We spent about an hour in our small garden picking green beans (third
time), yellow squash, eggplant, and sweet chiles. Haven't gotten a ripe
tomato yet. I suspect it's due to all the rain we've been getting and
very little sunshine. We have zucchini plants nearly three feet tall,
the climbing beans are almost two feet taller than the four foot tall
netting, and the eggplant are nearly past five feet tall. With all that
water and lots of good compost mixed into the bed before planting they
are going wild.

The brown crowder peas aren't climbing yet but have leaves as big as
saucer and some even larger but no blooms yet. The Hopi red lima beans
are making beans now and still blooming like crazy so it won't be long
before we pick those.

My old Ames Garden Buddy has bit the dust, my daughter gave it to me at
Christmas about ten or twelve years ago and it just can't handle my big
behind any more. Bought a deluxe tractor scoot from Amazon and it came
in today so I put it together. Hope it lasts at least as long as the
Garden Buddy. As a matter of fact I hope I last that long. G

Looks like rain again.

On Fri, 22 May 2015 18:50:32 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:

We spent about an hour in our small garden picking green beans (third
time), yellow squash, eggplant, and sweet chiles. Haven't gotten a ripe
tomato yet. I suspect it's due to all the rain we've been getting and
very little sunshine. We have zucchini plants nearly three feet tall,
the climbing beans are almost two feet taller than the four foot tall
netting, and the eggplant are nearly past five feet tall. With all that
water and lots of good compost mixed into the bed before planting they
are going wild.

The brown crowder peas aren't climbing yet but have leaves as big as
saucer and some even larger but no blooms yet. The Hopi red lima beans
are making beans now and still blooming like crazy so it won't be long
before we pick those.

My old Ames Garden Buddy has bit the dust, my daughter gave it to me at
Christmas about ten or twelve years ago and it just can't handle my big
behind any more. Bought a deluxe tractor scoot from Amazon and it came
in today so I put it together. Hope it lasts at least as long as the
Garden Buddy. As a matter of fact I hope I last that long. G

Looks like rain again.


Wish we would get some more rain. Have had to water some of the
plants. The summer garden is getting off to a late start. Tomatoes
were set out 5/7, the peppers on 5/15 and the cukes and zukes
yesterday. Still have to set out acorn and butternut squash and
watermelon. I may plant some green beans in one of the raised beds

The asparagus and rhubarb are still going, as are the weeds.
Strawberries have started ripening. Some of the fruit trees look like
they will having a good crop. My Petit Pois are blooming and setting
some peas, finally. Blueberries are almost ripe and plentiful. Must
get them netted before the birds find them.

Heading to the Farmers Market later this morning. Hope to find
something interesting to eat. If not, will stop at the curb market
and see what they have. DH bought a cantaloupe there yesterday that
is huge and smells almost ripe.

--
USA
North Carolina Foothills
USDA Zone 7a

On 5/23/2015 6:41 AM, The Cook wrote:
On Fri, 22 May 2015 18:50:32 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:

We spent about an hour in our small garden picking green beans (third
time), yellow squash, eggplant, and sweet chiles. Haven't gotten a ripe
tomato yet. I suspect it's due to all the rain we've been getting and
very little sunshine. We have zucchini plants nearly three feet tall,
the climbing beans are almost two feet taller than the four foot tall
netting, and the eggplant are nearly past five feet tall. With all that
water and lots of good compost mixed into the bed before planting they
are going wild.

The brown crowder peas aren't climbing yet but have leaves as big as
saucer and some even larger but no blooms yet. The Hopi red lima beans
are making beans now and still blooming like crazy so it won't be long
before we pick those.

My old Ames Garden Buddy has bit the dust, my daughter gave it to me at
Christmas about ten or twelve years ago and it just can't handle my big
behind any more. Bought a deluxe tractor scoot from Amazon and it came
in today so I put it together. Hope it lasts at least as long as the
Garden Buddy. As a matter of fact I hope I last that long. G

Looks like rain again.


