Here ya go Suz and Sally!!!
Doug
General Discussions 2009 - Chapter 26
As a reminder for all the new folks, I invite you to put your garden on the map:
http://www.frappr.com/strawbalegardeners
Happy New Year Kent!! I haven't looked at the map in a long time. Is there any room left on it?
Jeanette
Jeanette: Happy Double Oh Nine to you, too!
Lots of room left on the map. Need some folks across the pond, though.
I haven't looked at the map for a long time either. I was on last year and now I'm not! What gives? AAGGHH! :) Those people at frappr. don't know how long it took me to get that picture posted.
We started with 10 bales last year and are hoping to more!
Your friend Lucy
(The missing dot in Ohio!)
Lucy, that's the first I've heard about losing your map dot. Dang.
Not sure how that happens.
WIth Lena's pics for New Zealand and all the posts, I'm already wanting a fresh tomato sandwich! :-)
Hold your horses Kent. Seems to me that you already get yours ahead of everyone else.
Jeanette
Whoa, big fellas! Atta, boy, Jake. Check up, Bob!
Jeanette, now that I'm holding my horses, I can't help it. I love those 'mater sandwiches.
Got a call from an old Navy buddy who lives outside Spokane. Said they got over 5 ft of snow just in the month of December!
As Ricky Ricardo would say, "Aye, Aye, Aye!!!"
We're going through a cold spell down in NC. Single digits for the last few nights. Snuggling up weather for sure! :-)
OK, the northeastern Ohio dot is back. That was weird, my dot was gone, but when I typed in my email and my name, my old picture came up. I had to add a new picture to get my dot back! :)
Now I need some cheese to go with my whine!
That's right Kent!! 5 feet in one month and it wasn't even winter yet. This is the lull before another storm I am afraid. It is running right above freezing during the day and in the low 20s at night. Down right balmy. My poor DH is all crippled up from shoveling snow for the last month. Don't think we can handle another one and it is still January.
Jeanette
Jeanette: I feel for ya'll. Hopefully, Spring will make up for it.
Hey, all- Happy Martin Luther King Day and Inauguration Week- how blessed we are to be living in this time!
And, to make it fully perfect, we're having our first really gorgeous snowfall of the season! I'm so happy!! God's time-release watering for our tired earth. You can keep your boring warm-all-the-time weather- I love my seasons.
xox Suz
I don't mean to throw water (snow) on your wonderful feelings about your first snow, but you can have Half of mine. I too love the seasons, but this is really getting to us.
Yes, it is nice to see everyone in such a good mood for once when you turn on the TV. I sincerely hope it lasts for a while. It is nice.
Jeanette
Fixing to try the strawbales here in Louisiana. Can ya'll tell me if you have tried many heirloom tomatoes and how they have done as opposed to ground planting? Thanks for any info. Dona - Can't wait to get started!!!
Lena, where are the pictures of your garden? I keep waiting, but nothing lately.
Jeanette
Coco, I did grow some heirlooms in bales and in the ground last year (same variety). They both produced very well but the ones in the bales did not seem to have as many insect/disease problems.
Doug
Hi All,
Jeanette I must have heard you, because I only just looked on the stawbale forum and found this new thread. Ive been on holiday in the far north for 3 weeks, I have exams next week, and my garden has been keeping me very well occupied! Everything is HUGE, including the weeds and lawn after my absence. Getting it back under control. Have spent the last two whole days making pickles and relish out of my excessive zuchini and cucumber harvest. And theres still more picked and waiting. Picking a few tomatoes every day, the first ones. Ill post some pics soon. Mum just rang so I better talk to her.
Lena
picture?
[IMG]http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp13/LenaBeanNZ/NorthlandandGardenlateJan139.jpg[/IMG]
Looks like it didnt work. Im not on my computer so tried to add pictures from photobucket. It works on Tomatoville. Hmmm.
Sorry to hear about your cold weather.
Hows your foot doing Jeanette?
This message was edited Jan 28, 2009 5:27 PM
Wow Lena, must be ESP!! We want pictures. With our sub zero weather it will be a real treat.
Jeanette
LenaBeanNZ
Here I'll post the picture for you.
That really looks nice. Is that a current picture? Is that what you are growing now? I really feel like a piker because I only plant a half a dozen tomato plants.
May I ask what you people all do with all of these tomatoes???? Do you fill the local foot banks? Have a produce stand? Have a dozen people in your family? What am I missing here?
Even canning I would think you would have enough to feed an army for the winter with all of those.
Jeanette
No army, no huge family, and no produce stand. All though what I grow could probably feed them all. I just like growing that many, for variety. Im quite active with seed trading, which just encourages me to grow even more next time. I can alot, make alot of sauces, relishes, pickles etc, and yes it is far too much for my small family of 2 to eat over winter. I give alot away to friends and my parents. This year Im hoping to start selling a few preserves at local delis.
