Bingo, I win!

I just returned from the vet's office where Bingo Baby was the main attraction. As it turns out, he is really healthy except for the worms(whips, hooks AND tapes). He was treated and released. The vet thinks he is between 10-12 weeks old, younger than our first estimates. Not only has his tail been docked, but his dewclaws were also surgically removed, leading her to believe, as I do, that he is fullblood Australian Shepherd. I just can't believe my luck. What a catch! In a few weeks, he will return for booster shots and neutering.
He threw up in the crate both on the way there and on the way back, so I have a mess to clean up. Puppies are fun!

Bingo!

Opportunity does knock, occasionally. As I've written, Skyguy and I had been thinking about getting another dog. We met with a Sheltie breeder who should have litters for sale later this year, so we were waiting and biding our time, wondering how we would justify spending a lot of money for a pup when the economy is bumpy. Saturday, I saw a puppy listed on Freecycle, and while I usually ignore such offers, this one jumped at me. A lady had found a puppy at a local grocery store, and no one had claimed him. She couldn't keep him, so she gave him to me! He has a docked tail, so he is at least part Australian Shepherd if not full blooded. At any rate, I now have a new family member and for the time being, we are calling him Bingo. Yeah. "There was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-Oh, B-I-N-GO". I can hear Jordan singing it now. The little guy is both adorable and smart.

The timing on this adoption/rescue could have been better. I'm having foot surgery tomorrow so I won't be able to walk and play with him for a time. I suppose it will be good motivation to get well. I've made a list of commands that I want to teach him. You don't realize how many commands there are until you start listing them. Most dogs know less than 10 commands, I would think. I don't count tricks as commands, but if you do, maybe a dozen instead of 10.

*Stay, *Here, *Come by, *Stand, Away, *Search/Find/Where's, *Stop, *Lay Crawl/Under, *Sit, *Speak, *Wait, *Catch,*Heel, Hold, *Over(jump), *Load up, Weave, *Go Crate, Walk up, *Hush, *Back up, *Easy/Gentle, *Out, *Bring it, *Get that, *Ride, *That'll do, *Leave it, *Drop it, Eat

If it has an asterisk, Bear already knows it. I never could get him to understand 'Away', but sometimes he understands "go right" if he isn't too worked up. I hope I can at least teach Bingo the commands that Bear knows. I'm thinking Gee and Haw might be easier than Come By and Away. Sled dogs use geehaw, so we'll see.

The lady who found Bingo is really the shining star of this story, however. Her situation prevented her from keeping the dog as her own, but she still went out of her way to save this probable purebred dog from the pound, and she not only brought me the dog, but she brought toys, food, bowls, a leash and everything I might need. It is hard to find people like that these days.

Bingo played and attacked Bear all evening, and I think Bear corrected him twice. He was so good, just allowing Bingo to climb, bite, hump and otherwise maul him. Bear even stepped aside and attempted to allow Bingo to share his food(which I did not allow-Bingo eats puppy chow) I lost track of how many times I walked him outside yesterday and this morning. I wanted to give him plenty of leash time to teach walking and heeling on a leash, as well as exercise so that he would be easier to train. Last night, he seemed to have an itchy ear, so we gave him a bath and I sprayed his ear with an anti-itch medication for dogs. I think it worked. He cried in the shower, but did not struggle or fight. Bear was very upset and Bingo was crying, so both dogs, separated by the shower door, cried to each other. I tried to work fast, and I did not give him a full blown bath or drying as I just wanted him to experience the bath. I think in time he will be fine.

Today, he met the girls (a rat terrier and a black lab) that belong to my friend Ava, and we went on a short golf cart ride. He wasn't afraid and seemed to enjoy riding. I think he is bonding to me pretty well, so I just took him out without the leash and he stayed with me. He comes when I call him, so it makes me wonder whether or not I really should change his name, even though the list of potential names still exists. Opinions wanted. This pup is a ball of fire, always switched on and fearless. Braveheart fits, and if I had registration papers, I might list that as his name. I could not call him that, however. Here's the reduced list: Rocket, Loki, Zeus, Nitro, Nike, Ace, Rambo, Bingo, Rio, Echo, Shadow, Mojo, Tango, and Mick. I am open for suggestions, too.

I have an appointment with the vet this afternoon. I'm concerned that I don't feel testicles, but perhaps he is younger than we think. Also, I noticed this morning that he has tapeworms, so he needs treatment for that. Since I don't know whether or not he has been immunized, I suppose I will do that, too. So far, he has handled everything I've thrown at him really well. He's quite smart.

Wishful thinking doesn't make it so...

After my 'Say What??' post, my friend Rob posted a comment suggesting an essay along the same vein, that is long but that I believe is worth your time to read.

http://www.securityaffairs.org/issues/2009/16/peters.php


This line sticks with me, "Even the most successful war yields imperfect results." His example is the Civil War, where slavery was abolished, but equal rights did not come along for another hundred years.

Making the most of life

What a sad day. It was expected to lose Farrah, but the day ended with Michael gone as well. It just doesn't seem real. I was never a huge Farrah fan-I thought she gave blondes a bad name (Kate Jackson was my favorite Angel) and over acted, but I did have one of those posters in my room, and I'm not a guy! For me, Farrah lives on in her hair. I still have layered wings like Farrah popularized. I did like the two movies she did where she played battered women. I read a mean spirited article an hour or so after her death about how her death was a result of her own risky behavior-having unprotected anal sex, and contracting the Human Papilloma virus. I spent the next few minutes educating myself on HPV, especially HPV-16, which is the strain responsible for most anal cancers. I actually had not known that this type of cancer is almost always related to HPV-16. Farrah, the sex symbol, dies from complications of a sexually transmitted disease. Ironic. I give her huge props for her documentary, and especially for going public and making all these reporters overcome the snicker factor from saying the word anal. The guts of this guy's article may be factual, but we don't know for sure that Farrah even had HPV-16, let alone whether or not she had anal sex. For all we know, she may have been raped as a teenager and contracted the virus. I just thought it was crass to insinuate crap like that -just for sensationalism and to tear someone down. Even if it is true, I admire Farrah for going public and providing a chance for Americans, especially teenagers, to talk about HPV in a mature way and make a decision about Guardasil, the vaccine which protects against contraction of the virus. Perhaps, with a history or practice of anal sex, doctors should recommend an anal pap smear?

