I'm Baaaaack!

Some might call it hiatus.  Some might call it a time warp.  Some may call it laziness.  Either way, I've not been blogging for a while.  I've been MIA for a little over 5 months to be exact.  What happened?  I broke pretty much every rule that I set for myself when I started blogging on this particular topic a year and a half ago.  Maybe that's not fair to say.  I have remained relative good at embracing the idea of living below my means, not trying to keep up with the Jones and putting the family first.  The whole stress thing.....ehhh.... not so much.

I took a new job which I have really enjoyed very much.  It was a change though.  A little more intense with a little more of a learning curve and some more lofty expectations.  That's cool though.  I'm always up for a challenge.  In my last entry, eons ago, I mentioned that I was closing in on a campaign in which I had set some pretty lofty goals.  Naturally, I stressed about it, but we ended up surpassing the goal.  I will say this....... it was a dynamite team of volunteers that was truly responsible.  The stars aligned in a magical way and we rocked the mic.  The next stress du jour will be repeating it and/or surpassing it next year, LOL

What about other stuff?  Well, we got a dog for the kids.  We're proud owners of the sorriest hunting Beagle that you'll ever see.  Perfect for us as we'll never run him.  He is the perfect companion for the kids.  I'm glad we made that decision.  I bought a 1974 International Scout.  This is the perfect vehicle for a "Back 'er Down" mindset.  It doesn't get up to speed very fast at all; it tops out somewhere around 60mph and I spend copious amounts of time working on it.  If we hadn't gotten the Beagle, the Scout would have become our family mascot.  We sub-soiled and plowed the area for the garden.  I'm once again going all-in this year.  I hope to have better results with the tomatoes this year.  Maybe we won't go from 70 degree days straight to 100 degree days with no rain this year.  A new twist....... I'm considering buying a dehydrator this year and cutting my teeth on that method of veggie preservation.

I recently started another blog too.  During a recent two hour drive home I began thinking of interesting ways and topics about which to write.  As I've shared with you before, I enjoy writing as if I were talking to someone.  I had an idea of writing about random topics and providing "Top 5" lists.  Where would I get material, I wondered?  It hit me wen I heard abut the Wikipedia blackout protest of SOPA.  You can search any date on Wikipedia and get a wealth of information from births and deaths to major events.  I figured I could pick my favorite nugget, write down the first thing that came to my mind and write a top 5 list that would be related to those items.  So at that point, along a boring Georgia Interstate was born:  In Honor Of This Momentous Occasion.  Check it out if you have a minute.  My #1 goal for that blog is to keep it as unpredictable as possible.  We'll see how that works out.  I'm going to do my best to getting back into the writing groove by penning something for both blogs at least once a week.  Help me y'all!  Help keep me on track!

Y'all take it easy,

Alex

Feeling Better About the World

After 10 days of not wearing shoes, napping and generally going at whatever pace I wanted................. it's back to work today.  Our family enjoyed a week at the beach and with the way the 4th of July fell this year, we had a good three days to get home, unpack and get some stuff done at the Ponderosa too.  that was a welcomed treat.  Coming home from vacation, unpacking that night and going to work the next morning is a huge drag.

We vacationed with the wife's family to a small and relatively underdeveloped South Carolina barrier island called Edisto Island.  Neat place with a lot of history, one grocery store, one gas station a hand-full of restaurants and shops and 4 million rental houses.  Very family oriented.  I'm not a big fan of the beach really.  I prefer fresh water adventures.  The wife and kids enjoy it though, so it's worth every penny.  We did rent a house with a pool this year.  Also......worth every penny!

As I typically do each year, I took a 2 day vacation from the vacation and came home to take care of some chores.  This time it was cutting grass.  If you've read any of my garden updates this year you would know that we were very dry this spring.  I pretty much called it quits on the garden just before we left for vacation.  Well, we have received as much rain in the last week as we did in the previous five months.  In fact Wednesday afternoon we got right at 4 inches.  Insane.  Garden is over but the grass is looking great!  Maybe this will give the pine seedlings the chance to get down a good root entering their 3rd year.