Im having internet problems, it keeps disconecting. This is the third time Ive tried to send this message. And when I use someone elses computer I dont have my pictures to post!
Hows your foot, Jeanette?
Lena
LOL, I know what you do with yours Lena. I guess what I meant was why do so many people grow so many tomatoes??? You and I have talked about yours before. I even suggested that you sell some of your seedlings. You are like me, you like to see them grow. You put so much work into them it would help to sell them before they put out so much fruit.
If truth be known, I probably would do the same if I had the room.
The foot is coming along. Hope to get the final cast off in about 10 days. Then, I guess I am on my own, so it sounds. I am thinking that I might try some water therapy to learn how to walk on it without putting so much weight on it all at once. I don't know, we'll see.
Jeanette
BTW, the sunflowers are gorgeous. Do you save the seeds for the squirrels in the winter? But, you don't have that much winter do you? Keep forgetting.
Squirrels LOL we dont have squirrels in NZ! If we did I would though. My granny in Germany puts wallnuts out on her balcony for the squirrels in winter, which they promptly bury in her flowerboxes! It annoys her a bit to see her dormant spring bulbs thrown overboard, but she just loves watching them, so puts nuts out anyway. The birds eat my sunflower seeds. I cant save any because they are too quick. Im lucky to save a few to grow next year.
Glad your foot is healing well. Will be good to loose the cast. I hated wearing them when I broke my wrists (both at the same time).
A few cucurbits I picked. 2 days and burnt fingers later, they are pickled in jars.
Lena
They look good Lena. Do you have any special way you fix them? last year we went thru the bit about recipes on here. Like, white vs cider vinegar, alum?, hot bath or no, what keeps them crisp? All of that and I don't know if anyone actually got it right.
I wonder what happened to Russ. Has anyone heard from him on any of the sites??? I hope they are ok. I know his daughter had medical problems.
Russ, if you see this, let us hear from you.
Jeanette
With the cucumbers I made some dill pickles, some bread and butter, and an experimental batch with chilli, cumin, corriander and garlic. I did a few jars of sliced zuchini in the same brine as the cukes. The rest of the zuchini went into a relish. I used Cider and Wine vinegars. And no hot water bath, just the jars were sterilised before I put the cukes in. Vinegar is a preservant in itself. I make my pickles very much on the acidic side, with only a little salt and sugar.
I must have missed that part, do you know in which thread it was?
Lena
Hi guys; I don't know why I lost out on this forum, it always popped automatically when anyone posted. Oh well I clicked on the watch site again. so it should pop up now.
I was having a whole raft of problems on OE so I added fire fox for DG. That has helped. as I was getting kicked off line whenever I hit the send button. That seemed to cure that problem. But there are some things I can't get with fire fox, so I guess I will keep both.
Russ
Hi there Russ. I have had Firefox ever since it first started. My grandson who is taking computer networking at school talked me into it and I really like it. Have never had any trouble with it.
Jeanette
I constantly have problems with Internet Explorer throwing me off, so I have switched to Google Chrome. Somehow I cant quite make friends with Firefox, allthough I have heard many people rave about it. Chrome is great, alot better than IE ever was for me.
Lena, that's one I haven't heard of. Will have to see how you continue to like it. Thanks Jeanette
IE was working for me for a long time until just recently. Then all of a sudden they made some changes I couldn't send. Also lost spell check at the same time. I am not the fastest at typing and by the time I had a posting ready I was kicked off and when I got it back the message was lost.
I done a bunch of grumbling before I made the switch. Now I need more memory. There are a bunch of files I saved that I can't seem to open any longer. Not sure what I'll have to do there. Probably have to down load all the pictures I can still find to a disk. and start deleting.
Russ, its a good idea to save all your important documents/ pictures/ files etc to disk once a year, to clear the memory space. And then completely uninstall and reinstall windows. Its a bit of a hassle sorting through all your files, and waiting through the installation process, but worth doing. It basically takes you back to factory settings.
Windows picks up a lot of bad stuff (or relatively harmless *stuff* that clutters) over the internet, which accumulates and interferes with your opperating system, slowing it down or changing settings. Most viruses and and other nasties are built compatible with MS Windows, so they just install themselves without you even knowing. Or in my case, I often allow them without quite understanding the consequences. Im definately due for a yearly cleanup. My good friend who is a computer technician (ans conveniently works for my internet service provider) told me to do it. My computer has been playing up, diconnecting me from the internet. Especially on Internet Explorer, because it is a MS program, same as Windows.
I hope that made a little bit of sense.
Lena
Thanks bunches, Lena!
Though I don't know if I could do it myself, This is a rebuilt unit and no CD to reinstall with. Guess best I could do is to save what i can, and have the shop do the rest.