Michael. Wow. Like everyone my age, I grew up with Michael. As I entered my teenybop years, I was in love with Michael Jackson. Remember that it was a different world then, and it raised eyebrows when young white girls swooned over young black men. Yeah, I also had posters of Donny Osmond and later David Cassidy, but Michael was my favorite. I had Off The Wall in college, but it was stolen. I listened to Thriller and all of his other hits. Later, while I stayed home with the kids, I watched spellbound as he dealt with the molestation charges. I believed he was guilty. He lived a sad life. He was a sad person. His attorney, Oxman, drew a parallel between Michael and Anna Nichole Smith, and I have to say that I believe it is a good parallel. I can't remember the last time I saw an interview with him in which he appeared sober. I always thought "Man in the Mirror" was about addiction and pedophilia, but tonight, it is about any kind of change you make for the positive.

I'm Gonna Make A Change,
For Once In My Life
It's Gonna Feel Real Good,
Gonna Make A Difference
Gonna Make It Right . . .

And then there is "Heal the World":

Heal the world, Make it a better place
For you and for me
And the entire human race.
There are people dying, if you care enough
For the living,
Make a better place for you and for me.

So long Farrah, Sing on Michael....No more Pain

Say what??

What the heck is wrong with this country? What is wrong with people?? These questions are often asked, at least in my neck of the woods, and yet seldom answered. I think, however, I know..

People are often demonized or attacked for placing importance on morality. Do-gooders and truth-tellers get bad reputations as troublemakers or party-poopers. Good people with deep convictions on issues will remain silent, afraid to voice opinions that might not be seen as politically correct. I'm generally conservative, and I don't want anyone to think that I believe my ideas are right and absolute, to that point I will remind readers that all people, even liberals, can have deep convictions about what they believe to be morally correct or morally wrong as the case may be, and many are just as silent, just as paralyzed to act as Conservatives. Sometimes people are afraid to stand up for others because they fear becoming a target themselves.

Politically correct is now socially correct, and once a person crosses the line, they become a social pariah. There is an unspoken rule in many workplaces that one should not work too hard, because that would make others look lazy. Very often, the bottom line is money, and in business, the ends justify the means in many companies. As long as a company maintains a certain image, its' true character can be hidden. Image is everything. Employees are often apathetic because they don't see one person's immoral actions as something that will affect themselves. If everyone takes a long lunch, or if employees come in late frequently, productivity is lost and non-profitable companies eventually have to make cuts. If a student cheats on an exam, he may position himself for awards that he doesn't deserve, awards that might make a real difference to someone who actually earned distinction. The mentality of apathy or tolerance of immoral acts has weakened us as a society. It seems that modern life is a series of scandals, in politics, sports, business, education and even in religion. It has become so commonplace that it seems normal and people are desensitized to scandalous behavior, almost like it is a rite of passage that comes with fame, fortune, or power. Bad-boy athletes or hot-shot Navy pilots laugh, drink, and take advantage of women and there is an element of society that envies that lifestyle. Women are seen as objects because families are dysfunctional and parents aren't teaching their children to respect others. In many families, there are no 'fathers', no male role models, and mothers are absent and non-nurturing because they are working two or three jobs to survive. The result is an entire generation of people that believe that society owes them something, that they are entitled to things without working or sacrificing for them. Self indulgence has become a lifestyle to be proud of, and sacrifice is something only poor, stupid schmucks do. No one is patriotic anymore. Only a few young men and women feel obligated to pay their dues by military service. They are called heroes when they are killed, but when they enlist, they are often seen as rejects, kids that can't afford college or who are otherwise underprivileged. It infuriates me.

Well, that is enough for starters...

Save the Lightning Bugs

I live in the boonies where there are lots of woods and pastures, but I grew up in a woodsy subdivision in a suburban area. As a kid, I caught lightning bugs and put them in a pickle or mayonnaise jar. (Remember that smell of lightning bugs in a pickle jar??) It never took but a few minutes to catch enough to fill a jar. Now, even though lightning bugs, AKA fireflies, exist here in large populations, I don't think I have more here than I did 75 miles south of here as a kid, and I think, due to all the grassy pastures in this area, I should have more. I've read a few articles on the subject of fireflies and I'm not alone in thinking that there are fewer lightning bugs now than there were 40 years ago.

Old timers and youngsters alike enjoy being outside and watching or catching lightning bugs in the summer. It is almost a ritual among kids, and a sign that the day is drawing to a close. If we were playing outside, we knew, without a watch or cellphone, that it was time to go home when we saw the first lightning bug flash. These little buggers seem to transport us back in time into a majestic world-a world without troubles or worry. It doesn't matter how old you are, if you catch a few lightning bugs, you feel like a kid again. Watching a jar light up a dark room is as memorizing as a watching a bonfire or watching aquarium fish. It is magical, and I would bet that doing this on a regular basis, like petting your dog, would lower blood pressure.

We moved here in October and that first summer was one that I will never forget. We had not bushhogged the pasture yet, and since the property had been rented before we moved in, I can say that it had probably been more than a year, perhaps as many as four years, since the pasture had been cut at all. Obviously, during that time, fireflies reproduced and their populations exploded. One night, after a summer rain at dusk, we went out to inspect the electric fence for shorts. Out in the pasture, just above the waist high grass, were millions of lightning bugs, and to my amazement, they blinked in unison. It was an unforgettable sight, one that I will remember for the rest of my life.

That experience made me do a bit of research on the insect that I thought I knew so well. During the daytime, fireflies, their larvae and nymphs live in the grass or soil (for larvae) where they can extract the moisture they need to survive. Drought conditions can really affect firefly populations. Until I moved to this rural location, I had never seen the larval stage of the firefly beetle. They are commonly known as "glowworms" and you can see them in the grass near dusk. Their bioluminescence lingers a bit, giving them the 'glowing' appearance. Because these beetles and their offspring spend the daylight hours on the ground, they become victims of lawnmowing and lawn chemicals, pesticides and herbicides. In neighborhoods where the lawns are kept short and green, you may not see lightning bugs at all. These little guys find their mates by flashing. The males fly around and flash and the females flash back from a branch or tall grass perch. If you caught only the flying lightning bugs, chances are you caught predominantly males. The behavior of flashing in unison is apparently part of that mating behavior as it has been observed in Smoky Mountain National Park in the month of June. Some scientists believe that light pollution from patios and street light hampers mating due to light overload, leading to confusion in locating the opposite sex.

