Catching Up

I am running so far behind.  These were shot this past Tuesday.  I can see how the cloud coverage was affecting the coloring now.  Rushing to beat a thunderstorm that dumped a little over an inch of rain on us within 30 minutes didn't allow being choosy.

Our ' Pink Lady ' Apple Tree had to have a haircut.  After contacting the guys at Nature Hills - Dwayne had to go in and remove portions of branches destroyed by a fungus that tends to bother fruit trees in Tennessee.

He also had to go in and thin out branches on our ' Georgia Belle ' Peach Tree.  All the peaches were taken out by a pest.  We're thinking that mushroom compost may have been about equal to a dozen shots of 190 proof whiskey in one night - just too much for the little girl!  All those branches made for a perfect haven to host any pest.

But that mushroom compost seems to have been just the perfect treat for my ' Black Knight ' Butterfly Bush was asking for.  I can tell already - that thing is gonna be beautiful this year.  This single spire smells absolutely wonderful!

I caved when I saw this ' Anaheim ' Pepper Plant in the store almost a week ago.  Already boasting with a pepper!  We used this pepper in our Pico de' Gallo from Jamie Oliver's ' Perfect Steak with 2 Sauces ' recipe and liked it much better than the Jalapeno.  Jaimie refers to the recipe as his ' Mexican Salsa Verde' - but - trust me.  It's Pico.  The only difference is - this pepper allows us to taste all the ingredients much more pleasantly - without stealing that wonderful ' bite ' that hot peppers should offer.

I get really nervous at this sight.  The Yellow Hookneck squash is already fruiting.  It'll be giving me a race within a week.  And it's not alone.

The Zucchini squash is already fruiting - right along with the yellow Hookneck.  I'll be slicing - breading and freezing most of it for storage.

The bush beans have begun to blossom.  I love it when this starts happening!  Early in the mornings and late in the evenings - I can go out to the garden and catch a whiff of the scent from the flowers.

The Pole Beans have already begun reaching beyond our trellis.  These are Italian ' Borlotto Solista ' beans that we dry for making beans in the winter.  They have a common name of ' Cranberry Bean ' as well.  In the background are the onions - which are becoming huge.  I only hope these are slicing onions.  The package claimed they are.  I'm not too happy about not being able to get my hands on ' Texas Sweet ' Onion sets this year.

For the first time ever - I'm attempting to add a little more comedy to the brew by seeing if gourd plants like me enough to grow me a ' bird house ' - or a dozen!

And this varmint would be - one of two volunteer tomato plants that have shown up in the middle of my carrot patch.  Luckily - this one's at the end - and between two rows.  I dunno - guess we'll see.

Springin' Up and Crop Mobs

I’m posting a couple of articles I found this morning.  Please bear with me.  I’m going through a bit of a struggle with some personal matters.  But I’m hanging in there.  The list of projects helps - not to mention my four-legged kids.

For now - learn and enjoy!

Kit - " A Simpler Time "
by Kimberly Stewart

' Crop Mob' volunteers help small farms in North Carolina


Rob Jones, his boots smeared with mud, was trying to get the attention of a ragged group of young men and women dressed in jeans and work boots. They were toting shovels and rakes as they stomped across a barren field toward a plot of freshly turned earth.

This was Crop Mob, a roving band of volunteers dedicated to helping young farmers build sustainable small farms. It's a modern version of a barn-raising, with volunteers brought together by Google and Facebook.

Jones, a Crop Mob founder who grows his own vegetables at home, gathered up the volunteers to help farmer Jason Oatis build rice paddies. They were to be taught by Oatis, a bearded 40-year-old who is trying to carve out a sustainable farm on a few acres of sticky clay soil on a pine-studded plot in central North Carolina.

"It's fantastic -- these people love working the land, but they don't have their own farms, and I could definitely use the help," Oatis said as the mobbers' shovels smacked against wet clay, pounding out low earthen walls for each rice paddy.

( Read more... )


Pig City Garden Calendar:
Gardening that Amounts to a Row of Beans

By Dan Marvin

As we all plan toward what we want to plant, where we want to plant it and how much we want to plant to satisfy our needs and possibly extra to take to CazCares, we should consider putting together a list of those things we need to get the garden off to a good start.

If you will have pole beans you will need six- to seven-foot-long treated one-inch-by-one-inch poles to set up like a teepee.

