It was 78 today, here north of Baltimore, and they're expecting 77 on Thursday. My outdoor shiitake mushroom logs are starting to sprout, so the warm weather should give them time to mature.

Paul

On 10/30/2016 8:11 PM, Pavel314 wrote:
It was 78 today, here north of Baltimore, and they're expecting 77 on Thursday. My outdoor shiitake mushroom logs are starting to sprout, so the warm weather should give them time to mature.

Paul

You're pretty close to our temps here in Houston area. We're still
topping 80 regularly and getting up to low fifties. I'm still hoping for
a real winter as the past two years have all been warm. We've planted a
few cabbage, broccoli, etc. in hopes of maybe getting some winter grub.
My wife was raised in St. Mary's County, MD and we have relatives in
Baltimore, a city I don't thing I would like to live in these days.

George

On 11/1/2016 4:14 PM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

On 10/30/2016 8:11 PM, Pavel314 wrote:
It was 78 today, here north of Baltimore, and they're expecting 77 on Thursday. My outdoor shiitake mushroom logs are starting to sprout, so the warm weather should give them time to mature.

Paul

You're pretty close to our temps here in Houston area. We're still
topping 80 regularly and getting up to low fifties. I'm still hoping for
a real winter as the past two years have all been warm. We've planted a
few cabbage, broccoli, etc. in hopes of maybe getting some winter grub.
Same here. 84° (F) @ 4:30 PM; low 60s expected tonight. Not
unusual for now but I'm ready for some cooler days. Spent a fall &
winter in Bainbridge, MD, years ago; brrr. Nights here are getting
right for carrots but days are still far too warm. Okra has just about
had it, although, I still glean a few pods daily. Poor okra: Too cool
to suit it overnight and too shady daytimes. The deciduous trees aren't
even close to shedding. This is a year that the "early" fall English
peas are in full sun during the hottest hours and they're not impressed.
They wilt down briefly but are soon shaded again so I make no effort to
shade or cool them. I'm still holding off on the cabbages, broccoli,
etc. too. Some years I don't get any cauliflower, the here & gone
nature of our cold weather frequently dupes broccoli in to budding far
too early and I stopped with the Brussel's sprouts years ago and never
attempt to grow any crisphead lettuces, regardless of the "heat
tolerant" bs in their descriptions.

Good old Bainbridge, I went there for a cyber class back in late 1959.
More WAVE's walking around than regular sailors. Alas, I was already in
love with my wife and had asked for her hand and all the rest. We
married in 1960 and are still a couple. Navy tried to send me back to
Bainbridge for something I don't remember but I was a short timer so
didn't have to go. I went in as a "kiddie cruiser" and got out the day
before I turned 21, recalled for the Cuban Missile Crisis to active
reserves and was totally ticked off. Turned out the six months I was a
reservist got me the Vietnam Veteran GI bill and wife and I both went to
college we got so much money each month. Thank you Navy, we did well
with those free degrees. She as a school teacher and myself working in
the petrochemical industry as a safety professional.

We stopped trying to grow cauliflower here, it takes forever to make a
head and then the bugs get it. Broccoli does well as does cabbage and
all other greens. Right now we are pestered with very small mosquitoes,
hurt like Hades when they hit you and leave a welt too. This year was
the first time we saw those little devils. The regular Texas mosquito
looks a lot like a sparrow. BSEG

I have never like Brussels sprouts, probably because my Mother loved
them and tried to serve them at every meal. Even my Dad wouldn't eat the
damned things. We can't grow crisphead lettuce either, loose leaf works
well here though. We generally grow several different lettuce over the
winter and early spring. I usually eat a large green salad for dinner
rather than something heavy. Helps me sleep better it seems.

On 11/2/2016 11:03 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Good old Bainbridge, I went there for a cyber class back in late 1959.
RM "A" school nine years later, for me. Didn't get out much:
School; no wheels; E3 pay, etc. It was there that I was first
introduced to the Navy Hustle.

More WAVE's walking around than regular sailors.
Had ONE in my class but otherwise we were kept segregated, even at
mealtimes, IIRC. Dunno about off-hours, though.

....

We stopped trying to grow cauliflower here, it takes forever to make a
head and then the bugs get it.
Yep. Bugs are year 'round, as I'm sure they are in TX, but they
lighten up a bit by Oct-Nov. Still have little green crawlies eating
the cucumber's new leaves. I kill about 2/3 of those I find.
Cauliflower must be planted early here so as to get a crop early enough
to beat the spring upsurge. Bt helps a bit, too, when necessary. Also,
the season isn't long enough to allow succession-planting so we get a
bunch of cauliflower at one time instead of an extended harvest.

Broccoli does well as does cabbage and
all other greens. Right now we are pestered with very small mosquitoes,
hurt like Hades when they hit you and leave a welt too. This year was
the first time we saw those little devils. The regular Texas mosquito
looks a lot like a sparrow. BSEG
Yeah, we have those big honkers here, too. They'll collapse an
artery. Some of them lumber around but others move like fighter
aircraft. We have those tiny, painful, little blurs, too. Bitches
clean through; 'nuff said. I pretend to control mosquitoes somewhat
with Bt dunks or granules in standing water. I've thought about
broadcasting the Bt granules but can't find any definitive information
about possible collateral damage to other insect populations. Fall is
one of our dry seasons but during rainy times fallen leaves and debris
hold enough water for mosquitoes to breed and I think the granules might
be of benefit then. During the sure-enough mosquito season, I get
satisfaction with pyrethrin thermal fog. Highly effective but timing is
critical. Mowing helps reduce the mosquito population, too, but I do it
only a few times annually. I'd rather put up with the mosquitoes than
lose many of the things that get mowed and I can't put fences around
_everything_....
Trying to get nursery beds ready for more onions than I've ever
grown in the past and keep getting distracted. I mean, I just stopped
in to make coffee and....