So the title of the blog......  I did come across a few things during my vacation that has me feeling better about the world.  Sometimes I watch the news, read certain publications and I just get down in the dumps.  There is hope though.  Here are a three reasons why:

1.  My kids set up a watermelon stand this weekend.  Through no prodding by me, my oldest said that he wanted to set up a watermelon stand and sell them for $1 each.  Great teaching opportunity I thought.  We have already established that "you get money by working."  This was a chance to teach that you can also get money by selling something that you "created."  Under the direction of the oldest, the boys did everything themselves.  The planned how they would set up, made a sign and even decorated.  After some help from Daddy in getting loaded and some stern words about staying out of the road, they were off.  Not a lot of traffic in our area, LOL.  They were troopers though.  Stayed with it for a good while.  We finally had a generous visitor who bought the only 4 watermelons we had left.  The kiddos were fired up to have money in their pockets.  A trip to the store will soon follow.  Why it makes me feel better about the world - I seem to be making some headway in showing the boys that you have to work to get paid.

2.  Cars 2 is in theaters now.  Cars is one of my all-time favorite movies.......animated or not.  Pixar does a good job of making kids movies that the parents can actually enjoy as well.  For those of you who do not have kids.............. that's a big deal!  Naturally I was excited to see the sequel.  This would be the oldest son's first trip to a movie theater too.  The theater we chose was really nice.  Very clean, modern amenities and free popcorn!  Maybe that's customary now.  I have no idea since I've not been to a movie is 5 years or more.  It was a small popcorn, but still roughly the size of a gallon tea pitcher.  Of course the one pack of  M&Ms and two bottled waters were $10.50.  Glad to see some things haven't changed.  Davis really enjoyed it and even kept quiet.  That was a shocker.  Despite being a social commentary on alternative energy, the movie was great.  I enjoyed it for what it was.  It was a movie about talking cars that had races all over the world and a redneck tow truck has some interesting adventures along the way.  What's not to love about that plot?!?!  Why it makes me feel better about the world - Even with the social commentary about "big oil" and alternative energy, the movie still had room to provide a plot about friendship, cooperation and respecting others.  Good reminders for children and adults alike.

3.  My garden wasn't the only one that sucked this year.  They say misery loves company.  I guess that's the case here.  In talking with others from my area, Wilt Virus was very bad on tomatoes all over the region.  The lack of rain was universally troublesome.  Some folks burnt up, others drowned.  It was neat to read and converse with other gardeners across the country this year.  Maybe a few of our ideas can translate the some of our starkly different climates.  We got food in the freezer and on the shelf.  I should absolutely not complain.  Why it makes me feel better about the world - I'm not the only one........ and there are countless resources from which I can learn.

Writers block is starting to set in once again.  I do have a few drafts in the hopper, so I'll be good for a while.  However, the garden updates have really kept me writing regularly.  Honestly though, writing solely on that was starting to get a little boring to me.  Glad to have a little break from it.  Suggestions for topics?  I'd appreciate them.

Y'all take it easy,

Alex

Garden Update June 28

That picture to the left is of a dead garden.  With the exception of sweet potatoes and a few watermelons the 2011 is done.  I have to admit that I was disappointed in the results.  Maybe my expectations were too high after we had such a good yield last year.  This year certainly paled in comparison.  Just too hot and dry.  I owe my coworkers and neighbor an apology.  I talked a big game in the spring about all the wonderful veggies that I was going to be delivering in early summer.  LOL, that didn't quite pan out.

It wasn't a total loss.  We did get plenty for our family and my parents.  Rough estimates: 75 quarts of snap beans, 200 ears of corn, 200 tomatoes, 160lbs of potatoes, 50 squash, 50 cucumbers and 3 watermelons (maybe 2 more)  That is certainly not a failure, but last year we got about 400 tomatoes, and 15 watermelons.