Wish we would get some more rain. Have had to water some of the
plants. The summer garden is getting off to a late start. Tomatoes
were set out 5/7, the peppers on 5/15 and the cukes and zukes
yesterday. Still have to set out acorn and butternut squash and
watermelon. I may plant some green beans in one of the raised beds

The asparagus and rhubarb are still going, as are the weeds.
Strawberries have started ripening. Some of the fruit trees look like
they will having a good crop. My Petit Pois are blooming and setting
some peas, finally. Blueberries are almost ripe and plentiful. Must
get them netted before the birds find them.

Heading to the Farmers Market later this morning. Hope to find
something interesting to eat. If not, will stop at the curb market
and see what they have. DH bought a cantaloupe there yesterday that
is huge and smells almost ripe.

We hit the supermarket yesterday and they had some huge white, wrinkled
skin cantaloupes for sale. We didn't buy one because it was way to big
for two people but we saw them going out of the store in pairs. I asked
the lady ahead of us in line for check out what they tasted like. She
didn't know as it was the first one of these she had bought and she
bought two of them. These things were almost as big as a soccer ball so
there must be plenty of meat in them.

Supermarkets here in Houston area get fruit from all over North,
Central, and South America so the cantaloupe could easily be an import.
I am old as I remember in the forties my Dad going down to the docks
when the banana boats came in and buying a stalk. Mom wouldn't let him
in the house with it until he checked it for snakes and spiders. The
whole stalk hung in a dark closet so they wouldn't all ripen at once and
we devoured them until they were gone. Seldom say any fruit in local
grocery stores, most of which were owned and operated by European
immigrants who came there in the teens and twenties and had little hole
in the wall stores. About the only other fruit we got was figs, pears,
muscadines, and satsumas, which grow well in SE Texas as do most citrus
fruit. My grandparents would be astounded at modern supermarkets if they
were still around. Heck, I'm often astounded at the plethora of foods
they stock and I read labels too. There a few countries that we don't
eat food from there.

Big birthday party this afternoon, DW hit 75 this week and two great
grands hit 12 so a family birthday party. I just baked a cake for DW and
yesterday made a large Anasazi bean casserole with sausage, rice, sweet
chiles, onions, and garlic. We had a small bit of it for dinner and I
like the Anasazi beans, they're a small pinto but very tasty.

I'm also prepping to can another four pints of green beans.

George Shirley wrote:

We spent about an hour in our small garden picking green beans (third
time), yellow squash, eggplant, and sweet chiles. Haven't gotten a ripe
tomato yet. I suspect it's due to all the rain we've been getting and
very little sunshine. We have zucchini plants nearly three feet tall,
the climbing beans are almost two feet taller than the four foot tall
netting, and the eggplant are nearly past five feet tall. With all that
water and lots of good compost mixed into the bed before planting they
are going wild.

The brown crowder peas aren't climbing yet but have leaves as big as
saucer and some even larger but no blooms yet. The Hopi red lima beans
are making beans now and still blooming like crazy so it won't be long
before we pick those.

i'm glad to hear things are coming right along down
there.


My old Ames Garden Buddy has bit the dust, my daughter gave it to me at
Christmas about ten or twelve years ago and it just can't handle my big
behind any more. Bought a deluxe tractor scoot from Amazon and it came
in today so I put it together. Hope it lasts at least as long as the
Garden Buddy. As a matter of fact I hope I last that long. G

you never know these days. do you have four
wheel drive, a reverse gear and mud flaps?


Looks like rain again.

lucky for the drought in Texas finally getting a break from
all of these storms, with reserviors filling up again.

we've not seen much rain for the past few weeks, an inch
or so in three weeks is well behind normal. the ditch out
back is quite low for this time of year. i could almost
get in there and do some needed work on cutting brush back
and cleaning up a few things that have washed down from
upstream, but the water is still too cold...


songbird

On Sat, 23 May 2015 09:03:35 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:

On 5/23/2015 6:41 AM, The Cook wrote:
On Fri, 22 May 2015 18:50:32 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:

We spent about an hour in our small garden picking green beans (third
time), yellow squash, eggplant, and sweet chiles. Haven't gotten a ripe
tomato yet. I suspect it's due to all the rain we've been getting and
very little sunshine. We have zucchini plants nearly three feet tall,
the climbing beans are almost two feet taller than the four foot tall
netting, and the eggplant are nearly past five feet tall. With all that
water and lots of good compost mixed into the bed before planting they
are going wild.

