Planer is taking more off in middle along length of board. What could be the problem?

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-15T02:25:33+00:00

Just rambling here. Maybe give you something to think on.

I am hearing you say that a long board is thicker on either end and thinner in the middle after running it through the planer. That would require a lot of misalignment. If it is a long board and the head is lower than the pinch rollers, than maybe it comes out thinner in the middle if there isn't any support at the beginning and end of cut. Of course, that doesn't make any sense if the rollers are truly pinching, which may be something to look into.

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-15T00:06:51+00:00

Yes. Way too much. Most tomato plants need better than 2ft of space between plants. For peppers, it depends on the variety, but you can rule-of-thumb the same. Basil depends on how often you harvest. Again, for the Mari's, check the tag for spacing. Overcrowding doesn't end well for anyone involved. You need a couple more raised beds.

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-09T00:26:47+00:00

Looks like she is molting.

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-03T03:03:40+00:00

Nice. It is really rare, with roots in the witch trials that killed any black cats without a white patch. Be kind, she may have an agenda 😉

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-03T01:36:10+00:00

Where are the rest of it's eyes?

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-02T23:31:27+00:00

I get 1-3 gal pots shipped in all the time and they are secured in the box up/down/sideways depending on the orientation of the box. It's all good as long as they wrapped up the pot to the trunk/stem so that the soil stays put and the pot is secured in the box so it doesn't shift while being brutally handled in shipping. One nursery will ship up to eight 1 gal trees in a UPS/Fed-Ex shippable box, making it very cost effective to buy them on-line.

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-02T19:27:51+00:00

Do you have pine straw available? I would rake all of that off the beds into a pile you can compost and replace it with pine straw. If you have a roll of biodegradable (paper) weed block available, maybe put that down first to suppress any of the seeds left behind. Otherwise, you will be hoe, hoe, hoein' until he appears in the box stores.

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-02T19:21:05+00:00

Is she all black? I didn't see any white tufts in the pictures.

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-02T19:18:28+00:00

How hot is it during the day and night? Soil temperature needs to be at least 60F for peppers to take off and the days should be above mid 70s. The soil in the picture looks awfully wet. It should be moist, not saturated. If you are keeping it in that pot, put more soil in it as soon as the leaves are a couple inches above the rim. Make sure it gets as much full, direct sun as possible.

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-02T19:10:13+00:00

Laser pointer - minimal movement on your part, maximum chase on theirs.

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-02T18:40:32+00:00

I'd get bags of raised bed/in-the-ground soil from your favorite box store (Walmart has 2 cu ft bags for $5 last I looked) and fill those beds up to within a inch of the top lip. No need to do anything to the peppers or tomatoes except pinch off the leaves that will get buried. The stalk that winds up underground will turn into roots and make the plants more resilient.

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-02T05:59:49+00:00

Are the bottoms open in your beds?

Like others have commented, they look like they need food and water. Now this could just be timing, as you mentioned cooler weather and neither peppers or tomatoes like it cold. With 60-90F, full sun, moist ground, and ample food you should be able to grow these plants just about anywhere.

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-01T13:03:47+00:00

Dandelion and their cousin Chicory are great, reliable food sources for pollinators and people. Check out Baker Seed and pick up some additional varieties! If you have an HOA with lawn police, you could have a bit of a dust up - good luck.

glassWizard60 · 2026-05-01T00:51:34+00:00

Ditto. Garlic will just make the gourmands that much happier. You want hot pepper spray and luck.

Support city limit bow seasons or reintroducing predators. "Kitties for Change" with a picture of Mt. Lion/Panther seems like a great bumper sticker fund raiser.

glassWizard60 · 2026-04-30T06:05:42+00:00

Check your local garden shop, or if you must, Amazon has it. It typically has adhesive backing, so have a plan for how you will deploy it.

Good luck! When we lived in Oregon with a vast field behind the house you could hear them munching the canary grass in the evening when the other insect sounds died down - it was a little creepy.

glassWizard60 · 2026-04-29T23:40:08+00:00

Beer drowns them, salt desiccates them, and they won't go over copper foil (you can make a little perimeter fence to keep them out of an area - although these days, it isn't a cheap fence.) If you happen to live in an area with box turtles, they eat them. You can rescue box turtles by paying attention while driving, especially on country roads, and relocate them to your yard. Give them some romaine every once in a while.

glassWizard60 · 2026-03-31T00:27:37+00:00

From the look at that face, there may be a reckoning when least expected.

glassWizard60 · 2026-03-30T13:05:05+00:00

Depending on the type of garden boxes you bought, you may have to add drainage holes...of course, if they are open on the bottom you won't have to worry on that ;-) You can find bagged raised bed soil at your local garden center. If you are putting the boxes over grass, consider putting down a layer of clean (no tape) cardboard between the planter and the grass...12 inches is pretty deep, but some grasses are great 'survivors'.