The retention pond for our subdivision, required by Texas law, is about
100 feet behind our house, reckon that's where the skeeters come from.
We do have martins and various other birds feeding on them plus the
night shift is bull bat birds, real bats, and something I see flying but
can't identify, may be another type of bat.

George Shirley wrote:
....
The retention pond for our subdivision, required by Texas law, is about
100 feet behind our house, reckon that's where the skeeters come from.
We do have martins and various other birds feeding on them plus the
night shift is bull bat birds, real bats, and something I see flying but
can't identify, may be another type of bat.

is it constantly wet that fish can survive?

if so look into stocking it with mosquito
eaters (surface feeding fish). the HOA should
have taken care of this IMO, but perhaps dropped
the ball.

not sure what native species you have down
there that might work.


songbird

On 11/4/2016 10:42 AM, songbird wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
...
The retention pond for our subdivision, required by Texas law, is about
100 feet behind our house, reckon that's where the skeeters come from.
We do have martins and various other birds feeding on them plus the
night shift is bull bat birds, real bats, and something I see flying but
can't identify, may be another type of bat.

is it constantly wet that fish can survive?

if so look into stocking it with mosquito
eaters (surface feeding fish). the HOA should
have taken care of this IMO, but perhaps dropped
the ball.

not sure what native species you have down
there that might work.


songbird

It always has a little water in it, people wash their cars, water their
lawn, etc. and let the water run into the drainage system to the pond. I
see lots of small fish, turtles of all sizes and the occasional snake.
Lots of birds like the pond as it is probably their only source of water
within five miles. Most of the natural creeks here have been dug out to
speed water away from the area and to avoid flooding.

Miz Anne's vocation is walking the detention pond area every afternoon
with Tilly Dawg. She also picks up all the balls of all kinds that the
kids lose down the drains, a rain comes by and the balls float on down
to a dip in the run off drainage. She has saved about twenty balls of
various types from there. Last community garage sale she washed the
balls and I used the compressor to put them all round again. She sold
them for anywhere from 5 cents to one buck, and sold all of them.

I haven't tried fishing in that hole because I think the fish might glow
in the dark with all the crap the community throws down drains or tosses
in the pond. You can't stop idiots from being idiots and most of these
folks are from at least fifteen states and, for sure, nine different
countries other than the US. I did the census two years ago here and
lots of our neighbors don't even speak English or, maybe, they just
don't want to speak English. I'm amazed at the single women with
children that live here. I guess it is because the housing here started
at about $100,000 in 2006 and now most are at the $200,000 level. We
paid $147,000 for this house and a realtor advised me that it was now
worth around $190,000 with the changes we have made to the home. I would
rather live out in the boonies but the boss lady wants to be close to
the grands and great grands.

On 11/4/2016 12:44 PM, Derald wrote:
+1 on the mosquito fish. They're free in FL and may be in TX, too.
Here, even commercial water garden providers offer the fish freely. I
don't use them because the water with which I'm concerned is shallow
enough to overheat and I haven't provided shade.
Same here, there's only enough rain gets to the pond when it really
pours, otherwise the flow goes straight on downstream.


George Shirley wrote:

I would rather live out in the boonies but the boss lady wants to be close to
the grands and great grands.
So, buy some swampland and move all of their asses onto it while
you're young. Certain of the farmers in my family (who already owned
fair-sized bits of farmland by the 1950s) began doing that in the
1950s-1970s. Some of their progeny stayed down on the farm(s); some
didn't. Those who didn't stay sold or quit-claimed their
house-garden&yard patches within the family. Of those, a fair number
copped some land of their own and continued the practice. A few in my
and subsequent generations still actively farm (although, since NAFTA
doing so is increasingly pointless); a couple have citrus (another
losing proposition); others just pay the taxes.

My kids are in their mid to late fifties, one in 1961, the other in
1963, daughters kids are in their mid-thirties, son's kids are mid to
late teens, he was a late bloomer or else it just took him a long time
to figure out getting married and having kids. We have six great grands
running from 17 to three years old, big spread between grands and when
they started producing.

I grew up on a ten acre farm, wife on a nineteen acre farm, our fathers
farmed but also had regular day jobs too. The real farming started when
they retired in their early fifties, alas neither last to long after
retirement, my Dad was gone at 71, her Dad at about 80. My Mom was gone
at 89, hers lacked six months of being 101. I've lived longer than my
Dad, Grandad, Great Grandad, Great Great Grandad, and two of three
uncles. I'm 77 and feel lucky to have gotten that far. 41 micro strokes,
four major strokes, two heart attacks, heart bypass, several stents, and
a 55-gallon drum of medicines. Hasn't killed me yet but has certainly
slowed me down a lot, partial paralysis on right side makes it hard to
walk. Still have good vision and pretty good hearing and most of my
brain still works okay. We'll skip the other problems. G

My eldest great granddaughter is 17 this month so I figure a few more
years and we will have at least one great great grand. I didn't plan on
this big of a family when I married but there it is now and we love them
all, mostly.

We're still farming on a 6500 square foot lot with a 1960 square foot
house, lots of concrete and no real dirt. House is built on five feet of
clay with a few inches of sand on top. I just spread another bag of
ground gypsum today, gypsum, eventually, turns clay into something
resembling dirt and then stuff grows. We grow enough vegetable,
kumquats, figs, and pears to can our own grub as we're always done. That
food just tastes better than stuff from a can at the supermarket.

George