My share of the corn bounty.  Shucked, cleaned
and bagged outside; then quickly to the freezer

A couple of proud watermelon farmers

Preparing tomatoes for the freezer.

Super-ultra-mega-watt-electric fence

The one really bright spot of this year's garden was the electric fence.  We didn't have any deer invasions at all.  That was exciting since we've fought those boogers so hard over the last few years.  As I wrote in a previous blog, the best part of the fence setup was that the only cost I had was the charger itself.  Everything else was free thanks to some friends and family who were just going to toss the batteries, wire, t-posts, insulators and corner posts.

All in all it was a good gardening season.  I got the opportunity to deal with a terrible weather pattern and I learned from it.  I experienced a bout of tomato wilt virus and I learned from it.  I made the mistake of over-promising to my friends and neighbors and I learned from it.  I've always considered gardening and family to go hand in hand.  This year was no different.  I was able to yet again learn from my father who is nothing less than a walking talking encyclopedia when it comes to that subject.  I was able to get my kids out in the garden to dig around and actually see where their food comes from.  In that regard, it was a great gardening season.  Now, we'll take a break until late August when we'll plant a small Fall garden.  I'm even considering some winter crops too.  We'll see what comes ;)

Y'all take it easy,

Alex

Garden Update June 14

Had a helper this weekend.

First let me start with a big thank you to a few folks.  My blog traffic has exploded as of late!  It all started when Angela over at Food Storage and Survival graciously used my syrup making entry as a guest post on her site.  The referrals really started pouring in after that feature.  Then I started noticing visits from Farm Life Lessons and Blissful in the Boonies becoming more regular.  Then I see a whopping 245 referrals this week alone from  Subsistence Pattern.  Whoa Nellie!  It's all probably from some web bot or something for all I know.  Maybe there are a few actual readers in there somewhere.   Thanks to those fine bloggers for listing me in their rolls.  Just in case those numbers include some real people....let me say...... I am humbled that anyone would really want to read what a random guy like me has to say.  I welcome those who have come across my little corner in the blogosphere.  Hopefully you get a little something useful out of my musings.

On to the garden update.  It's still dry.  I'll spare you that portion because I'm sounding like a broken record this spring.  It's starting to get hot too.  That's nothing new really.  Happens this time every year in South GA.  We did have a warmer May than usual, but now it's June and 100 degree days are the norm.  That signals the end of most gardening.  Even with good water most gardens just give up in the sweltering heat like that.

Some looked good, some not so much.
Freeze the good ones, cream the ugly ones.

Our home's staple veggie, snap beans, have been in abundance yet again this year.  As of this writing we have 47 quarts put away.  My Father has probably 10-15 more as well.  I figure we can get one more picking yielding 8-10 more quarts before they finally peter out.  They're rapidly nearing their end.  Our Squash ans cucumbers have continued to do decent.  After questionable beginnings I've been able to harvest 40 or so cukes.  One oddity is the single cucumber plant that I put in a half 55 gallon drum.  They taste like garbage.  So bitter that I can't eat them.  The plant is beautiful, but the cucumbers have all gone straight to compost. The issue now is to figure out why.  It is a different variety, but I wonder if it's the barrel.  I have a tomato plant in the other half of that particular barrel so that will be a good test in a week or so.

We broke about 15 ears of corn Saturday with mixed results.  Some looked nice while others had about half of the kernels aborted.  We froze the good looking ears whole and creamed the rest.  This Saturday is looking like the peak corn harvesting day.  This week I'll be really putting the water to it in hopes of giving a nice boost in the late stages of maturing.

I haven't talked deer in a while.  Ever since "super-mega-killowatt-death-fence-3000" zapped one curious visitor earlier in May, we have had no more intruders.  I hope this post doesn't jinx me, but after four years of trying every home remedy known to man, it seems like the electric fence is the winner.  Add the fact that my only cost was the charger itself and.......... well...... that's cool ;)

Y'all take it easy,

Alex

Garden Update June 3

This is what a patch of well watered corn and beans looks like.