If you want to learn more about lightning bugs, try this link:

https://www.mos.org/fireflywatch/about_firefly_watch

If you homeschool, there is also a great science project for the kids.

Plant ID

I thought I would post a few pictures of plants that are on my property and in the nearby woods of which I haven't been able to identify conclusively. I may do this again soon because I have pictures of other unidentified plants as well. These plants are common, and the pictures were taken on a April hike with some friends.
.
Plant A: This first one is some kind of trillium, I think. The leaves are green with a touch of burgundy, and the plant is very pretty..




Plant B: This second and third pictures are of the same plant. I see this thing everywhere and I used to call it 'wintergreen', but it is not the wintergreen mint, and that is probably not the name of it. It really is not minty at all and I have no idea of why I call it that.
Some plants are darker green and some are lighter, and it can be found on the forest floor any time in the Spring and Summer.













Plant C: I have no idea of what the plant with the white flower would be. This plant was flowering in early Spring










Plant D: This plant is a baby. I took this picture in April, and now, mid June, most of these are 12-18" tall and growing still. I'm not sure what kind of flower they have.









Plant E: This little heart shaped mottled green leaf almost looks like catbrier, but all I saw was the leaf and I did not see any stickery stems.

Beans, Beans

Beans.
When I took my seed inventory, I realized that I had a lot of bean seed. some was from 2005(KY Wonder) some from 2007 (Contender, Blue Lake, and some KY Wonder). I had picked up a few packs for this year, but I wanted to use up the old stuff, too, so man have I planted beans!

After Easter, I planted Roma bush beans and all the KY Wonder pole beans and Dow Gauk, AKA Asparagus AKA Yard Long beans. I also planted Dragons Tongue bean. My Dragon Tongue beans claimed to be a pole bean, so I planted them around a teepee, but they are bush beans, as you can see. . It was my first year growing them so I did not know. A few weeks after the first planting, I filled in the gaps of the Romas with some yellow wax beans. You can see the difference in leaf color in the little short rows. So far, we have been eating the Roma and Dragon Tongue, and I like both, but we really like the Dragon Tongue as a green/snap bean. No strings for either variety. As Martha says, it's a good thing.

The KY Wonder and Asparagus beans are still blooming-have topped the 7 foot trellises (The Yard-long asparagus beans are on the A-frame trellis with the bent bamboo top line), and the yellow wax beans are almost ready to pick. I think they will be ready by the weekend. In the last few weeks, I have also planted a pack of Royal Burgundy bush beans(now 8" tall in the ground), several ounces of Contender(2" tall in the raised bed), and today I planted some Blue Lake bush beans. I've got about half a pound more Blue Lake beans to plant over the next month or so. Oh, I also have some scarlet runner beans(on a ladder-ornamental for the hummers) and this year I will plant Aquadulce fava beans over the winter. They supposedly don't keep well, and I have these from 2000. I found them in the bottom of a seed can. I grew them in 2000 and the kids did not like them, so I never planted them again. I have a medium sized ziplock bag full of the beans, and I did a germination test and much to my surprise, more than half of the beans germinated! Speaking of old seed, I had some old red field peas(that are technically beans) that I could no longer find in catalogs. I can't remember where I got them originally, but they were good and I use them in this one specific Cajun recipe. I was low on supply, with only about 2 inches of beans in a Mason jar. On my friend James' advice, I planted them en masse on the ground and covered them with mulch hay. They are doing well as a block of beans. I will be using this same method for growing some other dry beans.

So far, I am only cooking the fresh beans and haven't canned anything, but I did get a new seal and pop off for my pressure canner, so I am ready for the mountains of beans I hope to have. I have a Frencher, and will probably French slice some of the Blue Lakes or Kentucky Wonders. I just haven't decided. I'll slice whichever beans Skyguy likes the least. My family, as you might guess, eats more green beans than any other vegetable. I think I could can 75 quarts and still would run out before the next growing season. Normally, I freeze veggies like beans, but I want to reduce the power bill so I will can them this year. I'll probably make some dilly beans, too.

Inspirational stuff

http://www.afrigadget.com/

I was mesmerized by this site, alternating between extreme heartache over the living conditions of the people, and profound admiration for not only their intelligence and ingenuity, but for their determination to find a way to make something work. I could spend hours reading this site and exploring the various related links. This is homesteading in it's purest form, making do with what you have, innovation showing no bounds. I've fallen in love with this work ethic motto from the site:

"Never expect magic from no where"

Be sure and click on the categories at the right margin. The 'gadget' category is a good place to start. Some stories crossover into multiple category tags.

In the same vein, I found a few other sites which are also worth your time to look at for ideas and ways to improve your homestead or live in a more sustainable way.

http://www.downsizer.net/

This page from that site discussed scythe ownership, something a few of us discussed recently:

http://tinyurl.com/lbecz6

http://kickstart.org/home/index.html

http://www.tfsr.org/

This site even has a manual for rebuilding and refurbishing Singer sewing machines like the one I have-the one I love:

http://tinyurl.com/2lmo6r

http://makezine.com/ http://timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com/

http://www.farmingsolutions.org/

It seems strange that our culture here in the US only gives lipservice to sustainable living. The wealthy and supposedly educated simply are not interested in finding earth friendly solutions or reducing their carbon footprint by reducing our need to energy and conserving resources. Anyone who is truly interested in a more simple lifestyle has to look to the poor, developing countries in Africa, India, or Southeast Asia for innovative ideas. It is an insane world.