The brown crowder peas aren't climbing yet but have leaves as big as
saucer and some even larger but no blooms yet. The Hopi red lima beans
are making beans now and still blooming like crazy so it won't be long
before we pick those.

My old Ames Garden Buddy has bit the dust, my daughter gave it to me at
Christmas about ten or twelve years ago and it just can't handle my big
behind any more. Bought a deluxe tractor scoot from Amazon and it came
in today so I put it together. Hope it lasts at least as long as the
Garden Buddy. As a matter of fact I hope I last that long. G

Looks like rain again.


Wish we would get some more rain. Have had to water some of the
plants. The summer garden is getting off to a late start. Tomatoes
were set out 5/7, the peppers on 5/15 and the cukes and zukes
yesterday. Still have to set out acorn and butternut squash and
watermelon. I may plant some green beans in one of the raised beds

The asparagus and rhubarb are still going, as are the weeds.
Strawberries have started ripening. Some of the fruit trees look like
they will having a good crop. My Petit Pois are blooming and setting
some peas, finally. Blueberries are almost ripe and plentiful. Must
get them netted before the birds find them.

Heading to the Farmers Market later this morning. Hope to find
something interesting to eat. If not, will stop at the curb market
and see what they have. DH bought a cantaloupe there yesterday that
is huge and smells almost ripe.

We hit the supermarket yesterday and they had some huge white, wrinkled
skin cantaloupes for sale. We didn't buy one because it was way to big
for two people but we saw them going out of the store in pairs. I asked
the lady ahead of us in line for check out what they tasted like. She
didn't know as it was the first one of these she had bought and she
bought two of them. These things were almost as big as a soccer ball so
there must be plenty of meat in them.

Supermarkets here in Houston area get fruit from all over North,
Central, and South America so the cantaloupe could easily be an import.
I am old as I remember in the forties my Dad going down to the docks
when the banana boats came in and buying a stalk. Mom wouldn't let him
in the house with it until he checked it for snakes and spiders. The
whole stalk hung in a dark closet so they wouldn't all ripen at once and
we devoured them until they were gone. Seldom say any fruit in local
grocery stores, most of which were owned and operated by European
immigrants who came there in the teens and twenties and had little hole
in the wall stores. About the only other fruit we got was figs, pears,
muscadines, and satsumas, which grow well in SE Texas as do most citrus
fruit. My grandparents would be astounded at modern supermarkets if they
were still around. Heck, I'm often astounded at the plethora of foods
they stock and I read labels too. There a few countries that we don't
eat food from there.

Big birthday party this afternoon, DW hit 75 this week and two great
grands hit 12 so a family birthday party. I just baked a cake for DW and
yesterday made a large Anasazi bean casserole with sausage, rice, sweet
chiles, onions, and garlic. We had a small bit of it for dinner and I
like the Anasazi beans, they're a small pinto but very tasty.

I'm also prepping to can another four pints of green beans.

Where do you find Anasazi beans?
--
USA
North Carolina Foothills
USDA Zone 7a

On 5/23/2015 9:16 AM, songbird wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

We spent about an hour in our small garden picking green beans (third
time), yellow squash, eggplant, and sweet chiles. Haven't gotten a ripe
tomato yet. I suspect it's due to all the rain we've been getting and
very little sunshine. We have zucchini plants nearly three feet tall,
the climbing beans are almost two feet taller than the four foot tall
netting, and the eggplant are nearly past five feet tall. With all that
water and lots of good compost mixed into the bed before planting they
are going wild.

The brown crowder peas aren't climbing yet but have leaves as big as
saucer and some even larger but no blooms yet. The Hopi red lima beans
are making beans now and still blooming like crazy so it won't be long
before we pick those.

i'm glad to hear things are coming right along down
there.


My old Ames Garden Buddy has bit the dust, my daughter gave it to me at
Christmas about ten or twelve years ago and it just can't handle my big
behind any more. Bought a deluxe tractor scoot from Amazon and it came
in today so I put it together. Hope it lasts at least as long as the
Garden Buddy. As a matter of fact I hope I last that long. G

you never know these days. do you have four
wheel drive, a reverse gear and mud flaps?
The front wheels swivel so I can steer it, reverse gear is pushing
backwards with your feet and no need for mud flaps. I do like the
pneumatic tires versus solid tires, they will probably last longer. We
have a steel wagon with pneumatic tires that is 20 years old and the
tires are still good. We store such things in the garden shed, may get
hot in there but not direct sunshine.