It rained about 1/2 inch on March 27, 1/4 inch on April 27 and another 1/4 on May 14.  Nothing since.  It's dry.  Compounding the misery is the fact that so far this year we have had 21 days of temps over 90 degrees (99 when I ran out for lunch earlier.)  At this point last year we had 7.  A wise man once told me though, "we can control a lot of things, but the weather ain't one."  I no longer water grass.  I have given up.  All focus is on the garden.  I was thinking about the grass about a month ago.  I hated to let it go, but I thought about what actually makes a lawn look good.  I concluded that it is an even color and an even height when cut.  From that I concluded that brown and dead is an even color and an even height.  I'm done with watering grass.  (EDIT:  As of 10:00PM EST on 6/3 its raining and raining hard!  Thank you Lord!)

The garden is getting roughly 3 hours or watering time each night.  It's doing okay, but only okay.  We're up to about 35 quarts of snap beans that have been put away.  The consistent performer of my garden is getting it done again this year.  The squash are still hanging in there.  The watermelons are struggling.  Even though I doubled the size of the patch, I will be lucky to get half as many melons this year.  The corn looks healthy but the ears don't quite look as fat as they should.  I'm hopeful that the sprinkler water will at least allow them to make something.  Our sweet potatoes are running like mad.  They happen to be in the largest fall path of the water.  That's been really good to them.  The cucumbers finally took off!  I was beginning to wonder, but I've gotten 11 so far.  There are more in the vine too, so it looks like I will indeed be able to enjoy my favorite vegetable through the summer.  Of course I have a bumper crop of sand spurs too.  Anyone know how we might burn those little suckers for fuel or something?  Geez.  What a pain!  Literally.

So that leaves the tomatoes.  I was hopeful for a great crop.  We went in furrow with horse manure, put bone meal in as we planted and even watered them in as we planted too.  They looked great for quite some time.

Most of the tomato plants look like this......

...but many look like this.

Then it hit.  Tomato Wilt Virus.  I started with 72 plants and I'm now down to 40 something.  What a bummer.  It seems like I'm yanking one or two more every day lately.  As far as I have read there is nothing I can do for it except try to keep the thrips out and yank the infected plants as soon as I see the symptoms.  If anyone happens to read this and you have some remedy, please share it!  I would like to at least figure out how to prevent it next year.

It's not all bad though.  I try to find the positive in most everything.  Here are some good pictures:

Very healthy squash.  Squash could grow in a bed of glass.

One of the few watermelons that are going to make it.
At least we'll have one for the beach

Sweet potatoes.  Kids love them and they're easy to store.
Let's hope they make.

I planted one cucumber plant in a 1/2 55 gallon drum as an experiment.
It took off!  Lots of blooms but not a lot of cukes yet.

Amongst the snap beans we had a volunteer pepper plant pop up.
Funny how nature works sometimes.  Wondering if it's a bell pepper or jalapeño.
We'll know soon enough.

Still plugging along.  We are losing tomatoes, but if those that are left make we'll still have plenty to enjoy, can, freeze and share.  The hard work is just beginning.  Even though the potatoes are behind us, we're picking beans every few days.  The corn is coming soon too.  That will be a solid two days of picking and processing.  Looking forward to it though.