Family fun

Today was a great family day. My folks came over to visit and they brought these really cool springy lawn chairs that will be great for sky watching, satellite hunting, and meteor showers. When you lay back in them, they bounce a bit and it feels like you are floating. My daughter and granddaughter also came over and we went to a local recreational area known as The Pocket. It is(DUH)a pocket gap on Horn Mountain, just over the ridge to the north of my house. It is located about 10 miles away by road, yet only a bit over a mile as the crow flies. The Forest service has created a campground and a day use picnic park around the creek and springs area. The creek is cold and the spring water is freezing. At any rate, I'm sure that this rec area was created by the CCC back in the 1930's as the rock work has that CCC character to it. The creek has been artificially widened to about 15 feet, and there is a mortared stone wall as the bank wall. There are steps down into the creeks at various places, and in no area is the water deeper than one foot. The water is clear and cold, the creek bed is small pebbles. All of this makes for a wonderful playground for kids, and adults can sit on the side and soak their achy feet in the ice cold water or even sit down in the creek if the day is hot enough. A lot of hikers come through this area, and the creek is a popular place for them, too. Older kids run around with nets looking for chub and minnows, the younger ones just splash around. It is a cool and relaxing place to be in summer. I just did a websearch looking for pictures, and I found this page, with one picture of the creek where we sat and played; it seems my CCC assumption was correct.

http://www.forestcamping.com/dow/suzi/articles/notable/pocket.htm

Jordan had a good time, I think, although at first I think she was a bit unsure of the icy spring water. After a few minutes, I realized that the creek was a lot warmer than the spring, and after we moved over to the creek to play, she relaxed and started jabbering with the other kids. Later, after we returned home, I took more than a few pictures of her in her new pajamas playing on the new deck chairs.

To top off the night, after everyone left, my son called. I had not heard from him in a couple of months, so it was really good to hear his voice.

All in all, today was one of those days that will stand out in my memory.

Struck out

I went fishing again yesterday and struck out totally. I first went to a nearby lake at the Girl Scout camp. There was an algal bloom on the lake and it make fishing almost impossible, so I left after just a few minutes. Then, I stopped and tried my luck at a couple of local stream, including an area that we call the swamp. I could see bass, but they could see me, too, and were skittish. Finally, I decided to head to the river. Surely, I thought, I'd see action there. Nope. To my surprise, there was a lot of trash and debris piled up under the bridge. Two-thirds of the river width was blocked and there was only one side of the bridge where the current flowed unobstructed. Unfortunately for me, that section was on the other side of the river, and the only way to reach it was to walk and or climb the debris pile(a good 10 feet tall and 75 feet across), and that would be super dangerous if not suicidal, so I just settled to fish in a small area of the river about the size of a swimming pool. There was the lovely smell of a dead raccoon and the rotting debris of the all the crap in the debris jam under the bridge. I was just about to leave when I saw a large catfish practically at my feet. I could have reached down and grabbed him, I think, had I not been too scared. You gotta realize that I was under the bridge of a state highway. It was really isolated with no houses around. Had I slipped and fell in or something, or got hurt or pinned in the debris, I might have a long wait for help. Mr. Catfish was about 15-18" long and would have made a nice meal, though. I tried to get him to bite my crickets, but of course, he was interested in other stuff. He kept hanging around and I was wishing I had a spear or a stick of some sort to try to catch him. No luck.

Today, we ran errands in town and worked in the garden and yard. Skyguy mowed around the Paulownia trees which are, for the most part, dead. I have about 8 still alive and it is quite frustrating and disappointing. However, the black walnuts I planted are still alive for the most part, so at least the tree planting wasn't a total failure. Skyguy wants to order more Paulownias and I think we should plant them in the Fall this time. It is hard to nurse herbaceous tree saplings through summer heat. I wish I could find someone to trade with-black walnuts for white or green ash trees.

Awesome Little Cats

Is there anything better than a couple of young cats for dinner?

Yup, I went fishing today. My stepfather and I first went over to Carter's Lake reregulation dam and tried out luck there with some medium large shad. I'd heard that the stripers were stacked up near the water outlet, but we couldn't cast over there. They were letting a lot of water out and the current was so swift and the bottom so rocky that all we were doing is losing tackle. It was frustrating. Several other fishermen(and women) were catching some drum, but I have always dreamed about stripers (hybrid striped bass)and that's why we were there. So by 11 AM, we packed up and headed to a more peaceful locale, Salacoa Creek Park. It is a county owned park, complete with lake beach and campground. It is a very nice, deep, spring fed lake that looks very clean. At Salacoa, we had the lunch I had packed for us, and then began throwing crickets at the bream. It is just past the full moon, and I think there were a few beds still active. There was a spot right off the dock that produced a fish almost every time the bait hit the water. We must have caught 30 or so between us, throwing them back as they were palm sized bream of varying species. Had we known we would be catching that many, I think I might have saved all of them. At any rate, there was a lull in the action, and when it picked back up, I caught a keeper bream and was walking back to the shore to get my 5 gallon bucket for the bream when my stepfather caught a small catfish on a cricket of all things. I had one line in with cut bait, fishing for cats on the bottom, but wouldn't you know those catfish wanted crickets. At the end of the day, just as a thunderstorm approached, we left with 2 small cats and about 10 average sized bream. It was pouring rain when I got home, and by that time, the bream had died. The cats were still alive, however. To save time, I decided not to clean the bream, instead, I cut them up and fed them to the chickens. It had been about 20 years or so since I cleaned a catfish, and I was a bit out of practice, but finally managed to get 'er done. We had 8 minnows leftover, so they are now happily living in my aquarium, which luckily is set up for goldfish/cold water. All the fish are about the same size. Maybe I will get lucky and they will breed, but I doubt it.

Skyguy has never been fond of freshwater fish due to the size vs. the bones, but his palate is changing. It was only a week or so ago that I mentioned to him that those big river cats were edible, but the best catfish were the small ones. There was no way I could allow myself to fail in the preparation of that fish...I knew if I botched it, he would never try catfish again. Luckily, it was delicious, and we were wishing we had about 10 more of them! Our dinner this evening consisted of the catfish(on the plate 1.5 hours after being in the water), grilled squash with olive oil and garlic brushed on (on the plate 30 minutes after being on a bush), new Red Pontiac potatoes (one day after being plucked from a barrel of dirt), cornbread, made with an egg that was an hour old and sadly, store-bought oil and cornmeal (we will be rectifying that situation hopefully in a few months), coleslaw, made with garden cabbage and carrots, and I made some 'hushpuppy patties' with the leftover batter plus some onions and such(also from the garden). When you pan fry, hushpuppies become hushpatties. :)

I just love to fish, even if I'm only catching little bream. Get about 40 of them, fry them up, and you've got a meal of very sweet meat, even if it is only a few bites per fish. I eat the crispy tails, too, love that! Skyguy never fished or camped as a kid, and he still hasn't caught the fishing bug, but I am hopeful that one day I will have a partner that loves to fish as much as I do. I got him camping, I got him eating Chinese food, I got him loving the country life, I got him growing herbs and veggies, and I'm hoping I can entice him to fish.

