Barnyard BBS
I say, let me never be complete.
I say, let me never be content.
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Things are growing. Admittedly, some things grow more quickly than others. As expected, the tomato plants and the lettuce(s?) are the largest. Strawberry plants grow much more slowly, so they still aren't very tall. That's not a bad thing, they just take a lot longer to mature. The eggplant (#12) has emerged, and it looks quite healthy. The basil (#17) is looking great as well. The MegaGarden is doing very well. I think the time is approaching for the transition to the aeroponic TurboGarden, but I'm thinking of stalling a bit... I may plant the tomato plants into the aero-style net pots, but keep them in the MegaGarden. I'd hate to go through the effort to run the whole aero unit at this stage; as only the tomato plants are pushing the need. Hopefully, I should be able to keep the tomato plants happy for another week, or so. Here's a picture of the plants at the moment: 
Keeping with my promise of solid recordkeeping, here's this week's chart:
| Plant | Type | Status |
| #01 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Roughly 5/8" tall. Looks very healthy. Growing slowly, as strawberries tend to grow. |
| #02 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Roughly 5/8" tall. Looks very healthy. Growing slowly, as strawberries tend to grow. | | #03 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Roughly 5/8" tall. Looks very healthy. Growing slowly, as strawberries tend to grow. |
| #04 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Roughly 5/8" tall. Looks very healthy. Growing slowly, as strawberries tend to grow. |
| #05 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Roughly 5/8" tall. Looks very healthy. Growing slowly, as strawberries tend to grow. It looks like two seeds have been growing, rather than just one. |
| #06 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Roughly 5/8" tall. Looks very healthy. Growing slowly, as strawberries tend to grow. |
| #07 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Roughly 5/8" tall. Looks very healthy. Growing slowly, as strawberries tend to grow. |
| #08 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Roughly 5/8" tall. Looks very healthy. Growing slowly, as
strawberries tend to grow. It looks like two seeds have been growing,
rather than just one. |
| #09 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Roughly 5/8" tall. Looks very healthy. Growing slowly, as
strawberries tend to grow. |
| #10 | Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Heirloom Tomato | Approximately 7" tall. Secondary leaves are growing well. It's getting larger by the day. Excellent health. |
| #11 | Delicious Heirloom Tomato | Previously killed through personal stupidity. |
| #12 | Bambino Baby Eggplant | It's finally emerged from the rockwool cube. It's about 1" tall, and it looking quite healthy. I had my doubts before, but now it looks good. |
| #13 | Monet's Garden Lettuce
| Approximately 5" tall (it it stood). Looks very healthy. I'll transplant into a hydroton pot soon. |
| #14 | Monet's Garden Lettuce | Approximately 4.5" tall (it it stood). Looks very healthy. I'll transplant into a hydroton pot soon. |
| #15 | Monet's Garden Lettuce | Approximately 5" tall (it it stood). Looks very healthy. I'll transplant into a hydroton pot soon. |
| #16 | Monet's Garden Lettuce | Approximately 5" tall (it it stood). Looks very healthy. I'll transplant into a hydroton pot soon. |
| #17 | Lime Basil
| Still quite small, but looks healthy. This makes sense, basil starts slowly. |
| #18 | Delicious Heirloom Tomato | Approximately 4.5" tall. Looks quite good healthy. It's younger than the other tomato, so the smaller size makes sense.
|
The little plants are doing pretty well. Everything is still in the MegaGarden, as the sproutlings are still quite small. Almost everything has become visible in their cubes; the only one that isn't yet visible is #12 (eggplant). Here's a picture of the plants at the moment: 
Also, good news regarding the strawberries... All of them are visible now, and they all look quite healthy. Here's a closer look: 
Since I intend on keeping much better records on this grow-cycle; here's this week's chart:
| Plant | Type | Status |
| #01 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Seeds germinated. Small, but visible in rockwool cube. Appears healthy.