Looks like rain again.

lucky for the drought in Texas finally getting a break from
all of these storms, with reserviors filling up again.

we've not seen much rain for the past few weeks, an inch
or so in three weeks is well behind normal. the ditch out
back is quite low for this time of year. i could almost
get in there and do some needed work on cutting brush back
and cleaning up a few things that have washed down from
upstream, but the water is still too cold...


songbird

Our cold water runs hot in the house for about two or three minutes when
turned on. Even with reflective foil under the roof and lots of
insulation the attic gets very hot.

Put up the four pints of green beans this morning, waiting for the
pressure canner to cool down now. Made a birthday cake for Miz Anne, got
side dish ready for family birthday for Miz Anne and two great grands.
Gonna be noisy and lots of baby kisses.

On 5/23/2015 10:31 AM, The Cook wrote:
On Sat, 23 May 2015 09:03:35 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:

On 5/23/2015 6:41 AM, The Cook wrote:
On Fri, 22 May 2015 18:50:32 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:

We spent about an hour in our small garden picking green beans (third
time), yellow squash, eggplant, and sweet chiles. Haven't gotten a ripe
tomato yet. I suspect it's due to all the rain we've been getting and
very little sunshine. We have zucchini plants nearly three feet tall,
the climbing beans are almost two feet taller than the four foot tall
netting, and the eggplant are nearly past five feet tall. With all that
water and lots of good compost mixed into the bed before planting they
are going wild.

The brown crowder peas aren't climbing yet but have leaves as big as
saucer and some even larger but no blooms yet. The Hopi red lima beans
are making beans now and still blooming like crazy so it won't be long
before we pick those.

My old Ames Garden Buddy has bit the dust, my daughter gave it to me at
Christmas about ten or twelve years ago and it just can't handle my big
behind any more. Bought a deluxe tractor scoot from Amazon and it came
in today so I put it together. Hope it lasts at least as long as the
Garden Buddy. As a matter of fact I hope I last that long. G

Looks like rain again.


Wish we would get some more rain. Have had to water some of the
plants. The summer garden is getting off to a late start. Tomatoes
were set out 5/7, the peppers on 5/15 and the cukes and zukes
yesterday. Still have to set out acorn and butternut squash and
watermelon. I may plant some green beans in one of the raised beds

The asparagus and rhubarb are still going, as are the weeds.
Strawberries have started ripening. Some of the fruit trees look like
they will having a good crop. My Petit Pois are blooming and setting
some peas, finally. Blueberries are almost ripe and plentiful. Must
get them netted before the birds find them.

Heading to the Farmers Market later this morning. Hope to find
something interesting to eat. If not, will stop at the curb market
and see what they have. DH bought a cantaloupe there yesterday that
is huge and smells almost ripe.

We hit the supermarket yesterday and they had some huge white, wrinkled
skin cantaloupes for sale. We didn't buy one because it was way to big
for two people but we saw them going out of the store in pairs. I asked
the lady ahead of us in line for check out what they tasted like. She
didn't know as it was the first one of these she had bought and she
bought two of them. These things were almost as big as a soccer ball so
there must be plenty of meat in them.

Supermarkets here in Houston area get fruit from all over North,
Central, and South America so the cantaloupe could easily be an import.
I am old as I remember in the forties my Dad going down to the docks
when the banana boats came in and buying a stalk. Mom wouldn't let him
in the house with it until he checked it for snakes and spiders. The
whole stalk hung in a dark closet so they wouldn't all ripen at once and
we devoured them until they were gone. Seldom say any fruit in local
grocery stores, most of which were owned and operated by European
immigrants who came there in the teens and twenties and had little hole
in the wall stores. About the only other fruit we got was figs, pears,
muscadines, and satsumas, which grow well in SE Texas as do most citrus
fruit. My grandparents would be astounded at modern supermarkets if they
were still around. Heck, I'm often astounded at the plethora of foods
they stock and I read labels too. There a few countries that we don't
eat food from there.