Culinary herbs and strawberries

Thought I would show some pictures of Skyguy's herb bed, and my strawberry bed from the start to 'almost finished'. First, the herbs...it will take several years for the beds to really become established, but they are coming along. This past week we pulled up the rocks in the path and put weedblock down. We have put sand in some places, but we need more sand. Once the sand fills in the gaps below the rocks and somewhat locks them in place, we will sweep a mortar mix over the path and wet it down to hold the rocks in place. I envision that happening later in the summer. This has been Skyguy's idea and pet project, but I've been doing most of the weeding and watering. Still, I think it was a great idea, and I really like the atmosphere it imparts to that side of the house. Everyone who comes up to the house raves about it. As we see what herbs we want, we will either sow or transplant, adding to our little culinary herb garden. Since much of what we want are hard to find perennials, I have planted a few beans and other annuals in the beds, just so the space is not wasted. The nasturtiums are starting to bloom and they are really pretty. We put up this little reed fence around the herb bed mainly so that I could let the chickens out. I've started allowing the birds to free range in the afternoon as long as I am home. I want to avoid those dusk and dawn predation hours, and this allows the birds out to find some shade, too. Of course, a chicken can just fly over the fence, but I am hoping that with so many other places to explore, that they will stay out of there. I hope I will hear them flying over the fence and will be able to get them out before too much damage is done. So far, it is working.

At last, the strawberries.... This is the first year for these berries, and I really can not wait until I have some fresh strawberries, some pound cake, and freshly whipped cream smothering it all! I actually made the strawberry bed in 2007, I believe it was, and I spent last year filling it up with waste hay, compost, and the last of my rabbit poop pile. Everything composted nicely, and there are as many earthworms in the top tier as the bottom. If you notice, the wooden posts are taller than the top tier of the bed. This will allow me to cover the entire 6x8 bed with netting to keep the birds away. In addition, I have two whirlygigs(you can only see the posts in the picture, but they both are of ducks flying-wings spin) that will hopefully keep the birds at bay until I need to net them. Anyway, I bought 25 Tristar and 25 Tribute. The Tristar are in the top tier and on the Southern side of the lower tier. The three remaining sides are Tribute. I believe that the Tribute plants are doing better and are more prolific than the Tristar. These are day-neutral berries, so they should produce for a while. I planted them on February 20th, and have been picking off the flowers until this week. Doing that is supposed to encourage runners production instead of fruit production. It allows the plant to develop more roots as well before fruiting. I bought them as crowns, the had no leaves, and for a while they were so small that you could not see them in the mulch. Now, they have spread everywhere! I tried to peg the runners in open spaces. Now that it is June, I have stopped picking off the blooms, and I will give me a light dose of organic fertilizer(mostly kelp) so I will hopefully get some strawberries soon!

Speaking of berries, I noticed that the blackberry bushes are loaded this year. We have a few bushes in the island next to where we park and I think there might be enough on those few bushes for a pie. They are looking good!

Touch the earth, rest your spirit

The lettuce is almost ready to be cut for salads. I am still cutting chard for greens which is lucky because my NZ spinach isn't growing very fast. Yesterday, I cut some beet greens and pulled up 4 beets. Since I have 3 heads of cabbage in the refrigerator, I think I will grate the beets and saute them with some shredded cabbage. That ought to make a nice purple veggie for something different. I also have peas, carrots, yellow squash, cauliflower, chard, beet greens, and broccoli in the fridge. It is a garden bounty! I think I'll put together some shishkabobs with some marinated chicken and the squash, carrots, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. I'm thinking it will be quick and easy on the grill. I've got some garlic flavored olive oil for 'kabobs.

I've left a few broccoli plants to go to seed. I'll do the same for the cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage. One of my cabbage plants is snail bait, so I think I will collect the seeds from it. It is a nice, big plant, too. I have already pulled up and hung the mustard pods. I have the stems with the pods hanging upside down inside of a paper grocery bag. I can hear the seeds rattling in the bag, so I know this is working. I'll do the same for the rest of the brassicas. I was trying to clean out a few of the raised beds enough to plant some bush beans, but lo and behold, the Brussels sprouts appear to be doing something. There are some marble sized sprouts!! This is the best result ever so far! Most are pea sized, but I think they are actually growing! We've had so much rain that my garlic is done. Usually, it is ready in July, but the stalks are yellowing so I pulled them. They are now curing on the picnic table, AKA Bev's breakroom, next to my little Malabar spinach vine (haven't decided where to move it) and my 7 artichoke plants (there were 8, I guess a bird grabbed one??).

Friday I picked some large leaves from the cabbage plants. I used them to make cabbage rolls. I have a lot of ground venison in the freezer, so I mixed up some meat. I season it, add rice and special ingredients for special dinners and cook it. I used 4 pounds of ground beef, 3 pounds of venison, and 1 pound of ground pork, onions, ketchup, rice, garlic, soy, worchestershire, etc. This time, however, I wasn't thinking-I usually use more venison than beef, but this batch is beef heavy because I got distracted. At any rate, I made 3 batches of meatballs, a meatloaf(with just me and Skyguy, I get 3 meals from a meatloaf), two batches of seasoned meat for stuffing Poblanos, and of course, the cabbage rolls . That's 9+ meals from 8 pounds of meat. One day I will look up all the nutritional data on my meat mixes. The cabbage rolls were okay-a bit tough and chewy because I did not steam them first, but edible. I think I will try this with grape leaves next. I have plenty of those as well. I went out this morning, picked a few dozen leaves, washed them, rolled them, blanched them, and preserved them in brine in a pint jar. Today, I planted a few more okra seeds, as well as a pack of royal burgundy bush beans. I went through all of my seeds last night and I need to continue downsizing. It is still early in the season, so I am going to try to grow some gourds and some pumpkins. I found some Aquadulce Fava beans from 2000 and did a germination test on them. Would you believe that more than half of them germinated??!!?? Wow. So I will use them as a cover crop and chicken feed this winter.