|
| #02 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Seeds germinated. Small, but visible in rockwool cube. Appears healthy. | | #03 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Seeds germinated. Small, but visible in rockwool cube. Appears healthy. |
| #04 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Seeds germinated. Small, but visible in rockwool cube. Appears healthy. |
| #05 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Seeds germinated. Small, but visible in rockwool cube. Appears healthy. |
| #06 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Seeds germinated. Small, but visible in rockwool cube. Appears healthy. |
| #07 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Seeds germinated. Small, but visible in rockwool cube. Appears healthy. |
| #08 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Seeds germinated. Small, but visible in rockwool cube. Appears healthy. |
| #09 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Seeds germinated. Small, but visible in rockwool cube. Appears healthy. |
| #10 | Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Heirloom Tomato | Approximately 3.25" tall. Primary leaves are still visible. Looks quite healthy. Secondary leaves are beginning to form. |
| #11 | Delicious Heirloom Tomato | Previously killed through personal stupidity. |
| #12 | Bambino Baby Eggplant | Has not yet emerged from rockwool cube. Germination status still unknown. |
| #13 | Monet's Garden Lettuce
| Approximately 3.5" tall. Looks healthy. Single root protruding from rockwool cube. |
| #14 | Monet's Garden Lettuce | Approximately 3" tall. Looks healthy. |
| #15 | Monet's Garden Lettuce | Approximately 3.5" tall. Looks healthy. Single root protruding from rockwool cube. |
| #16 | Monet's Garden Lettuce | Approximately 3.5" tall. Looks healthy. Single root protruding from rockwool cube. |
| #17 | Lime Basil
| Still quite small, but looks healthy. This makes sense, basil starts slowly. |
| #18 | Delicious Heirloom Tomato | Approximately 1.5" tall. Looks healthy. Younger than other tomato, so this is to be expected. |
It's a good thing that I wrote quickly. This was almost Hydroponics Wednesday...
Here's our pictorial trip to this year's Delaware State Fair... For those of you not familiar with it, the Delaware State Fair is held annually in Harrington. Harrington is about 70 minutes south of Wilmington, in the center of "farm country". The fair is primarily agricultural, with more animals that you'll be willing to visit. Here are a few of the more interesting pictures this year: 
Yes, they have a "Goat Department". It's an entire building (about the size of an aircraft hangar) where people show off their goats. Hundreds of them. Apparently, goats make pretty good pets. The pygmy variety aren't very large, and (so I'm told) get along with dogs pretty well. 
This is why you don't give rednecks money. 
This is the biggest and baddest mower that John Deere makes... It's got a 15' (yes, fifteen foot) cutting width. It's really a remarkable piece of equipment; so I always take a picture of it. 
Where, except a state fair, can one acquire a deep fried pickle? Although the concept of frying a pickle does intrigue me, I have not sampled one as yet. 
This six-day-old calf was being raffled off to support the 4-H club. I don't know why Jessawick insisted that we enter a drawing for a bovine, but she did. We proudly hold two chances to win this fine animal. We'll know next week if we need to buy another pet bed. I hope it likes small dogs.
It's been a little over a week since the new seeds were planted. Although the progress thus far isn't remarkable, it is progress nonetheless. I'm thinking of using a grid format for the posts, so I'll give it a try this week. Let me know if the grid works.
| Plant | Type | Status |
| #01 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Has not yet emerged from rockwool cube. Germination status unknown. |
| #02 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Has not yet emerged from rockwool cube. Germination status unknown. |
| #03 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Has not yet emerged from rockwool cube. Germination status unknown. |
| #04 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Has not yet emerged from rockwool cube. Germination status unknown. |
| #05 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Has not yet emerged from rockwool cube. Germination status unknown. |
| #06 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Has not yet emerged from rockwool cube. Germination status unknown. |
| #07 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Has not yet emerged from rockwool cube. Germination status unknown. |
| #08 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Has not yet emerged from rockwool cube. Germination status unknown. |
| #09 | Alexandria Alpine Strawberries | Has not yet emerged from rockwool cube. Germination status unknown. |
| #10 | Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Heirloom Tomato | Approximately 1.5" tall. Primary leaves are visible. Looks quite healthy. No secondary leaves yet.
