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May 2, 2008 Newsletter
Getting the Garden Going with Garden Recycling. Plus: It's 10:30 pm, and I know where my commentary is
Out here in far west Texas one can start one's garden in March or April, due to the warmer weather, and, not only that, but this winter was so much warmer than normal so we actually kept our fall garden from last year going! And, if you are reading this, Al Gore, I forbid you to use this example to back your nutjob theory of "global warming"! I will sue the pants off you if you do! Anyway, we are able to use the seeds from the plants that we allowed to die out/dry out (collards...if you missed the green gumbo recipe I will repost it this fall again), as well as seed corn. And not only that, but the three cherry tomato plants in our bathroom, which have already lasted over a year, are still producing! Over a year and a half ago, we rescued two of them from our composter a day or so before they would have frozen...the other one of them was a "volunteer" growing by the washing machine drainage ditch. Put them into three large pots with potting soil, stuck them by the bathroom picture window, and off they went. Tried planting pinto beans in the same pots so the beans could grow within the tomato stems, but that didn't work; got about 20 beans off them. Naturally, you can dry out the beans and use them the following year; however, do you want to plant beans dried from unsuccessful plants? We didn't! so, we bought a bag of pinto beans at the store. Just put the beans into the ground. Aren't beans neat that way? And what of that potato or onion or garlic piece that hangs around too long and starts sprouting? Stick 'em in the ground! Other seeds that can be dried to use next year are squash seeds...zucchini, yellow and spaghetti squash seeds have been successful with us. (Further, if you bring in the spaghetti squash the day or so before you know a freeze is coming...and with the Internet you have no excuse for not knowing...and store it away in a box in a dark place, you can be eating spaghetti squash the following spring! Make sure the outer husks do not get hard as rocks, though. This storage also works with butternut squash and acorn squash...the hard skinned ones. The soft ones like yellow squash shouldn't be stored too long (two weeks at the most). And, since I just said that we got two tomato plants volunteered out of the composter, it is clear that you don't even need to buy tomato starter plants in the spring. So there you have it: beans of almost any type, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, collards, hard-skinned squashes, and corn seeds do not have to be bought from the nursery or Wal-Mart every year if you can store the seeds/plants for next year. We have never tried storing seeds for greens other than collard, or cucumber, radish, broccoli, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, or turnips or beets, but perhaps you can try it.
And now for some hard core recycling. We have a garden fence high enough to keep the deer out, but every now and then javelinas, small wild boars with tusks and a very strong musky smell that root for their food, dig their snouts under loose fencing and manage to get into the garden and pretty much destroy it. Last fall I had to get large flat rocks and cover the "holes" in the garden fence, but then we determined that they were getting in under the gate. At the same time my husband bought me a new ("Serta") mattress. When he cut open the old mattress, cut off the exterior and interior padding with nothing left but the springs, he took the whole, intact, inner spring set up, brought it up to the garden gate, and left it in front of the gate where it eventually attached itself to the fencing...but we propped it up with poles anyway. Well, THAT foiled those darned critters! (And damned near foiled us! It is not easy to open a garden gate with this intertwined spring coil mattress thingy semi-attached it!)
Not to be outdone by that feat, many years ago my husband got the idea, instead of setting up an expensive but possibly breakable watering system for the garden (using sprinklers which, sorry to say, tend to clog up for other local gardners, and in some cases the sprinkler-water-delivery system breaks down), decided (with us being young and all) that we would water the garden using 5-gallon buckets of water from the hose attached to the house, hauling the buskets slightly uphill to the garden (we live on a mountain side). We did not have a watering can that we could use feasibly, that is, dunk into the bucket to bring up water (most watering cans you see in the nursery have handles with long spouts on them with little holes at the end of the spout...that is NOT PRACTICLE when you are using 5 gallon buckets!). We had plenty of used coffee cans, however. At least one of them already had a hole in it since the can had rusted somewhat. So, he got out his hole punching device (sort of like an ice pick), punched several small holes in the bottom ON ONE SIDE ONLY (so that the can, if you mentally divide the bottom of the can in half, has holes in one half the bottom while the other half of the bottom is untouched). That way, when you take the can out of the water so that the side WITHOUT the holes is holding the water, you can hold the can until you have it over what you want to water, and then the water comes out. Naturally, you have to do this quickly. But when you make this kind of makeshift watering can don't just put holes in the bottom willy-nilly...make sure your can can hold water until you bring the can over the area you want to water.
