Gardening update

I told you that I would keep you updated on my spring garden. I am pleased to tell you that much of what I planted has grown very well. These pictures were taken about 3 weeks ago, after about 5-6 weeks in the ground...so you can do the math and imagine where the growth is up to now...suffice it to say that it took reaching the final seminary lesson to get the pictures off my phone and onto a blog. :)




The tomatoes are very large, and fairly healthy looking. The first crop is about half-way to ripe. I caged the tomatoes just after taking the picture, and they are starting to grow out of the cages. The peppers got a slow start, mostly (I think) because I planted them so small.




The plant in the foreground is sage. I put some in some black beans and rice the other night (together with some thyme, cumin and the holy trinity of seasonings - garlic, onion and chili) ...yum! The onion-y looking patch is a patch of leeks...not sure what we'll do with them, but at worst we can use the leaves like chives.




Here's the surprise, at least to many that I talk to...the spinach has produced a huge crop already. I hear that it may peter out in the heat of summer, but I'll take what I can get at this point. I got my first harvest a few days after this picture. It filled a bread bowl with leaves. About a week ago, I took another harvest of a little more than the first. We have a third ready to go, just waiting to use up the previous stuff before I go cut it. It looks to be even larger than the first two...savings to date. = $15 on spinach. Cost to date = $250 in supplies and dirt, plus maybe a little more for the plants... OK, maybe not a cost savings right now, but its certainly more fresh!




I thought I'd be smart and only plant 2 hills each of zucchini and crookneck. OK...good plan, but I can see where they might overwhelm us once they get going. They're about triple this size already, and each hill has 4-5 blooms going. the first squash is about 2 inches long. Can't wait!


So, there you have it...a good year for a garden. Shona was reading that home gardening is up about 40% this year, with people trying to save their grocery budget. I don't really expect to save any money, but if past experience holds true, the taste premium cannot be bought. As the song says: "only two things that money can't buy, and that's true love and home-grown tomatoes." A fascinating side-effect is that the kids are eating more veggies and are appreciating the seasoning of our meals a lot more, now that we grow them. That really makes it worth it, to me.

At long last...

We planted a vegetable garden.

It was a few weeks ago, and I have been meaning to share pictures ever since, but have never found time to get an article written and posted. You would think that after freeing up the time I spent working on building the garden plot and getting the plants in, I would find it easy to write about it... hasn't seemed that way.

When we built the swimming pool a few years ago, I envisioned a garden plot between the pool and the fence. That's why we built-up that side of the pool...to allow us to have a raised-bed garden plot.


So, having come to resting places in various other projects (they're never really done are they?), I decided to build up that garden area this spring. In order to promote drainage while discouraging run-off, I used cinder-blocks as the main wall building material. I put it just at the level of the pool deck concrete, so that we can put our left-over flagstones on top of it so it will match the deck in height and appearance.


Of course, in the middle of all this work (and it was actually 2-3 weekends long, due to weather and other commitments), I forgot to take pictures to document the before and after. It finally occurred to me to take interim pictures when we had 3/4 of the topsoil in place.


We had a couple of sprinkler heads in that area. I raised them, and we are re-tasking them as dripper irrigation sources. That way, we can only water the plants we want to get the water and weeds will have to make do with rainfall. That probably means that they'll be stronger and more numerous than if we watered them, but the kids have to have something to do all summer, right? (jk, boys...you can stick to mowing)



Here's the finished product....planted and irrigated. We ended up with 10 Bell Pepper plants (yea, that IS a lot, but we LIKE them), 8 Tomatoes (see previous comment), some Onions, about a 2'x4' patch of Spinach, and a couple hills each of Zuccini and Crookneck Squash. I decided to trial a single Strawberry and a Cantaloup to see how they will react. If all goes well, we may do more next year. We'll also find out just how much garden space this is...ie did we crowd the plants or can we put more plants in that area.

We're still not sure that we want to be exclusively vegetable-oriented, since some native landscaping would also be nice. But, somehow, it seemed appropriate to be vegetable farmers this year. I'll keep you posted...I hope to give absolute rave reviews about the incredible success we are having. In case of abject failure (or lack of time) you won't hear back from me. :)

50 odd things about John

50 ODD things about me!

If you opened this, FILL IT OUT! Learn 50 things about your friends, and let them learn 50 things about you!

1. Do you like cheese? every variety, in bulk, but NOT bleu

2. Have you ever smoked heroin? no drugs, never

3. Do you own a gun? yep, tho it's probably not in great shape

4. Do you like listening to Christmas music? I make a conscious effort to limit Christmas music to 8 months of the year

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? I don't think so, but my blood pressure disagrees

6. What do you think of hot dogs? used to like them. now? not so much

7. Favorite Christmas song? Silent Night

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? see 3 favorite drinks, below

9. Can you do push ups? I possess this skill

10. Who is your favorite Days of our Lives Character? the doctor guy?, who's in a coma?, but found out that she's carrying his baby just before his car accident? That one...

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? don't wear any jewelry at all

12. Favorite hobby? hmmm, a constantly evolving set of mostly solitary activities

13. Secret weapon to get the opposite sex? never needed one

14. Do you have A.D.D.? ahhh, no

15. What one trait do you hate about yourself? I hate that I can't think of anything I dislike about myself

16. Middle Name? Bryce

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? how long is this questionnaire? what is she doing in the other room? is that an African or European swallow?

18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday? nada

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? water, ice water and diet dr. pepper

20. Current worry right now? How are we going to pay for this outrageously expensive 'stimulus' package, and will it actually stimulate anything???