|
| #11 | Delicious Heirloom Tomato | Killed through personal stupidity. The seedling was "folded over" inside the rockwool. When I attempted to free it, I broke the stalk. #18 was planted as a replacement on 07/14/2007. |
| #12 | Bambino Baby Eggplant | Has not yet emerged from rockwool cube. Germination status unknown. |
| #13 | Monet's Garden Lettuce
| Approximately 1.5" tall. Looks healthy.
|
| #14 | Monet's Garden Lettuce | Approximately 1" tall. Looks healthy. |
| #15 | Monet's Garden Lettuce | Approximately 1.5" tall. Looks healthy. |
| #16 | Monet's Garden Lettuce | Approximately 1.5" tall. Looks healthy. |
| #17 | Lime Basil
| Barely visible, but has germinated. Very small, but looks healthy. |
| #18 | Delicious Heirloom Tomato | Planted on 07/14/2007 as a replacement for #11. Has not yet emerged from rockwool cube. Germination status unknown. |
The wheatgrass seems happy. Initially, some mold began growing; but it's stopped now. Important fact to remember: airflow is important. I keep a small fan running for the ebb-and-flow MegaGarden, so that standing water evaporates quickly. Although it's not terribly different, here's this week's photo: 
I stumbled across something pretty interesting today, while trolling the internet... One of my photos ended up in the publication "A Comicbook Orange". Although it's quite random and unexpected, it's exactly the kind of thing that I wanted to happen. See video here: http://www.acomicbookorange.com/2007/06/27/tales-from-the-crypt-1/ (it's the opening photo of the haunted house) I release all of my photography as Creative Commons. This means that other people are free to use them in their projects. I don't use the normally restrictive copyright rules; but rather release my work freely. I always hope people will make use of it. In this case, that's just what happened. Splendid. In other photography news... I've recently shot my first wedding. As you are likely aware; photography is my hobby, not my occupation. I do it because I enjoy it, not for any profit. I received an interesting phone call on the weekend of the 07/01/2007... It was Ray Devine (of WMPH fame), and he was working at a wedding. He told me that the ceremony was about to start, and the photographer was nowhere in sight. He asked if I could gather my gear and photograph the wedding. Needless to say, I wasn't really prepared for such a task. Normally, a wedding photographer would own much more gear than I do. For example, I only have enough storage for about 700 photos. Jessawick shot almost 500 photos, I shot almost 1,100. That's a lot of photos. In fact, we had to unload to a laptop when we found a few moments of downtime. I thought that the day went pretty well. If you're interested, here's the website: xandraandjohn.barnyardnetworks.com
As many of you may know, our indoor gardens suffered a great disaster during renovation. Although it was a big loss, it gives us the opportunity to start over, with lessons learned. Today is the start of our new growing cycle. I've only got the MegaGarden running at the moment, as the aeroponic TurboGarden isn't appropriate just yet. When the plants are larger, they'll move into the aeroponic system. I regret not keeping more accurate notes on the first growing cycle, so that's going to change. Starting today, I'm going to keep more accurate notes on the exact condition of the plants. In fact, I'm numbering each plant so that I can track their progress. Here's our lineup thus far: - #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, and #9 are all "Alexandria Alpine Strawberries", purchased from Swallowtail Seed. They were all planted today (07/10/2007). They are expected to produce lots of red strawberries (continual fruiting) without many runners. They were all started in rockwool in the MegaGarden.
- #10 is an "Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Heirloom Tomato". It was also planted on 07/10/2007, in the MegaGarden. I don't have experience with this type, but it should be pretty impressive. We're only planting two tomatoes this time, as we were overrun last time.
- #11 is "Delicious Heirloom Tomato". It was also planted on 07/10/2007, in the MegaGarden. In theory, this fellow should produce tomatoes that are 2-3 pounds each. Those should be some huge tomatoes.
- #12 is a "Bambino Baby Eggplant". It too was planted on 07/10/2007, in the MegaGarden. The seed was actually a straggler from last year. It's from a 2006 seed packet, from Botanical Interests.
- #13, #14, #15, and #16 are mixed types of lettuce, from a Renee's Garden "Monet's Garden Mesclun" packet. They were planted on 07/10/2007, in the MegaGarden.
- #17 is a Lime Basil, from Botanical Interests. It was also planted on 07/10/2007, in the MegaGarden.
 That's it for the moment.
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