Y'all take it easy,

Alex

Garden Update May 24

Two empty rows to the left of that pole were the tater beds.
The pole is actually a raised sprinkler to get above the corn.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record when I talk about no rain.  Actually I feel bad for moaning about it when I see flooding happening along the Mississippi River.  We've totaled about a 1/2 inch of rain in the last 10 weeks.  Dry.  On top of that the last three days have been over 100 degrees too.  Sandspurs love no rain and 100 degree days.  Other stuff.....not so much.  I've been letting the water sprinklers rip though.  That's kept everything steady.  We are actually harvesting things now and the results are pretty decent!  So far we've put up 10 quarts of snapbeans, given away about five more and eaten some as well.  The squash are putting off like gangbusters.  I knew they would.  I believe you could make squash in bed of shattered glass.  The tomatoes are doing decent but these last few days have been tough on them.  Of the 72 plants we set, only 5 have died so far. Not too bad.  All of the plants have fruit, so as long as nothing funky happens we'll be picking maters soon too.  About half of the corn is tassling and it looks pretty decent too.  Sweet potatoes are looking healthy and starting to drop and run.  The sugarcane is struggling bad.  No water.  Gotta have water to make cane.  Same with the watermelons, though they aren't too terrible.  Just not as healthy as I'd like right now.  There is still time before the 4th of July though :)  The cucumbers are struggling as well.  They are the biggest mystery to me.  The first year I planted a garden I made bunches of cukes.  The last three years have been absolutely paltry.  The only think I can guess is that they loved the area where the sandspurs were.  If nothing comes this year, I'll plant them in that spot again next year and just pick carefully.  There is one about three inches on the vine.  I'm nursing that so that I can have at least one this year.

This weekend was spent digging potatoes.  What a crop!  I estimated that we ended up with around 160-170 pounds.  I filled my storage rack and still had an entire queen sized bed sheet full to give away to friends, neighbors and coworkers.  Taters for all!  I hope the sweet potatoes do that well.

From the opposite end.  Freshly hoed tomato plants

What made really made the day special was to work in the garden with the boys.  Despite the heat they were there with me.  We had a great system in which my five-year-old would pull the plant, I would dig and my two-year-old would pile them in the middle of the rows.  Keep in mind now.......this wasn't my plan....it was their plan.  On top of that, the two-year-old had a fit to make sure that every one was in a container of some sort be it a plastic bag, bucket, box or even his pants pockets.  It was interesting that they never once complained that it was too hot.  It was bright and 101 degrees at the peak.  I made sure that they had plenty of water and sunscreen (wish I had put sunscreen on myself...ouch) but they never once complained about any discomfort.  They were out there working because it was an opportunity to hang with Dad.  I'm sure being able to root around in the dirt had something to do with it too, but they were as well behaved and attentive as I've ever seen them.  They were happy.  Despite being hot, nasty and tired they were happy.  I could learn a lot from that...........

Y'all take it easy,

Alex

Garden Update April 26

Hard to tell but left to right: watermellons, sweet potatoes/
squash, sugarcane, potatoes, snapbeans, peas/cucumbers,
and 8 rows of corn and tomatoes.

Good boogly moogly it's dry!  I haven't had any rain at my place in almost a month (27th of March.)  I have watched several systems go right around my place.  On Good Friday it flooded 10 miles up the road from me, but I didn't get anything but 85 degree wind.  That's not all that great for the garden.

However, it is fairing pretty well  After experimenting with a variety of different sprinklers over the years I have a really good system this year.  I've used oscillating sprinklers, impact sprinklers, soaker hoses and the like.  The oscillating sprinklers didn't hold up to the dirt and would last a month before the gears stripped out.  The impact sprinklers didn't wet the ground within a 5' diameter of the center.  The soaker hoses did okay, but caused a mysterious root rot on the tomatoes one year.  This year I decided to try a couple of Gilmour's low pressure turbine sprinklers.  These puppies are great so far!  I did take them off of the low bases on which they came.  I had a couple of aluminum tripods left over from previous sprinklers.  They screwed right on and worked perfectly.  The settings are nice for getting an even watering.  There is still a bit of a miss in the center like with an impact sprinkler, but the area is only about 1' instead of the 5' that I was battling.  So far they look good, but they have yet to encounter an entire gardening season......or a South GA thunderstorm .......or the baking 100+ degree temps of summer.  We'll see how they fare.

I decided on Better bush and Beefmaster tomatoes for
three of the five barrels.......

Everything is up and coming in very well.  We could potentially be picking snapbeans and digging some small potatoes in a few weeks. (we're down to the last quart of beans from last year.  We nailed it!)  The corn is looking good after the replant. Since my last garden update we set 72 tomato plants and 30 or so sweet potato plants.  They're looking good so far, but the lack of rain has me really worried about the tomatoes.  Everything else is plugging right along: watermelons, squash, peppers, cucumbers.  Even the sugar cane is us to almost a second joint.