Neat trick they pull huh???
Hi Guys,
It's been a long time. I have been gone since August. I was attacked by a strep , "Skin Eating Disease", called Necrotizing Factitus. I spent 2 1/2 weeks in intensive care.
Had 8 different operations to remove dead flesh. I lost 20% of my body mass and now have skin grafts and scars all over. New Year Eve day the doctor told me, "Go and Live Life." Needless to say, it is great to be back.
One of the challenges that occured, the original diagnosis about my disease, I was supposed to have months of extended therapy. Our kids moved us out of our home into an apartment, cleaned up all of my garden space, preparing to sell the place. Well, I am back, really weak but able to do most things. We are going to move back into the old shack and continue life. I truly have a new life and now will have a new garden.
God Bless you all.
His servant, Paul.
Good grief Paul!! How did you ever get that? What did you come in contact with? How is it spread? I cannot believe 20%. That is truly amazing.
I have to tell you Paul. In 2002 and 2003 I spent 5 weeks in the ICU, and another 4 weeks in rehab to get my muscles moving again because they had atrophied.
5 years later I was still feeling that I was getting more strength back. It took that long Paul. So don't despair if you don't get yours back immediately. Right about 2008 I felt like I had reached my maximum, that I would not get any stronger.
Just hang in there, you have your computer and these contacts with your friends are a big help. Good to see you back and hope to hear a lot from you on how you are doing.
Jeanette
Gosh! Im really sorry to hear what happened to you Paul. Cant even imagine how scary that would be. Im very glad that you are ok. Im still completely shocked. I hope you recover quickly and without further complications. Please let us know how you are getting on. And I hope you get your garden sorted, I would come help you out with it if I could.
Lena
Sorry Russ, I was so shocked I almost forgot to reply to you. With new computers you get a bunch of "complete recovery" disks with all the original software and settings on them. With my computer I had the option of burning them when I first started it up. Fortunately I did. Not sure what to do with an older computer. I always have Jeff helping me so I never have to pay to get things fixed or installed. Software is quite expensive I think, Microsoft Word and Excel and Power Point etc. I will need to ask Jeff to reinstall them for me, I dont have them on disk.
With my first computer I had my flatmate at the time install MS Office for me. He was an exchange student from Iran, and it was the Arabic version! It had english letters too of course, but the comands and menus etc were a little hard to read. My friends thought it was hilarious, I had to use it for over a month for my schoolwork until I had Jeff install the English one. So make sure you get the right version!
Lena
I will have to bite the bullet. Download what I can and go back to where I got it and pay$$.
Then install a burner so I can burn a CD so I have a way to get back to square one. does that sound right?
Our daughter who now lives approximately 850 miles away could do it for me. That of course would involve a lengthy trip. That would have to be scheduled around having someone take care of the 4 GIRLS in the back yard. So I will have to live with it for a while.
I will have to wait till I get the garden in and use that little window of time, before the weeds take over in their attempt to proliferate. LOL
This is the girls right after we got them. They have filled out more now. This spring we expect an increase in number as well. :>)
RUSS!! They are soooooo cute! I want 2. Are they full grown, or young ones? Why did you get them? As weed eaters? They are darling. Now what breed are they? What do you feed them now?
Where did you get them? From a breeder, or out of the paper?
Jeanette
We got them from a neighbor about 4 miles away. Two are mine and the other two are Gary's. They are mostly Nubian I chose the two lighter colored ones. one of which came from another farm that raises Bore goats. That one is the larger one, I don't know if she is part Bore or not. If the term is correct they are all yearlings. They won't get much bigger if any.
Anyway we borrowed a Bore Billy in trade for taking care of two other goats that he had been given but didn't dare put with his herd until he sold a bunch. Their social standing in his herd would have surly put them in jeopardy. So now the girls will become mothers about March.
I will have to fence off more of the back yard. Primarily along the field that is across the fence. There are always lots of weeds growing in the fence row, for them to enjoy. Just have to make sure they can't can't go any further than getting their heads through. lol
I looked back at the picture and have to say they really have fattened up. Also the little one on the left I had to learn really quick how to lance an infected swelling on her neck and give her a shot.
She is still the low one on the totem pole of their hierarchy.
I will see how it works out with them keeping the back end of the property cleaned up. It should be easier than for me to just keep mowing it and for what, just wear and tear on a mower.????
It does get me out every day and it is a good walk and keeps me busy. Sure glad Gary buys half the feed to over winter them. LOL
I am getting a mixture of a sweet feed, alfalfa pellets, cracked corn and oats plus what ever hay we can get. Right now we have some brome grass bales, for which they are grateful. I will soon have to get more straw bales, as I have used most all I had for the garden, for their bedding. Another sacrifice, Right?
This message was edited Feb 1, 2009 3:45 PM