. It looks like it's plumbed so the exhaust from the furnace travels in the top, then exits the bottom only to travel back up through the chimney.
Anyway, thanks for your help!
Al

If you don't mind me asking, what was the total cost of materials? You had written initially that you wanted to keep it under $3,000...