In the meantime, I thought I would share some garden pictures I took yesterday. The first two pictures are related. I've named them, Spot the Butternut and Spot the Cukes. You should probably click on the pics for a larger image if your eyes are like mine. The third image is a skinny image of one of my Brussels sprouts' stalk where you can see the little sprouts beginning to form. The fourth image on the page is of course, my breakroom/workarea . I've been getting a head or two a day from my Cauliflower bed (last picture on the page). I probably should pull up the plants once I harvest the initial head, but I have heard that if you leave it, it will grow small heads after a few months, so I am leaving the plants in the bed. The sixth one I called mixed veggies. In that picture there are potatoes, yellow squash, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and cabbage. I planted the Bloody Butcher Corn directly behind that bed, and you can't see it in this picture, but back where that scrawny looking Brussels sprout is, top center, I have planted a row of okra on the edge of the bed. I wanted a little height to help as a pollen block. As it turned out, the other two varieties of corn did not germinate, so the pollen block is unnecessary, but for the record, there is also okra in this picture, they are only 3 inches tall though. :) Image #5 is one of my yellow squash plants. I have two, one in the ground(picture #5 ) and the one you see in the bed of mixed veggies (picture #6 ). I am experimenting and waging war on squash bugs. The separation is part of the plan.

Yesterday, we cut back some Chinese privet that had become trees. It was starting to shade out my elephant ears and the fig trees. Skyguy cut them back to 6 foot trucks with the chainsaw, and next week, I will be chipping the tops to go to the compost bin. We also mowed this weekend, watered the Paulownias, and messed around in the garden some, staking tomatoes and whatnot. I saved some of the larger branches/trunks from the privet and hopefully I will make a few more trellis' for various things. I think we will also make a ladder, and maybe a rustic table to go between the Adirondack chairs.

This evening, we went back to the lake and paddled. We got an earlier start this time, and we paddled for over an hour, almost constantly. We discovered a few scratches and places on the keel that need work, some sanding, varnish, etc. and Skyguy wants to replace the decks and move the seats, so we decided that this will be the last paddle for a few months until the canoe work is completed and my new bent shaft paddle is completed and when my foot is healed. I hope we will be able to get back on the lake by the first of August. In the meantime, we will be biking more.

I got some sun this weekend, partially from working in the yard in a tank top. Skyguy said my shoulders were already sunburned before we left, but I did not feel it. I put SPF30 on at the lake, but I still burned. I'm so pale. There was no sunscreen when I was growing up other than zinc oxide. I just wore shirts over my bathing suit. As many times as I was sunburned as a kid, it will be a miracle if I die without having skin cancer. If I get skin cancer, it will truly piss me off, because I've never really laid out or tried to tan like some people do, I just burn easily. The best tan I ever had was accidental. It was back in 1981 when I was running over 50 miles a week. I was living in western Arkansas that summer, and it was a scorcher. Even though I ran in the evening, it was well over 100 degrees. I really enjoyed running. If only my joints were not screwed up,,,,it would be great to run again, but it won't ever happen. At this point in my life, it is paddling, pedaling, and tai chi. We won't count the walking and the yard work and the gardening.

Touch the earth, love the earth, honour the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. -Henry Beston

Gotcha!

As you may recall, I've lost two chickens in the past two days. I set the Have-a-heart trap last night, baited with a chicken gizzard, and this morning I caught a raccoon that was just too cute. He was looking at me with his cute little eyes proclaiming his innocence, not snarling or growling like a possum would have. This old Bird, however, knows that killers always return to the scene of the crime. He was actually playing dead or sleeping very soundly when Bear and I first
approached. I put Bear up and he magically woke up, like he was afraid of Bear, but not me.

I should have known the way that chicken was manipulated and cleaned to the bone that it was a coon. It is the only animal with enough dexterity to eat a chicken like that. Recall that I had not thought that the predator was a raccoon because it did not eat the chicken's crop. Now that I think about it though, the crop was neatly separated and set next to the carcass, as if he were saving the best for last. I should have known, too, that coons like to wash up before and after dinner, and my little frog pond is only 30 feet away inside the garden fence. We had known that something had been eating the beans and peas. I actually thought it was a rabbit, even though the perimeter garden fence has rabbit wire at the bottom. A few weeks ago, the pea and bean feast seemed to stop. Next to my garden frog pond is a huge clump of spiderwort. It was beautiful, about thigh high and 3 feet square in size, maybe a bit larger. About a week ago, I noticed that the spiderwort had been smashed down. Skyguy asked me if Bear had laid on the plant-that's what it looked like, but I knew that he had not. (see third picture) It all makes sense now. Now, I know that Mr. Raccoon was tired of eating his veggies so while he was waiting on my corn to mature he thought he would have some chicken to fatten up. Actually, he probably dined on pond comets as an appetizer for the main meal to come as I had put a few large comets in that pond about a month ago to keep mosquitoes down. I seriously doubt they are still there. It is funny how it all seems so clear now, all the little mysteries of life-like where did my fish go? and Why did Bear lay on that plant?-are solved. :)

The top picture, is of course, Rocky Raccoon (he was a male) caught red handed(now I know where that phrase comes from) at the scene of the crime, next to the chicken moat (second picture). The red X is where the attacks happened and the C is where I found the remains. I also saw a place under the blueberries where it looked like he laid in waiting for the chickens to pass by, as well as some tracks in the barn next to the old coop where the roosters are that were obviously raccoon. If you look closely at the tracks, you can also see that a small snake crossed the path, snake track runs 2:00-8:00 near the double print. Pretty cool stuff. Anyway, Rocky is now killing chickens in Coon heaven-in a universe where people, dogs, coyotes and .22's don't exist; he did not suffer.

