Saturday, June 06, 2009
Naturally 7-- "Wall Of Sound"...
Dig these guys! Super fun! Performing on the Tavis Smiley Show. The TSS's audio system is notoriously flat for straight interviewing. I like this particular recording because of its "bare-bones" production.
To Top Of Main Page
Friday, June 05, 2009
They Write Letters...
A letter by Dirk D. DeDurkheim.
Dear Democratic leadership,
Lately I have read about all the initiatives to incorporate Republicans into efforts to move social and political agendas. Whether you are a Senator, a member of the House, part of the executive branch, or elsewhere within the machinations of government, I have a simple request for you. It is a request that I hope that you take to heart and follow to the best of your ability.
More at the link.
To Top Of Main Page
Labels: Dittoes
Murray Caught Another Mouse...
Lordy, Murray is one funny cat. I was sitting out on the deck, enjoying a tasty beverage, when I watched him as he chased the mouse through the Corn stalks... Well, I watched the stalks rustling, anyway... I then watch him, as he wrestled his quarry all the way across the Savannah to the comfort and security of his lair (my house). It was a long and fierce battle the entire way, but. Col. Murray T. kat made it home, I greeted him, and thanked him, and rewarded him with a great big pile of Catnip on top of his mouse. Two great tastes that taste great together.
He's still out there on the deck, tossing around his greens and mouse.
He's so proud. I figure he's nearly due for acceptance into the Loyal Order Of Mousers Fraternity. One more should do it.
Descendant from Jagulars.To Top Of Main Page
Labels: Murray The Kat, My Life... With Cats
Tassles And Slugs... Independence Days...
Good news, bad news, and a solution... and more.
We got a good, steady rain over the past two days, so I trucked out to the corn field. The corn is now eye-level, for the most part, and look! Tassles! Thirty days to Corn Time!:
The tassels produce the pollen that fertilizes the ears. I don't have ears just yet, though...
Out in the gardens on my day off, and ran some strings to support the Asparagus ferns, as they grow. They were getting sloppy, as they are still a bit top-heavy, and rain keeps knocking them over. I was pulling some mystery grass out of the bed, and when I started weeding the Romaine Lettuce growing under the ferns, I noticed a very serious slug problem:
Slimy Bastards.So, I broke out the scissors, and started snipping slugs. I used the hose to wash them away. I then broke out the secret weapon-- BEER:
Slugs LOVE beer. Place a 1/4-full bottle of beer on its side, with the opening at ground level.Slugs crawl in, get drunk, drown:
Just a few moments later.Never, ever sprinkle salt into your garden to kill slugs. It destroys the soil.
"Salting the earth" was an old warfare strategy to starve the enemy.
"Salting the earth" was an old warfare strategy to starve the enemy.
Looks like the run of 90-plus degree days killed-off the Garden Giant mushrooms, dangit. I don't see a single one out there, today, and the temps have broken into the proper range. There is always Autumn.
The Pole Beans and Carrots are popping up in the new beds, as is the new planting of Cucumbers. I set up the frames for them today, and will get the strings run this evening or tomorrow. The Zucchini, Yellow Crookneck, and Acorn Squashes are doing great, and the Radishes and Nasturtiums that I planted around them are all up. Keeping an eye out for Squash Stinkbugs. I finally got the irrigation system all finished off, and screwed into place.
Tomorrow, I'll plant the new Blueberry bushes.
Preserving Something: I snipped back the Cilantro, and have the dehydrator filled with it. House smells great! Once dry, it's a matter of scratching off the leaves into a paper bag, and transferring them to a jar.
I also got the Feverfew into a tincture of 80-Proof vodka. Chop up the trimmings into bits that will fit in a jar. Add vodka. Shake. Place in cool, dark place for 40 days. I also tinctured a big jar of St. John's Wort blossoms, today. My two SJW plants are doing wonderfully well. I noticed that I need to pull a tree sapling out of my front bed soon.
Eat Your Food:
Under the Floating Row Cover Big Top, I have a beautiful Savoy Cabbage ready to pick. This weekend, I'll make Stuffed Cabbages, and do a photo thing while I do.Next week, It looks like I'll have enough Kohlrabi to make some excellent soup.
The famous "Ripley Tomatoes" are pouring out. I bought a sack of them this morning, and I think I'll go out and snip a few of those Hungarian Hot Yellow Wax peppers, and a few onions, and make some salsa with the Cilantro I have still fresh. OR, perhaps I'll cook it all up with the fresh shrimp I picked up at the Shrimp Man stand on my way home last night.
