
5/17/2009
Visit
http://www.slide.com/r/09T2DiIG6z-EeoPmDfCcAp2WP0vVmdnz?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original
to see a slide show of pictures of my garden.

4/27/2009
If we blinked at the wrong time, here in Chatham County, we would
have missed spring altogether. The last several days
have been blazing hot! I usually like to get my
garden started while it is still cool, but this year I have
spent many a sweaty hour tilling and planting. The knats
have been particularly annoying as well, but then when aren't
they? I am starting most of my plants from seed this
year, not because I am trying to be "the hard core
farmer", but because I am too poor to buy plants! It is
good that I saved so many seeds from last year. Maybe
that makes me a hard core farmer? I have created a photo
album for you of the last few weeks activities. Click
here to see it. My
azaleas are in full bloom! You can't miss that! It has
been a few years since they made such a show due to
drought and late frosts.
This morning, the web site I created for
Love Overboard Kennels & Grooming was posted. I hope
you will visit their site and find out about the
services they provide. I had a lot of fun working on
these pages. I hope they are fun to visit as well. I
have also redesigned the
Specialized Landscaping site. It had been several
years since it had a facelift, so it was overdue. Maybe your
site could use some attention? You are not making the
best of your web presence if your site has dead links,
old information, missing photos and/or incorrect contact
information.
Email me
if you need some design or maintenance help. Remember!
The world is looking at your website!
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The shitake mushroom logs
that we prepared last spring have started to
produce! They are delicious! I have been reading
up on the health benefits of eating shitake
mushrooms. People in China have been eating them
for more than 6,000 years! They are known for
promoting longevity. They boost the immune
system, are good for the heart and
are said
to have anti-cancer activity.
My Brother, a Friend and I prepared these logs a
year ago. I have watered, watched them closely
and about a month ago I soaked them each in the
trough for a couple of days. I was warned that I
would have a wait, but I was still anxious and
worried that I had wasted time, water and energy
nurturing these dead hunks of wood. |
Hell, I have carried them all over the yard...all 14 of
them, looking for the right spot for them to fruit!
So, I was elated when I saw the first little bumps pop
out! It was raining a lot at the time and they grew
pretty fast. It is warmer now so they are growing
slower. I am told not to expect any mushrooms in the
heat of the summer, but then I read online that you can
shock your log into producing by submerging it in ice
water. I may try this with one log just to see if it
works. I have really enjoyed the science lessons I have
been giving to myself... researching my little project.
Now that I am seeing results, I feel it was well worth
the wait. Mushroom growth is light at first, but each
log averages 4 years of production before tapering off
as the log deteriorates.
We are going to start some more logs this summer
and adding a new variety. I am thinking blue oyster
mushrooms. If you would like to purchase a prepared log
email me and get your order
in. We cut our logs to about 2 1/2 ft long. Spore plugs
are positioned 3 to 4 inches apart surrounding the log.
We are asking $40.00 per log. If you are local we will
either deliver or meet you half way. I am sorry, but at
this time I do not want to get into shipping these
things. To my Oktoberfest friends, I can deliver your
log when I come to Bramwell in October, if you like.
Thank you, Linda and Bobby Trantham and Anne Beane for
the groceries! I am forever grateful to you for thinking
of me. The dogs have been enjoying their share as well.
The deer steaks are so wonderful! I don't know if I will
ever be able to eat beef again! Thank you, Aunt Emily
for the "gift" I received today. How do you know when I
am about at the end of my rope? I am so fortunate that
you are clairvoyant.
3/11/2009
I planted my first seeds of the
season last Saturday, sunflowers, ornamental corn, hot
peppers, cleome, only to find yesterday that my flock
enjoyed a scratch and sand bath right where I had
weeded, tilled and planted my seeds! I turned my hose on
them in retaliation. I am going to have to come up with
a better deterrent before I waste any more of my seed.
On Sunday I mucked out the barn. It
was dry, so my pitchfork was not as heavy as usual. That
was a treat! As much shoveling even dry shit can be a
treat. Oliver has grown accustomed to my barn cleaning
activities, so he is less curious and obtrusive. I had
to move him to the round pen this summer after he turned
over the loaded wheel barrow the second time. I enjoy a
little game now and then, but this game was only fun for
him. The game I like is letting him break up the new
straw bales. I can work while he plays with the bale.
Click
HERE to view a slide show of last weekend’s fun!
His wound had healed nicely for the
most part, but there were two scabs that were just not
right. They would get large and warty looking, so I
would pick them off and let them start to heal again. He
and I both were getting tired of this same old ritual,
with no sign that it would have a different outcome.
Then my friend Linda gave me a miracle elixir! It is
called
Underwood Horse Medicine
! I noticed a
difference in the first few days and I feel that in the
next week or two it should be completely healed. I wish
that I had this stuff from the beginning. If you have
horses or dogs, goats, sheep, cows, even ostriches, you
should have a bottle of this stuff on hand for
emergencies. I know that I will not be without a reserve
bottle. Thank you to Linda and Bobby, from me and my
Twisted Oliver.
I finally got my
new snail mail box installed on its post at the street.
Thank you John Hundley! I am still waiting for you to
bring me your mail box to paint.
Yes, I turned 49
today. I appreciate all of the well wishes that I
received, but happy is not the way I have described my
birthday for some time now. Getting old makes me angry.
My body can not keep up with my ambitions. My
productivity is limited and each year that ticks by only
reminds me that I have too few of them left to
accomplish all that I want to do! I am angry about all
of the opportunities I lost because of immaturity, yet
now that I am mature I have less time and energy to
pursue them. What a cruel joke! Crap! I sound like
someone’s cranky Grandma.