It's Getting Late, so Here is Some Quick Commentary
No doubt you have heard in many MSM and other media sources that, after having to defend himself from the wolves (who, when they think they have a dog-eat-dog Presidential "horse race" story, run with it until they run it into the ground, especially when they are right wingers...I wonder, does Ann Coulter have a life? A question which, outside of whether or not she is anorexic, must intrigue a lot of leftists) over his relationship with his former pastor Jeremiah Wright that he tried to "distance" himself from, Barack Obama, believing he lost Pennsylvania because of what Wright was saying (and the media was twisting) at the same time that Hillary was winning over racist white "working class" voters who would "never vote for a black man," finally did what was "expected" of him. The politician that he really is, and to heck with all that "change" BS, he denounced his former pastor. In fact I would have been surprised (and, who knows? I might have even let someone convince me to vote for him!) if he hadn't, and even Wright--who is far more forthright than Obama could ever hope to be!--believed that Obama had to make that move, otherwise he would have blown his chance to be President. It was politically expedient, but it was wrong to denounce him anyway. This is the pastor that married him to Michelle. This is the pastor that baptized his kids. This was the pastor of the church he went to. No way should he have denounced Wright, and it is the height of hypocrisy to do so. Therefore, there is no way I am voting for Obama. Instead of doing the right thing and standing by his pastor (and, Obama claimed, his friend), he chose expediency. Instead of courage in the face of a hostile media and a hateful harradan opponent, Obama blew it, IMHO. Do NOT expect this man to do the following: stand up to Israel in the face of Palestinian genocide; stand up for Christian principle in the face of oligarchs, crooks, liars, fascists, Zionists, torturors, new world order/CIA handlers, and other enemies of the American People; the right thing by the folks who will have elected him President, that is, leadership in crises that this country will face; and don't expect him to keep his promises to bring the troops home from Iraq. I said it before and I'll say it again: Obama is just another tool owned by the Rothschild-Rockefeller-oligarchical clique.
Now it's almost midnight, so I'll leave you with this bit of humor...
In case you are wondering which Presidential candidate has put out the funniest You Tube video, wonder no more...and no, it wasn't Ron Paul! Ron Paul? Funny? Not in this lifetime! Serious, intelligent, and a man of great ideas? Yes. Funny? No. And before you say someone like Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani or "Bomb Iran" McCain, let me tell you it is not a Republican. He's a Democrat...well, sort of, because he's no longer a Democrat candidate, but a Libertarian! (and that's debatable, too). It's the funniest politican to run for President in...well, maybe ever: Mike "these people scare me!" Gravel, singing the Beatles' song "Helter Skelter" Really makes me wish Gravel was the presumptive Democrat nominee. This man may have wacky ideas like direct democracy, but along with Paul, Gravel made the 2007 Presidential debates and race positively worth watching. Enjoy! And then watch this video, which is linked to in the article (because the oringal link is password protected), which shows a group of "insurgents" in Iraq that are shooting at US troops there...only the guns they are shooting have cameras on them (as the video states, the camera jumps at the recoil), and the only company (supposedly) that makes this kind of rifle is an Israeli company! The author of this article at Blacklisted News surmises that Mossad, not "insurgents," are shooting at our troops. He might be right...Mossad's slogan is "By Deception, Thou Shalt Do War." Further, it is well known that Mossad/IDF is training Kurdish rebels. Even if the shooters are not Mossad, since Israelis are in Iraq to begin with, there is no reason to believe that insurgents could not get their hands on these Israeli-made weapons....manufactured, of course, with money Israel gets every year from the entity my mother used to call "Uncle Sap"! And don't forget, if you have a comment on this or other posts, e-mail me with your comment, and put the name of the article in the subject line.
Like what you read? Then subscribe to the Something Happening Here Newsletter! I do not have a set time for it to come out, but I try to make a newsletter once a week or as much as possible with hints and tips on how to live better and more naturally on your rural remote land. From handling garden insects to collecting valuable resources like water and firewood to raising your children to dealing with neighbors, I believe my 25 years experience living on the land can help you make the most of your rural remote life.
