The Steel Magnolia on Dog River

03/27/2019

Boondocking...At The Steel Magnolia!

Since we enjoy camping of all types, we are now using the The Steel Magnolia property as a place for campers to spend the night during their travels. We are hosts for a group called BoonDockers Welcome. Basically we provide a place for them to park for the night. We have water and limited electrical service available. It's a good deal and we can stay at other host locations when we're on the road.

Life is GOOD.... With Kathy.... At The Steel Magnolia!

Free Overnight RV Parking on Private Property. Make new friends and sleep soundly. Locals invite travelers to spend the night, share their stories, and save their money for the real adventure.

05/01/2016

This is just an easy way to waste 2 minutes. :) Kathy is operating the Kioti tractor as we do some maintenance work around The Steel Magnolia

03/23/2016

We use a lot of water for cleaning fish, washing boats, washing cars, the garden, the lawn, etc, etc... So we decided to drill/wash down our own well. I had been reading and studying about this for several years. We finally undertook this adventure. We had a few problems, but overall things went better than I had expected.

I would like to acknowledge Mr. Mike Willis at http://www.drillyourownwell.com/index... for his amazing website. I basically learned everything we did from reading his site and watching his videos. Thanks, Mike!

We ended up at 43 feel. The water is clear, clean with no sediment or off tastes. We are currently waiting on the lab report to ensure the water is potable. ...I don't want to be drinking something that has contaminates in it...the reason for the test! Better safe than sorry.

https://youtu.be/1Ue2DkG64r8

We use a lot of water for cleaning fish, washing boats, washing cars, the garden, the lawn, etc, etc... So we decided to drill/wash down our own well. I had ...

03/14/2016

Making Changes to Our Hydroponic System

Sunday, we cranked up our dutch bucket hydroponic system. When we built it a few years ago we used small rock as the grow medium and the water/nutrient was provided by an ebb and flow system. The problem with the rock is that it is very heavy which makes cleaning it very difficult. For this year, we have switched over to perlite as the grow medium. It weighs nothing. I also had to change the water delivery system to work with the perlite.

Yesterday we transplanted one row of the system. This morning...all the plants look good.

We also have built a NFT rail system to grow some greens and strawberries. I still have a lot of adjusting to do on this, but Kathy and I enjoyed building it yesterday. It was exciting as I gave the command for her to plug the pump into the extension cord...nothing. After fiddling with the pump for a while and deciding the pump was bad...we discovered that all of this would work better if the other end of the extension cord was actually plugged into something! LOL Life is Good...
https://youtu.be/IRn57Z4SNzc

This is an update on our hydroponics for 2016. We changed from a rock medium to perlite for the dutch buckets. We also built a simple NFT rail system (first ...

03/06/2016

While this video is a year old...I still enjoy looking at it. As I watched it again a few minutes ago, I am reminded of the peace, tranquility and love that is shared by all....at The Steel Magnolia!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywccVCrSTUs

Kathy and I spending some quality time with the Girl-Chickens. Enjoying a beautiful day on Dog River...at The Steel Magnolia

03/06/2016

It's been a great day at The Steel Magnolia! We worked on getting the hydroponic garden set up for the new season, changing from our original rock growing medium to a perlite medium. As soon as the 5 gallon paint strainers come in...we will be ready to start filling them and the containers with perlite (the strainers keep the perlite from getting into the water system. We are also doing a straw/hay bale garden this year. It is currently being processed to start the internal breakdown and composting that is required before planting in the bales. Today we also purchased some additional fruit trees, 2 plum, 2 persimmon and 1 pear and 2 nectarines. We managed to get three in the ground and will finish the others tomorrow.

As our day is winding down...I am cooking Kathy some of my green-chili pork with taters, onions, celery, garlic and carrots. After charring the poblano peppers and breaking them down in the food processor with chicken stock, garlic, salt and pepper...it almost tasted too good to just pour over everything that was patiently waiting in the large cast iron pot. Oh well... Things are in the oven for about an hour, then it will be time to crack on a bottle of wine and enjoy a quiet dinner!

Nothing better than spending time with my honey........at The Steel Magnolia!

01/01/2016

06/06/2015

Corn OFF the Cob!

Kathy Rayner's Dad gave us a a sack of corn from his garden this afternoon. The attached video is me using the Kernel Kutter that we ordered last year. This is such a great tool. Paw-n-law now wants one...So I guess I will be contacting Patricia Caccia and get him one ordered! Hopefully next weekend we will be stripping about two bushel of Silver King Corn! Yea...

https://youtu.be/yk6KOsIgJKo

Kernal Kutter 06 06 15 Kathy's Dad gave us a a sack of corn from his garden this afternoon. The attached video is me using the Kernel Kutter. This is such a ...

05/21/2015

We have enjoyed this lady's rants on backyard chickens. Since we do sell our extra yard eggs...we do occasionally get the strange questions. I thought this was very funny!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvRR5mMHBnE

Thinking about selling or giving away your backyard chicken eggs? DONT!