3/04/2009
Two weeks ago today, my brother
made an investment in his future and had his right hip
replaced. For a man that makes his living running a
landscaping company walking is a very important aspect
of his job. It was not the pain that he dealt with in
the act of doing his work every day that forced him to
take this action. It was that he was finding it more and
more difficult to get a good night’s sleep.
His surgery went well. After only
two nights in the hospital I took him home with me. He
was a good patient, but he was determined to get back to
normal life as soon as possible. My biggest challenge
was to rein him in and keep him warm. I had to stop him
from going out and fetching firewood several times. He
about roasted me out of my house! I think that the blood
thinners that he was taking sapped his body heat.
It had been a long time since we
spent more than an hour alone together and that is
usually spent as I prepare his weekly bank deposit while
he takes one phone call after another. We share regular
phone calls to keep up with one another, but even living
so close busy lives leave little time to connect. I will
not try to deny that I enjoyed holding him captive here
for is own good.
I am so happy that he is
recuperating quickly and now able to look after himself.
I did not want to take him home, but I did. I know how I
hate to be away from my home, bed, animals. I stayed, he
cooked dinner, Joel played his guitar while we watched
Duke take FSU. I slept in Paul’s bed. Thank you for
changing the sheets for me, Paul!
When I got home this morning, after
taking Joel to school and stopping by the feed store, I
was greeted by some very confused critters. My short
nursing career has disrupted their daily routine and I
am sure that my spending the night away perplexed them.
Steve is getting back to normal life again and so will
we. Feeding will take place at the usual times… starting
tomorrow!

2/16/2009
I don’t know anyone that is not
feeling this un-named economic situation to some degree.
My part time employment, that provides most of my
income, has essentially disappeared and as an artist I
can be assured that demand for my work is virtually
nonexistent. I am not spending money on anything but
that necessary to sustain life.
Actually, this is not so different
than my life before the downturn. I am normally very
frugal. My mother taught me how to manage my resources.
She was the master! Being one of six children, raised by
a widowed woman in southern
West Virginia
afforded her the experience and knowledge that helped
her provide for her three children alone after her
divorce. I feel fortunate that I had their example to
draw from in my life.
To get through this we are all
going to have to be more creative. We can get through
this. We have done it before. We are going to have to be
less wasteful, frivolous. We will all find out what is
really important and what we are made of. I know that
there are many that are afraid that their quality of
life will suffer. Maybe, the things that constitute
quality of life must change, but changing people’s
values is a difficult thing to do. Madison Avenue is
better at it than the
Vatican
is. How sad is that?
I have been taking in web design
work for a fraction of the price I usually ask. Although
I am earning less, I feel a sense of hope in working for
people that are looking toward the future. They have not
given up and they are not looking for anyone to “fix”
the problem for them. I too am making changes to adapt
to this new world that I must live and do business in.
I am excited to be born in
interesting times! I enjoy the challenge. Please visit
my
barter page. I am willing to trade artwork and web
design services for items listed on this page. Am I
willing to work for chicken feed? Frankly, yes! Horse,
dog and cat feed too!
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