Big birthday party this afternoon, DW hit 75 this week and two great
grands hit 12 so a family birthday party. I just baked a cake for DW and
yesterday made a large Anasazi bean casserole with sausage, rice, sweet
chiles, onions, and garlic. We had a small bit of it for dinner and I
like the Anasazi beans, they're a small pinto but very tasty.

I'm also prepping to can another four pints of green beans.

Where do you find Anasazi beans?

Amazon carries them as does Walmart, the local Kroger Marketplace here
has them in stock also. Sometimes if you ask your grocer they will stock
them. Reportedly they give you 25% less gas than regular pinto beans.
I'm encouraging my middle grandson to ONLY eat Anasazi beans. G

Finished the green beans at 1000 and then took a nap, had another bad
night with my shoulder spurs giving me trouble. I guess I'm going to
have to have surgery but will put it off again if possible. I already
have enough surgery scars that people think I've been in a knife fight.
Getting old is hell but it sure beats the alternative.

On 5/23/2015 6:59 PM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:



Looks like rain again.
I'd envy you the rain, if I did that sort of thing ;-) Rain all
around us but not a drop for the garden. The White Hole Effect in
action, I suppose.
This time of year, I garden in the morning and in the late
afternoon hours. By about 11AM, I have to get my old self into the
shade! Afternoons, by this time of year (it _is_ nearly June, right?
wow), are just too hot and the sun too bright and intense for gardening
to be much of a pleasure. Unfortunately, here lately, I've been
spending the late afternoons mowing instead of gardening. First time
this year. We always wait 'til the earliest wildflowers are ready to
broadcast seed. Others, I simply mow around.

We've been doing the same except that we have been overcast for most of
a week so were out today doing due diligence. We managed to get the yard
mowed (very small property) and the weed whacker got it's job mostly
done too.

Been picking "late" (March) English peas and snap beans for a
while, now. I pick them daily early in the day as soon as they're dry
enough to handle. Half of the March "little marvel" peas and of
"provider" green beans, AWA a few peanuts, headed for the compost
yesterday. The peas had totally run their course. They just can't
handle late May temps and even if they continue to produce into the hot
season, the sweetness and flavor suffer. The beans were still producing
a bit but had gone all chlorotic and the few peanuts in that bed were
just beginning to peg. I'll add more compost, etc. maybe adjust the pH
in the bed and plant more beans (and maybe peanuts) while there's still
time or, maybe, more okra; or maybe, more cowpeas. A fella's freezer
can't have too much okra or too much "peas". Currently picking beans
and more heat-tolerant peas from another bed, have beans coming along in
yet another.

We planted sugar peas last fall and had a total crop failure, summer
came back in mid-winter and they just died off. Green peas are one of
our favorites so it hurt some. Our next door neighbors went home to
Russia at the end of January and left us a complete case of commercial
green peas plus a bunch of other canned foods and frozen meat. Hit the
green beans with some bloom producer this afternoon and am hoping for
sunshine soon too.

Gonna be overrun with yellow squash. Shoot, I _am_ overrun with
yellow squash. Had lousy results last year and because I used the same
seed stock this year planted "extra". Of course, now the "extra" has
become "holy cow". There's a limit to how much squash stuff two geezers
want to move around in their freezer. Thank goodness, I've avoided the
zucchini trap. Easily done, since neither wife nor I considers zucchini
to be actual food, you know(?), so I don't fool with it.

We're getting one or two yellow squash a week, just right for our needs.
We like zucchini and do many dishes with them. Zucchini fritters are
very nice plus put up lots of shredded zucchini for use in breads,
casseroles, etc. There's just two geezers here too and a geezer dawg,
she likes zuke fritters too.

The onions that survived The Raccoon Raid of 2014 are all up and
air-drying on the front porch; the garlic steams ahead. We've been
using the onions as "spring" onions since early March but I pulled them
all during the first week of this month, since they are of suitable size
for our kitchen use.

