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.