I am working on a plan to have pole beans by special arrangement on a raised patio with the beans planted in large pots around the poles where they enter into the planting medium in the big pots. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

( Read More... )

There's been discussion about dogs that kill chickens in one of my Yahoo Groups.  One of the girls found a video that she shared.  I decided to pass it along here.  I never even imagined Ceasar  - aka - "The Dog Whisperer" initiating this!  But then - I never connected the dots from Jet Mechanic back to Auto Mechanic with my Hubby when we first met!  " Duhhhh!! "

Let Us Talk About Lettuce

Kit - " Falling Leaves " by Nancy at Digital Design Den - ( No longer available )

If I could paint a mural of my mind this morning.  It would be a scene of me - standing in the center.  And this - whirlwind - would be rotating around me.  All these - faces - human and animal - would be riding inside this whirlwind.

It would represent the end result of the heaviness I woke up feeling inside my heart this morning - for so many in this world.

It’s impossible to save the world.  But it’s possible - for the world to save itself.

All it takes is everybody collecting together - with those right around you - to deal with overcoming obstacles - with and for everyone.

Wow - did I just say that? 

Kit - " Falling Leaves " by Nancy at Digital Design Den - ( No longer available )

 

Dwayne and I are nowhere in any true beginning of getting this place we bought set up enough to where it’s operating - yet.  And that will come in time - as long as we keep putting one foot in front of the other.

That doesn’t bother me.  What does bother me is - sitting here looking at all this land we have - wishing we were doing something with it - with others - in ways that it would be helping several of us.

Sometimes - this rat race world can become so overwhelming for too many of us.  There are those of us existing - without ever realizing - how much this world’s selfishness and demands has robbed us of our own God-given power to lead our lives.  It like this friggin’ world has taken over and is now running the show in our lives.  And too many of us are - too busy - to even stop long enough and take notice - realize - and care enough to get mad about it.

People today - it usually takes getting mad - enough - before they’ll stop everything and deal with a wrongdoing being thrust upon their lives from elsewhere.

It amazes me how so many of us will let everything just roll with the flow - until we find ourselves sitting on our butts - totally exhausted - feeling like we’ve had every ounce of our strength beaten out of us.  And we’re wondering how that happened - because we never even noticed anything - or - anyone - coming around to do such a thing!

Kit - " Falling Leaves " by Nancy at Digital Design Den - ( No longer available )

As if that’s not enough - the thought of doing one more thing - even for the sake of taking back our own lives from the selfishness and demands of this world - tends to be put on this other list - something that seems to have become a new fad with the latest generation - which I call - “ Today’s Human Wrecks. “  ( fits right in with “ Baby Boomers “ - huh! )

The list - it’s the “ I Don’t Have Time For That “ list.

It’s the list of labor intensive tasks that sit outside the immediate “ Fun stuff “ - and all that ever-so-unfortunate  “ Necessary Crap “  ( example - employment ) which they absolutely cannot manage to escape. ( poor thangs! )

What they don’t realize is - you have to work to save money - just as much as you have to work to make money!  The only difference in that equation - there’s nobody else giving you the paycheck for the work you do to save the money.  The one giving you that paycheck is - yourself!

Are we all losing self-respect and devaluing ourselves?

Kit - The Garden of Weedin' by Kimberly Stewart

Ya’ get out there and work in a vegetable garden - short story end result is - you’re doing something to help save money at the grocery store and the doctor.  Barack Obama just had his physical done this week.  Here’s an example that would scare the living hell out of him!!

Head of lettuce in the grocery store - $1.19 each  ( You get 1 head of lettuce that you have to hurry up and eat! )

Pack of Lettuce seed - $1.95 ( You get rows loaded with heads of lettuce to share with several people - that you get to go pick when you need and want it - for much longer than that one you bought at the grocery store! )

And let me tell you something about the lettuce around here.  I got so mad when I found out Dwayne threw it in the trash before I could get a picture of it - but…

I had a head of lettuce in our refrigerator - stored in a gallon-size Ziploc bag.  I never cut the end off.  Simply washed it really good - drained - patted dry with paper towels - and stored it inside the bag.

He threw that head of lettuce away about two weeks ago.  Now - this is February - 2010 - alright ?

I bought the damn thing in SEPTEMBER - 2009 - just before my in-laws came up from Texas !!!

There was only a little bit of brown wilt on the outer layer of leaves when Dwayne threw it away.  Yeah - I know.  Sounds gross - leaving something in the fridge that long.  We just don’t eat sandwiches that much.  And all the other salad stuff is not in season.  And - I just - forgot about the dad-gum thing - okay?!

I bought this head of lettuce at - WalMart.  And there seems to be a common denominator going on here.

We tried buying Grainger County tomatoes at - WalMart - last year.  Everybody around here goes simply ga-ga over Grainger County tomatoes when they come into season every year.  The supply stocked at WalMart had red flags going up with me - already.  It just seemed a bit early for that many tomatoes to be out on the shelves.  It was hard to believe these tomatoes we bought were from Grainger County.

And I should have followed that red flag.  They were red.  They had absolutely no flavor.

