Neil Bendy

Cristobal Cristo wrote:Various cultivars can be used for raisins.

Rombough Family grape cuttings

Wonderful service, good communication (albeit with a delay).
I have purchased 130 last year and will be purchasing more.

Thanks for the link, but the shipping costs about the same as the price of the cuttings, then they add 4.6% to the bill to cover their PayPal fees.
Thanks anyway but I'll keep on looking.

Can anyone point me to a reputable company who sells Thompson Seedless cuttings, or any other variety that can be used for raisins?
There's no end of companies that will sell the whole grapevine, either in a pot or as a bare root, but I just want to buy the 6" or 8" pencil thick cuttings to root myself.
EBay has a number of sellers asking unrealistic prices, and anything Amazon is automatically blocked from any searches by my ad blocking software because I won't buy from them out of principal.
So can any members point me in the right direction to buy 10 or 20 cuttings?

Getting my veggie garden ready for planting with 6 x 50' rows covered with white plastic mulch (New Mexico gets really hot, so I need to reflect heat, not absorb it, and with out ongoing drought, it's almost the only practical way to grow)
Irrigation is from a 1,500 gallon storage tank, filled from a well pump to around 1000 gallons and gravity fed to drip tape under the plastic mulch.
As it's gravity fed I can't use any sort of fertilizer injector so was pondering the idea of adding soluble fertilizer directly to the tank.
The tentative plan is to fill the tank, take PH and EC readings, adjust the PH and add sufficient fertilizer to raise the PPM by about 125 parts then run the tank to empty and do this every month or so adjusting the nutrients for the stage of growth through the year, and of course correcting if there's any sign of over or under fertilization.
Will this work?

24 used 250 watt panels (Chosen because solar panels are heavy and the prospect of climbing a ladder to my roof in any sort of wind was difficult enough even with smallish 250 watt panels).
Six home built 48 volt battery packs made with a mix of 200 and 280A LiFePo4 cells, some new, some used, and some advertised as new but weren't (Aliexpress) Each pack has a separate BMS, and we run 2 separate 3Kw all in one solar charger/inverters. I split the system into 2 so that should one inverter give problems we just reduce our usage and run on 1 system until the problem can be fixed.
Being in New Mexico we have plenty of sun so the house has 3 separate mini splits that give us all our A/C and heating all year round.
We run; well pump for irrigation, full size microwave, dishwasher, washer/dryer, in fact just about every appliance in any on grid home. We did ditch the electric stove for a gas model, that was the only change we made.
Three years off grid and never ran out of power once.

I built a long Lang, and it's been producing nicely for about a decade now. But my choice of location was not the best and I need to move it about 500 yards.
Due to its sheer size and weight, and somewhat volatile occupants, I can't move it in one piece.
Any suggestions on the best approach to the problem, and when's the best time to move a hive?

Mary Haasch wrote:

Needing a new roof is my idea based on the expected lifetime of the roof that is on the place. To their credit, neither of the companies tried to sell me any roofing.

I appreciate your thoughts on the ground mount and the size of the panels you used. Do you have any system of realigning the panels for the change in the position of the sun?

When I first researched how to mount the panels I looked at motorized mounts that would track the sun, but for the extra power generated vs. the cost the numbers didn't add up for me.
The best compromise would be the ability to manually move the panels every few months as the sun's path changes.
But others who are far more knowledgeable also believe that the benefits don't justify the cost and extra maintenance of a motorized system.
https://www.solarreviews.com/blog/are-solar-axis-trackers-worth-the-additional-investment
https://unboundsolar.com/blog/should-you-buy-solar-tracker

Mary Haasch wrote:I'm living in a small cottage with a 50 yo in the wall electric furnace (not used much until the last 2 years) and I'd like to add solar electric. I've preliminarily spoken to two different companies, not sure what I think of either one, but both think putting panels on the roof is cheaper than putting panels on the ground in the open area. The cottage roof panels would require new roofing which has about 5 - 7 years of expected life and cutting down the trees which have grown up close to the building. While both things would need to be done eventually, the open area installation seems more immediately cost and effort effective. In addition, the ground-based system in the open area could be used to power the workshop, the garden shed and the eventual small barn planned for the open area (the workshop and garden shed are existing). Any words of wisdom?

It's a very common ploy to say that you need a new roof before they can install the panels, but the good news is that they just happen to know a local roofing company who can give you a good estimate. Get a second opinion on the condition of your roof.
Ground mount is in my mind far superior especially if you will be doing a DIY install. I used 250 watt panels because of their size and weight, or rather lack thereof. Even with those smaller panels climbing a ladder and carrying them up to the roof in even a moderate breeze is not something to be undertaken lightly.
I just don't bounce as well as I used too after falling off things

Nancy Reading wrote:It's a lovely find <3 - thanks for sharing it with us.
I can't quite work out how you move on to the next bit of fabric after the needle is full: Do you tighten the gears down to pinch the needle, wind the stop back, pull out the fabric onto the thread and then pinch the fabric under the (blunt) end of the needle tightening the stop again and loosening the gear tension before winding the handle to crimp the next bit of fabric? I get the feeling that a few springs might make it a bit smoother in operation.
I bet it makes lovely even spaced stitches though!

Can't help I'm afraid. My idea of fixing things normally involves just banging a few nails into it.

I'll put you all out of your misery.
https://www.fiddlebase.com/running-stitch-machines/

I know what it is, but will give two clues just to keep the thread alive rather than identify the actual item.
New York dressmaker and;
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/5f/0b/95/f16c142826911a/US35252.pdf