We've got so much scallions, onion and garlic chives, chopped and vac
bagged in the freezer and some Texas 1015Y onions coming on that we
didn't even have to buy any over the winter. Very handy when you need
some for a dish and it is right there in a bag.
No raccoons around here, very few varmints if you don't count the nutria
rat family that lives in the retention pond behind us. Some nice size
turtles in there too. Have been thinking of sliding out there one
evening with my 1200 fps air rifle and getting some grub. Big sign there
says no firearms but air rifles don't count I guess.

George Shirley wrote:
songbird wrote:
George wrote:
....
My old Ames Garden Buddy has bit the dust, my daughter gave it to me at
Christmas about ten or twelve years ago and it just can't handle my big
behind any more. Bought a deluxe tractor scoot from Amazon and it came
in today so I put it together. Hope it lasts at least as long as the
Garden Buddy. As a matter of fact I hope I last that long. G

you never know these days. do you have four
wheel drive, a reverse gear and mud flaps?

The front wheels swivel so I can steer it, reverse gear is pushing
backwards with your feet and no need for mud flaps. I do like the
pneumatic tires versus solid tires, they will probably last longer. We
have a steel wagon with pneumatic tires that is 20 years old and the
tires are still good. We store such things in the garden shed, may get
hot in there but not direct sunshine.

i thought mudflaps'd fit nicely with the dawg and the
gunrack...

i spray the tires on the wheelbarrows with some UV
protectant and that seems to help keep them from
degrading quickly.


Looks like rain again.

lucky for the drought in Texas finally getting a break from
all of these storms, with reserviors filling up again.

we've not seen much rain for the past few weeks, an inch
or so in three weeks is well behind normal. the ditch out
back is quite low for this time of year. i could almost
get in there and do some needed work on cutting brush back
and cleaning up a few things that have washed down from
upstream, but the water is still too cold...

Our cold water runs hot in the house for about two or three minutes when
turned on. Even with reflective foil under the roof and lots of
insulation the attic gets very hot.

sounds like some passive roof venting would help
there?


Put up the four pints of green beans this morning, waiting for the
pressure canner to cool down now. Made a birthday cake for Miz Anne, got
side dish ready for family birthday for Miz Anne and two great grands.
Gonna be noisy and lots of baby kisses.

aww! congrats to you all on being happy and holding
together after all these years.

nothing put up here lately. friend said rhubarb was
good in the crumble and that she added apples and
cherries to it. i'd give it a whirl... haven't met
a crumble i didn't like.


songbird

On 5/23/2015 9:57 PM, songbird wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
songbird wrote:
George wrote:
...
My old Ames Garden Buddy has bit the dust, my daughter gave it to me at
Christmas about ten or twelve years ago and it just can't handle my big
behind any more. Bought a deluxe tractor scoot from Amazon and it came
in today so I put it together. Hope it lasts at least as long as the
Garden Buddy. As a matter of fact I hope I last that long. G

you never know these days. do you have four
wheel drive, a reverse gear and mud flaps?

The front wheels swivel so I can steer it, reverse gear is pushing
backwards with your feet and no need for mud flaps. I do like the
pneumatic tires versus solid tires, they will probably last longer. We
have a steel wagon with pneumatic tires that is 20 years old and the
tires are still good. We store such things in the garden shed, may get
hot in there but not direct sunshine.

i thought mudflaps'd fit nicely with the dawg and the
gunrack...

i spray the tires on the wheelbarrows with some UV
protectant and that seems to help keep them from
degrading quickly.


Looks like rain again.

lucky for the drought in Texas finally getting a break from
all of these storms, with reserviors filling up again.

we've not seen much rain for the past few weeks, an inch
or so in three weeks is well behind normal. the ditch out
back is quite low for this time of year. i could almost
get in there and do some needed work on cutting brush back
and cleaning up a few things that have washed down from
upstream, but the water is still too cold...

Our cold water runs hot in the house for about two or three minutes when
turned on. Even with reflective foil under the roof and lots of
insulation the attic gets very hot.

sounds like some passive roof venting would help
there?
Lots of that up there but still insufficient. I may put in a larger
solar vent soon.