Canoes and Critters

Skyguy and I went paddling yesterday at Rocky Mountain Lake. If you live anywhere in the north Georgia or northeastern Alabama area, this is a really nice lake. There are several lakes on 5000+ acres owned by Oglethorpe Power. It is about 35 minutes away, but worth the drive. The fishing lakes are used as backup lakes for the power plant and have been stocked and opened to the public since 1996. Unlike some of the larger reservoirs, these lakes are not polluted and it just feels clean, the way a lake should be. The lakes are entirely no-wake lakes and no jet skis are allowed. It is a quiet place to camp, fish, or canoe.

Anyway, it was after 7 when we got there, so we did not paddle much, just enough to get the boat christened again and to get our own feet wet. Still, that canoe will hum across the water, so we covered a lot of ground in the 45 minutes we were out on the lake. We paddled into a lake sized cove and saw a muskrat diving nearby. I'm not sure what he was diving for, but he did not seem bothered by us. I saw one of the largest herons I've ever seen-that sucker had an 8 foot wingspan, at least! On the way back to the dock, a mallard hen with her crew passed us going in the opposite direction. It was good to get some upper body exercise, and of course, just be out in the natural world. On the way back from the lake, just before dark, we saw a fox run across the road. If I absolutely had to ID it, I'd say it was a red fox, but it had enough gray on it to make me really wonder if the two species interbreed. I've only seen a few foxes in a my life, so every sighting tells me that they are still a viable predator in this area.

Speaking of predators, it seems I have a something eating my hens(2 lost to date). No, I don't think it is the young hawk that has refused to leave the nest area. I believe it is a possum. The attacks happened at the same time both days(yesterday and today), at the same place, and I found the carcass at the same place. It all happened in the chicken run, which is dog proof, but not coon or possum proof. Yesterday, the bird was about half eaten, and today the bird was almost picked clean the way raccoons eat. However, raccoons like the crop, and this predator left the crop. Today's predator ate all the meat, most of the innards(except the crop). Leg bones were cleaned down to the feet. The head was still attached, but barely, as the neck bones and the neck itself was all but gone.

I suppose the predator could also be that feral cat. I don't know. As of today, I have 25 birds in the main coop, and 9 roosters in the old coop waiting to be put in the freezer. We are now in a poultry fortress lock down, and the birds won't have access to the moat until I think the coast is clear. Just in case you are unfamiliar, the 'fortress' is a 8x25 chicken run made of 2x4 wire with rabbit wire at the bottom, metal siding at the bottom(to prevent digging), and 2x4 wire covering. It is not snake or weasel proof, and a small possum might be able to get in. It was designed mostly to prevent airborne predators and canines. It is the best I can do right now. The coop is 8x9 and can be totally locked down, but the bird have to be able to walk around outside some. It is too hot for them to stay in the coop all day, but I will lock them in at night. Stay tuned.

Sotomayor, Strike One for President Obama

It's been a while since I blogged about Obama and politics in general. I know most of my friends and readers just love the guy, so I try to hold my tongue, but every once in a while, I just have to talk about it. His recent nomination of Sotomayer to the Supreme Court requires discussion, a lot of discussion. First though, I thought I would see how my views aligned with the rest of the country. I took these latest poll results from Real Clear Politics:

President Obama Job Approval
Approve 60.5%
Disapprove 32.5%

Congressional Job Approval
Approve 35.7%
Disapprove 54.7%

Direction of Country
Right Direction 45.0%
Wrong Track 47.7%

I find it interesting that people support Obama, but not Congress. I wonder why that is? They are all the same party-all pushing the same agenda! In this case, Congress is the hand of the Presidency...he speaks, they 'make it so'!

Before I get to Sotomayor, I read a few days ago that the Obama administration and the Pentagon are now saying that troops will stay in Iraq for as long as ten more years, despite the agreement with Iraq that said all troops would be home by 2012. Of course, we all remember Obama's pledge on his trip to Iraq last summer-to bring the troops home in 16 months. That's what he told the troops-that they would be home in 16 months, in other words, by Christmas of 2009. If you cut him slack and start the 16 months from January, then the homecoming will be in April of 2010. Obama is still saying that combat forces will be home then, but that other troops might have to stay until 2012. I think this is a promise broken, but we will see. I'm not fond of his word games. "Troops" become 'combat forces', "new jobs" becomes 'saved jobs", etc. We now have 139000 soldiers in Iraq an 52000 in Afghanistan. Obama will send 21,000 more combat forces Afghanistan this year. In one breath, he says that he doesn't expect to send more to Afghanistan after that, yet in the other, he claims that's where the fight is, that Afghanistan is
more important than Iraq for troop victory. He also said he would close Guantanamo, but 5 months after that announcement, he is now backing up and reinstating some Bush Admin orders, contradicting his own executive orders issued right after the inauguration. Closing Camp X-ray at Guantanamo Bay was one goal in which I supported Barack Obama. I'm not sure what the answer is now, but surely we could figure out a way to maintain security and meter justice to those being held. The months tick by, and Camp X-Ray is still holding enemy combatants.

I read an AP article about Obama's plan to create jobs. The results are rather scary. This is a good example of politics affecting how quickly the economy recovers. The Associated Press reviewed 5,500 projects nationwide and found that the government will spend 50 percent more per person in areas with the lowest unemployment rates than in places with the highest. For example, The AP says Elk County, Pennsylvania, which has about 14 percent unemployment, is getting no money. But Riley County, Kansas, which has a jobless rate around 3.5 percent, will get $56 million to build a new highway. The reason is because Riley County already had a plan. The worst hit areas don't have the finances to set up projects in advance, so only the municipalities that have not been hit too hard and have projects ready for the bulldozer are getting funded. There is still a lot of pork in the system, but I'm sure it will all spin out looking rosy.

The Obama administration is spending money right and left. There is no way to know if the programs will be effective. Much of the spending seems to have nothing to do with economic stimulus or recovery, but it seems to have been on a Democratic Wish List for decades. However, I will say that Wall Street seems a bit more stable and I heard that housing sales are increasing, so perhaps he has at least stopped the panic over the economy. Much to my surprise and joy, he has reversed his position on raising taxes, and now has moderated his plan to basically sound like John McCain's. LOL! Who would have thunk it?