21. Current hate? winter

22. Favorite place to be? right here

23. How did you bring in the New Year? I'm pretty sure we were watching a DVD when the clock rolled over

24. Where would you like to go? Heaven. It's too scary to contemplate the other place

25. Name three people who will complete this? given past experience, probably nobody will do it

26. Do you own flip flops? I'm more of a sandals guy

27. What shirt are you wearing? Long sleeve t-shirt: green

28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? YUCK

29. Can you whistle? constantly

30. Favorite color? I'd tell you, but that is a password security question, so I'd have to kill you and neither of us wants that, now do we??

31. Would you be a pirate? never really saw the allure of sailing with a bunch of smelly guys on a boat the size of my bed

32. What songs do you sing in the shower? showering at 5am is not conducive to singing

33. Favorite girl's name? has to be Jessica

34. Favorite boy's name? what's wrong with MY name??

35. What's in your pocket right now? do pajamas even have pockets?

36. Last thing that made you laugh? an unfortunate picture I got on email. I'll forward it to you

37. Best bed sheets as a child? I'm pretty sure I had sheets

38. Worst injury you've ever had? Look at my other posts... that one was pretty bad

39. Do you love where you live? I've definitely had worse. haven't had a reason to leave Lewisville

40. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2

41. Who is your loudest friend? would I really say that?

42. How many dogs do you have? 1

43. Does someone have a crush on you? if they do, they're not telling

45. What is your favorite book? I will have to go with Enders Game, but its a tight competition

46. What is your favorite candy? Snickers

47. Do you know all the words to the Fresh Prince theme song? ahhh, no

48. What song do you want played at your funeral? I won't be in a position to complain...play anything you want

49. What were you doing 12 AM last night? sleeping

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? is it Friday yet?

Classical Music: not just for fuddy duddies anymore

A few years ago, while I was on a business trip to Vienna, I went to a classical (Mozart) concert with some colleagues at the Musikvereinsaal, considered by many to be the worlds best concert hall. That concert was designed for tourists, since it was in summer, and all the musicians wore traditional costumes for the music they were playing. It was very entertaining and I enjoyed the experience (although the cost was more or less significant)

Fast forward a year or so...it was right around New Years Day either 2 years ago, or maybe even last year. I was flipping through the TV Guide and saw a concert from this same place. I didn't know anything about it, but it turns out that there is a New Years day concert every year at the Musikverein where they play polkas and waltzes...a tradition going back to the late 30's. In fact, the Austrian composers that are traditionally played were chosen in rebellion to the German political control at the time.

In contrast to most concerts, where audience 'participation' is frowned upon, the audience gets downright rowdy during the planned encores, clapping along and swaying back and forth in good bierhalle fashion. The concert always ends with the Radetzky March, which is the Austrian equivalent to Stars and Stripes Forever for us.

Let's fast forward again. A few months ago, Andrew asked if I would take him to an orchestra field trip. I agreed, and we signed up and paid. I promptly forgot all about it until earlier this week, when the reminders came from school. The concert was last night. We went to the DSO, and imagine my surprise when I read that they were re-creating this traditional New Years concert for us. We got INCREDIBLE seats, especially for the student prices we paid...on the floor about 10 rows back.

The new conductor is VERY animated and energetic, and I really enjoyed the concert. They played a lot that was familiar: Hungarian Dance #5 (I had the easy piano music for this YEARS ago), The Blue Danube Waltz, etc. They also played a few that I'd never heard before...The Typewriter (by Leroy Anderson) was funny, and is worth looking up if you're interested.

They ended the concert with the traditional encores, and after the Radetzky March, came out for a final encore of Stars & Stripes. It was really a wonderful performance, and made me wish (again) that I could get to the DSO more often.

Where has the time gone?

It is a universal truth that the time required to complete an activity expands to fill the time allotted to do it.

For example, I have taken the last few weeks off work, courtesy of the use-it-or-lose-it vacation policy. I am sure that Shona had elaborate plans for my time, but… … … you shall see.

The first few days were spent in last minute Christmas preparation. Shona’s sister was here, and they spent every night either shopping or getting hair cut, or any of several activities.

After Christmas, we left for her Aunt’s house in Austin. Several cousins live in the area, and we spent a few days lounging around socializing with them. We came back the 31st, because the boys had to go to the New Years Eve dance. These are the kids from (mostly) our ward at the dance. BTW, Patrick is in the blue shirt with yellow tie. Bryan is behind him to his right, almost completely obscured.



I did do one productive thing… on the way back from Austin, I noticed Shona’s brakes grinding, so I changed them on the 2nd. That was an experience! It only took 3 hours, and I went for a nice long bike ride afterward…

When I was making dinner, however, I cut the tip of my finger off using the mandolin to slice yellow squash. A mandolin is like a cheese grater, but with a single blade. It’s VERY handy for doing things like slicing squash – or fingers. After 5+ hours in the emergency room, they managed to stop the bleeding with some surgical coagulant, and sent me home with some painkillers and antibiotics. So, I spent the next few days keeping my hand elevated.





As you can see (with the stunning camera phone pics), it was already doing very well as of a few days ago, but today is the first time I’ve dared to keep the finger exposed for any amount of time… The fact is, the dressing was hurting my other fingers worse than the wound was hurting! I think my pinkie is about to fall off!! Needless to say, a right-handed person cannot accomplish much when his right hand is incapacitated.

So, tomorrow I’ll finish my vacation by taking the car in for some work on the alignment, and we’ll wonder where all the time went for cleaning out the garage, finishing projects, etc, etc.
I really didn’t want to do anything during my vacation, and sure enough, getting that accomplished took the entire time.