Teach Your Daughter Well

Still need to post pics, but had a great experience last night teaching my early teenage daughter how to trim tomatoes and some basic garden care. She did really well and is a natural.

She stated she really didn't see herself as a gardener, but as all the adults in her family are gardeners I noted she is doomed and she may as well accept her fate and learn to do it well.

I got that smirk, but she knows whats in her future. And its dirty fingernails.

:)

Two Weeks of Nothing

Well, due to some family situations I have had to not pay enough attention to my garden for two weeks.

It is overgrown (in good and bad ways) and lush and full of a few vermin (mostly the rabbits) and tomatoes that might be too big to cage now, so I may have to stake for the first time ever. That should be interesting.

Will try to get some pics of the good, the bad, and the ugly going tonite or tomorrow.

Rabbits and Wind

Wow. Hard day for the garden. Got home last night just ahead of the storm and found rabbit damage in my raddichio, broccoli, and cabbage.

I haven't put cages on all the tomatoes and the 70 mph winds last night did some damage. Will have to sort it all out and keep my fingers crossed.

Garden Update

Well here is the above shot that has been progressing through the summer. These are the main beds (but by no means all, I need to find a better way to summarize visually). Everthing is thriving with a few exceptionsl. The broccoli and carrots are not doing to well. I only have about a dozen carrots and I should have three times that amount. I will plant some more seed tonite and see what happens. The broccoliI am just not sure about. It was some borrowed saved seed and I am not sure how old it was. I may have to try and plant more of it as well.

Here we have two of the beds around the deck. Lettuce (seven varieties confirmed) on the left and Patty Pan, zuchs, acorn and crookneck squash on the left. Still no sign of my beloved squash bees, but its been wet and a little cold.

Here is my favorite shot down the walkway. I still have a lot of work to do to get the finishing touches on the garden back here, but I still enjoy it SOOOOOO much. This is my sanctuary.

And that is my organic seaweed fertilizer in the bucket. That stuff works like charm. I am totally impressed with it. Unfortunately I just realized this is a slightly dated photo of the walkway. Will update tonite.

Assisting The Helmsman

Fowler Ridge Wind Farm

The wind farm we went through the other day is called Fowler Ridge and it has 222 wind turbines. It really is huge.

That picture, which was commented on, is actually a picture of the type of turbine they have at Fowler Ridge which is copyright free.

I have another image here that is actually Fowler Ridge. I guess I need to start crediting photos!

There are more turbines coming, and when the Farm is finished it will generate about 1100 MW. I am not sure how many that is, but its got to be a lot. The wife says she can (and will) figure out how many homes that is.

Here is a link to an article that a reader sent me. Thanks!

http://www.indianaeconomicdigest.net/main.asp?SectionID=31&subsectionID=64&articleID=47321

photo by HuwmanBeing from WikiCommons

Always Nice To Catch A Whiff Of Hope

The wife and I made a trip this weekend south to help some family. On our route south we travel US Route 41. For a couple of years now there is an area south of Kentland, IN where there are some wind turbines. The last time we drove it (last fall) there were maybe a dozen turbines visible from the road but it was apparent they were working on more. When we drove through this weekend, you can see turbines as far as the eye can see on both sides of the highway for around 20 miles. It is surreal and breathtaking. I will have to look online to see if I can get more info on it.

Garden Update

Well, the garden is doing really well. A quick rundown:

Fruit - looks like about 20 bunches of grapes, some strawberries, a few apples, some ground cherries, our blackberries FINALLY bloomed so we may get some of those, and the raspberries have almost all taken. Not bad.

Veggies - All the veggies have taken, although the brocolli, cabbages, and carrots are struggling a little. Not sure whats up with the carrots, I got a really low germination level (one in ten, maybe) and I may have to plant some more to see. And something is already eatting some of my beans.

Herbs - All the herbs look good, but the thyme and tarragon are not thriving. It could be some prolonged transplant shock or a poor soil mix on my part (mixed my own potting soils this time - thanks for the inspiration Susy!). Will have to wait and see. And if I have one more person tell me that thyme is easy to grow and becomes invasive I will throttle them! This is my third year trying and its still not going well.

Anyways, here are some pics as well:

A shot down the walkway. Its about a week old, I need to update it desperately!

Cabbages. Coleslaw, steamed, sauerkraut, kim chi, soup, endless reasons to drool!

L to R - Tomatoes, radishes, and beans.

And here we have some ground cherries.

One Thing Leads To Another

So, this weekend I had my beautiful daughters. They decided to have a "makeover" session, which, of course, Buddy wanted in on. So they put pigtails all over his head, he insisted on a plastic headband, and lip gloss. So he came out like this:

He had a blast all day and didn't want us to take the pigtails out. In fact he was insistent. We decided that it was because his hair wasn't in his eyes and he was cooler. So I trimmed his bangs, and after several attempts at giving him a haircut over the last few months, he was ready to let us do it. We decided "lets give him a clipper cut and keep him cool". Here is the result:

Its also easier to clean. Yaaaaay!

So Many Posts

Hello,

Haven't posted in too long, now I have a backlog of posts! I will try and drop them around today and tomorrow. Lets get started with some kid fun!

Time for a summer haircut. Its funny, Buddy's hair had gotten too long, so when we cut it he looked like a totally different kid! I will post some more later, but now he looks like some kids from a 1950's cereal commercial.

We had big bubble fun this weekend too.

And Dad got beat by a FIFTY POINT score by Oldest Daughter at a game of Agricola.

Ouch.