....jalapenos and Market More cucumbers in the other two.
The four small pots are peach tree seedlings.  Crossing my
fingers on those for the future.

Still no sign of Bambi yet this year.  The super duper electric fence is still chirping right along...ready for the moment that the sweet watermelon foliage finally entices him/her to take a chance.  I haven't even seen any tracks on the perimeter.  I know it's only a matter of time.  They have found the tender foliage of my apple trees though.  If it isn't one thing it's another.

If it could only get a nice inch or two of rain.  The place would really take off like gangbusters.  But then again.....so would the weeds.  When God provides, he provides for all!  There is a decent chance Thursday.  I better go sharpen the hoe ;)

Y'all take it easy.

Alex

Garden Update March 28

The garden is finally starting to take off.  We finally got some much needed rain yesterday and overnight last night.  Prior to that it was really really dry.  We brought everything along with sprinklers, but there is nothing like rain water.  My Dad told me one time that 1/2 inch of sprinkler water was equal to 1/4 inch of rain.  Not sure if that's an old farmers adage or what, but it seems to be true!

The potatoes are doing exceptionally well.  The watermellons and squash are also looking good.  We did have one casualty as we had to replant all of our corn.  Most of the seed rotted in the ground.  It certainly wasn't because of too much water.  The seed was some left over silver queen that I had saved from 2009.  This tells me that I A. didn't store properly or B. 3 years is about the life for saving silver queen seed.  I had also saved some from last year which is what we replanted.  We also went in and filled some gaps where some snapbeans didn't come up.  With yesterday's rain, both should have optimal chances for germinating very nicely.

We hope to plant cucumbers and tomatoes and peppers this week.  I am glad that we waited because a wind storm late last week would have totally decimated the tomato plants.  I'm looking forward to getting those started.  We have had puny cucumber crops over the last two years and I have been reading about some ways to remedy that.

The electric fence is still humming along.  Surprisingly it is still on the same battery that we started with 2 weeks ago.  Still no sign of Bambi.  Nothing so much as tracks around the perimeter.  Once everything gets up good I'm sure they will be enticed.  The supermegafence2011 is ready for them.

After a slow start we're looking good.  It's almost time to start cutting grass too.  Busy spring and summer weekends ahead.

Y'all take it easy,

Alex

Garden Update March 14

Well, we finally got the garden off and running.  A few weeks ago I mentioned that we planted potatoes and prepped the soil.  This past weekend we got seeds in the ground!  Snap bean, corn, watermellon and squash seeds are all nice and snug in the soil soaking up the heat from the recent 80 degree days.  We had a nice rain on Thursday so it made the soil really nice for planting.  We rotated everything this year and almost doubled the amount of corn we planted.  A quick check of the potatoes showed that they are doing well.  The eyes have developed healthy roots a couple of inches long at this point.  They should peek through in the next couple of weeks.  The sugarcane is coming up like gangbusters!  Our stubble from last year came along first and then the new row started breaking the ground a few days later.  I'm interested to compare the new patch, which is in a much lower spot, to the stubble from last year.  Still have no clue as to what I'm going to do with the sugarcane....

It looks like the danger for frost is all but gone.  Anything could happen but the long range forecast looks pretty solid right now.  Still a bit chilly for a couple of things though.  In a couple of weeks we will set tomato plants and plant cucumber seed.  It will also be time to plant in the barrels at that point too.  I decided on heirloom tomatoes and peppers for the barrels this year.  I may experiment with a cucumber plant in the barrel too just to see what happens.  Only other thing to do is to start shopping for a pressure cooker.  I'm going "all in" for canning this year.

The installation of the electric fence was my most satisfying accomplishment over the weekend.  She's all set up and ready to zap deer, dogs or small children that get too close to the garden.  Thanks again to those who donated their unwanted junk to make my fence a reality.  I have not seen any tracks yet.  My guess is that I will come out one morning in a few weeks to see the entire fence torn down after Bambi freaks out and gets tangled up in it.  If that's the case it will have done its job ;)

Y'all take it easy,

Alex

Let the Garden Games Begin!

