the little wild kingdom

[frustratedearthmother]

i really much more prefer a one-thing-at-a-time very quiet and peaceful sort of life.

most of the time I do to - unless the grands are here! Then the crazier the better, lol.

new furnace has a bit more capacity and seems to be working as it should.

glad to have it done and the stink done too.

Glad it's working well!

 

[flowerbug]

at last i could get back to some more beany things today and managed to get a few pictures of some of them

Bottom row, all the way to the left, blues and greens with some speckles, a very interesting bean - I hope it will repeat when grown out again. Other beans in that bottom row are also interesting to me, but I’m not sure how many of them I’ll try to grow out again.

Purple Dove outcrosses that don’t have a discoloration around the eye. Some of them I hope to get further crosses from.

A few of the beans on the left are familiar (Lemon Slice and Huey) or contain hints of Monster (the upper left) and a few on the right (especially the red to purple one) are interesting enough to me that I will likely continue to grow them again to see if they’ll become stable. The rest aren’t too likely to be grown again unless someone else wants them.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Really cool to see so many varieties especially the ones that come from your outcrosses. Some of them are really very pretty!

 

[flowerbug]

looks like snow for the next two or three days.

i would be ok with this, but for some reason Mom decided to schedule us driving into town tomorrow and taking dinner to a friend's place. forecast makes me rather want to stay home.

winter is really not a good time to be scheduling things... *sigh*

 

[flowerbug]

three more groups of beans. my eyes got really tired today and the light wasn't very good so i can tell in the pictures as close ups that i didn't get things very well segregated for some of these. it's ok. i'm pretty sure at least one of those containers is just a mix of beans that i kinda just tossed in because i was tired and it was enough for the day. i'll take another look at all of these sometime when the sun is shining.

part white beans including some named beans (Andikove, Pheasant, Tinker's Fire). i see i missed one, i'll pick that out tomorrow and put in the right container...

black to gray beans, i think my favorites in these are the layered and complex ones when seen in good light. of course anything purple i tend to like no matter what.

purples, reds, browns, tans, white... hard to pick favorites but purples are very likely among them.

 

[flowerbug]

Stripes or other marks. The yellow and red colored one is from Tinker’s Fire. Most of the others are from two Painted Pony outcrosses (dark and light) and the few blue tinted beans on the right are from Sacre Bleu. Yet my favorite (as hard as it is to pick just one) is the dark and pink one in the middle.

Some very strange beans.

Lavender and Green colors with some having a mix of both.

Purple Dove selections. The container in the middle bottom row has all sorts of various odd beans in it (if I'd put each type in a different container there'd be a bunch more).

 

[frustratedearthmother]

The lavenders are beautiful! I never knew beans come in so many different colors.

 

[flowerbug]

The lavenders are beautiful! I never knew beans come in so many different colors.

it has been an interesting journey so far. i didn't think there were any green or blue ones but now i've grown several variations of both of them and have even seen new ones showing up.

it is sad though that some colors fade or get marked too easily, but perhaps those can be gotten around various ways. freezing can keep some colors from fading.

 

[Achin'Acres]

furnace needs to be replaced.

Sounds like you did your best keeping the thing in good running order for as long as possible.

 

[flowerbug]

Sounds like you did your best keeping the thing in good running order for as long as possible.

i asked the people who should know better if there is a better technology or if more regular cleaning and service calls would make a difference and they said that a checkup every once in a while (a few years) should be about the best you can expect.

so for future reference if you are burning propane expect to have to replace the furnace or the heat exchanger every 12-15 years (that's about how long they've lasted). we have had to replace the fan a few times in almost 30yrs plus the control board once and then the igniter's were a PITA for some time until we asked them to get better ones.

whatever cost savings you might get from burning propane might be lost in the expense of replacing the worn out heat exchangers.

where i grew up we had a natural gas furnace and i don't remember it having issues as much as propane seems to have.