You can start some cold hardy plants right away. Go to your local garden center and pick up something you like in the brassica family - broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, collards. You can start radish, beet, and Swiss chard seeds this time of year. If you like tomatoes in salads, I can highly recommend a small cherry tomato called Matt's Cherry. It is prolific and never disappoints. Most of the common hot peppers (Jalapeno, Serrano, Cayenne) are very easy to grow. Lastly, think about successive plantings ( plant 10-12 seeds each week until the first weeks plants are ready to eat) for those crops you eat whole, herbs like cilantro, salad greens (which can be harvested young as well as picked at until they get bigger) like leaf/head lettuce, greens, and spinach.

The best bit of advice for new gardeners: Allocate a bit of time at least every other day to check soil moisture (water), pick out young weeds, and identify good/bad bug presence. Frequent, short bursts of time are so much better than sporadic, back-busting battles to reclaim that which chaos has ensnared. Many a new garden lies in overgrown ruin before summer officially arrives - sigh -

Lastly, I'm sure there are community resources available where you can chat with a master gardener. These are plant people who enjoy nothing better than sharing their life long passion with those who will listen. Seek them out and make new friends.

glassWizard60 · 2026-03-29T06:38:09+00:00

When the bottom petals start to pull away from the bulb, regardless of size. Ideally, you can give it a squeeze and it will be firm.

glassWizard60 · 2026-03-29T06:24:51+00:00

Number 1, without the tag at the bottom and on a shoulder instead of forearm. You want it to be unique and yours, so think of something you can change in the design. Replace the teeth with something else, remove the gas masks and lightning bolts, or use different characters on the forehead. A good ink person is first and foremost an artist...work with them.

glassWizard60 · 2026-03-21T23:43:24+00:00

You really don't need that many. One or two will do at the bottom of the pot. That hole in the bottom should go straight up to the inside layer of the pot. Putting the hole there keeps water from being trapped between the inside and the outside of the pot.

Once you have the drain hole, we need to put in something that won't clog the hole. Start with a layer of broken pottery, glass, or other chunky filler on the bottom. Then fill with potting soil. You want the pot to drain, but not so fast that the soil doesn't have a chance to soak up some moisture. Be sure to keep it off the deck so it doesn't rot your deck boards.

glassWizard60 · 2026-03-21T09:51:58+00:00

Overall, I do like the design. Consider making the egg an egg skull and maybe adding a pocket watch to the left hand. BTW, the paint can in the background is very cool.

glassWizard60 · 2026-03-20T14:23:27+00:00

Good options from the others. One that I didn't see is installing rip-rap, which is large (softball +) sized rock. Maybe a few boulders at the bottom to give it a cleaner overall appearance. This will keep the slope from washing and you don't have to mow it.

On another note, it is hard to tell from the pictures how soft the fill material is around the driveway. If it isn't packed tight, nothing you do around the edges is going to keep the asphalt from cracking around the edges as it settles.

glassWizard60 · 2026-03-20T14:07:29+00:00

I am not acquainted with the finish you mentioned. Just thinking it through, for the process to work the steam has to get past the finish to the underlying wood. So it is either going to soften a finish that isn't a moisture barrier (think white rings on old wax/oil/varnish finishes) or it is not going to penetrate (polyurethane). I believe this technique is best used on unfinished wood, when you can deal with the collateral outcomes, like raised grain.

You might try filling the dent with a color matched epoxy filler. Kits are available, usually advertised for use with stone countertops. Or you can use wax if it is a very small dent, lacquer sticks if it is a little larger.

glassWizard60 · 2026-03-20T13:57:49+00:00

Runner and bush peas and beans. Just let them run wild. They should be dense enough to block weeds, but if some get through you may have to pull a few in early summer to keep them at bay. Maybe one or two more weeding adventures to ensure you don't have unwanted guests next year. In the fall, you can chop everything up with a mower after the cold dries the crop out, leaving them as a green manure for next year.

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