My neighbor, Tommy, just came by, and dropped some Yellow Squashes on me from his garden. OK... It's Shrimp with Tomatoes, Cilantro, Parsley, Hungarian Peppers, Onion, and Yellow Squash over Fettuccine with Asiago Cheese, tonight. mmmmmmmmmmm.
Time to cook!
Dinner!To Top Of Main Page
Labels: Gardening, Independence Days, Organic Eating, Organic Pest Control
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Good Stuff...
The June/July Edition of Mother Earth News-- the "Best Berries" edition, is chock full of great information, and the website has excellent new stuff daily. Seriously, put the June/July edition in your garden library, and check the site often.To Top Of Main Page
Labels: Gardening, Organic Gardening, Sustainable Living
Monday, June 01, 2009
Some Pics...
I'm still trying to learn this camera, but I looked out the window, and the light was right, so Murray and I trucked outdoors for some pictures. I still have one more bed to do this year, and I have one final bed (my first) in total remission. It was completely, and irrevocably invaded by Bermuda Grass, and so, I've covered it with heavy landscape cloth, and it is piled with all my bits and pieces, and bags, and tubing, and everything. It's a total shipwreck, so, you will notice how I ever so cleverly cropped those two beds out of the pictures. They are in the back left of the picture, below. Two 4'x16' beds that need to be dealt with soon. When finished, I'll have four beds all set up for full and complete crop rotations; crops for all seasons, and hyper-efficient irrigation for each bed. Click each pick for bigger, if not better images.
The view from my back steps. Letting the Clover run rampant to fill-in behind the dead Burmuda Grass. That is the catnip bed on the left. I'll post a pic of where the cats have made a fort in the middle of it in the next day or so.
A Female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird about three feet from me.
Looks like harvest time for the Feverfew! That's Bee Balm looming proudly behind the top-heavy Feverfew-- the Humming Birds are loving the Bee Balm's flowers. Tincture time for Feverfew-- and drying, as well. The St. John's Wort is blooming out front, too!
Silver Thyme (x2) in foreground, German Thyme in back, Basil on the right and back, and behind that is Oregano. Far left is Onion. 2'x8' bed. I really need to build this up, too.
The Pepper/Tomato/Bean bed with the Giant Garden mushroom growing underneath! I got three more Bluberries for 1/2-off clearance price ($4.00!! each)
My Pet Mushrooms. Looks like the heat killed off a bunch more, today. In my "control" pic, here, we see two of the littlest primordia died off, and a major bloout for one of the bigger ones, but you can see a new "pebble" sprouting reddish, down center-right.
I honestly cannot believe how many Hungarian Peppers I have-- so soon! Three weeks to Pickling Time!
Some Endive sprouting under the Hungarian Peppers, and under the soaker hose. It'll spread out low.
Tomatoes, already! Romas on the left and a Big Boy on the right. The Big Boy is about the size of a racquet ball, the Romas are heirloom stock. They're going to be huge, and plentiful.
The far view. This is the bed that I am just buttoning up. I need to get more sand, and I need to strap down the water tubing. Where the bricks undulate downward used to be an erosion washout half-way up my calf. Simply having the beds here has stopped the erosion, and everything is filling in.In the mid-ground left, you see the potatoes in pots, and the Asparagus limping over. I need to tie up a supprt grid for them. Under the Asparagus, Swiss Chard, Beets, Romaine Lettuce, and Radishes are thriving in the shade of the ferns, while the Strawberries are beginning to put out babies. The Letuce and Radishes will be gone just in time for the babies to be transplanted. Next year, that bed will only house Strawberries and Asparagus, with a couple of strong companions in a few squares. The Broccoli and Cabbages are under the Big Top behind the berries and Asparagus.
Murray chills nearby.
The giant Kossack Kohlrabi. Kohlrabi is a member of the Cole (Mustard) Family, along with Cabbage, Broccoli, Kale, Turnips, and Cauliflower. They are all Brassicas, and one needs to plant a couple of crops between re-plantings to avoid Club Root. Since harvesting the Broccoli last Spring, I've had Onions, and Sage, and flowers, and carrots, and a fallow period, and then I added six-inches of fresh soil, compost, manure and a beneficial fungus-- I think I am safe. The Kohlrabi, once you peel it, is crispy like a water chestnut, but has the sweet flavor of a cabbage heart, only better. I'll eat them raw right there in the garden (My cousins and I were always in trouble for munching Grandpa's Kohlrabi's), but I like making them into a soup, with a Manhattan Chowder-based broth (minus the clams). Works great with Broccoli and Cauliflower too, but the Kohlrabi soup is the very best. I'll post the recipe as soon as the 'rabi's are ready.