WalMart likes to buy in bulk from their suppliers.  And they don’t like to pay for what they buy.  I will be bold enough to ask.  Could it be possible - our farmers have become the wiser?  Could it be possible - our farmers have found ways to give ‘em only what they’re paying for?

Either way - WalMart continues sticking that same outrageous price on the goods - and the money is coming out of our wallets!

Does it make you wonder about - just exactly what that was - that you ate?

I will be buying my Grainger County Tomatoes from the Maryville location of Horn of Plenty - as I always did - before I began growing my own - and as I always do - before my own come ready for harvest.  They make the best fried green tomatoes!!!

Good Beans -vs- Full of Beans

It’s early.  It’s - way early.

There would be a photo here - but - how different can any black square be?

It’s Day Shift.

And our alarm clock began shaking our every nerve out of any deep sleep at 4 o’clock am - this very morning.

And it’s 16* outside.

I’d show you the latest sight of my icicle hanging off the back porch - but - how different can a black square be?

Thank God for coffee - and coffee pots with programmable clock settings.  And me - being smart enough to pick up extra milk and bread.

Not me - for forgetting to pick up extra cans of Campbell’s Home-style Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup.

How dare me - to think my darling Hubby could take one more bowl of my homemade chili - or homemade beans and beef - made with the Italian Borlotti Pole Beans we grew in the garden last season!

Confession.  There are times when even the most boring and responsible women on earth must find ways - to rebel against the affliction in her life caused by situations surrounding her life - to which she has no control over.

Revenge is sweet!  Actually - I tend to consider it more about - Karma - coming back to rectify.  My best Device?  Sending my darling Hubby to work with a huge bowl of my homemade chili - or homemade beans and beef.

Twelve-hour work shift.  Do the math!  Plenty of time!

Speaking of our garden.

I found a website that shared a wonderful source of help for me!  I’m now able to print out graph paper for my garden layouts.  Actually - there are several things you can do there.  You can print out your own yearly or monthly calendar.  You can find royalty-free music for Power-Point presentations or websites - and lots of other fun things!

Because I now have the Acrobat 9.2 version - I’m able to adjust the number of lines per square inch on the graph paper.  As if that’s not enough - I can even save a copy of the file according to whatever adjustments I make to the file.

And last but not least - according to reports on WBIR this morning - I’m feeling even more fortunate about the fact that we live out in Loudon County - rather than Blount County - or - Knox County.

I don’t have to go through - this.

I left a comment on their website.  Could NOT resist!

“ I find it to be - both - sad and comical - the fact that such a town with such history has an entire board of folks so totally ignorant to the idea - as well as the education and practice - of having chickens in a backyard for providing food to a family! “

Time for Planning and Mapping Out

What a morning! Oh - my goodness. This cold winter is shaping its own routine around our house. Get the warmest sweats on ( who cares if they match! ) and grab the thickest socks. Run - no - I mean - RUN to the fireplace and kick that puppy into gear! Then - get that coffee pot going - as fast as you can!

The tap water is so cold that the coffee pot is even taking longer to start brewing. Ha! Woke up to temperatures of 61 * inside the house - and a whopping 12* outside. Once again - the snow flurries start up - as if not giving the sunrise a chance to warm things up around here.

For us - it’s that time of year best used for planning - literally. The blank paper comes out of the printer. The pencil and rulers come out. And the layout for this year’s garden and landscape begin swirling in our imaginations before the tools transpose everything onto paper.

Layout for the vegetable garden is - especially - important. To everyone his own choosing. For us - we never plant anything in the same place as the year before. The seed catalogs have already begun to arrive. Time to hunt for our choice of veggie varieties. However - this year holds an additional aspect to watch for. We’re hoping to find varieties of seed safe from so-called “genetically engineered enhancements.”

Landscape - we have plans for adding a couple more fruit trees and grape vines. And I’ve already chosen the spot for the Kwanzan Cherry. That’s a topic for later! The pickings for the homes where the fruit trees will reside is not as easy as one might think. We have plans for a major project pertaining to shifting soil on this property to bring more efficient use of the acreage. Attempting to re-transplant a fruit tree - not a really smart idea.

The plans we have for this place are so far from all the goals we have made. We are only now into our second year at this home. This is the year we will begin bringing animals on board. With that goal - comes a great deal of consideration - a LOT of time looking around corners. What we do now - has everything to do with how well things will go later.

Where is the Prize Patrol when you really need them? I don’t see them making their way up this driveway for the next couple of weeks - unless they’ve got snow tires.

In reality - everything requires taking baby steps! Spring around this place means - a couple more new things around here to be added to the menagerie - besides taking care of everything that’s already here!

But - we have faith. And - we will get there!

Here’s something that comes to my mind to remind me of that!!

Enjoy!