Put up the four pints of green beans this morning, waiting for the
pressure canner to cool down now. Made a birthday cake for Miz Anne, got
side dish ready for family birthday for Miz Anne and two great grands.
Gonna be noisy and lots of baby kisses.

aww! congrats to you all on being happy and holding
together after all these years.

nothing put up here lately. friend said rhubarb was
good in the crumble and that she added apples and
cherries to it. i'd give it a whirl... haven't met
a crumble i didn't like.


songbird

As usual it was a very noisy party. Daughter, her husband, wife and I,
two neighbor kids, three grandkids, six great grands, one dog. Lots of
laughter, birthday songs, presents to open, baby kisses, and a very
large amount of good food including three birthday cakes.
Granddaughter's significant other has joined the Navy reserve and is
going to boot camp in August and he had to work today so didn't make the
party. One birthday each month until September when there's three more.
I think we have to many kids. Naw, we love them all.

On 5/26/2015 6:20 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:


We planted sugar peas last fall and had a total crop failure, summer
came back in mid-winter and they just died off.
Yeah, we have winters like that, too. Generally speaking, I no
longer give much space to items that need a long unbroken "cool" season.
Most years, I can plant English peas from October through February. Of
course, in some years, our coldest weather arrives when the peas (and
tomatoes) are loaded. Starts getting too hot for the variety I grow by
mid May. Also, in the springtime, mildew can be a problem. This past
week, saw two small hatchings of armyworms on a couple of vines of a
second variety of peas. The second variety, new to me, is supposed to
be relatively more heat tolerant and I'd hoped to use it to extend the
season or that it would better cope with warm winters. So far, I'm not
impressed but, in fairness, they were planted late (March 23). The
"plan" (snicker) is, come autumn, to plant both types on the same
schedule and pretend that it's some sort of test, comparison, or
demonstration.
I haven't seen an armyworm in decades. Every summer there would be
millions of them feeding on everything in sight. Had forgotten about the
things, thank goodness.

We're getting one or two yellow squash a week, just right for our needs.
Well, squash here has a short season because if one does not get it
in early, pest control becomes an issue. As with a number of different
garden items, I grow "extra" for use in prepared dishes that may be
frozen. I'm sure that in the past, I've pointed out the irony of
gardening in order to eat "thaw 'n gnaw" ;-)
We freeze a lot of squash, both shredded and sliced. Makes for lots of
nice dishes and fritters come winter. We've always grown more than we
eat at any time for the same reasons you have. Beats running to the
stupormarket every other day.

We've got so much scallions, onion and garlic chives, chopped and vac
bagged in the freezer and some Texas 1015Y onions coming on that we
didn't even have to buy any over the winter. Very handy when you need
some for a dish and it is right there in a bag.
Oh, I always keep a pot of chives going (although, never used) and
continuously plant onions for a constant supply of tender tops. We
don't have any sweet onions. The Red Creole are a full-flavor
(actually, kind of strong) short day "cooking" onion. DW uses a lot of
onions for cooking and we try to minimize what we have to buy, although,
do keep a small supply of purchased yellow onions on hand.
We grow onions and chives around all our fruit trees. I used to lose a
peach tree every other year to peach borers until I found out that
chives planted around the tree keeps the borers away. Figured it would
hurt to put chives around all of them. Last year we grew leeks around
our trees until I decided I really didn't like leeks that much so went
back to chives and onions.

No raccoons around here, very few varmints if you don't count the nutria
rat family that lives in the retention pond behind us.
We had a pretty stable population until some (brutally serious)
land clearing activitiy about a quarter mile distant displaced a number
which suddenly were added to the spring pups (3) that were "familiar".
However, the number seems to have diminished a bit, if one can judge by
the traffic across a metal roof and the reflections from eyeballs.

Back in the late forties, early fifties coon hunting was a big deal in
my family. All the men and boys would gather up on a Saturday night,
unless the coon hounds, mostly Redbone's and Walker's, and we would get
home sometime in the early hours of the morning. I was usually the
shooter, used my Winchester Model 1906 pump .22 to take the coon(s). We
never took more than two and we ate those a little later. My Dad and two
of his brothers and myself and three or four cousins, younger than me
but not by much. Was great fun but then the land changed hands and the
new owners posted it so coon hunting died out.Previous to the change we
had free range rights on over a thousand acres of woods and rice fields.
Duck hunting, squirrel and rabbit hunting, all the good stuff for a
batch of young boys and their Dad's. Times change.