How To Maintain Your Drip Irrigation System

How To Maintain Your Drip Irrigation System

Drip irrigation systems are critical for maintaining crops with a consistent supply of fresh water. Their convenience and money-saving qualities make them unbeatable, which is why their popularity is on the rise. However, not everyone knows what it takes to maintain them and keep them running smoothly. Here are some tips on how to maintain your drip irrigation system to give you peace of mind.

Clog Inspection

Before performing any kind of inspection, you need to know the signs of a faulty irrigation system to know what to look for. Emitters can clog up incredibly quickly and build up with harmful bacteria, throwing off the pH of your water and your plants. This bacteria and slime buildup is further irritated by the mineral precipitation of fertilizer and hard water.

While they will keep dripping, you need to check your emitters for buildup regularly, as they won’t evenly distribute nutrients into the soil.

Visual and Manual Inspection

The first part of the inspection should include checking your water pressure. It should be performing anywhere from 20 to 50 psi, depending on the specifications of your specific system. This will be the first indication that something is out of order.

Next, check for pipes that feel cracked or worn. These areas may also contain large wet spots, which is the top indicator that your system is putting out way too much water. This may be a faulty tube or emitter. But if you’ve already checked your emitters, it’s likely a leaky tube.

Line Flush and Decontamination Cleaner

When it comes to maintaining your irrigation system, there are two processes you should go through. The first is flushing your irrigation system three to four times a season. This prevents clogging, buildup, and precipitations of minerals and chemicals from leaking into the soil.

The second step is to perform a drip cleaner to decontaminate the pipes completely. While flushing will get most of the dirt and chemicals out, a drip cleaner will suck out the rest of the harmful particles stuck in your pipes. This two-step process will ensure that your water is clean and ready to water your crops.

Knowing how to maintain your drip irrigation system is half the battle. Performing consistent maintenance is the other half. So go out to your field and start an inspection; it’s as easy as taking a look!

Tips for Cleaning Up a Construction Site

Tips for Cleaning Up a Construction Site

No matter the size or scope of your construction project, debris and clutter are parts of the process. Naturally, cleanup is an essential step to keep things safe. Today, we’ve got a few tips for cleaning up a construction site you may want to keep in mind before your next big project gets underway.

Preparing for Backfill

A common component of construction is creating, transporting, and utilizing backfill. Backfill involves storing soil you move or dig out of the ground. Sometimes, construction companies use the earth for future projects, and other times, they return it to the ground at the end of the project.

Creating proper backfill is easier with the help of a rock separator that removes giant rocks from the mixture, providing you with smooth, accessible soil. A rock separator ensures no large stones mix into your backfill and that you can safely reinforce the foundation.

Proper Storage

Proper storage is one of the most crucial tips for cleaning up a construction site, from storing tools to heavy machinery. Anything left out presents a potential hazard, and needless clutter practically asks for something to go wrong.

Take the time to ensure that everything is in its proper place when not actively in use. It may add a little extra time to the overall project, but it’s better to be safe than sorry to avoid an accident on the construction site.

Disposing of Dangerous Materials

Several hazards come up as a result of construction. Watch out for metal rebar from knocked-down concrete, rocks separated from backfill, and broken up lumber capable of causing some nasty splinters.

Whether you plan to discard these materials or reuse them for a future project, taking the time to keep them from accumulating removes a lot of potential risk from the site. As long as you know how to keep your construction site clean, your operations will flow smoothly.

Things To Sell at a Farmer’s Market Other Than Produce

Things To Sell at a Farmer’s Market Other Than Produce

When you think about the farmer’s market, the first thing that comes to mind is colorful produce straight from community farms. And if you’re a farmer, this is usually the first thing you think to bring to market.

However, farmer’s markets are also a chance for an entire community to put their best wares on display and make a profit while they’re at it. Whether you’re looking for something to add a little extra pizazz to your vegetable stand or want a shot at the next market without growing crops, here are things to sell at a farmer’s market other than produce.

Baked Goods

When people visit the farmer’s market, they usually make an entire outing out of it. They bring families, strollers, and a picnic lunch to enjoy when they’re done browsing. And if you’ve ever been out walking with children, you know that, eventually, they’re going to start asking for something to eat.

That’s why a baked goods booth works so well at farmer’s markets. Even people who aren’t planning on buying much at the market will likely stop to buy a pastry. A few things you might include are:

  • Cookies
  • Cupcakes
  • Doughnuts
  • Scones
  • Tarts
  • Bear claws
  • Paczkis

Pro Tip:

If you’re also selling produce, try to incorporate it into your sweets. If you run an apple orchard, offer apple cider doughnuts. If you have strawberry fields, offer a jar of preserves for people to eat with their scones.

Honey

Many farmers enjoy keeping bees as part of their farm anyway, so honey is a popular non-produce item to sell at the farmer’s market. Honey is an especially popular item because those shopping are often concerned about health-conscious, eco-friendly foods—which honey is.

Along with the jars of honey, you can sell other honey-related items. For example, you can sell honeycombs and beeswax. And, for the children, you can sell flavored honey stick packets as snacks.

Handcrafts

Farmer’s markets are also the perfect place for people to pick up gifts for their loved ones from local artisans, and handcrafts are lovely gifts for anyone. If you want to sell handcrafts at your local market, you may want to consider specializing in making one specific type of product and mastering that skill.

Some common handcrafts that you might sell at the market include:

  • Jewelry
  • Handmade soaps
  • Handmade candles
  • Carved wooden figurines
  • Homemade birdhouses
  • Clothing items or accessories

The one thing that can be difficult about selling handcrafts is deciding on a fair price. For instance, when you’re pricing homemade jewelry, you have to consider the cost of the materials as well as overhead costs, such as labor and your lapidary tools.

How To Remove the Gamey Flavor From Game Meat

How To Remove the Gamey Flavor From Game Meat

In the modern age, now that hunting isn’t a necessity for most, people have gotten used to the taste of farm animal meat. Game meat often tastes stringy and full of iron due to its minimal fat content and leanness. If you want to cook what you catch without having to endure the earthy flavor, here’s how to remove the gamey flavor from game meat.

Start in the Field

The main way to prevent gaminess is to clean your catch quickly and properly. The blood that remains in the muscles is part of what gives the meat that overpowering iron flavor. In addition, the longer the meat stays hot, the more the enzymes break it down and add to the undesirable taste.

So gutting, hanging, and bleeding your catch is the best way to mitigate as much of that gamey taste as possible so that you don’t have to over-marinate the meat.

Remove the Silver Skin

While the fatty silver skin may add flavor to other types of meat, this is the opposite for wild game. A large portion of that unwanted flavor comes from cooking it in the silver skin. So while you’re gutting and hanging your catch, it’s worth your time to take a small knife and take off that extra membrane.

Soak and Marinate

While there is a lot of debate as to what liquid you should soak your catch in, you’ll want to avoid acidic liquids like lemon or vinegar. While this may get rid of the gamey taste quickly, it will make your meat tougher and stringier than it already is. Salt water and dairy help remove the blood from the tissue that didn’t come out while letting it hang.

Don’t Overcook It

Most seasoned cooks know that steaks on their own don’t need a lot of time to cook, but due to the lack of fat content, wild game cooks even faster. You need only a few minutes on a skillet, pan, or grill, and you don’t want to cook it all the way to well done. While the blood adds to the gamey flavor, overcooking it will make it harder to chew and taste too earthy, so if you’ve followed all the other steps, you won’t have to worry about a bit of blood in the meat.

Now that you know how to remove the gamey flavor from game meat, you can catch and cook like a pro so that you can show off after your next hunt.