I think what has happened is that he was a bit naive in the beginning, thinking that is popularity would allow him to change everything. As he finds out that change isn't quite as simple as he thought, he has to back away from his initial promises(Guantanamo, taxes, new jobs, etc.). He's doing a lot of backtracking. In some ways, it is moderating action in a way that I actually approve of, but it is only a matter of time before he angers his adoring populace. One of the reasons I did not like Obama to begin with was that I thought him horribly naive, and yet people bought into that. His naivety extends to his foreign policy decisions, and in that arena, I think he is walking on thin ice and putting the country at some risk. I dislike Dick Cheney and never thought I would be agreeing with him, but I do think Obama is not showing the world that America is strong by his constant apologies and his lack of a firm stand on torture-the interrogation/waterboarding issue-I mean, is he or isn't he backing Pelosi? I fear that we will soon be tested in a way that we never have been before. If we appear weak, there will be enemies that will take advantage and test that weakness. I hope I am wrong, but I fear that I am not.

I'm about tired of the word 'historic'. Everything Obama does is historic. If race really did not matter in this country, the word historic would have been put to rest months ago. Now, he has announced that Hispanic Appellate Judge Sonia Sotomayor is his choice to replace Souter on the Supreme Court. He says she has 'empathy'. I am not sure I would call it that. In 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley, Sotomayor said “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” She doesn't think that a judge should try to rise above race and gender, and she is on the record that there should be more women and Latina judges. Sotomayor is a very well educated and qualified woman. Obama is right in that her story is definitely compelling. There is no doubt about that. What bothers me is that she is doing the very same thing that is criticized if a white person does it. I really think the effect will be a disservice to women and minorities of all backgrounds due to the backlash from her comments. If a Caucasian American judge, or even a African American judge, said that her own experiences would allow her to reach a better judicial conclusion that a white man or a Latino man or a Hispanic Woman or whoever, we'd call that bigotry and it would be condemned. If a White male judge said the same thing, that the richness of his experiences would allow him to reach a better conclusion than a Latina woman, we'd call that racism. Obama doesn't seem to call it bigotry or racism though. Instead, he paints it positively with the word "empathy" and that bothers me. It seems to me that to Sotomayor, gender and skin color are more important than intellect, experience, compassion and education. This is the exact opposite of the lessons we teach our children about equality for all. Maybe there should be more women judges. To remedy that, we don't need to appoint the unqualified, we need to encourage little girls to learn critical thinking and analysis, we need to encourage teens to become politically active and care about SCOTUS decisions, and we need to encourage young women to go to law school instead of getting master's degrees. We are making progress-it is certainly better now than when I was a kid, but we still have a ways to go. As the Hispanic and Latino populations grow, so will the number of judges representing those ethnic groups. When Sotomayor promotes her own gender or ethnicity in this way, talking about seats and positions that should be filled, she is saying that not only does ethnicity and gender make a difference, but she thinks it actually makes her better than other genders or ethnicities. In my opinion, that's wrong. If you think I am reading in too much, I challenge you to read some of her quotes. IMO, she clearly thinks that she, as a Latina, is better than a white man, not because of her education or experience, but because she is a Latina. The sad thing is that I believe she is qualified for the job and would probably serve justice well in spite of her bigotry. As a woman myself, I'm quite sure she has fought her way into this position and put up with a lot of abuse over the years. My hat is off to her for that. I also read that she may have trouble in the confirmation process due to her combativeness and emotional responses. I feel for her in that regard as well. I, too, become combative and emotional when on the defensive.

I got a call from the NRA about Sotomayor the other day. It seems that Obama’s nomination Sotomayor is being painted as a declaration of war against gun owners and the Second Amendment. You will recall that Washington DC banned all guns. Recently, there has been much debate as to whether or not the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, applies to states. The Bill of Rights was meant to limit the Federal government, not states or cities or other local governments. If a part of the Bill of Rights is part of the Fourteenth Amendment, then it would apply to the states. There are a couple of other judges who have made similar rulings, and in fact, the split is about 50/50 for those who think states have the power to ban guns vs. those who think that states do not have the power to ban guns. Judge Sotomayor thinks city or statewide gun bans are perfectly acceptable. President Obama has said that he has nothing against guns, however, soon he will be taxing ammunition and serializing it. If you fire a round at a tree, the powers that be will be able to determine what kind of round it is, who purchased it, when and where it was purchased, etc. The Second Amendment says nothing about ammo, does it? Gun owners, in their fear of the future, have created a ammunition shortage that has not eased in the last 8 months. If you need a job, try to find an ammunition factory, because they are working around the clock trying to keep up with demand. I can only hope that Sotomayor doesn't get approved, but I see nothing to stop her. Democrats are in control of Congress. That was my biggest beef as to voting Obama into office. The US Government operates on checks and balances. With Obama in office and a Democratic Congress, there are no checks and balances. With this appointment, the Supreme court will take a left turn as well.

If I sound a bit ambivalent, criticizing one moment and 'empathizing' another, well, I am. When I take various quizzes and such, I'm always labeled very conservative, way right of center. However, I don't think I am that far to the right. I do believe in personal responsibility and accountability and that usually registers as anti-entitlement which puts me right of center. But, I am not totally against entitlements. There are people who need disability and unemployment, but there is so much abuse and misuse in the system that it is distressing. I am definitely pro-choice, and I definitely believe there should be separation of church and state. I don't want to see the Ten Commandments hanging in the lobby of the courthouse, but if a judge wants to display them on the wall of his private chambers, I have no issue with that. I say all of this as a counter to the notion that I am a right wing nut job. I actually think I am rather moderate. I'm not a fan of Obama, but then, I wasn't a fan of Bush either. I believe that I have been very critical of every president since Reagan, and then I was more or less following his wave of popularity in the way that so many younger folks are cheering on Obama today. I just want everyone to take a hard look at what is really going on. Sometimes what we personally want or believe is not what would be best for this country. I may not agree with the decisions that left leaning Supreme Court Justices hand down, but I believe that those justices are needed in the Court. We have to have balance. We have to try to represent as many views as possible. It is by understanding and listening to a viewpoint different from our own that we grow as a nation and as human beings. I want fairness. I want my Justices not to necessarily agree with me, but to look at all sides and consider people as equals, because we are all equal. I'm afraid that Judge Sotomayor doesn't think we are all equal. I believe that she thinks that Latinas are superior, and that belief has no place in the SCOTUS. Of all people, our President should understand the dangers of bias based on ethnicity and gender.