Ah, yes-- the Corn field... This pic doesn't quite show the size properly. The Silver Queen, on the far left, is sort of lagging behind. I've been pushing nutritious side dressings on it as the rains have fallen, I hope it hurries on, and grows up, now. It looks like it will be Peaches and Cream in time for July 4th, and the Kandy Korn and Silver Queen staggering in behind. I'm sort of relieved to have it all coming up staggered like this. I was fearing dealing with all this corn coming in at once!
The Neighbor Kid (5'-11"), showing the height. I'm 5'-7", and it's up to my chest in most places.
The Legendary Corn Tiger of West Tennessee. A rare photo.
Another rare photo of The Legendary Corn Tiger of West Tennessee.
The equally rare West Tennessee Corn Lion (here, we see the female) in her native habitat.
The West Tennessee Corn Lion will sometimes make excursions into the Savannah to hunt prey; and also to the house for tasty noms, groomin's and a cushy bed.
Next.
So, there you go! The tour of the gardens so far... Lots done, more to do. Everything there will feed me until next year, this time. The "next" bed is going to get some Eggplant, more Green Beans, a few more Tomatoes champing at the bit to get out of the pots and into real dirt, more Vining Squashes, and I'll devote the rest to more Food Bank Staples and greens.
It's exactly 11:00pm CDT, and it's still 80-degrees outside. Looks like Summer is ready to set in proper.
To Top Of Main Page
Labels: Gardening, My Life... With Cats, Organic Gardening, Square Foot Gardening, Suburban Farming
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Pictures On The Way...
I finally broke down, and bought a decent Handi-cam that also takes good pictures. I'm still figuring it out, but at least the machine recognizes the Signature, and it works. Microsoft dumped the Signature on my old, cheap camera, rendering it useless.
Mushroom Update: Looks like the spike into the 90s today killed off quite a few of those Garden Giant Shrooms, but, I've still got a bunch left. Here's to hoping. I finished the rest of the bed I was working on last weekend. All that is left there, is to clamp down the irrigation supply hose running around the bed frame. I buried a Shaggy Mane mushroom patch under this area.
I planted in 48 Pole Beans (30 Goldmarie Yellow Vining, and 18 Rattlesnake Beans). I put in some more carrots, and finally got my Squash and Zucchini plants in, along with lots of Radishes and Nasturtiums around them. I also planted in another eight Pickling Cucumbers, for a total of 16 plants. That should keep me in pickles! I should see Shaggy Mane mushrooms in the Fall, when the temps get back down into the 45-60 degree range.
Not the best picture, but here is a shot of the Giant Garden Mushroom primordia under one of the Bean Plants. Fairly typical amount under each plant. There are seven of them, here.
To Top Of Main Page
Labels: Gardening, My Life As It Is, Organic Gardening
What Dangerous Right-Wing Extremists?
Pro-Life edition...
Dr. Tiller was shot and killed at his church.
via The Wichita Eagle
WICHITA - The 51-year-old man arrested in the shooting death of Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller -- a case that has drawn international attention -- could be charged today.
Tiller, 67, was shot once just after 10 a.m. as he stood in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church, 7601 E. 13th, where he was a member of the congregation.
Wichita police said that the suspect was arrested without incident on I-35 in Johnson County about three hours after the shooting following a statewide broadcast description of the suspect and the car he was driving.
Although Wichita police declined to name the suspect, a Johnson County sheriff identified him as Scott P. Roeder, according to the Associated Press.
Police said it appeared Roeder acted alone and that they are are investigating whether he had any connection to anti-abortion groups.
Tiller had long been a focal point of protests by abortion opponents because his clinic, Women's Health Care Services at 5107 E. Kellogg, is one of three in the country where late-term abortions are performed.
He was shot and wounded in both arms at his clinic in 1993.
More at the link.
FReepers Cheer. These are really, really horrible people. The worst comments are from those who call themselves "Christians." Awful.
UPDATE: Oh-- holy SHIT!e Jack Bauer syndrome is everywhere the Right Wing wants it to be. This, from Red State, sums up the moral degeneration of the Conservatives.
To Top Of Main Page
Labels: Abortion, Dangerous Right Wing, Pro-Life, Rightwing Violence