Preparing the garden

It's getting to be my favorite "Back er Down" part of the year.  It isn't so much because it will be easy, because it will actually be a LOT of work.  It's the #1 thing the epitomizes my desire to take it easy and focus the more important things in life.  It's almost time to plant the garden.  We're going big this year!  The list includes: snap beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, peppers, watermelons and even a little sugarcane.  I'm going to document the entire season, complete with pictures, here on the blog.

The garden provides food, exercise, recreation and education.  It gives opportunities to learn lessons about life, the value of hard work and actions & consequences.  Last year's garden was good, but we're almost out of veggies.  We ran out of corn in December.  We're down to our last few quarts of tomatoes.  Two quarts of squash left.  We do have plenty of snap beans left to get us to the first picking.  Seems we planned just about right with the exception of the corn.

Nutrient-packed compost

We will plant potatoes late this week, but the bulk of everything else won't be planted until mid to late March.  Even so, the work is well under way!  We planted oats over the winter and recently plowed those under to add some matter to the soil.  After breaking the ground and letting that rest for a couple of weeks we got started in earnest this weekend.  We laid out the entire garden, trenched for potatoes and bedded the rows for watermellons.  Something new for us....we're composting and using horse and quail manure this year.  We worked the horse manure in during this first prep.  We will use the quail manure after planting.

Barrels in which I will plant something...not sure what yet.
Likely heirloom tomatoes and some kind of peppers

We expanded the size of the garden again this year.  This will be the final resize for quite some time.  In addition to the manure we are also entering uncharted waters with an electric fence to try to discourage deer.  (Pause for a little frugal bragging:  I was able to make the 4 corner posts out of a free utility pole...thanks Alan.  I got all of the t-posts and insulators for free.... thanks James.  Dad had a whole roll of wire already.  I'll be charging the fence with two deep cycle batteries....also free....thanks Gil.)  My only cost is the fence charger for which I laid out the cash.  It is rated for 100 acres....my garden is about 1/8 of an acre.  I gotta remember to turn it off when the kids come outside ;)

The weather has been nice.  It's tempting to get started early, but I know in my gut that there is another hard frost coming.  I'll wait and obey the Almanac.  After all....the Almanac has been getting it right for what 200 years?  I'm very optimistic about this year's garden.  We have some nice soil amendments, a good watering plan and hopefully a barrier that will zap the piss out of any four-legged intruders.  Looking forward to it.

Y'all take it easy,

Alex

Snow Day Musings

Snow day today!  Well....winter weather day would be a better description.  More ice than snow.  No snow in fact.  Here in South GA we aren't really familiar with winter weather.  We certainly don't have a clue as to how to drive in it.  So here I sit....at home.  I spent the early part of the morning walking around the Ponderosa looking at ice in the trees.  That was pretty neat.  I don't particularly care to live in anything like this all the time, but I enjoy the novelty of it once or twice a year.

Here is a picture of the windsock on top of the kid's playhouse.  Thing is the wind isn't blowing right now.  It's frozen.  Pretty cool.

A while back I said that I would try my best to blog a little more often.  Writer's block strikes me pretty hard sometimes.  Others post pictures when they don't have anything particularly interesting about which to write.  I decided to follow suit with the pic above and then this beauty:

This is Davis' first time driving a tractor by himself.  I throttled it down as lo as it would go and put it in first gear.  I released the clutch with my hand.  I was able to walk faster than the tractor was actually moving, but he didn't care.  For 5 minutes he was THE man.  Only problem now is that he wants to drive all the time ;)  I have fond memories of my Dad doing the same thing with me as a youngster.  I'm pretty sure Davis had the same feeling I did way back when.  Now.......if I can get him running it with a mower behind we'll be in good shape.  That might still be a few years away.

Ya'll take it easy,

Alex